(FAHOC is complete - presently formatting this page)
| [17:28] | <Locke|Stratics> | Good evening everyone, thank you for coming to tonight's Fallen Age House of Commons. This Stratics developer chat is a direct connection between you, the players, and the designers and programmers of Fallen Age. |
| [17:28] | <Locke|Stratics> | This chat will be in a moderated format. To ask a question of the developers, please /msg or /query the question takers that will be listed in the topic of the channel. These question takers will then present the questions to the FA development team here with us this evening. |
| [17:29] | <Locke|Stratics> | I will be our moderator tonight. I will post your question into the House of Commons chat channel and the Developers will answer those that they can. Please /MSG or /query different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed the process up. |
| [17:29] | <Locke|Stratics> | Our question-takers tonight are Screwball and Krozy. Please do not message or query myself or anyone from Mindark, these questions will be ignored. |
| [17:30] | <Locke|Stratics> | And now I'd like to introduce Savant from FA. |
| [17:31] | <Savant> | Hey everyone, let me begin by apologizing for being a little late. I had an emergency around half an hour before the HOC was to begin, and didn't get back home until just now. I usually pride myself on being prompt, so I'm very sorry about that. ;) |
| [17:32] | <Savant> | And as they say, when it rains - it pours. Willow and Drysart are nowhere to be found this afternoon, so it looks like all you get is me. =P I'm the Producer of Fallen Age, and I'll do my best to get all your questions answered. ;) |
| [17:32] | <Locke|Stratics> | Let's begin accepting questions! Please direct your questions to the designated question-takers only. The only remaining question-taker is Krozy. |
| [17:33] | <Locke|Stratics> | *meka* Do you expect FA to be as popular as Everquest? |
| [17:35] | <Savant> | Do I expect it to be as popular as EverQuest? Hmm. I expect it to be popular. CAN it be as popular as EverQuest? Sure, anything is possible. We're working very hard to make a quality game and listening to our player feedback, and that includes things like a complete graphics overhaul, because they've been asking for it. Our dedication to listening to the players and their wants should be enough to keep us quite popular. |
| [17:37] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Juvin* can you give us a more definite date on when the player wipe will be? |
| [17:38] | <Savant> | The only "definite" date right now is when Beta ends. There might be circumstances when balance is completely thrown off whack, which might require one as well. Other than that, you might get a wipe when we introduce all the mechanics into the game and are ready to test the whole product. We'll see -- Right now the only "definite" is end of Beta. |
| [17:38] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Smokes* Is there anywhere to d/l FA beta if someone will let you use their beta account, I was getting out of the army when beta signup happened but a friend would let me use his while he's not so one more beta tester wouldnt hurt eh? |
| [17:38] | <Savant> | You can ask your friend for his copy of FA. ;) |
| [17:39] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Nerina* Q:Are there any plans for a server (world) located in europe? If so will it be ready at release? |
| [17:39] | <Savant> | The current plans is for centralized servers here in CA. If we see a need for european (or elsewhere) servers, then we'll do them. |
| [17:40] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Fear_Factor* are any issues regarding some video cards not being stable going to be fixed in the next patch? |
| [17:40] | <Savant> | Some will, some will not. The issue with graphic cards is a bit tricky because you need to physically purchase each problem-having card to test it out. We're working as fast as we can to correct these... but I can't promise the very next patch for the fixes. |
| [17:41] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Valandil* Can you give us any idea to the extent that we may be able to customize our avatars in the future? |
| [17:42] | <Savant> | The current plan is for hair, eyes, facial portrait... However, I'm pushing the development team for a much larger customization process. Where you'll be able to do all that on top of dozens of completely unique avatars for each class. Customization is really important to me as I feel Individuality is one of the most crucial aspects to online gaming. |
| [17:43] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Gil|FA_Colonist* I have a question for Savant. I spend a LOT of time in Colony building. I feel my Avatar is suffering from this. Can I get EXP from my Colony efforts to transfer to him? |
| [17:44] | <Savant> | Your colony will produce Experience for your character later on (such as levels 500-600 can only be accomplished through your colony). But it is a process. First you will lose money until you understand how to work your colony and how to lead it. |
| [17:44] | <Savant> | Then you will begin to control your troops, and learn to expand your land by conquering others. |
| [17:44] | <Savant> | Then your colony will help produce items for you to trade and sell. |
| [17:44] | <Savant> | Finally, your colony will help produce EXP and a new leveling process for you. |
| [17:45] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Melondar|HoC* How much freedom will there be when developing your character? Will you be able to have say, 200 con, 50 bless, 50 agility, and 100 in the other 3 stats or do you have to have 100 in each at lvl 600? |
