Saturday, April 11, 2015

Q&A with Scapes and Khrolan

Since the livestream was cancelled on Friday Scapes and Khrolan took to the forums in this thread to answer a bunch of questions. The red was Scapes official update on the matter and then everything below that will be the Questions in quote boxes and the reply right after.



UPDATE: Hey all, our livestream machine decided to run an OS update at a remarkably inconvenient time. This wouldn't be such a problem if it didn't also break the livestream machine's firewall configuration which is preventing it from connecting to Twitch.

So! In lieu of trying to do the Dread Prophecies livestream via text on the forums, we're going to have the team answering questions from this thread instead. We'll have a replacement livestream next week (or possibly a double-long one on Friday). You'll start seeing answers to your questions from the team in this thread shortly.

Thank you SO MUCH for your understanding!

Quote Originally Posted by Ormagodon View Post
-Whats the deal with the ArcheMaster title. Can it no longer be obtained?
*I was mere hours away from getting level 50 in all skills before the update that 'removed' the quest, now I cannot finish it? Pretty lame.*

-Pets/Battle Pets and level 55. Is it going to happen? If so, when?

-Firran female model. I've asked before.. will we ever get the Korean animation? Our Firran women look like mice not felines.


While the ArcheMaster title can still be obtained, the promotion for reaching level 50 in skillsets has since ended and can no longer be completed.

Pets cannot yet hit level 55 as you're aware and we don't have a timetable for when their level cap will be increasing just yet.

We don't have plans to change the Firran female model at this time.

Quote Originally Posted by Jinsky View Post
Why are you allowing people to constantly cheat? I know people who have used bots and mods for months. Reported multiple times not only to live support but to GMs directly, yet they are still playing and still botting on multiple accounts. More and more people are botting, those using the "buddy" program to mod still blatantly use this, and are getting away. This makes legitimate players really frustrated at the lack of control on this issue. It also makes legitimate players lose interest in playing as there's no more plausible way to compete in this manner. People already say this is a cheater's game.
Our Support Team takes reports of cheating seriously and do investigate all claims made via live chat or help tickets. You may not always notice the action taken against an account and at times action may take much longer than you might anticipate as the team has to find the evidence of rule-breaking behavior committed days or weeks ago via gameplay logs. That said, if you haven't seen movement on tickets you've submitted, reply to them to refresh them.


Quote Originally Posted by williamcaw View Post
hi is there any plans for adding archeum mining nodes to the world?
No plans to add archeum mining nodes that we've heard of from the developers, sorry.




Quote Originally Posted by Failer View Post
When will you increase drop rate in new coinpurses?
when will you increase upgrade rate?

witchcraft lvl 55 ability weak... gonna be buffed?
The rates for upgrading are being reviewed by the developers based on the community's feedback here on the forums and gameplay data from their experiences.

As for skillset strength, there is a major rebalancing on the horizon in Update 1.7B planned.


Quote Originally Posted by Lockless View Post
Question 1. Have you given more meaningful thought into nerfing God's Whip (please)? If for no other reason than to stop the constant flood of requests for it from the community you 'supposedly' serve.

Question 2. Which zones in Auroria will have access to the mineral water needed to grow archeum trees, and which zones will have tradepacks enabled on them in the near future?
Mentioned in a previous reply, we have a major skillset rebalancing coming up in Update 1.7B.
Checking on your second question.



Quote Originally Posted by Gonzothegreat198 View Post
Can you inquire with XL Games if they ever plan on releasing the Plush Yata Doll for purchase, instead of using it as a Giveaway item?
A plushie pack just got introduced in today's Marketplace Update but I'm not sure if it contains that particular one:http://www.trionworlds.com/archeage/...s-in-archeage/




