MO House of Commons Chat on Thursday 14 OCT

Rohn

Just a reminder, this Thursday (14 OCT) SV will be having the regularly scheduled HoC chat on IRC for anyone that wants to participate.

Should be a pretty good one given its proximity to the new build, and I'm sure a lot of discussion will ensue about the future direction of the game.

Several people are already discussing it on the official forum here: http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/54209-house-commons-thursday.html

The IRC info can be found here: http://www.mortalonline.com/ircpage

Rohn

Part One of today's House of Commons chat:

<Maerlyn> Lets start with the questions







<Maerlyn> Is it important for starvault to make this game more accessible to new players, for instance, with beginner tutorial videos for players? Have you guys thought more about the option of making low grade gear accessible through vendors for cheap to new players? Is that maybe planned for after there are more armors?



<HenrikNystrom> It is important yes, and right now the game is not very accessible to new players compared to most other mmos.



<HenrikNystrom> What we are working on atm is a short "tutorial" guide npc for new players, that can be used in all start locations, those npcs will guide a new player into a direction he is interested in, also a hint on how you can earn some money to start your journey.



<HenrikNystrom> And just like you said, we have also planned to add some more "generic" gear on npcs to sell to players, so its easier for a new player to at least get some basic gear, but if he want something good or more specific, you still need to interact with other players.







<Maerlyn> Will guild tabards get a much better look soon, instead of the poncho an actual tabard ?



<HenrikNystrom> We planned to add our updated player texture system within this build, but was not able to finish that area in time. When we finish this area we will be able to add higher res textures and possible much better visual look on all armor parts, including tabards and clothings.



<HenrikNystrom> We are going to go through our coming dev plan in the next week, and try to update under dev section to keep it up to date now since we have the new build in place



<HenrikNystrom> You will most likely see player texture package on that list.







<Maerlyn> Will we see more depth to the crafting system, and will there be a point to other metals, like Bron, Messing, and Pigiron?



<HenrikNystrom> Yes, all crafting in the game will get an update most likely now when we got flash in the build and it works like a charm.



<HenrikNystrom> This also means Mats can now utilize some of our thoughts on minigames etc for areas such as crafting.



<HenrikNystrom> there are of course good and bad resources in MO, but the goal when we created the materials was to put at least one reason and effective meaning behind each resource



<HenrikNystrom> For instance one material may be weaker than another when it comes to crafting a sword, but again it could be much cheaper so people would afford loosing them in war. Alittle bit like in Eve online, you can compete on tech 1 weapons, but veterans prefer tech 2 or 3 weapons, but those are muuch more expensive than tech 1, that still works on the battle field.



<HenrikNystrom> We are still balancing our materials and weapon parts as you have experienced since the start. but some are to be weaker than others by design.







<Maerlyn> Will you be checking the house pricing and costs so it is easier for people to build functional towns and villages?



<HenrikNystrom> yes, we actually lowered the lvl 1 tier house plans in this build, to make it easier for people to build houses, it would only benefit everyone as territory owner will most likely want to see more players living in his area and paying taxes to him



<HenrikNystrom> We are also going to add an even smaller and cheaper house that will be easier to construct as well.







<Maerlyn> I feel that the pre-made cities like Fab or Meduli are keeping us in the stone age. When will we see things like storage keepers just like in towns near keeps/player cities to get us off on our own more?



<HenrikNystrom> We have only taken one basic step when it comes to player towns/cities. We have major plans to expand this area with more functions and buildings that will give the option to the players to be set on their own, set their own laws and security in cities.



<HenrikNystrom> But this takes some time because it may be critical changes that affects a large amount of our player base. But it will expand for sure.







<Maerlyn> Are we going to see more usefull stuff in southern Nave? All the "good" stuff is in the north, Greater Naturouse, Blast furnace, Most of the Gabore, Tephra, Risars, Molvas, red towns...



<HenrikNystrom> Yes, the world lack a few interest points, dungeons and resources. You will see some addition in the coming patch when it comes to resources and creatures. Now that we got Navmesh in place we will also have a "monster" package, you may have noticed we dont have to many "cool" monsterious creatures in the game so far.



<HenrikNystrom> We did not want to spoil our "cool" creatures with the lack of navmesh and proper AI behaviours



<HenrikNystrom> We will also be able to use our dungeons and add dungeons now. Hopefully it shouldnt take to much time now since we got the core in place, we simply have to prioritize content.







<Maerlyn> When will alchemy be available and what will it include?



<HenrikNystrom> alchemy is a "magic" profession and it includes the making of different potions, such as poisoning, healing, cure, explosion potions.



<HenrikNystrom> It is on our upcoming development list, an update to this list should hint an idea when its about to get in the game.







<Maerlyn> When do they plan on adding torches and lights to houses and to keeps?



<HenrikNystrom> Eventually, it has not been high on the prio list so far.







