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Ask Your Producers: September 2016

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  • NicolaNicola
    @Szanthax so far this year my favourite things have been the Soulfire Crucible and the Gods' Moot. Next year has the propensity for lots of awesome and I'd hate to spoil any of the surprises.
  • SarathaiSarathai
    A couple of classleads ago, an Innersight change (adding an extra point to the percentage it shows) was denied because it has code issues and wouldn't show that much extra accuracy (because the system starts to break past a certain point and has some hacks to keep it from occurring).

    What sort of hacks are we talking about, exactly? One of the reasons I didn't try classleading it was because I remembered the previous rejection, but I'd like more info if you guys can provide it.
    - (Eleusis): Ellodin says, "The Fissure of Echoes is Sarathai's happy place."
    - With sharp, crackling tones, Kyrra tells you, "The ladies must love you immensely."
    - (Eleusian Ranger Techs): Savira says, "Most of the hard stuff seem to have this built in code like: If adventurer_hitting_me = "Sarathai" then send("terminate and selfdestruct")."
    - Makarios says, "Serve well and perish."
    - Xaden says, "Xaden confirmed scrub 2017."



  • DatriusDatrius
    Are there any plans for the Crooks? We're getting flooded with the things and not much to do with em since people get pissed at getting turned.
  • MakariosMakarios
    Vessil said:
    As a transplant from Imperian, it seems like a lot of information in Achaea is hidden or vague. Examples:

    • The only information you can find on your bashing damage is in mobhealth %, which is extremely low precision to try and make comparisons(how much damage does +1 STR give me vs +1 INT while bashing as Bard).
    • XP gain becomes a little more precise when you get Innersight, but that's still pretty limited information for comparing bashing areas, considering you hit massive xp requirements at higher levels.
    • Even if you see base bal/eq/class balance costs in AB's, finding out the actual bal/eq used, or the amount that is stolen from something like a mob hitting you with a bal-removing skill is limited to calculating that information based on when you see prompts and GMCP info changing, which is prone to fluctuations due to latency.
    • Info on damage taken is also rather limited. You have to make assumptions as to damage type based on the message of the skill that you were hit with. You also don't get the damage from a combo broken down by parts.
    • Resists have to be determined by parsing defences and armour, which is based on having an understanding of how much certain defences impact things(which is data you'll have to do testing to determine, or you'll have to find from someone that has done the testing for you).
    • Outside of the Wiki and using GMCP, you can't find detailed AB's on skills from classes you're not currently in.

    The age of Achaea and the presence of things like other-class AB availability, config damageinfo on, RESISTS, etc in other, smaller, younger IRE games suggests to me that this is intentional(possibly as a way to keep Achaea different, but I don't know that being different for the sake of difference is always worth it). Is that true, or have people just never gotten IDEA's through to get these things changed?

    If these things are open to change, I will absolutely get some IDEAs put in to do so.

    A lot of this is by design.

    I couldn't give you any one defining reason why, other than we find that the more we break things down into numbers, the less engaging the game is. We do sometimes expose certain things, but for as convenient as many people from the other games find certain features we intentionally do not have, I'm still convinced that not having the numbers "in your face" so to speak is the superior approach.

  • NicolaNicola
    @Datrius I am told that the crooks have a hidden benefit!
  • MakariosMakarios
    Sarathai said:
    A couple of classleads ago, an Innersight change (adding an extra point to the percentage it shows) was denied because it has code issues and wouldn't show that much extra accuracy (because the system starts to break past a certain point and has some hacks to keep it from occurring).

    What sort of hacks are we talking about, exactly? One of the reasons I didn't try classleading it was because I remembered the previous rejection, but I'd like more info if you guys can provide it.

    Due to legacy decisions with how our xp values work, passed a certain threshold we start having to scale down values arbritrarily to avoid overflow. The innersight thing is more a concern of future maintainability/scalability--I'm fairly positive we've not seen the last of horrific xp truncations to avoid some poor level 150 aspirant from suddenly finding themselves back at level 1 (yes, this has happened).

  • ArmaliArmali
    This is probably similar to what happens in Aetolia and Lusternia, where your experience gained (and exp needed to level) is divided by one thousand once you hit endgame. I imagine this is similar to what's going on here.
  • SarathaiSarathai
    Makarios said:
    Sarathai said:
    A couple of classleads ago, an Innersight change (adding an extra point to the percentage it shows) was denied because it has code issues and wouldn't show that much extra accuracy (because the system starts to break past a certain point and has some hacks to keep it from occurring).

    What sort of hacks are we talking about, exactly? One of the reasons I didn't try classleading it was because I remembered the previous rejection, but I'd like more info if you guys can provide it.

