Developer Chat - 2000/09/20

Original Link (now dead) -
http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/devchatSept1.asp
http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/devchatSept2.asp
http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/devchatSept3.asp

Transcript of Developer's Chat, September 20th

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On Wednesday, September 20, the Turbine team met in the Zone Theater Chat Room to discuss current issues with Asheron's Call and the world of Dereth. This dev chat continued to follow the question-first and queue-clearing format, allowing as many people to participate. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

+Chaos@AC> Welcome to our Monthly Asheron's Call Developer's Chat.

rei@Turbine> Hello everyone :) I'm Eri "reijin" Izawa, co-lead designer for Asheron's Call and general spec shuffler. With me today are: Jesse "Nei" Kurlancheek, game designer, scripter, general systems guy.

rei@Turbine> David "Crowley" Javier, game designer, dungeon maker, and dialogue meister.

rei@Turbine> Ken Troop, new content designer -- we'll see what nickname he earns.

rei@Turbine> Cardell Kerr, 'nother new guy, be nice to him eh?

rei@Turbine> Dave "Sarneho" Namerow, Turbine-side Community Manager.

rei@Turbine> Sean "artist extraordinaire" Huxter, lead artist, is also with us tonight.

rei@Turbine> And Charley is our Producerly Voice of Reason for tonight.

rei@Turbine> As usual, I'd like to talk about how we answer questions.

rei@Turbine> To give you an idea of our schedule, we are already hard at work on the October event. We generally cannot give you concrete dates or feature details for anything new that we're not pretty sure is going in. Also, because we have so much planned, new requests on the boards or from here may not be implemented til some time after the suggestion is made. But I want to assure you that we are listening! OK... that's it ... first question!

LillithsJabber> Q: Would you please make the healer services useful by decreasing their prices and giving them higher level spells?

LillithsJabber> The Healer vendors provide a service that little know or care about. The reason why is that they charge very high prices for low level spells. Having started a new character 2 months ago, I thought to myself, gee that particular spell would be nice, but at those prices! There is no way the apples, cabbages, and darts I been selling from drudges, would be able support me to buy a one time heal other II at cost 250 pyreal. Or as a level 41 pure warrior, I look & see only level 2/1 spells & think gosh-it would be nice to buy a level 6 armor other spell casted. But looking at the prices of those low level spells-it makes me wonder how high those spells would even cost! So could you please add spells&lower prices?

nei@turbine> so yeah. i'd look to your vendoring friends real soon. they done did learn some new tricks.

nei@turbine> (and a thing or two about the economy)

Ariok> Q. Olthoi Noble vs Tusker Guard - Who would win?

Ariok> Storyline makes it sound like Olthoi were the best melee fighters, so you'd think the Noble would win, even though its not using fire. If the Guard would win, maybe that means that you should tweak Nobles a bit (theres only a few in all of Dereth, make them uber.

nei@turbine> tusker, no questions asked.

rei@Turbine> But!

Crowley@turbine> My money's on the ape.

rei@Turbine> Don't forget Dereth isn't all of the world.

rei@Turbine> Just because the Olthoi queen in Dereth was a relative wimp ... doesn't mean all the other ones were.

rei@Turbine> I'm done.

TaperBowler> I'm wondering what improvements are being worked on for the chat system. Any new filters (Leather crater, merchant) or perhaps allegiances?

rei@Turbine> I'll definitely say communication is next in the priority queue.

rei@Turbine> In terms of new features....

rei@Turbine> However, this is not going to happen soon.

rei@Turbine> Everyone wants allegiance chat improvements.

rei@Turbine> So, we are well aware of that need.

Mhajhkaeir> Is the Tufa Quest currently complete? (As in, is it broken?) Killing the Grievver appears to be some type of trigger, but nothin happens. (Come on, give us a hint here!) A Band of Brothers!

rei@Turbine> Not all that glitters is gold. . .

Crowley@turbine> As Nei says, the Grievver's just in there for flava.

Buffy_Becca> Q:When are you going to make artistic changes to the avatars? You have changed monsters, and landscape but the isparians all run around in the same grey underclothes with the same haircuts, shake up what we see most, the people of Dereth.

