Upcoming features and wish list

[Cristiona]

The chat pane should also be a little wider and have smaller text, like KoL (not because it's like KoL, but because it's easier and better.

The width is okay, and adjustable frames would fix that. A bigger size issue seems to be that it only goes about 60% of the way down my left pane (1280x1024 resolution).

[Ryme]

Not really, no. Clans are probably going to be pretty complicated. Not only do they tie in to chat, which is giving me enough trouble, but they're another place for money/items to get shuffled around, so I've got to be extra careful about duplication issues. Then there's the whole "what the heck does a league do besides hold our stuff?" question and at that point I'd need a bunch of creative work as well.

[Ryme]

Just wanted to point out I've updated and reorganized the primary list at the top of this thread, in case anyone is interested.

[Jesus]

Then there's the whole "what the heck does a league do besides hold our stuff?" question and at that point I'd need a bunch of creative work as well...

To beat a dead horse by invoking the name of KoL...

What do clans do there? You've got chat, stuff holding, clan equipment, and meatsink. Did I say meatsink? I meant clan warfare. I'm not a terribly social person so maybe I'm missing something obvious, but clans don't seem to have a narrative purpose there, and fair or not KoL is the only measuring stick I can think of.

[Cristiona]

Hm. I used to play Realms of Despair, and they had Guilds (grouped by class) and Orders (grouped by IC justification). Oh, and Clans, but those were the PvP version of Orders.

What did they do? Well... chat, a place to store stuff, a place to buy stuff... then again, in a MUD, you can (and sometimes must) group together to kill things, so they were good for that, too.

I also play Londinivm, which has Tribes. They provide small bonuses to some things (training, mostly), and make it possible to shuffle around raw materials, but that's about it.


But, at the core, Leagues would be hearty things. A bulletin board and a chat channel (and a little note on the character sheet) is probably all the more that is necessary. Since there's no cooperative combat, there's not much more they can do. Maybe give them a Soda Pop Machine that gives Mister Tea-like drinks that are cheaper?

I mean, seriously. What did the Minutemen do? They sat around drinking. Only the Nite-Owl and Rorschach ever regularly worked together. And that didn't last very long.

[MagiNinjA]

Oh man, I LOVED Minutemen. I need to get that from my friend again. Rorschach was awesome.

Clans are pretty much made to add another level of heartiness and competition also. Clans usually represent prestige, but they can be for common/similar interests and chat. Hearty things, basically. That and competitions between clans and such. Although I agree, like with KoL, there should be a boon to being in a clan.

OR WAIT. Maybe this can add a bit of interest to the game...clan or clanless. If you know what I mean.

[Cristiona]

Ghost of the English Language, please.

[MagiNinjA]

In addition to all these things you can do in the Ascension thread (randomly timed events + decisions, etc.), why not include a part of a path that lets you go with a league, against it, apathetic and/or not in a league?

[Cristiona]

I think the messaging system could use some work. There's absolutely no "new message" indicator

There's a note on the top of the main page when you get a new message.

I also think there should be checkboxes to allow for quick deletion of messages ... I have 44 messages right now and don't really want to delete each one separately. Again, it seems like a basic function.

For now, once you delete the first message, the 'delete' line doesn't move. You can leave the mouse in place and repeatedly click. Not a perfect solution, but it should suffice until the interface is improved.

Also ... I think it may be a good time to start looking for artists. I'm aware that the artwork isn't an integral part of the game, but for something obviously based on comic book super-heroes, I can't help but feel the game would benefit from custom artwork.

*shrug* I rather like the artwork.

[Ryme]

There's a note on the top of the main page when you get a new message.

I've never seen this for anything except buffs.

The main page does indeed tell you when you get messages. Can't remember if some of the other high-level map pages do this or not. I don't have it doing this anywhere else (fight, rest, etc.), but this isn't unlike KoL. Except that they have notifications in chat, too, which I plan on doing as soon as I can.

[Ryme]

Also ... I think it may be a good time to start looking for artists. I'm aware that the artwork isn't an integral part of the game, but for something obviously based on comic book super-heroes, I can't help but feel the game would benefit from custom artwork. There's plenty of artists on sites like deviantART willing to contribute for free -- especially if they're credited -- so why not get a group going?

A final comment, Ryme, have you considered looking for more developers? The game is growing rather quickly and after playing for a few days I've completed all of the quests. This is a great game and you are obviously an incredibly ambitious person, but I don't want to see it outgrow how much you are capable of giving as an individual human being.

Keep up the great work.

