Regarding the recent duel changes...
I will just adjust... just I am not sure why resistance is yet again being changed, nor why appearance/tactics are being improved (after being down-played), nor why dodge aim are being reduced, nor why stance percentages are being tweaked, nor why soldier class is being de-tuned... and this is not the first time major changes are being implemented to affect duelling.
But... if developers actually listened to duellers... then the changes might be done correctly the first time. And there resides my main point... duellers are not listened too by game developers.
At this present time, there are fewer duellers in the worlds I play in than there have ever been before. I even tried to get a dueller competition up and running on El Dorado... less than ten duellers were playing enough to even be interested. I even can't name more than ten good duellers on a world these days as the duelling fraternity has been disillusioned and left/retired/gone FF'ing, such a change from when I could name ten towns with their share of tough duelling opponents on a world.
This to me is testament to the dis-connect between developers and duellers.
In the development blog (
http://devblog.the-west.net/?cat=16&lang=en ) it reads:
"Are more changes to zero motivation duelling planned?
No, not at the moment. We believe we have addressed almost every reason for zero motivation duelling, shifting the advantages and conveniences in favour of experience duelling. In doing so, we have done our job: providing the mechanisms and mechanics to promote a fun game for
everyone."
Well... I can attest that this comment shows just how out of touch the developers are with what is happening in the duelling arena.
Atm on Dakota, I have been deliberately losing for several months now... for fun? nope... just so I can get some duellable targets.
On El Dorado I am now townless. Is this for fun? Nope, there my duel level is going up and up and this has resulted in fewer targets... which meant it takes longer and longer between duels 30+ minutes. I could change this by spending a few months losing... but as I have a nice duel record there, I am loathe to take the one part I did enjoy and put that down the toilet in order to once again... have 'fun' duelling.
On Fairbanks, I am a trader... and this is the least fun I have had on any world so far.
What bugs me, as I have been a long time player of this game... is how my sharing my views... influences the developers not one bit.
While there have been many good improvements that help game-play... in the area of duelling there seems to be no vision or insight.
Apart from players, who once enjoyed duelling, leaving the game... all these 'negative' changes result in the one thing developers should be trying to promote. I now spend less nuggets on this game than ever before. Madness.