Andor's Trail

Andor’s Trail Project Meeting #43
2013-01-26
Present: Scott Devaney (sdevaney), Stephen Stalnaker (ctnbeh13), Ian Haase (Ian), Kevin Pochat (Zukero)

1. Follow-up from last meeting:
Went over previous meetings To Do’s, reviewed, and updated.

2. Completed since the last meeting:

Merging content from the Development Team's input for the "Contributing to Andor’s Trail Guide" forum document.

3. Things that are being worked on:
Could you review this post (a contribution guide) before publication (need Developer's group membership): viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4546
It needs a section about the translation workflow. I think the following is correct:
- Log on launchpad
- Translate
- Download the .po (is the direct .mo download okay for testing purpose? To allow Windows user’s to not bother with the shell script...)
- Run the createMo.sh script (Windows user's need cygwin. Maybe adding a .bat wrapper could help them)
- Test it in game! -- Zukero

Merging “more” content from the Development Team's input for the "Contributing to Andor’s Trail Guide" forum document.

A bug reported by Usirim: http://www.andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4555 ~ SCS
(Acknowledged. Fix implementation, coming soon hopefully.)

Ian: Working at Mt. Galmore.

4. Discussion of some forum threads/posts that people have found interesting, or want clarification on, or maybe a question answered:
I believe that the time has come again to review and take action to warn the forum community about the "modified" versions of Andor's Trail, to the best of our ability. The topic has some new priority, stemming from the following forum thread: http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4522 as well as some new "modified" offerings that I have discovered in part, and am concerned more with what is to be found pending some research time. It appears that the more prominent counterfeits are coming, once again from hnyd (they also use hnyd1), and perhaps a separate group going by "BestappVn". BestappVn has an account on the Google Play Store. While they don't offer their version of Andor's Trail here, they are supposedly reachable by email at bestapphelp@gmail.com.

r0tt3nj4ck's Beastiary: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4544
- @r0tt3nj4ck: "I think we should draft a quest log to unlock a bestiary. You gain entries to this compilation by physically pushing the info button on new enemies you fight. The bestiary itself can be unlocked by some simple quest at the beginning, but have profound effects later if it is x% complete or if you have the pages for certain mobs."
- @Zukero: "Maybe, we could implement this as a "road book", where we would find the maps, the beastiary, and the quest log. IMHO, separating the quest log (written by the character himself), and the stats/skills/inventory (set by the game engine) would really make sense."
- @ctnbeh13: The skill of "Eye of the Hunter" or "Eye of Discernment" (which also includes the possibility by title, to cover other interesting abilities) could be chosen to enable not only an understanding of the enemy they may confront, but also have the increased ability to exploit their weaknesses, as such knowledge is revealed by said skill.
- @r0tt3nj4ck: "Level one happens if you simply encounter a mob. You get it's sprite, and it's name. Level 2 I'd unlock when you actually push info on a mob before a fight (and get the whole stats for it)”.
- @Mayweed: "Would it be possible to fill the bestiary in another way than encountering creatures? "[books, NPCs...]”
Questions to answer:
- Beastiary yes or no?
- Enabled by quest, skill, or by default?
- Multi-level (lv 1: sprite & name, lv 2: full stats, lv 3: bonus against mob)? Level defined globally, or per mob?
- Info retrieved only on encounters, or other sources as well?
--Zukero

Oet's Potion of Luck: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4526
- @Oet: "How about a Potion of Luck, that increases your luck of finding items for a couple of minutes/turns?"
Questions to answer:
- Do it or not?
- Make it boost MF, boost all drops, or even boost all randoms in favor of the player?
- If boost all drops, how about giving a 10% chance to test drop a second time for each item, including when the first test succeeded?
- Get it with gold, with ingredients (Lodar)? In a quest, or as a L&E drop?
--Zukero

