Roundtable Questions for April 29th

[Maina]

Isn't already one, so I am making one. Post questions here I guess.

1. I have my own theory, but is there any common IC theory for why plants and fungi do not give shreds despite having Primal Souls like animals? Is it just the lack of blood (my own theory)?

2. Are the classes currently fixed for the established Guilds? I noticed today that Adventurers and Scholars have 4 subclasses each, but Warriors have 6. Any consideration on additional classes or reorganizing them in the future, or is it pretty much how it's going to be?

3. Does the stone of the death-pyramid have a particular color, beneath the shrouds?

4. Is there something you are most excited about regarding the upcoming ability tree update?

5. When unlinking with Echoing Whisper active, you get the message "The faint but constant whispering in the back of your mind gets ever so slightly quieter ..." while your target gets "The faint but constant whispering in the back of your mind recedes to complete silence." - does this mean that a Sorcerer with Echoing Whisper is always hearing whispers, as they only get quieter rather than fading away entirely?

[Serity]

- If we want a custom container (such as a custom bookshelf or desk, or otherwise some specific custom container (that might be a reskin of a footlocker or something)) what would be the best way to get that, if even possible? I think most of the Merchant events are modifications to existing work, but I don't know if something like 'crate -> skillet rack' would fall within that. Not something worn, if it matters. There's plenty of custom gear floating around, but furniture is sorely lacking beyond barrel/crate/footlocker.

- Do faeries as we know them on Earth (as in pixies, little winged people) exist in the world of COGG, whether as fiction (stories) or actual creatures? Not to necessarily be associated with the Fey Forest or the nebulous question mark of its residents.

- ...what is the world (planet) of COGG actually called? Arad is the continent, but I can't find a name for the world in-game...

- Echoing Whisper('s helpfile) says it only works with 'say', and that's how it works in practice. Is this an intentional choice to allow people to ignore the echoing whisper when using emote-speech? I primarily use emote-speech these days to talk, but stripping non-speech text works in some situations like stealthers talking, and I think uyto eavesdropping, even when speaking multiple times in the same emote, so I was curious if it was left as a loophole to avoid passing messages on or if it's just an oversight.

- It seems you can't drag specifically PC corpses anymore with 'drag woman corpse' etc (and drag faye/drag faye corpse doesn't work). This is... not great, if there's enemy corpses in a room and people are trying to quickly retrieve the bodies. Is there an alternate syntax that I'm missing?

[Rilulth]

-I have my own theory, but is there any common IC theory for why plants and fungi do not give shreds despite having Primal Souls like animals? Is it just the lack of blood (my own theory)?

Rias says, "Blood is the way for warlocks to get soul shreds, and those don't have blood, right. Maybe someday they'll figure out how to siphon their essence some other way."

-Are the classes currently fixed for the established Guilds? I noticed today that Adventurers and Scholars have 4 subclasses each, but Warriors have 6. Any consideration on additional classes or reorganizing them in the future, or is it pretty much how it's going to be?

Rias says, "I will be happy when we move away from the Three Guild System and just let classes exist more as their own things, so we won't have to worry about stuff quite like that."
Rias says, "That will be part of ability trees."

-Does the stone of the death-pyramid have a particular color, beneath the shrouds?

Rias says, "Probably, but in your deathly pseudo-sensory state you can't really tell."
Ansarian mentions, "I've always imagined that pseudo-sensory state to be similar to how wraiths see in LOTR. Not saying that's what it is like, but my own perception of it."

-Is there something you are most excited about regarding the upcoming ability tree update?

Rias says, "Getting away from the fiddly Three Guild System! But other than that, hmmmm."
Rias says, "I'd probably say I'm excited to be able to start throwing more abilities out there without worrying which guilds they should or shouldn't be available in."
Rias says, "There will still be class-specific abilities. I have some for Primalists and Berserkers and Arcanists I've been poking at between other stuff. But having the freedom to just release a bunch of, say, Riding or Mining or Animal Husbandry abilities, will be awesome."
Rilulth says, "I'm excited for a little more flexibility and the opening of specializations in crafting."
Rias says, "And it'll be interesting to see people agonize over Fun Stuff and Boring But Mechanically Advantageous stuff."

