Quests

I kind of run out of ideas for new things to add to the game, and I decided to focus on one aspect we were lacking: Quests.
In fact, I always wanted to have a game with lots of quests, that can be played much like a single player game, if the players chose to. But there were always other things getting in the way, so for the past 4 years there were no new quests (besides for a few new god quests).

Adding quests is a lot of work, and you have to be really careful and test them properly, or else there will be problems. Implementing a good quality quest can take 20+ hours, but since I have to do other things as well, it can take more than a week to add a new quest.

One of my dreams was to have about 10+ NPCs per map, all which are part of quests, or at the very least give some background information, to make the game feel more alive. All those NPCs must be connected in some way or shape, for example the NPCs on one map will talk about the NPCs on that map and even NPCs on nearby maps. Ultima 7 and Ultima 7 II do exactly this, and for this reason they still have a pretty big fan base.

Anyway, for the next few months I will try to focus most of my development work on adding more quests, and I hope people will enjoy it.

P.S. Most, if not all of the future quests will give experience in some skill[s], which will eliminate part of the boring, repetitive aspect of the game, and will give the new players a chance to level up faster. For example, if a quest gives 10K attack and defense exp, that's a lot for a level 20 newbie, but very little for someone who is level 80+

Cellphone games

I've been thinking more and more lately about trying to enter the cellphone/PDA/PMP game market.
The advantages are quite big:
1. Big companies don't compete, so there is enough room for the small guy.
2. Those devices have limited capabilities, so there is no need for fancy graphic (3D) and anything complicated. Many devices don't have a touchscreen so the control has to be done with just a few buttons.
3. Since the development time is relatively small, you can sell the games for cheap (1-2 bucks), and most people would buy such a game if they like it, since no one cares about 2 bucks.
4. It MIGHT be possible to find some manufacturer to license your game and include it by default on their device. I am thinking mostly of the chinese PMP makers.
5. Porting the game on different platforms should be relatively easy, because we are talking about 2D games here. No external libraries are needed except for Zlib, which can be statically linked with the code, and all I need is to access the frame buffer, read/write files, read the buttons state, and sleep().

The only problem is the different screen sizes and orientations. Probably a different set of artwork would be required for each screen size, so the scene will look the same. I think it is poor taste to resize images on the fly on such limited devices, because it consumes CPU time, and, implicitly, battery.

What I have in mind for my first game is 2D quest game. It will look similar in a way with the Mario games, or the old Dizzy games, but, of course, with better graphics. So you'd be able to move left, right and jump. There will a key for accessing your inventory and using objects. In total, 4 keys, perfect for a cellphone or small device.
This game will use artwork from EL (pre-rendered), and will be based on the EL universe. I'll let you know if/when I have something to show.

Harvesting changes

Recently I made a few changes in how the harvesting works. Mainly, I increased the number of events, which force you to actually pay attention to the harvesting process, to restart it when it stops due to those events.
Now, for those who don't harvest AFK, and harvest only resources that require a level smaller than their harvesting level, the change is not too drastic. There will be a slight decrease in the rate of the harvesting, perhaps 5-10%, but since it happens to everyone equally, I don't consider it to be a problem.
There were 3 reasons for this change:
1. The economy was flooded with too many items and resources, and almost every day more gold was coming in the game than going out, by about 15% on average.
2. Gold farmers had many harvesting characters which were used to make gold and then sell for RL $$$. Now, I don't have a huge problem with the gold farming, so long as you have to actually work for it. But having multiple harvesting characters that generate gold is not good for anyone except for the farmers.
3. Some players had harvesting characters which they used to supply their main character. While that is illegal, not everyone gets caught, so this will have a negative impact on the cheaters.

I expected that most of the people will welcome the changes, since it fixes some of the inflation, while at the same time impacts the cheaters and farmers, with relatively little impact on honest players.
But it turned out that I was pretty wrong. A lot of players complained that, omfg, now they can't harvest from school/work, or harvest while eating breakfast and taking a long crap in the bathroom. Others complained that now the harvesting is too boring because they actually have to pay attention(!) while harvesting.

Based on my tests, and the tests of some other players, if you don't harvest AFK, you don't have much to worry about, the resources harvested are about the same as before (and you get more harvesting exp in the process). Nevertheless, the rate of the random events was slightly higher than I wanted, so I will drop it down just a little bit.

Unlike most of the other games, in EL harvesting is almost painless and automatic. We have map walk, so you can get to the storage with just a few clicks. Harvesting id done with a few clicks as well. I think that those complaining should try some other games, and see if they enjoy it more there.

Anyway, the end result is that some people quitted, and many of them don't bring their harvesting alts online anymore, resulting in a players drop of ~10-15%. I am not really crying over that loss, but we will have to focus more on bringing new players and increase the player retention rate.

