From Crystal Blue to Steel blue: Returning impressions

[rakshak]

Hi all, I am pleased to return to Planeshift after almost two years, and I have observed a lot of changes, all of them have been for good. I liked the following things:

1. New cities (haven't familiarized with their names as yet, couldn't find any signposts for some of them)
2. I saw pools of water around Hydlaa for the first time, and was able to run through them. I was expecting some ripple effects, but there were none! I also tried sitting under water to see if I suffocate myself, but nothing like that happened! 
3. New monsters - always welcome!
4. Players still do good roleplay: even though some of it is not very well though or well-worded, still much better than other games where I'm tired of constant "my damage is 70k" etc.
5. Textures look much better - all the textures have a "sharp" feeling about them.
6. The ability to "introduce" yourself: It took me quite some time to understand who is this "someone" saying something to me!!!
7. Improved NPC text-responses: NPCs are now able to understand "Where is the bar tender?" question (but they do not understand "where is the bartender?" if I remove the space between bar and tender - kind of stupid still)
8. Sign posts: Though few of them give useful information (e.g. directions), some others give engaging bits of stories to build your roleplay around. I think signposts are an important introduction to Planeshift and each city deserves one at its entrance and exit.

But some things still remain the same, though I complained about them quite some time back:

1. No system of navigation: [Please forgive me if you've already solved this] I especially dislike getting lost on the way to Ojaveda and other cities in the same direction. It's green everywhere, and essentially all the directions look the same. I was trying to focus on a Trepor to kill, and after looting i had no idea where I came from! There is no compass, no mini-map, and there was no other character or NPC around, and even all advisors were offline! I had to kill myself ultimately, and found my way out through the death realm. Dear developers, we need a system of navigation, be it a simple compass, of a well-developed map with "you are here" button. I heard there is a map-seller somewhere, though I'm not sure if the map has a "you are here" button.
2. NPC server issues: Just like two years back, the NPC server is down at moments. This may be a very good feature though, because it encourages a break from monster killing so we are more likely to roleplay.
3. Lighting issues: They have been in PS for a long time now. Though earlier I was able to bypass them using -fullbright, it doesn't work anymore. I also tried -relight aftere thorough searching on the forums, but that didn't do anything good either. In my opinion, lighting has worsened somewhat.
4. Mining areas are still very secret for new player, and I couldn't find any visible hint for the presence of minerals. How about a "mineral tracker device"? Or at least a mining map that can be part of a quest? Or the old school style - different colored rocks to indicate presence of minerals?
5. Stability issues: Game locked up three times in 3 hours of gameplay (Windows XP on intel MacBook, 1GB RAM). Music kept locking up especially when quitting the game (choppy loops of music kept playing back for long time)
6. Graphics issues: One of the worst areas for choppy graphics was the arena, and it still remains so! Just stand on the stairs and you see the walls splitting above you. At one time I saw a bright red sky, fixed itself upon relaunch of client.
7. Many NPCs from the same area do not recognize other NPCs: Try asking some other NPC in Hydlaa Plaza "Where is Harnquist?" or "Who is Harnquist?" Many of these things are quite logical (two NPCs standing next to each other should respond correctly when I ask "where is the other NPC?").  I'm sure if the developers are keeping a database of all the questions players ask to NPCs and analyze them for problems.

Overall, I feel Planeshift has gained a lot in some fronts, though is status-quo in some other. I intend to play for at least one more month before retiring again in favor of studying!

See you in Hydlaa!

[Helm]

You raised some very good points.

I really agree with the sign posts, because I stopped playing the game more or less the time they increased the distance between Hydlaa and Oja to 5 times more. I got a bit tired of the game for a while because I got lost. The area is so big that I can't even find another player to ask for directions... Having a few wooden plates on a stick would be a nice landscape mark!

As for the textures, well, I'll take that compliment for the ones I did. 

 

[MustangMR]

I've been poking in an out of this game for a few years too.  This is the first time it's been in a real playable mode for any length of time.  Congratz to the developers for sticking it out.  I'll agree with all your good points, and just would like to add a few more thoughts on the negatives you posted.

1. Navigation:  While sign posts would really be a good idea, it really isn't that hard to remember things.  There are landmarks out there if you look.  I did run in circles one day on the Ojeveda run, but I figured out a couple areas that are key indications on which direction to go.  The mobs you encounter can also be used as landmarks as they are different in many areas.  That said, maybe a handheld compass would solve the problem for some people?
4. Mining is pretty obscure.  I kind of like it though.  One thing you can do is make a macro that attempts to dig for all ores and use it when you're moving.  If it finds something, the message changes.  Now, that leads to another problem.  The messages you put in the script aren't in sync with the server calls since it doesn't block on calls.  Minor issue.
5. I have to say that my install of PS is running solid.  I play on Linux and I'm loving it.  I run two computers, one Windows box for gaming and one Linux box for everything else and it's rare I can find a decent quality game on Linux to play.  I would love to see Linux gaming put a dent in Windows gaming.  Would love to retire that Windows box someday to a new Linux build.
6. I get a lot of graphics glitches too.  Not sure if that is all the dev's fault though.  Crystal Space controls a lot of that, and you have to deal with driver and hardware issues.  At least it's working.
7. Yeah, some NPC knowledge of each other would be cool, especially when quests send you to people all over the place.

