Ask your Producer: August 2015

Tecton

Katsuragi said:

Things about learning!
Could we have a toggle for the old long-style lesson-learning text to come back?
Would a suggestion for making the learning of all skills as involved as learning Tekura (needing to do gradings and earning belts is ~awesome~ in my opinion) be looked upon favorably or swept under the "not necessary" rug?

I can see the RP advantages of the in-depth learning, but it's not something that's really a "fun" thing, especially for newbies (when most people do the bulk of their learning). That's not to say that you can't run with your own RP between yourself and your teacher as you progress through the skill.

Tecton

Gamden said:

So now that everyone has they little toys..are there a plans for a league or expanding on the figurine idea?

Definitely! Lots of fun little enhancements to come!

Tecton

Zuko said:

Alright! Let's see here..

Does allying others when hunting split xp more evenly, create an experience bonus, or do nothing at all? 

Bring back all the awesome Shop of Wonder items for a one month mayan crown promo! 

Any chance serverside will add in limb counting? Ideally not self-limbcounting though, that ruins the fun. 

XP: Does nothing at all.

Crowns: Unlikely!

Limb counting: That's one of the last bastions of needing client-side scripting at the moment, and something we're working on a solution for. Just a very fine balance between usefulness and trivialising limb-based combat.

Sarathai

Tecton said:

Gamden said:

So now that everyone has they little toys..are there a plans for a league or expanding on the figurine idea?

Definitely! Lots of fun little enhancements to come!

Can we have figurines with four attacks, the ability for us to decide what attack to use next, afflictions and defenses and direct attacks, progression to learn stronger attacks as the figurines level up (also can we have a level up system for figurines?), and evolutions for figurines like a Charmander Aringar figurine eventually evolving into a Charizard dragon?

Tecton

Tharvis said:

any plans to re-evaluate the need for forest defenses, or to make plantlife-destroying abilities more available to more neutral classes? (such as returning holocaust bombs their abilities to destroy plantlife, or a new survival skill as opposite to Dousing - that starts forest fires)

Would like to make the system a little less lopsided, but nothing set in stone at this time.

Tecton

Tharvis said:

Zuko said:

Does allying others when hunting split xp more evenly, create an experience bonus, or do nothing at all? 

same question for being in the same party

Nope, no modifiers for being in a party either!

Tecton

Tahquil said:

Has anyone learned every (currently) available language?
If so, list the people who currently know more languages than I do.. for uh.. deliveries of puppies...Yes, puppies.

Nobody has learned all of them, would need to write some code to audit everyone to find out who has the most, but from a quick check of the people who I know learn a lot of languages, you're on top!

Tecton

Dochitha said:

Do you Gods spar each other in Achaea too? In normal characters though, not the OP zaps. 

We're quite civil, so not really! We do like to beat the living snot out of each other when playtesting new classes and combat changes though!

Tecton

Titonus said:

Also, can I get a pair of greaves? They are already in the game, just not sold anywhere because no one has rescued Krug yet.

There's still a few sets around!

Tecton

Antonius said:

So... about that Knight Weaponmastery spec change artefact?

Also, how likely are we to ever get forums that don't suck?

WM: Something we're going back and forth on, stay tuned to the ANNOUNCE news!

Forums: They've been frustratingly flakey this week, hopefully they resolve whatever backend issues they're having so we can get a bit of stability happening. As for an outright move to a new host/new software, not sure that's on the cards at this time.

Tecton

Gamden said:

Tahquil said:

Has anyone learned every (currently) available language?
If so, list the people who currently know more languages than I do.. for uh.. deliveries of puppies...Yes, puppies.

How much would the total cost be for a char to study all languages?

No clue (especially this early in the morning), but I think someone put in the hard work and mathed it out on the old forums somewhere.

Tecton

Sarathai said:

Tecton said:

Gamden said:

So now that everyone has they little toys..are there a plans for a league or expanding on the figurine idea?

Definitely! Lots of fun little enhancements to come!

Can we have figurines with four attacks, the ability for us to decide what attack to use next, afflictions and defenses and direct attacks, progression to learn stronger attacks as the figurines level up (also can we have a level up system for figurines?), and evolutions for figurines like a Charmander Aringar figurine eventually evolving into a Charizard dragon?

Some of those things might be on the cards (actually, just Aringar/Charizard).

Sarathai

Tecton said:

Gamden said:

Tahquil said:

Has anyone learned every (currently) available language?
If so, list the people who currently know more languages than I do.. for uh.. deliveries of puppies...Yes, puppies.