As an alternative to a potion, I would like to suggest wells (wishing) and fountains (of the same premise), that serve two purposes. One, would be to give the player a "to be determined" amount of luck (MF?) for tossing in a "tbd" amount of gold. This seems to be a natural/reasonable outlet for players who have a stockpile of gold, but say they have no way to make use of it. The 2nd purpose, would be to generally identify an area where a legendary item can possibly be obtained. The use of a well or fountain would be decided upon given the environment. ~ SCS

5. Open Discussion:
Once we get caught up a bit more, I'd like to see more free-flowing exchange of brainstorming time spent that we once enjoyed in the beginning, and motivated us to complete interesting concepts that helped to make the game unique. ~ SCS

6. What should we have ready for the next meeting?
Dependant upon progress and contribution during the interim. Work on finalizing the outline of everything we want to include in the next release.

As discussed in the meeting, I suggest to remove the links to the rip-offs provided by Stephen in section 4. from the forum post.

This year and early next year ill be working on my house. Once my house is done with its remodel ill be getting internet for my computer and depending on work to free time ratio ill be putting my free time into this game for maps and quest.

Zukero wrote:As discussed in the meeting, I suggest to remove the links to the rip-offs provided by Stephen in section 4. from the forum post.

Thanks Zuk, totally forgot to do that

Thanks for the meeting update, great work. Regarding the Potion of Luck, I'm not sure how that wouldn't get abused using the save/reload technique, perhaps that is ok. Not sure how I feel on that, but I am intrigued by the wishing well idea. And what if your chances to succeed there went up as your number of kills of said monster dropping the Legendary or Extraordinary item goes up? Say you kill 5000 gargoyle trainers, you get a 10% boost in luck, kill 10,000, get a 15% boost?

Duke wrote:Thanks for the meeting update, great work. Regarding the Potion of Luck, I'm not sure how that wouldn't get abused using the save/reload technique, perhaps that is ok. Not sure how I feel on that, but I am intrigued by the wishing well idea. And what if your chances to succeed there went up as your number of kills of said monster dropping the Legendary or Extraordinary item goes up? Say you kill 5000 gargoyle trainers, you get a 10% boost in luck, kill 10,000, get a 15% boost?

The idea I came up with later in the Potion of Luck thread, where we could make it a 10% chance of "duplicate" the item.

Oet wrote:Just another idea I came up with while writing this, that would be cool, if someone agrees with me.
What if the Potion of Luck gives you a (let's say 10%) chance to get 2 items instead of one when it drops.
So, every item you loot while using this has 10% chance of "duplicate"?

In that way people will not save/load abuse it either. If you have the Potion of Luck and use save/load, and you find a RoLS while doing so (that didn't duplicate), it's not like you go "meeeeh, I only found one, I'll reload again "

@Duke : using the kill count to increase drop chance has been evoked a countless number of times, and rejected just as many times. Make it one more

@Oet : Oskar wasn't here to give his opinion, but IIRC, the team favored the idea of a wishing well (throw coins in, in hope of some blessing) over a potion. As for the effects, nothing was set in stone. We keep this in a corner of our head, and try to think about it further. I (personaly) would favor a global luck (or as Scott puts it, luck would become almost like a base stat), that can impact all the dice rolls in the game engine.

@Both : IMHO, the save/reload isn't something that should prevent a good idea from going forward. Otherwise, we wouldn't have any variable effects, like the AD range...

Zukero wrote:@Oet : Oskar wasn't here to give his opinion, but IIRC, the team favored the idea of a wishing well (throw coins in, in hope of some blessing) over a potion. As for the effects, nothing was set in stone. We keep this in a corner of our head, and try to think about it further. I (personaly) would favor a global luck (or as Scott puts it, luck would become almost like a base stat), that can impact all the dice rolls in the game engine.

I like this idea. If it gets some more thinking, it should be the best option for the "Luck" question.

In regards to the potion of luck:
• why not add luck as a new stat? Every Lvl up u can add one point to.luck which could increase chance of monster drop of any item?

Yep. I like the idea of a luck stat as well.