Talad (Leader/Founder)
Eonwind (Rules)
Tuathanach (Rules)
Zunna (Rules/Settings)
Mordaan (Settings)
Venalan (Settings Lead)
Uadjet (GM Lead)
Emaline (GM Team)
Zweitholou (Art)
Gonger (PR)
Uadjet: The Q&A is starting now!
Uadjet: Hello and welcome to the Developer's Q&A! This is an out-of-character meeting where you can hear about the development of the game and ask the Dev and GM teams any questions you might have. If you do have any questions, please line up at the lecterns in front of the stage.
Gonger: Hi Damola! We missed you yesterday.
Anysu nods at Gonger's words
Uadjet: Okay, I think I've found.... Let's call it a workaround for the guildhouse floor issue. It's not great, but it seems to be working.
Damola: RL called.
Gonger: Not too loudly, I hope.
Gonger: Speaking of events, I added the missing event summaries to the subred.
Damola: It was not something bad.
Uadjet: I just dropped a stone floor under the teleport point, turned collision on for it, and then slid it just under the floor.
Uadjet: So far two people have been teleported in without falling through the map.
Uadjet: Here's hoping.
Anysu: Can you tp me to my table yet without fall?
Zarre: Worked great
Anysu grins at Uadjet impishly.
Uadjet: The problem is that empty guildhouses have nothing I can drop objects on. I need one thing to use as a starter.
Uadjet: I was able to get an item into the hospital by going outside the wallsl and finding a guild_gug map not too far away.
Uadjet: I dropped a carpet (or whatever it was) and then rode it back to the hospital.
Uadjet: So if there's a nearby guildmap with an NPC in it (so it's always loaded) I can decorate guildhalls.
Uadjet: Guild-gug and guild-oja maps have working floors, so there's no issue there.
Uadjet: I'm not sure about guild-amdeneir maps. I'm still occasionally poking Talad about setting one up to use in events.
Anysu: Would like to see hospital reloaded...
Damola too
Gonger: I was hoping to discuss Streaming Conditions today, but without Mohonin it does not make much sense.
Uadjet: Working on that. I found the item numbers for the signposts in the database, so the stuff still exists.
Gonger: That's good news, Uadjet.
Anysu claps
Damola: Well I pondered about streaming again, even with group chat completely excluded including chat bubbles, which would need some special streaming mode implemented in game, also main chat can be sensitive.
Damola: Cause: However much immersed one is, the real life character shows through the action and behaviour of in game characters.
Damola: At least for me that is definitely the case.
Anysu nods at Damola.
Damola: The other thing is that usually Mohonin just said: Oh, I am streaming instead of FIRST asking.
Damola: Now on the other hand one can argue that streaming an event could help attracting new players into PlaneShift.
Uadjet: I think that's just eagerness to help, and not lack of consideration.
Gonger: I am certain that streams can attract new players, but the wish for privacy should also be respected.
Damola: What could work is offering an event to those players who do not mind streaming in case there are enough players who do not mind. That one would be streamed then.
Anysu nods at Uadjet.
Gonger: That is why I had proposed to discuss today, but with one side missing that is difficult.
Damola: But those who do not like to be streamed would just not attend an event that is streamed.
Anysu nods at Gonger.
Damola: Uadjet, I agree that Mohonin just wanted to help.
Gonger: Personally, I do not care much who sees what I am doing here. Hardly anybody knows who is the human behind Gonger. But I respect the wish for privacy.
Damola: Gonger, I still wanted to make my point. But I agree further discussion may not make much sense.
Gonger: What we say here and now will go in the proceedings I will publish. I am a bit behind, but I had some crazy lack of sleep recently. Getting better now...
Zarre: We can easily wait Gonger. Get that much needed sleep instead.
Damola: Well people can at least write here how they feel about streaming.
Zarre: I'm fine with streaming
Damola: I am uncomfortable with it and I saw the tendency to self-censor at least in group chat to ensure privacy.
Thosor: I come to get away from relentless fecebook and marketing.
Zarre: Group chat shouldn't be part of the stream though... or am I mistaken?
Thosor: And yes, Damola, It does change one's actions.
Anysu: I agree about the change of actions in an rp.
