I liked the original changes, though I agree with the general consensus that they were badly rolled out, and it seems that NQ did not fully think though their consequences (eg on the ore price, and the knock-on effects for new players).
What frustrates me now is that I got fully on board the new direction, and sunk pretty much all of my money into buying up stock of some scarce elements. Not, I should note, schematics (I bought some of them too), but actual stock.
I was playing the market and thought I was doing the thing NQ wanted us to do. The changes caused a big spike in prices, and it would have taken a while for production to ramp up on various complicated items, so I bought up some of them whilst my competitors were still snoozing.
This was a gamble, of course, but probably a valid long term strategy given everything that NQ (and particularly JC) had stated in the discussion surrounding 0.23.
Now I find myself with a lot of stock where the prices are probably about to plummet. Not because the market has recovered, or for any other in-game reason, but because the goal posts have been arbitrarily moved again.
I cannot see that I am going to be compensated in any way for this. I might get a bit of cash back for a few schematics, but that's a drop in the ocean compared to the stock I hold.
I'd also like to point out that I also re-sold some schematics on the market, and bought and shipped some schematics for other people. In both cases the people who ultimately ended up with them are unlikely to see the compensation.
I can live with all of this. It's frustrating, but the game is in beta and I'm fine with anything that happens which ultimately leads to a better game.
I do think though that NQ need to take a long hard look at how deeply they are thinking through the consequences of their changes. Improved testing via a public server will help, but with most of what's gone wrong in 0.23 feels to me to have been quite easy to have predicted.
The fact that it wasn't is quite concerning.
Similarly, the knock on effects of what feels like a bit of a knee-jerk backtracking now also don't seem to have been thought through.
I'd like to see some clearer thinking, better communication, and some better change management.
For example, the schematic prices could have been introduced slowly, with the figure being reduced a bit each day. The schematic changes that 0.23 introduced could have been brought in for T5 items only at first, then slowly rolled backwards down the tiers. The talent point reset should have been thought about before 0.23, could have been made optional, and could have been applied only to the affected talents.
And so on...