Chapter 63 – Developers’ Q&A

Okay, what do we have here…
Three pages of update…?

[Scheduled update!]

Hello dear players.
My name is Mike. I’ll be speaking on behalf of the developers of Loiterous.

We would like to officially announce changes made to the game.
These changes will be divided into three parts.
First one will be “Questions”, second one will be “Changes” and the third one “Terms of Use and possible dangers”.

Just so not even one of you dear players is surprised, we will require all of you to read this message out loud.
Please, don’t try to cheat you way through it with “read it as fast as possible” strat.
Some of the information presented here may be vital to your future development and enjoyment of the game.

Dear players, huh…
I like this guy already, he tried to sweet talk me in the middle of the sentence.
Pretty clever, Mike.

Anyways, enough of the chit-chat.
Before we begin, let us explain why the update is happening in the first place.

When we came up with Loiterous, our goal was to create a game, no, Virtual Reality, that would make the whole gaming experience reach a completely new level.
In all the MMORPGs available on the market, all you have to do is create your character, most likely with your class chosen in the character select, then go outside the city, kill some weak monsters, do some ridiculously easy quests, and become a force to be reckoned with.

That’s true…

At least a powerful figure in the early game.
We didn’t want that, hell, we were tired of it.
That’s why, when players first had a battle against dogs, unless they had military background or were practicing some martial arts, there was no way these individuals could win against a mere lvl 1 wild dog.

‘You little bastards, I had to run from this furry whelp…!
Curse you all!’

Many parties were created, that’s what we wanted to see, teamwork!
Going solo hunting is fun, we don’t deny that, many of us, developers, were avid gamers in the past, some of us still are.
Several of us went as far as making our houses our own strongholds.
Strongholds without princesses inside…
However, that’s not the point.

Nerds…

Cutting to the chase.
Virtual Reality we wanted to create was supposed to be a challenge.
One would have to constantly break through his or her limits to achieve something.
If he couldn’t, that’s what the party system was created for!
Strong companions, whether NPCs or other players, were supposed to help each other reach the top!
What happened is completely different from our initial predictions…

Many players trained for a mere week, some even less, they got their apprentice classes and went into the world.
Don’t get us wrong, we, developers, also would like to be the first ones arriving on the spot of mobs just to get somewhat stronger, even if it was only one millisecond faster!

Results of these actions are obvious, many people powerleveled without getting any stats…
This means that against stronger monsters, like ones in the dungeon or even casually spotted rare ones, they would have to party up with 8 people, some with less like 4 or 6, but nonetheless party up, to have a chance against one single monster.

These people are called noobs, not gamers…
I love casuals, their way of playing, but this is insulting even to them.
Can’t one versus one a rare monster?
Okay, party up with two people, not with goddamn seven, come on…
Where’s the fun in that…?

Our company assumed that an average 8 man party can battle against three to five dungeon monsters at a time.
But, as we said, that requires training, that many people forego, to get more items, which give pretty decent stats.

Gold diggers…

As much as we like this kind of approach, these people have absolutely no chance to even contend against their future rivals and late game content.
However, we won’t involve ourselves in that.
It’s your choice whether you want to become a powerhouse early game, late game, or not at all.

We’re pretty sure that there are dozens of you that just like to hack amd slash monsters, no matter the level or stats.

The sad part about all this, is that people who used exploits to level up drastically fast didn’t even bother to report it.
Instead, they asked their guild members or friends to join them in their efforts.
Some of you are definitely confused.
We’re sure that most of our players have found some kind of a bug that allows you to achieve something faster.

This project, Loiterous, isn’t complete after all.
Our team is constantly revising and upgrading Loiterous to bring you the best kind of entertainment possible.

Wow, developers are normal people… what a surprise…

“Why didn’t you do any beta tests then?”

*sigh* Our team conducted beta tests.
However, as you guys most likely realize, it isn’t possible for a developers team consisting of several hundred players to check everything like around a million of you did now.
You guys are that smart and tricky… congratulations, you’ve outsmarted us!
We admit defeat.

Gamers 1:0 Developers.

With all that said, from now on, we expect exploits to be reported.
Otherwise, your account will be suspended, that is banned, for a fixed amount of time.
If your actions affect the balance of the game, it will be a permanent one for an account, not a character.
Please do mind that.

