Aetherwhistles

by Mirami

Back to Ideas.

Mirami2010-12-31 02:59:44
The Solstice Gnomes were good to me this year, and I was planning on buying an aetherwhistle before this change went into effect. However, I find little reason to put 250 credits towards it, for a few reasons:

-First, the practical uses of a whistle. There's whistling a ship to a dock that you're stranded at (Where the extra 2.5min is just you wasting time);
-Whistling a ship to a godrealm to offer essence, already all but worthless because it took too much time;
-All the aetherflare stuff (which, granted, needed to be nerfed somehow);
-Convenience when it comes to getting from plane to plane (whistling to Ethereal), etc. Not actually affected by the change as much.

I'm pretty sure that there's a consensus that the old whistle was well worth 250cr. The new one? Not so much, I don't think.

A solution I have heard proposed, would be to keep the current changes during flares (The problem that led to the change), and leave the whistle otherwise unaffected.

Another possible solution would be, alter the time based on the dock you're whistling a ship to. Make it take, for example, 2.5 minutes for aetherbubbles, 2 for astral, 1.5 for elemental, 1 for ethereal, and the old smattering of seconds for Prime. (Put godrealms on par with Prime, to give offering from aetherships a wee bit of a chance at practicality.) This would keep the 'current' system as-is when it comes to solving the 'problem' (whistle+aetherflares), while giving back most of the utility that owners of the old aetherwhistle enjoyed.

Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
Unknown2010-12-31 03:04:43
Definitely just change it to only have the long delay during flares. It's the easiest solution to implement, the most fair, balanced, and pleases everyone.
Zuhayir2010-12-31 03:21:15
Sounds like the problem was, aetherflares aside, the artifact was doing too much to begin with. Sounds pretty powerful for a 250cr arti. Given that, the 'nerf' suggested by the OP sounds reasonable. /2cents
Lehki2010-12-31 03:47:14
I think it's fine really, it's still easily worth the 250 credits. I believe the admin have said their intent for whistles is retrieving misplaced or difficult to reach ships, not a quick short cut through aetherspace, though it most cases it will still be much faster then flying. Also I really doubt this change was made mainly because of aetherflares, since we haven't even had one yet.