    Due to legacy decisions with how our xp values work, passed a certain threshold we start having to scale down values arbritrarily to avoid overflow.

    Ooh. What's the threshold?
    - (Eleusis): Ellodin says, "The Fissure of Echoes is Sarathai's happy place."
    - With sharp, crackling tones, Kyrra tells you, "The ladies must love you immensely."
    - (Eleusian Ranger Techs): Savira says, "Most of the hard stuff seem to have this built in code like: If adventurer_hitting_me = "Sarathai" then send("terminate and selfdestruct")."
    - Makarios says, "Serve well and perish."
    - Xaden says, "Xaden confirmed scrub 2017."



  • MakariosMakarios
    There are a lot of them. Its all down hill as far as our code is concerned after 100.
  • AtalkezAtalkez
    @Makarios if you started today, knowing what you know, which class would you choose?

    @Nicola @Makarios what is your favorite thing about being a producer now?




    Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
  • JinsunJinsun TN, USA
    Btw wanted to say you guys even the not producers have been awesome. I feel like the communications and feedback have taken on a more positive tone this year! Also shout out to my bou @Celloran! 


    My questions:

    is Tanris ok?

    can we sell drugs in our house bar yet?

    any chance to you'll ever introduce a tardis artifact that will let me have more than 10 rooms on my party galley?


    image
  • AchimrstAchimrst Nature
    I'm still confused as to why Shaman need a mechanic that that takes roughly 20 seconds to buff ourselves in preparation for a fight we may or may not have without at least a schematics system similar to Magi Artificing? And how this makes the class better?
  • ArmaliArmali
    Do you guys play the other IRE games and do you guys ever get inspiration from how they do things?

    What kind of games outside of MUDing do you guys prefer/play/like?
  • MakariosMakarios
    Atalkez said:
    @Makarios if you started today, knowing what you know, which class would you choose?

    @Nicola @Makarios what is your favorite thing about being a producer now?

    Both serpent and occultist have a special place in my heart (which is why I'm so harsh to them in classleads). Probably paladin if neither of those.

    I don't have feelings, I'm not allowed a favourite anything.

  • NicolaNicola
    Makarios said:
    Atalkez said:
    @Makarios if you started today, knowing what you know, which class would you choose?

    @Nicola @Makarios what is your favorite thing about being a producer now?

    Both serpent and occultist have a special place in my heart (which is why I'm so harsh to them in classleads). Probably paladin if neither of those.

    I don't have feelings, I'm not allowed a favourite anything.

    (It's his anti-static slippers.)
  • MakariosMakarios
    Achimrst said:
    I'm still confused as to why Shaman need a mechanic that that takes roughly 20 seconds to buff ourselves in preparation for a fight we may or may not have without at least a schematics system similar to Magi Artificing? And how this makes the class better?


    Better is subjective. I prefer to call it different.

    Shaman has one of the most flexible skills in spiritlore in the game--built correctly, they have an answer to most things. The longer switch time is an attempt to force them into making those choices carefully.

  • SarathaiSarathai
    With UW still closed (though I'm sure it'll be back when it's ready), and looking forward with more and more players reaching Dragon (and possessing a death cape), are there any thoughts or plans (or active projects) to introduce new Dragon-level bashing areas like the Fissure of Echoes?
    - (Eleusis): Ellodin says, "The Fissure of Echoes is Sarathai's happy place."
    - With sharp, crackling tones, Kyrra tells you, "The ladies must love you immensely."
    - (Eleusian Ranger Techs): Savira says, "Most of the hard stuff seem to have this built in code like: If adventurer_hitting_me = "Sarathai" then send("terminate and selfdestruct")."
    - Makarios says, "Serve well and perish."
    - Xaden says, "Xaden confirmed scrub 2017."



  • NicolaNicola
    Jinsun said:
    Btw wanted to say you guys even the not producers have been awesome. I feel like the communications and feedback have taken on a more positive tone this year! Also shout out to my bou @Celloran! 


    My questions:

    is Tanris ok?

    can we sell drugs in our house bar yet?

    any chance to you'll ever introduce a tardis artifact that will let me have more than 10 rooms on my party galley?


    Tanris is fine, he's been gagged and shut away for demanding buffs to Occultist and always trying to interrupt Christmas events with ways to ruin the holiday.

    Nope.

    If there is a chance, it's a very very slim one.

  • NicolaNicola
    @Armali I'm loyal to the core, I never play other IRE games.

