Amazing! Just amazing!

[Tin Man]

So, a player during ANB manages to craft 280 L70+ items and successfully crafts nine L76 items and five L77 items. The player even manages a L77 Bracer of Mastery with the desired bonus.

The player had equipped fourteen of those fourteen L76+ items equipped for their highest ranked trial. That means that the players only L77 Bracer of Mastery craft also came with the desired bonus.

This is just one example. Yes, I am pretty sure I know where this player got their absolutely incredible luck. This player is not an anomaly.

So, I am assuming that this pathway to fantastic RNG blessings is not an exploit as it has publicly existed for so long. Lack of any punishment to the multitude of players with this phenomenal RNG luck is an endorsement to the process as a legitimate practice and anyone not embracing this pathway to RNG blessings is just blowing up their own game.

This is just as with the multiple damage bonuses on a single piece of gear which has now been embraced and acknowledged as the developers as acceptable behavior until such time as they make it impossible to craft such gear.

Players following the spirit of the game are being heavily disadvantaged.

The idea of not using alternate rules as you will know it when you see it is complete hogwash when obvious usage of alternate rules is becoming more and more common.

There are many ethical players that will recognize alternate rules and avoid them as they are not in the spirit of the game. Continued success of those using alternate rules without any repercussions just serves as a wedge that encourage the ethical players to leave the game.

I do have to reflect upon all of this, as a whale or at least a large dolphin, and wonder why I do not either leave the game, stop supporting the game or go with the flow and join the anything goes world. Sure, there is a door #4 of playing ethically and continue to maintain my current level of support for the game. Door #4 does really seem like an awfully big pill to swallow.

Can anyone, developers in particular, offer a good argument for pursing any of the four door options that I have presented? I know how I am feeling at the moment but am open to suggestions.

Yeah, Travis, I recognize that you have to tow the party line on this one and are just the messenger. Nothing in this post is directed towards you. You are one of the best things about the game. They do not pay you enough.

Anyone?

[Nhat]

LOL, "just because" would be my input for sticking it out with #4 - but I gave up on the competitive side of the game a long time ago, or should I say that I never got into it to begin with.

Issues/exploits are continually being brought forward, both publicly (which then gets removed due to the "do not discuss exploits" imperative) and privately, but the focus of the devs seem to be elsewhere, and thus allowing the continued use... If you're a competitive player, then the only option is to use them to compete which then further increase the issue and the impact of any potential "fix" by the devs (if they ever get around to it) Can you imagine a mass ban/reset of all players involved? That is a PR disaster to the game... but that is what would be needed if the devs are to actually follow their own words on how exploits/cheats are to be handled (https://forum.makingfun.com/forum/et...ers-exploiters)


So, if you still enjoy playing the game non-competitively, then by all means, keep it up - but there will never be "fair play" in the competition side, like pretty much all other games, and life...


Edit:
But then again, after seeing all those posts from Romme & bojck (and others) regarding what they can achieve ranking wise, maybe the exploits we see really doesn't matter... but I'm no where near that level of experience/gameplay to fully understand it...

[Ozymandius]

+1 on the best way to enjoy the game is non-competitively. I think the thing that keeps me playing is the desire to improve upon my own performance as a player and to avoid comparing myself to the more competitive players.

[WarriorSeven]

I find myself becoming more and more jaded when it comes to the (anti-) competitive aspect of the game, falling slowly into Nhat's camp. Besides, I'm really not that good. And upon reflection, I'm not so sure those things aren't bad things after all! I have found a game (finally) that I can play on multiple platforms, engage an app for enjoyment, and relax with a modicom of pleasure from the day-to-day RL distractions. And I like the boards here and the people, too. So, what's the saying: two out of three ain't bad?

[Ozymandius]

I started playing back in the dark ages before you could instantly craft whatever piece of gear that you needed. At times it was frustrating because it seemed to rely too much on pure luck, but over time you could build a somewhat competitive hero. Back then we mostly cursed our luck and stuck it out. I still think that there is an incredible lure to the game when your next completed trial might be the one that allows you to complete a gear set or upgrade a weapon, which is why ANBs are so popular. Nowadays, the whole game completely revolves around crafting where players start crafting the instant that they finish the first story map. And crafting is just an odds game. If you craft enough times, you eventually end up with what you want. I crafted two level 77s in the last ANB for the very first time simply because I just kept crafting. I probably had enough materials to try for a third one, but I could not rationalize wasting the resources on a throwaway item, but toss in a third CT and maybe I would give it a try just to get the t-shirt. I already have more CTs than I know what to do with, but t-shirts are always welcome.

