March 29th Livestream Transcription

– Intrepid answers node questions from the community and discusses advanced mechanics relating to nodes.

Stream begins with no audio and Intrepid attempts to communicate using sign language. Introductions going around. Discussion regarding their trip to GDC 2019 (Game developer’s conference), which is primarily a business to business expo. Lots of back to back meetings. Steven hints at some of these discussions being revealed in the future. Contest plans for the community are also in the works. Hiring is going well and the next hiring phase has just begun, with 17 positions requiring to be filled which can be found on their careers page.

Nodes Information: Nodes developer diary being shown – Can be seen here. Future developer diaries will show things more in-depth, the next planned dev diary is the housing system. The goal is to show who is behind the scenes in development and how these systems work behind the scenes, however we cant go too in-depth as it is a competitive market. Usually companies stick to what has been proven as they have to answer to investors and boards as they dont want to take the risk, hence why we are able to innovate and work on things that have not been tried before. Developers usually record things as they are working on them so that we can grab these and use them for our dev diaries series.

Earlier in a segment we had stated that losing a siege would cause a node to delevel or be destroyed, however with the design changes, we’ve decided that when a node loses a siege it is destroyed all the way down to level 0. This is stuff that will require testing and there’s always room for changes, which is the entire point of testing.

 

Content Creator QnA

Q: Members of guild A are citizens of both Node A and B, and the mayor of node A wars on node B, are the citizens of node A now at war with themselves?
A: There’s various agencies that have hierarchy. Guilds, node citizenship, etc. All these affiliations have a hierarchy, your citizenship is your greatest superceding relationship. If you are part of a guild, and there’s members part of multiple nodes – the members of the node will be first and foremost citizens of a node that defend it.

Q: Will there be a way to see what type of node you are contributing to starting out?
A: When a node first starts out, there will be indicators of what node type it is such as the NPC’s that arrive etc. there wont be any map indicators. But you will have to get it to level 1 to see what type it is, not level 0. Your activities as a player dictate what you will see.

Q: If a metropolis locks out its surrounding vassal node at stage 5 and later it is destroyed in a siege, which of it’s surrounding nodes is chosen to level up to 6?
A: There is a hierarchy that exists within a node structure and if relationship is removed after a siege 2 separate “nations” they compete for stage 6 going forward. Nothing happens immediately, they have to earn that experience and it becomes a race. A race influenced by events and experience by players. For example, if there’s 2 neighbouring stage 4 nodes, those 2 stage 4 nodes are going to be at odds at one another until one hits stage 5. Achievements towards raid bosses, events, etc. all of these hinder or boost node growth. While there are no factions in game, there’s pseudo factions/agencies for players to align with.

Q: What will you if a server merge is needed?
A: As a contingency we have 2 scenarios, where 1 server becomes the dominant server and the other merges into it. The second is that the two populations will join a new server as a fresh start where you keep all progression of character/gear etc, but the nodes will be all level 0. These are the two server merge ideas we currently have.

Q: Given that the world size is 480sqkm with 103 nodes, can you tell us the approx amount of land each node has?
A: Dont want to give out that information and want it to be more immersive and not mechanical. There is obviously an amount of area covered by a node, it is large, it goes from small to big, but we dont want to give out direct information like that. We want you to see your actions change the world and react to that change. However not knowing everything at the start is a key part of the exploration experience.

Q: Since we know that nodes offer class and augmentation services for players, will these services be gated behind node level, will players have to travel to other nodes?
A: There will be world development that is necessary for certain progression. Destruction and Enhancement each has its own benefits, the idea is to place incentives in each category. Regarding the second half, that is related to citizenship, you basically can choose to give up citizenship at one node for another to get the benefits you want. And these benefits are set by players and mayors of the nodes where they have progression points. So as a citizen you might have to travel to a different node to access certain things or progress.

Q: What are your thoughts on node degradation lengths? How long will it take to degrade and will higher levels take more to degrade?
A: Yes. We want players to be active and doing things to help the node. Player activity will relate to what is going on the server, the amount of activity will dictate advancement rate etc, it will vary from server to server.

Q: Can we get a clarification on how underrealm nodes interact with server nodes? Can there be 5 underrealm metros and 5 above ground?
A: Only 5 can exist across both at the same time. If you are in the underrealm, the effects of your node will bleed into the nodes above ground. In the past we mentioned that they would be independent of each other, but we now want them to work together with each other. We want to include influence of the underrealm on the land above ground in terms of flora/fauna etc. We want to capture high fantasy setting.

Q: If im a citizen of a vassal node, why should I remain their and not go to a higher level node?
A: As a vassal citizen, you are contributing to the parent node. You can still go to the hunting area and enjoy the perks of the vassal nodes. There is an up-down relation between the vassal and parent nodes. Citizens of parent nodes can send out certain work orders only to vassal nodes to help support them, like certain questlines, items, weapons, resources. There is a relationship between a Vassal/Parent node. As a vassal citizen you have perks for parent node work orders. Specific resources available in your vassal node, cheaper living conditions/taxes and various other benefits. There’s definitely going to be reasons to be a part of a vassal node.

Q: What kinds of behaviours and habits do you want NPC’s to have in the nodes?
A: There’s a lot of things we want to acomplish with NPC’s and player interaction with them such as questing system feats, social organizations, establishing reputations within the city and special bonuses such as greetings, questlines, cheaper prices etc. All of it contributes to building your node and advancing its legacy. We want to ensure that the city feels alive, with not just player’s but also NPC’s.

Q: Can you provide more info on relations between vassal nodes and parent nodes?
A: We touched on this in the previous question. Is there a way to prevent a vassal node from being vassaled to a parent node? There’s no “You’re not welcome here”. The territory of the node expands based on an algorithm, where nodes want to move towards other cultures which is the backbone of trade and economy, including moving to the coast to move goods around the world. There’s no hard way to prevent others from being parent nodes to your nodes, its meant to be a competition.

Q: For coastla nodes, will they encompass parts of the sea?
A: It will definitely have parts of the water/sea that will be part of the node. There will be international waters and regional waters.

 

French QnA

Q: Are there any hidden quests like resurrecting a dragon, like with 5 necromancers being able to do so to defend the node?
A: There are hidden quests, but regarding reviving a dragon with necromancers, currently unknown. There are exploration quests and reaching places first, we want first discovery to matter.

