Valiance Online Dev Goes Crazy, Posts Public AMA

Started by Chance-VO, August 23, 2014, 03:02:44 PM

Chance-VO

Quote from: Petite on August 24, 2014, 06:41:26 AM
Where would be the best place in the forums to drop said line?

In General Discussion is fine :)

Captain Electric

Hey Chance! You're getting me very excited about the premise for your game. I don't hate action RPGs either, but like you, I'd hate to see a world where they totally eclipsed tab-targeting mechanics that rely on character skills. After all, aren't character abilities what old school RPGs are all about? While I actually (gasp) enjoy action MMOs, what I always enjoyed the most was the gameplay found in City of Heroes.

But enough about the mechanics. What about the world? I heard its story takes place toward the end of the 21st Century. That's a fantastic way to set yourself apart from the pack thematically; with the other two Plan Z games, we'll have our dose of modern era heroes. But what overall effect will that have on the setting and on the game experience? Will technology play a big role in the origin of everyone's powers or will you leave that up to the player to decide? Will there be NPC groups and story arcs where magic is prevalent? Will there be very many baseline humans left in the world, or does everyone have cyber-implants, nanite infusions, and gene mods? Will there be a place for natural origin characters and NPCs who aren't luddites? Will there be Batman-like characters left in the world who are separable from the technology they employ? On the other side of the coin, will there be Cyberpunk-inspired areas of the game world where heroic NPCs (and characters) use their implants to jack into and patrol the net, or use brain enhancements to decipher complex clues, instead of mankind's fusion with technology being demonized à la Freakshow? And speaking of that fusion, will there be transhumanist themes dealing with ascension, artificial intelligence and life, personal mind-body backups, and virtual societies? Will any of the game's story arcs tackle moral and political dilemmas of the future, such as A.I. rights, genetic tweaking, animal uplifts, future drugs, and so on?

You said the game takes place on the opposite side of the country from City of Titan's setting. Are we talking Los Angeles here or a fictional city? Will there be other areas to explore added to the game such as virtual environments or outer space locations? Will space travel figure into the setting and if so, will we be able to go into space? Will there be a space station like in Heroes and Villains and DCUO? Have we colonized the solar system in places like the moon and Mars? Or even farther to locations like the Kuiper Belt, the moons Europa and Titan, or interstellar locations? Will there be time travel to the past or farther into the future?

How far will you go to build up the setting and draw players into it? Will we be able to write our own biographies like in CoH and CO? Will there be features shared between the website and game, like Neverwinter's gateway? Will you develop comic books in digital or print format to accompany the game?

Benjonesart

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
Hey Chance! You're getting me very excited about the premise for your game. I don't hate action RPGs either, but like you, I'd hate to see a world where they totally eclipsed tab-targeting mechanics that rely on character skills. After all, aren't character abilities what old school RPGs are all about? While I actually (gasp) enjoy action MMOs, what I always enjoyed the most was the gameplay found in City of Heroes.

But enough about the mechanics. What about the world? I heard its story takes place toward the end of the 21st Century. That's a fantastic way to set yourself apart from the pack thematically; with the other two Plan Z games, we'll have our dose of modern era heroes. But what overall effect will that have on the setting and on the game experience? Will technology play a big role in the origin of everyone's powers or will you leave that up to the player to decide? Will there be NPC groups and story arcs where magic is prevalent? Will there be very many baseline humans left in the world, or does everyone have cyber-implants, nanite infusions, and gene mods? Will there be a place for natural origin characters and NPCs who aren't luddites? Will there be Batman-like characters left in the world who are separable from the technology they employ? On the other side of the coin, will there be Cyberpunk-inspired areas of the game world where heroic NPCs (and characters) use their implants to jack into and patrol the net, or use brain enhancements to decipher complex clues, instead of mankind's fusion with technology being demonized à la Freakshow? And speaking of that fusion, will there be transhumanist themes dealing with ascension, artificial intelligence and life, personal mind-body backups, and virtual societies? Will any of the game's story arcs tackle moral and political dilemmas of the future, such as A.I. rights, genetic tweaking, animal uplifts, future drugs, and so on?

