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You say, "Quick update, I'm still working on Societies. I think I've got the Tse Gaiyan Chapterhouse all ready for initial release, just need to put it on the map and add its initiation schpiel."
You say, "Then I'll probably add the Dwaedn Wyr initiation schpiel since Dwaedn Vil is already on the map."
You say, "The Harbinger building plan has stalled so I need to decide if I'm just going to go forward with it myself, but their experience will be more of a building-up-from-scratch one, so while that means little in the way of facilities to start it does mean members can potentially get more involved in establishing that society in this area."
You exclaim, "I think that's the primary stuff at the top of my list at the moment!"
Maina asks, "1. What degree of autonomy and sapience do Shadow Familiars have? I have always assumed - given their inability to do anything else and previous statements that we should not be emoting them - that they are basically a portion of the sorcerer's self-preservation instinct and little else. The recent post seems to indicate that they are a much more complete consciousness than I had assumed, perhaps?"
You say, "They're generally very limited and seem content to just float about and take some basic commands, but the general consensus is that being comprised of nether is probably a big contributor to the cases when they act unpredictably. The truth is that they're not very talkative, and no sorcerer can speak to what it's like to be a familiar. They know what they try to do with the ritual to create one and what they observe, but there's plenty of mystery remaining behind what the familiars are exactly and how they think or feel about the world around them."
You say, "Stuffing them into corpses (via Minor Animation rituals) tends to increase the chances for anomalies, which seems logical. Interfacing with another body presumably muddies things for them even further and introduces all sorts of additional variables and factors."
Maina says, "2. Regarding the recent canon merge: what is the canon status of various guilds and abilities that no longer (presently) exist? This past week I have heard allusions to cryomancer-build sorcerers and the old platemail sorcerer harbingers and a few other things IC, and I am having trouble reconciling these things being treated as something everyone knows about when they had never been mentioned on this iteration and do not currently exist."
You say, "The cryomancy thing for Rooks in particular has been talked about as one of the things that will probably just be attributed to utilizing the cold of sorcery. It's interesting that that in particular has already been talked about."
Maina says, "It was fairly indirect, if I"m honest, but enough of a reference that I had wanted to hear how it should be handled if it gets more direct."
You say, "As long as people aren't getting meta about it - which they shouldn't anyway - I think we'll be all right. Do refrain from name-dropping old abilities or something like that, but I'm struggling to think of any ability-results that would be completely impossible to accept."
Maina says, "Okay. Thank you! Last one from me probably:."
Maina says, "3. I do not want to be a bother, but is there a preferred wait period before we should or could poke you about emails? As much as I prefer not to badger, I have had some fall through the cracks for months or more before. If "never badger" is the answer, I will of course try to respect that."
You say, "It's probably something that I shouldn't need to have any kind of policy on. I'm bad about seeing some of them and then thinking about them for ages without actually responding, so maybe I'll set aside a weekly respond-to-emails-and-bbs-posts day."
Maina says, "Really hate to poke. Just a bit of RP tied up in one of the latest. Sorry
."Maina says, "Thank you for your time and all your hard work. You rock, Rias."
Firerose says, "This one may be short."
You ask, "A Hillfolk lore question?"
Firerose says, "No, though that does bring up a point. Fasa lore. It's too vague, and I don't know how to RP, or not RP things."
Firerose says, "Not enough Fasa around these parts."
You say, "Yeah, that's a gaping hole in the lore documentation. The good news is I've been talking to Rithiel (who came up with the Fasa) lately about Tse Gaiyan and, by extension, Fasa stuff. So I've got more info that could be thrown into at least a basic article about them."
Firerose says, "Oh good. I don't like not building anything because I don't want to set something up, then find out it's not allowed, or goes against who they are... and I'm awful at coming up with race-specific things anyway."
Speaking to you, Firerose says, "Now for my real reason for raising my hand. Did you know that the new metal types don't heat up in the furnace? A friend was having trouble the other day. Rose-gold and red-brass for certain, didn't heat up no matter how much chain-pulling was done."
You say, "I will note that I am going to update some of the tattoo stuff for the clans, as many of them were extremely vague and some kind of same-y from the CLOK documentation. That's why I never managed to get that Fasa tattooist going: the designs were so vague that I couldn't figure out how to actually add them to the game/characters."
Firerose says, "That'd be nice. Even though my fasa char on Clok had a tattoo that didn't fit any of the clans."
