How much do you think the game will change after it comes back?

[Frosten]

I like the n-c plan, its gonna happen almost as soon as the game is up IMO. other than that, more nerfs to bring us down, perhaps a quest or two, won't quite remember any of it until we play for a lil bit since its been so long since any of us have played

Any wagers?

[Arilou]

I like the n-c plan, its gonna happen almost as soon as the game is up IMO.

There is no "plan." Zifa redid a few old maps and hopes to expand one area in the future (I've been planning and hoping to turn Forgotten Oak into a several hundred map area for years now). You seem to have read the title of his thread and let your imagination run wild or misunderstood player ramblings for an actual game plan. Sort of like how you misunderstood the description of the forum you originally posted this in (note the part where it clearly says not to post new threads there).

Also, nothing is going to happen almost as soon as the game is up at the moment. I've been telling players from the start that for the most part wizards aren't even remotely trying to work on new content as we need the server online to do our work. Therefore, it will be weeks to months before you really see anything new in-game. The only things that will appear before then are a couple of map changes here and there. For example, I may decided to add a butterfly in one map of Alaria, I may decide to redo one of the maps in Amita, or I may decide to add a couple of maps to a closed building in Forgotten Oak. We have always done that sort of thing on a weekly basis and we never announce it so unless you randomly explore you're unlikely to know or care about that sort of thing. The only way any of this will change is if the wizards end up being able to login to their accounts and access the server awhile before the players do.

other than that, more nerfs to bring us down,

No nerfs, just bugs. Rhialto isn't doing anything to game balance, in fact Rhialto isn't doing much of anything that will affect your normal playing experience (besides the bugs). He's simply working to clean up things behind the scenes that will eventually allow him to add more features and make the game run more smoothly. Read the official updates thread in the announcement's forum. The quote from Rhialto that I posted in March is the one you want to focus on.

perhaps a quest or two

Nope, not a one. Quests take a long time to make and require a lot of testing. A good sized quest that is up to all modern standards could take a month or more to make and as I've said we can't do much of anything with the server offline.

[Frosten]

my bad, didn't notice the description, thanks for moving it...
i looked through everything he had to say about it, and plan was the wrong word, project is what i shoulda said...I read through it actually, as soon as the game comes up was pretty extreme exaggeration..but soon perhaps.
Good, no more nerfs for a bit, Get to abuse some spots! haha jk.

I think Arilou is gonna win the wager. >.>

[Arisu]

My vote goes with the "less bugs". And I don't really want any big changes yet. I'd like to see the Wyvern as I knew it come back up. Hopefully people will take my HoF images. That'd also be pretty cool.

[themadhobo]

I think the only real differences in wyvern may be the community, and with an updated server, perhaps the timely demise of the lag monster! Im looking forward to that very much.

[Arilou]

Originally Posted by Frosten

i looked through everything he had to say about it, and plan was the wrong word, project is what i shoulda said...I read through it actually, as soon as the game comes up was pretty extreme exaggeration..but soon perhaps.

I wouldn't count on even that if I were you. Expect next to nothing new from the wizards for awhile. When something does end up being released it will be at the same rate as things were released before the game went down, which was few and far between. We have a limited staff, lots of other duties, (duties that will be complicated with bug report patrol when the server returns) and busy schedules.

Also, as a rule of thumb, when a wizard tells you a project they are working on assume it will never end up online and you'll be better off. I made the mistake of telling players about one that I was working on once and they pestered me about when it would come online for months only to end up being disappointed when I scrapped the entire project 200 maps in. Nowadays you'd be surprised how many would-be projects the wizards hear that other wizards are working on only to have them end up not going online because the wizard moves on to another project or they end up getting back to their real lives (some come around and get hyped up about working on Wyvern again for a few days to a couple of weeks and when the excitement ends for them they drift back into the real world).

[Rikkim]

Originally Posted by themadhobo

I think the only real differences in wyvern may be the community, and with an updated server, perhaps the timely demise of the lag monster! Im looking forward to that very much.

But..but... I names the lag monster Henry.... he's my best friend D:

[Frosten]

Originally Posted by Arilou

I made the mistake of telling players about one that I was working on once and they pestered me about when it would come online for months only to end up being disappointed when I scrapped the entire project 200 maps in.

Did that happen to be a project recreating FO? because i remember you talkin about that ingame when i was playing a long while back.

@arisu, I would take your HoF images gladly, they are wonderful. however, i doubt i'll be able to fit the requirements, especially being as the server is offline and i can't complete quests offline I might go on a quest rampage though when the server is back and running, always wanted to do that >.> but if i succeed, i would gladly take the honor of showing off a 'risu Hof pic. Btw, thanks for showing me how to make them transparent and .gif and such, it was a long time ago, but i was young and stupid...now im a lil older and a lil..more stupid lol

@Arilou or whomever can answer this sufficiently, I always wondered what happened to the costumes and the wedding tux/dress? i had quite a few on magis and then i stopped playing for a while, and when i came back they were gone...I never heard the full story to that, so if someone could tell me, it'd be greatly appreciated

[Tanm]

^ Costumes and wedding tuxedos and dresses were removed because if a male player wore a female costume or wedding dress, their gender would change (this being true for females with male costumes or tuxedos as well). I don't know if Arilou is specifically the one who took them all out, but he has said they wouldn't be acceptable if at any point he or another wizard were to implement gender specific maps.

