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12-14-2007, 00:22
Developer Question And Answer, Episode 3
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David Read: Hi I'm David Read and welcome to episode 3 of the developer Q&A, where fans of Stargate get to ask their questions to the team bringing the upcoming Stargate MMO to life. Episode 3 contains commentary from developers like Zeb Cook, Steve Garvin and Bo Bell. Now on to your questions:
DR: Rumbaar asks Kate Bankson: Will the client side UI be able to be heavily modified, or allowed for user modifications and or adjustments?
KB: Yes, one thing we'd really like to see happen with our game is a lot of user customization and we'd like to see a mod community grow around it, so we're designing and engineering to that end.
DR: Bunty asks Bo Bell: Hi Bo, will we be seeing any easter eggs in the game, for example people strolling over a yellow brick road on an alien planet, listening to some airmen talking about a MacGyver episode or a poster of Homer Simpson on Jack's wall?
BB: Hi Bunter, thanks for the question. Of course there is going to be easter eggs in the game. Where they are, well that's what makes them eater eggs, you'll have to find them. What they are, who knows? Don't be surprised to find what you are describing here and there, don't be surprised to see little shout outs about the company CME, don't be surprised to see little tit-bits from the show. Of course we are going to put stuff in there, however it has to follow the Stargate humour. So if it's not Stargate humour you won't see it, you won't see Captain Eo anywhere, but you might see Homer Simpson, or a poster thereof...maybe...I dunno. So yes.
DR: Seth asks Chris Bernhardt: Will the Jaffa or Goa'uld have any other weapons other than staff weapons, zats or grenades?
CB: Each archetype has the option to use different weapon types, whether they are native to them or they are alien to them. For example the Jaffa players can choose to use automatic weapons, they can use shotguns if they want to, but since they are Jaffa, their iconic weapon is the staff and they can be the masters of the staff. They'll be able to do stuff with the staff that no other archetype will be able to do. The Goa'uld of course though are all about the ribbon device. A high percentage of their combat will be predicated on using ribbon devices. Different ribbon devices and so forth, but they can still use staffs, they can still use zats and some other types of weapons. As for abilities, for each weapon type they have a dedicated tree, that's how we can make a Jaffa a master of a staff and so forth, but the player can choose to become master of a staff, or he can spread out his choices and become proficient with many different weapons types, alien and native. So for us, we just want to look at the design to maximize the players enjoyment of their play style, "I like a lot of different weapons", ok great go do that. "I want to be the master of the staff, look what I can do with it", great, you go do that. That's pretty much how the design flows from there.
DR: Fumbles asks Zeb Cook: Are there any plans to allow friends seperated by a level gap to still play together?"
ZC: Yes, we are really definitely looking at that. At this stage we need to get all of the game systems in and functioning and then discover where are the places that we need to make the adjustments on, but it's in our feature list of stuff we want to do, and intend to do, and it's in our UI design, so yeah we are definitely looking at it because it's fun. It's one of those things that if you play with friends you want to keep playing with them no matter what.
DR: Chepher asks Joe Ybarra: Will we Europeans be able to play on American servers?
JY: The players will all play on our service, the current plan is to host SGW in North America because our experience with previous products has shown that we can give very good response times to customers throughout all of Europe from America. So the question really is 2how do we want to group players together so that the right type of players are all playing together, as of course there is a big time zone difference between Europe and the Americas. So having said that, our plan is to go ahead and create a service that will allow the players to play wherever they like and then we'll just respond to what the customers say. We'll be paying close attention to the community and what their needs are, and if it turns out that we need dedicated servers for each of the different territories, then we'll be happy to support that.
DR: Baldr asks Chris Klug: Will there be neutral faction quests in which good and evil characters can team up to play?
CK: Well I guess my first reaction to the question is, why are you using the words good and evil? I don't look at the two sides as good and evil, I look at the two sides as viable alternatives to the answer to the same question which is to how to make the galaxy safe. Given that little editorial comment, the answer is there are plans for both the SGU and the <bleep>'s to work together on occasion in the game.
DR: Leutroyal asks Jay Ambrosini: Will guns need to be refilled when their ammo is depleted? If so, will there be certain ammo types which can be used to cause different effects?
JA: The goal of our combat is to be fun, exciting and fit into the whole Sci-fi genre. Therefore, yes, players will need to reload when their magazine is empty, and yes there will be different ammo types to be used in different situations. However what we don't want is for players to micromanage their inventory in order to play the game. Also since we're a ranged combat, modern military game, we would never want to run into a situation where a player is just completely out of ammunition when in the field. We just don't find that fun.
DR: Sledog asks Steve Garvin: Do you think that at the end game level if there were any missions would it be possible to complete them without any other groups? Or would a sense of forced grouping be used?
SG: The plan is to create an endgame where all players of all types will have something to do. The goal is not to sortof create an endgame where a player who wants to play through this game solo has no options once they reach a certain level. At the same time we want to encourage things like grouping. We plan on raids, and all kinds of endgame, but the plan is that there is definitely consideration given to every type of player in the game.
DR: Thanks for listening in to episode 3 of the developer Q&A, and don't go far, because episode 4 is just around the bend. Until next time.
