Fix the Sky Rant

Discussion in 'Quests & Lore' started by Bowen Bloodgood, Jan 13, 2016.

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  1. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    I agree with a lot of what Bowen is asking for, in fact all of it. A couple things I feel strongly about are:
    1. Alignments would definitely be better for the masses if they happen at midnight. It's hard enough to notice alignments as it is and having them with the Sun blinding them from view only makes it harder. If having them align with the Sun is part of the design, then perhaps make them all large enough to have an eclipse so we only see a ring of light around the aligning planets?
    2. I agree that the alignment events should last more than a few seconds/minutes, so the "spinning NB" idea that makes these events last an entire earth day is ideal. It gives players in all time zones around the world an opportunity to take advantage of the event.
     
  2. Drocis the Devious

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    enderandrew does a lot of work with NPC dialogue, and I never hear much about it. Which is the way I like it.

    When I go to the NPC forums I don't see enderandrew arguing with me about lore. Which is the way I like it.

    The developers are accountable to Portalarium and they have a certain level of professionalism demanded of them as paid employees. When they fail to meet those standards (and it happens occasionally) there are consequences for those actions just as there are consequences for people that are not developers that work in the real world at their jobs. But when community members begin to shadow between the "official" word of the developers and their own personal opinions, man do I hate that. I wish those people would just shut up and quietly help the game without pretending to be more than they are.

    That's all I'm trying to point out here. No problem with Bowen helping behind the scenes, I just don't want to hear him become some kind of official forum talking head on the subject of astronomy.
     
  3. Moiseyev Trueden

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    With his posts and the times he's put into it, I'd say he probably knows more about the system than the devs do currently. He's my go to official guy for information on that stuff already, even if it isn't like proper "official". 8^p
     
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  4. Bowen Bloodgood

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    You know the funny thing is I'm not even an astronmy buff. :)
     
  5. Drocis the Devious

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    YES, absolutely!

    But as much as I respect Bowen's knowledge of the system...I don't care what his opinion on how it integrates with the game is. That's the line that people often cross. For example, say you're really good at testing the combat system? That's wonderful, I appreciate all your hard work. It doesn't mean you're an authority on how it SHOULD work, your opinion is only as valid as your logical arguments. That's what I'm saying about astronomy. My concern is that some community members take their understanding of current implementation and expand that to "here's why this is great and forget about everyone else that might play the game differently than I do".

    That's why I prefer that community members helping out the devs don't start giving their opinions and their preferences as FACT.
     
  6. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Personally, I can't see Bowen ever coming across that way - and I'm confident that he'd be fine with all confidentiality restraints.
    And by no means should our opinions on any subject ever be discarded as not being worthy of attention.
    Even yours.... :cool:
     
  7. Moiseyev Trueden

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    You just like lore and a good gauntlet toss challenge, right?

    8^)
     
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  8. Bowen Bloodgood

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    I think it's more of a generic concern but I do appreciate everyone's comments and support. *having warm fuzzy feelings*
     
  9. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Damn right! ;)
     
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  10. Bowen Bloodgood

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    @FireLotus

    It occurs to me this thread might be better served in the Quests and Lore forum? Would you or a moderator mind moving it there? (assuming you concur) Since the sky is part of the lore?
     
  11. Beaumaris

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    My guess is that many crafters might want it to work correctly and visibly if the alignments somehow are coded to affect crafting quality in the future.
     
  12. Beaumaris

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    Is the celestial system there as a major feature or just for visuals?

    If a feature, a front page design blog update on it would be great to describe the intent of the feature.
     
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  13. Bowen Bloodgood

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    At the moment it's purely visual but it's always been the intention that certain conditions would have an effect on the world. What those conditions are have never been clearly defined but the options are pretty much limited to planetary alignments, planets crossing constellations and the positions of constellations and planets in general. The actual effects these conditions have, have also never been clearly defined.

    The way Richard talks about it I think they're mostly just making it up as they go in terms of what effects what in what way. It's like he wants us to discover an 'event' and then they'll figure out what effect it will have or something.

    2 planet alignments happen all the time and none of them really last more than a couple of minutes.. where as nearly all 3+ planetary alignments happen at noon because all planet orbits are whole hours and those orbits all start in the same place.. at true north at noon. So you can't really see them. Any other alignments actually happen behind NB and of course you can't see those either because they're below the horizon.
     
  14. Beaumaris

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    Maybe another way to go about it is for the community to recommend events that should happen with certain alignments of planets/virtues. That may be an interesting exercise.
     
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  15. Tahru

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  16. Bowen Bloodgood

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    That would be an interesting exercise. The actual astronomical events are predictable.. the larger problem is their duration. Anything involving Honor right now for example.. would only last a few seconds because it's the fastest planet up there.
     
  17. Bowen Bloodgood

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  18. Odyssey2001

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    I agree with the OP, I would like at least the foundation to be accurate. I should be able to look up and know that what I am seeing is in itself information about events in the game and not just for esthetics..
    I do understand though others concerns as while they are working on this they are not working on other things, which is why I am with the OP as At least fix some of it so it is an accurate foundation to be build upon in the future..
     
  19. Kara Brae

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    Great job, Bowen!

    Are you referring to the Darkstarr moondial which only a few people have? Or is Is there a moondial that all players can use?
     
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  20. KuBaTRiZeS

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    To me all the OP makes sense. Some alignments may happen during the day, but not the most of them... The sky should be the primary in gmae tool to know about this things... The Starr moondial is an exclusive object that not all players have, so it should be convenient and helpful for those who have it, but the rest of the player base shouldn't be blocked out.

    What surprised me the most is
    Seconds! wow... i can picture it...

    The time has come when the Mighty Sword of the Celestial Powers shall be forged. As the prophecies foretold while the planets are one i'll smith this powerful artifact that will bring down the forces of evil!
    THE MOMENT IS HERE! THE TIME IS NOW! LET HISTORY HAPPEN!
    *Fails*
    Eh... Well... *laughs nervously* This is embarrasing... Are you fellas sure we need that Sword? Pretty sure it wasn't that mighty after all...


    Monty Python approves :D (and i just left out the part where all the astronomers in the realm were blinded just to follow the planetary alignment, scheduled at noon...)
     
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