Official Answers by week

[Xsyon]

johnthebeast86 Asks:

Hello, other questions for you
the quality of the seeds affects the growth factor of the trees? and if so when the tree(from high quality seeds) is felled releases more pieces of wood? so how does it works the quality of the seeds? How long it takes to grow a tree to release many pieces of wood? is there a relationship between quality seeds planted and forestry?

Seed quality does not affect the growth factor. The amount of wood depends on the height of the tree which depends on how much time it has grown. Seed quality should affect tree quality which in turn affects wood quality. Forestry skill does affect the quality of seeds you find and trees you plant.

How long does it take grass to grow? or does not grow anymore once eradicated?

It doesn't grow back right now.

when you are going to introduce comfort? and what it entails? how it will change the gameplay?

This is planned for the next round of revisions (cooking, comfort, regeneration and combat revisions). I will post more details on the next round of revisions in a few weeks.

you are going to include a way to see who's online among our friends and fellow tribesmen? currently you can only see a list of friends and tribe members ... will you improve this feature in the future?

Not anytime soon. I would like to add this (and many other things!) but this is something that would take more time than what it's worth right now.

in the future will you implement public lighting as torches, oil lamps and similar?

Yes! We are holding off until we can further optimize rendering to support more dynamic lights.

what are your priorities for expansion of the game,in the short to medium future, after Real Estate System and ranged combat?

Thanks a lot for responding.... and sorry if i'm annoying with all this question...also for my speaking, i hope you can understand all my question

The current priorites were listed above (and I will post these in our In Development thread). After these our priorities will include combat revisions and cooking.

Yamiokami Asks:

1.) What affects animal parts and bone quality? I can get anything from moderate to very high quality from the same animal. Is it just hunting? The knife quality you use? Or the part you are harvesting as well?

Primarily your hunting skill and associated stats (Dexterity and Perception). Tools and Luck have a minor effect.

2.) For tracking, how do you plan to implement it? Will there be an arrow pointing to the desired animal? Or will there be more of a learning curve, with different animal tracks etc?

What we have in mind is directions (text) to follow, giving a direction where you see tracks leading to.

3.) What are the plans for the different animal parts harvested? Will they have more than one use? Decorations etc maybe?

Food, decoration and medicinal uses in addition to the current armor, tool and weapon components.

4.) Will hunting also be used for harvesting human bones? And are there plans to include specific recipes that utilize mutants' bones as materials?

Thanks

No plans for specific mutant recipes yet. You will be able to harvest human bones from revenants.

Kegan Asks:

I have just discovered today that a cart will not fit through some of the gates are you planing on fixing this soon? Like the "Bamati Lagag Gate" it has two doors and only one of the doors opens up and it only opens up about about half way causing the cart to get stuck when you try to go through. The cart would fit if both doors on the gate opened and if they were to open all the way instead of half way.

Thanks for this report. We will get these fixed right away.

Drevar Asks:

When farming is implemented, will the "field" structures also be rentable/buyable via the Real Estate system?

I hadn't thought of this. At first, no.

Trees grow on an incredibly accelerated timescale (relative to RL). What timescale do you have in mind for farmable crops? Plant and harvest within a single play-session or multiple days to harvest?

Multiple days to harvest.

Grushenko Asks:

Hi guys.

In the 02-22 update you talked about a skill/stat revamp. Are we going to see the soft cap/skill decay at this stage? If is it so, can you provide some information about?

Yes. Skills are soft capped in groups (crafting, combat, actions) and overall. Skill gain will slow after you hit the soft cap and least used skill will decay.

If you are not going to put a form of cap with the revamp, will you in the future or you dropped the idea?

Last question, if we are not going to have a cap, do you think that the actual crafting/economy where everybody can be, with less or more time, totally indipendent is the path the game will follow?
I can remeber that the cap was a controversial topic but also a firm point and i hope to see it soon in game.

First time i post something in the Q&A section so let me thank you for both great communication and the improvement the game is having. Hope my english is good enaugh to make my questions clear.

Boris Grushenko - Little Italy tribe

There will be a cap, so I think that answers your concerns.

Archangei Asks:

When will you start introducing us to this worlds gods and religion?

Not for a while. We have a lot of other features to improve and introduce first.

Ever considered more depth to architecture thinking along these lines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_QM3EjfFvs

The construction progress in that video looks nice, but I'm not convinced that that is more in depth architecture. It looks like a set building plan. I am more concerned with flexibility and customization in our architecture system.

I have thought about the stages of construction, but it would require a lot of artwork for a bit of gain in visuals and immersion. It's not something we can afford to do.

If im out swimming and run out of stamina, shouldnt i drown?

We decided against it for now.

Will realestate only work with tents and finished construcitons or will i be able to apply it on houses built out of 3 walls, door and roof/floor as well.. i mean more custom houses.

At first only tents and complete huts. We will soon allow players to link building parts into 'rooms' that can be sold or rented through the Real Estate system.

Free time with Totem Decay, will it be applied to active accounts as well or just inactive ones?

All accounts.

What are you planned features for guilds (not tribes) and what will be the difference between a guild / tribe

Guilds were planned as groups within a tribe that would give a boost to a specific skill. For example a bonecrafters guild and all members receive a bonus based on the combined bonecraft skill of the members.

What do you think about the idea of having stone roads, similar to paving but you need rock in your inventory?

This has been suggested before and is on our list. I'd like to improve the road system now that we have carts, but it will have to wait until after this round.

Thanks for the questions!

[Xsyon]

Questions of Week 03/05 through 03/11 2012

Eolhfehu Asks:

What is the magic system going to be like?

Are most the spells going to be geared for damage and fighting or will there be more domestic uses for it?

Watering crops, creating magic groves, finding resources, blessing construction sights.. That kind of stuff. How useful will a mage/druid/priest be over all?

Magic is planned primarily as religious and tribal nature 'magic' with healing, combat and 'buff' uses. This is a ways off though so it's a better topic for the future.

znaiika Asks:

ModEdit: Most of this post was requests and/or Suggestions.

Please post in Suggestions thread or if you have any other issues please contact Support.

banden Asks:

What are your plans for the upcoming alignement system?
- what will the rules be for good, neutral and evil? Loot, PVP rules of engagement, rewards/penalties, territorial control etc.

