sunsvortex

From what I have been told..and that's not much. People are still returning from summer vacations. I have spoken with the new guy a bit (RedBaron_Johan) and almost every other sentence is Ill quote - ""we have to adapt and listen to our player base"". He is aware that communication is lacking and is working to correct it. Cant ask for more than that, but well see how that evolves. As to the OP's comment - "Some of these changes only take a few adjusted lines of code to solve(I assume)." - Perhaps it does ...perhaps it doesnt. Even if it does you have to find the issue to begin with and given that some of the code is 10 years old that may or may not be quick to do. Id be careful about making such assumptions as I have worked on ERP's bug hunting and have seen my self and others take weeks simply finding a damn bug. Sometimes ..once found they are a simple fix...sometimes not. Its not really possible to gleen any progress information from a small team of devs based on the amount of fixes that are being published. Hell 75% of the time they don't even publish the changes they make.(also an issue) Also from OP - "So basically, I just wish staff would communicate more. Takes like 10 seconds to comment on a thread and say you're either looking into it or are deciding to leave it as is. Or a little progress report once in a while if something is taking longer than expected to fix, would be nice. And just more output of fixes and development in general would be great." - Simply could not agree more. I was asking about the same things in mails to staff several weeks ago - Q1. Will there ever be documentation of additions..upgrades...whatever syntax you want to use "Before" said items are released on the live servers. I understand that the devs are busy developing said items...but surely someone can get with them right before the release and say..." ok tell me how its supposed to work". Then that person can wait till release date and right after the install has been done.. post on the forums the way the items are supposed to work. I really dont buy this idea of "oh well let everyone figure it out cause it will be fun"....for some items... sure I can see this..but as a blanket ..."here they are, go figure it out"...very few people find this fun. And let me be clear about the type of documentation - essentially a wiki entry. The wiki is also terribly outdated in areas..so if we had a "wiki style" (in that it covers all the detailed info), forum post or wiki entry ect ect. this would be very appreciated, as not only would people be able to immediately start enjoying the new content, those that may be in charge of the wiki could have the info to keep it up to date. Again I just dont buy the ..."go figure it out" garbage....It causes a lot more problems than the "fun" it may be providing a handful of players. I see this as forced testing and I don't particularly want to have my game turned into a job. Q2. Bug Reporting - when someone reports on the forum that they believe they have found a bug....would it be possible to get a verification of whether or not it is a bug? A simple "Confirmed - working on it" or "Unknown - will examine" or "Not a Bug - contact CA Help" or "Not a Bug - Intended Functionality" . Again Yes I know they are busy working on resolving and builiding items...but a very simple straightforward communicae on the status of items (within 24 hours) would be very much appreciated I think by everyone. Q6. Could we do a High Level Q&A where the questions are not on specific items of gameplay and speak to more of the direction of WURM, long term goals, and visions.? Perhaps where the company is financially..ie is it stable..has it gained a large enough profit to move forward on said directions...ect ect ect. I know at least RedBaron is aware of the issues and promises to bring a lot of these things up at the meetings he attends if not address them directly.

it is..its a separate game..but the content built by the players will or can be used in EQ Next.

So it seems SONY and Minecraft have went into some sort of a partenership with EQNext Landmark. It seems Landmark will be a FTP advanced Minecraft game that SONY will use to allow the community to build content for themselves as well as possibly for their games. Now obviously its SONY....and everything they say should be taken with very large grains of salt...however...it looks like they have been taking notes about whats been successful over the past few years in the MMO arena and started swiping ideas. Heres the article - http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/2/4582742/everquest-next-landmark-sony-online-entertainment Some interesting snippets from the article "An Earth Wizard can raise a stone wall and monsters have to path around it, or you can make a hole and pepper them with fire," he said. "Lots of characters' abilities do different types of deformation. Catapults can chew away at terrain." As players tear away at the surface of the planet they'll be able to explore deep into the land's bedrock. But where EverQuest Next is a story-driven experience, Landmark is an experience that, like Minecraft, is driven by creation. comparison of Minecraft objects and Landmark Objects - its easy to tell which is which As with Minecraft, players will have to find resources to use in their creations. Players can also find pre-built items spread across the worlds which they can take back to their land. They'll also find recipes and templates that can be used for creating items on specific sorts of crafting tables located in certain hubs in the world. Players can sell their creations to one another for real money for use, if appropriate, in either or both games. Players can also sell particularly good creations to Sony Online Entertainment for an "appropriate" fee. "If we get one million people playing Landmark," Georgeson said, "and ten percent start making things, and ten percent of those finish and ten percent of that isn't crap, that's still a thousand people making cool stuff. And we don't have 1,000 people on the development team." If this all lives up to the hype...or for that matter comes even close to it....im curious to the future of WURM.

