Some bugfixes and tweaks in this morning's update.
The pvp reward system is now more sophisticated in player comparison and merit rewards:
I've spent the past couple of weeks monitoring the pvp reward system and its scoring, as well as taking in all of the feedback I've received from various players. While doing so, I've implemented various improvements to the invisible merit system, making it much better at gauging the "difficulty" of a player fight. I will continue to monitor and improve the pvp system over time; while much of this work will be invisible to you (since merit gains are intentionally hidden), rest assured that the system will continue to improve and that I will be working on developing Nodeka in both the player-combat area (via rewards and pvp-based advancement) and the non-player combat area (via events and areas).
Reduced the chance of gaining off-class pools via pvp rewards:
Players now have a lower chance of gaining pools which their class does not normally gain, when granted a +pool pvp reward. I will not completely remove the chance of these gains for several reasons (the importance of pools versus abilities such as evasion, balance issues with certain classes gaining hp from pvp twice as fast as others, etc.), but this should make the distribution a little less scattered for those classes.
Fixed a pool display bug in pvp rewards:
Just a small bugfix, addressing an issue reported by both Jilpora and Thraka. Whenever a class would be granted (via pvp rewards) a pool that their class doesn't normally gain, there is a chance that a limited number of re-rolls may occur to redetermine which stat is gained. (This re-roll system's probability distribution is what I tweaked in the previously mentioned bullet point.) When these re-rolls occurred under certain circumstances, the player sometimes was granted improvement in one pool while the reward message indicated a different pool. (For example, a player might gain +20 to their endurance, but the reward message might say "## You have gained a pvp reward: +20 to your spirit!".) I've fixed this display issue up; my apologies for the confusion - rest assured, you were gaining pool rewards, even if the message was lying to you. =)
Friday, November 12, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Game update: 10/25
Hey, folks - the 'mystery feature' is finally ready!
Nodeka now offers pvp-based character advancement:
Yeah, this one is pretty darn cool. =) Basically, pvp can grant you random improvements to your character's stats (up to 300), pools (up to your pool cap), and ability masteries. (Only abilities which grant benefits beyond 100% will be selected for improvement - which is why I needed to be able to identify those abilities internally, which resulted in the side-effect enhancement of the 'skills/class' command in the last update.)
This is a very important step for me in terms of design. I've babbled a lot about rewards and the difficulty of designing them; part of the reason that it's so difficult is that, in a nutshell, running has always been "superior" to pvp. While pvp on Nodeka can be a powerful, exciting experience, there has never been a significant inherent benefit to participating in it. Over time, people came to realize that even if you ARE interested in pvp, it's often more lucrative to keep your head down and script areas in order to grow first.
Now that pvp provides an inherent benefit and (eventually) an alternate path to character improvement, rewards which are more pvp-oriented (that is, any inscription, mastery, or piece of gear which provides a benefit outside of the generic "running stats") can justify their existence more effectively.
This is obviously just a first step, and I'm sure I will need to tweak the numbers as things play out over the next few months. However, as far as first steps go, it's an important one and it has been a long time coming (the "pvp advancement" tab in my design spreadsheet has been there for quite a while, evolving over the months and years). =)
The original design had a "pvp rank" element to it as well - sort of a pvp level which represented how experienced your character is in pvp combat. This rank was to be used as a statistic, much like a player's experience level, to meet requirements - for example, a piece of gear might have a requirement of "pvp rank 7" in order to be equipped. I've removed that element from the design for now, to keep the base system simple and intuitive; we'll see how things unfold and whether the idea of such a statistic is warranted, or if the system would be better improved in other ways.
'Help rules' updated with rule #14:
This rule a safety catch for the pvp advancement system. The internal structure of the pvp merit system is designed to reward "good" behaviors and to automatically penalize (or complete deny a reward for) "bad" behaviors, such as intentionally killing your friends over and over for credit. However, no system is perfectly free of abuses. Rule #14 is a formal statement that we'll be watching for behavior which attempts to "game the system"; several features have been coded into the system which allows the staff to keep an eye on pvp advancement, and to lock players out of the merit system (or take more severe action) if they attempt to do so.
Tweaked mastery benefits for armor, greater armor, and bless:
These three abilities now provide mastery benefits for fighters as well as casters, but these bonuses are not as strong as those granted to pure magic-users. The base benefits for magic-users have been tweaked slightly as well, to make the bonuses scale more smoothly and aesthetically (and to improve them slightly where warranted).
Nodeka now offers pvp-based character advancement:
Yeah, this one is pretty darn cool. =) Basically, pvp can grant you random improvements to your character's stats (up to 300), pools (up to your pool cap), and ability masteries. (Only abilities which grant benefits beyond 100% will be selected for improvement - which is why I needed to be able to identify those abilities internally, which resulted in the side-effect enhancement of the 'skills/class' command in the last update.)
This is a very important step for me in terms of design. I've babbled a lot about rewards and the difficulty of designing them; part of the reason that it's so difficult is that, in a nutshell, running has always been "superior" to pvp. While pvp on Nodeka can be a powerful, exciting experience, there has never been a significant inherent benefit to participating in it. Over time, people came to realize that even if you ARE interested in pvp, it's often more lucrative to keep your head down and script areas in order to grow first.
Now that pvp provides an inherent benefit and (eventually) an alternate path to character improvement, rewards which are more pvp-oriented (that is, any inscription, mastery, or piece of gear which provides a benefit outside of the generic "running stats") can justify their existence more effectively.
This is obviously just a first step, and I'm sure I will need to tweak the numbers as things play out over the next few months. However, as far as first steps go, it's an important one and it has been a long time coming (the "pvp advancement" tab in my design spreadsheet has been there for quite a while, evolving over the months and years). =)
The original design had a "pvp rank" element to it as well - sort of a pvp level which represented how experienced your character is in pvp combat. This rank was to be used as a statistic, much like a player's experience level, to meet requirements - for example, a piece of gear might have a requirement of "pvp rank 7" in order to be equipped. I've removed that element from the design for now, to keep the base system simple and intuitive; we'll see how things unfold and whether the idea of such a statistic is warranted, or if the system would be better improved in other ways.
'Help rules' updated with rule #14:
This rule a safety catch for the pvp advancement system. The internal structure of the pvp merit system is designed to reward "good" behaviors and to automatically penalize (or complete deny a reward for) "bad" behaviors, such as intentionally killing your friends over and over for credit. However, no system is perfectly free of abuses. Rule #14 is a formal statement that we'll be watching for behavior which attempts to "game the system"; several features have been coded into the system which allows the staff to keep an eye on pvp advancement, and to lock players out of the merit system (or take more severe action) if they attempt to do so.
Tweaked mastery benefits for armor, greater armor, and bless:
These three abilities now provide mastery benefits for fighters as well as casters, but these bonuses are not as strong as those granted to pure magic-users. The base benefits for magic-users have been tweaked slightly as well, to make the bonuses scale more smoothly and aesthetically (and to improve them slightly where warranted).
Friday, October 1, 2010
Game update: 10/1
As I've mentioned earlier, I'll be keeping the live MotD messages as brief as possible whenever I post a game update; in exchange, I'll be discussing each MotD entry in more detail here on the Sixth Sense whenever I update Nodeka.
'class/skills' command shows abilities which improve beyond 100%:
A small but very useful interface improvement. The skill/spell list for each class will now identify those abilities which can be trained beyond 100% for additional bonuses, making it much easier to see how each class can advance at a glance. This works for classes other than your own as well, of course.
This feature is actually just a side-effect of something more exciting which is still in development. =) I've made a number of internal improvements while developing the new 'mystery thing', and this happened to be a feature that I could code quite easily with the improvements implemented so far - so here it is.
As for the 'mystery feature', it's coming "soon". =) It's something that I want to release on the same general schedule as the spoils of war (for reasons I'll explain once they're in) and the newbie improvements (because these are improvements to Nodeka's fundamental experience, which need to be explained during the newbie experience and thus necessitate updates to my work in that area).
Quick note regarding bless and greater armor: these spells will report as trainable beyond 100% even for fighters, who do not gain benefits from doing so (they're set so that only casters gain additional bonuses). In the next update, I will be implementing small training benefits to those spells for warriors (although they will be fairly minor, to maintain the original intention of the training boosts). Armor falls under this category too (it does already gain a +ac boost for fighters, but it's pretty insignificant.)
Cinderskein improvements:
Cinderskein can be a bit challenging to use, given its war-shell and range restrictions. I've improved the spell's feedback a bit by adding a message which informs the sorcerer whenever the cinderskein "misses" a player due to the fact that they've moved away from the targeting rune. (Previously, cinderskein would just silently fail on that player, which could be confusing.)
I've also made a number of small improvements to the spell (slightly reduced the lag when firing the heat rays, and slightly improved the damage range, especially when more targets are struck).
Vicious Fist bugfix:
The buff to hand damage which vicious fist grants at masteries beyond 100% was increased slightly in the 9/10 update. However, when I implemented this increase, I only applied the change to left-hand attacks, and failed to increase right-hand attacks... This has been fixed. =)
Helpfile fixes:
Thanks for all of the typo/discrepancy reports, folks. Our helpfiles can always use some spring cleaning, so I appreciate you bringing these issues to my attention. =)
'class/skills' command shows abilities which improve beyond 100%:
A small but very useful interface improvement. The skill/spell list for each class will now identify those abilities which can be trained beyond 100% for additional bonuses, making it much easier to see how each class can advance at a glance. This works for classes other than your own as well, of course.
This feature is actually just a side-effect of something more exciting which is still in development. =) I've made a number of internal improvements while developing the new 'mystery thing', and this happened to be a feature that I could code quite easily with the improvements implemented so far - so here it is.
As for the 'mystery feature', it's coming "soon". =) It's something that I want to release on the same general schedule as the spoils of war (for reasons I'll explain once they're in) and the newbie improvements (because these are improvements to Nodeka's fundamental experience, which need to be explained during the newbie experience and thus necessitate updates to my work in that area).
Quick note regarding bless and greater armor: these spells will report as trainable beyond 100% even for fighters, who do not gain benefits from doing so (they're set so that only casters gain additional bonuses). In the next update, I will be implementing small training benefits to those spells for warriors (although they will be fairly minor, to maintain the original intention of the training boosts). Armor falls under this category too (it does already gain a +ac boost for fighters, but it's pretty insignificant.)
Cinderskein improvements:
Cinderskein can be a bit challenging to use, given its war-shell and range restrictions. I've improved the spell's feedback a bit by adding a message which informs the sorcerer whenever the cinderskein "misses" a player due to the fact that they've moved away from the targeting rune. (Previously, cinderskein would just silently fail on that player, which could be confusing.)
I've also made a number of small improvements to the spell (slightly reduced the lag when firing the heat rays, and slightly improved the damage range, especially when more targets are struck).
Vicious Fist bugfix:
The buff to hand damage which vicious fist grants at masteries beyond 100% was increased slightly in the 9/10 update. However, when I implemented this increase, I only applied the change to left-hand attacks, and failed to increase right-hand attacks... This has been fixed. =)
Helpfile fixes:
Thanks for all of the typo/discrepancy reports, folks. Our helpfiles can always use some spring cleaning, so I appreciate you bringing these issues to my attention. =)
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Featured Questions #8
If you have a Nodeka-related question you'd like to see answered in a future Featured Questions article, just leave a blog comment or e-mail it to me!
Featured Questions #8:
A single death takes ALL of your renown.. Why not only a portion?
It's basically a "death penalty" for losing in PvP. If you don't manage to win or escape, you lose the (usually 5%) renown benefit to gold and experience until you can build that renown back up. (It takes a little over four hours outside of a safe-room to build your renown back up to the base 5% level.))
In invasion, is the reward of killing your own ogre the same as assisting someone killing theirs? Or has it a lower count. And what if we kill a bigger ogre do we get a higher reward count?