Nooo… my overlapping inventory bags…! *cry*

Some of you already deserve such treatment.
I’m talking about all the adventurers who have reached Advanced lvl 9 99% in their second professions.
These players, most of which were carpenters, used their “wood chopping” quests in hidden villages to gather experience absurdly fast.

…what?

This mechanic was supposed to provide experience to artisan classes, who, as we all know, can’t really fight against monsters.
These adventurers have no combat related skills.
Or have ones that are simply put… insufficient.

What they do is make sure that other battle oriented freaks like most of us, including me, have advanced gear and support.
For appropriate compensation of course.

Some of us call them jews…
It’s extraordinary how these people gather tons of money.

We’re sure that some of our fanbase still thinks “What the hell are these guys talking about?”
To put it simply, players who abused this mechanic on their battle classes reached levels as high as 165.

Jesus, do such idiots really exist?
What will it do for them?
Strengthen their pets while their owners are useless shits?
Do they want to hunt only up to rare monsters or something?
That’s so dumb…

Outrageous, right?
No one likes cheaters, but…
This is the first time someone has done it, so instead of permanently banning these individuals, we’re offering them two choices.

What do you mean no one likes cheaters… I do!
These guys entertain and amuse me to no end!
Imagine a sport called “outsmart your enemy”.
You could use it instead of a tablet with wifi to provide entertainment to your family.
I can already see these high academic results…
Sounds pretty fun, doesn’t it…?
Maybe just for me.

First choice: Keep your level, all experience points you’ve gained during the exploit are subtracted. Your next levels require twice as much experience.

Second choice: Give up on all of the levels you’ve gained during the exploit plus additional ten. Your experience will be back to normal.

What? Neither is really a good choice? First choice is much worse than the second one?
Well, if you were smart enough to use the exploit, we’re sure you’ll find a way to profit from these outrageous level ups.
That’s how the cheaters end up, so don’t do it…
No one will like you…*sniffle*

I will!

This covers one thing.

Let’s start the first part, questions.

“What do the stats do? I’m curious!”

*sigh* This question is so dumb.
Can’t you just look it up yourselves?
It’s not so hard to check each and every single one of your stats in the character menu…
For the sake of answering the question, we’ll list it down below…

Strength – increases your physical damage output, allows you to carry more items, decreases the weight of your equipment. Unlocks abilities for warrior, tank  and artisan related classes.

Agility – increases your movement speed, damage output for archers and rogues, allows you to perform high-speed actions. Unlocks abilities for every class.

Dexterity – increases your handiwork, which is crucial for artisan classes, rogues and archers, your attack speed, and, if you have one, percentage of a dodge stat. Unlocks various abilities for rogues, archers, swordsmen and artisan classes.

Vitality – increases your health points, health regeneration, stamina and its regeneration, and decreases the drop of your satiety bars. Unlocks abilities for most tank and warrior classes as well as artisan classes.

Wisdom – increases your mana points, mana regeneration and magic resistance. Unlocks some of the spells and abilities for mages and artisan classes.

Intelligence – increases your magic damage output, spells’ accuracy and effectiveness. Unlocks hidden abilities for all classes.

Luck – increases the chance of dropping better loot. Some of the unfortunate events can turn into propitious ones. Increases your crafting chance. The higher the luck stat, the higher the possiblity of creating an item above your skill level. Provides slight chance of reaching your skill mastery faster.

‘I never really checked it because it’s obvious for someone who played other MMOs. At least most of it is… *takes notes*’

There are more stats that can be unlocked, but we’re leaving it to you guys to discover.

Next question.

“Why are my satiety bars dropping so fast?”

That’s hard to answer without seeing your situation.
Most likely it is one of the following reasons.

You’re exerting yourself too much. Take a break and make sure to hydrate yourself. Eat some snack or lunch as well.
Basically, make sure you’re full.

If you’re in a fight, that’s understandable.
You’re using your senses to the maximum, that makes you stress, which in turn makes you hungry.
As in the first case, make sure to take a break, eat, drink and rest a little.

Pressure is exerted upon you. This includes killing aura.
Make sure not to anger your master or someone strong, as simple pressure coming out from them can make you faint.
Satiety bars will quickly drop to keep you conscious.
Keep that in mind.

