Research Assistants (RA)

Eighty-some-ugh pages of speculation, adoration, arguing and whining... (that thread is in the Development section here: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=444889 ) Please keep the rants there!

I have been working backwards through the thread to try and find some updated answers as this is going to be here very Soon(tm).

Answers below are from Kirstie...

Where this is at this time? GU52 will probably hit the test servers on the week of the 18th, and this feature is slated to be part of that.  Once it goes to the test server we'll be looking for feedback again on the specifics of the implementation which should be fully spelled out then.

How to get it? The research assistants are going to be moving out into the world instead of staying in people's homes.  You'll find them in many of the places where you would have previously bought App II's. There is also a good chance that we'll be adding a research assistant as a guild hall amenity either in 52 or future update.

What if I get the spell as a drop before the RA is done? As it is implemented now, if you change what the researcher is working on you'll be refunded one third of the days he's been working on the spell.  So if he's been working 10 days on a spell you'll get 3 days back (it's rounded down) to apply to the next thing you want to research whether he's part way through the research or all finished.

How long for a spell? A level 80 upgrade from Adept III to Master I is set to take about 30 real life days to complete.  Even if we don't get a full 30 days on test, there are a lot of other levels of upgrades I'm hoping people will try on test to help us make sure its working correctly (range is 1 to 30 days).  The time spent researching a spell is based on the spell level, not the player level.

What are the requirements to get a spell? There were a few changes made between my initial post and now. The primary one is that we removed the tradeskilled versions of spells and combat arts from the progression of the research assistants.  This means that in order to use the research assistant you will have to have scribed one of the tradeskilled versions (APP IV or Adept III) of the spell/ca you want to research.

How many can you get?  Each account can have one character working with the research system at a time.  The only exception is if you have characters on separate servers.  Antonia Bayle researchers don't talk to Sebilis researchers so one account could have one character on each server researching.

    Right now there is no limit on how many you can get other than the time investment.  Getting all the spell upgrades for a full account of characters would take a long time.

Masters drop like candy, we need this because?

Cool, thanks for assembling the pertinent information. Hard to sift through that thread of ... what you said.

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Masters drop like candy, we need this because?

 

Some masters do not. try getting Ruthless Cunning or Umbral Trap. I can offer a thousand platinum for either of these and no one will sell them because they don't drop. I looked up a spell I need and after 4 years since it was introduced in game it still has not been discovered on 6 servers.

Melina@Splitpaw wrote:

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Masters drop like candy, we need this because?

 

Some masters do not. try getting Ruthless Cunning or Umbral Trap. I can offer a thousand platinum for either of these and no one will sell them because they don't drop. I looked up a spell I need and after 4 years since it was introduced in game it still has not been discovered on 6 servers.

And the sollution for these Bloodlines spells is to add an RA and not adjust drop rates?  Why exactly?

I have EVERY master spell 36-80.

I'm missing exactly 6 master spells 1-35.  One is the bloodlines spell I fully expect to never see, the other 5 are under level 15, and cause of the new smartloot, they also rarely make the broker, but eventually I'll level lock a new toon and get those missing ones.

My point being, finding masters is NOT a problem outside of bloodlines spells.

I have alts that are also on the master leader boards on my server, alts I've never conciously gone out of my way to get masters for.  I have a very hard time excepting there is a need for an RA.

The debate thread is 80 pages, and full of opinions supported by "facts".  Enough to give a Buddhist monk a migraine.

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Masters drop like candy, we need this because?

 

Some masters do.

I have only seen templar single target heals and single target reactive once on broker since they upped level cap to 80.

Those spells were selling for over 500pp a piece. No spell is worth that.

I still think this assastant is a bad idea. Let the crying begin next expansion when non raiders can't progress because the basline just got pushed to must have full masters to complete the zone.

IMO all SoE had to do was even out the drop rates of all spells so there was no rare spells but once again they just go in a totally shoot from the hip different direction. =P

Kizee wrote:

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Masters drop like candy, we need this because?

 

Some masters do.

I have only seen templar single target heals and single target reactive once on broker since they upped level cap to 80.

Those spells were selling for over 500pp a piece. No spell is worth that.

I still think this assastant is a bad idea. Let the crying begin next expansion when non raiders can't progress because the basline just got pushed to must have full masters to complete the zone.

