IRC Dev Interview, December 1st, 2007
[Sulfuric]: Alright — we’re starting now…To submit a question, type /msg Devbot Your question. Before the Devs start answering questions, though, I’d like to have them all introduce themselves shortly. Tell us who you are and what you do for Flagship Studios/Flagship Seattle.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Hi there! I’m Travis, I’m I guess the project lead and one of the programmers.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Greetings. I’m Max Schaefer, I’m Executive Producer on Mythos, and C.O.O. of Flagship Studios, and I take credit for all the great work Travis and his team do.
[FSS-adam_perin]: I’m adam and I am the 3d technical artist on mythos
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: Hi all. I’m Jason, the art lead on Mythos.
[FSS-Volbard]: I’m John Dunbar. I make particles and quests, and work on other things. Mysterious things.
[TaylorFSS-`home]: Hey Hey! I’m Taylor Balbi, the Mythos Community Manager. I make a killer Cup Noodles!
[DevBot]: terminatus :asks: In some online games, particular items become a staple of player-based economy (read: Stone of Jordan). Do you anticipate a similar situation in Mythos? What is your vision of how the future economy of Mythos will proceed?
[FSS-tbaldree]: Well, I think we’re all sort of interested in how the economy is actually going to pan out. There will be I imagine a couple of components to it, and they should work together.
[FSS-tbaldree]: As has been mentioned in the forums and in other interviews, we are aiming to do a dual-currency microtransaction system for certain game features.
[FSS-tbaldree]: So that we can all stay in Ramen
[FSS-tbaldree]: But at the same time, we want the rest of the economy to be robust and interesting in its own right.
[FSS-tbaldree]: The Auction house is a major priority for us - so I fully expect specific rares, materials, etc. to become used as ‘currency’ in a way.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: And that real-money based currency will be tradable in game.
[FSS-tbaldree]: In theory, that’ll work together with the tradable ingame and real-money economy
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: We’ll have to watch and monitor the economy constantly, though.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Yeah, I think we all expect it to be a pretty constantly changing economy as we figure out what works.
[DevBot]: Wade :asks: Hello Mythos team! My name is Wade and I’m probably the most excited person about FSS-! My main question is from out of highschool, what did you do to end up where you are and how do I join an accomplished team like this? I think many people would like to know the “How to become a professional game (insert job name) for FSS-”
[FSS-tbaldree]: When I get asked this question, I always say that the best way to get into the business is to make something. That could be a piece of art, a code demo, a design document - just about anything.
[FSS-tbaldree]: But a Demo trumps everything 
[FSS-adam_perin]: After high shool I went to college for 3d animation and arts… played a ton of games …. and worked hard to make a strong potfolio… as an artist your portfolio is everyting (well plus a good attitude)
[FSS-tbaldree]: I ended up in this business the usual roundabout way - always wanted to do it, did it in my spare time because I couldn’t stand not to, and then a little luck and here I am.
[FSS-Volbard]: I think the best way to get into making games is to start making games. Just start. If you want to program, then start a project. If you want to do art, mod an existing game or just establish a portfolio. If you want to design but not program, make card or board games.
[FSS-adam_perin]: agreed
[FSS-tbaldree]: These days, with the Internet as a resource, and the huge number of free engines, C#, etc., it’s easier than ever to get into.
[TaylorFSS-`home]: Heya Wade! My case is pretty funny. I worked with HellgateGuru.com and had visited Flagship a few times and built a friendly relationship with them. I ended up moving to San Francisco, and since I had community experience, I extended my services to Tricia Gray (Marketing Director), and her and Max hired me as the new Mythos Community Manager! I sort of landed on 20 on my D20 
[TaylorFSS-`home]: The best way is to find what you’re good at or what you think you could be good at and work for it
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: From an art standpoint…nothing substitutes for a strang traditional art background. Learning software packages is great, but get the basics. And then work on a demo or mod
[FSS-adam_perin]: yep find your strengths and work to make yourself unquie in the field
[TaylorFSS-`home]: !op Kevin
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: The degree you have or even whether or not you have a degree isn’t as important as you demonstrating exactly how you can be an asset to the team. It can be anything.
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: Tenacity is a big plus too
[FSS-tbaldree]: Yeah - I don’t want to be that guy that says college isn’t important, but I don’t think there are any courses that can substitute for the handson experience of doing it yourself.
