Developer Chat - 2001/05/07

Original Link (now dead) -
http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEdevchatmay1.asp
http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEdevchatmay2.asp

Transcript of Developer's Chat -- May

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May 7, 2001

On Wednesday, May 2, the Turbine team met on AC Stratics to discuss current issues with Asheron's Call and the world of Dereth. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Auz> Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to this month's developer chat with Turbine.

Auz> Again, thank you all for attending, and now I'll hand you over to Azeraphel for the introductions :)

Azeraphel> Hey, everyone. I'm Nik Davidson, Producer for AC, here with my colorful cohorts; Allan "Orion" Maki, community guru, Cardell Kerr, (who just kicked my butt at basketball,) Jesse "devilmouse" Kurlancheek, and Sean "One Man Art Studio" Huxter... with more possibly to arrive later on. Thanks to Auz and the Stratics folks for hosting us tonight - and without further ado, let's get on with the chat.

Auz> *Dennisg* Question: Is there any changes to the Hieromancer Armor in this upcoming May Update?

Azeraphel> For the time being, the armor's "done". Its charms seem to be growing on people.

Xeveniah <Achtung> Are there any plans or possibilities for more fixed outdoor monster spawns? The Lugian commander areas are a huge blast - its like a 24/7 bar room brawl going on. Its an interesting alternative than a dungeon with wall drainers and macroers.

Dell> Actually, now that you mention it, it sounds like a good idea.

Dell> To be truthful, you stand a much larger chance of seeing more outdoor spawns than other OHN's Dungeons that are over crowded tend to be a large hit on server performance, so they are going to be avoided in the future.

Auz> *Archbow* Could the burden of books be lowered? 480 is a bit much, maybe 240?

Dell> Books...

Dell> Okay, it is a bit large, considering what they actually do for you.

Dell> Punishing people for carrying lore on them isn't really in our best interest, so we'll take a look at it.

Auz> *Xitel* Currently, I have to travel all the way to Sawato to get blunt arrowheads. If mages were required to travel to only Sawato to get orange tapers, I think there would be a huge outcry. We archers have been patience enough. Give us our arrowheads!

devilmouse> Quite quite -- "very soon now" you'll see loads of improvements in this area.

devilmouse> I want fletching on my main again. *sigh*

devilmouse> availability up! useability up!

Auz> *CVeRiTy* Are there any plans to change the "You have jumped too recently" message? I understand why this was done, but it doesn't seem like a very practical solution. This has many negative effects on the gameplay, especially when jumping is often used as part of a challenge to a dungeon, but also as part of evading attacks. On a side note, this was a most excellent patch. Thank you for the wonderful features you added!

Dell> The solution was put into game to "fix" godmode.

Dell> Though jumping is fairly important to quests, jumping multiple times in quick succession isn't.

Dell> Therefore, it is my sad duty to inform you that that fix is there to stay.

Auz> *Astral_Dominae_TD* Can you make Trade note stackable please? i hate to fill pack space with D notes , especially since all my mages packs are full anyway. Thank you and keep on doin this great game :)

devilmouse> http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_question.html?id=7031

devilmouse> Your answer lies within...

devilmouse> No, trade notes can't be made stackable, even if they come from the same vendor. There are technical issues that make it impossible to stack these, unfortunately.

devilmouse> The wallet idea has technical problems also -- we can't do this for the same reason we can't give people more backpacks. (Basically, it causes lag.)

Auz> *Thufir* Do you think youll ever implement new trade skills, or melee skills into AC1? Gems are pretty useless right, and alot more could be done with dyes, and hides. Or are you waiting for AC2?

Azeraphel> Well, we probably could. But unless some new skill really added brand new functionality, there's not a lot of incentive to doing so, over appending an existing skill.

Azeraphel> And if we had the brand new functionality, we'd have to think long and hard about creating a new skill rather than adding to existing ones, which would probably impact more players.

Azeraphel> That's the long answer. The short answer is "no". :)

Auz> *ClockworkII* hey I want to know if theirs any plans to change the ratio for magic d from self+focus/7 to say self+focus/6 or something?

Dell> No.

Dell> Part of the whole monster rebalancing that we've been doing is to make magic defense practical.

Dell> Granted, you aren't going to see many people walking into a crowd of umbris laughing maniacally as they get hit with spells.

devilmouse> Like me? =)

Dell> However, when you fight things that roughly your level, you should resist their creature and life spells about 50% of the time if you dumped points into it.

Dell> Heh, not like you DM.... no one is like you.

Auz> *Total_Eclipse* With more and more people casting high level spells have you considered taking out the spell economy, and if not maybe reducing it's effects at peek times when it's really bad?

devilmouse> Taking out the spell economy would only hurt you more.... No economy means no +37 (yes, it's still better than a piece of jewelry, kinda) on critter spells...

devilmouse> On a vaguely related note, the "reversed" economy for some of the life magic spells will have their economy removed "real soon now" so they won't penalize players.

Auz> *kmk`* Staffs only got Atlans, that what I say are the only thing staff has. Will there be a new staff introduced that will make staffers stop having to buffing there staffs, or one that has some Damage modifers that makes it useable, let alone low value, worthy of atlan.

Dell> Actually, we've been kicking around ideas on buffing other melee weapons in a method similar to what dagger and sword recently got.

Dell> This would be a new spin on melee combat, resulting in interesting new combat strategies for different melee fighters.

Dell> No estimated ETA, but it certainly is on our minds.

Auz> <GreenEggs> Are there any major undiscovered secrets in AC? e.g. undiscovered dungeons, crafted items that have never been made etc.

Azeraphel> Heh.

Azeraphel> There's always more than even the l33test of the h4><0rz have found.

Auz> *Gadget