What I want to see next: Continued involvement. That means the occasional news item/blog, a few ideas tossed around the community here, maybe some sort of down time fun that they share... and continued work on the game.
I want them to do a good job, and to have fun as well. That's just my outlook on work anywhere, though. 
It's less about servers at this point, and more about worlds. You will be able to find different groups with different interests on each world, of course, but most likely there will be several that want to RP. It may well end up that certain areas are RP heavy, as people group together in mutual interest.
Assuming we have that to test, I may be down to help test.
You are assuming that everything is equal there though. There is no balance to compare it to at this time, and IF they haven't thought of this then Alpha 1 would ensure they saw the problem.
More likely, magic users will have higher cost abilities in general and lack as strong of a no-mana attack. Most likely magic users will need a little more learning to advance (probably be aligned around magic users likely to max that stat, while physical will aim for middling at best to maximize combat power.)
That, of course, is also assuming that the ideas of others (such as int bonus caps for learning at a given value or diminishing returns) don't make this effectively a non-issue on that front.
Why? The slim majority of people don't have food allergies. Where noting that some do is important in real life, making everyone have one in game feels more like some gimmick, since it isn't really so widespread.
Now, I could see different worlds having different foods, and potentially having that play havoc with groups that lose supplies before they are ready to go back. It would make logistics for such a trip even more important. But just a general food allergy for everyone is at the very least over-kill.
Having negative to characters can be interesting, but I'd want to see a lot more variety than just food allergies.
Human or Beastman areas will likely have some people RPing in some way. How, what, how obvious, how easy to join, etc.? Yeah, who knows.
The game environment on Tartaros... likely will highly limit RP attempts that are not very heavy on the PvP aspects. Simply put, when you are effectively encouraged to backstab and murder as part of the game, there is no reason to trust anyone you don't know very well (and maybe not even them) to play nice.
Everything else seems to indicate at least some level of possibility. How supported it will be in the other worlds, how many people engage in various forms of RP, etc. is something that really remains to be seen.
Permanent. Not only does it add a lot of possibilities to things. That goes from combat mobility being a risk with mounts, to things like people running stables where you can keep your mounts with less risk, to caravans and breeding being important.
With systems that just let the mount vanish, those aspects are usually minimal or RNG heavy at best as people grind for rare versions of mounts, or they are spammed at us as a sale item. Which leaves that other stuff completely gone.
I would say that specialty mounts, such as reward mounts, should respawn with players if both die, or at the next town/city if just the mount dies... but inventory should be left where the mount died.
As to taxes on merchants, I would expect that to be something possible for when they sell goods... but of course having taxes too high would prompt merchants to seek out other more profitable destinations.
I think it will also really depend on how well they are able to make goods that are needed in other areas, and have those goods make an economy. It will be something that takes a little work to get right, and not just "Boom, hahaha, I'm rich!!!" like in so many games without the multiplayer aspect.
Terrain, movement speed, building materials... all these are things that will indeed play into that, and I agree that things should be interesting.
For a final note, I think that the idea of toll bridges and tunnels is fine. However, I would highly expect people to simply make other paths around them, especially if there is a need and a nearby town/city wanted more trade.
Pet builds are okay, but in a game where everyone has to be balanced it just means you, yourself, are weak. There are times where the advantage is worth that, and that actually is stronger with multiple weak pets... but the resultant issues such as lag and load may not be worthwhile. Especially if multiple users flood an area with them, and extra-especially if there are collision masks to consider.
Pets and the like are a solid idea for world design, but making them balanced is the entire problem. The whole cool factor outside MMOs works, the pet does not mystically make the human weaker than other humans, but within MMOs... I think it is that outside idea that people really crave, and thus it is always disappointing. Maybe I am just self-projecting though.
In short, I believe that for necromancy to really work like this and be what people are picturing everyone would have to have such pets in some manner, which negates the entire purpose of a pet build.
It is on most of the websites that do any sort of very early development tracking. It is also available to be found via the various social functions and all.
