tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9614048757713398272024-03-12T23:01:13.203-07:00Slarty Spoils Clan LordSpoilers and behind the scenes rambling to ruin your life.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-26227986128300511282014-08-18T21:00:00.002-07:002014-08-18T21:22:47.239-07:00HealermancyI was brainstorming healer abilities recently and came up with this one. I'm pretty excited about the idea, it's likely I'll release a test item soon, although I haven't started coding yet, so we'll see. The idea:<br />
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Allow healers to "burst" fallen people who are sharing them, but instead of a normal burst heal it instantly revives the person for X seconds. After that time is up, they die again, maybe retaining some of the damage they took while alive, making them harder to heal. They probably are only returned to a fraction of their health, maybe there would be an additional penalty if they died while this ability was active, but that probably isn't needed if we already penalize for damage taken. Healing received while the ability is active would work while the target is alive, but won't have any effect on how fallen they are (they will always return to their previous level of "fallenness", plus any additional penalty I feel is needed for balance/risk.)</div>
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I anticipate the ability largely being used instead of a chain for escapes, but I can imagine some other really cool uses. It's not uncommon for a very strong healer to be the last member of a group who is alive. That healer bursting up the most powerful fighter, and then healing another player while the fighter protects them sounds really exciting. I like the risk that the fighter in that case might end up unhealable as part of the last ditch gambit. I suppose on a routine hunt it could be used to burst weaker players for their last minute tags, which is significantly less exciting, but probably also fun for both the healer and the dead player who otherwise would have had to sit out the fight.</div>
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One great thing about this ability is Faustus, Sespus, and Horus can be important ranks. Some combination of Faustus and Sespus can determine how much the dead person is healed, and Horus could not only enable the ability to be used on people who are more fallen, but will be useful when raising fallens who take damage after this ability is used on them.</div>
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I'm not sure if it makes sense to make this ability trainable, my intuition is that it does, but maybe it needs a cap. For each rank to feel substantial I think it'd have to be pretty effective, but the ability has some natural caps (it probably doesn't make sense to go above 100% health, or stay alive more than some number of seconds). Or maybe it would end up being best as a consumable item primarily driven by existing stats. I'll probably start it off that way to test it out, that way I can play with balance without screwing up peoples training.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-52914472384633749002012-05-24T21:17:00.001-07:002012-05-25T10:35:36.815-07:00Evolution of Slarty's Spawning TechniqueWarning: This post may not be as sexy as the title implies.<br />
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I've been wanting to write a bit about my creature spawning strategies for a while, since I've put a lot of thought into it over the past few years. This is one of those things that can really ruin the magic, so I've held back. I'm hoping to go light on the specifics, and just focus on where I've been, what I've learned, and where I'm going.</div>
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The first spawns I ever created were for Metzetli. I started with the initial jungle area, with a goal to make "South Forest for 6th circlers". The spawns took heavy influence from South Forest, which contains a very varied spawner, with chances of some extremely difficult challenges (for the level). I added my own tweaks to this style by overlapping very quick spawners that had about a 90% chance of junk and a 10% chance of harder things, with slower spawners that focused on the beefy stuff. The element of danger is always there, with very quick spawns which usually result in 3 vultures, but could sometimes result in 40 rudremau. This got rid of the problem I saw with most hunting areas, where the retreat was either always dangerous (because the tough monsters spawned too fast), or always a cakewalk (because the tough monsters spawned way too slowly). Now it's usually fine, but you never really know what you'll find.<br />
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I used something like this style for a while, but I was really starting to question the idea of "junk" creatures. The idea was it allows weaker characters to tag along and still contribute, but that really doesn't scale. What is considered "junk" when you're fighting sazajas? Note the comical grey wyrm spawns in Tepui, that was a junk spawner, it didn't make sense, and it wasn't really fun. The Mountain Glen was a large scale experiment in having a lot less junk, and it was the first (large) area to get rid of my patented "dual spawner" system. This reduces the unpredictability, and lets me focus on a more consistent and targeted challenge. It was pretty successful, I think people enjoyed it a lot. Looking back I think Metzetli's spawns are still more fun than Mountain Glen, partially because I spent a lot more time on Metzetli spawners, but part of the problem was Mountain Glen was a halfway step. There was still junk, but there was less of it. And it largely used the spawning strategies of older areas which has a mix of "always junk spawners" and "always good spawners", which can make things predicatable and boring.<br />