-When unlinking with Echoing Whisper active, you get the message "The faint but constant whispering in the back of your mind gets ever so slightly quieter ..." while your target gets "The faint but constant whispering in the back of your mind recedes to complete silence." - does this mean that a Sorcerer with Echoing Whisper is always hearing whispers, as they only get quieter rather than fading away entirely?

Rias says, "When the effect is active, yes."
Rias says, "I should tack a small sanity maintenance onto that effect, just for flavor."
Rias says, "All the druids are like 'Welcome to our world.'."

-If we want a custom container (such as a custom bookshelf or desk, or otherwise some specific custom container (that might be a reskin of a footlocker or something)) what would be the best way to get that, if even possible? I think most of the Merchant events are modifications to existing work, but I don't know if something like 'crate -> skillet rack' would fall within that. Not something worn, if it matters. There's plenty of custom gear floating around, but furniture is sorely lacking beyond barrel/crate/footlocker.

Rias says, "I'd say request it be added to the Construction skill, or for a specialty furniture merchant to come around and sell them as those things. Since we don't like alterations fundamentally changing what an item is."
Rias says, "Bookshelves would be a fun add."
Speaking to Rias, Rilulth says, "And Weapon Racks."

-Do faeries as we know them on Earth (as in pixies, little winged people) exist in the world of COGG, whether as fiction (stories) or actual creatures? Not to necessarily be associated with the Fey Forest or the nebulous question mark of its residents.

Rias says, "Faeries/fairies/feyrees exist as a general fairy-tale concept, yes. There aren't any pinned in displace cases in the Library or anything though, so likely more the realm of fairy-tale than reality. Probably."
Rias says, "Displace cases are display cases that got put somewhere other than where they were supposed to be. Or where another case was supposed to be, and displaced the other."

- ...what is the world (planet) of COGG actually called? Arad is the continent, but I can't find a name for the world in-game...

Rias says, "I have a name for the world itself, but I don't want to share it. I'll see if I can come up with one that's appropriately themed to whoever coined the name that is the most commonly used."

-Echoing Whisper('s helpfile) says it only works with 'say', and that's how it works in practice. Is this an intentional choice to allow people to ignore the echoing whisper when using emote-speech? I primarily use emote-speech these days to talk, but stripping non-speech text works in some situations like stealthers talking, and I think uyto eavesdropping, even when speaking multiple times in the same emote, so I was curious if it was left as a loophole to avoid passing messages on or if it's just an oversight.

Rias says, "Oversight. I'll patch it up."

-It seems you can't drag specifically PC corpses anymore with 'drag woman corpse' etc (and drag faye/drag faye corpse doesn't work). This is... not great, if there's enemy corpses in a room and people are trying to quickly retrieve the bodies. Is there an alternate syntax that I'm missing?

Rias says, "Huh. I don't recall changing anything in regards to that, so I'll look at it."

-Now that we have more fancy metals out like rose gold etc can we get more jewelry molds or the ability to you know forge jewelry?

Rias says, "I need to poke at the jewelry recipes first. A long while back they were working, but now they're broken. It's nice and modular so you can make a gem casing, attach the gem to it to make a charm, make band, attach the charm to it and now it's a <gem_type_here> ring, stuff like that."

-Will new glyphs be out anytime soon that are for the public?

Belladana says, "I want one to make my cloak billow when I walk."
Rias says, "Not likely. I'm working on more Arcanist-specific stuff before I do general arcana stuff. Arcanists still need their love as a class."
Rias says, "That said, if there's some fun little popcorn idea that's a simple add it strikes me, I could toss one in. So no discouragement to posting public glyph suggestions! I believe there's a thread or two listing suggestions."
Speaking to Rias, Ansarian says, "Putting a bowl with an ear of corn in it inside of a fathys circle should give me popcorn. There you go.. popcorn idea."

-How come we can't get candles from our containers when in the dark?

Rias says, "The inability to get candles etc. from worn containers in the dark is a tricky code priority issue. It's one I've looked at a few times and always decided to "get to it later" but I should really probably bump it up a bit, because it's a bad one."

-What if ever the ancient land's main trade export?

Rias says, "I don't know if the Fasa export much. They're not really into doing a lot of trading with outsiders. As friendly as they are with the Viali and the Khaldeans, they do tend to want to kind of keep their own traditions and such to themselves."
Rias says, "They're also probably extremely wary of anything resembling something like a trade agreement or contract. They're not into that kind of stuff, at least not with outsiders. They don't want to set themselves to be trapped by some clever wordplay or loopholes, and they don't buy into things like big industry or commercialization."

