I'm your assistant producer. Ask me (almost) anything.

Teani

I understand it's a tricky balance with death, but it would be nice if there was a little bit more than just a shrug of the shoulder and then straight back at it again. It's given people a completely different take on death than before. It's not really death. Few care about the lore that you that at some point you might not actually be given the option to return because Varian wills it so, because everyone knows they will get to return and if they just go grab that fresh beverage while waiting, they've lost nothing at all.

As for reducing ranks, I think that's a good idea. It might give more meaning to different ranks and people might be more reluctant to actually lose them by doing something stupid. There should be risks when being involved in risky actions/risky behavior, right? Otherwise why call it that? Now a disfavor is barely more than a line of text or at best a slap at the wrist. No real impact. Just as getting favors to some extent isn't something people work towards as much as potential credit rewards.

If removed, an appointment system would be great, giving the guilds a chance to structure their positions more according to their needs. I still think it's pretty neat with some form of accomplishment rank to show someone's standing in the guild and just wish it would mean more. Perhaps grant special guild skills only to those above a certain rank, as they have proven themselves in service?

Satomi

Teani said:

I understand it's a tricky balance with death, but it would be nice if there was a little bit more than just a shrug of the shoulder and then straight back at it again. It's given people a completely different take on death than before. It's not really death. Few care about the lore that you that at some point you might not actually be given the option to return because Varian wills it so, because everyone knows they will get to return and if they just go grab that fresh beverage while waiting, they've lost nothing at all.

Addition by Satomi: Imperian has a whole underworld thing, so we can make a Dhar-world!! It'd take a fair bit of work though >.<</b>

As for reducing ranks, I think that's a good idea. It might give more meaning to different ranks and people might be more reluctant to actually lose them by doing something stupid. There should be risks when being involved in risky actions/risky behavior, right? Otherwise why call it that? Now a disfavor is barely more than a line of text or at best a slap at the wrist. No real impact. Just as getting favors to some extent isn't something people work towards as much as potential credit rewards.

Addition by Satomi: My only way of adding to this is like.. making the Guild Perks 'level up' with each rank by slight amounts. So, for Fex, have it like.. 2 extra hounds at rank 3-5, then 4, then 6, etc etc.

If removed, an appointment system would be great, giving the guilds a chance to structure their positions more according to their needs. I still think it's pretty neat with some form of accomplishment rank to show someone's standing in the guild and just wish it would mean more. Perhaps grant special guild skills only to those above a certain rank, as they have proven themselves in service?

Addition by Satomi: My ideas are far too unoriginal. I had to leech off of Teani's awesome :P

Jensen

Since it is an established fact that you are indeed a cat, how many mice/birds have you killed? Are you even an outdoor cat? And how's your relationship with your pet human?

Sakyl

with things seemingly starting to go the way of city rivalries as far as shadow and light disappearing with the changes going on, what's the likelihood of the whole class-tether thing going hasta-la-bye-bye?

Toz

Sakyl said:

with things seemingly starting to go the way of city rivalries as far as shadow and light disappearing with the changes going on, what's the likelihood of the whole class-tether thing going hasta-la-bye-bye?

In Albedos, nobody can hear you vampire.

Oleis

Sakyl said:

with things seemingly starting to go the way of city rivalries as far as shadow and light disappearing with the changes going on, what's the likelihood of the whole class-tether thing going hasta-la-bye-bye?

I'm not sure I understand or agree with the premise of your question, but I'm definitely not feeling the conclusion you've drawn. Tethers are mechanically necessary for the realities of Aetolian combat. Arguments to remove them tend to gloss over the monumental details of balancing.

Rowena

Oleis said:

Sakyl said:

with things seemingly starting to go the way of city rivalries as far as shadow and light disappearing with the changes going on, what's the likelihood of the whole class-tether thing going hasta-la-bye-bye?

I'm not sure I understand or agree with the premise of your question, but I'm definitely not feeling the conclusion you've drawn. Tethers are mechanically necessary for the realities of Aetolian combat. Arguments to remove them tend to gloss over the monumental details of balancing.

See I don't follow that as every class can fight every other class one vs one and when you look at team fighting, that's not something you can exactly balance at all. There's a lot of stuff that works in teams and the only way to kill it would be to kill one vs. one. The only way I can see at least. If you break down light and dark you'll inevitably get Shamans helping Carnifex etc. as well.

The only argument I personally see for tethering, feel free to correct me, is so that a character isn't a Luminary one day and a Carnifex then back to Templar or something completely different. It wouldn't make sense from a roleplay perspective. I don't see how it comes in from a balance point of view.

Rowena

Just to clarify, in teams dual slashing epteth on someone over and over is very effective generally. Syssin can do that on either side.The game isn't based around the massive afflicts per second you can inflict in a team scenario, there's a lot you can do when you beat herb / salve balance. Another example, which both sides have anyway, is straight damage kills. With enough players you can easily bash people to death. That's just the nature of team fighting.

Valingar

Balance considerations aside (and they're definitely there), Lightside players couldn't really viably pick up any darkside class except Syssin and maaybe Sciomancer. It's not like you can go "Look I know I'm totally against vampirism and that's the whole premise of my thing but fuck it, I'm going to multiclass Bloodborn and Praenomen now. Also I'm going to learn necromancy and summon a couple demons as an Indorani. I'm totally good btw don't worry. This is just a multiclass thing. Don't mind the fangs."

