Q&A Round XIV - Answers Published

[kibsword]

You have to remember that Atys wood isnt nessecarily the same as earth wood. Its prime roots wood, it is most likely stronger and most resistant than that here.

Another thing I should bring up where someone mentioned metals needed as catalists. You have to remember that the force of magic or magical skills are on atys. Now it could be argued that these forces are based in physics and its something the nanoseed gives us etc.

However it could be more like the universe I am writing about in my book. The laws of magic are parellel to the laws of physics, they intermix when nessecary. Introducing magic to such a universe can have other consequences too. For example a spacial body could exceed the maximum possible mass allowed before 100% chance of implosion suggested in the laws of physics, by adding a extra force of magical properties.

Also consider that one one of the lore shots of Atys where it shows the layers, it suggests that Atys may be a mostly open world, with the prime roots making up essentially the bulk of it and being open space for the most part. It also appeared to me on that diagram that the core of the planet was open (perhaps where the dragon sleeps). This would also help explain why many of the rock processes caused by pressure and heat on earth dont occur so much on atys. Remember its a living planet, so such processes could kill Atys anyway. With on earth the rock acting as a liquid over long periods of time, Atys grows all the time so this can be thrown out.

I hope that made sense

-Kibs

[svayvti]

Atys probably has minerals. But they don't get the chance to sedimentate and deposit like they do on earth. Minerals on earth are in abundance. But minerals on Atys are scarce and likely the planet has good ways of absorbing them.

No wonder very little of the Karavan machinery spends any time on the ground... Most likely the planet has many ways of breaking metal machines down.

[thebax]

And the Kitin shells might well be made of Chitin , a sugar--based polymer.

I hadna thot o' dat.... It be settled, firs ting tommorree, I gonna go out an' satisfy me sweet tooth... I belief I'll lick a Kipee

OOC: I know, I know, not that sort of sugar But it makes for a funny mental image, hehe. Imagine the Kipees surprise and shock at be descended upon by a horde of midgets, all intent on oscillating attentions.

O_o

<_>

/// " \\\

[thosholm]

I hadna thot o' dat.... It be settled, firs ting tommorree, I gonna go out an' satisfy me sweet tooth... I belief I'll lick a Kipee

OOC: I know, I know, not that sort of sugar But it makes for a funny mental image, hehe. Imagine the Kipees surprise and shock at be descended upon by a horde of midgets, all intent on oscillating attentions.

O_o

<_>

/// " \\\

Bax,

will you be having some Unholy Parsley with that?

[thosholm]

Btw, with no metal around, one really gets to speculate what Aen armour is made of.

[grimjim]

Btw, with no metal around, one really gets to speculate what Aen armour is made of.

Wood, inlaid with chitin from these...

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0102/feature3/

[thebax]

The berserk action increases the damage you inflict to your opponent of a small amount of hit points, but in exchange inflicts you damages every 4 seconds while it is active. The duration is 20-35 seconds, and the the amount of damages (inflicted on the opponent and on yourself) is between 10-45 - it depends on the level.

So you're quite right, the effect is tiny here.

This brings up an issue I probably should have inquired about in the last Q&A thread, but I'm posting it here, as it's more likely to be read by the moderators.

Tiny effects. (a pause to let the titters die away)

While some tiny effects do have a use, such as was mentioned previously, using daggers with beserk, others are not only useless, but possibly suicidal.

Such as last Q&A's bit about blunt weapons and the "slow" power.

I have a choice when setting up my stanza's for my maces. I can use two of these three powers: Accuracy, Increase Damage, and Slow.

If I do not use accuracy, I usually miss, heh, or at least miss enough that Slow and Increase Damage are rendering a lower damage output per minute than Slow and Accuracy. So, I always use Accuracy for my hunting stanzas.