As answered in the previous round of questions, I am going to sit down with the current programmers and we're going to revise our plans for this. For now I can't answer this is in detail.

- How will alignment be determined? You have stated that breaking locks on baskets will decrease your alignement, what else?

Actions that decrease alignment include:
Initiating attacks on 'good' players
Killing players
Looting

- Have you considered further alignement options like chaotic, neutral and lawfull?

Neutral, yes. Chaotic and lawful, maybe in the future, but they wouldn't be so easy to track.

Archangei Asks:

What's needed in the game for you to consider the next phase? (Prelude being this phase)

The current round of features.
The next round of features (combat revisions, regeneration, cooking, comfort)
Pets and mounts

Primarily we need to expand our player base and development team so that we can make Xsyon a much larger audience game for the 'full release'.

When will we see the first signs of metalworking?

No time estimate right now.

Whats the future plans for junkyards?

Discarded junk should generate new junk piles, but we need to further optimize the server before we can do this.

Anymore tools planned for Terraforming?

Not right now. A lot of players would like to dig tunnels, but that would require a complete revision of our terrain system.

Any Plans for NPC Guards / Vendors? ( would be a pretty good sink )

No. The plan is to stick with only NPC creatures.

Torches?

Yes and could be fit in with our tasks over the next few months.

ColonelTEE3 Asks:

copy pasted from my "How are things going" thread,

--------------------------------------------------

Reason for activity: Primary reason I and my clan Society of the Anvil left.

You can craft armor and weapons -- why? To be better equipped for killing mobs and players -- why would i kill mobs? To harvest their resources -- why? to craft more armor and weapons -- why would i kill players? To take their stuff -- i have access to all the same resources their junk piles have, there is no deficiency in any resource, and pvp in and of itself is not fun, so there is no recreational nor functional purpose behind pvp

How are problems / questions like these being addressed? Is there any indication from the developer that purpose will be given attention any time soon?

Regarding resources -- when i / we left, everyone had access to everything, contributing to some of the circular logic problems i stated above. Is there any indication resources will be harder to get, or certain resources becoming localized? Anything about better / more necessary resources being in safezone-less areas only?

We are continuously trying to balance game systems to give more 'purpose'. The revisions we are making to stats, skills, experience and questing is big part of this. We are developing tools to help us better distribute scavenged resources which are already localized. Crafting recipes will also undergo some changes after we better balance resources. The Real Estate system will give more purpose to towns and buildings.

Ultimately though, this is a game. It's meant to be fun during the journey not just the destination. I feel we've achieved this so far. The main issue is that for a lot of players it's not fun for long enough. We will continue to improve the game world so that there is more immersion and more to do and enjoy!

Is there any indication there will be penalties for safezones / removal of safezones / bonuses for tribes who do not have safezones in the coming future?

Yes, tribes will be able to remove their safe zone to gain advantages in gathering / scavenging local resources.

Omniwar Asks:

Will you increase the distance the camera is from the character? As it is now it just feels way to close to get a good overview.

We'll consider it. I think it's a good maximum distance right now. Are you zooming out fully? We've had more requests to make the limit closer not farther.

Working on stuff, mostly terraforming, can be a pain on the eyes during nighttime and the light from fires is rather weak, any plans on giving us the option to disable day/night while terraforming or perhaps giving us better lightsources?

More light sources like torches, yes.

Snow, bad for new players as they cant see junk piles, any plans on making junk piles more visable during winter?

Not right now. The snow system was coded by a programmer who no longer works with us so this is not part of the code any of us is fully familiar with to easily adjust.

Will we be able to make bone saws, or from other materials at some point?

Yes, we will revise some tools in the next few months.

Granite (not sure about Basalt and mountain Limestone) cant be terraformed, which kinda makes a big part of the world unsuitable for a tribe to settla down. Will we be able to carve them out or if not, have the ability to put dirt on top of said rocks?

For now, no. I've considered this and will consider it again in the future, but we really don't want players to able to destroy entire granite mountains.

Do you have plans on having a "mentor" ability in the game, where an older player can mentor a younger player and teach him how to make XYZ item?

Yes, we have something like this in our design documents. It's just not a current priority.

One thing I felt was really lacking when I started playing was the ability to make a basic shelter with branches, leafs and grass, nothing fancy and no or at most 1 slott for a container, but craftable by every new character so they can have a sense of a "home" from day one, is this something you see happening?

Yes. We were planning to have 'starter' tents like this originally. We just have to cut out many small details like this as we are too small of a development team.

Will we be able to build multistory buildings without raising the ground, start project, dig, new project ect, like just building the first floor and then another floor on top of it?

Yes. Though since players have found ways to build multiple stories without an explicit system, this has been put on the back burner while we work on more critical improvements.

Any plans to let us bookmark locations in the world, and when choosing a bookmark an arrow on the minimap will point to that location.

No, but I have added this to our suggestion list (it's a big list )

Will we be able to make maps of the world? A new skill Cartography, where you start by making small maps in a Journal, with the ability to "splice" smaller maps togather to make a big one, eventually leading to a full world map. Could go hand in hand with bookmarking and the Journal could either be traded or strictly personal.

I would like this, but this is something for when Xsyon grows considerably.

It would be awesome to be able to either move a heavy bin on the ground straight to a cart/house, or the ability to move content from container X to container Z with just one mouseclick. Will that ever be in the game?

Yes, we will likely set this up soon.

Crafting is rather tedious with all its clicking, few thousand clicks and mouse movements just to make few dozen ropes, any chance it will be more automated and you continually craft until the materials in your bags are finished? (Its only annoying to people that dont use macros or scripts or what ever they use to grind while afk) I'd be well happy if this could be done, even if it would take longer than doing it one peice at a time, fun is in playing, not standing still and clicking, imho. In EVE it was a very shortlived idea to have players reactivate their mining lasers after each batch or weapons after each volley.

We've been improving this over time and will continue to do so. For the next month or two though, this won't change as we focus on tasks at hand.

Simple69 Asks:

When will creature AI be fixed? Agil, damage .. etc.. when will these stats be fixed for armor and weapons?

Please report any problems with creature AI to our bugs email.

Agility should be working on armor. Other stats on weapons will be fixed with our next round of combat revisions.