I do think that the amount of advertising is something they will eventually look at, but I also consider it very wise to avoid doing much paid advertising until at least close to beta release... if not full launch. So many games and developers have burnt themselves on early hype, without actually having figured out exactly what will be and what works, and the backlash is not something which is good for the game. So many games that are in the 3+ year range of development are constantly called out for release dates, or have people saying they will never release (which was always a common thing, but the time when things are revealed has kept getting earlier and earlier).
I'm certain that the team will be looking at more things for various gaming journalism, social media, and advertising to an extent when it is closer to ready.
Will be around, how much depends on a few things... but will certainly be doing some testing of things!
Congrats! Awesome to see it hit the goal and beyond!
Justice and neutrality are... well, I'd think them different things. Neutral has advantages in reality, but in game those are mostly lost through meta.
I do think that such balancing acts could use a little more attention if done with rigor. There could be several different cases as well, based on how unpredictable somebody is being. For example, there could be a chaos based version with the more random acting person, or one where the alternation of good and evil actions is specific and patterned.
@memokal There are conquest mechanics, and the rules for each city are known to be somewhat malleable. That is, those in charge can change to some extent what is allowed.
Most likely, fighting in a city would be something that would have to be specifically allowed. I imagine that good aligned cities would not allow it, by default, but... evil and neutral cities seem likely candidates.
As to living together in the same city, there are time limits on trips to different worlds. Whether there will be anything for settling down elsewhere, outside the specific race transformations, is... probably unlikely. At least, that is what I got from the discussions about travel between the worlds. If there is ever such a thing, humans would likely be the best candidates for moving. Which is... somewhat the worst thing for all races settling together. Maybe they will offer such a thing at some point, although it seems like a whole new issue with balance and powersets that would take a long of fine tuning.
Theoretically a group could support a player who wanted to try such a thing, and continually send them to the human realms... but the resources and effort involved under current understanding make that seem very unlikely. AND that player would still get booted and have to go back, along with potential lockouts from travel, over and over again. How long of lockouts, how possible it would be to constantly portal with big group support, etc. are unknowns unless an insider has a clue!
Very glad to see you aren't pretending development happens overnight, and opening up that discussion ahead of testing phases. Seen way too many expectations from people who do not seem to understand that out and about around games...
@greenfox said in Fractured Sprint 13/15 Recap (Feb 05, 2018):
@jairone said in Fractured Sprint 13/15 Recap (Feb 05, 2018):
@greenfox said in Fractured Sprint 13/15 Recap (Feb 05, 2018):
@jairone The only good CC debuff i have ever seen.
After receiving an Stun. You will have an 20% chance to shrug off the next stun.
And this stacks and sticks with you for 20 seconds.I know, i know!
It makes it hard for cc spam to affect a fight if it goes on to long.
But as both sides have the same debuff going on, picking targets and killing them while on the first cc or second rotation.
Makes this more tactical, then to perma cc someone with a chain spam.And if something is doable, people will do it.
I can remember a guild, that would abuse "stun" spam via a musical skill.
Anyone entering the range, would be stunned ... forever. They won pvp matchs non stop, till the devs added the stacking debuff. Which made pvp generaly more fun and fair.
- CC resitance got added as a stat, derived from vitality. Tanks would be harder to cc then squishy mages or archers.
Again, my problem with that is that it only addresses the specifics of PvP, with a boring minor effect, that essentially destroys any chance of having something like controller builds that are viable in PvP (which generally means they simply don't exist). Which is why I thought of having something else.
I'm not suggesting something where people can be long term stunlocked. I know that isn't fun. I want something with more to it than "Oh, I got stunned before so now somehow I'm less vulnerable to it." There's a ton of possibilities out there, and a lot that can impact other areas of gameplay instead of being essentially just a PvP thing. In fact, I think that with some work the idea of having other effects tied to CC would make a huge impact with PvE content.
