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Updated Citan Forum posts to 10/9/2022
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==== Housing Update Summer 2022 ====
: Housing hasn't started being implemented yet; it's only had some design work done. Housing is low priority because it requires a TON of engineering and art investment which need to be focused on other things right now.
: We don't publish a road map because we don't use a "waterfall" design paradigm. We don't have a large staff, or an art department that's continuously cranking out assets. We're just a couple of people working on a HUGE game, so we have to be agile about what we focus on. We look at what seems most important each month, and we try to work on that.
: Recently, I spent time trying to figure out why new players quit playing, and so my recent focus is... to try to keep new players from quitting. It turns out lots of players think Eltibule is especially ugly. That's is a problem because it's a new-player area. New players reach Eltibule, see those 90s-era ground textures, and they just can't deal... it's too ugly. So that needs to be the focus for the moment.
: Before that, we had no plans to make big revisions to Eltibule this year. I'd made some minor improvements a few months back, fixing broken trees and such, and I was hoping that would be enough that I could focus on new areas. But I don't think it is. It still needs a lot more help! So that's delayed everything else while we get this fixed.
: So anyway, that's why we don't publish a road map: because we don't use one. If we had a team of even a mere 10-20 people, we would NEED a roadmap. But we don't, and we don't!
: Housing will happen when it can. But not in 2022. Same with the dwarf race, definitely not happening this year. Sorry. : We just have too much else to focus on first.
:: 8/17/2022
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?3051-Player-Housing-promises-from-2015&p=21207#post21207
==== Bug Reporting ====
: I'm sorry you're having trouble, I'm not sure what's wrong, whether you were given a bad code or what. But please use the email [email protected], because we can't help you with this on the public forum. We have to ask questions that use private information, and we have to give you a new secret code, so we obviously can't post that here. Please use the email, that's the only way we can help you.
: And please give us a few days to respond to those emails, because we are not a big company. And it's the weekend.
:: 3/6/22
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2986-Project-Gorgon-Package-Thoroughbred-Breeder&p=20907#post20907
==== Povus Lamps ====
: Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm still interested in more feedback, wanted to answer some queries.
: I think there's kind of a misunderstanding here -- I realized city fighting (as I envisioned it) wasn't going to work in Povus before we launched Povus. It went through many iterations before it launched (and then many more iterations after). When I timed myself doing the lamp lighting quest, I was using what I considered a "final density" of monsters, but they weren't the same exact monsters that I ended up using, and I underestimated how impactful that would be. (Also, the layout wasn't randomized yet, so I may have inadvertently been memorizing what happens where -- not sure how much that affected timing though.)
: My original intention was that lamp-lighting should be a soloable task for a single level 85 player with decent-but-not-great gear. And I still think that's a nice benchmark to hit eventually, but I also realized it's not really that critical right now: I still expect high-level monsters and players to fluctuate in power a lot, so trying to perfectly tune a huge encounter like that is guaranteed to require revision later anyway.
: I think it's currently in the right ballpark. Too hard, but I could easily see it being too easy after a few more revisions.
: I'm not trying to drill down as deep as you're suggesting... when I sit down to revise gear, the most important questions I want answers for are stuff like:
* which treasure mods are currently popular?
* which mods are seriously under-used?
* which skill combinations are popular?
* which abilities are used in each skill?
: I've routinely used this sort of data in the past, but I've realized it's becoming inaccurate at high level due to the low number of samples. I'm not expecting to be able to actually "balance via data", as you can do when you have millions of players. ("Looks like the Sword of Godhood is OP by 5.4%!") But I can definitely get enough data to answer basic questions about how players are playing the game.
: The first goal is to have enough data to detect the majority of currently-active skill combinations. Right now for some skill combinations, there's only one or two players using it at high level. But they are absolutely dominating the game with those combinations, which tells me that... there's not enough players, basically. Otherwise more people would have picked up on it.
