Gates of Discord AAs (Jan 29, 2004)

[Xalmat]

http://www.brellrants.net/brell/viewtopic.php?t=7124

They are on Test server (do an /alt list), therefore its my professional opinion that the NDA doesn't apply to discussing these AA as they appear on Test server.

No, the AA window does not display them, so AA cost is unknown (Except for Pet Affinity, which is confirmed at 20 AA)

BEAST LORD
Weapon Affinity
Through years of practice, you develop a close bond with your weapons. This affinity allows you to gain enhanced performance from your weapons in the form of an increased rate at which it triggers effects.
Persistent Casting
Through strict concentration, you gain the ability to channel your spells through stuns. Increased levels of this ability increase the chance to cast through a stun.
Bestial Alignment
Transforms beastlords into the likeness of their warders, greatly increasing their destructive power.
Feral Swipe
This ability allows the beastlord to make a vicious kick attack against their foe.
Warder's Fury
This ability imbues your warder with the ability to land critical hits.
Warder's Alacrity
This ability imbues your warder with the ability to flurry attacks.
Pet Affinity
This ability allows your group spells to also affect the pets of group members.
Mastery of the Past
This ability makes it impossible for you to fizzle a spell. The first level affects all spells below level 54. The second level affects all spells below 56. The third level affects all spells below level 58.
Critical Affliction
This ability grants damage-over-time spells the chance to have a critical effect for each tick they are active.

[Argach]

Weapon affinity YESSSSssssssssss!

My ED is going to be evil!

[Murkk Dakruul]

WTB Ethereal Destroyer, PST

[Choppin]

They knew why they gave ED a lower proc rate (1.5 / min) than other weps (2.0 / min) from the start, maybe the AA will raise it to a rather normal level.

Seen the best pet focus effect on lucy yet ? Minion of chaos or so with a 40 mod (where SoAS got 25 and Riualthing 30).

[Argach]

Hmmm didn't know that ED has lower proc rate? Even if it does proc only 75% of the normal proc rate, ED+EPW is still more dps than EPW+CoW or EPW+BF or EPW+ED. It would make shinai + EPW better than ED + shinai though... *ponder

/derail off

[Zaramak]

there are links to SC's of AA cost for each class about 4 replies down on the thread for the AA explanations.

[DiosT]

..........

That thread is 100% the exact reason I dont like Beta discussions, people just bitching about how they didnt get what they wanted, how AA's no one has tried(and talked) about the AA's yet the opinion of them is already dooming them...


Feel free to bitch and moan about AA's, I'm not gonna kill links/posts about NDA violations anymore (and the 5th reply is an NDA violation to the extreme, already reported it)

[Ghoat]

..........

(and the 5th reply is an NDA violation to the extreme, already reported it)

I hate to tell ya bubba, but those screenshots have made the rounds.  I saw those several weeks ago.  I have no idea who actually took them, or who "leaked" 'em, but once they are in public, you can't put the genie back in the bottle.  I got no problem with anyone reporting NDA violations, but neither you, I or SoE has any idea if that person got them themselves, or found them elsewhere & passed them along.  The NDA does not apply to the 2nd situation, only the first.  

It's up to SoE how to resolve all that and do what they will,  but the who's post you are pointing at for NDA may very well not be covered by it.

[DiosT]

soooooo...

if someone murders another person, it's legal because the damage has already been done?


It's a breach of a contract anyone who got in Beta had to sign...

Yes I know eventually they get out, and make the rounds, which is why i give up on it eventually..

But sony -does- track down people who post nda violations, -most- admins of major--at least class communities--have been allowed in the recent beta, and are typically happy to help track down the posters by IP address whenever they can


As I said, Feel free to complain how you hate AA's you've never used.. and I know there are many screen shots going around, this is maybe the 5th directory of them i've seen for GoD?


And I trust SoE to investigate, of course they arn't doing straight IP address bans, they look for who's passing it out, and if that person was allowed in beta...

[TheOriginalGronker]

..........

(and the 5th reply is an NDA violation to the extreme, already reported it)

The NDA does not apply to the 2nd situation, only the first.  

It's up to SoE how to resolve all that and do what they will,  but the who's post you are pointing at for NDA may very well not be covered by it.

