Community Q&A: February 9

Welcome, ark hunters! You’ve asked, we’re answering. We’re back with another action packed Defiance Dev Q&A! Make sure to keep an eye out for the next question collection thread on our forums this week!


Source: http://forums.defiance.com/showthread.php?201488-Community-Q-amp-A-February-9

Questions:

1. Will the Gulanee ever be a playable race?
2. Will we be able to port characters over regions in the future? For example, switching from EU to NA.
3. Can we have the option to purchase more than 6 loadout slots?
4. When will players begin to see the inventory improvements/when are they set to be released?
5. Is an auto-loot option being considered? If not, why?
6. Can you give us any hints at what is planned for Season 3 in the game?
7. Are there any plans to add context to group invite messages?
8. Can you hint at what is planned for Armistice Day?
9. When will the Community supporters get the ability to kill the spam?
10. Will we have more Defiance contests in the future?

1.     Will the Gulanee ever be a playable race?
   
   Although it would be pretty cool to play a race of pure energy, we have no current plans to add the Gulanee race as a playable character. Keep in mind that to stay consistent with lore, we can’t have you enjoy all of the awesome in game costumes and that you would have to remain in a containment suit all of the time. Imagine how bad it must smell to be in a containment suit all the time. Think about it. Eww.
   
     
2.   Will we be able to port characters over regions in the future? For example, switching from EU to NA.
   
   Character Copy is a tool that we only make available to copy characters to our Public Test Environment. It is a manual process that does not scale well for use with the population of the live servers. Also consider that since it is an internal tool not designed for frequent use there are a few bugs with it. Bugs that we can put up with on PTS and internally, but would not be acceptable to players on the live servers. Finally, there are restrictions that are beyond our control when it comes to transferring paid content such as Season Pass and DLC. These are only some of the reasons why we have no plans to offer character on our live servers.
   
      
3. Can we have the option to purchase more than 6 loadout slots?
   
   Currently we have no immediate plans on implementing more than the 6 loadout slots per character. This is something we may reevaluate in the future as more varying content becomes available that may require the convenience of more loadouts.
   
   
4.  When will players begin to see the inventory improvements/when are they set to be released?
   
   With the update to Alcatraz we have added right-click functionality in the Inventory screen. This will allow you to breakdown individual items, attach and remove mods, or upgrade the rarity. Keep in mind that Inventory and general usability improvements are always being evaluated. Unfortunately most changes are larger tasks than they may appear once we get in to the guts of the system causing us to delay the feature or forgo the feature all together.
   
     
5.   Is an auto-loot option being considered? If not, why?
   
   This is one of those features that sound like an easy win, but when we put it to consideration raises few flags that made us favor not implementing it. Among many other things, we have to consider our average players and how much inventory space is available to them during gameplay. As an example, it would be unfortunate for someone to participate in an incursion and forced to choose to keep up with the group or deal with inventory management because auto-loot filled up their inventory space. Having the feature as an optional toggle could be an option, but we would prefer to focus on features that a majority of players would use and enjoy for a consistent experience. In lieu of auto-loot, we’ve looked into making ways to better manage what drops players see and when they expire.
   
      
6. Can you give us any hints at what is planned for Season 3 in the game?
   
   Season 3 focuses exclusively on Expedition content. We’ve planned a series of episodic Expeditions packed with new enemies, bosses, and environments which tell the story of the continuing conflicts consuming the New Frontier.
   
      
7. Are there any plans to add context to group invite messages?
   
   As mentioned above concerning inventory improvements, UI (User Interface) changes as a whole are generally much larger tasks than they appear to be and get pretty ugly once we get into the guts of it. We’re not saying we aren’t considering Quality of Life changes such as the one you are suggesting, we just need to pick our battles on what will bring us the biggest bang (benefits the most users) for the buck (time).
   
      
8. Can you hint at what is planned for Armistice Day?
   
   We do have plans for Armistice day, but that is still quite some time away, we will reveal details as time nears. For now you can keep busy with the Valentine’s day event Colony Courtship and the upcoming long awaited Alcatraz update. Those updates should keep you busy til then and before you know it, you will have your answer.
   
     
9.   When will the Community supporters get the ability to kill the spam?
   
    We’ll be getting them set up with moderator permissions this week.
   
      
10. Will we have more Defiance contests in the future?
    
    Absolutely! We’ve been pleased to see such interest in them and are exploring ways to make it easier to take screenshots in-game.