Firerose says, "I can't wait to see what you come up with."
You say, "Yep, the new box metals need to be given a few properties to make them metalworkable. It's on the list, I'm just doing my best to not keep shuffling that list around and never getting anything done, so Society stuff first."
Firerose says, "Fair enough."
Firerose says, "I'm just anxious for jewelry...someday."
Firerose says, "Among other things. Thank you."
Frisbee says, "Okay, probably three for me too but will try to make it quick."
Frisbee says, "First, sorry if this is a wee bit too specific, or hasn't really thought about in detail. But... What do you think taxation is like in Khaldea? How punishable is tax evasion generally? Does paying taxes affect Khaldeans a lot or are they generally comfortable? I'm sure that depends in part on where in the country they are, but just sort of wanted to get the general idea."
You say, "Not something I'd thought about, so rain check for that one."
You say, "Khaldeans are an interesting mix of individually proud yet quite altruistic as a society, particularly about learning and education, so at the very least there's going to be a lot of taxes going toward public education. Not that all education is free, but it's one of their big cultural foundations that they want to be a learned people."
Frisbee says, "Understandable."
Frisbee asks, "There is info in the Giganti help file about parent and offshoot clans. Do you think the main ones that are mentioned in that file are all significant enough to have children clans? Can our characters be distantly related to a big clan, instead of being in the centre of the important stuff?"
You say, "Yeah, the Giganti clans listed on their page are the Big Ones, and there are bound to be plenty of others that fall under their umbrellas. I generally assume most Giganti are primarily part of smaller clans, but many of them have some kind of link to one of the greater ones. Not to say that Giganti PCs can't be directly involved with the more prominent clans, it's just important to know that there are more than just those few. Hvitulv and Skjelfuru are smaller ones and less likely to have a bunch of child clans, they're just more well-known even if not particularly big population-wise."
Frisbee says, "Very good."
You say, "The same could be said for the Founding Families listed on the Hillfolk page. They're prominent, but far from the only family clans."
Frisbee says, "Last... um, something happened a few days ago which surprised me quite a bit. A mate's character apparently took their first trip to Morhollow and was quizzed by some recruiter, and in the end got asked if they wanted to be a member of the Wyrvardn. I'm unsure about the specific wording but how important would that answer be? Is that quiz even supposed to be there? I'm sorry if this too spoiler-y or technical."
You say, "The quiz is supposed to be there, and I knew there was a chance someone might stumble into it. The quiz does give a number of OOC confirmation steps before actually initiating someone, but it should be treated as real and irreversible (as the confirmation steps say) if someone does go through it."
Frisbee says, "Ahh. Right. I'm sorry if that revealed that for others. Should've checked."
You say, "Though with the cat being out of the bag, I should probably remove it now just so we don't people having 'I only joined because it was the first available' regret. As much as I would hope people wouldn't do that, I know it's a risk."
You say, "If nothing else though, it's a source of IC info about the Wyrvardn even for people who don't end up joining."
Holding onto a rusty iron key between a couple fingers, Serity queries, "Yes, hi, hello-- I've been carrying this key around for a long time in- fruitless, I'm sure- hopes of finding a lock it fits, and I notice you're holding onto a key there, Rias. I might be wrong, but-- I don't think there are any keys anywhere else in the game at the moment. Are you teasing us there, or... what's the deal?...also, what's your key go to?"
You exclaim, "You ask questions that I cannot answer!"
Serity asks, "Yes, but what about the other one?"
You say, "It's a secret."
As she tucks the key back away, Serity asks, "Alright, I'll note to everyone I meet that it's confirmation that [joke that Rias doesn't want to spread as potential misinformation] ... ah, second-- well, fourth question. Can one make electrum using gold and silver at the moment? Or is that on the list with the other new shiny metal things, or is that just going to be a 'no'?"
You say, "Electrum creation could be a fun thing, though I might make it require some kind of ability instead of just 'anyone off the street can just toss x gold and y silver into a furnace and pull a lever.' Otherwise we'll be flooded with the stuff."
Serity says, "I know at least one person who would appreciate very much wearing electrum, so-- well, thank you for your consideration at least <3."
Vaelin asks, "Just an observation, You can make fine plate armor now? And as for my questions, Faewyr are sea raiders. But witheir cultural beliefs about not touching land, they don't go around raiding and piliging coastal villages, right? or how does that work?"
You say, "I believe many plate armor pieces are still impossible to make in fine quality due to their higher skill requirement, which is by design."