The specifics of the Invasion contribution system are a bit complex, and it's intentional that I avoid sharing many details when talking about it. Rest assured that I try my best to design and tweak these systems with fairness in mind; if there's a glaring issue, you should definitely bring it up, but as long as the system is working fairly, my response to these questions will generally be "don't worry about it, the more you participate, the better your contribution". =)
Do aura affects stack with other similar abilities? i.e. Let's just say I had what appears to be a 25% lag reduction that the zmo aura grants - would that also stack with time bending if I had it?
Yes, empyreal striding stacks with other similar effects, in the same way that time-bending and the two time-walker abilities stack (multiplicative, as is usual for Nodeka). The various auras were designed and tested with these types of interaction in mind.
You'd mentioned that the eventuality of +aura equipment coming in. Are those pieces of equipment already accessible? Are scrolls already accessible too? Spoils of war, any update on progress, when it will be out, ideas of what the spoils may be?
Runed equipment and scrolls aren't accessible yet; you'll see them first as rare 'spoils of war' benefits. I don't want to spoil the 'spoils of war' too much; they're on my active plate, so you shouldn't have to wait too long for stuff to start appearing. (The primary delay, other than sharing development time with newbie improvements, is that I'm still working on the design side and trying to solidly delineate precisely what rewards I want to appear where. I'm currently designing four different reward sets - Invasion spoils, special Citadels, a new event, and general PvP. The primary design issue here is that I don't want to just haphazardly throw out rewards for each of them - each system needs to be logical and compelling.)
Is it intentional that auras sometimes shift to the 'fringe' auras (i.e. the cyclopean ones) when an inscription is empowered?
Absolutely. It is the only way (outside of the cyclopean riddle) to obtain these auras, since you can't empower them manually. There are definitely reasons for this. =)
Is it possible to program into one ability, multiple counterattacks of the same type?
Of course. =) I implemented a sorcerer + daja ability (wings of seraphic fire) which essentially did that, but it got tweaked and eventually became unearthly rapture instead. I like the idea of nasty (perhaps stacking) reactive shields (as opposed to the "buff" type which are up 50% of the time or so, which seem less strategic). Note that there are more and more ways to counteract shields nowadays, as well - definitely intentional. =)
I'm not sure if this question is in the spirit of "Featured Questions", but I was curious if Nodeka tracks any statistics, in particular to aid in class balancing?
Nodeka creates and retains numerous logs of various types, for administrative and rule-enforcement purposes. In addition to Nodeka's internal logging, I do a lot of monitoring (both manual and automated) between and during projects (I have a number of scripts set up for this purpose). This is where I get my initial assessments; I then have the capability of running tests locally to verify things (which is what I do for every update - in fact, testing and design both take far, far more time than any actual implementation).
Let's consider a char that is blackened, cloaked, and blended. Rank affects come up, and this person now get's a 30% invisible affect. Suppose there is another char with more than 131% see visible. For the blackened-cloaked-blended: is there an overall precedence in the ability to not be seen by the invis char? With that 30% aff and the 131% sight, will the see-invis char always get to see the otherwise hidden char? Thanks for your 100% inSIGHTs!
Keep in mind, first of all, that 'see invisible' cannot reveal a blackened character. The 'see invisible' effect only works on invisibility and the 'see cloaked' effect only works on cloak. (The only viewer-based way to break through blackened, currently, is empyreal vigilance. Note that having the forced visibility effect can force the subject to be visible regardless of the hiding source, and thus can nullify blackened.)
Vision works like this: for each hiding effect that the "hider" possesses, roll its percentage. If it succeeds, the "viewer" gets to check against his or her matching vision effects, if any, to counter the hiding effect success. If any hiding effect goes through uncountered, the hider is hidden from sight.
Thus, if the viewer has 131% chance to see invisible, then any invisibility effect on the hider would be countered every single time (thus, invisibility could never hide him or her from the viewer). Having more than 100% does nothing special; nor does this chance to see invisible have any effect on other hiding effect types, such as cloak.
Re: Targeting.. Way it seems now, I need to almost be in the same room in order for target to work.. Any chance of a skill that can boost the distance? Maybe make it only increase it very little when at 100%, but can prac beyond 100% to increase that distance?.. Or instead of an automatic skill.. make it have a high prevent time, so its not something that is just kept up all the time.. High prevent, short active time.
Targeting range is slightly shorter on average, currently (especially since people are far more likely to stack strength than learn curve - imagine that!). I'm working on new types of bonuses to add to equipment (such as the runes which were implemented but are not yet accessible), and you'll definitely see more learn curve equipment out there in the future (and perhaps plain +target range as well). When I go back to tweak the races a bit, I'll also differentiate their learn curves in order to make some into excellent targeters. =)
Featured Questions #8:
A single death takes ALL of your renown.. Why not only a portion?
It's basically a "death penalty" for losing in PvP. If you don't manage to win or escape, you lose the (usually 5%) renown benefit to gold and experience until you can build that renown back up. (It takes a little over four hours outside of a safe-room to build your renown back up to the base 5% level.))
In invasion, is the reward of killing your own ogre the same as assisting someone killing theirs? Or has it a lower count. And what if we kill a bigger ogre do we get a higher reward count?
The specifics of the Invasion contribution system are a bit complex, and it's intentional that I avoid sharing many details when talking about it. Rest assured that I try my best to design and tweak these systems with fairness in mind; if there's a glaring issue, you should definitely bring it up, but as long as the system is working fairly, my response to these questions will generally be "don't worry about it, the more you participate, the better your contribution". =)
Do aura affects stack with other similar abilities? i.e. Let's just say I had what appears to be a 25% lag reduction that the zmo aura grants - would that also stack with time bending if I had it?
Yes, empyreal striding stacks with other similar effects, in the same way that time-bending and the two time-walker abilities stack (multiplicative, as is usual for Nodeka). The various auras were designed and tested with these types of interaction in mind.
You'd mentioned that the eventuality of +aura equipment coming in. Are those pieces of equipment already accessible? Are scrolls already accessible too? Spoils of war, any update on progress, when it will be out, ideas of what the spoils may be?
Runed equipment and scrolls aren't accessible yet; you'll see them first as rare 'spoils of war' benefits. I don't want to spoil the 'spoils of war' too much; they're on my active plate, so you shouldn't have to wait too long for stuff to start appearing. (The primary delay, other than sharing development time with newbie improvements, is that I'm still working on the design side and trying to solidly delineate precisely what rewards I want to appear where. I'm currently designing four different reward sets - Invasion spoils, special Citadels, a new event, and general PvP. The primary design issue here is that I don't want to just haphazardly throw out rewards for each of them - each system needs to be logical and compelling.)
Is it intentional that auras sometimes shift to the 'fringe' auras (i.e. the cyclopean ones) when an inscription is empowered?
Absolutely. It is the only way (outside of the cyclopean riddle) to obtain these auras, since you can't empower them manually. There are definitely reasons for this. =)
Is it possible to program into one ability, multiple counterattacks of the same type?
Of course. =) I implemented a sorcerer + daja ability (wings of seraphic fire) which essentially did that, but it got tweaked and eventually became unearthly rapture instead. I like the idea of nasty (perhaps stacking) reactive shields (as opposed to the "buff" type which are up 50% of the time or so, which seem less strategic). Note that there are more and more ways to counteract shields nowadays, as well - definitely intentional. =)
I'm not sure if this question is in the spirit of "Featured Questions", but I was curious if Nodeka tracks any statistics, in particular to aid in class balancing?
Nodeka creates and retains numerous logs of various types, for administrative and rule-enforcement purposes. In addition to Nodeka's internal logging, I do a lot of monitoring (both manual and automated) between and during projects (I have a number of scripts set up for this purpose). This is where I get my initial assessments; I then have the capability of running tests locally to verify things (which is what I do for every update - in fact, testing and design both take far, far more time than any actual implementation).
Let's consider a char that is blackened, cloaked, and blended. Rank affects come up, and this person now get's a 30% invisible affect. Suppose there is another char with more than 131% see visible. For the blackened-cloaked-blended: is there an overall precedence in the ability to not be seen by the invis char? With that 30% aff and the 131% sight, will the see-invis char always get to see the otherwise hidden char? Thanks for your 100% inSIGHTs!
Keep in mind, first of all, that 'see invisible' cannot reveal a blackened character. The 'see invisible' effect only works on invisibility and the 'see cloaked' effect only works on cloak. (The only viewer-based way to break through blackened, currently, is empyreal vigilance. Note that having the forced visibility effect can force the subject to be visible regardless of the hiding source, and thus can nullify blackened.)
Vision works like this: for each hiding effect that the "hider" possesses, roll its percentage. If it succeeds, the "viewer" gets to check against his or her matching vision effects, if any, to counter the hiding effect success. If any hiding effect goes through uncountered, the hider is hidden from sight.
Thus, if the viewer has 131% chance to see invisible, then any invisibility effect on the hider would be countered every single time (thus, invisibility could never hide him or her from the viewer). Having more than 100% does nothing special; nor does this chance to see invisible have any effect on other hiding effect types, such as cloak.
Re: Targeting.. Way it seems now, I need to almost be in the same room in order for target to work.. Any chance of a skill that can boost the distance? Maybe make it only increase it very little when at 100%, but can prac beyond 100% to increase that distance?.. Or instead of an automatic skill.. make it have a high prevent time, so its not something that is just kept up all the time.. High prevent, short active time.
Targeting range is slightly shorter on average, currently (especially since people are far more likely to stack strength than learn curve - imagine that!). I'm working on new types of bonuses to add to equipment (such as the runes which were implemented but are not yet accessible), and you'll definitely see more learn curve equipment out there in the future (and perhaps plain +target range as well). When I go back to tweak the races a bit, I'll also differentiate their learn curves in order to make some into excellent targeters. =)
Friday, September 10, 2010
Game update: 9/10
In the past, I've tried to strike a balance between "informative", "complete", and "readable" whenever posting live update news in the Message of the Day. I've now decided to split those goals between the MotD itself and this blog.
As I've mentioned in the 9/10 MotD entry, I will be attempting to keep each future MotD entry extremely brief (no longer than a single line per change, when possible). This should help to reduce "colossal paragraph syndrome", making the MotD easier to browse and making sure important changes don't get lost in the scroll.
In the interest of keeping you informed, I will now be posting a "Game Update" article on this blog whenever a non-trivial MotD update occurs (each reboot, generally). In these updates, I will talk about each of the changes and new features, letting you know how things work, why things have changed, and what each entry means.
Cinderskein:
In this evening's update, the biggest news is the new sorcerer spell - cinderskein. Available to sorcerers of all remort tiers, this one's a pretty cool new ability - it allows the sorcerer to "mark" a number of nearby targets with special runes, and then to unleash a web of fiery rays which will fry anyone who was thus marked. The sorcerer needs to raise her magus war-shell before she can use cinderskein, however - it's that dangerous. =)
The kink is that the web feeds on itself - launching a single heat ray will only do moderate damage, whereas launching several at once will cause each individual ray to be much stronger. Thus, the more targets which the sorcerer "marks" before pressing the detonate button, the more damage each target will take.
The "marking" process can be tricky. Whenever a victim is marked, a targeting rune is drawn on the ground where he is standing (and he gains a "cinderskein target" in his affects list). If the victim leaves the room before the heat rays are launched, the heat rays will not be able to seek him out (they strike the ground where he used to be instead).
The sorcerer's constitution determines how many targets she can strike at once (newbie sorcerers can only handle two targets). The targeting runes fade quickly, but their duration increases with constitution as well (to ensure that they last long enough for the sorcerer to mark enough targets to reach her potential limit).
Targeting:
The 'target' command's range is now based on learn curve. Previously, it used the same range calculation as the 'throw' command (which is strength-based).
