I am disappointed by the change to the trace charm. I used it today on a severe and instead of spawning 5 more severes like I had been used to, it spawned one other emergency (dragon) and the rest were low level threats without flares. If this is how it was intended to work originally and was bugged, this wasn’t explained well and it was news to me. What I’m most disappointed in, is the fact that I spent DADA and RSB to unlock more trace charm nodes. Had I known it was bugged I would have spent those valuable books in other ways like overall mastery, departure denial or reduced potion brew time. Is there anyway to get our very hard earned books back?
There is no longer any reason to do any SOS lessons. You say to do the lessons to match the way you play, ie fit the game to your style. However, if the lessons keep changing how they work, how could anyone do that? I know that I would have spent my 117 Restricted books differently, if Niantic had been honest about what lessons did from the start. If the lessons are going to change, the players should be able to change how they have spent their resources. The players have used their resources, ie restricted and DADA books, to purchase lessons plans in good faith, only to have the product (lesson plans effects) significantly changed after the fact. The programing staff may be able to enjoy more then just 1 week of rest, since they may have a significantly smaller player base to come back to.
The entire reason I GOT the trace charm spells was because it would consistently provide at least the threat level equal of what I placed it on. It’s beyond frustrating to place it on an emergency threat level and get medium in return. It’s insulting. Do not change this feature.
edited September 2020#6603 September, 2020, 11:45 pm.
The duplicate traces was what was great about the trace charm. Even if it didn't give you the same family as the orignal they where all atleast the same or higher severity as the original. I have been playing since the beginning and I was finally able to get several of my bronze pages to silver, and a few on up to gold. I work a 12hr night shift where traces spawn but I would be lucky to see one trace that was orange or red. The only problem I saw with the trace charm was that I'm not getting the number of fragments I trained for. You should have been fixing that problem, because if you had the "duplicate fix" may not have gone over as bad as it has. Also, it doesn't make sense that the original trace would not be affected by the charm that was placed on it, it should get the additional fragments as well.
This "fix" feels like an outright betrayal. If this was such a significant bug you should have frozen the SOS nodes immediately after discovering the bug. And, it's pretty simple to figure out which players choose these impacted node...roll it all back...give them back the Books, Manuals, and Guides.....or, put the Trace Charm back to how it was before the "fix".
You can't let players play with a Known Issue, burning in-game currency for WEEKS and then wave a wand and take away all their progress. Put it back or roll back all the training nodes and return the in game currency.
COPY THREE. Since copy 2 apparently got removed because I like my posts to not have spelling or grammar issues, but editing more than once apparently gets the post removed so it can be posted "once it's approved". I have never seen forums that remove edited posts like that.
Nothing you've done so far to the Trace Charm can really be called a "bug fix." They've been balance changes, pure and simple. This most recent is the worst offender in terms of calling it a bug fix. Nothing in the description of the Trace Charm would make one think that casting the Trace Charm on a Severe or Emergency foundable should provide a bunch of lower-level foundables. They should all be at the same level, or higher, as the original.
Getting rid of the original duplicating itself is fine. That would actually be a bug fix (also a balance pass, but still, actually a bug fix). Maxing fragments at 2, while not indicated initially in ANY of the descriptions, was not a bug fix. Someone decided it was unbalanced, and I think a lot of players probably agree after thinking about it for a while, even if they are upset over expenditures required to get more than 2.
Having the spawned traces not all be the same is a similar issue. It's actually pretty unbalanced to give me 7 McGonagalls all giving me 2 fragments. Giving me a bunch of different emergencies is less so, especially since the SOS lessons give me different levels of Spell mastery against different families. Again, not a bug fix, just someone realizing it's unbalanced and should be rebalanced. Again, not really a game breaker, though it might annoy some players.
But to make the Trace Charm just spew a bunch of random, low-level traces? That's not only not a bug fix, it's a flat-out nerf and changing of the way the thing is described as working. Players should absolutely be incensed at this change. If this isn't going to be rolled back to giving equal or rarer traces (if one has the appropriate node), then you ABSOLUTELY need to roll back the SOS lessons. It really shouldn't be hard to refund to players exactly what they've spent on SOS lessons. Really, instead of the poor "complimentary gift" apology for the previous fixes, that option should have already been made available. Now it's even more necessary.
You're almost certainly going to lost players over this change, regardless of what you do. But if you don't roll back this change or offer a full reversion of SOS expenditures, it's going to be massively worse than I assume it already is.
