Requests for stream discussion topics

[klokwerkaos]

I know it says to make one question per thread, but this would clog the board. Instead I'm not expecting direct answers at the moment, but rather, would like to see these discussed at some point in the future streams.

Please discuss in some detail on upcoming streams if not already planned:

• Damage types and resistances. What are they? How do they work? How are different states affected? If I'm in a physical state but use say, a void damage type can I affect something in an essence state? Will I be immune to physical damage if not in physical form? How do the different states interact?
• Explain Essence a bit more please. I feel like I understand this the least so far. All of them in more detail really, but this one I don't really have any firm grasp on.
• How does fast travel work? (mounts? Portals? cart rides? Flying? Each class has it's own method? etc.) bearing in mind horses generally don't like spooky stuff.
• What activities are available in player hubs as of now and planned for?
• Are trinary health bars also resources? ie, do I use mana from my mana bar to cast arcane spells or are resources for such things separate bars?
• How modular are skins? Ie, are they broken up into sections or even equipment pieces, or are they 1 solid skin? Can we customize colors? If so, are there any steps to avoid having undead running around in pastel pink and butterfly wings? I might suggest that if the current plan is to make one skin for early implementation, design them in such a fashion that they can be modular later. (IE, with seams)
• If undead are less powerful in the day, does dynamic lighting have an effect on this? ie, if I'm indoors or in shadow does that reduce any debuffs?
• Will characters that are carried from one age to the next (ie seasons) gain any buffs from becoming more powerful over time? If so how is this balanced for new players since they can't just pay for X age buff?
• Right now we're looking at instanced and overworld play, are there possible plans/possibilities for X-man raids at some point?
• What does the in game economy look like? Can I trade with players? Can a swap gear between my characters? What resources matter in this respect? Is premium currency tradeable?
• How are social groups managed? ie clans/guilds. Are there in game benefits to participating in a clan beyond the social elements?
• What is word on customizable player/clan homes? I think these might prove to be a great resource sink, as well as help define player contribution to the lore each season.
• 10k foot view of lore please Just the big points as of now.
• What is the intended comparable scope of power disparity between a new player and one that is a hard core veteran that has completed all major content for several years? This is mostly a balance vs progression question. If there is a strong disparity to incentivize progression, what kinds of scaling is going to be used and how can newer players catch up without pay to win mechanics?
• What is the plan for old content to remain relevant?
• Being that the plan is to create narrative, can we expect various recurring characters in something like a shadows of mordor nemesis system or some kind of iteration on that? I'd personally like to see a rogue's gallery of folks, possibly that might band together as hunters of your particular character. Additionally they might not necessarily have to defeat you, they could come back as some sort of undead just to hunt you specifically
• Can you give examples of how player choice/action will affect their personal narrative as well as the overall world narrative? (ie, a big one and a small one for each)
• If player choice matters and everything is dialog based, how are you planning on managing huge files and mass voice actor work for branching narratives? This is presuming the intent is to port to console, which has very limited capacity for files by comparison.
• What is intent for cross play between consoles/PC? I would hope the framework is designed to handle this from the ground up even if it isn't implemented immediately.

 

[Denis Dyack]

Moving this to a discussion area. If you want these answered, please break this up into one question per thread and add them back to the question area. You will not clog the board. One question per thread is the only way we can ensure we can stay on top of questions.

 

[Golden Xan]

I can help answering some of these things, as they were questions that I and others raised at some point.

Damage types and resistances. What are they? How do they work? How are different states affected? If I'm in a physical state but use say, a void damage type can I affect something in an essence state? Will I be immune to physical damage if not in physical form? How do the different states interact

As combat has not been addressed yet, we don't know much about it, but we do know that humans have means to attack the undead in their multiple states. Silver is used to fight undead in the Ethereal (Magickal) state, and they are able to exorcize phylacteries, thus damaging or destroying the undead in the Contained (Essential) state. There will surely be more interactions between them than that.

Explain Essence a bit more please. I feel like I understand this the least so far. All of them in more detail really, but this one I don't really have any firm grasp on.

I used to have the same confusion. Essence is essentially the soul. Souls are contained within something, usually a body, but they can be transferred to objects, or other bodies, such as a Liche does with its phylactery. It is unclear how that translates to powers, but I would say being able to transfer souls to different bodies or even reanimating others are skills based on Essence.

How does fast travel work? (mounts? Portals? cart rides? Flying? Each class has it's own method? etc.) bearing in mind horses generally don't like spooky stuff.

Mounts are planned for the future, but we should not be needing them in the initial stages of the game. Some classes have transformations that improve their mobility, such as the Vampire's Werebat and Dracoliche forms, that allow them to fly. It is unclear whether we will be able to use these outside of combat, or even if there will be any restrictions to them, but map exploration is something important in Deadhaus and mounts could make people skip some of it. Dragons have been mentioned of eventually becoming mountable creatures. I imagine the maps will not be gigantic in the First Age, so that we won't depend on mounts, and if its gigantic we ought to have other means of transportation, such as fast travelling.

Are trinary health bars also resources? ie, do I use mana from my mana bar to cast arcane spells or are resources for such things separate bars?

They are both health and resource meters. You can cast Magick to cast spells, but if you switch to the Ethereal plane it will also be your health. Liches, for instance, use both Magick and Vitality meters as resources for casting spells, maybe essence too. Vampires use their own Vitality to access their powers, but they also quickly recover it by drinking from their victims.

If undead are less powerful in the day, does dynamic lighting have an effect on this? ie, if I'm indoors or in shadow does that reduce any debuffs?