: Ideally I could get enough data bulk to tell which mods are used with which skill combinations. I hate when I make the mistake of replacing treasure mods that seem like junk (and are under-utilized, based on my data), but are actually critical for a certain skill combination. The data is too thin for me to pick up on that sort of thing, so instead of nurturing a weird combination, I accidentally snuff it out. That sucks.
: That (Question about a server if needed)got edited out of the blog post because when I mentioned that in Discord, people assumed it was a sure thing, that we would 100% definitely add another server when we leave beta. But that's not something I can predict. If the beta population becomes huge right before we leave beta, then we could launch a new server right after beta. But if populations are low leaving beta, I'm not going to open a new server -- that would split people up too much.
: I'm also not going to force people to play on an overcrowded server if I can help it, even during beta. We have another year or so of beta remaining. If we suddenly get really overcrowded next month, I'm not waiting until the game launches to open a new server!
: So I don't want to put ideas in peoples' heads that there's a certain timing that I can predict. We'll open more servers if and when the in-game population merits it.
: Thanks for the input everyone!
:: 2/26/2022
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2983-Discussion-Dev-Blog-February-2022&p=20886#post20886
==== Content Stoppers ====
: Thanks for the feedback! I hope that the introduction of mounts improves travel time.
: One thing I want to focus on (for newish players) is "content stoppers" -- times where a new player just doesn't know what to do or where to go. Obviously the game doesn't have a specific path through the content, but I also don't want things to be so nebulous and broad that you have no idea what to do next.
: I think a lot of new players hit one of these spots where they don't know where to go, and they just give up and quit. So if you've run into those situations, please share the details!
: (Of course, asking in-game will usually get you a good idea of where to go next, but most players won't ask, so the game needs to do a better job of broadcasting some of that info.)
:: 2/9/2022
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2946-First-impressions-from-a-new-player&p=20823#post20823
==== Moderator Concerns ====
: There is certainly a lot more history to your account and behavior, which I've researched. But to your inquiry, we won't be posting lengthy rules about what can be said on Discord, because the specifics change often based on many factors -- often changing day to day. The rule is just to follow moderators' requests. You don't have permission to "challenge the moderators" when they give you an instruction to stop talking about something.
: If you feel a moderator is being unreasonable or abusive you should send in an email ticket to [email protected] so that we can evaluate the situation. However, I have preemptively evaluated this situation, and I encourage you to drop it.
:: 10/9/2022
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2972-Clarify-Discord-Rules-amp-Regulations&p=20822#post20822
==== Orc Soups ====
: I like this. Looks like good Orc racial content to me!
:: 1/31/2022
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2966-Hot-Orcish-Soup&p=20805#post20805
==== Resource Availability ====
: Hm, I'm not sure what sort of answer you're looking for with this? If you're looking for a set-in-stone guiding "design principle", there isn't one. We take each situation on a case-by-case basis, and change our mind when it seems like we're doing it wrong. We tend to leave things open to cross-character assistance by default and correct that decision when needed.
: For one thing, if you want a game to have broad, open systems (for instance, where you can throw arbitrary items on the ground for other people to pick up), you simply can't prevent some level of cross-character aid. And the thing is, players like doing it because it makes them feel clever. A huge part of Project: Gorgon's design is about letting players feel clever.
: It only becomes a problem when players are in competition, and suddenly "multi-mule-farming" becomes a competitive requirement, and a burden on other players who don't want to bother. In cases where that happens, we can either make the resource account-limited, or we can just out-level that resource's requirement with something new. Or both.
: I guess another way of answering that question is: what particular resources are you concerned about? It might be something that "solves itself" as you level -- I mean like milking cows. You can make milking mules if you want, but soon enough milk won't be the resource that's gating your progress.
: But other things may be a problem and need fixing. I actually expect to make account-limiting changes to mushroom farming in the future. We can do that with other resources if it seems wise.
:: 1/31/2022
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2965-Path-of-least-resistance&p=20804#post20804
==== Mac Issue Update ====
: Hi, we've fixed this issue for the next update, so please hang in there for another week or so.
