Director Q&A Podcast

[Sunshiner]

an hour long! , one would think you would have topped the "being awesome and stuff" barometer when you did the 5 videos, guess not =p

[Sunshiner]

listening to it now, loving it =)

[Dave Belcher]

Merged the two threads discussing this.

[Eldrath]

Yay both my questions answered! Sorry Dave if I gave you a hard time with cross-continent question, but I wanted to hear your opinion and vision of this stuff. I`m very excited about it, since it sounds like a good estimate on how long such a should take. Of course I realize the many variables, but I positive that guys will work this in the right way!

As for the language: PURE AWESOMENESS! Rob be well aware that you have won one crazy research fan ...

[Glabro]

I love the part with a special Caerus language and the need to decipher it! It's awesome

[Uzik]

I have a bit of a concern over the mechanic discussed for making a player "invulnerable" for a time when they lose connection.

1) What is to prevent people engaged in a large fight from disconnecting in an attempt to gain a tactical advantage? I.e. a 20 v 20 fight, 5 people disconnect, the battlefield shifts location, then they reconnect and attack from behind.

2) What is to prevent someone from repeatedly connecting and disconnecting in order to deter someone from killing them?



As much as it seems unfair, it is extremely hard to grant any sort of disconnection protection without it becoming exploitable.

[Dave Belcher]

I have a bit of a concern over the mechanic discussed for making a player "invulnerable" for a time when they lose connection.

1) What is to prevent people engaged in a large fight from disconnecting in an attempt to gain a tactical advantage? I.e. a 20 v 20 fight, 5 people disconnect, the battlefield shifts location, then they reconnect and attack from behind.

2) What is to prevent someone from repeatedly connecting and disconnecting in order to deter someone from killing them?

As much as it seems unfair, it is extremely hard to grant any sort of disconnection protection without it becoming exploitable.

As we said in the podcast, we have gone for the most measured approach. We will of course work to balance the system to be as free from exploitation potential as possible.

To address your specific scenarios:

1) Well, until they log back in, they will be outnumbered by 5, so you should be able to get some advantage out of that, even if you leave a couple of people to kill the other guys as they log back in (or kill them after their invuln timer runs out if they dont log back in within the couple mins)

2) This is a matter of the balancing we discussed. If this becomes an issue, we can set it so there is a deminishing invuln timer if you DC rapidly within a short timeframe (2 mins first time, 1 min second, no invuln third).

Like I said, we will be looking at this and all mechanics when it comes to testing the game before release, and how it is used after release, to keep it as balanced as possible.

[Uzik]

As we said in the podcast, we have gone for the most measured approach. We will of course work to balance the system to be as free from exploitation potential as possible.

To address your specific scenarios:

1) Well, until they log back in, they will be outnumbered by 5, so you should be able to get some advantage out of that, even if you leave a couple of people to kill the other guys as they log back in (or kill them after their invuln timer runs out if they dont log back in within the couple mins)

2) This is a matter of the balancing we discussed. If this becomes an issue, we can set it so there is a deminishing invuln timer if you DC rapidly within a short timeframe (2 mins first time, 1 min second, no invuln third).

Like I said, we will be looking at this and all mechanics when it comes to testing the game before release, and how it is used after release, to keep it as balanced as possible.

Sounds good.

I guess I'm still a bit used to the approach where developers implement something and the players just deal with it. Continual balance should always be a HUGE aspect of MMO's imo, so based on your responses I have high hopes for this game : )

[Nadroj]

Hey I'm a backer =) Good day to be me =)

^ What he said

[drakedude]

As we said in the podcast, we have gone for the most measured approach. We will of course work to balance the system to be as free from exploitation potential as possible. To address your specific scenarios: 1) Well, until they log back in, they will be outnumbered by 5, so you should be able to get some advantage out of that, even if you leave a couple of people to kill the other guys as they log back in (or kill them after their invuln timer runs out if they dont log back in within the couple mins) 2) This is a matter of the balancing we discussed. If this becomes an issue, we can set it so there is a deminishing invuln timer if you DC rapidly within a short timeframe (2 mins first time, 1 min second, no invuln third). Like I said, we will be looking at this and all mechanics when it comes to testing the game before release, and how it is used after release, to keep it as balanced as possible.

Ty for answering at least 4 of my questions! (Yet to finish the podcast) :L. By logging on and off exploits, i meant things like having word from a scout of a player force approaching, having your entire army log off along their likely route, leaving a couple of scouts behind and having them alert you as soon as they reach there and... boom. Teleporting army. I was wondering whether you had any thoughts on preventing such occurrences.