All undead have their own peculiar weaknesses. Daylight makes Vampires weaker, but not others (more on that will be revealed). Vampires also get damaged by running water, but other undead don't. Being in shadows, even in daylight, will affect that weakness (Vampires can create clouds to darken the environment and no longer suffer the sunlight's penalties). The same applies to being indoors. Of Vampires - I is also an indication of such.

Will characters that are carried from one age to the next (ie seasons) gain any buffs from becoming more powerful over time? If so how is this balanced for new players since they can't just pay for X age buff?

Yes, they do get stronger. It is unclear how this is balanced, but PVP will likely have its own rules and mechanisms, maybe even be playable with characters other than our main ones. I'm sure players from newer Ages will still have powerful tools at their disposal.

Right now we're looking at instanced and overworld play, are there possible plans/possibilities for X-man raids at some point?

I'm not sure what you mean, but there will be raids.

What does the in game economy look like? Can I trade with players? Can a swap gear between my characters? What resources matter in this respect? Is premium currency tradeable?

From what I understood, it is inferred that players will be able to interact with each other in multiple ways, trading being one of those ways. It is a cooperative game, after all. Platinum, the premium currency, is not planned to be tradeable.

How are social groups managed? ie clans/guilds. Are there in game benefits to participating in a clan beyond the social elements?

As far as I know, there will be the possibility of forming your own clans, but more than that there will also be world elections that will affect everyone's play, including those that did not care for the politics or group play. There may or may not be an option for you to opt out of even those bonuses. Clan play is yet unclear.

What is word on customizable player/clan homes? I think these might prove to be a great resource sink, as well as help define player contribution to the lore each season.

Players will be able to customize their lairs, but it is unclear what is the level of complexity on that.

10k foot view of lore please Just the big points as of now.

Gods are influencing the world of Malorum and playing games by appointing their heroes. Two major sides fought for control over humanity, the Crimson Sign and another unnamed force. The unnamed force turned their champion, a Templar and King named Lucian Armin, into undead. Coming back from the death as a Revenant, now called N'Gaztak, he is rallying the undead (which already existed in the world) to continue their plans.

What is the intended comparable scope of power disparity between a new player and one that is a hard core veteran that has completed all major content for several years? This is mostly a balance vs progression question. If there is a strong disparity to incentivize progression, what kinds of scaling is going to be used and how can newer players catch up without pay to win mechanics?

As before, it is unclear as to how this will be balanced, but older characters are meant to be more powerful. After all, if you put more time into developing a character, it doesn't make sense nor is it fair that someone may get to the same stage you are by simply buying their way. There are no pay to win mechanics in the game, no planned mechanics to accelerate your progress, nor to skip the progression of your characters.

What is the plan for old content to remain relevant?

The story will develop based on what players, as individuals and as a collective, have chosen along their journeys. The world is persistent. However, I have once suggest that they allow people to replay older content, and they said they would consider it. I also think it is a waste to have amazing campaigns completely erased after each Age simply because the time ran out.

Being that the plan is to create narrative, can we expect various recurring characters in something like a shadows of mordor nemesis system or some kind of iteration on that? I'd personally like to see a rogue's gallery of folks, possibly that might band together as hunters of your particular character. Additionally they might not necessarily have to defeat you, they could come back as some sort of undead just to hunt you specifically

They are not copying nor being inspired by that system. But characters will have various degrees of natural affiliations in their own way. I don't think we'll see something akin to the Nemesis system, unless it is story based.

Can you give examples of how player choice/action will affect their personal narrative as well as the overall world narrative? (ie, a big one and a small one for each)

A common example that is often given is: a Liche walks into a town and turns everyone into zombies. Other players getting to that place will find the zombies and be able to interact with them in new ways. If a Vampire kill all the zombies and populate the town with its own thralls, he may conquer the town and raise flags representing his forces, and other people will find the place thus decorated and will have to deal with the thralls as the owners of the place, representing their master. I have no idea how this complexity will be achieved effectively.

If player choice matters and everything is dialog based, how are you planning on managing huge files and mass voice actor work for branching narratives? This is presuming the intent is to port to console, which has very limited capacity for files by comparison.

All content will be available on all platforms, no segregation between them. This includes phone devices. The game will be heavily cloud-based, and some of it also involve quantum mechanics and theories that they will be using. It is unclear to us how it will be achieved.

What is intent for cross play between consoles/PC? I would hope the framework is designed to handle this from the ground up even if it isn't implemented immediately.

You can play on any platform with players from any other platform and also access your characters in either of them. There is truly no restriction between each platform. The only thing is that the First Age will be on PC only.

 

[klokwerkaos]

@Faceless Mike

Thanks so much! I haven't been able to pick through every single video yet, but I've been trying to get caught up as best I can.

I feel like this might be a good prompt for FAQ stuff. I'll transfer the other questions over as individual questions in the other forum.

The story will develop based on what players, as individuals and as a collective, have chosen along their journeys. The world is persistent. However, I have once suggest that they allow people to replay older content, and they said they would consider it. I also think it is a waste to have amazing campaigns completely erased after each Age simply because the time ran out.

I feel like this is a must. This will allow newer players to catch up to older players by playing through former campaigns. They won't be able to massively affect the outcome of said campaign if it's retired, but can age their character through the ages and not miss out, this also prevents old content from being "thrown out" but rather, "phased out". This also might be a single player streamlined experience as well, so as not to be running 6 different games simultaneously. It also prevents new players from achieving max level in age 1 and then breezing through everything and being ultra powerful at the start of the current campaign a couple days after it launches.

This way new players can just hit the main campaign beat to get caught up, or, if they want to interact with the current climate, can jump into that age as well.

In both cases it promotes freedom in that regard to the player.

 

[Calypso]

Shameless Plug: My youtube covers deadhaus and gets the broad strokes of things across. Feel free to check it out.

really weird seeing my progression and if its gotten better or worse lol in this playlist.