1.2B(1) now released

[SaikoDeMoN]

+1 for this.

 

[Jumbo]

Suggestion: Make weapon on back attachment also show upon loading of characters. At the moment, the "weapon on back" attachment doesn't show up unless you drop the weapon and reequip it.

 

[SaikoDeMoN]

Can we get a key shortcut for enslave?

 

[Jumbo]

Good idea.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Every shortcut I assign will block another ability having that shortcut. For a rarely used spell, is this really worth it?

 

[Jumbo]

Maybe just position it somewhere far off. An unhandy hotkey is generally preferable to none.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

It could be B like resurrection.

 

[EloTheMan]

Soonish late but
+ For great looking intro
+ For neat voice acting
+ Easy enough setup for music extension

hid

+ works in W10

 

[Kyuzo_dono]

Has the insufferably high number of fatal errors problem been reported? Never ever happened past 4 years and its making quests unplayable, and doesn't seem to have a specific trigger. 90% of the times its all players getting it at the same time. 10% it's just one.

Is there a 3rd stash planned to come later? It's starting to feel needed, my bard's kinda full 2 stashes with 2 on bp.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

What all do you have stored? Im sure some of the "alt" stuff is honestly not needed and just kept for personal preference at this point (I dont see my bard ever using Lizardscale or Witchslayer at this point so they may as well be sold, same with a bunch of D3 FR items and such).

The fatal error issue seems to be caused my turning in quests occasionally, and yes I believe its been reported.

 

[Kyuzo_dono]

I keep all the instruments since forever and FR gear, plus coran and kensai. Rest r daggers n swords that will be upped and replaced yea but I really do use most of them. Plus hunting for urn and then legendary items.. need yar, polt and phoenix slots man! Give us 100k stash and everyone will rush in to hoard n play again. Happy ending. Same thing is "starting" to happen on some others like zerk. Would also be very nice if stashes can save materials 2.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

The save code has become rather short since the latest updates. I think I could afford adding new stuff to it.
However, I don't really feel a third stash serves a lot of purpose for this game. I'd rather just extend the number of items in general.

 

[Jumbo]

If that is the case, I believe you should add the saveable locations (i.e. learning tp to areas you have visited rather than at a certain level).
I LOVED how in Guild Wars 1 you could run through a high lvl snow mountain area with a booster + other lowbies, to get to a certain town far south. It felt like what the Fantasy genre is (more or less) fundamentally about: Adventure and exploration.

Now, Gaias is of course on a smaller scale, but I think the idea of running through dangerous areas at lower level is great. It would be fun, if there was a quest giver across the Riversdale bridge asking you to send word to his "brother in the south, west of the Dwarven Village" that he is still alive (they got separated from each other due to an avalanche) this quest would be lvl 15, meaning it could be taken at 11. Reaching the Quest target npc would yield the usual xp & gold and:
Mountaineers Boots accessory item:
Increases movement speed by 10%, int +1, agi +1, str +1. (ok those stats aren't very good, but could easily be changed)

This is just a small quest, but a fun one at that. Either you can do the quest at its lvl range (11-19) where the item will be good, or you can do it later where the increased movement speed will at least be fun.
Also, the time it takes to get to that area at low lvl will force some people to skip the quest until later, when they are at a more adequate level for Foothills and Snow Mountains. This is in turn means that they won't get the boots while they are actually good for gameplay reasons and not just as a running improvement.


Perhaps this does not need each and every tp area to be saveable. Maybe it can be a mix: Riversdale, Mytargas & Foothills are still level based, while anything after those are saveable/depending on player reaching them. This also makes sense in other ways. When we are all lvl 50 how are new areas going to be reached? Simply adding new TPs to every area at lvl 50 seems cheap & not very game enhancing. I think it's a change worth considering.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I think savable TPs are pretty much pointless weight on the savecode.

 

[EloTheMan]

So how much room for items are there left in the current save code version?

EDIT:
I found some disturbing weeds above the Dwarf village.

Clicky

Also, the mining/worker camp looks a bit odd, that tree in the middle blocks the view of the NPC:s and there is also an unnamed NPC that stands in a tree on the side towards the Hill Giant.

