Destin

Marathon Q&amp;A Happening Now. I'll take notes here as they just said it's not embargoed! Live texting. First note, they are working on getting more codes out! 

"We will be having more tests and play sessions before launch"

"Alpha was intended to be an NDA playtest. Once it was lifted we saw a massive influx. We're working to accomodate that."

Andrew Witts, Joe Ziegler are present.

Proximity Chat Reasoning / Update

Ziegler "We probably can't solve proximity chat for launch, but we've always been looking at it."

Ziegler "We're still trying to figure out how to do it and what form it will take in our game." "Probably not for launch because there are things in the compliance and saftey side"

Ziegler "It's not for lack of not wanting it." It's more about how to implement it.

Ziegler: "A lot of the icons do look pretty samey" They say they're working on it and will "Take a second crack at em."

Witts: Claymores are a temp asset currently. It's a box that says tool on it. Obviously that's not intended. He also mentioned rotating items.

What will get players to stay? What's the hook? - My question!

Ziegler: "Runner based group play is something we've built a lot around." Like their res mechancs etc.

He mentioned a lot of the 2 v 3s etc. So lot's of PVP focus.

"We've seen some success with the more action focued model of combat." 

"We're seeing a lot of interesting brawls inside of the game." Typically we see a lot of people sitting in a bush or something in an extraciton shooter.

Witts: "We're trying to get a balance where, the genre has had a lot of bristly elements to it." Like mechanic complexity. "We're trying to make that more approchable without losing depth."

Our goal is to have a depth with spikes of action.

Witts: Have more of a sci-fi, cyborg fantasy inside the extraciton shooter space. So that's like the goal.

Note: if I don't quote it, I'm doing my best to praphrase.

Ziegler: He mentioned tactical action brawling inside of the game.

Are there any plans to push players together more? Overlapping Exfils, etc. 

Ziegler: "We're definitely talking about making some of the events louder inside of the game."  "That naturally pulls players with more CTA's (Calls to Action)"

Events happen often enough that they don't feel like CTAs right now.

"We're not like a BR where we're forcing everyone to fight until one comes out alive." "We deinitely want to make it more easy to find a fight when you're looking for one." Or that they're more over the stuff that you want.

Ziegler said that currently the number of players we have per map is feeling good. They average 1 PVP engagement per map.

"We do expect some maps to have a lot more pressure for players to engage." And some less obviously.

Ziegler: There's no intent on our side for there to be no PVP engagement between players. We're contextualzing everything in a world where there could be PVP.

We're definitely thinking of ways to expand our communciations in the future.

our PlayMA's are a version of that.

We want to keep the conversation open so we can hear what people are talking about.

"Our intent is to keep that transparency as much as possible" - Ziegler.

"I think folks are wanting you know or asking about where certain aliens are and stuff like that. I'm just not saying anything else. We know that you'rre asking where they are and stuff like that." They didn't say more.

Contracts: 

Contracts are beta. They'e adding more. Some early contracts keep you on perimter too long.

Rewards aren't obvious enough.

Sponsored Kit: WIll they add more and varieties? 

Ziegler: Yes. Pick your playstyle more. Right now you get a gun and randomized pistol.

In the alpha you can upgrade your kit to have more stuff inside it as part hf the faction upgrades.

Cosmetics

Ziegler: "Obviously we want to give players the ability to express themselves through skins and thins of that short as well as identity elements like emblems and icons and things"

Witts: "We're working on them right now. Combat team is actually making a bunch of them right? So we're always looking for things that feel really valuable to the player."

"We're actually learning a lot from you all and your reactions to certain art that Joe Cross sends out and stuff."

Training mode for testing things?

Ziegler: "We've talked about it. We've done some prototyping around it. I can't promise that it'll be there for launch, but I can say we are still thinking about it you know. " "We're going to keep our eye on it for now"

We've got to figure out other less interesting details on it which is less interesting like network etc.

Attachments

Ziegler: We are looking at ways for players to get mods off weapons in the game. And we have some designs that we're pushing forward right now that you may or may not get in beta. 

We like being able to pull the mods and sort of like build them into different guns. What we don't want to do is make it too easy to do.

"Right now the tax of applying one mod destryos another mod isn't the best.  For the economy to work, and for your decisions to matter a little more we need to make sure that we're creating some sort of tax towards how you strip mods and apply them."

Witts: The idea is to give more moments for you to be okay I found a jackpot I've been chasing. I want to get out of this. "We know that what we have right now is dissatisfying."

Faction Quests

Ziegler: "We are always looking for ways to find a way to make it easy for people to understand that better."

They also indicated they don't want to rely too much on markers etc.

The big focuses right now
Witts: TTK - Skill expression, floor vs ceiling for weapons. Increase that per gun. Recoil, time until scoped etc.

1v1 and 1v2s Cost for being shot is being looked at. They're experimenting with flinch etc.

Durablity consideraations Maybe if you have a purple shield, you're not as fast.

Stopping power. Sniper maybe knocks you out of sprint? Or you get slowed when shot.

How is matchmaking being handled?

They're still gathering information right now.

Ziegler: They are focused on "seperating newer players from more experienced players in the session."

Aki (Player): Heat management. Are there plans to have heat be impacted by the weather, or if you're hiding in a pond etc.

Ziegler: "It does right now." "When it's raining for example you actually get lower heat consumption."

BurginStarr (Player): Player Market Question. Are there plans for one? (think auction house).

It feels punishing to go up agains't 3 blues when you have white shields.

Ziegler: "I don't think player market is a solution." "Some of the TTK changes and balancing we're looking at is to make sure that you're not going to feel completely hopeless if you're going in and you encounter people with better gear.

Another is that "I don't think we've nailed fully the way upgrades in our black market work super well right now."

Note: I'm doing my best to type well, but I'm not an accurate fast typer.

Jeoku (Player): Graphics Outside don't look great. I want to tell people what's going on with that.

Ziegler: "A lot of the things you see we're still iterating on." "Especially for our exteriors, wer're looking at additional iterations on our lighting model."

"We're going to be iterating through a lot of those visuals."

Witts: It's not just the characters as well. We're evaluating things like materials, glass, characters etc. "We're having [meetings] on the characters twice a week at this point"