115513-drop-34-merger-clarification

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Hi there,
 
Just looking for clarification of this statement in today's released interview at MMORPG.com:
 
 
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Donatelli: We merged drop 3 and 4 together. So drop “3 and 4” or The Defile and Journey to Omnicore-1 still have weeks of testing to go but our target is early to mid-November.
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			Well the ptr stuff is here	
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Drop 3 was meant to be the Defile, with drop 4 containing Journey to Omnicore-1 and numerous balance changes - runes, AP/SP, support roles, etc.
 
On the Nexus Report last week, Donatelli referred to the patch as 'Drop 3-4', which suggested that the update had been merged. Donatelli clarified in the interview that's exactly what happened - so we have Defile, World Story 0 (Omnicore-1), and World Story 2 arriving in Nov, then updates like Protostar Games and the new PvP zone in Jan.
 
Numbering gets a little confusing though, I'll agree!	
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Thanks Popo! Couldn't even find that place, haha. Although is there a link to actual patch notes? That forum seems to just have 'updates' which don't have much info.
 
What I'm really wondering about now are the housing changes Lamenth discussed. Since it seems like at that time the drops were split, all of the information was divulged as "next drop" and "2015". He did say recently on the housing forums that the ground type changes were still slated for a future drop, and not 3... but are there other changes from drop 4 that have been rolled into 3? Or does this drop merger just draw selectively from drop 4 to get us the stuff people are most vocal about?
 
I'm happy either way, just looking for knowledge. *puts on scholar's cap and robe*	
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The place that Mr.Popo linked you contains all of the officially released patch notes. If you're looking for the complete patch notes for the exact "drop 3-4" referenced, they're not posted. The last update is that theyre testing megaservers now.
 
However you can look through the posts in the PTR section with "DEFILE" in it for some of the possible changes to be done in the next drop that we're aware of so far.	
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{| class="blockquote"
Drop 3 was meant to be the Defile, with drop 4 containing Journey to Omnicore-1 and numerous balance changes - runes, AP/SP, support roles, etc.
 
On the Nexus Report last week, Donatelli referred to the patch as 'Drop 3-4', which suggested that the update had been merged. Donatelli clarified in the interview that's exactly what happened - so we have Defile, World Story 0 (Omnicore-1), and World Story 2 arriving in Nov, then updates like Protostar Games and the new PvP zone in Jan.
 
Numbering gets a little confusing though, I'll agree!
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For clarification.  I think, originally, the drop schedule was supposed to be this:
 
June: Launch
July: Strain
August: Sabotage
September: Defile
October: Omnicore
November: etc....
 
Strain and Sabotage were released on time, but were too buggy for the players and/or devs liking (whichever way you want to go).  So the next drop was pushed back to, it appears, early November to include a lot of fixes, a lot of changes in response to feedback (about gear, queues, server populations, etc), and we're also getting the things slated for Defile and Omnicore.  So this next drop is, according to the old schedule, containing content from drops 3 and 4.  That's why they refer to it as Drop 3-4.
 
The drop coming in January (as it's currently slated), isn't drop 3-4, it's drop 5-whatever.  It's hard to say since we don't know what will be in that drop.  The easiest way to say it is that it's called Drop 3-4 because it contains elements of the old schedule's drop 3 and drop 4.  Things slated for the January drop aren't coming out any sooner.	
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{| class="blockquote"
The drop coming in January (as it's currently slated), isn't drop 3-4, it's drop 5-whatever.  It's hard to say since we don't know what will be in that drop. 
 
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Ahhh, this makes a lot of sense. I think I got lost in vocabulary here. :P   So most likely drop 3 had the music changes and drop 4 was bringing the decor limit increases.
 
Thanks for the responses all, thread resolved. I'll keep an eye on the forums for the next full PTR notes.
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Oops, I caused some confusion myself. :P The decor increases are definitely coming in this next drop in November, I was just musing about how things probably were with the monthly release schedule.
 
Pretty sure the next drop brings us music, the decor/light limit and crate increases, a bunch of new decor/fixes, aaaaand... I think guild neighbourhoods? That might be a bit later, but either way it's gonna be a great patch for housing.	
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			More stuff keeps getting rolled into the mythical beast that is Drop 3. Drop 3 release date keeps sliding further and further back. We are now at "our target is early to mid November". I just don't understand. Can we please have something to do this week? Next week? Just add the flux drops to dungeon bosses or something. Anything.	
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Some of the things slated for release will be changing gameplay as we know it rather drastically. While many have unsubscribed to wait for it, I like many others I'm sure, have just curtailed my gameplay to some extent to wait out these changes before going all out with my personal game progression.
 
Things like mega server, ap/sp balance, itemization fixes, the rune system overhaul, etc will all be having a major effect on how one plays the game. Everything from gearing up to tradeskills to possibly even which class you decide to main.
 
I like this game a lot and think that all of these upcoming changes will make the game even better. But don't want to invest a lot of time into something I may regret later, only to basically have to start over once how these new changes affect us are revealed.
 
So IMO, the more they can combine into one large system overhaul / revamp the better. Releasing multiple game changing updates in drips and drabs over 6 months to a year would be sheer torture and probably cause me to move on.
 
I, like many I'm sure, are chomping at the bit to play THE REAL GAME as it will be. From now until who knows when. Without having to re-gear, re-learn, or even re-roll month after month after month. I want to be able to invest my time into a toon (or toons) that I know will be a solid investment both now and at least 3-4 months from now.
 
Sure there were and still are many things wrong with this game as it stands right now. But I like the game so much that I'm willing to consider the time from beta to drop 3-4 as a sort of pre-release. But I want to start playing the release version very soon. I don't know how much longer I can just spin my wheels here waiting for it.	
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