Buffy_Becca> *curtsey*

rei@Turbine> (BTW, curstsey WAS a player request)

sean@Turbine> No current plans to up the poly count on the human avatar, but some stuff is a-comin. You'll like it.

sean@Turbine> And curtsey was a pleasure to implement, knowing it would be so appreciated, having been requested long time ago.

FT_Desperado> Q: Would you lower spell comp burden? . . .

FT_Desperado> I have two level 71 mages, both are at 120+ burden with strength self 6 after I recomp, hunting on the island takes every life protection buff or your doomed, my spell comps run out within 3 to 4 buffs after buying. That means hunting for around a hour, then recalling to a mage that sells pyreal scarabs and shopping for 20 minunutes (no joke) I know I could raise my strength but it takes 3 million now, it's not that easy.

nei@turbine> lowering comp BU? yeah, but that's boring... simple, but boring...

nei@turbine> so instead, what do you get? a high-quality solution, bound to please boys and girls. comp bu worries are no more come oct.

Aggrazel> Why is the Arcane Lore requirement of Atlan Weapons with major stones so high? 180 arcane lore and 250 weapon skill is required to use level IV buffs, the weapon skill is fine, but such a high arcane for a warriors weapon?

Aggrazel> By way of contrast, the ravenous weapon is much easier to use from a warrior standpoint, and it casts much higher level buffs. The composite bow, with an undead handle needs only 135 arcane lore to use, and it doesn't even have a debuff. Can you please turn it down?

Crowley@turbine> All quests are not created equal.

Crowley@turbine> There were different design principles involved with each of the quests. The Ravenous weapons had such low reqs because they were intended to be for pure melee fighters. If you can make it through the major stone dungeons, you're high enough level to build up to the Lore req. So we're not looking to lower the reqs on Atlans.

Demona_1> My question is about the Dagger love. What is the status on the (hopeful) upgrade to dagger to bring it inline with other "free" skills? Cause we all know Dagger "Trained" isn't as good as Unarmed "Trained" And a quick suggestion: Adding a type of particle effect (like the SoLL or hollow weapons) to Sturdy Iron Keys would help a great deal in locating them on the ground when you dont have time to loot monsters before they decay.

nei@turbine> lots of possible fixes, but none are concrete... some would make dagger a totally unique weapon (like UA has it's skill bonus), some would just tweak it slightly. The former solution, while much sexier, is a big ol' ugly thing that's going to have to sit on test servers for awhile before it'd go in, the latter solutions could be implemented without nearly as much "scare" involved.

nei@turbine> yeah, i know you're tired of it, but "it's coming"

Silverion> q: What is this story with Other color plants, are they in game and we don't find them, are there only 3 of them or simply they are buged and dont spawn ? are color niances posible or not?

Silverion> Sugestion: Use Identify Item and Monster in combination with trade skills to get them more value, 1st give somone more exp when ID monster,

Silverion> second make some god items like "Silverion Scout Armour" Tm ;-) which require 250 in monster identify skill,

nei@turbine> what other plants? don't believe everything you see in your portal.dat

Crowley@turbine> who has 250 monster ID skill?

nei@turbine> however, flora has a curious way of evolving in dereth.

Rhynedahll> Are the Menhir rings just eye candy too? ( Just for flava?)

rei@Turbine> The menhir rings ... did you see the one in Tufa?

Crowley@turbine> Menhir rings are not just eye candy.

FlyMan233> Was Asheron's Call originally intended to be a PK game? Like only PK, not optional. Elaborate....

rei@Turbine> Actually, yes.

rei@Turbine> A long, long time ago, in a company with a different name

rei@Turbine> yes, AC was originally going to be all-PK.

rei@Turbine> But that was back when we were expecting 200 concurrent players.

rei@Turbine> And a whole host of other things that I won't go into right now.

__FIX_BSD_NOW_> My Name says alot but, with the Aerfall Quest being broken(HG), why couldn't a sentinel portal the questers to the destination so they would not have to perform the previuos task to get the portal summoned and when will it be fixed?

