Twilight Forums

Here's the things that are very high on my list of priorities, in roughly the order of priority, though I make no guarantees about that.

Always:
* Check/respond to/investigate/fix bug reports as appropriate
* come up with and test Items of the Month
* Keep an eye on multi-abusers and warn/punish/delete as appropriate

1) Roll out more high-level content (coming very soon)
2) Level 10 quest
3) a few more merit badges
4) Leagues (or clans/guilds or whatever you want to call them)
5) PvP improvements (mechanics, strategy, leaderboard options)
6) coming up with a couple more one-day events (like Captain Buzzkill)
7) Add more security features to character creation - require a confirmation email, etc.
8) Add a password-recovery feature to the game
9) More recipes




Other stuff that's up there but maybe not quite so pressing:

*level 11 quest
* ascension/retcon/whatever development
* more hideout choices/functionality
* more hit/miss messages for foes
* some non-auction mall-like alternative
* filling in missing skills and balancing existing ones
* Add /ignore to chat; create a contacts/friends list
* Possibly a system for upgrading/differentiating skills/classes

Ooh. Donations? I'll have to get in on that.

See, that's the kind of stuff I want to hear. Now I just need about a thousand more people per month who feel the same way, and I can retire! Woo hoo!

Well, good luck with that.

Sadly, I can't donate. Don't have Paypal or anything. So, yeah, consider my support behind all that stuff, except in a non-corporeal sort of way.

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Have a nice day.

I would definitely donate (although amazon would be a better choice for me. I don't have paypal.)

Hmmm... interesting indeed! I would suggest that before rolling out a donation system, that a fair amount of sophistication has been put to realtive to waht advantages such an option would offer...

I would surely donate after such a system gets established...

That's a little garbled, so I'm not sure if you're referring to the donation items/rewards themselves, or the means by which I take donations. Could you clarify?

Also probably want to find a use for the workbench.

As you guessed, I am mainly refering to the donation items/rewards, meaning that they should be worth the real cash, without making it ridiculous for any non donators to play, and still give a good reason for an established player to donate again and again.

I know it is a bit inovative for a web browser RPG, but on the other hand, is pretty commonplace (and very useful) in most installation based RPGs...

What I am talking about?

Displaying more stats. Chance to hit, dodge, damage reduction, initiative, resistances, and whatever may be hidden unless it could spoil the game.

I guess that hit and dodge are not only based on the character's level but on the monster being fought, so, I suggest the Diablo's aproach:

Displaying these values relative to the monster last killed.

Any feedback on that?

Damage reduction makes sense: I'm happy to show that. And resistances I'd always planned to show. There's no elemental damage right now, though, so resistance isn't all that useful. But I can easily show it.

You've guessed correctly that hit, dodge, and initiative are mostly meaningless except in conjunction with a foe's stats. However, while it's simple for a non-web-based game like Diablo to track huge amounts of data about your character and recently fought opponents, in a game like this it would be a contributor to lag, both from the server and the database, as those things would be calculated and stored with every single combat.

I don't think that's worth the tradeoff for knowing a couple of stats. Particularly when that info can also serve as a minor mystery for the spades to sort out. Also, displaying those stats would tend to quickly give away opponent stats, something else that I'd rather not spoil and would rather leave as an exercise to the spades.

I think the reason those numbers are so readily visible in a pen-and-paper RPG is because you're actually making the die rolls and need to know if you've failed or succeeded. In an electronic game, where it does the rolls for you, not seeing the numbers makes for a more realistic experience. In the early discussion of this game with my brother and some friends, we actually toyed with the idea of not showing HP and PP at all. Including not showing how much damage you were doing to the opponent. We thought the realism of "you hit him, and he looks really hurt" or "you hit, but it's just a scratch" was far more realistic than "you hit for 8 damage". But ultimately we decided in those cases that the impreciseness would drive people crazy more than the realism would appeal to them.

Eheh!! I run a series of adventures of D&D that way, practicaly I gave them only descriptive elements of their abilities, without even dividing feats from skills... It was a hell for me, and unfortunately, they were not the right group to do this, but it felt really realistic...

Anyway, you have a very good point about what should be revealed and why. One additional question: Without revealing any actual numbers, would it be possible to know the other character variables in play? For example, item find, is a variable based on level or is the same for anybody, except skills/items modifiers?

Currently, other than what's been talked about (initiative, hit, dodge, and the publicly visible stuff), I think everything else is what you would expect. For example, item find is the same for all classes and all levels, other than where skills and item bonuses affect it.

Just wanted to note that the list at the top of the thread has been updated to reflect recent changes, and expanded to cover other things people ask about often.

At level 12 and after completing all the other quests, I still have "Cat and Mick-y Mouse Game." Is this an upcoming quest, or something I missed? I'm supposed to "wait".

