Empath Badge Mistake

Re:Split Infinity's Radio Interview with Senior Lead Designer Positron and Powers Designer Castle on Tuesday, May 6th 2008.


I'm not sure I've seen any mention of this EU.Side, and this skipped under my radar back in May, but thought it would be worth bringing up. The discussion is about...

THE EMPATH BADGE !!!
Yes, that ole chestnut!, the badge that is so ridiculously hard to achieve It makes even the hardcore badgehunters breakdown and cry sweet badgeshaped tears. Apparently in theory It would take two years of solid farming time to attain this elusive title.

Well, now we know why, For all those chasing it, Its officially been admitted its a mistake, there are one too many zeroes on the pre-requisites. And I might add, If logic follows and the badges before hand are supposed to be progressively reletive then Medicine-Man/Woman (the pre-cursor to Empath) should be just within reach to Veterans of 3 years as opposed to 55% or so as is the case with me.

[ QUOTE ]
Positron On the Empath badge:
"I put one too many zeroes on the thing, and by the time I realized that it was really absurdly hard to get, it was too late because people had already tried to get it and I didn't want to invalidate their play experience or the achievement they had earned. (Castle: That's the first time I've heard that story.) [...] Ten thousand Rikti monkeys changed when we changed the way--a core mechanic of the game changed, which was herding. Ten thousand Rikti monkeys was literally put in because you could herd a hundred Rikti monkeys at a time and kill them all."

[/ QUOTE ]

Courtesy of Jaded_Angel: U.S Forums


Doh! >.< ...Please fix a.s.a.p.

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So basically if they change the pre-requisites for getting the badge any progress into the badge as it was is lost?? That's harsh - surely there must be a way round it???

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Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?

Suggestion for fix:
Why not lower the zeroes on these badges and replace the former almost impossible badges like 'Empath' with a new one like 'Ultimate Empath'.

That way the impossible badges become easier to get and the work put in by the badgers is rewarded too with 'Ultimate' versions of the newly adjusted easier badges.

Additional:
Also why not add an 'Ultimate Explorer' badge once you have every exploration badge available to your faction, yes I know it would change as new content is added but I feel it would give (badge) explorers some additional motivation to get them all...

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Well, adding a 4th badge with the same number would just make people get that too, so kind of pointless imo

those who want the badge will heal to that amount so they get the badge, weather it's 3 or 4 badges.

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didn't we already have this thread sometime in may or june?

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As per 1st line of OP commentary:
[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure I've seen any mention of this EU.Side

[/ QUOTE ]
Happy to be proved wrong.

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[ QUOTE ]
So basically if they change the pre-requisites for getting the badge any progress into the badge as it was is lost?? That's harsh - surely there must be a way round it???

[/ QUOTE ]

No, what was meant was that if they change the required amount of healing to a lower level, they are devaluing the achievement of those who got it at the higher level.

They have done this before with the Zookeeper badge which used to require some stupidly enormous amount of Rikti Monkeys to get and suddenly got cut resulting in various people who were working on it logging in to be granted it instantly. However, that was done because the game mechanics changed, as explained in Mumsy's quote: it became harder to kill vast numbers of monkeys, so changing the number required did not make it easier to get the badge.

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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.

[ QUOTE ]
Also why not add an 'Ultimate Explorer' badge once you have every exploration badge available to your faction, yes I know it would change as new content is added but I feel it would give (badge) explorers some additional motivation to get them all...

[/ QUOTE ]You've answered your own question!

You'll never get an "Ultimate Explorer" badge as exploration badges keep being added, this would (1) either break the game code (an educated guess rather than knowledge) or (2) mean a badge is taken away due to new additions (as it doesnt match the previous parameters) and as far as I know, the devs haven't taken badges away once people start trying to achieve them.

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Main 50 & Badger Nine Claws Claws/Regen/Body

Other 50's Ph10x Brute Unjust Law Tanker Samantha Urai Scrapper Codename 1250 Scrapper
Cepheus Defender Nilus Scrapper Electro Field Blaster S.PONGE Tanker

Ultimate, for the people who have gone past the new lower figure of per example the 'Empath' badge, note that several of these badges award access to SG base items, hence I was offering a suggestion to lower the requirement to get these whilst still keeping the more difficult 'Ultimate' one for the players who have gone to the effort of trying to get the current badges.

[ QUOTE ]
No, what was meant was that if they change the required amount of healing to a lower level, they are devaluing the achievement of those who got it at the higher level.

[/ QUOTE ]

My point exactly for having 'Ultimate' versions of these whilst making the originals easier again.

As for the 'Ultimate Explorer' it would be a case of it was yours to keep once you obtained it, however it would become harder to obtain once new content exploration badges were added.

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Don't know about anyone else, but I did get where you were going with that.

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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.