Gonger: Zarre, yes, that had been agreed upon already.
Damola: Zarre, even when the streamer does not access the group chat window, in case you turn around you still see group chat bubbles.
Gonger: Let's ask again Mohonin to join us here next time.
Thosor: Zarre, the group chat bubbles linger like the other ones.
Damola: That is what I meant that PS client would need a streaming mode to hide group chat completely.
Zarre: Oh, ok.
Gonger: If the streaming player is not in the group chat, they also should not see the bubbles.
Damola: Well that is true, but that is not consistently how we handled it during events that were streamed.
Gonger: And it is very easy not to invite Mohonin to group.
Gonger: Yes, Damola. Let's hope he joins next time, otherwise I will start a discussion in the forums.
Gonger: Can we agree about this?
Thosor: And being recorded indefinitly, not sure how the Twitch works...
Damola: As far as I have seen Twitch may not store the stream persistently, however last time Mohonin wanted to stream to Facebook. And that for me is a big fat no-go, even with group chat disabled.
Uadjet: Most streams are only held on the servers for so long. If the streamer is a partner, they can set some vids to stay permanently.
Damola: But if enoug players want that during an event, that is okay with me. I do not need to join every event. If I know beforehand, I just skip the streamed one.
Gonger: Ok. Either we discuss next time with Mohonin, or I will start a discussion in the forums.
Gonger: I understand that this time is difficult for Mohonin... it is 3AM or something like that for him.
Zarre: In all fairness Mohonin chose to tell us but some may not have had that courtesy.
Damola nods "Okay, I am not yet sure whether I will be at next dev Q&A, but I said what I wrote to say anyway. A forum thread about this may be good to have anyway."
Uadjet: I'll try to find some time to do smaller, streamable events when Mohonin can be online. I think that might help.
Damola: Especially for those who do not consistently join dev Q&A a forum thread may be helpful.
Gonger: Right, Damola.
Damola: Zarre, sure, he did. And agreed, who knows who might have streamed to some platform without telling anyone.
Anysu: Is there any way to turn chat bubbles off? Only write and see what is in chat window not in world itself.
Damola: Uadjet, for a streamable event with Mohonin an earlier starting time might be good, as far as I understand our regular event time is quite late for Mohonin.
Uadjet: I could do a shorter event in my evening, which would be morning for him. I think.
Gonger: Yes, it is 3AM or 4AM for him... which is why sometimes he sleeps through the event...
Uadjet: Only have me do streams in the morning my time if you want me grumpy and vindictive.
Gonger: But you are gr... ehrm... great and vonderful.
Thosor lets out a hearty laugh!
Zarre: Hey, is that even possible?
0:-)
Damola: Well a streaming mode could work like this: Switch off chat bubbles, not display char names, move in game chat window into a different window (on a different screen) that is not streamed. The first two probably can be done easily enough, but whether Unreal engine supports moving a part of the game, here the chat window, out of the window, I do not know. Anyway, someone would have to implement it. This could start with an enhancement request. As I am not interested in streaming it would not be me doing that request.
Uadjet: The '/setskill target all 0" command is fun, but there are other ways to torment people.
Damola: Interesting side of you Uadjet.
Zarre: Yes there are, Uadjet.
Anysu: That is a good idea, Damola
Zarre: Jail time?
Damola: Well any other topics?
Damola: Anyone having a Q?
Damola: Otherwise any news?
Damola: Aside from 0.7.43 client
Gonger: LigH mentioned on Discord the existence of
https://www.deviantart.com/planeshiftrpgGonger: And there are some pretty good pictures there, even though hardly any recent updates.
Damola: Can you get LigH back into game already, Gonger?
Gonger: So if any of you has PlaneShift related art, consider to put it on DeviantArt.
Gonger: Damola, I suspect he is around from time to time with a secondary character.
Damola: Ah, nice. Sneaking by stealthily. I am fine with that.
Damola: Thanks for mentioning the art site, Gonger.
Uadjet: Okay, I do have some news.
Gonger: You can send him a message through the forums, Damola.
Damola: Nice Nolthrir woman there:
https://www.deviantart.com/crimsonskyr/art/PlaneShift-Onilise-Colored-257010799Uadjet: Some of the factions weren't imported correctly. Your faction points were determined by the quests you had completed in Legacy, but in two cases that didn't happen.
