Dev Meeting 2014-04-06
Talad says: welcome everyone to the “meet the developers” event
Menille says: It was a smooth flight anyway Tay 🙂
Talad says: this is an OOC event
Talad says: made for players
Talad says: the idea is to allow a better connection between developers and players with these live events
Talad says: we will give you some updates on our side
Talad says: and then you can ask questions or give comments
Talad says: let’s start with a brief presentation of the people on stage
Talad says: we have Taya from the setting team, responsible for lore, quests, npc dialogues
Mishka starts tying a ribbon to Rykia’s tail
Talad says: Sorka from the GM team, responsible for events and player policies
Talad says: Eredin from the engine team, working on the client and server
Talad says: myself as project manager
Jemima licks into Sorka’s direction…
Menille claps for the Devs and Gm’s, who have done a wonderful job.
Magitex says: no more trainers?
Talad says: considering the event was not scheduled on the calendar, we miss also some developers
Talad says: but I think it’s good to host it anyway
Talad says: so let’s start with a short update
Talad says: as you have seen we finally released the new client!
Talad says: not without some issues 🙂
Talad says: the main issue has been in the updater
Talad says: the process of creating the update didn’t go smoothly and so there are some warnings the updater will give
Talad says: like “failed to delete files”…
Talad says: you can ignore those
Talad says: if you are here means that the update worked somehow for you
Magitex says: (new system)
Talad says: is there any of you still using th old client?
Mishka says: Is the new 0.6.1?
Talad says: yes, new is 0.6.1
Mishka says: If so I’m using the new one.
Magitex smiles happily
Anduvin says: I had errors on pssetup, but I am on 0.6.1, so it seems to have worked.
Talad says: there are some very important changes in this new client
Talad says: first for windows users, the annoying startup crash is gone
Talad says: you may have seen in the past the client just crashing at start multiple times
Talad says: this is finally gone
Talad says: was a pretty nasty bug in the 3d engine
Kyyjunuut whistles and claps.
Talad says: another big change is the progression system
Talad says: if you open your skill window, you will see it’s different
Lace smiles happily and apriciates dev team hard work
Talad says: for all SKILLS (and not STATS)
Talad says: you will see only a green bar and red bar now
Magitex says: makes perfet sense
Mishka checks “Uh…”
Talad says: because the need to train a skill is gone
Urzok says: \o/
Talad says: you will rank up just by practice
Mishka says: So… we just train and train and train and train?
Talad says: no, you practice, and practice and practice
Talad says: we need feedback from you on this point
Talad says: so test it a bit in the next days/weeks and let us know
Jemima says: Wow… so… now we can use thetrainers for a kind of skill-tree..?
Urzok says: Very natural
Talad says: you may see in the info window there are 5 new boxes
Lace says: it sounds interesting 🙂 i definatelly give it try 🙂
Talad says: just above the combat styles
Jots says: oh that was a bit odd of dying
Talad says: that is the attack queue
Jots says: here
Talad says: which will be used for special attacks (as soon as we add them)
Mishka says: It means we can just hammer a blade away and we’ll get experience, right?
Talad says: it’s already working, but there is no data
Tay says: Yes Mishka
Talad says: so trainers will teach you those special attacks
Jarrh poiunts at Zif and chuckles at his being stuck in the furniture.
Talad says: but for now we do not have loaded any special attacks
Talad says: so it’s something for the future
Lace says: hmm and job and various do they work sameway ?
Talad says: there is a lot more like natural resources improvements
Talad says: locations and quantity
Talad says: harvesting progression
Magitex says: what about spawing? noticed wierd spawning behavior. nothing comes back in long time when you pick up things
Talad says: we will post the full list pretty soon on the web site
Talad says: we are working on the list right now
Mordaan says: Yes, there has been some work on spawn rules
Mishka says: Are there new ores?
Mordaan says: to make it better balanced.
Talad says: the other big change is the options panel for the shortbut bar
Eredin says: (and active magic)
Mordaan says: Things like gems and plants were spawning way too fast
Talad says: if you go under options, interface, shortcut bar, you can see a lot there
Talad says: like ability to dynamically change the button size
Rykia says: Lot of nice options here.
Talad says: and text font
Talad says: all that was done by Eredin
Menille says: I have noticed a 30 minute delay in trading, if you already traded once.
Birad says: nice
Talad says: yes and also options for active magic bar
Primatus says: I’ll lead this off with a question: when will the corresponding settings update for this client update come out?