Q: Can we have more details about military node functionality and class combat training?
A: This will be gone over in a blog post/article later. Military nodes augment your combat abilities in PvE/PvP and that ability stays within the ZOI of that node. This encourages those players to focus around that node. Stay tuned for more news.

Q: Will we be able to organize troop positions during assaults like in Total war?
A: Not like total war. We do want raid leaders with player run groups, but no prescribed troop directions. The idea is to have NPC mercs during battles. Castle owners will be able to place merc tags within their castle to summon NPC AI to defend – we want to do something like this, but no confirmation yet.

Q: Will we have the choice where each building will be or is it automated?
A: 2 components. One is procedural that they have no control over which is decided by the procedural tool shown in the nodes dev diary. Second is specific plots that they can build projects on decided by the citizens and the mayor to render those services. Base level stuff comes with the node, specific buildings are decided by the players.

Q: Will we be able to find tribes such as elf tribes that we can create relations with?
A: Yes, there will be minor race NPC’s. There’s a tier of interaction with NPC’s, major such as within cities and minor race interactions such as centaurs and the faye, additionally the antagonist npc interactions such as corruption and ancients. Yes, minor races will exist, regarding trade, it will be related to quest stuff. You wont subjugate their culture and take it all over.

Q: We saw that NPC’s on siege weapons join sieges. Will this happen in sieges?
A: NPC’s will participate in both node and castle sieges, but the extent which they do varies on contribution. Taxes for example can be allocated towards defences which ensures more NPC defenders. Allocations of taxes towards heightened defences, npcs, walls, granting nodes certain war abilities etc. Lots of ways castles interact with nodes. NPC’s cannot interact with NPC”s. Siege weapons are skill based. NPC AI will not be very skillful when it comes to siege weaponry.

 

German QnA

Q: Will players be able to steal items from other players?
A: You cannot steal items, there are death penalties and these relate to raw resources. So when a player dies, a portion of your raw resources you’re carrying are dropped. If your freehold is destroyed, there is a portion of your raw resources that are dropped. Same with caravans. But no gear dropping or completed items (unless you are corrupted).

Q: Since religions are part of the node system, will that relate to crusades?
A: In a way, yes. There will be conflict between the different religions and friction between them. One thing that might not be present at launch is how religion relate from a patronship to a particular node and offer incentives for them to co-operate with other nodes that follow the same religion or war on those nodes that dont follow their same religion, so somewhat like crusades, but this might happen for a future expansion.

Q: How can small guilds build up a node like larger guilds?
A: The key point – guilds dont necessarily build nodes. Guilds are a smaller portion of a community. Guilds might explore deeper and establish an encampment, but they wont be able to establish nodes by their lonesome. Nodes will require a lot more effort. What smaller guilds do have is that within the guild progression, they can choose to have more players or have smaller numbers and provide specific skills and abilities, there are unique quests and activites that are tailored to small and focused guilds, also activities that limit the number of participants.

 

Russian QnA

Q: How many buildings can I build on my freehold?
A: Roughly 4-5 (?), but the better way to explain it is that to find efficiency in the space that you have. Placement and finding synergies will be very important to get the best bank for your buck. It’s like playing tetris with buildings, yes.

Q: Will cities have unique names, can we change them?
A: They will not be player created names, but they will be player chosen names based on region etc. Chosen from a list.

Q: You mentioned losing a siege destroys the node, any way to delevel it instead?
A: No. Losing a siege destroys the node.

 

English QnA

Q: Since vassal nodes cannot war against their parent nodes, is there no way to cause civil war without renouncing citizenship?
A: No, there is currently no way to do so and there’s no plans to do so. Best thing to do is revoke your citizenship and try to take down that node by joining a different node.

Q: What constraints does a parent node enforce on its vassals in comparison to a free node?
A: A parent and vassal relationship primarily benefits them. The major restrains apply to the mayors and their duties. Most importantly when it comes to diplomacy and tax rates, these get superceded by the government of the parent node.

Q: According to the AoCwiki, underrealm nodes and nodes above them are not related, so how do they relate?
A: We department from prior ideas of shared ZOI, so the wiki will need to update that. Regarding how nodes below/above each other are related – we consider adjacency using 3D as vassal/parent nodes.

Q: Will there be parts of the world outside the node system or spaces between them where actions dont affect them?
A: Coastal areas of the sea fall under ZOI, deep international waters, this is something that needs testing in alpha 2 particularly. But on land no, all falls under the node, regarding sea needs Alpha 2 testing.

Q: Can we get more details on how node progress affects mob scaling?
A: There is a spawn table in the world that spawns monsters. The spawn table has a wide range of difficulties. As the node levels up, it upgrades the spawn table. Traditionally in MMORPG’s you have starter zones and end-game zones, which has a negative impact as players dont visit older areas. This leaves new players entering dead zones. We want nodes to influence areas, with diversification of monsters that can be found anywhere, so when new players enter in, they enter a live-breathing world. A low level player can travel anywhere on the map as there will be paths with relative safety.

Q: Will there be node bound gear or recipies – armor/gear that ties to a node?
A: We havent mentioned this system, but we will have personalized gear that represents a guild, similarly it applies to nodes as well where players can represent the node appearance with the crest etc. However if the node goes away, so does the appearance of that gear.

Q: Are quests geographically limited to the node?
A: No. We want to send you all over the world. There’s going to be local and far distance quests.

Q: WIll nodes near the 3 starting portals have slower progression?
A: There are 4 starting gateways, it’s almost certain that nodes in the starting area will see development faster. There is a chance that one server might have a large portion of the community rush to push a certain node. We want it to feel organic, dont want to bias it. Nodes will rise and fall and that’s okay.

Q: Leadership will be able to customize what gets built, beyond that how different are the metros and what differences will be able to see, canals? Multiple elevations? Or essentially the same layout?
A: Every metropolis will be different, no they wont have the same layout. Geographical markers such as rivers etc will be fixed and wont change on node progression. The procedural process of the node tool allows bridges and canals to be placed randomly each time a node develops. As nodes level, there is a sense of history. A merchant at a spot in level 3 might have a shop at level 5.  Each time a node builds in the same spot, it will be different each time. Long defended metros will become an iconic part of the history.

