Fripp we will be starting the conference in just a few minutes, please feel free to talk in #asheron all throughout the conference
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Fripp Hello all and welcome to the first Asheron's Call House of Commons. Today's chat is considered general discussion, so questions of all types regarding to the newly released Asheron's Call will be accepted.
Fripp I will be your moderator tonight, to submit questions to the Developement Team, please /msg Serephina, Steeleye or Prophylon. Please message different question takers at different times to help spread the load.
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Fripp Remember they may not have the opportunity to answer all of your questions. In addition, some questions may not be answered if they feel that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
Fripp Thanks for coming, everyone. We will now begin accepting questions
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Fripp *Falis* while in a group, its hard to watch everyone's life, that was the main thing that discouraged me from using life magic. Its hard to heal with the current grouping system, will something be changed to make grouping more player friendly?
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jason_turbine Yes, this is definately on the list. Being able to actively monitor peoples health makes playing healers much more effective, and there are several ways we could address it.
jay_turbine One excellent suggestion I saw on a fan site was to have your fellowship's hp on the screen. I am not sure if it will make it in, but I am going to push for it.
Fripp *Falis* Will there be a way to communicate will everyone in your 'guild' instead of just patron/monarch/follower?
jason_turbine Fellowship chat is the prefered way.
jason_turbine you can select to talk to just people in your fellowship..
jason_turbine One thing I'd like to see added eventualy would be user-definable chat channels, much like IRC is..
jay_turbine If you mean an entire allegiance, that is hard. what if people are logged out? It may make it in at some point, but no time soon.
jason_turbine That way people could create and subscribe to channels for whatever reason or grouping they need. Again, I have no idea where it falls in the priority list, but it would be nice..
jason_turbine I think he means while online..
Fripp *Dueeliz* What is the best way to report a bug that is viewable in the game. Report it through email (though the bug might not exist by the time they research it), or to call for urgent assistance so the developers can view it for themselves?
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jason_turbine I'm not sure what the process is now that the submit bugs button is gone - I'll try to find out what the process is for everyone. We are in the process of setting up various forums for users to comment on dev ideas, etc in the future as well.
jay_turbine I would say include a screenshot if you can.
jason_turbine if the bug is urgent (your stuck, etc) then use the in-game help to get an advocate to help you if they can..
Fripp *samscam* I was wondering if you are planning to add a freelook option to first person view. I think it could be very beneficial in combat situations.
jason_turbine Unfortunately, it doesn't really work with the rest of the UI. You have to be able to click and drag, as well as click on the targets you wish to use or fight, and that doesn't really work with a true freelook mode.
jason_turbine what you can do is press the right mouse button and move the camera view around to your liking..
Fripp *Arp* Here a question, I wonder if there is any chance to get allegiance member colored with a unique color. I would be great to make encounter with allegiance memeber more easily
jason_turbine I'd like to see that done, and it'll be expecialy important if we do allegiance wars or systems like that. One thing thats hard though is that we don't have many colors left that are easily visable on the radar..
jay_turbine It is hard to do right now due to the way we keep track of the allegiance. We are talking about moving in the direction of allegiance wars, and if this happens, you will almost definitely see that feature.
Fripp *Varn0keth* How soon do you Expect players to Break the Level 100 Limit ? And What plans do you have to Keep players this high, Enthused about the game?
Stormwaltz We've already heard reports of people reaching Level 20 through camping.
jason_turbine Dr. Jay will now render his best mathimatical estimate.. Dr. Jay?
Stormwaltz Which is naughty. :)
jason_turbine and it's everyone's job to try to beat him.. haha..
Stormwaltz There are plans under consideration to add higher-level play to AC. I think most would agree the game needs it.
jay_turbine It will take a number of months to do (9?) as for what to do, we would like to add more difficult adventures for the "advanced" player. We concentrated on the lower levels for content so far.
Stormwaltz It's a matter of budgeting time and money (like most things)
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jason_turbine hmm... That might be a little too short though, even with some of the 14 hours a day adicts out there..
Stormwaltz Speaking vaguely, possibilities include the obvious (like higher level bad guys)...
Stormwaltz ... and encouraging PK more - that makes its own play. Other stuff is in the air.
jay_turbine I could be short. It may be a year. It gets harder and harder. Levels are polynomial to the 5th power if that means anything to you.
jason_turbine well, I'd like to see the NPK/PK lines have fuzzy areas in-between. The switch is often too drastic for most to make right now..
Fripp *Wrathgar* What can you tell us about the inclusion of more trade skills? Yeh or Neh? Details? Something? Anything?
Stormwaltz DEFINITELY. :)
jason_turbine Can't tell you anything except that we really want to do more.. haha..
