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Post by Aez on Dec 13, 2015 22:03:14 GMT
This is your friendly developer staff. We just wanted to you to know that we have made the reckless decision to open ourselves to fielding your questions. We're gonna regret this, it'll be fantastic.
We'd love to be more open about our process, especially as the module revamp continues apace. So, here's some more info about how we do things.
Tweek
Head Developer
Backend Software Engineer at a retail company
Python, data mining, cloud frameworks
Old Dark Hour admin and dev
GM and dev at Antiworld
Aez
Developer
Product Engineer at a financial tech company
Javascript, data analysis, product research, agile coach
Volunteer CS teacher for high schoolers
Admin, GM, and dev at Antiworld
Wish
Builder
Burden on Society
Area Building, Item Creation, NWNTX Loader (aka Aurora Crash-set)
Builder for: Old Dark Hour, Isles of Purgatory (Sinfar), The Dreaded Lands (Sinfar), and a handful of dead or forgotten projects
Crust
Developer
Self-proclaimed l337 haXX0r
"Real people work"
doesn't play, just took an interest in nwnx for Linux
We have pulled out all the scripts from the module and work on them independently. We're working on extending nss compilers and creating a robust process around working on the module code remotely. We're working on integrating nwnx with the system and plan to have most of the server information run from the database.
We develop our systems extensively on paper and prove it out using standalone mods and scripts. At this point, we integrate the system into the module, commission the items necessary and start extensive testing.
Current focus:
Class Features
Class Balance
If you have any questions about any of the stuff we're current working on or anything else, please let us know. In particular, this is a great place for questions about the future of the module and what is coming next.
So, this Q&A is open. We're dreading your questions.
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Post by Tweek on Dec 16, 2015 20:20:49 GMT
I'll get this kicked off! I've heard talk about an enchanting system. Will that play off the new profession system mechanics or is this something separate? Heeeere we go. This idea is still in its infancy but yes, we want to introduce a custom item enchanting systems that is available exclusively to focused sorcerers and wizards. This means that these casters can add new properties to existing gear.
To start: what do I mean by a focused caster?
We want this system to be exclusive to those who are investing heavily into arcane classes. It's not something we want someone with a dip wizard level to have access to. Casters struggle on zombie survivals and this is one of the ways that we want them to have value both to themselves and to the rest of the survivor community. So how do we define this? The system will ignore your first multiclass level. Once that is ignored, the remainder of your class level split must be at least 80% sorcerer or wizard. Furthermore, you must not have more than one multiclass type. Some examples, to explain myself: 1 Wizard/1 Rogue can use this system. 3 Wizard/1 Rogue can use this system. 6 Wizard/2 Rogue can use this system. 3 Wizard/2 Rogue cannot. 6 Wizard/1 Rogue/1 Fighter cannot. But Tweek, this is dumb - why can a 1 Wizard/1 Rogue use this system but a 3 Wizard/2 Rogue can't? It's not like I unlearned things.Our rationale is thus: enchanting things takes a great deal more continued practice than just casting spells. It's making your spells permanent, and infusing them into objects in ways that are outside the norm of casting them. It's sort of like having a second language - sure, you can learn it and have it mastered, but if you don't use the language again for ten years you lose a ton of it. Moving on: I want to enchant something!Your mage character will need to use a Catalyst item to enchant any equipment. This is where professions (the Alchemist, in particular) will come into play. Characters will find Catalyst Shards while adventuring around. My primary goal with brainstorming this system was to make it un-grindable. You can't spend hours searching at a search spot to find these things. Instead, there's a very small chance that you'll find one anywhere and everywhere while you're out and about. Your character will be made aware that there's a strong magical presence nearby, and will have to hunt to find it. I won't get into too much detail here but needless to say you won't be able to tab-spam to highlight it. Catalyst Shards must be brought to an Alchemist so that the Alchemist can refine them into a Catalyst. Once you have a Catalyst, you can cast your enchanting spell on an item to be enchanted and it will consume the Catalyst to enchant the item! Woohoo! We don't quite have a table of spells-to-enchantment-bonuses table worked out but we will certainly be keeping you posted. Items will be restricted to one enchanted property each, in the very least. We are still working on some of the details. |
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Post by Aez on Dec 23, 2015 18:23:14 GMT
In relation to PP's removal and excerpted from the Skype chat:
Our issue with PP is that as it was coded by Bioware, it is a very broken mechanic. A PP character is very unlikely to be caught because of the rarity of spot among other characters. Moreover, PP is capable of stealing a diverse list of items of immense value and can be used repeatedly with little repercussion. This is neither realistic, nor is it kind to other players. As per rule #2, it is not a consensual roleplay action, yet it has significant repercussions to the character being PPed. Therefore, it's unproductive more than it is productive.