[DevBot]: HoltzmaN :asks: What plans do you have with mythos after the release of it? will more levels and support be given?
[Kevin]: hells yeah
[tbaldree]: We plan to continue developing and extending Mythos, in terms of content and features, long after any real ‘release’.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Since this isn’t going in a box, it’s intended to be a continuing project that we cram stuff into as long as we viably can, and have an audience.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: with any luck, the pace of development increases after our eventual commercialization.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Definitely - we have remained pretty lean throughout development, and as we slowly build our team, that should increase our development pace.
[FSS-MarshFSS-]: Hello All. Sorry I’m late. A bit of snow in the seattle area slowed me down.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Mythos is a long-term project. To really compete, a full scale suite of social features, and enough content to last a long, long time are necessary. We feel like we’re still at the very beginning of development in a way.
[FSS-Volbard]: Absolutely, and expect us to take more advantage of being a multiplayer game. Sometimes it feels kind of like a single player experience at the moment. |^)
[DevBot]: NeutralGround :asks: So far you have all done a wonderful job of keeping the classes fairly original and all very fun to play. My question is if you are indeed working on adding more classes, when can we expect them?
[FSS-Kevin]: short awnser : yes
[FSS-tbaldree]: We definitely intend ( and are working on ) new classes. Unfortunately I can’t really give you any sort of timeline.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: when it feels like the game is hurting for more classes, that’s when it becomes the top priority.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Our scheduling is very… fluid… and small bumps in the road can have a big effect on our schedule, so we try not to make too many date promises unless we’re absolutely sure of them.
[DevBot]: Dragona :asks: Is there going to be necklaces for dex and wis to match the +5 and +8 str one from the quests?
[FSS-tbaldree]: Almost certainly I’ll put it on my list! How’s that?
[DevBot]: Wade :asks: Alright! Like Diablo 2, duplication of items became a huge thing and ruined it (in my opinion), what will be your methods to prevent such horrific events
[terminatus]: horrific indeed
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: We will use “aggressive interrogation techniques.”
[FSS-tbaldree]: The team behind Mythos is the same team behind Hellgate, when all is said and done, so we get the benefit of all their experience and hard work on the back end to help prevent nastiness like duping
[DevBot]: Ghozer :asks: will there be either named items, or named NPC’s (or maybe both?) as a thank you to beta testers or something, like GuildWars and a few other games did ?
[FSS-tbaldree]: We haven’t decided exactly what we’ll give to all our faithful testers once we exit Beta, but there WILL be something.
[FSS-tbaldree]: We definitely have ideas kicking around now - hopefully it’ll be a nice surprise. We love our Beta testers!
[FSS-adam_perin]: something cool!
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Something shiny!
[DevBot]: cydrake :asks: For the final game, what kind of endgame do you aim for? I mean will it mainly be an item hunt all the way to the end or will it become drasticly diffrent like some mmo’s where the endgame becomes raiding instead of solo/group.
[FSS-tbaldree]: I think there will be a couple of components to the endgame -
[FSS-tbaldree]: We definitely want to have interesting PVP based games, as well as other traditional ‘endgame’ style content.
[FSS-tbaldree]: But part of the fun of the Action-RPG genre is really trying out new classes and starting over and experiencing things differently
[FSS-tbaldree]: Ideally, I’d like to see some mechanic that encourages that restart, and gives you some sort of incentive or bonus for doing so - a retirement bonus if you will? That can carry over to your next char.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Especially for solo players.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: As well as housing, guild housing, trade skills, raiding - really we want to mix and match your short-term and long-term goals.
[FSS-tbaldree]: yeah
[DevBot]: ComaStrike :asks: Any plans to make item transfers to your own characters easier? like a stash for your entire account?
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Yes, a shared-stash is coming - eventually.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Some sort of shared stash functionality is fairly likely - other options, once a mail system comes online, would involve mailing items to your other characters
[FSS-tbaldree]: but yeah, handing items to strangers to pack them between your characters is definitely, uh, sub-optimal.
[DevBot]: sei :asks: Item merchants are presently a somewhat significant part of how players equip themselves. Do you plan on introducing a faster way for players to reload merchant inventories than having to walk out of town and back? The “Adria trick” (using town portal to book hunt) got kind of old back in D1.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Many of the merchants are, I believe, on a 5 minute timer.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: We really rather you didn’t expoit the merchant turnover.
