The "Ask the Devs a question" thread! (Not suggestions)

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc

A system to prevent race/faction hopping?

and please, no fast travel. it kills the world and the battles.

we are currently thinking about how we can prevent race/faction hopping, especially so that there won't be too much spying. but on the other hand there is always the possibility of someone having two or more accounts, so we will try to find a good way to make it still possible in some sort, if players reconsider what faction/race they want to play.

fast travel will be needed in some sort. but don't expect a teleport npc or something like that - we will try to make it according to lore. the world we are building is just too big to just walk from one end to the other when you need to concentrate your troops in specific areas for war

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by freakishbean

How will ammunition be handled? Front-line resupply, airdrops, player delivery?

In the army, we carried 7 magazines on us at all times, each magazine holding 30 rounds. So we're lookin' at 210 rounds of ammo before needing resupply, and we only ever fired single shots (never, ever EVER did we burst fire... yeah, m16a2 guy here). How will ammunition per-player be handled?

we will have limited ammo - on how to resupply we have not decided yet. i guess you can look fellows who have fallen, and i can imagine some drop pods or something, but again - not decided yet. also don't forget, you can have a melee weapon too as a space marine. so you will be able to fight when you are out of ammo

Valrak40k

I don't think this has been asked yet:

 

What is the games budget? I think DMO (Dark Millennium Online) was around $50 Million USD.

 

Thanks,

Chapter Master Valrak

www.battle-brothers.net

 

freakishbean

wow this is probably one of the hardest questions to answer. 

in general the statement from Savij is correct - Fun should be in the foreground, though lore is important too. I wouldn't go as far and say that we will ignore lore just to make something fun, but think about this:

we are trying to make a pvp game - that means players die a lot - now Space Marines don't die that much, especially since there is only a limited amount of SM in a Chapter. Now what I can see is some sort of story about that, that you don't really die or something, just wounded etc. I mean we cannot make perma-death for the players that would take out the fun of the game. On the other hand we don't want to just say 'there, he respawned and can run back to battle' - so in general we will try to find game mechanics that will fit the lore, but sometimes lore that can be applied to TT or books etc simply don't work in a game like this.

hope that paints a picture for your question

I just wanted to say that, while sticking to lore is good from a story stand point, at the end of the day and all is said and done, we're playing a game. In certain books, like Helsreach and Legion of the Damned, no less then 50 marines and a city of civilians held off millions, MILLIONS of chaos monsters, Traitor Astartes, and Ork boys. Gameplay wise, if this was a single/co-op game, it would work - you are an all powerful Space Marine. In a PVP game, it would be devastating. Hell, even on the table top, I bring my Marines to bear and they get obliterated by a better player, a bad dice roll, whichever. Lorewise, Space Marines are demigods. Table top wise, their strength is 1 point higher then a guardsmen.

I'm not suggesting permadeath - hell no. But player death should be part of it. Respawn back on your ship, a captured fortess, at a warcamp, at a medical facility, what-have-you. If my character gets his head taken off, then hey - my guy got decapitated and I have to make my way back to the front line, or sit out a battle, or what-have-you. Space Marines and Eldar die all the time. It's part of war. Soldiers die.

mintyc

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc

A system to prevent race/faction hopping?

and please, no fast travel. it kills the world and the battles.

we are currently thinking about how we can prevent race/faction hopping, especially so that there won't be too much spying. but on the other hand there is always the possibility of someone having two or more accounts, so we will try to find a good way to make it still possible in some sort, if players reconsider what faction/race they want to play.

fast travel will be needed in some sort. but don't expect a teleport npc or something like that - we will try to make it according to lore. the world we are building is just too big to just walk from one end to the other when you need to concentrate your troops in specific areas for war

may i suggest bikes. its not a teleport, every race has one or something very similar and if you let us cusomise our bikes you will have another thing you can sell us cosmetic bits for.

 

balsicly pimp my self driven travel system.

freakishbean

Originally posted by Gorwe
Here's an interesting question for you Patrick:

How do you explain massive respawns of Space Marines(them in particular)? I ask this because even the largest chapters(Ultramarines/Black Templars) don't exceed 2.5k Marines at most. And if we are going to be dying all over the place(no doubt about that :P), how are SMs supposed to handle such losses?

That's why I suggest implementing the wounds system and, if I were a dev, perma death if you accumulate enough untreated wounds. But wounds system without any explicit executions(decapitations et al) would just suffice.

Thank you!

