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

freakishbean · July 2013

Title says it all. Got a question about the technicals? Want clarifaction? Just wanna chew-the-fat? Get your answers. That is, if the devs want to play along

My current question: You guys spoke of visceral and violent combat, and execution style animations. Since a lot of the devs are coming from Age of Conan, which was wonderfully violent, I ask you - Can we expect dismemberment/ gibbing of players? The idea of launching a frag missile into a cluster of xenos scum and seeing body parts fly fills me with joy.

Again, not a suggestion thread. We got that already.

thegreatestagain · July 2013

AoC dev team ? ut oh

i grew up reading conan and AoC was fun if u were looking for that type of game but didnt do the base material anywhere near justice imo

Savij · July 2013

if you like you can post your question here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/1hov7m/hi_we_are_the_dev_team_for_the_upcoming_mmorpg/

they are still answering some upcoming questions

patrickbalthazar · July 2013

Originally posted by freakishbean

Title says it all. Got a question about the technicals? Want clarifaction? Just wanna chew-the-fat? Get your answers. That is, if the devs want to play along

My current question: You guys spoke of visceral and violent combat, and execution style animations. Since a lot of the devs are coming from Age of Conan, which was wonderfully violent, I ask you - Can we expect dismemberment/ gibbing of players? The idea of launching a frag missile into a cluster of xenos scum and seeing body parts fly fills me with joy.

Again, not a suggestion thread. We got that already.

hehe, simply yes - thats what we are aiming for.

Originally posted by quotheraving

About finishers.

Is the intention to make finishers longer than 2 seconds?

Is there any concern or caution about the effective 'self crowd control' that this could result in?

Is it planned for characters to become immune to damage during a finisher animation, or will they take damage as normal?

Thank you

first, the finishers are not complete yet - so length and stuff like that is not set in stone and ofc there is concern, especially if you compare it to how this was done in AoC where you became immune to any damage during those executions. If you look how Space Marine is doing it, it's probably more like we think it will be. Don't get me wrong, both options have their benefits, and those are just edge cases, but only extensive and massive testing will give us the perfect mechanic for this, and that will involve the community and their feedback!

Originally posted by thegreatestagain

AoC dev team ? ut oh

i grew up reading conan and AoC was fun if u were looking for that type of game but didnt do the base material anywhere near justice imo

well I was in the Dev team and I played AoC myself for 2 yrs. I enjoyed the PvP there a lot, especially the combat and the finishers. It's not for everyone and I agree - It could have been more bloody

Originally posted by Savij

if you like you can post your question here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/1hov7m/hi_we_are_the_dev_team_for_the_upcoming_mmorpg/

they are still answering some upcoming questions

We are also reading this forum and will try to answer as much we can!

Savij · July 2013

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by Savij

if you like you can post your question here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/1hov7m/hi_we_are_the_dev_team_for_the_upcoming_mmorpg/

they are still answering some upcoming questions

We are also reading this forum and will try to answer as much we can!

haha i know you are reading this foum too but i thought the chance to get an answer there is a bit higher ^^

thanks for answering questions!

mintyc · July 2013

hmm questions for the devs.....

i gess my top 3 would be

1. the heavy bolter, sort of like it was in space marine? or difrerent?

2. can we swap classes (eg swaping loadout from tactical to assault) like planetside or are we going to be locked into the one we pick at creation?

3. 2013 to 2015 is a very short time to develope an mmo so i assume you have been at it a while and the way you guys talked on the live stream made it sound like you at lest had some sort of game iteration working internaly. so my question is, i hope you guys have been laying down code for a while befor the announcement and are not trying to rush this thing out in 2 years?

Savij · July 2013

Originally posted by mintyc
3. 2013 to 2015 is a very short time to develope an mmo so i assume you have been at it a while and the way you guys talked on the live stream made it sound like you at lest had some sort of game iteration working internaly. so my question is, i hope you guys have been laying down code for a while befor the announcement and are not trying to rush this thing out in 2 years?

they were developing the game 1 year before announcment

Gholos · July 2013

Question to devs: i know that is a bit early, but if you will introduce Imperial Guard in the game after the release, do you think to add Ogryn as a possible choice or you have different plans for this faction (perhaps more popular classes)?