Quote Originally Posted by Ormagodon
-Whats the deal with the ArcheMaster title. Can it no longer be obtained?
*I was mere hours away from getting level 50 in all skills before the update that 'removed' the quest, now I cannot finish it? Pretty lame.*
I don’t have a lot of detail with why the title was removed but I do know that the post level 50 expedited rate of experience probably played a part. I’ll see if we can get additional information around the design decision.
Quote Originally Posted by Ormagodon
-Pets/Battle Pets and level 55. Is it going to happen? If so, when?
I haven’t seen any plans to increase their level at the moment. If anything happened here it would be with 1.8 or after. This is also something that’s going to take a lot of time based on balancing, potentially adding new abilities, etc.
Quote Originally Posted by Ormagodon
-Vanity Outfits. Perhaps offer more vanity clothing VIA Loyalty tokens or side quests. They no longer boost stats.. so why not offer more?
We’re all about adding new costumes and we have some ideas on the drawing board for new unique costumes that haven’t been released in other regions. Stats won’t have costumes and that’s based around a design decision we made at launch. We didn’t want to have, as Amary called it a “Pay-to-win fashion show”.
Quote Originally Posted by Gonzothegreat198
-Any updates on the Archeum conversion system and a release date (even a general one ie. Coming with 1.7)?
It’s going to be an event format like Divine Gifts or the Red Dragon and we don’t have any final determinations around when it will be run yet. It’s definitely going to be after Dread Prophecies releases later this month.
Quote Originally Posted by mattmanlex
-Are the warrior's medals from mistmerrow the same ones as from halcyona? Because it seems to use the same workbench, and they're both called warrior's medal.


Yes they are! Mistmerrow will grant 8, 6 or 4 Warrior’s Medals per participant based on their faction’s placement. These medals are used for the Proven Warrior’s Necklace and new Proven Warrior’s Instruments. Pirates can participate through use of the workbench in the Mistmerrow Zone.

-Khro


Quote Originally Posted by Beoahn View Post
A few weeks ago, I noticed that the crest I applied to my custom shirt was not showing up (instead, it was showing the default yata image).
Both our QA Team and XLGAMES have been working to reliably reproduce this bug. It's one we're tracking but haven't determined how to resolve just yet.



Quote Originally Posted by OranDoge View Post
can you tell us if the casino will ever be open on mirage isle?
We touched on this in a few livestreams, no plans to add that content right now.



Quote Originally Posted by Theonn View Post
Is there a possibliity to add loyalty tokens in a differnt way. Lets say difficult daily quest, RNG boxes, Direct Purchase....
While I totally get the desire, we have no plans to add other methods of earning Loyalty Tokens beyond the existing daily grant.



Quote Originally Posted by Ryky View Post
When is Dread Prophecies coming to PTS ?
Dread Prophecies is coming to PTS this month and we're aiming to launch the content this month as well.


Quote Originally Posted by priceyknight View Post
is there any plans to add some of the other vehicles such as the red farm hauler, 2 different coloured fishing boats or even the paddleboat?
If customization is your goal, ship customization is a major part of Dread Prophecies. You'll be able to adjust your ship's loadout much like you do your current mounts' armors (only much more so).



Quote Originally Posted by BatPikachu
-Can we got more info on the healer gear in Serpentis?
I’ve not seen any of the new healer gear that’s being added to dungeons yet but it’s in the works. What I have seen is great new healer cloth gear in the obsidian v2 armor set. Some upcoming changes to the handicraft system will also support a wider range of jewelry. Other items of note: the obsidian V2 scepter is off-hand wielded and grants a small amount of +healing (DW healing weapons ftw).
Quote Originally Posted by Evann
-Will there be a increase in drop rate for ayanad design? Or is there any other means to farm the design? At the current situation, the design is way too too rare.
It’s super rare but like the Haunted Chest these are intended to be that way. ArcheAge will always have systems that require a large amount of dedication and this is one of them. It’s one of those things that makes it so folks will always have a reason to go to the library. I’m still hunting for my bow pattern, lmk if you get one. I’ll pay a shitload for it.
Quote Originally Posted by Aramos
-Are the new honor lunagems coming with 1.7?