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Still, I deemed the experiment a success, and moved even more extremely in that direction, practically eliminating the idea of junk spawns. I try to keep variance by creating lots of different spawner types with slowly increasing difficulty, then you mix the rate and amount of each to keep things interesting. The Lily Pond expansion was the first full on experiment with this style, and then Estuary after that was the biggest high level experiment. You can actually see the spawn strategy evolve as you go deeper into the Estuary, as I learned with each release. I still feel my newer areas are vastly more predictable than my older ones, which saddens me a little. I also think retreats spawn a up with tough monsters a bit too fast with this new style. It makes recovering from a tough situation too difficult, and too reliant on long chain runs.</div>
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Valley Panthers - A little more powerful than everything else, but not by much. Rewarding, and satisfying to become powerful enough to beat. Generally average stats, when you vanquish it you can probably either hit it, or brick it, but not both, and almost exactly when it's a high kill, you can usually do both. Great feeling of progression.</div>
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Valley Cougars - There is something subtle about the stats that I don't want to spoil which makes these really interesting to fight. Back when they were created, they were possibly the only monster to use this trick well. Ground breaking.</div>
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Cave Cobras - Not ground breaking, but terrifying. I love this type of creature.</div>
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Stinging Beetles - The feraler that demands your attention, and teamwork, to take down. Very fun (sometimes aggravating).</div>
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Sasquatch - Boring, plentiful, rewarding creature. Too slow for my liking, and the stats aren't interesting to me, but always good to have some staple for an area.</div>
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Angry Mother Sasquatch - Boss monsters are the best.</div>
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On top of that, the creatures are all pretty close in level, but far enough that you get a great sense of progression as you get stronger (see Valley Panthers). I think the area was ahead of its time, and you can usually identify these creature archetypes (and the way they're spawned) in all the areas I've created. When I'm stumped and can't think of good stats for a creature, I still just take the valley panther and scale it up. I'm always happy with the result. And I've taken the idea of annoying feralers well beyond where it should ever go.</div>
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I think I've done my fair share of innovation, but the Valley is still a big source of inspiration. You really can't go wrong copying that formula.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-89257157572771934102011-11-19T00:08:00.000-08:002011-11-19T00:20:35.631-08:00Clandroid Informer<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWZ8vcoq2EGG0WvEiI6NQJTJgKg9czeYtVcqK4WvQfA2FyJDOqIhamDWg-IV3PP8KBoWvODFFNWtVnDBdcfrwTXvWEt3xXEEV6AwIVpEtmMKNDqfZzYrVjawWaaxj2d-ppiDPg24LPMw/s1600/announcelist.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 192px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWZ8vcoq2EGG0WvEiI6NQJTJgKg9czeYtVcqK4WvQfA2FyJDOqIhamDWg-IV3PP8KBoWvODFFNWtVnDBdcfrwTXvWEt3xXEEV6AwIVpEtmMKNDqfZzYrVjawWaaxj2d-ppiDPg24LPMw/s320/announcelist.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676618818590439250" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0LJ3BFbw7qF5De4cl_K25LrO83BT9pNy7KiXBP87IIEpfcP4GQrqahh93LwqK5JhXyNVPyQLGjy3c2v68dObON0-SwoRApfh56lZ2i1-Pi7DuDCYvG1GJ-tf0ZvsJiAXXaNlBMuGZ4c/s1600/stora.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 192px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0LJ3BFbw7qF5De4cl_K25LrO83BT9pNy7KiXBP87IIEpfcP4GQrqahh93LwqK5JhXyNVPyQLGjy3c2v68dObON0-SwoRApfh56lZ2i1-Pi7DuDCYvG1GJ-tf0ZvsJiAXXaNlBMuGZ4c/s320/stora.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676618733243258690" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-big2DXRH4uQlH_74BEbrYVpXfSpOjAPtvw0KgKeKZYBZwRmu0uXwLIkiRYFBGWEjv0Kvw3sleOSq3JK6yFbKu2Fy7-LBqPMQ-9c62DM0euMR49bLalVgotm0lEVhP4zzBXAe3oAmPpE/s1600/playerlist.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 192px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-big2DXRH4uQlH_74BEbrYVpXfSpOjAPtvw0KgKeKZYBZwRmu0uXwLIkiRYFBGWEjv0Kvw3sleOSq3JK6yFbKu2Fy7-LBqPMQ-9c62DM0euMR49bLalVgotm0lEVhP4zzBXAe3oAmPpE/s320/playerlist.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676618686442187378" /></a><br /><div>I decided to finish up a "Learn Android" project I started a year or so ago. It's basically just an Android version of the <a href="http://deltatao.com/clanlord/status/">Clan Lord Informer</a>. It pulls from an XML file periodically (sorry about your battery, I'm lazy!) and shows the current players and latest announcements. It can run in the background and notify you when your friends log in, and you can also set up groups and it will notify you when an entire group is online.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's got a few more little features, including random crashes that never happen when you've got a damned debugger hooked up. The three clanners that don't have iPhones might appreciate it. If anyone wants to test it out, let me know.