Thank you.

freakishbean · July 2013

How will itemization be handled? Purchasing from npc's, finding equipment on the field or from the dead, awarded from successful campaigns? From the beginning, how much customization can we expect? Can we select armor cosmetics from the get go or will we start looking "uniform"?

Savij · July 2013

Originally posted by freakishbean
How will itemization be handled? Purchasing from npc's, finding equipment on the field or from the dead, awarded from successful campaigns? From the beginning, how much customization can we expect? Can we select armor cosmetics from the get go or will we start looking "uniform"?

the standard items will be given from the faction, no purchasing or forging. i think you can get special equip through dungeons and maybe some other ways

Originally posted by Gholos

Question to devs: i know that is a bit early, but if you will introduce Imperial Guard in the game after the release, do you think to add Ogryn as a possible choice or you have different plans for this faction (perhaps more popular classes)?

Thank you.

the standard items will be given from the faction, no purchasing or forging. i think you can get special equip through dungeons and maybe some other ways

Ogryn would be the easiest class to implement
cause they aren’t that fragile, the hard part will be the guardsmen.

they usually die after 1 hit or are heavy wounded so it will be no fun to play one (there i would suggest a squad and have lots of strategic options like brothers in arms but with more deepth in comma

patrickbalthazar · July 2013

Originally posted by mintyc

hmm questions for the devs.....

i gess my top 3 would be

1. the heavy bolter, sort of like it was in space marine? or difrerent?

2. can we swap classes (eg swaping loadout from tactical to assault) like planetside or are we going to be locked into the one we pick at creation?

3. 2013 to 2015 is a very short time to develope an mmo so i assume you have been at it a while and the way you guys talked on the live stream made it sound like you at lest had some sort of game iteration working internaly. so my question is, i hope you guys have been laying down code for a while befor the announcement and are not trying to rush this thing out in 2 years?

1. probably something like in space marine, but again - will depend a lot on feedback from players.

2. you will be able to swap loadout in some form - don't expect the classical mmo style class system.

3. yes we are already quite some time in development, we only announced it recently once contracts and stuff where signed - and believe me, we are well aware of the challenge and everything that it stands for. we have very experienced people who worked already on shipped mmos - let's just say we are gamers too, we want to play this game as much as you guys want to, so we will do what is needed to pull this of!

Originally posted by Gholos

Question to devs: i know that is a bit early, but if you will introduce Imperial Guard in the game after the release, do you think to add Ogryn as a possible choice or you have different plans for this faction (perhaps more popular classes)?

Thank you.

in general we want to bring everything the lore has into the game at some point. so it would be totally wrong to say no to Ogryn, but it's basically just a matter of time.

Originally posted by freakishbean
How will itemization be handled? Purchasing from npc's, finding equipment on the field or from the dead, awarded from successful campaigns? From the beginning, how much customization can we expect? Can we select armor cosmetics from the get go or will we start looking "uniform"?

again - probably not the standard mmo style item drop system. especially since we expect you to spend most of your time doing pvp. but there will be some sort of reward from playing the game, killing stuff - which then can be used to get what you want. watch for more info on this when we release it - all in time

patrickbalthazar · July 2013

Originally posted by quotheraving
Originally posted by Savij
the standard items will be given from the faction, no purchasing or forging. i think you can get special equip through dungeons and maybe some other ways

That doesn't entirely make sense.

Are you saying that you can just grab any items you want from your faction and that there is no resource cost for doing so?

Or are you saying that there isn't a cash economy?

Can you give us a link to the official statement?

well Savij is partially right - we have talked about some stuff, but I think it's not been announced yet in written form.

maybe this is something we will only answer when it will be announced properly - but think of the table top game, it will be somewhat like that.

TheMaahes · July 2013

1. Do you have anyone on your team who has worked with large scale PvP games before?

2. How many players do you intend to get on screen at any given point?

3. What game engine will EC use?

4. Are you planning on changing your servers in any unique way to handle the high concentrations of players?

5. In your first newsletter, you said EC devs need to play 4 games (40k Space Marine, PS2, Borderlands, and Mount & Blade: Warband), what do you intend to draw as inspirations/ideas from each of these titles?

patrickbalthazar · July 2013

Originally posted by Gorwe
What do you think of new Eldar Codex?

