They're quick - but I'm much faster

Apologies for the lapse in updates - several real life changes ate into development time for a while there. =) Now that things have settled a bit, I'll discuss the latest pair of updates - the introduction of  Arokstrander (Nodeka's first world boss) and the latest set of footpad buffs.

Arok is actually an adaptation of a boss design from an unfinished area in my stash. (He was originally an ogre outcast tuned for four people, but his Saz-sari-fication buffed him up to world boss status.) As a more complex boss, he's not only strong in terms of stats, but also in terms of special mechanics which can make the encounter extremely challenging without preparation and coordination. (Currently, these mechanics are communicated throughout the battle - however, I know battles can be very spammy, so I'm always considering and open to suggestions regarding ways of communicating these more effectively.) It's a bit like the Invasion bosses, except that the abilities actually matter. =)

I decided to revamp him as a world boss while tweaking the intended content distribution for crafting. As I spruce up old areas via exploration/gathering, I also wanted to give them a bit of extra life through some "champion"-style boss mobs scattered throughout the world. (Currently, mob strength is fairly flat throughout each area - only a few PvE challenges deviate from that line, and I'd really like to see that change.)

I have a large stash of boss designs to pull from, and in the near future I'll be adapting them into interesting encounters of varying difficulty throughout the world. These will drop gear for now, and their loot tables will be split between gear and rare crafting materials in the future. Arok is on the moderately high end of the difficulty table in terms of mechanics and sheer strength - the next one will be a bit lower on the scale. Eventually, I'd like a number of unique boss encounters scattered throughout the world (even in lower areas, e.g. a G'kir champion in a mortal-only section with level-appropriate rewards.)

As for the footpad buffs, the motivation was simple - bring footies closer to par in terms of combat engagements. What acrobatics and obfuscate really do, numerically, is take the old stat bonuses from singularity of fate and apply them with 100% non-prevention uptime. (After testing, I increased the bonus amounts considerably as well, especially in the case of acrobatics.) This gives footpads a bit more of a chance to employ their tools without getting instantly smashed - they really feel better with the persistent agility and quickness bonuses that they used to lack - while giving them some offensive help in terms of speed and more dexterity.

Singularity of fate itself was then redesigned to be a bit of an accuracy manipulator (great for toe-to-toe combat, especially against stronger opponents). Singularity of focus, on the other hand, is more of a burst-and-escape tool, retaining its critical attack buff and now granting footpads access to free movement (which has always felt like the holy grail of footpad effects!)

I used to be a spy, until...

Quick balance update - all targeted scrying abilities (clairvoyance, astral travel, and shadow gaze) have been redesigned into non-targeted, multiple-player, area-limited scrying utilities. Thus, they can no longer be used on a specific target, but will instead tell you which players are in your current area.

Clairvoyance provides the greatest number of charges, but is the least reliable.

Astral travel provides fewer charges, but also applies an 'astral link' which very briefly allows casters to summon through no-portal rooms.

Shadow gaze is an area spy on a standard prevention, and is undetectable.

Oh, and Koj'ehr get bonus clairvoyance and astral travel charges thanks to 'distant understanding'. =)

The benefits of, and reasoning behind, this change include:

• Reduces the ease with which a PvP target may be "locked down". Redesigning the scrying abilities to be area-limited means that hunting down a specific person (especially in no-visit areas) requires actual effort and movement (whereas previously a single charge from a spybot would do, without even requiring a pause in running).
• Indirectly increases the value of hunting skills (such as shadow) and of ancillary detection skills (such as aspect of the seer and skyline interchange).
• Reduces the redundancy of utility provided by multiple casters. (Previously, having one spybot sharply reduced the value of further spiers.)

I had originally planned a targeted class discussion first (hi monks!), but we wanted to get this implemented and delivered to you first. Please feel free to discuss in the comments, as I swing back to individual classes and crafting.

Thanks for your feedback, patience, and encouragement - and thanks for playing!

Collate collate collate

Next up is part two of the class balance discussion. I'd like to thank all of you for your feedback - there are many really good points in there, and I'm honestly impressed with and appreciative of the thoughtfulness and level-headed discussion provided.

It's taking a bit of time to go through so much feedback, but I'm working on it (alongside running quick tests on the test server to get some actual numbers). I'll come back with part two soon, including a general balance overview and specific discussion on a pair of classes (likely monk + a caster).

Thanks for your feedback and patience!

Pre-Festival tips

Just to clarify for some who were confused - the new pre-Festival content is NOT the actual crafting system! It's just bonus content that uses a small part of the crafting infrastructure to let you collect commemorative gear. Crafting will officially be released when the first content drop is complete (I'm working on that right now).

Here are a few tips to get you started on the pre-Festival content!

* Step 1: Gather!

Experiment with the new 'explore' and 'gather' commands! These will allow you to build up your crafting resource pool and collect festival materials:

• a box of festive trimmings
• a maker's toolkit

There are 11 areas in total that have loot caches populated (well, 10, since I hadn't realized that one of the enabled areas isn't accessible yet...)



* Step 2: Make Tools!

Various players across the realm (those who participated in part one of the class balance discussion) will have festival recipes that they've learned. (It's also possible, although rare, to find these recipes out in the world.)

Players with these recipes can use 'crafting scribe' to create a single-use schematic for you. Once you have enough festival materials, these schematics allow you to create various festival tools:

• a set of festival bindings
• a festival buckle
• a spool of festival ribbon
• a set of festival hooks

* Step 3: Create Segments!

