The Winch -- What are they thinking?

[Caarrie]

The devs already have a plan for another way to access the winch you just need to wait for all the bugs to be ironed out. [and of course to find that way to get in]

[drah]

Well after 65(ish) days, this is better than no news!!

I just hope whatever 'solution' you may have ... doesn't cause a whole heap of other bugs to occur.

Fingers crossed... good luck devs!!!

-----------------

EDIT:

To clarify why I'm getting annoyed...

( Besides the fact I can't get Kimlorm's quest after 3 months. )

a) I can't do Easamau's first quest (for a second time) because I can't discard Hinoserri's quest to re-get the item needed for Easamau's first quest.

b) We are told to do quests one-at-a-time... ONLY.

c) We are told not to discard quests now.

Ultimately, this means NO quests at all, according to the rules. 

I'm not saying it was right... but I can at least understand why Eid did what he did... the wait was becoming unbearable... even for a bunch of hobbyist devs (who ultimately managed to fix the problem in no less than 48 hours when they realized that it was more important than adding features to the game that nobody had asked for!!)

... oh... and I am sorry for being insensitive (if I am)... I'm just annoyed that... firstly I was made to feel like a dick because I apparently wasn't completing all the quests.  After about a month of looking like I was in the wrong, thanks to what the settings team, GMs, moderators, etc. were incorrectly stating... I found out there were several bugs... after hanging on for these to get fixed.. I found they weren't fixed and was again misinformed by people who are part of PS's production team... and now... well, I've kinda given up, I actually feel more demotivated by the PS production team misinforming me, making me look like a dick for the best part of a month.. and then finding out it was ultimately not my fault... and well, you know the rest.

Again, good luck, but please excuse me if I have little faith, patience, consideration or sensitivity left, it's at least for a few good reasons.

[Karyuu]

Drah, can you please elaborate on how members of the dev team have misinformed you?

[drah]

Well, I'm probably harsh saying misinforming, but certainly many were given the impression (and I think actually told) that their problems were down to a lack of completion rather than bugs or problems.  I'm not the only person who felt it took a while to burst through a bubble of a response akin to "there's no problems... you just simply haven't done the all the quests" that seemed to be prevalent at first.

Look, I'm not making any real accusations of misconduct or anything even close to that... it's not like I'm THAT bothered.. because it is ultimately just a game... and a free one too... which is very generous of the dev-team... and for that you all deserve no-end of respect.

Truthfully, every other bug in the game, over the space of a year, has not bothered me at all, no matter how unfair it was to me... but for some reason, this, contrasted to where the team seem focused judging on their output... has irritated me (at least ... as much as is possible for a free-game, from a generous dev-team.)

It just seems to me and many others who are in the same situation, that we've been told there have been fixes... and these fixes don't seem to have helped... not only that but some "fixes" have seemingly put us in a catch-22 on quests... and while we're sitting here on day 65 hoping our best characters can finally get into the Winch to explore the areas they deserve to explore (in comparison to our secondary chars / alts .. or even new chars)... we see new Dlayo's, a new PVP area, etc. --- all the while.. the apparent "fix" that occured still leaves plenty of us clueless.

Anyway... like I said, I'll keep my fingers crossed... and sincerely, wish the dev team the best of luck in fixing these things.  Sorry for ranting... I found PS addictive not to long ago, for all gameplay/roleplay reasons... and I'm not sure why (I'm not even bothered about power-levelling or getting chain-mail pants!!).. but this has been the only thing I've found spoil it for me. 

I wish I could do something to help, but even with access to the source-code... I wouldn't know what live data the code is having to work with and so would have to spend time to emulate everything I've done over the last 4 or 5 months!!

[Caarrie]

I think the issue is that the devs that can deal with this problem are very busy right now trying to get the bugs out of the inventory code venge started to rewrite and when they are done or mostly done with that they will have a lot more time to work on the quest issues. Venge has put in a few fixes so far that must be part of a lot bigger plan of what needs to be done. I would not say they are not doing anything or you are stuck you never know unless you are a dev what they have planned. I would say if comes to the end of the next release if this is not fixed then poke the devs again.

[Karyuu]

The reason I asked was because I'm trying to better understand how to establish successful dev/community interactions So if you feel something wasn't done correctly or handled poorly, I'll ask for details to make sure no similar bumps in the road occur. I'm not trying to create an argument or start a debate, if that's what you are worrying about.

As far as I have known for several weeks, our main quest issues have not been taken care of yet. Maybe something recent has been developed, but again I've seen no word of it myself on the forums. The code for a PvP area has actually been there for a very long time - what happened now is that it was activated for a certain location, so there was very little to no new work there. A similar situation exists for the Dlayo: Magodra is the dev who has been working on our tribe system for months, expanding the abilities of our NPCs. We have different people working on different things, and so new features still pop up when previous features (coded by someone else) need to be smoothed out. I've noticed that this is a fairly common comment, that new things are being created while the old need to be taken care of. The reason for this is a diverse team with many different talents - someone may be intimately familiar with NPCs, but have little information on how the quest system is coded.