Q: Since node types pre-determined, how will vassal nodes of different types affect their parent node?
A: A level 4 military node will maintain its identity regardless of who it is a vassal to. It only changes when a metropolis exercises their super power which affects things. The idea of parent and vassal nodes, the way it works is, it doesnt restrict vassals, it only benefits them and offers them more. Its meant to offer benefits, not take away freedom. Vassals maintain their identity and obtain benefits of their parent node.

That wraps up all the questions, we’re going to be discussing scientific nodes next followed by the other types, and then delve into governments and player agencies, religions, classes etc. There is going to be – next week, that the next cosmetic set comes out with the Nikua race. Coastal Tribal race (Nikua). Next livestream is still due on last friday but it might change depending on plans. Thank you all for tuning in and thank you for your support!

Google Doc Link

March 8th Livestream Transcription

– Intrepid talks about the letter, state of the game, FAQ, and answers questions regarding development.

Introductions – Steven, Margaret and Jeffrey. Steven talks about his past as a player and how that encourages him to have a connection with the community. There’s some FAQ questions they want to address, followed by a special video and a QnA. Content roadmap is exciting.

 

Updates regarding the Studio:

• We are growing and have a lot of growth to do. We’ve added over 15 people since the start of the year. This is a process of bringing people on board and training them to bring them up to speed, but this is a valuable investment.
• Were not able to meet the hiring goals of 2018. But we’re doubling down and are working with head hunters to get the right people that we’re looking for. One of the key points is their experience in an MMORPG perspective and their love for for MMORPGs.
• Plans to have a new pimped out stream room. The new location is being worked on. We looked at 2 other locations, but it did not go as planned. One of the locations sold their portfolio mid-discussion and the new owners had different plans. The second location was a sub-lease, middle floor of a labratory, however they decided to lease the entire building instead which is not what we wanted.

 

State of the game and the MMORPG

Leading into December we were moving into our new website as the old one was on wordpress and wasnt built for large traffic. Unfortunately some of the systems we had built for that website did not stand up for the traffic. Unfortunately due to 2 million visitors, it did not hold and we onboarded a new team to sort things out. New migration took place a few weeks ago and went smoothly to AWS (Amazon Web Services). Part of the new website is getting CS tools up to respond to people faster. Once we get our Customer Support Lead in-house, things will go a lot faster.

The Future – Moving forward, regarding development, we were able to take back end things from December’s testing and we’ve been able to rebuild and focus on the architecture to facilitate the large servers for the MMORPG and to ensure that it meets the standards that the players expect. 

Expanding on the Architecture Issues: A lot of these issues had to do with population on a battlefield. Initial target was 500 players on a battlefield and we will go higher than this, but this is goal for now. And making sure hitscan/projectile based mechanics and whether the server can handle all the data. Having a high population within an area is what we’re trying to achieve. A lot of work goes into ensuring all the data and information that goes into this is top notch. It’s about optimizing what the backend is doing and getting it right for what we want to achieve. The data provided through Apocalypse was fundamental to help us move forward. When we look at data we look at how the data comes in from the server. As such as certain level of performance is needed (making sure its not laggy etc). So we implemented a replication graph in specific zones to ensure the server doesnt have to replicate data of a player far away or behind a mountain/wall. (Replication refers to providing info to a player’s game client) There’s a lot of work goes into it.

Apocalypse Data: We went from doing kinda-sorta 100 players, but we can now push it to 250 stable. And we will continue to push higher to hit the numbers we want. It’s a lot of work to go through that data and figure out what we can and cant do. We can automate what we want, however we cannot get the kind of data that players provide. We also had to test our data gathering mechanics so we can gather data on what weapon is used the most etc. as it is essential for Alpha 1. We see every single shot a player makes, we see ability activation, whether the shot lands or not, and all of it gives us data to align with our core principles to judge whether X or Y is working the way we want it to. When pushing Apocalypse out, all of this design data such as accuracy etc, when is included in the MMORPG under the hybrid combat system, it helps us work on it.

Action and Tab Combat: The goal is if you want to go 50% Hybrid 50% action, we want it to be a viable option. It’s not necessarily about one or the other as tab and action have different tempos and speeds. We take this data, each of the designers comes up with their ideas and then we take a shotgun approach to test each prototype to see which feels like what we want, and then that is put into Alpha 1 to get community feedback and data.

Release Dates: Originally we announced Alpha 1 in Q2 2019, which was a decent projection, however we had to re-align. The delay is not in a number of years, but in a number of months. However going forward, when we give a date, we’re going to be confident about meeting that date. ALL PRIOR DATES ARE OFFICIALLY WIPED. Also we do not want to disappoint people as pushing dates is not fun. Our ideals –

• • No Pay-to-Win.
  • Not going to throw away effort by putting it in the cash shop.
  • We’re going emphasise risk vs reward.
  • AAA quality MMORPG.

All of this takes time. We’re incredibly invested in this just as much as you are. We had moved to a new payment processor ‘Xsolla’ however we listened to the community feedback and we moved away from it and plan to go to Paypal and Stripe.

Regarding the website and backend, we’re going to be re-designing the websites and make things better. These things are going to take time, to put blogs up and require some love. Regarding the forums, we cannot give you an exact date, however we are getting things prepped and will let you know a week in advance before it goes live. We’ll also have a proper FAQ set up for people to refer to. Concerns over old posts etc. will be in the FAQ.

Content Roadmap: It takes time to plan it out because we dont want to take away the time of people working on these various features and systems. However once departments have things done, we’ll share them with you. In march we’ll be focusing on nodes. We’re also working on a Dev diaries series to show you the people working on the project and what they’ve been upto. The first is the nodes system, it will show a lot of core systems. (Not nodes 3 yet) Art process, world building, level design, concept art process, all of these go into Dev diaries and will come out once every month to show you progress of the development. Initially everyone tried to share things but we all had our own work to focus on, however now with Margaret and Toast we now have people focused on sharing development with the community. Besides these, we’ll be doing livestreams once a month, these will happen on the last friday of each month at 11AM (Might change depending on community feedback). These will be uploaded on youtube the next day. And ofcourse monthly letters and fanart via fan-art-friday. More contests moving forward. GM events are fun and we’re looking forward to doing those with the community.