</div><br /><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-88110936149358828072010-12-16T08:59:00.000-08:002010-12-16T11:07:17.634-08:00Carnivorous PoniesOnly brainstorming ideas for Clan Lord could make me consider how scary a carnivorous horse would be. Those things are Strong, give them a taste for human flesh and you've got yourself a nice horror movie. Almost as scary as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0779982/">this</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-11489400609738242162010-10-29T11:19:00.001-07:002010-10-29T11:25:23.275-07:00Team Fortress This SundayI just wanted to remind everyone that Yappy is hosting a GMs vs. Players Team Fortress Capture the Flag event this Sunday at 11:00am Pacific Time. Depending on turnout I'm anticipating Team GM will need a few volunteers; or we'll have to cheat even more than we're planning on.<br /><br />On a related note, Valve has obviously been watching Clan Lord Team Fortress for ideas to steal. The Scout in Clan Lord Team Fortress uses a slapping fish to fight, and a recent Team Fortress update introduced this new <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L361xugMmM">weapon</a>. What a blatant ripoff, someone should sue.<br /><br />Now, to steal Yappy's sign off, another random youtube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhJQp-q1Y1s">link</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-34936053867472998332010-09-27T18:07:00.001-07:002010-09-28T06:25:29.482-07:00And Pets Get Even More AwesomeBloodmages can cancel one of their abilities by saying a "magic word" to rise from the dead. The main reason for this was there just aren't many good triggers for abilities when you're fallen, since you can't use an item. Some talk on the bloodmage forum about the general idea (including Skirwan's idea to allow people to customize the commands, so cool!) got me to thinking about how a game with verbal based commands could be cool. Instead of typing /use fireball your character would just shout "Abra Cadabra!" (or Hadouken!) and your spell would be cast.<br /><br />Well, I just made the leap that this is the natural way to do pet commands. Probably make them customizable, too. Maybe you can train your pet with positive re-enforcement for certain words. ;) (This will almost certainly never happen, but cool all the same.) Regardless, even noncustomizable verbal commands are great. They eliminate the need for an extra item, and add flavor. If I were a good GM I'd leave it as a surprise, but it's your own fault for reading the blog and having it spoiled.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-82978380639595958192010-09-02T08:03:00.000-07:002010-09-02T08:33:08.697-07:00How To Make a Suggestion<span style="font-weight:bold;">Focus on the Problem, not your Solution</span><br />A suggestion is pretty useless if we don't know what the root problem you're trying to solve is. On top of that, sitting down and figuring out exactly what the problem is, and why it is a problem, really helps to define what the proper solution is.<br /><br />I'm also personally much more likely to respond to someone giving a concrete example of a situation which was just outright no fun. I can identify with it, think of how I'd feel the in the situation, and get annoyed by proxy enough to act.<br /><br />Granted, some of the coolest ideas are just that, cool ideas. No concrete problem that needs solving, just a fun new mechanic that adds interesting decisions to the game. So there are exceptions to this rule.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Avoid Definitive Statements</span><br />Words like "never" and "always" turn me away from suggestions almost instantly. If someone is exaggerating to make their point; I don't take them seriously.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Be Nice</span><br />I have delayed work on things before because of the way suggestions were worded, even when I agree with them. I've got lots of things to work on, and I'm going to work on the things that make nice, but frustrated, people happy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Be Persistent, but not Annoying</span><br />There is a fine line between persistence and annoyance.<br /><br />Multiple reports in a single update. Not useful, it can't have possibly been fixed by then.<br /><br />Bringing the same thing up over and over again in off topic posts. Not useful, makes me ignore the issue.<br /><br />*Just* bumping a thread every month? Questionable.<br /><br />Posting to a thread with another (unique) report of the same general issue every month, and a re-iteration of why it is unfun? Useful!<br /><br />Bug every update if a perceived issue still exists? Useful!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Realize Your Needs Are Personal</span><br />They don't apply to everyone. You don't speak for everyone. You can only speak for you. Embrace this, I'm more likely to respond to a personal appeal anyway. You aren't fooling me pretending to speak for the community.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Addendum:</span><br />I don't give a crap what the poll says.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-75943066489673132802010-07-01T05:02:00.000-07:002010-07-01T12:23:01.458-07:00Rain BetaPhew, finally got in the beta for a weather system I've been working on for a bit. I don't want to talk too much about it, but it is pretty neat, it is a simple simulation with some basic starting parameters and rules that it follows. I'm kinda hoping to give mystics some weather related tools, but for now really observant people might be able to predict some basic trends. Although it'd probably be a mistake to assume they might mirror reality in some way; I know nothing about meteorology.