Dave@turbine> Sents serve a very specific purpose in AC

Dave@turbine> They are meant to uphold the COC, not take care of our bugs

Dave@turbine> We would need a lot more sents to help out if that were the case.

chaensaw> Q: Can you please consider getting rid of the extremely irritating attaching/skating ability of creatures? I'm not talking about the lack of a combined attack/run animation, I'm talking about the actual "attachment" that takes place, that lets an enemy (most noticeably Lugians) speed up and complete their attack and then ricochet back 100 feet to where they would normally be if they actually had to move independently to keep up. Too often I'm just running thru a dungeon and something all the way across the room glues itself to me and beats the snot out of me (since defense drops to nothing when running).

rei@Turbine> Wow, a sticky question.

rei@Turbine> That was put in a while back to help melee players actually hit monsters.

rei@Turbine> It also allows monsters a chance to hit players, too.

nei@turbine> it's also going to allow the bunny to ... well... be unescapable! mwhaha@!

rei@Turbine> There was a lot of discussion over this issue at the time ...

rei@Turbine> At this point, I think stickyness is here to stay, sorry.

Riker2737> Will there possibly be a quest for mages involving a usable item that is worthy of using in PK? The Impious Staff and Virindi Wand are worthless due to the race & skill req & slowness of wands. Robes are also pointless in PK due to ravenous weapons an vulns/debuffs arent that great due to dispell potions.

nei@turbine> how about a starter wand? that's still my favorite PK toy. but that's just me.

nei@turbine> and if you're in the proverbial leet-o PK loop, wands are still quite useful in PK.

nei@turbine> honestly, i think the usefulness of "most" items are useful in both PK/NPK.

MS64christ> Q: With the creation of monsters that are basically resistant to all mages, will monsters be introduced that can evade all melee and/or missile attacks? Although the hi lvl Grievvers arent %100 resistant, I have seen lvl 60+ mages spec'd in war and creature waste several tanks of mana without landing a single spell.

nei@turbine> well, we can't make a monster totally invulnerable to melee/missile attacks since it, once out of stamina, will be hittable.

nei@turbine> but, i offer up my friend and yours, the vapor golem as a mean, "don't mess with me lil' melee man" creature or alternative, as stahl points out, the white rabbit. (the old one, of course)

ColdZero> Q: Would it be possible to make locka pickable (?) on uber chest that requires a high lock pick skill, have a fast re-spawn rate, but only allow a person to pick/loot the chest every x # of hours or days?

ColdZero> I know there are plans to add additional things to use the skill on, howerver I would really like to use my skill on chests/doors.

nei@turbine> quest timers on chests? they don't exist right now, but i can't see a good reason not to add them.

Maneyen> Are there any worries about the reverse engineering of the portal.dat and cell.dat files?

Maneyen> I think some of the stuff they are doing with it is really great, but that would change the minute that they find a major quest spoiler of some sort. What's your feeling about this enexpected ingenuity?

nei@turbine> there's very little that's "crucial" in the client side dat files.

nei@turbine> you could find gfx, models, textures... but past that, there's really not much in there.

nei@turbine> if you've tried taking a peek in there for quest strings this month, i'm sure you didn't notice something.

nei@turbine> we're well aware of what goes into the client side files, that's why most of the goodies are server-side

Craniium> With all the GSA and matty-robes out there (and their elemental protections, mainly), is there any possibility of an alchemical oil that could up the prot. against damage types on a piece of armor? X number per piece.

nei@turbine> this isn't dissimilar to the dye concept.

nei@turbine> i've talked to andy a bunch about existing item modification and flagging it so that it knows that it's been used upon (the poor exploited dear) and it's something that's not very far fetched.

nei@turbine> if you ever did see something like this, you can be sure that the checks and balances involved would put the ugly pink/-50 al to shame though.

Mages_R_Nerfed> With melee/3 school mage hollow "ownz0ring" machines being macroed by the dozen wouldnt it be a good idea to make the hollows less desirable by having them dispell the users buffs in addition to negating the opponents buffs.

Mages_R_Nerfed> This might go a long way toward balancing these over powered weapons and make them more beneficial for pure melee chars as they were originally intended instead of buffed mages and hybrids.

nei@turbine> super evil answer: until my mage gets tooled by 2 people with hollows, they're not overpowered in my mind. so no changes planned, no.

claude_g> A suggestion: make players shows their loyalty & leadership skills, even if they're currenty in an allegiance.

claude_g> it can be done near the patron-monarch data when you examine a player, or if not possible, in the allegiance data screen right near your vassals names. That will show how much your vassals appreciate your help and your time, and will result in a better allegiance system.

rei@Turbine> (The UI definitely is cramped already)

rei@Turbine> We'll consider it; thank you.