From Stargate Worlds Wiki (SGW)
Jump to: navigation, search
David Read: Hi I'm David Read and welcome to episode 3 of the developer Q&A, where fans of Stargate get to ask their questions to the team bringing the upcoming Stargate MMO to life. Episode 3 contains commentary from developers like Zeb Cook, Steve Garvin and Bo Bell. Now on to your questions:
DR: Rumbaar asks Kate Bankson: Will the client side UI be able to be heavily modified, or allowed for user modifications and or adjustments?
KB: Yes, one thing we'd really like to see happen with our game is a lot of user customization and we'd like to see a mod community grow around it, so we're designing and engineering to that end.
DR: Bunty asks Bo Bell: Hi Bo, will we be seeing any easter eggs in the game, for example people strolling over a yellow brick road on an alien planet, listening to some airmen talking about a MacGyver episode or a poster of Homer Simpson on Jack's wall?
BB: Hi Bunter, thanks for the question. Of course there is going to be easter eggs in the game. Where they are, well that's what makes them eater eggs, you'll have to find them. What they are, who knows? Don't be surprised to find what you are describing here and there, don't be surprised to see little shout outs about the company CME, don't be surprised to see little tit-bits from the show. Of course we are going to put stuff in there, however it has to follow the Stargate humour. So if it's not Stargate humour you won't see it, you won't see Captain Eo anywhere, but you might see Homer Simpson, or a poster thereof...maybe...I dunno. So yes.
DR: Seth asks Chris Bernhardt: Will the Jaffa or Goa'uld have any other weapons other than staff weapons, zats or grenades?
CB: Each archetype has the option to use different weapon types, whether they are native to them or they are alien to them. For example the Jaffa players can choose to use automatic weapons, they can use shotguns if they want to, but since they are Jaffa, their iconic weapon is the staff and they can be the masters of the staff. They'll be able to do stuff with the staff that no other archetype will be able to do. The Goa'uld of course though are all about the ribbon device. A high percentage of their combat will be predicated on using ribbon devices. Different ribbon devices and so forth, but they can still use staffs, they can still use zats and some other types of weapons. As for abilities, for each weapon type they have a dedicated tree, that's how we can make a Jaffa a master of a staff and so forth, but the player can choose to become master of a staff, or he can spread out his choices and become proficient with many different weapons types, alien and native. So for us, we just want to look at the design to maximize the players enjoyment of their play style, "I like a lot of different weapons", ok great go do that. "I want to be the master of the staff, look what I can do with it", great, you go do that. That's pretty much how the design flows from there.
DR: Fumbles asks Zeb Cook: Are there any plans to allow friends seperated by a level gap to still play together?"
ZC: Yes, we are really definitely looking at that. At this stage we need to get all of the game systems in and functioning and then discover where are the places that we need to make the adjustments on, but it's in our feature list of stuff we want to do, and intend to do, and it's in our UI design, so yeah we are definitely looking at it because it's fun. It's one of those things that if you play with friends you want to keep playing with them no matter what.
DR: Chepher asks Joe Ybarra: Will we Europeans be able to play on American servers?
JY: The players will all play on our service, the current plan is to host SGW in North America because our experience with previous products has shown that we can give very good response times to customers throughout all of Europe from America. So the question really is 2how do we want to group players together so that the right type of players are all playing together, as of course there is a big time zone difference between Europe and the Americas. So having said that, our plan is to go ahead and create a service that will allow the players to play wherever they like and then we'll just respond to what the customers say. We'll be paying close attention to the community and what their needs are, and if it turns out that we need dedicated servers for each of the different territories, then we'll be happy to support that.
DR: Baldr asks Chris Klug: Will there be neutral faction quests in which good and evil characters can team up to play?
CK: Well I guess my first reaction to the question is, why are you using the words good and evil? I don't look at the two sides as good and evil, I look at the two sides as viable alternatives to the answer to the same question which is to how to make the galaxy safe. Given that little editorial comment, the answer is there are plans for both the SGU and the <bleep>'s to work together on occasion in the game.
DR: Leutroyal asks Jay Ambrosini: Will guns need to be refilled when their ammo is depleted? If so, will there be certain ammo types which can be used to cause different effects?
JA: The goal of our combat is to be fun, exciting and fit into the whole Sci-fi genre. Therefore, yes, players will need to reload when their magazine is empty, and yes there will be different ammo types to be used in different situations. However what we don't want is for players to micromanage their inventory in order to play the game. Also since we're a ranged combat, modern military game, we would never want to run into a situation where a player is just completely out of ammunition when in the field. We just don't find that fun.
DR: Sledog asks Steve Garvin: Do you think that at the end game level if there were any missions would it be possible to complete them without any other groups? Or would a sense of forced grouping be used?
SG: The plan is to create an endgame where all players of all types will have something to do. The goal is not to sortof create an endgame where a player who wants to play through this game solo has no options once they reach a certain level. At the same time we want to encourage things like grouping. We plan on raids, and all kinds of endgame, but the plan is that there is definitely consideration given to every type of player in the game.
DR: Thanks for listening in to episode 3 of the developer Q&A, and don't go far, because episode 4 is just around the bend. Until next time.