- Well actually we are thinking about AI distributed on other servers already - we are running tests for it and there are a few clear advantages to do that - but also, a lot of the logic needs to be duplicated to do that, the biggest problem, AI is dumb, it needs a lot of information and a lot of knowledge about the surroundings to work effective, and that again needs a lot of memory and processing power. Now it is important to share those resources, especially when we want to have a lot of AI.
So what I am trying to say is that one process for one npc would be very ineffective cost wise - so if we go headless then one server will have to take care of a large amount of AI at the same time.
As for now we are only in the planning an prototyping phase for these ideas, but in general, the OP has a valid idea, and we might end up doing it.
- we are not planning to release the game on 32bit operating systems! that alone means more RAM possible, the CPU part is mostly an engine question, and the engine we are planning to use makes pretty good use of multiple cores and fully uses DX11.
this is what we know for sure at this point!
- Now for the concern before it gets out of hand - first of all we will have beta and lots of questionnaires before we launch, so we can have a good idea on what players want to play - also the founders pack will give us a hint of what players like to play. Now if we really hit a faction which is more than 50% overall of all players, we still have the free-to-play Orcs which are not accounted for. And lets say even then we realize that like you said e.g. the SM are way over the estimated counts, we can and will make sure also on registration that players decide for other factions. Now this has not been nailed down, and I am just thinking out loud here - but I can imagine e.g. some bonuses for factions who are lower in numbers until they reach a certain balance. Finally also locking a faction is an option, but like always, I doubt punishing players is the right way
- Personally, I really like suppression systems and I think it's very well implemented in BF4. It's just enough to be effective, but not so intense as to really feel like it's taking things away from you and it gives a real purpose to the Support class.
For Eternal Crusade we are investigating a suppression system for weapons like the Heavy Bolter (there's a task on it in the queue right now) for exactly the reasons some of you said - it's difficult for a heavy weapon in a shooter to have a place that's either too weak or too powerful without some sort of extra mechanic. Suppression fits pretty well with the notion of pinning in 40k, and it may well be that some factions/classes are better at resisting it than others.
However, when I say investigating I do mean investigating! We're going to try it out with a few different effects and see if it makes the game better. And I thinks it's pretty likely that investigating will still be ongoing when you guys get your hands on the game. (there's cover and you can lean over it to shoot, etc., but there's no cover snapping.)
- Skill is important (since you do actually have to aim at your targets and time your strikes), but how you specialize and what that means in a given circumstance against what the enemy has brought to the field is pretty key. It's not really that we want to limit "twitch" skills, it's more that we are planning on expanding the use of other gameplay elements.
- For walls & things like that in fixed positions there's definitely the possibility for different levels of them, although we haven't gotten to spend too much time on that feature yet. I'll let you know when we're further ahead on that.
For mines, yes, there are some possibilities for limiting them and actually you guys have given me some good ideas to investigate. However, we are planning to approach this subject cautiously because if handled poorly then anti-personnel mines could actually prevent players from having a proper 40k experience. I'm wary of anything that can easily kill a lot of people without them even seeing their foe (or their foe getting to watch them die for that matter)! It doesn't mean we won't do it, just that we're going to be careful!
Dual lightning claws, mirrorswords & chainsabres are top of the list for melee weapons, dual pistols (& bolters for a few badasses) for ranged. But basically we're starting with the most iconic poses first and working our way through, so the dual stuff is going to be added after two handed weapons, pistol/melee combos, heavy guns, etc. That's why I can't 100% guarantee it for launch.
- Now for the bad news - Astartes falling to Chaos are not in the launch plans. Personally, I think it could be an awesome mechanic but it's not in the cards for the moment. We're going to focus on building a sense of belonging first - remember that even Chaos Space Marines need friends!
- Jump Packs in Transports - At the moment, we're looking at taking the logical approach and saying that you can get in a (for example) Rhino with a jump pack, but it might take up more seats or have other consequences.
