dev chat

[oluviel]

Incase anyone missed the thread in generalhere are some interesting answers from the devs pertaining to dragons


Sprite: *Arcat* Does Khutit change for Ancients? (e.g. different appearance)
Manga-4tw: *Arcat* Not currently, however we do plan on removing the "debuff" from Khutit form but haven?t decided in what way.


Sprite: *Danamoth* are there any plans for making the fangs of fury crystal stack with other crystals?
AmonGwareth|TG: Yes, the Fangs of Fury crystal will stack with other crystals in an upcoming patch to the live shards.

Sprite: *LexDivinia* Has the TG team received the response they had hoped for from players who have become Ancient?
Manga-4tw: *LexDivinia* The responses that we have received have been great, but with anything that has great expectation to it, the ability to please everyone is quite a tough obstacle to overcome. I think Ancients will be very happy when the new content starts to roll out and their desire to look different will be addressed as well.

Manga-4tw: Arcat: The story line of the AROP was bigger than the faction story and that was intended. In the past the faction choice was made with out any prior knowledge of what the factions really meant. In the future we will expand the factions and allow dragons to re-choose what faction they would like to be a part of when we roll out faction specific quests/bonuses.


Manga-4tw: *Arcat* The Ancient Dragon?s will continue their progression as the game goes on, the advancement does not stop when you get to Ancient but continues in different paths according on what choices the Dragon makes. This is the next step in our development process; however dragons that desire to be unique in what new abilities they can master will be most pleased.



Sprite: *Anora* Will dragons get ther level cap raised??
Manga-4tw: *Anora* Ancient Dragons will be able to continue to advance their character through ancient only content. We are investigating both a level raise and a rating change through the specialized ancient content and while working with the Ancient Dragons on Blight.


Sprite: *Tagath* Will only ancients be able to pick up lairshaping and possibly other future classes for dragons?
AmonGwareth|TG: Lairshaping will be available to all dragons of any status, from hatchling to ancient.
Manga-4tw: *Tagath* Ancients will have their own exclusive content to help them advance their characters that will not be able to be open up to either juveniles or adults


Sprite: *Arcat* Will there be areas/zones only Ancients can enter?
DavidBowman: There are some locations on Live that only Ancients can reach. There are more planned, and we know that during 2006 there will be some significant additions to the accessible world of Istaria.
DavidBowman: There is also one community that is only reachable by Ancients.

Smeglor|TG: Lair ownership and construction are exclusively for Dragons. However, anyone can make use of the completed contents of a lair, such as machines and storage, if they have been granted permission and are able to physically reach the lair's entrance.

Sprite: *Murmandamus* What about getting resources to Lairs via disks? Some Lairs that may be difficult to impossible to accomplish.
DavidBowman: Yes, that is true. If that is a problem to anybody in particular, they shouldn't plan on buying one of those Lairs. However, there are some Ancient Dragons working on a modification of the Gnomian cargo disk technology that will allow a new type of Cargo Disk just for Dragons.
DavidBowman: and this Cargo Disk would of course be useful for flying dragons.

[Vizharan]

Sprite: *Murmandamus* What about getting resources to Lairs via disks? Some Lairs that may be difficult to impossible to accomplish.

DavidBowman: Yes, that is true. If that is a problem to anybody in particular, they shouldn't plan on buying one of those Lairs. However, there are some Ancient Dragons working on a modification of the Gnomian cargo disk technology that will allow a new type of Cargo Disk just for Dragons.
DavidBowman: and this Cargo Disk would of course be useful for flying dragons.

I'm liking that, flying cargo disks.... Wonder if there will be Tarbash's versions as well? I love those things = P

[Ulkesh]

seeing as how we are ******** near as big as some planes, bigger than others, we should be able to drag disks around in the air hehe. all i need when i get this is a parachute attached to the disk so i dont have to land. give me a big red x and let me target practice

[Nayuaka]

I'm mostly against flying cargo disks unless there is at least one stat that is lower then even the lowest biped usable disk. Say the speed is lower then any other disk or the bulk is lower then any other disk. Having a disk that is both fast and holds tons would be really unfair to the biped crafters I'd think. I'm all for having a flying disk, I just say make at least one of the stats worse then the worst biped disk of the same level.