When will we see MORE creatures -- right now when we go hunting, for hours we find many baron zones of creatures.. please fix ASAP Combat is a big part of this game and many people just quit because of the lack of creatures and difficulty with creatures. Bones are a great reward but what incentive is there to kill a Giant Bear or a Baby Bear they give the same reward what are you going to change to fix this??? Please elaborate.

You will see more creatures in Spring. Creatures breed most in Spring and least in Winter.
Creature parts for older creatures will give better bonuses in the future.

Book Asks:

How do you feel about Putin's re-election? Is it a hot topic where you are, or do people just go about their business not too concerned about it?
US media makes it sound like some sort of Russian Spring is brewing.

Not game related so apologies and understood if removed, just curious since you're on location.
Thanks.

Where I am people expected it and saw it as inevitable. I personally think there wasn't a strong enough second candidate to make a difference. There is a lot more brewing in Moscow and some other cities, but I'm in a small town so people here just go about their daily business.

MrDDT Asks:

Can we get an official answer to the question of pulling animals into the water to kill them where they cant fight back? Is this a valid tactic or not? Getting mixed reports from players/guides.

It's valid for now but this is bugged. Creatures should not stay and fight in water. We'll look into this.

tomduril Asks:

I would like to ask if you would provide us with some inside knowledge about the wear out factor of tools - meaning how many craftings a char can make with a single tool until it breaks.

There is no specific count. It depends on many factors including the materials used to craft the tools, the person using them and luck.

AFAIK there are 4 types of tools - Foragers, trapper, scrappers and pioneer-

You said in the interview (start of this year) that prestine/artisan/master/supreme does not influence the wear out time - is that still true?
You also said that the wear out depends on the skill level of the char (of the skill beeing used ?).

Quality doesn't directly affect the wear, but it should effect the initial durability of the tool. I would have to double check though. Wear is affected by the skill level of the character using the tool.

At the moment it is common believe that "pioneer" tools are the most durable ones - so a "Pioneer Saw" would yield the highest output before breaking.

Question: Would you reveal which type of tool "Foragers, trapper, scrappers and pioneer" would yield the highest durability (same quality of material - eg VHQ - if that is also used in calculating the durability) ?

Thank you.

This is the type of thing players need to figure out.

Crokus Asks:

Questions on roof structures this week….

I have a rough draft for a homestead project in the future. When do you expect to patch in the corner roof items? Q2, Q3, Q4? What size will they be? 4 x 4? 8 x 8?

We have 4x4 corners ready but they need checking, exporting and testing and we haven't had time. They'll be in within the next two weeks.

I’ve noticed the shelter bonus icons on the in UI when standing under a roof item that is placed on the ground, but I built my roof an additional 3 meters higher (cathedral ceilings are nice) and I do not receive the icon on my UI. Is this working as intended? Due to the increasing number of multi-level houses people are building, will the dev team consider changing this to give the bonus for all elevations below the roof structures?

It's working as intended. The roof structure only encloses the area between the base of the posts and the roof itself, not anything under the roof.

You have stated in a prior QotW post that only the roof structures (at first) will protect the bins underneath it after bin decay is patched in the game, but will the bins be protected if they are below the base of the roof structure as in the scenario above?

Bins will have to be within the roof structure's volume.

thunXa Asks:

1.)

Question about the planned loss of skills from dieing.

Will you also decay exp points/hp/lvl ups from the green bar?
So want to know if you give old/high skilled players a new opportunity to gain more HP by leveling up the lost skills again without removing exp from the green bar which wouldnt be bad in my opinion to allways have new limits.

No decay on experience points or level ups.
The health / hit points system will be revised as part of these changes.

Also mentioned the loss of stats there if im right.
How much % loss from dieing once and which stats will be choosen to get damaged?

The exact percentage will be determined after more testing. This will be available for testing hopefully next week.

2.)

Seems there are some new players.
Did the online players at a time number raise up?

Yes! We've had a steady increase in overall players and players online at all times since early January.

Thanks for all the questions. Sorry for some of the brief answers. I had a lot of questions to catch up with and we have a lot going on right now. We always do!

[Xsyon]

Questions of Week 03/12 through 03/18 2012

MrDDT Asks:

We haven't really been updated in a while of some of the things to come in the short/medium/long vision.
Is there a way you can tell us a little of the plans you have for these time lines? Nothing we are going to hold you to, just something we can dream about.

Short term we are working as hard as we can to accomplish this current 'round' of development. The focus is game stability and balance. As posted in the In Development section this includes:
Server Optimizations
Loading Optimizations
Skill, Stat and Experience revisions
Quest System revisions
Death penalties
Totem Decay
Coming of Revenants
Real Estate System completed

Next up will be a round of development focused on game immersion and survival. This will include:
Cooking and other minor skills
Comfort and weather effects on players
Combat revisions including ranged combat
Ability for tribes to remove safe zones

Next up we plan to focus on creatures including:
Tracking
Pets
Mounts

We will be adding more architecture parts and other items and armor during this time.
We also will continue making simple changes based on feedback and fixing bugs

Our long term plans are very lofty and I will talk about some of these in the near future. It will all depend on how we can grow the game and company this year!

KeithStone Asks:

1. Is the plan to keep granite an unlimited resource, like how you can keep gathering from it forever in the same spot?

Yes, it's planned to stay like this for now.

2. Loading times are taking up to 10 minutes to get in game even after you die and load back in. Is there anything in the works that's going to reduce this time significantly? I know this will be on people's top complaints when you do the free time for old accounts.

We are working on some very critical changes this week. We've investigated loading times a lot the past several days, have found several bottlenecks and have major improvements already in progress.

You should be able to see a bit of improvement on the current Test Server build already.

thunXa Asks:

Will the progress on gaining stats and the progress on the quality forever be hide? Talking about a percent or maybe a coloured bar to show it.

Yes, I plan to keep these hidden or showing names (for example for the quality) rather than actual numbers. I may change this in the future, or allow a switch to show the precise numbers, but it's not something I personally enjoy in games.

Thanks for the questions!

[Xsyon]

Questions of Week 03/19 through 03/25 2012

MrDDT Asks:

What are your plans to make economy more robust in Xsyon? So far economy seems to be broken and even with guides teleporting players to trade, you only see maybe 15 people trading.

This has been answered recently, but to summarize the plans in one word: balance.

