Answer to the Hair Question

Hair has always been an issue for some people in our community (i.e. "Why does my hair look like crap?") Well, OneEye finally answered one of these questions with a little story that goes back to the age before DemonSpire:

OneEye posted in Devs question-extra 105 and above skills:

I didn't say there wasn't a fix, it just isn't something that can be done quickly or easily.

The story basically is when the paperdolls were being changed over to the next system it was only completed to say 85% before TKO refocused the Austin team onto other projects and then eventually shut down the studio.

Then, those original paperdoll assets and source files (there are lots and lots and lots of different files that make up the paperdoll system) were not in the dump of assets IWG got when we purchased AE back.

So, the combination of a not fully complete data set to start with plus the lack of any source files makes updating specific animations almost impossible (a single hair piece for example has about 1,000 different frames that would need to be edited by hand).

The reason that some hair pieces don't work is the TKO art team (Denis, Todd, Brian and Matt) were tying some 'new' things like long hair as 2 pieces so for example a pony tail could swing independently of the top part of the hair. The studio was shut down before any of that really came on-line, so all 2 piece hair (ie long hair - mostly 'women' style) never had the tech programmed for it to actually make it work. Without the source max files it's pretty much impossible to reverse-engineer this tech.

A long term solution is to of course re-do the paperdolls completely. The process however is very time consuming and just hasn't hit the top of the queue of stuff we have to do yet. It is something that is still planned, there is just no firm timetable.

So the reason we have no hair? TKO jipped us on the art. I'm curious to know what hair would have looked like, though.

Skry Scrolls are now 50 tokens.

Skry Scrolls price adjustment straight from the horse's mouth:

OneEye posted in Skry Scroll Price Adjustment:

The Skry Scroll price is now 50 tokens.

So now it's roughly $2.50 per Skry Scroll instead of the old price of 25 tokens ($1.25 per). I have a friend who complained about how often people would skry for her and her friends and follow up with a massive PK raid. While OneEye provided no details, this could very well be a related issue. Still, it's nice to see that this isn't as "easy" to get as it used to be. Though I have to think that those who were popping $1.25 per scroll so often won't be too effected by another $1.25. It's still less than the price of a Big Mac, after all.

[Begin Editorial]
The problem with proving the "badness" of Skry Scrolls is that you need to first prove that bad things are happening because of Skry Scrolls. Most people will often just say "what do you think they're used for?" and leave it at that. I agree, there is potential for harassment and grief caused by the Skry Scroll. But to say that everyone with a skry scroll is using it to harass is generalizing the people who buy these things. It's important to identify griefers, not the potential for grief.
[/End Editorial]

Some things to look forward to in the next update.

Ask and ye shall receive. Finally, we get some details about what's going to be in the next update.

OneEye posted in New Update Wish List:

This update isn't going to be of the major orb/race changing variety. It will have:

• Bug fixes
• more taskmasters
• more items
• more monsters
• new dungeon(s)
• more quests
• more book quests

I am also thinking about a few new spells, but i am running out of time, so those might have to wait.

it will also have a few new store purchases, including a few sets of masks to let you change into various creatures. masks will only change your looks.

The[re] is also a story twist coming with Lotor getting married and all...

Perhaps this means that all the taskmasters will be working now. I'm interested to know what he means by "more book quests" myself. But this really looks like a really worthwhile update if you're into hunting, tradeskilling, or questing.

It still makes me wonder, though...what are we going to see in terms of the big Warden discussion?

Well, that's one detail about the update.

A lot of my friends who hang out in Meroven complain about the Chaos Knights there attacking them. I've seen a few screenshots about it and I thought it was funny--the Knights there had Good Alignment. And, naturally, they started acting like Good Guards.

Well, Fugi posted about this and got a response from one of the DEVs.

OneEye posted in If you know theres a problem...:

It will be fixed with the update on 6/4. That isnt something that we can hotfix.

There's lots of rumors going around about what's going to be in this update. Hair, Quest Logs, new weapons, nerfs to old armors, new armors, etc. To be honest, I've found that it's a lot easier to just sit back and expect nothing. That way, when things don't happen, I'm not mad that they didn't happen. But, hey..whatcha gonna do. At least on this detail, you've got something to look forward to.

Update, June 4

OneEye posted in Next Update:

As an FYI, we will be doing an update on June 4th. More info will be forthcoming in the near future.

Shortly after that, theTyrant posted:

And I must say, its going to be awesome ;)

which probably means that their sticking to their terms about what an "update" truly is. For those who haven't heard:

• a "patch" is a general bug fix
• an "update" is a patch + some minor additional content (new npc's or quests)
• an "expansion" is a patch + major additions (npc's, quests, landmasses, towns)

DemonSpire qualifies as an "Update", since no new landmasses or skills were added (well, except mage weapons). Talazar's Revenge and Sands of Creation are the only expansions to Ashen Empires.

Expect some downtime next week. Don't try logging off at the last second ;)