Stormwaltz By all means, expect more craft skills. That's one of my personal crusades - as PK is Jason's.
jason_turbine the three we have now were a nice test of how we'd like to set them up, I think.. I like the interaction between the skills...
Stormwaltz Yeah, the reason we only have three was because they were kinda-sorta last minute.
Stormwaltz We heard a lot of people wanted them, so we did the system.
jason_turbine well, in reality we figured out an existing code path to do them which made it a lot easier..
Stormwaltz The three we did are only the beginning. I couldn't give you a specific list of what to expect, though.
Fripp *Kaishen* What are the chances of houseboats being put into the game? That would solve the outcry for housing, but at the same time prevent the beautiful landscape from being cluttered.
jay_turbine None unfortunately. The problem is that they move. Now in order to have a software renderer, we couldn't have z-buffering. Which means moving houseboats were way too hard. Don't expect to see them unless we cut the software engine.
jay_turbine Unless stationary houseboats are ok. we can do those.
jason_turbine luckely the AC engine allows us to stream in new landscape, so we could expand the landscape and have housing areas if we decide too.
jay_turbine we could also do houses over the water at some point.
Stormwaltz We've brainstormed on housing, but like most things, we can't promise.
jason_turbine I think I can safely say that everyone wants to do a housing system though..
Stormwaltz *cough*
Stormwaltz I'm not a fan of housing myself, but I agree it should be done if possible. :)
Stormwaltz I guarantee you won't see UO-style condo tracts if it comes to pass.
jason_turbine really? I think it's cool myself, but only if done right - ie: no urban sprawl all over dereth..
jay_turbine We don't want to spoil the landscape :)
jason_turbine jay worked too hard on it.. haha..
Fripp *Falis* will there be taverns that are 'pk' enaballed for those bar-room brawls? :)
jason_turbine man, people don't use the taverns enough as it is ;)
jason_turbine no plans on that currently..
jay_turbine I haven't heard that idea mentioned before. I don't think it is easy tho, unfortunately. I have heard some talk on being able to "duel" tho.
jay_turbine In other words, some kind of 1 on 1 fighting. Don't know if we will see it or not...
Stormwaltz Would be cool if you could intiate a duel mode by setting a pair of gauntlets on the ground. :)
jason_turbine or slapping you with them.. whack..
jason_turbine haha
Fripp *Jaiph_Windlass* Question: Is Mircrosoft going to release some info regarding AC and overseas players? Ebworld says MS has placed a ban on exporting AC, yet some places *are* shipping it. There's a *lot* of confusion out there among overseas AC addicts about what is going on....
jason_turbine We're pretty out of the loop as to whats going on with that. MS is our publisher, and it's up to them to handle the retail channel roll out.
Stormwaltz Honestly, we can't answer that at all. Sorry.
jason_turbine I'm sure they have valid reasons, but I haven't had enough time to find out what they are yet..
jay_turbine I will mention it and get a discussion going on the problem. I have already griped about the "requires a credit card", I am hoping on that one.
jason_turbine it would be nice to allow other forms of payment, but I have no idea how much work setting something like that up would be..
jay_turbine that is the problem. I know it is being discussed by the bigwigs tho. We'll see.
Fripp *VioletWand* Will monsters be able to spawn in mixed groups? How many people were involved in this project?
Stormwaltz They already do spawn this way. For example, Virindi can be found with Tusker Guards.
jay_turbine It is usually the case that they are the same for "consistancy"
jason_turbine fire elementals actualy spawn other monsters to thier aid.
jay_turbine You don't find cats and dogs sleeping together or some such.
jason_turbine only raining together..
Stormwaltz Right now Turbine is about 50 people, I'd say. If you want to see the complete list of people involved, just look at the credits.
jason_turbine actualy, look at the credits all the way through *twice*
jason_turbine but it started with 4 in an appartment..
jay_turbine mostly we were around 20-30 while most of the game was made.
Fripp *samscam* Are there currently any plans to include any form of voice chat to AC?
jay_turbine Not presently. Someone one the zone showed me this site to get a program that does it for you. It sounded really cool.
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jason_turbine Not currently - however you can use voice chat programs with AC if you want. One problem with voice chat is it doesn't fit into character well. I'd love to do a system where users could define a voice for the character and voice or chat gets converted into that "characters voice"
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jason_turbine however, tech to do that doesn't really exist yet - or it sounds pretty bad..
Fripp Do the attributes have any influence on the amount of damage you do or how often you hit, besides then through the skill level? In other words, does it matter if you have 10 strenght and 90 coordination for the swords skill, or 90 strenght and 10 coordination. The skill will be the same, but will the effect be the same?