<br /><br />I've found a few typos already, but the main bug reports I could use are where the weather doesn't seem to make sense. Like you travelled straight west and it went from raining, to sunny, to raining (this is sometimes legitimate though, and in places like tanglewood or the marsh, unavoidable.) The most common error you'll run into is raining in doors, which for the most part is fixed, but in some places the designer might not have marked it correctly, or the indoors area is technically ALSO outdoors. We couldn't catch all of these, so I'll need to rely on bug reports. General feelings about weather there is too little or too much rain, and how long it should last are good, but make sure you give those a few weeks, as you might just be in a rainier or rainless trend for a bit.<br /><br />Weather only exists on Puddleby Island now, it takes about half an hour to add a given region, more considering I'll probably want some extra features to account for each islands unique characteristics. For example, I haven't decided how it should deal with the desert on Gungla, and it probably has to rain a lot more on Noth, and Iceton has some pretty unique weather patterns and a fragile snail ecosystem to consider.<br /><br />Edit: Oh, this is also another great example of art inspiring a feature. The great rain art we got for Lugubrion's keep let me realize just how cool it could look for the whole world. Now we just need some better light snow (currently it ranges somewhere between white-out and noreaster conditions) and some heavy rain graphics.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-35504196164853371552010-05-03T14:49:00.001-07:002010-05-03T15:06:02.255-07:00Artists Inspiring Game DesignSome of the coolest ideas I've had have been inspired by cool art in the image file. The very first example are the gargoyles scattered around Metzetli, I won't go into detail since they're kind of deep in and the surprise is the coolest part, but that idea wouldn't have come if the helpers working on the project hadn't found the image and proposed we use it. Another example, also on Metzetli, is the Hellebore. It, and the root, were sitting in the image file, but I had no idea where they had come from or what they were intended for. (Of course, Sunken Colonies from Starcraft have to be given some credit as well.) The latest example are the newly introduced leeches, again, I won't go into details since a lot of people haven't seen it yet, but it was originally intended to be included in Lily Pond 2. I said, "an image that neat deserves a new mechanic", and it eventually became what we've got today. Those three parts of Clan Lord just would not have existed if it wasn't for talented artists inspiring additional creativity. And this is just for images without suggestions, it doesn't include the numerous great ideas we've gotten from artists along with art for them. Artists have a lot of power in that way, they can say: "Awesome Art. Awesome Idea. Now you just do the easy coding, testing, and balancing part."<br /><br />In short, artists are awesome.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-57825314040147706272010-03-16T07:36:00.001-07:002010-03-16T07:37:14.261-07:00Bloodmage AddendumAlso: Why couldn't people have complained about their bloodblades BEFORE I finished work on the class? It would have made this so much easier!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-16396624540598024542010-03-16T07:08:00.000-07:002010-03-18T10:22:03.375-07:00Bloodmage brainstormingI've been listening to bloodmage complaints, and one is that you get ready for a big swing to take out a monster only to luck-whiff it and die a horrible death a bit later. My first thought was "Oh, just reduce luck misses on the bloodblade", but then you open it to potential abuse for people without training, and I also don't really see this being needed for high health focused bloodbladers. So I decided I'd decrease it when the blader was low health, which is great and solves the problem, but it isn't very noticeable and cool, and it leaves me wondering whether it should be an ability or just free. It is definitely useful, but the idea of paying a few ranks for something you can't show off and kind of feels like something you deserved all along is lame. It also generally only works if you're able to kill the monster with that hit, which led me to thinking "well what if we let you turn it on and off, and it let's you know if your next hit will kill the creature" (with some tweaks to damage variation). But removing variation COMPLETELY from the game is kind of silly, and besides it still doesn't allow for people to pull off damage over time attacks very well.<br /><br />I'm currently considering an ability that, when the bloodmage is low health, they get reduced luck misses and luck hits (not that the reduced luck hits should matter), and when they hit the creature it is "stunned" for a short time, probably just enough for the savvy blader to pull back and try to avoid being hit (this would probably have to be accompanied with some timeout so multiple mages couldn't keep something stunned indefinitely). I imagine it as a passive ability that is active all the time, but I'm still not sure of the cost in ranks. It also seriously intrudes on a rework of their crippling abilities I had planned which would grant extreme speed reduction on hit. Maybe I can work around that by introducing some passive element of crippling blows into this ability in addition to potential reworks of crippling blows in general.<br /><br />For other classes I'd have concerns about reducing variation like this, but by its nature the bloodmage is already an incredibly risky class, adding elements that a skillful player can use to avoid death generally doesn't run the risk of making the class less exciting and interesting to play.