New poll on dragon flight...

[tramsan]

So I guess once this goes live I can't use the "just fall down the mtn" to make my disc travel faster huh?

You can, if you look down at the ground.

[Fridlekh]

Right now I don' teven realize I'm underwater since half/most of the time the water doesn't ever load...lol.

Until the water is all transferred to the new system... (muahaha)

So I guess once this goes live I can't use the "just fall down the mtn" to make my disc travel faster huh?

No. If you have a disk that can't fly attached, you just won't fly. if you have a disk that can fly attached, as mentioned, you can look down toward the ground to prevent flying.

[lightning claw]

a bit to complex for me camera angels and such i have it as i see the back of eps like i am riding him


the hatching thing i am 100 % agent what’s the point of the Rop and the arop if that is put in ? as a hatching i got in to some odd high places i had no right or business to be in lol (Valcor at lv 13) no to earn the right to fly you must be a adult sorry


also your dumifying the art of combat as a dragon not enhancing it when i am in combat especially with the new nerfs *cough* i mean craft school taking effect if i need to punch out of a battle i do not want to have to go find the camera angel and hope i make it i want to be abel to press q and take off like a bat out of hell

[Nayuaka]

I voted yes to this. I rather like the change and although I am unsure about the camera angles I will learn and it might not be all that bad. Time will tell and until I actually use the system I cannot say for sure.

This is to Lightning Claw. The hatchling being able to glide will cheapen nothing. All it is a a glide from high places..they cannot fly. I think of it as Spyro mode. The adults and up will still have a huge advantage as they can take off, hover, and gain altitude.

[Fridlekh]

What parts of "All changes to functionality below are only seen when an option is set. [which defaults to off]" and "Existing means of takeoff and landing are unchanged." are so hard to understand? x_x

[Nayuaka]

What parts of "All changes to functionality below are only seen when an option is set. [which defaults to off]" and "Existing means of takeoff and landing are unchanged." are so hard to understand? x_x

I understand perfectly. Er...though....could you clarifly what the parts between "all" and "unchanged" mean? :P

[Spirit]

Err.. no. If that's the case there needs to be a TON more portals linked up as the only way from places like the top of Shepard's Mountain to the lower guild plots is falling down.

No fall damage is a killer to any kind of imersion. Perhaps some tweaking to the map then so this could be implemented. As for my brief comment for swimming, it had no connection to fall damage. I just want to see characters able to swim and not just sink and drown lol...

Rakku

[Malaquion]

P.S. Dryads have wings, shouldn't they glide too?

Technically, Dryads are already flying...They just can't fly more than a few feet off the ground It's just that it's faster than walking for them, I guess.

Maybe Istaria has really low air pressure or something...

[Fridlekh]

No fall damage is a killer to any kind of imersion. Perhaps some tweaking to the map then so this could be implemented. As for my brief comment for swimming, it had no connection to fall damage. I just want to see characters able to swim and not just sink and drown lol...

Rakku

Problem: server/sim trusts the client with relative Z information. and has no concept of a heightmap to base falling damage from. it could feasibly apply damage based on reported coordinates and body states, but the client could be hacked to avoid falling damage.

As for swimming, maybe it'll be considered once you've submitted idle, swim up, swim down, and swim on surface animations for all the races... and have fully fleshed-out plans for underwater content ;p

[Dragoniade]

I like those idea, especially the hatchling gliding (no more bunny hops but...

I may have missed it, but all those talk about camera angles, how do they apply between first person and 3rd person camera? For first person, all those look good, but for 3rd person, I fear that it would be impossible to attain such angle without being blocked by the terrain. Wouldn't that cause a problem?

[Fridlekh]

Negative angle is when you're looking down at the terrain. The camera is almost never hindered above your head. The idea is that if you're looking ahead, or up (or even a bit down) you'll start to fly wheh falling. If you don't want to fly, you can bring the camera all the way up (look fairly directly at the ground) and bypass the check.

Or you could just leave the option off.

[Fridlekh]

I like those idea, especially the hatchling gliding (no more bunny hops but...

On this note, your hatchling will still bunny hop. they don't hop high enough to catch air and start gliding under normal circumstances.

[Goriax]

So as I understand it this won't prevent skimming. Too bad. I always thought that was an incredibly cheesy exploit. It just really bothered me to go to help someone on the AROP and the whole freaking group was skimming.

But sure, the proposed changes are fine.