Ottregson and Elliveth have taken up residence in the Earthly Egress (above Ruushi, near Commandant Vai-shan). Ottregson will sell you schematics that can be turn festival tools into gear segments.


* Step 4: Get Gear!

Once you have acquired enough gear segments, you can create a piece of commemorative gear in one of two ways:

• You can use 'crafting combine' to combine multiple segments into a randomized piece of commemorative gear.
• You can purchase a schematic from Elliveth to construct a specific piece of commemorative gear using segments.

These pieces of commemorative gear each have a boon or a set bonus (you can use the 'boons' command to see a complete list of boons and set bonuses being granted by your gear)!

The Festival of Makers will officially begin on the day of the first crafting content drop; it will end some time after that. When the Festival ends, all commemorative gear will lose their bonuses. However, there will be some rewards for turning in full sets of the same type of commemorative gear (e.g. a sky-guard's braid, grips, tread, and two loops) - so hold on to your collections!

Hope you enjoy this little bonus! I'm very excited because the full crafting system is much deeper, a lot of fun, and most importantly - coming soon!

Party time approaches!

Huge update today!

Some of the more "internal" stuff - crafting infrastructure is now just about complete, and all crafting commands are now unlocked. I can now start developing the first content drop - we're close, folks!

The future arrival of crafting 3.0 will be marked by the Festival of the Makers, a celebration throughout the Nodekian realms with special content and rewards. In anticipation and to mark this milestone, I've released some temporary content as a sort of "pre-festival" bonus. This new content makes use of the now-available 'gather' and 'explore' commands, as well as the recipes which I'm distributing to class balance discussion participants - along with 'crafting scribe' and 'crafting combine'.

More information and tips to come tomorrow!

Just a draft

Crafting development is coming along. Since the 3/20 update, the following tasks have been completed on my test server in addition to bugfixes:

• "crafting specs" sub-command complete *
• "crafting spec major" and "crafting spec minor" sub-commands complete *
  
• "crafting recipes" sub-command complete *
• added new recipe draft functionality: basically an overflow recipe slot which, when a player's recipe list is full, allows her to "rescue" the most recent recipe that would be discarded otherwise

* complete = tested, fully functional, and unlocked to mortals

Work is now progressing on the scribe, discard, and study sub-commands.

On a separate note, thank you for all of the class discussion feedback under the Class Concerns post! Please keep posting if you have further feedback. I will be reading and collating this week, and I'll put together a follow-up post which will include a summary, a discussion of my thoughts on your feedback, and an opportunity for you to continue the dialog with responses to those thoughts.

As I mentioned online, I truly appreciate you contributing your thoughts, and I am considering putting together a special temporary-use reward for all constructive participants (in the form of a recipe which would be useful for a short time during the crafting roll-out - nothing really powerful, just a fun way of saying thanks).

Thanks for playing and chatting!

Class Concerns

While I'm working on crafting in the background, let's open up a discussion (THE age-old discussion!) on class balance.

Classes can feel undertuned or overpowered for many different reasons. Sometimes it's a problem with their overall kit, while at other times it's a specific skill or function causing the issue. Some might scale poorly with practices; some might have too much of an overall stat boost from spellups. There are some classes that are better at PvP than running and vice versa, and there are classes with interesting kits but for whom there aren't very many good racial fits.

I'd like to hear your thoughts in the comments section. For ease of reading and replying, please break apart your feedback into one comment per class, with the name of the class leading. For example:

• Warlocks - Very disadvantaged in PvP. Clairvoyance needs more charges.
• Druids - I think druids have received too much of a boost under the new GMO system, especially when angry. They can run completely risk-free by trapping mobs into corners with trewan and projecting pellets in. Their power needs to be trimmed.

Looking forward to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

First Look

The "crafting" command will go live tonight. In addition to the base command (which lists the full set of sub-commands, a few of which have changed since the last blog entry), you'll initially have access to the "crafting score" sub-command to play with, as well as the "crafting appraise" sub-command (which won't tell you much about anything that's not a crafted item).

It looks small, but it's much huger than it looks - underneath the slow tease of the "crafting" command, the actual infrastructure for crafting 3.0 is being deployed onto live Nodeka for the first time! The toys are there, I just need to keep the chest locked a little longer while I polish, fix, and sand off the edges. =)

In addition, the "boons" command is now accessible as well. This lets you take a look at the boons and set bonuses that you (or another person) are receiving from gear. This of course ties into crafted items, but the boon/set functionality is a complete system of its own - if time permits I may toss out a few very minor, temporary example items onto live to show you what it all looks like while you wait for crafting. =)

Finally, I've updated the wounding algorithm as follows:

• An "upshift" has been added to the stat calculations for smaller players - weaker characters won't be penalized quite as heavily when applying/resisting wounds against larger players.
• The role of dexterity (for applying wounds) and constitution (for resisting wounds) has been strongly increased for larger players. These stats will now impact your wound interactions more effectively.
• NPCs are now harder to wound than before. (Note that if the mob's constitution is very low compared to your dexterity, the dex/con boost may mitigate or even overtake this effect.) However, their resistance to wounding damage has been reduced - they now suffer 75% of the normal bleed rather than 50%.

The overall effect should be to make wounding more viable for smaller characters and as a tool against certain NPCs.

Questions and comments are welcome as always - I'll continue to develop crafting in the meantime. We'll have a bit of a class balance discussion sometime in the near future as well - keep your eyes open!

"Crafting": the Command

We're going to hold off on live Nodeka updates for this coming week, as we do some monitoring to ensure that the server issues we encountered this past weekend are fully resolved. (The upcoming updates are pretty large, and we don't want to cloud any required issue resolution by throwing in more variables.)