Artists I'm not sure about. The current style started as temporary measure, and something I could reproduce easily, but I've gotten quite a few comments from players who like the style, or the feel it gives the game, etc., and it's been growing on me. What I might do is solicit occasional work for a specific zone, or a special event, where a slightly different (but not badly divergent) style might be appropriate.

Developers? Yeah, I've thought about it. Honestly, though, my first step is finding ways to delegate some administrative stuff, like forums activations, answering bug reports, etc. That would then give me more time back to do serious development.

Beyond that, the next step is some creative help, and I'm doing a little work on that end already.

As for getting coders, that has a lot of considerations. After all this time I'm protective of the code, and having someone else mucking around in it makes me nervous. I probably just need to get over that. The second issue is finding the right person/people. I've had a few generous offers of help from players, but in most cases it's emails from someone who's been playing for a day or two and whom I've never talked to outside of that one instance. Even in a best case scenario, they've been around for a few weeks. While I believe these offers are generally genuine, I really need time to get to know anyone before letting them behind the scenes, on the off chance that their motives are anything but honest.

On the other hand, anyone who doesn't play the game already obviously is only going to code for a fee, and I have absolutely no idea what I can afford yet. The game has been profitable this month, but donation amounts vary wildly from day to day. I have no idea what to expect in the future, and, honestly, I probably need a month or two to figure that out before committing to something I can't afford.

So all of that's going to take some time however it shakes out.

Also keep in mind that this month has been particularly un-productive in terms of adding new content. An entire week was swamped by the process of trying to get the new servers set up, and the week after that was occupied primarily by fixing huge bugs that cropped up with all the new players. I think (and really, really hope) that I won't ever have such a hectic and consuming fortnight again.

[Ryme]

Maybe you should consider Google Ads or something to that effect?

I'd rather not, for a few of reasons.

1. It keeps the game cleaner.
2. I don't like ads and find them annoying, and I think a lot of other people do too.
3. KoL has already set the expectation of "no ads, ever" and I think a lot of the players migrating here from there would feel I sold out/betrayed that expectation if I added Google Ads.

If I thought it was the difference between shutting down the game and keeping it running, I'd use the ads. But for the moment the situation isn't dire, and I'm hopeful that I can stay in the black. If things slow down too much, I'll start by trying some creative advertising. Discussion groups. Wikipedia. Having Clackling invite a few thousand friends over. Stuff like that.

[Cristiona]

If you like the art style, of course, I can't ask you to change it. I think there are some instances where it simply doesn't work. Johnny Depp shot me in the leg on the Docks. I'm not so sure about that.

Okay, while I like the art, the smuggler and the Slick Thug were a bit of a shock, probably because they're so recognizable.

[Ryme]

Thug's been fixed. Sometimes I grab what I can with the intention of fixing them later, and then forget. Or I think the people are less recognizable than they are.

[Rueby]

Is there a way where in the auction house, once the lowest bid is over 10,000 chips that any subsequent bid would have to be 5% or 10% more? Bidding on silver stars in the that start with a low bid of 30k and only go up from there, it is quite annoying to go check and find all your bids upped by a single chip.

[Ryme]

Rather than a strict percent, I could see adding in some incremental requirements that trigger every time the item price hits another digit. Minimum of 5 chips for anything over 100. 50 chips at 1000. 500 chips at 10,000, and so on?

[Rueby]

Rather than a strict percent, I could see adding in some incremental requirements that trigger every time the item price hits another digit. Minimum of 5 chips for anything over 100. 50 chips at 1000. 500 chips at 10,000, and so on?

That would also do quite well! Anything to stop the last minute 1 chip bidders.

[neocamp22]

There is no timeline for us to be able to know when new features are to be expected, or even what you're working on. I know that you probably want to keep us surprised, but it's harmful to everyone when people are left to doubt ...

I can tell you exactly what he is working on now - fixing all the bugs people are finding. Besides that, he's working on the obvious, chat, and higher level content.

The new Level 5 quest was ... interesting. Honestly, I found it to be a bit tedious and it felt like filler, especially having to find all those swipe cards (which can be bought, therefore eliminating the need for even that). It wasn't complicated at all (as say, A Dank and Rusty Mystery), and there was never a clear indicator when to leave the area because a new location had become available. I think it's probably the least interesting quest thus far.

That is odd. I found the level 5 quest to be quite interesting. I found the tie in to computers to be quite nice, and I didn't find it to be any more tedious than many other of the quests. I do agree with you that swipe cards should be nontradeable maybe, but I do believe that there is an indicator that the next area has opened up....

