Chris Spears Reveals All (Or, Things To Look Forward To)

I figured that people who didn't get to attend the Ask Me Anything would like a transcript of some of the questions answered.

I also included some questions answered from a couple of days prior to the Hangout.

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[3:05 PM] Ancev: Are there hidden combos? Think I found one that isn't listed on the combo menu.. wasn't sure if I should report it as a bug or if that's intended design?
[3:06 PM] Atos: My design was you don't get to see combos in that list until you execute it once.

[3:07 PM] Atos: Post July currency will change to physical objects with tiers
[3:09 PM] Atos: Current gold will become copper coins. Silver and gold coins will be order of magnitude more value

[3:18 PM] Link_of_Hyrule (Shugo Miyamoto): Yeah why don't all equipable items have buffs?
[3:18 PM] Atos: They will and procs as an option as well.
[3:18 PM] Ancev: procs procs procs ❤
[3:18 PM] Ancev: will they be tied to your INT stat or something?
[3:19 PM] Atos: Procs in R31
[3:19 PM] Link_of_Hyrule (Shugo Miyamoto): What is Procs?
[3:19 PM] Ancev: chance on hit to cast spell
[3:19 PM] Atos: Ancev I like that idea. Will mention it but not force it on them.
[3:22 PM] Link_of_Hyrule (Shugo Miyamoto): So wait procs = a chance for an item to cast a spell?
[3:23 PM] Atos: Yes, so you can make a sword that cast death touch 10% of the time
[3:24 PM] Link_of_Hyrule (Shugo Miyamoto): @Atos does the spell the sword casts use Focus from your pool or how does that work?
[3:24 PM] Atos: Probably free but weaker.

[3:26 PM] redfish: so we're getting things back like fire swords with flames etc? separate from casting the spell
[3:26 PM] Atos: Yes, fire sword returning.

[11:42 AM] Atos: Mekong Combat will continue to improve post july, including new skills, polish, UI improvements, and new weaves

[11:43 AM] Link_of_Hyrule (Shugo Miyamoto): @Atos any chance we'll see stuff like polymorph, metoror shower, and or that one spell that makes an actual stone wall?
[11:44 AM] Atos: Link_of_Hyrule (Shugo Miyamoto) Polymorph, meteor shower, flame wave, and others are on the schedule. Stone wall is as well but it requires significant work on the AI side of things to make it so it isn't over powered so it has been delayed a few times

[1:39 PM] Atos: user, for clarification on the coin change thing. First, totally unrelated to Crowns and also, not guaranteed to happen but if we do it, here is how it would probably go. You would log in and find all your gold, converted to copper and it would be an item in your inventory. Copper would be the base/lowest currency. 1 silver would be worth either 10 or 100 copper. 1 gold would be worth either 10 or 100 silver. It would have zero weight on the first release but we would warn people that it would switch to having weight on future releases. Bankers would freely change copper for silver or gold.

[3:47 PM] Ancev: @Atos - Any idea if the crafting skills will get more granular? Like an alchemist that spends his time making health potions and enchanting might not know much about making poisons, for example?
[4:06 PM] Ancev: ya hopefully there are reasons to specialize.. an alchemist that sits around enchanting stuff all day shouldn't know as much as one that specializes in poisons?
[4:06 PM] Atos: Ancev I believe it is scheduled. Maybe befire July but it was one of those things that we decided players would think is cool to get added post wipe as well

[4:09 PM] Atos: Lots of skills will likely get add post july and forever really. I know combat will be expanding slowly over time

[5:25 PM] Katrina Bekers: speaking of which... what about cover? scheduled for when? that'll be a game changer (and possibly, will turn archers in OP murdermachines)
[5:29 PM] Atos: Cover will get in there. challenges are content design and AI, not player related.

2:50 PM] Link_of_Hyrule (Shugo Miyamoto): @Atos When will we see more of the death punishments in-game? ie dieing and having to recover loot you got in the scene before you leave it.
[2:51 PM] Atos: Link, we probably won't do loot left on corpse, EQ style. Too many CS issues. Players dying and corpse going poof type stuff

[2:50 PM] smack: @Atos what DX11 or DX12 features are you going to exploit and what performance gains are you expecting
[2:52 PM] Atos: smack We plan on enabling Dx11/12 as soon as Unity fixes a few build issues. Sounds like they might be fixed ina few weeks. Until then enabling Dx11 doubles our build times and is not sustainable. Features include some rendering time improvements, water will be moved to the GPU, and a few post effect improvements.