Although it might be argued that it would be convenient to have 'throw' and 'target' share the same range calculation, this convenience would be somewhat arbitrary given that other variants may use different statistics to calculate their range (for example, telekinetic projection's range is intellect-based).
Colossal Smiting:
Previously, colossal smiting was slightly more accurate than a normal attack. I've changed it to be slightly less accurate than a normal attack instead; it's not a big change, but grey trolls make up 13-20% of the current population at any given time, and I feel this is a much more lenient and logical way to address the racial's damage output than a reduction in damage.
Vicious Fist mastery:
Just a small monk buff - I've slightly improved the rate at which vicious fist mastery beyond 100% adds to the damage of the monk's bare-hand attacks.
"radius" attacks:
There was an issue with many "radius"-type area-of-effect attacks, in which one potential target was always "removed" from the list of targets to attack. (This could only occur to a potential target in a different room - never in the same room.)
While this issue wasn't very noticeable when attacking a ton of targets at once, it became much more apparent in PvP situations where a player tried to strike a nearby victim with a radius-attack. If that victim was the only potential target in range (and he wasn't in the same room as the attacker), he would always be the removed from the list of potential targets - thus, radius attacks would always "whiff" and hit nothing in these situations.
This update should fix this behavior.
As I've mentioned in the 9/10 MotD entry, I will be attempting to keep each future MotD entry extremely brief (no longer than a single line per change, when possible). This should help to reduce "colossal paragraph syndrome", making the MotD easier to browse and making sure important changes don't get lost in the scroll.
In the interest of keeping you informed, I will now be posting a "Game Update" article on this blog whenever a non-trivial MotD update occurs (each reboot, generally). In these updates, I will talk about each of the changes and new features, letting you know how things work, why things have changed, and what each entry means.
Cinderskein:
In this evening's update, the biggest news is the new sorcerer spell - cinderskein. Available to sorcerers of all remort tiers, this one's a pretty cool new ability - it allows the sorcerer to "mark" a number of nearby targets with special runes, and then to unleash a web of fiery rays which will fry anyone who was thus marked. The sorcerer needs to raise her magus war-shell before she can use cinderskein, however - it's that dangerous. =)
The kink is that the web feeds on itself - launching a single heat ray will only do moderate damage, whereas launching several at once will cause each individual ray to be much stronger. Thus, the more targets which the sorcerer "marks" before pressing the detonate button, the more damage each target will take.
The "marking" process can be tricky. Whenever a victim is marked, a targeting rune is drawn on the ground where he is standing (and he gains a "cinderskein target" in his affects list). If the victim leaves the room before the heat rays are launched, the heat rays will not be able to seek him out (they strike the ground where he used to be instead).
The sorcerer's constitution determines how many targets she can strike at once (newbie sorcerers can only handle two targets). The targeting runes fade quickly, but their duration increases with constitution as well (to ensure that they last long enough for the sorcerer to mark enough targets to reach her potential limit).
Targeting:
The 'target' command's range is now based on learn curve. Previously, it used the same range calculation as the 'throw' command (which is strength-based).
Although it might be argued that it would be convenient to have 'throw' and 'target' share the same range calculation, this convenience would be somewhat arbitrary given that other variants may use different statistics to calculate their range (for example, telekinetic projection's range is intellect-based).
Colossal Smiting:
Previously, colossal smiting was slightly more accurate than a normal attack. I've changed it to be slightly less accurate than a normal attack instead; it's not a big change, but grey trolls make up 13-20% of the current population at any given time, and I feel this is a much more lenient and logical way to address the racial's damage output than a reduction in damage.
Vicious Fist mastery:
Just a small monk buff - I've slightly improved the rate at which vicious fist mastery beyond 100% adds to the damage of the monk's bare-hand attacks.
"radius" attacks:
There was an issue with many "radius"-type area-of-effect attacks, in which one potential target was always "removed" from the list of targets to attack. (This could only occur to a potential target in a different room - never in the same room.)
While this issue wasn't very noticeable when attacking a ton of targets at once, it became much more apparent in PvP situations where a player tried to strike a nearby victim with a radius-attack. If that victim was the only potential target in range (and he wasn't in the same room as the attacker), he would always be the removed from the list of potential targets - thus, radius attacks would always "whiff" and hit nothing in these situations.
This update should fix this behavior.
Featured Questions #7
Sorry for the delay - here's the next installment of Featured Questions!
Featured Questions #7:
If elemental resistance is 50, and other normal types reduce 20, where does this land supreme resistance and is it both elemental and non-elemental resistance?
Supreme resistance is not considered an elemental resistance. It will trigger on any damage type, and will always provide 20% damage reduction when triggered.
Will practicing impairments above 100% increase the chances for target to fail "impairment break" checks? and does the ninja's hakanai shouten perfect stun denies any "impairment break" check?
Currently, the chance to land an impairment is an attacker-victim comparison, but once an impairment lands, only the victim's stats matter. Thus, stun mastery and hakanai shouten affect stun's chance to land successfully. However, once a victim is stunned, the only thing that alters the victim's chance to "break" it is the victim's constitution.
Does the Silver Elf racial healing boost stack with Dajain Healer's 'Augmented Divine Healing'?
Augmented divine healing provides the same effect as the silver elf's racial healing. As long as either one triggers, your healing is doubled. (It cannot be applied more than once per heal - you cannot get a quadruple heal with multiple augmented healing effects.)
Here's a technical question. I was randomly looking at different skills and noticed warp reality and how it can be used 'through' such things as temple touch. If the person is suffering lag while crippled, etc., then how abilities like warp reality go 'through it' ?
Impairment does not actually add lag to a person (currently, only a few abilities can inflict lag on others - inharmonix helix, rite of sundering, and trial of aggression). Every attack or action that an impaired victim attempts must succeed against a specific "break chance"; otherwise, it fails. Some impairments are much harder to break than others (and each checks against a specific victim stat when rolling this break chance). Temple touch provides no break chance.
Certain abilities (such as warp reality) and attacks (such as shape-of-the-mind fist and most mental attacks) cannot be stopped by an impairment. These abilities and attacks automatically succeed on their break chance 100% of the time. (They can even break through impairments which normally do not provide a break chance, such as temple touch.)
Whim, you've mentioned before of an event called Vl'lakian Ramparts. Could you give a teaser on what it is about? How it would help the gameplay of nodeka, how it will promote less botting, and uniqueness to the game.
The Ramparts are just a logical extension of the internal AI improvements I've been implementing with each update, as well as the events that have been implemented so far (Invasion, Sigil Cits, Orator missions). It's a group-based event, with a more rigid structure than the current Invasions (i.e., a linear progression and strict group limits). The newbie improvements, some pvp improvements, and another smaller-scale event will probably be released before the Ramparts surface. (A number of outside responsibilities surfaced in the past week and a half which ate into my development time, but progress should be back on track shortly. =))
Going on for strike from the shadows, approximately how many % more damage are we looking at (while flanking) for training over 100%?
Strike from the shadows provides a flat damage increase, not a percentage-based increase. It's a pretty good number. =)
Where's the [new spell] you said was coming?
It's working, but I'm still tweaking it. I didn't quite like the original implementation; it's an important spell in terms of what I want it to do and a bit tricky to design correctly. (I want it to be a fairly effective sorcerer spell, which is potentially useful in both pvp and as a somewhat non-traditional running tool, which requires the use of the magus war-shell.)
Can you talk about the Phase of the Suns and Solar Poliir?
Sure - sunbind and solar-flame can only be used during the daytime (or a nighttime hour which is very close to daytime). The Phase of the Suns displayed via the 'time' command shows you the current Nodeka hour. There are 30 hours in a Nodeka day; nighttime hits sometime around the 20th hour. =)
How do you calculate the value of damage gained when [element of surprise] lands?
Element of surprise simply turns your attacks into flanking attacks. The amount of bonus you gain from flanking depends on your victim (players who focus on +dam over other stats tend to get flanked harder) - flanking attacks tend to be quite accurate with a fair damage bonus. If your attack gains any special bonus while flanking (such as the precision pierce from archer's competence, which deals double damage while flanking), element of surprise will trigger that as well.
Featured Questions #7:
If elemental resistance is 50, and other normal types reduce 20, where does this land supreme resistance and is it both elemental and non-elemental resistance?
Supreme resistance is not considered an elemental resistance. It will trigger on any damage type, and will always provide 20% damage reduction when triggered.
Will practicing impairments above 100% increase the chances for target to fail "impairment break" checks? and does the ninja's hakanai shouten perfect stun denies any "impairment break" check?
Currently, the chance to land an impairment is an attacker-victim comparison, but once an impairment lands, only the victim's stats matter. Thus, stun mastery and hakanai shouten affect stun's chance to land successfully. However, once a victim is stunned, the only thing that alters the victim's chance to "break" it is the victim's constitution.
Does the Silver Elf racial healing boost stack with Dajain Healer's 'Augmented Divine Healing'?
Augmented divine healing provides the same effect as the silver elf's racial healing. As long as either one triggers, your healing is doubled. (It cannot be applied more than once per heal - you cannot get a quadruple heal with multiple augmented healing effects.)
Here's a technical question. I was randomly looking at different skills and noticed warp reality and how it can be used 'through' such things as temple touch. If the person is suffering lag while crippled, etc., then how abilities like warp reality go 'through it' ?
Impairment does not actually add lag to a person (currently, only a few abilities can inflict lag on others - inharmonix helix, rite of sundering, and trial of aggression). Every attack or action that an impaired victim attempts must succeed against a specific "break chance"; otherwise, it fails. Some impairments are much harder to break than others (and each checks against a specific victim stat when rolling this break chance). Temple touch provides no break chance.
Certain abilities (such as warp reality) and attacks (such as shape-of-the-mind fist and most mental attacks) cannot be stopped by an impairment. These abilities and attacks automatically succeed on their break chance 100% of the time. (They can even break through impairments which normally do not provide a break chance, such as temple touch.)
Whim, you've mentioned before of an event called Vl'lakian Ramparts. Could you give a teaser on what it is about? How it would help the gameplay of nodeka, how it will promote less botting, and uniqueness to the game.
The Ramparts are just a logical extension of the internal AI improvements I've been implementing with each update, as well as the events that have been implemented so far (Invasion, Sigil Cits, Orator missions). It's a group-based event, with a more rigid structure than the current Invasions (i.e., a linear progression and strict group limits). The newbie improvements, some pvp improvements, and another smaller-scale event will probably be released before the Ramparts surface. (A number of outside responsibilities surfaced in the past week and a half which ate into my development time, but progress should be back on track shortly. =))
Going on for strike from the shadows, approximately how many % more damage are we looking at (while flanking) for training over 100%?
Strike from the shadows provides a flat damage increase, not a percentage-based increase. It's a pretty good number. =)
Where's the [new spell] you said was coming?
It's working, but I'm still tweaking it. I didn't quite like the original implementation; it's an important spell in terms of what I want it to do and a bit tricky to design correctly. (I want it to be a fairly effective sorcerer spell, which is potentially useful in both pvp and as a somewhat non-traditional running tool, which requires the use of the magus war-shell.)
Can you talk about the Phase of the Suns and Solar Poliir?
Sure - sunbind and solar-flame can only be used during the daytime (or a nighttime hour which is very close to daytime). The Phase of the Suns displayed via the 'time' command shows you the current Nodeka hour. There are 30 hours in a Nodeka day; nighttime hits sometime around the 20th hour. =)
How do you calculate the value of damage gained when [element of surprise] lands?