This includes:
-Current stat and skill revisions so that players rely more on each other for goods.
-Redistribution of scavenged resources and adjusting their properties. This can be done easier now as we have a new visual distribution tool that was completed a few days ago and is undergoing final checks.
-Giving more value and range to resources (for example, recent changes to the bonus power of hunted resources)
-Increase decay for end products (tools, weapons, armor).

When are important things going to be focused in game? Cooking, Taming, Combat, PVE, Economy?

I feel the most important things are being focused on: balancing what is already in game, before adding new skills and features.
Regarding specific features, I've outlined our development schedule here:

http://www.xsyon.com/forum/showthrea...In-Development

Can we have an idea of how the new stat system is going to work? Many people have been waiting for this and upsetting to know that its all going to change and could be wasting a lot of time without info on the system.

Yes. Information for this is now posted in the announcement section and more will be posted in the testing and feedback section after we iron out a few bugs and are ready for more specific testing.

Are we going to have anything to improve the fun level of the game? So far we have some fun stuff like building a city, but what about like PVE?

Yes. I think every change we make improves the fun level of the game. That's the main goal! I think the improved quest system will be much more useful and fun.

More PvE will arrive with revenants and we're doing our best to improve creature PvE. We are still adjusting creature breeding rates and have been setting spawns for now as breeding has been too slow and too many adult females have been killed off preventing breeding.

Whats the use of walls and roofs in game? We going to see anything being used them anytime soon?

They will keep out revenants and as soon as I can get to it, walls and roofs will be joined to form building units that can be used for storage like tents.

Are buildings and walls going to be able to be damaged by animals or monsters?

Eventually yes.

Are there ever going to be areas where vet players can have fun? Its not bad to build a building all day, but after a year of playing, there is no challenges in game for a vet player or group. What are your plans to improve the game for the old timers, keeping them going?

Well, there are some legendary creatures out there somewhere that would definitely pose a challenge if you can find them! I think that the current balancing changes will make players interact more which is good for vet players. Creatures will also be more of a challenge and reward with these changes. This all sets the stage for us to add more actual features that will give vet players new things to do.

What's your plans on travel in the game? I know mounts are set to be sometime in the next few years of development but anything any time sooner?

Mounts will be sooner than a few years. Roads will undergo some changes to better affect movement speed. Base and max movement speeds have already been adjusted (on the test server).

Healing in game is it going to be improved so players can work as a team to heal each other, or even themselves?

Yes, when healing skills are added, players will be able to work as a team to heal each other or heal themselves.

What is the alignment system going to be like, and when is it expected or was it just scrapped and not going to see it?

The actual alignment system is actually in game. All players currently have a good or evil alignment based on their actions. However, there is no visible effect right now, it's just data in the database.

The original use was making death harsher on evil players to balance their advantages (being able to kill and loot at will on public lands). As this met so much resistance on the forums from pvp oriented players, it was shelved for the future. Right now it's not a priority.

What's your plans to improve working as a group in game either as a tribe or allies? Do you plan on having an ally system?

An ally and enemy system is planned. The plan is that quest and trade totems would be usable only by allies or neutral players. Ally settings could extend (if set) to permissions on gates and containers.

Contested resources are we going to see anything like that in game?

Possibly, but this would be a major task. Claimed resources would first be in the form of claimed areas not specific resources.

Contested regions is there going to be areas where tribes can fight over claimed land?

This is the plan but we need to expand our development team before we can get to major changes like this. We'll see how the next few months go. Right now things are going alright though a bit slow.

You have talking about a death punishment system, is this going to be broken down in with killing yourself or vs animals or anything? What is this system going to be like?

The first implementation will be loss on death (skill, stat and item decay) regardless of the type of death. (No death teleporting). I will be requesting feedback on this soon.

Are we going to get more permissions on our totem to set ranks? Like the option to set officers to pick up baskets? This was turned off, so only the leader can do it now, but is there plans to change it back or add something new?

Yes, but after more testing.

When are animals going to be able to be breed in captivity? if ever? What are your plans for this breeding also? Like will we need to feed them or be part of the taming skill?

When we implement taming we will look into this.

Is there any plans to help new players learn the game? I see in /y the same 10 questions asked over and over and over.

We've updated the manual and a wiki on this site is almost ready to be announced (www.xsyon.com/wiki in progress).

znaiika Asks:

When are bonuses would work? like speed, durability, armor, damage.....

These are being checked, revised and fixed during this round of development (next few weeks).

Will you make charm more powerful? would charm affect scavenging for rare items/resources? so then it would be more beneficial to have it?

Yes. All stats will be useful and more balanced with the current changes we are making.

Wile adding more dangerous elements to the game, will new players be able to survive solo or they going to either quit or join a big tribe?

Players should always be able to survive solo, though they will often need tribes for quests, resources and equipment.

Azurfale Asks:

What is the estimated quarter that Totem decay will be implemented?

This quarter (2nd quarter 2012).

aliksteel Asks:

Whats your time table for crafting tables? And how crafting tables will work?

They should be crafted like barrels now (and moved around, but not placed in your inventory). I'm not sure when we'll add these. The only reason we don't add them now is because of collision issues between objects and buildings that need to be resolved. Our current programmer who will work on this would like to implement a new collision system rather than try to fix issues with the current system.

NorCalGooey Asks:

Just thought I'd comment, DDT is asking all the important questions because he sees no reason to play.

I have no reason to play as well, other than the great people (this game is a crafting/building chat room to me).

What are your plans to add more spontaneous excitement to the game? I personally think the world needs to be much more dangerous, and revenants with aggressive spawns and aggro ranges will help this.

Revenants and more aggressive creatures are on the way. The current balancing revisions are more important in my opinion to set the stage for more 'danger'.

Does spirit effect stat gain/loss at all? I think some people are confused on what "experience gain" means for spirit. Does it mean you get more green bar level ups in the end?

No. Spirit will affect more skills though with the current changes in progress.

Aiden Asks:

You mentioned in a previous answer that the system for building multistory architecture had been pushed back due to players finding another way. Are there plans to implement this soon? While the current system works, it's very tedious (though I do admire those that are able to use it) and time-consuming. Having those raise and lower buttons work on architecture would be epic! Thanks.

This has still been pushed back in favor of more critical improvements. This is on the list currently to fit in when we can.