Instead, I'll provide some previews this week of what you can expect to see in the next couple of live updates. This is the beginning of the "slow roll-out" of crafting functionality - I'll be polishing and testing each aspect of crafting, and unlocking them for mortal access one by one as they're ready!

The first update (which we're delaying for the week) will open up access to the "crafting" command. On its own, the command won't do much, but it will give you a list of all of the sub-commands that are possible through "crafting":


  [ Crafting Commands ]:

  Informational:                         
  crafting score [ player ]                - View your crafting statistics, or those of another player.
  crafting details                         - View your detailed crafting specialization history. **

  Crafting Tasks:                        
  crafting appraise < item >               - View an item's crafting-related attributes. **
  crafting dismantle < item >              - Dismantle an item for science and materials. **
  crafting plan < item > , < plan >        - Generate a plan to improve an item. **
  crafting execute < item > , < bag >      - Execute a plan to improve an item. **

  Recipes and Combines:                   
  crafting recipes                         - View the schematic recipes you've learned. **
  crafting draft < recipe >                - Create a crafting schematic from a recipe. **
  crafting discard < recipe >              - Discard a learned recipe. **
  crafting combine < scrap >               - Combine scraps into raw materials. **

  Specializations:                        
  crafting focus major < specialization >  - Select a major crafting specialization. **
  crafting focus minor < specialization >  - Select a minor crafting specialization. **

  ** This command is in testing (inaccessible to mortals), and will be released soon!

  For general help on crafting, type 'help crafting'.
  For details on a specific command, type 'help <command name>'.


As you can see, the "crafting score" subcommand will be available in the first update as well. This allows you to view your personal crafting scoresheet:


   Crafting Statistics                                                                 
   Name    Whim: nodeka.blogspot.com        Recipes Known              1 / 6  
   Skill   Novice - 7 %                     Proficiency           5 upgrades  
          
   Resource Pool   [ # # # # # + - - - - - - ]
          
   Major Specialization   Engraving             Rank    1   Progress    72 %  
   Minor Specialization   Tailoring             Rank    3   Progress    21 %  
         
   Repertoire   face, cloak, waist, chest, weapon                             
   Combines     cloth                                                                                                                             
   Total Plans Executed:           42   Total Items Dismantled:            2  
   Total Caches Gathered:          11   Total Material Combines:           8
         
   Workshop Location:   Entrance to the Nodekian Realms                       
   Workshop Area:       The Path of Guidance revamp                           
                                                                
              
In addition, you can use "crafting score" on OTHER players, as well! This will let you shop around for other crafters who may have the specific talents or skill level you're looking for - benefiting players with specific crafting needs, as well as dedicated crafters who would like to advertise their services.

"Crafting score" shows a more limited set of information when viewing other players:


   Crafting Statistics                                                                 
   Name    Nijlo: send email, not tell      Recipes Known              0 / 6  
   Skill   Beginner - 0 %                   Proficiency           0 upgrades  
          
   Major Specialization   Alchemy               Rank    1   Progress     2 %  
   Minor Specialization   Sporology             Rank    0   Progress    91 %  
         
   Repertoire   light
   Combines     metal, wood                                         

                                                                           

If you prefer to keep your information private, there is a toggle to prevent others from viewing your crafting info:

[ Crafting Stats Public ]:  off

This functionality is ready and will go live after this week, when we are ready to allow deployments again. In upcoming blog updates, I'll preview further crafting functionality as I finish the polishing and testing passes on each. Thanks for your patience and feedback!

Connectivity issue resolved

The connectivity issues have been resolved and Nodeka is once again accessible.

Thanks for your patience!

Temporary server issues 3/7

Hi all, just a heads up - Nodeka is currently experiencing some server issues. We're taking a look and I'll keep you updated here.

Thanks for your patience, everyone!

UPDATE: we believe that we've identified the cause, and anticipate having Nodeka back up within the next few hours. Thanks!

So very special

The very first rumblings will be live soon, folks. I will still need to lay more infrastructure before you can actually start crafting, but soon you'll be able to see the shape of the upcoming system more clearly (for example, through a new "score crafting" display).

This past weekend was spent cleaning up the specialization design and code. Here's the tentative list of Nodeka crafting specializations (names and details are of course subject to change):

Bladeforging *
Chainsmithing *
Gemology *
Platesmithing *
Tailoring *
Abjuration
Alchemy
Demonology
Engraving
Hide-shaping
Metallurgy
Pathfinding
Scaling
Shamanism
Sporology
Tanning
Threadcraft
Wilderken
Woodworking

Crafting will be available from a mortal level, although the rules will differ somewhat for lowbies. (This will be added after the basic crafting structure is live.) The first five (starred) specializations are the recommended "basic" techniques, and lowbies will be gently steered in that direction, but the ultimate choice is up to the player.

Players may focus on two specializations at a time (one major, one minor). Switching is allowed, but at the cost of progress. (However, the further you progress in a specialization, the easier it becomes to regain that progress if you take it up again after discarding it. Thus, a hypothetical omni-artisan who has "mastered it all" can switch with a greater degree of freedom than a wet-behind-the-ears apprentice.)

Benefits are to be revealed. =) Keep your eyes open, and thanks for your patience and feedback!

Crafting 3.0 Q&A

Thanks for all of your crafting feedback, folks! In the month since the last entry, I've gone back and refined the 3.0 design, poking at it with your perspectives in mind and with a few new ideas of my own - I am VERY excited about this system, and I'm hoping you all get as much joy out of the exploration as I have out of the design. I'm in the very early stages of coding right now.

