Announce Post #2960: A Roadmap for Lusternia

Hello,

A few days ago, we mentioned we would be posting a roadmap in the coming days. We are ready to post that.

Roadmap
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Finalise Melder Rework:
We do not want to leave this project half-finished. There are obviously some tweaks that still need to be made. We have gathered a group of people who commonly use (and in some cases, fight against) the class in order to gather feedback and make adjustments as needed.

Reporting System:
It was clear that the previous changes made to the report system didn't quite work. Based on player feedback, we are changing the report system to require less politicking to get your reports through. This item on the roadmap also includes a full cycle of reports.

SSC/AC Improvements:
It's clear from the last townhall that there is still a long way to go with autocuring, specifically with aeon and writhe afflictions. Looking at writhe afflictions, they still seem to be coded in a pre-overhaul format, which causes the pain point with them. This includes modernising the afflictions, improving the aeon queue, and other tweaks as needed. Unifying afflictions will also enable better symptom tracking and GMCP messages.

Endgame:
Endgame has been a common complaint from players for years, there being little to do with it, the essence cap, roleplay powers costing the same weight as combat powers. We've had various proposals sitting on the administrative wiki to take a look at this for a while, and it's always been pushed back. It is our intention to fully address the problem and come to a solution that can develop this vital part of the game.

Ascension:
We aren't going to delve too deep into this here, but this mostly just covers the planning around ascension and the story/lore regarding it.

These are our general plans. We are open to more suggestions, discussion about our current plans, et cetera. We are always reachable via message or email for any discourse, or on the forums.

Best regards,
The Lusternia Team.

Comments

  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    Are things planned to be done in this exact order?  Ascension seems to be somewhat of a "woven through everything else" unless it all gets put off to the last minute.
    I think that marking these things off the list and getting them done will help considerably though.  And I am interested in discussing the end game things when we get there.
    image
  • Xenthos said:
    Are things planned to be done in this exact order?  Ascension seems to be somewhat of a "woven through everything else" unless it all gets put off to the last minute.
    I think that marking these things off the list and getting them done will help considerably though.  And I am interested in discussing the end game things when we get there.
    These are not given in any particular order of priority or urgency. Most if not all of these can be worked on in tandem, and very often each of these involves different people or can be done by multiple people.
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  • Are you open to other things to work on like the artifact shop (primarily the glut of overpriced and/or useless artifacts, adding more goop prices to current artifacts, and streamlining/simplifying the runes currently available in the shop to make them more player accessible), and reworking tradeskills to make them more viable/desireable as well as adding more refineable tradeskills?
    Her voice firm and commanding, Terentia, the Even Bladed says to you, "You have kept your oath to Me, Parhelion. You have sworn to maintain Justice in these troubled times."

    Yet if a boon be granted me, unworthy as I am, let it be for a steady hand with a clear eye and a fury most inflaming.
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    Add hyperpyramids to the ashop..!
    Imo reviewing the ashop isn't a bad idea, but melders/SSC are a higher priority.
    image
  • 100% agree, just hoping we can get a serious, focused look at our artifacts at some point.
    Her voice firm and commanding, Terentia, the Even Bladed says to you, "You have kept your oath to Me, Parhelion. You have sworn to maintain Justice in these troubled times."

    Yet if a boon be granted me, unworthy as I am, let it be for a steady hand with a clear eye and a fury most inflaming.
  • edited October 2019
    We can potentially add tradeskills to our extended roadmap (which was not announced - we mostly kept more immediate and planned out things on this one) - we already have the economy there, which planned to touch on them.

    Reviewing artifacts is actually something on my todo list, but it is likely to be more of a gradual process and something done piecemeal than something roadmapped. Likely keep an eye on changelogs for all of that. If you have suggestions or any specific concerns regarding particular artifacts, please do message or email me and I'll add it to our wiki and my todo list. If you would prefer a hard, focused look though to get through it all at once, we can do that, but it would likely push it to our extended roadmap.
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  • Thanks for posting this - I really like the principles of engagement and transparency being actively demonstrated here!  :)

    While I understand that these are just the short-term items, with many things like the economy and trades on the extended road-map and not able to be shared yet... one thing that stands out to me is that there seems to be a lot of emphasis here on the established player base only. That’s not a bad thing of course, but is that a deliberate strategy?

    Would it be fair to say that the intent right now is to focus on consolidating and improving things for the already-committed players of Lusternia, as opposed to putting resources into aspects that might draw in new or disengaged past players?

    I guess I say that because once all of these things are fully implemented, I think I’d have a hard time advertising any of them as a reason to come (back) and check out the game - unless you were already heavily invested and at max level.

    Perhaps that is actually a really good indication, because it hints that the population, activity and newbie retention levels of the game might already have reached super healthy levels - but I just thought I’d ask anyway!
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    ..?  SSC is one of THE selling points for new players.  "You don't need a programming degree to be able to do even the most basic of things."  It is a major draw for returning players, too.  "What system do I have to buy?"  "None, SSC ON!"
    image
  • Xenthos said:
    ..?  SSC is one of THE selling points for new players.  "You don't need a programming degree to be able to do even the most basic of things."  It is a major draw for returning players, too.  "What system do I have to buy?"  "None, SSC ON!"
    Yep, not disputing that. Fixing a couple of very specific cases where it doesn’t perform optimally (aeon, writhe, blackout) is awesome, but not exactly holding anyone back from recommending ssc right now for new players. I could be wrong, but surely people aren’t avoiding playing Lusternia because ssc doesn’t handle writhe/aeon perfectly? I mean, I love ssc as it is personally - even knowing I might gain an edge by switching to a custom system.
  • edited October 2019
    Fair enough, thanks for answering!