Thanks for the questions!

[Xsyon]

Questions of Week 03/26 through 04/01 2012

agoddard82 Asks:

New player here. Just purchased earlier today, Played for about 8 hours. Joined Industrial Strength where I have gotten to know one of Xsyon's more vocal community members, MrDDT.

First, let me compliment the absolutely amazing game engine you have here, the potential for Xsyon is through the roof and beyond that of any mmo currently available. I have been playing sandbox MMO's for over a decade. I spent 8 years in Eve Online, some time in DarkFall and Mortal Online, as well as history in UO before any of the aforementioned.

Now to my questions,

Xsyon is lacking some very important aspects of gameplay that is severely hurting it's potential to appeal to a wider audience. While still a niche audience (as sandbox MMO's in general cater to niche communities) the market penetration for Xsyon is nowhere near where it could be.

First and foremost is some incentive to perform tasks such as crafting and various other activities beyond a general enjoyment of performing the task. For example, Xsyon has a fantastic crafting system that rivals even the most celebrated crafting in most mmo's, unfortunately the game offers very little reason to do so. The lack of meaningful combat (PVE and PVP) limits the demand for a great deal of crafted goods. The lack of decay on top of that leads to saturation that would occur even if there was a demand. This alone creates a double whammy.

Combat, PVP, PVE and the risk/reward game that comes with it. Xsyon is a full loot sandbox that should be an exciting and scary world to live in. Unfortunately it is not, it is a world of carelessness because there is no risk or sense of survival that would stimulate this game and bring in likely thousands of new and returning subscribers. A post apocalyptic world would likely be very chaotic and consist of many warring factions striving for dominance and a desire to be the new superpower government that arises in the aftermath of societies collapse.

While I could write a wall of text and further elaborate, I am going to leave it at just this for now.

Is there any plans to implement any of the above? if so what is the Xsyon development team doing to make this a reality? What kind of time frame can we expect to start seeing implementations leading to it? or am I confused about what Xsyon is and is striving to become?

Thank you for taking the time to read and reply to my questions and concerns, I look forward to spending many years here in your wonderful virtual world.

Sincerely,
Yosef of Industrial Strength

First, thank for for the positive comments!

Regarding increased risk and reward, we are always working on improving this and will continue to do so. I think that our current revisions to skills and stats will provide much needed balance. Death will become a risk with these changes and decay will be increased.

We have recently implemented tools that help us track creatures and gather data on resources. We have already started using these to improve the rarity and distribution of resources.

Regarding warring factions, there are players that are looking for these and players that aren't. It's one of my goals to have this at least in some areas of the game world, but it will still take time and a larger development team to reach this goal.

Willowhawk Asks:

Tree Regrowth
1) Will there be future adjustments to tree spawn numbers?

My concern is that trees grow like weeds in clusters making planting impossible because (The zone has reached it's limit) making us need to clear a few hundred trees to plant one tree. Then a short time later it's over grown again with the clusters even more packed, disallowing planting again. This makes for large treeless tracks, and small mass clusters of trees. It kind of kills the forestry skill as well as the resource value of lumber.

I would like to see trees spawn only in spring and in limited numbers allowing players more control of trees in their zone.

2) Can or will the distance between objects and trees be minimized?
As of now you cannot plant near other objects. That is fine but I can plant about 6 meters from another tree and some objects, but I can't plant within 20 meters of branches or logs on the ground, baskets and many other objects. (Sometimes it's the item in a basket that it says is too close). So the only way to plant on a busy tribe is to tear down everything, plant trees and rebuild. Which is what I have been doing It would be nice to be able to plant as long as nothing is in the maximum footprint of the tree.

3) Will the footprints of some large trees be adjusted to better represent the actual size of the tree? IE The Douglas Fir. The Footprint is about a meter larger in diameter than the graphics, making it very hard to build anything near the tree as it makes things inaccessible with it's invisible wall. As stated above, you need to tear down, plant a tree, then rebuild. If a ramp is a bit too close to the tree you cannot use the ramp.

Thanks for all you do!

Yes, all of this needs to be checked and adjusted. It's on our list but our list is big right now! I need to personally check these things as these things were set by another developer and should have already been set as you describe (for example, trees should only spawn in Spring and the footprints were supposed to match the models exactly).

thunXa Asks:

There was some server and loading optimizations - it feels like much better and faster then before. Is this "round" finished?

Loading optimizations are finished for now as we've seen a great improvement.

Next round include Skill, Stat and Experience revisions from what i can see.

Can you speak in numbers what there will be changed on the HP - Skill - Expierence problems we have now?
So for example if i skill up something from 5 to 25, gaining 1 full green exp bar and lets say 1 HP.
I put up another skill from my points i have from 5 to 25 - do i gain 1 HP?

This will be discussed better in the feedback section while we are testing and making adjustments. HP will depend on your stats and skills, not experience or levelling.

Some or better say most people go around the actual issue and grind skills they dont like to do just because of the HP buff.
So even if you will be giving 0.5 HP for this example, it will stay the same.
So will it be a 1,0 - 1,0 revising? No more skilling up something you dont really like to do at the cost of HP?

Gaining experience no longer gains HP, so now skilling through experience points will be the same as through grinding.

aliksteel Asks:

Do you still plan to revamp fishing? If so in what round is it planned for?

There will be some revisions when we add Cooking in the next round of development.

Thanks for the questions!

[Xsyon]

Questions of Week 04/02 through 04/08 2012

MrDDT Asks:

Do you know that food/water have no effect on energy regeneration?

Yes. Currently they have only an effect on energy drain. This will likely be revised while we are balancing things this month.

prokop15 Asks:

In a previous answer session you wrote this concerning a lack of purpose in the game:

"We are continuously trying to balance game systems to give more 'purpose'. The revisions we are making to stats, skills, experience and questing is big part of this. We are developing tools to help us better distribute scavenged resources which are already localized. Crafting recipes will also undergo some changes after we better balance resources. The Real Estate system will give more purpose to towns and buildings.

Ultimately though, this is a game. It's meant to be fun during the journey not just the destination. I feel we've achieved this so far. The main issue is that for a lot of players it's not fun for long enough. We will continue to improve the game world so that there is more immersion and more to do and enjoy!"