Regarding Events: We had originally decided to go to PAX East, however we decided it was best to focus on the game until Alpha 1. Going to these events is hard for us as it takes away from development as we have to take developers and then have a week to go there and a week of downtime. We will be attending events in the future that we’ll give you ample notice on when we are going to them. We are going to GDC, just a couple of us to meet handle business matters.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: With the delay for Alpha 1, what does this mean for the phases beyond Alpha 1?
A: It is very likely this will push us beyond 2020. We are no longer expecting to release the MMO before 2020. We will have an opportunity to catch up to speed later and we’ll take advantage of these. Moving forward when we are ready will give you a date. Alpha 1 will help you get a hands on and get a feel of where we’re from. We’ll be releasing a game that meets both our standards and the player’s standards. We’re working with bleeding edge tech and building a lot of features as we go. Each log in will be different, especially the node system. We as players have been there at the game’s launch and known instantly when a game felt rushed. We are not going to be one of those games. An MMO usually only gets launched once and this determines it’s life going forwards.

Q: Will you show us more in game stuff?
A: We want to share concept art, models and in some cases I might keep all of them to show it as a juicy leak. Even if steven leaks it, we will share it. Besides we cant stop Steven from leaking.

Q: What is the actual status on siege and the horde mode?
A: Obviously as we come across fundamental needs that require fixing, such as the architectural issue, it pushes back siege and horde, including Alpha 1. It doesnt mean other departments such as art/design etc stop, those keep moving. However sometimes engineering is working on something and it holds other things in the pipeline back.

Q: What’s the status on forums?
A: Already answered above. Working on it, will have FAQ and further questions will be added.

Q: Why did you not provide any concrete or specific dates on the letter?
A: Going forward we are going to give you dates once we have things ready and in QA, instead of when they will be ready. This way you can trust us to meet the dates. What the community wants is quality and we share this sentiment so that this will be the game we signed up for. And if this takes additional time, we will take that additional time. Our focus is not hitting a date, but to hit a quality of expectation.

Q: Will we continue to see a cosmetics on a monthly basis and if so, will they continue only being concept art?
A: Yes we will continue to do so because it was a promise since Kickstarter to release cosmetics up until launch. No power items or P2W mechanics, just skins and very little time to show you. However going forward we’ll introduce this pipeline to the character creation team and we’ll move into concept art and showing models in game.

 

QnA Session

Q: We know from previous info name reservation will happen in Alpha 1 and per server/per account. Does this mean we have to pick server as early as alpha 1 or can we pick it at release.
A: We will release the server names at launch and we will allow them to reserve names on specific servers. We will give you significant notice on these and a window to reserve them.

Q: Why is the currency called Embers?
A: It comes down to the core concept and idea of who the goddess of creation is and how embers and ashes correlate to the rebirth and death of the phoenix. Utilizing the soul of the phoenix that they represent. We wanted to make sure the whole thing is themed and feels right.

Q: Will epics be epic unlike other MMORPGs? And feel epic?
A: We havent named our tiers yet, just legendaries etc. In terms of powerscale, we want crafters to be responsible for their creation and how they create them. More in the hands of the players to make that feeling known. Having an economy where items are present and sellable with legitimate decay and not everything is soul-bound. We appreciate the mindset crafters bring to the game. We loved Archeage crafting in Alpha, but the amount of RNG and tier-dependencies did not help and supported their monetization model.

Q: Will we have roleplay tools for chat in game like /e or /dance?
A: Cant tell you exactly what we’ll be giving you, however our system is built around roleplaying systems. There will be plenty of ways to do in-character stuff and the chat system is the easy way, but we’ll give you more tools.

Q: How important will CC (Crowd Control) tanking etc. work? And diminishing returns?
A: CC is important. However in past games, balancing diminishing returns and ensuring it works across both PvE and PvP. It’s a very fine line. There will be CC and will be important but it wont be an “I win button” you wont see stun locks or control effects that last until you’re dead. They wont be a go to win button. There will be types of CC’s with their own diminishing returns.

Q: In siege mode, will there be captains?
A: There are group leaders and the group leaders can set waypoint commands and map locations. Additionally in the MMORPG you will have custom raid formations to utilize and each captain will have VOIP for their respective groups. However with apocalypse you’ll have inter-party VOIP and not with the raid itself.

Q: Will there be RNG during upgrading gear?
A: There will be some RNG, however we dont want enchantments and crafting system to rely on it. We want it to rely on gathering and we do want to rely on a bit of RNG to keep things interesting. In other games you see RNG to take money from players, however we are not building around that exploitative mechanic. We wont encumber the system with too much RNG.

Q: Are we going to see more heavy style/medieval style armor?
A: We had some in Alpha 0, which is post apocalypse timeline. The apocalypse armor is before the fall which is not heavy armor. There’s a wide variety of armor types due to the different cultures and races.

Q: Will gear matter in PvP?
A: Yes. Gear will matter. Gear is vertical progression. Depends on how much power. Is it more heavily inspired by skill or gear or rock/paper/scissors or is the monster you’re fighting got specific traits (Bonuses/weaknesses). Lots of components go into it and gear will be a large chunk of it, but not all of it. PvP balance is based around the group not individual players duking it out due to content focused around large groups.

Q: How do the guild halls work? Is it a separate freehold or another system completely?
A: There are 2 types, static systems that exist in a node and one that exists on the freehold. One of the ideas is that  a guild at a certain level will recieve a guild specific freehold plot and the guild leader has the ability to place it and have guild benefits and boons such as specific schematics for guild armors etc. If they dont have a freehold, and a static hall, then it’ll be available there. Freeholds can only be placed on nodes stage 3 or higher. The guild hall plot maybe can only be placed at stage 4 or 5, needs testing and is subject to change.

Q: How do you protect the city while the player is offline?
A: We have a system ready, when a node is sieged, there’s a period of declaration and takes prep days (Typically 1 day per node level). Additionally the time window where a siege may be declared depends on the server timezone. NA servers will have NA siege declare times.

Q: Long ago you talked about Apocalypse lobby being a house to invite over and customize?
A: We are going to re-assess that and look at it internally and we dont want to take away from MMORPG development as it is separate. And it’s not core to the game and more of cosmetic.

