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Sword Ferns are now Useless

AuthorMessage
Geographer
Dec 14, 2009
916
Is anyone who has invested in Sword Ferns upset about them being essentially nullified? With the new treasure card update, you can purchase any of the schools treasure blades without the hassle, time, and care of growing sword ferns. This coupled with the fact that we paid real money for these, makes it seem like loyal customers are being taken for granted. Any other thoughts on this?

Survivor
Sep 26, 2013
35
I agree. Hard to fathom KI's thought process on this one. They do drop other stuff though, but nothing worthwhile, except for the Hambrosia, and it's so rare that out of 50 plants harvested at elder, I average about 2-3 per elder harvest. They should do something to compensate us. This is just sad.

Survivor
May 21, 2011
22
I completely agree with the OP. I don't have a large number of sword ferns "thankfully", and feel bad for the people that purchased entire plots of them. I feel the money spent on them could have much better spent at this time. I was just informed a couple days ago about being able to get treasure card blades from the vendors now. The main reason I purchased them were specifically for the treasure blades. They infrequently drop one Hambrosia mega snack so that was not a big deal for me. Tell me something the Sword Ferns give that are worth the dollars spent?

Survivor
Aug 16, 2013
1
I think its very unfair of Wizard to not consider compensating people who have spent crowns which have cost them real money to purchase the seeds. I understand trying to make the game fair for everyone but you really need to consider those of us who have spent hard earned money on crowns to buy the seeds!!!!

Geographer
Dec 14, 2009
916
Caveat Emptor " Let the buyer beware"

I guess I should have paid more attention to this popular phrase KI often uses, when I bought my plot of sword ferns.

Delver
Apr 16, 2014
268
Guess I'll be removing ALL my numerous Sword Ferns now. Definitely not worth the waste of energy for the extremely low drop of Hambrosia. I used all the blades dropped from them or traded them to other wizards I knew who needed them. All Null In Void now, and a total waste of precious crowns. I had 2 pretty large plots of them. At the very least they need to up the drop rate on the Hambrosia Snack to still make them worthwhile. In the meantime I will be wasting storage space on them I presume. Seeds take up way too much space in our banks attics and bags.
But that's yet another topic ignored.

Scarlet ShadowStone Exalted

Astrologist
Dec 26, 2013
1124
I have to rock the boat and step up in defense of KI on this one. While I understand your frustration I really don't see it being as terrible as you all are making it out to be. Granted, there was an investment of Crowns involved, and I get that, but there's an inherent risk involved in purchasing quite a few of the items in the Crown shop. Just look at Card Packs for instance. If Sword Ferns were 100% guaranteed to drop a useful blade at every harvest I might feel a little differently but really there's only a 40% chance you're going to get a blade you can use.
So now, KI does something that benefits EVERYONE in the game and a few folks feel slighted and taken for granted. These seeds are items that are totally self-replenishing so your Crown expenditure is not in vain. Even though you won't always get the Mega snack you want, you will get some of them nonetheless. And you'll still get the blade TCs 40% of the time. Forever!
I'm not trying to start a fight and for that reason I won't get into any further debate about this but I think something has to be said for KIs efforts as well. Almost every change they make is going to effect some people in ways they perceive as negative... others, not so much.

Delver
Apr 16, 2014
268
Well! When I make a crown purchase, I usually have think it over and make the decisions carefully. All the extra school blades helped my six wizards as well as my close friends. I supplied them with good blades as well. When I bought my 45 sword plants I did not even know that they drop the very rare Hambrosia. It took a couple of harvest to notice I got one. If I get 2 or 3 Hambrosia at elder harvest I consider myself very lucky. Now that was an added bonus. I do not need the level 8 snacks it drops either. I have lots of magma peas, couch potatoes, and white tiger lilies. I usually have plenty of level 9 mega snacks.

My problem is since the plant been rendered useless for me is I have 2 choices. #1 Put them in precious storage space( thank goodness I am a member and have 50 extra slots, of which I did not intend to store sword plant seeds )
#2 Feed those crown shop plants to my pet. Either of these choices are unacceptable.