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-69439076026837689442009-11-23T17:45:00.000-08:002009-11-23T19:06:22.114-08:00Battle Healer (Putting the Spoils in SSPL)I've been getting kind of excited about a strange idea. Now, before anyone reading this gets too excited, I've been very busy, so this is more brainstorming for a distant future. So the idea: basically it is a new healing item that will come in moonstone, merc, and cad forms (no asklepian). <div><br /></div><div>It can heal players as normal, but the difference is it can be used on monsters. If used on a monster you "heal" them as normal, but instead of getting healed the monster builds up a healing "charge". After being healed for X seconds (or Y (where Y is less than X) seconds after the monster is not actively being healed by the healer), the monster will start getting healed by that charge, and the charge will reduce. When the monster is killed, the charge disperses, probably in the form of little globs that can be picked up for a chunk of health, exactly like blood from monsters is picked up for spirit.</div><div><br /></div><div>The healing will probably also have a small ramp up period. Starting out slowly and increasing over time as you continue healing the same monster. The exception being burst healing. This part will be very hard to implement.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously the healing will be more effective in some way. Maybe it takes less health away when it heals, more likely it would add additional "faustus" once it ramps up. Or maybe a combination of the two. I'm not at the balancing point yet. How many ranks it will cost, whether it will be capped, and all that is for later.</div><div><br /></div><div>The basic reasons for all the mechanics:</div><div>1) Healing monsters - I wanted a more battle-focused style to be viable. For those fighter-minded healers. Or healers who just want something different.</div><div>2) Monster starting to be healed after X seconds - Encourages faustus/bursting, and introduces decision making and risk. Forces the healer to consider which monster is likely to be targeted next.</div><div>3) Slow ramp up - More decision making, you need to choose the right monster. It can't be about to die, because you need some time to heal it. But it can't be too tough, otherwise you'll make it even more powerful. Unless you want to keep it alive so people can tag, of course.</div><div>4) Monster starting to consume healing from the charge Y (Y < X) seconds - More decision making. You have to pick a monster and stick to it.<br /></div><div>5)Healers being able to pick up their own blobs - Alternative self-heal option. Potentially very powerful. I need to be careful with this.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is how early brainstorming goes. It will be interesting to see what happens in the end, if it every gets implemented.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some questions I've asked myself, and the answers I'm leaning towards now:</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Can a healer be healed by their own globs?</div><div>A: Hell yes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Is this unfair for moonstoners, since they need to get up close and personal with the monsters and can't continually heal some monsters, like feralers?</div><div>A: Maybe there needs to be some adjustment for this, but keep in mind they're also closer and ready to pick up the globs when they come out. So if you're a rodding moonstoner (likely) then you're primed to pick up some bonus healing right away. Any consideration for moonstoning should be focused on making rodding interesting.</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Can I burst?</div><div>A: You betcha.</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Why different items?<br />A: Because in order to interact with monsters they have to be "sticky" when you bump a monster (except for the cad, since it can't burst.) You really don't want your prime moonstone to be sticky.</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Wouldn't it be cool if instead of healing normally it did some kind of weird charge-heal over time-splurt blobs when dead kind of thing for exiles like it does for monsters?<br />A: Maybe that can be worked on. If it could be balanced and interesting.</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Aren't players going to heal a vermine for like, an hour, and then use the healing globs to heal a PND.</div><div>A: We probably need limits based on the health of the creature, and fallens probably can't pick up the globs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Seriously, we're calling them globs?<br />A: Yes. Globs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Can this heal befriended creatures?</div><div>A: I have no idea.</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Can this heal friendly creatures?<br />A: Probably.</div><div><br /></div><div>Q: Does spirtus/rodnus count for the people picking up the blobs?<br />A: Probably not. (This would make it much harder to balance, especially if you can pick up your own droplets, but the healing will attempt to be more effective to counteract this. This means that this is generally better used to heal fighters faster, rather than healers. Which is actually kind of desirable for the goals I'm focusing on.)</div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-54822335704134868382009-09-09T18:01:00.001-07:002009-09-09T18:59:54.304-07:00I may play alone, but I always winHere is a screenshot of the test version of the new game type for Clan Lord Team Fortress that I've been working on. The end result isn't as ambitious as I originally planned, but it takes about 1/10 as much effort. The new game mode also includes an actual way for a team to win, resulting in a game reset. I'm contemplating using the feature in CTF, although I wouldn't be able to reset the scores at the moment, so that would still be a manual player action.