I'd prefer to keep my crafting beans primarily unspilled, but I will very briefly answer some of your questions from comments and email since the last post:

1. PK mixed with crafting? Yes.

2. Items transferrable? Yes.

3. Stones/marbles as crafting currency? Not planned, but sun stones will allow for respecs.

4. Specializations? Yes.

5. Forced into crafting? No-ish. Crafted gear won't provide stat boosts as large as in 2.0. However, there needs to be a reason and incentive to craft. "Forced" is partly mindset. You can buy gear from crafters.

6. Obfuscated formulae? Not as obfuscated as 2.0. However, understand that a sense of discovery is important.

7.  Auction house? Not planned, trade channel for now. Someone could always set up a trading forum on compose. =)

8. Existing gear/Ruushi overlap. Yes, definitely some overlap with Ruushi gear (which I think is still a bit overly strong even post-nerf).

9. One size shouldn't fit all? Noted. The shape of the old 2.0 system is due in part to expediency (because of the underlying structure, adding class-specific gear would have massively inflated certain portions of the system). In the past month's revision of the new 3.0 system, I've worked in more distinction.

10. Materials/inventory/bank? This is a good point. I don't have a solid plan for this yet. The 3.0 system is rather different from 2.0, so I'd like to see how it plays out before devoting design/imp to it.

11. High barrier/investment and reliance on others? Noted and agreed. The trick is to leverage that aspect (which makes crafting valuable) without providing impossible barriers to entry for future crafters.

12. Crafting bags? Not planned at this time, easy to add if future behavior indicates this would be desirable.

The questions I haven't addressed above relate to aspects I'd like to keep in my pocket for now. =) There's nothing quite like the kick I get out of seeing people unravel the mystery of a fresh new system!

Something completely different

This may be one of the least essential posts on this blog ever, but I thought that this stuff might be interesting to one or two of the more curious players, so please bear with me. =)

While pulling out some previous design work, I dusted the electrons off of some very old files and found a lot of enlightening/embarrassing notes from a different era.

I had a blast going through them, and I thought I'd share an arbitrary excerpt from one of these old designs. These are some of the notes for an area I was planning called the Auriakan Gauntlet - a questing area extending beneath Aur-Vindi filled with many dozens of "challenge rooms" linked to each other, which players would navigate through in a competition to progress as deep as they could before their timer expired.

It was a horrible design, for many reasons, and I eventually abandoned it. By the way, these notes are over 10 years old(!!) The tunnels still exist, however, their hollow corridors running deep beneath Aur-Vindi, filled only with the echoes of deserted dreams. One day...


<Title>:  Rakelle's Blossom
Spiral-patterned series of one-way rooms as below. Start at s, exit at e. Secret
doors bar progress from each room to the next. Clues to solve each secret are in
descs. Rakelle's spirit in inaccessible room with one-way exits into s and *,
mental tiaraning while player is trying to solve clues.

[*]}[ ]}[*]
 ^       v
[ ] [s] [ ]
 ^   v   v
[*]{[ ] [ ]
         e

<Title>:  Flags
Remember to use remortFlag and make Rakelle an NPC race so she doesn't chase the
player after the first tiaran.

<Title>:  Non-replayability/scripting
Sucks that this is a non-challenge once solved and can simply be scripted.
Possible semi-solutions:
1) Clockwork golem with very long delay (35min?) revolving the entrance access
   between maybe 4 or 6 challenge sequences?
2) Extend idea (1) to provide branching access midchallenge?

Both of the above would require giving Rakelle one-way tiaran access to more rooms
(possible simply by adding n/s/e/w extensions to her home).

<Title>:  Scrap this idea.
This is really a pretty dumb idea. Basically a test of the player's Con and HP
more than anything else.

Scrap.

<Title>:  (sentry statues)
Sentry statues that come to life after a player has spent a certain amount of
time in that room and attack. Very high powered. Purpose is to keep player
moving. Can come in differently timed varieties and used in multiple challenge
rooms.

<Title>:  (sweepers)
Powerful automatons that "sweep" the Gauntlet of stragglers. Monitor the area,
if any one player is in for too long (3 hours? 5 hours?), the sweepers stalk
that player. (Non-wandering, reside in rooms with one-way exits into the
challenges.)

Alternately, make them powerful but killable (power level geared to the
challenge they're connected to perhaps?), and have them sweep at constant
intervals (every hour?).

<Title>:  Addendum: Idea!
Sweepers could also be constantly doing a stalk on any player carrying a Seal
that corresponds to the next higher challenge... additional cheat-proofing!

<Title>:  Note: Power Level
Do not link power level of the sweeper to the connected challenge - all must be
uniformly unkillable/dangerous. (Otherwise they won't work in preventing the
comatose-in-a-safe-challenge-to-lock-up-Gauntlet abuse.)

<Title>:  sewers
Twisting sewers, use marsh tile and stone. Various slides lead deeper, one-way.
All paths should be valid (except maybe a few with warning signs), but some
tougher.

Low difficulty early challenge.

<Title>:  Clockwork Labyrinth
Populated by golems and other machinery. Maze is "altered" in realtime by golems
who open and close secret doors at set intervals, closing off some passages and
opening up others. Blindly killing everything (thus killing the "operator"
golems) is likely to leave the questor stuck.

<Title>:  Implemented - let's expand
First clockwork maze complete. (Questor has a fixed amount of time to complete
the maze or the challenge is closed.) Simple path-altering done by clockwork
golems to create a real-time changing maze, requiring mapping/deduction or a lot
of luck.

