Questions prior to 12/3 2010

Deacon asks:
Am I correct in assuming that spear throwing will come in about same time as archery
Possibly. Bows are arrows are ready, spears are not made. This would not be difficult to add at the same time though.

Will we be able to remove rocks from tribal areas, so we can terraform?
Yes, this will be implemented before the launch.

Aliksteel asks:
I have seen where othere MMO's was going to try and make it where the Druids (Or who ever) would be able to create storms for fighting. But it has never been done as far as I know. The main reason I have heard was that the weather has always been on it's own server. Making it next to impossible to do.
Though it will be a while before we add this kind of magic, the short answer is yes. Weather magic will be possible and is planned for.

Any way, One of the big "Oh shit!" moments (and not in the good way) I had in DF was when I ran across the first person with a racist name. Well Xsyon allow any one to have any name, No matter what? I am hoping for a filter for Character name and Tribe name as well.
There will be a filter eventually. I'm not sure when we'll implement this, but yes, there will be some limits on this.

From the Xsyon Gallery we see old broken down automobiles, Is this something that will be added before prelude? or will this be put in after prelude?
These will be added as we expand the world. Originally these were just decorative objects. We haven't placed them within the starting zones because I want them to be serve more of a purpose when we add them to the game.

Will tribes be able to train their members in pvp fighting without losing good or neutral alignment in training fights?
Yes, within tribe territory. I am also thinking of allowing mutual 'friends' to fight without alignment gain or loss. This will, however, give less skill gain than fighting creatures or actual enemies.

Have you thought about if you will have world events later on? (natural or get togethers)
Yes. We will definitely have both natural events and world events. We do have a lot of surprises in store once we can get the basics wrapped up!

Will there be a time when we will be able to swim under water?

If so, What about drowning?

Also as a side question, Will there ever be water/under water content added?
Yes, we will implement underwater swimming, drowning and underwater creatures and plants during the Prelude.

Tredo asks:

What about blowguns with poison darts?
No plans for blow darts. Other ranged weapons will include thrown daggers and axes. I'd like to set things up so that players can throw all kinds of objects (like rocks). We'll see.

Will these objects be able to be picked back up without loosing them?
Yes. Construction sites work like containers. You can load them with the required materials or remove materials if the final construction is not finished. Once a building is complete, I plan on allowing players to dismantle the building with some material loss. (Dismantling is not yet implemented).

Will tents, huts, and other buildings have their own storage capacity or will we have to drop bags and bins inside of them for storage? i.e. will we be able to click on the tent or building and open up a storage window that would simulate putting stuff in there?
For now, you will use containers inside buildings. Some building parts might later have built in storage. With buildings I will change the permission system somewhat so that your building permissions apply to all objects inside.

Will every item (tent, shack, fence, wall, teepee, or whatever else is in the architect recipes) have to be placed / dropped on tribal land?
For now, yes. I originally planned to allow building outside tribe lands, but it would cause too many problems (imagine waking up to a wall built around your city for example). If I allow buildings to be destroyed if built on non tribal land, someone will destroy them right away. I have some future ideas for all of this, including small homesteads for solo players, but this will evolve with the game.

If we do have to use / place storage bins inside of the buildings, will be able to enter into the building or just basically stand just outside and click on the bags or bins?
You can enter buildings.

So, will buildings with storage be coming in game any time soon? Using baskets to store things works for now, but is there plans to make functional shops?
You will be able to store containers within buildings soon. The original plan was to have some buildings with built in storage, but I am thinking of adding more furntiure and containers instead (as part of the woodcrafting and masonry skills).
We will add worktables that aid in crafting during the Prelude.

VeryWiiTee asks:

When magic is implemented will it then fall under the Religion and Faith attributes listed as Intelligence and Spirit or will magic fall under the other combat attributes such as Strength, Dexterity and Agility?
Magic will fall under religion, faith, charm, intelligence and spirit.

Furthermore will magic be considered as combat or a sort of craft to help the village or will it be both kinds?
Both. I plan to make it similar to cleric / druid magic in D&D with both general helpful spells and combat spells.

KeithStone asks:

Would it be possible to activate all skills so we can actually test out the features?
No. We already implemented too many temporary systems like the permissions and easy levelling that are still being reverted and balanced. Our goal now is to push forward with how things will actually be at launch. Soon we'll have training and the quest system implemented. These should make things much easier for starting players.

What are some of the construction skills that come with this new feature?
Masonry, building walls, building tents and most likely building houses from some simple components. Buildings from components was originally planned as an evolution but I'm getting it done right now and we have enough parts for players to build log huts. We should have multiple story buildings at launch or shortly after.

Are buildings part of the construction skills, or is that something different?
One and the same. Though construction includes some building parts such as creating bricks or building components.

