Last night's server maintenance, for the second time in a row, cut off my final hour of playtime. I understand why they update at that time. Statistically, it's the least populated time for all their servers. Most people, I assume, play in the evening of their time zones, so that would make the major play hours between about 2pm and 9pm my time (Pacific Standard). Playing, as I do, much later than that has it's advantages and drawbacks, one of which being I get ham-stringed by server maintenance every once in a while. I had just completed the fight with the evil duck in Cool Ranch and rescued Tonka when I started getting the warnings. "No big deal," I thought. "I'll just complete the quest, get that sweet 2,000xp and new sword I was promised (Zweihander couldn't be anything other than a big smashy weapon, right? Sweet!) and then log out for the evening. Okay, go to the mausoleum and talk to the ghost . . . 10 min left now, no problem, plenty of time . . . the doors locked and we need a key, still no quest completion . . . . and we get the key from . . . . Santo Pollo!!?! Ugh, that's gonna take a good chunk of that 10 min. Well, I should be able to get there in 5 or so. Dum-de-dum . . . . .okay, 4 min left, I'm in Santo Pollo, visiting El Toro for the key, maybe this will finally complete the quest . . . . . . ack! 1 min left and he want me to shoot down Frogerales for the key. Log out."
This was an incredibly long quest chain from the moment you head to Boot Hill to . . .? well, I'm not quite sure when it ends yet, since I'm still working on it. But so far, I had to sail to boot hill, destroy 12 enemy ships, enter Boot Hill, run up to the top, fight the evil duck and his minions after getting my silver bullets blessed, he runs, I follow and fight him again on his ship and kill him this time, and then the long ride I just described. All of that and, except for the nautical xp and reg xp from battles, I have gotten zero reward yet. This was made all the more frustrating as my Bucc, who was 27, was sitting at about 200xp away from 28. If I had gotten even a fraction of that for the multiple steps along the way, I would have gained my level and felt a little better about the whole process.
The way quest xp is doled out in the game still leaves a little bit to be desired. I know that you end up getting the same amount either way, but it feels like you are wasting your time until you finally get to whatever the last step is . . . but unless you have already played through the game once, you have no idea when that last step will be. Maybe on subsequent play-throughs, this won't be such an issue for me, but for now, consider me slightly annoyed! Sorry to show such strong emotions.
On the plus side, the maintenance gave me the perfect excuse to finish editing Episode 4 of Talkin the Plank, which will release tomorrow with a very special offer. Stay tuned!
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