Read the full article here:

http://www.illyriad.co.uk/blog/index.php/2012/07/the-right-tools-for-the-job/" rel="nofollow - http://www.illyriad.co.uk/blog/index.php/2012/07/the-right-tools-for-the-job/

To answer the most obvious questions before they are asked, we don't have any additional specifics that we can share about the mechanics of the system at this time. And we don't know when it will be coming to the game, though the team is working diligently and hopes to bring it to you as soon as they can. :)

GM Luna

I look forward to it.

I wonder if we will be able to capture these items from others... if they put them down somewhere for example.

the manner in which you acquire these items was suspiciously absent. The only info given was that unique resources would appear on the map. I'm guessing these might be located regionally, and spawn only in that region. 

For example mythril only spawns in the Middle Kingdom. While elephant skin leather can only be harvested from elephants (spawned in Zanpur).  

This would fall in line with previous GM notes on creating more reasons for land disputes. 

The ability to attack NPC's to get these resources, and steal them from other players, will add a new level to the game. I'm hoping that this will come with the ability to target specific resources when sending thieves/raids. And maybe the vault will have a new meaning as well. 

One thing that I think should be released is the numerical advantages of these items. "works well in jungles" and "sharper than average sword" isn't all that helpful when comparing items. 

Thanks Devs

Update: Added to the  http://arcanum-illyria.com/wiki/Category:Discovery_Research" rel="nofollow - wiki .

Being a long time fan boy and conspiracy theorists... I love speculation. 

See you in 2014 

I would just like to see something implemented. Don't really care what just something that actually affects game play.

Trade v2

Battle magic

Factions

Path finding

Roads

Bridges

Water units

Crafting

Something to use Alliance gold on...

Etc.

The next Tournament

seriously, b4 something major like crafting or whatever goes live, they should not even think about coding an event...

I am a strong believer of "take it simple", and I fear this will only be another time wasting adding, with no real effect. Balancing this things is so hard... probably one of the weapon and armor will be the "better" and everyone will wear that one, just as it happens in WOW. So you will settle with no difference in the game mechanics and a lot of work and time to waste to get there...

But we have a lot of time to waste atm, right ?

The only pro I see? We will have wars. A lot.

I tend to agree. This doesn't give us hardly any new functionality, it just complicates the existing combat system. Encouraging us to spend more time on pimping out our armies just so they can do the same thing they've been doing. 

The really exciting part to me is the way we acquire resources to craft these items, and the buildings we must create to make them. This has the potential to change the game mechanics in the following way: 

Redo city buildings/sov. to allow for specific types of crafting

Encourage territorial disputes/ownership for resource harvesting

All of that said, I would prefer some of the game functions previously listed over military tweaking via crafting... but if this is a gateway to crafting boats, i'm in. 

It might never happen, but if there were different crafting abilities associated with the different races, it would make the choice of player race of more significance, beyond what we have already...

I disagree on this point.  I feel the dev's chat interviews were a major success.  As a whole they each helped revitalize my passion of illy.  Especially the Q/A GM SC was subjected to.  That was brilliant.  I dont know what the prep time for each of the vids were, but informing and reassuring their userbase paid off exponentially I think.

EDIT:

invictusa wrote: Q/A GM SC

I would love the opportunity to pick GM TC's Brain.

Yes it is nice to hear what the plans are BUT if we never get to see any of the cool stuff implemented its of little or no use.

EDIT: I agree.  Anything that keeps our devs form progressing the game into its next phase should not be considered.  As stated in earlier posts however, I feel that more communication with the user-base is beneficial, if not critical; as opposed to being detrimental to a more advanced gameplay experience.

I truly and sincerely hope none of you honestly think that the existence of our dev chats, dev blog, player of the month, etc, are somehow hindering the development of the game. Because that is absolutely ridiculous and could not be further from the truth. If not for the main fact that I'm the one doing these things and I'm not the same person who programs the game for you. 

