Developer Q&A: September 4

The latest edition of the developer Q&A is available.

Source: http://forums.defiance.com/showthread.php?223276-Defiance-Developer-Q-amp-A-September-4 

Q. When can we expect more OMEC gear?

We should have news coming up as the Armistice event winds down. We'll have news coming up as the armistice event winds down. Stay tuned!

Q. Any update on the first week's of Armistice boxes? Are we supposed to get them? If so when?

We were originally hoping to get something out this week but we hit a snag and found some bugs with the way the rewards were given. At this point we are looking to provide compensation after Labor Day.

Q. Could you team with Defiance Data and explain to us what all the new rolls *do*, exactly? For example, I still don't know exactly what "+5% Durability Damage" does, how it works, how should I use it, etc... people already discussed this in a thread, but I would like confirmation straight from Trion.

They’re similar to thenano effects, and they are as follows:

• Durability Damage = Damage done to armor plates only.
• Shield Damage = Damage done to shields only.
• Health Damage = Damage done to health only.
• Armor Penetration = Damage that bypasses armor plates.

Q. What happened to the major arkfalls? I was running them almost back to back thanks to clannies and an extensive friends list. Now they're very, very rare.

As you noticed the random rolls of the dynamic events seem to fall into waves, where the spigot is on flood or a drip. This is something we are trying to track down a reasonable solution for. We originally made a pass at the event system less than a year ago to help alleviate this situation, seems like we still need to make more progress.

Q. Any ETA on the fix for hatchling grenades?

No ETA set just yet, but we'll let you know as soon as we have one. We are testing the fix internally.

Q. Will PvP rewards be increased in the future? They’re very low.

Currently we are focusing on TTK (Time to Kill) and making it more fair for the defender to see if they can turn the tide against their attacker. Rewards will be evaluated after this initial task is done so that we will have a better gauge on the average play time for a PvP match.

Q. According to my calculations, there are still 3 Omec on Earth. Maybe we could get something about them, even if its just a mission or two tracking down "potential" Omec murders of Bay Area residents. SOMETHING! Some more story about Alcatraz, story about the Shrill, more data recorders, more characters, anything. What is the plan? 

We’re working on a new instance map and accompanying story quests to help explain where the Shrill came from, and why now after using their larvae in grenades all of this time. We’ll drop more info hopefully after this year’s Hulker Hell event winds down.

Q. Can we have an update on when outfits can be made account-based rather that character based?

We're currently planning on putting this into our next major update.

Can we have an update on when the extra loadout slots will be available?

At the current time, we are not focusing on adding more loadout slots. We're going to stick with the existing 6 for now.

Q. Can you add all of the old lockbox outfits to the store?

This one depends on the prior outfits being made account-based.

Q. In Midsummer Mutiny, there were threat 11 arkfalls. Can this be applied to coming events?

We can see if we can make that possible, we’re a little concerned on what turning it up to 11 would do with hulkers.

Q. Can we please look into having a /command to teleport to a player? for example: "/goto pancakess." 

We already have a go-to-friend and go-to-clanmate option in the UI that you can easily access. We recommend using those.

Q. Any updated on overall latency and critical disconnect issues?

We are always working to improve stability! Check out the improvements we have made recently and keep the feedback coming.

Q. At major arkfalls, low scores tend to earn high quality rewards like OJs whereas high scores earn noticeably poor rewards, typically blues. Did you do that on purpose?

Score has no effect on the items given out at the end of the event. It affects currencies and XP received, but the items are random for anyone who meets the minimum threshold to qualify for having participated in the event.

Q. Can we get a good and creepy afflicted expo? Maybe for Halloween.

Cool Idea! Halloween is pretty packed right now with content we are planning, but we may look into something like that in the future.

Q. When will we see the results from the bug bash?

We will be sorting and prioritizing based on severity, frequency and reproducibility of the reports. We hope to get to get an update out with these changes in a few months but that may change depending on how many we can knock out.

Q. Extra Life, lets talk about it. What are the ideas for this year?

We already found a possible outfit, and will be poking around as to how we will work out the event this year on November 7th. Stay tuned for more info!

Q. Will there be more crossover content in the future?

That would be the goal once we get more info from the creative team at the SyFy channel about Season 4.

Q. What happened to receiving rewards when you critical out during an arkfall event? I could be wrong but seems to be broken.

Is this happening consistently now (as in the last 48 hours)? If so please add it to the bug bash page with information.