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(@[QT]Rhaegar) (Raam) How many ships can you own at any one time? And do each ship have an upkeep cost regardless if you use it or not?
(@[FLS]Brady) You start out being able to keep 3 ships in drydock as well as your current ship. It's possible to expand the size of your garage, though there isn't anything in the game yet that does that.
(@[FLS]Brady) There isn't any upkeep cost right now for having a ship in drydock.
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (FowlPlayChiken) What systems are in place to prevent port-pong? i.e. ownership bouncing back and forthfrequently as it does during Player Controlled Station combat in eve?
(@[FLS]Aug) Ports take a *minimum* of 3 days to capture, so while it's possible a port may pretty much always be in contention...
(@[FLS]Aug) It's not going to ping-pong more quickly than 3 days. And really, if that's the way the navies want to play it, that's fine with us!
(@[QT]Rhaegar) ([RR]Zach_Smith) How are long range crippling shots handled? Will there be a chance(very slim, but still one) that a lucky shot hits a mast and breaks it? Or will there be some skill resembling the rudder one but for masts?
(@[FLS]Brady) This has changed back and forth over the many iterations of the combat system (2 of which I'vewritten), but no, there are not lucky shots like what you describe. The ammo system is very flexible though, and there could potentially be an ammo type that is not accurate but deals a huge amount of damage to masts when it does hit.
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (Ocat) Question about pirates and PvP, will pirates not miss out on a big thing if they cant capture land?
(@[FLS]Aug) We think pirate raids are going to be really cool.
...
(@[FLS]Aug) Seriously though, our goal is to make the pirate experience different, but just as cool as the national experience.
(@[FLS]Aug) That IS a big challenge, but we're trying hard to make sure that pirates aren't just the Spanish with better clothes.
• @[QT]CaptObvious raids [FLS]Aug
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (scaryberry) National Attributes that balance out the navies, like WoW's racials?
(@[FLS]Aug) Our goal is to have national differences, but for them to be subtle.
(@[FLS]Aug) Subtle also helps with the balance issues you end up with any time you try to introduce differences
(@[FLS]Aug) We're going to try to let history inspire us on those differences, but no promises.
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (Mackenzie) As a Captain progresses and moves on to larger ships, will the npc enemies he fights in missions be smarter, or will they just increase in size and number?
(@[FLS]Brady) There's a lot I could say about this one...
(@[FLS]Brady) The answer is yes, they will sometimes be smarter.
(@[FLS]Brady) The challenge is that a smarter enemy isn't always the funnest to compete against. There's conflict between using good tactics and pressing the action.
(@[FLS]Brady) One of my big remaining tasks is AI personality tuning. I hope to have a wide range of AI skill levels in there that we can use, but also throw in AIs that will press the action and be "exciting".
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (Curmudgeon) In the 45 minute sail from Tampico to Barbados, how many NPC encounters do you expect a player to have?
(@[FLS]Aug) How many NPC encounters do you want?
(@[FLS]Aug) We're still open to tweaking the scale of the world based on beta feedback, but to a large extent it's up to you.
(@[FLS]Aug) On a trip that long, I'd expect at least 3 forced encounters - pirates or warships that spot you and chase you down...
(@[FLS]Aug) But if you WANTED to get in fights, you could probably have as many as you want.
(@[FLS]Aug) And if you don't like being chased down by pirates, you should do a better job running
(@[QT]Rhaegar) ([JoL]Philchow) Because of the ticket lottery system, is there anything planed (like special event, etc) for guilds to take part in final harbor battles instead of pick-up groups ?
(@[FLS]Aug) The lottery ticket system doesn't currently support guilds very well, but rest assured that we are VERY interested in ways to support guilds in these RvR battles
(@[FLS]Aug) I have my plans, but for now, they will have to remain secret.
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (Xaphod) Do you feel that the fact that the development team has been so open with the community has led to the final product being better than were it all decided behind closed doors?
(@[FLS]Aether) From my vantage point, as a relatively new member of the team, I can tell you that PotBS fans are crucial partners in the development process.
(@[FLS]Aether) While not every idea will make it to the drawing board, every idea is given careful consideration.
(@[FLS]Aether) In some cases, our fans have come up with solutions and approaches that were more ingenious than our own.
(@[FLS]Aether) The transparent process allows the community to actively participate in the checks and balances aspect of game development.
(@[FLS]Aether) Without that input, the game most certainly would suffer.