Ultras have 10 companies, 100 marines per company, so 1000 marines standard. Black Templars are rumored to have over 1000  COMPANIES. Thats over 10,000 marines. Second highest chapter I think is space wolves, with 12  great companies (each having over 100 marines), and 1 company in the warp (who are the legendary 13th company)

mintyc

Originally posted by Gorwe
Here's an interesting question for you Patrick:

How do you explain massive respawns of Space Marines(them in particular)? I ask this because even the largest chapters(Ultramarines/Black Templars) don't exceed 2.5k Marines at most. And if we are going to be dying all over the place(no doubt about that :P), how are SMs supposed to handle such losses?

That's why I suggest implementing the wounds system and, if I were a dev, perma death if you accumulate enough untreated wounds. But wounds system without any explicit executions(decapitations et al) would just suffice.

Thank you!

any form of perma death in a pvp focused shooter is just a bad idea and limiting how a player plays your game (i assume thats what you mean by a wounds system) is just going to end up with a frustrated playerbase.

 

i do hope the devs dont try to hard to explain respawning with sum sort of story based mental gymnastics, it always annoys me when devs tie themselves into knots to try and explain away game systems that just need to be there to make the game fun. i will be perfectly happy respawning at dropods, rhinos, deployment centers, med bays or with the help of some form of medic on the field.

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by Valrak40k

I don't think this has been asked yet:

 

What is the games budget? I think DMO (Dark Millennium Online) was around $50 Million USD.

 

Thanks,

Chapter Master Valrak

www.battle-brothers.net

 

sorry, but i think that is something we will not reveal at this point.

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by mintyc

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc

A system to prevent race/faction hopping?

and please, no fast travel. it kills the world and the battles.

we are currently thinking about how we can prevent race/faction hopping, especially so that there won't be too much spying. but on the other hand there is always the possibility of someone having two or more accounts, so we will try to find a good way to make it still possible in some sort, if players reconsider what faction/race they want to play.

fast travel will be needed in some sort. but don't expect a teleport npc or something like that - we will try to make it according to lore. the world we are building is just too big to just walk from one end to the other when you need to concentrate your troops in specific areas for war

may i suggest bikes. its not a teleport, every race has one or something very similar and if you let us cusomise our bikes you will have another thing you can sell us cosmetic bits for.

 

balsicly pimp my self driven travel system.

hehe, yes some sort of bikes and vehicles are very likely - but i was talking more about something more on top of that - we'll see, the decisions are not made yet and it's probably more a question for the designers anyway

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by Gorwe
Here's an interesting question for you Patrick:

How do you explain massive respawns of Space Marines(them in particular)? I ask this because even the largest chapters(Ultramarines/Black Templars) don't exceed 2.5k Marines at most. And if we are going to be dying all over the place(no doubt about that :P), how are SMs supposed to handle such losses?

That's why I suggest implementing the wounds system and, if I were a dev, perma death if you accumulate enough untreated wounds. But wounds system without any explicit executions(decapitations et al) would just suffice.

Thank you!

hihi, well it's not gonna be me who will explain it - but as said, i myself can think of some sort of 'wounded' state instead of death. I will let Brent and David explain the system But I agree, your wounds system makes sense

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by mintyc

Originally posted by Gorwe
Here's an interesting question for you Patrick:

How do you explain massive respawns of Space Marines(them in particular)? I ask this because even the largest chapters(Ultramarines/Black Templars) don't exceed 2.5k Marines at most. And if we are going to be dying all over the place(no doubt about that :P), how are SMs supposed to handle such losses?

That's why I suggest implementing the wounds system and, if I were a dev, perma death if you accumulate enough untreated wounds. But wounds system without any explicit executions(decapitations et al) would just suffice.

Thank you!

any form of perma death in a pvp focused shooter is just a bad idea and limiting how a player plays your game (i assume thats what you mean by a wounds system) is just going to end up with a frustrated playerbase.

 

i do hope the devs dont try to hard to explain respawning with sum sort of story based mental gymnastics, it always annoys me when devs tie themselves into knots to try and explain away game systems that just need to be there to make the game fun. i will be perfectly happy respawning at dropods, rhinos, deployment centers, med bays or with the help of some form of medic on the field.

well yes you are right - still, we all love WH40k, so we will try to make some sort of sense of what happens there It's less about making a system which is fun, more about finding a way to explain it nicely so that it does not break the lore too much.

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by quotheraving

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

ok, so just for your info - techmarines have a place in Eternal Crusade, but I highly doubt it they will make it to launch. Mostly because they are a much bigger challenge from design and animations

Thanks Pat.

That makes sense.

Concentrating on the core of the Marine forces (Tactical/Devastator/Assault e.t.c.) for launch and leaving the less common unit types till later is a good idea... Particularly as that means you can tighten up the basic mechanics and inter unit tactics and balances before adding new stuff to the mix.

