Gorefiend

I've made an EFE by chance, though only one, and got it even before I had made 10K FE's. Guess I'm just a lucky one.

Whatever price people are willing to pay, just like today. That sounds like the opinion of an executive in the gasoline industry.

But there ARE unlimited iron ores silly... just not at the cost you WANT to pay... it's called the NPC. We want X exp or drops p/h. You want iron ore at X cost/time. If, by your argument, it's fine for us to go train some creature that gives us way less exp or drops, then by the same argument it's fine for you to go buy the ore at the NPC, no? You're so happy for us to sacrifice, so presumably you'll be happy for yourself to as well. Well then, easy solution for you to consider, Korrode: who knows of the Monster Arena in FFX? Put something like that in EL for A/D'ers to go in and train to their heart's content - for a price. We pay for our iron, you pay for your baddies. Shall we set the price for Male Goblins (unarmed) at 2K each? Obviously, a huge markup from where it should be, but what price will iron have hit a month after this happens?

I agree with this completely. As is often said of me out in the real world, "I'm a writer, not a fighter." I have taken that exact philosophy to EL as well. I'm not big on hunting around and training attack and defense. While I may at some point in the future, at whatever point I deem it to be more worthwhile for me, I am not at this point as yet. And so, I'm one of the people you will no doubt see running around a non-invasion map working on things I've either stocked up on (which run out very quickly) or attempting to harvest for what I wish to make in the future. So if the resources in Nordcarn of Valley of the Dwarves are specifically targeted during these times - and we all know how long global invasions can last at times - that leaves a minimal chance of harvesting anything I would find useful. And for those who have said that harvesters are whiners and bitchers, I would suggest they also listen to the fighters who can't find an open spawn point for high-level monsters. (I won't name specific people to spare their embarassment, but they will know who I mean.) And again, I'll submit that I could be incorrect about this, and that it winds up being no problem whatsoever. But I have recently noticed an overall trend aimed at those who prefer harvesting to fighting. I would hope that if this change is made, the effect be mirrored onto monster spawn points. For example, instead of three spawn points for a specific monster on a map, reduce it to one so fighters are forced to move around more as well.

Yes, in the last two weeks. How would that stack up against what you could make in the two weeks after this change would be made?

You raise a fair point, Fear, but let me ask this: When was the last time you looked at how much iron is truly required to work up any manufacture levels? I personally don't have a huge amount of time to wander around - better to get at it right away than do a search across two continents for something I may not even be able to find enough of to make a single bar.

Very real, and rather excessive, I would think. But that is what many players have to go through in order to reach where they want/need to go.

I can personally say that I've explored more of the map while harvesting than I would ever do while training attack and defense. My only reason for leaving Seridia so far has been only for looking for newer and better harvest spots, like cotton in Palon Vertas or iron ore in Emerald Valley Trade Route. Without a guarantee that those favourable spots are going to have something for me when I get there, why am I going to go there? Training against new monsters? I have an interesting enough time in the White Stone diamond cave. I'm not going to have any reason to explore, because I have no guarantees that what I'm exploring for is going to be there when I arrive.

Any harvestables that take 10 boat trips, with no rings or tele ess to get close to ? if not its a pointless over exgageration knee jerk reaction no ? But there's some in the game - myself included - that have to take the long way to get to the far-off areas that wouldn't be affected by the depletion. And of course, to get to the magic/crafting levels that permit quick travel requires lots of harvesting to get what is needed to level up. Doing this would only help close off the game to lower level players.

But once again, this raises what I was saying earlier: why am I going to want to get flowers when I'm trying to make weapons or armor? If I'm trying to harvest iron ore (and anyone can tell you how long it can take to get sufficient amounts there!) and I'm having to go around through each and every harvest spot to try and get the amounts I need, by the time I even get started, I'd probably have to log off due to requirements of real life. Yes, I could go off and horde other things while waiting for the iron ore spots to replenish, but if I'm trying to work on manufacturing, why am I going to want dandelions? You could trade them for iron ore. Yes, I could - unless, because of a cap placed on the amount of resources that can harvested, there's none available to be traded. And if there's a shortage of resources, I highly doubt people will be willing to trade what little they have.

