Voicechat Notes: Saturday March 5th

[tulpa]

Q: Since folks seem interested in it: do you have a general idea of when the coal mine will be released that you can share with us?
A: When it happens. Sooner rather than later.

Q: Are animals that leave Tyr-Gwyrd barred from returning, or does the Draumfeldr (and cultural taboo) only apply to humans?
A: It is 'solo los hermanos' (i.e. it only applies to humans).

Q: Are there ways to circumvent the Draumfeldr?
A: There are certain people that are considered trusted; it is possible to shield these people from being affected. Supposedly, they are exempt because they have the best interest of their people at heart. Normally it's just automatic.

Q: What kinds of 'large' animals are envisaged for Animal Husbandry (either on the farms or in the wild) besides cows? Will we see a 'shearing' style, long cooldown option for large livestock?
A: There are two new livestock species in the works, but both will occupy the medium-sized sheds (T: I think this refers to small sheds rather than an entirely new shed-size?), rather than large ones. They're almost ready, Rias just needs to get them to eat their food! He's made an effort to come up with ideas other than just shearing.

Q: Do you have stats on squirrels owned, trees cut, etc? I think that could be cool to learn how awful we are.
A: Apparently the squirrel population is out of control. I can't remember if the rest of this was answered, sorry. There was also a question about the recent changes to prevent mass-dyeing items; the upshot was that, no, we probably won't see any big changes to how it works. Tailors are normally better off compared with other professions, so they don't need the extra advantage. Rias also says we shouldn't worry too much about the difference between thread, yarn, cordage etcetera. Just assume those things are the same.

Q: Might we see more flying/tunneling/swimming/rooftop parkour from some of the rarer, random spawn hostiles?
A: Yeah maybe we'll see that. There are some locations that are already set up for that kind of situation that requires you to strategise to deal with special mobs, e.g. snipers, they just haven't seen that much use.

When making new areas and new mobs, one of the struggles is that, for the most part, areas with mobs that don't drop treasure don't really get used (non-humanoids and so on). Rias finds himself asking: 'how much effort do I want to put in this, if it's just going to be checked out once because it's neat and then never visited again?' It is a shame because he really likes non-humanoid creatures, but needs to make it worthwhile. One possible solution is to have 'trophy' drops from specific creature mobs, which you can hand in to an NPC and receive riln in return.

Q: Will we be able to drag as a group? e.g. volmonk corpses are too heavy for one person to drag.
A: Sorry about that. Yes we might, he's looked into this before and doesn't object to it but it's very complicated.

Q: Will there be more ambushes on the wilderness roads, as we had with the koalites?
A: For some commentary on this, see the BBS thread 'the lost lands are going to get more dangerous'. Rias does want the wilderness to be more than just traipsing through the flowers. It's the Lost Lands. That said, it's not a death zone *all the time*, but there should be a chance of danger! So yes, he's like ambushes on roads to be a more typical occurrence.

It's not necessarily a special invasion or infestation every time something like that happens, it's just dangerous out there! He wants to see more little attacks on the town and stuff like that; that's how he envisions the Lost Lands. At the moment people think it's safe unless you specifically walk into a den of danger, but that will change. He wants a balance between danger and not being stuck trying to do really basic stuff all the time, like going to the library.

One of the things rias misses from CLOK: there were bison and coyotes just roaming around (again, balance is important --- he doesn't want so many that people just don't have to hunt anymore). You didn't have to specifically hunt for them. It would be interesting to have more going on out there in the wilderness generally, both dangerous and benign things.

We got to talking about tarruks and what they actually look like. Rias says he's commissioned someone to draw a picture of one!

Q: How long does it take for someone to get infected by resen?
A: Some people seem to get infected very quickly and some take longer. There's no way to sense how long it takes or when it begins exactly. It's safe to assume that both NPCs and player characters can be infected, but we don't know when or how it happens. One key thing is that people start to show signs. Once they do
there will be a period of treatability, the early stages. There is a point of no return though; once it's got to you it's got to you.

When we start to encounter more dangerous resen dens, Rias would like to see characters worried about it and freak out about being infected, or perhaps take inoculation to ward it off. He wants characters to take that situation seriously.

Q: yew when?
A: no you

Things seem to have taken a silly turn, since I have written here: 'we do need fish weaponry'.