[oluviel]

they would most likely be exactly the same as the general disks we have already, but they would fly

[Nayuaka]

Which as I was saying, would be unfair for the biped crafters who work just as hard as dragons do to level their craft and in some cases maybe harder. Maybe if they do this they could give bipeds a disk that will allow for greater walk speed? One that is unusable by dragons.

[Ulkesh]

I don't think it would be unfair. As Kumu stated, no road bonus, a slower flight speed, chances are great that it wouldn't hold nearly as much as a tarbash, hell probly even a deluxe.

[oluviel]

General disks are less effective than those available to some biped craft classes. Working in conjunction with the no-road-bonusfactor as kumu said, and the fact that it doesn't matter how fast your speed is(since the disk sets your run/fly speed at a certain number and can only be impacted by the road bonus) it's not unfair

[imported_Denrath]

A few of us were having this same discussion the other day in game. The big things that were seen as unfair advantages were terrain and mobs. Bipeds have to run around terrain, and many time mobs if they have their disk out. Dragons could just fly over both (depending on the height of the terrain and the fly height of the dragon).
I said there though what has been stated above about the no road bonus and such.

[Goriax]

Why would it be unfair? It will slow down your flight just as much as walking. Even worse. There are no road bonuses in the sky.

Good point about the lack of road bonus. That by itself would mean I'd only fly with a cargo disk when there is absolutely no other choice.

[imported_Frith-Rae]

no I don't think its unfair...

It would be unfair for there to be "Ancient only" or "Adult only" Access lairs only to "nerf" their building by having to make repeated trips to the ground just to move the contents of a single trip :).

I would absolutely expect flight speed limitations, quantity limitations (as in possibly a limit of only one or two item types, but a bigger bulk available for one or two item types), and possibly it won't allow portaling with it.

So that I would see someone having two disks - one to portal and gather with and one to park at the "ground" beneath the flight-only lair. Then you'd transfer say your contents of your Tarbash to the "Flight" disk - and fly up!

If it is portal friendly - well you just cut out the middle man ;).

[Nayuaka]

Okay..the no road bonus is a valid point. I completly forgot about that. Here I was..imagining a stupid disk going as fast as it was on the ground. My bad.

[Goriax]

no I don't think its unfair...

It would be unfair for there to be "Ancient only" or "Adult only" Access lairs only to "nerf" their building by having to make repeated trips to the ground just to move the contents of a single trip [img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-1.gif[/img].

I would absolutely expect flight speed limitations, quantity limitations (as in possibly a limit of only one or two item types, but a bigger bulk available for one or two item types), and possibly it won't allow portaling with it.

So that I would see someone having two disks - one to portal and gather with and one to park at the "ground" beneath the flight-only lair. Then you'd transfer say your contents of your Tarbash to the "Flight" disk - and fly up!

If it is portal friendly - well you just cut out the middle man [img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-5.gif[/img].

I see nothing wrong with them gonig slow and no road bonus. I think one idea about cargo disks and about crafting in general is the logistics should be somewhat challenging.

I really hope it doesn't become necessary to transfer between disks. Can you imagine how painful it would be to transfer a full load from one disk to another in the middle of nowhere when there's no other place to put stuff but your inventory? Remember that you can only deploy one disk at a time. I don't think you could transfer more then your inventory could hold.

The bottom line is they need a flyable version of the tarbash.

[Tympest]

Look at some of the lairs out there. The one on the old isle of lost machines, the island of Serenity, even Drakul's Heart (though I hope there will be a portal that goes there). Can you imagine trying to build a lair out on an island in the middle of nowhere, without portal access, and without a cargo disk? This is why we need flying disks.