December Podcast Questions and Answers

[Kinak]

With the close of the Enemy Message Contest, it's time for another casting of the pods.

Along with announcing the winners of the previously mentioned contest, I'll also be answering any questions people feel like posting in this thread.

Edit: Answering them here, as it turns out.

This is emphatically open to everyone, so even if your question is something other people might have known for years, don't feel like you need PhD in Herology to ask.

As always, though, I will be reading these on the air, so try not to keep the thread to just questions and make the questions as clear as you can so I don't stare at them dumbly while everyone is listening.

Cheers!
Kinak

[Patojonas]

1 - As always, what have you been working on? (other than the sidekick revamp we've already seen parts of)

2 - Any new zones/quests planned for the near future?

3 - The new league foe is a devil in disguise, congratz on the design Anything being done on other league features? I'd like to see some sort of competition among leagues other than prestige ranking

4 - The new league villain made me notice how scarce acid damage sources are in this game, any plans to implement a few more? (e.g. sidekick/skill)

5 - When will be the next advertising initiative? This game needs new players to buy stars and sell them on the mall so I can buy them!

6 - A question about the disguise foe iotm. Is it possible to get Master Zyx's avatar? If so, any hints?


I'll try to think of something else later

[zatade]

I am wondering about your rational when you are creating monthly items for the Wok of Stars.

The current item, Eon Drive, is a vehicle with a range of 3. While is has some nice drops and cuts time from a turn, it isn't useful as soon as you want to go beyond Downtown. My main interest is retcons and a wearable item has the potential to be useful throughout a run, but the car's benefit ends rather early unless I am prepared to sacrifice the benefit of useful sidekick for anything other than range extension.

Is the issue prevention of power creep ?

thanks
Zatade

[Sanjuro]

(1) Thank you for introducing the companions/sidekick split. I might be able to use some of these companion items that have been cluttering up my inventory.

(2) Well, someone had to say it, so here goes: The Auction House is gone.
I had been checking it at least once a day, and I can't remember the last time I saw something listed there.
How about you, Kinak? Do you happen to know the last time something was listed for sale in the auction house?
Was our (meaning the players') abandonment of the auction house the most important factor in removing the place?
Anyway, good-bye, original game feature!

[Cristiona]

but the car's benefit ends rather early unless I am prepared to sacrifice the benefit of useful sidekick for anything other than range extension.

There's always level 10 aerodynamic vehicle?

[Kinak]

Podcast is up here.

Thanks to everyone for your questions

Cheers!
Kinak

[Patojonas]

Please improve the eon drive, there's still time! (get it? )

[Sanjuro]

Please improve the eon drive, there's still time! (get it? )

I would call that joke an epoch fail.

[The Leopard]

Please improve the eon drive, there's still time! (get it? )

I would call that joke an epoch fail.

I'd say it was an era in judgement.

[Kinak]

Please improve the eon drive, there's still time! (get it? )

I would call that joke an epoch fail.

I'd say it was an era in judgement.

How can I argue with puns like these? Added the last thing I really, really wanted to add to the Eon drive.

Cheers!
Kinak

[Patojonas]

Awesome but...you missed an epoch chance of naming it Wings of Time.

Still, the whole idea resembles it, coincidence?

[Kinak]

Awesome but...you missed an epoch chance of naming it Wings of Time.

Still, the whole idea resembles it, coincidence?

Chrono Trigger? Never heard of it. Definitely not one of my three favorite games ever.

The real question is "what else did Kinak love Chrono Trigger so much he thought was an obvious reference?" The answer, of course, being "everything."

Cheers!
Kinak

[Patojonas]

So it is a CT reference?

Is the oily egg a reference to the egg of time?

Are the three proprietors of the store the 3 gurus?

Is the eon point named after the silver points?

Are the cape and the scabbard Magus' and Frog's?

I miss playing that game.....

I had also found this Eon Prime

[Kinak]

Yes to all and more

I miss playing that game.....

Meeeee tooooo.

I had also found this Eon Prime

Now, that one's a coincidence

Cheers!
Kinak

[xKiv]

Any chance a kind person will post a transcript/summary (or am I blind)?

[Harry Dresden]

I'll do up a transcript tomorrow. Last week was too crazy and I didn't have an hour to spare.

[Harry Dresden]