Can anyone from WB/Niantic share their whole plans of annihilating the mass of players that are keeping this up? Honestly, can you show the whole plan? We're getting bored of these chapter reveals.
You're doing a tremendous job in destroying what keeps you alive. Such incompetence.
edited September 2020#7304 September, 2020, 12:18 am.
I live in a remote area and was DELIGHTED with how the trace charm worked. I have played since release day and many pages I have been stuck on the base page because of the rarity of higher level trace spawns.
When the SOS was released I moved slowly, waiting to see how charms and effects would work, to make informed decisions about how I spent my precious resources.
I've now spent hundreds of Ministry Manuals and Field Guides specifically to work toward Trace Charm improvements.
Now this will be the SECOND significant change you are making to this one charm alone. (First was the "mistake" in wording that misled us by stating lessons would increase the number of fragments returned.)
PLEASE keep this functionality as is. What is the point of the Trace Charm if it spawns lower level traces?
Ultimately, if you do decide to proceed with this change, then PLEASE, PLEASE consider resetting the SOS training and returning spent resources. We made decisions on how to proceed based first on the descriptions you provided (which were incorrect and you've already changed without recompense), and then on the functionality as we experienced it (which you are also now changing). This completely undermines players faith in the game. What is the point of playing a game that so misleads and abuses its player base in these ways?
It's been a good year but you are corrupting the game and making players pay the price for your coding teams mistakes.
The admin said above that this will not lower the traces spawned, but that’s what happened to me today. They were all low level even though I placed a trace on a severe. Do they mean it won’t decrease the number of traces spawned or won’t lower the severity? Because it definitely lowered the severity and gave me useless common things I could get from just walking around.
It's very disheartening when we are told yet again that the way things are working/ explained to work was never the intention. And when customer service won't help when bugs cause loss of items. I won't be spending any more money and I'm very close to finding a new game. I'm sure there are other developers who actually care about their customers.
Well, since the trace charm I have actually been playing again, almost daily, and it’s been fun! I live in a rural area and do not get very many red beam fragments so I have actually made some progress with the limited amount of times I have to play (family, job, life, etc). Please do t take the fun away because of a few people who use it to excess!!!
For those of us who got scammed by the Dangerous Attraction (trace charms yield extra fragments) bait and switch, I'm just not surprised any more. I've been a big daily player from the start and none of the glitches until now bothered me. This all is starting to feel less like glitches and more like you are just jacking with people now. I'm barely playing at the moment and I'm not doing any more SOS lessons until you figure this out. I'm a Lvl 56 maxed A/M and I was a significant monthly spender that you've managed to completely alienate.
The defective trace charm was the only thing that made it worth using, for the duplicate traces...With this new fix for them there is no point in using them now. We kindly request you put the trace charm back so the game will continue to stay fun for us high level players. The count on the returned traces need changed not the charm itself!!!
Please Niantic listen to all of - you have botched so many things since we started this wizardimg journey- do not “fix” what wasn’t broken- we depended on duplicate traces to fill out our pages and prestige pages. You keep trying new ways to say sorry and then if that is not bad enough you wreck one of your more beneficial moves. I don’t want to quit the game out of shear frustration that I feel like a player that doesn’t really matter to you, but I am close to saying ciao even though I have made my way to level 50 just because I can’t bear being locked out of the ever broken KB or being afraid to accept your next token of sorry because it costs me hundreds of hours to re-earn what we lost last spring.
edited September 2020#8104 September, 2020, 12:26 am.
So rewording descriptions and changing charms is acceptable after over 40 days in use?!? If they regret making it easier to level up just say that, instead of saying its a misconception and "fixing it" this far after the update. Thats on par with gaslighting.
Or just refund the lessons that people invested in because of how they saw and were told it would work.
I feel like the SOS lessons was a complete slap in the face. Foundables are no longer automatically easier every 5 levels, and the overall mastery lessons cost a TON of guides and manuals. Nerfing the trace charm is just not ok. I'm casual at level 47, but I've played every day since the beginning and have spent actual money as well. Continuing to take away features really makes me wonder if I should continue playing.
Not cool! If this is how it’s going to stay, at least offer a global reset so we can reconsider how to spend our resources because this completely changes things (in a negative way!)