-Hashtag game was interesting today. People mentioned booshelves, weapon racks and mannequins. Also statues, but what is a statue if not a mannequin? The last one in particular is great for masonry as the big question is always 'what to add' when it comes to that craft. So. Mannequins that I can use to terrorize you with when?

Rias says, "Statues would be neat, but I think I'd want player homes first. Because I feel like the more furniture/decor type stuff we add, the more people are going to want to decorate various parts of the game and then get bummed when those are impermanent and get janitored."

- Ah, alright. At risk of lighting the room on fire, it's been about a week. How're you feeling about loot luck?

Rias says, "I mean, -I- like it."
Rilulth says, "I need to add more stuff to it."
Serity says, "I've brought up the sync - tutor in CLOK - idea in the thread, and never really gotten a response, but a lot of people have agreed that it needs something of this sort - someone inviting a player to the game and then utterly being unable to play with them due to an 800-100 level discrepancy is not... great."
Serity says, eyeing Belladana, "Although understandable some people have some additional frustrations due to there not being appropriate level zones for them, but as I understand it the staff are working on that side of things, too."
Rias says, "Yeah, we've been talking about various ways to implement something like that. It can be fiddly since we want to avoid implementing a loophole to the limitation we just set up, so it's going to take some time to figure out how to balance it right."
Rias exclaims, "520-560 zones with lootables are almost ready, the last one just needs its descriptions looked over!"
Fellborn says, "I think there has been much to do about nothing in regards to the current luck and underhunting system. While I understand the desire to hunt and gain experience/skill with a friend, the simple fact is a lot of the combat zones specifically get harder the higher the skill zone is."

-I was going to ask if we could push the level up on some of the zones like redleaf valeria etc. Because as it stands unless an event happens in valeria I no longer have a reason to go.

Rias asks, "Rather than add new zones?"
Belladana says, "Both."
Rias says, "If we fiddle with the skill range of existing zones I think that's just shifting the issues and problem around to different spots. It'd a move sideways, not forward."
Fellborn says, "To paraphrase what Rias said, no. While we may go back and look at specific zones to see if they need tweaking in regards to abilities and skills depending on how things change, as a whole mobs are going to stay in the skill range they currently are."
Fellborn says, "The longer the game continues, the more the population is likely to shift towards a higher level. That does not mean we're going to start revamping content."

-Seeing as you yourself brought it up, have you given some more thought to player housing and how to combat the hoarding situations we get in places like farms and bank vaults?

Rias says, "Player housing is something I am constantly needing to talk myself out of working on. I really want to stat on it, but there's other things to do first that are important to tackle before rather than after, like said hoarding issue. I need to revisit that BBS thread that talked about upcoming limitations both to re-scan for ideas and to remind everyone that there will be more limitations coming. The one about a maximum number of items - quantity, not weight - in any given place is one I am still considering. And to re-emphasize, it's not a punishment or a "we don't want people to be able to gather items" issue, it's a technical one. I understand the hoarding instinct, I play all the games where the ideal course of action is to save up a bunch of stuff "just in case" or to hoard crafting materials, and all that. I've looked at and implemented various optimizations both in code and data, but the best method still seems to be to just keep peoples' hoarding capabilities (and expectations) to reasonable levels."

-Is it meant for me as a lower level character to get my bones broken and butt kicked on a regular basis if I wanna level up or get any kind of experience or even loot whatsoever? I mean I don't mind much but I'm just wondering if I should expect to feel the pain.

