Saw this and had to post it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOekfPyHVY

How THAT'S attention to detail.       

Woohoo!  First posts in a year-and-a-half?  Great to get this forum started up again.   

So here's what settings is working on:
Recently completed: revision of Shield Making quests
Currently (0.6.2 and earlier) shields are made using "Diagrams" rather than the standard crafting books we've all come to know and love.       The problem is there is a LOT of them.  So to make them more in line with other crafting, the individual diagrams are being phased out in favor of a progression of shield making books from which you can make several kinds of shields each.  Thanks to eonwind, Tuathanach, and Lumi for their work in sorting the rules.  Lots of new shields are being introduced and it coincides with rules changes in shield effectiveness.   I'll let Rules explain those details.

So with these changes there is a big impact on the quests used to reward these books.  There were a total of 14 quests giving 16 books (1 book, Catalog of Shields, and 15 diagrams).  Many of these quests had nothing to do with crafting other than their reward.  So this has now been reduced to 5 quests repurposed for the 4 new books.  The remaining quests have been given new rewards and one has been greatly expanded into practically a whole new fun quest. A couple others have been eliminated.  (Including that whole weird sequence where you give away your Golden Shield Diagram then later get it back).   These quests will be wiped for everyone so you can go through the quests again and get their new rewards.  So when the new update goes through, be sure to check with Trasok to get started in shield making.  And no, there will be no wipe of preexisting shield making skill, so you advanced crafters can just zip through the quests.  On another note, some of those small parts that could only be bought from NPCs will now be craftable as well.  So you'll have a choice between buying standard quality versions from the NPCs or making higher quality parts yourself.


In progress:
Bow Making is a long standing skill desired by the community.  Rules worked out the process some time ago (thanks to eonwind, Tuathanach, and skelbellor!) but the quests have been on the to-do list for awhile.  Cirerey completed the first quest and got started on the 2nd but left the team in December 2013.  So it was shelved a bit as settings had other pressing projects in progress.  Now Tuathanach has been gracious enough to pick up the project and complete quest #2 and with the help of Lumi, create the final quest as well.

The 3 were recently polished into working drafts and loaded on the test server.  So we've been going through and testing them.  Under the category of "this is why we test these things" the first quest wasn't going to quite work as is, so I decided to simplify it and reloaded it yesterday.  I like it better this way.  We're still in the process of testing these quests but they should be ready for the next update!  So get ready to make some bows!  \o/


Next up:
After finishing off the bow making quests, I plan on FINALLY finishing off those last two alchemy quests.  There is one more advanced, very special book to be rewarded for those highly skilled in alchemy.  These 2 quests were quite ambitious and ultimately got put on the bottom of a very large pile of projects.  But I actually did some writing on it a few weeks ago so it's just a matter of time to get back to them and finish them up.  They won't make this update but will be in a future update.

Attention community:  It was once said, we are ALL testers.  A big part of that is the bug tracker.  Though it is still being well used, it isn't quite as maintained as it used to be.

In the past few months we've already come a long way.  I considered making this post back in October and there were 837 open bug reports listed.  Now there are 786 and when you take away those listed as "fixed pending release" it's down to 726.  Still, 726 open bugs!    This is just bug reports, it doesn't count feature requests.  A lot of these bugs are really old and some just need to be looked at and determined if they are even relevant any more.

Back in the day, we used to have these bug hunts all the time.  The purpose is two-fold:  To find and report new bugs (which should be ongoing anyway) and to start closing as many of those open bugs as we can and make the bug tracker nice and lean.

Here are some good examples:
bug 925  This one doesn't even apply any more since Harnquist's old shack is gone now.  So we can go ahead and close it.
bug 1296  There have been a lot of changes in crafting since this one was reported.  Is this still a problem?  Can it be reproduced?  Sometimes it's just a matter of someone giving it a try.  If it can't be reproduced, we can go ahead and close the bug.

There's pages and pages of reports.  So this bug hunt is a call to the community to look through them, see which ones you might be able to check out, see if you can reproduce the problem, and finally, report your findings in the comments section.  If we get a good number of people checking out a page or two every once in awhile, we should be able to close a significant number of reports.  Let's see how low we can go!

And if you don't have an account on flyspray, it's easy and free to make one.

Note if a bug is listed as "fixed pending release".  If it was touched since November 19 (the release of 0.6) then it probably applies to the next release.  But if it's before then, it should probably be in effect and can be closed.  Just see if you can check if the issue is indeed addressed. The last settings update was before then so those will all go into effect in an upcoming update.  We're pretty much caught up on all the settings reports.

A kran guard decked out in what you would expect a guard to be wearing casually walks up to Harnquist's smithy and posts a notice on the side.  As kra pushes in the small nail to fasten the notice, the whole side shakes and a shingle falls from the roof.  The guard shakes kra's head and begins to walk away.  The notice states in large lettering:

By order of the Octarchy, this structure has been condemned.

