Inscription progress report

It took a heck of a coding marathon and the lives of a million tea leaves were lost to the cause, but the basic structure for inscriptions is complete and fully functional. This means that, on my local codebase:

1. A new item type exists - 'scrolls'.
2. The new command 'read' allows a player to read said scrolls.
3. Players can learn new inscriptions by reading the appropriate scrolls, and view their current inscription tree (or those of other players) with the 'inscription' command.

There's a ton of unspoken detail in there, but that's the basic summary. The reward structure which I've spoken about previously involves, in part, the addition of these scrolls - different quests and events will offer access to scrolls with a wide variety of different inscriptions.

Of course, you don't know precisely what inscriptions are for, yet. That's the (nearly) last piece of the puzzle which I'm working on as we speak - the 'empower' command, which is related to the gibberish clues I've provided in previous entries. Once 'empower' is finished:

1. A player will be able to 'empower' him/herself with... something. :)
2. This empowering provides benefits in and of itself, but more importantly, it allows access to the customizations a player has chosen through learning new inscriptions.

I expect to finish testing of 'empower' tonight or early tomorrow, after which this will all go live in one major update. (I do still need to pretty up the output for these new commands - it's pretty ugly-looking at this point.) There is a strong element of mystery and the unknown built into the system, and helpfiles will be scarce at first, so the Sixth Sense will be a good resource for those of you who enjoy unraveling the intricacies and depths of a new in-game system. =)

Thanks for your support and patience. Back to coding!

Holiday cheer!

Best holiday wishes to all of you! Thank you all for your kind thoughts and concern. I am safely back at home, and hard at work on the system alluded to in the Nov. 14 post. Paper design is done, and I've made a ton of coding progress in the past two days.

In the spirit of the season, as well as the spirit of toying with you all, here's just a few pointers as to what the new system will be about:

1. The gibberish in the Nov. 14th post is part of the foundation of the new content.
2. The name of the Nov. 14th post is significant in some way.
3. Inscriptions.

Enjoy your eggnog; I'll be working hard to get you some much-needed code love!

Emergency leave

I'm sorry to push back the long-overdue content releases, but I will not be able to provide any updates this coming week. Due to an immediate family emergency, I will be unavailable until the 20th. I'll resume working on updates when I return. Until then, best wishes and good health to you all.

Blast from the past

Hi! Here's a quick progress report, by request, on what's working its way through the Nodeka creation pipeline and how far it's gotten.

Last week, I inquired if anyone talented with the pen would be interested in helping me out with room/mob descriptions (one of the bigger "busywork" obstacles for me in releasing an area, as it tends to take me a long time to tweak these). Several people responded (and thank you all for your willingness!); one of those players is now helping me with the Fields of Guidance descriptions and should get back to me this weekend. Once I manage to integrate those, the Fields should be just about releasable.

For the rest of the players who responded, I may be tapping your talent in the future given the numerous areas I have in the pipeline; I'll work it out via e-mail when the time comes, and thanks again! =)

In the meantime, I've been working out the details of a certain new in-game system which underlies a lot of the new content. One of the challenges in designing new content is the reward aspect - once the "new toy" sheen wears off, how do you keep this content relevant to the players? The current setup of the Ruushi Invasion is a good example of a failure on my part to set up a compelling reward system (compounded by the fact that numbers correlate to success in the current setup, exaggerating the inertia of increase/decline in participants). This is a mistake I don't want to make with the future content, and so I'm cleaning up this particular in-game system to interlock with the next few areas' reward structures.

What is this in-game system precisely? I'll talk about it more next week, hopefully after the Fields of Guidance have been released. For now, I'll just leave you with this indecipherable gibberish: ra znv yd sji. =)

A steady hand

The latest update is pretty self-explanatory. =) Speed, at least at high values, is now tied somewhat to dexterity - if you're superloaded on speed but completely skimping on dexterity, you'll start to notice the attack degradation. Only speed-based attacks beyond your dexterity-based "steady attack" cap are affected - having more speed is never a liability. The benefit simply scales down if your dexterity is too far behind.

At the current numbers, the change should be mild for anyone who isn't on the crazy side of imbalanced (say, rocking 1000 speed while augmenting their dexterity down to 200). In addition, the renown additions will provide a constant 5% boost to your incoming xp and gold from now on once you've accumulated renown up to the base of 500. (Assuming, of course, that you don't get pkilled!)

Questions are welcome, as always. It's a super busy time for me - back to work!

We're driving 60 miles an hour

As promised in the MotD, here's a slightly more in-depth discussion regarding the new speed change.

Before this update, entities gained an additional attack at certain speed "breakpoints" (388 speed, 412 speed, etc.) At higher speed values, these breakpoints were absolute - you either had enough speed or you didn't. There was no difference between, say, 320 or 381 speed in terms of attacks; the extra speed points were "wasted".

Now, however, every speed point contributes slightly to your attack frequency. The base underlying "breakpoints" remain similar (for example, about 490 speed will net you about 12 base attacks, just as before). However, that number of attacks is no longer set in stone. For example, at 400 speed, you will usually perform from 10-11 base attacks, with more 11-attacks than 10-attacks. As your speed increases beyond 400, your 10-attack rounds will decrease and your 11-attack rounds will increase, slowly increasing your average. By the time you hit about 440 speed, 10-attack rounds will be rarely seen, 11-attacks will be much more common, and you will start to see 12-attack rounds beginning to pop up. As you approach 500 speed, you'll be doing 12-attack rounds more often than 11-attack rounds... and so on.

The net result is that speed is no longer a game of "hitting that breakpoint", but a stat that scales just as the other stats do. This should make gearing for speed a bit less restrictive, as you won't have the "I can't take off my speed wristband because it will drop me below a breakpoint" problem anymore. If you were previously right on a breakpoint and had more than 300 speed, you may notice a slight decrease (half an attack, or slightly more at very high speeds as those breakpoints were shifted up a few points).

This change was implemented and tested with crafted gear in mind. If things work out as I hope (with balance remaining fair and the restrictiveness of speed easing up a little), I may be able to leave speed gear at its current levels rather than tweaking it as mentioned on the Nodeka 411 discussions. (I have some ideas in store for the attributes that are just slightly undervalued at the moment by many classes, such as hit and dexterity.)