Drakkar77> Can we get something in-game that would make AC more role playing in nature? Perhaps a dueling ability where both players accept and become pks for a short time. RPing is up to the players but a RPing mentoring program for new comers and short classes on RPing for people who havn't be exposed to RPing before but have been in AC for a while. Perhaps some RPing events or quests. Perhaps even a pk world where everything is a lot more realistic (town guards, limited number of deaths from players, etc...)

rei@Turbine> Dueling is something we'd like, but classes is not something I think we're going to do....

nei@turbine> don't we have a PK world?

Crowley@turbine> Putting in a PK world like you suggest would be a monstrous technical task, because it'd be a world apart from the rest of the code base.

Crowley@turbine> As for dueling (or conditional PK). Yeah, I'd like that too. It's on our wish list.

fayr> Q: Why is the heal other (with kits) animation so much slower than the heal self (with kits)? Are there any plans to change this? It is quite inconvenient to heal a friend while he is being attacked and getting hurt faster than I can heal him.

nei@turbine> i have a bug in now about linking speeds in general... (bow- unarmed- magic, peace- sword- sword+sheild) etc...

nei@turbine> the healing other is in the pile of "gee, this moves awful slow"

nei@turbine> so it's being looked at presently.

nastynate1982> I want to know if you are planning on changing it so you can't portal recall through an untyable portal? (I'd prefer you left it as-is because its a reward for going so long without portal tie)

nei@turbine> known bug....

nei@turbine> it's future has yet to be decided though.

rosicrucian1> Hi all! Q: why is it that even things like broken frags can cast on me from beyond radar but I can't do it with 335 war and 306 life? My monkey war wands with 100-110 range don't work beyond radar either.

nei@turbine> well, i was going to say something about skill affecting range. but with broken frags, it's most likely you just don't see them on your radar.

BGM_CrystalFox> Q: Is there any chance were going to see the chat system evolve so that Monarchs and chain leaders can mass tell the people under them, My patron has almost 1900 followers, and this would be an invaluble asset for our Guild.

rei@Turbine> Communications, esp. allegiance communication, are pretty much top priority for next big coding/development task.

rei@Turbine> But we are seriously not likely to be able to do it any time soon.

rei@Turbine> We want to though

Me_First_Ken> will the zone-turbine be doing anything about players with inapropriate names?? i see players with names like "fook this game" "lil bitch" "lil badass" "bad ass ign" and i want tittles for players everyone being an "adventurer"

Dave@turbine> The support staff( Ie sents) are always on the lookout for people abusing the CoC

Dave@turbine> If someone has a "bad" name that passes our filters the sents will notify a manager, and upon review it may or may not a violation of the CoC. If so the character may be banned.

Quixotic_COD> Are there any plans to add more access points (tiable portals, and/or lifestones) to the further reaches of the Obsidian Plains? (for Aphonous the Truly Uber)

Quixotic_COD> It's a big circle that 99% of the traffic enters at one point (Wai Jhou) My 2nd comment is "Which Dev has the most Flava? and are the new guys going to be usurping that title in the near future?"

nei@turbine> new guys? just poke em for fun. they make cute faces.

sean@Turbine> I'm kinda flava-free myself...

Crowley@turbine> My flava is superior.

nei@turbine> sadly, they're never going to have flava like me.

Crowley@turbine> nobody wants your granola flava

nei@turbine> *throws down*

ken@turbine> We've actually been doing all the work here lately, and allowing the old crew to ride our coattails.

rei@Turbine> Hmm, I think there is a portal already somewhere else near the Obsidian plains.

sean@Turbine> *sigh* admits nei's superior-flava

rei@Turbine> But more Dires portals are heading your way in any case. I'll note down what you said.

craigorious> Q: Can you give any information on any upcoming archer love? As far as PvP goes, any time a meleer raises his shield, archers are pretty much done for. Those AL 100+ shields with good elemental protections stop even greater elementals being fired by a composite bow, and there's no way to get behind a meleer when they're sticking to you. Suggestion: make the crystal arrowheads less expensive to get. Maybe allow mote substitution instead?

nei@turbine> point of order: cast lure on their shield - this has been the only thing letting my archer work melees in PK.

