Keith and I are taking a break from brainstorming to power-code for a week.

[x4000]

Just as an FYI.

We've had an enormous amount of feedback in the last week or so in the brainstorming subforum, but now a lot of that has reached the closest thing we can hope for to consensus at this stage of the game.  Now we need to actually get a lot of stuff added in so that it can be actually playtested rather than just evaluated on paper, and I'm sure there will be more refinements and ideas even after that point.

So what's on the list between now and hopefully 7 days from now?

* The multiplayer sync model for monsters that people really wanted.

* Continents, and travel by boat.

* Internal character/monster stats math redo and rebalancement (the rebalancement will be ongoing, but the first pass will be an improvement at least).

* The basic missions framework, and the first 4-5 types of missions.  This has evolved some from what was discussed in the brainstorming thread, but we think you'll like the changes a lot based on your comments in the thread.

* EXP is actually going to stay after all, but you'll only get it from completing missions.

* Spell scrolls become spellgems, outfitter crafting goes away in favor of finding those as loot.

* The strategic interface goes away, as do strategic turns.  The citybuilding interface becomes read-only and the AI plays it instead of you doing so.

* Tiers go away, and the revised model #2 is getting implemented in exchange for that.  New crafting interface goes along with this.

* Various things like gem veins, rare commodities, and rampaging monsters get tied into the missions system.

* The new health and mana systems.

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

What's on our list for sometime shortly after that?

* More multiplayer refinement.

* Crests and spellshaping gems, not as craftable objects but as elite loot you can find.

* More types of missions, both for helping yourself and helping your civilization.  Also tying wind shelters, NPC rescue, vortex pylons, and consciousness nodes into the mission system.

* Better uses for consciousness shards in the new system, such that you can influence NPC actions (and possibly even mission composition), or some other ideas along those lines.

* Possibly some changes to the warp mechanics, although missions areas will already be disallowing warp which is a big step toward what a lot of players were looking for.

* Probably doing more with permadeath mechanics, although the new health system inherently has at least a bit of that sort of flavor to it.

* More monsters and spells, and in particular also redefining a number of the monsters so that they make more sense in multiplayer with the new sync model.  Some, like shadow bats, will be way too easy in the interim.

* Lots of new environmental hazards for players to have to avoid, and particularly having those differ by region.


And so on.  This is basically AVWW Beta 2.0 in a lot of respects, as it's really redefining the game on top of what was already a solid engine.  Please see brainstorming threads for details, but in the meantime Keith and I are going to be cooling it there for at least a week simply because it's difficult to brainstorm too heavily while also implementing.  So at the moment we're going to enter a hardcore implementation phase. 

Cheers!

[mrhanman]

I feel like I'm watching Extreme Home Makeover and the family is about to go to Disneyland for a week!

[x4000]

 

[zebramatt]

Good grief!

Feel free, you know, to release anything that's done sooner than a week's time, you know, piecemeal like 

[x4000]

Feel free, you know, to release anything that's done sooner than a week's time, you know, piecemeal like 

Oops, should have been more clear -- yeah, we're definitely planning on releasing it piecemeal.  We've got our order of implementation worked out so that the worst thing that should happen is that the game will become too easy for a bit, particularly in multiplayer, partway through that process.  There's going to be updates every couple of days, though, depending on exactly when we have stable builds that we're comfortable pushing out.

[zebramatt]

So first one on Monday?

Or...  Friday?

[x4000]

Well, we'd thought about doing the first one tonight, but I don't think that will be quite feasible.  So most likely the first one will be tomorrow morning.

[zebramatt]

Oh, you guys!

[x4000]

The planning took as long as the implementation is likely to, for these!

[Hearteater]

Well, we'd thought about doing the first one tonight, but I don't think that will be quite feasible.  So most likely the first one will be tomorrow morning.

Geez, feel free to breath a few times between patches!

[x4000]

I'm taking this evening off, which is why getting the first patch out tonight is infeasible.

[konfuzed]

Your work ethic is inspiring. I think the game ultimately needs more unique "stuff" to find (hidden locations, secrets, rare materials/items) to motivate me to make a huge time investment, but the changes you're making all sound like great progress.

[Dizzard]

I have a question about continents, for people who are already playing a world will the area that is already unlocked become it's own continent? (and all the black space around it becomes the surrounding sea)

As for our settlements, we'll still be able to name settlements/villagers right? I don't think I could stand seeing a npc walking around with a name I couldn't pronounce. D: I won't so much miss the settlement building interface although I hope we may still have some ability to sway how settlements progress through missions. Sort of like an indirect influence.

[keith.lamothe]

I have a question about continents, for people who are already playing a world will the area that is already unlocked become it's own continent? (and all the black space around it becomes the surrounding sea)

Correct.  If your world doesn't have a full continent's worth of regions (i.e. up to level 25) it will go ahead and generate those, and either way after that it just calls all the existing stuff continent 1.  We wouldn't want old world files to be incontinent.

As for our settlements, we'll still be able to name settlements/villagers right? I don't think I could stand seeing a npc walking around with a name I couldn't pronounce.

That's a good point, I should leave those parts of the settlement interface active.

[TechSY730]

* The strategic interface goes away, as do strategic turns.  The citybuilding interface becomes read-only and the AI plays it instead of you doing so.

Um, I'm not so sure how I feel about that. I knew that something had to be done to more smoothly integrate the two parts of the game, especially how both parts really had little bearing on each other and made it feel like two games clumsily glued together. But it seems that removing the part entirely out of your hands seems a bit much.

Is there another posting somewhere that had the discussion and rational leading up to this decision. I'd like to read it.
Also, why not a compromise? Say, for example, a pretty decent AI could run things while you're away, but you can have some limited control if you decide to take time and start using the interface.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, there are multiplayer considerations here, which why I can see why an "out of your hands" approach would be appealing, as then there is no synchronisation to bother with, as it only changes states on the server outside of human interaction. But still, it seems that a less "take part of the game away" approach could be used.

* Tiers go away, and the revised model #2 is getting implemented in exchange for that.  New crafting interface goes along with this.

What is revised model #2? Is it buried in another post somewhere?

In any case, you guys are crazy for rearchitectecting like half the game design and still try to keep a frequent update schedule. Keep up the good work.