Yes there are. I’ve seen 12 new honor gems/lunafrosts/cloaks on the Honor Reward NPC. So far there are 3 new limited duration cloaks that have stats in addition to their previous effects. The third tier of socketed lunagems (these costs a ton, like 770h each). Lunafrosts that provide a higher amount of resilience, focus or toughness to chest, legs or boots. You’ll be able to get a good look at these when we hit PTS.

-Khro


Quote Originally Posted by Gragor View Post
First, is there any update on the broken Eternal quests to level skill trees to 50?
Unfortunately, those promotional quests are no longer active which is why they cannot be completed.
Second, is there any chance of obtaining bonus Loyalty for logging in consecutive days? For example, logging in every day for a week gets an extra token or two, every day for a month gets twice that, etc.
No plans to adjust the rate at which Loyalty Tokens are earned at the moment.
Last, could a quest, or something, to that effect, be implemented that would boost a mounts speed/stats to be equivalent to its Mirage counterparts? It could be long and drawn out, but I think a lot of people would be interested in it. Cash shop, to me, should be convenience and aesthetic; anything that changes game play in any way should be available in-game, though it doesn't have to be easy.
Actually, many of our faster mounts can be earned through in-game achievement and not just via the Marketplace.



Quote Originally Posted by Ayrx View Post
Any chance of a 5th or even 6th shortcut bar?
Certainly a nice quality-of-life addition but isn't on radar to be added currently. Making a note to ask about it.



Quote Originally Posted by Solanthus View Post
Can we get an update on the topic you touched on a few livestreams ago regarding archeum conversion?
I believe Khrolan just posted a bit about that future feature. While it isn't attached to Dread Prophecies (A nor B), it is something that XLGAMES is developing.


Quote Originally Posted by BellaJTam View Post
Will the base number of specializations increase given the new Proficiency Levels and Proficiencies? Currently, the base number is 7 with 6 tiers. Given that it's increasing to 10 tiers, will we be getting more specializations? Or will the maxed specialization number be increased (via specialization snowflakes)?
Yes! The base number of specializations will be increasing to match the new changes. We don't have a final number at the moment, though.


Quote Originally Posted by Kris the Abyss View Post
Any info on player nations/factions, and how long till they come into the game? They were in the game in Korea early on and I was just wondering when they'll be in the game.
XLGAMES has actually held off on introducing player nations in other regions as they were unsatisfied with how it performed and affected the game. There currently isn't an ETA for the feature's arrival while they continue to develop it.


Quote Originally Posted by Zeraphiel View Post
1. Can you show all of the Instruments from the new PvP map? Many of us are deciding if we should go obsidian, or wait for release.
2. You spoke of a system to transmute Archeum to different types. (e.g. Starlight->Sunlight.) Can you detail this system, and provide an expected release date?
3. When should we expect Skateboards?
4. Is ship customization coming in 1.7a, 1.7b, or later?
1. We'll gladly do so in an upcoming livestream!
2. This feature is still a ways out and isn't currently part of Dread Prophecies.
3. It's looking like they'll be in Update 1.7B.
4. Ship customization arrives in Dread Prophecies (1.7A)!



Quote Originally Posted by AgetoAge View Post
This is a simple one if you guys can state on the live stream if blocking a gold trader with your hauler to prevent others from turning in trade packs a ban able offends that will be great and thank you.
Using a vehicle to physically block an NPC is not permitted and can result in punitive action taken against an account (as well as the destruction of the vehicle).



Quote Originally Posted by Genessa View Post
ETA on the Timber Coupe?
Timber Coupe is currently slated for Update 1.7B which comes after Dread Prophecies.


Quote Originally Posted by camokitten View Post
Will we be getting the Warborn and Dwarves? If so - When?
Not until after they're added to XLGAMES' local version.


Quote Originally Posted by Tol View Post
Any way we can get pirates their own Faction chat? Or at least when they leave the faction they no longer have access to their old faction's chat?
That's an interesting notion, don't think that's been considered yet.


Quote Originally Posted by Necrodeemus View Post
Question regarding the upcoming 1.7 expansion around changes to freedich gold vendor. If this is not the case already....