 

On the subject of inter-unit tactics, are there any plans to make numerous strong cross class or cross skill synergies to encourage coordinated team play, and can you sketch out or give a general indication of how the tactical play is currently intended to feel?

So for instance (and only to illustrate what I mean by synergies rather than as a concrete example), Tactical marines may have weapons or abilities that lower an enemies damage against assault marine armor. 

 

 

Also any hints you can give us Eldar fanatics about possible Eldar units that may be under consideration at the moment will be most welcome.

Failing that can you give us some word on the way the Eldar are planned to operate tactically on the battlefield, what kind of operations they will excel at e.t.c. so we can speculate ourselves about what the units may be based on what they would be expected to achieve. 

 

Q

omg i love your questions but sadly I cannot reveal more stuff there unless it's officially announced. 

for tactics I can think of something along the line of the standard class system, but without restrictions to that. Imagine having some sort of limit how much you can wear - so e.g. you can wear the best sniper rifle which does one-shot-kills, but you won't be able to wear the strongest armor with that "glass-canon" - or you wear a very heavy armor, but to be able to move fast you won't be able to carry a big plasma gun - instead you will get a huge hammer and focus on melee combat...

don't think of our systems to be restricted in 'you are a healer, so you will do 80% healing and 20% fighting', think of it more like 'you fight, but sometimes you can help a squad member'

grigdusher

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by mintyc

Originally posted by Gorwe
Here's an interesting question for you Patrick:

How do you explain massive respawns of Space Marines(them in particular)? I ask this because even the largest chapters(Ultramarines/Black Templars) don't exceed 2.5k Marines at most. And if we are going to be dying all over the place(no doubt about that :P), how are SMs supposed to handle such losses?

That's why I suggest implementing the wounds system and, if I were a dev, perma death if you accumulate enough untreated wounds. But wounds system without any explicit executions(decapitations et al) would just suffice.

Thank you!

any form of perma death in a pvp focused shooter is just a bad idea and limiting how a player plays your game (i assume thats what you mean by a wounds system) is just going to end up with a frustrated playerbase.

 

i do hope the devs dont try to hard to explain respawning with sum sort of story based mental gymnastics, it always annoys me when devs tie themselves into knots to try and explain away game systems that just need to be there to make the game fun. i will be perfectly happy respawning at dropods, rhinos, deployment centers, med bays or with the help of some form of medic on the field.

well yes you are right - still, we all love WH40k, so we will try to make some sort of sense of what happens there It's less about making a system which is fun, more about finding a way to explain it nicely so that it does not break the lore too much.

and about role switch?

the game is like planeside 2: player can change and respawn as another class whitouth need of log out and change character.  But for example, a space marine can't be both librarian tactical and apothecary.  if i call my ultramarine "Titus" yes it can be first a terminator and after a devastator but not a librarian. i need another space marine(charancter slot?) with a different name for not be "lore breaking"

how will managed this problem? 

Valrak40k

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by Valrak40k

I don't think this has been asked yet:

 

What is the games budget? I think DMO (Dark Millennium Online) was around $50 Million USD.

 

Thanks,

Chapter Master Valrak

www.battle-brothers.net

 

sorry, but i think that is something we will not reveal at this point.

 

No problem mate, are the official forums soon to be unleashed upon us? Really want a dedicated EC area, at the moment it's spread across 3-5 forums

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by grigdusher

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by mintyc

Originally posted by Gorwe
Here's an interesting question for you Patrick:

How do you explain massive respawns of Space Marines(them in particular)? I ask this because even the largest chapters(Ultramarines/Black Templars) don't exceed 2.5k Marines at most. And if we are going to be dying all over the place(no doubt about that :P), how are SMs supposed to handle such losses?

That's why I suggest implementing the wounds system and, if I were a dev, perma death if you accumulate enough untreated wounds. But wounds system without any explicit executions(decapitations et al) would just suffice.

Thank you!

any form of perma death in a pvp focused shooter is just a bad idea and limiting how a player plays your game (i assume thats what you mean by a wounds system) is just going to end up with a frustrated playerbase.

 

i do hope the devs dont try to hard to explain respawning with sum sort of story based mental gymnastics, it always annoys me when devs tie themselves into knots to try and explain away game systems that just need to be there to make the game fun. i will be perfectly happy respawning at dropods, rhinos, deployment centers, med bays or with the help of some form of medic on the field.

well yes you are right - still, we all love WH40k, so we will try to make some sort of sense of what happens there It's less about making a system which is fun, more about finding a way to explain it nicely so that it does not break the lore too much.

and about role switch?

the game is like planeside 2: player can change and respawn as another class whitouth need of log out and change character.  But for example, a space marine can't be both librarian tactical and apothecary.  if i call my ultramarine "Titus" yes it can be first a terminator and after a devastator but not a librarian. i need another space marine(charancter slot?) with a different name for not be "lore breaking"

how will managed this problem? 

haha no - i didn't think of changing the 'role'/'class' in the way rpgs do, but you could equip a different weapon.

