Grab Bag - April 18th, 2014
Player Questions & Developer AnswersGrab Bag, where have you been?
Humble apologies my dear friends. I mean no offense, but sometimes it's difficult to make all of my appointments. I mean...I'm not sure if you know, but...I'm kind of a big deal. People know me...but this is no excuse! I look forward to making a more regular appearance to answer your questions and address your concerns.
Yours with respect,
Sir Grabford B. Bagsworth III Esq.
Now - Let's answer some questions!
Why don't you guys do log-in surveys anymore? The last one I remember seeing was when they were thinking about expanding ML options to 3 per class instead of 2, which was many years ago. Don't you think this would be a good way to collect data and put controversial topics into better perspective (removing the bind stone from the Labyrinth is a popular one atm) from your entire player base in addition to postcount? A lot of European and casual players don't read or much less discuss topics here.
Log-in surveys are indeed a great way to get information directly from active players. Polls on third party sites, or even the Camelot Herald can be less effective because the questions are open to everyone, regardless of their status in the game. While we appreciate all feedback, there are certain questions we would like answered by players that are actively playing at the time of the poll.
We would like to re-implement log-in polls for this reason.
Is Broadsword going to do characters transfers between accounts? If so, do both accounts have to be open, and will it be a free or cost service?
This is the plan. Over 12+ years of game-play, players have several characters across multiple accounts and we would like to provide the opportunity to allow consolidation. This will be among the many updates and upgrades to the Broadsword Account Center that is currently underway. Currently, it’s planned as a premium service – but there are no details on the prices as yet.
Are there currently plans to have a monthly or quarterly twitch stream with the dev's playing with questions answered similar to the WBW streams with Grakulen, and if so, would you mind giving a rough eta?
We really enjoyed our Wayback Wednesday streams with Grakulen on MMORPG.com. They were a great way for us to keep players informed, and to demonstrate to new/interested parties the thrill and magic of Dark Age of Camelot. This is something we really want to do again, and we’ll be working with our wonderful Community Lead Carol on having something similar set up on a regular cadence. Who doesn’t miss watching us get crushed live on video!?
I have seen a lot of art changes with the new patch. Have your resources in this department increased?
Yes it has! We’re thrilled about this. Those of you who have participated in some previous Grab Bags asked questions to which the reply often started with: “Unfortunately due to art resource constraints we are currently unable to…”
Under Broadsword, we have renewed investment in this area, and we’re really excited about updating art for various features in DAoC. Things we’re currently discussing are: fixes for art-related bugs, new maps, UI skins, new items, monsters, and more!
General question looking for update on status of new website
We’re almost there. Those of you who have been following this (admittedly long) process will be pleased to know that the wait is almost over. We’re putting the finishing touches on Character and Guild search, an up-to-date Item database, and even a few Realm War features! We’re really excited to release the early phase of our updates to begin the process of building a Camelot Herald that will surpass the Herald of old!
Could be consider to share quests? If it is not possible for old quests, at least provide for new quests. It is more easy to group people when all have the same target, and not wasted time.
We have a lot of things we'd like to do to improve the User Experience. This is on that very large list but is somewhere around the middle in terms of priority. We'll get to it, but it may take a bit.
What does broadsword plan to do after the NNF patch?
Great question. I can't give out too many details yet but we have a lot planned. For the next patch, we'll be focusing on UI/UX improvements, art bug fixing and improvements (this includes the Labyrinth wall exploits!), and adding in a new long-term Live Event with a very cool surprise! Additionally, we'll be responding to any feedback on the NF Update and making any warranted adjustments.
After all of that, we'll be looking at the overarching goals of RvR (read: relics) as well as improving larger scale objectives (read: keeps/towers, and maybe new things!). On the PvE side, we'll be looking at updating loot tables and mob AI on some of the more memorable encounters and finishing the Hub Quests to 50. Class Balance, as always, is an ongoing endeavor.
I'm wondering if there is any planning for class rebalancing at the moment. I dont pretend to know exactly what you have in mind, just know if you see any particular hole in actual gameplay (I think for example to blademaster/mercenary, melee friar or skalds) that need to be filled and what we should expect!
As mentioned in a previous answer, class balance is always ongoing. However, with the NF Update we wanted to leave class balancing alone until the new RvR dynamic has been settled.
In terms of general balance concerns, we feel that melee are under-populated in large-scale and group RvR and are looking at ways to improve their situation. We would also like to revisit the Assassin changes and take a look at the Archer classes. Of course, there are several other classes we'll look over, so don't fret if I didn't mention it here.
When is the buy timer on npc Merchant going to be fixed or please confirm that i should have a 2-3 second lagg when pushing the buy button.
This is a bug that has been fixed with patch 1.115. You can log onto Pendragon to check it out!
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