Dev Chat Highlight, June 23

Just thinking with the 20-26ish range of First Ward (I rewatched the chat. Black Scorpion said it's 20-25/26ish), that's about the same as Imperial City and Neutropolis. Outside of Nova Praetoria, most of the zones cover about a five level stretch. It means, for one thing, you've got a lot less of a chance of blundering into an outdoor mob that's seven levels above you.

I have no problem with the large weapons, as long as it keeps the anime-types from complaining they aren't represented enough in this game, because I truely expect the next complaint to be that there need to be larger eye options and the ability to translate mission text into Japanese.

I just want a REALLY big two handed hammer, they're always my weapon of choice in certain games (Great Mauls, Super Sledgehammers, whatever, just a big old hammer for smacking things with).

Or something like this:


Since using something like that is based ENITRELY around momentum...more in the sense of once you get going it's very hard to stop (unless it wraps around your own neck and twists your head off...as does happen with Goblin Fanatics...)

If the following has been mentioned yet, my apologies:

I'm throwing my hat in for one very important big-weapon request: Longbow/Arachnos trooper. Just lug the dude around by the ankle, then when it's clobbering time, wheeeeeee!

Later on,
Gate

There should be a Jack-in-Irons style club too.

Looking over the archived Ustream for the bits I missed.

The New Tutorial
-Meant to be dynamic and action-driven, rather than burying you under a wall of text
-The New Tutorial is shorter than the old ones, but some of the mechanics and such are spread out over story arcs lasting up to level 20.

Redesigned Atlas Park and the new sewer trial are supposed to be amazing.

The low level sewer trial apparently features some new mechanics.

Trial fights again both the Praetorian and Hamidon forces. Both are after a secret that "Once uncovered would shatter the world of Praetoria pretty much permanently, and the goal of the trial is to get to that secret before it's too late."

(I want to be the first to throw out a Hamidon/Cole lovechild.)

Zwillenger thinks that the Underground Incarnate trial is the most visually stunning thing in the game he's ever seen.

First Ward, the new co-op zone is located in Praetoria, and is acessed from Underground Imperial City, Talos Island, and Cap du Diable.

Diabolique's Tower is, in part, inspired by the building from the end of Ghostbusters.

There is an homage to the "Are you a God?" line in upcoming Incarnate content.

First Ward used to be the major region of Praetoria, the bayside city center, but was devastated by the Hamidone Wars.

Was hit by massive natural disasters by the Hamidon.

First Ward was decided to be not worth saving, and stricken from the roles. Was placed under the charge of unofficial members of Cole's forces. There is no official oversight.



Mother Mercy hospital in First Ward. I haven't seen this anywhere else. So forgive me if it's been shown before. It's the headquarters of PRaetor Tillman and her forces.

First Ward is a very diverse area.

A lot of things pushed to the margins of Cole's empire wound up in First Ward.

The Carnival of Light are not the Resistance, but are Resistance aligned. They are the combined forces of the mystical and magical forces that are good guys, essentially.

They take some visual cues from the Carnival of Shadows, but also the Midnight Squad and the Legacy Chain, as they've gone through major events in the Praetorian timeline that forced them to band together.

Zwill hopes that lore enthusiasts are taking notes (Hi Zwill!) because "This is some juicy knowledge right here."

On the documents First Ward has the subtitle of "Praetoria's Dirty Little Secret."

Not all Seers make the cute, the the ones with an Eldritch Horror headcrab infestations are the ones that have been experimented on and slipped out of control. The group of headcrab coiffed Seers is called the Awakened. Their storyline is going to be dug into.

All villain groups in First Ward are explored in the story arcs.

Zwill: Looking over all the art, "I figured our motto for First Ward: "We Got Tentacles.""

Black Scorpion: "We've got tentacles. Luckily all the tentacles wrapped around buildings are dead. Because after all, Empire Cole defeated the Hamidon. Right? RIGHT?!"

Other devs express their rather eye-winking, shifty postured consent.

BS: "The tentacles are dead, but they might not exactly stay that way..."

Zwill: "Dun dun dun!"


The Seed of Hamidon is an in-zone giant monster, it is a mothership-colonizer for the Hamidon. It is sent in to test the defenses if the first ward and to see if it is ripe for colonization for the Terrarian Plague. It drops viral seedlings/probes/spores.

It is a new type of GM rather than just pile on it, you have to take down the podlings in zone and then damage the mothership.

You can be well outside of the city zone and see the Seed floating around the buildings in First Ward.

BS has been bothered for awhile that you could be in zone for hours and not see the GM's. It's impossible to miss the Seed.

Serene Sorceress and the snake peoples are members of a faction dubbed the Talons of Vengeance. War Witch is relieved that she FINALLY got her Praetorian version.

The deb team seems to keep bringing War Witch back just so they can kill her some more.

The Talons have a connection to the Furies of mythology. There is a relation to the Well of the Furies.

Some confusion as to if the dev team works off of a storyline dartboard, golden tablets they found buried (and possibly having Protean translate them with his face hidden in a hat), or have story pieces attached to items that a tank of manatees fetch.

Zwill: "Cole bless the Manatees."

Personally I think they receive them through divination from the entrails of forum moderators and the less visible members of the Community Relations team.

The flame path aura in the screenshots is the Blazing Path Aura. The blue energy one is called Streak. They are a part of the Paragon Rewards Program, the thing replacing Veteran Rewards.

Quote:

Originally Posted by reiella Until I see something that states to the contrary, going to assume VK is right .

I'm a little disappointed that polearm/staff melee isn't the powerset mentioned. But titan weapons still sounds cool, although I would like to see a few realistic weapon models thrown in with the huge anime-style swords and other weapons. Perhaps a true zwiehander or two handed claymore? Perhaps make one of those the "vanguard version" with glowing blade?

Perhaps give us something like this?


Or this?


Or how about this? Anyone think an oversized glowing Vanguard version would rock?


Bear in mind that these weapons ARE considerably bigger than the hand-and-a-half swords that the current broadsword set uses.
Throwing in some more lifelike huge blades along with the great big anime/hulk-style stuff would definitely give us more options- those who want the hulk look can have it, while those who want something a little more realistic can have some goodies too.

so..scrappers then?

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.