While we are at it, if you're going to be able to change classes on the fly, wouldn't that be lore breaking for Eldar? I mean they change paths each 150 years or so-NOT each 15 minutes! So, what's up with that?

haha thx for pinning me down on this when I say 'in some form' then that does not mean that everyone will be able to do it any time :P we will ofc stick as much to lore as possible, but also we are trying to make a game here which is fun to play, and if at some point it's more fun to be able to swap 'classes' quickly as eldar, then maybe thats what we should do? isn't it?

rest assured things are not set in stone, and to be able to properly discuss these mechanics we must wait until it's announced. all we can do right now is give hints on the system and take all your inputs to compile the best systems we can

patrickbalthazar · July 2013

Originally posted by TheMaahes
1. Do you have anyone on your team who has worked with large scale PvP games before?

2. How many players do you intend to get on screen at any given point?

3. What game engine will EC use?

4. Are you planning on changing your servers in any unique way to handle the high concentrations of players?

5. In your first newsletter, you said EC devs need to play 4 games (40k Space Marine, PS2, Borderlands, and Mount & Blade: Warband), what do you intend to draw as inspirations/ideas from each of these titles?

1. yes, me Age of Conan, The Secret World (and i am not the only one)

2. not allowed to reveal yet

3. not allowed to reveal yet

4. we are not changing anything, we are developing that system basically from scratch - though it has been tested already

5. space marine: third person shooter and melee aspect, ps2: massive battles aspect, borderlands: coop and rpg systems aspect, mount and blade: massive pvp aspect

Valrak40k · July 2013

Hey Chaps, Chapter Master Valrak here (www.battle-brothers.net)

I have some questions I would like to get some answers on, I understand if you can't go into detail on them.

Questions.

1 - Terminators are confirmed, how are they going to be handled? Is this the ultimate unlock for a player?

If you look at PS2 you will find players do a Max Zerg to clear large areas of players, although this is a good tactic within the Warhammer universe it would go massively against the lore. Terminator suites are relics, sacred pieces of gear and are only given Chapter Veterans, the most badass of the badasses. They are beyond rare, even in the first founding Chapters.

2 - You mentioned there is going to be a council made up of members who are elected from the players, is there something in place so this feature can't be abused?

3 - In my Chapter (Guild) we have over 30 members who cannot wait to jump in and bash the Chaos & Xenos scum to death. The feedback we've recieved is that there will be no guild system in the game. You invite your friends and form you own mini groups. As a leader of an Chapter (Guild) I need to know where my groups are attacking, is something being put in place so groups can link with each other and see where they are on the map? Just like the system in Planetside 2 where you can form a platoon of 4 squads.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Chaps

mintyc · July 2013

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar

Originally posted by mintyc

hmm questions for the devs.....

i gess my top 3 would be

1. the heavy bolter, sort of like it was in space marine? or difrerent?

2. can we swap classes (eg swaping loadout from tactical to assault) like planetside or are we going to be locked into the one we pick at creation?

3. 2013 to 2015 is a very short time to develope an mmo so i assume you have been at it a while and the way you guys talked on the live stream made it sound like you at lest had some sort of game iteration working internaly. so my question is, i hope you guys have been laying down code for a while befor the announcement and are not trying to rush this thing out in 2 years?

1. probably something like in space marine, but again - will depend a lot on feedback from players.

2. you will be able to swap loadout in some form - don't expect the classical mmo style class system.

3. yes we are already quite some time in development, we only announced it recently once contracts and stuff where signed - and believe me, we are well aware of the challenge and everything that it stands for. we have very experienced people who worked already on shipped mmos - let's just say we are gamers too, we want to play this game as much as you guys want to, so we will do what is needed to pull this of!

Thanks for you answers, very excited for the game.

i do have another question that has occured to me after playing some Space Marine multiplayer yesterday.

4. with this being a third person shooter, are you guys thinking of allowing players to swap there camera from one shoulder to another?

brentellison · July 2013

Originally posted by Valrak40k
Hey Chaps, Chapter Master Valrak here (www.battle-brothers.net)

I have some questions I would like to get some answers on, I understand if you can't go into detail on them.

Questions.

1 - Terminators are confirmed, how are they going to be handled? Is this the ultimate unlock for a player?