- Building on the battlefield, continued - Player-built walls are a particularly tricky issue, because in addition to the problems of making walls look good on any type of geometry, if people can build walls anywhere then it's not too hard for them to do something that really screws up the gameplay (or griefs their own faction). It's not impossible to address, we just might not pick this battle for now.
- Mines - These are tricky as well, especially in an open-world environment with thousands of players since it's no small loss for any one character to just throw mines out anywhere and thus the world could be blanketed with them! Of course, there are options here as well and we're investigating them. For example, an upgradeable option to put a minefield around a stronghold could make for some pretty cool gameplay. We'll see!
- Recoil - I like the feel of recoil quite a lot, we're planning on putting it in the game. Of course, Space Marines shouldn't have much, if any, recoil on their bolters, since the power armour should take care of most of that, but the bigger weapons have the possibility and many Ork weapons should jerk like crazy (while at the same time packing a huge punch).
- Dual-Wielding - There will be dual wielding for certain types of melee and ranged weapons, if not at launch then slightly after.
- Status Effects - There will definitely be status effects in the game, including poison, although we don't want to treat them like debuffs in typical MMORPGs. Every status effect will be of a relatively short duration but very intense and it should be very rare that you have more than one at a time. Think of a fire DoT in normal MMOs and compare it to being on fire in a game like Left 4 Dead. We're going for something more like the latter.
- Armour Penetration - Yep, this is pretty important. We're experimenting with different ways to do it (destroying armour faster than normal? doing damage through armour?), but it is a major component of the combat system.
- We're working on the overpowered rolling problem right now by the way. As usual it's a little too good
- Personally, getting stuck behind rubble drives me berserk so we're going to be very careful about this! Keep in mind that we're not trying to guide you through levels or anything - this is a full open-world . This means we pretty much have to have a no invisible walls policy and have to make sure the game is comfortable to move around. If a rolling/vaulting policy is causing problems, we'll have to either fix the world or fix the movement mechanics.
- That said: Each class will have a roughly 50% chance to beat each other class, all else being equal. Now... if you're a free Ork and you start charging across the 50 meters between you and a devastator, you no longer have a 50% chance of winning. You probably have a 0% chance of winning. Similarly, if you're a lone devastator and you let a free ork sneak right up behind you with his choppa, you are probably in deep trouble.
- We won't have any ability bars, but you'll have all the usual trappings of shooter games. Boltguns, Chainswords, Medpacks, Grenades, alternate ammunition, and more. Sprinting, jumping with your jump-pack, climbing over cover, etc. You should always feel like you have multiple choices for how you can engage with your enemies and the space around you. Your character build will be heavily dependent on which passive improvements (currently called Accessories) you equip, and what equipment you take with you- so there's plenty of tweaking there. As far as additional active abilities, you may have one or two- generally, though, we're thinking that if you equip something like "Furious Charge*" that's not a completely new ability that you activate- it's just an addon that modifies the way you attack while sprinting, for example.
- Range/Heavy weapons should be usable to block incoming melee attacks (kicks and weapon butt attacks should also be used to attack/counter-attack if you don't have access to your Combat Knife).
- Kill Counter should be there only if it is useful (i.e. some Rage attacks could be possible only when a certain amount of kills is reached). But as a simple stat, it will probably and sadly be nested in a Stats Screen (I want to leave as much space for the important HUD elements as possible).
- About Transparent Character/1st person views in specific occasions... I sadly don't know the answer to that. I think we gonna try to do as much as possible with camera angle switch when needed, etc. and I think that your character will go transparent when needed (which could be only in certain tight environments, etc.).
- Color-wise, we will probably have default colors per factions but let the player choose all-red for enemies like said prevously in this thread. We will try to use different shapes and icons to reinforce the distinction. An additional thing we are looking into, is the ability to customize the colors used as well (mainly to allow colorblind people to pick colors they can distinguish).
We were working on a big milestone with a 60-man playtest on Wednesday with everyone available from the company. Even though we're still in pre-production the network results were very promising and we've still got plenty more optimization we can do.