Element of surprise simply turns your attacks into flanking attacks. The amount of bonus you gain from flanking depends on your victim (players who focus on +dam over other stats tend to get flanked harder) - flanking attacks tend to be quite accurate with a fair damage bonus. If your attack gains any special bonus while flanking (such as the precision pierce from archer's competence, which deals double damage while flanking), element of surprise will trigger that as well.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
FQ will be on Thursday this week
Featured Questions #7 will be a little late this week, due to outside commitments. Sorry for the wait - the article will be up this Thursday!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Featured Questions #6
It's that time again... so let's jump into another installment of player-submitted Featured Questions! I'm always happy to chat and hear your questions and concerns regarding Nodeka; you can submit any Nodeka-related questions you may have as a comment on this blog or via e-mail, and I will select a number of them every other Tuesday to answer in this column.
Featured Questions #6:
Why is the affect you get when you fail a trade with Gerahf so long (4 days)? Seems like a severe punishment for making a typo.
Is the spit affect for Gerahf being angry with you made invisible once you acquire a smile affect? That is to say, you have the spit affect, he smiles on you, and the spit affect is visibly replaced with the smile affect, but he still holds you in scorn due to ripping him off, and refuses to accept offers that were acceptable pre-spit affect? If this is the case, would it be possible to clear the spit affect once you get the smile affect so you can obtain the full benefit of the smile, or make the affect not disappear?
Gerahf's favor is on a sliding scale. Every time you anger him with a poor trade offer, his opinion of you slips down a little bit. Every time you please him with a particularly good trade (i.e., not just any successful trade but one in which he smiles at you), his opinion of you increases a little bit. "Spit effects" and "smile effects" are not actually differentiated; there's just one sliding scale based on the sum of your positive/negative interactions with him. If you're at the undesirable end of the scale, the effect's duration is reduced a bit.
In invasions, if you hit something smaller than you and don't kill it before you get jailed, when you come out of jail, it hunts you down and hits you and sends you right back (unless someone else kills it). This can result in a cycle of permanent jailing. Can it be fixed to clear the player from the mobs agg list if the player is jailed for hitting the mob and the mob is too small?
Thanks for reminding me. I think there might be a clever way to address this; adding it to my to-do list. =)
...I noticed (or hope) that 'help resistances' is out of date. Reason being it says there that for any given attack only -one- resistance can proc, with the logic being that all resistances provide equal damage reduction. Seeing as this is no longer the case - do resistances work differently now?
Multi-part question, but really just looking for an entire chart as an answer:
1. What is the % damage gain for a vulnerability?
2. What are the % damage cuts for the following resistances: magic, mental, holy, physical?
Currently, some resistances are more effective than others. They work along these lines:
1. All applicable resist percentages are attempted. Of the successes, only the most effective successful resist is applied.
2. Vulnerabilities work the same way; only the most 'painful' successful vulnerability is applied.
All resistances reduce damage by 20%, except for the elemental resists which reduce damage by 50%. These resists are considered elemental resists: fire, frost, lightning, earth, elemental.
All vulnerabilities increase damage by 20%.
Thus, if Serenity has 70% lightning resistance and 50% physical resistance, and is hit by a lightning bolt (which is physical + magical + lightning):
1. If the lightning resist check is successful, Serenity takes 50% less damage.
2. If the lightning check fails, but the physical check is successful, she takes 20% less damage.
3. If both checks fail, she takes full damage.
Statistically speaking...
70% chance: takes 50% damage
15% chance: takes 80% damage
15% chance: takes 100% damage
An attack can be both reduced (via resistance) and increased (via vulnerability) simultaneously.
For empowered aspect - aura: jta rank 1, what's the rank number mean? What's the highest rank attainable? Do they grow naturally?
That rank is the power level of the aura; this power level is determined by the number of times the player has inscribed that aura. For example:
- Iblis has no inscriptions. When he successfully empowers an 'xt' aura, it will be of rank 1.
- Alala has four inscriptions -- [ armor: loj ], [ lightning: sji ], [ visit: xt ], and [ extrinsic elucidation: xt ]. When she successfully empowers an 'xt' aura, its rank will be boosted by 1 for every 'xt' inscription she possesses (thus, her aura will be of rank 3).
Higher-ranked auras are more durable, and they provide a greater combat bonus as well. In addition, many inscriptions base their effectiveness in part on the rank of the triggering aura (these are clearly marked as such in the online inscription list helpfiles).
I've always felt that sun stones played a crucial role in character development and even more so now with everyone needing to augment to progress. Any plans on implementing more ways to acquire these?
Yup, definitely! I feel that sun stones should be (in general) a PvP-oriented reward, with questing as a secondary source. There are plans. =)
How is the precedence of altered attack types determined? E.g. I'm a ru wulniothe fallad and have 100% spiritual attacks with creed of the gods volition, and 64% frost attacks from race, do I ever get any frost-based attacks? What if my spiritual attacks were under 100%?
Right now, halwen/spiritual/black magic are checked sequentially before the elemental attacks. Thus, while your 100% spiritual attack effect is active, you will never see a frost attack (you can verify this by expanding your combat output, since "altered" attacks have their text visibly altered).
I'd like to lodge a complaint about the koj spiritualist immoral trial. I ran around the arena for 15-20 minutes today without one spawning. >:|
Agreed. I think the Trials' concept is sound, but there's soooo much more I can do with them given the advances in AI tech that Nodeka has made since their implementation. The current set of trials on each side is pretty arbitrary and not necessarily superbly balanced (I still remember the two nights I spent drawing them up and trimming them down, in a rush to get this cool new feature out the door.) Expect a redesign. =)
What are you [working on] now? Any improvements for (my_class)?
My active work right now is split between the new Fields of Guidance, a new monk skill, a new sorcerer spell, and helping to prep some new areas for you folks that other builders are working on. =)
Featured Questions #6:
Why is the affect you get when you fail a trade with Gerahf so long (4 days)? Seems like a severe punishment for making a typo.
Is the spit affect for Gerahf being angry with you made invisible once you acquire a smile affect? That is to say, you have the spit affect, he smiles on you, and the spit affect is visibly replaced with the smile affect, but he still holds you in scorn due to ripping him off, and refuses to accept offers that were acceptable pre-spit affect? If this is the case, would it be possible to clear the spit affect once you get the smile affect so you can obtain the full benefit of the smile, or make the affect not disappear?
Gerahf's favor is on a sliding scale. Every time you anger him with a poor trade offer, his opinion of you slips down a little bit. Every time you please him with a particularly good trade (i.e., not just any successful trade but one in which he smiles at you), his opinion of you increases a little bit. "Spit effects" and "smile effects" are not actually differentiated; there's just one sliding scale based on the sum of your positive/negative interactions with him. If you're at the undesirable end of the scale, the effect's duration is reduced a bit.
In invasions, if you hit something smaller than you and don't kill it before you get jailed, when you come out of jail, it hunts you down and hits you and sends you right back (unless someone else kills it). This can result in a cycle of permanent jailing. Can it be fixed to clear the player from the mobs agg list if the player is jailed for hitting the mob and the mob is too small?
Thanks for reminding me. I think there might be a clever way to address this; adding it to my to-do list. =)
...I noticed (or hope) that 'help resistances' is out of date. Reason being it says there that for any given attack only -one- resistance can proc, with the logic being that all resistances provide equal damage reduction. Seeing as this is no longer the case - do resistances work differently now?
Multi-part question, but really just looking for an entire chart as an answer:
1. What is the % damage gain for a vulnerability?
2. What are the % damage cuts for the following resistances: magic, mental, holy, physical?
Currently, some resistances are more effective than others. They work along these lines:
1. All applicable resist percentages are attempted. Of the successes, only the most effective successful resist is applied.
2. Vulnerabilities work the same way; only the most 'painful' successful vulnerability is applied.
All resistances reduce damage by 20%, except for the elemental resists which reduce damage by 50%. These resists are considered elemental resists: fire, frost, lightning, earth, elemental.
All vulnerabilities increase damage by 20%.
Thus, if Serenity has 70% lightning resistance and 50% physical resistance, and is hit by a lightning bolt (which is physical + magical + lightning):
1. If the lightning resist check is successful, Serenity takes 50% less damage.
2. If the lightning check fails, but the physical check is successful, she takes 20% less damage.
3. If both checks fail, she takes full damage.
Statistically speaking...
70% chance: takes 50% damage
15% chance: takes 80% damage
15% chance: takes 100% damage
An attack can be both reduced (via resistance) and increased (via vulnerability) simultaneously.
For empowered aspect - aura: jta rank 1, what's the rank number mean? What's the highest rank attainable? Do they grow naturally?
That rank is the power level of the aura; this power level is determined by the number of times the player has inscribed that aura. For example:
- Iblis has no inscriptions. When he successfully empowers an 'xt' aura, it will be of rank 1.
- Alala has four inscriptions -- [ armor: loj ], [ lightning: sji ], [ visit: xt ], and [ extrinsic elucidation: xt ]. When she successfully empowers an 'xt' aura, its rank will be boosted by 1 for every 'xt' inscription she possesses (thus, her aura will be of rank 3).
Higher-ranked auras are more durable, and they provide a greater combat bonus as well. In addition, many inscriptions base their effectiveness in part on the rank of the triggering aura (these are clearly marked as such in the online inscription list helpfiles).
I've always felt that sun stones played a crucial role in character development and even more so now with everyone needing to augment to progress. Any plans on implementing more ways to acquire these?
Yup, definitely! I feel that sun stones should be (in general) a PvP-oriented reward, with questing as a secondary source. There are plans. =)
How is the precedence of altered attack types determined? E.g. I'm a ru wulniothe fallad and have 100% spiritual attacks with creed of the gods volition, and 64% frost attacks from race, do I ever get any frost-based attacks? What if my spiritual attacks were under 100%?
Right now, halwen/spiritual/black magic are checked sequentially before the elemental attacks. Thus, while your 100% spiritual attack effect is active, you will never see a frost attack (you can verify this by expanding your combat output, since "altered" attacks have their text visibly altered).
I'd like to lodge a complaint about the koj spiritualist immoral trial. I ran around the arena for 15-20 minutes today without one spawning. >:|
Agreed. I think the Trials' concept is sound, but there's soooo much more I can do with them given the advances in AI tech that Nodeka has made since their implementation. The current set of trials on each side is pretty arbitrary and not necessarily superbly balanced (I still remember the two nights I spent drawing them up and trimming them down, in a rush to get this cool new feature out the door.) Expect a redesign. =)
What are you [working on] now? Any improvements for (my_class)?
My active work right now is split between the new Fields of Guidance, a new monk skill, a new sorcerer spell, and helping to prep some new areas for you folks that other builders are working on. =)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Featured Questions #5
Featured Questions is back! Find the answers to your Nodeka-related questions in this column every other Tuesday - just submit your questions via the comments section or e-mail them to me.
Featured Questions #5:
Can you quantify for us what training nim past 100% does?
Training nim beyond 100% reduces the chance of being caught. Currently, no other bonus is gained.
If I have evasion at 250% and 400 willpower, does my evasion prowess increase with 500 willpower?
Yes. There are three ways to improve your chance to evade:
- Improve your evasion mastery beyond 100%.
- Improve your willpower.
- Improve your spellpower (that is, your maximum mana and maximum spirit).
The basic "challenge" to evade an attack is a randomized comparison of your willpower versus your enemy's. This randomized comparison is tilted in two ways. First, your evasion mastery beyond 100% tilts the chances in your favor. Second, the chances are tilted AGAINST you by a certain value - let's call it X. This X is multiplied by the ratio of the enemy's spellpower versus yours. If the ratio is 2:1 (your enemy has twice your spellpower), then X is doubled, making it harder for you to evade. If the ratio is 1:1.5 (you have 1.5 times the spellpower of your enemy), then X is multiplied by 2/3, making it easier for you to evade.
Why do empowered inscriptions only last for 1 use of the ability, causing the aura to shift immediately? Seems pretty harsh since a. most empower attempts fail and b. on a successful empower, the aura doesn't last very long in the first place.
