Just returned from the Con. Here are my notes (in summary fashion):
Of interest to paladins:
1. Talked to Dart for a good while at the Con. He (along with other GM's) recognize that paladins need some work. Ok, no big surprise here...but it was nice to hear.
2. DFA and Backstab are going under review (according to Z during the State of Elanthia). I do not believe this is something that is happening shortly, but is backed up behind two big "things".
3. Oolan is still heading up the offense/defense scaling issue. Frankly, I did not get the impression this was anywhere close. I am not entirely sure the "how" has been discussed in depth. I do believe it is a priority (my impression from the discussion) but just a big task.
4. Although I say in #3 above offense/defense scale may not even be close. I think one thing may push this to the forefront. I do get the impression that "one hit kills" are under severe scrutiny because of one player's ability to make a ton of plats by one-hitting a nice paying creature. I believe a "fix" will go in for this very quickly. If this "fix" involves the scaling issue, then we may get some unexpected love from this angle.
Overall: Not much on the immediate horizon that was disclosed for paladin stuff. However, I do get warm fuzzies that folks know we are feeling some pain.
General Items:
1. There will be a manner with which folks can establish a profile. This will allow people to set PvP and RP "flags" and give general information about their character.
2. Gems...gems are changing a ton. A ton more variety and fewer drops with more value.
3. Creature loot. They are trying to spread people out and hopefully create some incentive to not all follow the same "creature ladder". As a result, those odd creatures that no one hunts...may just drop better loot or such. In short, an incentive to go hunt and train with them. They may even give more EXP.
4. Skins. The new skinning system sounds pretty cool. I am sure I didn't understand it well enough to explain it very well. I'll let the rangers post about that.
5. Contracts. This was announced at the last con, but there will be a system for putting contracts on folks. I'll let the thieves talk about it.
6. There are two "things" which are happening pretty soon. Eric was very elusive concerning them. Based on a few hints and such, I would guess (1) pay fest and (2) necro guild. I suspect at least one hits in October (for whatever reason that month came out). By the way, my thoughts are pure speculation and nothing was disclosed for sure.
Once again, we had a great paladin turn out. I saw Leucius, Redarch, Clynlyn, Mattie, Gwen and Nosaj. I don't think I am forgetting anyone. I will say, that everyone is just as great in person as they are in the computer box.
Folks, feel free to correct or update or elaborate on these Notes. I was a bit foggy, so I think I am putting it down correctly!
Madigan
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
Arthur Ashe
NEELD
SILVEROS
Re: Notes From the Con
08/10/2008 12:39 AM CDT
There was a huge discussion we had about armor and forging changes after you left Madigan. GM Oolan did divulge some parts of these changes, which are near the end of what I've summarized below.
Below is the first set of announcements made today that I have time to document before leaving for the next meeting.
The thing and the other thing. These "things" were constantly being blamed for the hold up of many releases, but they have vowed that both of these things will be released very soon, and probably as soon as before the end of this year. Several other things are then going to follow these releases, and he did elude to one of which involves changes relating to death.
Some changes to death will include the tracking of favor orbs, and using a particular favor God would result in some kind of bonus. One example would be using Hodierna could result in no death scars, or Kertigen might allow you to keep the coins you are carrying, etc. It was also mentioned about death mechanics (allowing you to do certain things while dead), which had been implemented on occasion in the past, and could appear for brief periods during certain times or events. (He mentioned specifically Halloween and the week before New Year's.)
The Necromancer Guild is getting much closer to being released, but the "things" mentioned above are once again being blamed for the hold up. (which seem to be related as the reason for the death changes and mechanics ability while dead.)
Infamy and Profile verbs will be implemented soon. This will affect how PvP is handled and will offer a variety of options, varying from "bring it on without warning" to "I will only participate if given prior warning and it is kept in character using RP" to "I do not wish to be included in PvP under any circumstance." The profile verb will allow others to see your character's choices as it relates to the infamy system and other info on your character.
Gems will come in 60 various colors and 5 sizes, and fewer but more valuable gems will be released into the treasure system. Useless items, such as moldy bread crusts, will be elimnated.
Less hunted areas will provide better loot and more EXP than frequently hunted areas.
AFK scripters will no longer be locked out. Instead they will lose 5% of their experience, skills, tdp's, and money each time they get caught. If they get caught enough they will lose enough to have nothing.
Combat system changes and magic. After speaking at great length about this with part of the Combat GM team today, many changes are in the works. Paladins' magical spells are going to be reworked again, and changes to offensive magic (smites) will eventually become targeted spells. Those of us with more TM skills will have the advantage of more effective casting.
