Questions for the week of 7/25 through 7/31 2011

soulless Asks:

In a previous Q/A, you stated that you wanted to add permissions to tents/buildings and remove permissions from bags, as this is a big change that will effect lots of camps, when do plan on implementing this?
Permissions for tents / buildings is being worked on now and should be in by the end of next week. We haven't decided when we'll remove permissions from containers and we will solicit feedback before we take this step.

also, carts were mentioned, how soon can we expect carts (your best guess)?
thanks for your time...
Best guess is 2 to 3 weeks. The artwork has been made and the basics for attaching cart objects to players has been set up but we are working on many other small tasks before finishing the code for carts.

fatboy21007 Asks:

Latley, in irc and the fourms ive noticed alot of new folks asking for a trial, Where are you with a trial server?, or are you still waiting to make the game better before doing one?
See answer below.

the new system you all are trying to do, i was told rare items would be dependant on area instead of zone...this true? (if it is how do plan on use being able to search all areas as their isnt a pop to help search them and personally i dont wanna feel like its a job to go find something) Also how are we to search areas when their full of totems.... i think the leader of the totem if hes inactive beyond 60 days totem should be removed and basic tools placed in his inventory.
Yes rare items and materials are based on territories (Round Hill, Zehpyr etc.) not zones.

Regarding totems, we will implement decay (as mentioned in the updates) see answer below.

Mactavendish Asks:

Are there any plans for adding something in very soon that will help retain the few players that join? Things that any new player would find immediately entertaining?
The main things we are going to work on over the next few weeks are improvements to give meaning and balance to the current systems. In addition, I think combat is much improved and mutants will be arriving soon. I hope players will find these things entertaining!

Question 2: Are you wanting new players to join the game or do you feel the game is not ready yet?
I like new players to join, but we're not ready for a big influx right now. Our plan is to wrap up what is listed as In Development first. Then we'll be ready for: totem decay, a trial server and an influx of new and returning players.

On totem decay...

I like your simple plan, but can you not add to that plan, that when a player cancels their sub that it removes the totem completely IF they are a single man tribe?
No, we would still have homesteads decay. Many players have left for a month or two and then returned. Removing their totems immediately would drive away a lot of players.

Also, whatever timer limit you put on totems, Please factor in that some people made a character, dropped a totem to hold a spot, then dropped the character and made another character joined or made another tribe and may even be playing the game as another character.

So would it not seem reasonable to you to remove ANY totem made by a character that is not in your database as an in use character?

I would think that having all these totems scattered about, does not make any new player feel welcome, especially after they realize that most are just abandoned ones with no active player there.
When a player drops a character it removes them from their tribe and if they have a homestead it should remove it also. If this is not happening, please report this directly to Dezgard and we will look into this immediately. If there are any totems without an owner, we will remove them.

VeryWiiTee Asks:

1. Can we expect a patch this coming wednesday :P?
Answer irrelevant at this point. There was a patch last week and will be one this week.

2. I second Mactavendishes question about totem decay too!!
Answer above. I realize that totem decay is a big issue, but we won't start decay until we're ready to first give all players a week of free time to check out the current state of the game.

3. The new housing models are 4m x 4m. Take any given Long Log. The Long Log will juust, with a little bit in each end or a larger bit in one end, stick out side the building.
- The question is this. Will the upcoming weather decay affect the entire long log because of the little bits/larger bit sticking out side of the building.
No, any object with it's center inside the volume of a 'roof' or 'room' area will be protected from the weather.

3a. If the weather decay won't affect the log, can we presume that any given material that has more than half of its volume inside of a building not be subjected to weather decay?
Yes!

4. Seeing it's spring again can you confirm new tree spawns on the live server?
Yes, there have definitely been new tree spawns. You should be able to see small trees that have sprouted up.

5. Will the weather decay also include a slow general decay over time for items?
The plan is, yes.

6. How is the animal population doing with the recent changes?
The bears killed everything and there were thousands of them. This is why we reset the population and are adjusting the aggression code.