Other stressful situations.
Thinking of a way to create that one godly weapon?
Your spell doesn’t work and you have no idea why?
That makes your brain use additional energy!

Make sure to increase your vitality if you want to keep your satiety bars up.
There are several survival skills that allow you to enhance it even further.
We hope this helps.

Just like in real life, yeah, we get it.

“Why the hell have you introduced fatal hit mechanic? It’s pointless. I’m disappointed.”

To be honest, this is hard to answer.
We’re not making the call here.
There’s an AI created by us, who, if it is impressed, decides to allow the fatal hit.

For some reason, until now, it was allowing many critical hits to turn into one hit KOs.
As such, we were forced to take action.
Thanks for sharing this issue with us, we have fixed this problem by tweaking the AI.

As of this moment, if a special action under certain conditions does not occur, you won’t be able to cause a fatal hit.
Hitting weak spots will now grant only critical hits.

So that’s why Ganis died, AI simply didn’t like him… or liked me.
Thanks AI, I love you!

“I’ve been killed inside the dungeon even though the PvP restriction was on! Why don’t you stick to your own rules, goddamnit?!”

Hahaha, that’s a funny one.
It’s a virtual reality, dear player.
Even though something is banned, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
Take rape in real world for example.
You shouldn’t, hell, mustn’t, yet some people still invade others’ privacy, causing severe trauma for their entire life.

That’s how the world works.
We’re not willing to put invisible barriers of some sort that make you invincible, that would be stupid and unnecessary.
For ones that have killed you, perpetrators, we have allocated severe punishments, so if you have found one, report to the guards outside the dungeon or to the owner of said dungeon.
Please do mind that some dungeons that are ruled by players, like guilds, households and individuals, can have their own code of conduct.

Maybe I should come up with regulations then…?
Nah, I’m not a tyrant… or am I?

Leaping to the next request.

“Why is last hitting bosses and other elite monsters allowed? People who do that sort of thing do not participate in the frustrating, stressful, arduous battle! All they do is wait for the other team to deliver them the boss on a silver platter! Not to mention that loot becomes theirs for a fixed amount of time! That’s not even the most infuriating, these people opt to not even kill us! They leave it to the boss monster! We don’t care about the experience, just make sure that these people are punished, please!”

Loot dropping mechanics are staying the way they are.
Same with the experience belonging to the killer, it’s unfair, but that’s exactly how life is – unfair.
Severe punishments are enforced to make sure people who kill others, whether players or NPCs, are punished for it.
However, our team has seen something you may refer to.
Some of these highly infuriating individuals don’t turn into player killers, even after they have attacked you.
All they do, is like you described, leave you to die from the boss’s attack.

This is something we are not willing to overlook. That’s why, after the update, no matter how small the damage done, every attempt of attacking another player in such situations will turn you into a player killer.
Duration will be shorter, but you’ll be marked nonetheless.

Why do we say “in such situations”?
Well, we wouldn’t want two lovers who are quarreling to suddenly have their better half turn red, would we…?

I guess Mika and I would be really red, and hell, it wouldn’t even be her special day…
Thank God Vilenne is an NPC, it would be a bloodbath…

If you’re still having troubles with such shady players, please hire mercenaries.
Many Mercenary Guilds are willing to hunt player killers for a fair price.

We hope this satisfies your thirst for vengeance.

“What do the deities do? What are they even here for?”

This is a really tricky question.
Seriously, this particular one is hard to expand on.

Deities are supposed to be guardians, beings that provide you with affinity if you’re a mage, or an element, if you’re a non-mage class.
There are exceptions in this, as some mages can get an element instead of affinity as well, however these cases are rare, so we won’t talk about that.

Those creatures, deities, are having rules of their own.
Some are willing to ask adventurers to do quests for them, rewarding them with great rewards, such as stronger affinities, high quality equipment and powerful skillbooks or skills.
Each of the deities can choose their champion, that is one of the adventurers or NPCs that will represent their interests in a tournament they hold.

If you’re chosen and somehow manage to win one of these tournaments, your deity’s prestige will skyrocket, making it stronger, thus increasing your and your fellow element’s users power.

Don’t think badly of us, these deities are all Artificial Intelligences that choose players depending on their whims.
We’re not responsible for whoever they choose.