Q: Will the old referral system with the link still work?
A: The old system links will be forwarded to the new referral system’s code, in additional you will recieve a code to use and input into your accounts. Currently referrals only show if the user has migrated. However we will be syncing all data in the future so they wont need to migrate.

 

Steven: We appreciate you guys tuning in and our motivation is making you guys happy and meeting your standards. We watch discord/forums/reddit and read all the feedback good/bad/ugly. Margaret and Sarah turn it into reports that are easy to read which is great.  Moving forward – Things are going very very well. The data from apocalypse is invaluable. Getting that data now rather than later is a huge benefit for us. Stay tuned for node stuff this month. Next stream on March 29th. We love you guys, appreciate the feedback and love the support.

Google Doc Link

 

March 7th Discord QnA

– Steven’s extensive hour-long Discord QnA discussing the letter and addressing various community concerns.

Concerns over the BR, people claim Steven is out of touch with the community and want to know why the Battlegrounds for Phase 1 ended up changing into a Battle Royale.
The BR isnt about the BR, the purpose of the BR is to support development. It was not so much that the goal changed from Battlegrounds to Battle Royale, moreso that the Battlegrounds would have required additional designs that needed to be implemented such as class designs, objectives, additional mechanics, etc. However in order to create the BR, we only needed weapons skills animations, movement, populating the map, creating the map – All of this was easy to do and took less time. The battlegrounds for 3v3, 5v5, 15v15 does not allow for high population testing. Having multiple instances of such arenas does not test render replication from rendering one player in a single area to hundreds of players, having multiple instances of that spun up does not allow us to test this. Large population testing was only present in a game style which is currently the BR, unless we decided to build a whole new game mode for it.

Alpha 0 was a much bigger system, but was not using the new architecture. To update Alpha 0 with the new infrastructure would basically be creating Alpha 1. The timeline to get the Alpha 1 running was far more considerable than the time taken to set up the BR. It also gave us key stuff on account services, web traffic, etc. all systems that required us to be scalable for. The bottom line is – in open development, anytime something goes wrong results in negative publicity. The prize at the end of the day is still creating the MMORPG we are all working towards.

 

Q: What percentage of completion is the game at since you cannot give us timelines?
A: No percentage I’d be comfortable saying. Almost all of the key systems are in place, one of the key components is that backend architecture from apocalypse. The letter informing of the delay is not something I or the team wants to have to do as we cant do it until we have answers.

Q: Do you have a working hybrid combat system yet?
A: We have multiple working hybrid combat systems.

Q: What about constantly missing dates? Star citizen operates just fine and they never give any dates.
A: I agree, and that’s why we’ve also made the course adjustment to not give dates, it’ll be ready when it’s ready.

Q: You talk about how everything in development is going smooth, but we don’t see what you’re seeing. Do you plan to show us more mechanics?
A: 100% plans to show more mechanics in the future.Since September the studio has been crunching ridiculous hours,  when developers are in the thicket of it, we lose the perspective on the marketing aspect and the front facing image of development. Which is why we brought on Toast and Margaret to be a face to the public, they are getting up to speed, tasked with producing this front facing image of development to show you guys. They are doing very good so far and will start releasing content on a weekly basis this month. There are blogs scheduled for starting next week.

Q: There’s been a lot of concept art but not enough mechanics shown lately. It pushes the theme of monetization and gives the community a negative feeling.
A: That is a valid point, I would mirror this with the fact that I’ve had that discussion with the team. Since we promised monthly cosmetics in kickstarter, however the resources that go into this are mainly a concept artist who puts stuff into the pipeline and it’s fine as it does not impact development. Again, we’ve been crunching hard since September, had issues in December that prevented us with continuing with our normal timeline to display work to the public. Margaret and Toast help with showing the development we have prepared.

Q: Perception is reality, how does the BR support the main game. People have a negative opinion due to the Battle Royale. How many did you have in-game and per match?
A: We had 86,000 registered accounts actually play apocalypse and we managed to get 200 players in a single match during the test a few weeks ago.

Q: Which part of Apocalypse is not representative of the MMORPG?
A: The key component of the Battle Royale mode of Apocalypse not being representative of the MMORPG is – The Hybrid combat. The special combat systems did not have specific design data and we wanted that data which we obtained from Apocalypse testing. So what we have in Apocalypse is one side of  it that Hybrid system that helps build the system. The two combat styles (Action/Tab) have different tempo and I have yet to see an MMORPG blend them well. Games like Tera have soft target action combat, but I haven’t seen a direct correlation between the two. But that would be why this apocalypse gameplay isn’t representative of the MMORPG.

Q: It’s been so long since we’ve seen definite progress and the filter that view things through is skewered.
A: The plan is to execute the vision of MMORPG to release with expectation of what we’ve promised. We’re here to make sure we deliver on MMORPG, which is backed by my personal funding that makes up the largest portion of the game’s development. People might be upset, but once they experience the game, they will forget. And this will happen in a timely manner. Some people may disapprove with the direction now, but my prediction is that once the game releases to the standard and expectations of everyone, it will result in a good outcome at the end.

Q: It’s very hard for us backers to have the ‘Alls well that ends well’ mindset.
A: The reason I started Intrepid was because I wasn’t happy with how other studios considered options moving forward. We move forward with the best case and the recommendations of veterans in the industry who worked on some of our favourite MMORPGs. I expected some of this community response, but I strongly believe that people will forget development troubles but they won’t forget logging into the game. (Paraphrased)

Q: How does funding for game development normally work?
A: Most software development, banks will not leverage as they dont like that risk. Usually outside funds are raised through venture capitalists because they are risk oriented – however it isn’t something I have done.

Q: Can we see development progress in-game and not just art?
A: The content you’ll be seeing going forward is from the content roadmap, which will have information and news such as the backend tech for nodes, all through the UE4 editor where we create the game. The devs will be showing you how the tech works in the editor, this is all pre-recorded and is like an interview.

Q: Regarding the bear animation, the red tape around it, why did it take so long to release something so small?
A: It wasn’t so much showing it, but the manner it was being shown in. However I didn’t feel that it wasn’t major enough that deserved that attention, maybe I should have just hopped on discord and leaked it.

