 Sigil Developer Tracker
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The dev tracker is no longer actively scanning, however you may continue to browse the archives collected over the past several years here.
Please remember that these developer posts
are taken out of context, so beware of any silky venom being spewed forth.
Color Key:
Green - Sigil Games Online Employee
Pink - Sony Online Entertainment
Gray - Microsoft Game Studios Employee
Orange - Community Member
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Quote:
Originally Posted by holymight  Nino,
Can you please have your people look at the faction requirements for evil races at Wardship of the Sleeping Moon. Normal races start at -2000 faction. Evil races start at -10,000 faction. That is a rediculous grind and many many people are currently stuck on it. It is way too harsh for such a vital area in the game. | Ooh, one I can answer: More Foes of the Sleeping Moon (500 faction quest) is being made doable by anyone who has done Foes of the Sleeping Moon, rather than just those who have made it up to 0 full faction rating. Orcs & Dark Elves start at -8000, so it's only a 6000 difference between them and good races (starting at -2000). It's not supposed to be easy, but having that quest available should make things much more reasonable.
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Jerrith Healerson
65th level Cleric
Guardians of Veeshan
Programmer at Sigil
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Find all posts in "Vanguard Server Issues".
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tad10 Funny thing is I think I could level my monk naked until at least the mid-teens with little problem. | Unarmed damage for monks and disciples is really good. Better than most weapons, actually. Not all, of course. The thing is, you lose out on two slots worth of item bonuses. Is it too good? Maybe... It's something we're watching the results of.
__________________
Jerrith Healerson
65th level Cleric
Guardians of Veeshan
Programmer at Sigil
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Find all posts in "Vanguard: introduced item decay and duration".
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rinthea Which fucking sucks. Because I'll have to be an elf or a cat to be a good caster. So much for racials being 'fluff' | At level 50, there is a hard cap of 550 points of intelligence that can contribute to increasing your spell damage. At the high end, balance is roughly expected to be that with allocation, buffs, and items, you can max out 3 of your 6 attributes. That's 6 points from attributes, 2.5 each from buffs and items.
As a Kurashasa, the +2 bonus allows you to spend more of your attribute points (a total of 7 per level) on intelligence. You're probably going to end up with the same buffs (giving 2.5 per level) meaning you now only need to find items with 1.5 per level of int, instead of 2.5 per level, to reach the cap.
Basically, it's a nice bonus, but hardly game breaking... Even a race with no bonus (5 per level) should be able to find enough items with +int to have the item contribution be 3.5 per level, getting them to the 11 per level total as well.
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Jerrith Healerson
65th level Cleric
Guardians of Veeshan
Programmer at Sigil
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Find all posts in "Vanguard: introduced item decay and duration".
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wodin Malakie did you ever find a way to make the UI auto-switch action bars based on stance? | /toggleautochangebank should make it so that your hotkey banks automatically change based on what combat form you're in.
/toggleautochange makes it so that if you're trying to activate an ability that requires a combat form you aren't in, you'll automatically change to it.
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Jerrith Healerson
65th level Cleric
Guardians of Veeshan
Programmer at Sigil
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Find all posts in "Vanguard NDA Lifted - Get your popcorn ready!!!".
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Kolle Is there already a write up somewhere about how the gameplay is in VG concerning healing and support? What can you share with us about that? Some specifics I'd like to know:
-Do all support healers get effective group heals
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Today in beta, the Cleric, Disciple, and Bloodmage all have group healing abilities. The Shaman does not (well, until a combination spell at 40 that includes it) but last I heard, we're planning to give him one at lower levels as well soon. Quote: | Originally Posted by Kolle
-Will raiding as a healer involve having huge lists of names that you must click on manually
-Will there be any innovative targeting functions
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Yes and No. While you will still click on names for traditional healing, there are some new features available too.