Seems to be a pretty common misconception on what constitutes a violation of an NDA.  In this case, if *Sony* doesn't post the information to the general public (i.e. it doesn't show up in downloaded files from test or regular servers) if you 'signed' the NDA (hitting the "accept" button is regarded as signing when you went thru the process) you are certainly liable for breaking any of it.  You likely can't even talk about the NDA contents.  If you are seeing posts with screenshots, people talking about stuff in the beta, that has absolutely no bearing on whether YOU can talk about it or post screenshots.  You can't without breaking that NDA and suffering whatever they choose to do to you.

NDAs are hardly a trivial matter, and its really unfortunate that game betas have done just that.  If you ever end up dealing with NDAs for the company you work for, hopefully they won't be taken so lightly.  You can literally be liable for millions of dollars in damages, and depending on the information there is potential for criminal prosecution.

In GoD's case, there can be game design elements that they dont want competitors to get wind of and possibly improve upon/implement for the few months the beta is going on.  Regardless of how you feel about "well they already know" you've likely agreed not to proliferate these 'secrets' in the NDA.  And thats also regardless of what YOU feel constitutes a 'secret' - the NDA will probably state that everything you see and hear is for "your eyes and ears only" so you dont have to make that kind of value judgement - their legal and design teams do that for you.

[Noxdowne Draggout]

Honestly who cares if the info gets leaked?

The only fear Sony should have is if they made a gimp expansion and they are afraid people won't bother shelling out the $$$$$ to buy it after seeing what they actually will get.

If the information leaked shows the value of the expansion they will probably sell 10-15% more expansions because of it.

So in the end you can view this as any other spoiler really.

If it wasn't for spoilers half of the boards like this one where people can come and see weapons they will never have been exposed to or learn mob tactics wouldn't exist..........there would be no reason.

As far as people breaking the rules to expose the workings of a computer game?...........

Those people should be publicly executed  :roll:  

Nox

[Mallahki]

DiosT, are you in the beta?

[Ghoat]

soooooo...

if someone murders another person, it's legal because the damage has already been done?

Who else could you murder but another person?  And, the only way the damage could already be done, is if they were already dead, and you can't murder a dead person!
And comparing the legality of murder 1 place removed is analagous to  2nd or 3rd hand NDA info passed by someone who might have never been bound by an NDA because of... help me here.

It's a breach of a contract anyone who got in Beta had to sign...

Agree 100%, my point was/is if this person wasn't even in the beta, it's moot ... but someone clearly broke it.

Yanno, kinda like if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, is the husband still wrong?

[Kinash]

The reason companies care whether people violate the NDA's of a Beta is that is ultimately harms the gaming community. Beta's are, by their very nature, in a state of flux. Many things make it in to the final product that have changed drastically from the Beta version. Other things get dropped completely in the final. When people leak things that haven't been finalized some people bitch and whine... this causes unrest in the community. Often the things people are complaining about via the leaks are the same things that get changed because the people in the Beta are providing feedback the proper way.

I used to beta from Microsoft's IE programs. The betas were often better than the final product. Some better features had to be dropped as they never worked as wanted or caused instability. Things often change before they are finalized.

By breaking the NDA's and re-posting the violating materials it will ultimately undermine the whole beta-process! If things like this keep happening SOE will ultimately have to go to a invitation only Beta system, which would be a major step backward in getting a broad consensus of how good the new product will be!

Let the beta-testers do their job... let SOE finalize their product... relax, have a beer and wait and see what goodies are included in the new expansion!

[feralize]

All it takes is for one person in beta to tell one of their friends about everything in an expansion who then leaks it to the message boards. Hell, that other person doesn't even have to play EQ. So his IP gets logged and comes up clean. But the source would remain anonymous. This will continue to happen as long as they request their own playerbase to do their testing for them. I mean, you'd have to be stupid not to do that if you were in beta and you wanted the info to be publicly known.

Which brings me on to the next point. The only way SoE has of keeping everything a secret until release day is to do all of the testing themselves. Really, when you look at each individual enhancement/change, it cannot be that hard to test each of them in a variety of environments to see what happens. AA point enhancements are nothing more than a manipulation of numbers for the most part. It's not exactly groundbreaking. What's that? It takes too long? How about hiring more people to do this stuff exclusively in-house instead of doing it on the cheap by asking players?

NDA violations are the price you pay for not having adequate in-house testing procedures.