(@[FLS]Aug) You guys have always been great. Your enthusiasm has kept us afloat, and your ideas and feedback have inspired and guided us the whole way through.
(@[FLS]Aug) I guess that's just speaking for myself, though
(@[FLS]Aug) One of the biggest things (and it's on the forefront of my mind right now) is the user-created ships.
(@[FLS]Aug) We thought that would be asking too much, but certain members of the community pushed on it anyway, and look where we are today!
(@[FLS]Brady) IT's very cool to have a mechanism to get feeback from fans of the game. Any other game that I've worked on, the dev team has been completely in a bubble. It great to get not only the suggestions, but also the sense of anticipation for the game that's out there.
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (Curmudgeon) I don't expect you to say which ones but have you incorporated any of the community's suggestions into the game?
(@[FLS]Aug) Yes, we definitely incorporate the feedback you guys offer.
(@[FLS]Aug) No specifics though...
(@[FLS]Aug) Except for support ships.
(@[FLS]Aug)
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (zippy) question: there going to be patrolled trade routes and shortcuts for the more adventurous?
(@[FLS]Aug) We hope so.
(@[FLS]Aug) If you guys are patrolling the sea lanes, then yes!
(@[FLS]Aug) There will certainly be NPC traders and warships out there too, if that's what you were getting at. And if you venture off into the wilderness...
(@[FLS]Aug) You're likely to be on your own
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (FowlPlayChiken) what systems are in place to deal with players logging out during combat?
(@[FLS]Aug) If a player logs off in the middle of combat, their ship remains in the world getting pounded on.
(@[FLS]Aug) The ship won't leave the world until it's out of combat, and since you're not fighting back, that's likely to be when you sink.
(@[FLS]Aug) If it as an accidental disconnect, you can log back in to that combat, though. Just be quick about it.
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (Xaphod) Are there any plans to open avatar components - clothing, hats, heads, and so on - up to user content in the future?
(@[FLS]Aether) As we said earlier in the chat, we are really committed to expanding the User Content Program beyond ships, sails and flag design.
(@[FLS]Aether) The intention is to include things like clothing, weapons, jewelry, etc.
(@[FLS]Aether) Isildur, Augustus and myself have bandied around ideas for managing that process, and we are including members of our Steering Committee to help guide that process as well.
(@[FLS]Aether) You can expect to see regular and frequent updates on our progress with that.
(@[FLS]Aether) So in short, erm.. yes.
(@[FLS]Aether)
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (CaptObvious) How much of the game's events (trading, combat, missions etc) will be logged on the client side? I'm a bit of a programmer and I like to write little utilities for games - in EVE the combat was logged minimally, but utilities still sprang up to parse the logfiles and provide statistics etc - will that be possible with PotBS?
(@[FLS]Brady) I can speak for the combat part of the game at least.
(@[FLS]Brady) There is an enormous amount of logging that goes on for the combat. Until recently it was default to have this on in the chat window. During playtest all you would see was combat log messages. Basically the results of every shot fired. I imagine it will be much the same with those other areas of the game.
(@[FLS]Brady) This should also be available in a text file.
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (Curmudgeon) Are there mangroves in the game yet?
(@[FLS]Aug) You're going to love one of the capital cities.
(@[QT]Rhaegar) (Mackenzie) Close to two years ago there was a lot of discussion around local religions like black magic and voodoo. What can we expect as far as local culture is concerned? Also, will the slave trade be included in the varied stories?
(@[FLS]Aug) Great question!
(@[FLS]Aug) It really gets at the heart of reality vs. fun
(@[FLS]Aug) We don't plan on involving the slave trade in any way. At all.
(@[FLS]Aug) But as far as religion goes, I can say that we've already got Catholic priests in the game...
(@[FLS]Aug) and while we're still not planning on having magic, I'm not going to discount the possibility that voodoo and other local religions might creep in.
(@[FLS]Aug) Voodoo is just so cool
(@[QT]CaptObvious) Okay, and that's a wrap guys and gals - thank you all for coming and special thanks to Aether, Augustus and Brady for joining us here tonight. The log of this devchat will be posted on
potbs.coldfront.net and
burningseacommunity.com shortly. Adios!
(@[QT]Rhaegar) Woohoo!
(@[FLS]Aug) Thanks everyone!
(@[FLS]Aug) And especially to The Burning Sea Community, and Coldfront - you guys were great hosts and organizers.
(@[QT]Mopster) join #burningsea for more irc chat amongst all the fans
(@[FLS]Aether) Thanks so much!