Crowley@turbine> BTW, I'd like to point out that the crystal arrowheads are not the archer buff we promised, but just part of the quest.

Crowley@turbine> There's still stuff to be done for archery.

nei@turbine> past that, you get no info from me on further archer buffing. (though speeding up the animtaion links works wonders)

rei@Turbine> BTW, I'm looking to try to help fletching soon, maybe in phases.

!Paradox27> Q:Heyas! Do you anything about disappearing corpses in areas where there is room for it to be placed? This is EXTREMELY frusturating...(info cont.)

!Paradox27> I am level 24 and I died. I went back to my corpse 5 - 8 minutes later and there was no corpse to be found!?!? I then had some frieds scour the area and we could not find anything. I lost Amunli Al 150+ Armor and other stuff

rei@Turbine> Hmmm....

rei@Turbine> There is a limit on how many corpses are created if you die too often too fast.

rei@Turbine> But your loot should still be there.

rei@Turbine> (as far as I know)

rei@Turbine> I do understand that sometimes it's observer error, but if it's not I have heard some stories that imply there might be a bug with corpses.

rei@Turbine> The more specific information we can get on cases like this, the more likely a fix can be found.

Ichi_jinrai> Has BenTen truly returned? Will the book by BenTen soon become available in the Hebbin-to library as mentioned to the Librarian in Cragstone? Might BenTen offer us guidence and support for the coming war?

Ichi_jinrai> The story of BenTen, and BenTen's gallantry have made BenTen my super hero. I note from the hints last month and this, that BenTen may have returned from seclusion.

rei@Turbine> Ben Ten travels with the wind....

rei@Turbine> But Ben Ten is also a slow writer.

Crowley@turbine> pursued by his rival, Mi Krau-Li

Holy_Dragon> Q: I've nuticed through most the game months that theres some spell comps not even used in the game like, powdered azurite and lapis Lariz, and franchinsene, etc. Are there plans to use these in something in the future if not get rid of them.

Holy_Dragon> Suggestions, I'd like to see some major love for the thrown weapon skill and it really needs it maybe you can make some real Thrown weapon quests, also I'd like to see a tribal like worship emote added

nei@turbine> you'd be surprised what those poor unused comps can be used for. one day.

nei@turbine> so they're not going to be gotten rid of.

avoozl> What needs to be done by turbine in order to make mattekar coats and similar items dyeable?

nei@turbine> um... i can't say what needs to be done. i'd get fired and stuff.

nei@turbine> but you're not going to get to dye your coat... so either step up into the wild worlds of pretty colors or be forever confined to a dank and drab prison.

eedmond> Q: Have you fixed the problem with Invuln spell not being on helms? (other than superior) I saw that you said you added that spell to shields but nothing about helms. Tell Marketing to swarm us with AC ads this christmas. The game needs new people.

Crowley@turbine> It's not necessarily a problem.

Crowley@turbine> It's a design decision to have it on shields alone.

Crowley@turbine> Mind you, in the future, Invuln may go on other pieces of armor, but I'm going to take it slow.

Black_h0le3> When will you finally show some love to the Thrown Weapon skill? Perhaps an Atlan weapon or *shudder* Atlan Boomerang! Another suggestion: AC Action figures!

Crowley@turbine> Thrown weapons... Difficult to make a quest weapon out of them, because as soon as you chuck it, it's gone.

Crowley@turbine> Boomerangs, sadly, are not possible with current tech.

Crowley@turbine> We're still working on clever things to do with it, though, beyond the thrown crockery.

sean@Turbine> Actually, we CAN do boomerangs... but they wouldn't come back... and we'd call them "sticks".

sarina_paris> Q: Will there be new spells that are useful as the war bolts n vulns? Something like summon monster (al la Final Fantasy where a monster comes, it cleans house and leaves) or multi-bolt combo spells or multi-elemental spells. . .

sarina_paris> Mages seem to not get hookups. New mag resis enemies, melees: new armor, atlan, hollow archers: gem quest & comp bows. Wands/stuff are cool, not as useful as new spells. Matty Robes were useful, but only way is Ebay or trade scints for them. And the new s

nei@turbine> new spells are useful as vulns...