You said the game takes place on the opposite side of the country from City of Titan's setting. Are we talking Los Angeles here or a fictional city? Will there be other areas to explore added to the game such as virtual environments or outer space locations? Will space travel figure into the setting and if so, will we be able to go into space? Will there be a space station like in Heroes and Villains and DCUO? Have we colonized the solar system in places like the moon and Mars? Or even farther to locations like the Kuiper Belt, the moons Europa and Titan, or interstellar locations? Will there be time travel to the past or farther into the future?

How far will you go to build up the setting and draw players into it? Will we be able to write our own biographies like in CoH and CO? Will there be features shared between the website and game, like Neverwinter's gateway? Will you develop comic books in digital or print format to accompany the game?

Well some of this I can answer from the art direction and overall look of our game. From a visual standpoint we are going with a more SCIFI/Cyberpunk look in many aspects. From the city buildings, clothes of pedestrians and vehicles, it will feel more and more like a cyberpunk environment. I think the best way to explain is that cyberpunk usually entails a very dystopian feel but our current city is on the rise. While dark in some areas, they're many areas with the more scifi feel as the city has been building up to a more grand stature. In this futuristic foundation we can go in any direction really and not be chained to the everyday mythos of superheroes.

On the other stuff, Ill try and get our content lead over here to answer so of those things. But be forewarned we have many things on paper right now that would answer many of your questions but we are hesitant about saying they will be in the game until they are actually in game.
Valiance Online
Art Direction
Ben Jones

Chance-VO

Well..That's a question.. :D

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM

But enough about the mechanics. What about the world? I heard its story takes place toward the end of the 21st Century. That's a fantastic way to set yourself apart from the pack thematically; with the other two Plan Z games, we'll have our dose of modern era heroes. But what overall effect will that have on the setting and on the game experience?

It will have a rather marked effect on the game and experience. We have nearly 100 years of history that our content team has come up with to draw from. A lot has happened to change the world and explain what you, the player, will encounter as you play. We're not going to give it to you all up front though, after all, part of the fun is in exploring to find out more, yeah? ;)

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
Will technology play a big role in the origin of everyone's powers or will you leave that up to the player to decide?

That is, on the whole, going to be up to the player. We felt it would be a disservice to you all if we demanded that you stick to one genre or type alone. That's not what CoX was about, so it is not what we will be about. You want your character to be a time-travelling ghost robot from the other side of the cosmos who calls upon mystical powers of another dimension to work your mojo? Go for it! :D

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
Will there be NPC groups and story arcs where magic is prevalent?

Yes.  8) Simple enough..Moving along.

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
Will there be very many baseline humans left in the world, or does everyone have cyber-implants, nanite infusions, and gene mods?

There are plenty of 'normal' humans left. I hear they're the most populous species on the planet ;) But to be less cheeky, not everyone has Google Glass, but everyone knows about it, right? Not everyone has a SYNAPSE chip in their computer and fewer people know what that is. There are layers to the world around us, so there are layers to the game as well. We felt that was an important aspect to retain in our game.

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
Will there be a place for natural origin characters and NPCs who aren't luddites? Will there be Batman-like characters left in the world who are separable from the technology they employ?

Right now out there in the world are people running sprint races with artificial limbs. But this hasn't stopped other athletes from training to compete or inspired them to hack their legs off. Some people feel the need to push themselves, mentally, physically to the peak of their ability regardless of the options out there to push further. I don't ever see that changing.

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
On the other side of the coin, will there be Cyberpunk-inspired areas of the game world where heroic NPCs (and characters) use their implants to jack into and patrol the net, or use brain enhancements to decipher complex clues, instead of mankind's fusion with technology being demonized à la Freakshow? And speaking of that fusion, will there be transhumanist themes dealing with ascension, artificial intelligence and life, personal mind-body backups, and virtual societies?

Given that much of this is stuff I wrote, it better be in there or I'm going to have to have a long talk with the content team ;)

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
Will any of the game's story arcs tackle moral and political dilemmas of the future, such as A.I. rights, genetic tweaking, animal uplifts, future drugs, and so on?

We will have to be somewhat delicate with these things.

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
You said the game takes place on the opposite side of the country from City of Titan's setting. Are we talking Los Angeles here or a fictional city? Will there be other areas to explore added to the game such as virtual environments or outer space locations?

Yes.  8) Again, slightly less cheeky, the city is a fictional one, which also means you're not going to look it up on Wikipedia for clues about the backstory, though there will be plenty of those within the city itself.