Satomi

You could argue for Carnifex, if you play the Dhar card :P.

Darkies have it easy. Just claim to be corrupting the Light/Nature and sacrifice to Chakrasul or Iosyne and you're golden.

Aishia

ITT: the entire reason for tethers.

Rowena

Tethers for roleplay, sure. Tethers for balance, I don't see it. Team fights are horrendously imbalanced anyway even with tethers and one on one well you can spar someone from any organization as it is.

Haven

To be honest, being on the Light side does not necessarily mean you are good. Theoretically, an evil Light side guild could exist if they were willing and had the numbers to support the role.

It just so happens that the majority of Lighters also want to be good guys and all that jazz. (It also doesn't hurt that there aren't any evil Lighter gods. Well... maybe Omei depending on how you wanna look at it but I'm not sure I'd go as far as labeling her as officially evil even if my character would.)

Areka

I feel like ya'll realllly don't grasp just what the darkie classes are nor lifer stance.

Dhar would not be kosher with Carnifex training, the stealing of souls actively damages and bypasses his realm and role and duties.

Yes there could be an evil lifer org, but in order to be lifer, there are still common beliefs that would not be crossed, so necromancy etc would still not be tolerated. That is the whole tipping point of us vs them here.

You can also play an evil character in the Light and still be fully part of what the Light's core values are - Undeath and Necromancy are bad, preservation of the Cycle. Those are the fundamentals. You could still play the old Infernal mindset of purging the weak so only the strong survive for this new world of the Dawn. There *are* lifer characters that have no qualms about killing children, or torture, or severe and cruel punishments for crimes. There *are* characters that really don't care about their organizations and only want their even more exclusive brand of friends to survive/do well. Yes, there is also a lot of kickback for 'why are you being so mean' with it, but that is also a natural consequence of that kind of roleplay. Heck, look at the Sparrows in GoT.

Satomi

I only said you could argue for it, not that you'd win the argument :P

The rest of that, though, I have no response other than agree. -click-

Zsadist

Why is there a hard cap on xp gain after lvl 100? It seems you can't go past 90k xp at all with either pk/quest. Is this intentional?

Paithan

Does the entire team take off holidays like Memorial Day?

Oleis

I'm in the states, but Raz is a kiwi. There are only a couple of days when both of us are celebrating something, given the time difference.

Personally, I went to the beach yesterday. I'll be back at work tonight.

Obyn

And if Razmael and Oleis are, for some reason, both gone, there's typically at least one or two other people around in the pools.

Irruel

I know that the discussion about Aetolian politics was quite a few weeks back, but I'm working interstate and bored, so I just want to say something I think is relevant and interesting.

When Matt started Achaea, he did it with a background in political science. I read a mini-essay from him a number of years ago, where he wrote about designing the game's political systems with specific flaws that would encourage conflict within each org rather than aiming to be a 'perfect' system.

I've always thought that is kind of interesting, and wondered if it hasn't been a part of the success of IRE muds.

Veovis

What's your favorite language to code in, or do you have one? It's R, isn't it?

Oleis

Irruel said:

I know that the discussion about Aetolian politics was quite a few weeks back, but I'm working interstate and bored, so I just want to say something I think is relevant and interesting.

When Matt started Achaea, he did it with a background in political science. I read a mini-essay from him a number of years ago, where he wrote about designing the game's political systems with specific flaws that would encourage conflict within each org rather than aiming to be a 'perfect' system.

I've always thought that is kind of interesting, and wondered if it hasn't been a part of the success of IRE muds.

Most IRE players enjoy conflict. PK, politics, even baby daddy drama. We're very aware of areas of potential tension or friction in the IG governments, and I definitely prefer those to possible utopias.

Veovis said:

What's your favorite language to code in, or do you have one? It's R, isn't it?

Teehee. While I know it's not the one you were referring to, Rapture script is actually kind of okay to code in, believe it or not. Similar enough to C without the need to manage memory beyond the basics. It has its hurdles and inefficiencies, but it abstracts away a lot of the irritating necessities of MUD development.

Someone is going to curse my household for this, but I'm actually warming to PHP these days. Its flexibility is a giant liability, in that it's possible to write horrendous code that 'works', but I'm finding that as I return to it with best practices and good habits in mind, I can make pretty decent code. Having a foundation like Laravel makes all the difference.

Aishia

Would you rather fight 10 Aishia sized Valingars or 1 Valingar sized Aishia?

Oleis

Aishia said:

Would you rather fight 10 Aishia sized Valingars or 1 Valingar sized Aishia?

I'd rather bomb the place, salt the earth, and move on.

Ilyon

Oleis said:

Someone is going to curse my household for this, but I'm actually warming to PHP these days. Its flexibility is a giant liability, in that it's possible to write horrendous code that 'works', but I'm finding that as I return to it with best practices and good habits in mind, I can make pretty decent code. Having a foundation like Laravel makes all the difference.

PHP get a lot of bad reputation, but it has evolved into a fairly good language over time.

Obyn

Here's a question for you: AMD or NVIDIA?

Oleis

Obyn said:

Here's a question for you: AMD or NVIDIA?

I am the absolute wrong person to ask, because I only buy stuff that's on sale or a few years old. But I think I end up being Nvidia more often than not.

Hadrak

Obyn said:

AMD