If we had a stronger system of factions and allowances for characters that don't fit in among the general survivor population, this could be resolved. However, currently the module design, DM events, and scripting changes are very focused on the survivor factions' PvE experience. We've got lots to do in that regard, so we'd rather focus on those issues. Later down the line, we can look into more opportunities for characters on unfriendly terms with the survivors.
In light of this focus, we're working on PvE solutions for the PP skill. This would allow PP to be used on zombie enemies - perhaps for some very interesting results. We will post more once we've got this solution more technically fleshed out.
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NecroDude
Fresh Survivor
Need More Time For Gaming, Work IS KILLING ME
Posts: 20 
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Post by NecroDude on Dec 24, 2015 20:43:30 GMT
Is it true invisibility is getting nerfed? I understand its a bit OP for allowing you to travel completely safely through any horde of zombies for a decent duration, but for any spellcaster invisibility kind of helps them survive. Yeah nerfing it will still allow them to use it in emergencies, but it won't have the same effect, especially if your bottled in by zombies and cant just run through them, you end up having to wait for them to move around enough themselves for you to be able to escape, and if it was short duration, it wouldn't do you any good in these situations. I understand no one wants some caster just invis'ing his whole party and just traveling like its nobodies business, but if it is to be nerfed then i suggest to solve that: make invisibility caster only, solves any ways of abusing it to easy mode a party, and at the same time still leaves the spell a valuable tool for any spellcaster who gets high enough to use it.
Some people might be like "No! not caster only! that's not cool", but honestly if its a very short duration, then no caster is going to cast that on another person, because their likely in the same situation of "getting screwed", and will only have time to cast it on themselves and escape before the spell wears out. Sorry if i'm rambling, but invisibility has always been great as it is. I'd suggest if this is not already a thing, that scavenging at all breaks invisibility, and again the caster only limitation would leave it valuable, but not easily used to abuse the crap out of its use.
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Post by ghost4life on Dec 25, 2015 0:49:40 GMT
The thing about invisibility is that a person can cast invisibility and run half way across the server before the duration wears off. The nerf will make it an emergency get away. The spell duration is way too long and needs some serious reworking. Our other developers will be able to shed more light on exactly how it will be changed, but since the spell requires a 3rd level caster class, it won't be terrible.
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Post by Tweek on Jan 1, 2016 19:17:09 GMT
Sorry for the massive delay in replying here, there's been a lot going on.
Yes, the intention is to move forward with invisibility duration nerfs. The three classes who are affected by it are going to be compensated. We don't feel that making it self-cast only and/or breaking while scavenging solves the primary issue of it being essentially a free pass through the module.
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Post by Pieman102 on Jan 1, 2016 22:50:59 GMT
So on the topic of profession is there any thoughts to changing at least how alchemy is done? I have a hard time having Rina not come off as a greedy little hin asking for gold all the time.
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Post by Tweek on Jan 1, 2016 23:25:42 GMT
So on the topic of profession is there any thoughts to changing at least how alchemy is done? I have a hard time having Rina not come off as a greedy little hin asking for gold all the time. We will be revisiting alchemy parameters, yes. As of now it's prohibitively expensive. There's likely to be a lot of other Alchemy system changes as well as part of our professions revamp. Couple that with gold being likely to become a more sought-after resource as part of the professions update, which is bound to make alchemy costs even worse. |
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Post by Tweek on Jan 5, 2016 18:45:04 GMT
This isn't in reply to a particular question or anything, but just some insight into where we're headed next. Our primary goal now that we've got the new module is to turn it into something that is not hell to work with. As it stands, here are some little tidbits about the v2 module: - There are 1,763 script files.
- In those script files, there are 105,505 lines of code. This is a bit inflated by things like CEP, which we can only touch minimally.
- Of these scripts, at least 167 of them were generated with Lilac's script generator. [ANGRY TREMBLING INTENSIFIES]
We haven't yet merged a lot of our 106 refactoring into the v2 mod, but those efforts along with many more to come should cut down on this insane scale. As an example, by refactoring the crafting scripts, we reduced that system from 7,150 lines of code to about 425. Woohoo!
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