IMO all SoE had to do was even out the drop rates of all spells so there was no rare spells but once again they just go in a totally shoot from the hip different direction. =P

If we see a level cap increase next expansion, this means there will be intermediate tier content, like Karmors or CoA in RoK. Further, if new content is balanced around having some number of masters, this is fine, since all players will have equal access to those masters. It takes 30 days for the RA to get you your master regardless if you are the hardest of hardcore raiders or only log in twice - once to request the spelland once to pick it up.

Dasein wrote:

It takes 30 days for the RA to get you your master regardless if you are the hardest of hardcore raiders or only log in twice - once to request the spell and once to pick it up.

Woo hoo look at that awesome game design.  Progress if you play the game and progress if you log in twice a month.

Gage wrote:

Dasein wrote:

It takes 30 days for the RA to get you your master regardless if you are the hardest of hardcore raiders or only log in twice - once to request the spell and once to pick it up.

Woo hoo look at that awesome game design.  Progress if you play the game and progress if you log in twice a month.

Yeah, for a social game, it makes a lot of sense to prevent too big of a gap in character capabilities from developing, as the larger the sread, the harder it is to balance content and the fewer options people have for grouping. Sometimes, the needs of the game as a whole win out, and this is one of them.

It's a good thing for those super rare ones that never seem to drop.  I have several masters, then again I have several missing that are never even on the broker.  If they do happen to appear they are way overpriced. 

Dasein wrote:

If we see a level cap increase next expansion, this means there will be intermediate tier content, like Karmors or CoA in RoK. Further, if new content is balanced around having some number of masters, this is fine, since all players will have equal access to those masters. It takes 30 days for the RA to get you your master regardless if you are the hardest of hardcore raiders or only log in twice - once to request the spelland once to pick it up.

It was stated that a level 80 master would take 30 days. There's no reason to believe a level 81-90 master wouldn't take LONGER than that is there? Seems entirely possible that one may be limited to 9 or 10 masters over the course of the expansion. Maybe even fewer.

Even if it's 30 days . . . with 12 free masters over the course of 12 months master spells in general would still be in shorter supply than they were in the T7 expansions. The content rescaling argument is just one of many ridiculous ones made over the course of the lengthy thread.

Your exchange with Gage there brings up some good ideas. Would be cool if you had to help the RA out. And if you didn't pick up and complete the errands he was sending you on, your order was delayed.

Kurgan@Everfrost wrote:

Dasein wrote:

If we see a level cap increase next expansion, this means there will be intermediate tier content, like Karmors or CoA in RoK. Further, if new content is balanced around having some number of masters, this is fine, since all players will have equal access to those masters. It takes 30 days for the RA to get you your master regardless if you are the hardest of hardcore raiders or only log in twice - once to request the spelland once to pick it up.

It was stated that a level 80 master would take 30 days. There's no reason to believe a level 81-90 master wouldn't take LONGER than that is there? Seems entirely possible that one may be limited to 9 or 10 masters over the course of the expansion. Maybe even fewer.

Even if it's 30 days . . . with 12 free masters over the course of 12 months master spells in general would still be in shorter supply than they were in the T7 expansions. The content rescaling argument is just one of many ridiculous ones made over the course of the lengthy thread.

Your exchange with Gage there brings up some good ideas. Would be cool if you had to help the RA out. And if you didn't pick up and complete the errands he was sending you on, your order was delayed.

On top of that, you need the Adept 3 version of the spell already to get the master from the RA, so you cannot simply start having the RA work on your level 90 masters when the next expansion launches.

Gage wrote:

Dasein wrote:

It takes 30 days for the RA to get you your master regardless if you are the hardest of hardcore raiders or only log in twice - once to request the spell and once to pick it up.

Woo hoo look at that awesome game design.  Progress if you play the game and progress if you log in twice a month.

Moreso, you're actually punished for playing the game vs someone who sits logged out. If you are actually playing and get a drop item of the one you're having researched, you lose 2/3 of the "invested" time. Whereas that person who logs on just twice a month, once to request it and once to pick it up, loses no time and gets the master after the applicable duration.

Not to mention how this will affect those guilds who enforce (or heavily encourage) a NBG system of looting. Do you 'need' it if you've got an RA working on it? How deep in the process will the RA have to be before it's considered 'greed' to roll on that item? If there are two characters, one with an RA working on that item and another who doesn't and both haven't scribed the item, who needs it more?