What keeps me in the game is that it provides a never ending set of challenges and the online Eternium community. Players like Nhat who helped me defeat Elban for the very first time and countless others who were there to lend a helping hand when I got stuck, Tin Man who keeps me on my toes and often dispenses sage life wisdom, Romme, Hegemony bojck , Splendor and many others whose skills remind me that I am alas only human but who nonetheless take the time to share their knowledge, and the guys on Discord like LodWig and UmbraDei that create wonderful graphic analyses of the game, fun challenges like DS & Live off the Land, and neat tools like Pythia. Oh yes, and Travis who would be underpaid no matter what his salary is!

[Maje999]

I totally agree with you. In most ANBs i just do the 110 for the second celestial and that's it. Lost the interest to compete with those guys in the leaderboard...

[Naos]

I agree to all above. But in order to further extend the subject i'd like to briefly talk about my last AnB :

Started as a warrior. Farmed xp/gold with it for about 4h30min and reached Cl2052. Had only physical dmg btw.

After that i deleted the hero and created two dummy lvl70 mages for crafting until a 77 drops.

Then created a third mage wich was my push hero. By that time, i had no resources left so had to gear whatever push item i have crafted (with 3 epic items for the missing ones) and started farming Tl105 for about 1h45min without any meaningful xp/gold gain.

Once i've gathered enough mats crafted my final 77 and execute my push for another 1h45min and completed the event at Tl151.

At the end i crafted around 160 items(estimated). Got 4 lvl77's, 5 Lvl76's (one is wasted) and lots of lvl75's...

Further got a near perfect lvl77 Frostbeam BoM as my final craft which is also my first 77 BoM with a bonus to an appropriate ability in 9 months and countless attempts. Further it was also the only legendary frostbeam BoM i was able to craft out of 23 attempts and came unexpectedly after 15+ consecutive crafts at 21st craft.

So if we wrap all these my AnB performance is pretty close to what is described in the original post. But it actually is not.

Therefore not every lucrative perfomance is the result of a workaround.

That is incredible luck to get 4 lv77 in only 160 crafts. That probably won't happen next time. There are a bunch of people in the LB that every AnB have near perfect stats on BoM's and Weapons. This as well all know is not just luck, this is pure exploitation, one that is easy to find out how to do.

[Naos]

if they are spending real money on event packs and further buying legendary crates with lots of gem spending than even 6,7... 77's is a possibility. Given they bother enough to level and delete the appropriate amount of heroes.

So we can not auto assume something fishy is going on. It just is a possibility.

However, you are right i also find having a near perfect BoM consistently on every AnB extremely fishy.

For me it's the BoM's all the way. With the odds being in the multiple 1000's of getting one in the 1st place, the odds of it happening every event has got to be in the millions.

[Raingold]

Tin Man This environment would be poorer without you. As a green player who was away for a year, I was finally able to score 2 CTS in one ANB and have some medals now thanks to you and helpful posts / videos by people participating or mentioned in this thread. One reason to remain: You're valued here.

Taking an extended break from playing was helpful because I discovered several improvements when I returned. I deeply hope the boosts to non-competitive gear sets continue. That's a change I wanted from my first days in the game. It's still bizarre and such a waste of Eternium's potential that there are so few effective build options. To me, it makes the LBs boring. I only look at them to find the people outside the herd.

I created my first Arcanist and ranked #114 in Silver (Anjel, eccentric build for 100% mobile, low gems, no-cash spend). I'm building my first Stormcaller, also just for fun.

Although I see the point Nhat made about the difficulties of banning all the exploiters, there's a statement in every event that medals are issued after things are checked. I don't understand why cheaters aren't removed from the leaderboards and at least penalized at that point.

Thanks for all your contributions here, Tin Man.