VIDEO: Revamp Q and A with Gedden (27/06/14)

Thanks to everybody that watched, we had a record viewership again! Most importantly thanks to @Gedden for taking the time to speak to us and answer all the questions put to him!

I had to split it into two parts as we went on so long, so here it is, Enjoy!

Part One:



Part Two:



Many many thanks to Goyo for doing us a basic transcript of all the revamp questions!

Revamp

From Mortemdues: Are there plans to update the single player campaigns to reflect the changes?
Yes, will require recode.

From Ragic: Did the total number of abilities in the game go up or down?
Less abilities, repetitive out (like rover/solo), unique back (like nature's balance).

From Ragic: Did every champ get the same level of attention during the revamp? Those with just varying ranks of an ability in their upgrade choices seemed to be rushed for example.
Wasn't rushed, it was totally intentional.

From various people: Why is there such a disparity in nora costs with some champs costing 50-60 nora and others costing 100+ despite not being much better.
Is there is some issues with a champion, being overpowered, overcosted, etc. please post and explain them so devs figure them out, understand it's problems and address them.
WE JUST GOT STARTED

From NightMarik: Are there any runes or faction you have your eye on as being problematic?
Fist of Bastion, too much mixed feedback over him. He knows about everyones complains and he wants to adress them all. There are problems, they want to hear them and solve them.

From Goyo: How likely is it to redesign some uninteresting runes to make them more viable? There are some old shoebox runes not interesting enough to consider (eg Gnark got Guarded: Yeti and this sole ability makes him runnable in Yeti decks.)
Very likely. Champions that not see play, that are bad will be looked at.

From Twitch: Maps are the problems of high nora cost units.
Your shrine produces more nora now, so it's not that neccesary to focus on contesting. Also they are working with Sokolov to improve that matter, and larger maps are in consideration.

From Twitch: Elevation on maps are going to play a higher role?
They though it was awesome, tested it and ended up being not fun to play with, so no.

From BansheeX: How much influense did the Player Councill have on the final form of runes?
Hugely influencial over the BIG process, specially early on (eg: what's acceptable and what's not, nokhan do, barbarians). Smaller details the whole community will contribute.

From Movntarget: In the coming patches will we see efforts to reestablish themes that were severely weakened by this revamp?
Creep and Crawl is not a racial for them, the idea was to have them on upgrades to make them viable as a theme but also usable everywhere else. They are eager to revert that, didn't expect to be so liked.
Ferren Focus were pushed to a larger theme among monks.
Creep didn't look good enough to keep. If community really like it, it can comes back.
Vampire and Witches will be adressed soon.
If you feel that a theme is weaker, and after playing it you feel it's not viable, post it. That would probably be a priority for the devs.

From Twitch: What about Rune Checklist invisible updates?
Adressed

From Dueljewell: why did so many champs lose the ability shatter or detect? Few champs have these abilities now and the ones that do have no speed.
Too early to complain about it, since people are comparing revamp to pre-revamp.

From Bagoftrick: what are the intentions for swarmers, summoners and spells/ relics that summon cheap meat as they seem to have taken a buff due to the reduction of damage across the game making them harder to deal with? as well as gaining upgrades on base
Receiving a lot of negative feedback about it, and people are not wrong. Adressing.

From duelJewell: Whats the plans for the range game? It looks like the game is being played melee now and it looks hopeless to get ranged units back
Range was a problem in the game, and was greatly changed (eg 3-6 to 5-6). Although it seems anybody complained about it (yet). Related to costs, it's up to test.

From Bagoftrick: Are there any intentions to allow an option to not take an upgrade for a corresponding cost reduction?
No.

From various people: Are you going to take another look at Moga? as they seem like they slipped through.
They didn't slipped through, but they need more attention. Coming soon (over the weekend, alongside themes).

From NightMarik: do you have ideas of how you're going to revamp certain spells and thus they also influenced the direction of the current power of runes?
Some yes, some no. They want to shake things up, and roll them in patches. Refunding equipments over certain champions will probably gone, and theme boosters will come. The intention is to address things as they come up (eg. Tales of Valor -> drunk theme).

From dueljewell: why take basic attacks away from certain champs? eg dwarven mortar crew and grintmaw bouncer
There were some champions that didn't have basic attack that were supposed to. They had to manually change stuff and things got missed. Evetually they will come up and being adressed. Being said that, Grintmaw Bouncer went from a beater to a tank, it's intended.

From Explosteevo: Can you post what nora value you have given to each ability and stat so we can see for ourselves and then make suggestions as to where it can perhaps be improved?
They don't want to do it because it would be hard to handle by the community. At the end of the day, only one stat must be used. They did it for the council, and most values are in the middle of their choices.

From Jib: Is the amount of negative kneejerk backlash against the revamp on par with what was expected?
What most impressed him is so much split opinions over it. Taking the negativity is one of the hardest part of it's job. Anyway he thinks in a week it will normalize, and when people started to notice that his feedback is noted and addressed, that would be the turnaround.

