Gods And Heroes: Gods and Heroes Dev Chat Log Posted

<[Brannoc> Welcome to the first ever Stratics house of commons chat with the developers of Gods&Heroes! Tonight will be a
<[Brannoc> general chat about the game so any and all questions you have are welcome.
<[Brannoc> Please send those questions to [QT]Ishu or [QT]Phineus - to do so type /msg [QT]NICK My question here. (Replacing
<[Brannoc> nick with their name.) Please only send questions to our QT's as those sent to myself or the developers will not
<[Brannoc> make it into the lineup.
<[Brannoc> The full logs will be posted on http://www.stratics.com after the chat. We'll begin with a quick intro from our
<[Brannoc> guests...now would be a good time to send in those questions!
<[PE]Dev> Hi so the Perpetual folks here are Chris McKibbin
<[PE]Dev> Stieg Hedlund, and Christine McGavran
<[PE]Dev> Chris is our fearless leader/president
<[PE]Dev> Stieg is the lead designer
<[PE]Dev> and Christine (that's me typing) is the development director
<[Cerest> And I am merely here for moral support, my name is Kara Japhet from the Themis Group
<[eirene> Hi all! I'm Julianne Greer, also from Themis Group
<[Brannoc> *Chris657* Question: What role does Perpetual plan to have the Underworld fulfill?
<[PE]Dev> Stieg answers - it is our goal to explore a lot of mythological realms in our game, and that's one that we're really excited to explore.
<[PE]Dev> Hades is definitely going to be great for quests... and possibly some good death scenarios.
<[Brannoc> *GD* How many characters will I be able to have on one account?
<[PE]Dev> Christine - we really don't have a strong limit. There's very little in our technology that would get in the way of a lot of characters, so hopefully you won't feel restricted by whatever limit we do choose.
<[Brannoc> *GD* Will defeating mythical creatures and completeing epic quests have any kind of impact on the world?
<[PE]Dev> Chris answers - There's two aspects to the answer of this question.
<[PE]Dev> In dynamic zones (i.e. instances) it's very possible to impact the world via quests, as you can return to this zone again and again and see the impact from your previous quests... since this is your private area this doesn't impact the gameplay of others.
<[PE]Dev> Public areas are harder of course, because of the impact on other players.
<[PE]Dev> But it's possible we will have some large events that will impact the world, or maybe small and/or temporary changes to the world.
<[PE]Dev> Christine - this is actually something we talk about a bit... so I think we'll be exploring a few ideas.
<[Brannoc> *]newbegg[* Can you tell us a little about how Gods&heroes will be unique from the rest of the other big games currently on the market?
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - squad combat is definitely the most obvious difference.
<[PE]Dev> We really are excited about the gods system, both from fantasy & mechanic.
<[PE]Dev> And our combat system is pretty impressive. :)
<[Brannoc> *GD* Will the Gods ever reach a point where they hunt us down or "create" quests by attacking us directly or indirectly instead of us having to seek them out?
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - basically we do want to have a feeling that the world responds to you, like we said before.
<[PE]Dev> And definitely in dynamic zones we will be doing a few things like this.
<[PE]Dev> We have some ideas about how to bring this type of experiences into public zones, but they're still experimental
<[Brannoc> *GD* What kind of transportation system will we find in Gods and Heroes and will there be load screens when traveling?
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - On the transportation systems first.
<[PE]Dev> We will have a wide variety, such as points you go to in the world that can more quickly or even instantly move you somewhere else.
<[PE]Dev> Christine - we think it's very important not to make traveling too tedious.. so while it's fun to explore, it should be possible to get places quickly as well.
<[PE]Dev> That being said, sometimes you will have to travel long distances to get places, and have adventures along the way.
<[PE]Dev> As for loading screens
<[PE]Dev> Our main map is contiguous, and there are no loading times when moving anywhere on that map normally
<[PE]Dev> The only loading screens are when traveling to dynamic zones, or teleporting to a completely different location of the main map.
<[Brannoc> *Chris657* Question: Does Perpetual plan to make exploration an important part of this game? If so, how will it be handled? Will new areas be consistent, or randomly generated?
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - exploration is a very important part of the game. We will have bonuses for finding new areas, and lots of interesting content to find.
<[PE]Dev> The main map is definitely really really big
<[PE]Dev> We will not have randomly generated spaces, though there will be some randomness to the population of those spaces of course.
<[Brannoc> *Sketchy[MTC]* What is meant by "Deep, rich "skills-based" character development and player investment systems"? Ultima online-like skills, or "Level up and get skills with point things"
<[PE]Dev> Stieg says - both!