Could you please expand on just how these changes will add purpose to the game? These changes, like experience and stat revisions, seem to be more of altering the path to fulfill a purpose, rather than creating a purpose.

Could you include some details on the questing and real estate changes, and how they will create purpose? A theoretical scenario including these systems would be great.

Some of these changes are meant simply to create balance and reasons for players to use systems like trade and quests.

My goal here is to improve the usefulness and purpose of these systems, not just to create purpose through them.

This is an open ended game world. As with other mmorpgs players find different reasons or 'purpose' to play. This could be:

- A sense of accomplishment: Completing quests, gaining achievements or items. (Theme Park games, Diablo)
- A sense of acknowledgement: Showing off these achievements and items with other players. (Theme Park games)
- A sense of creation: Designing something and seeing your designs fulfilled. (Minecraft, SIMS, Dungeon Keeper)
- A sense of immersion: Getting away from reality and feeling 'lost' in another world.
- Social. Making friends and interacting with other players.
- Risk and danger: The thrill of combat and losing hard earned stats or rewards. (RTS games, Multi Player FPS, 'Full Loot' MMOs)
- Conquest: Conquering other players. (RTS games, Multi Player FPS).
- Entertainment (of course!)

Currently I think Xsyon has much to offer in immersion, creation, accomplishment and social aspects. We've been running events and contests so that players can gain a acknowledgement for their creations (constructions) and achievements. I think Xsyon is entertaining though I want it be longer lasting entertainment!

My goal with the current changes are to increase:
- Accomplishment: Completing hard to do quests rewarded by experience, rather than grinding levels.
- Creation: Increased use of the quest system to make players feel more like 'dungeon masters' of the game if they wish.
- Social: increasing the need to interact as players will depend more on each other.
- Risk and danger: Death penalty loss making combat more risky. The need to venture out more to take advantage of the quest system and get better materials, which is inherently risky.

Here is one example of the improved Quest and Real Estate system in use:

Player joins the game.

Player encounters a totem with quests.

Rather then starting off by joining a tribe, starting a homestead or grinding skills, the player can accept some quests that will:
- give the player experience to gain skills without grinding
- give the player useful rewards (the quest creator is rewarded experience also partially based on the value of the rewards).
- give the player a reason to interact with others to obtain the quest goals.

With the Real Estate system, the player can establish a base in this tribe while quests are completed and establish a base in other tribes while questing or trading there. This gives players the incentive to travel to distant towns, knowing there can be reward and safety at the end of their risky travel.

With these changes, tribal towns can become more like NPC towns in a Theme Park game with tribe mates being 'dungeon masters' and town managers.



NorCalGooey Asks:

I kind of think people are looking for their sand box experience to have more an effect on the game play of the world, not just how the world looks. Any plans to add anything like that to the game? It doesn't have to be warfare related, although PvP really helps economy, especially if armor and weapons decayed much faster (maybe something like 2000 damage taken and given and the armor and weapon breaks completely). But there are many other things besides the warfare you can add to the game that would allow players to influence the game play experience, not just how the world looks.

Yes. The improved quest and real estate systems as planned will allow players to affect the game play for others. It's always been a primary goal of mine to have players to be the 'dungeon masters' of Xsyon.

We have other improvements designed to allow players more and more customization and creation effect on the game world (such as custom cooking recipes and assembled weapons) but these will come with time. One step at a time!

[Xsyon]

Dakeen Asks:

I started playing about two weeks ago and only recently came across the fact that my stats actually effect more than just how fast I learn something. I read through the manual it makes no reference to this fact. I only came across it by reading through a lot of forum posts. Then, today some one tells me that what my Spirit and Perception are effects what quality granite I gather at a given Resource skill level.

Would you scrap the manual all together and add this kind of "need to know" information about how your character works in detail to the offiical wiki the Guides are apparently putting together?

Good timing with the question. Yes, this information will be in the official wiki which we will post about this week.
Once the current stat and skill revisions are done we will include the revised information.

Few questions about Fire Building: I understand more schemes are planned for this, but is that the only benefit the skill has, do you make better quality fire that helps regenerate energy faster? What effect, if any do fires have toward animals? I've witnessed a couple of animals going in circles around a extinguished fires, odd AI quirk or not?

Fire building is a skill we'd like to expand in the future. Currently animals should not go through fires, but that's all.

Along with totem decay, have you ever considered shrinking tribe size due to inactive players? Such as a player inactive for 2 months the tribe loses it's 5m bonus from that player until he comes online? Some tribes cover a massive area but most of their members are inactive.

I've thought about this but there would need to be another way to keep your tribal radius from shrinking. If not, tribes would shrink too often and walls and items would become exposed too easily.

How long will it take for a totem to decay fully and will all landscaping be rectified as some of these earthworks are extreme? Can you re-roll the landscaping locally?

The first round of totem decay will take a few weeks for totems that were not made 'active' during the free time period we will offer to returning players.

Landscape will not be altered after a totem decays. Reshaping the land will be up to players that claim abandoned land.

Speaking as a recent noob, hearing that death penalties are to be introduced can noobs have creatures they can actually defeat like bunny rabbits? I think some of the smaller mobs are over the top for noob combat.

Noobs will more balanced and have higher health points in general after our changes and we will also balance creatures a bit, so yes, you should be able to defeat smaller creatures as a starting player.

I accept the game involves a lot of grinding, but most players have real life jobs and so on and to get a wider audience perhaps some auto grinding is needed off line. This is done in other games and I'm sure the materials and tools could be put into say a special tent or shack for this purpose. I'd prefer to come online and explore the world and do more active things like hunting and gathering. Purists may complain, but I've already had two of my friends get fed up with trying to grind out thousands of granite bricks and so on. The game needs an active population, so would you think about a compromise on this issue?

Alleviating the grind is one of the main reasons for the improved quest system that we're currently working on. Players will gain experience points from both completing and giving quests. In this way, you can gain experience even offline if you set up quests that players want to (and can) complete. This gives an incentive for giving good quest rewards.

Shill Asks:

Thanks for answering these questions and taking time to talk with the community!!

As I've stated in my suggestion thread (linked below), this isn't a priority, but I'm extremely curious if this is even possible and, if so, is it something you'd consider? I LOVE building things and my only frustration is the one issue described in the suggestion thread.

http://www.xsyon.com/forum/project.php?issueid=1550

Thanks again!