Onlookers immediately notice the parchment and begin to murmur.  Harnquist looks around the corner and gets the attention of the guard as kra walks away.

Harnquist: Wha?  What's the meaning of this?!?  Harnquist throws his arms in the air as he takes a quick glance at the notice.  Why?  Who is responsible for this?

The guard turns around and tries to address Harnquist reassuringly.

Guard: Really? You need to ask?  Kra looks the rickety shack up and down.  Don't worry, sir.  This is good news I should think.  This old building, if you can even call it that, needs to come down.  You'll be getting a brand new smithy building in it's place.  This comes straight from the Vigesimi, herself.

Harnquist: Oh, I see.  Well, yes, I have put in numerous requests for a new building.  I guess I stopped trying to expect it.  It's been so long.  Yes, this is good news indeed.  When is this going to happen?

Guard: I do believe the materials are ready and the workers are being assembled.  So it should be any day now.  The guard leans in toward Harnquist and speaks softly.  I got a quick peek at the blueprints over Miss Stronghand's shoulder as I was getting my orders.  I think you'll be quite pleased.

Harnquist smiles and walks back to his station and the guard walks off.

[OOC: I was kinda pushing to get such a notice put in game but I haven't been able to get a hold of Marathal.  So I decided to put a little RP here.    ]

I wasn't sure where best to post this so I chose the wish list.  Hopefully everyone sees it.

Back when we had the magic fair last month, we had an interesting OOC segment and it seemed like we just touched on everything there may have been to discuss.  I also mentioned that Tuux was away and maybe at some point we could have a followup event to further discuss the state of magic.

This upcoming Sunday, August 28, 20:00 GMT, we will be meeting OOC in the Red Crystal Den to discuss the future plans of magic.  (Thanks to Dannae for use of the Den.    )  Of course as usual, the master plan is super secret but Tuux will be there to discuss what he can (just the most general concepts).

We can comment on spell effects (visual), which ones aren't working or may not be working as intended, which spells aren't working at all, etc., as well as general issues like GUI limitations and suggestions, issues which need to be addressed.

There is also an in game book being circulated with wish list spells.  Right now most spells in game are either offensive or buffs/defuffs.  Certainly there is more use for magic, like the practical.  In a dark place?  Summon a ball of light to light your way.  It is not an offensive spell, or a defensive one, but really another category all together.  Just one example.  Plus development hasn't yet come as far as providing realm 6+ spells or 4 glyph combo spells.  So certainly there is much to do.  And the good news is this will be worked on over the coming months.

There are also things that need to be done outside magic, itself, like NPC AI to make them react properly to magic.  Right now, you attack an NPC with magic and they come running at you.  Every time!  Certainly some spells will create different reactions.  Some should slow them down, weaken them, or make them run away.  Hit an NPC with Mind Paralysation?  You'd think they'd wander around aimlessly a bit.  And of course much needs to be done with balancing effect with level of skill.  These are just a few examples.  Standing on a rock and blasting away at mobs for hours to level is NOT the way magic use was intended.

There is also the shadowcaster concept which needs to be implemented.

So all these things are on the horizon and Tuux has been assigned the task of reworking magic.  Apparently most of the plans are already done, it's just a matter of implementation and working out the details (rules, etc.).  Still, feedback can always help so here's a chance to meet and see what, if anything, we as players can do to help out a little and point out things that need to be taken into consideration.

See you there.  

From the peerlist of the torrent...



 

Not sure if this has been suggested but one thing I'd like to see that's totally doable (I would think) is...

Extend the current animation for crafting to armor and weapons repair.  Maybe something specific is planned for repairs, but for now, it shouldn't be to hard to apply the existing crafting animation when repairing.  One benefit of this is for those standing around the plaza repairing weapons...this would signify they are doing something rather than just standing around with a weapon drawn.

Overview:

When: [Saturday, July 24, 2010 – 2PM ET, 18:00GMT]
Where: Lake of Tears Outpost - Bronze Door Road2

Details:
This time the monthly fair will be about all things fish.  We'll start off with a discussion about fishing spots, the different kinds of fish which populate them and for those that don't already know, how to get started in the area of fishing.

Then we'll have two separate fishing contests.

And finally, with all that fish, what else, a fish fry including tips on how to cook fish and make those excellent fish dishes.

So if you love fish, especially you Enkis, Klyros, and Nolthrir, along with anyone else who likes fish of course, you'll won't want to miss this!

Be sure to bring your fishing poles!

OOC:
The two fishing contests will be as follows:
One strictly RP'ed using dice rolls to determine outcomes.
And one with actual fishing skills in play.
Details on each will be determined.
Check out this thread to weigh in and offer suggestions.