Please, pretty please, cherry on top please, can you make this vendor appear randomly and not on a timer. (or randomly within a large time frame) This is going to be a very much anticipated feature of the expansion, and if it is on a timer, it will become very much.. redundant, the chaos of randomness will make this an awesome feature !
While the randomness would certainly generate more chaos, it also isn't that great of a player experience for an NPC to suddenly "poof" into nothingness when they have a full merchant ship to offload.

Quote Originally Posted by Arusa
-I am a +70K artistry player on Salphira who's gameplay revolves around the artistry profession.

Thanks for the huge post, Arusa. I’ve actually copied it to my notes so I can look into some of these things. Artistry is something that makes ArcheAge awesome and I can’t tell you how many times some of my in-game friends showed me a song that blew my mind.

Dread Prophecies brings about the new Artistry Title (not sure on the final name for it yet) similar to how the other professions can do a title quest at 50k skill. We see the introduction of the new proven warrior instruments and of course Ayanad but that’s something only a few of us will ever see. I haven’t seen any new changes to add instruments to the store. I have heard rumors that new physical instruments have been added to the game but haven’t had a chance to see them yet but now I’m going to go look. There’s also the new housing storage chest that is designed to hold sheet music. Hopefully we’ll see a positive trend with these changes and there will be more great artistry additions to follow.

Quote Originally Posted by Noaani
-The next time an event happens on the NA servers along the lines of the current dragon event, can we get at least a small hint of an effort from Trion to include players from other times zones?
It’s very difficult for us to plan times for everyone. ArcheAge is designed in such a way that the time for an event is hard coded into a build. That establish time affects all NA/EU servers and since we have such a broad audience from around the world there’s no great time for everyone. You’ll notice that most events happen in the NA afternoon and EU evening and that’s because it’s our main window. Things like the fishing contest and sieges then because it’s the best time for the majority of our audience. We try to expand the window a bit with things like the red dragon but we’re really limited in what we can do.

I’m more in favor of events that aren’t time-based and can be participated in whenever you login. However, these are usually not as cool.
Quote Originally Posted by AeonAuron
-Why are Aurorian NPC guards hostile towards Pirates since Auroria is the only land where Pirates don't go to jail after dying?

Why don't you bring Kendal to every livestream?
I don’t have any good lore justification behind this and if there was one, Diamond Shores pretty much threw it out the window with the nui safe areas. Pirates are bad mans and unless the guards are growling, lets just assume they’ll attack.

If I had it my way I’d have Kendal on every live stream. In fact that’s one of the reasons I’m super bummed about missing out on today’s stream. He was going to talk about ghost ships!!!

-Khro


Quote Originally Posted by Laotzu View Post
That is when will attacking a red in protected territory globally flag you for all other reds?
This has been a gameplay question for some time and we've talked with XLGAMES about it for quite a while. Unfortunately, changing the existing flagging rules is a significant undertaking and isn't planned to happen right now. That said, the developers have historically been very attentive to constructive player feedback (many of the upcoming Dread Prophecies changes are based on it), so please do not be discouraged from discussing the need for it on the forums.


Quote Originally Posted by xxxxLon View Post
Hello,

Will we be seeing any quality of life improvements for the dragon event? Such as
  • Longer corpse timer (currently 10 mins)
  • Longer NPC timer (currently 5 mins longer than corpse)
  • More dragon spawns per day
  • Giving Europe dragon times that do not coincide with NA times
  • More weeks to the event
  • GM policing of the more mentally challenged players

Currently it's an unnecessarily hectic race to get alts to the corpse, especially with players griefing the corpse and NPC with Imprisons and anywhere-Mailbox spam, and with your company scheduling maintenances over the event times.

Thanks
Having attended more than a few spawns, I totally understand how the imprisons and short corpse despawn can be annoying. However, we'll be holding the event for more than enough weeks needed for active players to get the cloaks they want, even without changes to the event itself.