 

[Jumbo]

Aww come on Zwieb. I give you several reasons and you just say "pointless". How about some counter-points instead? I mean even in World of Warcraft you got XP for exploring new areas, so why is this concept of exploration in an rpg so alien to you? :-S

What are you going to do once everyone is level 50 and you want to add new areas? Just instantly grant those players access to everything? This is not progression. Instead it's turning the endgame into a non-progressive farm.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

So how much room for items are there left in the current save code version?

In the current version? One or two hundred; I'd say. Which isn't a problem. As soon as the savecode runs over, it shows me an error message ingame and I know I have to increase the code length.

The limit is basicly only the maximum WC3 chat input string length, which is somewhere around 200 characters, if I remember right.
We are far from that in the current format. I guess I can still add more than 1000 items before the savecodes will become too long for a single chat message.

If we ever reach the maximum chat length, I already have something up my sleeve to solve this issue. Basicly, making the stash an extra code (that you only need to enter if you want to access the stash; you can play without if you don't need it in one session). I have a system for that planned out already that would prevent any possible abuses.

What are you going to do once everyone is level 50 and you want to add new areas? Just instantly grant those players access to everything? This is not progression. Instead it's turning the endgame into a non-progressive farm.

I'll think about something when we reach this point. Until then, it's a waste of time and resources for a very minor immersion element.

 

[Jumbo]

Alright then .

 

[ALEXz407]

The save code has become rather short since the latest updates. I think I could afford adding new stuff to it.

Can you save game options? This will be comfortably.
Every game starts with same routine: enable quickbar icons, set pet behaviour to offensive. And maybe some players turn off music and change camera view.

 

[Kyuzo_dono]

Can you save game options? This will be comfortably.
Every game starts with same routine: enable quickbar icons, set pet behaviour to offensive. And maybe some players turn off music and change camera view.

Enough funny suggestions from you Alex! Precious Savecode length going to your "comfort" of not choosing game options? No thank you very much. Maybe next time come play with rest of us and not get bored by solo farming which is prolly the reason you find things like that tedious. And srsly man! Think how your suggestions, if implemented, affect others' gameplay too. And it's not same routine I actually don't put pet behavior to offensive unless necessary and I only use quickbar icons (sigh, why was the name changed, it made sense...change is good only when it's really needed ya know) and you can use game audio options if you feel lazy to click music toggle.

I even have been meaning to say, I liked typing things much more and also, where the heck is our -clear now? Maybe u want to just -clear one or two of NPC dialogues then read the rest; maybe you wanna not look at "xyz left the game" text for 2 minutes on your screen etc etc.

Lot of people including myself already begrudge you for this weird "hold position" removal thing that after a year or so of inactivity we come back to find our beloved game mutilated! I even joked about permabanning you from bot on personal grudge! Of course I'm using some hyperbole and I never do that, but it was truly an ugly choice. It's unnatural now.

Okay Zwieb, please let's find some way to give hold position back now, it's really unsightly and it's the first time I've seen a map remove a basic control function of the game itself. I'm not sure what reason Alex used that you were convinced, or what use you yourself saw in it, but they're not shared by many of us.

Not to mention its usefulness; I used it to walk away with right timing to the healer/caster group, hold position, and kill their chrysalises at BM like a champ and also to just avoid aoe's or wait till casts r over at other bosses and avoid looking stupid by spamming S or right click now (only choices left). Now those are the real conveniences.

 

[Ihazdialup]

I Support everything that he just said SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH

 

[ALEXz407]

Enough funny suggestions from you Alex!
...

I just throwing ideas that looks good from my point of view (and it is quite casual), if you think that they are bad, just say about it.
And you know, on the most of my suggestion Zwieb says "no".

About hold position removal. Yep, it was removed, but not in the way I suggest.
Zwieb use it to place all backpack buttons into hero command card by the cost of Patrol and Hold Position removal.
I suggest to remove all standart buttons and place all abilities on the hero command card, and move talents/options/etc to the backpack. But this idea was rejected by experienced players, and looking back i guess it's good (anyway for me these buttons are not useful and i prefer see all abilities when hero selected and not open spellbook).
You can blame me for accidental discovery of the way to hide command buttons and suggestion this solution on the Gaias forums, but not I implement this. I guess Zwieb thinks too that this button is not useful for most cases and can be removed, but in your hands to prove that it's wrong, and return Hold Position.