I've read the suggestion and will think about it when we next work on more architecture parts or changes. If the main issue is to avoid accidental dismantling, I think a confirmation box on dismantling (which is on our todo list) would better solve the problem. We'll see.

Is fixing/turning back on grass growth and tree branch/seed/twig/etc. growth on the timeline any time soon? Not sure how many times this week alone I've heard someone ask about where to get branches (10billion trees and no branches near them) or if there's something that can be done about grass that's bee picked barren.

Not very soon, but after we run totem decay we will see. We do have a system running that generated 'forest' surface around trees, but this was changing too many surfaces and causing issues, so it's turned off until we have time to heavily optimize this.

garrethe Asks:

Originally Posted by Qwerty

Speaking as a recent noob, hearing that death penalties are to be introduced can noobs have creatures they can actually defeat like bunny rabbits? I think some of the smaller mobs are over the top for noob combat.

I 2nd this one. There are relatively no mobs in the game and when I do run into one I get my butt kicked. I accept that a bear, coyote or mule deer should beat me as a noob but why can a squirrel or some cat named ragdoll beat me senseless? what exactly as the developers do you envision me being able to kill to level up as a newbie to skill up and can you put some in the game. On another note why are there relatively no mobs at all in the game? Thanks for your consideration on these questions.

As answered above, both character and creatures will be more balaned with the coming patch.

Regarding the number of creatures, the main issue has been players killing off all adult females in populated areas, then the creatures don't breed. We are testing some changes on the test server so that adult females will 'hide' more often. With the coming patch we will reset creatures with a new spawn and adjust breeding rates daily to try to keep the population up while still having the system working as planned.

Players really need to manage their creatures.

tomduril Asks:

I second the question of Shill - with training Wraincrafting - I had a noticeable rise in grass picking - some areas are nearly depleted - I move on to other spots for now, but this will become and issue - and I would expect that a place with grass left - would sort of "recover" from extensive grass gathering after some while ... probably introduce the winter/spring change phase to not only spawn trees, but also replenish blank grass spots... it was implemented (I guess) and it probably needs a rework to make it more stable/performant - but we will eventually run out of grass (in some heavily used) areas in the near future - especially if we are expecting some players to come back for the totem decay, and new players that are joining every week. I very much like the system (that grass is not unlimited) - but grass growth would be essential (also from a more aesthetic point of view

Just asking about the timeline here

Thanks for making me aware that this is becoming an issue. I've put a note to bump up turning back on the system that generates surfaces. We need to stick to the current schedule and get the skill and quest changes wrapped up, but we'll see if we can implement some solution (possibly grass planting) with the next round of changes.

MrDDT Asks:

Is there going to be any stat reward for leveling up? (Like there are for skills?)

Your stats will gain (or lower) through leveling up the same as if you used the skills. I might allow some additional stat changes during leveling up, but we'll see. Most likely we will first release the current changes as we're anxious to get totem decay underway.

With the new stat system change, is there going to be any option for vets that put and trained up stats to be able to change over stats basic on their current levels or anything? IE. Say I wanted to be a scavenger so I picked high PER/INT stats. But after playing for a year I have say 120 in each of those stats. Now with the new changes, I need CHA and PER, well my CHA is -4.3 right now. For me to change over my CHA to near what I had before it would take many months. Is there going to be some type of system to exchange these stats?

Yes. With the new changes, stats adjust faster and stats adjust based on actions, not gaining skill. Once we're satisfied with the balance we'll see if it's enought for vet players to properly adjust stats with just skill usage. If not, I would like to add stat adjustment to the level up menu. It just takes time.

Thanks for the questions!

[Xsyon]

Questions of Week 04/16 through 04/22

Deacon Asks:

1. Is it possible to remove the slope check for starting a project...seems a bit usless if you can move an item to almost any slope. Right now, it's almost impossible to start a project on anything but absolutely flat surfaces, the slightest incline prevents it.

Actually, the slope check was supposed to work for moving projects also. I've put this on my priority request list as it should be an easy thing to change. I will probably increase the slope for placment, but set the slope check for moving projects to be the same as placement.

2. Is it possible to start putting in meat as a hunter resource...so we can start to prepare for those that will cook?

Not yet. I would like meat to have a decay timer and I don't want to add more partial systems or unfinished items into the game right now.

3. These is use and lock selections on waterbarrels...they are not working...I'd like to leave a waterbarrel on public access so people can eat and drink while at the Citadel.

I've put this on my bug list. It should be an easy fix.


thunXa Asks:

I tried to find a question/answer for this, but no success.

1.)

Are we seeing a fix soon on the problem walking between floors?

No. We are going to implement a new collision system (based on NVidia PhysX) that will resolve this and other collision issues. This has been started but will take probably 2 months before it's fully implemented.

2.) You further plan with the rent system.

So i allready went ahead and started making a 4 story full with rooms with walls, roofs and gates.

Will we be able to give permission to specific players that can be able to open a gate and also multiple players?

How will it look like?
Will there be a craft item like keys to open my gate because its my property both the gate and the key made by me? (not lootable/tradeable) maybe with a decay over some time

Or do we just give permission to the persons we like to get in?

Maybe also like a system same as for friend and bins?

You will be able to assign walls and door to a roof 'master' to create a rentable building. The specific player renting that building or room will have access to its gate.

I will think about other options for communal gates.


Qwerty Asks:

1. Does the game move on eventually from hunter gatherers onto animal domestication and agriculture to grow crops? This would give the opportunity for more architecture

Yes. Agriculture is already in progress.

2. As a noob I've noticed the lowest grade of combat knife needs stag antlers. Stags are hard to kill and getting rare and so hunting & gutting animals, not to mention bone craft becomes impossible as I need antlers for a new knife. Can we not insert an easier starter knife that can be made? I appreciate the challenge, but not impossible gauntlets.

We are currently revising recipes for armor, tools and weapons for a more consistent and challenging system (for higher level artisan and master items). We will make sure that starter level tools require easy materials.

3. Does the game progress eventually back to bronze or iron age where we could mine the ore and forge our own blades etc?

Yes, mining and blacksmiting is planned for the future.


tybor Asks:

Xsyon Dev answered:
Not very soon, but after we run totem decay we will see. We do have a system running that generated 'forest' surface around trees, but this was changing too many surfaces and causing issues, so it's turned off until we have time to heavily optimize this.

