Ask Your Producer: Valentine's Day 2015

Florentino

Have you thought about the phenomenon of artefact/level power creep at all, in the sense that as time goes on, the top people in Achaea will have progressively more arties, etc. and newbies will still start out from the same low tier? What will you do to address that, if anything?

Kinilan

Ponytails on men. Why?

Aalm

@Tecton : Can we alter/add to Puppetry to have/vaguely resemble sock puppets, and/or you get to sew a patch onto the heel of varying colors, and the patch has effect on the target depending on the color of the patch?

Sock puppet slaughter. Only in Achaea.

C'mon, @Tecton . You know you wanna.

Herenicus

I would like to know your thoughts on continuing to use XP loss as a means of enforcing realistic choices and consequences. Some would point out that because dragons lose so little in death relative to others, it feels as if realism and consequences are only for levels 98 and below. Is there any chance we could make XP loss affect everyone or no one, equally? 

Sartan

I received the following note for burning questions:

Hi Producer, 
I have a burning question: if a god wanted to, let's say--take over a continent. When could that get pushed through? 
Thanks,
Anonymous God.

Morthif

Fervour Rites. When the change went in you waffled a bit about letting non dual cutting specs have access to it. It got classlead'd and approved but not implemented. Is there any more information on this? I know SnB can be overpowering but to give someone 3 rites worth of eq balance head start isn't always easy to overcome. Can I have my awesome ability back please?

Valaria

Well i have a burning question that i have missed an opportunity to ask during past 'ask your producer' session... Will there be other kinds beside the greater dragons to play with? surely, there are some beings of great height -figuratively - out there envy of greater dragons' dominion. Just a food for a thought.

Makarios

Fervour should be working properly. Feel free to bug any specific abilities its not interacting with.

Kinilan

Makarios said:

Fervour should be working properly. Feel free to bug any specific abilities its not interacting with.

YOU'RE NOT MY REAL PRODUCER!

Kyttin

1: If you could meet up with one character from Achaea, -someone you haven't met up with already- who would it be and why?
2: Chocolate covered Strawberries or raw oysters?
3: If you could shrub one person forever, who would it be and why?
4: Boxers or briefs?

Santar

Kyttin said:

1: If you could meet up with one character from Achaea, -someone you haven't met up with already- who would it be and why?
2: Chocolate covered Strawberries or raw oysters?
3: If you could shrub one person forever, who would it be and why?

It's obviously me for both #1 and #3.

Hong

I might be returning after being gone for a while and if I do then I'll want to get more involved in combat. I'm a Druid though and there are changes on the horizon. While you've already said that nothing's set in stone as far as the change with giving up concoctions, will metamorphosis and the animals associated powers as well as groves stay at least mostly the the same?

Short version: If I start to work out strats and practice them with where Druid is now, is it going to be a waste of time? (Though honestly getting in general practice and familiarity would be good for me anyway).

Skye

Tecton said:

4) I have a little alert when people log in for the first time in a long time - I really love seeing it pop up saying "Oldbie has just logged in for the first time in 2500 days."

This explains so much >_> *paranoia*

My question: What are the chances of shifting crafting design reviews from admin to a self-managed UUC-based peer review? Still with admin oversight of course, but more on an overall basis rather than having to individually approve/reject submissions.

I actually had a big ass thing written out about it, but realise this is a Q&A not a personal essay submission topic >_>

Jurixe

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

1. So um...housing/furniture/housing servants...when do you think they'll next be looked at and will said revamp be substantial? I think that housing really has the potential to be an extremely large gold and credit sink, as well as being very conducive to roleplay and strongly support an overhaul to make it better.

2. When will the next auction be and will there be out of subdivision plots sold?

3. What's the most romantic thing you've ever done for your wife?

Samanthya

Could you give us an idea of what direction you're planning to go with the new sentinel skillset? 

[Deleted User]

In addition to @Jurixe's questions:

Will such a housing revamp include a more conducive way to navigate the subdivision? Or at least, to get to our houses. We can't all afford out of sub housing

Tecton

Florentino said:

Have you thought about the phenomenon of artefact/level power creep at all, in the sense that as time goes on, the top people in Achaea will have progressively more arties, etc. and newbies will still start out from the same low tier? What will you do to address that, if anything?

Oh, it's definitely something that has an impact. I wouldn't necessarily consider it a massive hurdle though, as the way the game is structured, you're going to work your way up to the top tier. It's not like anyone has the realistic expectation to jump in to the upper-echelons within the first few days of playing.

With all of our recent changes, as well as all changes in the future, there will always be a skill factor that comes into play more than the number of artefacts you have. Looking at classes such as, say, Alchemist, or Magi with Artificing, using your skills to their maximum, situational awareness, and capitalising on the minute nuances will give you greater advantage than artefacts will.

Tecton

Kinilan said:

Ponytails on men. Why?

Beats having hair in your face?

Tecton

Aalm said:

@Tecton : Can we alter/add to Puppetry to have/vaguely resemble sock puppets, and/or you get to sew a patch onto the heel of varying colors, and the patch has effect on the target depending on the color of the patch?

Sock puppet slaughter. Only in Achaea.

C'mon, @Tecton . You know you wanna.

Little Big Planet was widely successful, I can't see how adding it into Achaea could be anything less than a sure-fire way to ensure the next 17+ years!

Tecton

Herenicus said:

I would like to know your thoughts on continuing to use XP loss as a means of enforcing realistic choices and consequences. Some would point out that because dragons lose so little in death relative to others, it feels as if realism and consequences are only for levels 98 and below. Is there any chance we could make XP loss affect everyone or no one, equally? 

