LFG

Surely this cannot be intended, it would be the first time in game that an illusion allows you to harvest agro free.

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Talonis

Yes.

Mheryl

It would be the first time an illusion in game allowed you to do anything except look like something else.

I can't really say if it's an exploit... I mean the devs gave us the illusion, and specifically said ON the illusion that it will break if you initiate combat, but nothing about harvesting.

Of course, how many devs are going to think about harvesting when making a quest item?

Unethical maybe would be a better word, since the (low level) crafters who need the raws can't get the illusion. But then since when have some (not all!) people thought about ethics when playing a game?

LFG

I agree. This cannot have been intended.

Ms. Domino should make them fix this! <3

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Gutterfly

/bug'd

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Rinion

Which I think is dumb that they do nothing but change apperance. worthless fun spells for the lose. plus i miss EQ1's version, where they actually effected faction based on Race and in some cases diety

Agreed. The disguise should be limited to only interacting with the quest while it is on.

Sotan

Intended usage? No.

Intended functionality? Yes.

Exploit? No.

Unethical? Why?

There's currently a fairly heated thread on the official forums about this, and I'm one of the people who have pretty strong opinions. It's not that I would cry if they changed the illusion to break on harvesting. It's convenient, but that's about it; there are plenty of other places to harvest with little or no risk.

The main source of my ire is that I have little tolerance for people who self-righteously denounce as an exploit any kind of tactic or strategy that they don't happen to like. It pisses me off regardless of whether or not I have a dog in the fight.

First of all, you need to separate intended usage from intended functionality. They are not the same thing.

The item is functioning 100% as intended, based on the description of the item. It specifically cancels the illusion if you receive hostile action or cast any spell. It works only in this specific area. It lasts for one hour. All of these things are in the description, and all of them work as intended.

The intended usage is another matter. I think it's probably self-evident that dev did not intend for a player to choose not to complete the quest, instead keeping the item and using it to harvest. This, in and of itself, does not make it an exploit. Players have come up with all manner of creative ways of using items and abilities that give them an advantage, methods which were not the intended usage of an ability which is nevertheless functioning exactly as designed.

Fae glide is a perfect example. There are any number of places in the old world where fae glide will bypass gated areas and aggro mobs, or allow you to access geometry that a pre-EoF character cannot. This can be a huge advantage in PVP. Even in post-EoF areas, glide allows you to do a lot of things that could not have possibly been intended by dev, due to the advantage they give in completing a quest or bypassing deliberately-placed dangerous mobs.

Another example is Surveil. Before it was nerfed, Surveil was an uber pulling ability. Dev clearly did not intend it to be able to accomplish all the things it did. We know this because they nerfed it. Was it overpowered? Absolutely. Was it an exploit? No.

Or what about people who suicide in order to shave time off their Jboots runs? Coercers who abuse the sick damage output of corpse candles/flames? People who mentor down to lowbie friends/alts in order to farm low-level named?

The fact that a given usage is not intended by dev does not make it an exploit.

The fact that you do not like it does not make it an exploit.

The fact that something gives a player an advantage over others does not make it an exploit.

If a dev states that this is not an acceptable usage of this item and that they will fix it, I will stop using it this way, regardless of whether or not they actually fix it. I could use the AA exp, but right now the convenience of the illusion outweighs the minimal exp from one quest.

This isn't some clearly broken item or feature, where the bright line is obvious. This is an item that is working exactly as the description states it should, that is being used creatively by some people. Until a dev comes out and says that this is an exploit, people who claim the authority to know that it is are talking out of their ass and mistaking their opinions for fact.

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Sotanyavejin
OWG Fury

Pinski

Since the ability to harvest while under the illusion is being removed, then yes. It is an exploit.

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Calaglin, Former Illusionist/Guild Leader of Dissolution on Nektulos
Calaglin, Former Illusionist/Guild Leader of Confirmed on Unrest

Serathe

Yeah, probably. But I'd rank it pretty low.

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80 Sage/70 Coercer
80 Necro
80 Provisioner

Sotan

Domino has stated that it's going to be removed in an upcoming hotfix. That's good enough for me, and I'll stop using it. It's no skin off my back; there are plenty of places to harvest.

It never ceases to amaze me how little some people think about their words before they cast them into the aether, though. Something is an exploit solely because dev is nerfing it? Wow. That's a pretty wide net you're casting there.

I've asked Domino for clarification. If she or another dev comes back and says that they consider it an exploit, then I'll be happy to call it such. None of this has any bearing on what I said upthread about the parade of whiners whose pussy hurts every time someone other than them comes up with a creative tactic or use for something in game, and who have a remarkably expansive definition for "exploit" that seems to boil down to "technique that sounds fishy to me and/or I didn't think of first". Have a hanky.

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Sotanyavejin
OWG Fury