Reminder: Slow lasts for 5 seconds, and slows the mobs attacks by 10%

If I alternate using one stanza with Accuracy and Slow, with another that has Accuracy and Increased Damage, I can keep the mobs attacks slowed for the entire fight (providing I do not run out of stamina or health :/ ). However, the net result of this is that over the course of the fight, the mob does 10% less damage, while I do 25% less damage, a losing equation. We are much better off just using Increased Damage, as a dead mob has it's damage output reduced to 0% (not counting yelks and the like )

I wonder if this obvious error in the game will ever be fixed, so that it will at least be as good as the "Bleed" stanza, if not the "Ignore Armor"? Perhaps by increasing the 5 second duration to be the same as bleed, or at least increasing the amount of "slowness" to 25%, so that we at least remain equal to our opponent in deficit.

OOC:

[mmatto]

Whole world is going to be FvF area. Do you plan to allow healing opposing faction players in FvF areas? even with in team? If not, this makes cross faction pve teams next to impossible. Consider losing significant portion of remaining subs in such case.

What kind of measures you have planned to avoid or discourage ganking? Q&A sounded like you are going eventually to implement fully open pvp. Even the short term FvF plan represents far more wide open pvp model than for example WoW pvp server. For example, Wow has safe home zones and instanced battlegrounds to reduce random ganking by high level players, Eve online has police force punishing criminals and player bounty system. Any similar or more ideas to discourage problems with ganking? Note that I do not say that methods used in wow or eve are good enough.

[akicks]

Btw, with no metal around, one really gets to speculate what Aen armour is made of.

Wood/Resin/Oil and Sap.

Like all other armors.

Don't let the over-zealous amount of oil-shine make you think it's anything but

[sidusar]

Not all wood burns easily.

True, but mostly everything will burn when grinded into tiny pieces and dispersed in air. Unless it's totally incapable of burning. Gasoline doesn't burn easy either if it's not mixed with air.

And the Kitin shells might well be made of Chitin , a sugar--based polymer. The stuff is tough! No metals needed for that, just C, N, H and O.

Never said there had to be metals on Atys, just that there had to be minerals. Wouldn't chitin be a mineral?

Atys probably has minerals. But they don't get the chance to sedimentate and deposit like they do on earth. Minerals on earth are in abundance. But minerals on Atys are scarce and likely the planet has good ways of absorbing them.

No wonder very little of the Karavan machinery spends any time on the ground... Most likely the planet has many ways of breaking metal machines down.

But our bones are minerals! So there has to be plenty of it.

Come to think of it, it's impossible that there is no metal on Atys either. The Karavan vessels are made of metal. And they slowly fall apart. So where does the metal go? There must be trace quantities of metal on Atys from that alone.

It also appeared to me on that diagram that the core of the planet was open (perhaps where the dragon sleeps). This would also help explain why many of the rock processes caused by pressure and heat on earth dont occur so much on atys. Remember its a living planet, so such processes could kill Atys anyway. With on earth the rock acting as a liquid over long periods of time, Atys grows all the time so this can be thrown out.

Ah, that's a whole other things to think about. An open core, without any metals, would mean little mass and thus little gravity coming from the planet. Atys revolves around it's axis four times faster than earth, meaning a greater centrifugal force. Then there's the huge planet in the sky, don't know about you but that looks like a gas giant to me, which means quite some upwards gravitational pull from it. With all that, you'd think we'd hardly be able to stay on the ground, yet in fact we can't even jump 10 centimeter!
Low gravity effects the atmosphere as well, just think of Mars which was unable to maintain it's atmosphere. Atys revolves around the sun much faster than earth, and so is much closer to it's star. With so little gravity coming from Atys, it's atmosphere would be blown away by the solar wind.
And no iron in the core also means no magnetic field around Atys to protect it from solar radiation. Homins would be fried.

Conclusion: There is either a massive metal core deep down supplying the needed gravity and magnetic field, or some powerfull magical force. Could be why the Karavan don't want us going down there.