Developer Question And Answer, Episode 5
From Stargate Worlds Wiki (SGW)
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[edit] Developer Q&A 5
Welcome to the fifth episode of the on going Developer Q&A series, I’m community manager David Reed(DR), this episode includes the largest group of questions yet, with a focus on Systems team, Developers such as Chris Bernert(CB), Nick Heitzman(NH), Jim Poole(JP), Cliff Lasana(CL) and Josh Kurtz(JK) have graciously offered up some of their time to respond to your questions directly, lets get on with it shall we?
DR: Lord Nyx asks Sean Dugan: Will there be a set number of times that you can change hosts as a Goa'uld and if so how many?
SD: So I think everyone would be disappointed if as a Goa’uld you weren’t able to change hosts I think that’s key part of what it is to be a Goa’uld within in Stargate, now our Goa’uld are not you’re garden variety of Goa’uld but they’ll still be able to switch hosts take different bodies, you’ll be able to switch any time you want there’s going to be a cost to every time you want to switch which again is consistent with Stargate, a Goa’uld doesn’t change host just any time they feel like it, it’s a big event and it will be big event for the players in the game as well.
DR: Solaris asks Chris Bernert: Will we all be able to set up charges/traps for enemies and get to lure them out before opening fire upon them, or will it be a skill tree ability?
CB: Currently it is a skill tree ability that certain archetypes will have access to, commando is one that comes to mind, and they’ll have lots of cool deployable’s that they can put down and set traps and so forth and get the mobs to work in different ways, so for right now that’s the current design philosophy, doesn’t mean we can’t have some sort of a intractable item at some point in the game that would allow a player to do this or some mission based item something like that, because its such a cool aspect of our game we want to share the wealth, and that’s pretty much it for right now.
DR: AJZ asks Nick Hietzman: Has there been any game information, concept art, or screen shot that you have released which you then decided to go back and rethink/change?
NH: Actually yeah thinking about this there was a big one that came about, in the early early designs the planet Tollana had Crystals on it and subsequently we went ahead and let crystals be a large part of another races cultural in so much that we wanted them crystals to sort of be them selves special and really you know stand out, so we decided to remove the crystals from Tollana, unfortunately we had already placed them in most of the sample area’s on the maps and everything like that so they where still there screen shots were made we continue to see screen shots with the crystals in there which cause’s the higher up’s to constantly come to us and ask why the crystals haven’t been taken out of Tollana, when these images in parts of the map are ancient from before we removed them, so that was a gift that keeps on giving where the crystals are concerned, their gone but not gone on the screen shots, which continue to appear probably after ship, so were probably still be hearing why are there still section of Tollana that have crystals on them and why haven’t we removed them.
DR: Marshall asks Jim Poole: Can you give us details of the death system and how returning to a ready state after death will be handled?
JP: So when you die in Stargate Worlds you’re dead Obviously, you have a couple of choices of what you can do, you can release to a Aid station, and if there isn’t an Aid station in that zone you will release to like the nearest Aid station in the last zone you’ve been at the nearest hospital, Aid station, another option is “ohh” I have a player who’s near me who has appropriate abilities or items who can res me, res me on the spot, we do have some idea’s that we are toying around with I can’t really get into them right now, but it should be interesting for the player and its kinda something different that players aren’t ust to in MMO.
DR: Nolim asks Cliff Lasana: Will certain planet require you wear a space suit, Diving suit, chemical suit, Biohazard suit, polar suit or even to switch hosts?
CL: So you will come across various environmental hazards as you are playing threw the game, we are also going to be providing you with gear that can be negate or reduce or could negate these environment hazards but were not going to require you to wear this gear but we are certainly making available to you, your never going to be required to put on anything, but where making that option available to the player, so its always good to equip those things if you got it but we don’t want to sorta force the player into a position were if your not wearing corrosive protective gear you can’t be in this zone.
DR: Leutroyal asks Sean Dugan: There is much controversy in the forums from what I can see in including the Asgard as a playable race. What made you choose the Asgard over races such as the Serrakin and Gadmeer?
SD: When you look at Stargate, the key aliens races is it really hard to ignore the Asgard, the Asgard have played a key role in the franchise and they are emotional core to what Stargate is all about, and everyone likes to play a little grey alien they are fun, now how do you get these aliens who have been a little bit removed from our galaxy involved in the day to day action of the SGC that’s a very good question and that’s actually part of what you will experience when you play Stargate Worlds, why are these Asgard involved in the SGC.
DR: Good Luck asks Jay Ambrosini: Will modding your weapon be done with a few mouse clicks or through a mini game; allowing you to tweak several aspects of it?