Are they any bigger or the same size just with different skin? Pics for new signs - http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/85374-new-signs/ Pics for new rugs - http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/85363-new-meditation-rugs-graphics-update-pics-as-of-20130801-incomplete/

Sounds great, I sincerely look forward to it And I see your getting a promotion and or more work since Wossoo is stepping down - "Johan Svensson, the latest full-time Code Club AB employee, will be taking on a similar role in his new position in Marketing. He has already begun working on creating new marketing material for Wurm, as well as the new Dev Diaries you may have already seen, and it seems logical for him to also oversee Wurm's PRAs and social media work" Good Luck to you in this endeavor

Couple three or four items here if I may, The use of "lighthearted nature" is too easily misconstrued as half ass and unprofessional, lackadaisical and goldbricking, especially given the number of bugs that are still present in the game after all the recent development and price increases. That such a poorly produced video was actually published reinforces this idea. This "face of the company" while not entirely pervasive amongst the community at the moment is starting to manifest itself and is gaining ground as a legitimate perception. While I understand that you may be split in your duties and responsibilities and have to assign priorities based on whatever criteria has been handed you, if you don't have the time to do it right...don't do it at all. Quality before Quantity. There is a game of expectations that must be played by the company whether it likes it or not. You, being part of or working with the marketers, are on the front lines of this expectations game and as such should be the ones that out of all, understand that "Face = Perception and Perception =Truth". Hiding behind the precept that WURM is a unique game only works for so long. Sooner or later the marketing staff is going to have address all the issues that are being brought up by the players and start communicating the information that is desired...not the information you want to disseminate. While those two are not mutually exclusive, we have had an abundance of information that Code Club wants to give us and are starving for information we desire. A lot of information about the game is horded and only snippets and vague notions of concepts that "may" come into being are allowed out to the general public. So how about doing developer diaries where they speak about the direction of the game...for an example...and its just an example....is the game complex enough?, is it too complex?, is it right where the devs want it to be? How about future expansion? Simply stating that there will be "more of everything" is a bit vague don't you think?.....care to elaborate? I think a lot of people would like to hear about that. Where will the game be in 2 years...in 5 years...in the next 10 years?.... How will the graphics evolve? and in what time frame can we expect to see them evolve. A lot of older graphics have not been updated, are they going to be? There is simply tons and tons of subject matter that people have been asking about for a long time.....why not use those as a grab bag of ideas to base the developer diaries on. Sure the music is great but again comes the expectations game. Its not a big thing to gamers that are used to everything else on the market..so doing the diary on the music only serves to highlight how far behind the times the game is and only plays to the games current base of players. Lets face it...no one plays an MMO because it has great music. That's not to say that its not a good thing to have...its just not going to bring in hordes of players unless your doing a guitar hero clone. I am not, nor do I think anyone else is asking you to limit the subject matter to technical items only, but I think many are asking that the information that's being given them is of interest to them....not necessarily of interest to Code Club....and that it is presented in a professional and truthful fashion. Im not going to say light hearted is bad per sey, but at the moment...you're not doing yourself any favors by presenting anything that way. In fact it only serves to undermine the credibility of the organization...again..at this point in time. There are too many bugs...too many people leaving the game...and not enough information. If your going to spend time creating developer diaries then do so in such a fashion that you craft the image and face of the organization and the game. Do so in a fashion that disseminates both the information we as players are interested in as well as the information Code Club would like to highlight. And please for the love of good cooking...stay away from the mickey mouse productions.

I guess Ill be the ole stick in the mud then...Im not a fan of this...its embarrassing to watch and makes me cringe. I was expecting Mickey Mouse to step out into scene..thats not an insult and im not kidding...let me get a pic... Wouldn't that fit right in? I was so overwhelmed with disbelief concerning the complete lack of any kind of professionalism that I honestly can only remember snippets of the actual subject matter. I really hope they didn't have to pay for this and I hope their new person that did this has offered it up as a freebee and apologizes to someone. This isn't a personal attack....its simply just that bad. Seems a bit harsh you say? Well the rest of the comments in here are full of support so Im sure the new guys ego is well padded. The whole thing is quite disappointing unless I guess you are 9 or 10 years old. Really what audience are / were the creators of this....masterpiece..... trying to reach? What message is trying to be conveyed? Its beyond me...if it were the younger players there would have been no need to mention Pink Floyd as they were long before their time. It certainly wasn't towards the older players...so I don't know...im actually still in shock from it. In all seriousness, how old is the new guy that did this? What are his credentials? Im not attacking him, depending on his age and or experience, it could be construed as really good. Certainly not anything I would have ever expected and certainly lackluster at best on production quality. The worst thing is that the message is lost in the absurdity of it all. The first thing that comes to mind is Disney land...and its sooooooo off base when discussing the new music...which is quite well done....Its a pity this was actually released. Sorry to be the stick in the mud...but this was just plain ole bad. There really is no other way to put it. Flame away...knock yourself out.