New stuff

I have decided to focus a bit more on events and bringing more strategy to invasions.
Until recently, the invasions revolved around being strong and using the best gear. For the high end monsters, only the fighters had a real chance, and there was very little team spirit.
With the last monster, Mare Bulangiu, and to some extent with the Bulangiu, the things changed a little. Those monsters are pretty hard to fight in melee combat, due to their high armor and damage. In order to kill them, it is best if you employ some different methods at the same time.
For example, people can harm them, while the archers can shoot at them, and the summoners can summon rats to save the tanks some hit points. And with the last Mare Bulangiu, people actually did that.

So now I was thinking to improve that a little. I want to implement a few new things:
1. New summoned monsters that will be relatively cheap, but be better tanks than the rats, who die in one hit. Another monster would have the mirror skin perk, which can help a lot. Maybe even something with the self destruct perk. This new monsters would need a relatively high summoning level, however.

Then I can add some special mines that do more damage vs invasions, and some special arrows and bolts that can have some new effects over invasions as well. I am not sure when I will add all those new things, but I hope I'll do it in a month or less.
Afterwards, a lot more people can contribute to the defeat of the evil forces :)

The economy

EL has a really big economic side to it, and although players often complain about stuff, they mainly like it if they keep playing the game.
One of the biggest problems is that the manufacturing skill does not bring enough income. This is mainly due to the fact that there is a very fierce competition between the players, and often the end product is sold at a loss. Many players try to make great swords, in the hope that they will get lucky and produce an enchanted version. The non enchanted versions are sold at very low prices, because the demand is smaller than the production rate.
I always told those who complained about the economy, as though it is my fault, to actually take the matter into their own hands, and not lower the price to below the value of the ingredients. Now, it seems that they finally realized that it might be a good idea to do so, and they agreed to go on 'strike' and not sell items at a loss, which is great.

Now, there are a few solutions to this problem, but, as with anything, some people will love them, and others will hate them. For example, one solution would be to increase the break rate of the great swords (which I did). Before doing that, there would be one or two great swords breaking each day, which is not that much considering that there are probably 100+ players using them. Assuming a totally equal chance to break one, that means that each player has a chance of about 1.5% to break a sword in a day, which means that a sword would last, statistically, 2+ months. Given the fact that the cost is only around 20-25Kgcs, that's about 400 gc per day, which is not that much.
Another solution would be to make a formula that produces the enchanted version of each sword, so that the manufacturers can reliably make them. Of course, the formula would have to be quite expensive, and use ingredients that cost at least 200 Kgc. The formula would also need to require a very high manufacturing level, in order to reward those who worked harder.

Another way to help the economy in general is to add new gold sinks. The more important the gold becomes in the game, the more valuble it is, which drives costs down. On a related note, the archery skill is not that useful (although it has some uses).
So to address both issues at the same time, I came up with a new potion that cost 15Kgcs, available for now only from the NPC (which means, it is a gold sink). This potion permanentely increases by 1%, up to 60% the chance to do a critical shot with the bows and crossbows. A critical shot means that all the armor penalty is removed.
So a player who spends 900Kgc and has a high ranging skill can be quite competitive in PKing (especially if they are in a team).

New stuff

Well, it seems that it will take a little while until I'll start working at the map editor, so in the past few weeks I did some 'clean up' stuff. Things like adjusting some monsters to be more useful, changing some spawns, removing the TS 'loop hole', adding a few new special days, etc.

Right now I am working at two potions that will decrease the attack and defense levels by 5, up to -30 of your current level. They will use dragon scales, and will require a high potion level, which takes care of a few issues: Too many dragon scales in the game, top potioners not having enough potions to do for their levels, and some fighters who fall in between monster levels will now be able to gain more exp. Now the attack and defense levels increase every minute towards their nominal value, even if you are hungry, so this kind of training will be quite expensive.

I am also working (right now in the design stage) at an awards system. It will be similar to the top players list, but it won't be based on levels. Instead, it will be based on 'achievements', like how many rostogols stones lost, how many rare items harvested or manufactured, how many Leonard kills, etc. It will be reset every month, so even somewhat new players will have a chance to be there. There will be no in game advantage if you win those awards, it will be just for fun (and some glory :D). I am hoping to have this sytem implemented by the end of March or earlier.

Update on the new engine

The new engine Xerafax has been working at is going pretty well. Right now, it can load and display all the EL maps. It is not yet ready to be integrated in the client, because there are a few things still missing (LOD for the objects and reflections, the shadows system is buggy, the water is not displayed properly yet, and all kind of other small issues).
However, it should be good enough to finally start working at that map editor.

While I've been waiting to start working at the editor, I did a few nice things on the server side:
Implemented the potions god quest.
Added a new random day, where there invasions happen more often and are stronger.
Made a new potion, called potion of Speed Hax. What it does is double your speed, but will consume 1 unit of food every 2 steps (50% chance per step). Once the food level gets under a certain number, you will stop for about 1 second, then you will revert back to walking.

I have a few other things in mind, such as some new random days, an archery god quest, and maybe a new shape shifting form. I am not sure how many things I'll be able to do until I start working at the map editor, but I will probably be able to work at the editor and server without neglecting the other.