If you look at PS2 you will find players do a Max Zerg to clear large areas of players, although this is a good tactic within the Warhammer universe it would go massively against the lore. Terminator suites are relics, sacred pieces of gear and are only given Chapter Veterans, the most badass of the badasses. They are beyond rare, even in the first founding Chapters.

2 - You mentioned there is going to be a council made up of members who are elected from the players, is there something in place so this feature can't be abused?

3 - In my Chapter (Guild) we have over 30 members who cannot wait to jump in and bash the Chaos & Xenos scum to death. The feedback we've recieved is that there will be no guild system in the game. You invite your friends and form you own mini groups. As a leader of an Chapter (Guild) I need to know where my groups are attacking, is something being put in place so groups can link with each other and see where they are on the map? Just like the system in Planetside 2 where you can form a platoon of 4 squads.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Chaps

Hi Valrak!

1. At the moment, the mechanics for Terminators (for those that have unlocked them) will be similar to MAXes in Planetside 2, in that you'll have to pay extra to manifest them. There may also be cooldowns or other requirements, but we plan to try several options during the beta phases and see how the community feels. Note that playing as a Terminator will also not be automatically better than being anything else. They are powerful, but going with an all-Terminator force should not be an optimal strategy since it'll leave you deficient in other areas.

2. If you mean the election system itself getting abused, then we're certainly aware of the potential pitfalls there! This feature is quite a ways out, but we'll be looking at it from all angles further down the line.

3. Hmm... there won't be anything called "guilds" in the game, but we certainly have analogous structures. Chapters are like races in other games (human, dwarf, elf), in that if you're on the Space Marine side you can choose any of the available Chapters on Character Creation yet still form community structures with your friends. A set of 2-10 (approximately) players on the same side can form a Battle Squad, which takes the form of a small guild. This is effectively the core unit of the game - we really want players to be able to have these tight-knit structures that do everything together and build up their own legend.

Multiple Battle Squads can then form into Strike Forces, but the Squads don't go away. You still get to keep your Squad name and your Squad space, you're just also now part of a larger group that can coordinate for bigger challenges.

We're looking into the possibility of player groups being able to earn the right to create their own Chapters/Craftworlds/Clans, etc., but we want to make sure we do justice to the core 40k Chapters first.

-Brent, Lead Designer

TheMaahes · July 2013

Originally posted by patrickbalthazar
1. yes, me Age of Conan, The Secret World (and i am not the only one)

2. not allowed to reveal yet

3. not allowed to reveal yet

4. we are not changing anything, we are developing that system basically from scratch - though it has been tested already

5. space marine: third person shooter and melee aspect, ps2: massive battles aspect, borderlands: coop and rpg systems aspect, mount and blade: massive pvp aspect

Good answers and I expected something along those lines for #2 and #3. Comforting to know that you are aware of player population during open world PvP and the problems it can present.

Back to Mount & Blade: Warband.

OniFeeZ · July 2013

Can you play as a Space Marine (Dark Angel) and fall to chaos? or is that too rpgy'ish and not enough pvp?

Is everyone on this forum going to become beta testers providing they're still active at the time?

Savij · July 2013

Originally posted by OniFeeZ
Can you play as a Space Marine (Dark Angel) and fall to chaos? or is that too rpgy'ish and not enough pvp?

Is everyone on this forum going to become beta testers providing they're still active at the time?

cause there would only be 1 way how players could change factions (spacemarine to chaos) it is very very unlikely that there will be a feature like this

Valrak40k · July 2013

Originally posted by brentellison
Originally posted by Valrak40k
Hey Chaps, Chapter Master Valrak here (www.battle-brothers.net)

I have some questions I would like to get some answers on, I understand if you can't go into detail on them.

Questions.

1 - Terminators are confirmed, how are they going to be handled? Is this the ultimate unlock for a player?

If you look at PS2 you will find players do a Max Zerg to clear large areas of players, although this is a good tactic within the Warhammer universe it would go massively against the lore. Terminator suites are relics, sacred pieces of gear and are only given Chapter Veterans, the most badass of the badasses. They are beyond rare, even in the first founding Chapters.

2 - You mentioned there is going to be a council made up of members who are elected from the players, is there something in place so this feature can't be abused?