Nicely done indeed I have expanded my lavender fields to 284 plants. Im going to hedge the walnut lined roads as well. Im finding I really like the low hedges along roadways.

Catapults work somewhat to knock down outer walls....but arched walls are very tough to take down... 8 hits with 60 ql Rock shard = [20:54:13] QL=61.077038, dam=6.318137 Can take down double doors of 60 ish QL in about 15 hits on avg. using 50 QL rock shard and this is on deed with mayor bonus

Not really...I don't want to see animals horded anymore. By having enchanted grass permanent - it allows free feeding of animals while reducing by a large % the amount of maintenance required to keep large sized animal farms - thereby increasing ..overall... the number of players that have huge animal farms - thereby locking up more animals that other new players or players that have never had the opportunity to participate in animal husbandry, have available, due to animals being horded. Removing permanency from enchanted grass is just one of many steps that needed to be done to ensure such a thing does not happen again. Im not against large animal farms...just think their should be very few of them - and those that put the time and effort into them should be the ones that reap the rewards - not the idler, come online once a month people, who... by default....lock up content. I started the game during the time of animal hoarding...it sucked - and I support any effort to reduce the frequency of hoarding..and thereby increase available content for everyone. I don't care for a handful of players that "own" the content...so to speak. The 1x2's are a reminder of that time - and they simply piss me off. So in short - having permanent grass available is not a solution..it only pushes the game back into the past...it needs to go forward. So now that 1. Enchanted grass is gone - no free feeding 2. Animal ratio is in - no 10000 animals per deed and 3. Spawning mechanics have changed = End Result, which = Wild horses all over the server - and not just horses, pigs, dogs, deer, cattle.(when I first started playing it was not possible to find wild anything on the server) Anyone that wants to get into animal husbandry can - and they are not required to either depend on someones charity to give them the animals they are looking for or be forced to pay ridiculously high prices just to get into AH...the barriers to entry have been removed so that everyone now can enjoy that content...that was (when I first started playing) locked out to all but those that were willing to pay or knew someone.

Ok then "IF" that's the case (As its been quite some time since I was heavily breeding and the devs love to slide in unannounced changes) - then it sounds like there is a problem with pathing. I would suggest that pathing not be the determining factor in determining how /when a tile gets packed and look at when the tile is 1. grazed till its short... then 2.apply the amount of time an animal is located on the tile (that's grazed till short or is flagged as having short grass) to determine whether or not the tile gets packed.( I actually have no idea how this is calculated and unless I see where a dev says - "this is how its calculated" any assumption will be viewed as suspect.) Now regardless of what your using to feed grazing animals it will all get packed. Then you can give enchanted grass a bonus to longevity as Spellcast was suggesting and it will be worth getting the enchanted grass to begin with. Now as far as testing goes....unless your testing with 50+ animals and using a baseline to compare against..your results are not going to be very accurate at all. The more data points the more accurate the result. But again, my point is, simply reversing the enchanted grass back to permanent is not a solution.

OK...I had to go looking for this one as its been a long time since I was heavily breeding. I used to have 100+ animals...90% horses and the below shot is just a small portion of the upper pens I had...long before any of the new fences and multistory. New animal graphics were just starting to come out when this was taken. As you can see there are a lot of 1x2's and 2x2's in this shot. The 1x2's are holding a single animal and the 2x2's hold 2. Notice there also no tiles of enchanted grass...I used crops...I was just starting to get enchanted grass going down on the lower pens so I think there was only 1 enchanted grass tile ..maybe 2 over to the left of the pic that's not shown....So here is my point...all those pens required "daily" replanting with crops or flowers. Even the 1x2's that you say do not get packed as much and are made more desirable now. Such a statement is simply not true. replanting in those 1x2's was a "daily" chore..unless you got the enchanted grass in...no more work then. You can easily see the new crop tiles in the 1x2's. To state that removing the permanency from enchanted grass tiles encourages 1x2 pens..is simply not true...or for those who think that's a solution..they will learn...as I did...its a daily chore. that's why all those old horse pens in my first post are rotting away..they simply don't work anymore unless you really want to spend all day replanting tiles.