[Shur]

a bit to complex for me camera angels and such i have it as i see the back of eps like i am riding him


the hatching thing i am 100 % agent what’s the point of the Rop and the arop if that is put in ? as a hatching i got in to some odd high places i had no right or business to be in lol (Valcor at lv 13) no to earn the right to fly you must be a adult sorry


also your dumifying the art of combat as a dragon not enhancing it when i am in combat especially with the new nerfs *cough* i mean craft school taking effect if i need to punch out of a battle i do not want to have to go find the camera angel and hope i make it i want to be abel to press q and take off like a bat out of hell

first off, congratulations on the clearly-written post. i think i had to read that five times.

second, they are not forcing hatchlings to fly, or even allowing them. it is merely a proposed idea (and a damned good one at that) to allow hatchies to -glide- when jumping off things, and to glide in a vew much -down- direction. this isn't something you'll be able to use to get to "some odd high places i had no right or business to be"

thirdly, the option to use keyboard commands to take off/land are still there, you will just also be able to use the camera angle to effect it if it should please you. to quote Frik quoting himself: "What parts of "All changes to functionality below are only seen when an option is set. [which defaults to off]" and "Existing means of takeoff and landing are unchanged." are so hard to understand?"

and great job staying on topic, this was, after all, the same thread as the confectioner discussion

[Antonath]

So as I understand it this won't prevent skimming. Too bad. I always thought that was an incredibly cheesy exploit. It just really bothered me to go to help someone on the AROP and the whole freaking group was skimming.

What's skimming? Is that where you fly "downwards" along the ground? If so, how is that an exploit? Not that I do that anyway - I like a bit of altitude

Antonath

[Spirit]

What's skimming? Is that where you fly "downwards" along the ground? If so, how is that an exploit? Not that I do that anyway - I like a bit of altitude

Antonath

Yeah I think that's it... looks awfully unfitting for a dragon; not really an exploit but certainly not befitting our race. Only time I've conciously done it was inside a building, with rather odd results. It's better to fly high and tilt the camera down for a faster glide. Perhaps the dev's could adjust this and turn it into a flapping sprint, which you'll see water birds do occasionally when they want to move quick but don't become airbourne. Making any associated animation not look silly would be interesting, especially if the same problem arrises that currently makes wing flap speed rather quick!

Rakku

[Nambroth]

So as I understand it this won't prevent skimming. Too bad. I always thought that was an incredibly cheesy exploit. It just really bothered me to go to help someone on the AROP and the whole freaking group was skimming.

But sure, the proposed changes are fine.

How is it an exploit? One cannot fly in the rift as it forces you to 'earth', and flying is faster than dragon-gallumphing along to help. Flying in the rift can't be anything other than 'skimming'.

[By_Tor]

I like most of this.

However if you hatchling the ability to glide you should also give the same ability to dryads.

[Tathar]

Yes only if you leave out anything that depends on camera angle. I always adjust the camera angle to look down a little.

Also, I don't like the hatchling glide angle. Their wings aren't THAT underdeveloped. 15% fall at the most.

[Spirit]

I like most of this.

However if you hatchling the ability to glide you should also give the same ability to dryads.

Tough one this, since I don't recall much info saying about how dryads actually fly. They seem to hover like a helicopter in ground effect... and when a helicopter is only flying *because* of ground effect, see what happens when it leaves... :|

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WBCzYPu5JN4 (not a pretty sight be warned!)

Basically it takes less energy to hover in ground effect than to fly above its influence. Since dryads only hover, then if they ran off a tall cliff I'd expect they'd slowly accelerate downwards like a slow fall ... if you treated it like a heli.

The alternative is treating a dryad like a bug, as they do have insect wings after all (butterfly). However butterfly's can fly, while dryads hover. If hovering is all they ever do, then I guess the slow fall is the logical behavior when falling off a cliff (as opposed to the hatchlings glide). If dryads were to glide then new anim's would be needed as currently they're always flapping.

Hatchlings should logically be able to glide since they're built that way, albeit not grown up. However I think this should only come in after say, level 10 adv, just to ask a little token of gameplay time. ... anything younger than 10 would surely not have the strength to bear its considerable weight in the air. Plus there's the subject of landing, which a hatchling almost certainly wouldn't have the strength or skill to do, but perhaps we should just ignore that for the sake of this idea. .. perhaps 10 seconds in a 'splat recovery' posture during which you can't move?

Sorry for the lengthy post. I've left out the fact that the dragons' flight is magically assisted, but if you regard that abilities' development in the same way as their physical development, you'll end up with the same result.

Rakku