WHERE DA HALLOWEEN AT ? (or other updates)

[Potjeh]

Yeah, I don't think there's that much pressure to keep studies going as a casual player. Humours, on the other hand, demand grind at the expense of everything else, because they're just so much more important than anything else.

[Nephilim]

most importantly will these changes when they are done be applied to the existing servers/characters or will there be a wipe? will current end game characters suddenly be rendered into an early/mid game status when the changes are made? i certainly have no interest in continuing to grind out hammer and nail or stocks and cults if it is not a long term investment of my time or if under the new system 1000 stocks and cults will be about as impressive as 200 is now.

Then answer about wipe would be cool. Are plans still like before to avoid wipe or are devs leaning toward wipe afterall ?
I know people saying that devs stated no wipe, but as far as I remember last time was when paradox was still present. Thing could have changed since then. An answer from devs would probably be interesting for many people on forums.

[jorb]

Yeah, I don't think there's that much pressure to keep studies going as a casual player.

Most of the early game consists of making sure that the black bile meter is either moving up, or down. Any break from that activity -- fishing, chopping wood, durdling around, digging, building a base, whatever -- is severely punished in terms of non-advancement and opportunity cost, as the time spent elsewhere cannot be recouped. Arguably the underlying system for the inspirationals, their math and characteristics as such, are nevertheless still vastly superior to the ditos of the gluttony system, and in that sense I agree that the latter is a bigger problem.

[jorb]

A genuine question which I try to pose without sounding aggressive: why would you need to fix both until we see either?

We certainly could release them separately, but I'd rather present a more finished whole.

As to your point that the inspirationals give relatively few proficiency points: I completely disagree. As far as skills go, the proficiency points required are nicely balanced in my mind

I don't think I made that point.

I'm genuinely pleased to see you aren't afraid to overhaul core mechanics of the game.

Thank you.

[Fduch]

Thanks for continuing to put effort into this game J/Lo!

I for one think that current gluttony/study systems are by far better and more fun than any other similar games out there. Current slow skill and gluttony grind gives incentives for noobs to look for communities and towns to join. Making both easier or faster may encourage hermitting, taking away from the social aspect of the game. As the name of this thread highlights, playability for the casual / new player would most likely be more improved by extra content rather than tinkering with already pretty good game mechanics.

[jorb]

Thanks for continuing to put effort into this game J/Lo!

You are welcome. Thank you for caring!

Making both easier or faster may...

Neither is the ambition. The problem is not framed in those terms.

[Jalpha]

Most of the early game consists of making sure that the black bile meter is either moving up, or down. Any break from that activity -- fishing, chopping wood, durdling around, digging, building a base, whatever -- is severely punished in terms of non-advancement and opportunity cost, as the time spent elsewhere cannot be recouped

I don't agree entirely. The punishing part is that in order to keep the BB meter dropping to nothing there is a requirement to spend a lot of time foraging foodstuffs instead of doing something else. This skews the start of the game towards wandering instead of settling, but this process is made awkward as a result of the limited inventory space. So settling becomes excessively important as a result, so you can have storage for both the curios and food you forage. After this point the game is quite comfortable, as you can spend your time digging, farming, building and foraging based upon desire rather than necessity.

But I'm biased as I think all bile drains should be severely reduced. The game would be a lot more fun if less time needed to be spent restoring humours, however for raiding it could be more manageable to have a more severe humour drain for destroy actions, coinciding with the removal of the need to run off crime debuffs. I'm not a raider though so maybe shouldn't be commenting on raiding at all. Especially is the system will change to a more siege oriented method at a later point in time.

I do think though that raiding should be a costly activity, not an annoying one.

[jorb]

Some good points made there, Jalpha, and I don't disagree. Inventory pressure is one of the things we'll be looking at down the road. Those things are more balance related than fundamental problems, however.

[Jalpha]

Ah, I was trying to say I agreed with the others who have said the proficiency system isn't that bad, only with a personal complaint as to the amount of Black Bile drained whilst studying. Somewhere along the way I overcomplicated my statement.

But then I don't know what you are planning to do with the proficiency system, and if you are planning on making it more rewarding by doing something like... say... fleshing out proficiency bonuses, I'm not going to argue against it.

[RonPaulFTW]

How did version three of proficiency leveling work out? Are you satisfied and off to work on. gluttony?

I greatly enjoy your walls of text - I mean developmental diaries.