And just what do you not understand about "wait"? It's an endgame teaser, apparently. (Ross already reworded that bit to make it clearer)

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Have a nice day.

Not sure if this exactly fits into a 'wish list' sorta thing, but I thought it would be cool if some quests into villains' lairs and stuff could work differently than the random adventure format. The reason being that it doesn't make for a particularly engaging quest when you just keep clicking to patrol again until you get the right adventure, repeat, then kill a boss. Not to say that you haven't done a good job of doing things this way, having to figure out a password, or a person to talk to, or whatnot. But I think it'd be kinda cool if there were a slight departure from the random adventures would be good for some of the questing in the game.

It's hard to explain exactly what I'm thinking of here, primarily since the best example I know of a game with this sorta thing is apparently broken, the game forgotten and replaced by sequels (damn you internet circa. 1995!). So suppose a text based adventure but without any text commands (links instead) - you go north, south, east, west through the villain's lair, finding switches (like 'you see a switch, flick it?' - link), fighting guards (1 time thing, so it doesn't get abused by people 'choosing' their adventure).

Sorry, I know this is kinda out there and different from the actual game. The only reason I'm suggesting it is how immensely cool the idea of puzzling your way through a villain's lair is, and I just don't really think that will be as fun as it could be if you're stuck with the random adventuring system. Feel free to toss this idea out as garbage, otherwise, I can try and explain it better.

How about colour coding the damage dealt/health restored/pp restored/damage taken. It can get kinda confusing :/

What do you mean Smidge? "Elemental" damage is already colored, and hp and pp loses and restoration are in bold... Ross has even colored critical hits/misses...

I realize that, but it could still be clearer, See?

Some difference between damage dealt and damage taken would be nice, and damage restored/pp restored...

The mango mochi ball has a wonderful description indeed.

This is the wish list thread, right?

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Have a nice day.

It sounds like you're saying it would be cool to have a maze/puzzle to sort through, as opposed to waiting for the RNG to simply give you what you want. And, honestly, I couldn't agree more that would be an awesome thing to have. The tradeoff is they're much more tricky to program, which is why I don't have anything like that yet.

I have toyed with a couple of different types of ideas along that line. One, like you mention, would require a series of switches. Initially they're halve 1 and half 0. To "win" they all need to be at 0, and if any are at 1 you can't get through. If it's a small number, you could just guess randomly for a while until you get it, but that might not be super satisfying. Or I could program in a system of subtle hints, but then I'd have to figure out *how* to give a useful hint, and how to write code that can actually run the logic and tell you the right thing.

Another option is a chain of multiple choices. Say you've got 3 warehouses with 3 storage bins with 3 sections each, meaning 27 total options. You would know that 1 held the "solution" and others had a range of good and bad options, with at least one being particularly bad. Again you could guess randomly, spending up to 27 turns on it. Or, again, there'd have to be a system of hints. (The prize is in the second door of one of the containers. Nasty sounds are coming from the first warehouse ... something bad must be in there somewhere.) I think I've got a slightly better grasp on how to do those hints, but it's still a complicated programming task.

So yeah, ultimately I agree with you that these things would be really good to have in the game: brain power over sheer luck is almost always satisfying. As long as it's not so complicated that some people get turned away, and it's something that I can actually figure out how to do.

I also do agree that the color coding could be a little clearer, but I don't want to make it too rainbow-y, and I've still probably got to add a couple more types of damage (had a few good ideas just recently -- acid damage and sonic damage).

With the new welding (and any other future item combining stuff), would it be possible for the game to track the recipes you've discovered, and let you select the items you've discovered from a list like one of the greasemonkey scripts does with KoL? Maybe you would need to get a special item (recipe book) before your recipes get tracked and you can do this. Maybe certain items you can only make if you get a recipe to go in your recipe book first (you don't know how to combine the items), ie. the computers.

I just find that greasemonkey script in kol to be really handy, and it'd be cool if this game were to do the same thing in a way that adds to the game.

Ask again in, say, a year or two and I'll give it some thought. Right now things like that fall more into the "saves players time and energy because they don't need to take notes" category, which I do recognize as valuable, but not nearly so valuable as things like filling in the gaps in skills and quests, adding more new items, and getting something like ascension working.

As soon as this thing goes beta and the player base starts growing, I'm pretty sure spoiler sites will be close behind to start taking note of this stuff for you, which will help a little.

Of course, you could always try this obscure device called "pen and paper"

It works miracles sometimes...

And as an extra bonus, it cannot be hacked...

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I completely understand. The reason I'm bringing up stuff like this now rather than a time when a thousand other things aren't more important is just so it doesn't become impossible or require rewriting large amounts of the game when the feature actually becomes worth implementing.