At the risk of sounding ostentatious - "ah, but that's the beauty of the system!" =) The fact that your aura shifts when you fire off an empowered inscription is vital to the system's design.
First of all, point (a) is definitely valid right now. It is hard for a "vanilla" character to empower very often. That's the point of runed gear - by assembling a good collection of runes on your equipment, you make it easier to access the auras that match those runes. You'll find that as the system gets deeper, the combination of runes and ciphers (e.g., cyclopean) will allow you to design your character to access certain auras with more consistency than is possible right now. You'll be able to "customize" your character to access the auras which you want the most (or, conversely, you might choose your inscriptions based on which runes are on the best gear you've collected).
As for point (b) - remember, when the aura shifts, it also refreshes its duration! If you need to fire off that empowered inscription immediately, go for it, but if you can afford to time it, you can greatly extend your "aura uptime" by shifting your aura just before it's about to expire. This leads to an interesting dynamic in inscription choice as well. If you choose to learn several "kyf" inscriptions, then your "kyf" aura will be more powerful - but once you shift out of kyf, chances are you won't have any inscriptions to match the new aura. On the other hand, if you learn a variety of different inscriptions (say, a "kyf", a "bal", and a "zmo"), you greatly increase the chance that you'll be able to chain inscriptions off of each other when they shift, but none of your auras will be quite as strong as a stacked aura.
Finally, ciphers can change the inscription game in many different ways. The magi's remembrance cipher can make your auras last considerably longer, if duration is a concern; the cyclopean cipher can sometimes turn a failed empower into a success (albeit of a strange and different aura type); and so on. The sky's the limit - just wait 'til I start really expanding on the available inscriptions and ciphers. =)
Bash+trip+lock in groups of 2 or more is [harsh]... While lateral defense has been introduced as one means of defense... I would like to see [other methods of defense].
Actually, I've had plans to approach this from a skew angle. Expect bash and trip to be reworked at some point. I'd like these impairments to be useful as strategic counters and pacing tools; right now, at instant speed, they're usually just "spam me right away" spoilers, which is not where they should be.
Speaking of which, can we take Stun Immunity away from ranks as well?
I'm open to a reworking of rank bonuses. We have a lot of unique and interesting potential bonuses which simply didn't exist at the time that rank effects were introduced which could be interesting.
Will Sigil Citadel ever be automated? And will we be looking at more of such events in the near future?
Yah, this is easily doable with the advancements in AI sophistication which have been implemented over time. The primary reason that I haven't done this already is that I'd like to rework Sigil Citadels at the same time - they're a nice stepping point but right now they primarily devolve into a single, giant, bloody, game-ending Team A vs. Team B pileup (not that there's anything wrong with that, and that could easily be its own Citadel mode, but that's selling the intent of Sigil Cits a bit short).
I've talked online a bit about Citadel variants I'd like to do (for example, the champion idea I've mentioned a few times and even experimented with a few days ago via a MechaGodzilla-sized Issabella). I have several ideas that you'll see pop up eventually, and the plan is for these to be automated Citadel variants with a faction-based incentive to compete and win (a simple shared set of faction rewards).
Are there any gambling systems on the table to be implemented? Even something as simple as spinning a wheel and betting on even or odd with 1:1 plat payouts would be awesome!
The idea's popped up many times (ever since I started working on Aur-vindi all those years ago). I'd want to make it something interesting and unique to Nodeka, but none of the ideas I've ever come up with have struck me as "the one". It's something that shouldn't be too hard to do, though, so I'll take a look at it as a between-time project (the stuff I work on, like new abilities, "in between" sessions of work on a major project in order to clear my mind and change the coding pace a bit).
Will the tech lock be reduced from 18 hours in the future?
I have no plans for this. Teching is fairly hard as it is (tip: tech chance is related to material cost, so a wrist has a much lower chance of teching than a chest), and reducing or eliminating the tech lock wouldn't do much except open up the system to "power-leveling".
Lots of questions this time around; I need to get back to development work so we'll stop here for this session. Keep those questions coming in, I appreciate them and I'm happy to help shed a little light!
Featured Questions #5:
Can you quantify for us what training nim past 100% does?
Training nim beyond 100% reduces the chance of being caught. Currently, no other bonus is gained.
If I have evasion at 250% and 400 willpower, does my evasion prowess increase with 500 willpower?
Yes. There are three ways to improve your chance to evade:
- Improve your evasion mastery beyond 100%.
- Improve your willpower.
- Improve your spellpower (that is, your maximum mana and maximum spirit).
The basic "challenge" to evade an attack is a randomized comparison of your willpower versus your enemy's. This randomized comparison is tilted in two ways. First, your evasion mastery beyond 100% tilts the chances in your favor. Second, the chances are tilted AGAINST you by a certain value - let's call it X. This X is multiplied by the ratio of the enemy's spellpower versus yours. If the ratio is 2:1 (your enemy has twice your spellpower), then X is doubled, making it harder for you to evade. If the ratio is 1:1.5 (you have 1.5 times the spellpower of your enemy), then X is multiplied by 2/3, making it easier for you to evade.
Why do empowered inscriptions only last for 1 use of the ability, causing the aura to shift immediately? Seems pretty harsh since a. most empower attempts fail and b. on a successful empower, the aura doesn't last very long in the first place.
At the risk of sounding ostentatious - "ah, but that's the beauty of the system!" =) The fact that your aura shifts when you fire off an empowered inscription is vital to the system's design.
First of all, point (a) is definitely valid right now. It is hard for a "vanilla" character to empower very often. That's the point of runed gear - by assembling a good collection of runes on your equipment, you make it easier to access the auras that match those runes. You'll find that as the system gets deeper, the combination of runes and ciphers (e.g., cyclopean) will allow you to design your character to access certain auras with more consistency than is possible right now. You'll be able to "customize" your character to access the auras which you want the most (or, conversely, you might choose your inscriptions based on which runes are on the best gear you've collected).
As for point (b) - remember, when the aura shifts, it also refreshes its duration! If you need to fire off that empowered inscription immediately, go for it, but if you can afford to time it, you can greatly extend your "aura uptime" by shifting your aura just before it's about to expire. This leads to an interesting dynamic in inscription choice as well. If you choose to learn several "kyf" inscriptions, then your "kyf" aura will be more powerful - but once you shift out of kyf, chances are you won't have any inscriptions to match the new aura. On the other hand, if you learn a variety of different inscriptions (say, a "kyf", a "bal", and a "zmo"), you greatly increase the chance that you'll be able to chain inscriptions off of each other when they shift, but none of your auras will be quite as strong as a stacked aura.
Finally, ciphers can change the inscription game in many different ways. The magi's remembrance cipher can make your auras last considerably longer, if duration is a concern; the cyclopean cipher can sometimes turn a failed empower into a success (albeit of a strange and different aura type); and so on. The sky's the limit - just wait 'til I start really expanding on the available inscriptions and ciphers. =)
Bash+trip+lock in groups of 2 or more is [harsh]... While lateral defense has been introduced as one means of defense... I would like to see [other methods of defense].
Actually, I've had plans to approach this from a skew angle. Expect bash and trip to be reworked at some point. I'd like these impairments to be useful as strategic counters and pacing tools; right now, at instant speed, they're usually just "spam me right away" spoilers, which is not where they should be.
Speaking of which, can we take Stun Immunity away from ranks as well?
I'm open to a reworking of rank bonuses. We have a lot of unique and interesting potential bonuses which simply didn't exist at the time that rank effects were introduced which could be interesting.
Will Sigil Citadel ever be automated? And will we be looking at more of such events in the near future?
Yah, this is easily doable with the advancements in AI sophistication which have been implemented over time. The primary reason that I haven't done this already is that I'd like to rework Sigil Citadels at the same time - they're a nice stepping point but right now they primarily devolve into a single, giant, bloody, game-ending Team A vs. Team B pileup (not that there's anything wrong with that, and that could easily be its own Citadel mode, but that's selling the intent of Sigil Cits a bit short).
I've talked online a bit about Citadel variants I'd like to do (for example, the champion idea I've mentioned a few times and even experimented with a few days ago via a MechaGodzilla-sized Issabella). I have several ideas that you'll see pop up eventually, and the plan is for these to be automated Citadel variants with a faction-based incentive to compete and win (a simple shared set of faction rewards).
Are there any gambling systems on the table to be implemented? Even something as simple as spinning a wheel and betting on even or odd with 1:1 plat payouts would be awesome!
The idea's popped up many times (ever since I started working on Aur-vindi all those years ago). I'd want to make it something interesting and unique to Nodeka, but none of the ideas I've ever come up with have struck me as "the one". It's something that shouldn't be too hard to do, though, so I'll take a look at it as a between-time project (the stuff I work on, like new abilities, "in between" sessions of work on a major project in order to clear my mind and change the coding pace a bit).
Will the tech lock be reduced from 18 hours in the future?
I have no plans for this. Teching is fairly hard as it is (tip: tech chance is related to material cost, so a wrist has a much lower chance of teching than a chest), and reducing or eliminating the tech lock wouldn't do much except open up the system to "power-leveling".
Lots of questions this time around; I need to get back to development work so we'll stop here for this session. Keep those questions coming in, I appreciate them and I'm happy to help shed a little light!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Featured Questions #4
Featured Questions time again - let's get into it! Remember, if you want answers, you gotta ask the questions - pop them in the comments section or e-mail them to me. The Featured Questions article runs every other Tuesday.
Featured Questions #4:
I'm curious as to how improved parry or improved dodge racial bonuses from races like sprite actually helps dodge or parry.
The avoidance abilities (dodge, parry, evasion, and now lesser evasion) aren't necessarily applied to every incoming attack. Avoidance generally works as follows:
1. Each avoidance ability has a chance to trigger on an incoming attack.
2. If the avoidance ability triggers, checks are made against external factors such as stat comparisons, ability masteries, and so on.
3. If the checks are successful, then the attack is avoided.
Improved parry and improved dodge each provide a chance to bypass step 1. Thus, if you were somehow able to obtain 100% improved dodge, you would have a chance to dodge every incoming attack (but a check would still be required for each). The trigger percentage currently cannot be affected by any other means and is low enough that improved parry/dodge provide quite significant benefits.
Evasion is based on willpower and spellpower... it's clearly not a stat/pool (ninjas) master whatsoever. Would that be a problem for the ninjas and a very minuscule improvement?
It's not an oversight; lesser evasion is balanced with the mindset that ninja will have to put in some extra training to make it truly shine, as compared to the caster version.
Is haste a spell that gives benefits over 100% practiced?
Yes; in fact, I think it may have been the first spell to ever do so (before training beyond 100% was introduced as a common method of advancement). It simply adds an extra speed per 10% of training. Not as flashy as some of the more modern options, but it does exist!
Here's my question: a pure platinum bar?
Here's my answer: back in spoils of war. =)
So question, somewhere in the future will there be a player driven economy system? E.g: unique character trade-profession (as most mmos have)?
Eventually, I hope to drive crafting in this direction with crafting specializations (something I've had planned forever, but I haven't been able to implement yet because of the care and foundational work which I feel are necessary in adding to the current crafting system). Currently, crafting is simply a "level up" system; specializations would differentiate people into chosen sub-professions. Beyond specializations, I have no other current plans regarding trade professions, but my comments box and e-mail inbox are always open to ideas. =)
Hello, I was told... that parry doesn't improve beyond 300% could you tell me if this is true or not?
Nope, this is untrue. Parry, dodge, evasion, and lesser evasion all improve in performance with every mastery point; there is no cap. In fact, there are no diminishing returns, either; the performance boost is linear (constant with each point). Don't believe the rumors and hearsay - if it sounds fishy, head straight to the Sixth Sense blog and click that comment button! =)
Featured Questions #4:
I'm curious as to how improved parry or improved dodge racial bonuses from races like sprite actually helps dodge or parry.