Now reasoning dictates that they should at the very least consider allowing those plants to drop a mega snack at elder as does magma peas and couch potatoes. Heck even seeds you can buy in the bazaar have guaranteed drops of mega snacks at elder. White Tiger Lilies come to mind.

Could a Moderator please comment on this. Just say if there is any plans to look at this problem. or if there are no plans to change anything about them. Then I can decide what I need to do with all of them.

Thank You for this wonderful game and the nice updates. Would never dream of complaining about General Content of this game. I have played many a MMO game out there and this is by far my favorite.

Scarlet ShadowStone Exalted and 5 other wizards at various levels.

Geographer
Dec 14, 2009
916
TucsonWizard on May 7, 2015 wrote:
I have to rock the boat and step up in defense of KI on this one. While I understand your frustration I really don't see it being as terrible as you all are making it out to be. Granted, there was an investment of Crowns involved, and I get that, but there's an inherent risk involved in purchasing quite a few of the items in the Crown shop. Just look at Card Packs for instance. If Sword Ferns were 100% guaranteed to drop a useful blade at every harvest I might feel a little differently but really there's only a 40% chance you're going to get a blade you can use.
So now, KI does something that benefits EVERYONE in the game and a few folks feel slighted and taken for granted. These seeds are items that are totally self-replenishing so your Crown expenditure is not in vain. Even though you won't always get the Mega snack you want, you will get some of them nonetheless. And you'll still get the blade TCs 40% of the time. Forever!
I'm not trying to start a fight and for that reason I won't get into any further debate about this but I think something has to be said for KIs efforts as well. Almost every change they make is going to effect some people in ways they perceive as negative... others, not so much.
It would not be a problem if KI had not charged everyone 1500 crowns for these, and now they are worthless. Buying the needed blades is much easier than the care it takes to grow and harvest sword ferns. KI should have made the TC available at the vendors long ago, but didn't. This was pretty much your only recourse if you wanted a steady supply of blades. Now KI has turned a deaf ear to loyal paying customers. Your opinion would have much more weight, if many of us hadn't been railroaded in this update. I don't mind anyone having access to treasure blades, but this was poorly implemented. What is even worse is they are still for sale in the crowns shop! Some unsuspecting player is going to purchase these, and waste 1500 crowns per plants, when there is a much easier, and cheaper alternative. Everyone who paid real money for these at the very least deserves a response from KI, or it just cements the point even further, that we were taken for granted.

Survivor
Sep 26, 2013
35
"Could a Moderator please comment on this. Just say if there is any plans to look at this problem. or if there are no plans to change anything about them. Then I can decide what I need to do with all of them." - Hopefullz

I agree with this 1000 percent! KI you owe us an an apology, or an explanation at the very least.

Delver
Apr 16, 2014
268
I guess not enough people are complaining in regard to this issue. What on earth am I to do with over 40 of these plants now? I can't waste energy on them anymore for a very occasional mega snack. If they simply make them like the other plants like couch potatoes and magma peas and let them drop a mega snack at elder every time then I may plant them again for the Hambrosia which is very very rare. It would be totally different if they had not made actual money from us for buying these plants for the blades they provide. It would be a simple thing to apprise us of any intentions they have OR do not have in regards to this. I do not want to be too hasty and feed them all to my pet.
but I cannot keep them around taking up space either. I have never complained about anything in the game. Glitches happen, things go wrong at times, I understand this type of thing will happen in a game like this. But to make a conscience decision to take Real Money from people and then not compensate in some way is unacceptable. I play several different games. I have not stayed with any game who take advantage of their customers in this way.

Scarlet ShadowStone Exalted

Administrator
Hello,

Thanks for all of your feedback on this issue. We are researching the possibility of adding additional rewards that can be received from the Sword Fern that will add to its value.


community@wizard101.com
Delver
Apr 16, 2014
268
Thank You So Much for the Info. I feel a lot better now about this now! Will be hanging on to the seeds then!

Scarlet ShadowStone Exalted

Geographer
Dec 14, 2009
916
hopefulz33 on May 20, 2015 wrote:
Thank You So Much for the Info. I feel a lot better now about this now! Will be hanging on to the seeds then!