Expand on idea in later challenges. Current clockwork golems only operate if
no PC is in the room. In description, show (but don't explain) method of
programming clockwork golems (example - 4 chest slots, different gemstone in
each slot, the type of gem in slot 1 determines whether golem operates only if
no PC, or only if PC present... etc).

Later golems can be "programmed" for different actions (for example, only open
passage if player present but close in x seconds). This requires the player to
either deduce the "programming" clues or operate on trial and error. (Example -
a passageway that can only be accessed via the clockwork golem in the room which
operates only when a player is present - the player would have to kill the golem
right after it opens the passage or be unable to return after the golem closes
it off behind them. Thus, once the player has deduced "do not kill clockwork
golems, we can throw them for another curve.)

<Title>:  (blood (sharks? mongrels? worms? I suck at names))
Blood sharks (yes, terrible name - blood worms? blood mongrels?) wander passively
under normal conditions but will aggro any PC with half or less life.

<Title>:  Nightmares! (Dream-eaters?)
Area can be filled with skittish rats or some other mob that immediately runs
away when a PC is in the room (and flees if fighting) - must be weak enough that
they won't actually hurt a player. Clues etched on walls. Actual Seal-loading
mob is in a 1-way room connected to the challenge, and will not move unless the
player is sleeping (in which case it will stalk the player).

<Title>:  No Escape
Yes, it needs a new name.

Center of the challenge: a small hill, on which are trapped a band of holy
warriors (paladins, bishops, priestesses). A Diva in the center of the area
chants forth a circle of warding, the only thing keeping the evil at bay.

Completely surrounding the hill are an assortment of evil spirits (banshees,
spectres, and the like). A few paladins also roam the surrounding area,
attacking the spirits. The toughest evil mobs are the devourer spirits,
which roam slowly swallowing large chunks of earth and whatever is on it
(sacrifice all, to keep the area clear of paladin corpses/gold).

The spirits will aggro any good mob, as well as any player, unless that
player is holding the Saint's Locket from an earlier challenge. The spirits will
shy away from any player holding the Locket (move out of the room, or flee if in
battle).

A White Dragoon commander in the center camp holds the Seal. He will trade the
Seal to any player in exchange for the Saint's Locket. (Thus the player will
obtain the Seal, but will have to fight to the challenge portal as the spirits
will now aggro them.)

If the player did not obtain the Locket earlier, the Dragoon commander can be
killed for the Seal, but this will be an extremely difficult battle, even
harder than forging a path through the spirits (who are of a reasonable power
level except for the Devourers, which are huge but sparse and avoidable). One
possibility is to lure the Dragoon commander out of the camp and into a
Devourer, thus having the Devourer tank.

<Title>:  Notes: Dragoon commander
Must be non-wandering, to avoid wandering out of the circle of warding.

Camping prevention: load him in his tent, with an Ember. Tent must have a secret
door to seal it. Once there are no players in the Gauntlet, destroy the Ember
and open up the tent.

If a player is in his tent while he has the Ember, request that the player leave.
If s/he doesn't, attack. Probably need to include a hunting dog or other companion,
which joins a fighting mob if MOB GOOD, made very powerful to discourage powerful
players from camping in the tent.

<Title>:  Companion
The companion can be asleep, and set to wake and join the fighting mob if
MOB GOOD and MOB HAS_ITEM (Ember). (Need the ember check, otherwise killing the
Dragoon for the Seal will not be a viable strategy without a ranged attack to
lead him out.)

<Title>:  Notes: Locket protection - abuse prevention
Possible minor abuse: obtaining the Locket to ward off the spirits, but instead
of trading the Locket to the Dragoon commander, lure him out of the protective
circle until a Devourer tanks him. Little to no risk to player, as the spirits
will fear the Locket and s/he will not need to tank the Dragoon commander.

Solution: make sure the spirits do a check on RANDOM PC ROOM for HAS ITEM
(Saint's Locket) frequently, even if fighting, and flee if check is passed.
If the player is attacking the Dragoon, this should result in the player
fighting the Dragoon.

Dragoon should be a moderate-high damage mob with good hp. Devourers should be
a low-moderate damage mob with extremely high hp.

<Title>:  Notes: circle of warding
Circle can be simulated via RACE flags. Allow all player-able races into the
circle, perhaps allow for non-playerable races also, but deny access to spirits.

<Title>:  "buttons and levers" substitute
An idea to enforce solving a puzzle in a semi-linear fashion, without needing
button and lever-type interaction.

The puzzle must require the player to "double back" to previously visited areas.
Section A leads into section B via a one-way passage. B leads back into A via
another one-way passage; however, this passage has one or more doors on the
A-section side. Each door is nonsecret (although possibly locked) from the
A-side, but is a secret door (no clues, not intended to be solved) on the
B-side.

Thus, while the player can move from A to B at any time, they will not be
able to return to A unless they pre-open the doors from the A-side. Note
that repop may get in the way of this, so best implemented in later
challenges (when the player will likely have already seen at least one
Gauntlet repop and thus "should" be keeping track of time).

<Title>:  Hunting Competition
Area loads with many, many copies of a tiny mob, one of which loads the Seal.
Player begins in a sealed room with some kind of messed-up hermit. Hermit invites
player to participate in a game - a race to find the Seal. Hermit then opens up
the room and runs off, slaughtering and looting mobs. Player can do likewise, but
placed liberally in the area are larger aggro mobs - very low damage but high hp,
designed just to slow the unwary player down.

If Hermit finds Seal first, only recourse is to wait for repop or try again later.