And, in the meantime, the wood-based crafting fix should open up more crafted gear possibilities for you in certain slots (such as caster/finesse weapons). I pushed this particular fix up the timeline because of a serious bug which was brought to my attention by Iron (with a wonderfully descriptive, analytical e-mail, I might add - makes bugzapping so much easier, thank you!). In fixing that bug, I had to rewrite some of the same AI that was causing the wood-based crafting anomaly, so I mashed the bugs together and made an update stew. Now, I need to step away from this little distraction and get back to the Fields of Guidance. =) Thanks for playing, and thanks for your patience - great things are coming, folks!

Everything old is new again

Busy busy busy! Still hacking away at that Fields of Guidance update; it should be pretty soon now. =) There were a lot of underlying issues I had to poke at, and even tasks that sound simple (such as writing the quest text) present some surprising challenges.

In the meantime, I've addressed a few of the current discussions over at Nodeka411, so if you're feeling a little information-starved, mosey on over to these threads:

http://www.nodeka411.net/forum/showthread.php?t=423
http://www.nodeka411.net/forum/showthread.php?t=433

In the not too distant future

Here's a little what's-happenin' update, by request, along with some extra babble (no cost!).

Last weekend's life nova + wild calling + convocation's mark update marked the end of a pretty good run of class adjustments and additions. I'm not done updating base classes yet, but class-based work is on very temporary pause, probably until the end of the month or so.

Touching on the updates briefly - the new daja spells (life nova and unearthly rapture) are pretty spectacular in potential. It took a fair amount of time to get the rapture working right, as it's a pretty unique effect. :) Both abilities reach their fullest potential when used on an overwhelmed target; whereas the rapture is the sicker effect with the longer prevention, the nova is somewhat more utilitarian, as it has a short prevention and can even be used as a running tool (even a single target struck will give the target at least some percentage of holy light attack). Both are useful for granting the daja some breathing room in reviving an overwhelmed ally.

Wild calling and the convocation's mark are pretty unique. Wild calling basically grants the druid access to a variety of targetable buffs, including faerie fire, lateral deterrence, or delayed-action healing bursts... but never more than one at a time. The druid must commit to a specific council when acquiring the convocation's mark, and that decision governs which effect the wild calling provides until the mark fades.

The weeks before that update were pretty intense in terms of adding "shine" to classes that needed it; while the task isn't quite done yet, my focus will be changing for the next few weeks. I'll be working primarily on content updates, in this order: Fields of Guidance revamp, cleanup in Mejath, Invasion additions, finishing the Hallowed Scar, improving the Trials of Karmova, adding the Vl'lakian Ramparts group dungeon, adding more Ruushi functionality tied to Invasion damage levels (gambling?), and finally some crafting system updates.

That's a lot of work, yeah. :) I'm pretty far along in the Fields revamp; I think you should see that coming out in a few days or so. This past week has been spent primarily on designing and implementing that revamp, while adding a few specific features to the mob AI system to support some of my plans for the above. The updates beyond Mejath might fluctuate slightly in order; some will require substantial amounts of time to fine-tune (Scar, Ramparts, crafting) whereas the others are a bit easier to work with (Trials, Invasion), and I might push up the easier stuff if updates become too sparse, just to keep everyone happy with shiny new toys. A lot of the development will be concurrent as well, since so much of it is linked (the Trials affect the Scar, new rewards will be available from Scar/Ramparts which are used in the crafting system, etc.)

The Fields and Mejath are definitely first in line, though. We now have both a sidebar icon and in-forum banners on zuggsoft.com, as well as an icon in new Cmud/Zmud installations; we're also making some impressive work climbing the mud site rankings (keep up the voting at nodeka.com; you're all making a big difference and we appreciate it a ton!). Because of this, our newbie experience is at the top of my plate right now. :)

So that covers the past week and the next few weeks, at least. As always, I'm happy to address any questions or concerns you may have, and thank you for your patience, active voting, and support in helping to bring out the excellence in Nodeka!

A guide to wicked fidelity

Here's a quick guide to the usage of wicked fidelity, for those of you who might not have gleaned all of its quirks and advantages (understandable, given its charge-based nature and prevention).

Each enhanced relic (katar, lance, falx) has its own base lifetime when created (which increases with mastery in wicked fidelity). Thus, if weapon duration is a concern, it is in your best interest to transform your base weapon near the end of its lifetime. For example, if your Lorhu's claymore lasts 12 minutes, you can get maximum usage out of it by holding on and converting it in the 10th or 11th minute; then you'll have a spite-forged falx (which is directly superior to a claymore) for the next 7 minutes (or whatever your personal duration may be).

Enhanced relics derive their stats directly from the base weapon you are transmuting. The better your ataghan/gate-staff/claymore is, the better your enhanced relic will be. The relic's stats are improved from the base stats as well (and the special hidden effect is then added), so a relic will always be superior to its base weapon. (The amount of improvement gained from transformation can also be separately increased with intellect and mastery in wicked fidelity.)

The katar of sublime cruelty's special ability (critical strikes) is dexterity-based. Your dexterity must exceed your victim's agility for the effect to occur at all; if it does, then the critical strikes grow much, much stronger with increasing dexterity.

The compelled shadow lance's special ability is straightforward - resistance and invulnerability bypass. It's one of the only ways in Nodeka to counter invulnerabilities and resistances.

The spite-forged falx's special ability is based directly on current health. If your victim has more health than you, the falx will enhance its damage proportionally to the difference (up to a certain limit). The effect can be quite potent, making the falx great for fighting larger mobs or in any PvP battle where you are taking a lot of damage or fighting larger players. The falx does receive a slight penalty when striking victims with less life than you, but the penalty's cap is extremely low.

Take a number!

I've spent the past week's development time writing and refining a single block of Scar AI code, about 1000 lines in total. In terms of quantity, that's mighty slow work. In terms of functionality, however, it's vital stuff which will make the event run much more smoothly.

The Invasion (that one-weekend diversion) ended up being a valuable lesson in many respects, especially in terms of designing an interface (through mobs such as Christof and Vai-shan) that's efficient and easy to use. (Remember the first few days when Vai-shan would constantly cancel the reward process mid-speech?) A lot of these lessons learned contributed quite a deal to the Scar redesign; these 1000 lines are part of that.