:: 1/20/2022
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2960-MacHack-suddenly-acting-weird&p=20768#post20768
==== Backer Package Bugs ====
: I'm sorry you ran into that. This limitation should definitely be more prominent on the Shop screen, and we'll get that updated.
: The way the system is implemented, you can't apply two backer packages if they both have features that can only be received once. Most of the rewards in those packages simply can't be given out twice. For instance, we can't give two sets of breeding horses to the same account, or give two custom titles to the same account, etc. So if we let you apply two packages that overlap, you wouldn't get the full value of the second package.
: Since we knew the packages could only be applied once, we made the VIP time in the bundles extra generous as an incentive. (We don't want to let people get 9 months of VIP for $50 repeatedly, because that price point makes the Steam subscription seem really crappy, and there are rules on Steam about dramatically underselling the Steam version of a subscription.) But we do realize some people want to buy VIP time from the shop, so we're looking at ways to do that. We might just add a new package like "VIP booster pack" which has nothing but VIP time in it, and no special features that overlap with other packages.
: In your case, since you've already purchased the second backer package, if you're okay with not receiving the other features of it (aside from the VIP time), we can do that -- please send an email to [email protected] and include your unused package code and the name of one of your characters. We can manually apply the VIP time to your account.
:: 1/7/2022
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2953-Double-backer-pledges&p=20744#post20744
==== No Wipe at Launch ====
: Yeah, long and short of it is we aren't planning to do any special wipe at launch. Your characters will roll over from beta to launch mode with no dramatic changes.
: We may still have to wipe skills or even whole systems during beta for balance reasons, so I definitely can't say "no wipes of any kind ever", but nothing is planned for launch.
:: 1/3/2022
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2950-Wipe-details&p=20734#post20734
==== UI Systems ====
: I'm not sure that a new UI system that saves a single click would be worth the added complexity... unless I'm missing something? You're suggesting instead of clicking the dropdown and choosing "Cheesemaking", there'd be a tab labeled "Cheesemaking". So it would save you one click. That seems a little too specialized right now -- the crafting window is already pretty intimidating!
: Just to make sure, do you know that you can mark recipes as Favorites? So you can just mark your commonly-used recipes and put them all in one place.
:: 11/30/2021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2936-Crafting-menu-bookmarks&p=20677#post20677
==== Animation Changes ====
: The original post came long before we changed movement speed, so that is definitely not why the original poster wanted the old animations.
: My understanding is you haven't even *tried* our recent efforts to find a middle ground. We've continued to tweak these systems in each update, and we aren't done.
: The bottom line is that we get feedback about poor animation quality often from new players, and we just absolutely must fix that. It also is just untenable programming-wise: monsters and pets cannot keep up with you if you're moving at literally 30 m/s while fighting. I realize it was a nerf. I'm sorry I couldn't address this sooner and it took YEARS before we could get to fixing it. But that'll happen several more times before launch: lots of stuff needs to nerfed and a lot needs to be buffed.
: That doesn't mean we've just arbitrarily decided our first solution was the best! We've been working on different approaches to meet all these different requirements. And I'd appreciate your help in figuring out that compromise game, one that looks good AND feels good. But the feedback you've given me here just says "I REFUSE TO EVEN CONSIDER COMPROMISE. MAKE MY GAME MY WAY OR I QUIT." It's not helpful to me.
:: 11/30/2021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2811-old-animation&p=20676#post20676
==== Mac Issues - Fog ====
: Addendum for Mac users whose screens are covered in opaque "fog": of the three hacky potentional-fixes we added, it appears the third one is the winner. So you should open the Settings window in-game, find the Special Settings tab, and add the word MacHack3.
: As a side-effect of this hack, the outdoor sky will look weird: cloud cover, stars, and even the sun and moon will not be rendered accurately. But more importantly, you'll be able to see the screen!
: We'll keep looking into this and try to improve our hack in the future.
