Ask your Producer: April 2013

Tecton

Much like our successful "Traits edition", I'm opening up this thread for the next few days as a general Q+A thread. Ask away!

Vayne

When is Hashan's factional class coming out?

Nellaundra

What's the general timeframe for classleads?  Like, when do you expect all of them to be done?

Tecton

Vayne said:

When is Hashan's factional class coming out?

We've got plans in the works to give Hashan some tools to aide in a stronger factional identity. It doesn't include a new class though, unfortunately. 

Vayne

Tecton said:

Vayne said:

When is Hashan's factional class coming out?

We've got plans in the works to give Hashan some tools to aide in a stronger factional identity. It doesn't include a new class though, unfortunately. 

Deal.

Tecton

Nellaundra said:

What's the general timeframe for classleads?  Like, when do you expect all of them to be done?

Hard to say with any certainty, as we're being very thorough with each class and tweaking them as much as they need. For some classes this is a lot, for others, not much. It is one of our top priorities at the moment though!

Kenway

Curious as to this rumored weaponry system overhaul I keep hearing about. Can you talk at all about that? What would it entail, how would it effect individual classes, when should we expect it changes?

Amunet

Do you love me enough to give me drink-mixing yet? 

More seriously, given the loosening of the time restrictions on class, and @Sarapis's thread in the Golden Dais about city novicehood, I'm a little worried about the future of Houses within Achaea. Are they on the verge of some (potentially catastrophic) change? Are they being phased out? Please say "no".

Tecton

Kenway said:

Curious as to this rumored weaponry system overhaul I keep hearing about. Can you talk at all about that? What would it entail, how would it effect individual classes, when should we expect it changes?

We don't have anything solid for this yet, we're still throwing around some ideas and seeing what sticks. As such, we don't have any "definites" on the when and how.

Blujixapug

What feature are you most proud of from your time as Achaea's lead producer?

Tecton

Amunet said:

Do you love me enough to give me drink-mixing yet? 

More seriously, given the loosening of the time restrictions on class, and @Sarapis's thread in the Golden Dais about city novicehood, I'm a little worried about the future of Houses within Achaea. Are they on the verge of some (potentially catastrophic) change? Are they being phased out? Please say "no".

No plans to phase out houses, no! What I'd (** Disclaimer: Personal opinion/pipe-dreaming **) like to see is them evolve more into their "ideals" rather than "guilds version 2.0" that we have with a lot of our houses. Due to the massive history that we have in some of our orgs, I'm not sure how viable this is in reality, but it is definitely something we're doing with Targossas. If it goes well, we may look at avenues to allow our current houses to convert / consolidate to this format if they desire.

Naisar

Heya, I've got a couple design questions I'd love to hear your thoughts on if you're willing.

Edit: My first question got ninja'd, apologies.

Second, what are your thoughts on the inherent imbalances created by tying tradeskills (Forging, Concoctions, and Transmutation) to classes?  If you're trying to make each class equally attractive, it would make sense to compensate those without a tradeskill with something else- namely, combat power.  But an intentional gap in combat prowess between classes raises its own host of issues.  Would you ever consider changing how tradeskills function in order to resolve this?

Thanks for your time.

Tecton

Blujixapug said:

What feature are you most proud of from your time as Achaea's lead producer?

I'd have to say the Blademaster class, mainly because it was a pet project of mine for a long time!

Amunet

Thank you for the response, @Tecton. You've put my mind at ease. I'm looking forward to seeing how things will progress with Targossas, too. It seems like it's being used as a sort of sandbox for the evolution of organizations within Achaea, so it's kind of fascinating to see the results.

Tecton

Naisar said:

Heya, I've got a couple design questions I'd love to hear your thoughts on if you're willing.

Edit: My first question got ninja'd, apologies.

Second, what are your thoughts on the inherent imbalances created by tying tradeskills (Forging, Concoctions, and Transmutation) to classes?  If you're trying to make each class equally attractive, it would make sense to compensate those without a tradeskill with something else- namely, combat power.  But an intentional gap in combat prowess between classes raises its own host of issues.  Would you ever consider changing how tradeskills function in order to resolve this?

Thanks for your time.

It is something that's been on my mind for a while, and moving to a system where tradeskills are no longer tied to classes is something that we'll probably do in the future.

Wilhelmina

Will there ever be a gunslinger class or a class that uses guns?

Are there plans to clean up the Blademaster naming system and make the names more faction house-relevant?

Aetolia has been working on separating mercantile skills (like Forging, Venom, Enchantment, and so on) from class skills and revamping classes affected by the change. Would you ever consider doing the same?

Naisar

Tecton said:

It is something that's been on my mind for a while, and moving to a system where tradeskills are no longer tied to classes is something that we'll probably do in the future.

Hot

Tecton

Wilhelmina said:

Will there ever be a gunslinger class or a class that uses guns?

Are there plans to clean up the Blademaster naming system and make the names more faction-relevant?

Aetolia has been working on separating mercantile skills (like Forging, Venom, Enchantment, and so on) from class skills and revamping classes affected by the change. Would you ever consider doing the same?

1) No plans for gunpowder/gunslingers, no - they're simply too anachronistic for Achaea's setting.

2) We know it can be improved, but tying it down to purely factional can be potentially limiting. For example, if we made "Angels" be strictly for Targossian blademasters, there's no chance of a Mhaldorian to ever get "Darkened Angels" or "Fallen Angels" as an amazingly cool sword name.

3) See previous reply!

Syri

How do the different types of bait affect fishing? Would a shrimp be more effective fishing in a river than a clam? Does the type of bait used make a difference between lakes and rivers?