Scarlet ShadowStone Exalted
...and thank you for your post, that got their attention. It was far more eloquent, and passionate than I could ever have posted. Well done.

Geographer
Dec 14, 2009
916
KI, if you are truly going to add "worth" to Sword Ferns once again, here are a few suggestions:

Spells

1) Elucidate
2) Simplify
3) Aftershock
4) A unique blade that doesn't currently drop, or can be attained anywhere except from sword ferns

Items

1) Socket wrenches
2) Jewels
3) Rare reagents

Snacks

1) Hambrosia- Increase the drop-rate to 1 per elder harvest

These are just a few possible suggestions.

Survivor
May 21, 2011
22
Professor Greyrose on May 19, 2015 wrote:
Hello,

Thanks for all of your feedback on this issue. We are researching the possibility of adding additional rewards that can be received from the Sword Fern that will add to its value.
Thank you very much! Means a great deal when KI doesn't overlook issues in the game that affect us.

Hero
Aug 18, 2011
776
Professor Greyrose on May 19, 2015 wrote:
Hello,

Thanks for all of your feedback on this issue. We are researching the possibility of adding additional rewards that can be received from the Sword Fern that will add to its value.
Fantastic news.

Suggestions:
Sharpen Blade
Dragon Blade
Balance Blade
Bladestorm

Higher rank metal reagents (Orichalcum, Mithril, Tungsten, Bronze)

New rank 8 or 9 snacks with single attributes besides power (agility and will would be great for derby, NO power, we always fill that first)

Hambrosia is still great - more of that please :D

Delver
Apr 16, 2014
268
I was told that the Blades for schools are no longer available at the TC venders. I have been really busy this last week and have not been able to check. Anyone know if this is true? If it is, I guess that was the simplest way to fix the problem.

Scarlet ShadowStone

Armiger
Jan 11, 2012
2497
hopefulz33 on May 29, 2015 wrote:
I was told that the Blades for schools are no longer available at the TC venders. I have been really busy this last week and have not been able to check. Anyone know if this is true? If it is, I guess that was the simplest way to fix the problem.

Scarlet ShadowStone
In the last major update, they moved TCs around, and added a bunch of new availability to TCs. In the Zafaria Library, as well as The Archivist in Celestia, right now (I just visited them both before posting), they have tc blades from all but balance school; balance has the triblades. Whoever told you this is spreading FWAK (False Wisdom and Knowledge)

Survivor
Jun 26, 2011
2
Yes I do agree that the Sword Ferns now should give Hambrosia at elder each and every time making the seed more valuable. It takes much longer to harvest these seeds than evil magma peas, or couch potatoes, so the reward should be good. How about replacing the blades with shadow spells that we have been longing for? And if KI really wants to compensate us players that are paying their salaries by buying crowns and memberships, how about reviewing our accounts over the past year, and giving us a one shot dungeon of our choice, for each Sword Fern seed we purchased. Honestly if you think about it, my idea costs them nothing, but a little bit of good will can go a long way. Just my 2 cents worth.

Delver
Apr 16, 2014
268
I have Faith that the Team at Wizards will come up with a good way to compensate all of us who have Spent Hard Earned Cold Cash for these Seeds. If not well will be extremely disappointed in what is a very fun game.

Scarlet ShadowStone Exalted and 5 other varies wizards that I used to use all those blades for.

Geographer
Dec 14, 2009
916
Professor Greyrose on May 19, 2015 wrote:
Hello,

Thanks for all of your feedback on this issue. We are researching the possibility of adding additional rewards that can be received from the Sword Fern that will add to its value.
So.....are we going to be told if/when you decide to fix this issue?

Geographer
Dec 14, 2009
916
"The Sword Fern now provides additional types of treasure cards, including the Dragonsblade, as a possible reward."

I was pleasantly surprised when I read the aforementioned statement in the Test Realm update notes. Factoring in KI's past record of ignoring legitimate customer complaints, I assumed we would be ignored as well. I am elated they proved me wrong. Well done.

Administrator
Thanks for your patience and understanding on the matter, Intrepidatius.


community@wizard101.com