[FSS-tbaldree]: I’m hesitant to add some sort of merchant ‘re-roll’ because that seems awfully easy to game
[FSS-tbaldree]: yeah
[DevBot]: Aquilus :asks: In most, if not all games featuring real money transaction it always seems to end with players having to invest more and more real-life currency to stay competetive. What are your thoughts on this? Is it something you wish to accomplish or avoid?
[FSS-tbaldree]: Well, we’d definitely like to make money. I like to pay my mortgage. But at the same time, part of the appeal of the dual-currency system that we want to do is that as a player, you don’t HAVE to actually pay cash.
[FSS-tbaldree]: You can legitimately trade with others for it, so you can invest your game time to earn anything that gets sold in that fashion, hopefully preventing inequality in that respect.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: We are seeking to avoid this. We’d like you to be able to be competitive playing free. You may have to put in a bit more time, but you won’t be physically gimped.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Yeah, and you can trade for the “RMT” currency with items you’ve found and have access to everything.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Hopefully it’s fairly obvious from the way Mythos is trending that we’re trying to keep the game from being a brutal grind. We really do want it to be fast, fun, and accessible, and so it’s important to us to keep that, rather than making it a horrible grind for resources.
[FSS-Volbard]: Right. And things that are in the game right now are unlikely to become RMT
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: We’re avoiding just selling the best items, too. Our RMT items will have more indirect effects.
[FSS-Volbard]: And since more powerful things would be overpowered… I wouldn’t worry much about the rmt stuff being uber-l33t
[DevBot]: G-15 :asks: Will you set up contests for the community to create weapon or monster design ?
[FSS-tbaldree]: It’s definitely possible. We’ve already added a lot of uniques just from the suggestion thread in the forum that was generated.
[FSS-tbaldree]: And we read most everything in the forums - even if we don’t always have time to post replies to each and every thread.
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: Yeah, keeping the community interested and invested is a big deal for us. I expect contests for things liek this will occur.
[DevBot]: Sp3tSnAz :asks: I always hear how the Hellgate London team says that their workplace feels more like a family rather than just a work group. As there are a lot less members on the Mythos development team, how is the atmosphere at your workplace? Is it as enjoyable as other work you have done?
[FSS-Kevin]: .. its ok.. 
[FSS-adam_perin]: its great
[FSS-adam_perin]: everyone feels really involved
[FSS-tbaldree]: Best place I’ve ever worked - not only does the South office make us feel like family, but our small group all knows and likes each other. We don’t have much heirarchy at all, and everyone can be involved in anything they have the time, interest, and energy to be involved in
[FSS-Volbard]: It’s definately the best place I’ve ever worked. Aside from being really excited about Mythos, which I am, everyone on the team is a lot of fun to work with.
[FSS-adam_perin]: yeah by far best work enviroment I have had
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: haha…I can, without hesitation, say that it’s the best team and greatest environment I’ve been apart of.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Except for the beatings.
[FSS-adam_perin]: adn fun project
[FSS-Kevin]: just goofin its a great place to be, by far the best I’ve been at
[FSS-Volbard]: And Max is like two states away, it’s awesome!
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: To me, they’re like the family that I always want to go visit, but didn’t always have the transportation to do so. They really are awesome in Seattle, I think it’s something in the rain.
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: many of us have known each other for years…so it’s like collectively making a game with friends.
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: and we’ve made some tremendous hires
[FSS-adam_perin]: what I enjoy is that everyone has an input and is heard… whic is rare in a company
[FSS-tbaldree]: I think we enjoy being the scrappy underdogs too.
[FSS-Kevin]: and were a total of. 12 ?
[DevBot]: N2OInferno :asks: Are there any features you’d like to put into Mythos beyond what is there and planned already? Maybe a great idea that was presented in earlier other projects but didn’t quite live up to expectations, or maybe even scrapped in another game because people thought it wouldn’t work?
[FSS-tbaldree]: There are a lot of sort of metagame things I’d love to do at some point, once we have a more fully featured social system, and robust guilds -
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: PvP alone is a broad category of possibilities.
[FSS-MarshFSS-]: Quests too
[FSS-tbaldree]: Some of the pie-in-the-skie ideas we had early on included Guild championships where gladiators fought for titles that gave bonuses to the entire guild -
[FSS-Volbard]: And robust housing!