My Wish:

Higher drop rates on titanium plating...

Not trying to make this game uber-hard or anything, but losing to an enemy doesn't penalize you. You don't have the incentive to run away before getting beaten up any more... And even if you do get beaten up, you might even get some experience! Maybe you should give at least a small penalty to losing to a monster...

This would make hardcore harder... if there was one.

(Oh, and I wish that psions wouldn't be so useless in the Renegade Robot Hive)

Don't worry, penalties will be coming. I just haven't bothered thus far because I figured I'd be nice during alpha testing. By beta, you'll have some disadvantage. Not sure what it is, yet, but it'll happen.

Yeah, I noticed this too. I assumed Ross would do something about it eventually...

This was a good thought, because getting beaten up, makes it a bit hard to test things around...

As for the beta version, I would suggest a different path from the one KoL set:

For example, getting beaten up in the urban areas would result in being sent to the hospital for first aid (for free) giving a small amount of HP and give a few turns of "bandaged" meaning that all further HP loses until "bandaged" expires are doubled.

Getting beaten up in the supernatural zones, sinces they are illusional in a way, means that you wake up in your house, completely exhausted (ever played Silent Hill?) resulting in not only having 0 hps and having to heal, but also losing all PP.

Getting beaten up in the bay would mean that you float unconscious for some time until a patrol ship detects you, so you get to lose a few adventures (fixed or random) until that happens.

Getting beaten up to other zones (to cut short the examples ) could result in reducing the time left until bedtime, in having chips lost (and if not enough chips are available, losing turns), or gatting a minor disadvantage for an extended period of time (for example, the whole day).

Yikes, I started writing some thoughts, and then they came like a mental thunderstorm...

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Hey, awesome ideas.

Of course, they'd be troublesome to work with, but at level 22 I don't much care.

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Have a nice day.

Those are some good ideas, Devant.

I might not tie results to specific zones/foes (though occasionally that might make a lot of sense). But I do like that a variety of things can happen.

As mentioned, going a different tactic than KoL is a good idea: not only for originality, but also because their stat reduction system wouldn't be much of a penalty here.

Ones I'm likely to use:

* I like the "bandaged" effect, but I think I'd probably call it "needs stitches", implying that you're still bleeding until you either have it looked after or use certain medkits that will take care of it. Honestly, I'd like to call it "still bleeding" but I think that might disturb some people.

* Internal injuries: another effect. Not sure what it would do that's different than "needs stitches" but it's got a realistic sound to it. Maybe an MP drain?

* I do like the one where you'd lose some/all of your MP.

* I'd also probably throw one in there that causes you to just lose 1 turn, as part of lying there dazed and confused. (1 turn = whatever your current average turn duration would be -- 5 minutes for new players, 4.5 minutes if you've earned the Heroic Efficiency skill, etc.)

* There's already one beaten up message where it says the foe picks your pocket ... probably that will be updated to actually take as much money from you as the foe would normally give you.

* Likewise I want one where you lose XP, again roughly proportionally to what the foe would give you.

* Oh, and there has to be a "concussion" effect, where you're a little addled and dizzy. This would probably penalize your to--hit and dodge chances.

* And then I'll probably keep one that's funny but not particularly harmful--every once in a while you get a break.

Mmm... giving a chance that combat skills fail due to the pain? Bleeding as a result of strenuous activity (during combat losing a few HP each turn)?

Maybe such a wound cannot be healed naturaly just by resting, but instead needs magical means or actual medical attention... (removing the effect by paying additional operation fees to the hospital)

For a more complicated version, borrwing from many heroic tales (even X-Files! XD) maybe in some high level areas, you can actually die, and the Nagual Mystic, will reach your spirit. If you wish, he can use fiendish skulls and fingers to bring you back in life, fully healed and spiritualy intact. He can also try to bing you back in life without using such 'beacons', resulting in exprience loss and returning not fully restored...

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Just a thought, but maybe you could put the equipment in the 'Wear things' section in the order they appear?

So helmets would come first, then mainhand, shirts, gloves, pants, boots, offhand, accessories, then lastly talismans.

Yeah, that's been on my list for a while. I agree it would be useful. I end up putting off stuff like this when the only solution I can come up with is awkward (in terms of coding/organization). I keep hoping I'll think up something smarter. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I don't think I'm going to here.

Another possibility for the dying thing would be losing all your beneficial active effects.

I'm sure it won't be *too* much trouble... Maybe you could make it slightly clearer in the Auction House as to which [view] button corresponds to which item?

So maybe you could have a different colour background for each row... Like these forums do with alternating post background colours.

Edit: Actually, I have no clue whether it will be too much trouble. So void the first statement if that is the case.