Q: Can we see things like the Bear animation, but more mechanic related?
A: Absolutely and this is what we’ll be doing moving forward and that’s what Margaret and Toast are here for.

Q: Can we not have moments of overhype about little things?
A: December, Jan and Feb are months where we had issues.

Q: Is there a better way for you to share content?
A: It’s being adjusted and will get better moving forward with content drops going forward. That’s what Margaret and Toast are here for.

Q: Mana forged armor sets, why should I care about getting them in the BR if I can get the same in the MMORPG?
A: The main answer is that the variety that will be present across them. The effort required to earn a cosmetic in the MMORPG might be greater than than the effort required to earn it in apocalypse or vice-versa. The means have to be considered.

Q: Do you still plan to keep the BR after release?
A: It depends on what the BR is providing. At the time right now, the BR continues to provide us data that is necessary.

Q: What % of the map will we have in the alpha and beta
A: For Alpha 1, 25% of the map. Moving forward it depends on the milestones we achieve. Our objective is 50% of the map in Alpha 2 and 100% by Beta. However this is a projection.

Q: Combat is extremely important for us and how it feels. It would be a great idea to put together the basics of the other classes and we’d like you to put out information on them as it would go a long way to satisfying the community.
A: It’s not a matter of finalizing the classes, but when we implement these classes into Alpha 1/Alpha 2, that’s when you’ll see theorycrafting around what people experience.

Q: At what point if negative feedback comes in on the hybrid combat will you take a step back from the drawing board? Since you are making a big leap of faith on this idea and trying out a new dynamic with risk.
A: Any time you innovate, you face risk. Everything we have today, was at some point innovative. So what we do is a ‘shotgun approach’ were we create multiple baselines and have the design team designers go back and lay out the foundation of what they expect the hybrid system to be, allow them to prototype and then you sort through them.

Q: That does not answer my question. IF those hybrid combat systems dont work, at what point do you drop it entirely?
A: Our contingency – If our hybrid system fails, is to switch to Tab-Target. However I do not believe it will fail.

Q: What made you decide tab-target over action IF it came down to hybrid combat failing?
A: It’s a traditional system that is well established. If we do switch back to tab, the other parts of the MMORPG are innovative enough to keep the players interested. However as to when we make that decision, is very hard to make. But definitely before launch.

Q: With all the cosmetics we’re seeing, we’re concerned the end-game armor will be dull.
A: The way I see it, things offered in the marketplace needs to be an alternative, not a higher rarity/quality.

Q: Concerned that outside of PI and the outspoken community members, other core players of the game may not get an input during development or voice their concerns.
A: We have extended Alpha 0 to the general community via random invites besides the PI and Alpha 1 testers, this ensured a healthy mix of MMO player demographic, ranging from players with lots of time to very little time. And the purpose of doing this is to have good sampling.

Q: Yes, but regarding similar feedback as A0 from A1, will you give out more keys?
A: The reason why I don’t want to hand out Alpha 1 keys, because those keys have some direct monetary value, unlike Alpha 0 which was invite only. I don’t want to undermine the value of alpha 1 by offering a lot of free keys. There’s also a lot of logistics that go into this as well, the engineers wanted to confine it to 10k players test.

Q: Why are you not lifting the visual NDA on alpha 0?
A: Because the moment it is released, it starts dating very quickly, because it will end up becoming the face of the project. We’re more content allowing a dry spell now until alpha 1 becomes available, to excite them with the world and the systems of alpha 1.

Q: What was the nail in the coffin for the Xsolla change?
A: It was a valid concern by the community and we looked into it and decided to make the change. The balance of stripe and paypal worked better for players in other regions.

Q: Studio represented events for the community?
A: We want to do more virtual events and events at trade events etc.

Q: Can we know about the name of the moon of Verra? Can we have a moon naming contest?
A: Who told you there’s only one moon? We have named the moon, it is lore related. I like that Idea, though.

Q: What about the #asheschallenge event etc?
A: (Community answered) That was an event run by Sarumonin that Steven wasn’t even aware of.

Q: Since we all don’t think you’ll be able to hit the previous timeframe/goal. There’s promises for the game such as the naval combat, various systems and so much more and it feels like there’s a lot of things that have to be filed out in a short time.
A: From a schedule standpoint, there’s 2 components. From a resource standpoint, we’re hiring more people as we mentioned in the letter. From a feature standpoint, most of those systems share or correlated in design, creating how those systems work fundamentally is shared. From that perspective, we’ll be able to achieve it by launch. However as I mentioned in the past, if there is a specific system holding up the release of the game, we will postpone the system as an update or expansion for the game to not affect release.

Q: Regarding Feature creep and the extensive features.
A: We won’t cut content. Again, I don’t foresee any issues with the feature list. If a particular system is holding up the game and as long as it isn’t a core structural system, we’ll release the game without it.

Q: How extensive do you expect your lore to be?
A: You will see aspects of the lore that are not just present in the game, from a film standpoint and there’s potential for the lore to have an expansion in that regard. It’s pretty deep.

Q: What’s your favourite AoC race?
A: Cant say that. However traditionally in past MMO’s I’ve played human.

Steven ends QnA due to having to get on a call. Thanks everyone for the QnA and says he does not shy away from such talks and appreciates them.

Google Doc Link

March 2nd Discord QnA

– Steven talks player feedback, Pet system, Summoner class, Open World structures and Castle Siege leaks.

Q: Will you be at PAX east this month?
A: I decided this week that it is best for the studio not to attend the PAX East event and instead stay focused on development.  Because we do not have a marketing team that manages the booth, it takes live developers out of the office for that week, and can include another week of downtime recovering.

Q: When someone is discussing something in discord about a decision you’ve made or your company. Do you feel like your more receptive to the positive feedback and that sticks with you , or the negative . Or both equally ?
A: To be honest, sometimes when I see a discussion on discord or reddit with certain assumptions, I hate having to bite my tongue. Lol. If I picked every uninformed opinion to jump on, I’d be fighting a losing battle. However, there are informed feedback and I enjoy relying on certain content creators to funnel the discussion in an organized manner.

Q: It must be a huge letter if it takes about a month to write.
A: The letter doesn’t take a month. It’s the answers that are dependent on development that take the time

Q: I’m still not sold on the “open world” PvP all the time with the corruption system.
A: Corruption will prevent most people from pking. But flagging may occur. Depending on the situation or rivalry. Meaningful PvP is the focus.