<Maerlyn> Will there be Minigames in Taverns for example, that let you play games versus other players (chess, dice) anytime soon?



<HenrikNystrom> Yes there will be for sure, like we said before, flash let us do this now. You can see our library window in game in this build that uses flash. Its 10 times faster than our UE GUI, and it gives us no restrictions whatsoever. So again its about our prio list. We may gonna need your help in a few points on our prio list.



<HenrikNystrom> As you can see, it aint easy to select what should be on our prio list first.







<Maerlyn> or the past few weeks ive been scared to use donkeys for fear of having them fall through the floor carrying all my valubles as they have had serious problems with such things... can i now use a donkey with the confidence my stuff isnt going to fall into oblivion? This would really help us gatherers!



<HenrikNystrom> Im not 100% up to date to all our previous and current bugs. And a lot of our old bugs is now gone with the new build. So I cant answer this one for sure. Best way would be to try it out without anything to valuable at first if our testers havnt confirmed this bug







<Maerlyn> Now that the epic patch is here, How long will it take approx to implent the Epic Creature?



<HenrikNystrom> We wont say if, how or when we are adding an Epic creature in Nave. But trust me, you will notice when it happens.







<Maerlyn> Are you going to put sheath for swords and harness for axes etc.. ?



<HenrikNystrom> Im not sure actually.







<Maerlyn> With flash enabled, are there plans to allow for customizing where each UI/HUD part is on the screen? Any plans to support dual/triple monitor support for newer ATI/NVidia graphics cards (with proper aspect ratios)?



<HenrikNystrom> We are totaly reworking all our GUI, we started with the library, as it was a mess to use, and new players was totaly lost in this interface.



<HenrikNystrom> When it comes to different ratios and multiple screen support we are going to add a few settings that is allowed for the players to use. But it's to early to go into details in that area atm.







<Maerlyn> Is there any chance of seeing an npc door guard system for palisade gates implemented?



<HenrikNystrom> We have got some feedback about that question a few times now. It is indeed an easier way for guilds to use access without risking keys etc, but again it also takes away that area of game play. But if this is what the majority wants it shouldnt be a problem to add.







<Maerlyn> What will be the next changes and additions to magic?? Is there a school coming out soon?? Or will there be a big magic patch in which a bunch are introduced? Spiritism additions??



<HenrikNystrom> I cant say when our major magic changes/new school is coming into the game, but it is on our prio list, Its been a feature that a lot of ppl want.

 

http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/54376-house-commons-chat-log-oct-14th-part-1-a.html#post1036668

Rohn

Part 2:

<Maerlyn> Will we see certain "weak" stats like psy and int buffed to make them more desirable for melee and archers? Right now there are a few stats that are much more powerful than other stats (dex/con for everyone, str for archers) and it is severely restricting the variety of race/age combos we see.



<HenrikNystrom> Yes, a long with a lot more skills and some more balancing in magic and thievery int and psy will get more important that it is today. We have made major changes in how Psy calculates vs magic damage, low psy today vs a mage will really hurt you. Its not random but static increase protection.







<Maerlyn> Can you explain more about what you ment before with that the looting will become more rewarding. Will we be able to loot weapons and armor? Will we be able to loot the weapon from an orc if he holds it. It should be able to be done without making crafters obsolete. This to make exploring more rewarding.



<HenrikNystrom> You will always be dependent of other players when it comes to good gear. But loot will be expanded in the near future because of new dungeons and creatures that are much more challenging. We did not want to put good loot on bugged easy exploitable creatures.



<HenrikNystrom> There will be rewards for those who goes deep into dungeons or kill harder mobs. There will be a chanse to find good loot that could be close to or in some cases even better than crafter gear. But those wont be many, so its a huge risk to use it on the fields.







<Maerlyn> will you can contract npc-guards to keeps and player villages(soon)?



<HenrikNystrom> As soon as we can controll our AI better we will expand areas such as guards.







<Maerlyn> Will there be alcohol and drugs (or potions) to buy from taverns that cause visual effects and inhibit your movement, etc.?



<HenrikNystrom> yes, potions, drugs, magic and alchohol will be in the game, and some of them will affect your vision and attributes.







<Maerlyn> When will we see some fun "fluff" added such as making noncombat related items such as chairs tables tapestries and the likes for houses and castles? Will we have inside lighting too?



<HenrikNystrom> we now have the tools to expand features inhouses and also visual aspects of the game. All we need is time and choose what areas to focus on at first. It's a constant battle for us to choose the areas between pvp, pve, social etc. We try to take alittle bit on all areas, as we do have a wide interest in the community.







<Maerlyn> Will the ability to reverse engineer gear ever be viable or the ability to "salvage" looted items for raw components make it in ever?



<HenrikNystrom> Yes, that is already planned and designed in crafting. We have simply not been able to create the tools for it, but with flash we can







<Maerlyn> when will catapults and other siege weapons move/aim better?



