Ask Your Producers - With Makarios, Nicola, and Tecton! (PT 2)

Nicola

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Paine has joined the Train."
Paine Saer'rac, a Sapien' racer says, "Ahem, Congratulations on your new positions and good luck at the reins. Achaea is in peak form right now in so many ways in terms of mechanics, infrastructure, fundamentals and so much more, in my opinion it is better than it ever has been. That does not mean things are perfect, do not get me wrong, but these are exciting times. Anyway, I do not get around as much as I used to but I still try to vote every day to try to bring some new blood in here. Now that the renaissance is over and all the cities have novice tasks and the newbie areas have new quests, what are your opinions on the introductory parts of achaea? Pretty much finished, needs tweaking, or needs a lot more work? If things need more work, how much is that responsibility on players to pick up slack in their respective organizations? Retirement system has brought in a lot of "old souls" but we need true newbies to stick around and keep this place going for years to come."

Nicola says, "That was so many questions."

Paine Saer'rac, a Sapien' racer says, "Summary - opinion of novice system - done, tweak, or more work?"

Nicola says, "There's more to come in terms of the questline that the newbies currently finish in the Great Rock, but we'll keep that firmly under our hat for now."

Tecton the Terraformer says, "Newbie retention is always very high on our priority, so we'll always be making tweaks and improvements to things in that arena."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Aesgar is up."
Aesgar says in a sonorous voice, "This may just be my personal opinion, and I haven't played around with the new hunting updates too much - but figured I would ask. Before and likely now, going for constitution is often the best choice if you're looking to do a lot of hunting. Especially since battlerage was implemented, longer denizen fights make constitution is especially important. Strength and intelligence make a negligible difference for most classes in PvE. So if you're trying to be a combatant and hunt in your free time, your combat suffers from speccing out constitution over strength and intelligence. Any plans to adjust how stats that are closely related to a class' PvP affect PvE damage?"

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "We'd definitely like to do more bashing damage tuning - the influence of core stats is definitely something we can look at."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "With that, Taraus is up."
Taraus says with a throaty, lyrical accent, "What are the odds we'll ever see roles like 'mortal builders' reintroduced? That is, people who have the opportunity to add content and/or design for the game (anonymously) without giving up their actual characters?"

Nicola says, "It might happen, when we have the time and hands for appropriate oversight."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Kayeil is up."
Kayeil says in a silvery, elegant voice, "Any chance shopkeeping is going to be looked at? From what I've seen in other IRE games, their stock space has either no limit or much higher limits than we do. It might encourage people to own/rent fewer shops in an area, thus opening up more oppurtunities for others. For those who are active shopkeepers who want to stock useful and desirable items, it's hard to work within the limits now. Even the oppurtunity to buy more space would be amazing."

Nicola says, "As far as I know shopkeeping is not on our list to look at anytime soon, with the advent of tuns the big pressures on stocking in shops have been largely alleviated."

Nicola says, "Smaller stockrooms mean more opportunity for a variety of shops."

Nicola says, "Instead of one person with a great deal of time on their hands monopolising the economy."

Nicola says, "Back on shops quickly, the changes in how shop taxes are paid are shaking up the ownership system, just takes a bit to filter through."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "I'm going to slip in here, because I have my own question. When are we getting either the ability, or an artefact to let us recall all of our toys at once? It certainly doesn't have to include mounts, but other artefacts would be nice. Especially for classes that use throwables since they don't return."

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "Artefact recall is something we discuss occasionally - we might do it, that's something we haven't made a definitive decision on either way as of the moment. It is in the ideas system though, so its on record."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Cool, Rino's next!"
Scaredy Cat Rino, Slayer of Vermin says, ""Do you think we could implement a system where each family is given a certain family only ability to make bloodlining more unique and useful?"

Nicola says, "It's unlikely, but you are welcome to IDEA it."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "That brings us to Shirszae."
Shirszae says with a faded Kamleikanese accent, "Is there any chance we'll ever get something like different stat-packs divorced from race so that people can, for example, choose the stat that fits the class they want to play, without feeling shoehorned into a race? I know the problem is not as bad as it was before, but still."

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "The racial specialisation system is basically meant to fulfill that exact role. If a race in particular is underrepresented in some way on the stat distribution, that's something we'd be happy to review in a classlead cycle. Or out potentially, depending on how wide spread the issue is."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Dari has a question for you lot now."
Dari says, "Can we have a teaser of something to expect in the relatively near future?"

Nicola smiles impishly and says, "I know for a fact that a Question and Answers session with myself, Makarios, and Tecton will end. All will be sad."

Nicola says, "And the seafaring overhaul will maybe be completed."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "And with that amazing teaser, Morthif's up to bat."
Forestwalker Morthif Aristata says, "Tesha asked my question so I will ask another. Makarios can you give lessons on how to be awesome at fighting while blind?"

Makarios sucks thoughtfully on His teeth.

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "Sure."

Morthif is drawn screaming into the Pit of Golgotha.

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Aegoth is next."
Aegoth Aristata says, "Uhh.. basically what Shirszae said, but I do feel that, due to stat distribution, there are -ideal- races for each class, still, which take away from the purpose of current stat packs. For example: magi class should be siren or grook to fully capitalise on maximizing int and con. If that isnt something to be looked at, would you perhaps consider an illusionary skill that lets us craft a visual illusion of race? Lusternia has something like this, I think, and it adds flavour: you can "act" whatever race you want while having the stat advantages of another race."

