Please consider this and discuss it with the playerbase.

Have you guys looked into lowering the average time between ticks? Right now it just seems to go -so- slow, making it -so- freaking long to heal up after fighting a mob. Also, this is even longer if taking into account preps, making resting (not healing, per se) but just resting up from fights an annoying and arduous task.

If I just killed a greater troll, and it took me 4 ticks and 70% of my health, it is annoying to then wait a tick to sleep, and then 8-10 ticks to gegain roughly 9% per sleeping hour to reheal. That is a huge proponent of boredom.

It seems to me that six years ago the pulses came quicker and the ticks came quicker. Maybe the mud has just slowed down so much because I can process so many more things that much more quickly, but it's hard to take. I admit it, I'm annoyed. Annoyed!

I know that this would effect a log of things like maledictions, conjurers, necromancers, and many other things, but I think we should have an open dialogue about it. It's needed.

Thanks for reading. Awesome game.

I think it comes down to the healing changes put in.

I find that if slightly maladicted and with a few protections still up, its almost an entire day of sleeping to be back and running.

Makes for a lot of boring down time. Other option though is to spend 20k per fight on gold to heal up.

Gotta take the bad with the good I guess.

If they did change the ticks to something faster it would really mess up prepping.

Just get ready for way more down time between excitment.

It seems to me that six years ago the pulses came quicker and the ticks came quicker. Maybe the mud has just slowed down so much because I can process so many more things that much more quickly, but it's hard to take. I admit it, I'm annoyed. Annoyed!

I think that's just time gilding memories. They've always taken a little under a minute for as long as I can remember. Changing that isn't trivial-- using your example with the troll, if it didn't take ~7-10 minutes to recover (unaided) from a severe beating, PK and raiding would be very different-- anything except a kill would be a very hollow victory. Right now, if you drive off a defender, you know they're going to stay gone for a bit unless they really plow through some resources.

It would also change the dynamics of combat. You'd either have to speed up rounds (which would make the game close to unreadable-- it's pretty fast now), or have fewer rounds per tick. If you have fewer rounds per tick, all affects (positive or negative) effectively lose duration-- a 2-tick spell might only represent 8 or so rounds of combat, and then it becomes easier to outlast it. (Or if it's positive, your preps and such will "fall off" mid-combat much more frequently.)

The tick lag has been reduced significantly-- mostly from hardware upgrades, but also through some streamlining of the most intensive calculations. There were points where there was a sizable pause in the game, and that's how you knew a tick happened. This also suggests that the game isn't slowing down out of processing lag. Despite the continuously increasing code complexity, hardware always seems to outpace it.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I appreciate the response. Knowing that it probably is just me being used to the speed of the game is initially what I thought but your affirmation remedies the doubt. Yah, I knew going into the question/idea that it would involve a HUGE can of worms. I just wanted to hear someone say 'It is the same as years ago, dude'.

And if it wasn't that, then I wanted to complain for it to be changed back. Har!

Now all your preps, spells, supplications, etc. would last for shorter periods of time.

I agree, there would be a LOT of balance issues that would have to be addressed if we adjust our tick time. I'm personally fine with it as is, but we're always open for suggestions on how to make it better.

We did adjust regeneration rates recently, so if you're sleeping for extended periods of time, your regeneration rate will increase. Down side is you can't spam where while sleeping (yay for conjurer familiars!).

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

Did the regenerates get slowed down though since then?

Did the regenerates get slowed down though since then?

1) Movement regeneration in general has increased, particularly at low level.

2) Terrain is generally easier to traverse, because the code recognizes things like "This room is mountains, but there's a road present. Therefore, Avalanche works, but movement costs are low."

3) All regeneration benefits more from uninterrupted multi-tick sleep. This is obviously tough to use when solo, but groups can take advantage.

4) Some equipment aids regeneration. Movement is by far the most common.

5) More class abilities exist which restore hp/move/mana, or else accelerate regeneration, compared to several years ago.

The only flip side is:

1) More abilities exist which hurt regeneration. The greater troll in the example doesn't use any of them, though, and many only commonly occur in PK.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com