Offtopic

Well, if you think that for me will be better shut up and don't suggest something divergent from mainstream, so be it. I still remember Last he silenced thread. And this was very insulting thing.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Don't feel bad Alex. You're just trying to suggest things that you'd enjoy, and theres nothing wrong with that. Just remember that most of us enjoy how the core functions of the game works, and thats part of what makes it appealing to many players.

Im not sure how often you've played with other people online, but when the next version comes out you may get a decent taste of how these things work. People tend to want to get things done as fast as possible. We had to cap lower tier classes at level 25 because so many people wanted to play level 35 thief in D3 just so they could gear their bard and assassin at the same time. It really wasn't fair to those of us who actually were classing up their characters. What may be challenge mode to you would likely turn into leech mode for a larger portion of the community, and I dont think thats healthy.

As for Eazy/Ihaz up there.. I think most of us have been annoyed at some of the things Alex has suggested sure, but theres really no need to be abusive towards him. He does a good job logically thinking out his ideas and posting them. He isn't coming in here with terrible english and posting rants about how the game should be. We all need to be more polite here, we have a small community as it is and theres no need to be hostile what so ever.

 

[Kyuzo_dono]

No I don't think you, and anybody else for that matter, should shut up and I wouldn't ever dare "generalize", subcategories of which would be, to hate on, judge, to be stereotypical or racist. Like I said no more "funny" suggestions from you, but if you ever have well-thought creative and considerate views, just know that I 100% know Zwieb and rest of us will always appreciate them. I won't generally think you should not suggest. Ever.

You do realize that it's ridiculous to spend code space for something that hardly matters to anyone, and is occasional, right? It's treated case by case and that's the only fair way. You say 'spend savecode for game option', I say no. You say two-handed and shield, I say yea I like the general gist of that idea; it brings the idea of battlemage & spellsword etc classes from various RPG's to mind.

All your thoughts are treated per face value and you should do same too before writing it. And I'm sorry if I lashed out. Trust me it's just very minor and mild disgruntlement for the removal of a main command button from the game, for which I heard you were responsible. I wasn't really around to read the whole process of it. I think I'll have to get to the roots of it by reading back on the forums threads.

Like you said yourself it's "ideas that looks good from my point of view". You can extend that point of view to a generic player's point of view by dedicating more thought to it before you post it. If you play more with others, everything will be solved. You'll have a more out-of-the-box view on what to suggest and what not to cuz then you'll have seen others' gameplay too and you'll then know how your suggestions will affect them. Btw, I dunno anything about silenced thread or whatever, and your link is dead too.

@Box yea I know that sounded a bit rude, but that was not intended. Hence no rude words used. I apologized for it, sorry again Alex. Now lets fix Hold button?

 

[SaikoDeMoN]

Have to admit, whenever I see an Alex post I just groan and think "Why does this guy keep making ridiculous demands to dumb down the game, just to save himself from like 5 clicks?", honestly the majority of his "suggestions" are just things that he wants to pander to his personal tastes instead of improving the game for everyone. It's annoying and you can't expect it to go on without someone finally blowing a fuse. At the same time, we obviously know that we can't force him to stop making requests because of free speech and whatnot. He will just have to tank the occasional flame for his constant vanity posts.

About the hold position thing, Zwieb can't you replace the Stop function with Hold Position? There's very little use for Stop that can't be done with just a simple move order or recast, while it's very difficult to imitate a hold position command - particularly when your ping sucks. I don't really care about the idea of replacing the war3 original command card but we have important strategic uses for hold position.

 

[Jumbo]

While I agree that you (Alex) like to post a lot of suggestions for completely new features/changes which don't seem worthwhile, I also think that you make many good ones. I make a lot of suggestions myself, and I always consider them as brainstorm rather than as demands.

Some people here confuse the two: brainstorm and demand and therefore get angry/rude, because they feel that one wants to force one's ideas upon the game.

In my opinion, it's all about using the forums skillfully and with respect. What I mean by this is that you don't post things in threads where they don't belong. You make a new thread if none of the existing ones cover your intended topic. In threads, you try to discuss the posts (meaningful ones that is, not spam posts/flames) before your own when you write, instead of ignoring what everyone else has written & singlemindedly pushing your own ideas forward. I think Alex is good at using the forums in general.