<div><br /><img style="margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 302px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI9auv1R36DELB0ZV0Lapj1zMSXzyLIGOD32ej5xqUKodsurc-cMmxk3h7uelVz7NiNhINMS-it5ocmdd_suP4mPJ8XoB_a80y-fOhPREkzDs8f5MaYCaTPqe15uDm5_yBNCKIoS-gBmU/s320/slartywins.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379637710129380994" /><br /><div>I think the new mode won't be as varied or balanced as CTF was. A</div><div>few classes will probably tend to dominate in this new mode, and spirit regeneration will be practically irrelevant as I anticipate deaths will be frequent. Lighter, more mobility based classes are at a definite disadvantage on this map, but I hope they'll still be useful. I'll be very curious to see how Fengineers are used, and if they are useful, as it will be a lot harder to get set up, but potentially very rewarding. And there are lots of interesting places to try to set up a base. </div><div><br /></div><div>The map will definitely succeed in making CTF playable by smaller numbers of people which is the main intent. It should also create more constant action, although you'll end up spending a lot more time spawning, you'll spend less time waiting for people to attack your flag, or running to grab a flag, and a lot more time smacking people with fish.</div><div><br /></div><div>I still hope to finish my original plans, which use the same map, but a larger portion of it. It should support a more dynamic game and a little more strategy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Edit: Another nice side effect of this new mode is I finished my plans to make the Team Fortress code generic. Now area helpers could contribute new maps with ease, for both game modes if they felt like it. So we might see far more areas than we could possibly need in the future. I'm probably moving all Team Fortress areas to the playground in Puddleby. They aren't getting much play on Thieves' Island, and probably don't fit there thematically.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-4509454669651529882009-07-03T18:51:00.001-07:002009-07-03T18:54:59.661-07:00BOTW #4Crunch (don't worry, I'll continue to keep /bug reports anonymous) reports in the comments that due to the way he trained that any poisoning is fatal to him! Yet another thing wrong with poison, apparently. Things like this are good to know, since getting rid of falling as a cure is a goal, and I'm likely to overlook edge cases like that.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-50694427448567902622009-06-27T06:12:00.000-07:002009-06-27T06:23:02.877-07:00Darshak ExpansionsStandard disclaimer for this blog that is much more relevant since the work done on this item approaches zero, on my end at least: This might never happen, or it might be changed significantly when it comes.<div><br /></div><div>Ash is intended to see a few mini-expansions that add some quests and focus on a small "dungeon" expansion off the side of the main areas. Dungeons are linear or mostly linear sets of areas with an ultimate goal at the end. Bonus points for some new story element being added or an existing line pushed forward with each expansion.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also haven't done any serious tweaking or balancing of Ash since it came out, and that is overdue. Probably before any expansion since the amount of work involved in that is significantly lower.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-42120182423048333082009-06-11T19:23:00.000-07:002009-06-11T19:57:05.663-07:00BOTW #3: Creature ExperienceWe get a fair amount of bug reports about creature experience/difficulties, which is great! Getting experience right is really hard, especially at higher levels, and reports are a good way to look for potential problem areas. <div><br /></div><div>For example, there were some bugs about the new Ash ferals in general, particularly blight ferals due to their darkus. One intent of blight ferals was to reward people of that level who have moderate defense, but when I looked at the stats I noticed that luck hits were set to a pretty high level, which goes a long way to undermine that goal. I won't have that fixed this update, but it is on the list.<div><br /></div><div>However we also get a lot of reports I don't choose to act on, at least not right away. A lot of times something can seem really hard because a certain training style doesn't fit that particular creature. Or the group doesn't have the right mix to counter it. It can be really hard for one person (the designer included) to judge what the "right" experience level is. So the feedback from lots of different types really helps.</div><div><br /></div><div>While I'm on the topic I might as well repeat what I've said a few times. I tend to shoot for lower levels of experience when I initially design. The main reason for this is players get a lot less upset (in fact they usually don't even notice) when experience is tweaked up. But they get very annoyed when it is reduced. We can also get away with new areas being under-rewarding in terms of experience since the reward of exploring is still there. Everyone can tend to have their fun as long as things get adjusted in a prompt manner. I could do a lot better on the "prompt" part. </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-79586616603004348142009-06-01T16:07:00.000-07:002009-06-02T18:28:02.316-07:00Respia vs SespusI wanted to make a general post about the challenges of designing compelling and balanced healer abilities. But it became clear there were far too many elements to discuss. We can save those for another post. Instead I'll talk about one that has been a challenge for me when trying to design anything that isn't a "continuous" ability, and in general anything that breaks from the current healing formula to perform something really meaningful.