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
Will space travel figure into the setting and if so, will we be able to go into space? Will there be a space station like in Heroes and Villains and DCUO?

Previous answer, first word. And I have to leave it at that or my Content lead might just decide to assassinate me :P

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
Have we colonized the solar system in places like the moon and Mars? Or even farther to locations like the Kuiper Belt, the moons Europa and Titan, or interstellar locations? Will there be time travel to the past or farther into the future?

"Get your ass to MARS!" Heh heh..Love that movie.
Oh darn, look at the time, I can answer maybe 4 more questions...

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AM
How far will you go to build up the setting and draw players into it? Will we be able to write our own biographies like in CoH and CO? Will there be features shared between the website and game, like Neverwinter's gateway? Will you develop comic books in digital or print format to accompany the game?

Oh look at that, four questions :D The first one has been answered as far as I am able to right now (I gotta leave some spotlight room for everyone after all ;) ). Yes to the second. You'll have to explain that third one a little better, I'm not sure I understand the question there, could you explain a little more? I haven't actually had the time to look at any other games in a few months lol That last one would be awesome though, but I think Ben would strangle me if I suggested it right now. He's our solo, overworked underpaid artist at the moment :)

I'm going to keep popping back in here, at least until I grow bored or the team suggests I shut up ;)

Kaos Arcanna

Do you have it worked out exactly how enhancements/gear will be working in the game?  One of the things I liked about COX was the simplicity of how the enhancement system started out. Sure, IOs made it a bit more complicated later on, but there was still the option to slot a couple of accuracies, damages, sleeps, holds, etc. in the power. :D


Skipjack

Quote from: Chance-VO on August 24, 2014, 04:19:28 PM
Well..That's a question.. :D

It will have a rather marked effect on the game and experience. We have nearly 100 years of history that our content team has come up with to draw from. A lot has happened to change the world and explain what you, the player, will encounter as you play. We're not going to give it to you all up front though, after all, part of the fun is in exploring to find out more, yeah? ;)

That is, on the whole, going to be up to the player. We felt it would be a disservice to you all if we demanded that you stick to one genre or type alone. That's not what CoX was about, so it is not what we will be about. You want your character to be a time-travelling ghost robot from the other side of the cosmos who calls upon mystical powers of another dimension to work your mojo? Go for it! :D

Yes.  8) Simple enough..Moving along.

There are plenty of 'normal' humans left. I hear they're the most populous species on the planet ;) But to be less cheeky, not everyone has Google Glass, but everyone knows about it, right? Not everyone has a SYNAPSE chip in their computer and fewer people know what that is. There are layers to the world around us, so there are layers to the game as well. We felt that was an important aspect to retain in our game.

Right now out there in the world are people running sprint races with artificial limbs. But this hasn't stopped other athletes from training to compete or inspired them to hack their legs off. Some people feel the need to push themselves, mentally, physically to the peak of their ability regardless of the options out there to push further. I don't ever see that changing.

Given that much of this is stuff I wrote, it better be in there or I'm going to have to have a long talk with the content team ;)

We will have to be somewhat delicate with these things.

Yes.  8) Again, slightly less cheeky, the city is a fictional one, which also means you're not going to look it up on Wikipedia for clues about the backstory, though there will be plenty of those within the city itself.

Previous answer, first word. And I have to leave it at that or my Content lead might just decide to assassinate me :P

"Get your ass to MARS!" Heh heh..Love that movie.
Oh darn, look at the time, I can answer maybe 4 more questions...

Oh look at that, four questions :D The first one has been answered as far as I am able to right now (I gotta leave some spotlight room for everyone after all ;) ). Yes to the second. You'll have to explain that third one a little better, I'm not sure I understand the question there, could you explain a little more? I haven't actually had the time to look at any other games in a few months lol That last one would be awesome though, but I think Ben would strangle me if I suggested it right now. He's our solo, overworked underpaid artist at the moment :)

I'm going to keep popping back in here, at least until I grow bored or the team suggests I shut up ;)

Oh don't worry Chance your transhumanism stuff will be used and expounded upon... 

Hi folks I am the Content Lead for VO.  I will also try to answer some questions!  Though Chance knows the lore very very well so he covered most of it already.