You say, "I wouldn't say that Faewyr are sea raiders. Some of them are, and those are well-known, but there are plenty of Faewyr who never go to sea or live in inland areas. When some of them do go a-raiding though, a lot of it happens at sea. Others are so given to the raiding life that they accept that they'll never go back to Tyr-Gwyrd and hop onto foreign soil and happily raid away, living in their own little colonies scattered around the world. And some are said to be guided by individuals specifically blessed by Aphraen who can guide them back to Tyr-Gwyrd even after walking on foreign soil, though these are rare and more likely the stuff of folklore (that is to say: don't make this a part of a player character's backstory)."
Vaelin asks, "Last thing. Is the thing about Grum in the FAQ still cannon?"
You say, "Yep."
Blueyeti asks, "I got confused during one of the discussions about societies. I understand that the Adventurer's Guild isn't looking to develop its own standalone standout culture/subculture or team. Are the Library of Qamar and Stormholdt going to be patrons of their own standalone societies as well as being a guild? Or will members of these guilds still be able to join societies like the Wyrvardn, etc?"
You say, "Stormholdt and the Library of Qamar will remain as guilds, which do not count as societies. There may still be an Adventurer's Guild for those who don't really want to be part of a specifically-defined cause but want to be affiliated with a group dedicated to adventure-ing. It's just a pretty wide umbrella and harder to come up with a way to unify all of that into a singular organization."
You say, "So one could be a member of Stormholdt (guild) and also a member of the Wyrvardn (society)."
Blueyeti says, "Will the Library of Qamar have a society more related to their pursuit of knowledge available to join? I know that the wyrvardn mention retreiving ancient relics and texts but that it is secondary to their cause."
You say, "I don't know that a society would really be necessary for that. That's already the Library's stated goal, so I don't think it would be good to add another organization that's doing the same thing and split that up."
Blueyeti asks, "How's it going? I saw that you mentioned that the chapterhouse is coming close to fruition. Do you feel pretty good about developments these days?"
You say, "It's going! I'm excited about progress with the societies even if it's just going to be a very minimal implementation at first where it's just officially joining this cause for RP (and some minor amenities in some cases) purposes. I may have failed to resist the siren song of task code for a couple days there, but I managed to stagger back to the path of getting all the societies ready to join first. Tasks after."
Blueyeti says, "Well, I can imagine the temptation is strong! Glad to hear it."
Blueyeti says, "I have one more but this one's going to take a while for me to parse out into words so I'll hand the baton off and wait for it to circle back to me."
Lornelth says, "Just a couple of thoughts more on a question of 'are these on the list of things to come?' While I know some more weapons might be added, is there any consideration to weapon modifications? To tweak say, a cudgel to have metal bands, or the woods to add different hefts (similar to how bows are different based on wood used)."
You say, "I think wood hefts was suggested which could be a neat way to gives some of the woods more unique properties. Additional modifications to things like cudgels or quarterstaffs and the like could also be fun."
You say, "You are holding an oak cudgel in your left hand and some iron nails in your right hand. > attach."
Lornelth says, "Or rivets? to make a studded club. Bronze bands to increase the heft of whatever wood is used."
Lornelth says, "Just was considering it to give more appeal to those things that might be more thematic for a person vs 'this is the best because'. That's really all I had, that and a thanks for all that ya do! I've enjoyed playin here and glad I came back to give it a second, more patient chance."
You exclaim, "I'm glad you did too!"
Squeak asks, "Heyo. Just a couple questions which may have been answered previously - my work schedule frequently keeps me from joining these. 1) Whenever you're free to take a look at the additional metals, could you possibly see it in your heart to include them into some of the crafting processes? i.e. Using the brass, electrum, etc to make hilts, pommels, etc with?"
Squeak says, "As it stands now, I just make bullets with them and one day hope to make an electrum-hilted kobaltarn stiletto for someone.
."You say, "I think that might be better for some kind of adornment system. Maybe an electrum pommel or grip would be fine? But I don't think electrum would be a very effective hilt since the hilt serves a function as a guard against blows, and isn't electrum quite soft? Something to think about, but where it makes sense, happy to include them more."
Squeak says, "That'd be the crossguard, predominately. And brass, red-brass and the like have been used in similar pieces over the ages. A bit better than copper, at any rate."
Squeak points out, "Hilts, predominately, were made from wood with a full tang through them and capped at either end with the quillons and pommel."
