Unofficial Summary of Kripp's Interview with Chris (15 Dec 2012)

I listened to the c.3 hour interview between Kripp and Chris this morning (15 Dec 2012). Below are some of my observations and editorial. Apologies for the style, as I didn't set out at the start to do a court scribe-like rendition of the interview. Nonetheless, I thought there was some interesting content in there, and I hope others find this interesting. The points are largely, but not perfectly, in chronological order. Thanks very much to Charan for formatting the post for me (and you)!

Onto the substance:

- Kripp has a remarkable ability to continue a conversation while playing. there are not many men that I know that can multitask like this.

- Lightning Arrow to be modified as a more traditional AoE attack and lower mana scaling requirements

- Guilds/clans: yes! aim to keep it simple until market demand requires more complex options/implementation

- bandit rewards: different for each difficulty (life/endurance charge max, etc). will probably be able to respec out of these choices for a large number of orbs/wealth hit

- passive resets post OB will continue on occasion due to material tree changes, rather than character wipes (thank god!)

- legacy league after wipe? sort of. it won't be called legacy, it will be default. the shorter term leagues (eg 2-3 month) will be the new "frontier" and default will be where old leagues migrate to

- what is ultimate end game: maps or act 3? they overlap a bit. maps will become (generally) available before you finish act 3 merciless. also, act 3 merciless will have areas which are harder than some maps. but on the very high end, maps are intended to be better

- Chaos Inoculation unlikely to change before OB. Just not a top priority at the moment.

- necros - not being nerfed, sucked in. L2P

- mobs killing from off screen and super widescreen (eg out-ranging hailrake): needs to be looked into, especially if its exploitative

- orb rewards from races: feel pretty good about where it is now. may group races together into "seasons" for points and a metaladder (good idea!). there will be a new demigod-like item for events post OB

- 4 map slot in the Arcane Laboratory: nothing that uses it yet, but there might be one day and we might not mention it

- phase run: quicksilver flasks to replace it as a movement skill. can get quicksilver quite early. phase run might be on ice around release on OB, but it will come back when its redesigned

- uniques: new items post OB? about 1.3 from diamonds so far, each major patch generally released 3-6 new ones. on the coming month/years, several hundred more will be released

- chance orb system: is the probability to use a chance orb and get a unique is... the same as in general gameplay. doesnt sound like chris wants chance orbs to be the optimal method for unique creation. importantly, about half of current uniques have been improved for OB (!) and some have been nerfed for OB - however chris doesnt generally want uniques to be the best version of a given base item (the karui maul was the exception)...

- alt f4 on hardcore: its fine, no problem doing that. cuthroat forces you to hang around for 5 secs post alt-f4

- nz/aus server: too expensive, prices are c. 200x more than us/europe

- maps: the quantity loot modifier, does it apply per mob? yes, it appliyes per mob, so quantity modifier scales (multiplicatively) with mob size modifier

- bots: in a free to play game? we have tools that will help but we can't go into specifics. three key ways to tackle it...but not telling you what they are (fair enough!)

- creative sound card bsod: theres a solution on forum, but they're working on a more automatic solution

- time from disconnect to in-game departure: 6 seconds, provided you've been in the instance for at least 40 seconds (but this will be variable in future depending on your preference)

- distinguishing mob vs character: to be discussed amongst team

- pausing: can be added, they're going to think about it and see how d3 has added it (PLEASE NO!)

- unique map bosses: matter of time and money - so eventually yes, but when they have the time and resources to do it

- melee vs ranged balance: its been worse in the past in both directions. no major changes envisaged. there are lots of balance changes people will be forced to adjust to in act 3, so don't want to shoot too soon on this balance until act 3 is out

- fun: we've fixed pack sized of monsters to be a lot more variable, so pacing of game has really improved - sometimes you get scary hordes (AWESOME - ZOMBIE HORDE!)!

- pants: no pants because no horses and people only wear pants to protect their bits from horses.perhaps future cosmetics have pants. chris is a nudist, not a pan simulator creator.

- sweep: is sweep going to use weapon speed (like GS now)? at the moment, sweep will be a constant attack speed, so we have an interesting alternative to GS.

- item size vs bag size: seems ok for now, want to keep people choosing between hoarding and selling

- aoe for shadow classes (claw/dagger): chris wants more aoe support and skill gems that make single target skills into aoe (eg a melee aoe support gem for splash damage). hopefully in next 6 months (eg claw aoe)

- visible damage numbers: it cloggs up the game, and you can see it from HP bar, dont want it

- skill gems: tons coming in the next year

- set items: not really a focus, prefer the way it currently is

- physics engine: quite unlikely without a ton of money. more important things to deal with

- CTF arenas: like the idea of alternate arenas, so that type of alternate arena will come up in due course

- PvP today: as expected, its a bit 2 tier between experts and noobies. it does allow them to create a whole new area of gameplay and testing in future - remain excited about it. chris is ok with pve characters sucking at pvp. chris not trying to alter core content and balancing to suit pvp.

