All about the future of Hatchies, Striders and Wyvverns. (From Our Crystal Balls)
NCSoft will continue to provide enhancements and expansions to the pet system in future chronicals. Pets will become increasinglyl useful and powerful over the next several years. However the 'tweaks' are also very well thought out to reward hard work and punish those who take shortcuts...but I will get to that in a moment. Coming up for both hatchies and wolves are:
Skills. Yes, we got several new skills in C4. Eventually there will be skill and skill upgrades available for pets just like there are for player characters. That is what the pet SP will be used for eventually. There will not be as many skills as there are for player toons but there will be one very interesting difference....more possible skills than there are skill slots. So, if you get greedy and get all the hatchling skill possibilities, you will find that strider and wyvvern skills that you really want you can't get. Serves the greedy right!
Armor and weapon textures. Yes, we will get those. Different armors will look differently on different types of hatchies, too. Some of the mage hatchie armor will have MP boosts, there will be more than one piece of armor in an armor set, and sets will have bonuses.
Visual differences as well as class differences. Yeppers, different types of hatchies, striders and wyvverns will look different. There is gonna be some kickazz graphics on these babies. There will also be more and more wyvvern launch sites. Not just castles and clan halls but also public sites. I have already spotted several around Aden....launch ramps and caves all built, but no access now. Not yet. Later.
And now the sweetest part of all, at least from the persepctive of this do-it-yourself orc. The Twilight is easy to level up, very easy and cheap compared to the others. That is why the ones for sale are Twilight. The advantages of it are cheap, easy, and a bit of speed. So scum-sucking ebayers end up with Twilights. Those of us who raise our own will have fighter or mage Striders and Wyvverns which will KICK the Twilights' Buttocks in Strider Wyvvern PvP.
Speaking of Wyvvern PvP, yes it will be while flying and yes it will become increasingly common. Low-life ebayers will have Twilights which will die quick to the Real Wyvvers and then the pig-morals ebayer will take a long drop to earth. Splat....one HP left while we circle down to meet them and administer the coup-de-gras.
So expect the price of Twilight Striders to stay in the 40-50 mil range since ebayers are idiots. Wind and Stars will soon be going for ~drum roll of prediction~ anywhere from 70-120 mil as new places to mount Wyvverns show up. The price of a Wind Wyvvern? People who can afford a Goddard Clan Hall won't be able to afford one of them.
While inventiing statistics this morning I was wondering why there is less SP activity recently, certainly no big splash after C4 like the rumors floating a month ago. Rather than look at membership numbers for SP, let's consider the trend in actual hours logged in by SP members over the last three months. Every month has been lower than the past, with one month showing double digit declines. Before you criticize this fictitious analysis, I also considered time logged into the PTS, not just Erica, so the total SP login time is decling. I don't know if this is because of a shrinking membership, less time per player, or a combination of both.
Heard last night in Giran "WTB C-grade fish shots". I'm not making this up. I replied "I'll sell you some" and they said "how much?". Not knowing an appropriate price for something that anyone can get for free, I asked "what did you pay last time" and was told 100a each. I honestly didn't have the heart to sell a C-grader (did he level the toon himself, fizzlesticks?) fish shots for 100a, so I traded him a few hundred for a bunch of hairpiece mats.
Personal: to the bot monitor in fetterland. I know how you are, the next time the train is dropping on you and your bots, k? I despise cheaters.