<Title>:  amendment
Game should actually be for some item other than the Seal, which the Hermit will
trade the Seal for. Hermit can do a pre-game check to make sure the player does
not have extra copies of the item (use same abuse prevention measures as with
the Keepers). This prevents Seal camping.

<Title>:  How am I going to do this :P
Heh, is this even going to be possible? Thoughts...
Hermit must be wandering, otherwise "returning home" will mess up his hunting.
However, he also must be able to somehow return to the starting room and stay
there, to introduce the game to each questor.

Perhaps every room in the area can have a secret down trapdoor which leads into
a mortal-only room, which in turn leads back to the "entrance" room. He can
periodically open the trapdoor, go down, close the trapdoor, and go down again
to return to the entrance, then rest. This should work fine UNLESS he manages
to wander in the middle of the return process, which will throw everything off.
If he does this every so often, though, it should set him eventually.

We don't want him doing this while hunting, though. While hunting (before each
kill?) he should do some checks to see if he should stop hunting and revert to
reset mode. The following should end the hunt: ME HAS_ITEM, MOB HAS_ITEM (for
RANDOM PC AREA), or INVALID_TARGET RANDOM_PC_AREA.

Need to test this locally.

<Title>:  I did it! And it sucks.
Managed to write the AI. Mobs operate perfectly once the challenge is properly
built... but damn it's a boring challenge. :P

Saving AI for possible future use, removing challenge.

<Title>:  Balancing Act
Series of ropes/fallen trees/bridges/planks/some sort of walkway, suspended above
a pit. At least two mob types roaming the walkways - one fairly innocuous (maybe
aggro but not difficult), second sparser by far but much tougher and stalking.
Second mob must be tough enough that players want to avoid it, thus being forced
to traverse the walkways quickly. The "walls" of each walkway are one-way exits
into the pit below, occupied by nasty mobs and with no escape (must recall) -
if the player missteps off the walkway, they've ruined their chances of moving
on. Also, if the tough stalking mob catches them, they must fight to the death
or risk fleeing/vanishing into the pit (unless they have retreat).

<Title>:  Ups and Downs... sneaky
Hehe, this could be pretty neat.

One-way exits are obvious (on the outdoor tileset) due to the blackspace and the
lack of a wall - but only for north/south/east/west exits. Up/down exits that are
one-way don't look any different.

This can be used to good effect if the player "assumes" that an up exit is simply
the other end of a down exit they just travelled (or vice versa). In reality, the
up exit does not lead back to the room they just came from, but another section
entirely. Unless the player has a reason to go back up (or is exploring very
thoroughly), they may walk right past without noticing.

This works especially well if the corridor the player just came from is trapped,
thus their instinct would be to avoid going back up after running down to escape.

<Title>:  Completed Challenges
These challenges are structurally complete and ready for mob placement, requiring
only room descriptions, key numbers, and final inter-challenge linking.
               
<Title>:  Gauntlet subrooms
36516 : Cross of Pain .
36524 : Halls of Ice .
36546 : Inferno .
36651 : Burial Grounds .
36655 : Slow Roast .
36704 : Sewers .
36844 : Sovereign Eternal .
36919 : Faith

The plots they are hatching

Alright! Let's get this started, yeah?

The Great Player Wipe of 2014 devoured bits, bags, stats, mats - the accumulated detritus of a thousand journeys. As the universe rebooted itself, some things were carried forward

You'll never pwipe Christof

Some things took seed and regrew differently

Break it up, clans

And some things were lost forever

Crafting.


Version 2.0 of crafting (which was disabled after the wipe - version 1.0 was a well-received trial run with a very different item set many, many years ago) was balanced around a different era. With the universal reboot came the perfect opportunity to revisit this game-defining system and improve it.

I've spent the past several months doing design work, starting from scratch conceptually to create the crafting system that I'd like to see today. The first two crafting systems were designed from a mechanical viewpoint - that is, I took a look at the tools I had and thought, "how can I use these tools to put together a cool crafting system?" For crafting 3.0, I'm trying a slightly different approach.

This time around, I have a long history of player behavior and feedback to work from. I can now take advantage of the numerous AI and system improvements which have been implemented over the years. I have the basic crafting infrastructure as a starting platform, and much more design experience than when I first unleashed the salvage gnomes onto Aur-Vindi.

Will 3.0 be any good? Who knows, it's a coin-toss. It's exciting as hell to try, though!

I began the design process in August by drafting a statement of purpose. Without any specific mechanics in mind, I looked back at Nodeka's crafting history, revisited various crafting systems throughout other games, daydreamed a little (a lot), and came up with a set of goals for 3.0. I won't be dumping my whole set of design notes here - allure relies on mystery! - but a few of the goals and lessons I ended up with were:

+ Experimentation is key: modular construction of items via diversity of inputs (decisions)

+ Trash: things should be crafted because they are needed; avoid "skill-up trash"

+ The grind: I prefer the focus to be on "skilling up" the item, rather than grinding a player skill

+ Stat inflation: no

+ Lifetimes: too many negative game implications; shift focus to permanent gear

+ The crafter should matter: investment + decisions = unique output, potential for economy

These goals (and a number of others) guided the design process. Coming up with a good solution is not as easy as writing up some rules and following them - there are limitations on scope, coding considerations, contradictory goals - but bridging that give and take with your singular overpowered tool (your imagination) is the fun part of making a game system stew.

Blah blah blah my MotD is still empty

I've decided to post this Sixth Sense entry now because the end of the design process is in sight. There were several false starts and do-overs, but I think I have the outline of a system which fits the framework I was aiming for, and which is also possible for me to implement. It will take another week or so to finalize some details, and then I can start the actual implementation (scripting, resource creation, and coding).