There was some more discussion about new content, specifically the area that was released that day with infested mobs. They were not the next skill level above what we have, since Rias is mindful of gaps in combat levels and wants players to have multiple options at each stage, a full spectrum in terms of enemy types (resen, nethrim, humanoid, beast).

Q: Might we see primal spirits that we can engage in combat?
A: Rias wouldn't want primal spirits to be the next major category necessarily, as a fifth type... but the possibility is noted. It's in his brain now.

Q: I remember the help file just says resen incidents can happen anywhere in and outside lost lands but the heavily concentrated area is within the quarantine itself. Does this apply to every part of Arad or even the world as a whole?
A: Resen infection is not a common thing out there, but it does exist. There are organisations outside of the Lost Lands that keep this stuff from spreading or taking root.

We might see a 'video thing' for cogg, for example a pronunciation series!
Or perhaps even a podcast! @Nobody talked about youtube channels and possibly being able to subscribe to our voice chats.

Q: Kohl/temporary description modifier items? Any chance of that this Octum festival, or with the release of Mistral Lake (whichever is first)
A: General cosmetics would be fun. Rias needs suggestions so as how to write this up so that it looks nice. It would be good to crowdsource text strings. More BBS threads!

Q: A post came up recently about farm functionality for Inn rooms, allowing certain people access to yours? Any chance?
A: Could be, but it wouldn't be like farms where you could just go in at any time. Perhaps players would 'hear a knock at the door', look out the peephole, accept or decline, then the guest could hop in. There could perhaps be an option to toggle allowing people to knock on your door (know where your room is in the inn) so you don't have someone obnoxious constantly knocking. Also perhaps an option to enquire at the desk as to whether the player is in their in rooms and receiving visitors.

Squashed the 'access list' bug mid-discussion here. Nice work Rias!

There was talk of bringing back collectible figurines, perhaps as random loot in lockboxes.

Q: Any chance of more wyrm scale colors, even if they're more rare from festivals? (do genuinely want some armor types where you only have two or three pieces available). Full scale suits please.
A: Yes we will be getting more types of scale armor soon, sometime. In terms of completing sets, e.g. having scale boots, gloves, Rias has always considered it a bit odd, but admits perhaps it's just not for him personally. They will be added. He likes armor that looks cool, but doesn't want to realize a fashion-designer's nightmare.

Q: Will we see the ability to disguise your own tracks?
A: Trackers being able to attempt that would be cool.

Q: How do i get a mermaid figurine to match my mermaid soap and mermaid candle (and also phoenixes if they don't exist idk i can't craft figurines)
A: Rias wants to have a customize option for those figurines, and needs to approve lots more designs.

Q: Visored helmets/greathelms?
A: Yeah it's cool. full face covering etcetera soon(tm). There's already one in game from a legacy armor design (it's troublesome and keeps bugging out!)

There was mention of there being more hunting game in-game (T: groan), Rias does want to start work on other areas.

Q: Do you have plans for more complicated acrobat commands?
A: Yeah, it would be cool to have acrobats and artificers have commands similar to storytellers. More BBS threads, more ideas please! He may bring in a deck of cards as a prop for some of these artifice tricks.

Q: Why can't we heal animals?
A: Because they technically have to accept. (This isn't going to change any time soon, is the upshot I think)

And that's all I wrote. If anyone has more they want to add, please do put it in a reply. Thanks for reading/listening/hanging out.

[nobody]

When making new areas and new mobs, one of the struggles is that, for the most part, areas with mobs that don't drop treasure don't really get used (non-humanoids and so on). Rias finds himself asking: 'how much effort do I want to put in this, if its just going to be checked out once because its neat and then never visited again?' It is a shame because he really likes non-humanoid creatures, but needs to make it worthwhile. One possible solution is to have 'trophy' drops from specific creature mobs, which you can hand in to an NPC and receive riln in return.

...

There was talk of bringing back collectible figurines, perhaps as random loot in lockboxes.

So, it came up a few times that Rias is considering making some please-provide-strings/ideas type posts, and I wanted to highlight that aspect of the above two notes sections (how to make beast-only combat zones more desirable places to battle and more ideas on loot variations). I also wanted to suggest the creation of a new subsection on the BBS in the general category for those 'call for help' type threads, because I suspect they'd be rather popular. I haven't come up with a great name, but so far my suggestion is:
> Help the Game
Requests from staff for help with specific ideas.