Before getting to the rest of the questions, I'll say this again about jumping - if you feel like you really need jumping when playing the game we will have failed. As a non-jump pack character you've got a quick movement action you can hit at any time and we're implementing vaulting and climbing to get you around the environments. There should be no circumstances where it feels like a little bit of geometry blocks your progress and achieving this is the responsibility of both the game design providing great geonav tools and the level design establishing rules to make your movement around the world as fluid as possible.
- Minion NPCs & Defense -
You guys have pretty much hit the nail on the head. Minion NPCs and automated defenses are there to provide a minimum level of defense. They slow down ghost capping, prop up small groups of defenders, and are pretty much irrelevant in large-scale conflicts.
Of course, different types of bases have different levels of automated defenses, and we're looking at ways to let players invest in better defenses. We'd like this to include larger defensive structures that should be built before the conflict (walls, minefields, etc.), but you should also be able to spend requisition on defense when the enemy is at the gate, just like you spend requisition to buy attack vehicles when assaulting a stronghold. This could include turrets, repairing walls, etc.
- Power Weapons -
Right now we've scoped for the basic ones at launch (Swords, Mauls & Axes), but there's plenty of room to expand! We're planning for the Eldar have a few of the more distinctive power weapons as well.
- Weapon Degradation -
We're not planning a traditional equipment degradation system where it's just a tax on using your weapon, but Michael's looking into some options for honing your weapons down particular paths. Poke him about it some time!
- Psyker Classes -
At the moment, we're planning for all factions to have access to Psykers, it's just a question of how common they are (primary vs elite/hero class). You can probably guess which factions we're thinking should have more regular access than others!
- Leader Executions -
Yeah, that's pretty awesome. What I've been thinking up until now is that certain classes (Chaplains, particular types of Sorcerers, etc) would have some group-affecting abilities tied into executions, but we could potentially have anybody be able to spec into it if they wanted to play more of a leader type character. I'll make note of it! I love the idea of everyone gathering around a leader as they execute someone.
- Command Powers -
The plan is for Commanders to have access to extra strategic deployables based on controlling particular territory, spending from the Council, etc. This includes (but is not limited to) air strikes, long-range artillery, supply drops, etc. So for example, if you control a big gun in a region, a Commander is able to call down some fire on another target in that region (with an associated resource cost and cooldown).
The plan is for there to be a lot more localized powers than global powers in order to keep the fight for any given region interesting and prevent steamrolling across the whole planet, but a faction still needs to have the option of spending resources to make a concerted effort in order to muscle into a new space.
-Character size -
we've been adjusting both the size of the character and the camera as well. It's a bit less disruptive than it was in the footage now, but it's still a continual work in progress.
-Rock, Paper, Scissors -
We don't intend for factions to have this sort of strategic relationship between each other, factions should be balanced but better in different situations. At the moment for the Space Marine and Chaos Space Marine classes we're also not quite going RPS-style, instead it's more about context and situation. It's not just Assault beats Heavy, instead a Devastator will likely kill a Raptor at long range (depending on his weapon), but a Raptor will likely kill a Devastator up close. Thus deploying Devastators counters Raptors in open terrain, but Raptors counter Devastators better than anyone else if there's a way for them to get close without exposure, either by coming at them from another angle or rushing them forward in a transport.
-Heavy Bolters, etc. -
We don't have these in the game yet, but they're on their way!
-Engagement Range -
This is something we're feeling out right now. In fact, Steven put together a nice measuring stick on our test map so we can try it out! Expect open-world ranges to be quite far, and engagements inside strongholds to be much smaller, like in any game of this type. Like in the tabletop, if you expect to footslog your assault units across an open field for too long, they'll die, so you need to pick the right tools for the situation and make smart use of metal boxes.
-Building defenses -
Strongholds, outposts, etc., are in predetermined places, but they may have defensive elements and upgrade options - this is still under development. As for fortifications you can create anywhere, it's unlikely you'll be able to build walls out in the world, but turrets are something we're looking into (no promises yet).