The avoidance abilities (dodge, parry, evasion, and now lesser evasion) aren't necessarily applied to every incoming attack. Avoidance generally works as follows:
1. Each avoidance ability has a chance to trigger on an incoming attack.
2. If the avoidance ability triggers, checks are made against external factors such as stat comparisons, ability masteries, and so on.
3. If the checks are successful, then the attack is avoided.
Improved parry and improved dodge each provide a chance to bypass step 1. Thus, if you were somehow able to obtain 100% improved dodge, you would have a chance to dodge every incoming attack (but a check would still be required for each). The trigger percentage currently cannot be affected by any other means and is low enough that improved parry/dodge provide quite significant benefits.
Evasion is based on willpower and spellpower... it's clearly not a stat/pool (ninjas) master whatsoever. Would that be a problem for the ninjas and a very minuscule improvement?
It's not an oversight; lesser evasion is balanced with the mindset that ninja will have to put in some extra training to make it truly shine, as compared to the caster version.
Is haste a spell that gives benefits over 100% practiced?
Yes; in fact, I think it may have been the first spell to ever do so (before training beyond 100% was introduced as a common method of advancement). It simply adds an extra speed per 10% of training. Not as flashy as some of the more modern options, but it does exist!
Here's my question: a pure platinum bar?
Here's my answer: back in spoils of war. =)
So question, somewhere in the future will there be a player driven economy system? E.g: unique character trade-profession (as most mmos have)?
Eventually, I hope to drive crafting in this direction with crafting specializations (something I've had planned forever, but I haven't been able to implement yet because of the care and foundational work which I feel are necessary in adding to the current crafting system). Currently, crafting is simply a "level up" system; specializations would differentiate people into chosen sub-professions. Beyond specializations, I have no other current plans regarding trade professions, but my comments box and e-mail inbox are always open to ideas. =)
Hello, I was told... that parry doesn't improve beyond 300% could you tell me if this is true or not?
Nope, this is untrue. Parry, dodge, evasion, and lesser evasion all improve in performance with every mastery point; there is no cap. In fact, there are no diminishing returns, either; the performance boost is linear (constant with each point). Don't believe the rumors and hearsay - if it sounds fishy, head straight to the Sixth Sense blog and click that comment button! =)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Featured Questions #3
Welcome to the third installment of Featured Questions!
If you have any Nodeka-related questions you'd like to see answered, just submit them in the comments section or via e-mail to me (Whim) - I will select and answer several player questions every other Tuesday.
Featured Questions #3:
Are you comfortable with the level Nojohr and Sorcerers are at?
Not really. Sorcerers don't quite scale the way I'd like them to, and they have a couple of significant tricks I'd like to introduce. Nojohrs have defensive/scaling problems as well, although they are a strong base class. They have the additional problem of lernen/magos versatility stunting their development.
Will Necro's ever get sixth sense?
No; at least, not for the spell power benefit. Necros have a different, more flavorful development path to look forward to which does not include "making my maledictions/siphons do tons of damage". The spy-detection functionality might be considered in some necromancer-appropriate variation, though.
Are footpads over powered with shoot?
Tough question. Quick answer: I don't like the fact that enmesh/projectile is, in some situations, equivalent to a slower manual silent malevolence. I do like the fact that footpads have a chance to take down much larger characters with a little work and the proper approach, and in fact I think all pk-oriented classes should have this capability to some extent. I do think it would be good to introduce a little more strategy into this scenario.
I mentioned before that I have a set of abilities in the works, of which every class in the game would be obtaining one variation. These abilities are intended to kind of work towards that goal, giving each class an ability which represents their "role" in pvp to a degree. I'll reveal more about this when design is further along. (Part of the problem right now is figuring out how to introduce and present them in a way which demonstrates their significance, given that they might simply fall into the large sack of abilities each class currently has - making them hard to pick out, especially given individual variations.)
Is unenhance ever coming back? What about a variation of unenhance that does X?
This question is frequently asked, but unenhance is not slated to return in any form. Its existence raises a number of substantial issues, all of which would need to be addressed before we would even consider it. No variation has presented itself which would address these issues.
"Excess pools" (such as mana and spirit on a warrior class) are an issue which I am aware of when designing for the long term, with an eye for justifying their existence. For example, mana and spirit potential now play a very large part in countering evasion; I will also be looking at developing overall rank as a meaningful and desirable attribute rather than just a way to "penalize" players by making missions harder.
Could 'inscriptions clear' return a percentage of the faction spent (on purchasing the inscriptions being erased)?
Unfortunately, no. Inscriptions have no inherent "cost" to them, because they can be obtained in a variety of ways (such as scrolls, which exist and are fully functional but won't actually be seen on Nodeka until the spoils of war are implemented). The faction you paid is just an arbitrary cost which Margrave Krijjkar decided to charge for the privilege of teaching you.
Having said that, I understand that the Invasion inscription costs are pretty high for experimentation right now. I have a few ideas in that regard (such as reduced inscription costs for high accolades) which I may explore.
The scar has been hyped for some time now, is it going to disappoint like Last Air Bender?
How soon can we expect it?
Will there be more areas like pains, except larger, perhaps requiring groups?
I'm sure it'll be a stunning disappointment; hype tends to do that, and well, some people aren't just tough to please, they don't want to be pleased. ;)
Having said that, it will be as good as I can possibly make it. Luckily, that particular benchmark increases over time, as every internal improvement I make for other AI purposes (Invasions, Fields of Guidance, etc.) opens up new doors for areas and events to come. In addition, I think it's evident enough that I'm committed to taking good ideas and developing them, rather than just throwing them out and letting them sit. I think the original Invasion event, as released, is almost laughable compared to what it's evolved into, even if I was proud of it at the time. =) Likewise, I will of course do my best with the Scar, and develop it wherever it needs developing.
Right now, I'm working on Fields of Guidance AI and newbie quest development. After that, I will be working on the Vl'lakian Ramparts (which is similar to what you're asking about a group-oriented Tabernacle) and the Scar concurrently.
Would it be possible for insanity et al. to show up under affects?
Not quite as easy as it sounds. Insanity and havoc aren't simple "add 50 hit, add 100 damage" effects; each affects the barbarian's combat in unique ways, some of which can't be duplicated by current temporary effects. I can, however, let you know what they do:
Insanity:
1. can't be parried
2. increases damage by a random percentage, range is based on strength and mastery beyond 100%
3. decreases hit to a random percentage, range is based on intellect and wisdom
4. drains endurance with each attack, drain can be reduced with mastery beyond 100%
5. makes the barbarian easier to hit
Havoc:
Similar to insanity, with the following differences:
1. the base hit and damage formulae are superior to insanity's
2. endurance drain is greater
3. mastery beyond 100% improves hit instead of damage
4. the "easier to hit" penalty is slightly less than insanity's
5. mastery beyond 100% reduces the "easier to hit" penalty, even going slightly below x1.0 at high %s
Would it be possible to program a 'donation' feature for the repair of Ruushi (during city Invasions) in exchange for faction?
Absolutely, although in a somewhat different form than what you describe. I have planned for the ability for experienced participants to alter the defense effort with certain global tactical decisions which last for one invasion - for example, the ability to increase golem repair rates or to inhibit the spawn rate of a certain invader class which has become too overwhelming. (These aren't slated to incur faction costs.)
This feature isn't on track to be released yet due to the ebb and flow of Invasion difficulty as I further develop the event. Given the recent enhancements, I feel that the event has drifted towards the easier side of the spectrum. (It was somewhat difficult before the golem grouping and shriveled spell nerf were introduced; there was also an unmentioned adjustment to the spawning algorithm which smooths out the spawn curve in certain situations). I have certain challenges I'd like to add to the event to spice things up, eventually; once these are ready, the time will probably be right for adding tactical benefits to balance out the added difficulty. (This is probably a slightly longer-term project, as I think Invasions are running smoothly now and I'd like to address other important areas before coming back to it.)
If you have any Nodeka-related questions you'd like to see answered, just submit them in the comments section or via e-mail to me (Whim) - I will select and answer several player questions every other Tuesday.
Featured Questions #3:
Are you comfortable with the level Nojohr and Sorcerers are at?
Not really. Sorcerers don't quite scale the way I'd like them to, and they have a couple of significant tricks I'd like to introduce. Nojohrs have defensive/scaling problems as well, although they are a strong base class. They have the additional problem of lernen/magos versatility stunting their development.
Will Necro's ever get sixth sense?
No; at least, not for the spell power benefit. Necros have a different, more flavorful development path to look forward to which does not include "making my maledictions/siphons do tons of damage". The spy-detection functionality might be considered in some necromancer-appropriate variation, though.
Are footpads over powered with shoot?
Tough question. Quick answer: I don't like the fact that enmesh/projectile is, in some situations, equivalent to a slower manual silent malevolence. I do like the fact that footpads have a chance to take down much larger characters with a little work and the proper approach, and in fact I think all pk-oriented classes should have this capability to some extent. I do think it would be good to introduce a little more strategy into this scenario.
I mentioned before that I have a set of abilities in the works, of which every class in the game would be obtaining one variation. These abilities are intended to kind of work towards that goal, giving each class an ability which represents their "role" in pvp to a degree. I'll reveal more about this when design is further along. (Part of the problem right now is figuring out how to introduce and present them in a way which demonstrates their significance, given that they might simply fall into the large sack of abilities each class currently has - making them hard to pick out, especially given individual variations.)
Is unenhance ever coming back? What about a variation of unenhance that does X?
This question is frequently asked, but unenhance is not slated to return in any form. Its existence raises a number of substantial issues, all of which would need to be addressed before we would even consider it. No variation has presented itself which would address these issues.
"Excess pools" (such as mana and spirit on a warrior class) are an issue which I am aware of when designing for the long term, with an eye for justifying their existence. For example, mana and spirit potential now play a very large part in countering evasion; I will also be looking at developing overall rank as a meaningful and desirable attribute rather than just a way to "penalize" players by making missions harder.
Could 'inscriptions clear' return a percentage of the faction spent (on purchasing the inscriptions being erased)?
Unfortunately, no. Inscriptions have no inherent "cost" to them, because they can be obtained in a variety of ways (such as scrolls, which exist and are fully functional but won't actually be seen on Nodeka until the spoils of war are implemented). The faction you paid is just an arbitrary cost which Margrave Krijjkar decided to charge for the privilege of teaching you.
Having said that, I understand that the Invasion inscription costs are pretty high for experimentation right now. I have a few ideas in that regard (such as reduced inscription costs for high accolades) which I may explore.
The scar has been hyped for some time now, is it going to disappoint like Last Air Bender?
How soon can we expect it?
Will there be more areas like pains, except larger, perhaps requiring groups?
I'm sure it'll be a stunning disappointment; hype tends to do that, and well, some people aren't just tough to please, they don't want to be pleased. ;)
Having said that, it will be as good as I can possibly make it. Luckily, that particular benchmark increases over time, as every internal improvement I make for other AI purposes (Invasions, Fields of Guidance, etc.) opens up new doors for areas and events to come. In addition, I think it's evident enough that I'm committed to taking good ideas and developing them, rather than just throwing them out and letting them sit. I think the original Invasion event, as released, is almost laughable compared to what it's evolved into, even if I was proud of it at the time. =) Likewise, I will of course do my best with the Scar, and develop it wherever it needs developing.
Right now, I'm working on Fields of Guidance AI and newbie quest development. After that, I will be working on the Vl'lakian Ramparts (which is similar to what you're asking about a group-oriented Tabernacle) and the Scar concurrently.
Would it be possible for insanity et al. to show up under affects?