Here's one feature that we haven't talked about too much yet, that I think is going to be interesting on raids. The blood mage has the ability to establish blood pacts between players. A "solo" blood pact makes it so that whenever the target of the pact takes damage, a percentage of that damage is redirected (and modified up or down in quantity) to the bloodmage, who takes it instead. A "group" blood pact does the same sort of thing, however, when a group member takes damage, they share it with everyone else in the same group. Now, the bit that makes it really interesting is that the damage from a "solo" pact can trigger a "group" pact. So you could have a bloodmage in a group put a solo pact on the main tank (in another group), and also establish a group pact with his group. Every time the main tank takes damage, some of it goes to the blood mage, who takes some of it, and redistributes the rest of it to his group. Quote: | Originally Posted by Kolle
-Will you allow mods that allow healers freedom to work in other things such as offensive moves while easily covering their healing role
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If by mods, you mean scripted UI functionality, then no. While you can mod the UI to position things as you like, you cannot do the complex scripting you find in some games. However, some healing classes are generally heavily involved in combat. I frequently play a cleric, and have a number of melee moves that are important to use in combat. One attack allows me to restore some mana (letting me heal longer) and another (the finishing attack of a two step attack chain) lets me stun the NPC for a moment (preventing damage). There are other attacks as well, which mean the only times I'm usually really in 100% healing mode is a) on an incoming pull, before crowd control has taken place, or b) when we've just got too many, and we're about to wipe.  Quote: | Originally Posted by Kolle
-Are there any features that allow healers to keep everyone alive while having the option to look at the dungeon as you crawl through; in other words you don't have to stare at everyone's health bars or risk losing them
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The above features allow you to do this to a degree, but watching player health and responding to it droping is a part of the gameplay a healer in Vanguard experiences.
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Jerrith Healerson
65th level Cleric
Guardians of Veeshan
Programmer at Sigil
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Find all posts in "Lots of new Vanguard info released, plus videos & screenshots".
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Cad At first glance it looks like, red bar = health, green bar = endurance, and blue bar = energy (mana) ? Some spells appear to cost endurance as well as energy, and some only energy. Whats the idea behind this? |
You have multiple expendable pools to manage, and need to decide how you want to use them. One example for the sorcerer is that I could decide to change combat forms (each change costs some endurance) so that when I cast each spell, I'm in the form that gives that damage type a small bonus. Or I could cast a higher damage spell that drains both energy (mana) and endurance. Some classes can consume HP as well, making it an interesting balancing act to use all three expendable pools efficiently. Most classes depend on one pool the most, using the others allows you to be more effective, but requires more strategy. Quote: | Originally Posted by Cad Also are there any methods to regenerate your energy in combat besides just standing there? Managing energy would seem to be important - are there any classes which don't feature this, ala rogue/warrior vs. mage/warlock in WoW? |
Yes, as a sorcerer I can summon mana shards every once in a while that restore my energy. Most of the fighter classes care about endurance (which regenerates more rapidly) more than energy. Quote: | Originally Posted by Cad Also, was there any particular reason he was casting a wide variety of spells, other than to show the spell graphics? Does each have a particular utility that I couldn't discern in the fight or was he just showing the different spells that are available? |
Recast times, efficiency, benefits to casting at different ranges all play a role in determining what's best to cast at any moment. I probably was not playing optimally, but was trying to show a variety of spells.
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Jerrith Healerson
65th level Cleric
Guardians of Veeshan
Programmer at Sigil
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Find all posts in "To NDA or not to NDA".
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Kaylena I'm just noticing Jerrith was the healer and was full mana after a fight with a "???" level mob.
I suppose that will be tweaked before release. Don't get too used to that, Jerrith. |
It was a yellow con, one to two levels above me, so it was 19 or 20. Using more energy is actually part of the changes in the next patch, with the energy cost of my small and large heals going up significantly, and the amount of energy restored by replenishing strike dropping by roughly half. Quote: | Originally Posted by Utnayan that group fight almost looked as if it was bringing that system to it's knees |
Having FRAPS record does also impose a cost on my system, of somewhere around 7-10 FPS. Of course we still have (more) work to do on performance, but this shouldn't be ignored when considering how Vanguard plays on my system today. Quote: | Originally Posted by Utnayan The first one had me wondering just how much you had fixed in the animations and looked a lot better. |
In the end this may be the issue. When Vanguard is running smoothly, I feel most of the animations look good. When the FPS drops too much, they don't look as good.
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Jerrith Healerson
65th level Cleric
Guardians of Veeshan
Programmer at Sigil
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Find all posts in "Mini-Video #2 up".
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Lost Ranger Watched the video a few times now and looking at the second bug I think all we are seeing is a rather low clipping plane. The bug walks into sight and then turns around and walks out of range. Im willing to bet Jerrith's clipping is turned way way down.. least I hope so because the distance looks real short. |
Yes, the clipping is really close at the settings I was using. It's actually something we've been discussing changes to, as there are situations right now where you see too much, and situations where you see too little. Quote: | Originally Posted by Lost Ranger Can he do those exact same combat moves while moving? Or does he have to stay still to perform them? |
Yes. They don't always look perfect, but in my opinion, a majority of the animations still look just as good when combined with a movement animation.
__________________
Jerrith Healerson
65th level Cleric
Guardians of Veeshan
Programmer at Sigil
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Find all posts in "Vanguard mini-videos -- you got 'em!".
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