I'll try to have a class update for you (most likely one of: valkyrie, monk, druid, or witch) early next week, probably Monday, just so y'all don't feel too neglected while I pour all of my time into Scar code.

Hey yey yey, what's going on

This is what my upcoming development plan looks like as of 7/10:

- priority 1: Finish the Scar
- priority 2: update the newbie experience
- priority 2a: more class design as August approaches
- priority 3: additions to the Invasion, and a new Vl'lak-related group dungeon

Priority 1 is obvious. Priority 2 has always been on the backburner, but I'm pushing it up the list since we are currently exploring some active advertising avenues to open our doors to new players.

Priority 2a is a constant one, of course, but I intend to work on it a little less until the Scar is released, and a little more afterwards (concurrently with newbie improvements).

Priority 3 is a combination of things: some new ideas I have for improving the Ruushi Invasion, as well as a sort of offshoot/replacement of the Twisted Divide. All of the structural work that I've implemented for the Invasion and Scar gives me a lot more options in terms of group dungeon design, and so I'm cannibalizing a lot of the Divide's old design work and molding something new from it which extends the Invasion story a little further. The Twisted Divide itself will be redesigned farther down the road, once I've had a chance to implement the Vl'lak-related dungeon to see what works well and what doesn't.

Failure to Launch

Failures are part and parcel of design sometimes. Change and new features are always exciting in the short term, but ensuring that these implementations are done correctly makes a huge positive difference in the long term. It sound like hokey folk wisdom, but it really is true.

Unfortunately, being picky about implementation sometimes results in weeks like this past one. Over the past few days, in between settling down from the end of vacation and handling basic administrative Nodeka stuff, I've managed to:

- overhaul valkyrie songs to a group role, add a new song, improve their pet

- implement the trickiest AI section of the mission structure for the Scar

Pretty good deal, and all according to my previously drawn designs. Problem is, I didn't like either of them, and so neither went live.

My problem with the song implementation was part aesthetic and part mechanical. I designed them to be strong and useful while avoiding the obvious pitfalls (example: look, rite of virility for our whole group, now we can pile onto one helpless chump and flank him before he can withdraw). Problem is, in play, the songs felt clunky and a bit contrived, and they all felt very similar to each other as well.

The Scar mission AI was a different beast. It worked, but in testing I didn't like the balance at all. Limitations in my design were making it too easy to get really great rewards without having to participate in much player combat participation at all, once a smart player figured out the system's underlying mechanics. The mechanics are invisible, as with the invasion (and much more complex than the invasion's as well), but even if they worked for now as a "new feature", I didn't want to put them out unless they were really correct for the long term.

Thus, both got the DELETE button treatment, figuratively. In the short term, that sucks - I'm stuck with a small body of work that I don't want to put live, and you're stuck without the immediate updates. In the long term, however, it's excellent news. The experience exposed a number of flaws with my valkyrie song design which will allow me to rewrite them to be much more elegant and rewarding in the end; similarly, I managed to pinpoint a precise set of issues with the Scar design which will allow me to reshape it to fit the area's goals (promote competition, pk activity, and sneakiness in a way which is accessible to players of all sizes) better.

Stand (in the place where you live)

Monk stance revamps are now live. =) The basic martial styles all operate as described in the previewed help file. I'm pretty excited about the tactical space this opens up for monks, and I've spent a lot of time testing it out - I hope I got everything right, but nobody's perfect, hehehe.

I have more stances in testing, but they won't be put on live just yet. Philosophy of solitude may make it soon, depending on some internal circumstances. Philosophy of wine won't be seen until I start working on subclass abilities, as not all monks will get it. =)

Ghoul update is now live too. Hopefully three massive mounds of rotting earth, each sprouting forth 16+ attacks' worth of bloody talons and knee-teething, has enough of a cool factor for those lamenting the old skeleton spam.

I will be on vacation from Tuesday, June 23rd through Thursday, July 2nd. I'll be taking my work with me, so hopefully I can get some Scar progress done in between sun and fun (and I'll have interweb access, so I'll at least get my fix). See you all with more development fun next week!

6S Preview: help martial styles

Martial styles:

These abilities form the basic martial styles:

annulment stance, dragon stance, hao'tien stance, mantis stance,
philosophy of solitude

Some subclasses possess additional martial styles. Any skill that is a
basic martial style will be clearly marked in its helpfile. Basic
martial styles derive their effectiveness from the user's learn curve
and intellect.

Each martial style provides two benefits upon activation:
- A long-term boost to a single stat, lasting ten minutes.
- A short-term "burst" benefit with a brief duration.

As long as martial styles are used in sequence (that is, the monk does
not activate a martial style when another is already active), no
prevention of any kind is incurred. The monk may use the same style
continuously, or adopt a new style when the first has dropped.

The monk may manually drop a style by using the ability when it is
already active. Doing so incurs a 15 minute prevention on that style.

Finally, a monk may choose to devise a "composite style" by
combining multiple martial styles. Whenever a style is stacked upon
another, the monk gains/resets a 15-second timer, during which
more styles may be added. When this timer expires, or when the
monk reaches the maximum number of styles he can combine, the
monk gains a "state of reflection" lock which prevents him from
using any martial styles for a duration based on the number of
styles stacked.

Thus, martial styles provide the monk with a number of options:

- Continuous benefits from one martial style at a time, including a
constant boost to a single stat based on the style selected.

- Alternating burst benefits gained by dropping and switching
styles.

- Full stacked benefits from multiple styles, at the cost of being
style locked for a duration proportional to the quantity stacked.

* bonus tip: Invoking the 'meditative healing' spell will also very
slightly reduce the 'state of reflection' lock duration. This benefit
will increase with mastery points.

Coming up next...

The change to sigil of the undead army has been implemented and I've had it in testing for a few days now; it feels good enough to take it live in the next update. The eight skeletons have been reduced to three ghoul mounds (piles of earth with ghoul claws and heads bursting out of them). They each get a ton of attacks plus a couple of kneecap bites. (I love kneecap bites.)

I've run a lot of scripted tests; the overall damage output of the ghoul mounds is similar to that of the eight-skeleton army at 100% mastery with a good level of willpower. There is a loss of certain advantages (eightfold kicks/impairments/thunderous strikes etc.), but the new version is more scalable with both willpower and masteries and alleviates the item and output spam.

