[CO] Ask Cryptic: General Q&A (13-V-2010)

LavaLama: What can we expect after the first Adventure Pack?
Will there be a new Super Power Patch?
Saikyo-RyuHatman: What's next on the "passes" after Supernatural /
Melee?
A: poz: The update after the first Adventure Pack
(Serpent Lantern) will include another power review. We haven't decided
which set or mechanism we're going to work on yet. Force and Electricity
are near the top, but we're waiting to see how the Endurance Builder
changes affect them first. Threat and pets are also pretty high on the
list. Once we're clear of the endurance builder stuff, we'll figure out
what's next.








Khristen: What are your upcoming / current plans for
non-combat aspects of the game, including more support for role-players
and supergroups? Essentially, is there anything coming to give us more
to do to interact with others that isn't combat related?
Silverspar: When can we expect new emotes and those that aren't fully
Star Trek related to be ported over to Champions for player user?

A: poz: There are some supergroup features which are
coming down the pipe (too early for an ETA) including an event calendar
and a search/recruitment tool. Also, there are also more emotes on the
way.



DigitalShaman: Improved teaming has been acknowledged as
something the game is in serious need of. What is going to be done about
ensuring not only ensuring future content is more team friendly, but
ensuring the game's other material is updated also?

A: poz: The new team tab in the mission journal
debuted in the Super Power Pack Update. It works wonders in keeping your
team together. In addition, all new instanced content we make will
scale to the team size. (Adventure Packs, of course, scale to your level
as well.)

The Serpent Lantern Update is scheduled to have the difficulty slider
in it. This can be used to make missions more challenging, which some
teams are looking for. Upping the difficulty will also increase the
rewards. In addition, the bonuses we give based on team size will be
increased in this update.

Over time, we will revisit older content and put more scaling in. We
will also be revisiting lairs and fixing some of the big bosses there
too.



Maekada: The one thing I want in this game soon, above all
else, is Supergroup bases. I know it has been stated that they do not
intend to make them any time soon, and I would like to know why this is,
when it is something that players want dearly.

A: poz: I'm sorry to say that we don't have the time
or resources to get Supergroup bases in properly right now. We're
focusing on the Adventure Packs, quality of life features, and bugs for
the time being.



Dardove: Can we get any more details about the difficulty
slider? What sort of rewards will running a mission on a higher
difficulty earn you?

A: Arkayne: The difficulty slider is still in
testing so this information may change. The difficulty slider is set on
an individual or team basis and increases the level of enemies in any
instanced mission based on the difficulty increase. The tougher enemies
in turn drop better quality gear drops.

A: poz: Also, we expect to tune the difficulty
slider (and its rewards) once it gets to PTS and everyone has a chance
to try it.



Dardove: Any chance that Andrith and Mandragalore will get
touched up so there is some incentive to run them for Unity's Most
Wanted instead of NemCon?

A: poz: Yes. We plan on doing a review of these, but
it hasn't been formally scheduled yet.



Niniva: Is an expansion for the Nemesis System in the works,
or otherwise planned anytime soon?

A: poz: We have several ideas for expanding the
Nemesis system, but haven't yet decided on exactly what we're going to
do. Sorry that I don't have anything more concrete than that.

Crosschan: Is this entire thread just a means by which to get
tons of questions so that those which best match predetermined answers
in line with State of The Game information can be cherry picked while
the harder questions are intentionally overlooked?

A: Stormshade: Nope, I actually read every single
question. I try to pick questions that are very popular, and that we
haven't answered before on the forums. I also leave some wiggle room for
really outstanding questions, and then we answer as many as we can. I
know it can be hard to believe, but the only agenda here is to let you
guys ask questions, and have the devs answer them.

A: poz: No.



gardengnome: Why do game breaking bugs that hinder the
enjoyment of other players, such as the energy pistols which proc
endless stun, take so long to fix?

A: poz: The things we work on first are those things
we and players as a group consider absolute top priority. We don't have
an infinite number of developers, so some things end up waiting a bit.
Also, when we work on one top item, there may be other related and
interconnected problems which we'll look at and modify and fix as well.
This means that it takes a little bit longer for other things further
down the list to get done, but in the longer term is much more
efficient.

There are occasions where we don't know the problem is as big as it
is. We look at bugs and the forums all the time, but it's happened that
some completely broken things sit around because not a lot of people use
them or they are stoic and don't complain. So, they drift down the
critical list.

A: Arkayne: MMORPGs have a lot of moving parts, many
of them interconnected. Making a change in a single power may have
repurcussions on many other systems, so any change has to be
unit-tested, then put into a product build, then QA-tested, then pushed
to the Public Test Server for user testing, then pushed back to the dev
team for any further iteration. This can take a bit of time.



Wilhelm Scream: With all due respect, why is grinding the
number one reward-yielder in game? Between 5K kill perks, travel
crafting, nemesis and UNITY point collections, and especially Vibora
drops, why is it that tedious activity is rewarded?

A: poz: In the abstract, because some people enjoy
doing that kind of thing. Some players like to have some crazy goals,
even if they are waaaay out there. The top-end perks and other long-term
"grindy" things are for people who want those kinds of targets. By and
large, we only put cosmetic/prestige things out there (though we have
made mistakes). One man's tedious grind is another man's relaxing
rinse-and-repeat.

In regards to the Vibora drops: Now that there has been some time
with the BoE changes live, we were able to crunch some more numbers. We
are planning on doubling the drop rate of the costume pieces that many
covet. This will be up on PTS soon.








Chaytel: Between the 'Rocket Punch' attack that some
Destroids use, and the EVE-01 and G-Mech Action figures, somebody in the
Dev team is a big fan of Japanese Super Robot anime. Who is it, and
have they slipped any other references in I may have missed?

A: poz: That's a group effort... who DOESN'T like
giant robots?! I don't know of any Easter eggs offhand, but there are
likely a lot of references out there. Here's a shot from our lead
animator's office of some of the bazillion robots he has:





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