Prophylon (C) Prophylon =)
jay_turbine Strength very directly affects your damage. You have high enough strength and you will twice the damage. The exception is dagger and bows. I think coordination increased damage for those.
jay_turbine The guide probably details all that (I have yet to actually see it myself).
jason_turbine the weapon skill affects what your able to hit..
jay_turbine Your skill effects your chance to hit and chance for a critical hit (which is big)
jay_turbine critical hits are why you will sometimes do lots-o-damage TM
Fripp *Wrathgar* I know that the history has something about a floating island, is that possible in the rendering engine, or just a part of the story that will never really materialize in game?
jay_turbine It is possible. There are some restricitions, but it can be done. The biggest problem is that it would "pop in" to existance when you were a quarter kilometer away. I hope the artists make one at some point. It would be cool.
Stormwaltz That's some of Teg's old concept sketches.. I don't know if it should be considered canon. :)
jason_turbine I hate the effect of distance clipping planes.. so I usualy avoid stuff that causes that effect..
jason_turbine bob bowrest, retired from IRC
Fripp *Lester* Do you guys plan on taking out all death penalties for PvP? I think that spoils PvP to allow penalties like that.
jason_turbine Well, I personaly pushed for lighter death penilties on a PvP enabled player as part of the reward for living in a harsher environment. I personaly felt that they should loose less items when dying than a NPK player, since they risk death more often in some ways.. That was back when they lost everything..
jason_turbine Instead, they now loose the same as an NPK - and we're gonna put some other perks in for PK's in the future, but not as radical as I wanted.
jason_turbine As for PvP death - it will always have the same penilty as a PvM death
jason_turbine since a monster, for instance, could take you down and another player could finish you off. It's easier to just treat death as death, than try to figure out how you died and ajust the penilty..
jay_turbine This has been decided by the game designers after much debate.
jay_turbine They feel the present system is the good.
Fripp *Soulreap* Will there be new schools of magic? (Necromancy - hint, hint) ?
Stormwaltz It's certainly possible. I've received some very intelligent suggestions on how Necro could be worked into the existing spell mechanics.
Stormwaltz You've probably noticed that the dead sleep uneasily in Dereth...
jason_turbine yeah, they sleep with the lifestones.. haha..
Wrathgar lol
Stormwaltz ...and for the moment, let's leave it at that. But I'm all over the undead. Erm, so to speak. :)
jason_turbine eww.. thats sick man..
Magikar quite
Stormwaltz I've sorta known as the dead guy in the design room.
Stormwaltz Er, I'm sorta...
Fripp *Arp* What role play disco in Dereth History? Is it a way to calm nerves after battle, is it a cult to some gods? ;)
jason_turbine it was our tribute to the best film ever made, the last days of disco (sarcasm)
Stormwaltz Heh.
Stormwaltz Of course, the residents of Dereth would not call it "disco"
jay_turbine I thought the world was ended because asheron hates disco.
jason_turbine games can't be toooo serious.. Besides, gave us a chance to introduce formation taper dancing..
Stormwaltz It is said that in the dark days of the Empyrean world, temples to Light and Sound would appear, and certain degenerate cults would meet here...
jason_turbine and dance, baby..
jason_turbine yeah..
Stormwaltz ...In an attempt to stave off castastrophe with certain ritual gestures, performed in groups.
jason_turbine ah, I see..
jason_turbine now I know.. haha..
Stormwaltz A harmless bit of hedge magic, no doubt.
Stormwaltz Surely the higher castes did not place their faith in such things.
Stormwaltz If you believed any of that, I have this bridge to sell you.
Stormwaltz ;P
Wrathgar ROTFL
Fripp That is gonna do it for this installment of the ACHoC saga ;p
Fripp Thanks everyone for coming to ask questions and give feedback to the Dev Team
Fripp I would like to especially thank Jason, Jay, and Chris for coming to answer questions today
Fripp Logs of the complete chat will be posted soon on ac.stratics.com
Fripp Thanks again for coming, and drive home safely :)
Prophylon Thanks to Fripp too for coordinating this bunch =)
Stormwaltz Thanks for coming, ya'll.
Stormwaltz It's nice to be able to answer some questions. :)
Prophylon Sorry we could not answer all questions, but our time is limited as you might know. Who knows. Maybe next time =)
jay_turbine It has been fun. Remember that we are not the ones actually making the final decisions on the game, so all we say might not come to pass. We are hoping though.
jason_turbinegood night everyone - see you in AC.
Stormwaltz Like all of you, we have dreams of what we hope AC will be. |
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AC House of Commons 11/05/1999