What a ****. This game used to be fun to play and instead of making it better you are making it worse. So, let's see if I have this straight now - if I save up my trace charms so that I can use them on severe or emergency traces to spawn more of the same, I will now get **** like fire-farting scorpions and flobberworms? ****. You should be able to use the trace charm to get same or better level traces. Otherwise, what's the point? Really, this may be your worst decision yet.
Please quit alienating your players. First you renege on what you stated the proficiency trace would be (and STILL have not fixed the wording 6 weeks later). And now you’re turning the trace charm into nothing different than a trace tonic. What a letdown. I’m not sure why I bother playing or spending money on your game anymore. Listen to what your fan base actually wants and fulfill what you’ve stated in your actual descriptions. #laststraw
The Trace Charm functionality was clearly stated in multiple in game SOS nodes and screens. To "fix" this functionality by downgrading it's effects as a " bug" seems deceptive, and may violate Google Play Store policies prohibiting misleading game content. This is clearly not a bug, but intended functionality. If the developers need to change it after the fact, it needs to be done honestly, or reported as misleading content.
Don’t insult our intelligence, Lola. This is a lie and everyone knows it. The suits saw the money crashing and ordered that the trace be nerfed. You already have a hard enough time getting people to buy into this game and the negative word of mouth you are creating won’t help.
edited September 2020#9004 September, 2020, 12:42 am.
@hpwulola I placed a trace charm on a red beam dragon earlier. It produced a red beam dark arts trace and then a bunch of everyday regular traces. I came here to see if there was a bug and saw your reply here. HPWU can’t seriously be saying that’s the expected behavior? Looks like a bug. I understand that we weren’t meant to get a million identical traces out of it, but it surely should be giving us red beam traces, when used on a red beam, even if they’re random? Giving us lower level traces makes the thing useless.
Look, we know you screwed up, we get that. We're used to it by now, and we still play the game out of love for it. But by god, it works in a way that HELPS your players, especially those in rural and low trace areas. Have a heart. You gave us something, it works in a unique way and your players like it. Keep it to keep us happy.
Comments
At least keep the traces returned to be the same severity as the foundable it was placed on! This is an absolute waste and so frustrating!
I am disappointed by the change to the trace charm. I used it today on a severe and instead of spawning 5 more severes like I had been used to, it spawned one other emergency (dragon) and the rest were low level threats without flares. If this is how it was intended to work originally and was bugged, this wasn’t explained well and it was news to me. What I’m most disappointed in, is the fact that I spent DADA and RSB to unlock more trace charm nodes. Had I known it was bugged I would have spent those valuable books in other ways like overall mastery, departure denial or reduced potion brew time. Is there anyway to get our very hard earned books back?
@hpwulola
There is no longer any reason to do any SOS lessons. You say to do the lessons to match the way you play, ie fit the game to your style. However, if the lessons keep changing how they work, how could anyone do that? I know that I would have spent my 117 Restricted books differently, if Niantic had been honest about what lessons did from the start. If the lessons are going to change, the players should be able to change how they have spent their resources. The players have used their resources, ie restricted and DADA books, to purchase lessons plans in good faith, only to have the product (lesson plans effects) significantly changed after the fact. The programing staff may be able to enjoy more then just 1 week of rest, since they may have a significantly smaller player base to come back to.
The entire reason I GOT the trace charm spells was because it would consistently provide at least the threat level equal of what I placed it on. It’s beyond frustrating to place it on an emergency threat level and get medium in return. It’s insulting. Do not change this feature.
The duplicate traces was what was great about the trace charm. Even if it didn't give you the same family as the orignal they where all atleast the same or higher severity as the original. I have been playing since the beginning and I was finally able to get several of my bronze pages to silver, and a few on up to gold. I work a 12hr night shift where traces spawn but I would be lucky to see one trace that was orange or red. The only problem I saw with the trace charm was that I'm not getting the number of fragments I trained for. You should have been fixing that problem, because if you had the "duplicate fix" may not have gone over as bad as it has. Also, it doesn't make sense that the original trace would not be affected by the charm that was placed on it, it should get the additional fragments as well.
Please, please, please don’t change it!
This "fix" feels like an outright betrayal. If this was such a significant bug you should have frozen the SOS nodes immediately after discovering the bug. And, it's pretty simple to figure out which players choose these impacted node...roll it all back...give them back the Books, Manuals, and Guides.....or, put the Trace Charm back to how it was before the "fix".