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by Valrak40k

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by Valrak40k

I don't think this has been asked yet:

 

What is the games budget? I think DMO (Dark Millennium Online) was around $50 Million USD.

 

Thanks,

Chapter Master Valrak

www.battle-brothers.net

 

sorry, but i think that is something we will not reveal at this point.

 

No problem mate, are the official forums soon to be unleashed upon us? Really want a dedicated EC area, at the moment it's spread across 3-5 forums

we are working on it, and since Andrea wants to really go on vacation, he will make sure its up soon! (for those who didn't see the twich.tv AMA, Andrea stated that he won't go on vacation until the forums are up!)

Valrak40k

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by Valrak40k

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by Valrak40k

I don't think this has been asked yet:

 

What is the games budget? I think DMO (Dark Millennium Online) was around $50 Million USD.

 

Thanks,

Chapter Master Valrak

www.battle-brothers.net

 

sorry, but i think that is something we will not reveal at this point.

 

No problem mate, are the official forums soon to be unleashed upon us? Really want a dedicated EC area, at the moment it's spread across 3-5 forums

we are working on it, and since Andrea wants to really go on vacation, he will make sure its up soon! (for those who didn't see the twich.tv AMA, Andrea stated that he won't go on vacation until the forums are up!)

Great news! Make sure you lock him in a dark room and set the Deamons of Chaos on him if he tries to leave

mintyc

Originally posted by quotheraving

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Imagine having some sort of limit how much you can wear - so e.g. you can wear the best sniper rifle which does one-shot-kills, but you won't be able to wear the strongest armor with that "glass-canon" - or you wear a very heavy armor, but to be able to move fast you won't be able to carry a big plasma gun - instead you will get a huge hammer and focus on melee combat...

don't think of our systems to be restricted in 'you are a healer, so you will do 80% healing and 20% fighting', think of it more like 'you fight, but sometimes you can help a squad member'

So the player can tailor their character in one of a number of different ways based on their loadout - cool.

Which begs the question of whether these loadouts are unlockable or fully available from the get go?

 

 

 

Anyway thanks for the info, I look forward to the time when you can give us more details on this.

i am going to take a wild stab in the dark and say its going to be something along the lines of...

 

we all start as a basic class (eg Tactical marine) or basic setup and then as we level we ether unlock other options and gear as we go (eg level reqierment) or with some sort of points system.

Nonderyon

Thank you for the answeres Patrick!

Yes, all of my question got answered.

Question: what can you tell about the planet where the war happening (have moons? barren planet? or earth like?)

Valrak40k

Originally posted by Nonderyon

Thank you for the answeres Patrick!

Yes, all of my question got answered.

Question: what can you tell about the planet where the war happening (have moons? barren planet? or earth like?)

Adding to that question: Will there be some kind of Space Hulk to battle on?

mintyc

Originally posted by Valrak40k

Originally posted by Nonderyon

Thank you for the answeres Patrick!

Yes, all of my question got answered.

Question: what can you tell about the planet where the war happening (have moons? barren planet? or earth like?)

Adding to that question: Will there be some kind of Space Hulk to battle on?

now that is a realy good idea.

 

anyone ever played planetside 1 caves? hint hint...

freakishbean

Can I be a VA for you guys? Please? 

I'll do it for free even.

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by Valrak40k

Originally posted by Nonderyon

Thank you for the answeres Patrick!

Yes, all of my question got answered.

Question: what can you tell about the planet where the war happening (have moons? barren planet? or earth like?)

Adding to that question: Will there be some kind of Space Hulk to battle on?

we cannot reveal anything yet about the planet and the setting itself. it will be in wh40k lore and stuff i've seen so far looks really awesome!

space hulk - well i doubt it, since all our combat gameplay for now will be on the planet - that said, ofc there is possibilities for after launch

patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by freakishbean

Can I be a VA for you guys? Please? 

I'll do it for free even.

Veterinary Assistant? not sure we need one

pls specify what you are talking about 

Razephon

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by freakishbean

Can I be a VA for you guys? Please? 

I'll do it for free even.

Veterinary Assistant? not sure we need one

pls specify what you are talking about 

I think he meant Voice Actor

On that note please hire Steve Blum!