Tecton

Syri said:

How do the different types of bait affect fishing? Would a shrimp be more effective fishing in a river than a clam? Does the type of bait used make a difference between lakes and rivers?

Only the different bait "sizes" (as per HELP FISHING) make a difference, bait of the same size is identical in effectiveness.

Rispok

Do we have to wait until Targossas has houses (and then awhile after) before the other houses get class/city mechanics fixed? Like... Merchants and Bards.

Nemutaur

Is a server side balance/equilibrium queue (like Imperian has with one action possible for balance/eq or balanceless/eqless) something that is being considered for Achaea to help those of us with worse than american pings?

Daklore

Are there any plans to give Runewardens bad-ass giant-earth-swords they can fling around? ... What? I wanna cast ragnarok from Golden Sun...

On a more serious note.... do I even have a serious note?

Are there any plans to improve goal-based pvp? Sanctioned raids give raiders something to do and a goal when raiding... but it's simply not something all raids do. Some raids are more about just getting in, camping in the city, and being pests for as long as they want. Likewise with icons, it's almost impossible to defend one once a force entrenches on the icon.

Likewise, related to group pvp type things, are there any plans to overhaul ranged combat, and look at the imbalances some classes--especially with arties--bring to the table for controlling an area? Namely monks. Almost all ranged combat, aside from telepathy(and by extension kai chokes combined with one monk using telepathy) has a way to defeat it en masse. Kai choke can be defeated by holding your breath, but a few mind crushes or a throw or a batter or two and you're forced to act and no longer defended against kai choke. On the flip side, meteors, thurisaz, and cataclysms can all be stopped by readily available environmental changes. Meteors and cataclysms by being indoors, thurisaz with water.

I'm sure other people have other curiousities in that vein, and others that will just lulz at this. And, that's about all I have, without turning into a long-winded rant that belongs in another section for people to hate.

Tecton

Rispok said:

Do we have to wait until Targossas has houses (and then awhile after) before the other houses get class/city mechanics fixed? Like... Merchants and Bards.

We don't have a linear list of "things to do", there are different people working on different things. So not necessarily for this specific example.

Tecton

Nemutaur said:

Is a server side balance/equilibrium queue (like Imperian has with one action possible for balance/eq or balanceless/eqless) something that is being considered for Achaea to help those of us with worse than american pings?

Not currently, but it is something we'll investigate when time permits.

Tecton

Daklore said:

Are there any plans to give Runewardens bad-ass giant-earth-swords they can fling around? ... What? I wanna cast ragnarok from Golden Sun...

On a more serious note.... do I even have a serious note?

Are there any plans to improve goal-based pvp? Sanctioned raids give raiders something to do and a goal when raiding... but it's simply not something all raids do. Some raids are more about just getting in, camping in the city, and being pests for as long as they want. Likewise with icons, it's almost impossible to defend one once a force entrenches on the icon.

Likewise, related to group pvp type things, are there any plans to overhaul ranged combat, and look at the imbalances some classes--especially with arties--bring to the table for controlling an area? Namely monks. Almost all ranged combat, aside from telepathy(and by extension kai chokes combined with one monk using telepathy) has a way to defeat it en masse. Kai choke can be defeated by holding your breath, but a few mind crushes or a throw or a batter or two and you're forced to act and no longer defended against kai choke. On the flip side, meteors, thurisaz, and cataclysms can all be stopped by readily available environmental changes. Meteors and cataclysms by being indoors, thurisaz with water.

I'm sure other people have other curiousities in that vein, and others that will just lulz at this. And, that's about all I have, without turning into a long-winded rant that belongs in another section for people to hate.

1) "giant-earth-swords" - Nope.

2) Goal-based PvP - always something that can be improved, but nothing definite at this stage. We did implement changes that reduce the rewards for the latter style of raiding, with the experience loss/gain changed, and empowered fonts making it easier for defending players to displace raiders that have outstayed their welcome.

3) Crush/Choke is something we'll be looking at when we're onto Monk classleads.

Sohl

Thanks for taking the time to do another Q&A!

What do the folks in the garden (including yourself) say they enjoy most about being a god?

Nemesio

While I understand the desire for non-uniformity in bashing classes, have you considered giving a second-look to the less tanky classes to evaluate their attack speeds and damages?
Specifically in mind are Shaman, Serpent and Alchemist however there are likely others.

I'm more than willing to elaborate, but I don't really have anything prepared on the matter with numbers and calculations prepared at this moment. If you took a look at it from the non-artifacted mortal perspective for each class and just sampled a hunting ground or two for a couple level ranges I'm sure you'd notice that skills which augment a bashing attack don't really come into play if you can't survive to use them.

Penwize

Are you planning to give endgame some love beyond just dragon yet?

Eld

Nemesio said:

While I understand the desire for non-uniformity in bashing classes, have you considered giving a second-look to the less tanky classes to evaluate their attack speeds and damages?
Specifically in mind are Shaman, Serpent and Alchemist however there are likely others.

I'm more than willing to elaborate, but I don't really have anything prepared on the matter with numbers and calculations prepared at this moment. If you took a look at it from the non-artifacted mortal perspective for each class and just sampled a hunting ground or two for a couple level ranges I'm sure you'd notice that skills which augment a bashing attack don't really come into play if you can't survive to use them.

Wait, Shaman and Serpent are untanky? Is this something that comes in some time after level 80?

Sena

Serpent isn't untanky, scales are great. Alchemist isn't untanky either, robes are also great, and they have sip/potash bonuses (although having your sip bonuses constantly fading is very annoying).

If you're comparing shaman with runes to another class with runes, shaman is untanky, but being able to sketch your own runes and have them last 12/24 hours is really nice. Shaman also has one of the highest damage outputs of any class, which more than makes up for a lack of non-rune defence.