In the meantime, while I'm doing the wrap-up work, I wanted to open up the boards to chat about what you think about crafting. I think most of us have encountered crafting systems throughout our gaming histories. Which systems did you like the most, and what did you like about them? What would your vision be for bringing the salvage gnomes out of unemployment?

Let me know in the comments, and thanks for playing!

Featured Questions #9

Will players ever get the option to choose which statistical gain they receive, via success in pvp combat?
I do not intend to implement this, no. PvP gains are balanced around a random distribution of mastery gains, not around a player pumping all of their gains into the single "strongest" mastery. I find the minor "lottery" aspect to be more interesting, as well.

Are you happy with the current state of gem acquisition?
Fairly so. There will be more gem sources as time goes on and more reward systems are implemented, but strong gems are intended to be an uncommon bonus, not the standard for every crafted item slot. In addition, weaker/less desirable gems (such as many "transmuters") will find their niche via schematics (which will be introduced in the spoils of war system). =)

What do you think about extending the 75 days to 90 days on crafts?
This is my current plan for crafted gear:
- "Refreshing" a temp item with an infuscated marble will reduce its max lifetime by 20% each time. (Thus, the first stone will refresh 80% of its lifetime; the second stone will refresh 60%; and so on.)
- Crafted gear will have their base lifetimes increased from 75 days to 90 days.
- More sources of crafting materials and gems will be available, to make gear easier to craft.

Crafted gear was never meant to be "permanent" to the extent that has been realized through infuscated marbles (an interaction which was unintended but kept in-game after going through much feedback); this power swing is exacerbated by the fact that keeping a strong piece alive has the side-effect of making it even more powerful (via the marble's uniqueness stat bonuses). However, I do realize that it can take an inordinate amount of effort to gather the materials necessary to upkeep multiple crafted slots. I'd like to move crafted items back toward their intended functionality (where replacing a crafted item eventually becomes necessary), without inflicting undue hardship upon those players who would rather upkeep their gear with stones for as long as possible. (Note that given the 75-90 day increase, for the first two marbles used, a player will get nearly the same amount of bonus duration as they do now even with the 20% loss taken into account - just over 7 months of added lifetime.) I plan on implementing this just before spoils of war is released (since new, stronger crafting materials will become available at that time); discussion is, as always, welcome. =)

What's this command about: reattune ?
Many future rewards will be "attuned" to the specific player who earned it (analogous to the "bound to player" system found in some other loot-oriented multiplayer games). An item may only be worn/read by the player to whom it is attuned. This allows me to implement strong, worthwhile quest/event rewards without worrying about inappropriate stacking, and to focus more on permanent item rewards (instead of temporary items) without worrying about flooding the market and item devaluation.

The reattune command will allow players to change the attunement on an item attuned to another player, thereby taking "ownership" of it. This costs a number of sun stones specific to the given item (of course, many attuned items will not be reattunable).

Is every craft with at least two stats balance-able?
The distribution of stats across an item is determined by the type of material used to construct it. As a fictional example, a piece of constitution/speed chest armor crafted from metal and leather might have more points in constitution than in speed, whereas a constitution/speed tunic crafted from leather and cloth might grant more speed than constitution.

Someone recently asked, "accolades give me a chance for better rewards, right?" How is the faction reward computed? What determines if I get faction under the heroism rune?
Ruushi accolades provide several benefits:
- Slightly lowers the cost of obtaining a requisition for Ruushi-forged gear.
- Certain accolade levels allow the player to purchase requisitions for new equipment slots.
- In the upcoming spoils of war system, each successive accolade increases the quality of the spoils received after each invasion.

For visit + xt "Empowered: visit a groupmate in a no-portal room." what is the span[definition] of 'groupmate'?
'Groupmate' refers to someone in your group (via the 'group' command).

To follow up on what Magrath said, has there been a change to the way gems are given out for turning in 50 jewel frags? I have also noticed a drop off in the number of gems from salvage.
This question is a fairly common one. The last time I touched the salvage drop code was in 2008; the system's been stable for a long time, and I haven't needed to change anything since then. (I'll need to make some changes for the spoils of war feature, but those haven't been pushed live yet.) Therefore, no - any changes in drop rates/gem returns are due solely to randomness or changes in player behavior (e.g., converting more or less jewel fragments at a time).

Which stats or other stuff affects the damage decaying touch deals?
Learn curve and wisdom (as well as +damage). This is shown in the decaying touch helpfile; however, I'm guessing the reason this question was asked is that word completion defaults to "help affect: decaying touch" before "help decaying touch". Thus, typing "help deca tou" will display the helpfile for the affect: rather than the skill's helpfile, because both helpfiles match the input and the former appears first in the (alphabetically sorted) helpfile list.

In order to view the helpfile for the skill, the player needs to type "help decaying touch" in full (since word completion only kicks in if there's no 'perfect' match). I've noticed this behavior while looking up helpfiles for several other abilities as well. I'll look at making the behavior more intuitive in the future (perhaps by prioritizing matches with the same number of words first).

In what ways, if any, does the strength stat affect devil siphon's or elemental malediction's damage?
The power of devil's siphon, per its helpfile, is based on willpower and wisdom; elemental malediction is based on intellect and wisdom. Strength will not have a direct effect on either spell; however, strength does provide +damage, which will increase the damage of both spells.

The damage of basically any attack is increased by +damage, be it from a skill, spell, or natural attack. This is part of what makes +damage so desirable. Note that I've been tending to reduce the contribution of +damage in many of the recent abilities I've been creating (thus making the relevant stats far more important to the ability's effectiveness).