(Rias indeed meant to say crossguard, not hilt. Swords are complicated.)
Squeak says, "And 2,3,4,5) With the reconciliation between each game's lore, can we reasonably expect these new societies to have similar abilities and perks from the previous incarnation (eventually)? For example, the Utasa being able to hear communes. From an RP standpoint, should a character choose to be Tse Gaiyan, could they roleplay this (somehow), even without the perk? Similarly for Dwaedn Wyr - should they assume that the Great Spirits is the primary focus for their RP and may eventually get abilities to support it? Will there be an updated Wiki (there may be already, I haven't looked) with proposed thoughts for each of these societies? I tried to come with other examples, but Clok's wiki was too "mysterious" on what the other societies offered."
You say, "I'm working on a Societies page that'll have more info. I'd say definitely don't assume everything from the old CLOK guilds are coming back, wait until official information is released instead of running with old information. In CLOK they were classes, where here I want them to be causes instead of classes. Not every Tse Gaiyan is going to share similar skillsets like they did in CLOK. THey're not all archer-druids or spy-fencers. Some might be researchers, some might be heavily-armored warriors, some might be nether-flinging warlocks. Not all Wyrvardn are going to be heavy armored warriors like they were in CLOK, not all members of the Guild of Thieves are going to be flippy light-on-their-feet cutpurses. The idea is to separate these out as causes so people can bring their own skillsets and approaches to the cause, rather than the cause dictating the skillset of all its members."
Squeak gives Rias a thumbs-up. "Good to hear and thank you. For everything."
Darkangel asks, "When examining this, the material shows up as rimeveil, despite the short description mentioning it as lace. So, how accurate does the short description have to be of an item when getting it customized?"
You ask, "Which item are we talking about? The item should certainly be described as the material it's actually made of. I don't think I've made anything of lace in game and I'm the worst when it comes to this kind of stuff, but isn't lace more a configuration of the fabric than the material? Like you could have linen lace or silk lace or rimeveil lace?"
Darkangel taps the fingerless midnight-black lace gloves she is wearing.
Darkangel says, "... all this time, I thought that lace was a separate material."
Darkangel says, "Also, will we have weapon specilizations in the future? it seemed rather strange to me that you are able to switch between a knife to a hammer, and get the same lethal results."
You say, "Weapon specializations, yes. Not sure how exactly, but I also dislike the fact that anyone can be jsut as great with a sword as a poleaxe as a warhammer. It's fun to be that guy who's particularly good at (weapon type X) and actually uses it better than others, while your ally is that gal who's particuarly good at (weapon type Y), etc. Differentiation and specialiation is fun."
Darkangel asks, "And, the last, what is the rl equivlant to Tol-Rhun? and, roughly, what time period would it's social structure be based about?"
Speaking to you, Darkangel embarrassedly says, "I went with a victorian feel, given that entire race has edgelord vibes."
You exclaim, "Tol Rhun is rough because it's pretty unique to this world as far as I'm aware. I didn't have any particular real-world culture or architecture in mind when I came up with them. Sorry!"
You say, "I'll look over some architecture images at some point and see if any of them strike me as particularly Rhuidic."
(Rias doesn't know how he got onto an architecture tangent.)
You say, "Regarding social structure though, uh... yeah, I don't have any particular real-world culture in mind for that either. Same with the Huecatn. I know they've got superficial aesthetic similarities with Aztec and such but I have little to zero knowledge of what Aztec society was like. The Huecatn stuff I pretty much made up from whole cloth. So if it's not on, or alluded to by, the wiki article, feel free to make a BBS post asking for specifics on things you need to know."
You say, "I was going to make a post about that, by the way... note to self, encourage people to ask lore question on the BBS so I'll have more time to think about them."
Vaelin thoughtfully asks, "Regarding the weapon specialization bit... are affinities still going to be a thing?"
You say, "Probably. It's a neat system that isn't being put to use."
Vaelin says, "And After the stagger changes before, was the stagger immunity disappearing after you deft recover an oversight or intended? I kept using DR but kept getting chain stunned right after."
You ask, "Hrm. Deft recovery removes the immunity period?"
You say, "Whoops."
You say, "That's weird... I'm not sure why it is. So that's something to look into."
Vaelin says, "And lastly, Dwaedn wyr and heavy armor... So, can dreadnoughts join the dwaedn wyr without getting ridiculed? is the lore and beliefs of clok dwaedn wyr going to be the same here."