- desync: remains a priority, can definitely do things better, particularly with respect to fast moving skills that dont work well with the combat predictive mechanics that PoE uses

- OB date: chris thinks we'll be ok. the major concern is service scaling, and day one population - want to make sure they can deal with crazy virality if it happens (HIGH CLASS PROBLEM!)

- exploits/banning: Kripp feels righteous indignation for his banning in Guild Wars 2. Chris (probably) wouldn't ban people for similar circumstances, like an incorrectly priced vendor item. If you use bots, you'll probably be banned. If you exploit "by hand" you probably won't be banned.

- paysafe cards: see the latest announcement on this

- colour stash tabs: is it individual to each stash tab? yes, you basically pay per tab. pricing won't be much more expensive from original tab cost or a small upgrade fee if you want to colour the tabs later

- week 16 botw: coming soon, time is a problem right now! could solicit guest videos.

- HC deaths: GGG WILL NOT AND CANNOT RESTORE HC CHARACTERS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. even if its because Chris comes into HC and kills you himself, or you're scammed or whatever.

- Is the middle class of the tree the deathknight? yes, she is the deathknight. Errr.

- leagues: GGG looking for more ideas for leagues. a shadow league? GGG want to fix some shadow stuff first... (GS league?) random content area league (eg start with vaal pyramid!)?

- gem quality bonuses: Carl has gone through them and its changed, but its always being reviewed. chris refers specifically to the spork build...(PETROV EDITORIAL: chris, please feel free to have a go at spell totem, not spark/fork themselves!)

- haste gem: it is so bad today that Chris doesn't even know it exists (its attack/cast speed will increase as it levels, also reducing mana reservation cost in future!)

- molten shell: getting better in 0.10.0

- quicksilver flasks: they've been a hit internally - remember you dont have to stop and do a cast animation to use it

- hybrid weapons (eg staffs, daggers): chris believes that its ok to have some items to have different crafting difficulties. however GGG have discussed, for example, having daggers be either hybrid, melee or casting from when its initially generated, but it remains a long term goal to consider

- throwing weapons or crossbows: chris would like to get to them in the future, eg one per year, but not enough skills to make them interesting right now. so may dribble in over time so that they're done right in due course

- avatar of fire: it will return, but don't know in what form. unlike CI, AoF it doesn't need to be sorted out before OB. CI may or may not be "sorted out" before OB?

- totems: will you ever make uniques that give only totem abilities? chris thinks that would be pretty cool, much better on a unique than on a keystone or a buff.

- potion replenishment in town: tps dont work in big fights, like bandits. maps have a limited set of tps anyway. so chris is ok with how this is working. GGG will probably make it so that you have to go to an NPC to replenish your health in town in future.

- nerfing philosophy generally: what determines an OP build for GGG? it's not just people whining on the forum. they predict whats going to happen in the future. if they see the potential to get something *easily* and be OP, then that's a problem - less of a problem if you are OP after big effort/wealth investment. GGG not trying to nerf everything to suck. Also, as people use shorter term leagues, hopefully, then creating OP builds will be harder given the limited time and less developed economies in these leagues.

- unique flasks: we dont have rare flasks because its hard to remember what they do with only two mods. we are working on unique flasks, and at least one diamond supporter are working on one (eg there used to be Merveil's Tears flasks)

- public profile pages for gear/skill tree: because of privacy, it would be opt-in only. if someone opts in, we'd love to add this. not just yet though

- OB stability: working feverishly on this. public stress test weekends, hardware has been improved, bot army tests, etc. very pleased with feedback, buying more hardware.

- middle mouse button: can you rebind it? its a coming change for middle and side mouse buttons, probably in jan or feb. it's a UI priority

- chance to make a new key bar on weapon swap?: this is a change GGG will probably make, despite technical challenges. probably not before OB. will be very interesting for new builds (eg apply shock from one weapon/skill and then weapon swap into a new skill to apply to shocked mob). kripp thinks this will be a big driver of build diversity (I agree!).

- trading in solo races: will probably be removed soon to stop abuse. may be patched in before OB if they have time

- horseman boots? why? chris has no idea

- stat migration between items: kripp had this idea a while ago, but chris isn't a fan. chris is concerned with "rare convergence" making rare items to be godly too quickly. the concept is potentially interesting, but it would have to be really expensive (ie practically impossible, but creates hope)

- matching rares: kripp a fan of the change. chris hadnt predicted PoE helper, and they'd ban it if they could but they can't (technically - unless they removed ability to see items on website, which they love). so they nerfed the recipe

- mercenaries: looking to add them in the future, not being rushed in soon

- penetration gems: too OP compared to curses (esp for resist/aura mobs)? chris will bring it up with the devs on monday

- decoy totems: why can mobs one shot me, and not one shot my decoy totem? chris will look into it

- rubber banding and desync: there is a tradeoff between rubber banding and desync. while fixing fast moving skills is a core issue, there will still be rubber banding which represents more accurate syncing

- transaction store: new pets! whole variety of item effect stuff. extra gore for example. premium stash tabs. spell animations (eg plinth warp (?), as used by an act 3 boss). dances.