How much would the total cost be for a char to study all languages?

No clue (especially this early in the morning), but I think someone put in the hard work and mathed it out on the old forums somewhere.

Here.

A quick Google search. Calculated at 4.6 billion gold, not counting Dragon. Assuming Dragon were available for learning, 20.7 billion gold.

Seifur

Gamden said:

Tahquil said:

Has anyone learned every (currently) available language?
If so, list the people who currently know more languages than I do.. for uh.. deliveries of puppies...Yes, puppies.

How much would the total cost be for a char to study all languages?

Per Lesson    Lessons Cost             Total
1,000         26      26,000           26,000
3,000         26      78,000           104,000
9,000         26      234,000          338,000
27,000        26      702,000          1,040,000
81,000        26      2,106,000        3,146,000
243,000       26      6,318,000        9,464,000
729,000       26      18,954,000       28,418,000
2,187,000     26      56,862,000       85,280,000
6,561,000     26      170,586,000      255,866,000
19,683,000    26      511,758,000      767,624,000
59,049,000    26      1,535,274,000    2,302,898,000
177,147,000   26      4,605,822,000    6,908,720,000
531,441,000   26      13,817,466,000   20,726,186,000

Bluef

Tecton said:

Morthif said:

Can we scrap mines and go back to the old system? 

Also why does Necromancy get a Piety counter but Devotion gets told to piss off when asking for a Gravehands counter?

Mines: I think that mines are working out fairly well. There's a couple of teething issues, sure, but we're actively working on getting those smoothed out.

Gravehands: Bards can do that for you!

Out of all of Achaea's active playerbase, what percentage has actually managed to level up their mining skills in some moderately useful way? I'm curious because to me it seems like only a few people are even engaged in (and profting from) this system, which has affected all of the game. I'd love to see stats to prove that perception wrong though. Thanks!

Kresslack

Tecton said:

Kresslack said:

Jousting as an arena event was released in Delos some time ago, and it was discussed that this would be available as a city arena addon. Is this something we can expect to see soon?

Yep! it's pretty much all coded, just needs a final testing pass.

Look forward to seeing it!

Bluef

For almost 3 RL years, several clans I'm a part of have made inquiries about high clan status. Each time, we've been told that the Garden is evaluating the future of High Clan status, so there's been no decision as to whether Achaea will be accepting new high clans or discontinuing them.

Real life years is a really long time for such assessment. Can you clarify what exactly is being evaluated? What factors are going into deciding whether, if ever, we're going to see applications accepted again for these non-city/faction-based player-run organizations?

Also what are the current plans, if any exist, for measuring the performance of already-created high clans in terms of actively promoting their mission? Could we ever see the fall of some high clans and the rise of new ones with similar missions, for example?

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Aegoth

Re: Learning

Some other IRE games have made it so that you can learn up to 100 lessons at a time (or more) in order to expedite the learning process and get to killing. Is there any chance that Achaea would consider implementing this change as well?

Morthif

Aegoth said:

Re: Learning

Some other IRE games have made it so that you can learn up to 100 lessons at a time (or more) in order to expedite the learning process and get to killing. Is there any chance that Achaea would consider implementing this change as well?

While I like this for the convenience of class changing don't you feel like the mysticism is gone from first time learning already? I remember getting omnitrans back in the 30cr/day conversion limit days. I think it gave more appreciation for gaining new skills. Could just be me being a haded cranky okd man.

Achimrst

I remember having to go through that huge long explaination of your skills with Tyrande? Tyrandiel? I forget her name it's been ages. I learned a lot of RP/loreish things from her!

Trevize

To throw out a random mesh of the concepts. Why not leave it as it is, but allow people to 'turn on' learning more for skills by listening once to a longer description of the skill/lore behind it.

Net gain of learning skills faster, while making it a one-time RP instance for the skill.

Anything to make learning more than 20 at a time viable.

Skye

When learning a particular skill for the first time, you'll be given the long description. Any subsequent lessons are done using the short version. Don't forget that the learning process was expedited not just for the student but for the teacher as well. It's all well and good that you wanna sit through seven delayed messages of lore, but don't forget that the teacher has to as well.

Sarieno

Rurin's been in business for a hell of a long time (his denizen number is 1). So if you had to guess, how much gold has been spent at Rurin since he opened his first shop?