[Jeraphon]

Improved NPC text-responses: NPCs are now able to understand "Where is the bar tender?" question (but they do not understand "where is the bartender?" if I remove the space between bar and tender - kind of stupid still)

Do you see what you see?

They're answering where the bar is when you ask them about the "bar tender." They'd answer the same way if you asked where the bar foobar was. Does that mean, therefore, that we somehow messed up because it understands "bar foobar?"

Why would you ask where the bartender is? Wouldn't it be natural to assume the bartender is at the bar?

Many NPCs from the same area do not recognize other NPCs: Try asking some other NPC in Hydlaa Plaza "Where is Harnquist?" or "Who is Harnquist?" Many of these things are quite logical (two NPCs standing next to each other should respond correctly when I ask "where is the other NPC?").  I'm sure if the developers are keeping a database of all the questions players ask to NPCs and analyze them for problems.

We've discussed this many times and decided it would be pretty complicated to have every NPC know about other NPCs for very little benefit. If you're talking to Remant and you're asking where Finara is when she's right next to him and her name is very clearly above her head, what benefit is it to have Remant tell you she's right next to him? Just for the fact that he knows? It's not entirely helpful. Also, figuring out exactly who knows who and how would take a LOT of time.

However, Allelia (the "bar tender") knows just about every NPC in Hydlaa and can direct you to them, whereas Brado can tell you about just about every NPC in Ojaveda. We decided that was a very fair compromise.

I've asked countless times for players to send me questions players ask to NPCs. There's a thread about it. Someone else will probably link it. It gets linked countless times and that's usually where it ends - once people realize that they can send me things to get it fixed. I can count on one hand with several fingers to spare the number of players who actually take me up on it in a given month, and most of the time it's about quests, which isn't what I'm looking for anyway.

We do have a database of the questions players ask to NPCs. Unfortunately, 99% of that database is comprised of quest-related questions, and usually those are just things that are said at the wrong time but are the correct trigger (e.g. "yes.")

Hope that helps! Have a nice day and happy PlaneShifting!

[Prolix]

I kind of wonder why you are playing in windows on a macbook when there is a mac client....might cause that instability, are you emulating or dual booting?

[rakshak]

I kind of wonder why you are playing in windows on a macbook when there is a mac client....might cause that instability, are you emulating or dual booting?

I tried the Mac client last time (which was pre-leopard era) and the graphic sucked big time. The quality was extremely poor, and the game refused to even crawl. I haven't tried the latest build though, would give it a shot tonight - Saturday night!

*edit*

Why would you ask where the bartender is? Wouldn't it be natural to assume the bartender is at the bar?

Because I didn't know the location of bar itself! So I needed to know the directions, and there was no one around, and the environment was too dark to navigate successfully. I agree not everything has to be defined absolutely perfectly, but then again one can't assume everything to be too hazy either.

We've discussed this many times and decided it would be pretty complicated to have every NPC know about other NPCs for very little benefit.

I'm sorry I didn't know it had been discussed before. I will search for existing discussions before trying to discuss this any further.

[Jeraphon]

Because I didn't know the location of bar itself!

This was my point. It makes much more sense to ask "where is the bar?" as opposed to "where is the bartender?" While some professions and their places of employment tend to be used interchangeably (baker/bakery) others don't, and the bar is one of them. (And no, don't bother asking an NPC where the baker is. You probably won't get a good answer.)

[Nikodemus]

Just a short comment, advice.
If i was doing quest responses, i wouldn't tell players that their questions doesn't make sense, because i think so and because they could have asked dfferently, with synonime or following logic.
There are loads of different people, more important, different characters. They can speak differently, ask for different things from different side than other do, speak simple language, not be very eloquent, not following logic you do and more. 
If you keep making the NPCs responses for what you think is worth (internally discussed within the team for major decissions, I also mean) and you don't take into account other people oppinions, then you are somewhat excluding them from the RP player base. The RP player base is more narrowed because many people will find the game not being suypportive for their type of character and so there is less diversity for all of us, because these types of people aren't there, playing with us.

IMO You should also strongly reconsider the idea with asking NPCs for location of other NPCs. They have to know. For instance in such a small village like the Kran city, i would expect everyone to know everyone, even if next to them.
You should just divide all NPCs into groups and write answers for each of these groups, so in fact many different NPCs will tell the same exact thing.
You have to think about such solutions because you are making the NPCs to react like normal people, It is your objective which was repeately told us. Because it is incredible amount of work in my eyes, you really have to think about automation on very wide scale. If you won't you will keep writing new and new responses and there will be still not enough. The characters we RP should still think of all the NPCs as morons, jukeboxes you have to kick in the right way to get any worth answers.
I'm not complaining at all, but giving you a fair advice before you all will realise that somehow people keep persisting with the same complaints even though you did #%$^load of work.