Talad says: Mordaan can give you more details
Jemima licks towards Eredin “Thank you tabei… gread job… It works great…”
Eredin grins “glad to do it!”
Mordaan says: Now that this release is out, we can focus on finishing off the settings update.
Mordaan says: Still some things to do…we’ve been kinda waiting on the new client.
Primatus says: aaah. is there an ETA on that?
Mordaan says: So I won’t give an eta…but it should happen in the next few weeks or so
Mishka mumbles a little “I was promised new crafting books would be out in two months… four months ago…”
Birad says: ah, yes. bow making will come soon?
Primatus says: Right.
Mordaan says: It’s a -huge- settings update. So lots of new goodies to be added.
Primatus says: Some of us are eagerly awaiting things like bowyering
Talad says: the data for bow making is implmented
Mordaan says: The bow making quests were being worked on by a prospect who hasn’t been seen since before the holidays.
Talad says: we are waiting the setting update, to release the books
Mordaan says: One is pretty much ready, another is about half done.
Mordaan says: There may be a couple more after that but they haven’t even been started yet.
Mishka says: I’m still waiting on platinum steel weapons…
Mishka says: Axes, that is.
Talad says: ok, we can open up for more formal question/comments
Talad says: if you can please walk to the stand in front of us
Talad says: and ask your question or provide comment
Jemima says: Well… I would love to make silver and golden weapons too…
Mordaan says: Gold does not make for a good weapon. 🙂
Talad says: meanwhile we wait for questions…
Talad says: … in the last 3 months we have worked on improving the quality of the code and removing bugs
Talad says: we fixed hundreds of small bugs/glitches
Edelec says: hello…may I ask…are you happy on how the community is evolving?
Jemima looks at Mordaan with kitty eyes “Someone gave me a golden weapon tabei… nice one…”
Talad says: so the client should be overall more stable
Talad says: hi Edelec
Zif says: I am impressed with your progress …… Tahnk you !
Zif says: *thank you
Mordaan says: If you’ve been monitoring the bug tracker, you’ll know there have been a lot of memory leak fixes by Jilare.
Edelec says: ok
Talad says: the number of players have been raising recently
Dilihin says: i’m not sure if this have report on bug tracker but i say it still
Talad says: we hope this release adds even more players
Talad says: about the community, I think we have a pretty good community
Talad says: tight, but good
Talad says: hosting more events will be an important point of improving the community
Dilihin says: when you try to open hardened crate,it doesn’t open and disappears and loot at same time
Mordaan says: Ah one more note about bow making…those quests haven’t even been tested yet so not sure they will be part of this settings release. Maybe we’ll wait until it’s complete from beginning to end before adding it all.
Dilihin says: and yo can’t lockpic it
Talad says: Dilihin , you should drop the chest to your inventory doll
Talad says: and it will provide the loot
Dilihin says: i tried
Talad says: about unlocking I didn’t test it yet here
Dilihin says: but it disappears and doesn’t give a loot
Talad says: but I remember Venalan did
Tay says: The locked ones vanish instead if they are not yet unlocked
Talad says: do you have one of those chests with you?
Dilihin says: no
Talad says: ok, I will take a note and we will test
Dilihin says: okay,thanks.
Mishka says: Hi.
Mishka says: While other times I’ve always been praising the game and the new updates, and making questions with a lot of thrill and emotion, I have to say I’ve become disappointed in the game, even if it hurts me to say this.
Talad says: which parts are disappointing?
Mishka says: It is simply not the game I joined back when I started. I can’t wrap my head over the fact how much it has changed (oftentimes not for good) in around 4 years, and it’s something that has driven me away from it.
Talad says: generic statements are not very helpful, if you can focus on one or two points will be better
Mishka says: Crafting and combat, mostly. It’s what I do, and it’s what I notice
Mishka says: I know some might say it was easier back then, but I know of people who have left the game for such reasons and I’m afraid I feel the same about it.
Birad says: what is the issue with combat, mishka?
Mishka says: For example, magic is way too important for many players. It is most likely due to the changes in the stamina and dueling system that has made the players cant towards the magic side of life.
Mishka says: I do remember dueling tournaments with 10+ combatants.
Mordaan says: I remember when magic was pretty useless…good weapons were dominant. As development occurs these things change.
Sanrai says: Magic is one of the reasons I play this game.
Mordaan says: It will probably change again, eventually.
Mishka says: I’m only asking for balance.
Tay says: Last set of tests I did, weapon damage is still far ahead of magic and harder to defend against than magic is.