Not quite as easy as it sounds. Insanity and havoc aren't simple "add 50 hit, add 100 damage" effects; each affects the barbarian's combat in unique ways, some of which can't be duplicated by current temporary effects. I can, however, let you know what they do:
Insanity:
1. can't be parried
2. increases damage by a random percentage, range is based on strength and mastery beyond 100%
3. decreases hit to a random percentage, range is based on intellect and wisdom
4. drains endurance with each attack, drain can be reduced with mastery beyond 100%
5. makes the barbarian easier to hit
Havoc:
Similar to insanity, with the following differences:
1. the base hit and damage formulae are superior to insanity's
2. endurance drain is greater
3. mastery beyond 100% improves hit instead of damage
4. the "easier to hit" penalty is slightly less than insanity's
5. mastery beyond 100% reduces the "easier to hit" penalty, even going slightly below x1.0 at high %s
Would it be possible to program a 'donation' feature for the repair of Ruushi (during city Invasions) in exchange for faction?
Absolutely, although in a somewhat different form than what you describe. I have planned for the ability for experienced participants to alter the defense effort with certain global tactical decisions which last for one invasion - for example, the ability to increase golem repair rates or to inhibit the spawn rate of a certain invader class which has become too overwhelming. (These aren't slated to incur faction costs.)
This feature isn't on track to be released yet due to the ebb and flow of Invasion difficulty as I further develop the event. Given the recent enhancements, I feel that the event has drifted towards the easier side of the spectrum. (It was somewhat difficult before the golem grouping and shriveled spell nerf were introduced; there was also an unmentioned adjustment to the spawning algorithm which smooths out the spawn curve in certain situations). I have certain challenges I'd like to add to the event to spice things up, eventually; once these are ready, the time will probably be right for adding tactical benefits to balance out the added difficulty. (This is probably a slightly longer-term project, as I think Invasions are running smoothly now and I'd like to address other important areas before coming back to it.)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Featured Questions #2
As promised, another round of player-submitted featured questions.
If you have any questions you'd like to see answered, don't forget to submit them via comments below or via e-mail!
Featured Questions #2:
Why does upgrading cipher: cyclopean riddle from tier 1 to tier 2 use more inscriptions slots and not over write the tier 1 slot?
Upgrading a cipher from tier x to tier (x+1) does overwrite the previous slot. For example, advancing your cyclopean riddle to tier 2 from tier 1 will display:
in your inscription list, and the tier 1 version will disappear.
As mentioned in 'help inscription points', ciphers cost 1 inscription point per tier. Thus, holding a tier 1 cyclopean cipher costs 1 inscription point; tier 2 will cost you 2; and so on. The cost increase is linear, not cumulative.
Higher tiers obviously need to cost more slots than lower tiers; otherwise, there's little point to the tier system at all, and ciphers would all be balanced around the assumption that they were max-tiered.
Inscription points are obviously in short demand, and are designed to be that way up to a point - it's a system in which you need to choose a unique talent configuration for your character, not one in which you "get big and buy everything". Gear will soon be introduced which increases the owner's inscription capacity, which will add to the inscription options available for those who wish to invest in it. (The first set of this gear will be Invasion-reward oriented.)
Some subclasses just seem fairly outdated these days, do you have any plans on revisiting those soon?
Absolutely, I have a lot of subclass spells and skills sketched out which only need to be implemented and tested. My focus right now is on content + newbie experience + pvp, though, as I feel those need to be developed first.
Consider an item with the attribute of speed, can a minor major and divine inspiration be fixated on speed and the final product be greater than 3 times the speed of the base creation?
Inspirations are general boosts to the power level of an item. Each inspiration adds to the crafted item's potential in a couple of ways, but the overall result is an even power increase. There's no fixation on a single stat.
If you have any questions you'd like to see answered, don't forget to submit them via comments below or via e-mail!
Featured Questions #2:
Why does upgrading cipher: cyclopean riddle from tier 1 to tier 2 use more inscriptions slots and not over write the tier 1 slot?
Upgrading a cipher from tier x to tier (x+1) does overwrite the previous slot. For example, advancing your cyclopean riddle to tier 2 from tier 1 will display:
cipher: cyclopean riddle -+- tier 2
in your inscription list, and the tier 1 version will disappear.
As mentioned in 'help inscription points', ciphers cost 1 inscription point per tier. Thus, holding a tier 1 cyclopean cipher costs 1 inscription point; tier 2 will cost you 2; and so on. The cost increase is linear, not cumulative.
Higher tiers obviously need to cost more slots than lower tiers; otherwise, there's little point to the tier system at all, and ciphers would all be balanced around the assumption that they were max-tiered.
Inscription points are obviously in short demand, and are designed to be that way up to a point - it's a system in which you need to choose a unique talent configuration for your character, not one in which you "get big and buy everything". Gear will soon be introduced which increases the owner's inscription capacity, which will add to the inscription options available for those who wish to invest in it. (The first set of this gear will be Invasion-reward oriented.)
Some subclasses just seem fairly outdated these days, do you have any plans on revisiting those soon?
Absolutely, I have a lot of subclass spells and skills sketched out which only need to be implemented and tested. My focus right now is on content + newbie experience + pvp, though, as I feel those need to be developed first.
Consider an item with the attribute of speed, can a minor major and divine inspiration be fixated on speed and the final product be greater than 3 times the speed of the base creation?
Inspirations are general boosts to the power level of an item. Each inspiration adds to the crafted item's potential in a couple of ways, but the overall result is an even power increase. There's no fixation on a single stat.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Featured Questions #1
And here we go! As promised, I will be selecting some interesting player-submitted questions regarding Nodeka and answering them for you in this regularly updated article. For now, we'll say that Featured Questions will run every other Tuesday, and I'll modify that in the future if necessary =).
If you have any questions you'd like to see answered in upcoming articles, please don't hesitate to ask (either in the comments section of this blog, or via e-mail). The questions below are quoted as submitted, edited slightly for grammar and spelling.
This week's Featured Questions:
What does Difficult To Hit actually do?
Difficult to hit is a simple, strong mechanic. Whenever it triggers, it reduces the hit bonus of the attacker by a certain amount, making you... difficult to hit. =)
- Crafted items level
What/how does the item level outcome work? Is it better to use Tier 3 materials for the primary component and Tier 1 components for the secondary, rather than using Tier 1 materials for the primary and Tier 3 for the secondary?
This is correct. Crafted items have a primary component and a secondary component; these classifications correspond to the material which you need more and less of respectively. While both components contribute to the power level of the crafted item, the primary component has a greater influence.
- What abilities do gemstones have besides the only one truly verified (Transform one bonus to another)? (Example: increase chance of inspirations, add levels, something else ) ?
- Does using multiple gemstones of the same type do anything for the crafted item?
- Is there a system to gemstones that can be 'figured out', like there is with components and bonuses using the (quest action, crafting) list?
The set of currently available gemstones can be divided into several different categories, each of which increases the power of (or transforms) the resulting crafted item in various ways. While every gemstone has the potential to improve the craft on its own, the greatest benefits can only be attained through combining certain gemstone categories together.
Using multiple gemstones of the same name does not *currently* do anything to improve the craft.
There is, of course, a system that can be figured out, as with any of Nodeka's various mechanics. The crafting system, as a whole, has only two elements of randomness to it - the chance to gain a tech when crafting with a new material, and the chance for an inspiration. No other aspects of crafting utilize random rolls of any kind.
If you have any questions you'd like to see answered in upcoming articles, please don't hesitate to ask (either in the comments section of this blog, or via e-mail). The questions below are quoted as submitted, edited slightly for grammar and spelling.
This week's Featured Questions:
What does Difficult To Hit actually do?
Difficult to hit is a simple, strong mechanic. Whenever it triggers, it reduces the hit bonus of the attacker by a certain amount, making you... difficult to hit. =)
- Crafted items level
What/how does the item level outcome work? Is it better to use Tier 3 materials for the primary component and Tier 1 components for the secondary, rather than using Tier 1 materials for the primary and Tier 3 for the secondary?
This is correct. Crafted items have a primary component and a secondary component; these classifications correspond to the material which you need more and less of respectively. While both components contribute to the power level of the crafted item, the primary component has a greater influence.
- What abilities do gemstones have besides the only one truly verified (Transform one bonus to another)? (Example: increase chance of inspirations, add levels, something else ) ?
- Does using multiple gemstones of the same type do anything for the crafted item?
- Is there a system to gemstones that can be 'figured out', like there is with components and bonuses using the (quest action, crafting) list?
The set of currently available gemstones can be divided into several different categories, each of which increases the power of (or transforms) the resulting crafted item in various ways. While every gemstone has the potential to improve the craft on its own, the greatest benefits can only be attained through combining certain gemstone categories together.
Using multiple gemstones of the same name does not *currently* do anything to improve the craft.
There is, of course, a system that can be figured out, as with any of Nodeka's various mechanics. The crafting system, as a whole, has only two elements of randomness to it - the chance to gain a tech when crafting with a new material, and the chance for an inspiration. No other aspects of crafting utilize random rolls of any kind.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sumer Is Icumen In
... and it brings with it good tidings and mad updates. =)
Things have been hectic recently, but my vacation officially starts next week, and with it comes the next towering wave of major updates (finally!) and some new tidbits to chew on. In addition to new online content, I'll be moving forward with an idea that's been kicking around for a while - a "featured question" article (probably every two weeks or so) in which I'll select and answer one burning player-provided question regarding Nodeka and its mechanics.
My apologies for the recent real-life-imposed break; thankfully, it's summertime, so bring on the parties! (Someone in Ruushi needs to invent the hot dog.)
Things have been hectic recently, but my vacation officially starts next week, and with it comes the next towering wave of major updates (finally!) and some new tidbits to chew on. In addition to new online content, I'll be moving forward with an idea that's been kicking around for a while - a "featured question" article (probably every two weeks or so) in which I'll select and answer one burning player-provided question regarding Nodeka and its mechanics.
My apologies for the recent real-life-imposed break; thankfully, it's summertime, so bring on the parties! (Someone in Ruushi needs to invent the hot dog.)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
It's alive
Krijjkar now resides in a cozy corner next to Commandant Vai-shan, and he's willing to sell you the first wave of inscriptions in exchange for Ruushi faction. =)
Keep in mind that the list is far from complete - I will be adding more inscriptions to his list in the near future. (I have a few other things to work on first - a feature for demigods, Fields of Guidance, and the remaining Invasion rewards - but they're coming.) So make sure you read up on the helpfiles and think twice before buying an inscription, if you can't spare the sun stones to respec!
If you have any questions about the system, feel free to ask in the comments section of this entry. =) Thanks, folks!
Keep in mind that the list is far from complete - I will be adding more inscriptions to his list in the near future. (I have a few other things to work on first - a feature for demigods, Fields of Guidance, and the remaining Invasion rewards - but they're coming.) So make sure you read up on the helpfiles and think twice before buying an inscription, if you can't spare the sun stones to respec!
If you have any questions about the system, feel free to ask in the comments section of this entry. =) Thanks, folks!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Incoming
The first Krijjkar setup (19 inscriptions to start, with more coming soon to fill out the gaps) is ready to go live. The reboot will probably be later today sometime - I do want to write the helpfiles before I make it live, since purchasing an inscription is a bit of a commitment. And as much as I'd like to start on those helpfiles this very minute, my body is insisting on scrounging up a bit of sleep first. =)
Saturday, February 27, 2010
'Cause that's my fun day
Krijjkar should be showing his face in Ruushi sometime on Monday, with the first set of inscriptions purchasable with Ruushi faction. He's coded and working locally; I just want to scratch up a few more hours to make absolutely sure each inscription works correctly and to tweak the numbers and costs a bit.
