Update Notes - February 3rd, 2012

[Saulus]

Rest Changes

- Spells/Feats and Special Abilities will only reset once per ingame day outside of a rest zone (2 realtime hours)
- When you gain back your uses per day you will also gain full HP from the rest (as if you had fully rested in a rest zone)
- You will still gain back your level in HP as normal when resting outside of the daily rest, but survival skill now counts as a % bonus HP to your rested health
- Resting inside of a rest zone will restore full HP and uses per day regardless of the countdown

General Changes

- Note that many rest areas will disappear, expect to see rest zones in Inns, Taverns, Temples and Faction HQs
- Encounter balance will be subject to many modifications after this change, consider difficulty a work in progress (we are working hard on this part)

[Chiangtao]

Seksi stuff!

[GodBeastX]

Hopefully that vitality bug is squashed too.

[Kitsunestume]

Rest Changes

- Spells/Feats and Special Abilities will only reset once per ingame day outside of a rest zone (2 realtime hours)
[...]
- Resting inside of a rest zone will restore full HP and uses per day regardless of the countdown

Question: will resting in a designated rest-zone restart the countdown as it did with the 10-minute rests, or is the countdown unaffected?

[Saulus]

The countdown is unaffected by anything including server resets, logout/login, etc.

[Kitsunestume]

Dandy. Thanks for the hasty reply.

[Kitsunestume]

Oh, one more question that just came to me: Do the new rest rules kick in like before at level 6, or is it for ALL levels?

[GodBeastX]

Resting in rest zones starts the countdown over, yes. I think saulus was confused by the question.

[Kitsunestume]

Very well. Thanks for clarification.

[Memnoch1962]

Ok, so far I'm not a huge fan of the new rest rules. Not to say that I wont be given time. I ran with a group last night in mossdale and we had to leave due to rest restrictions and the fact that spells/buffs were wearing off. This post is not me complaining about changes instead what I personally would like to know is why there was a change in the first place? Perhaps if I knew the reason behind it all it would be easier for me to wrap my mind around all of this. From what I gather, we can rest and regain spell/feats etc every 2 hours real time, or in a designated rest area anytime. And that several rest areas were removed. In tabletop D&D, you rest once per day for 8 hours and have another 16 hours to go before ou have to rest again. In sundren you rest and still have 24 hours to go, but I believe the balance to that is the designated rest areas that allow you to regain spells/feats within the 2 hours realtime period. So if anyone on the staff would kindly explain why the change was needed and how it will make the game better I would definately appreciate it. I love playing on Sundren, and I'm willing to roll with changes. At least until the changes make the game not fun anymore. Not saying thats what going on, I just dont understand or see the need for rest changes... yet.

Thanks in advance,

[Saulus]

Read this part a few more times until it sinks in.

- Encounter balance will be subject to many modifications after this change, consider difficulty a work in progress (we are working hard on this part)

That means not every area is balanced anymore and they are being changed. Why was rest changed? Quite simply, casters had too many spells they can use far too often, which conflicts with the spirit of PnP and limited resting.

Right now most of our encounters are still balanced for a group that has casters with UNLIMITED SPELLS. These encounters are going to change drastically to reflect the change in capability for groups now.

There are some people that won't like it, and I expected that... but I've personally had half a dozen people tell me HOW MUCH THEY LIKE THE CHANGES, most of them being casters. The group makeup of parties will change as casters no longer have unlimited spells for the dungeon and instead save themselves for key moments (making non caster builds even more viable).

Again, the current encounters are not balanced for this, nor would I expect an easy time for people who try anyway. This isn't something we're working off and on with, this is one of our main focuses now that rest has been changed.

[Memnoch1962]

Thanks for the explanation Saulus. I feel the first part, about reading this a few more times until it sinks in was a little insulting. I understood that game balance was going to be affected by the change and that you guys were hard at work changing that. My only question was WHY the change was made in the first place. You explained it and I get it. Thats all I really wanted. Wasnt complaining about anything, I was just doing what I've read all the Developers and DMs have been saying to do, "If you have any questions about Sundren, just ask."

[Satoshi]

Putting in the new rest system before the encounter changes were completed is going to be a whole bag of ass for anyone who wanted to go out and do Mossdale/Duergar/anywhere that requires you to have a fully buffed Battlecleric and/or Weaponmaster/Defender running all of your caster's short-term buffs to survive short, brutal fights. I'm just going to continue to sit my ass around while invisible and wonder why I thought it was a good idea to be an evoker while I watch Ragnar tank everything by himself until the changes. :P

On a more relevant note, Charalath seems to think partial rests aren't healing properly based on his survival.

[Saulus]

When your very reason for not liking the system is something I mentioned we are working hard on, it makes me feel that you ignored the fact that I said we are committed to working hard on rebalancing encounters.

All we ask is some patience, we didn't arbitrarily decide last week this was a good idea and to hell with the consequences.

Thanks for the explanation Saulus. I feel the first part, about reading this a few more times until it sinks in was a little insulting. I understood that game balance was going to be affected by the change and that you guys were hard at work changing that. My only question was WHY the change was made in the first place. You explained it and I get it. Thats all I really wanted. Wasnt complaining about anything, I was just doing what I've read all the Developers and DMs have been saying to do, "If you have any questions about Sundren, just ask."

[Jhickey]

As most of you know I play a (two) caster(s), and I love the changes, and can't wait for the next wave of changes.

All joking aside, I think this is a great step towards the better rebalance.
It will put greater emphasis on the group.