Space is certainly going to be included.  ;)

houtex

Quote from: Chance-VO on August 23, 2014, 11:59:20 PM
Haha, love the enthusiasm, houtex. Lemme break this down...

We haven't announced our options for travel powers just yet. We're still inputting all the ways for you to pummel foes as our primary focus.
(Was in reference to Web/rope/cable/? slinging/travel) So you're saying there's a chance?  YES!  You heard it here, folks, Quake Guy grappling hook travel powers are comin' soon!  Oh, and I suppose something something arachnoguyish webs...
Quote

Yes  8) I don't know if it will be ready by this first iteration, given our current hardware limitations, but we are getting systems in place.
(re: Minion commanding) Cool.
Quote

I dunno, I heard they can be a rather temperamental lot ;)
(re:commanding Amazonian Womens)  That's ok, I'm a charmer, Themiscyran or no. :)  I mean, if Diana and Bruce could possibly...
Quote

See last answer :D
(re:tastefully clothing Amazon Womens) Well, it's not like their dress is usually not awesome anyway... but still, more of a 'can I make costumes for my minions, or would they be canned in clothing/makeup/make up'? question, that.  Just hidden because, well, Amazonian Womens. :D
Quote

That I'll actually have to talk to our tech guy about, but I would love to see it myself :)
(re: full freedom of acrobatics for aerial/space manuvers, aka 360/360 freedom of movement) Another 'you heard it here', full freedom of aerial acrobatics!  Sweet!

---

Wanna thank you for the time and responses, Chance.  Can't wait to see more! 

Chance-VO

Quote from: Kaos Arcanna on August 24, 2014, 04:26:45 PM
Do you have it worked out exactly how enhancements/gear will be working in the game?  One of the things I liked about COX was the simplicity of how the enhancement system started out. Sure, IOs made it a bit more complicated later on, but there was still the option to slot a couple of accuracies, damages, sleeps, holds, etc. in the power. :D

We have it worked out as far as systems go, but we need tech to catch up in order to do it properly. That's going to have to be listed under Soon™

Chance-VO

Don't tell me I've managed to outlast your curiosity  8)

Kaos Arcanna

I could ask lots of other questions, I'm sure, but I don't want to hog all the attention. :D

How about this one? Will there be plans for an eventual Mission Architect-like feature?


Chance-VO

Quote from: Kaos Arcanna on August 24, 2014, 11:58:13 PM
I could ask lots of other questions, I'm sure, but I don't want to hog all the attention. :D

How about this one? Will there be plans for an eventual Mission Architect-like feature?

We're still discussing that one, but I would love to do it personally. If it's something we do it will have to be later on down the line though, given the amount of work it will take to get it implemented.

Captain Electric

Quote from: Captain Electric on August 24, 2014, 09:02:04 AMWill there be features shared between the website and game, like Neverwinter's gateway?

Quote from: Chance-VO on August 24, 2014, 04:19:28 PM
You'll have to explain that third one a little better, I'm not sure I understand the question there, could you explain a little more? I haven't actually had the time to look at any other games in a few months lol

There are other examples I could use instead of NW's Gateway, and all of them have various features. In NW, like WoW, you can log into the website and monitor your character and gear stats. Long ago in Champions Online, you used to be able to write your bio--and view other peoples bios--from the website; using simple HTML formatting, to boot, unlike CoH's bios, which only allowed plain text. On Eve Online's website, you can not only monitor your character's skill development but set skills to train offline (if you meet the necessary requirements in-game). As I understand it, Vanguard automatically created a blog for your character on its website, building a history of tales and other achievements based on your deeds inside the game, but I don't know if it could be viewed publicly or had privacy controls. Even the world's first mainstream MMORPG, Ultima Online, had a feature called MyUO as far back as 1997, where you could view a real-time representation of your character, his or her gear, guild affiliations and current wars, and so on. Earth and Beyond had no such feature, but the team behind the Earth and Beyond Emulator has built functionality into a web portal that allows you to send email to other characters, move items between characters, share a guild vault, and so on.