- auction house: it wont be coming. by the way it costs one million dollars to put it in.

- PvP: will be moved into act 3 a few weeks after OB, a core focus come OB.

- new content: plan about ten years ahead. expect the core systems to last ten years. how often will acts be updated (eg act 4)? acts take a lot of effort, they anticipate every 6-12 months depending on team size, profitability. look at LoL, but they have hundreds of staff.

- reskin monsters to get rid of spiders? interesting, chris hasn't thought of that as a microtransaction.

- aurify support gem: turning a buff into an aura (eg phase run, tempest shield) - exists but not in the game at the moment. could be done on a unique, maybe with a griefing penalty.

- auras on unique: its currently supported and might be in soon (eg haste on a unique). kripp thinks stacking auras is absurdly powerful, while most people disagree. kripp likes EB with Inner Force (edit: check out my Ranger EB 7 aura wand build). Note, kripp reminds us that inner force applies to flask buffs, like granite flasks...

- kripp plays an OP life leech physical melee character who uses sweep, karui maul, granite flasks, CI, vaal pact, IR, unwavering stance, RT, vaal pact and inner force - nice build (and only 4k ES and not godly gear).

- christmas: Chris will be with his family for a day, otherwise in the office

- downleveling: expect there to be a currency item that can downlevel you one level

- pvp leagues: there will be more than just 28 and open pvp, depending on numbers in OB

- general Act 4: Chris and the dev team continue to debate whether Act 4 (if and when it comes) should conceptually run after Act 3 in terms of level and gear progression, or, instead, "in parallel" with Act 3 - so as to not obviate the progress made by people and gear accumulated from Act 3. Chris appears to generally dislike when expansions make the preceding content redundant.


Hope this is interesting for those of you that don't have the hours spare to listen to the cast. Thanks again to Charan for cleaning the post up for me!

Petrov.

Nice. I caught some of this but I had to go to work in the middle of it and when I got to work they were done. Still probably give it a listen. Maybe if I give some feedback based on what Chris talked about changing then I'll get my alpha invite...probably not but lets just assume it's possible.

"

pausing: can be added, they're going to think about it and see how d3 has added it (PLEASE NO!)

Why no? This is so silly... no because D3 have it? Whats wrong with pause when you play solo in personal instance?

/vote for pause like in D3 maybe then i will may leave computer for 3 minutes and not die after this because ridicoulous mobs aggro range (they can come from half of the map lol)


BTW. Lot of dissapoitment in responses. Not good.

"

Kabraxis wrote:

"

pausing: can be added, they're going to think about it and see how d3 has added it (PLEASE NO!)

Why no? This is so silly... no because D3 have it? Whats wrong with pause when you play solo in personal instance?

/vote for pause like in D3 maybe then i will may leave computer for 3 minutes and not die after this because ridicoulous mobs aggro range (they can come from half of the map lol)


BTW. Lot of dissapoitment in responses. Not good.

My personal view has nothing to do with D3 having it, or not.

If you want to leave the computer, just cast a TP? I think a pause dynamic changes the whole risk/reward of the game, takes the pressure off if you can stop time and assess your options in the comfort of a time vacuum. Just my personal view, of course.

Petrov.

"

mrpetrov wrote:

(eg a melee aoe support gem for splash damage)

I'm so happy right now!
... but it's not a very complex idea and has probably been in the works long before I made that post. Regardless I am excite.

Still listening to the interview, a lot of this sounds really good.

"

mrpetrov wrote:

HC deaths: Chris comes onto your HC character and kills you himself

DAMMIT, suddenly I feel my HC characters are very vulnerable...

I like the stuff i am hearing. :-)

"

- downleveling: expect there to be a currency item that can downlevel you one level

Why would anyone want to do that?

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entomogant wrote:

I like the stuff i am hearing. :-)

"

- downleveling: expect there to be a currency item that can downlevel you one level

Why would anyone want to do that?

If they accidentally hit 29?

"

entomogant wrote:

I like the stuff i am hearing. :-)

"

- downleveling: expect there to be a currency item that can downlevel you one level

Why would anyone want to do that?

From the sounds of it there will be a few tiers of PVP so add to what petrov already said.

"

Metronomy wrote:

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mrpetrov wrote:

HC deaths: Chris comes onto your HC character and kills you himself

DAMMIT, suddenly I feel my HC characters are very vulnerable...

I would love to see this actually happen, although the person it happens to will need an extremely good sense of humor.