That update will come along with a revamp of the monk stance system, once testing is complete. I'm really enjoying the new monk styles in testing. =) I'll be on vacation for a week from next Tuesday, so this update should come through before then.

Are we there yet?

Where's the Scar? Naw, I haven't forgotten about it. =) The concept is just under a bit of redesign right now. There are some aspects to it that I felt were clumsy, and there are also a number of lessons I've learned from the Ruushi Invasion event that I'd like to incorporate. Just letting you all know that it's still being worked on. =)

The Skeleton Discussion

We're going to chat a bit about 'sigil of the undead army', the major remort necromancer spell which summons (at sufficient levels of willpower) 8 immobile red skeletons to do their master's bidding.

Here's what I am comfortable with currently:
- the spell's concept and flavor is great
- the overall power level and running damage is on cue
- the non-movement limitation and the min sali tra solution is good

Here's what I'm not comfortable with:
- battle and equipment spam
- eight pets' worth of impairments (although skeletons are weak enough that this is a valid but lesser concern)

This spell is an odd one, because its power level is good and its flavor is awesome, but its fundamentals lead to some subtle but persistent problems. Having a group of three players is a simple, common situation which works just fine. Fight a group of three necromancers with their skeletons out, however, and that's already 28 lines of battle text flying by every 2 seconds, minimum. We won't even talk about what an innocent observer's screen will look like if they all decide to equip or unequip their pets together.

It's not a problem of lag or code, Nodeka can handle all of this flawlessly. It is a question of aesthetics, comfort, and keeping battles and inventories clean, however. The harder battles are to understand, the less strategic reaction is possible, especially on a 2-second-per-round scale.

This is the solution I'm considering.
- Change sigil of the undead army from 8 skeletons to 3 thingies (type yet undetermined)
- Maintain all other variables (e.g., the 3 thingies will be rooted and will have a damage output in the same vicinity as 8 skeletons)

This is fairly easy for me to do, and allows for a little creativity and perhaps some beyond 100% mastery improvement. I have heard counterarguments to this solution, however, and I can imagine others. Thus, I'd like to hear your thoughts (especially if you like moonlit nights and casting 'passage of the bleeding moment' without warrior's magical study).

The Dirty Dozen.5

Here is a page out of my design notes (not literally, I've collected the random scribbles and prettied it up for you all): my intended vision for each of the 18 base classes. This is the direction that I'm following as I develop new abilities and tweak old ones for each individual class.

Obviously, I'm not taking any class down a wild, radical development ride that completely flips around their playstyle. This is all based partly on what each class already possesses and does well; I've simply chosen which strengths to focus on and develop. Nodeka's classes are all strong independently - I'm just trying to add some spice, variety, and balance. =) For a few classes, developing their listed strengths will require a bit of rearranging or adding to their skill set; however, no class will be ignored. Trust me, I've got scribbles for everyone.

As always, I truly welcome and value your feedback, questions, and other discussion. =) (Note: the tags following each class name are just my guideline as to what the majority of that class's skills will lean towards; group doesn't mean a class can't solo, defensive doesn't mean the class won't do any damage, etc.)

Barbarian
(solo, single-target, offensive)
Rockin' single target damage, especially against slower targets. Nobody clears an area of hapless chumps better. As a base class, the Barbarian tends to eschew any but the most basic of defensive and reactive abilities, instead relying on their opponent's inability to get back up again. For a hulking brute, however, the Barbarian does have a surprising number of tactical options, especially when he gets the jump on his target.

Druid
(group/stealth, single-target, defensive)
Like the natural world she is attuned to, the Druid is long-lived and patient; her force is sometimes slow to gather, but difficult to deny. Anticipation and planning are key, as the Druid is much stronger as a defensive, reactionary caster than as an offensive beast. Many of the Druid's abilities wax and wane with the spheres of nature, and many are derived from the Druid's choice of haven - a single, stationary sanctuary which serves as a temporary "home base".

Fallad
(group, single-target, offensive/defensive/weaken)
In many ways, the Fallad stands evenly between two realms - healer and crusader, offense and defense, hammer and mind. Fallads are charged with the eradication of evil and the cleansing of its corrupted path. Their mastery of both the physical and the spiritual marks them as stout warriors and valued protectors in their own right; however, it is when facing opposition in its most perilous forms that the fallad truly feels his greater calling. Even the strongest bastion of evil will crumble under the Fallad's ability to intimidate and weaken large opponents.

Footpad
(stealth, single-target, offensive)
Cowardice, weakness, greed - the words that uptight moralists will only spit forth are the very principles that define the Footpad's strength. Fighting face-to-face is for suckers and coffin stuffers - a footpad's m.o. is to bewilder, bleed, distract, and harass until his mark has been dispatched.

Healer
(group, single-target, defensive)
Whatever evil and malice can do, the healer can undo with a word. The path of the Healer is never an easy one, and yet few can stand with such subtle, unrelenting strength in the face of dire opposition. Every spiteful act begins with some small thread of hate, and it is the Healer's talent to find that thread and unravel the offense. A Healer is not necessarily slow to anger, but she is an expert at control; for when reaction and defense falter, the offensive initiative must be taken, and the Healer's status with her deities is such that few pleas go unheard - even those that entail the sacrifice of peace for the greater good.

Hunter
(solo/stealth, single-target, offensive)
The Hunter is a lone warrior- swift, silent, and deadly. While a Hunter may not stand toe-to-toe with an armored warrior or call upon the deep mystical resources that a true magus might, the Hunter is resourceful in his own right, possessing a formidable array of weapons and tools with which to even the odds. Hunters tend more towards the solitary than group warfare, picking their targets carefully and choosing to enlist the aid of their obedient pets rather than more argumentative humanfolk.

Marauder
(solo/stealth, single/multi-target, offensive)
The Marauder values chaos and self-preservation above all else. Confusion reigns supreme over any battlefield darkened by a Marauder's presence; powerful warriors in their own right, they represent certain danger to their foes and a potential threat to their less careful allies, as well. The Marauder holds impressive sway over the darker forms of magic, and they will happily rain destruction down upon friend and foe alike, savoring the chaos and mayhem.