Ultimately, fixing select bugs falls on those devs who know how to do it instead of our programmers as a whole. So it may be slow going, and I apologize for the delays you are experiencing.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

development is not transparent to players with good reason. It has been stated before that we all have different jobs. Just because the needed people are tied up on other tasks does not mean development stops in all other areas. I personally could not help with this anymore than i have. I chose therefore to add some other features to the game. If the players would prefer i can just stop doing anything else even though i cannot aid this situation possibly more than i have to this point that sounds good i could use a break.

Come on now, be of good cheer we are doing all we can as fast as we can. Sometimes fixes make borkage it is the nature of development.

I just hope everyone clearly knows no dev is asleep at the wheel.

We are giving it all we can.

[Narure]

The devs already have a plan for another way to access the winch you just need to wait for all the bugs to be ironed out. [and of course to find that way to get in]

I just hope its not more quests 

[Jeraphon]

The devs already have a plan for another way to access the winch you just need to wait for all the bugs to be ironed out. [and of course to find that way to get in]

I just hope its not more quests 

 

[The Wandering Djinn]

The devs already have a plan for another way to access the winch you just need to wait for all the bugs to be ironed out. [and of course to find that way to get in]

I just hope its not more quests 

There MUST be other ways to get into The Winch:

The Winch is the transport mechanism which allows the movement of goods and citizens of Yliakum between adjacent levels of the Yliakum Stalactite.
The City of Hydlaa, along with all the rest of the areas that can be explored in PlaneShift so far, is located on the uppermost First Level of the eight levels that are inside the hollowed-out Yliakum Stalactite.

Hydlaa's Winch is the first winch to appear in-game so far. It will connect the First Level of Yliakum with the Second Level of Yliakum. It is essentially a Departures Area.
Directly below Hydlaa's Winch and on the Second Level of the Yliakum Stalactite is an area that functions essentially as an Arrivals Area for Hydlaa's Winch.
This Arrivals Area is presumably attached to an as yet un-named city or town on the Second Level of Yliakum. The movement of goods and citizens is possible in both directions from Second Level to First Level and from First Level to Second Level.

At present, of all the 12 Races, only the Enkidukai have their Spawn Point in a city of their own: Ojaveda -all other races spawn each at a different part of Hydlaa. Eventually each Race will have a spawn point in a city or town or village of their own.

The Second Level city or town attached to the Arrivals Area of Hydlaa's Winch, will become the Spawn Point for one of the other 11 races...
Eventually a new character created as a member of this Race will arrive in Yliakum at this Spawn Point...

The current Winch Access process of completing a string of inter-connected Quests from NPCs on the First Level of Yliakum, will be of absolutely no usefulness whatsoever to this new character - an impossibility in fact without [GM] intervention to teleport this character to where they could start the current Winch Access process!

So.. there MUST be other ways to get into The Winch!

Proof exists of this: there is an NPC on the First Level of Yliakum who explains to you that they came up from the Second Level to trade goods and to improve their life.

Quests have proven their worth as a means of gaining things and progressing our characters lives in PlaneShift - why shouldn't they be used for such purpose in future - expect many, many more of them as other areas of Yliakum and of PlaneShift are revealed to us all!

[wither]

I felt i wanted to add my point of view to this, though it may be a little bias, since i have now done all quests and gained access to the winch.  Though the point hasnt been raised, that after about 3-4 weeks of doing quests, i come to find that the winch is closed to all at the moment, which is quite frustrating.

In terms of the quests themselves, i did found them to be very very time consuming, and at times, extremely frustrating.  As far as i was told, there was around 12 quests needed to gain access, after 25 quests at the bronze doors, i finally got there.  However, at the end of the day, i found it to be extrememly rewarding, knowing that ive done all these quests, and find at the end, the ultimate prize of access.  Even though i havent been able to enjoy my prize as yet. 

I do hope, that the issue of the winch being closed is being looked at, and i won't have to wait too long to finally reap the rewards of nearly a months work.

[bilbous]

I just have to say the inter-level access is such an important economic function that it is entirely likely that all easy routes will be heavily restricted by those who control them so quests or "favors" are entirely likely. It is possible that later on when flying is a possibility what is developed before that will need to be rebalanced but for the time being I think this is something you can expect.

[Narure]

Well Narare will be damned if he does any favours for the guards or sunshie squadron or what ever. And I'll be damned if the only way to get into the winch is the most un-user friendly and bugged part of the game. I want to see climbing impelented so I can scale the wall. Or hide in shadows so i can slip past the gaurds in the sewer entrance. But then again i would be tempted to do some quests if it involved the black enkidukai.

* narure takes a swig from his bottle of Fryan Liqour

[bilbous]

I was suggesting you might have to do favors for Zak and friends or even possibly the fanatics. you think the underworld is going to be less organized or protective of their routes? I think once air travel is enabled there will be air patrols but I do agree it should be possible to get anywhere not fully enclosed by individual effort. I am just not sure how long you will need to wait for that to be implemented.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

many alternatives are being explored do you think someone who played a shady priestess of laanx would forget the bad guys? All in good time. The underlying problems need to be fixed, this is broken now because of attempts to provide alternatives so relax please we are doing all we can. For those of you who see the merit in our thinking you have our thanks. PS is difficult plan on it getting moreso but having more options.

everyone please send me a list of what is now stopping you from entering through PM on the forums only.

The winch is open for business now including a new way

Remember Jeraphon TomT Caarrie Hilon and Venge at christmas Time