At what %age, if any, does practicing dodge or parry cap in effectiveness?
There is no hard cap to dodge or parry; every mastery point beyond 100% increases their effectiveness to some degree.

Do the effects of circle of bane stack?
Nope; circle of bane puts the victim in a 'baned' state, which causes it to suffer more damage and strike with decreased accuracy. Doing this multiple times does not multiply its effect, as the victim is already 'baned'.

Cipher question - Is the health spoken of in the helpfile of ogrish malison based on dynamic real-time values?
Yes. Ogrish malison's improvement versus 'more powerful' opponents is based on a flat comparison of current hp values (not percentages, but flat hp amounts).

About the update on 7/30/10, are the rune-eq presently available to players?
Not yet. The code is present (I could create runed gear on the fly without a reboot, if I so choose,
and it would function correctly), but the actual items aren't in-game yet. One of the potential rewards obtainable via the upcoming spoils of war system are schematics which will allow you to create runed gear.

Ranks to exclude those with the bot lag affect please?
Not a bad idea. I'll look into this.

Combat choice's tactics options seems to dwarf decree of innocence, at least as far as the actual buff goes. Actual % of lat det, prevention, everything.
Decree of innocence (in addition to its restorative effect) grants lateral deterrence to the paladin's entire group, whereas nojohr's combat choice is a self-buff only. Decree of innocence is also much more dynamically accessible (as a nojohr running with the 'power' choice will not be able to switch to 'tactics' for the lateral deterrence until the buff fades). A stronger decree via inscriptions is a possibility, though. =)

hey i have a question, doesn't really pertain to this blog, but idk where else to post lol, but what's the damage increase rate on hurricane kick for +100% mastery?
It absolutely pertains to this blog - that's what the Featured Questions column is for. =) I tend not to give out actual formulas for several reasons (I don't want to start a bad precedent). I can say that the damage return is pretty decent, in addition to the other benefits (increased accuracy and an increasing chance to bypass parry/dodge). I spend a good deal of time making passes through Nodeka's ability system, trying to ensure that each ability's mastery bonus is significant and justifiable (see the previous blog entry's notes on the static charge/devil's siphon update).

Game updates: 3/28 - 4/5

Getting back into the swing of things - here's some discussion on the updates I've managed to eke out this past month, between work on the spoils system. =)

Static charge is now free, and may replenish mana/spirit.
Devil's siphon gains power versus heavily damaged targets.

There are a number of abilities which, in their current form, are very similar to each other. These abilities have a tendency to obsolete one another (lagged abilities such as static charge vs. elemental malediction), or to mirror each other with no variation or incentive for strategic use (e.g., kick, striking fist, and ashi barai kick). As as additional undesirable side effect, the lagless abilities and the inferior lagged abilities tend to be extremely poor choices for advancement beyond 100% mastery.

By differentiating these abilities in subtle ways, I can diversify their mastery benefits (making the comparison more than a numerical scaling comparison) while introducing the possibility of strategic use for some of the plain lagless 'strikes'. There are three ways I can do this: 1) introducing additional base functionality, as in the case of static charge; 2) granting additional functionality with mastery beyond 100%; and 3) through the use of inscriptions (as in the case of oblique pattern - tih).

Some abilities which were hard-capped on damage will now improve at diminishing rates instead.

Some of the more statistically inclined scripters among you have already noticed that certain abilities seem to stop scaling completely after a certain point. In addition, these "hard caps" tend to be coded into older abilities, and so they tend to cap extremely early (as the average power level of a character is much higher than it was 10 years ago). I will slowly be working on addressing these hard caps over time (the process will be slow, as a significant amount of balancing is required).

Nojohr's combat choice has been redesigned.
Nojohr's lightning choice has been redesigned.

The nojohr 'choice' abilities were used, 99.99% of the time, as simple +dam and +spe buffs. The other two choices on each ability were generally ignored due to the fact that they served similar functionality to the +dam and +spe aspects, but with poorer bonuses. I've reduced these abilities to only two choices each, but with a stronger differentiation between functionalities (pure damage output versus speed and lateral defense for the combat choice, and a defensive boost to counteract the nojohr's fusing penalty versus a situational attack for the lightning choice). The benefit to nojohrs is twofold: more diversity in combat options as well as new avenues for mastery improvement (as the new versions improve beyond 100%)

The lightning choice drains over time normally, but it increases in power instead while the nojohr has the galvanize effect up. Galvanize uptime can of course be maximized by simply keeping it charged constantly (and never discharging it with a war-strike or cleave); less obviously, a nojohr can maintain a good galvanize uptime by discharging it near the end of its 10-second duration (instead of using war-strike/cleave immediately after the galvanize).

Instrumentation of riposte improves beyond 100% mastery.

I've always liked riposte as a unique, flavorful nojohr ability. The new mastery benefit for instrumentation of riposte not only improves the base ability slightly, but it also grants a lesser riposte buff whenever the nojohr has a gambit active (currently, gambit of the warring shield or aulora's gambit). The warring shield is obviously the more popular, powerful gambit on its own merits; however, aulora's gambit has a much longer duration, and can thus maintain a higher riposte uptime.

Connection issues

Nodeka is temporarily inaccessible due to connection issues beyond our control - we'll have this ironed out as soon as possible. I'll keep you posted if further issues develop.

Update: It appears to be an ISP network issue; we don't yet have a timeline for resolution but we'll keep you posted.

Update 2: The issue has been resolved; you should be able to connect to Nodeka normally.

Game update: 11/12

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. =)

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).