Note  58  Osse         (10/15/08 16:34)  Drivers and Balancing Acts

Players of T2T:
 
As of the next reboot, a few changes will have taken effect. One of these
we hope will prevent the 30-minute "freezes" from recurring.
 
Another change is more of a conceptual thing on the part of the admin. We
are undertaking a voluntary moratorium on "nerfings" until the first of
January, 2009. This will give us a month and a half to look at the big
picture of overall game balance, and what direction we should be taking
in regards to it. One goal of this is to examine all of the options
available to address identified areas of imbalance, instead of relying
primary on piecemeal reductions/tweaks. Another goal is to reassure you,
our players, that we have heard your feedback on recent changes, and are
striving to keep all aspects in mind in considering these issues. Note:
fixing clear, obvious bugs will remain exempt from this moratorium. If
there are gray areas, we will try to err on the side of leaving in-game
items as-is.
 
Finally, we are finally taking a step to address a longstanding area of
obvious inbalance: the necromancer spell Sandstorm. As of next reboot,
Sandstorm will be replaced with a new spell, by the name of Hurricane,
which behaves nearly identically to the Wizard spell Lightning in all
regards. One of the things we will be looking at over the upcoming 
moratorium period is whether/how sandstorm, as coded, can be properly
balanced.
 
Thank you, as always, for your ongoing support, patience, and
constructive feedback.
 
Osse