Second,  what happens to gold spent at denizen shops? Does it go to a generic stockroom and rot, or just end up deleted?

Edit: Also, thank you for deleting the secondary Rurin shops in the old quarter, but now we don't have any falconry gloves in the city!

Tecton

Bluef said:

Tecton said:

Morthif said:

Can we scrap mines and go back to the old system? 

Also why does Necromancy get a Piety counter but Devotion gets told to piss off when asking for a Gravehands counter?

Mines: I think that mines are working out fairly well. There's a couple of teething issues, sure, but we're actively working on getting those smoothed out.

Gravehands: Bards can do that for you!

Out of all of Achaea's active playerbase, what percentage has actually managed to level up their mining skills in some moderately useful way? I'm curious because to me it seems like only a few people are even engaged in (and profting from) this system, which has affected all of the game. I'd love to see stats to prove that perception wrong though. Thanks!

I'll let @Sarapis field this one, as he's been more closely monitoring the system than me!

Tecton

Bluef said:

For almost 3 RL years, several clans I'm a part of have made inquiries about high clan status. Each time, we've been told that the Garden is evaluating the future of High Clan status, so there's been no decision as to whether Achaea will be accepting new high clans or discontinuing them.

Real life years is a really long time for such assessment. Can you clarify what exactly is being evaluated? What factors are going into deciding whether, if ever, we're going to see applications accepted again for these non-city/faction-based player-run organizations?

Also what are the current plans, if any exist, for measuring the performance of already-created high clans in terms of actively promoting their mission? Could we ever see the fall of some high clans and the rise of new ones with similar missions, for example?

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

We're evaluating whether to continue the program at all, and whether the orgs are actually contributing to the RP landscape of the game, making the time drain on the admin team who evaluate, monitor, and patron these organisations worth it.

Tecton

Aegoth said:

Re: Learning

Some other IRE games have made it so that you can learn up to 100 lessons at a time (or more) in order to expedite the learning process and get to killing. Is there any chance that Achaea would consider implementing this change as well?

Trevize said:

To throw out a random mesh of the concepts. Why not leave it as it is, but allow people to 'turn on' learning more for skills by listening once to a longer description of the skill/lore behind it.

Net gain of learning skills faster, while making it a one-time RP instance for the skill.

Anything to make learning more than 20 at a time viable.

We already provide this, as answered by Skye!

Skye said:

When learning a particular skill for the first time, you'll be given the long description. Any subsequent lessons are done using the short version. Don't forget that the learning process was expedited not just for the student but for the teacher as well. It's all well and good that you wanna sit through seven delayed messages of lore, but don't forget that the teacher has to as well.

Tecton

Sarieno said:

Rurin's been in business for a hell of a long time (his denizen number is 1). So if you had to guess, how much gold has been spent at Rurin since he opened his first shop?

Second,  what happens to gold spent at denizen shops? Does it go to a generic stockroom and rot, or just end up deleted?

Edit: Also, thank you for deleting the secondary Rurin shops in the old quarter, but now we don't have any falconry gloves in the city!

Rurin: He has a horrible gleam and roulette addiction, the hundreds of millions of gold he has raked in over the years has been fluttered away with very little to show for it.

Gold: It disappears.

Glove: Best bet will to be to bring that up with your city patron!

Antonius

If I wanted to bring (more) attention to a couple of bugs/ideas that seem like they were glaring oversights when certain major changes were made (Tradeskills and the Inventory display revamp, respectively), what's the best way to do that? I'm talking specifically about BUG #17114 and IDEA #1545.

Tecton

Antonius said:

If I wanted to bring (more) attention to a couple of bugs/ideas that seem like they were glaring oversights when certain major changes were made (Tradeskills and the Inventory display revamp, respectively), what's the best way to do that? I'm talking specifically about BUG #17114 and IDEA #1545.

Oh, you're trying to get your stuff done first?
*pushes to the bottom of the list* 
Nobody like a queue jumper.

Seriously, we'll get to them ASAP! Only so many hours in the day, my friend!

Sobriquet

While I understand it is not practical to move away from telnet for the connection to Achaea for gaming, are they any thoughts about using an encrypted connection for the login process? With a lot of people using campus / work / public connections to connect to both the game and the forums, it seems like a possible weakness for losing character reputation at best, entire characters at worst. While the issue with Daes being hacked brought in login failure attempts to be monitored and enforced, it would be nice to have confidence in the fact that any credentials being sent to Achaea would be encrypted.