The first set of rewards will be incomplete (I have more inscriptions to add for the classes with less than others, and accolades and schematics will be added after the fact), but I just wanted to get it up so you can start playing around with it. =)
The first set of rewards will be incomplete (I have more inscriptions to add for the classes with less than others, and accolades and schematics will be added after the fact), but I just wanted to get it up so you can start playing around with it. =)
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Gonna bosh'n nosh
The revamped Invasion, as most of you know, is now live and on its automatic cycle now. It's much more polished than the previous Invasion event; there's more variety, it's a bit more dangerous, and it's much more rewarding in the long run. It's also far, far more intelligent in scaling itself correctly for different quantities of defenders. =)
I could spend pages talking about it and giving you tips and hints... but I've already done that. Just type help ruushi invasion while you're in-game, and check out the tree of related helpfiles - there's a wealth of information and clues in there regarding the event.
Iron also has written up a great guide with his own personal observations, strategies, and guesses over at this thread on Nodeka 411 - check it out!
The event's been in test mode on live for the past four days, and after a lot of tweaking, I feel like it's pretty well-balanced overall, enough that I'm slowing down on the balance adjustments and picking up the next phase - finally whipping up the special rewards that the Invasion will offer for the most dedicated defenders of Ruushi. =)
I could spend pages talking about it and giving you tips and hints... but I've already done that. Just type help ruushi invasion while you're in-game, and check out the tree of related helpfiles - there's a wealth of information and clues in there regarding the event.
Iron also has written up a great guide with his own personal observations, strategies, and guesses over at this thread on Nodeka 411 - check it out!
The event's been in test mode on live for the past four days, and after a lot of tweaking, I feel like it's pretty well-balanced overall, enough that I'm slowing down on the balance adjustments and picking up the next phase - finally whipping up the special rewards that the Invasion will offer for the most dedicated defenders of Ruushi. =)
Monday, January 18, 2010
An eternal flame
Took a break from Invasion testing this afternoon to implement some updates to game mechanics, along with some marauder development. I'll spend a little time here discussing the most recent updates, before getting back to the new Invasion code (which is coming along great, by the way)... Just needed a temporary change of pace. =)
Firebrands, in specific, took a little bit of a running hit with this update, as silver inferno was reduced in power a bit. Its previous incarnation was fair at moderate stats, but its scaling tended to get out of control once crafted (or rp) gear was added to the mix, and especially so now that dexterity has been promoted to the rank of "statistic that actually matters to some people now" (via open wounds and the overextended attack system).
However, all of the marauder classes have (a weaker) silver inferno now - something which helps to promote the overall direction of the marauder class design (chaos!), especially now that allies are no longer protected from the inferno. (See http://nodeka.blogspot.com/2009/06/dirty-dozen5.html for my class direction primer.) The other marauder subclasses are definitely more attractive with access to the inferno, as well.
We can't leave firebrands without a unique ability, of course, and so they've developed the art of the eruptive stigma - a fiery rune which provides protection against special attacks (ice blades, kicks, lightning bolts, etc.) and which then responds by burning the offender's face off. It's a kind of a more situational form of unearthly rapture. (Don't worry, dajas - your rapture is still far superior, and in fact has been strongly buffed in the update as well, as it now triggers on the numerous types of attacks out there that ignore counterattacks.)
The other big portion of the update is related to the rapture/stigma pair - a mechanic update to counterattacks, which will now act logically for each of their damage types. (Thus, fire invulnerability will protect you from fire counterattacks, and so on.) Because of this, jakaens took a (probably long-overdue) hit to their immunities down to 50%; however, it's a tone that's also a buff in some ways, since their immunities are now effective against a variety of counterattacks. (Poliir are another class that, like marauders, need more design work in the direction of their intended flavor but have been held back by overly strong subclass abilities. I'd like to flesh out the "defensive" aspect of the poliir much more in the future.)
The consolidation of healing effects to all be affected by healing amplification is really a bit of a code-cleaning setup. Now that all healing functions in a standardized way, effects such as healing amplification will work consistently, avoiding the whole "does this ability work with heal amp?" guessing game. In addition, it makes it easier to introduce new functionality that interacts with healing, such as necromancer diseases/footpad poisons that reduce or even prevent healing. =)
Stepping back a bit to the 1/14 update, the decree of guilt buff is fairly self-explanatory. Alignment is a bit of a sticking point with paladins, and some of their abilities can really wreck it. Having decree of guilt function as an alignment-raiser felt fun and flavorful, improves the class's usability, and helps guilt to stand out just a little from the shadow of his big brother, decree of innocence.
And finally, the open wounds mechanic - this one's a strong benefit for having greater dexterity and +hit, two stats which were lacking in functionality. There's a lot of subtle possibility here. The damage dealt by open wounds is based on the wounder's +hit/+dam ratio, and the bleeding victim's maximum health. Thus, while open wounds will not have much effect in day-to-day running, it can be extremely effective in PvP combat, especially with good +hit gear for nastier wounds (and +dex to increase the chance of wounding). However, defense becomes important as well - a player can bind their wounds as soon as they leave combat, so it's easiest to take advantage of a good wound if you have someone able to tank the victim and keep them in combat as they bleed to death.
And now, back to Invasion work. =) Enjoy, and don't be shy with feedback!
Firebrands, in specific, took a little bit of a running hit with this update, as silver inferno was reduced in power a bit. Its previous incarnation was fair at moderate stats, but its scaling tended to get out of control once crafted (or rp) gear was added to the mix, and especially so now that dexterity has been promoted to the rank of "statistic that actually matters to some people now" (via open wounds and the overextended attack system).
However, all of the marauder classes have (a weaker) silver inferno now - something which helps to promote the overall direction of the marauder class design (chaos!), especially now that allies are no longer protected from the inferno. (See http://nodeka.blogspot.com/2009/06/dirty-dozen5.html for my class direction primer.) The other marauder subclasses are definitely more attractive with access to the inferno, as well.
We can't leave firebrands without a unique ability, of course, and so they've developed the art of the eruptive stigma - a fiery rune which provides protection against special attacks (ice blades, kicks, lightning bolts, etc.) and which then responds by burning the offender's face off. It's a kind of a more situational form of unearthly rapture. (Don't worry, dajas - your rapture is still far superior, and in fact has been strongly buffed in the update as well, as it now triggers on the numerous types of attacks out there that ignore counterattacks.)
The other big portion of the update is related to the rapture/stigma pair - a mechanic update to counterattacks, which will now act logically for each of their damage types. (Thus, fire invulnerability will protect you from fire counterattacks, and so on.) Because of this, jakaens took a (probably long-overdue) hit to their immunities down to 50%; however, it's a tone that's also a buff in some ways, since their immunities are now effective against a variety of counterattacks. (Poliir are another class that, like marauders, need more design work in the direction of their intended flavor but have been held back by overly strong subclass abilities. I'd like to flesh out the "defensive" aspect of the poliir much more in the future.)
The consolidation of healing effects to all be affected by healing amplification is really a bit of a code-cleaning setup. Now that all healing functions in a standardized way, effects such as healing amplification will work consistently, avoiding the whole "does this ability work with heal amp?" guessing game. In addition, it makes it easier to introduce new functionality that interacts with healing, such as necromancer diseases/footpad poisons that reduce or even prevent healing. =)
Stepping back a bit to the 1/14 update, the decree of guilt buff is fairly self-explanatory. Alignment is a bit of a sticking point with paladins, and some of their abilities can really wreck it. Having decree of guilt function as an alignment-raiser felt fun and flavorful, improves the class's usability, and helps guilt to stand out just a little from the shadow of his big brother, decree of innocence.
And finally, the open wounds mechanic - this one's a strong benefit for having greater dexterity and +hit, two stats which were lacking in functionality. There's a lot of subtle possibility here. The damage dealt by open wounds is based on the wounder's +hit/+dam ratio, and the bleeding victim's maximum health. Thus, while open wounds will not have much effect in day-to-day running, it can be extremely effective in PvP combat, especially with good +hit gear for nastier wounds (and +dex to increase the chance of wounding). However, defense becomes important as well - a player can bind their wounds as soon as they leave combat, so it's easiest to take advantage of a good wound if you have someone able to tank the victim and keep them in combat as they bleed to death.
And now, back to Invasion work. =) Enjoy, and don't be shy with feedback!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Old dogs, new tricks
Quick update - the super-revamped Invasion event seems to be running correctly locally. Always feels awesome once the machine starts chugging. =) I've tested the individual mechanics to ensure that the logical flow is correct; I'll be spending the next several days on balancing the event itself. (There are a ton of inputs which need to be tweaked - mob size, damage rates, participation scaling, timers, and so on. This event in particular needs a lot of tweaking; it's much more complex internally than the current live Invasions, and there is a lot more logic in there dedicated to scaling the event more smoothly for different numbers of participants.)
I'll probably kick the revamped Invasion to live right after tweaking it, minus the reward system (you'll be able to earn faction, just without a place to spend it yet). That'll give you the event to play with and clear my table a bit so I can put serious attention into the rewards (inscriptions and otherwise). =)
I'll probably kick the revamped Invasion to live right after tweaking it, minus the reward system (you'll be able to earn faction, just without a place to spend it yet). That'll give you the event to play with and clear my table a bit so I can put serious attention into the rewards (inscriptions and otherwise). =)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Tapping the power of Grayskull
The empower command has been live for a few days now (long enough to spit out a crash bug which was fixed last night), along with inscriptions and read. As many of you have seen, empower is a bit of a reprise of the old grei/naj'k system (an awesome discarded feature from Nodeka's very early years).
With empower in place, players can currently raise a number of auras. These auras currently provide certain benefits in and of themselves, although the precise benefits will probably be tweaked a bit.
The first batch of obtainable scrolls will be released sometime near the end of this week. These scrolls will allow players to inscribe certain auras onto their abilities, allowing each person to customize their skills and spells in certain ways. For example (and this specific one may change, as it's obviously still in the test batch, but it'll do for an illustration): if a ninja reads an 'ancient scroll: antei of formation - jta', she will gain the jta inscription on her antei of formation. From then on, whenever she uses antei of formation while in a jta aura, her endurance and hit points are revitalized by 100%+ of the cost of the antei, depending on the strength of the aura.
Thus, each player can customize the abilities they choose in a variety of ways, limited only by their inscription points and their ability to obtain and use these special scrolls. The most basic idea behind it is "empower raises an aura, and abilities do cool things when linked to that aura". There's more to it, especially in terms of gear, aura benefits, and tactical decisions, but the details are for you to discover yourselves.
A lot of people have tried experimenting with abilities that have preventions corresponding to their aura, and that's a great guess, but there's no connection there. =) The benefits of possessing an aura aren't linked to those preventions. (Right now there's a set of global benefits regardless of which aura is active, but I plan to add slightly different benefits for each aura on the next pass.)
Anyway, just a touch of information for you blog devotees and those of you who are wondering where this is all going. =) More to come this week!
With empower in place, players can currently raise a number of auras. These auras currently provide certain benefits in and of themselves, although the precise benefits will probably be tweaked a bit.
The first batch of obtainable scrolls will be released sometime near the end of this week. These scrolls will allow players to inscribe certain auras onto their abilities, allowing each person to customize their skills and spells in certain ways. For example (and this specific one may change, as it's obviously still in the test batch, but it'll do for an illustration): if a ninja reads an 'ancient scroll: antei of formation - jta', she will gain the
Thus, each player can customize the abilities they choose in a variety of ways, limited only by their inscription points and their ability to obtain and use these special scrolls. The most basic idea behind it is "empower raises an aura, and abilities do cool things when linked to that aura". There's more to it, especially in terms of gear, aura benefits, and tactical decisions, but the details are for you to discover yourselves.
A lot of people have tried experimenting with abilities that have preventions corresponding to their aura, and that's a great guess, but there's no connection there. =) The benefits of possessing an aura aren't linked to those preventions. (Right now there's a set of global benefits regardless of which aura is active, but I plan to add slightly different benefits for each aura on the next pass.)
Anyway, just a touch of information for you blog devotees and those of you who are wondering where this is all going. =) More to come this week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)