End of the Week with Major Mal

[HatsuharuZ]

1) Are there going to be any enhancement trees shown on Lammania later on that weren't in the Alpha earlier?

2) If the answer to #1 is 'yes', then are any of those trees available to the cleric class?


Nice to see you post, MajMal! I've missed your candid replies~

[Ziindarax]

Among the UI changes, will the dreaded three-tree limit be lifted?

[Grayvin]

To all you trolls: don't even think of it, before you hit post, hit preview and re-read it. Show some flippin appreciation for what lengths this guy went to to give us some much needed and desired information and community contact.

Give this man the props this post deserves please.

Seriously, I'm very happy that Mal posted this information, communication with the player base should be nothing but encouraged. We don't need trolls discouraging communication from the Turbine staff. Thank you for posting Mal, you're awesome for doing so!

[Myrddinman]

Awesome update stuff...

Thank you so much for reaching out and sharing some info with us...you rock!

[Sebastrd]

Thank you for restoring a bit of my faith in Turbine by communicating with us. Please keep it up.

P.S. Any word yet on merging some servers? I expect it won't happen until after the expansion drops and players don't come back in droves as some higher-ups are hoping/expecting, but has there even been any discussion?

P.P.S. I don't know what software you guys are using, but is it possible to merge servers logically and have the whole process be transparent to the end user? In other words, I log into Argo while someone else logs into Ghallanda but we both end up in "mergedserver1"? Though I suppose that could cause issues if there are duplicate names and whatnot. You'd probably have to do what the military does with their email addresses and add a logical "1" to the end of some names...

[InsanityIsYourFriend]

P.P.S. I don't know what software you guys are using, but is it possible to merge servers logically and have the whole process be transparent to the end user? In other words, I log into Argo while someone else logs into Ghallanda but we both end up in "mergedserver1"? Though I suppose that could cause issues if there are duplicate names and whatnot. You'd probably have to do what the military does with their email addresses and add a logical "1" to the end of some names...

If they do merge servers and add the logical 1 to the end of people's names, make it depending on when the account was first created (so if someone had their account back in 2009 and some other guy on another server with the same name had their account made in 2011 then the later the date gets the 1)
EX
Zeshadowfist: Account created 2010 (orien)
Zeshadowfist: Account created 2012 (Argo)
Server Merge
Zeshadowfist (orien)
Zeshadowfist-1 (Argo)

or however you want to do it, but if my char was first i want my char to retain my name!

[Svartelric]

Are the people making decisions going to listen to us when it comes to the enhancement pass?
Yes they are. 100’s of player bugs and comments have been sent over to dev. I have full reports from surveys, and conversations with players, that along with internal testing paints a pretty clear picture of the good, bad and ugly of the Enhancement system. There is already some pretty big redesigns to the UI and some of the classes…like Clerics.

You just made my day, thank you! I mean, thanks in general for actually providing us with some information.

[Dark_Helmet]

Hey y’all, here we are again, approaching another Expansion pack. Been a crazy year or so, not exactly the smoothest I’ve ever been part of, but it has been exciting.

Nice, the only person who actually motiviated me to login the forums since the ...er... change :

Love your work,

[Satyriasys]

and Wail of the Banshee?

[Mindos]

ONLY 15?

I know forum folk be a small percentage, but, GOSH.

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

ONLY 15?

I know forum folk be a small percentage, but, GOSH.

the report i copy pasted out of was a mournlands only report. most lamma survey responses are 100+

[Chai]

A new bug tracking tool! Woot. Finally. Yes, we do not lose your bugs to the Astral plane anymore. There is still a bug with reporting from in game that stinks, but the eggheads are working on it.

Please tell me you guys signed on with Jira.

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

Please tell me you guys signed on with Jira.

God no. If you think Jira is good...you are fired.

[Cleanincubus]

New Lamma and Mournlands focus- I thank Squeak and the Kookie for upping the game on communication from the community. They may not speak much, but all the data from both of these communities is now meticulously tracked.
For example:

Update 18 – Disciples of Shadow Quests
Disciples of Shar:
15 players responded to the Disciples of Shar survey. Most participants were either level 25 or level 15 characters, and 73% were Bladeforged Paladins. Most players soloed Disciples of Shar:

Half of the participants stated that the “quest is fun” while the other half stated that it is “dull” or “very dull”

Then there are pretty pie charts and graphs…direct quotes and fun stuff like that.

the report i copy pasted out of was a mournlands only report. most lamma survey responses are 100+

Could that be because of the inability to use the Character Copy, from the forum updates (server wipe & not being able to copy characters over who had been copied previous to the forum update)? Or did that not effect Mournlands?