nei@turbine> no.

nei@turbine> as useful as bolts... i hope so.

nei@turbine> there are a couple of thingies on my board (well, it's now a pad of paper..) that i want to get in...

nei@turbine> a goodly portion of which benefit mages.

nei@turbine> both in spells and in other ways...

msauper> Q: When creating a character, why don't you allow any unassigned skill credits to be carried over into the game?

rei@Turbine> (Hmmm, think this has come up before a long time ago)

rei@Turbine> It was a decision made long ago.

rei@Turbine> I think it has a lot to do with saving up skill points and not getting any lightweight skills....

rei@Turbine> As Charley says, "it would make tank-mages much more possible"

rei@Turbine> Done.

blackdog60> What are the chances that war spells will get some minor degree of tracking added to them? Easy to strafe war spells when you know it is coming

blackdog60> I suggest adding Bunny (White Rabbit) footy Pajamas, that require x number of bunnie hides. Casting Furryness VI, Jump Mastery VI.

nei@turbine> bolt/streak pathing isn't going to be improved....

rei@Turbine> Sean has ideas for white rabbit rewards. (done)

PeonSanders> In regards to the vaguely mentioned bow loving... which role do you want to put archers in - as better tanks - or something that restores them to a position where they don't have to tank... I'd prefer the latter personally its much more realistic...

nei@turbine> well, optimally, archers should be the ones getting the kill before the monster gets to them (not perching..)

nei@turbine> so that's the way i've been looking at the "problem" with high level archery...

nei@turbine> this is not to say that we want archers sitting up on walls... just that i'd rather see them be able to kill said target (or otherwise neutralize. what's that mean?) target before it's a problem.

EC_CoLDFiRe> Will there be new clothes in asherons call? I want some mage. And maybe you could put in some formal dinner gowns and tuxedos. And some other types of clothes.. and a store that lets you buy any color clothes u want... etc.

rei@Turbine> Ketnan's Clothes Emporium?

rei@Turbine> Err, Ketnan's Emporium of Clothes

rei@Turbine> Um, actually, look for some of that soon....

rei@Turbine> But I don't think tuxes are something Isparians know about.

Crowley@turbine> they are crass and indolent peoples.

rei@Turbine> i.e., look for stuff that goes with cutseys relatively soon.

ZeN_NeZ> Q: How about puttin in new wands that used no mana and did no damage so we could have games of 'tag'? You could even evolve it into a seperate mini-game inside the game for fun.

nei@turbine> well, that's an interesting question...

nei@turbine> i actually want to put in sort of sub-game kinda of things... having tag wands is another intersting one to toss into the bag

_BWebb_> Can I have a job? I have absolutely no employment experience...I am rusty on my C,C++, Perl, etc....I am completely addicted to your incredible game...and I look to all of you at Turbine as Gods.

_BWebb_> Suggestion: Instead of just being an "Adventurer" possibly add in new titles...Archmage, Warrior, etc. and maybe take it one step further and add a prefix such as n00b, veteran etc. which is based on level.

nei@turbine> www.turbinejobs.com

Charley@Turbine> As Jesse points out, we have many positions open, though experience is always helpful.

Asheron10> Q: wondering urrent event is spread out.......is the way to the new dungeons in the game already? or is it happening in the middle of the month?

nei@turbine> as for title changing, yes... trying to make it work right... it's hard to separate a "mage" from a "wizard" and have the game enforce it.

Crowley@turbine> The quest is admin-triggered. We pre-selected a time for them to go off.

Crowley@turbine> The quest will be spread out over the month.

Crowley@turbine> And don't worry... it's not a Nexus. It's not one-time-only.

Crowley@turbine> Keep watching.

beaud> Q: Will it be possible,in the future, to create hearty versions of the chocolate recipes recently added? A Hearty healing chocolate cake that restores, say 65 health @ 40 burden units would be more exciting than hearty green tea ice cream for example.

rei@Turbine> Ummm, recall the description in the chocolate cookbook....

rei@Turbine> But hey, there might be new chocolate recipes discovered someday :)

Clandestinite> hmmm, nearing 3AM here in the UK.... hi all, veteran players are getting very bored, what is going to be done for us? buff-kill-sell try to lvl is all there is.....

nei@turbine> open up a dye store!

rei@Turbine> (Hmm, yeah, I'd like to see what secure trade does for merchants....)