But once again, this raises what I was saying earlier: why am I going to want to get flowers when I'm trying to make weapons or armor? If I'm trying to harvest iron ore (and anyone can tell you how long it can take to get sufficient amounts there!) and I'm having to go around through each and every harvest spot to try and get the amounts I need, by the time I even get started, I'd probably have to log off due to requirements of real life. Yes, I could go off and horde other things while waiting for the iron ore spots to replenish, but if I'm trying to work on manufacturing, why am I going to want dandelions?

i do not believe that he can do this, back a while ago ent, said "I will never sell levels" this money can be used to buy hydro, hence selling a level and he has been a man of his word when it has come back to this, it has been suggested a few times to him i believe ...hmm, that's fair.

My vote: 1) Keep the mini-harv events to dissuade AFK harvesting, though possibly increase the value of each one. 2) Allow purchase of GC through the EL shop. 3) Let multiple people who use the same IP to log in get permission through the white list. (Though, it could also help if that process was streamlined a little so someone didn't have to wait a week for response about that.) 4) Keep amounts possible for harvesting from one spot limited to 'Infinite' as having limits could cause problems during times when there's a lot of people in the game, or when guilds are running events that, in any form, require large amounts of harvesting.

I have had a couple different characters in my time with EL, though only ever one at a time. I decided this time around I would work an all-rounder because it always gave me options of what to work on now. Certainly, I have not gained many levels in a number of the skills as I'm still primarily an alchemist, but at the same time I've made sure to sink time, money, and pick points into just about everything but summoning on a frequent basis. (The reason I don't do summoning all that often is simply that, for the time being, my collection of bones goes toward potions.) The nice thing about doing an all-rounder is that, while it takes a while to reach the point, you can eventually have a character that can be almost completely self-sustaining - your own threads, for example, along with fire essences and bars being used for your own armour to help you level up against baddies, which also boosts your manufacturing so you don't have to buy mortar & pestles for working on potions, so on and so forth.

What if u want to pay someone GC sow s/he could pay $ to buy somthing from EL-shop to you? Personally speaking, that would be their choice to give up real money for currency that's useful only in a game.

Agreed.

Well, that's part of what I'm talking about. Why are you going to want blue star flowers when all the silver harvest spots are depleted? The only thing that's going to cause is people to just grab what they can, and deny it to those who actually need a specific resource for levelling a particular skill. Let's take this as an example: I've been trying to save up for the Artificier perk. If I can't find enough of what I require to make this happen, by either pickpoints or gold, how can I make this happen without having to face the potential that it would take a larger amount of eternity than it is now. Add to this that without the resources to make the items that would have a greater potential of being rare items, the horrendous amount of time I spent trying to get the perk would pretty well have been wasted. I will grant that this could work out better than I believe (I've always been a callous pessimist on most things) but in so far as I can see, it's going to end up doing more harm than good. If the main problem is that people are worried about gold-farmers, just keep the mini-harv events. Hell, I've gotten used to them - I hardly even notice them anymore. As for multiplayers, a friend of mine had to get white-listed recently, and it didn't really take much doing. Not the simplest thing in the world, but it didn't take any titanic effort either.

Personally speaking, I'm not too sure about this idea. From what I can guess, there's two outcomes from this, and neither being mutually exclusive. 1) There was this old MMO, I believe called Nox. The game itself boiled down to nothing more than people from across the planet getting together for the sole purpose of duking it out, killing each other, dying, getting back at it - lather, rinse, repeat. If people get such a hard time of harvesting ingredients and making newer and better stuff - the hallmark of any good RPG in my mind - they'll either abandon the game or stay around for the purpose of the only thing left to be done in great quantity: fighting anything and everything. 2) What characters decide it best to grudge it out and keep harvesting what they need will be reduced to a horde of locusts scouring the landscape for anything and everything, even if it's not something they need, let alone can make use of at that time. It's human nature. If things are in short supply, they hoard whatever they can get their hands on. You see the exact same thing in the predicted path of impending natural disasters: store after store of shelves emptied of everything from top-grade sirloin steak to canned dog food. And those that can't get the supplies they want or need evacuate very quickly or go through a lot of trouble while they weather the storm.