<div><br /></div><div>Many people lament that abilities don't take enough advantage of sespus, but the problem is without some kind of cooldown system (which is another topic altogether) anything that uses spirit ends up being improved by respia as well as sespus. You end up with the same "problems" as our current system, regardless of how effective you make the ability. Note I haven't done the math for any of this so I'm at "well informed player" levels; take it with a grain of salt.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a result of this, most suggestions I hear (or come up with) that try to encourage sespus have at the very least a side effect of being a big buff to high respia healers. And in addition any idea that attempts to increase heal speed without including faustus training raises huge red flags, but that is probably a topic for another post. </div><div><br /></div><div>Just to summarize my opinions on healer abilities that I was going to write at length about. I generally agree that new abilities need to encourage trainers other than what the typical healers train, or at the very least not devalue them. That includes sespus. They should also open up new specialties and options for healers either tactically (on the battlefield) or in a training strategy sense. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is just a real challenge. One that most other games also face. I think the real solution will end up being branching away from strict "healing" as the only ability of every healer (which is how most other games approach it). But that has to be done very carefully. And it still doesn't change the respia/sespus debate.</div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-21523731040783259812009-05-28T15:01:00.001-07:002009-05-28T15:04:56.460-07:00BOTW #2<div>So apparently there is a bug that sometimes causes people to repeat what they last said when they start a morph. I ran into this in testing, made a change, and couldn't reproduce it. (Remember folks, make a reproducible test case before you "fix" the bug.) Unfortunately the bugs I'm getting don't really help me reproduce things. All I've got is that it sometimes happens. What I really need is a 100% reproducible example.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-35716950672618627282009-05-23T17:20:00.000-07:002010-07-30T11:50:11.221-07:00PoisonPoison isn't fun. The big problem with it is fighters are generally the ones that have the major defenses against poison, such as troilus and detha. One unlucky shot can mean a healer is poisoned for over an hour. And mystics? Forget it. The only thing that makes it bearable is that you can easily get rid of it by falling, but that isn't fun, just a nuisance. <div><br /></div><div>So how should poison work in my ideal world?</div><div><br /></div><div>1) It should reach full potency and reduce its effect much faster. Anything close to an hour duration is unacceptable for a "debuff" effect.</div><div><br /></div><div>2) It should affect all classes more or less equally.</div><div><br /></div><div>3) It should make things exciting rather than just be a hassle.</div><div><br /></div><div>The solution? Well I don't have it solidified yet. But in terms how how to reach all points</div><div><br /></div><div>1) This is just stat tweaking. Speed things way up. Preferably have it reach full potency quickly, stick there for a little while, and then rapidly dwindle. And I'd need to change the effect of potions so they're still useful.</div><div><br /></div><div>2) There are a few ways to do this, but I don't want to reveal how the current system works. But I've considered having Awaria help out on the healer side. As well as generally tweaking the formula so it is more fair to all classes.</div><div><br /></div><div>3) #1 already achieves this to some degree. The idea is the effect should be really worrisome during one fight, but after that fight is over you'll probably be fine. Potions might need to be reworked to provide resistance since using a potion in the middle of a fight definitely counts as a hassle.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'd also like to remove falling as an option for getting rid of poison, but hopefully with the changes you wouldn't usually want to fall. I just don't think you should be rewarded for falling. When phasing in the new system I might keep the falling behavior until everything gets set and remove it when I'm sure the system won't make poison unbearable. </div><div><br /></div><div>I plan to introduce poison resistance bonuses to people who have trained to make antivenoms. This doesn't fit any specific poison related goals, but it is something I generally like to do with trade skills. Just to give them some real combat related effectiveness to encourage real people to train them.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-54517049707293383572009-05-17T10:27:00.000-07:002009-05-23T21:10:24.222-07:00Bug of the Week #1<div>Someone reports that poisoning seems a lot more common. That comes from the changes mentioned below that I introduced when the Ash Island expansion was released that changed poison snakes to correctly identify when they've hit someone. A lot of changes were made a few months back that went in the other direction, where snakes were poisoning whenever they swung at a player regardless in certain situations. As a result of all the changes poison might be a bit more prevalent overall.</div><div><br /></div><div>Although...<br /><div><div><br /></div><div>Runnerup bug: There was a bug that a creature on Ash Island wasn't working as intended anymore. It was a little muddled so I didn't quite understand the problem, but brief testing shows something is indeed wrong although not necessarily what the bug thought was wrong. Both snakes and these creatures use the same elements of the script which changed to increase poisonings, so it is possible there is something else going on. Although the bug for the creature on Ash seems to be that the effect isn't triggering properly, not that it is triggering too much.