All in all, I think some of you are unfairly harsh towards Alex. He has as much right as any of us to post his ideas. I don't applaud the idea of a "Gaias elite council" of "veteran players" which determines what is acceptable to write/suggest. On the other hand, I think you (Alex) should be a bit more selective in your suggestions sometimes. Bottom line is, this is Zwiebelchen's map and we are all just players who have more or less equal capabilities where discussing the map is concerned.



My opinion on the Hold Position feature:
Either
1 reimplement Hold position & remove Stop.
or
2 Keep the current ability panel, but remove player character Aquisition range.

The aquisition for player characters is very annoying since it can lead to your character doing stupid things. Especially with lag in the game - suddenly your character charges into alchemist's Flamebomb or similar things.
Everything taken into consideration, I think player hero character AI (aquisition range) should be removed entirely if possible.

 

[ALEXz407]

I'm very flattered by all offtopic posts about me, but let's return back to thread theme

My opinion on the Hold Position feature:
Either
1 reimplement Hold position & remove Stop.
or
2 Keep the current ability panel, but remove player character Aquisition range.

Removed aquisition range will hit gameplay harder than removed hold position, because you must click on every target to attack it. As far i understand - main advantage of Hold Position was white autoattack on closest targets without running into troubles, and i guess this can be achieved only with vanilla Hold Position order.
However it could be good game option to change aquisition range manually between 3 states:
- ranged
- melee
- disabled
So you can select best default behaviour for your character in different situations (for HG i will prefer disabled AqR, but for d3 waves auto targeting enemies will help maintain DPS).

Offtopic

@Kyuzo_dono, I took your post too personally, so sorry if reply was a bit rough. Peace

@Jumbo, thanks for making difference between brainstorming and demanding, it's important thing.

Well, anyway i "accidentally" lost all wc3 related things and codes, so new suggestions will appear only in very distant days. I will watch forums, so write in talents/abilities guide if something need to be updated.

 

[Kyuzo_dono]

I myself was always worried about sounding demanding in my coupla suggestion threads too and I always made it a point to state beforehand that I'm mere making suggestion in every one of them. So I get you there. There is no such thing as a council of veterans please stop making overcreative assumptions there Jumbo. We are just people who care. If it wasn't for zwieb's open-mindedly welcoming suggestions many of us wouldn't even be here so rest assured all sorts of contributions are welcome and don't let anyone hold you down, including me Alex. Just hold the ideal to be considerate and creative. End of discussion.

I think Hold Position will have to wait till zwieb has his thought on the matter.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Well, anyway i "accidentally" lost all wc3 related things and codes, so new suggestions will appear only in very distant days. I will watch forums, so write in talents/abilities guide if something need to be updated.

This makes me sad Alex .

Anyhow, proud of everyone for getting back onto a positive tone!

 

[Jumbo]

Yeah we are just getting restless because we NEEDZ SNOW AWEA NAUW!

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Let's not give Alex a hard time for discovering the command button trick. If I had the opportunity to remove hold and patrol by default, I would have done that a lot earlier.
So Alex pretty much only showed me a way to do what I intended to do anyway.

And come on; let's be really honest here for a second: to actually use hold position, you'd have to:

• press esc to leave spellbook
• press 'H' to hold
• press 'Q' to re-open spellbook

Seriously, who does that? And how often do you actually *need* that?

I removed the hold position command simply because I needed the space in the hero command card. It's packed full even without it.
Stop is there because it serves the purpose of cancelling spells without actually applying a new order. Also, it's the only way of stopping BaW Hexblade channels without casting another ability.


The game toggle settings are defaulted to -QI off and pets on defensive mainly because that's my preferred gamestyle. I only used -QI as a healer (and rarely also as a tank).

I'll add a -clear command for you guys, though I don't really know why you would need that. Gaias isn't particulary spamy with it's text messages (except for quest dialogues, which can be removed by pressing esc, obviously).

About the snow area:
I'll try do some more bugfixing today so that I can finally get that dreaded 1.2B(5) version out. Maybe I will record the process for youtube, simply because I still want to do that Let's Mod series on Gaias.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Curiously, could you add a couple more Ursas in that little area with the bears/ursas that you opened up a little bit?

 

[Kyuzo_dono]

And come on; let's be really honest here for a second: to actually use hold position, you'd have to:

• press esc to leave spellbook
• press 'H' to hold
• press 'Q' to re-open spellbook

Seriously, who does that? And how often do you actually *need* that?

