73 replies to this topic

[raist007]

Hey Grim, will any of the areas you are moving affect spawns of SEs? Just curious cuz most SE hunters use the varas portal to move into different maps (much cheaper than cathedral!)....also curious because Empusa spawns in Krul Forest East, so wanting to make sure when to expect any (if there are any) changes to spawn there. Thanks and keep up the good work!

Raist

[ajred20]

Hey BigGrim, i think this is a great idea specially with the level 125 elite being at the beginning portal. I do have one question though, will any of these changes effect the portals? (meaning the rates of gold needed to go into each area in the portals)

[matt2269f]

I think revamping the beginning lvls are great / but a lot of the new players Dont notice the new message notifications - is there a way to move it higher on the screen or make it flash ? so they can realize its important - i try to help new players with both being a mentor and helping with advice and lvling buffs but most new players dont notice messages - i think cuz u have to scroll down to see notification tab

[Windbattle]

grr hit a skull carver by accident, haha. same could be said about SEs to be honest.

TEACHING players how to compare stats is probably the single most lacking thing in the game today. Its one of the first things we teach in my guild and I've been promoting it since day 1, which was about 4 years ago.

That also means a firm understanding of key buffs as well, because those obviously drastically impact stats.

[killafrog]

I have to agree, for a new player its like having to program something without a manual. Way too much stuff to have to look through and remember. As a guildless person during my formative years, I almost quit any number of times. A mentor to call on would have been a HUGE help.

What about if we added a notification (like the log notifications) for new players that linked them to the Mentor List page?

+1

Wonders if the fs wiki guide be updated for the beginning area at least, oh well moves on. lol

[RebornJedi]

Wonders if the fs wiki guide be updated for the beginning area at least

the wiki is updated by players BUT a HCS employee COULD log on to help out

[feonix13]

Just a heads-up Big Grim, the exit from Ethereal Gateway still says it goes to Mountain Path.

[killafrog]

Wonders if the fs wiki guide be updated for the beginning area at least

the wiki is updated by players BUT a HCS employee COULD log on to help out

knew that lol just wondered

[killafrog]

Hoof Idk if you know the Mountain path is looking broken lol

[paingwin]

I like the chat box idea nothing big or flashy just something small and in the corner maybe that way new people can chat and ask any questions instead of thier only communication being guild invites with which they get pelted with. But i guess this idea would kill the shout box and such as people could spam thier stuff in chat instead of paying 1fsp to post it but maybe this would be a good change to warrant the removal of the shout box and front page listings? be cool to log on and chat with the whole FS community i think

or they could make it to where only people under a certain time in game, say 60-90 days can post questions. then anyone could click on a reply button to answer the question. once the question is answered to the new players satisfaction, they click a link that removes the question and rewards karma points to the person who answered the question. thoughts for the new karma points that we have yet to see any advancement on i would say!

[paingwin]

I'm all in favour of the opening of the game being simplified, but wouldn't it be better to do it "stand-alone", all in 1 hit, test it thoroughly and then implement, rather than do it piecemeal where there are too many variables ?

Certain pieces that are more or less stand alone, I'll do as I can. The bigger changes, I'm planning ahead and will be giving heads up as to what's happening. This is gonna be a big job.

The ETHEREAL GATEWAY has been reset to level 125 for entry, which doesn't make a lot of sense since there are critters back there with lower levels than that for our hunting. Cost me a lot of stam and some gold just to find that out with no warning.

It's a level 125 area with a level 125 Elite creature in it. You ought to be level 125 to get in there. Now it is fixed.

If he was doing this all alone, perhaps. But I doubt that, reading the initial post he says "We". And looking at the things done/to be done, I am quite sure coding is involved there as well. Hence my feedback.

I am working on this myself. In news posts, we always use the royal 'We'. Hoofmaster and Zorg are working on the Merge, then it'll be all about composing for them.

This might be asking too much BG, but i have seen it in other games before and currently. Maybe once a week, you could post the HCS staff lists, and what they are working on in that week? Would give some of us an idea of what is going on in the HCS office besides those crazy thursday nights(MMHHMM ladies nights). you know something simple like;

BG-----best jello shot recipes
HOOF--testing jello shots for BG
Zorg---holding HOOF up as he sings to passers-by.......

just a thought :wink:

OH, and good work on the beginning area work guys. as a seasoned player that place was a bit of a nightmare at times.........i remember back when i was new on that map *Wayne's World flashback* the streamlining of that area is a great accomplishment.

[Belaric]

Bear in mind, this will result in several realms being removed, (like the Narrow Passage and Fire Chasms)

~ The Fallen Sword Team.

Oh yeah!!! Thank you BG for going for this and restructuring the lower realms. Kudos! Nuke the Narrow Passage from Orbit! (Or have Lindarsil consume it in an awesome magical holocaust! (Or create a new awesome god - *Wantmore* (*insert actual name there*) the Realm Thief who steals parts of this world to create his own twisted playground... portal to be discovered at a later date - LOL!))

This will make the early game a lot simpler for new players. There is always more to be done, but even from your updates I see that this alone is a lot of work, so thanks for the effort!! Thanks to everyone pointing out glitches or text errors on the stairways!

