AMA with Developer 23/09 - Summary

[spoletta]

Yesterday there was the AMA session with Jacopo Galelli, CEO of Dynamight Studios, which answered many of the questions presented by the community.

I took some notes during it, so I will try to provide here a short summary.
NOTE: I may have missed details, so if you are particularly interested in one of those questions, please check the video.

So, here is the list:

Question: When will the third crop be introduced?
Answer: Third crop will have to wait a bit more. It will be part of a larger farming update which also introduces stuff like personal farming plots and effects of temperature.

Question: When will the stargates be introduced?
Answer: The team is aiming to deploy them next week.

Question: Which kind of malus will Wildfolks suffer while on Syndesia?
Answer: None, but Syndesia lacks the resources which allow them to transform, so they may came already "loaded" with a transformation but after using that they can't transform until they go back to Arboreus. They may also bring Primal crystals with them as a backup transformation battery.

Question: Will there be additional architectural styles?
Answer: One per planet.

Question: How many other wipes are planned?
Answer: Only one, at release.

Question: When will animal taming be introduced?
Answer: As with all kickstarter stretchgoals, animal taming will be introduced after the release.

Question: Will we be able to switch left and right mouse click?
Answer: The team is working on a series of QoL and UI customizations. WASD moving is not in these, but swapping left and right mouse click is. Other customizations include showing or not the nameplates, or changes to the chat, or being able to whisp or mute players.

Question: What will be done to improve the new player experience?
Answer: The current tutorial is going to be changed into the so called "Journey System". This will be a series of "Quests" which will gradually introduce the player to all the functions of the game. These can provide rewards to players, like maybe a weak mount, but the rewards will be available only once per account.

Question: Other than the current 4, are we going to get additional backgrounds?
Answer: Definitely. The aim is to have a long list of possible backgrounds. This may also include having backgrounds based on your planet/continent of origin. More backgrounds will be made available when the skill level up system will be implemented, which will allow more skill variations and so more possible starting combinations.

Question: Race specific backgrounds?
Answer: Maybe.

Question: Support for Steam Deck?
Answer: Not in the plans.

Question: Which will be the benefits of the VIP subscription?
Answer: Still not completely defined, but they will be mostly cosmetic in nature with some time saving features. Nothing which will make your character stronger. Jacopo has been very categoric on this point.

Question: Are char names going to be unique?
Answer: It was not in the plans originally, except for the ones reserved. But they are reconsidering that, and will probably make them unique.

Question: How many character slots will be available at release?
Answer: Probably 3.

Question: Are we going to see a fog of war to limit the sight range of players with wide monitors?
Answer: No.

Question: Is the early game of melee characters getting improved?
Answer: The issue of melee builds is that their initial set of skills isn't as good or easy to use as the one of the other backgrounds. This will be changed.

Question: Are Carpenter NPC contracts still in the plans?
Answer: No, since house maintenance is no longer there. These perks will be replaced with something else.

Question: Can you give us some dates for the next updates?
Answer: Not possible to give dates, but demons and dungeons are among the priorities.

Question: Are we going to see a rebalancing in the number of INT skills compared to non-INT skills?
Answer: Yes. The next skills introduced will be more non-int than int.

Question: Which games have been the inspiration for Fractured?
Answer: Ultima online for sure. But some inspiration was also taken from Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies and clearly Dungeons & Dragons among others.

Question: Legends are currently not available on Arboreus, will legends on Syndesia be changed to be less pvp oriented due to this?
Answer: Legends on Arboreus are coming (including a legendary giant frog!). Changes to the legend ruleset on Syndesia are being discussed.

Question: How will the team manage eventual imbalances in the population of the 3 races?
Answer: Imbalances would be the result of certain builds being too good on one side or the other. As usual, balancing patches will take care of that.

Question: Are regional servers going to be introduced?
Answer: Will depend on the population of the game. An US and an EU server are planned for release, but an Asian one is also possible.

Question: The intro is nice but we don't need to see it everytime, can we auto skip it?
Answer: It is part of the planned QoL updates.

Question: Will the items crafted keep the name of the crafter?
Answer: Not in the plans.

Question: Can we lock the doors of our houses?
Answer: Eventually yes. Not a real "lock" per se, but probably only friends to the house will be able to interact with the door.

Question: Is the current talent tree going to be expanded?
Answer: There are plans for it, but it will depend on the resources they will have post release.

Question: Are controllers going to be supported?
Answer: No.

Question: Will the game be on G-Force?
Answer: Not in the plans.

Question: When will be able to reserve our names?
Answer: A few weeks before release.

Question: Can we get more slots in the hotbar?
Answer: No.

Question: Can we use skills from the drop down menu by clicking on it?
Answer: No. Having a passive skill or buff is meant to take the place of an active skill.

Question: Are we going to get KPs for completing crafts?
Answer: Maybe. Right now KPs are not tied to crafting, but it is possible that you will get KPs for mastering crafts and recipes will cost KP to be learned.

Question: Can we add custom markers to the map?
Answer: This is part of the QoL additions.

Question: Support for Linux and Mac?
Answer: Linux no. Mac is possible.

Question: When are we going to get the next 2 wildfolk races?
Answer: In the next months.

Question: Is a degradation system for horses planned?
Answer: Yes, horses will have a "durability" so that the horse market does not get saturated.

Question: Is a degradation system for recipes planned?
Answer: This is being discussed. Maybe.

Question: Will we get an in game button to report bugs?
Answer: Definitely, this has a high priority at the moment.

Question: Will we be able to test the contents of the kickstarter packs in beta?
Answer: No, they will be available only at release.

Question: Will Frenzy skill be usable even unarmed?
Answer: Is possible. It would make sense, but unarmed skills are very based on attack speed so it could cause balance issues.

