Relic Question: Why did it take so long to release?

[xvshanevx]

First off, I am not doing the relic, so please save your snide comments for players complaining about the grind. What I am complaining about is something a little different.

What I wanna know, though, is why did it take Yoshi P. and Co. so long to release this content? After looking over what everyone is going to need to do to get their relic, almost everything was available during 3.0 launch. So, let's take a look and see what was available during launch.

Check all that apply:
FATE grinding for an item? Check.
2.5 Dungeon run through? Check.
3.0 Dungeon run through? Check.
Poetics Grind? Check.
Law Grind? Check.
Allied Seals Grind? Check.
2.x Beast Tribe vendors? Check.
Alexander Normal grind? Check.
Dragonskin Gathering Maps? Check.

3.1 Beast Tribe Vendors? X.
3.15 crafted items designed specifically for 3.15 relic weapons? X.

So, let's take a look at the two last items. We can exclude the specific items for crafters seeing that these items were designed with the relic in mind and nothing else. I am sure in the future we will use these items for other things, but these were designed primarily for the relic and could have been easily implemented in during 3.0. The Beast Tribe requirement is the only legitimate new content need for the relic weapon (I heard that there is some Diadem you can do for the relic too, but I couldn't find any info on it.)

Once again, why did it take so long for these weapons to be released?

[Deathscythe343]

Ya, with what was released today I have to wonder why it took so long to get these. Not to mention that having players whom didn't complete the zeta or whom chose not to turn theirs in to bypass this step, having them spend hours or more spamming fates to obtain a weapon that is equivalent to something that they could have gotten six months ago seems absurd to me.

[Riki_Namu]

Content filler before the holidays to give people "something" to do.

Thats my guess.

[BossEpoch]

Realistically, it was probably late so they could buy time to the next update. That's also why it'll take at least two months to finish.

[HaelseMikiro]

yeah, this doesn't at all feel like they couldn't have released it sooner. Rather they didn't want it released until now

[xvshanevx]

BTW, I only did the relic quest up to Novus during 2.5 once there was nothing to do. That is my limited experience with the Relic.

Okay, so I am not the only one who's seeing this as a poor decisions on the developers part. Looking at it now, I think it would've have been much more rewarding for players to be able to hand in their Zeta at launch and once hitting 60 to get their ilvl 170 relic weapon, have the upgraded version for ilvl 190 during 3.1, and now have the grind part that nets you the ilvl 200-210 version (hinde sight is 20/20 of course). Instead, they are now front-loading everything on the player base, and at a time when the weapons really won't have a significant affect except for the glowing effect.

The reason I making a slight deal out of this is because I am really beginning to question the logistical side of the development team for this game. I found 2.x content (SCoB, FCoB, Relic weapons, and CT raids) to be really well designed for not having beta testers checking to see how certain content fans out (Hunts was a mess but was fixed pretty quickly). Now, though, I feel like they are flailing like madmen when it comes to how they are going to release content, and not really forecasting how it will affect future content and their player base.

And the reason for character limitation on forum posts still eludes me.

[DragonSlayer45]

We all know the answer. They wanted to stretch content out as much as possible to keep people subscribed. Grimy business tactics.

[Evilperson]

We all know the answer. They wanted to stretch content out as much as possible to keep people subscribed. Grimy business tactics.

I have no reason to believe it is anything other than this. Every piece of this relic grind is nothing more than recycled content. Adding a few basic crafting recipes and beastmen tokens does not take months to develop. I don't feel guilty saying how pleased I am to see so many people unsubscribing. As many others have said, vote with your wallet, because it is the only thing SE is going to understand, considering all of the feedback over the past 1-2 years regarding relic grinds (which have been utterly ignored). "Fun comes first" is nothing but bullshit lip-service.

[Belhi]

Did you see the state of the instance servers right after 3.15 dropped? Filled to bursting. People were finding themselves in parties ready to go and waiting for instances to become available.

Imagine it that had happened when 3.1 launched.