Below is why I think they should not change enchanted grass back to permanent. Nothing but 1 x 2's as far as the eye can see. Luckily since the change..these types of pens are a lot less common now and most are rotting away..as this one is. this is a good thing. Keeps horse hoarding to a minimum. Now...I have started with new pens that are working quite nicely. I use Camelia hedges so that they only grow to medium height and use the new roundpole fence gates. the pens are 3x3 with an Oak in the center. The oak creates grass and kills any new trees that may like to try and invade. I have had the horse pictured in this pen for a couple weeks now. Only ever see 1 tile packed so if I get OCD about ,it a quick flower planting and its back to good. Since im using hedges as the fences one can easily construct off deed pens with outer stone walls and inner hedge walls to minimize maintenance and use your perimeter if you so wish. Any way you want to build them..just build bigger pens if you must have pens. I should have enough room on my deed to hold 40 animals all in their own individual pens just by surrounding the deed with pens and have all the core of the deed free to do everything else. I have no real issues with grass being trampled at all.

This is one of the neighbors roads - three lane with oaks evenly spaced down the center. He is supposed to be putting the rock curbs around them..but I guess well see. He did some tests around the oaks on his deed and it looks good..so im hoping he will finish the whole thing out. and this is the only diagonal I have atm..its brand spanking new and I havent even started the leveling on it...but its diagonal..and also (verified by Enki)..counts as a hiway (once im done with the final destination) due to it being built with a full tile. Its going to run the ridgeline through the mountains for a ways then drop into the desert a very short hop and connect to a road that runs up into the mountains. Its also one im looking for a bit of inspiration on. It should be challenging due to the terrain and limited space to landscape around.

I like the layout on that Odynn. i dont have marble available yet..hopefully ill find some soon. I tried a few tiles of the slate...and I may still use them..but I havent had time to make enough concrete yet to do what I was planning and I would rather use marble if I can find some. Your finished project will be very interesting..make sure to repost when your done

Im doing a number of reworkings now that 1.1 is in with all the new trees and new fence types. I started working on the roadways in and around my deed to liven them up a bit and get away from the drab same ole same ole. So im looking for pics from others that may have been working on landscaping roadways either on deed or off deed to get some inspiration and some ideas. These first two are the same roadway just looking north and south. I used some 30 and 40QL copper lamps to light it at night which gives it a nice creepy kind of glow. I have used Walnut trees to line the high iron on either side as once they hit old or better all the limbs will be higher than the high iron which will keep it from feeling crowded like olives or oaks would have.I also spaced the walnuts every other tile with gravel pavers as seperators. It gives quite an open feel without a tunnell effect. A lot of the trees are not yet at mature stage and once most or all hit Old..the effect should be quite interesting. Looking South and Loooking North This next one is a much more elaborate one im doing. The above pics I tried to stay simple but on this one I wanted to do an Imperial Roadway and its still very much under construction as I wait on enough sprouts to finish the road borders and get the time to finish out all the pillars. Its completely lined with chestnuts, horse statues, fountains, and pillars with brass lamp lighting..allthough I may change it to bronze lamps..not certain yet. I have tried to keep everything spaced a bit so it doesnt get too overwhelming but itll be easier to tell once all the chesnuts are at mature and I have all the lavendar hedges in. Looking west If you have any roadways your working on using the 1.1 items post them up:) I have a lot of roadway to work on so hopefully I can get some inspiration from what everyone elese may be working on.

Northen route from Monestary and or Hermitage to coast is now completed. The coastal access lands between Silme Aear and Elysium on Updated maps...on older maps it lands between Titanium and Illiad Ridge. Speak to Serpentarius for further info on it. - My understanding is that the Sunder issue is being worked on or around.

Going north along the bay goes through Fires Deed.

again..I could care less about where it lands as long as it connects to the existing road system..if it doesnt..there will be all manner of hell raised by everyone up here. No one up here wants another hiway in..the remnants of those are all over the place..we would rather avoid it... I have other projects going atm...but your more than welcome to come up here and map it out.

Also if.. due to deeds... they need to push further west than Monestary..then there are 2 more connection points that can be used....just depends on ultimately where they land...

Exactly

hmm...im not wanting to go south...they want to come from the south going north..if I understand your post correctly...i dont care if the hiway goes in or not..simply trying to Find the route that would be used to avoid Golden Maple View. Fire doesnt want it near his place..and we allready have an existing road system. So assuming they do get past your places..it would then... somehwere... need to connect to the existing hiway system to avoid conflicts. Apologies for the confusion.