Charley@Turbine> Personally, my high-level character is having a lot of fun with the allegiance system.

rei@Turbine> We're looking into more things, always....

FuzzballMomma> Are there any plans on adding NEW trade skills? You all have done a good job of expanding the current trade skills but it would be nice to see more.

nei@turbine> new trade skills? ... not that i know of, though letoile has a few in mind...

rei@Turbine> Yes, I know people are psyched about new trade skills... people here, too....

nei@turbine> been kicking around a pile of non-trade skills lately.

rei@Turbine> There's a trade-off on trade skills.

rei@Turbine> (I think I'm trying to find new ways of saying, "It's on our wish list but not coming any time soon.")

nei@turbine> not if i have anything to say

_Denali> can you incorporate 0 exp fellowships? or delete the +/- 10 lvls for higher lvl playes as we are all have the same skill lvl anyway?

rei@Turbine> 0 xp = no sharing?

rei@Turbine> Or you get 0 xp while in it?

rei@Turbine> Anyway, it's something I'd like to do eventually.

rei@Turbine> Maybe about the same time as the communication upgrades....

rei@Turbine> It really depends on the budget and schedule.

Olthoislayer> Could you PLEASE change/reset the SoCS quest to something other than a "one-time only" quest, & fix the dungeon w/ Defender 6 ruby? 2 reasons: 1st there are some who, unknowingly, handed the haft to someone else and now that the haft is no-trade,

rei@Turbine> We'll definitely note down the concerns....

rei@Turbine> Thanks for the suggestion.

Crowley@turbine> And future quests will not be like the SoCS

Kromeboy> When will the Lug Hammer be fixed? It currently uses the mace skill, i need a big beatstick to give the Queen some luvin when she pops up.

Crowley@turbine> Lugian hammer should be fixed soon.

Freeze_FF> Has there been any thought as to put in a timer for the amount of time left for a certain spell in the spells in effect menu? And where is my frig'n Level 768 Shadow Cow, that Levitates with no leggs, but smokey utters, and MOO's!

Crowley@turbine> smokey udders are not possible with the current tech

sean@Turbine> Sure they are...

rei@Turbine> Yes, thought has been put into the timers....

rei@Turbine> It's a matter of priorities

Seifer_Rules> nei mentioned i believe in ac mystics that they were getting something new, but didnt elaborate a whole lot. but he said it would make those looking for a comp list happy, as well as those looking for lower burden. please do divulge!

nei@turbine> sorry, no divulgence here.

Crowley@turbine> it's too cool to divulge

nei@turbine> already dropped all the info you're getting from me about the future of comps

Deadlock27> Hey, I was wondering about Tremendous Monougas and other oversized critters...If a mage imperils them will they only hit the foot or hand? because that would really suck, considering people might not hit the hands =). Or would the imperil become really big?

nei@turbine> the spell effect is the same size regardless of the target...

Lilkinsly> Q. Hello, have you considered increasing the MINIMUM (not maximum) damage on War spells, as a possible fix to War? It could be based on casters War skill, peaking at the extreme top, where spec War mages sit.

Lilkinsly> Would not increase max damage, but would make high skilled War mages more consistent. Seems an easier, not unbalancing fix then others suggested.

Crowley@turbine> (this month's quest will be around next month, yes)

nei@turbine> moving up the min dmg... yeah, it's been kicked around... but i'd rather give the spec'd mage types something more (you don't count, xavier...) that just a kick of base dmg.

nei@turbine> kludgey quick fixes are becoming less and less exciting as more of the src tree opens up to designs eyes..

Doh_Jhed_Howi> WHy can't we wear gloves under gauntlets?? Every shop in Dereth has gloves listed as clothing but unlike shirts and pants we can't wear armor over them. is it a bug or by design ??

sean@Turbine> you can wear armor over pants. But gloves are too bulky to put more gloves over.

rei@Turbine> Anyway, we'll have a look.

+Chaos@AC> This concludes tonight's dev chat!!

+Chaos@AC> Thank you all for your participation here tonight. Special thank you to all our guests from Turbine!! You all rock!!!!

rei@Turbine> Thanks a lot everyone :)

Dave@turbine> thanks everyone!