Feedback Friday 23 May 2008

Happy Friday! Deployment 9 is on the move, and we have several content changes we’d like to share with you before they make their way to the Public Test Server including a new squad merge feature, our latest map “Velon Hollow”, and some upgrades to the Public Test Server.

Squad Merge

When the interactions group started thinking about the looking for squad system, we wanted to focus on ways to make it easier to group up. While thinking about this, we realized that we first needed to solve a problem that kept occurring when we would play with each other. What would happen is that 6 of us would decide to run an instance together. Unfortunately, instead of just one person starting a group, I would start a group, then another person would start a group, and in the end it turned into this:

“Hey, you guys are in a group, you need to leave. I’ll invite you.”
“No, you leave. We have more people.”
“brb – bio”
“Oh fine, we’ll disband, but we’ll need an invite.”
“Um.. I think someone’s afk, so you guys really should leave your group.”
“Fine, I’ll disband. Everyone disband now.”
“Wait, did you guys disband too! OMG!!!! Epic fail. ”
“That’s it… I’m coming over so we can work this out. Get a soda and leave your computers unlocked.”

In the end, it would take us 30 minutes to get together… and this was with us all in the same building. That’s just not a good sign.

In an effort to combat this, we decided that the first step in creating a looking for squad system was to introduce the concept of merging squads. What we’ve done in D9 is add new functionality to merge squads. To do this we’ve modified /invite and added a new concept of /join. The difference between the two is best summarized with an example.
Let’s say that Bob and Susie want to play together. They can either be by themselves or in a squad. As long as the size of Bob’s squad + Susie’s squad is less than 7, the following will happen:
Bob does a /invite to Susie

• Bob is inviting Susie and her squad to join his squad.
• Susie will be presented with an invite to join Bob’s squad.
• If Susie accepts, Susie’s squad will be disbanded, and she (and her squad) will automatically join Bob’s squad.
• Bob will be the leader of the new squad which is made up of his squad mates in addition to Susie and her squad mates.

Bob does a /join to Susie

• Bob is asking Susie if he can join her squad.
• Susie will be presented with a request for Bob to join her squad.
• If Susie accepts, Bob’s squad will be disbanded, and he (and his squad) will automatically join Susie’s squad.
• Susie will be the leader of the new squad which is made up of her squad mates in addition to Bob and his squad mates.

In addition to using the slash commands, we have added a “request to join squad” option in the menu that appears when you right click a name in chat and have also added it to the player context menu in the radial menu. All and all, we hope you enjoy this first step in making grouping easier, and we’ll keep you posted with the latest and greatest news concerning the looking for squad system as it develops.

Rebekah Tran
Interactions Team

Velon Hollow in Deployment 9 (PTS only)
Now that we have the ability to flag items for PTS only, we will be releasing larger content items to you on the Public Test Server so you can check them out earlier and help us “break them in” before they go live.  These items will most likely not be seen on the Live servers until the next deployment is published. In some cases content will never go to the live servers, such as the PTS Level Command npcs.

We are taking advantage of this new server flag system with our latest map, Velon Hollow (formerly known as Howling Death Burrow). Velon Hollow is a new instance off of Plateau for levels 30-32.  To access Velon Hollow, you must complete the “Book of Velonar” mission arc and accept the “Village Of The Damned” mission from Luminary Sampeii at New Velon Village. He will then introduce you to the new “Velon Hollow” arc with 8 new missions.

As mentioned earlier, this map will be marked flagged as “PTS only” at this time, and is scheduled to be released to the live servers in Deployment 10 pending your testing feedback and any bug fixes needed. It is highly likely that we will be using this process with additional maps as they are introduced.

PTS Upgrades

And speaking of PTS, one of our goals this year has been to make the Public Test Server much more accessible and easier for players to use. To facilitate this, we’ve added new vendors to Alia Das to allow players to purchase both skill and attribute respecs and “Grey Market” items. These Grey Market items consist of experimental grade tools, weapons, and armor that should be a bit more comparable to your live character than items purchased from a regular vendor.  Essentially they are random loot drops that you can buy for levels 30, 40, and 50.

Another change we’ve made on PTS is an update to the PTS Level Command npc. In addition to levels and credits, this npc will now provide all logos to your character.  Yaaay!

That’s it for this week’s Feedback Friday. Make sure to stop by PTS in a week or so to check out the new changes in Deployment 9!