</div><div><br /></div><div>Update: The runner-up bug is fixed now. It has nothing to do with my changes, it was in an entirely different script. As far as the more frequent poisoning, maybe some areas need to be tweaked. Whenever I fix long standing bugs I have to realize that all the areas designed in the past 5 years were tweaked and balanced based on that buggy behavior, so I'll keep on eye on it. Although hopefully I can get the energy together to rework poison, which requires a rebalance of all areas with poison anyway.</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-46550265079598909012009-05-11T08:52:00.001-07:002009-05-11T08:55:01.361-07:00To DoAny posts with a "todo" tag are generally notes to myself. Things I've thought of doing, but don't have the time or inclination to do. They let me get my thoughts down so I don't forget, and also give readers an idea of what I've been thinking of so they can say complain about theoretical changes as well as actual ones. (When I have readers, that is. You have to use google to find me now.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-65671835145261087052009-05-11T08:27:00.000-07:002009-05-17T09:41:54.752-07:00Random Ranger Changes<div>1) Last Hits</div><div><br /></div>I've been going through the code using some new tools we got a while back to detect combat actions (like "swung" "swung and missed") to fix up a lot of older code that used hacks and tricks to find the same information. Stuff like poisonous snakes and amedons are a lot more likely to actually poison you/set you on fire when they should because of the fixes. (It goes both ways, there were some false triggers as well as cases that didn't get caught.) It occurs to me that rangers probably need the same overhaul for their last hit detection. Right now I believe if two people hit a creature at the same time the chance of the ranger getting the last hit is 50/50. And I don't know what happens if Bloodmage damage over time spells kill a creature when a ranger was the last one to hit it. I think the ranger gets it, even if they hit it 15 seconds ago, but I'm not entirely sure. <div><br /></div><div>So they're long overdue for a refactor that tries to assure that if they hit the creature on the same frame that the creature died, they get the last hit. I don't know how easy this is as there still might be some tricky guesswork and timing issues involved even with the new tools.<div><br /></div><div>2) Growling</div><div><br /></div><div>Rangers should "growl" when in a shape changed form. It gives them a special speech bubble, the text log shows up as "growls" instead of "says", and it sometimes makes a growling sound. This is probably a trivial change.</div><div><br /></div><div>3) Tracking</div><div><br /></div><div>Tracking could probably be improved in a few ways, but the most important is giving an actual reason for training to a longer duration. Some possible improvements include automatically switching to another monster of the same type if the monster you are tracking dies and/or automatically finding a new target whenever you or the monster switches snells. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-67376047684934889932009-05-11T08:17:00.000-07:002009-05-11T08:51:51.886-07:00Fighter TestsWhen I took on Fighter Tests I intended to design 7th-10th circle because that was the minimum requirement to give everyone something to strive for. I thought it would be easy, after all you just have to tweak a few scripts and come up with 4 sets of 4 monsters from an already limited selection. It turns out that balanced tests at the correct difficulty level for a good progression are incredibly hard to design and the whole process took many hours more than I predicted. <div><br /></div><div>I also think of circle tests as largely useless since they're incapable of fairly judging people. At best they just feel unfair, at worst they make people change their training styles to suit the test. So it is a lot of work for something that, even if done perfectly, is going to be flawed. It was pretty clear that 9th and 10th would not only be harder (since there were fewer monsters to choose from) but also affect fewer people, so I put those on hold until we had more monsters at that level. We have a lot more now. If I had been smart I'd have been designing the test while I designed the monsters so that I could design the perfect monsters for the test, put them in the world, then just release the test. But I'm not that smart. 9th and 10th circle tests are still just one of a few vague projects that I should do but don't really feel a motivation to finish. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-961404875771339827.post-91351447843531492562009-05-05T22:04:00.000-07:002009-05-05T22:16:12.473-07:00SecrecyI'm mixed on Clan Lord's secrecy "policy". <div><br /></div><div>On one hand, surprise is a lot of fun. Knowing that something is coming tends to build up expectations which at best can be met. And often they aren't, even if what came is really neat. It could also reduce the effectiveness of plot elements. For example, if I announced there was a new healing item and I start some big story to introduce it, people will already know the end result. It makes things a lot less exciting. <div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, anticipation can be fun too, and communication about development is a good way to gauge interest and take feedback from the community. Also, if I'm excited to tell you about an ability, it is probably something you're going to like. Sharing is a good way to encourage me to develop for the community, instead of just for myself.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0