Are you really going to make a quest for every single level? It doesn't seem very feasible. Despite that it's not particularly difficult to get from Level 1-5 in your first day, there's a quest for each level. Is the expectation that there will be at least fifty quests?

No. As far as I know, there is not going to be a quest for every level. There will be some higher level content that is probably scaleable in a similiar way to the pit, or like the basement on KoL, if you play.

Why not have a quest for every 3 levels or so? For example, let's say that there is a quest set at a difficulty level of 14. You gain access to this quest at level 13, and a new quest isn't available until Level 16. That way there is a difficulty range. If you wanted to get really in-depth with it, you could give a bigger award for completing the quest at the lowest level possible. Again, this is just a suggestion that is going in the direction of, "It's silly to have a quest per level." It's not particularly hard to level up in this game, and more important, there's no way you can make a quest for every level.

Again, a quest per level isn't planned. There will also be some sort of mechanic similiar to ascension (It's hard to avoid comparisons to KoL...)

When are you going to make quests for higher levels? At this point, there's little to do in the game after about a week. I'm spending my turns at the VR centre now.

Again, see above.

Another issue is a clear lack of items, and lack of rarity for that matter. As far as I can tell, I've owned just about every item in the game without having to try too hard. As a side-effect, pretty much everything in the AH is dirt cheap. Everything is accessible to everyone and most players have the same sets of equipment. There should be more stat-boosting and reducing equipment (or maybe ... equipment that only works with certain classes?) so that heroes of different classes have their own unique stuff to wear. I would like to see some level of rarity between common and ridiculously hard to find. It is too easy to get access to every single item. The way it is, there's no point in even bothering to find anything, as most stuff can be bought for under 1000 chips. Even ignoring all of this, just a higher number of items to find would be desirable.

Most of this point, I agree with you. But you have to realize that this is a developing game, and Ryme of course would like to implement hundreds and hundreds of new items - but it takes time, and currently he is working on fixing bugs, and redoing chat.

I agree with you on the rarity of items too. The Abbadon Charm and Ebon Eye aren't that rare. There should definitely be some ultra-rares, or maybe there already are....

[Ryme]

Dician, I know a nearly identical discussion about the spells is elsewhere on the fourms. You may wanna search around for some more details.

[Ryme]

There is no timeline for us to be able to know when new features are to be expected, or even what you're working on. I know that you probably want to keep us surprised, but it's harmful to everyone when people are left to doubt ...

There's no timeline because I've got no idea when stuff will be done. Purely and simply, if you *need* a timeline to be happy, you will never be satisfied with this game, because I'm never going to have one.

On the other hand, I regularly try to keep everyone apprised of the things I'm working on. The first post of this very thread has a reasonably detailed list of my priorities and the changes coming down the pipeline. That will tell you a lot.

The new Level 5 quest was ... interesting. Honestly, I found it to be a bit tedious and it felt like filler, especially having to find all those swipe cards (which can be bought, therefore eliminating the need for even that). It wasn't complicated at all (as say, A Dank and Rusty Mystery), and there was never a clear indicator when to leave the area because a new location had become available. I think it's probably the least interesting quest thus far.

As quests go, I think level 5 works best of the existing quests in a lot of ways: clear progression, utilizing different mechanics, taking more play time. It may not be obvious now, but there's room for strategy when it's replayed later. Most of the other quests fall flat in a lot of those respects. There's no riddle, no, but riddles are easily spoiled and become trivial a second time through. So I try to have some of both. Different quests meet different needs.

Are you really going to make a quest for every single level? It doesn't seem very feasible. Despite that it's not particularly difficult to get from Level 1-5 in your first day, there's a quest for each level. Is the expectation that there will be at least fifty quests?

There will be a quest for every level between 1 and 11. Then I will implement a way to replay the quests while continuing to build your character's abilities in other ways. Then I will expand to higher level quests. Probably up to level 16. On top of that I'll have a few scaling zones and some other optional quests which work well at higher levels or over longer periods of time. My focus is on creating complete, replayable low-level content, and then also providing a variety of options which are available at any level.

I know you don't play KoL, but you might want to check it out. It's a fun game, and your experience there will help you see what I used as something of a starting point for this one. They're just about 5 years ahead of me in the development curve, so the experience is a lot more complete over there.

More things to do ... not enough items ...

Absolutely. I just need time. Most of which, unfortunately, seems to be taken up fixing the existing materials thus far. As that gets more solid, I'll be doing more.

[Cristiona]

It may not be obvious now, but there's room for strategy when it's replayed later.

I noticed at least one way to speed it up...

[TheK3vin]

That seems a little game-breaking to me.

In fact, it may be just game-breaking enough to work!