    I don't get a lot of time now to play other games (I tend to take every chance I get to run around outside instead), but I will admit that the crook that turns people into sheep was my totally favourite fluff item from an MMORPG I used to play. In their defence, the coders took some convincing to see how awesome it would be.
  • JinsunJinsun TN, USA
    What if I said please?
    image
  • NicolaNicola
    Jinsun said:
    What if I said please?
    Even slimmer chance.
  • JonathinJonathin Retired in a hole.
    You should make his House bar sell candy instead.
    I am retired and log into the forums maybe once every 2 months. It was a good 20 years, live your best lives, friends.
  • MakariosMakarios
    Armali said:
    Do you guys play the other IRE games and do you guys ever get inspiration from how they do things?

    What kind of games outside of MUDing do you guys prefer/play/like?

    For me, I dabble to one extent or another in all of the current ire games. Midkemia was the exception, but of course that is fairly irrelevant now. I am pretty casual in them though, I've never really been able to care that much about stretching the limits or whatnot. Achaea ruined me!

    For combat, I get vague ideas occasionally but nothing really concrete. Achaea has pretty established models and they differ enough from all of the other games at the macro level that a lot of things aren't really that transferrable. I'd say rather than getting ideas for stuff to do, more often I see things that have been tried and don't work that well (not a reflection on the game, we have tons of that too). Playing other ire games definitely helps avoid pitfalls someone else has already fallen into though.

    Outside of muds, I'm a sucker for JRPGs and the pokemon games.

  • SzanthaxSzanthax San Diego
    If you could change one thing abut the game, what would it be and why?





  • SkyeSkye The Duchess Bellatere
    Are there any plans in place to put some of the more underused commodities to use? With a few exceptions, we're still running largely in the surplus area for certain comms.

    Ice, for example, even though it has its uses in augmentation etc, but nobody is going to use that much. The amount of time spent digging it up isn't worth the price it's going for right now. 

    The UW event and the territory system was great at burning up some comms, but a large portion of them were ultimately either game generated (like rope) or already in-demand (coal, stone, steel). 


  • AegothAegoth
    When shall Sartan descend from the heavens to once again rain fire, death, and despair upon all of us, and to show that true Suffering and Oppression exist only within the mind's eye... but only when it is viciously stabbed by His Blade of Perdition?

    What the hell happened to my Underworld? :(

    Are there plans in store to revamp the war system (kind of like the UW event experiment) in the near future?

    Who has the record for most kills in a single holocaust trap? If it's not me, what number do I have to beat?

    Are there any plans to make leadership changes in Oligarchies easier for the players when they have no active Divine?

    Thanks for your time!
  • NicolaNicola
    @Ahmet
     
    What's the new class?
    Not telling!

    When are we getting the new class?
    Also not telling!

    Do we get to kill more Tsol'teth in the upcoming event?
    Very unlikely.

    If you could implement one new player race into Achaea right now, which would you want most? Which do you think would be the most feasible?
    An amnesiac race with no sense of direction.

    As a producer, what have you built in the game that you are most proud of, be it areas, questlines, npcs, events, etc?
    Not telling!

    When is UW re-opening?
    Can't say right now.

    Cellorran or Makarios?
    I need them both equally.

    Tecton or Sarapis?
    See above!

    Is there a chance we'll ever see Seleucar or is that a total no-go?
    You can see Seleucar already, the walls are right there in the Central Atrousian jungle.

    If you could guarantee one God role that would never go un-filled, what would it be and why?
    Lorielan because she's awesome


    @Krypton
    Cellorran is held everyday, as per his wishes

    @Skye
    We're always looking for ongoing and engaging ways to use up commodities.
  • BlujixapugBlujixapug
    What are your favourite books/movies/comics/late '90s alt-industrial bands/video games that influenced your personal creative style? Other than Lord of the Rings.

    Do you view Achaea as more like a sandbox, where players are given a variety of creative tools but little structure, or like a choose-your-own-adventure, where narrative is rigid but progresses in a significant way? Would you prefer it to be different? How do you feel about some players perpetually longing for more narrative?

    Do you think DC can redeem their terrible film franchise or are they just going to reboot it? Like, everyone hails Geoff Johns as this auteur messiah, but Zack "Dark is the Best Colour so Dial Up the Pessimism" Snyder is still directing Justice League.

    Do you have any history with creative writing? How do you feel that developing Achaea compares to being an author?

    How do you approach Achaea's chimeric nature as a persistent setting, with its world and lore involving more than a decade of content woven into a sometimes mismatched patchwork? You have builders writing things in different places, years apart and years ago, who all had their own style and vision for the game: things like Clockwork Isle and Bopalopia. Do you ever wish for a clean slate, or do you embrace it? Is the game's esoteric history ever a challenge?
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