February patch warnings

[JohnCarver]

Well yeah, we could definitely push it, as most of it is done and most of it is working. However, I'm not happy with how many hours we have logged 'playing' the new system and tweaking it. As well as a lot of the systems just need a few days each to put some final polish on them. I think people will see when we drop it that it was worth the wait though.

[McTc]

In general, will current mine be able to benefit all that comes from update, or do i need to find new mine after patch to get to the best ore there is possible?

Meaning, should i still wait for patch or i can continue building out infrastructure for mine.

[JohnCarver]

We were able to find a way for current mines to adapt to the new system.

[Barny]

+1 for not pushing a patch before it's ready.

Fully agree.

We were able to find a way for current mines to adapt to the new system.

Sounds good.

[Thor]

We were able to find a way for current mines to adapt to the new system.

Thanks for this.

[Gernot]

Just two considerations that may or may not have been part of the encumbrance system design:

About pockets and gluttony:

1) according to JC, pockets' benefit will be that they allow porting with stuff. If that's the only functionality they retain, it's a major downgrade, as having 10 pockets before increased your max inventory by 35% (or more, depending on the backpack you use) plus the porting benefit. Personally, I think it'd be great if they added a bonus to encumbrance or if they stored more items for porting in the new system.

2) Gluttony: if you can just load up on a large number of food items, the main issue would be if you gluttoned a lot more food at the +2 / +3 level. If that's the case, then we would see higher biles a lot faster, meaning more balancing for pvp / pve would be needed. My point being, higher humours should not become even easier. On the bright side, encumbrance can also add a lot of depth to the system, if you think of different food items having different weight, this would add a second dimension to the selection of gluttony foods besides the timer <-> amount of humour. Another alternative would be to just add the inventory slots to the tables and only allow gluttony from the table (not the inventory). Some solution / compensation for pockets / backpacks would have to be found.

Just my two pence, the devs probably considered these issues anyway

[JohnCarver]

We have considered these things. The reality is that we feel that the combination of characters being more expendable, and gluttony into the 400+ range becoming more difficult that biles are actually lower than what we balanced. The systems were balanced around 1,000 biles. Right now players are slowing their advancement much sooner than this. As such, we feel we have room to give and allowing players to make bigger sessions that result in multiple points for longer is something we dont see as a negative thing.

[Gernot]

great, thanks for the info

Another thing that just came to mind harvesting tier 2 / 3 cotton: with bigger inventories, could the selector for crafting be changed from last acquired to "same item". For cotton, e.g. it is quite annoying to get "cotton cloth" because one indian piece slipped in the nine sea island. Right now, it's a simple matter of moving the like ones into inventory and others into backpacks, forcing the selection. In the new system, it might require moving lots of stuff into storage; this is ok and manageable of course, but it would be nice if the new inventory added more convenience

P.S. I know, we can't have nice things usually

[Gernot]

one more thing about Gluttony with the new inventory:

a feasting table right now feels like a major accomplishment (as do all the other high end skills like plantation management or fine leathercrafting). Depending on the actual amount of food items you can hold in your inventory (I've got no idea yet of course), tables may or may not be as important as before. The feasting table still being rewarding would be nice, maybe it could add some other buff (a reduction to timers, a better chance not to reduce the food group, a chance to spawn inspirational(s) while gluttoning from the table).

[Necrobane]

Oh god, february