The "ask your question" thread - testers/players please help

Pynda

It might be best to try to keep your questions fairly brief and specific?

(And thanks in advance for answering my two.)

- Are materials nodes static in location and quality, or are they random and dynamic?

- Are players capping only their main attributes in two weeks (i.e. strength, stamina etc.), or are they really maxing out entire skill lines in that amount of time as well?

Uhwop

Resources are static in location, no so much quality.  I'm not sure if they intend to implement true depletable nodes, my guess would be no.  Instead what happens is that a node will give you very poor yields if they've been harvested to much.  (I don't think they'll ever be truly depletable due to the amount of materials that are needed for crafting things like houses.  If they were depletable a player would have to run for quite sometime to acquire the 15000 wood that you may need to finish your house.  That would suck.)

You also have resources that only appear in specific locations and times.  Some pickable plants will only be pickable at dusk or dawn, and only in specific locations.  Kind of like a real world ecology, were some things only grow or live in specific areas.

Ore is a little more complex.  Some ores can only be found in some areas, and then there is the refining process.  I can't really say much about it as I didn't do much refining.  Like plants and animals, certain ores only found in particular regions or locations, like along rivers.

Players are currently capping attributes.  These are the very easiest to level up, and can be done within a few to several hours depending on how you go about it.  Some skills also level faster then others.  Primary skills are easier to increase then secondary.  Reading books will also improve the rate at which you increase a skill.  I wouldn't doubt that there are some out there that are fully maxing toons just a day or two, these are the same guys that would max in a level based game in just a few days when it should take several weeks.

Another thing about the skill system.  Increasing a weapon skill can be done in one of two ways.  Using a particular weapon and continually beating on something.  At some point the rate at which that weapon skill increase will turn to a crawl.  You can keep at it and never pick up another weapon or you could switch to a dif. weapon, train it for a bit, and then go back to the other weapon and it will increase faster.  The idea is that by learning to use another weapon, you can become more proficient with others.  That is to say, If you want to be a really good artist you don't just learn one style of art, but several.  By learning several styles you develop a better understanding of art as a whole, and therefore become better at the one style you wish to focus on.  Hope that's not to confusing.