[FSS-tbaldree]: and ‘crowd participation’ elements in those gladiatorial battles, where you could jeer or cheer combatants to give them benefits in battle
[FSS-tbaldree]: We’ve got a ton of things we’d love to do beyond what we’ve got planned for the next year -
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: I’m still pushing for Guild dungeon assualts
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: An idea I’m 109% behind.
[FSS-MarshFSS-]: don’t forget about the statue of the winning character out front for each weeks point winner. Now that was pie in the sky!
[DevBot]: Wade :asks: How do you feel about the Competition Mythos will have? Runescape will probably be the largest competitor due to its already known user base and FREE to play game system. Any Insight on how you guys will try to pull people would be appreciated. Also, how are you guys going to be funded for this (unless it’s of private matters I do apologize). Will there be in game Advertisements of any sort?…
[FSS-tbaldree]: One of Runescape’s big benefits is that it is playable on almost anything. We may get some Runescape players, but given that our game doesn’t require HUGE time investment, I can ( hopefully ) see us sharing players with lots of other games
[FSS-tbaldree]: especially since there’s no subscription barrier to entry to play - just sign up and hop in, and see if you like it
[FSS-tbaldree]: hopefully people decide to stay!
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: The more great competitors out there the better. We feel like the “casual game” field is the future, and just want to be part of the explosion. But we’re optimistic about our place in the field.
[FSS-tbaldree]: We are, at present, not planning ANY ingame advertisements. Unless Max corrects me, I’m going to say that’s never going to happen
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: I can’t imagine an appropriate in-game advertisement in a fantasy game.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: So yeah, not gonna happen.
[FSS-tbaldree]: me either, yuck.
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: I’m hopeful our production value helps Mythos get a few more peopel to stick.
[FSS-tbaldree]: And having had a ( lamentable ) history in advergaming, I’d prefer not to touch that stuff with a 10-foot pole ever again.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Plus, we think our RMT model will cover our costs. The stuff you can buy is cool.
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: !op MarshFSS-
[FSS-tbaldree]: The crafting system is intended to be skill based, with a crafting tree.
[DevBot]: terminatus :asks: Crafting is a long awaited feature to be re-introduced in Mythos. Will it be a skill-based system? can we expect any sort of resource-gathering outside of monster drops?
[FSS-Volbard]: He’s psychic!
[FSS-tbaldree]: See, I am psychic
[terminatus]: get out of my mind!!
[FSS-Volbard]: I could see some resource gathering on roads and the like being involved in crafting
[FSS-tbaldree]: My personal preference is that resource gathering happen sort of naturally during play, and your resource gathering is more a matter of choosing what areas you’re going to whack thhings in, but that’s still in progress
[DevBot]: |DiEsIel| :asks: What are your plans for marketing Mythos? We obviously want more people to know about this awesome game
[FSS-Volbard]: Tell your friends!
[FSS-adam_perin]: word of mouth!
[SolInvictus]: I take my friends’ families hostage to force them to try Mythos.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: So far, we’ve been taking it very slow, as at the same time we’ve been launching Hellgate. Obviously, that makes a startup company kinda busy, so we’ve kept our population low.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: But now that we have some breathing room, we’re going to start to spread the word, and open up the world a bit.
[FSS-tbaldree]: We’re still sort of in a tug-of-war with amount content vs playerbase size - we don’t want to bring an enormous load of people in before we have enough stuff to sustain them
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Exactly, like I said before, we really want to have a compelling game when we open the floodgates.
[FSS-MarshFSS-]: I always like the door to door method personaly. But I totally agree with travis. Adding to many people right now could really hurt us do to our lack of content.
[DevBot]: sei :asks: Identify seems like it’s still around as a holdover from old games, like D&D. Back then, you ran into less stuff, so each find was a bigger deal. Having to go through the bother of identifying everything, when items drop like rain, seems like a tedious formality at this point. What do you think of games like TQ doing away with the mechanic?
[FSS-tbaldree]: We didn’t have Identify for a while, and it just felt a little… wrong without it.
[FSS-tbaldree]: That said, we are actively talking about ways we can keep the mechanic and reduce the tedium of identifying a bunch of stuff
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Yeah, there’s something nice about getting back to town and discovering what you’ve found.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Yeah, it’s a bit click-heavy right now, but I still like the timing of it better than instant ID.
[DevBot]: Sore :asks: Will 50 be the top level for this game?