<HenrikNystrom> We were suposed to add movement and better aiming on siege weapons, we even built most of it, but then the new build within the network solution arrived which we priotized because it was more important as it solvs critical issues we have had.



<HenrikNystrom> So it should come in one of our next patches.







<Maerlyn> as a slag hauler i tend to end up with alot of stacks of refinable items that take up half my storage, will the stack system that we have today be removed for a more slag hauler friendly 1000+ or more stacks?



<HenrikNystrom> yes, we will add support for stacks greater than 1000.







<Maerlyn> Will there be any content for solo players/small groups and if yes, when? Such as treasures/hidden secrets, possible way to impact PvP(guerilla style), ect? Since atm it feels that the game is to guild based.



<HenrikNystrom> Yes, navmesh bring us better ai, which bring us dungeons more interesting pve, fishing is for instance the key to treasures both in the form of fishing things up from the lake/sea, or if you are lucky you may even find a sos bottle that may hold a map to a treasure



<HenrikNystrom> Dungeons will also contain secret items/information for players to discover and decode.







<Maerlyn> When can we expect to see the temperature system ingame or at the very least more info about it?



<HenrikNystrom> Im not sure when, the new build really shaked our current feature plan. So we will know this better sometime next week.







<HenrikNystrom> But we do have design ready for this system, where it gets more important to use the right gear in the right enviroment to be efficient. also your pets/mounts will be affected by this. so you do want to think twice when taking your joton horse into warm areas for instance.







<Maerlyn> what about racial traits? we can read about poor vision and color vision in night for Thursars, or nightvision and light sensivity for Huergars and so on... any future plan?



<HenrikNystrom> We have gone back and forth when it comes to racial traits. When it comes to balance the races. We do have some interesting race traits that we would like to add to the game, but I think we need more time before we will add them because of balance and that each race will get something useful/interesting enough.







<Maerlyn> Are there any plans for jewelry like rings or amulets? Also social clothing.



<HenrikNystrom> yes, lots of plans actually. Enchantment is also planned for. But we dont want to make it to "much" when it comes to pvp competetive. as we said from the start, we want it to be player skills and not gear skills only. But enchantment could benefit pve areas as well.







<Maerlyn> People keep asking questions about taverns, when will we see taverns?



<HenrikNystrom> We do want to add taverns as soon as we can, but we also want something to do in taverns, such as hosting minigames and being able to sit around tables etc. so when we have some of those things you will see taverns.







<Maerlyn> Although the new Nav Mesh is in players are reporting Mobs are still unresponsive at times. Is this something that will get fixed soon?



<HenrikNystrom> We have just got navmesh into the world and using our AI on it. It was a huge task to get it working, we have had little time configuring and tweaking it. But it will get better for sure.







<Maerlyn> Will there be different skins available for the existing houses in Nave so that we can update them and make it look at little more different area to area?



<HenrikNystrom> We are not 100% sure of what kind of overhead we will have with our textures after we are done with all texture optimization. So it gives us only a few options so far. We may be stricted to a few set of different texture models, but being able to use a lot more different mesh types.



<HenrikNystrom> Other continent will most likely be able to support different texture types as well however.



<HenrikNystrom> But I think most people will enjoy different mesh types even with similar textures on most similar types.



<HenrikNystrom> Players takes the biggest area when it comes to using textures in the game. We want to put most "resources" on the players to let players look unique.



<HenrikNystrom> But there will be at least a few more house types in Myrland.



<HenrikNystrom> And modules







<Maerlyn> Can we expect weekly patches, what is your planned timetable to release patches and content updates?



<HenrikNystrom> On monday we will sit down, and hopefully breath for a moment, then we will plan our coming schedule and patches,. we will also look over our procedure of deploying the patches



<HenrikNystrom> We dislike the issues with our patches as much as you do and want to avoid those issues as much as possible



<HenrikNystrom> It takes an insane amount of energy on the team as we litteraly work nonstop for days when going into problems.



<HenrikNystrom> We will try to use a better strategy and go slow but stedy as soon as we are stable. We will try to utilize our test server and plan our coming patches carefully



<HenrikNystrom> The same time we do want to share the information and show what we have planned for, as long as we can do that in a way without dissapointing the community to much.



<HenrikNystrom> But you will be able to follow the progress on our under dev section.



<HenrikNystrom> And we will try to continue to communicate with you as much as we can.







<Maerlyn> Ok, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes the House of Commons chat.



<HenrikNystrom> I think that was all for today, thank you all!



<Maerlyn> Thank you all for being here and for your interesting questions.



<Maerlyn> Enjoy the patch and see you on in the game









The next House of Commons chat will be held on November 11th, 8pm GMT+1

 

http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/54377-house-commons-chat-log-oct-14th-part-2-a.html#post1036669

username509

I love how the devs promise us features and then deliver them.  It's awesome!

If development continues at the same breakneck speed as it has been I can really see this game having a following even larger than Eve.