Uadjet: Conclave of Glyphs (Talad worshippers) wasn't imported at all, so it didnt' even show in the factions list. Also, most quests give the faction points to the wrong faction name.
Uadjet: Order of the Keen Edge had a problem too. People who had completed the quests found themselves with faction 0 (Ignored).
Uadjet: Talad said those will be easy to fix. He just needs to fix the import script and run it again.
Damola: And how it is with the faction: Followers of the Uadjet?
Damola: But the import script won't overwrite progress made since the switch?
Uadjet: Heh, I've tried sneaking that in but
Uadjet: Talad very wisely did not give me database editing ability.
Damola: The wisdom of the Talad Dev.
Uadjet: Also, now that I can see the requirements for quests I can say that nobody got the requirements for one of them right.
Uadjet: Heh. No spoilers, but one quest has requiremenst that change depending on time of day.
Uadjet: Brilliant.
Damola: Interesting.
Gonger: We cannot see day time now... or can we?
Uadjet: I don't think we can.
Damola: Yeah, I don't think it is shown in any window.
Damola: Maybe with a chat command?
Anysu nods
Gonger: It would be great to have this back... *hint, hint*
Uadjet: It's... 8:32.
Anysu nods at Gonger
Uadjet: But I think that's a Dev command, as it also gives me the option to set the time of day.
Damola: hmmm, okay.
Uadjet: So Talad's ongoing projects include the unstupifying of NPCs.
Uadjet: Yes, that's a word.
Uadjet: Now.
Damola: Well what would be cool to have is a true to lore clock in game. Showing in game date and time in a way a clock would look like in game.
Uadjet: That means giving them KAs (Knowledge Areas) about themselves and others.
Damola: Maybe that could be something that would needed to be obtained from a merchant or a quest. Like a compass.
Uadjet: These are the responses you get when you type something into the dialog box like "about you", "how are you", "hello"
Damola: A kind of (magic) in game clock you can equip to see the time.
Anysu nods at Damola.
Damola: Haha, often NPCs do not know what Damola is babbling about.
Anysu: Good idea about the npcs
Thosor: Have a diving watch type compass, time, direction, atmospheric pressure...
Damola: Haha, thanks for the extension ideas, Thosor.
Uadjet: Telling time in PS is tricky. Our sun doesn't move, and we can only see stars when they are reflected through the Azure Sun. The light emitted by the AS would work, but not if it's overcast.
Damola: A diving multi meter so to say? Damola as a Nolthrir who enjoys long diving sessions would love that.
Uadjet: @Thosor: Now I'm thinking of a magical gizmo that almost, but not quite, has all of those features.
Thosor: I was really surprised yesterday when I said hello to I think the tavern cook, and he came back with a few sentances.
Anysu: cool idea that kind of item Thosor
Uadjet: Yes, I added a lot of KAs to the Observatory people.
Uadjet: I hope someone finds them at some point.
Damola: Nice.
Anysu: Add KAs to who so far... or how many at least?
Uadjet: And some questions have more than one answer, so you can try again to see if you get a different response.
Uadjet: They all, for example, command on the other occupants.
Uadjet: Well, all NPCs should have the responses to "about you", "hello", and "how are you".
Uadjet: They also have generic dialog that all npcs (or all in an area) share.
Anysu listens intently to Uadjet.
Damola: I can imagine other ways to make NPCs more intelligent. But some might be difficult to handle in an MMORPG. For example in Morrowind the guards actually did something useful when you did not obey the law.
Damola: However? in an MMORPG more than one player character can willfully not obey the law and thus spam guard NPCs for example.
Damola: Morrowind is single player, that eases things like that.
Gonger: Yes, there always have been examples of players just being annoying, like leading nauts to cities...
Thosor: or kikiries
Damola: Yeah and I remember Gonger complaining about guards inactivity countless of times by now.
Damola: And actually that currently is what it is, they won't do much.
Damola: If you transform into a monster and try to enter the city I think they teleport you out.
Anysu: Do like the npcs being able to chat more, yet I would not want alot of data.. rather be rping with a player character for an extended time, than an npc
Damola: In Morrowind a guard could even put you into prison.