You can't let players play with a Known Issue, burning in-game currency for WEEKS and then wave a wand and take away all their progress. Put it back or roll back all the training nodes and return the in game currency.
what.A.ClusterF*ck
Okay, I was editing my post to fix some grammar and spelling issues, and now it's disappeared with a note that it will be "posted once approved."
It was already posted. Thanks.
COPY THREE. Since copy 2 apparently got removed because I like my posts to not have spelling or grammar issues, but editing more than once apparently gets the post removed so it can be posted "once it's approved". I have never seen forums that remove edited posts like that.
Nothing you've done so far to the Trace Charm can really be called a "bug fix." They've been balance changes, pure and simple. This most recent is the worst offender in terms of calling it a bug fix. Nothing in the description of the Trace Charm would make one think that casting the Trace Charm on a Severe or Emergency foundable should provide a bunch of lower-level foundables. They should all be at the same level, or higher, as the original.
Getting rid of the original duplicating itself is fine. That would actually be a bug fix (also a balance pass, but still, actually a bug fix). Maxing fragments at 2, while not indicated initially in ANY of the descriptions, was not a bug fix. Someone decided it was unbalanced, and I think a lot of players probably agree after thinking about it for a while, even if they are upset over expenditures required to get more than 2.
Having the spawned traces not all be the same is a similar issue. It's actually pretty unbalanced to give me 7 McGonagalls all giving me 2 fragments. Giving me a bunch of different emergencies is less so, especially since the SOS lessons give me different levels of Spell mastery against different families. Again, not a bug fix, just someone realizing it's unbalanced and should be rebalanced. Again, not really a game breaker, though it might annoy some players.
But to make the Trace Charm just spew a bunch of random, low-level traces? That's not only not a bug fix, it's a flat-out nerf and changing of the way the thing is described as working. Players should absolutely be incensed at this change. If this isn't going to be rolled back to giving equal or rarer traces (if one has the appropriate node), then you ABSOLUTELY need to roll back the SOS lessons. It really shouldn't be hard to refund to players exactly what they've spent on SOS lessons. Really, instead of the poor "complimentary gift" apology for the previous fixes, that option should have already been made available. Now it's even more necessary.
You're almost certainly going to lost players over this change, regardless of what you do. But if you don't roll back this change or offer a full reversion of SOS expenditures, it's going to be massively worse than I assume it already is.
Now let's see if THIS post goes through or not.
Can anyone from WB/Niantic share their whole plans of annihilating the mass of players that are keeping this up? Honestly, can you show the whole plan? We're getting bored of these chapter reveals.
You're doing a tremendous job in destroying what keeps you alive. Such incompetence.
Please fix it to provide same level foundables as the one the trace charm was placed on.
I live in a remote area and was DELIGHTED with how the trace charm worked. I have played since release day and many pages I have been stuck on the base page because of the rarity of higher level trace spawns.
When the SOS was released I moved slowly, waiting to see how charms and effects would work, to make informed decisions about how I spent my precious resources.
I've now spent hundreds of Ministry Manuals and Field Guides specifically to work toward Trace Charm improvements.
Now this will be the SECOND significant change you are making to this one charm alone. (First was the "mistake" in wording that misled us by stating lessons would increase the number of fragments returned.)
PLEASE keep this functionality as is. What is the point of the Trace Charm if it spawns lower level traces?
Ultimately, if you do decide to proceed with this change, then PLEASE, PLEASE consider resetting the SOS training and returning spent resources. We made decisions on how to proceed based first on the descriptions you provided (which were incorrect and you've already changed without recompense), and then on the functionality as we experienced it (which you are also now changing). This completely undermines players faith in the game. What is the point of playing a game that so misleads and abuses its player base in these ways?
It's been a good year but you are corrupting the game and making players pay the price for your coding teams mistakes.
Please. Stop.
The admin said above that this will not lower the traces spawned, but that’s what happened to me today. They were all low level even though I placed a trace on a severe. Do they mean it won’t decrease the number of traces spawned or won’t lower the severity? Because it definitely lowered the severity and gave me useless common things I could get from just walking around.
It's very disheartening when we are told yet again that the way things are working/ explained to work was never the intention. And when customer service won't help when bugs cause loss of items. I won't be spending any more money and I'm very close to finding a new game. I'm sure there are other developers who actually care about their customers.
Well, since the trace charm I have actually been playing again, almost daily, and it’s been fun! I live in a rural area and do not get very many red beam fragments so I have actually made some progress with the limited amount of times I have to play (family, job, life, etc). Please do t take the fun away because of a few people who use it to excess!!!