Are the people making decisions going to listen to us when it comes to the enhancement pass?
Yes they are. 100’s of player bugs and comments have been sent over to dev. I have full reports from surveys, and conversations with players, that along with internal testing paints a pretty clear picture of the good, bad and ugly of the Enhancement system. There is already some pretty big redesigns to the UI and some of the classes…like Clerics.

Why do so many bugs that get reported in Lamannia still make it through to the live servers?
Usually it is a time issue. We have a schedule to keep, and sometimes the stuff gets kicked to a patch or later. It is just part of the ugly truth of MMO development.

late june

Then I'm praying the new Enhancement system isn't going to be released with the new expansion. Everyone knows that a month, is not enough time to get new feedback & make changes based on that feedback. That could very potentially be very devastating to the fanbase. Hopefully those in charge of scheduling will take the fact that there was so much feedback for the first run on Lammania & Mournlands, that they'll allow more time.

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your incredibly busy day to communicate with us. The community really needs more of this.

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

Then I'm praying the new Enhancement system isn't going to be released with the new expansion. Everyone knows that a month, is not enough time to get new feedback & make changes based on that feedback. That could very potentially be very devastating to the fanbase. Hopefully those in charge of scheduling will take the fact that there was so much feedback for the first run on Lammania & Mournlands, that they'll allow more time.

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your incredibly busy day to communicate with us. The community really needs more of this.

There is almost 1000 issues/suggestions/ideas reported with the Enhancement revamp in the past 6 months. Designers are taking this revamp very seriously, and all the concerns that the player base has voiced has been talked about in meetings, in the trenches and lunch tables for over a year. We know about the successes and failures of other companies doing what we are thinking here.
The screws were tightened with the last deployment on purpose to focus/railroad people into single trees...we of course know that a large % of players multi-class, and that is in the design of the system...as you can check out soon.
It is my hope that most of the functionality bugs will be addressed before we go out for the second peek...and a month is a good ammount of time to react, considering how everything else is going for the xpack at this point. I have total faith in the system designers that are working on the enhancements...both came from my team once upon a time and I have a nose for talent.

[Cleanincubus]

Thank you very much for the response. That certainly helps put my mind at ease, especially that the work on the expansion pack is going well. I look forward to the next preview on Lamannia.

[oberon131313]

God no. If you think Jira is good...you are fired.

A-mother-%&#&ing-men. I'd rather use Google Drive to track issues than Jira....looks like Chai is a PM.

[SirValentine]

The screws were tightened with the last deployment on purpose to focus/railroad people into single trees

They say

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

But you're telling me that it was malice, after all? So I should have gone with my gut and NOT given Turbine the benefit of the doubt that they were maybe just clueless?

I'm not sure who would think deliberately hamstringing one of the main advantages of this game, the flexibility of character creation, would be a Good Idea.

[Deadlock]

There is almost 1000 issues/suggestions/ideas reported with the Enhancement revamp in the past 6 months. Designers are taking this revamp very seriously, and all the concerns that the player base has voiced has been talked about in meetings, in the trenches and lunch tables for over a year. We know about the successes and failures of other companies doing what we are thinking here.
The screws were tightened with the last deployment on purpose to focus/railroad people into single trees...we of course know that a large % of players multi-class, and that is in the design of the system...as you can check out soon.
It is my hope that most of the functionality bugs will be addressed before we go out for the second peek...and a month is a good ammount of time to react, considering how everything else is going for the xpack at this point. I have total faith in the system designers that are working on the enhancements...both came from my team once upon a time and I have a nose for talent.

So the next peek is late June. Are you saying that July is enough time to react so that the new enhancement system will stay on track for the planned release with the Expansion on 19th August?

[MoonlitSilver]

The screws were tightened with the last deployment on purpose to focus/railroad people into single trees...we of course know that a large % of players multi-class, and that is in the design of the system...as you can check out soon.

Good sir, I believe this is the sort of thing the PR department doesn't want you to admit, or at least couch in more positive terms, i.e. PR doublespeak.

I think I also get why the forumites love you so much.