You say, "I think they'd probably still be given a hard time, that culture is still there even if toned down. But with Societies not being skill-and-ability-dispensers like they were in CLOK, that aspect can be toned down a bit since it was as much a class balancing aspect as it was a lore one."
Vaelin says, "Armadillo spirit, please."
You say, "It'd potentially still affect some of the boons they might get, though. If they got something like the boon that improved damage reduction, I wouldn't want that to double up with worn heavy armor, as it was from a design standpoint a way to help make up for the lack of armor."
Vaelin says, "Aah."
Vaelin says, "That would be terrifying indeed."
Vaelin says, "And last lastly, I request ssqueak gets a 10 gallon hat here."
Blueyeti asks, "On that note, is it intentional that dorun appears to function on top of worn armor?"
You say, "Yep."
Blueyeti exclaims, "Neat!"
Blueyeti says, "Will certain weapon types from the prior game be returning? Such as the whip, which had additional functionality aside from being a damage dealing weapon."
You say, "Whips will be back as a 'utility weapon' of sorts, yeah. Not the thing you want to choose if you're out to kill stuff, but has some neat disable and utility options."
Blueyeti says, "Back in early discussions, probably as far back as somnium, you'd toyed around with the concept of weapons with enchantments - like a flaming sword, or things of that nature. Are those concepts still floating around up there, or have you shifted away from them? I thought they were neat, so I'm team eventually."
You say, "I've still got thoughts about them."
You say, "That said, I don't want this to become your typical MMO where every citizen of the Lost Lands is waling around with flaming/crackling/glowing weapons and armor."
Blueyeti asks, "On the note of scarcity and items of intrinsically high value, should we anticipate any auctions to come with this summer festival?"
You say, "I don't think anyone on the team has talked about auction items. I've been pretty focused away on other things so I don't have anything special to offer at uaction, unfortunately."
You say, "We'd also probably want an actual mechanical system in to handle the auction, because in the past handling them manually has been very stressful."
Blueyeti says, "Understandable! I appreciate that. And I would hate for a shiny toy to distract from the greater scheme of things."
Squeak says, "Oh. 1) Now I'm going to have to carry around a whip for horse-training. 2) With your skill tree ideas, will there be a way to mitigate damage so it's not strictly necessary to wear armor? Even if it's a heavy ability point cost to get to, I'd take it. I dislike the verbosity of wearing armors."
You say, "I don't have anything planned for that. I've always been of the opinion that if one is routinely going out into dangerous places, one should be wearing protective gear to avoid getting hurt. And it wouldn't be great to be bypassing the restrictions and balances built into the armor system. If it's just the verbosity that bothers you, there's always the possibility of some special armors being able to be worn under clothing rather than over it. Cue references to Frodo's mithril-mail shirt."
Squeak says, "It's the encumbrance of it, too, but as I typically wear just a cuirass (Cue a light armor vest?) and vambraces, it isn't too bad."
You say, "Yeah, that's one of those balancing factors. I wouldn't feel right giving abilities that are essentially "get the benefits of armor without the penalties or skill investment."."
Squeak says, "Well, I was thinking it could be an acrobatics or something mitigation ability with several ability points to invest to get it maximum, but you're the boss."
Squeak asks, "And, I think I speak for several people here when I ask this, but can we please, please, please get a craftable fist-load weapon? Or have Severiano (sp?) sell something that isn't copper? And open up follow up punch for Tactics: Nightblade? Pleeeeeeease?"
You say, "Fist weapons were supposed to be opened up not too long after Nightblades getting first dibs on trying them out, and then I forgot."
You say, "Regarding merchants selling copper stuff, we do that to keep the other metals valuable, and PC crafters who work it into useful items. Not that no merchant will ever sell iron or the like, but that's the reason we typically default to the basic materials."
You exclaim, "Though taking a glance, I see Severino is selling iron, so!"
Squeak jets over to the market *immediately*.
You say, "All right, if we're out of questions I'll turn off Conch Mode. As always, thank you all for your interest in the game and your ideas and suggestions. It means a lot to me that you're all willing to spend an hour or two at these things."
You say, "Lastly: I love the updated Chapterhouse and want to hang out at it, and I'm looking forward to verterans telling me I changed it and now it's bad. But that's what happens when you have to burn down your headquarters and rebuild it! (P.S. It's similar in many ways so still familiar.)."