Dev Blog, August 5, 2017

[Silvonis]

When the UI is updated. I'll probably start playing again. It was teased so much a few months back and nothing has come from it.

The new GUI is currently being internally tested with the first round of updates just being applied. I'll share more as we continue to progress.

[Atis]

But on the THIRD hand, the lore dictates that the area is part of the duchy of Serbule -- lands historically ruled by the Duke of Serbule -- and that fact will be important in the future! So I'm hoping that "Serbule Lowlands" sounds enough like a different place while still being obviously related to Serbule.

(And if you have other name suggestions, now's the time to share them!)

Whatever starts with "Serbule" will be Serbule in new player's mind. Suggestion - dont start name with "Serbule". "Lowlands of Serbule" or whatever will remove emphasize from "Serbule".



As for Poetry - getting enough players together to significantly profit from recitals will be hard, especially with low pop. Higher %% of XP might be needed.

[Tagamogi]

I think anything with Serbule in the name is going to have the potential to be confused with Serbule. Going with a simple name like "The Lowlands" and then making it clear through NPC interaction/lore items that it is party of the duchy of Serbule might be easier. Or, rename the Serbule zone, too, and have two areas now called, say, "Serbule Keep" and "Serbule Lakeland", so that Serbule is no longer synonymous with the current Serbule zone.

It's hard to come up with a good name for South Serbule when we don't know what it's going to look like yet. "Lowlands" sounds really pretty to me and has an appropriate mental association of sheep but it also seems to imply that there is something higher up which there isn't really at this point in the game. Given the name, I'd sort of expect there to be Serbule Highlands and maybe a Serbule Mountain zone, too.

Since it sounds like lakes will still be a major feature of South Serbule after the revamp, I kind of like the idea of using "lake" or "water" as part of its name. Sheep would be my other association with South Serbule, mainly because I've slaughtered far too many sheep while looking for that Wooly Bastard. So, um, Lakelands, Meadowlands, Farmlands, Sheep Hills, ... Or Lowlands. Whichever.

[Crissa]

Have you thought of renaming Serbule to 'Central Serbule' or 'Serbule River' or something so that it's on the same syntactic footing as south serbule aka sebule lowlands?

(also, isn't it weird that the sea coast isn;t the lowlands?)

[Syrcanus]

I don't think that Southern Serbule should be renamed to the Serbule Lowlands due to the player having to travel up a mountain pass to enter the region. If anything I think it should be called the Serbule Highlands as was previously mentioned. The Serbule region with its coastline would make a lot more sense as the Serbule Lowlands because of the lower elevation, although i think naming it Central Serbule as mentioned above would sound a lot more fitting and possibly help abate others confusion even more.

If Serbule Lowlands is still going to be used it would be nice to see the entrance changed to reflect that the southern zone is in fact supposed to be lower in elevation.

[Silvonis]

Traditionally, in our real world, low lands doesn't necessarily mean the area is below sea level but generally the area is flat and has a country feel.

That said, that's our world. We are crafting our own universe with Project: Gorgon.

All that said, we are also considering Serbule Hills.

[kazeandi]

This is a non-issue. One question in the chat, and someone will help the newbie.

However, South Serbule has no newbie feel to it, since you land in Serbule and then have to go out of your way to travel there when you could just run sewers/crypt and move on to Eltibule.

When I started, I wanted to do Bard ASAP. I soon found out, via Wiki, that I had to go to SSerb for the trainer and was afraid of going there, because I assumed it's a zone with highlevel mobs.

Counterintuitive.

That being said, having Animal Town all the way out in Sun Vale strikes me as a bit inconvenient, too. On the one hand, you encourage newbies to try out animal forms, with that piggy event, on the other hand, you stash animal players' lifeline away in a lvl 30-40 zone, hidden between aggro mobs with knockback and poison and some higher level pigs, plants and fae.

Both Animal Town and a newbie camp should be in S. Serbule.
Crypt, Sewers and maybe another dungeon should be there, too.
The teleport default should be newbie camp in S. Serbule.

[Khaylara]

I have a few questions about the poetry update (one that Panic actually pointed out, I didn't think of that)

-Isn't it going to become trivial to level it? You can level really fast just by listening to few high level poems.
-Let's say it's a level 45 book I am reciting from and the full exp is 1500; 33 % is 500, if I recite the poem to an audience of players who have low levels in poetry are they going to be able to absorb my sublime verses? What I mean is a player who has poetry level 3 will get the same exp as someone who has it at level 45? It's poetry appreciation after all, imo the exp should be gained according to level (level of appreciation that is), obviously a novice wouldn't understand a poem as well as a talented and dedicated poet.
-will bards only be able to recite or anyone who has poetry appreciation and a book?

Some suggestions
- one is what I already mentioned, exp gain proportional to one's existing level of poetry appreciation (otherwise it will become trivial to level it imo)
-bards should be part of a recital, maybe a bard song accompanying the poet would make the poetry buff last longer
-something I already wrote up a while ago: players who have the skill should be able to create their own verses (in the fashion of goblin or elven verses) that would give only minor buffs and exp but wouldn't require a poetry book/tome/volume (the dropped item), only some ink and parchment, maybe a blank book for the more advanced poets. For example a player who is lvl 30 in poetry could write a verse that would only give 3o exp (divided with the audience that's 10 poetry exp), not gamebreaking or particularly fast leveling but more for the social aspect and to help lower levels gain exp slower and steady.

As I said I don't know how this update is going to work yet (my points might be completely worthless) but I thought I'd write some suggestions anyway.

[Atis]

All that said, we are also considering Serbule Hills.

Central Serbule is surrounded by hills, so "Serbule Hills" is too vague. Need name that would be naturally shortened to something that is not "Serb". Valley of Serbule (gotta emphasize valley over Serb), we even have valley sheep there. Or Vale of Serbule, or Serbule Lianoss - not too accurate but easy to remember - "where do I find sheeps? - Check Lian, dude"

[Ste.L]

Hi Citan,
I'm looking forward to new changes to south serbule area and updated newbee dungeon, for the naming issue as already mentioned by a few players I agree because it a separate area I think it would be nice to have it called a different area to avoid any confusion with the existing Serbule area for newish players.

Just a suggestion but how about either calling it "the highlands" or a different name you could make up i.e. "xxxx hills" and add some extra lore about existing abandoned house and npc's in south serbule inn for example "xxxx highlands was previously the homeland of the xxxx clan based at xxxx mansion (now abandoned house) before they were over run by goblins and invading Ramelon settlers. The only remaining survivor of clan xxxx is npc xyz now at south serbule inn and is now either a shield/ bard/ surveyor/ dance/ cooking or brewing trainer ???????

anyway keep up the good work

cheers
Ste