| [17:46] | <Savant> | There is no cap on stats -- so you are free to develop your character however you wish. Which is why I keep trying to tell people "Using a point in the cheapest stat is like not leveling at all." You will end up crippling your character in the long run if you do not spend your points wisely. |
| [17:46] | <Savant> | Character advancement and stat placement is very important. |
| [17:47] | <Locke|Stratics> | *_\instant* which MMO game did you receive the most cds of, from want-to-be beta testers? ;) |
| [17:47] | <Savant> | The CD's we receieved were in proportion to the number of games sold by each competing product. |
| [17:48] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Jixxa_RiginBrigin* What is happening with people who sent in other game CD's but have heard nothing. They don't know if they should put a trace mail on them or what. A couple friends sent their original UO CD's and have heard nothing. |
| [17:49] | <Savant> | There was no email sent for anyone beyond Phase 1 of Beta 1. We sent our last "big" shipment of Beta CD's Monday which included everyone who sent us in a CD as of this past Friday (the 27th). Right now we're sending them as the last of the late-senders trickle in. |
| [17:50] | <Savant> | If someone has not received their CD after 2 weeks of sending it (and waited 'til this coming Monday to make sure the 1 full week from when we mailed it has passed), then they can email me personally at daniel@fallenage.com and I'll have it looked into and taken care of. |
| [17:52] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Nerina* Q:I heard rumours that ESP regeneration are VERY slow now. Will this change during beta to avoid downtimes like EQ have? long downtime = bad |
| [17:53] | <Savant> | I'm with you. Long downtime = Bad. Very bad. I am constantly working with the development team to ensure balance, and part of that is downtime. Such as the quick tweak of monster magic defense to help Chakra and Shaman hunting abilities -- until we were fully able to begin balancing the classes. |
| [17:53] | <Savant> | Long downtimes do indeed suck. And I'll be addressing those issues with time. |
| [17:54] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Brisk* How will death be handled? I remember reading FallenAge will be made up of colonies and people can fight over them , however the citizens don't haveto engage in the warfare. In games like AOE people would send armies however the men would die and someone could win .. how do you expect to combine RPG and RTS(in a sense) traits without having some sort of perm death or way to make the attacker stop coming back? |
| [17:55] | <Savant> | Colony and Avatar elements do interact with each other quite a bit, but they are somewhat separate. When taking part in the RTS element of the game with your colony, your fighters are you armies. (Your armies are actual monsters from the game whose DNA you collect and clone in your colony, then train in Barracks in you colony). |
| [17:55] | <Savant> | Your RPG avatar is the "ruler" of your colony, and thus, as a King, is well-protected that you do not technically "Die" there. |
| [17:56] | <Savant> | If your troops are wiped out... and 10% of your colony is destroyed, then you are conquered. When another player conquers you, he is effectively your King. |
| [17:56] | <Savant> | Your territory is then taxed by him, and he gets a percentage of your production/resources. Yes, eevry player gets his own colony. |
| [17:57] | <Locke|Stratics> | *_\instant* Are there plans for a Special Edition Fallen Age Retail package, with a t-shirt included, or some other souvernir? |
| [17:57] | <Savant> | You're thinking too small! :) Have you seen some of my other promotions so far? *winks* I've got some great stuff planned from now until retail... and beyond. Stay tuned. ;) |
| [17:58] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Matteon* what fixes are in mind for combat targeting? |
| [17:59] | <Savant> | The immediate change we're looking to add as soon as possible is a "lock on" feature where you double-click an opponent to lock on them in melee combat. We'll keep listening to player suggestions and tweak where tweaking is needed. |
| [17:59] | <Locke|Stratics> | *[KrS]Agnus* what kind of game is this?? any homepages available? |
| [17:59] | <Savant> | Uhm, http://www.fallenage.com =P |
| [18:00] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Brianthe* How do you expect FA to truly distinguish itself from UO,EQ or AC or any of the other games that are going to be coming out soon? |
| [18:01] | <Savant> | FA has already distinguished itself from upcoming competition to sticking to true RPG fashion with a quality Isometric game. The genre is unique (a sci-fi, fantasy blend). The "end game" is probably the most unique planned so far -- an "end game" where you can actually "win" in an MMORPG. And if I have to put one more thing in quotes I'll feel like Dr. Evil. |
| [18:03] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Sticks* Do you expect PvP to be popular in FA? It seems like PvPers are punished severly for little reward. |
| [18:04] | <Savant> | I expect PvP to be very popular in FA. But not like you're accustomed to. PvP'ers are not severely punished -- PK'ers are. We do not want gankers in our game. If you like to prey on weak, innocent opponents and gain riches doing it, this isn't the game for you. Quality PvP and PK are two different things. |
| [18:04] | <Savant> | We're setting up some awesome PvP venues such as a much richer Deathmatch system, BattleMatch zones where you can participate in 30-man free-for-alls where the winner gets a prize, and much more. Quality PvP is high on our list -- Allowing people to grief the rest of the population is not. |