Mishka says: Not too much on either side.
Mordaan says: Hopefully with each shift, we approach a good balance
Sorka nods to Tay “weapon are still better than magic atm”
Talad says: we do not have eonwind today on stage
Mishka says: I’m not denying that, I’m just stating that the importance of magic has skyrocketed alarmingly fast.
Talad says: but would be surely a very good topic for him
Mordaan says: As for crafting, there is work going on to make it much more…interesting.
Birad says: you can not say a weapon induces more damage, so all is fine. you can cast magic from anywhere. compared to weapon where you need a stance and the right spot to even be able to hit
Berun says: Weapons may be better, but only if you can get the target to stand still long enough to hit.
Talad says: we are trying to add more elements to each (magic and combat)
Talad says: when we sort out the special attacks we can look at balance
Talad says: but most likely special attacks will unbalance things at start
Mishka says: Just think about it: RP-wise, not everyone is so smart as to be a great mage. Magic should be harder. It’s harder to conjure an earth elemental than to swing an axe, in my opinion.
Tay says: There are also bows. And comat will be getting additions soon.
Talad says: if you have ideas on how to balance magic (example pointing to some spells and their effects) please do so
Mishka says: Well, that’s good to hear.
Tay says: combat*
Talad says: on forums or bugtracker
Primatus says: I will say that the inter-Way balance in magic has improved somewhat
Mishka says: I’d also like to make a small annotation, on a somewhat different topic, before I go.
Talad says: one topic each, can you please just re-queue
Talad says: to be fair with everyone
Mishka says: For personal reasons I can’t collaborate with the game anymore (namely, studies), but I do know the settings and rules teams do a great work. The question I have is: why do I have the impression that this is somewhat of a rushed update, with things I haven’t heard of (suggestions from players that have been positively received), and instead other things that were promised a long time ago are still on the queue?
Mishka says: Well. Woops.
Mishka steps aside and looks back at Berun.
Talad says: we wil answer to that after Berun
Talad says: hi Berun
Mishka says: You go, rock.
Mishka says: 😛
Berun says: Greetings.
Berun says: Will the new training process consume Practice Points as you level up?
Mordaan says: Nope, no practice points.
Mordaan says: Or tria
Mordaan says: \o/
Tay says: You only need them for stats currently.
Berun says: Great.
Talad says: to go back to your comment mishka
Talad says: I would suggest you to wait the changelog
Talad says: as it will have all details of changes
Talad says: about “rushed update”, I disagree, as it’s been more than 4 months in the making
Mishka says: Well, to me it’s kind of “out of the blue”. Honestly.
Mishka says: Then again, I’m just a player now.
Talad says: if you mean it came as a surprise, it’s because you didn’t participate to previous meetings
Talad says: we discussed in details about this update in prev meetings
Talad says: and I think many were really waiting for it
Mishka says: I couldn’t possibly attend, no. But there wasn’t a forum post either, nor was the website updated.
Talad says: we provided details on content as well
Talad says: well, it’s a good surprise then 🙂
Mishka says: I guess. That’s all I got to say.
Mordaan says: We were set to release quite a few weeks ago, but had to address some bugs first. It kept being pushed back.
Sanrai says: Hi y’all!
Eredin says: hi sanrai
Tay says: Hi Sanrai
Sanrai says: My question: is there a way to get rid of the health and mana bars over the toolbar with the elves skin?
Eredin says: Yes there is, now!
Sanrai says: yay!
Mordaan says: yep, it’s in the options
Sanrai says: How?
Sanrai says: ahh?
Talad says: options, interface, shortcut
Eredin says: the new Shortcut config interface….
Talad says: then “health and mana” box
Tay says: There are a lot of things in the options now. It’s worth spending a little time trying them out to see what can be changed
Birad says: a good idea to have it configurable now
Eredin says: one note…
Mordaan says: Eredin did a great job adding plenty of options for the shortcut bar and active magic window.
Sanrai says: Thanks!
Mordaan says: Giving the possibility of good customization
Eredin says: I’m sorry to say that I neglected to have the top of the SC box reduce when you remove those bars…
Eredin says: sorry
Talad says: ok, I thnk we can wrap up out meeting
Eredin says: I’m already working on correcting that with the next release.
Talad says: thanks to everyone for being present and check the web site later today/tomorrow for the full change log
Talad says: we will also create a new full exe to download
Talad says: in case you want to install0.6.1 fresh
Talad says: have fun in PS
Talad says: see you in the next meeting