 

Revamp questions:

1. From Mortemdues: Are there plans to update the single player campaigns to reflect the changes?
2. From Ragic: Did the total number of abilities in the game go up or down?
3. From Ragic: Did every champ get the same level of attention during the revamp? Those with just varying ranks of an ability in their upgrade choices seemed to be rushed for example.
4. From various people: Why is there such a disparity in nora costs with some champs costing 50-60 nora and others costing 100+ despite not being much better.
5. From NightMarik: Are there any runes or faction you have your eye on as being problematic?
6. From Goyo: How likely is it to redesign some uninteresting runes to make them more viable? There are some old shoebox runes not interesting enough to consider (eg Gnark got Guarded: Yeti and this sole ability makes him runnable in Yeti decks.)
7. From BansheeX: How much influense did the Player Councill have on the final form of runes?
8. From Movntarget: In the coming patches will we see efforts to reestablish themes that were severely weakened by this revamp?
9. From Dueljewell: why did so many champs lose the ability shatter or detect? Few champs have these abilities now and the ones that do have no speed.
10. From Bagoftrick: what are the intentions for swarmers, summoners and spells/ relics that summon cheap meat as they seem to have taken a buff due to the reduction of damage across the game making them harder to deal with? as well as gaining upgrades on base
11. From duelJewell: Whats the plans for the range game? It looks like the game is being played melee now and it looks hopeless to get ranged units back
12. From Bagoftrick: Are there any intentions to allow an option to not take an upgrade for a corresponding cost reduction?
13. From various people: Are you going to take another look at Moga? as they seem like they slipped through.
14. From NightMarik: do you have ideas of how you're going to revamp certain spells and thus they also influenced the direction of the current power of runes?
15. From dueljewell: why take basic attacks away from certain champs? eg dwarven mortar crew and grintmaw bouncer
16. From Explosteevo: Can you post what nora value you have given to each ability and stat so we can see for ourselves and then make suggestions as to where it can perhaps be improved?
17. From Jib: Is the amount of negative kneejerk backlash against the revamp on par with what was expected?

Future

1. From Moles1909: Now that you have completed the revamp - What are your next priorities?
2. From RAID Officer IMAGIRL: Do you have plans to expand new races added by late Sony Expansions?
3. From JaceDragon: Is there any plans about the "drums of war"?
4. From RAID Officer IMAGIRL: Are there any thoughts on Future factions? If so how would you theoretically implement them with current faction already having so many runes.
5. From NightMarik: Do you have plans on releasing new content (mainly theme support) in the next expac to synergize with the current changes for strong 2-3 rune combos?
6. From Morfeus: What about payment options now? Any plans to make Legendaries more available?
7. From IronHammer: What are there plans for the mass amount of tickets people still have
8. From Tfguy: Is it still planned to go back on Steam and is it possible to assume when that will be?
9. From Baskitkase: What are you plans to deal with non-champ runes, as now you have elevated the damaging spells and relics to a completely new height?

Backup questions

1. From RAID Officer IMAGIRL: What prompted you to change Creep and Crawl from a base ability and move it to Upgrades on some Arthropods. While completely getting rid of it on others? (Demonbarb Spider and Cinderpede ect.)
2. From NightMarik: Why is there disparity in upgrade paths? For examples, some have 4 for first up and 2 for 2nd up. Other runes have 2 for first up and 2 for 2nd up.
3. From Baskitkase: Most of the themes have been severely crippled. The changes inside those themes seem disconnected and random alot of the times. Was it your intention to be disruptive to themes? It seems nerfs could had been handled in many different ways and theme integrity and synergy could have remained.
4. From RAID Officer IMAGIRL: Would Banner Advertisements in the game Launcher/Program for ftp players let you have enough freedom to say hire another programmer ect?
5. From Boozha: Why have many FS champions gotten mandatory dive when the aquatic theme doesn't support it?
6. From Boozha: Why do a lot of champs simply have ranks 1/2/3 of an ability instead of a choice between abilities in their upgrade paths?
7. From Yoabanchi: What's the deal with Creepers and the creep and creep master abilities? Right now there are not enough creeps to run a full on creep bg. This is more relevant since the creep ability actually relies on only deploying other champs with creep.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cXxs-a19vj8#t=1974

Saved you the trouble.

But the question was "On a scale of 1 to yes..."

 

u wana tusll

 

for the record: I believed his answer

 

which one, i'm led to believe he made several

 

Ok, playing Grimlic is fun. Less Grimlic deploys means less fun?

Perhaps a new nora per turn amount,
will make for a more interesting gameplay experience.

 

The one he directed at Ragic saying he wouldn't believe him that the upgrade paths were intentional and not rushed

 

By the time they go on Steam/turn Paysafe on, I will have saved up a few thousand bucks I suppose.

 

Great Q&A. Love the feedback and looking forward to seeing more in the future.

 

Three thumbs up from Biscawssy

 

Well, let me tell ya, Gedden's really got a killer sense of beard + hair style.

Fo real , no ****.

 

Hmm I'm reading about 10% **** in that. It's ok, I'm not judging.

 

BISCASSY

(shameless bump because it's kinda required viewing before making a new thread at this point)

 

I agree.

EDIT: Many thanks to Goyo for providing us a basic transcript of all the revamp questions!

 

gotta git dem bisCASHy

 

Just listened to it all, just want to say - really thanks guys for setting these chats up. Honestly think its fantastic that we can sit down and have such open talk about the game, really love it!

 

Couldn't agree more, Its also good of Gedden to take 2 and a half hours out of his very busy schedule! He's been non stop for the last couple of months and for the next few weeks no doubt he's still gonna be real busy!

 

Bumped so more people get the chance to see this.

 

Bumped to the top again as this is being buried people may have missed it. Hoping for a sticky.