I do that Zwieb. You make it sound like hell to go through, mate lol; that's just lazy . A gamer's left hand always remembers the left side of the keyboard anyway so there is no problem with finding and pressing those buttons. Also when you count 3 poison clouds at bm you have all the time in the world to Esc out of spellbook, move around and stick close to caster bunch then press H (esp with zerk cuz of aoe attack or sin cuz of speed). Hold also includes a single stop command so I dunno what Stop can do that Hold can't. I just tried 1.2A(6) with Necro and water globes/fireball stop every time with H. Haven't tried playing mystic further than 25 so I dunno abt BaW.

About how often, I do it at hg's earthquake when he stands in it I just come out, hold, let him throw his cute little fits all he wants, then come out of it and let us continue beating him. Without it, every stone he throws or anything that aggros your char will make its auto AI wanna move and attack him and you have to spam right click or S like an idiot. I do it at bm like explained and it's really tactical to me personally cuz sometimes players with less experience just don't know offtank/dps's job and if a healer doesn't get rescued from the chrysalises before poison cloud lands on him/her you're 85% to lose that fight. At garg I do it only when there are walking plagues stuck in the terrain close to me and make my zer/crus e.g. give his back to garg attacking him and getting more damage. So generally it's the best and most graceful command to stop your char from auto-responding to stuff esp for melees, and stop can't achieve it, but hold can do whatever stop does afaik.

I'll add a -clear command for you guys, though I don't really know why you would need that. Gaias isn't particulary spamy with it's text messages (except for quest dialogues, which can be removed by pressing esc, obviously).

I remember seeing the option to skip to the next paragraph of dialogues in some game with arrows keys or something similar. I doubted maybe it was there in Gaia too so I just tried 1.1n(2), 1.2a(6) and (13) and seems like it never was. So "Esc" completely skips the dialogue and moves to next stage of the quest, regardless of how many paragraphs. It sure happens to those of us who watch everything, read everything and remember almost everything main story-relevant that an NPC dialogue starts with short lines then moves on to huge paragraphs and we just don't get the time to read it all. Then you wanna skip and start it over to read again, but you don't wanna see the first few lines repeated. So either -clear (you'll still have to wait for the paragraph/line's time to pass to see the next) or a simple dialogue navigation system would be very convenient and stylish to add.

Other than that, you're absolutely right I can't say there is anything other than game's own pop up messages like [xyz enabled] to appear. Only other things would be [xyz has left the game] message.

About mobs, I'm strongly for adding 3 to 4 more "rare item dropping" mobs like spiders, ursas, and goblin shredders. Also for a very slight increase in some drop chances [esp hammer quest ones; shouldn't quests be encouraging rather than demotivatingly hardcore]. And if possible adding monk and necro misc items to one more mob's table. You know for us veterans grinding is daily life but for newcomers the number of mobs they have to kill in foohills to get something can in turn be "grinding" to them and reduce their motivation.

Btw, where do you play, I've only seen you once on the bots. Bot stats say 56 game with total of 5 hours there. So you host/play on a bnet clan?

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I do that Zwieb. You make it sound like hell to go through, mate lol; that's just lazy . A gamer's left hand always remembers the left side of the keyboard anyway so there is no problem with finding and pressing those buttons. Also when you count 3 poison clouds at bm you have all the time in the world to Esc out of spellbook, move around and stick close to caster bunch then press H (esp with zerk cuz of aoe attack or sin cuz of speed). Hold also includes a single stop command so I dunno what Stop can do that Hold can't. I just tried 1.2A(6) with Necro and water globes/fireball stop every time with H. Haven't tried playing mystic further than 25 so I dunno abt BaW.

How about an optional toggle that adds the worker classification to the hero instead? This will prevent the hero from auto-engaging targets.
Sounds like the neater solution to me, since you won't have to esc+H+Q-dance anymore.

I remember seeing the option to skip to the next paragraph of dialogues in some game with arrows keys or something similar. I doubted maybe it was there in Gaia too so I just tried 1.1n(2), 1.2a(6) and (13) and seems like it never was. So "Esc" completely skips the dialogue and moves to next stage of the quest, regardless of how many paragraphs. It sure happens to those of us who watch everything, read everything and remember almost everything main story-relevant that an NPC dialogue starts with short lines then moves on to huge paragraphs and we just don't get the time to read it all. Then you wanna skip and start it over to read again, but you don't wanna see the first few lines repeated. So either -clear (you'll still have to wait for the paragraph/line's time to pass to see the next) or a simple dialogue navigation system would be very convenient and stylish to add.