Q: Steven you still believe in game release before 2020?
A: Stay tuned for the letter on March 7th and tune into the live stream on the 8th.

Q: I actually just did get a question in my mind. Steven, will there be wonders of the world? Great, standing structures of either the past or the present that dominate the landscape they’re upon?
A: Yes. Mainly those are points of interests. The first ever area in the world map we built had a colossus like structure that had been destroyed. So the base of it was still intact and it was a giant foot. Wearing a sandal.

Q: How’s the A1 map looking? I don’t want to play other mmorpgs while I wait.
A: A1 map is the world map. And it feels very very large.

Q: Combat pets vs summoner pets, whats the difference?
A: Combat pets, cosmetics creatures and summoner pets are all three different things. Summoner pets level with your skill tree and only summoner primary classes can have these, whereas a combat pet needs to be nurtured and will take a part of the leveler’s experience to level up. Cosmetic creatures have no combat abilities and just walk around you or fly. I want to have a pet system that lets you leave cosmetic pets at your freehold and you can accumulate herds of them. And they will just wander in proximity to the freehold untargetable and invulnerable

Q: Does this mean everyone is gonna be forced to use combat pets for that slight damage boost?
A: Not necessarily, their damage is a percentage of the characters damage output and shouldn’t really  impact the overall damage output.  whereas summoner pets are a direct vertical increase in damage for the character output. But these things will be tested and played with in alpha/beta. There will be an option to remove pet targets from your tab rotation.

Q: Why be a summoner at all if you get a pet as anyone?
A: Because the combat pet system does not increase your damage output, whereas a summoner’s pets do. It has more horizontal skills that make your character more versatile. 

Q: Regarding the negativity around the game currently.
A: I wouldnt worry too much, when people begin to see our Alphas and Betas, discussion will be about gameplay/mechanics/art and it will calm down.  It is part of the development process, this is why triple A studios tend to stay quiet till they are in Beta. But I’d rather deal with the toxic times and get more involvement and discussion to gleam info from

Google Doc Link

February 17th Discord QnA

– Steven offers clarification and in-depth explanation on the Apocalypse Testing, potential delays, new hires and ships.

Q: Why does the game feel unfinished?
A: This is testing. Not a launch. Need to test these network changes in preparation for launch. Part of our development is having an open window to the process. Ugly, beautiful, good or bad. Last Thursday was a preliminary test of some of that new architecture. Needs polishing. But 200 players and much more should be possible. I can say, without a doubt. There is no more dedicated team of developers than who I see at Intrepid everyday.

Q: Has Apocalypse actually helped with testing of the MMORPG?
A: Apoc revealed architectural issues that would have been revealed later (which was partly its purpose) and while development is split into separate departments (engineering, design, art etc) some of these issues needed rebuilding from the ground up. I will go into more detail and our plans in the directors letter. Which I plan to have done within the next couple weeks. But am waiting on a few definitive answers first.

Q: Is Apocalypse considered a failure?
A: APOC’s qualification for success is to simply provide a tool by which we could identify necessary adjustments or changes in preparation for Alpha of the MMORPG. Anything beyond was extra.

Q: What about the reason for monetizing Apocalypse?
A: Monetization was intended to support high player counts. Since Apoc is free to play.

Q: But Apocalypse got spun off as its own product, right?
A: In an attempt to limit confusion about it as a testing ground yes.

Q: Still will never understand why utilizing the MMO world and creating battle arenas couldn’t of had the same effect though.
A: The desired timeframe of the testing was before the mmo alpha timeline.

Q: If I’m misremembering/misstating, couldn’t the Alpha 0 world have been utilized?
A: Not in the way we needed to test the new backend infrastructure.

Q: Forgive me for asking for details, and if you can’t give details that’s fine I suppose, but what sort of backend had to be tested, if you can put it in simple terms? I’d assume server stability, able to handle animations/multiple players fighting at once, seeing how it operates when put under stress, but what else was there to it?
A: Soooo, to recap the reasoning we developed APOC (or originally what we intended Alpha One Phase 1 to be) was to address concerns about combat, and specifically how we would integrate action combat into a hybrid combat system for Ashes.  When we planned how to best accommodate this intent, we desired massive design data from skill usages, reticle accuracies, camera pov, high frequency player populations, etc (long list) and we wanted to do all of this in a design that could be quickly made and adjusted sizewise (hence battle royale= little to no designs and a proven enjoyable game mode format).  This was also the perfect opportunity to begin to lay the foundation for the new account services and matchmaking backend for the in-game arena systems.  In addition, we wanted to use our proprietary AND patented distributed server backend that is intended to accommodate the massive amount of players we will see in the MMO, at battles like node and castle sieges, and we wanted to do this testing of THESE specific systems with enough time to implement the changes we discovered from the testing results, hence why we crunched to get APOC in the hands of testers.

Now, what happens in active development is the need to be agile and reactionary, and sometimes that is lost on many people who are watching our development, which is ok.  When the MMORPG begins it’s alphas and betas, people will tend to judge based on the merit of the content they are watching at that moment, and not content that is dated previously in the development cycle.  Additionally, during the testing of Alpha One Phase 1, it became quite confusing for those not following the project, that what they were seeing in this arena style battle royale was an atmosphere designed to test the aforementioned systems and services, in an attempt to alleviate that confusion we decided to brand it away from the mmorpg aspect, since it wasn’t clear enough for those less informed about the project and the reasoning for this testing phase and how it related to the mmo development, which of course had a secondary effect that caused confusion about the direction of the project being focused on creating a BR lol… Soooooo long story short, we are literally developing one of the largest mmos and with some of the most talented people in the mmo business, and development sometimes can require revision and fixing, I will more eloquently state these insights in the director’s letter.