[Arilou]

I have a number of projects in the works, Forgotten Oak is one of them. I am not the type of person who can sit down and work on the same project for months. Rather I need to switch back and forth between different ones because I get a great idea for something else while working on one project and do not have the ability to put that idea aside and force myself through the work that is required on a project which now seems less important. My creativity is very much tied in with my emotional state so if I feel unhappy about not getting to play with a fresh new idea that makes me very excited, the work I am doing on my current project is going to dramatically suffer. Other wizards have their own unique situations which lead to projects being delayed or never finished and trust me all of us have them to some degree or another. Such is what you get when people are doing game design as a hobby and are not making a living out of it.

Anyway, costumes were removed for two main reasons. The first reason was that they were buggy. One such bug made them change a player's gender, another caused problems when Nagas and Giants wore them. The original coder is no longer here and there is no sign of them being fixed so we need to cut our losses as Rhialto did awhile ago with grappling hooks. The second reason involves player/wizard opinion. There are those who feel that having such a wide range of costumes available for 25k is like giving players free hof images without having to go through all the requirements that actual hofers have to. That was the reason that the costume shop was originally closed and you were only allowed to keep the ones that you people already bought. But, with finally having enough of reason one, this was an opportunity to banish two players with one command. Also of note, the costumes that allowed players to look like monsters (such as the vampire one) was a serious no-no and never should've been allowed into the game.

[Logwad]

Originally Posted by Arilou

My creativity is very much tied in with my emotional state so...

Considering how much grief we all give you, I'm surprised you can get anything done at all. ;)

Originally Posted by Arilou

Anyway, costumes were removed for two main reasons. The first reason was that they were buggy. One such bug made them change a player's gender...

That's not a bug, that's a feature! <:D

[themadhobo]

Were wizards really thinking about making gender based maps? Cause thats an interesting idea. Or is that just a "what if" kind of situation?

[Logwad]

Originally Posted by themadhobo

Were wizards really thinking about making gender based maps? Cause thats an interesting idea. Or is that just a "what if" kind of situation?

I am all for separate boys and girls bathrooms.

[Hamel]

There arn't any bathrooms in wyvern silly. =P

[Arilou]

Originally Posted by themadhobo

Were wizards really thinking about making gender based maps? Cause thats an interesting idea. Or is that just a "what if" kind of situation?

That's something I intend to push for in the future. There's a wide range of things that I have in mind for it, but it begun with the idea of wanting to see a damsel in distress type quest in the game. Of course the plot line I had in mind made no sense when a female character attempted to solve it. So, there are a number of possible solutions to fix that; 1) You can have males and females enter two different sets of maps. In the one females enter they are saving a prince instead of a princess. 2) Same as the first one, except when female characters attempt to do the quest they get different dialogues [throughout the quest] when attempting to save the damsel. This is among my favorites as it would allow for some rather comical moments. 3) You make the damsel in distress quest for males and then think up something entirely different for a quest of the same number of points that only females can solve. This has the worst opportunity for being abused if players were able to switch back and forth between genders.

Now mind you I never intend to make this quest, it was just a passing idea that I would like to see wizards one day do in some form or another. But, more importantly, the possibility for male/female only maps has almost the same appeal to me as seeing the game split between good and evil characters (depending on which you choose to be you get to see two vastly different gaming experiences). It has so many possibilities, from very simple things to very big things (like adding romantic dialogue into the game).

You see, the future of Wyvern very much needs to have the ability to really be able to tell a story both for the sake of the creative minds working on the game and the players in general (game credibility is also another factor). Right now it's too focused on monster bashing and while it's fine for that to be around for those of you who like it, the game's storytelling ability has gone from nearly non-existent to severely lacking just in the time I've been here. So in attempting to improve that we need to be able to find ways to tell whatever type of story we want and not just be limited to what you would expect. But, I'm reaching beyond the original point of this thread as to do that properly you need much more than just gender specific teleporters. One big thing that will be needed is dialogue that operates based on variables of the player when interacting with a npc. For example:

If player is male, npc says: "A fine day to you sir."
If player is female, npc says: "A fine day to you ma'am."
If player is other, npc says: "A fine day to you."

This can also be applied to things like species specific dialogue, good/evil specific dialogue...you name it. *looks back on the original question, rereads above paragraph, pauses...ponders...runs to Tesh and has her close mouth for me...*

Originally Posted by Hamel

There arn't any bathrooms in wyvern silly. =P

*reopens mouth* There is one such bathroom in the Minath Elion Castle. *runs back to Tesh with a spool of string and a needle* Make sure it stays shut this time.

[Frosten]

Heh, Logwad, i saw your comments on some of R's blogs...nice :P
Arilou, i like your ideas. Wizards kinda know what they r talking about i guess
what if you are "other"? then its not fair! salkand will be complaining for something else than omni rings

[Arilou]

Other is more for when you would use it for things like races, but it covers you with genders just incase something goes screwy in the future. Anyway, say you want a npc to say one thing to a Rakshasa and say another thing to a Human, but you don't want to set something for each and every other race - Other covers them all for you in one go.

[Frosten]

Ah i see, arilou once again has the answer to my never ending questions.
Like is R translating the code in a different programming language? just a thought..

[Clubbz]

No, he is fixing the strings of code which are poorly made, and the code that was meant as temporary fixes into more logical better strings which could quite possibly take some stress off of the server.....I think

[Ploog]

I like to think that when Wyvern comes back online, a whole lot of bugs will be fixed. I am 95% sure that the game otherwise will not be messed with in any other way. I mean maps won't be changed, or items won't be changed or anything of the sort. That is all going to be done/atempted to be done when the server is back up I am sure.

If anything, R might decide to add an area that he may have worked on, or some new sweet code for the game. Other then that, as I said, mostly bugs will be gone, and nothing else added/taken away.