Rangers will get branch break back after it is fixed soon.
Also, some of the skill skews currently happening for higher ranking characters will be corrected so they can learn properly without "one hit" killing everything first. (This is great for those of us trying to train secondary or tertiary weapons!)
Barbs are getting some history books, and also some new surprises based on these history books.
Skinning will have some great changes, some of which are going to be in arranging. The arrange verb will revert to the first dead critter in the room. Choices can be made to get harder skins with a higher value, pieces usable for making items, or easier different choices of body parts for those with lesser skills in skinning.
Armor and forging systems. One huge difference to affect Paladins will be with the upcoming armor changes. This will also affect forging on a wide scale. The current metal armor system will be much more versatile, and armor will be made in parts, which will then be pieced together, offering more custom armor choices. This means it is possible to have LP greaves, HP breastplate, and HC sleeves, or a HC helm with an HP visor, etc. This will allow one suit of armor to contain several kinds of metal, and train them all accordingly. Color and look will be custom based on these choices of metal.
Senior Commander Gwenddolyn,
Of the Therengia Cavalry,
Baron's Dragoons, Baron's Hussars, and Baron's Outriders
Below is the first set of announcements made today that I have time to document before leaving for the next meeting.
The thing and the other thing. These "things" were constantly being blamed for the hold up of many releases, but they have vowed that both of these things will be released very soon, and probably as soon as before the end of this year. Several other things are then going to follow these releases, and he did elude to one of which involves changes relating to death.
Some changes to death will include the tracking of favor orbs, and using a particular favor God would result in some kind of bonus. One example would be using Hodierna could result in no death scars, or Kertigen might allow you to keep the coins you are carrying, etc. It was also mentioned about death mechanics (allowing you to do certain things while dead), which had been implemented on occasion in the past, and could appear for brief periods during certain times or events. (He mentioned specifically Halloween and the week before New Year's.)
The Necromancer Guild is getting much closer to being released, but the "things" mentioned above are once again being blamed for the hold up. (which seem to be related as the reason for the death changes and mechanics ability while dead.)
Infamy and Profile verbs will be implemented soon. This will affect how PvP is handled and will offer a variety of options, varying from "bring it on without warning" to "I will only participate if given prior warning and it is kept in character using RP" to "I do not wish to be included in PvP under any circumstance." The profile verb will allow others to see your character's choices as it relates to the infamy system and other info on your character.
Gems will come in 60 various colors and 5 sizes, and fewer but more valuable gems will be released into the treasure system. Useless items, such as moldy bread crusts, will be elimnated.
Less hunted areas will provide better loot and more EXP than frequently hunted areas.
AFK scripters will no longer be locked out. Instead they will lose 5% of their experience, skills, tdp's, and money each time they get caught. If they get caught enough they will lose enough to have nothing.
Combat system changes and magic. After speaking at great length about this with part of the Combat GM team today, many changes are in the works. Paladins' magical spells are going to be reworked again, and changes to offensive magic (smites) will eventually become targeted spells. Those of us with more TM skills will have the advantage of more effective casting.
Rangers will get branch break back after it is fixed soon.
Also, some of the skill skews currently happening for higher ranking characters will be corrected so they can learn properly without "one hit" killing everything first. (This is great for those of us trying to train secondary or tertiary weapons!)
Barbs are getting some history books, and also some new surprises based on these history books.
Skinning will have some great changes, some of which are going to be in arranging. The arrange verb will revert to the first dead critter in the room. Choices can be made to get harder skins with a higher value, pieces usable for making items, or easier different choices of body parts for those with lesser skills in skinning.
Armor and forging systems. One huge difference to affect Paladins will be with the upcoming armor changes. This will also affect forging on a wide scale. The current metal armor system will be much more versatile, and armor will be made in parts, which will then be pieced together, offering more custom armor choices. This means it is possible to have LP greaves, HP breastplate, and HC sleeves, or a HC helm with an HP visor, etc. This will allow one suit of armor to contain several kinds of metal, and train them all accordingly. Color and look will be custom based on these choices of metal.
Senior Commander Gwenddolyn,
Of the Therengia Cavalry,
Baron's Dragoons, Baron's Hussars, and Baron's Outriders
ZIMPLYBEST
Re: Notes From the Con
08/10/2008 01:16 AM CDT
<<This will allow one suit of armor to contain several kinds of metal, and train them all accordingly.>>
Exciting, and very neat.