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "That seems like a pretty convoluted solution to a mechanical stat issue. I think we'd rather just fix the root problem if there is one."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Vix is up."
Vix says in a soft, smoky voice, "Thanks for taking the time for this. Are there any plans to expand the rankings systems to include other competitive pursuits, such as jousting or chess?"

Nicola says, "Those sound like good IDEAs to me."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Douz is next."
Douz says in a melodious, rumbly basso voice, "How active does a Divine need to be, to be considered 'active'? Is it sufficient that there's someone in the role who pops in every two or three //months, or are you looking for more from your Divines?"

Nicola says, "We prefer more active than that, but we understand that being a God is largely a volunteer thing, and people have lives."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Skye's up."
Skye says with a muddled Thalassian accent, "This new collections feature is gonna be the living nightmare of every OCD completionist. I have a question about the Adryn collection. As far as I know, the regular 'city' figurines didn't garner much interest but I think more of us actually bought the Taraus figurine directly, cause she's hot. Since the figurines have no tradein value (that I know of), those of us who already have the Tart figurine are just going to wind up with a duplicate for completing the Adryn collection. Is it possible to have an alternative reward for those who already have her?"

Nicola says, "Two Taraus' is not reward enough, that's twice the hotness surely?"

Nicola smiles and says, "We'll discuss it."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Zimona's up!"
Zimona says in a mesmerising alto voice, "With the release of the new collection system, will some of the earlier mini-pets, released long before I joined the game, be re-released at some point?"

Nicola says, "Maybe!"

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Jhin's up."
Jhin says in a deep, smooth voice, "Two questions! Why do you have to be level 50 and higher to use POSES? And is there any plans to make poker more available outside of New Thera? Maybe as an artifact like the dice?"

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "The poses are level gated because we had some new players getting confused due to experiences with the pose command working differently in a lot of stock mud codebases. As for poker, maybe in the future, but not any time soon. There are some issues that would need to be addressed first to make it viable."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Naeth is up."
Naeth says in a mildly sibilant voice, "I know that similar questions have been asked, but what are you plans for expanding tradeskills in the near future? People are quite interested in this as this allows them opportunities to perform tasks befitting roleplay and make gold in ways other than killing denizens. Some ideas for expansion are quite obvious such as allowing us to make things that are currently only available from denizens. It is rather jarring though when adventurers learn that they cannot do creative tasks that denizens can. It breaks immersion. I do understand the concerns for economy, but a standard money-sink is the easy way out."

Nicola says, "Hercules and his great labour to create a wooden bowl wasn't much of a story. But as said before we have ideas for tradeskills, just none in a place we are happy with at the moment."

Nicola says, "In regards to them being an easy gold sink, while many are, the truly creative ones require administrative oversight, which requires spare hands and free time."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Aesgar's up."
Aesgar says in a sonorous voice, "It seems there were some unannounced changes to sketching runes on players recently. What I mean more specifically is I can sketch a jera, berkana, and algiz on someone who already has them. Was this intentional? If so, why?"

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "That's not intended, no. Its likely a byproduct of the ability to sketch multiple ground runes. They won't stack, so doing so functionally serves no purpose. We'll get that fixed up."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "Which brings us to Bronislav."
Bronislav says in a dark, forceful voice, "Every once in a while, applications are accepted for Celani. On one hand, the notion of maybe eventually being a Divine can be a powerful lure, as does maybe leaving a mark on a world that some of us have spent years trying to leave a lasting legacy within. On the other hand, doing so would mean leaving behind everything: relationships and friendships, serious obligations, personal ambitions. It means a sacrifice of...Well, everything up to that point as a player. Plus a lot of work put into things, in training and creating and all of that fun stuff. Obviously, people take the plunge and there are Divine spots that are open - and the current system in place is put there because we don't want Divine running off after a taste of a higher power. What would you say to people who are on the fence, or in general, in this regard? Sometimes it feels like this kind of thing is so cloak and dagger, is all."

Nicola says, "I would say that the decision to become a Celani and onto God is one that should be made with the understanding that Celani and Gods don't play Achaea anymore, they volunteer to help run Achaea,."

Nicola says, "It's not an extension of your character, or a chance to achieve bigger things."

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "Personally, I'd say if you want to be a celani, you'll probably talk yourself into it. If you're still on the fence when it comes time to put an application in its probably best to give it a bit more time to think over."

Nicola says to Bronislav, "Although it is a lot of fun."

Patroklos, Puia Kaitiesa's breath scorches the air as he says, "With a handful of people bowing out of the queue. Aesgar once again!"
Aesgar says in a sonorous voice, "Some of the other IRE muds offer ways to skip the tutorial and get right to the game. Any plans to implement such a system for Achaea that would jump right to the end part about the pygmies? Maybe even with a function to return to the tutorial before level 21 if you so desire."

Tecton the Terraformer says, "With upcoming changes, the intro plays a key role in an overarching storyline that will stick with the player, so no plans to opt out of it."

Aesgar says in a sonorous voice, "Even for us who already know the storyline?"

Tecton the Terraformer says, "The linear part is very quick these days, an experienced person can knock it out in under 5 minutes."

Tecton the Terraformer says, "And then you're out in the open world."

To Be Continued...