Literally, not a second of programming time is wasted by me writing a dev blog or choosing a player of the month. And when GM SC or anyone else takes an hour out of their very busy work weeks to write a blog for you, or be on a dev chat for you, if you think that is a detriment to the development of the game you clearly do not understand "how things work." 

And secondly, just to point out the extremely obvious, there were 4 dev blog posts that came before the last game update that literally described features that were in the update. (HINT: you should like these things because they are telling you what is coming.) 

Hope that helps. If you need any further clarification, ask me.

Luna

Some things mentioned in the dev blog happen fairly quickly; other things mentioned (3-D buildings? sound effects?) take more time.  Please note I'm not saying that I care when 3-D buildings or sound effects are released, just pointing them out as examples of things featured in dev blogs that have not come to pass for a significant period of time.

The way things are now, it's a bit like getting everyone excited about Santa Claus, except that it's March, and when we wake up tomorrow he won't have come ... or the next day after that either.  Yes, I know we're grownups and should have the psychological maturity to be able to deal with it, but sometimes it does feel like y'all are playing mind games.

My guess is that nothing is further from the truth, that you tell us about these things you're working on far in advance because you are excited and enthusiastic and want to share them with us -- which is great.  But remember, we don't know what else is going on in your heads, we don't know the development path or the other factors, so to us it might appear like you randomly release information about things that are going to happen in the far distant future to get us all het up, and when something actually does happen like the double experience weekend you announce it 10 minutes ahead of time and some people miss it.

Luna, I appreciate you, I appreciate the game, I am not unhappy with the game, and I acknowledge it is possible that you are doing this in the best possible way.  I do hope you will listen to the user experience I have described and if there is any way you guys can think of to address these concerns, it would be great if you did.

We aren't going to tell you when anything is coming out until we are 100% certain it won't change. That is how it is going to work. It would be a disservice to everyone if we did otherwise. It's not a mind game. We are not trying to hurt you. We are just trying to work and get things done while keeping our players in the loop as much as we reasonably can. 

@Rill, there is literally no video game in the history of all video games that I have ever in my life seen that has shared with players every detail of their development. It just doesn't happen. We share what we can, when we can, in the best way we can. No more. No less. 

@Rorgash, I'm short. ;)

Luna

Short for a dwarf, or a human? 

Please do not set up a straw man to minimize what I was saying.  I was providing sincere feedback about my experience.  The negative aspects of this experience may be out of your control, but they are part of my experience.

I do still contend that it would reduce frustration to identify which things you are TRYING to release fairly soon and which are much further off; at least this would reduce frustration among those who are expecting the much further off things to happen imminently.  (Some people seem to have this delusion about pathfinding, for example.)

If you hope to release something soon and don't, that is moderately disappointing.  If you're not even trying to release something fairly soon, then it seems like it would reduce disappointment if you were clear about that.

The distinction between those two things might be utterly clear to you; we have no idea.  I suppose it's also possible that y'all just have a lot of stuff brewing at the same time and also have no idea about when various things might mature; some statement to that effect would be quite refreshing.

Luna

Again, I acknowledge that you may be doing this in the best possible way.  It is still a frustrating process for the players.  That's really all I need you to hear and acknowledge, without minimizing it or making out that I'm asking for something that I'm not.

Posting new feedback and suggestions is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. I actually love reading some of the suggestions and secretly knowing that we are already working on something of the sort. It also helps to verify what people want from the game. It just has to be tempered with a little patience and understanding, that's all.

Luna

This statement made me sad. Sad because I do love the game and would hate to see it "die".

Personally I do think most people need to see things completed from time to time to see progress is made and if you keep switching targets that will take a long time to see things finalized.

Make milestones and stick with them.

Post a road map of your priorities at the moment and update it when you feel it is outdated.

