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)
Aachey: 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.
Aachey: If there are no new questions, I'll give you a quick rundown on what's been happening behind the scenes.
Gonger: I would like to discuss something...
Aachey: Go ahead.
Gonger: There are newbies arriving, but right now practically nobody seems to stay. I whisper them, and rarely get an answer, and then they are gone.
Gonger: There is a lot of negative feedback coming through the Help channel.
Gonger: So my idea now is:
Gonger: What about deactivating the Drykken Plane for a while so newbies start with the tutorial quests?
Gonger: And see whether then more newbies decide to stay.
Gonger: An experiment.
Aachey: That may be worthwhile.
Aachey: The Labyrinth could just be streamlined, blocking off dead ends temporarily so that it's less confusing. More linear.
Gonger: Frankly, even if we keep improving the Plane, it still will give a wrong first impression of the game.
Gonger: Add the Plane at some point later in the game... a weird spell shows you this part of your arrival which you had forgotten... anything like this...
Aachey: I'll admit, I think the Dryken Plane only really works if you start in a regular map and go through the Dryken Plane, but that means creating a new map for each homeworld. Two for the elven homeworld, as that one has two portals.
Damola: Yeah, that may work. But until then:
Damola: I like Gonger's idea. I'd try it.
Aachey: Ahh, a flashback kind of thing? That could work narratively. Have an NPC talk to the newbie, and then have them go through the Dryken stuff. When they complete it, they're back at the NPC.
Aachey: Something like that?
Gonger: Yes.
Gonger: Thus we do not lose the Plane (I find the construct interesting, but not at the beginning) and have an easier entrance for newbies.
Gonger: We should NOT give up on it, but move it to a later point.
Gonger: Any player who went through the quest with the changing rooms will pass Drykken Plane also.
Gonger: I forgot the name of the quest.
Anysu: good idea to try
Anysu: without the Plane.
Gova: Menita's Puzzle?
Gonger: Yes, Gova. Thank you.
Gova: That quest should maybe be tested. I don't know if all of the teleports will work here.
Aachey: There's a very real chance that NONE of them will work. I'll give it a try.
Gova: Is the Dryken Plane where youj go in that quest? I just assumed Menita whipped out a Hookah Glyph and sent our minds elsewhere.
Aachey puts on Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit.
Anysu: Never did that quest.
Gonger: Follow the White Rabbit.
Gonger: That is NOT from the Matrix, originally, by the way.
Aachey chuckles.
Gonger: Nobody?
Aachey: But that's a good idea. The Dryken Plane isn't really the best representation of what the game is like.
Gonger: Alice in Wonderland.
Gonger: But now comes the difficult part, Aachey...
Aachey: I just assumed everyone knewabout Alice in WOnderland.
Aachey: I certainly ripped it off for the last few Legacy events.
Aachey: Convincing Talad?
Gonger: You read my mind.
Gonger: But that was not hard in this case.
Aachey: Yeah.
Aachey: Talad is travelling at the moment - or was over the last week - but we could discuss it with him at a Q&A.
Aachey: We've talked on Discord.
Gonger: Amazing song, by the way. I think I never heard that one before.
Gonger: Does anybody here think it is NOT worth trying?
Gonger: Temporarily disable the Plane.
Karzela: I think it is a fine idea, but Talad may think differently.
Gonger: We will go through that door when we come to it.
Aachey: Let's build a player base again, before we chase them off.
Karzela: The seed was well planted in Discord earlier today.
Aachey: After all, chasing off players by dropping ulbernauts on them is a GM's job.
Gonger: Well said, Aachey.
Gonger: Right now we lose too many newbies too quickly.
Gonger: And honestly, I do not want to advertise right now, and lose people who might stay when starting with the Quests...
Gonger: So let's try to force this down Talad's... ehrm, I mean, let's convince him to try it.
Karzela mumbles, "A bit more respect from the stage..."
Anysu: Speaking of whispers, can a player choose not to have a whisper option in thier chat?
Aachey: So Talad has kept working on the tribes element of the game.
Aachey: Choose to not display it in main, or not have it at all?
Anysu: choose to not to have it.
Aachey: You can turn off the ability to see whispers in main by going to Options->Interface, and under chat text to main tab turn the button by whisper to off. I don't think we can remove that tab entirely, as it's part of the UI.
Anysu: Okay so it can be turned off. I asked because if someone sent a whisper to another and they didn't have whispers on they would not see it and reply.
Aachey: If the option is off they may not see that the whisper tab is highlighted. Especially if they're new.
Anysu: I just wodered that if Gonger was whispering and no newbie saw it or didn't have the option on so didn't reply because of that.
Gonger: Oh, excellent point, Anysu.
Aachey: So Talad has it working such that gobble tribes can gather resources, and use that resource (like rocks or carp) to develop their home. In the case of gobbles, they can build more fires, and eventually more huts.
Aachey: Players can slow that down by killed gobbles, and reverse it by attacking and destroying the huts and (presumably) fires.
Gova: Eagle gobbles and sewer gobbles are nice and shouldn't be picked on, but serpent gobbles are jerks and I wouldn't mind messing up their huts.
Karzela: Personally, I always loved the look of the tattooed gobbles and their huts.
Aachey: And in time this will be expanded to other creatures.
Aachey: I think Talad started with gobbles because they have huts already in the database, but creatures like Tlokes, Tefusangs, and Ulbernauts will have nests too.
Aachey: He's also got a nice surprise coming, though he's only posted in in Supporters so I can't say what it is.
Aachey: And no, I won't answer questions.
Aachey: Also, he's now checked the Observatory NPC locations and will be adding them to the game shortly.
Aachey: It'll be a nice surprise, Anysu.
Karzela: Well done!
Karzela: Hundreds of shortcuts!!!
Aachey: I'm quite fond of the NPCs I create, perhaps unsurprisingly, so I love to see them in game.
Gonger: I am trying to remember the surprise... I guess I must cheat, and check the Supporters channel.
Gonger: Ah, yes. People will love this.
Daevaorn thinks Gonger is a tease.
Aachey: What's the point of getting advance notice if you can't dangle it in front of other people?
Daevaorn: Any news on the more pressing UI/UX issues like the said shortcuts?
Daevaorn: Sorry if I missed that question before.
Anysu: Or maybe it will be more dance emote options! Would like that!
Aachey: Nobody had asked that yet today. I know Talad is working on it, but I have nothing to report right now.
Daevaorn: Thanks.
Aachey: Any other questions?
Karzela: None from me.
Aachey: Don't forget, the /mute command supports the area syntax.
Anysu: Thank you Uadjet and Gonger for the updates.
Aachey: I think we can bring the meeting to a close, then. Thank you all for coming, and I'll see you at the next Q&A in... three weeks, this time. Until then, have fun playing and maybe give an event or three a try!
Aachey: Oh, and I finished another couple quests. Forgot to mention that.
PS I am not allowed to create a new subject under
PlaneShift News and Rules, so I chose
General Discussion. I do not think it makes much of a difference.
Gonger