I'm ok with XP loss being a real consequence, I think people get into the mindset that "I need to be max level to play the game" from the rest of the MMO industry, but we offer pretty much all of our content long before then. The capping does work oddly in reality, but we haven't found a really good solution that doesn't overly punish the higher levels at this time - definitely something that I'd like to find a more consistent solution for in the future.

Tecton

Valaria said:

Well i have a burning question that i have missed an opportunity to ask during past 'ask your producer' session... Will there be other kinds beside the greater dragons to play with? surely, there are some beings of great height -figuratively - out there envy of greater dragons' dominion. Just a food for a thought.

Nothing on the books at this stage, I'm afraid!

Tecton

Kyttin said:

1: If you could meet up with one character from Achaea, -someone you haven't met up with already- who would it be and why?
2: Chocolate covered Strawberries or raw oysters?
3: If you could shrub one person forever, who would it be and why?
4: Boxers or briefs?

1) Hmm! Tough one - probably Kaelin or Khoraji, both really cool guys from when I was a player.
2) That's an easy one, strawberries.
3) Cooper, hands down  
4) Boxers

Tecton

Hong said:

I might be returning after being gone for a while and if I do then I'll want to get more involved in combat. I'm a Druid though and there are changes on the horizon. While you've already said that nothing's set in stone as far as the change with giving up concoctions, will metamorphosis and the animals associated powers as well as groves stay at least mostly the the same?

Short version: If I start to work out strats and practice them with where Druid is now, is it going to be a waste of time? (Though honestly getting in general practice and familiarity would be good for me anyway).

I don't think it'd be a waste by any means, no! Even if some strategies do change, the experience and familiarity with combat and the rest of your skills is invaluable.

Cooper

Yeah well, if I could shrub one admin it would be Tecton. Ha.

Tecton

Skye said:

Tecton said:

4) I have a little alert when people log in for the first time in a long time - I really love seeing it pop up saying "Oldbie has just logged in for the first time in 2500 days."

This explains so much >_> *paranoia*

My question: What are the chances of shifting crafting design reviews from admin to a self-managed UUC-based peer review? Still with admin oversight of course, but more on an overall basis rather than having to individually approve/reject submissions.

I actually had a big ass thing written out about it, but realise this is a Q&A not a personal essay submission topic >_>

No plans to change it to peer-review, no. I can definitely see the perceived advantages to it, from lessened admin workload, through to more expedient approvals, but it also carries a long list of detractors that stem from the interpersonal nature of it (I don't think that we have a large enough playerbase that we'd be in a situation where an approver would be truly unswayed by the person submitting the design). I imagine we'd probably have about the same amount of admin time spent solving conflicts, re-reviewing designs etc. that we do now just handling the designs currently.

I should add that crafting approvals don't necessarily eat into any In-Character interactions, all of our approvers know that that they're a lower priority than RP/Events - they willingly take on those duties above and beyond everything else.

Tecton

Jurixe said:

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

1. So um...housing/furniture/housing servants...when do you think they'll next be looked at and will said revamp be substantial? I think that housing really has the potential to be an extremely large gold and credit sink, as well as being very conducive to roleplay and strongly support an overhaul to make it better.

2. When will the next auction be and will there be out of subdivision plots sold?

3. What's the most romantic thing you've ever done for your wife?

1) Nothing set in stone, at least on the level of, say, ships. If you've got things you'd like to see expanded, feel free to drop me an email, or even better, start a forum thread and get some collaboration going! If it's something we can fit in between projects or when we have a just a "free day" that the coders can devote to a project, we'll definitely keep it in mind.

2) Soon(tm)

3) I'll let my wife answer this one: (taken from her facebook on our wedding anniversary a couple of years ago)
 

Valaria

I think your idea is subtly rejected, Lord @Sartan or that Anonymous God's request.  

Tecton

Samanthya said:

Could you give us an idea of what direction you're planning to go with the new sentinel skillset? 

A fewer passive, but a lot more active abilities, as well as fixing some some age-old problems that have been prominent in the class from day 1!

Valnurana

Tecton said:

Aktillum said:

Tecton said:

Aktillum said:

Which would you rather play?

A- A huge (total overhaul) mod for Skyrim based on Achaea, with all the cities re-created, lots of sidequests for Houses, etc

B- An Achaea-themed MOBA (like LoL or DoTA) set in Achaea's arenas, with various legendary players as champions (Tanris, Rangor, Carmain, etc)

C- Monopoly Achaea. Go Directly to Tenwat. Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect 2000 Sovereigns.

D- Something else entirely, but related to the theme here. Plz describe if D.

Definitely A, Valnurana and I played around with the Skyrim Creation Kit a while back and re-made Azdun in it, was a lot of fun!

You uh, wouldn't happen to be willing to put that up for download, would you?

I'll take a look and see if we still have it!

I think the Azdun mockup was actually on the Oblivion construction set, which I had picked back up briefly for a few weeks before Skyrim was released. There wasn't much to it other than a series of tunnels, though, and that was abandoned once Skyrim was out. We did play around with CK for Skyrim quite a bit, but no actual mods to show for it! Sorry!

Tecton

Szareine said:

In addition to @Jurixe's questions:

Will such a housing revamp include a more conducive way to navigate the subdivision? Or at least, to get to our houses. We can't all afford out of sub housing

I was actually pondering the other day the feasibility of supporting landmarks in a subdivision - would require a fair bit of work, but I think it'd be nice.