Monk
(solo, single-target, offensive/defensive)
The Monk is, in many ways, the Marauder's opposing counterpart. The Monk values tranquility and order, and his inner focus grants him incredible levels of self-control as well as great strength in both the physical and the spiritual arts. His spiritual talents grant him wide access to abilities in the realm of the protective and the introspective; his physical talents, on the other hand, are the product of endless intensive training and are tied closely to an assortment of physical stances, each of which open up varying offensive options.

Necromancer
(solo/group, single-target, weaken)
Brethren of the shadow, the Necromancers hold little regard for the pathetic boasts and clamorous displays of the physical, except as a source of fodder. While the Necromancer holds little inherent power or physical strength to speak of, their talent lies in the draining and the subversion of other resources. Through dark rituals and sacrifice, the Necromancer can call forth vile fiends to do his worldy bidding, and with a single word he can bring down the strongest champion, sapping his victim's strength for his own twisted purposes.

Ninja
(stealth, single-target, offensive)
Secretive and silent, the Ninja are truly in their element when their mark is unaware and unsuspecting. These assassins combine physical prowess, swiftness, and some unique mystical talents to swiftly dispatch their target before fading again into the night. While the Ninja prefer to avoid face-to-face combat whenever possible, they are formidable fighters in any situation; a Ninja is never cornered for long, be it due to a swift escape on their part or a swift execution of the offending obstacle.

Nojohr
(solo/group, single-target, offensive)
Warriors of the sky, the Nojohr are sometimes mistaken for warriors of the divine. However, the Nojohr holds allegiance to no single deity or religion; the source of their connection to the high realms is unknown, but the power they derive is undeniable. The Nojohr are masters at adapting to various forms of combat, possessing a tactical breadth unmatched by most other warriors, especially in the arena of offensive and hindering maneuvers. The Nojohr usually opts for the physical resolution over the mystical, although their connection to the powers of sky and thunder grants them a variety of otherworldly benefits.

Paladin
(group, single/multi-target, defensive)
The true defender of the righteous word, the Paladin's way is difficult at times, and is sometimes seen as single-minded. The truth, however, is never as clear-cut as people imagine. The Paladin understands this, and every decision made by these holy defenders is carefully considered and weighed. Once a Paladin is set in his conviction, however, it takes an army to bring him down. These warriors of the light possess monstrous reserves of inner strength, and can call upon a vast array of divine gifts in their struggle against evil. The Paladin is especially talented at groupwide restorative and defensive effects, extending these talents to shelter and protect their allies.

Poliir
(solo/group, single-target, defensive)
When the dust clears and the battlefield is finally quiet, the smart money rests on the Poliir as the last woman standing. These warriors have devoted their lives to the study of defense, and little else. In battle, this translates into two benefits: the direct application of defense as it applies to their own form, and the analysis and nullification of the enemy's defenses. While the offensive power of the Poliir is neither blunt nor flashy, it is inevitable, and a skilled Poliir will wear her opponent down slowly and relentlessly while suffering little damage on her own.

Sorcerer
(solo, single/multi-target, offensive/limited defensive)
The goal of the Sorcerer is simple - the acquisition and application of power. The ability of a master Sorcerer to focus consistent destructive magical power at a single target is unrivalled, and limited only by the magical resources of the Sorcerer himself. Inevitably, a Sorcerer's quest for power will lead him into studies of the otherwordly and the extraplanar, and as such most Sorcerers develop a keen affinity for planar connection and travel. The formidable power which a Sorcerer can bring to bear is not limited to the offensive, however; when necessary, the Sorcerer is capable of directing that power defensively, calling forth seemingly impenetrable defenses for short periods of time.

Valkyrie
(group, single-target, offensive)
The Valkyrie is defined by history and conflict, grace and song. In ages past, the Valkyrie was charged with guiding the souls of fallen soldiers to their otherworldy reward, singing powerful hymns and lamentations for the benefit of the living and the post-living alike; in times of great conflict, however, these warriors have been known to descend to the realm of the physical themselves. The Valkyrie derives her power through grace and certainty, bringing her deadly dance to the battlefield while inspiring her allies with resonant songs that provide groupwide offensive boosts.

Warlock
(solo, single-target, offensive)
Masters of mind and body, the Warlock is a peculiar hybrid of warrior and spellcaster. Their supreme mental control allows them to push their bodies to physical limits that would be fatal to lesser beings, while ignoring the pain and ill effects of incoming wounds. The most accomplished Warlocks can extend their mental supremacy into the physical world itself, warping time and creating matter from nothing. Warlocks tend towards the solitary, for obvious reasons.

Witch
(solo, single-target, weaken)
The Witch's power, and indeed her greatest joy, lies in the infliction of various maladies and misfortunes upon others. No other class can match the range and creativity of afflictions which the Witches have painstakingly developed and perfected for their amusement. At the hands of a Witch, the strongest warrior can be reduced to a simpering coward, and even an entire town can be stricken down with but a word.

Wizard
(solo, single/multi-target, offensive)
A master of conjuration and control, the Wizard is an avid student of magic, learning from every source she can read, study, view, or scry. The Wizards' strengths are varied, as they tend to pick up new talents easily from a variety of sources, but they have proven especially adept at extraplanar magic. As such, their talents tend to lean towards wide, far-reaching abilities linked to various planes, as well as the summoning and binding of extraplanar inhabitants to do their bidding.

What about me? Part 2

In light of some of the discussion over the previous post (thanks as always for your feedback!), I thought I'd address some individual points a little bit.

"I'm just afraid that Whim won't get all of the changes in before August..."

I'll be honest with you upfront - I won't. =) There's no way I could do that, because there is no "all of the changes"; I guarantee you that base classes will continue to be developed beyond that point. My intention isn't to rush in a bunch of abilities for the base classes; it's to ensure that each has a fair minimum share of fun, viable, and representative abilities so that players can make an informed decision as to which class(es) they really want to play. I don't think we're so far off the mark; every class has its perks. Right now, I'm simply shoring up the weaknesses that shouldn't be there (keeping in mind that every class does and should have some sort of gap) and trying to ensure that each class is fun in its own right while addressing the more egregious balance issues. The next blog entry will touch on this subject a little further.

"If a subclass needs a quick tweak, why not just do that? What's the big deal?"