[2:51 PM] BOTIRC-gw: <Woftam> @Atos Will you increase placeable item limits within POT's so they can start to look more like towns?
[2:53 PM] Atos: woftam, I think we're going to wait for a few more optimizations before turning up limits but I do hope to be able to double them again soon

[2:50 PM] BOTIRC-gw: <Baron_Drocis_Fondorlatos> Question: Chris (Atos) All PVP Zones (POTs and Shardfalls) forcing multiplayer (no single player online or friends only mode)?
[2:55 PM] Atos: bdf, shardfall plan still under discussion. Hope to make the switch to multiplayer by july

[2:51 PM] Ancev: @Atos - How many levels deep can a dungeon go and still be considered one instance?
[2:57 PM] Atos: Ancev Not sure how familiar you are with the Rise but I have a dungeon more than twice that size that runs great. Starr is not letting me work on it because I always have a million things to do that are more important but someday I'll get it live

[2:52 PM] Jynx: @Atos will maple and pine trees eventually have seperate skins?
[2:57 PM] Atos: Jynx No clue on whether or not the will have different skins for the trees. Didn't know they shared

[2:53 PM] Cirsee: @Atos Is there any plans to make magic tress a bit more indpendant of each other or were they designed to work together?
[2:59 PM] Atos: circe, magic trees were never really thought in terms of trying to make them such that you could be super effective by just mastering one. We have more than 100 spells but still not enough per tree to make it work. We will continue to expand them

[3:02 PM] Cirsee: @Atos is there any chance of getting wands to be a ranged magic thing again?
[3:07 PM] Atos: Cirsee Wands still need love but we don't intend for them to be infinite bolt casters again. Maybe we can make that something where you enchant them to do that and damage them but currently that wasn't the plan but I could see it happening

[3:04 PM] tyler180: @Atos you mentioned just ice field was nerfed, but icy breath was also cut in half. was that unintentional?
[3:09 PM] Atos: tyler180 All ice skill SLOW values were cut to be nonlinear. The way they were setup it was not hard to get it to 100%+ slow value and effectively paralyze creatures for minutes at a time. Sorry for the nerf but that math was just wrong

[3:06 PM] Archer: @Atos while your at it then, tell them I want a Linux client to work on games with!!
[3:09 PM] Atos: Archer they have a linux client for Unity but it is in beta-ish state and kind of clunky... just like the client builds!

[3:08 PM] Amberraine: @Atos AMA Question - When will spoons be wieldable ? Possible for a head bonk emote ?
[3:10 PM] Atos: Amberraine Hah! I'll mention to Bzus to hook up the spoon for attacks. I'm pretty sure he will ignore me.

[3:09 PM] ☥☥ kristof ☥☥: @Atos How about adding charges to wands?
[3:11 PM] Atos: ☥☥ kristof ☥☥ We talked about that, being able to charge up a wand, but decided to pass on it for now because of difficulty in balancing power. Lots of casts with no focus cost gets cra cra in some situations

[3:10 PM] tyler180: I'm much less concerned with the slow on ice field, but the soothing rain went from useful, to not worth using at all
[3:12 PM] Atos: tyler180 I didn't think I modified soothing rain but I will look into it.

[3:11 PM] BOTIRC-gw: <Baron_Drocis_Fondorlatos> Chris, Question: I haven't played this release but assume Skeletons and Liches are still completely worthless as you level up. Bug? Fix? Plans?
[3:13 PM] Atos: bdf, I think improving drops on everything, not just skeletons and Liches, was supposed to be that loot balancing pass part that got bumped due to crafting overload

[3:12 PM] Cirsee: Yeah but you can swing a sword with no focus costs as well or any other weapon for that matter
[3:13 PM] Atos: Cirsee Yes, but we have to choose to make wands a powerful focus item or a crappy bolt thrower. We thought it was more meaningful as a focus item.

[3:13 PM] BOTIRC-gw: <CrazyPhil> With the socketing that Starr talked about... wouldn't wands just work the same way?... A short ranged bludgeon that procs a spell?
[3:16 PM] Atos: CrazyPhil, the Proc'ing will just be a smallish chance would feel weird to whack some one with a stick. flashbacks of Harry Potter sticking his wand in the troll's nose. Not what a good wizard would do...

