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

Sarita

To follow up on your answer to @Damariel‌ : Have you been to any places where a foreign language was required? If so, what's your favorite? Edit: If you haven't where would you want to go first?

Setne

What is something or some things that you wish you could code into Aetolia, but can't?

Toz

I'm curious - I realize why the base skill-level required to play is being consistently lowered (more accessible bashing areas, lesser xp loss removed, guild req restrictions, auto-combat, etc.) - but what, if anything, is being planned to raise the skill cap? More player retention is good, given how the MUD medium currently is, but what is being planned to keep experienced players around and with fresh challenges?

Moirean

(raids???)

Oleis

Sarita said:

To follow up on your answer to @Damariel‌ : Have you been to any places where a foreign language was required? If so, what's your favorite? Edit: If you haven't where would you want to go first?

My brother studied French, so I've spent a decent amount of time over there visiting him. After graduating high school, friends and I spent about three weeks in Paris with a couple small weekend trips. One of the best experiences of my life.

I'm trying to get together a trip to Albania next summer, where the best touristy languages are Italian and Greek. We'll see what happens there.

Setne said:

What is something or some things that you wish you could code into Aetolia, but can't?

My Aetolia wishlist is less things I'd like to code and more things I'd like to REcode. That's a really long list.

Toz said:

I'm curious - I realize why the base skill-level required to play is being consistently lowered (more accessible bashing areas, lesser xp loss removed, guild req restrictions, auto-combat, etc.) - but what, if anything, is being planned to raise the skill cap? More player retention is good, given how the MUD medium currently is, but what is being planned to keep experienced players around and with fresh challenges?

Our classes and revamps are typically engineered with complex possibilities in mind. It's class discovery that really runs the avenue you're thinking -- once an optimum strategy is developed, 90% of that class's players are going to stick to it because it's the most likely to win.

Moirean

I think Toz's question can apply (maybe even mostly so) to things other than PK, though, or at least to PK in the sense of the larger concept of conflict.

Toz

Yeah I don't necessarily mean JUST pvp - though I'd be open to that as well. I mean more, higher level bashing areas, things that require more studying to figure out how to do. More honors mobs, more things like Ciem (but maybe better balanced?)/Giowhoever's hunt. But definitely not dungeons. Newp, never those.

Oleis

Toz said:

Yeah I don't necessarily mean JUST pvp - though I'd be open to that as well. I mean more, higher level bashing areas, things that require more studying to figure out how to do. More honors mobs, more things like Ciem (but maybe better balanced?)/Giowhoever's hunt. But definitely not dungeons. Newp, never those.

I guess you maybe kind of answered your own question? Those things. We're gonna keep putting out those things.

Aishia

Do you have any favorite TV shows? How about book reccomendations!? If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, why pizza?

Areka

If you were a Real Housewife (Bravo), what would your tag line be.

Oleis

Aishia said:

Do you have any favorite TV shows? How about book reccomendations!? If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, why pizza?

My longtime favorite TV show is the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. It just hits all the right spots. I struggle with making book recommendations because I like a very specific thing and do a bad job of straying from it, but I did just catch up with the rest of the nerd world in reading American Gods and loved it. If I had to eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be pasta. Stuffed pasta, noodles, whatever. So many sauces and options and CARBS.

Areka said:

If you were a Real Housewife (Bravo), what would your tag line be.

I'm afraid I don't even know enough about the show to understand your question. I haven't had cable since 2010.

Aarbrok

There is only one suitable tagline from Real Housewives....
(Also high fives to not having cable)

Oleis

Aarbrok said:

There is only one suitable tagline from Real Housewives....
(Also high fives to not having cable)

Now THERE'S a reference I understand.

Aishia

Do you REALLY only work part-time hours? I swear you're around more than that!

Areka

It's a really trashy show about rich ladies having fights with each other and everything becoming far more serious than it ever really requires.

http://www.out.com/entertainment/popnography/2014/03/11/15-most-ridiculous-real-housewives-taglines-ever

Oleis

Aishia said:

Do you REALLY only work part-time hours? I swear you're around more than that!

Right now I work three jobs and school's about to start, so I'm kind of forced to keep slimmer hours on Aet. I try only to really actively code for about 20 a week. In reality, I'm logged in much more.

Areka said:

It's a really trashy show about rich ladies having fights with each other and everything becoming far more serious than it ever really requires.

Thanks for the link! I was familiar with the show but the tagline thing was new to me. Mine would probably be "Is that tequila on your breath or am I finally pretty?"

Ferrik

Mister! Ah, excuse me mister? What is your opinion on (Aetolia's) crocodilian population? How do you feel about crocodilians and ah.. would you be willing to comment on your stance towards crocodile promotion?

Oleis

Ferrik said:

Mister! Ah, excuse me mister? What is your opinion on (Aetolia's) crocodilian population? How do you feel about crocodilians and ah.. would you be willing to comment on your stance towards crocodile promotion?

When I test Shapeshifter stuff, I always use werecroc. Just saying. 

Mariena

If you had absolutely no limitations what so ever, what would you like to see implemented/expanded/changed in Aetolia?

If you had to choose only one of your three jobs to do the rest of your life, which would it be?

Cats or dogs?

Aishia

How many hotdogs do you think you could eat before getting sick?

Oleis

Mariena said:

If you had absolutely no limitations what so ever, what would you like to see implemented/expanded/changed in Aetolia?

If you had to choose only one of your three jobs to do the rest of your life, which would it be?

Cats or dogs?

If I could go into a SUPER RAD DBZ hyperbaric time chamber and code for a year with only a day passing on the outside, I would rewrite 60% of Aetolia's codebase and love it. I really enjoy refactoring terrible old code, but it's time consuming and it tends to get in the way of new projects and features. As it stands, I just kind of have to refactor as I go. I ended up rewriting a ton of our wall code (icewall, ironwall, etc) for a completely unrelated project that needed to expand walls a little. There's even more to rewrite there, but I limited myself to an hour. I guess that's just kind of how it goes. At some point this year, I'll probably refactor the way the game handles skills and multiclass, which is pretty restrictive and terrible. A lot of you have suffered as a result of how completely awful it is to try to modify/maintain that stuff.

Fortunately, I think I DO get to choose one job forever, and that's teaching high school band. That said, I'm not going to quit Aetolia until Jeremy makes me.

Cats. 100% cats.

Aishia said:

How many hotdogs do you think you could eat before getting sick?

One.

Aishia

That's really disappointing.

Orus

Crunchy or smooth?

Oleis

Peanut butter? Smooth.

Orus

Favorite kind of cheese?

Aarbrok

Boxers, Briefs, or Boxerbriefs.... (It's a legit question)

Rashar

Commandooooo.

Aarbrok

Like character, like player in your case then @Rashar‌ ... and before you say it no, Aarbroks player is not anatomically a Ken doll >.>

Rashar

oh, I was talking about oleis

Oleis

Orus said:

Favorite kind of cheese?

For salads and panini, goat or gorgonzola. Brie is the perennial white girl favorite too. Pasta + feta is my happy place.

Aarbrok said:

Boxers, Briefs, or Boxerbriefs.... (It's a legit question)

The latter. I've recently had just enough money to splurge on bargain cute underwear every once in a while, so I have a couple pairs of trunks that get pulled out when I need to feel pretty.