This thought process is common to a lot of games, I think, and it's a seductive one (I still catch myself thinking this way quite often). Here are the problems with it:

1. There's no such thing as a truly quick tweak. Any change needs to be thought through, coded (and coded right), and then tested. Testing is huge - I spend a crazy proportion of my development time on local testing, far more than coding or design time (unless you start counting the time I spend thinking in the car or the shower...) Even a seemingly trivial fix can easily be done wrong. "Hey, boot-to-the-head is such a weak attack. Let's boost the damage by 100." Why 100? It could be too much, which could throw the skill out of balance (which becomes hard to fix down the line if players start to rely on it or, worse, to invest practices into it). It could be too little, which would require another fix down the line, turning this process into mostly wasted time. It could even be wrong at its foundation - what if 100 is a good value right now, but the problem is that boot-to-the-head doesn't scale properly with stats? Will it just end up weak again down the line? These may seem like trivial, fixable issues - and in some cases, they are - but embracing the "quick tweak" philosophy too often can easily result in a huge pile of "trivial, fixable" issues, and they add up. Especially when...

2. There isn't just a quick tweak. Is quickbolt - oe naj'k too strong, or watermark of binshou too weak? Absolutely, I would agree with both assessments without hesitation. Unfortunately, Nodeka has (as of now) 90 major remort subclasses, 253 spells, and 270 skills (and growing...) There are a lot of "quick tweaks" out there that need to be looked at, and each person's going to have their own laundry list. In the unique situation we're in now (with an incoming deadline for penalty-less class changes), I think the most important thing we can do is to fix the truly over-strong while accenting the unique - giving players an honest representation of each class to choose from. The underpowered skills and subclasses will be addressed, but they need to be addressed at the right time and with the proper care and attention. Which leads to...

"It makes me sad that my subclass won't get attention until later."

It shouldn't. =) Not getting a "quick tweak" now just means that I will be able to truly focus on and address the issues with each given ability/subclass. That's the difference between a half-hearted numerical tweak (which may or may not address the issue sufficiently) and an actual, well-thought-out attempt to make your subclass interesting and viable.

What about me?

For those of you wondering why the weaker subclasses (watermark of binshou, ACTIVATE!) have not been tweaked yet, the answer is simple - I'm not focusing on subclasses yet. Currently, I'm sticking to main classes and content development.

Why am I doing main classes apart from subclasses? That's another easy answer - the one-time-no-practice-loss-adaptation deadline. Everyone has an unpenalized adaptation only through August 1st, and so I'm trying to touch up the main classes as much as possible before that deadline. Subclass tweaking will come afterwards. =)

Offer up your best defense

Decree of innocence is the second paladin decree I mentioned way back in April; it's a judgement on the same prevention as Decree of Guilt (which has itself been buffed to give the paladin a solid +hit option).

The decrees each play pretty different roles. Decree of guilt is a good "anytime" skill, but it really excels when the paladin or his/her group is fighting multiple enemies; it does good damage and buffs up the paladin's combat ability.

Decree of innocence, on the other hand, is great for smaller paladins, providing a solid way to maintain health, spirit, and endurance to stay alive and keep those holy lights and spiritual attacks active. It's also a nice way to help counteract area damage and bleeds, and to help run slightly tougher areas. Perhaps its strongest component, however, is the lateral deterrence it adds. Currently, in group combat, it's almost always the correct decision to flank a single target (usually a high-offense low-defense character). Effects such as lateral deterrence help to make this less of a cut-and-dry decision.

Creepy Crawly

The crash bug has (we hope!) been fixed, allowing the ogres to raid poor Ruushi with impunity once again.

I've made what I think will be the last of the balance/feature passes through the Ruushi Invasion for the time being. I'm pretty happy with the way it's running now, and so I'll let it sit at an elapsed time of one week since inception. (Apparently my one-night coding impulses employ 168-hour nights.)

Updates this week will begin to focus on class improvements and foundational Scar-work once again. =) As a by-product of being locked into a single development issue all week, I've got a ton of backed up little seeds of ideas for each class to try out in my local test environment. =)

Exit Light

That... was a lot of work. =) This is the problem with my "one-night coding experiments", they always turn into some bigger monster. (Crafting started out as one of these, too...)

I think these upgrades will contribute greatly to the Invasion event. There's more challenge, more options, and a much smarter reinforcement system, among other things. =) Right now, though, I'm going to go contribute greatly to my pillow. zzzzzz

We've already obtained far too much!

Update 5/26...

This is why they kept screaming 'Protect the Warlocks!!!'. =)

Note #1: This is not live yet. Keep your eye on the MotD, I should be able to get this live tomorrow at some point. It's a little diversion I started coding during the weekend between binges of Scar work.

Note #2: This is now live. There are some kinks to work out, especially with NPC response time; I'll work on that tonight. Enjoy, and keep Ruushi safe... if not for the principle, then for the fact that the less damage Ruushi takes from the invaders, the more platinum reward Commandant Vai-shan is able to deal out. =) I'll probably eventually expand on this event by adding desirable merchants and services that 'flee the city' when Ruushi suffers too much damage; that's for the future though.

Note #3: The 5/27 update gave the event a major upgrade. =) Theres a scrounger in Ruushi who'll stick around as long as the city is defended, dynamic scaling so that the reinforcements that arrive are the type of invaders that are most needed for the players that 'run out', there are huge rare-spawn bosses that drop heads that... well, lots of stuff. =)

I haz a flavor

Some abilities are developed from a function-based core ("this class doesn't have a spammable attack - let's give it one"), while others are designed more from a thematic, flavorful standpoint ("man, nojohrs should be able to slap down a whole GROUP of chumps"). The best ones (from a how-fun-is-it-to-design standpoint) are a mixture of both.

I know I've got a flavor-leaning ability on my hands when I realize I'm having way too much fun writing the output, hehe.

You formulate a plan - block the pointy bits.
You formulate a plan - yell louder.

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling

The Scar is complete in the skeletal AI structure, which is very exciting for me. =) That is, I have a live setup which successfully does event initiation, player recruiting, event scoring, player contribution accumulation, event scoring/conclusion, and cleanup. (So basically, I can play against myself in an empty roomdescriptionless area! Whee!)

