Back from Japan!
So, I am back from Vacation – I’ve been to Japan and enjoyed it very much over there. Anyway, now I am back and getting into work again.
First: The chat is being delayed. The reason for this are technical reasons on the serverside. It’s unlikely that it becomes a feature of 1.23.
So what’s on the agenda for 1.23 then?
- Stabilization: Certain features need smaller or larger improvements that are going to be done in 1.23.
- Small user interface & graphical improvements: A larger map, a bit more comfort in the game internal forums a new ranking
- Custom fort battle maps
- New rewards
The custom fort battle maps are the most complex feature here. For the resizable map, it’s a bit easier but should help players to get a more comfortable overview on the game map, as it can be seen in this screenshot:
A map that fits into the browser’s screen
For the custom battle maps, it’s far more complex. First we have 3 different fort sizes, then we have a vast amount of different building level configurations. In order to provide as much diversity as possible, each building will be represented in the battle map dependent on its level when the battle starts (don’t ask me what happens if to positioned players in case of a tower level up – I don’t know yet). But in order to achieve this, we must create a description of all this somehow and this can not be done using a mere text editor – we need a tool for this. And I have started working on just that. In theory, once we have the tool ready and created all the data that is required for creating custom battle maps for each fight, the deployment is of important question – how will it be deployed to players and representation. Of course, most of this has already been foreseen and most stuff should work right away from the start, but of course, all that and the testing will require quite some time. But we’ll see how it goes on and how long it’ll take.
English
So part of 1.23 will be removing the interface’s current overbite (the extra brownspace at the bottom)? Oh good.
And new quests?
What about the fact that soldiers are the best class ever?
unbalances the game ;\
soldiers x duelers, well, theres no balance in that ;|
can´t you take a look at that anthraxx??
On beta, we appreciate very much the new map size. That’s great job! It was really too small! :p
“[...]should help players to get a more comfortable overview on the game map[...]”
It does!
Thank you.
ps: hope there will much small features or that 1.24 will come sooner again!
@Speedemon “New rewards” sounds like “more medals” to me. Though more quests would be cool.
Welcome back Zet
no chat…
fort battle maps!
:D:D
Just an idea about the forts – since your messing with the battle layout it might be a good time.
Fort battles are unbalanced – I think that everybody who’s seen a couple of them will agree. If there is >80 defenders stacked together inside, it’s impossible to win an atack no matter what. I know that improving the building bonuses was ment to help. It didn’t.
So here is another idea: change the victory conditions. In reality, one way to win the siege is to starve the defenders. Why not to recreate this? You add one more flag representing the attackers camp (or four in the corners to represent the siege). And whoever takes the flag of the enemy for 10 rounds wins. But if no flags change hands – it’s the attackers who are victorious. The defenders are starved.
The defenders will still have an advantage – they can use the fortifications to power them up, but this time they will be forced to employ some tactical thinking too, not just sitting inside and waiting. And it would be much more realistic.
I believe that you have to do something about the battles – otherwise there is gonna be less and less of them. And it would be a shame to waste such a wonderful feature…
@Ormitoryx: That might be really a worthwhile idea to ponder on… However it’ll be difficult to balance it, even with such a new rule. The protective wall is certainly too protective in some ways when it comes to hiding behind it. On the other hand: There are attacking groups that are able to take out such forts. A proper well organized attack can really break already, so I am not sure if it is really required to “simplify” it further… We’ll certainly keep an eye on this, especially once the custom fort maps are out (testing is maybe starting this week on the beta). Don’t forget that the small fort and medium sized fort will have smaller numbers of participants – maybe 30 and 60 people “only”. It should be much easier to get a group of 30 attackers together that is making a proper attack. We might also see some change from this as well. So there are still variables that can be changed without touching the logic, which is of course always a lot more work.
“Don’t forget that the small fort and medium sized fort will have smaller numbers of participants – maybe 30 and 60 people “only”.”
I think the restriction should be on the number of members of the towns that owns the fort. When a fort was attacked, everyone had to defend it (in fact not the child or women – but in the-west, aren’t the women duellists or soldiers?) and the only exception were the cowards or traitors.
But in fact, the “easier” argument is maybe well because of fort battles being too long and unbalanced at the time. Any change for the game is good to get!