    Edit: And just to be clear, I am extremely appreciative of some of the non-PvP changes that have already been implemented - turning off affinity was awesome, the new divine flavourtext stuff looks brilliant, recent family changes sound great and I guess there’s a small chance that revisiting end-game activities could potentially cater to some non-PK player styles as well (I don’t really know what endgame is outside of the various pvp competitive systems).

    So I will continue to look forward to every changelog, hoping that trend continues!
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    Xenthos said:
    ..?  SSC is one of THE selling points for new players.  "You don't need a programming degree to be able to do even the most basic of things."  It is a major draw for returning players, too.  "What system do I have to buy?"  "None, SSC ON!"
    Yep, not disputing that. Fixing a couple of very specific cases where it doesn’t perform optimally (aeon, writhe, blackout) is awesome, but not exactly holding anyone back from recommending ssc right now for new players. I could be wrong, but surely people aren’t avoiding playing Lusternia because ssc doesn’t handle writhe/aeon perfectly? I mean, I love ssc as it is personally - even knowing I might gain an edge by switching to a custom system.
    SSC is great...  but when it breaks it is incredibly offputting.  And that can (and has) reduced engagement from people who aren't sure how to go about fixing / working around its shortcomings.
    It is also basically the best / only thing on the market so you don't have an alternative.
    I do love SSC!  It is one of the better things to happen to this game.  But leaving it in a partially finished state is not beneficial to anyone.  It is well past time to sort it out and make it shine, so it is "SSC, woo!" instead of "SSC, but..."
    image
  • My only real problem with ssc is casual player friendliness, though that's a horrible way to put it. If I want to put up truehearing and keep it up, I shouldn't have to puzzle out that I need to use "ssc modify steamqueue push truehearing". Yes, I can alias that. No, I shouldn't have to. Ssc should be easier to use, whether it's enabling or disabling healscrolls, ssc recognizing that I'm out of something and not spamming trying to use it, and so on. 
    Her voice firm and commanding, Terentia, the Even Bladed says to you, "You have kept your oath to Me, Parhelion. You have sworn to maintain Justice in these troubled times."

    Yet if a boon be granted me, unworthy as I am, let it be for a steady hand with a clear eye and a fury most inflaming.
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    edited October 2019
    Choros said:
    My only real problem with ssc is casual player friendliness, though that's a horrible way to put it. If I want to put up truehearing and keep it up, I shouldn't have to puzzle out that I need to use "ssc modify steamqueue push truehearing". Yes, I can alias that. No, I shouldn't have to. Ssc should be easier to use, whether it's enabling or disabling healscrolls, ssc recognizing that I'm out of something and not spamming trying to use it, and so on. 
    And it should automatically stop trying to cure deafness when keepup truehearing is activated.  Chowing down on curatives uselessly is wasteful.  (I had a bug report on this, was it ever fixed?  I just have my toggle pushing in to ignore def and removing it when I deactivate truehearing)
    Edit: The commands are complex, yes.  If it had certain standard toggle command that would help a lot too.
    image
  • Ianir said:
    To summarise, there's no point in drawing in new players if we're just going to drive them off, so we should fix the things that are doing that.
    Oh, and one follow up question about this comment (sorry!) - does that imply that there has been a mechanism for or stats collected identifying reasons players don’t stay/quit/drift away, and these items on the roadmap specifically address the major concerns that keep coming up?

    Or is this more a general statement about trying to fix commonly assumed pain points?
  • Ianir said:
    To summarise, there's no point in drawing in new players if we're just going to drive them off, so we should fix the things that are doing that.
    Oh, and one follow up question about this comment (sorry!) - does that imply that there has been a mechanism for or stats collected identifying reasons players don’t stay/quit/drift away, and these items on the roadmap specifically address the major concerns that keep coming up?

    Or is this more a general statement about trying to fix commonly assumed pain points?
    A bit of both. We do have data from emails received, character deletion feedback (the command, when you run it, prompts you to leave feedback, which we do read when it is left), and forum postings.
    Forum Avatar drawn by our lovely Isune.
  • Ianir said:
    Fixing classes, the economy, all of which are on our short-term and long-term roadmaps are things which will keep players old and new invested. Endgame is something everybody will reach, and frankly, with the habit players have of bashing everybody they see up to demigod in the first five minutes they meet them, it seems a good priority for us.

    The games economy is really something that all players also participate in though and working on that could in turn provide more mechanisms to make endgame more rewarding (because endgame is also part of the game economy). 

    Like, if some of the things Elryn has been suggesting around bashing improvements and loot drops were put in they could improve the experience for players already at the endgame as well as those still working towards it.
  • AlarinAlarin Wailuku, Maui, Hawai'i
    As someone who plays solely by phone, I'm REALLY glad Autocuring is at the stage it's at right now. The fact that there's still work to be done on it to improve it makes me grateful that guys like me who can't use custom systems are taken into account. Keep up the good work! <3

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