Yes, people abuse things. Which is why I was also open to the idea of having breakouts (basically a form of diminishing that isn't quite so obvious, so there is some surprise with the randomness of it). Because we all know that with d.r. in place people have timers running on how long it will last, and plot around that. It is essentially still stunlock and kill. Just with shorter stunlocks and downtime.
Why wouldn't they exist?
I truly don't get it.Controller builds existed still after the "nerfs" to the supreme OPness. What was perma stun loocking, anyone and everyone ...
It just wasn't all mighty anymore.
A stun, a second one.
A slow or a blind.
These wouldn't "Stack" on each other, just the same kind of cc would inflict the deminishing return buff.Peopel switched from makeing it an "totaly cc zone" too "clever cc layers, which worked well. But where beatable, if someone really made an effort".
... the moment someone can cc chain you for more then 3~5 seconds in one spot, for an 100% chance.
It's not fun for anyone.It's like how guildwars was a fun pvp game. Till you saw how high end people fought ... all stacking the same dots on the same enemy. And nukeing that dude with an extrem amount of damage. Or any extrem hard cc ... or other extrem nuke.
Pro PvP in guildwars ... was boring as hell.
And about the "somehow less vunerable".
You could say, that the magical stun. Works the same way like the common flu.
You catch it and the next month, you're less likely to catch it again after getting trough it. But you might catch it nevertheless if your unlucky...
And if you stand in a train with people with snoot dripping and coughs and sneezes flying everywhere.
Well ... the best luck not catching that flu again.
Good analogy with the flu. I agree that as time stunlocked goes up, a player's fun becomes an issue.
As for controller builds, tell me where they are in MMOs right now. I'll wait while you find one that is relevant for more than one ability in a random raid battle where that is the only battle a person stays in that build. Because, well, they really just aren't. Even in games where you can have them, they end up being nowhere near as effective as just mass burning things.
I'd like to see more options again, but I don't want to see the whole perma-stunned thing either. I also would like to see even greater depth to the combat and choices of control, where people also won't want to just control a PvE enemy for a long time or anything.
So... that's why I proposed an idea. I'm flexible. It could work WITH diminishing returns, or something similar in some fashion. There's never only one option in life, unless you are unfortunate enough to be placed in a standard MMO storyline...
@althalus I think they were waiting on backing, it does seem like it is struggling now.
@greenfox said in Fractured Sprint 13/15 Recap (Feb 05, 2018):
@jairone The only good CC debuff i have ever seen.
After receiving an Stun. You will have an 20% chance to shrug off the next stun.
And this stacks and sticks with you for 20 seconds.I know, i know!
It makes it hard for cc spam to affect a fight if it goes on to long.
But as both sides have the same debuff going on, picking targets and killing them while on the first cc or second rotation.
Makes this more tactical, then to perma cc someone with a chain spam.And if something is doable, people will do it.
I can remember a guild, that would abuse "stun" spam via a musical skill.
Anyone entering the range, would be stunned ... forever. They won pvp matchs non stop, till the devs added the stacking debuff. Which made pvp generaly more fun and fair.
- CC resitance got added as a stat, derived from vitality. Tanks would be harder to cc then squishy mages or archers.
Again, my problem with that is that it only addresses the specifics of PvP, with a boring minor effect, that essentially destroys any chance of having something like controller builds that are viable in PvP (which generally means they simply don't exist). Which is why I thought of having something else.
I'm not suggesting something where people can be long term stunlocked. I know that isn't fun. I want something with more to it than "Oh, I got stunned before so now somehow I'm less vulnerable to it." There's a ton of possibilities out there, and a lot that can impact other areas of gameplay instead of being essentially just a PvP thing. In fact, I think that with some work the idea of having other effects tied to CC would make a huge impact with PvE content.
Yes, people abuse things. Which is why I was also open to the idea of having breakouts (basically a form of diminishing that isn't quite so obvious, so there is some surprise with the randomness of it). Because we all know that with d.r. in place people have timers running on how long it will last, and plot around that. It is essentially still stunlock and kill. Just with shorter stunlocks and downtime.
Congrats all as always! And thanks to those congratulating us this week.