MrDDT Asks:

Disconnects patch ETA? Its been on the test server for over a week now and still not on live. Right now this is the biggest problem for most people.
Whats the reasoning in allowing guides to spawn animals? With breeding in game, and animals spawning on their own, shouldnt this option be removed? Its been an issue for a long time now.
Disconnect patch is live now. Guides should be allowed to spawn creatures for events and to help balance things out while we balance the creature system.

aliksteel Asks:

I see you have three items set as a #1 Highest priority from the player suggestions

1) label contianer

2) Add clan/tribe names

3)hiding broke

I know that the labeling contianers are done, And that the disconnects is at the top of every list right now with the the combat a close 2nd.

Assuming(yea I know assuming is bad) that you are done with the disconnects this week. How soon will you start on fixing hiding, and adding tribe names and faction color to the game?

I also see there is only one suggestion "Sand in the rivers" that you have set as #2 on the Priority list. Can you tell me how far down the "to do list" this fit's into?
Honestly, I am waiting for all of our collected Suggestions to be moved into our new tracking system before I take a solid look at what's on the full list. The Suggestion tracker will include suggestions from emails as well.

Once it's finalized I will take a good look. The current priorities were set by our Bug Trackers so they don't currently reflect the order we'll work on things, but rather what they think I should take a look at first.

Regarding the specifics:

The effect of faction colors is in, but needs to be adjusted to have more effect and that will happen this week.

Tribe names listed with the player's name will be in next week.

I'll need to look into the 'sand in rivers' suggestion.

Hiding will be worked on later, after what's In Development.

Osirrus Asks:

which is 1st, totem decay or new lands beyond the mist opening up? how long til the 1st is implemented? then how long til 2nd?
Should happen at the same time. The plan is to do these both after the current In Development list is done, shooting for early September.

if disconnects and combat revisons are done what is the next major project you hope to see on the live server? and what timeframe til it goes live?
Right now the major project is a lot of small tasks to improve the current systems. Then: carts and mutants.

how are carts coming along? had chance to look at them yet? or you been stuck working on the disconnects all week?
The artwork is done. The basics attachment system is set up, but it will take another 2-3 weeks as we want to get many other tasks done first.

and just a random one.. what is the current DX rating of the game? DX9? / DX9 enhanced? DX10? DX11?
is it a DX11 tessalation effect you use on the brown/gold roads? anyway to make them look better from a distance, because currently a heavily roaded area looks horribly from far away, as the cracked effect is way to big and out of proportion when viewed from a distance.
DX9

after the zone sizes were changed, the high quality view distance was severely shortend. is this the way it will be staying or will you be looking at increasing the view distance again or is this more to do with entites not loading correctly?
The high quality view distance will stay the same, but this did not affect the distance of loaded entities. We will improve the quality of the distant terrain to compensate for the shortened 'high quality' view distance, when we can.

most systems that are in game are working ok-ish and just require tweaking now imo. but what i believe the game is really lacking now is some fun things to do as a group/tribe. do you have any short term goals to inject some more fun into the game?
The improved combat system and giving meaning to what's in the game should make it more fun as will the advent of mutants and revenants.

dying and respawning back at my totem is not fun. healing my way through a tough spot and surviving is. when will healing be in game?
going toe to toe with a bear and button mashing the mouse til i have 30% health and the bear is dead is not fun. using archery and real world physics to take down the bear from a far without getting a scratch on me is fun. when will archery be in game?
working together as a team to accomplish tasks i couldnt do on my own is fun. any plans for group activies other than arch/terra soon?
Both archery and healing will be in our next round of development after what's currently listed. If you have any good suggestions for group activities (I get the feeling you do) please suggest them!

stonedogg1 Asks:

I have a question regarding material bonuses (damage, quality, etc...):

When using materials that offer a bonus, does the bonus have to apply to the item or the user of the item?

i.e.: I use iron screws (damage bonus) to craft bone armor. Does my character deal more damage, or should I have used the screws to craft a weapon (damage bonus applied to the weapon, not the person)? Same thing for materials that offer a quality bonus - if I apply the BRASS fasteners to my closths, will I craft better quality items or should i use the brass to craft tools in order to pass on the quality bonus?
Stat bonuses apply to the wearer of the item. Quality bonuses apply to the item itself (So crafting quality tools makes sense to pass along the quality to crafted items. Wearing quality clothes will not pass along that bonus to crafting or other skills).