Jekev

A great friend, always kind and generous and he will really be missed.

Hey, the http://strikelimit.co.uk/Valrei/ map is hosted on my site - it is back up now, but went down for a few days because of a changing payment methods related hiccup . Additionally, M_the_C who created the map posted the code in the post linked above - so anyone who wants to can host an equivalent map as well - just in case my site has another hiccup in the future before the official map makes it into the game.

http://wurm.riceri.se/ This allows you to upload skill dumps over time and will show you graphs, you can also compare your skills to other players. Edit: Oh wait, you said that isn't what you wanted, silly me, skipped over that bit.

In the Valrei XML provided by Rolf.

On Valrei the tile where 'Walnut' lives is named: "<location>Walnut is home in Home Of The Treekeper.</location>" When it should be Treekeeper It should also be pointed out that Nogump lives in a tile called "Nogump the dirty" oppose to something that would make more sense such as "Nogump's dirty lair".

Around the forums I have seen: People complaining that Rolf is spending too much time on Freedom. People complaining that Rolf is spending too much time on Epic. People complaining that Rolf is spending too much time on Wild. Wherever they are present the members of the above groups are complaining about the lack of attention their server is getting while complaining about the other groups arguing the same thing for their own servers. From the above facts I would say that Rolf is being pretty much balanced. When Rolf spends time trying to fix things on one server the other servers will suffer (for a time) by exclusion. Occasionally Rolf will make a change on one server that will screw up another server. Such as Freedom code going into Epic (e.g. no stealing of boats) or Epic code going into Freedom (e.g. the mission-based monsters spawning). As these problems make people angry on both servers they quit and/or head to the forums to condemn the awfulness of the other server. If both sides would unite to say that Rolf needs better measures to not cross the codes that would be constructive, but instead they prefer to try and convince people how the opposing server is a horrific waste of Rolfs time and resources and how their server is better and how it will always be this way. This is somewhat correct, right now it seems that most people are not on Epic or Wild because they are not interested in the current PvP. Keyword current. Your post (alongside many of the other posts in this thread) preaches that Freedom players are quitting, and this may be the case, but Epic players are quitting faster. If we, as you suggest, look at the server stats, we may see people quitting on Freedom, but if we look at the Epic graphs we will see people are quitting there faster. If Rolf as you suggested dropped the PvP aspect of Wurm premium accounts would drop far further. The solution, as per usual is to continue to try and help both servers, not to drop the PvP aspect of Wurm and not to leave the PvE aspect rotting away in the background. What Rolf is doing at the moment I feel is the right direction, he is putting code in place that will help to save Epic as well as adding features that people from Freedom have been asking for (alliance chat) and a feature (HotA) that I feel is a good direction to go in for encouraging people to get into in PvP both on the Freedom cluster and the Epic cluster. He is also removing the muddled code from both servers, removing the safe boats from Epic and the Epic creatures from Freedom. I am not saying that HotA or alliances are perfected yet, and I would not claim that he has finished unmuddling all the code, but I feel that he is definitely moving in the right direction for all of the servers.

On the note of mayors being kicked from their own deeds, as I understand it code is already in place that means they cannot go lawless against their own kingdom as it could result in them ending up converting to HotS (which is a no-no as deeds do not convert between kingdoms).

Sounds like this would be a good improvement to the currently very light alliance system. I would to see this eventually replace the more rigid PMK(/base kingdom) system on Epic to allow for a more free flowing system of alliance and war that would hopefully encourage more people to split up and fight instead of clumping together (I would assume you can change alliance without disbanding the deed) and so on. The way I would imagine this should work is that by default all alliances on Elevation are at war, while on the home servers they are be default all neutral with explicit war declarations required to avoid reputation loss (as it is now with individual towns).