So why not generating 'forest' surface around 2m a tree when it grows? And only on blank spots? (see suggestion http://www.xsyon.com/forum/project.php?issueid=1554)

This was my first thought after planting some trees, that I have to clean the surrounding of grass, until I heard that there is currently no 'grass' or 'forest' surface grow :-(

greets,
Tybor

The surface generating system was very close to what you propose. We ran it only one day and it caused too much lag, but also it was clear that this would become a big database resource hog which could lead to many problems. We will return to this system when he have time to optimize it and thoroughly test it. Right now we have other priorities.


lukesh Asks:

1) May I know if the "time of inactivity" that I can see on the various tribe's totems is true and respect the real time of inactivity of that tribe? Almost tribes I visited are inactive since 61 or 64 days, no more, nor less.

The time is in Game Days and was not accurate before the Free Time period started. It should now be Game Days since totems were reset on May 18.

2) What differences there are between having "Hiding skill" at low level or high level? I ask because I can not find particular advantages in using this skill...

Higher skill should provide more transparency to the hiding character. This was working fine, but as things are sometimes inadvertently affected by other changes I've taken a note to check this out.

3) Do you have in mind to introduce in the game other new recipes for all the professions?

Yes. All professions are currently being revised to have Artisan and Master recipes (like Toolcraft). We are also going to add some new armor sets, tools and weapons very soon.

4) wainwright is really arduos to level up! Really arduos! For create a carts i must know leathercraft or bonecraft (for some recipes), basketry (for rope) etc. Do you think to move this profession under the "construction line"?

Done.

5) do you think we can have a new system for recognize if our friends or guildm8s are online?

An improved system is planned for the future, but not soon.


Dakeen Asks:

We know animals have been depleted in some parts of the map. You added spawns to compensate until you can adjust breeding. My question is, is it really worth tweaking versus just having a spawning system that monitors how many animals are in the world?

Yes, the breeding system is worth tweaking. There were still some issues left over from past programmers. There are finally fixed on the Test Server.

I for one love the idea that animals breed and can be wiped out from a area but others feel different. How are you going to control players that do not want to play "your game" and instead will hunt every animal down to the last? I quote "im not going to not hunt because the sys dont work im going to kill it to show them thier sys dont work". This kind of thinking actually creates a paradox in which the system would work with out that kind of thinking. Since there are a percentage of people who will play this way is it not foreseeable that you just may be tweaking breeding again and again as the player population grows?

With the corrected system, creatures will shy away more from players as the population decreases. Creatures can 'hide' from players so that they can continue to breed if they are reaching a minimum population point.

This also stems into scrap piles, one day they just might be depleted or mostly depeleted, I know opening new land will come with new scrap piles. Is the idea for the old areas to be filled with grass wearing unarmed players? Is there a system in place to regenerate them? I read somewhere in these questions discarded items counts toward their regrowth, but I have seen no evidence of this. If no system is in place or planned is it truly up to players to preserve them or will you regenerate them manually as complaints roll in?

A system is in place, but currently turned off as it is resource intensive (like the forest surface regeneration). There is a lot of scrap in the lands that will open up next. If the center area becomes low on scrap and players will depend on scrap from the outer lands, this will encourage trade and expeditions to the new lands. We'll see what happens (that's part of how the game evolves!)

One thing that players may not be aware of is that scavenged resources can be found on almost all surfaces. There is just a much higher chance on scrap.

After a time of tweaking and added features will there ever be a point where take hard stance on the depletion of resources?

As resources get depleted we will introduce ways for players to generate them (like we did with forestry). I foresee resources becoming more region specific, but not depleted.


MrDDT Asks:

Is there going to be any kind of oversight in Guide abuse? Like guides giving players items?

Guides are allowed to give out starting items to players. Guides do not have the ability to spawn any items of above starter level quality.

[Xsyon]

Questions of Week 04/23 through 04/29

MrDDT Asks:

Are we going to get an updated manual with what crafting skills are effected by what stats before the update?

This has been posted in our Patch Notes and should be in the current Manual version that was uploaded last week.

[Xsyon]

Questions of Week 04/30 through 05/06

thunXa Asks:

From the last statement about shields in february and about the combat changes - are they ready to be implemented?

Not yet as we working on many other revisions and features at the moment.

Parry is not worth much do be used in combat.

So i think it should be on a higher priority to add some kind of defense into combat.


Will there be any changes on parry? Like parry with 1 weapon and at the same time hit with the other weapon?

Yes. We will revise parry before implementing shields so that they provide an additional boost such as a short delay in the attacker's next attack.

Also about shields, will they just have a passive use or also a active?
The reallity is that your able to block/parry and still beeing able to hit with the weapon at the other hand.

Sorry i might been watching to much Spartacus

The plan is for active directional control much like parrying, but the shield will block attacks that cross its path regardless of the player's active control. So, this is both active and passive.


raven Asks:

With the patch we have well known players bragging in chat that they are maxed on most all skills except fire building and won't be losing any of their skills since you only lose skills when something else raises. They lock the few skills they have below 100 and they never lose anything. My first question is how did you allow this to happen in the first place and the 2nd question is what do you intend to do to correct it? They get to keep all their skills at 100 while the rest of us have caps? Are the rest of us supposed to continue to pay monthly fees while being unable to hope to ever get to their level? With the system in its current state, they could quit today and the rest of us could continue to play for 10 years and we could never hope to get anywhere near where they currently are. How exactly is that fair to everyone else?

There will soon be skill loss as a death penalty. Skills are not currently hard capped, gain just slows as the soft cap is exceeded. Overall gains have been balanced and skilling through experience was made more viable through the patch.

Balance is achieved primarily through stats. High level skills are not valuable without the accompanying stats at high level.


Hodo Asks:

With the next update now on deck, will this mean the coming of crops and food from animals other than fish?

Meat from animals will come first, along with cooking. The basics of agriculture have been set up, but they will not be ready when cooking and animal meat is patched out.

Shields, are they going to be passive in otherwords have a hitbox that is there so if I hit the shield I hit THE shield. Or are they going to be an additional bit of armour that just adds encumberance?

They will have a simulated hit box much like parrying currently does.