Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: What would you do?
Hmm, well, first I would never knowingly put myself in that position. Auctioning off stuff like that for outrageously high prices brings nothing but trouble and ill-will, even if everything goes well, so I wouldn't do it. I've never charged more than 75k for a pet and probably never will. I just can't justify it based on expenses and effort relative to other things in the economy of this game. But let's say one of thepets I sold was CL 35 and after some post-patch-nerf or whatever it got adjusted to CL 38 or something like that, and it was higher than the CH could control and thus useless to them. That's a perfectly reasonable scenario. What I'd probably offer to do in that case is get them a new CL 35 pet at a big discount (half price or less). That would probably be a reasonable way to handle that situation.
Why should anyone "hotfix" such a pet? So many months after release I assume the game is working as intended. 
Sooo... sarcasm aside... any pet that looks much better than a pre-nerf rock beetle probably will be nerfed sooner or later. If you buy such a pet you do it at your own risk and you deserve to loose your money.
The BE who crafted it shouldn't refund any money... but he probably should be banned for a couple of days for using an exploit.
Orew wrote:
Sooo... sarcasm aside... any pet that looks much better than a pre-nerf rock beetle probably will be nerfed sooner or later. If you buy such a pet you do it at your own risk and you deserve to loose your money.
This is a good point - and one I failed to consider in my "moral issue" posed here.
And, if a person is savvy enough to read the auction boards, he/she is probably reading the server forums and maybe a few profession boards as well. So, maybe it should be buyer beware.
So, perhaps it's not this 2.25M beauty, but one yousell outside the starport in Coronet to someone for their entire life savings of 15K. They don't read message boards, and all they know is they got a cool pet that can tank for them, helping them solo. They just started playing last week, and didn't know about the CH changes.
Do you refund their money when they can't call the new pet?
Ri'a
3/1
I probably wouldn't sell one to begin with... but more than likely the person buying knows the risk already and I would probably warn them so as well.
My thoughts exactly, they generally don't change the old ones, they just make new ones impossible.
Not to menion, if they fix this, the chance of them borking other things is probably pretty high for us, considering how fragile our class seems to be.
I think Caveat Emptor applies as much in games as it does in "real life" and If I didn't beak it, I won't fix it/pay for it, it's up to the people that did break it to fix it/pay for it.
Of course, your assuming it is a bug/exploit, and you know what they say about assuming things...
Sell it with the warning that the sale is final and nothing in the game is set in stone. The pet could get nerfed next week, or not.
The armor I am wearing could get nerfed, or a better suit could could come out (due to better available resources) the next day. I once paid 25:1 for some colat iron when colat had not spawned on my server for 3 months. I then took the colat and traded it to an armorsmith in exchange for some pretty good armor. Three days after that deal was done, and I had my armor in hand, some colat spawned. It was nearly as good as the colat I paid 25:1 for, and was selling at 4:1 the day it spawned. Did I pitch a fit at the guy who sold me the iron, or the smith who made it into a suit?
No.
I dropped 4 heavies on the new colat iron.
I think that most people who play this game, regardless of whether or not they read the forums, are very much aware that just about anything is subject to change.
Now, a related question for those who like to apply RL morals and/or ethics to games:
Would you experiment on animals?
How about killing them just for the hell of it?
Sell drugs?
Illegally modify weapons?
Kill other people for the cash in their pocket?
Kill other people to get in good with the enemies of those people?
I guess the point that I am making is that, IRL, I would not be a bio-engineer. I don't kill anything living except by necessity. I have a friend who is an exterminator who goes nuts when I say "well, he don't eat much" when referring to the mouse that lives under my dishwasher. I do eat meat, and have on occaision hunted, but I am not wasteful with any food because I hold life sacred. I recognize that humans are omnivorous, but if I am not planning on eating it, I do not kill something, nor do I have it killed on my behalf. I do not do or sell drugs, I do not illegally modify weapons, and I do not get into fights except in my own self defense.
But this is a GAME, people. It is an escape. I enjoy pretending that I am killing other people because it is a test of skill without any real harm done. I get the same thrill from winning a game of chess (or lack of thrill if I am facing a particularly inept opponent). This does not make me any more imoral than if my character made a lot of cash from selling creatures that may or may not be nerfed in the future, but I kinda have to wonder about the thought process of people that think the latter is worse than the first.
Anubi wrote:
Now, a related question for those who like to apply RL morals and/or ethics to games:
Would you experiment on animals?
How about killing them just for the hell of it?
Sell drugs?
Illegally modify weapons?
Kill other people for the cash in their pocket?
Kill other people to get in good with the enemies of those people?
I guess the point that I am making is that, IRL, I would not be a bio-engineer. I don't kill anything living except by necessity. I have a friend who is an exterminator who goes nuts when I say "well, he don't eat much" when referring to the mouse that lives under my dishwasher. I do eat meat, and have on occaision hunted, but I am not wasteful with any food because I hold life sacred. I recognize that humans are omnivorous, but if I am not planning on eating it, I do not kill something, nor do I have it killed on my behalf. I do not do or sell drugs, I do not illegally modify weapons, and I do not get into fights except in my own self defense.
But this is a GAME, people. It is an escape. I enjoy pretending that I am killing other people because it is a test of skill without any real harm done. I get the same thrill from winning a game of chess (or lack of thrill if I am facing a particularly inept opponent). This does not make me any more imoral than if my character made a lot of cash from selling creatures that may or may not be nerfed in the future, but I kinda have to wonder about the thought process of people that think the latter is worse than the first.
Well, there is a difference here.. or at least I meant there to be. I am applying RL morals in my dealings with other player characters, not NPC's. I will not justify stealing from someone "just because it's a game." I am honest and upfront in all business dealings. If a player buys something from me and it disappears due to a bug, I replace it free of charge. I also have my own personal ethics when I play. I won't take advantage of exploits in any way shape or form, whether it be bugged missions, duping credits, or whatever.
Now on some of your other questions. Irarely kill NPC humanoids because I don't like it. It makes me uncomfortable. I don't PvP but I know I'm in the minority in that regard. A friend once asked me to kill him so he could get a free trip back to the cloning center and I wouldn't do it. Even though it is "just a game."/shrug
Now back to the subject of this thread.. I think my whole premise is flawed. As someone else pointed out, people have millions to burn.. and they know these pets are bugged. They don't care. They are hoping that the dev's leave the existing pets alone when the fixes go in, and are willing to bet millions on the outcome. So, if any come back and complain when the pets are nerfed, I'd say a fair response is #1. As long as they were warned up front.
It's all speculation anyhow.. hopefully we will get some answers next week. Until then, I'm just gonna keep making my mid-level clones that aren't as good as the level 10's other people are making. /sigh
Ri'a