[3:16 PM] BOTIRC-gw: <Baron_Drocis_Fondorlatos> Chris, Question: Will NPC guards provide any type of protection to players before final wipe? (i.e. will they attack players in combat mode as a very basic form of protection)
[3:17 PM] Atos: bdf, I don't think guards will provide protection before final wipe but yes, eventually

3:16 PM] Jynx: @Atos Please give some love to Sindariya 's question: <Sindariya> Question for @Atos : Any news regarding the handling of taming whistles? Will they be threaten like normal armor and get enchant and break?(edited)
[3:18 PM] Atos: Jynx Sindariya I believe taming whistles should be good for hundreds if not thousands of uses before breaking but yeah, I think they are set to currently break at some point. Not 100% sure though as I'm not a tamer.

[3:17 PM] Monkeysmack: Any chance we can get a more passive stance for mages instead of the "im going to whack you with my wand" stance?
[3:19 PM] Atos: Monkeysmack I've considered a mage type stance, like the fighter stances. Basically slows you greatly or locks you in place in exchange for more magic power/focus regen
[3:20 PM] Jynx Atos mage type stance also for archers?
[3:20 PM] Atos: Jynx Archers already get a stillness bonus!

[3:21 PM] BOTIRC-gw: <Rofo> Question: can you explain what is happening with Pledge reward equipment Known issues says max durability affected, but leaves unclear what that means
[3:22 PM] Atos: Rofo I have no clue. My suggestion was pledge items were modest quality BUT never lost max durability. Not sure what was actually done

[3:22 PM] BOTIRC-gw: <Woftam> @Atos Will you put limits on how many items you can place in chests/trunks?
[3:23 PM] Atos: woftam, Yes, someday there will be a limit to number of items and number of chests but it should be pretty darn hit

[3:23 PM] Envy: @Atos Is there a view to put things that only drop in PvP Zones......akin to the Champ Spawns with powerscrolls on UO?
[3:25 PM] Atos: Envy Yes, I still hope to put some crafting elements that drop in PVP areas only or at least mostly. Currently I upped the Crown drop rate in the pvp areas a bit

[3:25 PM] redfish: @Atos, are there plans for rare spawns that are made rare in the same way as the CotOs are? Like a rare orchid that can be used as a reagent which only rarely spawns in a swamp, at a metered rate, to ensure its rare?
[3:25 PM] Atos: redfish yes, some mobs will only spawn once and not respawn for large time if killed in any instance. More boss mobbish type stuff.

[3:25 PM] matheryn: @Atos so does port still need dev+ unity item designs for ingame and also will there be more pet\npc slots allowed on plots
[3:27 PM] Atos: matheryn right now the guy in charge of requesting stuff from the community just wants to focus on getting past July. We'll probably do more community stuff after that when we have a lasting in game community

[3:26 PM] Ice Queen: Question: Crowns drop in single player online/friends online/and multiplayer aye? or does one mode have a better drop rate?
[3:30 PM] Atos: Ice Queen Crowns drop in all modes equally but gated by a master server

[3:29 PM] Cirsee: @Atos You may have covered this one in a hangout way back, but I am a late comer to the game. Can you give me detail on what you planned for combat and what you are actually able to accomplish for Episode 1? More of an interaction, interuption, healing crowd control.. that general group scenrio.
[3:32 PM] Atos: Cirsee My goals for Combat for episode 1 are a bit fuzzy because we don't have a cut off point for when we start calling stuff ep 2! Post July and post firestorm that will surely come after July, I plan to get back to adding a few new combat skills a release and a number of weaves/combos. I plan on continuing balance work as well since players will be taking it more seriously post wipe.

[3:30 PM] BOTIRC-gw: <Baron_Drocis_Fondorlatos> Chris, are Obsidian Crowns lootable? (even from the add-on store)
3:32 PM] Atos: bdf, Yes, all crowns are the same and all are lootable

[3:30 PM] Justyn04: @Atos Are there updates intended for the clothing on the new female avatar? If no, should I be reporting things like clipping? If changes are coming I don't want to mire down the bug thread.
[3:33 PM] Atos: Justyn04 If you see clipping on the new mode, report it. I think "diaper cloak" is known but other stuff probably not

[3:32 PM] matheryn: wont be any end game content yet as game content is still being worked on for start of game content
[3:34 PM] Atos: Not sure what the end game question was, but we have lots of plans for end game content BUT pretty much all the stuff like end game stuff is on hold until the story is finished and Richard is happy with it. I'm going to try and sneak in some more stuff though

[3:35 PM] Atos: Oh, and crowns will be usable as decorations in next release
[3:35 PM] Atos: Really important stuff.
[3:36 PM] Atos: They will be about 3" across and have markings on them and in 8 colors....