Most people would probably find that annoying. I expect 90% of the players prefer esc skipping all dialogue instead of only the current block.
Arrow keys would look ugly, as they will also pan the camera on default WC3 controls.

About mobs, I'm strongly for adding 3 to 4 more "rare item dropping" mobs like spiders, ursas, and goblin shredders. Also for a very slight increase in some drop chances [esp hammer quest ones; shouldn't quests be encouraging rather than demotivatingly hardcore]. And if possible adding monk and necro misc items to one more mob's table. You know for us veterans grinding is daily life but for newcomers the number of mobs they have to kill in foohills to get something can in turn be "grinding" to them and reduce their motivation.

As stated, I'm pretty much done with the foothills content; I don't like adding new stuff to it as that would mean revisiting lots of the droplists.

Btw, where do you play, I've only seen you once on the bots.

I don't.

 

[Kyuzo_dono]

How about an optional toggle that adds the worker classification to the hero instead? This will prevent the hero from auto-engaging targets.

You mean toggle hero to act like neutral NPCs? This one will need everyone to state their opinion.

Mine is: Will it have to toggled every time from boss fight to mobs? Won't it have side effects? Can't Hold just be swapped for Stop, like an easier solution?

Most people would probably find that annoying. I expect 90% of the players prefer esc skipping all dialogue instead of only the current block.
Arrow keys would look ugly, as they will also pan the camera on default WC3 controls.

A lot of people read stuff at least once to know whats happening. You can't mean only 10% care about story, lore and quest details, dialogues etc. Esc needs to be there for complete skip. Page down/up also zoom in/out; alt/ctrl/shift + arrows won't work cuz they still move screen.. how about P for previous and N for next?

Tab and Shift+Tab could be another option. Maybe also - and + to decrease/increase the speed of dialogues passing? Maybe a chat command? Like -next / -prev that only work when reading dialogues.

I don't.

Here you said you played though:

... because that's my preferred gamestyle. I only used -QI as a healer (and rarely also as a tank).

I also think adding X as hotkey for opening tele-book and q-w-e-r + a-s-d-f etc for locations in order of addition, would be convenient.

 

[Jumbo]

Curiously, could you add a couple more Ursas in that little area with the bears/ursas that you opened up a little bit?

^yes please do this as they die so fast and we need them for farming. Also it's not like there is a lot at the moment. What is the number: 3-4? That's a tiny amount. I think in the current area, there is room for at least 2 more. This is something that would easily be achievable. Maybe even make a grouped spawn with 2 next to each other to save space.


Please, please, please add the worker classification to the hero if it removes auto-ai-stupidity and is easy to implement (which it is).

 

[Kyuzo_dono]

Scratch all those hotkeys about dialogues. How could I not think of this... can we just add a « and » to NPC control box buttons beside talk and accept quest? And maybe to top it off, a (counter/)clockwise open circle arrow like ↺ to re-read dialogue.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

You mean toggle hero to act like neutral NPCs? This one will need everyone to state their opinion.

No it will just disable all auto-engage of the hero when enabled. The hero will only attack or retaliate if ordered to.

Mine is: Will it have to toggled every time from boss fight to mobs? Won't it have side effects? Can't Hold just be swapped for Stop, like an easier solution?

No side effects, except that it adds the "select unused worker" button on the bottom left corner.

I also think adding X as hotkey for opening tele-book and q-w-e-r + a-s-d-f etc for locations in order of addition, would be convenient.

Will cause a lot of people to accidentally open the port menu if they have a pet out and the spellbook closes due to mana running low.

Teleport is not a function used in battle, so it doesn't really need a hotkey.

^yes please do this as they die so fast and we need them for farming. Also it's not like there is a lot at the moment. What is the number: 3-4? That's a tiny amount. I think in the current area, there is room for at least 2 more. This is something that would easily be achievable. Maybe even make a grouped spawn with 2 next to each other to save space.

No problem; I'll add some.

Please, please, please add the worker classification to the hero if it removes no auto-ai-stupidity and is easy to implement (which it is).

I'll add a toggle for that. Actually, I already implemented a toggle for that in a very early version, but removed it again later because I used the inactive worker button for something else.