[FSS-tbaldree]: I doubt it will be the permanent top level ( as long as we’re successful anyway! )
[FSS-tbaldree]: we’ll make content up to 50
[FSS-tbaldree]: once we hit it, we’re gonna keep building the game as long as we can, so eventually I expect it’ll have to lift - but that’s probably a good way out right now.
[DevBot]: Wade :asks: I noticed (don’t take this the wrong way) a very usual gameplay when it came to questing, will their be more unique thought out quests after the beta? Find X amount of items got old from wow. Also as in Diablo 2, will items that give OTHER classes class specific skills (i.e. enigma with teleportation) be considered? I feel this gave the sorceress class a huge disadvantage.
[FSS-tbaldree]: We definitely want more interesting questions, and hopefully you can expect to see them increase in complexity from zone to zone as we continue to expand the quest system.
[FSS-Volbard]: quests!
[FSS-tbaldree]: er, interesting QUESTS not questions
[FSS-tbaldree]: man
[FSS-tbaldree]: boy, now I sound like a heel.
[FSS-Volbard]: We’re definately looking into different kinds of quests, I know doing the same thing over and over gets old
[Sulfuric]: Does this perhaps mean some quirky quests like the Cannon Fodder-esque quest in Hellgate: London? >.>
[FSS-Volbard]: Maybe, but most new quest mechanics we add we’ll want to reuse
[FSS-tbaldree]: Yeah, we’re looking to expand the flexibility of the system overall so that there can be much more interesting objectives.
[FSS-Volbard]: Small detail changes can make all the difference. Maybe you still have a quest to kill a boss, but this time an NPC comes with you. Things like that are what I hope we’ll have in the near future
[FSS-MarshFSS-]: we have lots of new ideas for quests. Especially now thanks to the forums!
[DevBot]: NeutralGround :asks: How many Zones, if you have a set number in your heads, are you planning to have by the end?
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Lots and lots of zones!!!
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: there’s no absolute number, but I look forward to filling out all of the world map to start.
[DevBot]: Aquilus :asks: My most fond memories from D2 was Chain-Exploding with “The Best Skill Ever”, the Necromancers Corpse Explosion. While I think it’s great that the Mythos equivalent skill was change to what it is now, is there any chance that it will be made more viable damage-wise? (Perhaps damage based on health percentage like the original?)
[FSS-tbaldree]: There is always a chance. We change skill balance and functionality daily, and there will be a continuing set of balance changes going forward
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: I’m going to have to agree - we should kick up corpse explode!
[FSS-tbaldree]: kaboom!
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Corpse explode should never be a weak skill.
[terminatus]: amen
[SolInvictus]: It should be gory as all hell, too.
[DevBot]: Ghozer :asks: Any chance of any ’secret’ areas? (maybe Sheep Level?) (since i thnk Cow level is copyright Bliz??)
[FSS-tbaldree]: Zardon knows.
[FSS-adam_perin]: muhahaha
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: Only Zardon knows…RRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRR
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: True that.
[FSS-Kevin]: With our personal.. its a strong chance
[FSS-MarshFSS-]: Zardon shows the true path!
[DevBot]: HoltzmaN :asks: What future plans and ideas do you have for the guild system. I saw max mention housing and guild housing as well. ^^
[FSS-tbaldree]: We definitely want to expand the basic guild functionality even before we get to that point -
[FSS-tbaldree]: with assignable ranks, etc.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Travis, they don’t have anything to expand yet!
[FSS-MarshFSS-]: Some sort of Guild Specific quests have been talked about.
[FSS-tbaldree]: the basic guild functionality that comes out in our patch I mean
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: w00t!
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Plus, guild housing - ranks of it.
[FSS-tbaldree]: But Guild Housing is definitely on the list, long before actual housing
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Each with cooler features than the last.
[DevBot]: G-15 :asks: Will there be armor/weapon sets ? If yes ,when ?
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: maybe. A firm maybe.
[FSS-tbaldree]: very firm
[FSS-adam_perin]: A solid maybe
[FSS-tbaldree]: but no timeline, alas
[DevBot]: MyGFR :asks: Will you create a storyline or keep the quests as they are, unrelated to each other ?
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: sets? yes…but we are only in the second zone…you gotta earn ‘em
[FSS-Volbard]: There won’t ever be a single quest line that runs through the whole game
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: But facts and tidbits about the world will be unveiled little by little.
