Community Q&A: December 12

 Hello ark hunters! You’ve asked, we’re answering. We’re back with yet another action packed Defiance Dev Q&A.

1. What are the current priorities for the Defiance team?

   In no particular order we are focused on:

   - Server stability, lag, and clearing up crashes
   - The Holiday Event
   - UI Improvements
   - Fixing the issues with enemy scaling (power rating)
   - The next major update, slated for early Q1 2015.

2. Will we see weekend/week long events running in between the holiday events with regular synergy weapon/mod drops?

   The Holiday event will run for two weeks. We have a bonus weekend planned shortly after that event ends (more details to follow).

3. In the future, will we see more events that drop a specific synergy type?

   More than likely. We’re happy how they’ve played out with the recent holiday events.

4. We know we will have further crossover content in the game, but will we get more crossover content in the show as well?

   Indeed! We’re working out all of the details now. We’ve got some game factions which may appear in the show, and we’re discussing some tie-ins to our new content as well.

5. Any update on private instances, bit gifting?

   Private instances are in progress right now, and we are aiming to release them early in the new year. We are not currently working on bit gifting because other features are taking priority.

6. Great job with the vehicle fix, any plans to work on full friends list issues? Such as still receiving invites, friends being removed, sending a message to the inviter letting them know the list is full?

   While digging into Clan list issues, we found a slew of failure points like you’ve described. We have a number of fixes going in to address Friend and Clan issues, and we’ll be rolling them out as each one is ready. (Many of them don’t even require a patch on the client side, so we’ll be able to deploy the fixes quickly once they are verified.)

7. When will the PS3 store overcharging issue be addressed? It is showing prices as if everyone has a Patron Pass (or something) which means that when a person buys something, you end up paying full price for something specifically shown in the store to be of a lower price. For instance, a 680 Bit outfit is listed as 612 Bits, yet still takes a full 680 Bits from the player.

   There is a bug where a small number of players who had Patron Pass at one point, but no longer do, are shown the discounted price in the store (even though they shouldn’t be getting it). Customer Service will fix this issue if it happens to you. However this is not a global issue. It only happens rarely. You can see this post for more details.

8. Will we be allowed to trade arkforge in the future?

   That’s not currently planned.

9. Will we have the option to queue for multiple co-op events in the future? Waiting for a single event is frustrating when you just want to play any!

   I KNOW, RIGHT? We had to temporarily shelve our Quickmatch update which was intended for our next large update, but it’s still on the queue to be worked on. We, too, would like to see players be able to queue for multiple events and be guaranteed to hop in quickly. We do have one improvement which should streamline the process considerably: mass invite. You’ll be able to mass invite your friends, your clan mates, and/or everyone in your immediate area.

10. Any news on new races to play?

    We shelved the Indogene for later use. We had hoped to unleash them along with Cyber-rigs since it is thematically appropriate, but we held off on it since we wanted them to have a more significant impact than just be a new skin. We have not decided on when we will be introducing a new race.

11. Will Blitzer's ever get the firebomb attack across all difficulty tiers?

    Probably not. The Molotov attack can be VERY impractical in many Raider fights. When Blitzers have it, they take away a lot of what makes Rioters special. (Rioters are “cover flushers” much like Cleavers and Smelters.) We’re currently looking at making a special Raider with the Molotov ability, but it won’t appear in swarms like the Blitzers do.

12. Are there any new weapon types planned?

    Not in the near term, but it’s a long term goal.

13. Any chance of seeing a return of self-revive rolls on guns?

    Actually... yes. We’ve hinted at Expeditions in our recent letter, and Self-Revive bonuses will be HIGHLY desirable for those events. As such, they will be making a return in some form or another. (Weapons, Cyber-rigs, and Synergies are all being considered.)