This is a message to readers of the thread here:
I want to make sure my motivations are very, very clear here. I am not smart. I am not a software developer (I was in DevOps for many years, which is like software development for the self-loathing). I do not work for Square.
We recently lost a Hrothgar on Aether, a super nice guy. We had a memorial for him, and 75 gignormous cats, and a bunch of supporters showed up to tell him goodbye. It was one of the most moving things I've ever seen in a videogame.
I love the Hrothgar. I love the Aether community, we're a pretty tight-knit bunch, and even at 43 the sense of social belonging and camaraderie have helped me and a lot of others through a pandemic, nasty social climates, mental illness, substance abuse, and bone-crushing loneliness.
And while I will jump in to weigh in on what people are saying, and will as patiently as I can (I'm human too, and sick, and I get mad like everyone else) explain why it is that this problem isn't as simple as adopting modder code, or adding bones, or flipping flags, and I will explain passionately (but I hope politely) why it is that I'm this astonishingly angry, which isn't the hairstyles. Or hats. Or Queen Gunnhildr The Cop-Out.
It's that all of you, even the ones I don't know real well, in game or out are worth my time. And you are worth having the problem explained to you correctly. So that while I cannot fix your issue here, and that our "Community Representatives" who rarely, if ever weigh in, certainly never do twice. And even if no one at Square gave enough of a darn about you to even say "Yeah, we heard you?"
I did. And you guys did too.
So, please don't think for a minute me disagreeing with any one of you on a technical level is "Me > you." It's not that you're dumb for asking. Or putting your opinions up here.
And if I'm not communicating this in how thought-out and researched my posts are? Please let me say it explicitly here: You all deserve that respect and my time.
-Kelly