Fallen Age Info Digest: April 15, 2001 - April 21, 2001
The following list of statements are the highlights of issues discussed on
the forums over at 'The
Official Site' over the past week by Savant and Drysart.
Savant: Your inventory is limited to the amount of burden you can carry,
not space per item.
Savant: Male and Female avatars are indeed identical except for a few
complimentary spells. It adds to diversity.
Savant: Quick Summary on Stat Meanings
STR - Strength:
Increase damage you do with Melee Attacks, and how much weight you can
carry. (Chakra and Shaman weapons count as melee attacks).
DEX - Dexterity:
Increases AID and Stamina
SIN - Sinew: Decrease damage taken from
physical attacks, increases HP.
WIS - Wisdom: Decrease damage taken
from special attacks (skills/spells), Increase Magic Defense, Help cast support
spells, Increase ESP.
BLS - Bless: Help cast healing and defensive/support
spells.
CON - Concentration: Increase damage done by offensive
spells.
Network Requirements
Savant: The game will boot you if your ping goes over 1000.
Beta
Savant: Avatar customization won't come for a month or so. Customization
of all kinds comes later on, we're concentrating on content and performance
issues at the moment.
Savant: Next week(ish) we'll patch the Jail/Bounty systems and Secure Trade,
as well as fix bugs. Following that the next patch will be nearly full Guild
Functionality, including sending in your own designed flag to be put into the
game, and levels 100-300 (which include new towns, zones, monsters, items,
etc.). Then will be Avatar Customization and Colony Battle.
Drysart: April 13 was our cutoff date for the first wave of beta. If we
received your CD after the 13th, you'll be in the second wave of beta, which
we'll be sending out next week. Confirmation emails won't be sent out until at
least the 21st.
Drysart: Don't use the "New ID" button in game. It doesn't work. Use the URL
printed on the CD Key label on the back of the jewel case to create your
account. The registration process will also upgrade your forum account to be
able to post to the beta boards.
Drysart: Applications will be taken all through beta. It's the Send-In-Your-CD
promotion that ends on the 21st.
Drysart: It will appear as though the patch program has crashed while it
actually applies the patch to the data files. Just let it sit for a bit and
eventually it will come back to life and continue on into the game.
Drysart: Due to bandwidth restraints at this phase of beta, we've limited
the download process to the international testers only.
Drysart: We want to include overseas testers in beta, but due to the cost of
mailing CDs overseas it makes mass mailing out CDs too expensive, so overseas
testers were given a special CD Key and web page they can download the client
software from.
Savant: In response to "problems logging in due to username length", Just
have her use the first 8 characters of the login she tried to make. ie if she
tried to make Ieatcrayons, then she just needs to enter Ieatcray as her login
ID. (Case Sensitive)
Colonies
Savant: In response to "Can we use the bank yet", You need to have a
colony in order to have the bank take your money. You need to be level 30
and finish the colony quest in order to have a colony.
eBay
Drysart: The main reason, I think, the number one reason no game
companies support eBaying is because of the massive potential for fraud.
If someone gets screwed in an eBay transaction, they can go after the seller,
yes, but if the game company supports eBaying, they can go after the company
easier. It quickly becomes a customer support nightmare, and despite a
company's best efforts, people who get defrauded by other people on eBay are
left with a sour taste in their mouth about the game. Through no fault of
the game company's.
Drysart: Now, in a game like Fallen Age, where there aren't static drops,
and no camping, eBaying presents little or no direct interference with the
gameplay of others. That takes the whole eBay question and changes it from
one where a decision has to be made based on facts and turns it into one
where a decision has to be made on a sort of "morality". As far as our
policy, selling items is against our policy, with the solid reasoning
behind that policy lying in the fraud and Customer Support reasons I gave
earlier. I can't say for certain yet how strictly we'll have to enforce it.
Interface
Drysart: We're going to be improving the chat interface over time... right
now it's still in rough, early-beta shape. Among the things we'll be changing
are better word wrapping, using an easier to read font, and making tells,
shouts, and guildchat easier to use.
Drysart: In response to "How to use spells/skills", Load the spell into your
active spell slot (the right-most box on the bottom of the screen), by
double-clicking it in your ebook or hitting the key number if it's in one of
the hotkey slots. Then right-click your target.
Drysart: In response to "How to drink a potion", Double-click it. You can also
drag them down to the left 4 slots on the hotkey panel (you can load multiple
potions on the same spot), then use the hotkey to drink it.
Drysart: In response to "Anyone who's colorblind is going to have a hard time
reading the damage numbers", We're going to be changing most/all the text in
game to a font that's easier to read, and perhaps completely outlining it in
black so it stands out against the background better. It's hard for people that
AREN'T colorblind to read it sometimes right now.