Scratch all those hotkeys about dialogues. How could I not think of this... can we just add a « and » to NPC control box buttons beside talk and accept quest? And maybe to top it off, a (counter/)clockwise open circle arrow like ↺ to re-read dialogue.

This would require me to change the way the dialogue system works. Huge effort for a relatively minor feature, imho. I'll keep it in mind, but it's not high priority.

 

[Jumbo]

Thanks bro!

Now that you are talking NPCs, I always thought it made sense with a "choices and consequences" (c&c) system in some future cases.
For instance: An npc wants to have another npc assasinated. Either do it, or turn the schemer in to the guards.
From a gameplay perspective it is c&c because of the possibility of different rewards based on player choice and no turning back once you made a decision.

In the long term this could even make larger rivaling factions with quest chains. But I suppose the duality element will create a lot of extra work, which is probably not worth it. But the lore sure is suited for it. What with the different religious factions and their fanatics for instance.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Thanks bro!

Now that you are talking NPCs, I always thought it made sense with a "choices and consequences" (c&c) system in some future cases.
For instance: An npc wants to have another npc assasinated. Either do it, or turn the schemer in to the guards.
From a gameplay perspective it is c&c because of the possibility of different rewards based on player choice and no turning back once you made a decision.

In the long term this could even make larger rivaling factions with quest chains. But I suppose the duality element will create a lot of extra work, which is probably not worth it. But the lore sure is suited for it. What with the different religious factions and their fanatics for instance.

I know what you're coming from. My first RPG project (long before I started Gaias) actually had a reputation system with good and evil quest choices. However, it mostly pigeonholed people into doing unwanted morality choices for the sake of getting the loot they wanted.

The problem with choice & consequence design is that you need it to be unrelated to the gameplay rewards, or it just plain sucks. So basicly, all your rewards will only be based on the story and character developement. In other words: ideal value.
And this simply doesn't fit into an open world gameplay. It makes sense for story-driven games, but this isn't one of those.


I rather provide choice in terms of gameplay decisions. I.e. more talents to pick from, more items to select from, mutual exclusive ability choices, etc.
It just doesn't make much sense to implement a branching storyline in an open world game.


Also, obviously, all this takes away precious production resources. For the time investment of making quests with different outcomes, I could basicly code a second quest instead. It's just not worth the effort for a gameplay-centric multiplayer game.



That being said, I have a questline in my mind that actually does have a decision component to it. It's basicly related to some kind of player keep/housing/management mechanic (that is non-respeccable). I haven't thought out the details for it, as it's kind of a low priority feature, but it will probably involve taking over a small guild/business in Mytargas as kind of an economic minigame, in which you can assign tasks to henchmen or do some mini-quests to improve the guild/business.
Basicly, how keeps worked in Baldurs Gate II.

 

[Jumbo]

That sounds very cool.

Well I would love to see a C&C quest based on Casimir. I think so far we have helped this guy who had a doubtful past, but ultimately is a 'good' guy. It could be fun with a part3 where you can either help or betray him. Perhaps something like a blockade in the mountain region, where you can either blow it up and clear the passage, or you can blow it up without warning Casimir so he is killed in the process by the explosion.

Results:
Helping Casimir --> a good standing with the faith of Flaros.
Killing Casimir --> a good standing with the faith of X rival of Flaros faith.

The gameplay result could be access to a potion shop at either of the faiths' small outposts in the wilderness. They could be at two separate locations in the Snow area. Thus, the result will only have a slight impact on gameplay, but a big one RP-wise. If you always thought Casimir was an idiot, here is your chance to get rid of him. If, on the other hand, you want to see him reach his final objective: Help him.

 

[Kyuzo_dono]

Just finished importing all chars to 1.2b(4) and.. What?! Sorcerer has no longer reset CD talent while all other 4 pure ones do. Please please tell me some kinda mistake happened here. Inconsistency is the last thing I expected from talents change.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Btw guys, as I'm removing the 50 Psion talent that increases the level cap of enslave to 50 (and make it the default behaviour), I'm open for new suggestions for a level 50 Psion Talent. Go guys; I'm out of ideas, so the best submission wins.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Hexblade should get a talent to remove the mana cost on bursting touch. It goes through so much mana using its other skills that I find myself willingly ignoring bursting touch because its so weak for the mana cost. I think part of the problem is most of these spells are physical damage, which I believe armor of enemies helps negate? I still also think Petrify should have a use on bosses, but perhaps future content where CC is extremely important will make it useful enough.

