New QotW -- August 14, 2008

Burntvet

Here it is...

 

This week we’re continuing our work on towns, focusing on towns in Kaibab Forest. We’re also doing some tinkering with the tutorial, adding new bolt-ons, and all the standard things we do these days.

Lee Hammock writes:

Some folks were curious about the missing four years after the tutorial, to which I say “Find out in game.” You do play your normal character in the tutorial, and where your character comes from is left suitably mysterious so that you can fill in many of your own blanks. We thought that putting players in the middle of an important historical event would give them a better perspective over the rest of the game.



At the end of the tutorial you can select which starter town you can go to, each of which focuses on a certain type of play. The types of play, with some descriptions as to what happens in those towns, are below:



Combat – These towns focus on teaching the player how to fight, as well as equipping them, both in terms of knowledges and items, to do so. Missions focus on killing things, mission rewards are weapons, lots of interesting bad guys to kill. An example of a combat town is the CHOTA village of Boneclaw.



Support – These towns focus in teaching the player how to act in a support role to other players, such as using Group Tactics and First Aid. Missions focus on healing or buffing, mission rewards are knowledges, and there are usually some very complex mission structures. An example of a support town is the Lightbearer settlement of North Burb.



Crafting – These towns focus on teaching players how to craft items using the tradeskill system. Missions focus on collecting resources, making goods, and getting more knowledges. An example of a crafting town is the Vista settlement of South Burb.



PvP – These towns are a more recent addition to the Plateau and have PvP zones around them, so players can attack each other while trying to accomplish special goals in the PvP zones. The missions focus on creating situations where players will want to fight each other. An example of a PvP town is the space-debris-strewn Mumford.



Each town has activities aside from its focus, so you do learn some crafting and support skills in a combat town, but we found that when we tried to make all towns all things to all people they were unfocused and not that fun.



1.Will there be any towns a bit more western-inspired? Some old mining town with subtle hints against some old western movie or such?



There are actually several towns with a Western flair; it’s a definite influence on the game.



2.Will we be able to join NPC Raider gangs?



No. You can do some shady missions on occasion, but you can’t full-on join a raider gang. Every time we add some sort of factional choice, we have to create content that a large part of the player base will never see. To an extent this is good, since it provides replayability and variety, but too much of it becomes a waste, since any one choice is forced to have too little content to be fun. Already having six factions and neutrals to worry about, providing a full and engaging raider experience was not something we felt would be an efficient use of resources, considering how many people would see it and considering how much we would have to cut from the factions to find the time to make the raider content.



3.What type of security will Clan Banks Have?



Clan banks will have access permissions that may be set by level, so you can limit who can access the bank.



4.Obviously we can run about swinging weapons and gun things down, but can we:



Walk: Yes.

Jump: Yes.

Kneel and fire: Yes.

Crouch and move: Yes

Prone and fire: Yes

Crawl: Yes



5.Now onto ‘Emotes’. Perhaps you could list all the Emotes you plan for launch?

That list isn’t finalized yet.



6.Are there solar-powered cars and motorcycles?

No, but there are battery, biodiesel, and hybrid cars and motorcycles.



7.Did carriages and chariots ever get put in?

No. Horses, but no carriages or chariots to attach them to.



8.Will there be anything like a pickup truck in the game?

The Tornado is somewhat truck-like. As we go on we’ll be adding more vehicles.



9.Has anything changed in the last year regarding player structures? And can you give us any more details about player structures now?



Not really; it’s still a post-release feature.