Quote from: Chance-VO on August 24, 2014, 04:19:28 PMI'm going to keep popping back in here, at least until I grow bored or the team suggests I shut up ;)

One of the nicest features about City of Heroes was one that many players couldn't live without; unfortunately, they also took it for granted, forgot to ask other studios for it until it was too late, and thus it has never appeared in another super hero MMORPG. That feature is its UI. Simple on the outside, rich and as customizable as your characters on the inside, CoH's UI allowed you to create new power trays, bend and reshape them, and place them around your screen, right where you needed them. Button-mashers who didn't use hot keys for every power were able to cut down on wrist injuries and eye strain. There were also power monitors, little bitty windows that you could place on your screen anywhere you wanted that monitored flight speed, DPS, influence, and so on. You didn't have to enter a separate mode to manipulate them and drag them around. You could just drag them around or lock them right on the screen. All in all, the design of the UI boiled down to a principle that Paragon Studios held high: consideration.

All I can say is, I hope it's not too late to [yet again] ask a studio for this while they're developing a super hero MMO.

Chance-VO

Alright Cap E..You win, I'm not quoting all of that lol

For your first part I finally understand what you mean :) I just needed a little context. That I would like to do and make it as feature rich as possible (along with the mobile platform tie in), but that's far future if ever. Gotta remember, we're not a full fledged studio as of yet so, temper expectations for the time being ;)

As for the second half, our tech guy is building the game with a fully customizable UI in mind from the outset, so there will be plenty of support for that :)

Captain Electric

Cool on both fronts. Especially the latter, considering the age demographics; I bet all of the crappy UIs out there are killing some eyes and wrists!

As for the former, no one is going to hang you for that. I don't know if the network code is any harder to implement later than it is to do it sooner. But it's a nice feature to have. Nuff said! (I forgot to mention though, with NW's Gateway, players can also do their crafting.)

Thanks especially for the lore answers y'all responded with. I knew you couldn't give many specific answers and I actually got more than I expected. My intent was to probe around and see how confident you are in those developments, and whether the terms I used made sense to the team. Very satisfactory responses all around, thank you.

houtex

I had a thought.

I wanna be a Leech.

Well, not exactly Leech, mind, but a leech.  A gloomy character that could just stand in a group of Bad People(tm).  And was protected enough to withstand some assaulting.  But would not fire off any power... he/she would just stand there... and then... the Bad People(tm) would just sort of... die/be defeated/get conquered/ whatever you'd be callin' that.

They're so depressed/dark/angry/fired up/? that they suck the HP/life/? outta the enemies, all whilst he/she just stands there... and the Bad People just drop from exhaustion/extingishment.

In CoH you had Fire aura, Dark aura, spines, and other AoEs that would sorta get you there, but they were few and far between.  Would that one could combine them in a special mix and make some sort of AoE-inator that wouldn't fire any shots, but you'd still go down.

So... I guess that's not particularly a question, I just sorta would like to have something like that.  But if I hadda put it in a question: Will we see that sort of thing be possible?  A character of 'suckage'?


Benjonesart

Quote from: houtex on August 25, 2014, 02:15:06 PM
I had a thought.

I wanna be a Leech.

Well, not exactly Leech, mind, but a leech.  A gloomy character that could just stand in a group of Bad People(tm).  And was protected enough to withstand some assaulting.  But would not fire off any power... he/she would just stand there... and then... the Bad People(tm) would just sort of... die/be defeated/get conquered/ whatever you'd be callin' that.

They're so depressed/dark/angry/fired up/? that they suck the HP/life/? outta the enemies, all whilst he/she just stands there... and the Bad People just drop from exhaustion/extingishment.

In CoH you had Fire aura, Dark aura, spines, and other AoEs that would sorta get you there, but they were few and far between.  Would that one could combine them in a special mix and make some sort of AoE-inator that wouldn't fire any shots, but you'd still go down.

So... I guess that's not particularly a question, I just sorta would like to have something like that.  But if I hadda put it in a question: Will we see that sort of thing be possible?  A character of 'suckage'?

I do believe we had a vampiric style set in the works but not sure if its still on our primary list. And feel free to post these comments because you never know, you might think of something we haven't. One thing we are preaching for our community, never be afraid to voice your opinion because we are watching and listening very closely. 
Valiance Online
Art Direction
Ben Jones

Chance-VO

Quote from: houtex on August 25, 2014, 02:15:06 PM
  But if I hadda put it in a question: Will we see that sort of thing be possible?  A character of 'suckage'?

Yeah, that sort of thing is potentially possible. I'll say we don't have a specific set in place for that at the moment but it is not outside the bounds of possibility.

Chance-VO