Developer Q&A (20th August)

Almost guaranteed to be off limits to openly discuss until the Monday stream.

Okay… Since I’m not on the beta I can say whatever I want. And my logical guess is. Faction troops will be like Vault troops. As in they won’t be available in normal chests.

But Maxx raises a good point about whether beta testers have access to knowledge that tells us that we should or shouldn’t be spending our keys differently. It certainly seems like a fair thing to ask, with both a new kingdom and the update right around the corner.

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I literally wouldn’t care if we’re weren’t back to back. And my end gamer goal wasn’t to have all but Zuul’Goth at all times.
One could argue… it’s like releasing 2 Kingdoms within 2 weeks if the Faction troops are in normal chests.

Personally, I don’t spend glory or gem keys on new kingdoms these days. Only event keys for the UR/E/L troops, which does mean waiting for the start of that kingdom’s event week. I will spend gold keys chasing commons and rares. I am also not in danger of running out of those, but if an end-gamer did run out of gold keys after Sin of Maraj, just don’t buy that fifth legendary task next week and open 3,300 gold chests instead! :wink:

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With great power comes great responsibility.

Even if that information is incredibly valuable, it is the beta tester’s responsibility to not disclose that information prematurely.

Last patch, when I was ranting about the kingdom star revamp, I was granted access to beta. On beta, I saw that my predictions were correct. Yet, as I then possessed inside knowledge, I could not come out and directly tell everyone “Hey, I was completely right!”

Inside knowledge of 4.0 could change someone’s strategy for meta planning when the patch lands. Still, in exchange for beta access, testers agree to not leak information about what we know in detail publicly before that information has been cleared for disclosure. That’s the trust the devs place in us when selected to be beta testers.

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You have great integrity!
Salty should be proud of you.

Integrity isn’t tested on a public forums where the devs can see it. Integrity is tested in private messages with people you trust.
If keeping someones mouth shut deserves pride recognition then the bar is set extremely too low.

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And i was just thinking this conversation needs to suddenly get super serious!

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I take my resources very seriously… The best business managers in the world treat company money like it’s their own money. I view my fake video game resources the same way. :grinning:

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Can’t disagree with this statement. It’s a lot easier to give the appearance of integrity in a an anonymous asynchronous Internet forum than in-person where people judge one’s actions and responses in real-time.

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Well, for what it’s worth, I greatly value you as a beta tester @Lyrian.

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I like how my post got deleted and then the info was confirmed by salty shortly after. Oh well not a big deal

Thanks for the kind words, Salty. Even if it is company policy not to publicly comment on the concerns I brought up in beta (for good reason), it is comforting to know that my feedback is being read. I appreciate you providing the environment to provide those thoughts, outside of the normal forums. I’m unsure if I would have been as candid out here in the open as I post on the beta forums.

My personal opinion here, but your post probably would have stood had it not directly discussed an illegal beta stream. The wording of your post is what probably caused it to be deleted.

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Well… as Jim Carrey famously said, Alrighty, then.

Kind of tapping my fingers on the keyboard on this one. That’s one data point in a whole ball of yarn that hasn’t been disclosed yet, as Salty alludes to in her post you cited.

The easy answer is what is obviously is stated in the post. Faction troops are not obtainable via chests in the Overworld (Krystara). So, that means that giant stockpile of keys you have saved up are useless in the Underworld. Underworld troops can only be earned and obtained in the Underworld. This, obviously is going to have massive ramifications on the game moving forward, especially as on the stream, it was discussed that the plan going forward for at least the next year was to focus on developing the Underworld and not the Overworld (in terms of developing Factions instead of Kingdoms).

On beta, writing about this design philosophy choice was one of my longest posts. Once the operating environment for this data point is revealed on Monday and the mechanics of the Underworld become known, there will be much to say on the matter and I am sure that it will be a hot topic on the forums for quite awhile.

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@Lyrian I didnt know you were a beta tester. For how long, and is it fun?

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I’ve been in beta since the last update, 3.5.

“Fun” varies from person to person and what one is looking for out of beta access. Generally speaking, beta access grants access to a server that is uploaded with a slice (a partial portion) of the actual update that sufficient to test the functionality of the core features of the patch. Broadly speaking, the core features of the patch tested in this beta were the delving system and the general overarching mechanics of the Underworld. For me, as retired tabletop D&D campaign designer, delving is heavenly as it really scratches an itch I haven’t been able to satisfy in real-life for a long time. Further, I personal like attempting to reconstruct someone’s world design philophies as a way of understanding why certain design choices were made in the development of a feature or world. This update, with the Underworld has really scratched that itch as well.

Talking to the devs (and not just Salty) on the forums can be fun as well. Though, they are busy people and can’t hold conversations, their activity is significantly higher on the beta forums. That said, as beta is not subject to a written NDA (non-disclosure agreement), there are a lot of concepts that the devs cannot post about on the beta forums even if asked (generally, same rules as the open forums apply to beta). Although, they will read the feedback given.

On the the flip side, a beta tester will generally figure out that they aren’t seeing the whole picture, just enough of it to test what is needed. That is fine, personally. But, I could see others becoming infuriated with not being test all the features of a given update.

The largest downside is needing the self-control to not go leaking out every little thing that one finds in beta to the world. This is a lot harder than it sounds on the surface. The 4.0 patch contains significant changes to the game world, and keeping that information private can be challenging. Seeing others out here on the forum post questions that I know the answer to, but can’t post about, really tests my will at times. To some of the roundabout statements I present about beta stuff, at times forumers lock onto what I am saying. Holding back the “Hey, you got that right!” confirmation statement can be difficult. So, many beta testers will choose not to post on the forums openly during beta to avoid the temptation to accidentally disclose knowledge that isn’t cleared for release.

So, it’s really a bit of equivalent exchange. In exchange for seeing some features early and having a say about their implementation, a beta tester has the responsibility to keep information about those features private until the devs are ready to release that information. If someone is looking to actually help with the rollout of a feature, then beta can be fun. If someone is just looking for inside information for the next meta change in the game, beta could get tiresome really quickly.

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@Lyrian you are so eloquent.

A lot of what you said is the reason why our beta test is so small. It is a relationship that requires trust between us and the beta testers.

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What happened the shirts thread?