[3:36 PM] Lord Andernut: Chris - for endgame I didn't mean harder monsters so much, as what game-mechanics would there be to entertain players after they beat the quest. I mean - how rare will the rares drops be? Right now the only rare items are items bought from the store that are no longer offered.
[3:38 PM] Atos: Lord Andernut Ah, we hope to keep expanding crafting drops but not so much with just the super rare loot that isn't crafting related. There is actually a whole HUGE end game element that I think has only been talked about at one convention involved a Mastermind puzzle like mechanic for unlocking artifacts.

 

This was talked about during the End Summer Telethon last year during the Guild hour and the PvP hour.

 

a mastermind puzzle?

*googles the solution*

 

Thanks for this redfish. Sometime sit is hard to keep up with all the info provided with the different platforms (web/hangouts/forums/irc/discord etc) especially when you are on the opposite side of the planet

 

You can't really if the puzzle is generated. Although you could code something to allow you to solve the puzzle in minimal moves.

 

I didn't catch this during the AMA. Too much multi-tasking.

That's very interesting and something I hope is unbelievably difficult and perhaps similar to the Ready Player One challenges. Puzzles designed to last for years (perhaps even through multiple episodes). To the victor go the spoils.

 

I really love a good puzzle so i hope they can provide something that can't be spoiled, seems like a lot to ask though to be honest, i don't know the answer to the problem, i'll be impressed if they pull it off for sure. i can't remember the game but it had this great puzzle as a part of some quest, it took me a while to get it and when i went to brag to my friend he laughed at me and asked if i googled it, the answer had been online for years, in the end, even though i enjoyed the the puzzle and the pride of having completed it honestly i felt robbed of its reward knowing that who ever wanted to could just look up the answer and go get the item, such a shame because it was a great puzzle.

 

Mastermind is a code breaking game, where the code is hidden from you, and you take turns trying to figure out the code. Because its hidden from the player, if its also generated and random, there's no way to put the solution in a walkthrough.

http://www.web-games-online.com/mastermind/

 

uhg, thaaaat game lol, i tease, my grandpa use to make me play that game with him lol, thanks for the clarification because my puzzle solving skills failed to recognize you were talking about thaaaat game . not a bad game actually nor a bad place to start for a puzzle algorithm. they still have there work cut out for them lol. but i am interested in seeing it.

 

That reminds me of the hacking game in Fallout 3 and NV.

 

Mhm.
So that's the AMA. Guess I will have to look the telethon recording.
Nice ideas but not what I was looking for.
Looking forward to further Engine performance updates.
The magic weapon proc stuff is also nice.

 

~"Red Fish"~!'

~Time Lord~

 

Thanks for posting this, RF.

Looking forward to hearing more on skills and weaving still. I appreciate the idea of mystery in the weaving system. That is cool. The maddening part of not knowing is not being able to make an informed choice for a character path. Just so long as the I training feature works it will be ok.

 

Some UO players might remember the puzzle chests in Khaldun dungeon, same kind of puzzle.
http://uo.stratics.com/content/misc/puzzle.shtml
There are algorithms you can follow to solve them more easily and these will doubtless appear online for any such puzzle, but there won't be a single answer which is always the same (as opposed to something like a riddle looking for a specific response)

 

@Vaentorian,

Yea, and there are are a lot of similar type puzzles. For example, one of the dungeons in the game has a torch puzzle, where you have to have certain torches lit. I don't know whether that's set or random or not; but if its random, you can't look up a cheat sheet either. Then, the type of lock picking puzzles you see in games like Skyrim also if random involve the same type of code-breaking.

 

I'd enjoy any puzzle that requires some sort of calculation/detective work; less keen on purely random 'keep guessing until you stumble on the correct answer'. I don't know which category the torch puzzle falls into but either is better than a fixed pattern that can be hammered repeatedly with no thought whatsoever.

 

@Vaentorian,

I think on any of these, if you're given an infinite number of attempts to reconfigure things, you'll eventually get them right. The way to fix that is to either limit the number of attempts before it resets, or create a cost to failing.

 

Absolutely, brute force will eventually succeed in most cases if you have the patience (or good luck) I just wouldn't want it to be the only mechanism available. If I can succeed in 100 guesses, or else in 5 considered moves, at least I have the option of applying my brain

 

if Gary Gygax was involved failure would result in instantaneous death lol

*shakes fist of fury at Gary* I got your 20 right here!