The argument against having an automated in-game mapping system is often misrepresented by the people who want such as system implemented as the opinion that there should be no maps at all. Many of the people who are against the system Wox outlined are against it because of its automated features, rather than the existence of a map accessible in-game. The objection is with many people against having an automated system for mapping roads and settlements. The way this is done now requires an element of skill and community cooperation, rather than one guy autowalking afk across the server then posting his map on the forums or selling it ingame. As with most mechanics it is more interesting if they are based upon real life skills, so combat is more interesting if its based on the person playing the character rather than the grinding-obtained skill of the character they play, and so on. Making mapping an automated system is going in the exact opposite direction to this ideal. Personally I find the existence of a map dump acceptable if its based on the initial server, when it is all generated randomly. The changes made after that such as roads and deeds are made by thoughtful logic from the players, they should be mapped as requiring thought and logic by players, rather than someone making a freebie alt and autowalking it down a highway. I would find the ability to display a map such as the hand made community map in-game acceptable, that would help new players without taking the thought and real life skill out of mapping. I think as a way for new players to be able to find the starter town again or possibly be able to get their bearings we should have a permanent beacon like the one we have at Christmas. I was thinking about this myself a while back, I think it would be a good permanent addition for helping noobs get back to the starter town.

I would be okay with a increase only up to ~30 characters of text, but its fine as it is. Sure, I could turn off signatures, but as it is I have no problem with the current signatures; they are sometimes amusing in a non-intrusive way. If you want to see how this would end up then just take a visit to the Minecraft forums (in almost all cases something I would never recommend). I don't want to see your pet dragon as it grows over several weeks, and I don't want to see a quote staircase full of smiley faces. I really don't want to know how Rolf would look if you badly drew on a fedora in paint (well, maybe once), and I don't want to see a picture of a bear impaled on dragons fang throwing up Pikachu. I would probably be forced to hunt you down in game if you use a picture spat out by some achievement generator, and if I wanted to know what D&D class some survey decided you were I would go to the relevant thread.

sorry to slightly derail, but why was this added? I believe it was because people used the low reputation method of converting to HotS to quickly convert back from a WL kingdom without having to wait the normal 14 days.

This would make more sense.

All sorts of awesome!

For the Wild and Epic forums you are required to identify your account as being on the servers; a precaution taken to try and limit the abuse of the PvP forum boards. If you are playing on one of these servers you can submit a /dev asking for your character to be linked, which will allow you to post on the Theatre section boards. More details here.

Forgive me if I missed something here, but what about [name] Council as a representative of Wild. Where's Wild's council to debate and add to the decision making process for IT"S server? The Chaos Council consisted of only Wild players until Othob joined, it was created with the purpose of deciding on how to improve Wild.

My font settings: There is an error with the front edge of the leading "W" on skills and menus: The progress bar text also seems a bit high:

A question, would testing your own GUI skin on the normal client get you banned for client modification? If so, is there some way to do this safely, for example on the test client?

Assuming you mean MasterJOATs as in people with very high characteristics, then yes, I see your point. With this in mind, The Curve could be applied to characteristics as well, negating the effect of MasterJOATs in the same way it negates the effects of MasterMiners or MasterWoodcutters and so on.