Quote Originally Posted by Shakila View Post
is there going to server transfers and what is the ETA on that please let us know
The community has been very vocal about the need for server transfers and we're eager to offer them. Currently, XLGAMES' transfer method is a very manual process and simply does not scale. They are working on a more automated process and we'll continue sharing updates on their progress as it's made.


Quote Originally Posted by gdogy View Post
will the fishing ship memory leak ever be fixed
Yes, XLGAMES is actively working to address this bug. Dread Prophecies may end up including the first fix for it, our QA Team will be investigating.


Quote Originally Posted by cochmah View Post
Do you have any new information about when Archeage Korea will get the new races? 1.9? 2.0?
No, there isn't a timetable for new races at the moment.


Quote Originally Posted by Arialun
-If possible please extend the availability of Sloth Glider until Patch 1.7B, should you guys planning to remove it any time soon.

-Bots are coming back, what's Trion planning to do with them? Mass purging /ban wave like before ? We can literally saw them at main mining spot and popular trade route in all servers now.
I’ve not seen any plans to remove it yet let alone prior to 1.7B! Sloth away. Bots are coming back and it’s our responsibility to chase them down. We’re doing that now and I’ve been involved in several discussions about how to police them and needs to be done. The folks who design the bots are continually changing what they’re doing so it’s on us to catch up. I appreciate concern like this and we’re definitely not okay with the recent uptick.
Quote Originally Posted by Vumelyan
-Will the Vehicle Upgrade Ticket be added soon so the racing cars can be upgraded?
I’ve seen the upgrade ticket but I don’t know when/how it’s going to be added. My guess is 1.7B because that’s when we’ll see changes to the Timber Coupe and Submarines.


Quote Originally Posted by Pinnochio
- Q1: Can you tell us more about the difference between a black pearl and a basic upgraded galeon ? does it have more basic speed & dps ? (if we don't consider the ships grade parts) what grade will be is part ? (arcane sails, unique sails..?)

Q2: Where to get scroll to regrade our ships parts ?

Q3: Will the new galeon be available by gildas or it's only leviathan drop (better this way) ?
1) The growling yawl will receive a bonus to the base ship’s HP by +25000 (this number is off the top of my head and might be closer to 30k) over other small warships (junk/cutter). The yawl can also support more players before it reaches capacity (30 instead of 20, like other warships). I’ll expand more during next week’s live stream 

2) Ship Component Regrade Scrolls are dropped from mobs located in the Arcadian Sea and also can be salvaged from shipwrecks. They aren’t player crafted and the ship regarding system is different than with weapons/armor/accessories. When attempting to regrade it’s either successful or the ship component is destroyed. Charms can’t be used. The success rate is actually very good at lower grades (grand-heroic) and decent all the way to mythic. I managed to get a legendary cannon after blowing up about 10 of them. Note that Cannons, Figureheads and Sails are the only things that can be regarded at the moment.

3) The Enoan Galleon will technically become available at the release of 1.7B. Good luck killing the Leviathan, though. I haven’t seen plans to offer it for Gilda and it's my understanding that in some regions that already support 1.7+ no one has it.

-Khro



Quote Originally Posted by BeaverCleaver View Post
We got normalization for gliders, mounts, and costumes. This was supposedly to keep some of these from being too overpowered or to prevent "power creep" from happening. Yet nothing has happened to the main contributors to these issues. Why can't we get normalization for RNG crafting and regrades? Why are top end regrades and weapons so overpowering while being out of reach to the average player?
Gliders, mounts, and costumes were normalized to prevent a single one of each category from being best in slot, reducing variety on the server and effectively reducing player choices from these partially cosmetic items. Crafting and regrading are a different beast entirely.
Why are so many bosses prone to their RNG glitching out at some point during the fight. For example when we fight kraken it will glitch during the final phase and continuously charge ships during it's regen phase. No amount of aggro mitigation can cure this behavior. He keeps charging until a complete reset is done. The charge wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't accompanied by a health regen that can heal it back to as much as 80% hp while it's charging. This RNG glitch can also be seen in other bosses like carmilla in Serpentis. Sometimes she will target the tank with her green puddle instead of the healer. This will happen every time until you reset the instance. It seems like many of these boss fights could be polished and less dependent on RNG.
The glitches aren't intentional and we have reported it as an issue to XLGAMES. Be sure to share your experiences in the Gameplay Bugs forum as the developers read these forums very often and would be interested in new reports of it happening.

