We have a staff meeting every two weeks where we go over a number of things ranging from prioritizing new work, discussing bug fixes, discussing balance, or listening to a staff member present about their latest work and providing feedback live. We also take time dedicated to reviewing issues and feedback from the playerbase. Here's just a few of the things that we covered today.
Paladin Shields
Once upon a time the maximum level of non-physical damage a player could access was 50%. This changed a few years back and the fellblade was adjusted to have a cap of 75%.
It seems, and this is based on memory from the staffers present in the meeting, that at some point the paladin leadership didn't want this done to their shields. Why would they not want it, well honestly, none of us had any idea. Thus...as of today when a paladin re-logs into the game they can give their shield up to 75% non-physical damage type instead of 50%.
Druid Updates Coming
Nerina worked hard on revamping the druid guild halls and now some updates are coming to the guild itself. She has been working with Elthan, the guild leader, and today we reviewed the changes as a group that have been proposed.
You've already seen some fruit from this work in the changes made to components.
Stay tuned!
Remove Curse - It's Not Just for Minstrel's Wrath
It was suggested that remove curse, while effective for removing minstrel's wrath, is not really useful in too many other venues. It was also pointed out that there's no way to remove sensitize and other debuff spells today other than simply logging out to reset the character.
How about we solve two birds with one stone and start treating sensitizes like curses and make remove curse able to remove them too? This was approved for work today and you'll see it posted to news as soon as it's done.
Plate Mail Armor - It Doesn't Scare Me
Imagine it - you're minding your own business and a warrior armed to the teeth in full plate walks up. Would this be slightly intimidating in the medieval world? Based on our bulk rules the answer is yes, but it'd be far less effective at intimidation than the same knight walking up in a plain grey robe.
How about a well travelled adventurer who knows the stories and history of this land...but is way better at remembering those stories if wearing leather instead of heavy armor. Does that make sense? Apply the same thing to being noble, or haggling, or any number of things don't require fine manual dexterity like spellcasting or repair work.
It's pretty well known that bulk can have a heavy impact on the effectiveness of skills and spells. What got pointed out to us was how some of those impacts are just a little bit weird. We discussed this at length today and we'd like input from the playerbase.
Should we change this? Should we throw skills like packing, lore, travelling, and similar into a new adventuring skill category that allows all bulks? Should we move infamy, haggle, tax evasion, and nobility skills into the law category?
Drop a mudmail to archs (yes, spelled just like that) and let us know what you think.