At the moment I believe that the implementation of characteristics on Epic will inevitably lead to the server ending up with the same "Window of Opportunity" induced problems as Wild. The way things are currently - only gaining Body Stamina from Woodcutting and Milling is silly, and when it is inevitably changed back anyone with existing skills in Mining or Digging will be screwed over. Other events will occur such as Rolf changing a skill that causes it (unintentionally) to become an amazing way to gain characteristics for a day before he fixes it. Repeat this cycle for few years (or even less) and Epic will end up with huge impasses between old players and new players just joining the server. Therefor I propose a system where characteristics are more easily manageable, by making them proportional to your skills rather than an independent and indirectly effected entity: Each skill would have three characteristics it benefits, for example Mining could give Body Strength, Body Stamina, and Soul Strength. A standard number balances the use of grinding a particular skill; currently Beverages gives gains in only 2 characteristics, while Mining gives 4. Each skill would give you 15 points in each beneficiary-characteristic at 100 skill, and 0 points at 0 skill. The value of characteristic gained by each skill is interpolated linearly between these values after the curve is applied to your skills. So the gain from 50 Woodcutting would be (75 / 100) * 15, where 75 / 100 gives you the percentage skill efficiency after the curve and 15 is the total amount characteristic your character could potentially gain. Rolf has the ability to change modifiers that allow skills that are harder to gain (such as Weapon Smithing) to give more characteristics. When one of these modifiers is changed, the characteristic gain for any skill you have in that discipline would be updated. In order to negate the effect of people with very high characteristics The Curve would be applied on top of characteristics to calculate their efficiency. An few examples to show what this would mean at different skill levels (without considering any modifiers). A new player with 30 Mining and 30 Woodcutting. After the curve these values are 51 Mining and 51 Woodcutting. Body Strength = 19.50 + 15 * (51 / 100) + 15 * (51 / 100) = 34.8 A longer term player with 60 Mining and 60 Woodcutting. After the curve these values are 84 Mining and 84 Woodcutting. Body Strength = 19.50 + 15 * (84 / 100) + 15 * (84 / 100) = 44.7 A veteran with 90 Mining and 90 Woodcutting. After the curve these values are 99 Mining and 99 Woodcutting. Body Strength = 19.50 + 15 * (99 / 100) + 15 * (99 / 100) = 49.2 As shown by the above examples this system gives diminishing returns on characteristics due to the effect of the Curve on skills, meaning that it should balance out for newer players in the same way skills such as Mining do due to the direct effect of the Curve. It also makes the characteristics more easy to manage and balance; Windows of Opportunity will effect characteristics far less. If Rolf needs to nerf characteristic gain for a skill, modifiers will allow him to do so easily and reversibly without hurting or benefiting anyone who gains skill during that period. If he, for example, wanted to change it so Woodcutting no longer gave Body Strength he could simply do so and any characteristics people had from Woodcutting would be removed - something that is impossible in the current system as characteristics are not proportional and hence it is close to impossible to quantify the effects of one skill. Note: You would be correct in assuming that this would only prevent the effects of any Windows of Opportunity where the amount of characteristic gained is directly effected (such as the changes made by "The Fight Fix"). Sadly changes just to the speed of skill gain in a non-characteristic such as Mining would be unaffected, but such imbalances could be fixed with small skill hits at the end of scenarios, or any other method we can think of. Regardless, this change would still be a step in the right direction, and could solve a great deal of the problem.

I am glad that there are more uses of steel now, but (on Epic/Wild) I would be wary of not making changes that mean you need steel x, y and z to be effective - it would just add another layer of pain to re-equipping yourself. Preferably steel would be a sidegrade rather than an upgrade (especially when it takes much longer to make), so steel weapons damage slower but weigh more, similar ideas could be brought in for all the metals. This would give you choice of using the armour that most suits your playing style, rather than the armour that will just mean you are better than people without it.

Home Servers (MR-Home/Desertion/The Desert at least) are already being raided with coastal attacks from Lómaner.

I believe the curve (replacement for rule of 70) applies to skills only rather than items. If I am incorrect then a 50ql cap is fine, otherwise I think the cap should be raised to 60ql as it was originally, it is a good balance between relative uselessness (50ql) and the standard of 70ql. Enough to make people need to go to Elevation if they want good equipment, but not too low as to make people unwilling to live on the Home Servers.

The reference to Epic being like a board game is actually to Valrei, not Epic itself. Valrei, which is where the Gods "play" is built like a board game board in its physical structure, the Gods move like pieces on a board. On the subject of the patch notes, a search on the wiki would have answered a question on what the "Lady of the lake" was for example, and in this case I think Rolf was clear with what he did. However, this is not to say he couldn't be more transparent when making changes that affect combat, that I agree with.

There is PvP on all of the servers, but if you hide on a Home Server you can probably get away with being a carebear, although there is always a chance of a raider finding you and destroying your village. Well the idea is that right now it would take (for example) 3-4 years to max out, so 6-12 months is a much shorter period (what you mean by maxing out?). Additional changes will be needed to make sure it works out, that is true, such as removing the effects of characteristics from combat, but Rolf is already going in the right direction, so I trust he will make the changes necessary.

I have the same problem, Avatars Animations are on "Walking Only", client closes and just displays "Press OK to stop voice" message a few seconds later. Error log: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6080323/hs_err_pid4240.log