Verel says, "Like this is a really really new pc and I'm suffering far greater damage because I feel like I've gota take massive risks to get anywhere."
Rias says, "I think that's going to vary based on class and approach to combat. I'm obviously extremely biased, but I've played warriors and adventurers (not a lot of scholar experience) that do combat and I usually come back with some flesh wounds, sometimes bleeders that I need to leave early over, occasionally fractures. I get in full hunts more often than having to stop early, but my playstyle might be more cautious."
Verel says, "Ahhh ok. I'm just wondering whether it's normal for me to get rocked basically every second i'm in a battle."
Rias says, "The first step I always take is to put on some armor. Even just padded cloth armor make a huge difference when you take those hits."
Verel says, "Can't wear armor because channels will be gone immediately."
Verel says, "I dunno. i feel like at least for cloth armor, it should not have an effect as longas the rivets aren't made of iron."
Rias says, "I'll break out my warlock and have a try and see how it feels. In the meantime you can pick up the quickchannel abilities if you haven't already, which makes a huge difference for when you have to re-channel after a drop. 1 second vs 3 is a world of difference."
Rias says, "Armor channel penalties are something I'd be happy to revisit. I know we have a few sorcerers who focus on combat that would likely chime in if a BBS discussion was started on the subject. I don't think they're here at this meeting."

-Have you given any thought to battle axes? Will we be able to make our own warmauls obviously not with the bear decoration?

Rias says, "Yeah, I still want to add battleaxes with their description specifying that they're not as big as a house like the ones described in stories. We've got a few other weapons that need to have their recipes added as well. Though to be fair, blacksmithing is easily the most robust craft at the moment, so additional recipes are less likely than recipes for other crafts first."

-The only questions I have are, when are the player houses going to be implemented? Also what's that orphanage place in Shadgard going to be for?

Rias says, "I'll want to make more progress on the previously discussed item bloat issues before we add player housing, because the number one use of player housing always ends up being additional storage. We want to address the issue before implementing something that exacerbates it. As for the orphanage is there for flavor, and might potentially be used in events of some kind. It used to be open to the public, but you can see how that could easily go bad in a setting like this where there aren't real consequences to actions, and people can just retire a character and make a new one after trying to do something like murder orphans in town."
Rias exclaims, "It was just too much of a temptation for people looking to establish their Evil Cred, apparently!"
Lenore says, "I mean, there could be other things they could do besides murder them but fair enough.
Rias says, "I agree wholeheartedly, but that seemed to be the disturbing trend, and we thought it was best to just close the gate for now. I haven't actually visited any real orphanages, but I imagine they're not just "walk in and look around at your leisure" facilities anyway, so it makes sense that it's restricted to specific appointments only."
Fellborn says, "They certainly offer the opportunity for a lot of other roleplay, and that is available and has been explored previously and I'm certain it will be again. It isn't going to be open for a casual drop-in."

-I was curious if there were zones in the pipeline that took advantage of more environmental hazards and other skill checks. As mentioned earlier, the longer the game exists the more likely levels will trend toward the higher end, but I imagine there are quite a few higher level characters out there whose combat skills are still going to be low, pretty much indefinitely due to overall skill cap. HOWEVER, particularly for adventurers, their other skills will almost certainly be in the higher range that even many warriors would struggle to hit. I know we recently had Rakkan pass released that has higher climb/stealth checks, but I was curious if there were plans for similarly difficult zones for more explorative skills that also include lower combat checks for much of it (and then maybe one absurdly strong creature hiding in a corner somewhere, just for fun).

Rias says, "Not in the immediate, as I want to get the 520-560 zone out and accessible to fill that skill range gap and have something lootable for people who are sitting in that range as their max. That said, I would love to make more explorey areas that aren't necessarily also high skill combat zones, and toss in some nice little things for the folks who focus on exploration over combat."
Fellborn says, "I am working on a zone that is more adventurer specific."
Fellborn says, "It is liable to annoy most adventurers though."
Agelity says (muffled by a skull), "That's very much fair, and awesome to hear! I also suspect scholars have a wide variety of skill investment and may find some degree of usefulness out of the various skill checks that aren't explicitly "please don't kill me again, Rakkan"."
Speaking to Fellborn, Rilulth says, "I disagree. I think a lot of them are going to love it. What you described makes me want to break out my Bard."
Fellborn says, "When I think of an adventurer-based zone, I believe it means a lot of challenges involving ancillary skills to avoid issues that might otherwise require overwhelming force."
Speaking to Agelity, Rias says, "I also like the idea of putting some potential resources and other types of bring-back-able boons behind exploration barriers, to give explorey types their own contribution."

Will we be able to craft fine quality lockpicks in the future? and uh, what traps are on the works if ever?

Rias exclaims, "Lockpick crafting may well be a a specialized craft at some point. As for traps, I'm not telling which ones are in the works because that would spoil the surprise!"