It'll be even more exciting when I can actually get this live, hehehe. Right now I'm working on the internal AI - the mobs inside the event that provide support, missions and such. Seems like every time I sit down to work on it, I come up with another idea I want to test out for inclusion. =)

I'll still be working on our overarching class/ability improvements in the meantime, as well. The most "complete" partially coded/tested new skills I have currently are for the barbarian, marauder, and paladin, so those are likely to come soon (no promises as usual, hehe). Over-100% masteries are always on the table and in development as well.

Just a quickie

New abilities now live:

Cleave - a little bit of nojohr defense, a lot of glee in large-scale combat.
Immaculate Retort - a simple automatic poliir tactic, designed to wear you down.

Poliir lost a little bit of their burst offense, but gained some good sustained benefits. Life also got a bit easier for small poliir (cheaper focus sphere, and a cheaper awakening of the guard with a nifty beyond-100% bonus...)

The Passage of Dark Summoning boost is a ton of fun, too. The "secret" part is somewhat uncommon, but exciting when it does happen...

Blessed are the cheesemakers

Blessing of the meek is pretty rockin'. =) It's a new fallad/daja spell which basically gives hope to the weak and the face-ganked. It caps incoming damage; the lower your hp, the lower the damage cap, meaning you take less. Works great on folks who are being seriously oppressed, or on people who just don't have a lot of hp training yet. (It's also super-fast preventionwise if used on someone smaller than you.)

It's a really good effect; the recipient can be made pretty resilient at low hp. Because it's a damage cap affect (per attack), massive damage increases such as rite of virility aren't gonna help bust through it much; on the other hand, increasing the number of attack sources (e.g. with radiant awakening or just saving a bunch of kick-style preventless attacks) can ruin their day.

There are other pros and cons to it, but I'll leave it to our friendly neighborhood healer classes to play with. =)

The Scar is coming along. I have the AI in a semi-functional state - it's very exciting to see the gears start to turn in my local testing. It might sound a bit silly, but the point where I can boot up a new event/area and actually interact with the NPCs is always a big deal for me - it's like they're coming to life Pinocchio-style. (I'm sure that's not creepy at all.) Right now, the big challenge is making the whole event reboot-proof (the way the Trials resume after a reboot).

This week, unfortunately, is going to be a heavy one for me in terms of rl responsibilities, and so I'm pretty stuck for time until this weekend; I'd expect the Scar to take at least another week or two before it's release-ready.

After the Rain

Just for those who have been wondering, my short-term priority after the Scar is released will be on class development. I have a lot of new abilities and mastery improvements on the table, and a lot of work to do in light of the recent discussions, so when this area is done I'd like to take a little time to focus solely on that area. And after that - back to the Divide. =)

This is, of course, subject to change on a whim.

The Hallowed Scar

An update on what I've been working on recently:

The AI functionality mentioned a couple of entries ago seems to be working perfectly; as of last Thursday I've completed all of the necessary structure and a good deal of testing. I have not put the code live yet, however; it's a big update and I have the perfect project to serve as a rigorous test before I upload it - the Hallowed Scar.

Thus, I've spent this past weekend trying to get this area into shape. This is the PvP-based Trials extension that I mentioned previously. It's basically an event triggered with each Trial win; completing a Trial grants a rally effect which allows the player to access the event.

The area itself is a fairly sizable zone, with four main subsections. The central section is a small shrine to Illanielle, the goddess of fertility; however, the shrine itself has been damaged and the land around it shattered, obliterated by the dark magic of a vengeful rival goddess, Ashabelle. The dark scar left behind by Ashabelle's bolt carves a deep impassable slash throughout the zone, splitting the land around the central shrine and forking outwards.

Illanielle's shrine serves as one of the zone's four points of control, alongside her militant disciples' garrison to the west, a flattened caldera which once held a great amphitheatre to the north, and a nearby irontree forest stretching to the east. What was meant to be a spiteful, crippling strike on Ashabelle's part has instead resulted in the rallying of the forces of both immorality and morality - the former bent on gloating over the dark side's conquest and looting the remains, the latter determined to extract triumph from tragedy and to demonstrate the resilience and drive of the light.

While the event is active, players with the appropriate rally effect may enter the Hallowed Scar and contribute to the glory of their respective sides. While there are NPCs to interact with (and combat) within the zone, the main focus of the zone is on the players themselves. Simply being present in one of the four zones of control will constantly contribute to the control points which that player's side has accumulated for that zone of control; at the end of the event, the side with the most control points in each zone of control claims that subzone. The side which has claimed the most subzones is the winner of the event. (Ties, in both control points and subzone claiming, are automatically given to the side which won the last set of morality Trials.)

Thus, it is in each side's best interest to occupy as many zones of control as possible while driving out the players on the opposing side. There are no rank restrictions to join the event, since even the smallest player can contribute to zone occupation by avoiding the enemy team (albeit at a slightly slower rate than a high-ranking player); the overall event is, however, rank-controlled to ensure that the total ranks on each side are fairly even. The event will automatically "expand" the rank restrictions to allow more people in if there are players on both sides who can't get in due to rank caps.

I'll save the reward system for another day, except to mention that it's a pretty deep and unique reward set based on accumulating favor (which is earned constantly as a player contributes to zone control, and in larger chunks for the event's winners).

Anyway, this zone is what I have been working on over this past weekend, as both a demonstration and a rigorous test of the capabilities of the new AI functionality. There's a lot to do, but I've also got a lot of it completed and ready for testing, and the new functionality greatly simplifies many of the tasks required. As of tonight, I have the barebones AI nearly ready for testing and the physical structure of the area completely built. Over this week, I'll be working on testing and adding to the AI; once that's done, it's just a matter of implementing the reward system and whipping out the final details (room names and descriptions, etc.) I expect that I will need at least another weekend to finish all of this.

Your over-100% mastery discussions are not falling on deaf ears, by the way! We have already gotten a lot of great feedback from the players, and we look forward to more. I can promise you that of your feedback, absolutely zero percent is being overlooked or ignored; even if I feel initially that I disagree with your analysis, I am still making the effort to check the code and test out your observations locally, and sometimes that ends up changing my initial opinions. This takes time, but we will get to every class. I've got a lot of exciting plans for all of the varied classes of Nodeka, and all I need to let them unfold is a little time and your patience. =) Thanks for your support, folks!

Masteries beyond 100% - discussion #1

Ok, this particular entry has a very specific purpose. We'd like to use this entry as a collection tool for abilities that you feel are not scaling properly beyond 100%.