K: We had a lot of great entries for the contest, thanks for participating. Winners are Islader for the barred bard, Mana Yachanichu for the Dimetrodon, Sanjuro for the burrowing stalker, Patojonas for Chuck Van Arnolde and the chemist, and The Leopard for the overgrown rattlesnake and alchemist.
erfMortium: Great work on the heirloom competitions, I really enjoyed trying to beat my fellow herovians to the mark on each and every run.
K: I’m glad you’re enjoying that.
erfMortium: I love collecting the merit badges, as I can tell that lots of us do. How about our hint giver being able to tell us if we have gotten closer to achieving something? Or you know, a hint such as "you know, if you explored xxx you might find some acclaim"
K: Well, exploring xxx is usually a good way to sink your career, at least in Hollywood if not in the heroing realm. But not a bad idea. The hint givers could probably use a coat of paint with some changes to point people toward things like the retcon device and other late game things. I definitely think the hint givers could be a lot more useful.
erfMortium: The heirloom items improving with each heirloom run is interesting as a concept, as it implies that there is some way you are able to modify items on an individual basis. I understand we have the welding/assembling in the hideout, but what about adding some sort of craft skills to the game?
K: The items are not really being modified, per se. If you have two Heirloom Diamonds and pull one for 4 runs, the game has no way to tell them apart and both get the bonus. Crafting has always been one of my favorite things in games. The crafting options already in TH handle everything we need at this point, though.
Patojonas: As always, what have you been working on? (other than the sidekick revamp we've already seen parts of)
K: December is always a little hectic with yearly talismans, Christmas gifts, new IOTM, and such. If the new talismans are close to my vision, they’ll be pretty frigging awesome. Those are taking quite a bit of work. I am also working on a pretty big event, that should be coming up towards New Years-ish for the start of it.
Patojonas: Any new zones/quests planned for the near future?
K: Not immediately, no. The Mad Scientist quest is still being worked on, but there’s a ton of stuff involved with it and it’s been back burner to a lot of other things. It’s a massive amount of work, with something like 50 new enemies and lots of new items.
Patojonas: The new league foe is a devil in disguise, congratz on the design. Anything being done on other league features? I'd like to see some sort of competition among leagues other than prestige ranking
K: Not something I’m currently churning code out for, but there are a lot of things I’d still like to do with Leagues. Something like a more permanent sort of leaderboard, that is related in a roundabout way to the companion/sidekick revamp. I really want Leagues to be an important part of the game, and I don’t think we’re quite there yet. There’s plenty of room for adding more League foes, rotating some of the old ones out, and making some special foes unlock through mechanics. High level heroes are clutch in taking out the daily boss currently, but there is plenty of room for adding new mechanics in to make low level players just as important. The more people we can get involved in building and supporting their Leagues, the more important and cool Leagues become. (very truncated, start podcast at about 15:30 to hear the whole thing)
Patojonas: The new league villain made me notice how scarce acid damage sources are in this game, any plans to implement a few more? (e.g. sidekick/skill)
K: Skill is very unlikely. Acid is very closely associated with the alchemist villains. I wouldn’t be opposed to putting in a new sidekick or companion that added acid damage.
Patojonas: When will be the next advertising initiative? This game needs new players to buy stars and sell them on the mall so I can buy them!
K: Since the last one I mentioned, there’s actually been another wave and I need to do some number crunching on my end. Aside from the erfworld ad, we’ve done advertising on some webcomics which has gone very well. When you do advertising you hope that it will pay for itself in 6-12 months, but that first ad paid for itself in about a month. The second wave was mind blowingly bad, and only brought in a small trickle of people. Whenever we get new players, I get a wave of question and bug reports; a lot of things that aren’t bugs, some that are good ideas. The biggest question is always “how do I get old IOTM stuff?” This has been an issue that’s mentioned often, and a lot of the oldest items are on accounts that haven’t been used in years. I would like to get the trade of those items into a place where I can see what’s going on and how much those items are being traded. That will tell me if there’s enough liquidity in these items to justify possibly introducing old IOTM things that isn’t going to screw over people who already purchased those items when they were originally offered. For reference, when I’m talking old items I’m talking about items that are 5+ years old. Moving forward, we’ll see a new marketplace open with in the game, and we’ll monitor what happens in there.
Patojonas: A question about the disguise foe iotm. Is it possible to get Master Zyx's avatar? If so, any hints?
K: Nope.
Zatade: I am wondering about your rational when you are creating monthly items for the Wok of Stars.
The current item, Eon Drive, is a vehicle with a range of 3. While is has some nice drops and cuts time from a turn, it isn't useful as soon as you want to go beyond Downtown. My main interest is retcons and a wearable item has the potential to be useful throughout a run, but the car's benefit ends rather early unless I am prepared to sacrifice the benefit of useful sidekick for anything other than range extension.
Is the issue prevention of power creep ?
K: Part of the quest progression is getting more range to reach farther into the map. Range in vehicles is always restricted unless the vehicle has level requirements (armored Pegasus), Passable Pilot requirements (VHF-1 fighter), or has very few attributes (Lexura). Much like the Blockee ATV, the Eon Drive has several good attributes, and because it has no level requirement it requires a range limit to prevent it from being overpowered. (Harry added some of that to fill in the explanation.)
Sanjuro: Thank you for introducing the companions/sidekick split. I might be able to use some of these companion items that have been cluttering up my inventory.
K: You are quite welcome.
Sanjuro: Well, someone had to say it, so here goes: The Auction House is gone.
I had been checking it at least once a day, and I can't remember the last time I saw something listed there.
How about you, Kinak? Do you happen to know the last time something was listed for sale in the auction house?
Was our (meaning the players') abandonment of the auction house the most important factor in removing the place?
Anyway, good-bye, original game feature!
K: I don’t have a date on the last listing because the records fall off after a month, but there were many times that I checked and there had been no listings in the last 30 days. If there is something not being used, I’d rather not have it there drawing in potential users who don’t understand no one is using it any more.

[Kinak]

Thanks, Harry!

Cheers!
Kinak

[xKiv]

Thanks for the upgrade on the Eon drive. However, on speedy retcons you hardly stand a chance of accumulating enough eon points to upgrade it before needed. Not sure if this is an oversight or design feature!

Doesn't it require passable pilot anyway?

[Kinak]

Thanks for the upgrade on the Eon drive.

You're welcome

However, on speedy retcons you hardly stand a chance of accumulating enough eon points to upgrade it before needed. Not sure if this is an oversight or design feature!

It wasn't really intended to be something you get in run every run.

Cheers!
Kinak