3 - In my Chapter (Guild) we have over 30 members who cannot wait to jump in and bash the Chaos & Xenos scum to death. The feedback we've recieved is that there will be no guild system in the game. You invite your friends and form you own mini groups. As a leader of an Chapter (Guild) I need to know where my groups are attacking, is something being put in place so groups can link with each other and see where they are on the map? Just like the system in Planetside 2 where you can form a platoon of 4 squads.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Chaps

Hi Valrak!

1. At the moment, the mechanics for Terminators (for those that have unlocked them) will be similar to MAXes in Planetside 2, in that you'll have to pay extra to manifest them. There may also be cooldowns or other requirements, but we plan to try several options during the beta phases and see how the community feels. Note that playing as a Terminator will also not be automatically better than being anything else. They are powerful, but going with an all-Terminator force should not be an optimal strategy since it'll leave you deficient in other areas.

2. If you mean the election system itself getting abused, then we're certainly aware of the potential pitfalls there! This feature is quite a ways out, but we'll be looking at it from all angles further down the line.

3. Hmm... there won't be anything called "guilds" in the game, but we certainly have analogous structures. Chapters are like races in other games (human, dwarf, elf), in that if you're on the Space Marine side you can choose any of the available Chapters on Character Creation yet still form community structures with your friends. A set of 2-10 (approximately) players on the same side can form a Battle Squad, which takes the form of a small guild. This is effectively the core unit of the game - we really want players to be able to have these tight-knit structures that do everything together and build up their own legend.

Multiple Battle Squads can then form into Strike Forces, but the Squads don't go away. You still get to keep your Squad name and your Squad space, you're just also now part of a larger group that can coordinate for bigger challenges.

We're looking into the possibility of player groups being able to earn the right to create their own Chapters/Craftworlds/Clans, etc., but we want to make sure we do justice to the core 40k Chapters first.

-Brent, Lead Designer

Thanks for answering the questions Brent, not to squeeze blood from a stone but can you go into more detail on how many squads will make up a Strike force?

OniFeeZ · July 2013

Originally posted by Savij
Originally posted by OniFeeZ
Can you play as a Space Marine (Dark Angel) and fall to chaos? or is that too rpgy'ish and not enough pvp?

Is everyone on this forum going to become beta testers providing they're still active at the time?

cause there would only be 1 way how players could change factions (spacemarine to chaos) it is very very unlikely that there will be a feature like this

Be that as it may, I have to ask, are you a game developer involved with the project or not?

Savij · July 2013

Originally posted by Valrak40k
Thanks for answering the questions Brent, not to squeeze blood from a stone but can you go into more detail on how many squads will make up a Strike force?

he said:

We're looking into the possibility of player groups being able to earn the right to create their own Chapters/Craftworlds/Clans, etc., but we want to make sure we do justice to the core 40k Chapters first.

chapters are big so you can imagine how many squads will be able to form a strikeforce :P

GitzStompa · July 2013

A couple of questions:

1. -IF- you're going to introduce titans, will you introduce "equal" massive weapons of destruction to other races awell? For example, Stompa for orks.

3. Will Eldar be able to construct Webway gates behind enemy lines to move troops with great speed? If this is introduced, how are you going to make it a "fair" mechanic, that won't allow endless times of teleportation to the specific spot. Furthermore, what kind of other fast-way travel mechanics are other races going to get? Deepstrike Pods for SM and Roks for Orkz or something like that?

4. Will every faction have a "Big Boss" in addition to the player made War Council? Such as a Big Warboss/Warlord for orkz or a notable Chaos lord for Chaos?.

5. Will the game take place on a single planet or a specific Solar System that has multiple planets?

Savij · July 2013

Originally posted by GitzStompa
A couple of questions:

4. Will every faction have a "Big Boss" in addition to the player made War Council? Such as a Big Warboss/Warlord for orkz or a notable Chaos lord for Chaos?.

one addition to that question:

are orks fighting it out who gets into the council or are they voting too? would be very unorky^^

5. Will the game take place on a single planet or a specific Solar System that has multiple planets?

GW gave them a whole solar system(dont know if there is a name, but there is no lore in of this solarsystem in other wh40k books or games) and campaines will move to another planet after the first planet is fully in hand of 1 faction

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

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

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