Questions of Week 08/06 through 08/12
Shaggy Asks:
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What's the current timetable for getting grass regrowth turned back on?
I don't have a timetable for this. The grass regrowth needs to be heavily optimized and isn't a priority right now. (It's not something quick that fits in with our schedule.
Zaralis Asks:
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When the sound problem will be solved?
Next patch, this week. This is a small bug that slipped by us last patch. It's been fixed and just needs to be patched out.
lordadmar Asks:
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1. Will water collisions ever work more dynamic or always cause and effect...?
( What I mean is, right now if I want to dig a water canal through my tribe, I cant just dig it out and let water in and be done. I have to place stops every so often so the game doesnt cave it the canal. So the depth in my canal varies and is a pain to add architecture in).. Not to mention 5 times the work...
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2. If the game world will always have collisions that stop you from flooding stuff. Can Walls, Posts, and Platforms be recognized as a water stop so collisions dont force dirt to cave in and block water?
This won't be improved any time soon. Realistic fluid dynamics would be great, but it's not feasible for us currently.
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3. Can footprint of boulders be reduced, I get the fact its there for a reason but I have boulders blocking terraforming and planting trees up to 5+ meters away..
I won't change this any time soon as it's not the footprint of the actual boulders, but the radius checked for clear terraforming or planting that is the issue and without this large buffer players can (and will) cause other problems.
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4. Is it possible to put a decay timer on Tree stumps, im under the impression they affect Zone tree limit...
We will add general decay for stumps and bundled materials left in the open at some point. Stumps do not affect the tree limit per zone.
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5. What is the zone tree limit, parts of my zone seem pretty barren, do logs everywhere does this affect tree limit?
500. The limit counts only live trees. Logs and stumps do not affect the limit.
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6. Hows the Official Wiki page coming.
It will be added to our new site. The new site will be ready in 1-2 weeks.
unclean666 Asks:
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So what I would like to know is how you plan on fixing all this to making hunting worth the time and making it fun again
I condensed your question to answer the main issue.
Your concern is primarily with the stat 'nerf' on armor. The out of control stats caused several issues: None of the game systems were designed for stats in the range of 150-200. With stat gains so high on armor, regular stat gain over time is practically useless. Stats that primarily have effects limited at 100 (for crafting or resource gathering) become useless as starting stats as they can be replaced by sets of high stat armor when needed (with the coming crafting changes, 'high' stat suits for all stats, not just combat focused stats will be possible). There was a huge gap between mid level veteran players and a handful of players with high stat armor suits.
Add this nerf made me aware that a stat gain of 25 point is not valuable to veteran players. It should be! This tells me that the issue is NOT in the actual stat gain, but the EFFECTS of these stats. A 25 point stat different SHOULD be noticeable. 100 points in a stat SHOULD be highly desirable and STATS in the range of 125 SHOULD be exceptional! These are the goals for the next round of changes.
In conclusion, I feel that the armor stat nerf was a minor action but was our biggest step forward yet as it made me well aware of what truly needs to be adjusted and balanced.
I'm sorry that we had to switch gears and focus on our website rather than the crafting update. It wasn't what we planned. This was highly recommended by the ad agency we're working with and it needs to be done.
Mactavendish Asks:
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1. Are you planning to let simple animals like rabbits, rats and the like act like normal versions of those animals and not like mutant steroid junkies on pcp?
Yes. The balance was set based on feedback from players on the test server. I will be balancing creatures based on my own playing for the current round of development.
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Are you ever going to make it easier to delete items from our back packs then the current drag and drop one at a time?
Not anytime soon. The current system is standard.
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Can you put in SOMETHING ( fun ) that will draw players to this game and not add to the current overt tediousness that seems to characterize the entire game? ( I don't wish to be irritating here, but of the hundreds of players that HAVE been here, we are now left with maybe 100 total, it almost looks like you are trying to kill this off to a degree )
We do our best. In my opinion the game is constantly improving. With each round of development we try to balance adding new features with improving current features and optimizing the client and server. Many small improvements go forgotten shortly after we release them, but the game is definitely far improved from a year ago in all respects.
My next goal is to really nail down the balance of creatures (especially creature migration) and crafting.
Regarding the number of players, the main problem right now is that we don't get enough exposure. Our coming advertisements should solve that.
rookster1984 Asks:
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1. would like to know if there is any plans to add farming in the game, like growing crops maybe sugar for baking and bread etc, seen it on a few posts so seems like a much wanted addition, if so when do you think it will be.
Yes. I want to implement agriculture before the end of 2012. We'll see how things go (they are always hectic!)
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2. i think adding metal working sort of thing would be good, to give people a choice instead of just scavenging, which can be a pain, like finding saw blades and parts for axes just so i can woodcut. i think this would be a good addition as well, you do this by changing fires into a holder as well to put mined metal in and after a small time its ready to be changed into nails saw blades etc, once unlocked on that skill tree. if theres any plans for this already have you got a time scale?
Plans, yes, but no time scale. We have a lot of other things planned first. See below...
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another idea/question, what about like junk piles have small amounts of bone piles or dead animals, again to give more choice as scavenging doesn't give you a good amount of bones to do anything with.
The scavenging resource tables are being revised in the current round of development, though bones and leather will still be primarily obtained by hunting.
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is there a link to a list of features and things coming to the game?
Yes. Our current priority list is here: In Development
Deacon Asks:
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Are you going to have one location where most of the answers to the commonly asked questions can be found? If your advertising works...then global is going to be flooded with the same questions over and over and over again...sort of like it is now. If they can figure out how to chat in global...lol
The Wiki will be part of the new site. In addition, updates will be on the front page and we'll work on a better FAQ when we have the time. Would you like to volunteer to help? :-)
Shaggy Asks:
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Did you guys give up on the wiki? I feel like we haven't heard about it for a while, and since among the playerbase there seems to be some conflicting evidence as to the current mechanisms for many processes in game it seems that the wiki should be bumped up and done asap. That way whenever you make updates to the game, you only need to change x and y in the wiki.
It will be part of the new site and should be up in 1-2 weeks.