<<Less hunted areas will provide better loot and more EXP than frequently hunted areas.>>
Very awesome. Adding reasons to hunt creatures with too many negatives more then novelty. Huzzah!
Ackfer - Halfling in a Can, No Fillers Here!
Exciting, and very neat.
<<Less hunted areas will provide better loot and more EXP than frequently hunted areas.>>
Very awesome. Adding reasons to hunt creatures with too many negatives more then novelty. Huzzah!
Ackfer - Halfling in a Can, No Fillers Here!
SILVEROS
Re: Notes From the Con
08/10/2008 08:55 AM CDT
Something else Mad & I both left off our notes was Bubba mentioning that some of the old paid quests are going to be brought back with a twist. Even though some of the clues or puzzles will be similar, they still will be changed up a bit. Some new prizes will also be added.
Horses are on a somewhat high priority list, along with the ship/boat system. Horses will be integrated and fixed along with familiars and companions. People with boats need to make sure they don't keep unnecessary items thrown all over because it slows down the game.
Senior Commander Gwenddolyn,
Of the Therengia Cavalry,
Baron's Dragoons, Baron's Hussars, and Baron's Outriders
Horses are on a somewhat high priority list, along with the ship/boat system. Horses will be integrated and fixed along with familiars and companions. People with boats need to make sure they don't keep unnecessary items thrown all over because it slows down the game.
Senior Commander Gwenddolyn,
Of the Therengia Cavalry,
Baron's Dragoons, Baron's Hussars, and Baron's Outriders
LOFTONM1
Re: Notes From the Con
08/10/2008 01:43 PM CDT
>>Infamy and Profile verbs will be implemented soon. This will affect how PvP is handled and will offer a variety of options, varying from "bring it on without warning" to "I will only participate if given prior warning and it is kept in character using RP" to "I do not wish to be included in PvP under any circumstance." The profile verb will allow others to see your character's choices as it relates to the infamy system and other info on your character.
Did they mention if Profile would come with some sort of mechanical restriction? Obviously, it's not going to change existing policy in that if you give someone consent they will still have the right to smash your face in, but if it's going to lay down a prevent message for hostile action instead of letting that hostile action happen there could be a potential issue involving beneficial spells/abilities used on third party conflictors not being applicable to this flag restriction. Therefore, a new policy rule would have to be introduced that dealt with this loophole.
DISCLAIMER: THIS POSTER IS NOT A MEMBER OF STAFF AND HIS INFORMATION IS/MIGHT BE WRONG.
Did they mention if Profile would come with some sort of mechanical restriction? Obviously, it's not going to change existing policy in that if you give someone consent they will still have the right to smash your face in, but if it's going to lay down a prevent message for hostile action instead of letting that hostile action happen there could be a potential issue involving beneficial spells/abilities used on third party conflictors not being applicable to this flag restriction. Therefore, a new policy rule would have to be introduced that dealt with this loophole.
DISCLAIMER: THIS POSTER IS NOT A MEMBER OF STAFF AND HIS INFORMATION IS/MIGHT BE WRONG.
NEELD
Re: Notes From the Con
08/10/2008 03:00 PM CDT
The profile is only going to be used for informational purposes only. In short, you can look at someone's profile to see if they like to PvP, RP or whatever. The profile (as I understand it) will not be used as a defense for policy violations (or anything similar).
In short, no to your question (as best as I understand the new profile).
Madigan
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
Arthur Ashe
In short, no to your question (as best as I understand the new profile).
Madigan
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
Arthur Ashe
PONCHI
Re: Notes From the Con
08/11/2008 04:27 AM CDT
One thing I'd add here. The second combat roundtable that was held was chock full of grumpy Paladins. Our two Paladin community leaders (Redarch and myself) specifically went in with a blend of pessimism/confusion/rage and despair and ended up being quite vocal about it.
Just to give an example of the style of complaints we were going with we brought up things like the near uselessness of being armor prime, the lack of fun being a "defensively minded" guild in a game scaled for offense. The inability to tank at all at higher levels period. The lack of any real progress on anything mentioned at the last simucon, the lack of progress on all the interesting things that have been talked about over the last four years, the point of posting years worth of suggestions if nothing ever got implemented anyway, and so on.
A point we hammered at is that while at lower levels things weren't terrible at higher levels Paladins were basically a joke due to the current combat system and our general set up.
