September 30th Livestream Transcription
– Intrepid Studios shares update on aquatic and underwater mounts, naval content and progress update towards Alpha 1.
Quick Updates:
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- Halloween Contest soon, winners will obtain Alpha 1 keys.
- We have filled 20 out of 24 positions at the company.
- We will be doing the next big onboarding phase in January.
- The studio move to the new big studio is delayed until the COVID situation gets better.
- Alpha 1 testing is still on schedule for later this year.
- We also had some odd 440 or so testers in last weekend’s test. Special thanks to them for squishing the bugs along the way.
Design Updates: Regarding the underwater visibility/blurriness, please do keep in mind this is the first pass for underwater visuals etc. It will get much much better. Furniture will provide bonuses, bunk beds exist, sleeping in the same bunk bed with a family member or sleeping with your spouse in the king size bed will all trigger better buffs. We are working on the next tropical biome. This biome is where a large portion of the upcoming alpha 1 test will take place. We’ll be showing you some of the concept pieces made by our artists which our environment team will be using to build the world. We want these overhead rock formations to contribute to players being able to ambush enemy player ships that are coming in to dock.
Armor will look different across the races and genders. So an armor when picked up and worn by an elf will look different from an armor piece worn by a human. So we want the same thematic set across the different races, but with subtle differences. When it comes to player models, I’d like you guys to understand that the scope of the game is massive- So as we continue to go through development, the base character models will get refined further and further all the way until we get to the character creation stage. We plan to aim for the stars on the character creator front, but it requires a lot of work on setting the parameters of restrictions.
QnA Session
Q: Will aquatic mounts be able to traverse naval areas as far as large ships?
A: Yes. There will also be plenty of underwater and naval content.
Q: Will all mounts have the same movement speed stat?
A: Depends on the grade/rarity of the mount.
Q: Will there be underwater combat or mounted combat?
A: Yes there is underwater combat. Yes there is also naval combat. Raid bosses, dungeons, trade ships and more on the naval content. It’s important that it feels good and fluid. As MMO players, many of us know different games that have tried and failed to hit the mark, so it will require a lot of work.
Q: Will players be able to craft items that provide underwater advantages?
A: Yes. Underwater breath buffs, speed buffs and more will be present. No underwater vision buffs though. Underwater visibility needs to be fair and balanced.
Q: Will mount saddles provide benefits?
A: Cosmetic saddles require obtaining a saddle first before you can apply the skin to it. All gear has stats which vary depending on rarity.
Q: What would prevent someone from having their friends or guild members kill them to reduce their corruption and giving them their gear/items back after death?
A: Nothing prevents someone. You could hide and get this done, but there’s risk associated with it. These players are not escaping the penalty, but they are mitigating the risk. However bounty hunters can view corrupt players on the map, this significantly reduces your ability to hide away and ofcourse, gear when dropped can be picked up by anyone.
Q: Will the world be a circle or sphere?
A: There will not be world wrapping in AoC
Q: Will there be a hardcap on how many players can be hit by an AOE?
A: Currently have not decided. Leaning towards No. But it requires further testing. While we want diminishing returns from a CC perspective, but I dont believe limiting AoE feels good to a player. The AoE should serve as an AoE, providing counterplay.
Q: Will players be able to party duel besides 1v1?
A: Yes, its something we’re looking at. But it requires some tweaking.
Q: If your Node is at war with a Node your guild mates live in, does that stop you from being able to party with your guild mates, raid, and defend your castle if the Defensive Siege happens during the same period as the Node War is happening?
A: It wont prevent you from partying. If the guild members want to party and work together while at war, they can do so. (This definitely requires further testing as there are a lot of pseudo-factions and we want soft friction between them)
Q: Will crafters be able to craft legendary gear?
A: Yes you can craft legendary quality gear.
Q: Will gear have limited repair amounts?
A: No. Gear can be repaired as many times. However instead of just gold, you will need materials to repair your gear, thus contributing to the economy and gatherer/processor players.
Q: Can tab abilities be changed into action abilities and vice versa?
A: Some abilities when advanced can provide additional targeting mechanics. But no, there’s no direct switch between action/tab. We don’t want to mess up someone’s experience based on what they expect from an ability.
Q: When a character’s clothes are affected by the environment, is it just cosmetic or will it affect the player’s resistances?
A: No. There’s climate effects from a buff standpoint. Using frostbolt in a winter climate will cause it to be stronger for example.
Q: Will there be a guild audit log in game?
A: One thing I could not stand as a guild leader in previous games was when you logged in and had no idea what changed. You will have logs for deposit/logs, promotions/kicks, joines/leaves and more.
Q: How will the mentorship program where high level players help lower level players work?
A: The mentorship program will be based on the node buildings, there’s specific buildings that allow for mentors to help mentees via quests where you take them through dungeons or escort quests for NPC caravans, these will provide a benefit for veteran and newer players. MMO’s do great with retention but struggle at new player acquisition. The nodes will at first primarily grow around spawn gateways at the start, we want new players to walk in and see a thriving world. Not walk into an empty early zone where you don’t see anyone.