Question: Are you going to organize a dev diary and present the rest of the team?
Answer: Yes.

Question: Are you going to add more KP sources to continents?
Answer: No, to the contrary the amount of KPs around are a lot more than needed.

Question: Are we going to get female wildfolks?
Answer: Probably not. Will depend on the resources available and if the artistic team manages to make someting apt for them.

Question: Are we getting server side improvements to reduce the latency?
Answer: Yes, this is in the works.

Question: Is the quality of crafted items going to impact the stats on them or only the durability?
Answer: Only the durability, but the enchanting system (+1/+2/+3...) adopted during the alpha is coming back with some improvements.

Question: Are we going to be able to rotate the camera?
Answer: No.

Question: Will we get more items so that we don't all look the same?
Answer: Yes, more items are planned, like the tier 3. Also it is possible that dies for coloring the equipment will be added.

Question: Are we going to be able to zoom out more?
Answer: No.

Question: Will we get the possibility to roll for loot?
Answer: Not planned right now. Maybe in the future.

Question: Will we get the chance to make necklaces on Terra?
Answer: Yes, either we add those materials on Terra, or new necklaces will be made for the creatures found on Terra.

Question: Is the bug to the map that some users are experiencing going to be addressed?
Answer: The team is trying to reproduce the bug. It is not easy.

Ok, this is all from my notes.

If someone else which was following the AMA can add parts that I missed, I will edit them into this post.

Thanks.

[Junkie]

The last thing. The 'Black Map Bug', is a result of old gpus. So old, in fact, that a group of game designers couldn't find an old enough graphics card to reproduce it. So they are gonna ebay until they get one.

[Junkie]

Also, there will be a massive overhaul to the tutorial and where you go and what you do immediately after the tutorial. I feel like that was important to note, as the tutorial kind of sucks if you are brand new to the game.

[Veeshan]

As a quality of live change i wanna see a consumable spot aka bandages that is on a seperate hotbar/key press so it not taking up hotbar space from skills

[Junkie]

@Veeshan at least 1 spot would be major qol. but so would 10 spots on the bar... seriously would settle for very little at this point xD...

[GamerSeuss]

@Veeshan

They have already stated that we're not getting more hotbar spots, and that choosing between consumables and skills is intended.

They have even previously stated that right clicking consumables from inventory in combat won't be a possible workaround.

[OlivePit]

@Veeshan
bandages have instant cast time, no animation (other than green burst), can be use on a horse and in the middle of another action, have no memory cost, no mana cost, no kp cost, are trivial to make massive numbers of and scale powerfully at 20* con. They are already OP and having them take up an ability slot is the least they can do to help balance them. And even that they have not done as you can have your inventory open during combat and use them from there -even Ace is shown doing this in one of his most recent videos-

I am worried about bringing the +1/+2/+3... enchanting system back, it was broken to the point that someone in +4 could solo kill 5-10 other players in +1 without much effort.

The 3rd crop answer was a good one and I fully back the Developers taking their time to flesh out the system properly. Sadly it also means that my involvement will be minimal until that happens.

[grofire]

@spoletta said in AMA with Developer 23/09 - Summary:

Question: Will we get more items so that we don't all look the same?
Answer: Yes, more items are planned, like the tier 3. Also it is possible that dies for coloring the equipment will be added.

actually that wasn't my question, but that what @Prometheus understand, i asked: "if we will get more items since the it fell static and boring".
and i meant more items that will effect gameplay and not only looks.
it feel static and boring that you have only 1 tier (commoner) from start game till you have endgame 2 tier gear, so the question is will we get more tiers of gear, so we can run in different powers level. nobody care about the looks.

[GamerSeuss]

@grofire They did say that there would also be Tier 3 gear added to the game, which won't be upgraded more powerful gear, but rather more specialized gear for certain kinds of mobs and builds.

The game is dedicated to a horizontal progression as much as possible, so they are trying to limit the overall power creep from too much equipment upgrading.

[grofire]

@GamerSeuss horizontal progression failed, the game feel static an boring, and that only after 10 hours...
we need more items, i do not care if its upgrade or not, but there is nothing to work for...
but honestly i do not mind them changing from horizontal progression to vertical, which just seem better.

[GamerSeuss]

@grofire Horizontal doesn't work for you.

A lot of others are specifically here because of the horizontal progression system.

Also, in a Beta-test, everything is usually not implemented, that is just part of the testing process. Tier 3 items will be added, and will cover more specialization over power-creep.

There are actually lots of us still having fun with the game and not suffering from boredom. I'm sorry you are.

[grofire]

@GamerSeuss well its wasn't just me who complained, already several people said there is no sense of achievement or what to work for....
you said many but as my understanding the game population is about 1000 people, i do not think a MMO can last with so few people.

[Veeshan]

@GamerSeuss They need to make the armor resources more attainable tbh enchant mats are a pain to farm too for some pieces.

going red basicly means all u can use is T1 enchanted primitive armor which also means some build that rely on effects of T2 equipment is useless. no one will go red with decent gear cause risk is to great for the time investment for that gear. Killing reds are not reward either cause all you will get is cloth shit aswell with empty inventory but if proper gear was more attainable mat wise then you will atleast get gear off them. They risk the gear no inventory basicly, you risk your inventory which seems fair.

Maybe the demon planet could have much more common armor component drops due to added risk of constant pvp it makes sense and also allows for demons to get proper gear to invade other planets in and then loose it to the defenders

[Xzoviac]

Was my question to the devs about them using the paid for kickstarter developers forums answerd, I think I missed it if they did.

[spoletta]

Hmm, yeah I remember hearing that. Don't remember the answer though.