No Lost Item Replacement? What is this, the Dark Ages?

[Platypirfun]

So I lost my ship and outfittings due to multiple bugs (namely a game crash in the middle of the battle), and I'm told "our policy is generally not to replace items lost."

Excuse me? What year is this? Early MMO's had pretty annoying support setups where they were so strict that you were unlikely to ever get any real help. However, in all that games I've played the past few years, I've seen a marked improvement in support quality. Rather than the GMs acting likey they were doing you a favor just listening, they were actually helpful. SWG (with the dreaded SOE that everyone bashes) had excellent support and were quick to replace items lost because of bugs. Same with WoW. This isn't something new...these things happen.

So why this absurd policy of not replacing items? There was literally nothing that could be done to keep from losing the items I lost, and yet I'm supposed to be punished for it?


This issue is NOT about a Gallant durability point and a few thousand worth of outfittings. The problem stretches a lot further than that. It's a question of whether or not it's worth 15 dollars a month in a game where the support team simply....isn't actually supportive. What if that ship was a first rate? How am I or anyone else for that matter, supposed to feel good about spending time building up stuff in the game when the Devs have this ridiculous policy of non-replacement?

[Cpt.Owen]

Ok look at the flip side.

Your in a ship (Gallant, 1st rate, w/e), your about to lose in combat so you close the client. Login 5 mins later and ask the GMs to replace all your gear and the dura point since the crash wasnt your fault?

Would you replace it if you were the GM? GMs cannot tell if you lost it on purpose or via a crash. When you get disconnected, your ship / char remains in game for a few minutes. If your ship is hit during this the timer resets preventing the old "Logoutaroo" to prevent loss.

Im not saying it wasn't your fault, I'm simply saying that if they give you your items back, they would have to give anyone else who "crashed" theirs and not all the crashes will be genuine.

[HanoverFiste]

Originally Posted by Platypirfun So why this absurd policy of not replacing items?

Item replacement would be abused.

[Platypirfun]

Obviously there are exploiters, but as I said, there were other problems with it.

I'll explain:

I was doing missions in a port which was within a red zone. I finished a mission, and it kicked me outside of the port rather than back inside the town (since I entered the mission from town). That was bug 1. It kicked me 11 miles from town, so I couldn't immediately re-enter. Instead, I had to try to turn around 180 degrees and go several miles. That was bug 2. In the time it took to do that, I was attacked. In the middle of the fight, which Imo, I was winning, the game crashed. By the time I got it back up, he had my sails all the way down, and there was nothing I could do.


So I'm supposed to be punished so that cheaters can't exploit?

My opinion on this is reflected well by this quote from Supreme Court Jutice William Douglas:
"It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest."

I'd rather a small amount of exploiting get by the system than a bunch of paying customers, who want to play fairly, get ripped off and not be supported by the development team. Better than 10 exploiters get a free durability point than for one person to lose one from a glitch.


Anyway, they should be able to judge the individual cases. They should have battle logs, and they should be able to go back and see that there's no freaking reason for me to have tried to exploit to get out of the battle. It was me, 45 in a Gallant, against a level 50 in a triton. When I crashed, we had about the same percentage of armor, I had full sails, and he had about 70% sails and was about to recieve another full salvo of star-shot. He was equipped for sailing speed, I was equipped for armor and damage. Another minute and he'd have been crippled, then I'd have just wasted him with pure firepower (I'm an NO with 20% reload speed and speed guns...I think he was an FT or something).

This is a deal-breaker for me. I mean, how am I supposed to invest time in the game if I know that it's just a matter of luck whether or not I'll actually gain anything from all that work? As I said, it's not an issue of money. I'm a hair's breadth from 46, and I can buy an MC Defiant, which is better, for about 80k (I've got about 400k). Besides that, I've still got a durability point left on my Gallant, and the first one lasted me 7 levels until I hit that stupid bug. What really bothers me is jsut that this policy is going to screw a bunch of people who don't deserve to get screwed, in the name of exploit-prevention.

[Sca Lyle Wag]

Exact samething happened to me, I chalk it up as part of the game. It will happen to most of us at one point or another. It sucks yes, but not worth quitting over imho.

[Platypirfun]

It's not really like an "I hate you guys, so I'm going to quit!" thing. I mean, it just boils down to the fact that I'm not sure I want to put a bunch more time into the game if this is what I have to expect. I mean, say I play for several months and get a first rate with only 2 durability, then this happens again. I really really like this game, and I want to be able to keep playing.

[Fillet Mignon]

I'm lucky enough to have had the oposite experience with the CS team. I docked at Black Point the other day in my main ship (raa frigate), had a look around, thought "Neat place" then ported out to Grenville to check some warehouse items.

Then when I tried to port back to my frigate I ended up getting stuck at the loading screen. Typing /logout got me out but when I logged back in I was back on the docks at Grenville. It seemed there was no way I was going to get my ship back, and I was seriously *****d off.

So I logged a support ticket, and within the hour a GM got in touch with me, tested out the problem, replicated it, teleported me to the dock master at Black Point where I could then get in my ship and sail happily away.

Win.

I have never had such a speedy response in-game from a CS rep before. Of course this is just my experience and everyone's will differ...

[Platypirfun]

Yeh, I actually had the same problem at Black Point, and I ended up getting ported to Bartica. I really think it was a bug though, not a GM. I did get a response from the GMs on that, but they didn't claim credit for porting me and my ship to Bartica. Also, last night, a similar glitch ported my ship from Somerset all the way to Ambergriss (2500 miles away), so I know that's a bug that can happen.