JA: Well the actual process of modding a weapon is going to be pretty simple on any character to be able to it, there will be different item’s, different components you have to put on different weapons, you’ll be able to change out the barrel or the scope, maybe the stock, maybe some recoil compensation, different idea like that of what we’ll put into weapon that will increase different aspect to make it a better item for you, as for how to get those components that’s where we might see some of the mini gaming come in, they will be crafted components that you will be able to put on the weapon, dropped item’s you be able to put on weapon’s so there is all sorts of things to mess around with there, so just look at it that way.
DR: Vespasian asks Sean Dugan: How much content are you taking from the 1994 Stargate movie?
SD: The Stargate movie is the launch of the Stargate franchise it is a part of the story, it sets up a lot of key events that happen within the series and we are embracing that as well this is a key part of our fiction and the events that happen in the characters where involved that story are key to the stories where telling now in Stargate Worlds.
DR: Xenomorph ask Josh Kurtz: Will all the levels of Stargate Command or N.O.R.A.D. be accessible to players?
JK: Well there’s a long answer and a short answer as normally want to do especially on the forums am going to give the long answer first and make everyone else wait for the short answer, There is 28 levels to the Norad and Stargate program and that’s a lot of levels to build especially when you consider what’s on all of them, and some of those levels might not even be all that interesting I think an entire level is dedicated to water treatment and I am not entirely sure how interesting that will be for players to run around and check out water treatment, our goal is to build spaces that are interesting for players ad full of things to do, and not boring, not empty, and not you know fairly useless, so what where doing with the SGC and Norad is where building what we think we need to build to get across the purpose of the SGC the interest and the emotion of the SGC and that will for fill the goals that we want for players to accomplish with in the SGC, that’s the long answer, the short answer is No.
DR: Ryst ask Jay Ambrosini: Several interviews have mentioned including FPS elements into SGW's combat. With no 1st person perspective, no twitch, and tab target locking what are these FPS combat elements? Click to Fire, scrollable weapon selection?
JA: Well first of all I want to say you should be able to go down to pretty much a first person perspective when your playing its typical to you might just stand with the 3rd person to look at your character, you might go down to 1st person, but no we don’t really were not looking for a 1st person shooter type of a twitch action aspect of the game, we want to make sure that the casual players can play along with the hardcore kinda of players and get into the game, the 1st person aspect of the game you will see though is that most MMO’s don’t have this system of movement they don’t have the whole idea of flanking and watching multiple mobs move around they don’t have to worry about positioning, that’s really kinda more of a first person shooter combat style, and that’s where we are looking to get with it, we want to be that you look at a battlefield and your looking for where can I go to run in the different area’s where’s the mobs are going to be moving to so you can say “well gee that’s great piece of cover up on top cause there’s a big barricade” I want to run up the hill and get that and use that in order to pin down my opponents around me and that’s the really the 1st person aspect we are looking for in the combat system, but again we don’t want it to be so that twitch game play so that only the 1% of the 1% will be able to enjoy the game.
DR: Jayne asks Chris Bernert: Compared to other MMOG's, Stargate Worlds has a short levelling system, will there be a different system, like military ranks, that players can participate in if they want a longer challenge to develop their character?
CB: Our character development in this game is not necessarily short, you can take you’re character and refine it and basically spend as much time as you want on it, having a short level system getting to level cap it doesn’t necessarily mean that the journey is going to be short and then you’ve throw away that character and make another one you have that option, but to get that character you want there are you know since there are three different specializations trees you can respect your character and try a different tree, and mix and match, Item acquisitions is a big part of our game tweaking your character and getting him to play the way you want him/her to play, and just seeing all the content that’s in the game so that’s, just because our leveling system is probably comparable to other MMO’s doesn’t mean your going to be short changed when you hit the level cap and that’s part of a whole new chapter of the adventure of the game so taking your character and basically taking it as far as you want to take it is up to you, were not going go dictate that, so spend as much time as you want on your character and you’ll have fun all the way along.
DR: Norsee asks Jim Poole: How detailed are you planning to make the guild structure? Are there going to be ranks that the leaders can make or is it going to be simply, you're in that guild and that's that?
JP: Well the guild structure is in Stargate is called Commands, and you’ll have a Command, there’ll be ranks you will choose, there will be up to 8 ranks you will be able to assign different roles in the ranks like “ohh I can invite people” or “ I can remove people” they are fully customizable and you know 8 different ranks of to do what you wish with it, another thing that’s in the design right now, that’s, another thing I can’t really talk about, but its got me very excited, its like customizing a little bit of the different people in the Command, you will be able to, I can’t really say what I want to talk about it, but I can’t, its just more customization within the Command the you’ll haven’t really seen before, but I’m very excited about it.
DR: That about sums it up for Developer Q&A episode 5, thanks for stopping by keep your chevrons locked on Stargate Worlds.com as we get closer to the launch of the game.