{First paragraph noted for its rampant parentheses abuse.}

[UrcK]

Please BG .. this is a topic with over 200 votes @ 94% approval that hoof said would come after new buffs .. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=108672 ...

This benefits EVERYONE in the game .. we need this badly.

[paingwin]

Please BG .. this is a topic with over 200 votes @ 94% approval that hoof said would come after new buffs .. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=108672 ...

This benefits EVERYONE in the game .. we need this badly.

Honestly, that benefits only those with large backpacks. Not everyone in the game IMO.

[Jonathan69]

i like the idea of a talk box , i've played 2 other games with this feature . this will give new players a good place to find friends / allies & faster info . the drow back is the players who will use this for free chap shots at others . also was wondering about the quest reset that was talked about over a year ago , for these who last a quest item & need this to finish a quest .

[BigGrim]

Just a heads-up Big Grim, the exit from Ethereal Gateway still says it goes to Mountain Path.

So it does. Fixed. Thanks!

Hoof Idk if you know the Mountain path is looking broken lol

It's looking fine to me. As I chop and change it, the sprite sheet will get messed up and I'll keep updating it. I then flush the game cache. You'll probably need to do a hard refresh (Ctrl + F5) to get it to display correctly. Give it a little time and it'll be back to normal.

Hey Grim, will any of the areas you are moving affect spawns of SEs? Just curious cuz most SE hunters use the varas portal to move into different maps (much cheaper than cathedral!)....also curious because Empusa spawns in Krul Forest East, so wanting to make sure when to expect any (if there are any) changes to spawn there. Thanks and keep up the good work!

Raist

Hey.

SE spawns shouldn't be affected. Any that spawn in Realms I'll be removing will have a new spawn put in place elsewhere.

As for Varas, it is likely to be removed all together. As such, I have already lowered the Cathedrals Portal cost to match Varas as it stands now.

Hey BigGrim, i think this is a great idea specially with the level 125 elite being at the beginning portal. I do have one question though, will any of these changes effect the portals? (meaning the rates of gold needed to go into each area in the portals)

Possible but fairly unlikely. It all depends on how things end up being changed, and to be perfectly frank, I really am working this out as I go! I'm using Varkaz' Epic Quest map and Mowgliks map printed out to try and plot this change out.

This might be asking too much BG, but i have seen it in other games before and currently. Maybe once a week, you could post the HCS staff lists, and what they are working on in that week?

I don't see us doing that I'm afraid. We do a lot of work on the game but some members of the team work on more than Sword. Not me though. I'm always here. We cannot really give you anything close to specifics. We did so in the past and it bit us on the backside as some jobs can and do take longer than the estimates, while distractions occur. It's simply the nature of the business. Sorry.

OH, and good work on the beginning area work guys. as a seasoned player that place was a bit of a nightmare at times.........i remember back when i was new on that map *Wayne's World flashback* the streamlining of that area is a great accomplishment.

Even with Admin, a range of maps and a new toon to walk around in the lower world, it's proving frustrating trying to find where I can snip some bits from the game, consolidate others and so on. It's really rather insane.

This will make the early game a lot simpler for new players. There is always more to be done, but even from your updates I see that this alone is a lot of work, so thanks for the effort!! Thanks to everyone pointing out glitches or text errors on the stairways!

You're very welcome. I think this ought to help a lot of players find their feet with a lot less hassle.

I also thank everyone for pointing out any errors. There's a lot to track here and one or two things might slip through the cracks (like the stairway name).

[gomezkilla]

This might be asking too much BG, but i have seen it in other games before and currently. Maybe once a week, you could post the HCS staff lists, and what they are working on in that week?

I don't see us doing that I'm afraid. We do a lot of work on the game but some members of the team work on more than Sword. Not me though. I'm always here. We cannot really give you anything close to specifics. We did so in the past and it bit us on the backside as some jobs can and do take longer than the estimates, while distractions occur. It's simply the nature of the business. Sorry.

What if you just gave us some progress reports on how things are going? I know some of us get frustrated when estimates are given and nothing happens so why not just let us all know how things are coming along with out any estimates.

[Maury Bund]

As for Varas, it is likely to be removed all together. As such, I have already lowered the Cathedrals Portal cost to match Varas as it stands now.

Any chance that in the future you may consider putting in a formula where portal costs are equal to the amount of level change from current location? I always found it odd that if I were in a level 800 realm and wanted to move to level 1200, it was cheaper to jump back to the Cathedral than walk to the nearest portal, even if the stam cost to get to the 800 portal area was more (Cathedral portal takes only 41 stam to reach from anywhere).

[douglasj]

As for Varas, it is likely to be removed all together. As such, I have already lowered the Cathedrals Portal cost to match Varas as it stands now.

Any chance that in the future you may consider putting in a formula where portal costs are equal to the amount of level change from current location? I always found it odd that if I were in a level 800 realm and wanted to move to level 1200, it was cheaper to jump back to the Cathedral than walk to the nearest portal, even if the stam cost to get to the 800 portal area was more (Cathedral portal takes only 41 stam to reach from anywhere).

+1 I didn't really think of that but it is a fair point
I agree +1 to this idea

[Elelir]

big grim,
thanks for the quick action anent this. i look forward to carrying on with leveling now.

best regards,
elelir.