Community Q&A: March 13

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

Source: http://forums.defiance.com/showthread.php?207515-Defiance-Developer-Q-amp-A-March-13

• Vega: After Season 3 content is released… Will we get the option to play the game HUDless?
  
  We have discussed a HUD toggle option for the purpose of screen captures in the past, usually when screen capture forum posts pop up. The challenge would be for how that would work on consoles since they do not have the ability to take screen captures. We’d prefer to work on features that all platforms can take advantage of, so that would make this a lower priority. Also keep in mind that Season 3 content will be released throughout this coming year, the Alcatraz Update is the first free update for Season 3.
  
  
• Iceberg: Can LoCarb give any more details about the free roaming war master?
  
  We have been throwing around the idea of a roaming WarMaster as a new experience, one that was not part of an Arkfall or an Instance. Originally I thought about dropping the WarMaster at the end of the Solstice Strike event, but did not have enough time to polish that experience for that deadline. As for the Roaming WarMaster concept as it stands now it would most likely be one that has already broken his armor to play along the “escaped” WarMaster. This would be to keep the experience of the Summoned Arkfall version intact. We have to solve a few technical and design hurdles before we have the roaming WarMaster appearing in Paradise.
  
  
• Adage: Will the inventory cap be raised in Alcatraz or at any time in the near future?
  
  With the addition of the new expedition rewards of Cyber Rigs and Cyber Chips we suspect players will be a little more pressed for space. With that being said there is a good chance the inventory cap will be raised in the near future.
  
  
• SirServed: Will weapons with no nano effect that can possibly have them ever be removed from loot tables? The current nano system in place really leaves no good reason for them to exist anymore.
  
  Not currently planned. While weapons without nanos lack the additional benefits inherent to the nano effect, they do more base damage and aren’t subject to nano resistances. Just like every nano has tradeoffs, a nanoless gun should be a valid choice for some situations too and we may make tweaks to the balance of different nanos (and no nano) to ensure that’s true.
  
  
• Holy Bahamut3: LoCarb, now that you are back from PAX, and are getting settled into the Captain’s chair, what are some things you want to see in the future of this game? We’re there any notes Trick left you for things he never got around to implementing? If so, anything in particular you would like to see as well?
  
  As for things I want to see I’ve hinted at in my first introduction letter. Without going in to too many boring details I will need to spec out things internally in terms of schedule to work out what we can deliver to our players within a reasonable time frame. I’d hate to bring up something that we would not approach until next year.
  
  
• Octobersnow: Will the chat in defiance ever get some love?
  
  We don’t have any immediate plans for new chat features, that may change as we think up of new features that may require chat updates. Was there anything in particular you were looking for?
  
  
• Nefarious: What’s the future of Incursions? What’s planned to make them better?
  
  As it stands now Incursions will not get any immediate updates, there may be some later on in Season 3 if we can fit that in to the schedule. Now that I think about it, it might be pretty cool to see a Grid Incursion with a mix of converted enemies.
  
  
• Grandpa Ace: The possibility of making the Durango’s carry four passengers (Including driver), or making the Raptor climb better and go faster.
  
  The Durango will for now remain a 2 person vehicle. Thanks for the reminder on the Raptor, and I agree it needs some tweaking to make it more fun to play as a group.
  
  
• Cryptic Effect: Could we get something else to use our ark salvage on, such as changing the nano on our gun rather than using the conversion mags and therefore remove the conversion mags from the game completely?
  
  We’re always looking for additional things for people to spend currencies on, including Arkforge, but we don’t have any plans to allow them to be spent to directly choose which nano a weapon has. The mods provide a purposeful choice and tradeoff: do you give up some other benefit you could have gained from that mod slot in order to change the nano?
  
  
• Punisher Illinois Blue: Will we get boats, subs, pond, lake, river, ocean based enemies someday?
  
  With not that much content or playspaces over water it would be unlikely that we will support amphibious vehicles and enemies in the near future.
  
  
• Fallen_Aingeal: It was mentioned in the last Q&A that there were no immediate or set plans for pvp, just that updates were being “considered”. It was also mentioned that “baby steps” were going to be taken in tweaking the available content. What type of tweaks are you thinking?
  
  With PvP it’s a bit tricky, there are a couple of things we would like to try like new game modes, environments, etc. Before we touch those we need to make sure the rewards are there, currently XP and other general rewards for PvP need a pass. Also as a whole the Echelon and other vendors need some love with their available merchant items. After we address those tidbits we would feel more comfortable sending you to play new PvP content.