:: 11/23/2021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2933-Update-Notes-November-18-2021&p=20671#post20671
==== Framerate Drops ====
: It's no doubt an issue with the game or a setting, we've seen that sort of problem before. It can be caused by a lot of things, but the biggest culprit seems to be the day/night cycle which triggers some Unity bugs related to shadows -- even if you have shadows turned off. You can tell when that's the cause because the problem will go away after an hour or so of game-time.
: We've had no luck alleviating the underlying Unity bug, so we've instead switched to an entirely new sky-dome system for the next update -- one that hopefully won't be as susceptible. Unrelated to that, it looks like Unity may have finally fixed the bug in a recent patch fix. (But about a month too late for us -- we already switched sky systems.) So I'll be interested to see if you still have this problem after the next update!
:: 9/31/2021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?1198-Framerate-drop-in-Serbule-when-looking-in-certain-directions-(with-video)&p=20507#post20507
==== Vulnerability ====
: Vulnerability lasts 5 seconds. That length was chosen so that even if your reflexes are pretty sluggish, you can probably get in one attack before it ends. If you have good reflexes, you can reliably get two attacks in. (And you can sometimes get three attacks in, but not reliably.)
:: 8/15/2021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2867-vulnerability-time&p=20486#post20486
==== Select Target ====
: This is a very interesting write-up! I appreciate you sharing the secret of Select Target of Current Target, it can be used in a lot of interesting ways, and not just for healing! That was one of those features we added with little fanfare. We've tried to make the selection work automagically when possible -- for instance, if you have another player selected when you use an attack, it automatically routes your attack to the target's target. But sometimes explicitly selecting the target is the way to go, especially for communication. It should probably have a default keybind...
:: 8/3/2021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2883-So-you-want-to-play-a-healer-Nepe-s-guide-to-healing&p=20424#post20424
==== Name Changes ====
: No plans to change what names are allowed. If we ever do allow multi-word names it probably wouldn't be a VIP-specific feature, and it would probably not be part of your "real" name anyway. For instance if you marry a human NPC, perhaps you could take their last name. You would be shown to others with both names, like "Bob Newhart", but people would still just /tell Bob hi.
:: 5/22/2021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2854-All-About-the-VIP-Membership-Program-Questions-amp-Discussion&p=20264#post20264
==== VIP Tokens ====
: You can also win VIP tokens in the more expensive match-3 game in the casino. The odds are... not good... but it's possible It's basically so rare as to be an Easter egg though.
: Behind the scenes, VIP tokens were added as a sort of prototype: we wanted to ensure that we could give out VIP time through game items, and VIP tokens are the "implementation detail." We think they make great rare rewards, but we aren't currently imagining that you'd be able to buy them for in-game currency.
:: 5/22/2021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2854-All-About-the-VIP-Membership-Program-Questions-amp-Discussion&p=20262#post20262
==== Chat Logs ====
: I also wouldn't call it a "massive" disadvantage, we're talking about a single skill amongst a hundred, but to answer the question we haven't really decided anything new there yet, but we're discussing it.
: We'd always planned for chat logs to be part of VIP. But you'll note that "chat logs" isn't included in the VIP features blog post... because we're still weighing the pros and cons of changing something that players have already gotten used to having for free.
:: 5/22/2021
::https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2854-All-About-the-VIP-Membership-Program-Questions-amp-Discussion&p=20258#post20258
==== GEforce Now ====
:After they went to an opt-in service we of course opted in, which did nothing. Since then we've repeatedly tried to get it to work, filling out the automated forms. So why aren't we in the program? Your guess is as good as mine. The automated forms were accepted but we aren't on the service. We get no feedback, and no input in the process. So ... that's where things stand right now.
:: 4/28/2021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2756-PG-on-Geforce-Now&p=20183#post20183
==== Chat Logging for VIP? ====
: The option to enable chat logging has *always* been clearly marked as being eventually VIP-only in the special settings documentation. Same with book-save-to-file. So we haven't changed anything about our plans, we're just finally getting ready to launch VIP and giving these features proper UI toggles.
:: 3/25/20202021
:: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2807-Update-Discussion-March-25-2021&p=20033#post20033
==== Can I have more than six abilities? ====