| [18:05] | <Savant> | The penalties are only severe if you wish to attack non-consensually. |
| [18:05] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Igjarjuk* Killer, Achiever, Socializer, Explorer - Which type of player does FA catre to most? Given that the MMORPG market must expand, where do you see the greatest potential for new recruits? |
| [18:07] | <Savant> | I wouldn't tie myself down to any single category. I really like to think that a true MMOG will cater to each and every single category on Bartle's list... The game should provide the mechanics, and the player should play the way he or she wants to. |
| [18:10] | <Locke|Stratics> | *meka* What is your take on Verant updating the graphics on Everquest, Dont you think FA should be firstperson view? |
| [18:10] | <Savant> | I think it's great Verant is updating their graphics. ;) It's good to see every game prosper and expand. The more people they bring into the market, the more willing to play these sorts of games. |
| [18:11] | <Savant> | Fallen Age was not designed to be in First Person, and I highly doubt that will be changing anytime soon. RPGs have been in Isometric view, and FA is trying to stick to that. For this game, at least, we're sticking to our guns with an Isometric RPG. |
| [18:12] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Jixxa_RiginBrigin* What is your stand on the issue of blocking off parts of the land by patroling the only entrance to it by a band of PK's |
| [18:13] | <Savant> | To put it simply, I think it's lame. :) The good news is, once our full PvP System is put in, you'll be able to send them to jail for a good 30+ minutes. Like I've always said, I'm in favor of some great quality PvP -- but PKing helpless victims is not cool, and we'll try our best to help fix it. |
| [18:14] | <Savant> | Right now I'm looking into trying to give people some sort of immunity when zoning so this is not possible, even after the full PvP system is implemented. That's abusing mechanics to avoid people when you know they're zoning and cannot defend themselves. And while we do not believe in frivolously banning people, we will try to correct these problems as they pop up. |
| [18:15] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Krozy* Can we expect to see more quests added in addition to every 10 levels? And perhaps quests that can be done at any time with no level requirement? |
| [18:16] | <Savant> | Yes! That's my biggest gripe to the development team. ;) I'm pushing for over a thousand quests by launch. This includes a complete overhaul to our quest system -- I am not happy with the way the system currently works (though I am happy with the mechanics behind them, I feel we have a superior system - such as the game tracking where you drop an item, where you stand, what you're carrying, etc.) |
| [18:16] | <Krozy> | *shadowfax|busy* are the items that are dropped from the dead critters that we kill progressively better, or is it possible to kill a creature and get a cool item? |
| [18:17] | <Savant> | Well look who decided to show up =P |
| [18:17] | <Savant> | Heh ;) |
| [18:18] | <Savant> | Monsters drop random items, and while they have their maximum/minimum quality look they can drop -- each monster has a chance to drop a "high-end" item for its level -- albeit a small chance. |
| [18:18] | <Savant> | The higher you get, the cooler the items get, in proportion to the monster. |
| [18:19] | <Locke|Stratics> | *_\instant* How many Beta Phases do you aim for? will you accept a larger ammount through each beta phase, or a fixed ammount for each phase? (or none? :-O) |
| [18:20] | <Savant> | We're still in Phase 1, and will be starting Phase 2 as soon as the content is ready for levels 199-300. We're looking for Beta to go on until we and the players are happy with the quality of the game. ;) |
| [18:21] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Vol|FA-Aeifor* When will dual weilding be implemented? |
| [18:21] | <Savant> | Not sure what the timeline on that specific feature is -- but it shouldn't be terribly long, as we're on a pretty tight schedule for getting in all the mechanics. |
| [18:23] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Juvin* The fighting system seems very simple at the moment. Will there by any changes to make it rely more on strategy? |
| [18:24] | <Savant> | In short, yes. Like with any other feature in the game currently, what you see is its very early version. Combat will to go through a lot of changes until release. |
| [18:26] | <Locke|Stratics> | *Smokes* If these "poor innocent souls" are protected by the game code, where do the avatar saviours come in? |
| [18:27] | <Savant> | If I understand you correctly (we had to debate exactly what the question meant =P)... The mechanics behind the PK penalties are pretty realistic. When you are killed non-consensually, you are allowed to report the player. This is the equivelant of reporting them to the authorities. |
| [18:27] | <Savant> | Once this person has 3 PK Counts racked up against him, he is considered a PK. A wanted man... |
| [18:28] | <Savant> | The next time a player kills him, he is hauled off to jail. This is the equivelant of the killing player being the bountyman who takes him in. |
| [18:29] | <Locke|Stratics> | That concludes the second ever FAHOC |
| [18:30] | <Locke|Stratics> | Thank you all for coming to this House of Commons chat. |
| [18:30] | <Locke|Stratics> | and thanks especially to the Savant. Beter late than never ;) |
| [18:30] | <Locke|Stratics> | The logs for this chat will be posted later this evening . |
| [18:30] | <Savant> | Again, sorry about that folks. Emergency and all that. =/ |
| [18:31] | <Locke|Stratics> | Feel free to stay and chat |