On to Psion.. Perhaps a level 50 talent to negate part of the AP reduction on levitate? If you take the draining timber works on 1h talent, its actually semi useless (at least for our current itemization, and I dont think it'll improve much next version either). Soulguard is 23 AP, and gives 4 less total SP than Mind Breaker. 25% of 23 is just over 5, so you're actually only gaining 1 damage per attack? (probably less because Psion has terrible ArP, so you'd actually benefit a lot more from the SP damage).

Imbue Armor now becomes a friendly target skill.

Liquify Arms now boosts AP by 10% on the next 3 attacks by allies within a small radius of the Psion.

Also could you include a SP bonus in the level 50 talent that provides AP to enslaved creatures? If we want to enslave a spellcaster they should be able to benefit from that talent as well.

 

[SaikoDeMoN]

I really don't think psion should get any more power, utility skills fits the theme better.

1. How about giving her a support aspect? Like make imbue armor targettable for allies.

2. Make twisting metal stun or interrupt every time the damage applies (that would be 3 instances?)

3. Would something like an auto-life be possible to make? Like if you die, you immediately drain the life force of your slave and force your spirit back from the farplane through sheer willpower (with 50percent HP and 0 mana)

 

[Zwiebelchen]

1. How about giving her a support aspect? Like make imbue armor targettable for allies.

That is possible, yes. Feels a bit boring, though, as it basicly makes imbue armor a weak variation of divine protection. Making Imbue-armor kind of a self-centered AoE (so basicly it shields all party members instead of just the caster) could be cool idea though. It absorbs way less than divine protection, so it might be justified to have this effect.

2. Make twisting metal stun or interrupt every time the damage applies (that would be 3 instances?)

That would be a bit lame for a level 50 talent, right?

3. Would something like an auto-life be possible to make? Like if you die, you immediately drain the life force of your slave and force your spirit back from the farplane through sheer willpower (with 50percent HP and 0 mana)

Yes, this is possible, but self-res talents are usually unpopular, as it's basicly dead weight (hehe...) most of the time.

Also could you include a SP bonus in the level 50 talent that provides AP to enslaved creatures? If we want to enslave a spellcaster they should be able to benefit from that talent as well.

That was the initial design. I changed it back because I think this is a mandatory balancing element: spellcaster enslaves are already way more popular than punchy enslaves, hence why I want this as an option to make non-spellcasters more viable to enslave.

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Ah, I suppose that actually makes sense. The level 35 razormane with rage adds a decent amount of DPS with with the talent. However the spellcaster tends to add more support so that still seems to have value as well, so nvm to the SP increase :3.

Also about Imbue Armor as friendly target, it only negates physical damage so its not quite a copy of divine shield. But if you think buffing the entire party isn't OP (it probably wouldnt be) then in a small AOE is neat too.

 

[SaikoDeMoN]

1. Well then how about having imbue armor be targettable and reflecting the blocked damage? Like the physical version of Sorceror's spell shield. Or make it increase the armor of the target for some time. Imbue armor is going to buffed next version though right? It doesn't block much at all.

2. I wouldn't think its lame, staggered interrupt+stun vs alch (especially since you would be able to reliably cancel heal with the first tick), garg bugs or any caster like Andy would be quite useful.

3. Yeah I agree it wouldn't be a particular strong skill but I was just trying to think of stuff that would fit the class lore. However, it could be useful by sacrificing yourself to deal as much as you can on adds phase and it would also mean dropping all threat. I mean, if you're low on mana anyway why not go out with a bang before potting up ~_~.

 

[ALEXz407]

I'm open for new suggestions for a level 50 Psion Talent.

Maybe make some love for melee Psion builds?
For example convert Distracting Weapon threat bonus to melee (white) attacks bonus and reduce cooldown (sounds a bit OP, but why not for core skill?). Also can be used as a nice melee DPS buff.

Additionally, change Levitate to be real modal ability and add some melee attack speed and run speed when levitation disabled. ( << not a talent, just ability change

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Finished all the fixed and changes for 1.2B(5) now.

Only thing left is the talent change, which I will implement tomorrow. So until then, I'll collect some more ideas. Release tomorrow then, right after implementing it.