[FSS-tbaldree]: We would like to provide more background though, that gives the game more structure
[FSS-Volbard]: That’s just how mmos work
[FSS-Volbard]: There will be lots of little story arcs, and some larger arcs..
[FSS-Volbard]: And world history that ties it together
[FSS-Volbard]: But your character won’t be railroaded down a single quest line |^)
[DevBot]: Arxinal :asks: Regarding character customization will ther be more races more options for faces hairstyles etc…also a possibility of a hair stylist npc to change your look after you have created your avatar as well as dyes to change clothing/armor color as in guild wars?
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Short answer, yes.
[FSS-tbaldree]: There will definitely be more races. Hairstyles and accessory/visual options are definitely in the cards
[FSS-Grimby_BECK]: Post-initial creation is still being diiscussed, but expect more races, options, accessories, etc.
[DevBot]: Corbin :asks: Is there going to be more “realistic” stats for the characters like shield block(parry) animation, faster block rate and fast hit recovery?
[FSS-tbaldree]: hitrecovery is the most likely in the near term. Tying the block to actual animations and having that work in the context and timing of combat is more complicated, and less likely-
[FSS-tbaldree]: It also means that to have it be consistent we need to do those animations for monsters that have shields and can block, and it does change the tempo of combat a bit.
[DevBot]: Arxinal :asks: Is it possible to have a persistant map simply for pvp combat with npc’s questing and such for those of us who like the risk of world pvp?
[FSS-tbaldree]: We are specifically discussing this for the ’shadow world’ pvp zone we’ve been talking about doing.
[FSS-tbaldree]: these areas would have to have constantly respawning monsters, but we are definitely talking about this.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Talking hard about it.
[FSS-tbaldree]: very hard
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: in serious tones
[DevBot]: Sp3tSnAz :asks: As there will be real money transactions, will there be any kind of special offer like Hellgate London with its Founders Offer that enable us to get either more items or all items for free?
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Honestlyh we haven’t thought about this yet.
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: I’m not sure how you would make that work, but we’re open to ideas.
[DevBot]: G-15 :asks: Will the game be translated (Multi Language / localized) ? If yes, when ?
[FSS-tbaldree]: Yes, although I’m not sure the total number or details of the languages it’ll be translated in
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Yes. We will be doing Korean first, in all likelihood, but will try to do as many as is practical.
[DevBot]: selv :asks: Could you elaborate a bit more on what players can purchase with RMT credits? Cosmetic items have been a primary example, but are gameplay features and modes also likely to become purchasable?
[FSS-tbaldree]: OK, RMT features -
[FSS-tbaldree]: Our initial slate of stuff includes Pets, some cosmetic items, some consumable emotes ( fireworks/tasers), and modifications to maps -
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: *as a disclaimer, this is all in flux
[FSS-tbaldree]: yeah
[FSS-tbaldree]: so, this could all change
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: We could do a subscription instead. Or charge $100 a box. Or give YOU money - it’s all up in the air.
[FSS-tbaldree]: it is likely that respeccing will be an RMT purchase too ( at least after the up-to-level-5 freebies )
[Sulfuric]: Just don’t give plane tickets. Some of your playerbase has bad luck with those.
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: I’ve only heard of one case
[terminatus]: That’s the last question folks
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Probably we’ll do some RMT features for housing and guilds as well.
[FSS-tbaldree]: Thanks a lot for showing up everybody! And for all the great questions.
[FSS-tbaldree]: yeah
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: ALRIGHT! If you’d all stick around for a minute longer, I would like to share something with you
[Sulfuric]: Thank you guys for showing up to answer all these questions!
[FSS-MaxSchaefer]: Yeah, that was fun - thanks everyone!
[FSS-Volbard]: Thanks for coming all!
[Sulfuric]: And…Taylor has the floor.
[FSS-MarshFSS-]: Thanks everybody!
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: Thanks a million!
[terminatus]: thanks FSS- Seattle for coming, keep up the great work!
[FSS-adam_perin]: eah thanks for coming
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: As we greatly appreciate you all coming out for this Dev Chat hosted by MythosGuru.com, I’d like to give you something fun
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: In about 45 minutes I’ll be posting it on the forums, but you guys can have the first look!
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/3074/icetrollhv9.jpg
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: Meet, The Ice Troll!
[FSS-TaylorFSS-`home]: Thanks again for coming out to this great Dev Chat! See you all in Uld!