For those of us who got scammed by the Dangerous Attraction (trace charms yield extra fragments) bait and switch, I'm just not surprised any more. I've been a big daily player from the start and none of the glitches until now bothered me. This all is starting to feel less like glitches and more like you are just jacking with people now. I'm barely playing at the moment and I'm not doing any more SOS lessons until you figure this out. I'm a Lvl 56 maxed A/M and I was a significant monthly spender that you've managed to completely alienate.
The defective trace charm was the only thing that made it worth using, for the duplicate traces...With this new fix for them there is no point in using them now. We kindly request you put the trace charm back so the game will continue to stay fun for us high level players. The count on the returned traces need changed not the charm itself!!!
Please give players the option to reset the skill tree.
Please Niantic listen to all of - you have botched so many things since we started this wizardimg journey- do not “fix” what wasn’t broken- we depended on duplicate traces to fill out our pages and prestige pages. You keep trying new ways to say sorry and then if that is not bad enough you wreck one of your more beneficial moves. I don’t want to quit the game out of shear frustration that I feel like a player that doesn’t really matter to you, but I am close to saying ciao even though I have made my way to level 50 just because I can’t bear being locked out of the ever broken KB or being afraid to accept your next token of sorry because it costs me hundreds of hours to re-earn what we lost last spring.
So rewording descriptions and changing charms is acceptable after over 40 days in use?!? If they regret making it easier to level up just say that, instead of saying its a misconception and "fixing it" this far after the update. Thats on par with gaslighting.
Or just refund the lessons that people invested in because of how they saw and were told it would work.
Please look again. Even if it doesn’t spawn all of the same foundable. At least all of the same threat level or higher!!!
I feel like the SOS lessons was a complete slap in the face. Foundables are no longer automatically easier every 5 levels, and the overall mastery lessons cost a TON of guides and manuals. Nerfing the trace charm is just not ok. I'm casual at level 47, but I've played every day since the beginning and have spent actual money as well. Continuing to take away features really makes me wonder if I should continue playing.
Not cool! If this is how it’s going to stay, at least offer a global reset so we can reconsider how to spend our resources because this completely changes things (in a negative way!)
How disappointing...
The Trace Charm was a very exciting new feature and now that you "fixed" it, it has become a disappointing one. Truly disappointing.
Please, reconsider.
What a ****. This game used to be fun to play and instead of making it better you are making it worse. So, let's see if I have this straight now - if I save up my trace charms so that I can use them on severe or emergency traces to spawn more of the same, I will now get **** like fire-farting scorpions and flobberworms? ****. You should be able to use the trace charm to get same or better level traces. Otherwise, what's the point? Really, this may be your worst decision yet.
Please quit alienating your players. First you renege on what you stated the proficiency trace would be (and STILL have not fixed the wording 6 weeks later). And now you’re turning the trace charm into nothing different than a trace tonic. What a letdown. I’m not sure why I bother playing or spending money on your game anymore. Listen to what your fan base actually wants and fulfill what you’ve stated in your actual descriptions. #laststraw
The Trace Charm functionality was clearly stated in multiple in game SOS nodes and screens. To "fix" this functionality by downgrading it's effects as a " bug" seems deceptive, and may violate Google Play Store policies prohibiting misleading game content. This is clearly not a bug, but intended functionality. If the developers need to change it after the fact, it needs to be done honestly, or reported as misleading content.
Don’t insult our intelligence, Lola. This is a lie and everyone knows it. The suits saw the money crashing and ordered that the trace be nerfed. You already have a hard enough time getting people to buy into this game and the negative word of mouth you are creating won’t help.
@hpwulola I placed a trace charm on a red beam dragon earlier. It produced a red beam dark arts trace and then a bunch of everyday regular traces. I came here to see if there was a bug and saw your reply here. HPWU can’t seriously be saying that’s the expected behavior? Looks like a bug. I understand that we weren’t meant to get a million identical traces out of it, but it surely should be giving us red beam traces, when used on a red beam, even if they’re random? Giving us lower level traces makes the thing useless.
Look, we know you screwed up, we get that. We're used to it by now, and we still play the game out of love for it. But by god, it works in a way that HELPS your players, especially those in rural and low trace areas. Have a heart. You gave us something, it works in a unique way and your players like it. Keep it to keep us happy.