HGL 003: Shacknews Interview with Roper

Source: http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=649

So, a summary for those people who can't read the article:

- December is when they're targetting Patch 1 for

- Patch 1 is around 300mb as opposed to Patch 0 which is about 30mb

- Patch 1 will have a new hub: Stone Henge.

- Stone Henge will serve as the launching point for the new areas in post-release content

- "new monsters, items, quests, and even potentially new classes; the latter has been promised to come to subscribers in content patches, though it is not clear if Patch 1 will include new classes"

- Flagship is already hiring new staff, and have used the Guy Fawkes content to figure out how long it takes them to produce content

- They're planning on having major patches every quarter, in addition to their smaller stuff like Halloween

- Auction houses and mail are a high priority and won't wait until a quarterly patch

- As we've seen they've changed how the environments work to make them less repetitive and more in line with the division of the acts

- They're trying to fix the weapon rating thing, but it's really complex to try and find a way that accurately represents all the relevant data about a weapon

- "If someone comes up with a better way to do it, we'll look at it." in reference to game mechanics

- "Even as the game goes on after months and years, we want to make sure the free players don't get forgotten but on the flip side, we want the subscribers to feel like they have a reason to be paying, getting the cool new areas and monsters and everything."

- "both tiers of users will be getting broader game-wide features such as PvP duel and free-for-all combat, guild support, auction houses, and mail"

- "These achievement points will eventually be able to be spent on special rewards; Flagship is toying with the idea of having two tiers of available rewards, one for subscribers and one for non-subscribers."

- "I think we would consider a retail expansion," Roper said. "I think it would be geared towards some kind of entirely new experience, some completely new story or something. We might look into other new locations."

- "Still, Roper clarified that one reason Diablo II had a traditional expansion was simply because there was no real mechanism to update the game and add originally planned features--indeed, longtime fans may remember that guild support, promised before the game was released, never even made it into the expansion. Hellgate's capability to be updated extends patch content, and will be used for regular class and weapon balance post-release."

- "A fairly simply repeatable "trick or treat" quest will grant players randomly selected treat items."

- "Others are entirely visual: ghost candy gives players the translucent glowing effect seen when retrieving your corpse, and dragon's breath candy douses your character in flame."

- "The best part: Zombot features a Thriller-like dance animation."

- On November 5, in recognition of the foiling of Guy Fawkes and the other members of the 17th-century Gunpowder Plot that attempted to blow up England's Houses of Parliament and assassinate King James, Flagship will be launching a week of Fawkes-themed content.

For the duration of the celebration, players will have a chance to acquire Fawkes' Flame Guards, a set of rare flaming gloves. The Fawkes property, which gives weapons or armor an increased chance to ignite and which adds a visible smoldering effect to the equipment, also has a chance of spawning on drops. When entering non-hub areas, there is a chance that levels will spawn as "bonfire" versions of themselves, featuring fiery skies and higher chances to spawn Fawkes-related items.

Flagship has created some 30 to 40 in-game recipes for a number of candies traditionally eaten on Guy Fawkes Night (some call it "Guy Fox Day," apparently), including bonfire toffee and toffee apples. They seem to be more varied and useful than the Halloween candies, with a tiering system that sees some rarer recipes combining multiple common recipes to create particularly powerful consumables. One of the more easily-obtainable recipes produces grenades; Roper explained that the team wanted to give non-Marksmen the opportunity to hurl grenades from time to time.