And for the record I did ask for more updates on what you are working on and appreciate those and do NOT think they take away time from developing the game. (Beside the fact that you could have hired a programmer instead of a PR worker  )

This is just raw code changes - not time spent on or releases related to content, designing and balancing new features, graphics, answering petitions, responding to players in forums, account emails, networking changes, server reconfiguration, O/S patching, 3rd party provider investigations, fixes and changes (e.g. Facebook, Chrome Web Store, Google Accounts, PayPal, Mobile, Google Wallet...) etc.

Absolutely nothing I said should be taken as the game is "dying." It is doing better than ever and we are doing more development than ever. The team is bigger than ever. We just aren't recklessly throwing out information anymore about timelines that are unrealistic. Instead we are working, sharing info as we have it and making releases. 

Luna

 

I hope that both sides of this arguement will be looked at by all parties concerned and will result in improved Dev team consultation techniques and a more controlled presentation of feedback from senior members of the community ( who ought to know better).

I could answer surferdude, but I'm not going to belabor the point.  If you don't understand what I've been saying yet, you're not going to understand it.

However, the really exciting recent news from my POV were water sov, diplomatic contingent, the delete button in mail,  and whatever will happen at Duraz Karag.  Something in the direction of tournament IV in the next days would be brilliant.

Surferdude's list shows not only a lot of releases, but also a recent load of hints. And personally I would rather have hints without dates, than dates that will be missed. And dunnoob pointed out the videos and the recent game changes. And in general I'm with Geofrey and Bainsisdead, here :-)

On the other hand, I have no idea what a "Dev team consultation technique" is ;-)

1. The rift tournament gave us battle magic and attacking NPCs but we have yet to see them implemented in the permanent game.

2. The Collecting tournament gave us a hint of crafting but we have yet to see anything implemented.

3. We have heard loads about path finding but have yet to see anything "live".

4. We have factions all over the map but they are all dead.

The frequent releases we have seen has probably taken a lot of time to code but if you look at the final result they have done little for the game play.

Players have every right to moan and groan about the content of the game, just as players also have every right to defend the game. These debates are healthy and often entertaining on multiple levels, however I think we run into unnecessary trouble when the Dev's take part. I believe they can only hurt their own reputation when they engage on the same "level" as the player community.

The GM's do not need to defend themselves. I know it seems that these forum posts sometimes require a reply, but maybe have a look at it after lunch and see if it is so important then. I would not be surprised to learn that most of the player base don't even know about the forums.

Content hints and Dev blog entries are a great way to keep the "engaged" players interested, in my opinion. Keep it coming and ignore the thick-skulled, please.

armies stop working and you wish you had more patience.

This is the first sentence I remember seeing you utter that I agree with.

As for the dev's "defending themselves", that is a ridiculous notion.  GM Luna is the community manager and does a brilliant job of keeping the sanctioned channels of communication managed.  If I had her job, more than half of you wouldn't be here right now. 

I look forward to the Dev Chat you drag GM TC into, GM Luna 

Thanks 

and to those that thinks I and others that speak up do not appreciate the work the GMs are doing: 

You are wrong; I do appreciate!

The fact that I and others use time and effort to post should be proof enough. In all other games I have played I just find a new but Illyriad is way to good just to walk away from.

So basically thanks GM for the work you are doing and that you do listen to the critiques  

http://www.illyriad.co.uk/blog/index.php/2012/07/from-the-ground-up/" rel="nofollow - http://www.illyriad.co.uk/blog/index.php/2012/07/from-the-ground-up/

I am going to pretend that my above comment was the reason for the new dev blog entry. 

I think option A is most likely, and will probably be implemented.  This adds flexibility and encourages customization. 

I am eager to see the benefits of each T3 resource. Everyone is worried about obsidian for obsidian armor, but I think defense is the last thing on everyone's mind. I'm guessing offensive and speed based gear will be most popular considering the current military strategies. 

BUT if the higher end armor does drastically improve defensive stats, it could be a game changer. All depends on the bonuses/benefits.