 

Q: Looking forward to that letter, be sure it sticks with the honest train there Maggie. Even if some of the paths have ulterior motives as to why they’re taken by Intrepid Studios, give the honest answer, we’ll appreciate you all far more for it.
A: Don’t misunderstand the statement about BR being an easy to make, fun format. It wasn’t chosen as a monetization model, but rather the easiest mode that’s fun for testers and achieves what we wanted to achieve for development of the MMORPG in the timeline we wanted to achieve it in.  There was no ulterior motive, that’s the type of  commentary that is sad to see from us developers who are working night and day for one motive, the greatest mmorpg possible. It only had to do with 3 things; Testing the systems we wanted to test, spending as little time as possible creating something to achieve the previous point, and getting it done in a timeline that allowed us to fix/change what needed to be changed before alpha/beta of the mmorpg

Q: I see a lot of similarity between ashes and log horizon. Thats also how I hope legendary work. Steven will we be able to harness corruption to warp profession items into demonic and decayed things?
A: At the moment that is not in the cards.

Q: Can you use boats in rivers? or is ships stuff only in the ocean?
A: It will depend on the depth of the water.

Q: Steven, you’re also evading the 100x100km question (For Alpha 1). Does that include water content or just land?
A: The 480sqkm includes water and land content.

Q: Steven will fighters be able to play a life leech build?
A: The Highsword may have some of those features

Q: Steven do you think that in a future expansion possibly increase the map size like most mmo’s do, and with that add one or more castles, and metro spots?
A: That is a discussion for our expansion parameters.

Q: Steven do you think this game can go from A1 to Launch in 6 months?
A: Depends on revision and fixes necessary, but yes based on what I am told it is possible.

Q: How long before we can have a crafting systems blog post Steven?
A: Depends where it is on the community content roadmap. I think once the content release schedule gets finalized, the regularity of blogs/videos/and leeks will be robust.  also the 25th of this month we have 3 more  very talented people starting at Intrepid.

Q: 800 blizzard employees now jobless might find a few good ones.
A: Since December, we have brought aboard 12 new people, I will be spotlighting them as part of our next newsletter and we are still hiring more! so spread the news.

Q: Steven, will Ashes of Creation ships have Radar? If radar is being considered – is it being considered for all ship classes or a select few?
A: That’s been a design topic of some debate. One of the prevailing thoughts, is having more of a spyglass approach that gives a direction and skims the horizon. Additionally, radar becomes less necessary when ships must be launched from land imo.

Google Doc Link

February 14th Discord QnA

– Steven shares more on Flying Mounts, The producer’s letter and Steam.

Q: How’s the producers letter coming Steven, will we see it this week?
A: Not this week. Most likely this month, but as I stated, I am waiting on some answers before I can complete the letter

Q: Just to round off the topic from earlier, will the resources in the castles possession get captured or deleted upon successful siege?
A: A Castle retains its resources as they are separate from the guild that currently owns it.

Q: Regarding the secret runic present in the weapons of Apocalypse
A: Keep it secret, Keep it safe

Q: Regarding the new crystal tentacle mount and it walking/gliding.
A: Its movement will feel more like a glide/hover above the ground.

Q: Gliding mounts are pretty cool. Glad we won’t have too many actual flying mounts.
A: Each server will likely have a dozen or so flying battlemounts at any given time.

Q: Speaking of flying mounts, the timed drops of flying mounts. How “timed” are we talking?
A: Depends, lifetime will be a variable that can be affected by animal husbandry skills, but at most no longer than a month roughly for the dropped flying mounts.

Q: Will racial  skins still be part of the game at launch?
A: They will be, yes.

Q: Steven they are referring to the Dragon true flight world boss drop timed mounts, those will last upto a month? Considering Castle owners will keep theirs for a month-ish at the minimum as well (unless they lose the castle) its about the same lifespan?
A: It will vary, but yes.

Q: Yesterday while going over all the legalese stuff, I found that Valve Steam is listed in your list of 3rd party providers that you may or may not share data with.  Is this because you are using Steamworks in the APOC mode?  I assume that is the answer and that you still have no intention of putting Ashes of Creation on Steam?
A: There was some consideration for APOC on steam, but correct that Ashes the MMORPG will not be on steam.

Google Doc Link

February 7th Discord QnA

– Steven discusses Castle Regions, Economic Regions, Node/Metropolis ZOI and Taxes.

Q: Do Castles influence the region around them?  Or just the 3 nodes attached to the castle?
A: The region around them, which is 1/5th of the map.

Q: Which parts of the node system are they (Castles) excluded from?
A: Many systems such as – citizenship, zones of influence, freehold system, govt, societies, etc. No Freeholds are permitted on the 3 nodes tied to the castle. There are quests that are available in the castle nodes.

Q: What about Caravans?
A: They can receive and launch caravans.

Q: How does Node taxing work for Castles?
A: Node taxes apply to the node itself and their freeholds. Castles impose a tax on all revenue for the nodes within its region. A castle will collect taxes on all nodes within its region, a castles region is 1/5th the game world.

Q: What about a Metropolis?
A: A metro’s zone of influence is also 1/5th the game world. Theoretically a castle can have a metropolis besides it.

Q: It used to be said that castles have 3 nodes next to it, so we always assumed that’s as big as its influence goes?
A: The 3 castle nodes are primarily meant for establishing the castles abilities particularly during sieges.

Q: Outside of taxes, is there more power a Castle has over its region?
A: Yes, crop yields, resources and events.

Q: How can castles have 1/5 of the game world and metros be 1/5th of the game world? in theory a castle could have multiple metros under its zoi?
A: A castles control is exerted through the term “region” and a node’s control is through its ZOI (Zone of Influence) They overlap. The castles region boundaries are static.

Q: Can you please explain the differences between castles, regions, ZOI etc?
A: Castles and Economic regions are static and more closely defined by geographic points of interest. Castle regions are larger and encompass multiple economic regions. Where as, a nodes ZOI is fluid and changes it’s area based on the progression of the node itself and the progression of its neighboring nodes.

Q: Can a castle’s static region, a node’s ZOI and an Economic region overlap?
A: Yes, all 3 can overlap.

Q: So… a Castle and economic region are the same place for everyone, and every server. You don’t choose them, you just occupy them?
A: Castles and economic regions are static yes. That is necessary for many of the systems. But the nodes are the glue that hold those castle and economic regions together in potential synergy or chaos.

Q: What can a guild do with the resources and taxes it earns through owning a castle? Can it, like nodes, just be used on improving the area? If so, what happens on a successful siege with the resources left in the castle?
A: That’s a large answer with many systems. The short answer is both.

Google Doc Link