The good thing is this Paladin rage was met pretty well head on. The combat folks told us that they were very aware of the problems and were looking into ways to help straighten things out. They agreed with almost every issue we had and basically guaranteed things would get better. Personally I felt much better after the chat myself. I had expected more rigmarole than we got. I basically felt like they "got" our issues and things had a chance to turn around.
I did however feel bad for poor Vinjince sitting at the other end of the table wearing a how did I end up sitting in a rage of the paladins meeting look on his face. Um..sorry.
Leucius
Never argue with an idiot, they bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
Just to give an example of the style of complaints we were going with we brought up things like the near uselessness of being armor prime, the lack of fun being a "defensively minded" guild in a game scaled for offense. The inability to tank at all at higher levels period. The lack of any real progress on anything mentioned at the last simucon, the lack of progress on all the interesting things that have been talked about over the last four years, the point of posting years worth of suggestions if nothing ever got implemented anyway, and so on.
A point we hammered at is that while at lower levels things weren't terrible at higher levels Paladins were basically a joke due to the current combat system and our general set up.
The good thing is this Paladin rage was met pretty well head on. The combat folks told us that they were very aware of the problems and were looking into ways to help straighten things out. They agreed with almost every issue we had and basically guaranteed things would get better. Personally I felt much better after the chat myself. I had expected more rigmarole than we got. I basically felt like they "got" our issues and things had a chance to turn around.
I did however feel bad for poor Vinjince sitting at the other end of the table wearing a how did I end up sitting in a rage of the paladins meeting look on his face. Um..sorry.
Leucius
Never argue with an idiot, they bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
ZIMPLYBEST
Re: Notes From the Con
08/11/2008 06:55 AM CDT
<<I did however feel bad for poor Vinjince>>
Awww.
However, he does chime in on the Pally boards with good ideas/thoughts.
Ackfer - Halfling in a Can, No Fillers Here!
Awww.
However, he does chime in on the Pally boards with good ideas/thoughts.
Ackfer - Halfling in a Can, No Fillers Here!
NEELD
Re: Notes From the Con
08/11/2008 09:04 AM CDT
<<I did however feel bad for poor Vinjince sitting at the other end of the table wearing a how did I end up sitting in a rage of the paladins meeting look on his face. Um..sorry.
<<Leucius
Nice, thanks for that update. I took off once I saw Oolan at the Combat table just because he did the previous day's roundtable for combat and didn't figure anything new would come out.
Ok, we will all buy Vin a drink next year for sitting through that one.
Madigan
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
Arthur Ashe
<<Leucius
Nice, thanks for that update. I took off once I saw Oolan at the Combat table just because he did the previous day's roundtable for combat and didn't figure anything new would come out.
Ok, we will all buy Vin a drink next year for sitting through that one.
Madigan
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
Arthur Ashe
SAUVA
Re: Notes From the Con
08/11/2008 09:41 AM CDT
> Rangers will get branch break back after it is fixed soon.
This was released ~2 months ago.
Those are great summaries, you guys should repost them in the main gen discussion folder!
> The second combat roundtable that was held was chock full of grumpy Paladins.
You guys scared me off, and you know how much I like armor. Not sure if you guys covered it, but in additions to scaling problems, the current engagement system really hurts paladins (and melee rangers too!). Was there any talk about that?
~Hanryu Ves'Shomis
Sword of House Calibanor, Emerald Knight, Keeper of the CEC, Ranger
http://drplat.com/CombatEquipmentCompendium.xls
>Tiesse exclaims, "The power of soon compels you!"
This was released ~2 months ago.
Those are great summaries, you guys should repost them in the main gen discussion folder!
> The second combat roundtable that was held was chock full of grumpy Paladins.
You guys scared me off, and you know how much I like armor. Not sure if you guys covered it, but in additions to scaling problems, the current engagement system really hurts paladins (and melee rangers too!). Was there any talk about that?
~Hanryu Ves'Shomis
Sword of House Calibanor, Emerald Knight, Keeper of the CEC, Ranger
http://drplat.com/CombatEquipmentCompendium.xls
>Tiesse exclaims, "The power of soon compels you!"
DR-MAECE
Re: Notes From the Con
08/11/2008 10:56 AM CDT
Hey team,
Let's move the con notes out of the smithing folder please!
~Maece
I'm not a killer,
I'm an S-Mart employee.
And to kill a coworker
Is against company policy.
Evil Dead the Musical, 2008
Let's move the con notes out of the smithing folder please!
~Maece
I'm not a killer,
I'm an S-Mart employee.
And to kill a coworker
Is against company policy.
Evil Dead the Musical, 2008