Damola: Anysu, yeah sure. An NPC can't beat a PCC.
Uadjet: Talad has also been working on the economy. One thing he's done is revamping the repair weapons and armor skills. Now you'll need special kits to repair items without max quality loss.
Damola: What do you mean with you do not want a lot of data, Anysu?
Anysu: Them talking alot the npc...
Damola: Haha, yeah, with 0.7.43 Damola has more opportunity to get rid of tria.
Uadjet: There is also a way to increase the max quality of an item, though it's really quite resource-hungry.
Uadjet: And merchants aligned to a faction will start having higher quality tools for sale to people with sufficient standing in that faction.
Uadjet: Though that may be delayed, as tool decay isn't in yet.
Gonger: That's a good use of faction and faction points.
Anysu: No sure haow I feel about the decaying elements and having to have skill or know another player to fix stuff. Now if an npc could do that fixing.. I put aalot of time into making magic weapons... and to have them decay fast.
Anysu: is sad.
Uadjet: The repair changes are till in flux, and Talad is quite happy to get feedback.
Uadjet: So please let him know if you have thoughts on the matter.
Damola: As long as Damola can ask Gova or some other skilled character to fix what she broke, I am fine enough with that.
Gonger: I will put out the missing Q&A proceedings in the next days, they are less work than event summaries. You can then reply and voice your concerns, for example.
Gonger: I understand that not everybody is on Discord, where things are often discussed.
Damola: Depends on how fast the tools are decaying. It is important not to discourage new players too much with that.
Anysu: Aye, but they must be on Damola to be able to fix. Most times I am on not many other players except on Sat. And at end of event everyone is poofing.
Damola: Damola has a lot of tria now, but for a new player with a freshly created char having to pay lots of tria for repairs could be difficult.
Anysu nods about new players.
Damola: Well Uadjet has put dev Q&A also in forum, so who likes to reply there can do so.
Anysu: And maybe repair isn't something ic a character would do...
Damola: Thosor, any Q?
Thosor: Combat reticle... I have rarely played on my own because of hunting problems. Glad Anysu saw problem yesterday:
Gova: I'm rather fond of the 300q hammer I got from the Festival of the Hammers, about a decade ago. I'd rather not use it, if it decays and I can't repair it.
Thosor: I'll boil it down a bit, keep on chatting, i'll type DONE
Damola: Well that would need the no Q loss Finest Repair Kit?
Thosor: On red combat reticle, works fine, but if target dies, or you miss,
Thosor: you get a white circle, and lose control of mouse clicking anywhere in screen.
Thosor: I found if you midde click, back on a live target, you might get back to normal.
Thosor: Before that, I had to X out the game.
Thosor: I thought it was always me, but Anysu, and others happened to yesterday. Linux, Windows, and Mac.
Thosor: DONE
Anysu: I do not have a middle button on mouse
Thosor: or scroll press here.
Uadjet: Could you add a bug report on that? I wasn't able to replicate.
Thosor: my middle scroll click.
Thosor: Yes very repeatable to me now, couldn't figure how to word it, and yesterday's event was perfect for finding out sequence.
Thosor: I kept hoping game bugs would be found.
Thosor: I think I reported it, but not in this detail, since PSU started.
Thosor: Should I stream it? heehee
Damola: Maybe you could add info to the bug report you made?
Thosor: I'll put it in bug tracker now that I have details.
Thosor: Yesterday made a lot of info, so now I can compose a good report.
Uadjet: Great. I'll see if I can replicate it with a non-GM character. GM accounts are always weird.
Thosor: And repeat: was so glad when Anysu mentioned same thing during event. She on Mac, me Linux or Windows.
Uadjet: Okay, we're well past the hour. Had a lot to talk about today!
Uadjet: So I think we can bring the meeting to a close.
Damola: Thanks, Uadjet and all who attended.
Uadjet: Thank you all for coming, and I'll see you at the next meeting in two weeks.
Thosor: Same happened on AMD or Intel... various miceess
Thosor: Thanks, all
Anysu: Thanks for the updates!
Damola: See you!
Gonger: Don't forget to leave the building before quitting.