Why do female characters get black demon eyes in dungeons. The lighting needs improvement.
This is a texture bug similar to the lighting issues that occur randomly on the sea. It's a known issue but isn't a significantly gameplay-impacting one which is why it's deprioritized for a fix.
A mansion that was given to me is not placed facing directly south. I would appreciate an item that allows me to rotate it without demolishing and losing the materials. I wouldn't mind if it was a direct purchase cash shop item.
A feature like this would be fantastic, though it isn't currently slated.
During castle sieges our keybinds are broken by additional abilities granted during the siege. It would be nice if these abilities could be put in a separate category.
Keybind takeover is actually a relatively common complaint we've been hearing a lot recently (there are other situations where keybinds are rebound temporarily as well). It's feedback we've forwarded on to the developers for review.
Many people change specs a lot to fill different roles in pvp and dungeons. Right now only the first shortcut bar allows multiple setups/pages. It would be nice if we could get this for all shortcut bars. Even nicer would be a system that allows us to save our shortcut bar setups locally and import a saved one instantly.

Can we get a way to import and export skill templates for the different specs that we use.

The loot windows could be smaller and set to only appear one at a time in a location of our choosing. Right now they are quite large and appear near the middle of the screen.
Good quality-of-life suggestions. Currently the developers are focused on adding new content but these are good suggestions for improvements to existing systems.


Raids and parties need more more looting options. Round Robin does not work at all.

Could we get an auto-roll/decline button somewhere? Clicking roll for dozens of items gets old fast.
This feedback has come up a lot and we have shared it with XLGAMES to consider.
Why does the Lord's Mount the Emberwild Charger continue to escape normalization? In the Korean version there are mounts that can at least come close to matching it. Here it's impossible to keep up with someone riding one.
There are other outliers as well that we're aware of such as Crimson Lightning and Celestial Pegasus. Mount normalization is still being reviewed and discussion of a third speed tier is happening.
Why can't the farm cart/wagon physics be adjusted to make them more like other vehicles which can be nudged. This would alleviate all issues with afk blocking in safe zones.
There are ample ways to work around AFK (or active) blockades, many of which are suggested in threads providing feedback about running into such a blockade.
You have been adding items to the loyalty store at regular intervals, but all of them are high cost. It would be nice if we could be provided with a schedule to let us know when things will be added. It's very disappointing to purchase something then you make something better available a week later. It takes months to regenerate the loyalty tokens and you do not provide a direct purchase option for those of us that do not want to risk our money on low drop rate gambling boxes.
We often preview Loyalty Store additions on our livestreams weeks before they're introduced and often mention their estimated cost. Additionally, all Loyalty Store items are kept in the store long enough to accrue the Loyalty Points needed to claim them.
We have been bombarded constantly by untradeable items since the launch of the games. Especially those that are part of collection quests. My bank reached it's limit a long time ago. Can't we get a new bank tab or something that will let us store more of these.
New chests are being added to address this issue by storing bound items, music sheets, mounts or pets, and costumes or vanity items.
I would like to see bound items become account bound instead of character bound. I actually use the other four character slots but having to repurchase items that I could easily trade to an alt is frustrating.
No plans to change the binding nature of items in this way at this time.




Thanks for the questions today folks but I’m out of time. We’re currently working some bugs out of the Dread Prophecies build so we can get it to PTS as soon as possible. All of my time is dedicated to this build at the moment. It looks like we’re still on target to publish the update before the end of the month to live servers. That can always change based on what we discover during testing but it’s looking good for now.

Sorry again about the live stream.

-Khro

1 comment:

  1. I hate that nobody asked or the question wasn't selected about the new 3k guilda stars mansion, if it will be in patch 1.7A, 1.7B or another one, any info on that?

    ReplyDelete