As per the 4/30/09 MotD, we're trying to move Nodeka away from the "class change of the month" model and a little more towards personal investment and individuality in each class. Since ability clearing will have a steeper cost associated with it, the balancing of abilities which scale beyond 100% mastery will become an even stronger focus for us.

This is where you come in. If there is a scaling ability which you feel is too weak (or strong), you can place your explanation/argument/analysis in a comment here. Obviously, I cannot guarantee that everyone will agree with your analysis, but I can guarantee that I will take a close look at every well-constructed explanation (and even some of the more scattered ones).

I will be happy to look at the code even if you suspect something is off-kilter - I understand that not every ability is easily tested.

If this thread grows too cluttered, I will start a new one. =)

Math is hard

Last night and today were spent on a bit of a diversion, but an important one.

In working on the Twisted Divide AI, I kept thinking to myself that it could be implemented much more cleanly with a certain piece of AI functionality, which I'll call 'X'. The desire for X is far from just an isolated random wish, however; all of the more complicated AI I've designed (crafting, the Tabernacle, and the Trials of Karmova) tries to "hack together" a form of X with our current tools (which are by no means meager, by the way - Nodeka has some crazy strong AI).

It works, but the problem is that things get really complicated. For example, the live crafting mob AI alone (just the handful of mobs with the portion of the crafting system that is live) is over 200,000 lines long. When things go wrong, sometimes it can be REALLY tough to figure out where the issue is. (For example, the crash issues with the seasonal quests last Christmas, or that pair of morality Trial bugs that still pops up from time to time.)

As my plans for the Divide expand, it has become apparent to me that it would be a huge benefit if I worked on implementing X first. Having X would greatly simplify my work on the Divide and just about every other piece of future AI I've been planning.

Thus, my current focus is on adding that AI functionality. I've already implemented the base, so right now I'm in testing and bugsmashing mode.

The flipside to this is that, if I can get X working, it would enable me to easily finish up a pvp-based Trials extension that I've had on the design table for a while now - much sooner than I could possibly have the Divide ready. Thus, I may work on whipping that out for you in the near future. If I can get X working soon, expect an entry by this weekend chronologically outlining the details of what major area/event based additions to Nodeka will be coming next.

Back in action

Vacation's over! I've updated live with a few mastery-over-100% improvements (stance of symmetry for you monk lovers out there, and shadow cast for those who prefer basements and shady alleys).

Work continues on the Divide. In the meantime, the next live update will likely be mastery-over-100% improvements for some subset of: druid, nojohr, sorcerer (simply because these are the most thoroughly tested updates I have on local so far.) Keep in mind that it may not be all of the above at once, and I'm going to fit the new paladin stuff in there somewhere as well.

I have some cool stuff tested for valkyries as well, but despite their handful of issues, they do have some excellent scaling beyond 100% with their current skill set. To be honest, I have a lot of potential abilities that are simply on "indefinite hold" simply because their base classes scale exceedingly well - classes such as warlock, poliir, marauder, and the like. Should I be looking at reining in the more egregiously overpowered skills so that I can develop each class on an even keel, or simply let them slide at the cost of a drought of updates for those classes? A tough dilemma. Thoughts?

A Little R & R

I'll be off on vacation for a week, from today until next weekend. I won't be able to implement updates on the road, but I'm bringing my Twisted Divide work with me, so progress will be made there. Once I'm back, I'll have some beyond-100% skill improvements implemented as well, so that we don't have too large of an update gap.

I'll also be coming up with some potential topics of discussion for this blog. If you have any burning issues that you think should be the center of a focused public discussion, bring them up here and I'll add them to the list of candidates.

Decree of Guilt

The aforementioned major remort paladin skill is now live - Decree of Guilt. It's a short-range (three target) AoE attack with a twist: it will only strike enemies that are attacking the paladin or his/her groupmates. (Thus, it's much safer than abilities like Fury, but by the same token it can't be used to initiate a path of destruction on a room of smaller mobs.) It also buffs the paladin's +dam increasingly for each target that it hits; thus, the bigger the enemy force s/he's smiting, the greater the combat benefit s/he receives.

The second base major paladin remort ability will be a second Decree on the same prevention with a different role. This is already designed, but it may not be the next update, since I have a lot to work on. Now that this is live, I'm going back to working on the new area (the Twisted Divide) for a bit. Feel free to drop a comment if you have feedback or concerns about the new Decree.

Evildoers, beware

Finishing work on a new major remort paladin (general) skill for the next update; the skill is fully functional locally and so I'm just spending time on balancing the numbers.

Paladins have some interesting issues on the design board. My estimation of the class is that they are pretty strong in their warrior role; they have some very powerful pk tools and White Dragoons especially eat evil opponents alive. Dragoons are also no slouch when it comes to running.

However, paladins do lack some of the more exciting scaling factors beyond 100% that other classes enjoy, and I think they lack something in the "feel" department combatwise. They also suffer from a mild subclass imbalance (mild in comparison to some of the more severely deficient class tierings); while 4 of their 5 subclasses have fairly decent talents, Dragoons outstrip all of the others in practical functionality and power.

Addressing these issues can be tough when taking into account the fact that they're already fairly strong as a baseline class. The upcoming skill has been designed under the framework of this assessment, with several goals in mind:
- Add another tactical option to paladin combat; add another scaling option beyond 100%.
- Address the subclass imbalance.
- Do so in a satisfying way without overpowering a strong class.

The skill itself won't do all of this alone; it is, however, a first step in a series of future paladin improvements that will shoot for these goals. It will eventually compete with another new general paladin ability on the same prevention. Both of these are general paladin abilities, not subclass-specific; however, I need to implement them first because my plans for differentiating and polishing the paladin subclasses will be partly related to this pair of new abilities.

Pleased to meet you

Welcome to the Sixth Sense! This blog will serve as a point through which Nodeka's players can access the latest news, ideas, and upcoming developments regarding the Nodekian realm. This blog is run by Whim (responsible for world/system design and artificial intelligence).

Having a spot through which I can keep you all updated on ongoing developments and foster further Nodeka-related discussion should benefit us all, players and developers alike. I'll talk a little bit more about our plans for this blog in upcoming weeks, as the wheels are set into motion. Once again, welcome to the Sixth Sense, and thanks for being a part of the world of Nodeka!