Even if you’re not the “lucky one”, you can still solicit favors from your deity in the appropriate shrine or temple.
Make sure you’ve done something of value for the deity first, as most of them are proud, arrogant creatures, who, obviously, don’t give out anything for free.

On a side note, if you incur the wrath of a deity, you’ll most likely have to delete your character and create a new one…
So… yeah, make sure not to do that.

Am I reading this correctly…?
Acquare has chosen me as a special boy, with some kind of down syndrom or something… nah, most likely as a lapdog… then Likaan thought of me as an enemy of mankind and wants to hunt me down.
*sigh* Let the hunger games begin…

“Why are the equipment’s stats so low?! Are artisan classes supposed to create such garbage? Who will choose them if it’s only that little of a stat boost…?!”

Many of you have been complaining about equipment’s stats being not high enough.
We’re slightly buffing the equipment, however, our company’s still sticking to the original concept.
What concept? One that keeps this Virtual Reality hard and challenging, not a walk in the park MMO.
If you’re willing to get better stats, train or find a better quality of gear.

For science purposes, (and because of notorious questions…) we will provide you with the equipment grades.
Current equipment divides into following levels.

Basic <— Rare <— Elite <– Superior <— Legendary <— Artifact and… Special.

Why is Special out there, all alone?
Well, that’s because it can be worse than Basic… or better than Artifact.
It all depends on the creator, class, and ability of the user.
You can think of these items either as of utter garbage or as of unheard of miracles.

Putting it simply, these Special grade items are all a mystery.
One, that you will have to discover and decide for yourself, whether it’s a useful source of power, or a piece of junk that can’t even compete with basic items.

Special items for special people like me.
At least following Acquare’s logic.
Great, I already feel retarded.

“Why are some of the players speaking gibberish from time to time? Do you use some kind of bots to lure in more players…? I’m confused.”

Good catch sir.
These people are not bots, they are players just like you.
The thing is, we’re not capable of turning every language into one inside the game.
Translators evolved during past ten years, but they are by no means perfect.
That’s why some of the players talking to you sound like they’re speaking in some kind of a faulty copy of your beautiful language.

We’re very sorry for this inconvenience, our company is trying its hardest to come up with better methods of translating, but so far there’s been not much of a progress.
Do not fret, as data from other languages comes in, we’re constantly upgrading our translation device to provide you with better quality of translation.
Please bear with us, as these issues are really difficult to instantly solve.

Never met a complicated language speaking guy, I guess…
I suppose Nate and his speech in real life would be considered mandarin here.

Now, for the last question.

“Hello there, I’m an avid player of your game, Loiterous. My nickname is Falco. I was wondering if you’ll ever introduce “going pro” as a part of your game. Many players would definitely want to compete, whether it is in their homes, by participating in the tournaments inside the game, or at a live event, if you can set it up. I have no doubt that you’re receiving a lot of hate for your creation, but I and many others love the Virtual Reality you’ve created and would have liked to have a chance to compete against the best of the best. Once again, thanks for creating this wonderful experience for me and many others. Sincerely, Falco.”

We’re surprised some of you consider our Virtual Reality this seriously… nah, not really.
When we came up with Loiterous, it was already a part of our plan to make some sorts of “Championships”.
However, first days didn’t show much interest in the game, most of you were probably scared that it will be a scam, something that doesn’t even work properly.

But! To your surprise, our company has delivered what it has promised you!
Virtual Reality that everyone can enjoy!
At this very moment, we’re working on a possiblity of news stations and radio broadcasts covering what’s happening inside Loiterous.

So, to answer your question, yes, we’re 100% sure, that such a live event will happen, however it is still too early.
We’ll wait for you, our players, to reach mastery in some of your skills and classes.
That will spice things up as well as provide better entertainment for the spectators!

Championships? Going pro?
Who cares about this circus.
Although… I bet it will feel pretty good to crush these clowns!
I think I can do that, yeah, sounds like a plan!

Thank you very much for your unsatiable interest in our VR and we hope you’ll stay with us for a long time!

This covers first part of the update, “Questions”.

We’re moving to the second part, “Changes”, where we’ll expand on some of the questions and introduce the changes we’ve come up with.

…