<[PE]Dev> Basically it's a hybrid system, we have a little of both.
<[PE]Dev> We have a skill system where skills improve continuously as you use them.
<[PE]Dev> And we also have levels, and when you reach a new level you get points you can spend on new abilities.
<[Brannoc> *]newbegg[* Hello, Can you explain a little about the PvP system in Gods&Heroes? Will PVP be rewarded or shunned upon?
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - first off, PvP has a natural place in our world with gladiatorial combat
<[PE]Dev> that could be one on one or squad vs. squad or group vs. group
<[PE]Dev> we plan on expanding the scope of PvP significantly after ship
<[Brannoc> *ObinMon* How will character advancement work?
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - there is a branching system of abilities
<[PE]Dev> which allows you to effectively sub-class
<[PE]Dev> as well as a gods alignment system
<[PE]Dev> which provides additional abilities related to your relationship with a particular god
<[PE]Dev> and adds depth to your choices
<[Brannoc> *Chris657* Question: Does Perpetual plan to have non-formal missions? For instance, as a thief, could I decide to randomly rob a well-guarded mansion for money? Like, for instance, could a thief just choose to randomly pickpocket someone or break into a manor. But not as part of a formal, "Go here and do this" mission.
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - We have a quest management system that allows you to accept or refuse quests according to your own interests, and choose the order in which you want to do quests.
<[PE]Dev> Since we are building quite a few quests, to say the least, this should provide a lot of opportunities to do directed activies according to your own preferences
<[PE]Dev> However, we think it's important that players understand exactly what needs to be done to complete a quest, and what's available to them to do.
<[Brannoc> *ObinMon* Will weather play any part in the game?
<[PE]Dev> Christine - We have actually been working on some cool effects for weather elements
<[PE]Dev> We think weather is more important in general to make the world more interesting and immersive.
<[PE]Dev> I.e. I think we hate quests that make you wait for night.. or wait for rain.
<[PE]Dev> But we have been talking about some cool opportunities in dynamic zones.
<[PE]Dev> Such as having the weather suddenly change as the result of completing a stage of a quest.
<[Brannoc> *Minotaur* While Player Characters won't suffer perma-death, what about their minions or squads they build up? Will there be a chance to lose them forever?
<[PE]Dev> Chris - We don't believe in perma-death.
<[PE]Dev> But we think it's important to keep your minions happy.. i.e. paying their salary, not getting them killed, etc.
<[PE]Dev> And there should be consequences for neglect.
<[Brannoc> *Chris657* Does Perpetual plan to have a lot of GM-sponsored events for players?
<[PE]Dev> Chris - there will be a live team that will be continually developing & evolving the world.
<[PE]Dev> Events will certainly be some part of that, and the number of events will be balanced against other development that will also add to the world, such as new features & content.
<[Brannoc> *Kel|Aeth* With alot of MMO expierence, two things that keep me playing games are 1) The housing systems and 2) the banking systems, how do you plan to handle both?
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - everyone will have access to player housing in the form of camps.
<[PE]Dev> Camps are more than just housing, they are important for managing your squad in various ways.
<[PE]Dev> We also plan a very strong banking system.
<[Brannoc> *GD* What type of effects does my choice of deity have on my character and can you give a example of how indepth it can be?
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - In general we can say the powers you would have if you are a soldier of Mars would be very different then if you are a soldier of Jupiter.
<[PE]Dev> And the powers would be different based on your class, i.e. you will have different powers as a solider of Mars than a priest of Mars.
<[Brannoc> *GD* With squad-based combat being a feature of Gods and Heroes how will Perpetual Entertainment handle the latency ( Lag ) that is ever so present in todays MMOG's ?
<[PE]Dev> Christine - In general there are 2 things people describe as lag.. one is network lag.
<[PE]Dev> The other is client framerate hit.
<[PE]Dev> We have spent a lot of time working on solutions for both, which have been designed into our technology from the beginning.
<[PE]Dev> I guess we don't want to give away too many details of our specific technology though. ;)
<[Brannoc> *Andrantos* Is the god system similar to other advancement systems such as EQs AA, DAoCs RA and ML, and AO's perk system
<[PE]Dev> Stieg - Well the big difference is our god powers are available to your character all the way through.
<[PE]Dev> They aren't a later level feature, or add-on, etc.
<[Brannoc> And that's gonna do it for this one folks! Thanks a lot for joining us - the logs will be posted shortly on www.stratics.com - and remember to join #GnH for general and open chat about the game.
<[PE]Dev> Thanks all, good to meet you.
<[Cerest> thank you everyone! And don't forget to visit www.godsandheroes.com for more information