After prelude- will tribes be able to conquer other tribe lands by destroying their totem?
Yes. How this will work is not fully decided yet. Since we first started working on Xsyon, many games have come out with some good ideas for this type of warfare. We're going to spend some time checking these out before we implement what we think is the best solution.

As it is right now tents, buildings etc don't have any purpose- you can't use them for storage- you can't drop bins when standing inside them. Are they going to be given a purpose before the game launches?
Yes, this will be fixed and finished. Logging off from your house will give you a rested state so you gain more experience and you will be able to store containers within homes. We will add more features to housing in the future.

Mrcalhou asks:

I'm curious as to an ETA for Bows/guns and magic.
Bows: shortly after launch. Magic will take a while. Guns, I don't have any real plans for this. I know some players saw the guns in our sketches, but those are there only because the artist felt like drawing them in the armor concept sketch.

Will there be skills related to being a medic?
Yes, either within the next month or shortly after launch. We'll see. This is partially set up already.

Would the way the game is programmed allow for player created turrets, like the ones in Team Fortress 2?
I'd have to check out Team Fortress to see what you mean, but we do plan to have defensive turrets in the future. I've added this to the suggestions list.

How in-depth does the game engine allow crafting? Does the way the game is program allow for variability within items. Like, with different quality materials affecting the outcome for the same weapon and so on?
Yes, the system allows for materials, tools and skill to affect the final product.

Airbornenik asks:

I notice the fires do not give off any sort of useful light, making it hard to find objects on the ground and continue working on terraform. Will functional lighting be implemented?
Yes. Fires should give off useful light now. There was a bug where fires loaded when we restarted the server were not loading lights properly but this should be fixed. This will be reviewed again soon and light from fires will be adjusted.
During the Prelude we will add torches.

Gegezerg asks:

I was wondering will there be Small or Large carts in the game to carry loads of items from gather areas back to the Tribal area?
There are no plans for carts. This will be added to our Suggestion List and I will consider this.

Treyu asks:

Can we have an estimate on when the prelude release date will be?
My best estimate is mid January. I plan to assess the situation and set a fixed date after the Tribe and Quest updates.

Chade asks:

What happens if two borders touch each other?
Tribes can't be built close enough for borders to overlap. There is a maximum tribe radius and other tribes can't place a totem within this radius.

I'm curious what you guys have one the agenda and in mind to tweak, implement still, revise before you go into prelude.
The main goals are to finish the Tribe, Quest and Construction systems. We've been testing our World Update that breeds creatures and decays objects among other things. The World Update will be turned on for the main server in about 2 weeks. This will cover almost all of the features. After these we will review and revise crafting schemes and combat variables. We should also be able to turn on animal taming and pets. This was implemented a long time ago but as we've made many changes that can affect this so we'll see after the next few updates.

Trenixdecease asks:

What will tires be for? what skill and for what?
Tire armor and furniture will be added.

Kinslayer asks:

Will it be possible to still raise multiple skills up to mastery, be it with much slower skill gains?
Will there be an option to reduce skills, hence allowing us to manage our skills, or change our minds on the path we chose skill-wise?
Will there be Primary and secondary skills, where support skills that have little ability to make things on their own become a secondary skill that doesnt count toward your hard cap?
You will be able to master several skills. I haven't thought about an option to reduce skills, but it's possible to add.

Some skills such as masonry and woodcraft are currently considered 'supporting' skills and they will not count as much towards the skill cap. There is no hard cap on skils, just a soft cap so that skills become harder to gain.

Xx1327 asks:
Is it possible for a creature to become mutated then become legendary or vice versa? and while I'm at it can epic and/or mutated creatures be tamed? Are they going to be given a purpose before the game launches?
Yes, creatures can both mutate and become legendary. Mutated / legendary creatures can also be tamed.

"Town quartermaster can collect resources and goods" can this be explained in more detail perhaps? also when it comes to tribe taxes, will we be able to set taxes for each individual/groups of people or will it be a system where its a tax for everyone or no tax at all?
The system has been changed since this was first asked. Tribes will be able to create their own custom rank with the ability to set a tax rate based if the tribe has a chosen currency. Collected currency will be controlled by the tribe leader or assigned ranked members. Tax will currently apply to all members. I will think about different rates for different members.

What are your current thoughts on Traps when is the earliest we would see things like this implemented?
I think your suggestions are great and this is something in our game documents that is already designed for the future. When we can expand I want to spend a lot of time implenting a cool trap system like what you've described. Realistically, this won't start to happen until a few months into next year.

Traps for catching birds and small critters will come sooner as we already have these objects made and they won't require too much code.

What are your plans for player customization?
In game, skills for changing and dying hair will be implemented.

During character customization, I have a face system designed but it was too difficult for my old programmers to implement. The plan it to revisit this system and also see what else is out there in other games once we can expand the team.