*** I think I’ve got all the major points written down. Added relevant dev posts further downstream to post to appropriate areas for clarification.
Dev Q&A Questions 4.5 Update
What is the theme of the 4.5 update?
– Overworld progression rework (newer players)
– Kingdom deed system (veteran players)
Why are you changing how players go through kingdoms?
– Difficulty for new players to understand the Overworld.
– No real organization to Overworld kingdom unlock progression.
– Difficulty was very uneven across kingdom quests/challenges.
– Avoiding the issue of quest NPC from kingdoms showing up in later kingdoms, before actually being introduced to players.
New: Overworld kingdoms are now unlocked in blocks to give progression for new players.
– Kingdoms are released in a set order.
– All questlines in a set/block of kingdoms need to be completed to unlock the next set of kingdoms.
– 11 sets/blocks of kingdoms that will be unlocked.
– Questlines for each set/block of kingdoms gradually progress in difficulty.
– Completing a set/block of kingdoms’ questlines grants a prize or unlocks a game mode.
– If a player does not have all kingdoms’ questlines compete when 4.5 releases, modes already unlocked will be grandfathered to players.
What’s happening to the Gorgotha Evolved Questline/ War and Peace weapon?
– Quest removed, weapon placed as a prize for completing a certain set of kingdoms’ questlines.
What are the changes coming for difficulty in Quest?
– Questlines are auto-scaling in difficulty. Difficulty will not be selectable by the player.
– Difficulty sliders in all game modes that still have them will be removed in 4.6.
Why are Kingdoms going to level past 10?
– To give further power progression.
– New kingdom level cap is 15.
– Uses a new currency called Deeds, past level 10.
– 6 colored deeds, and an Imperial deed.
– Need imperial deeds in addition to colored deeds for kingdom levels 14 and 15.
– Colored deeds are assigned to each kingdom’s mana mastery color.
– Deeds are primarily obtained through the adventure board. Flash offers possible.
New: Adventure board tasks are normalized for all players in 4.5, being rolled once by the server and sent to all players that day (everyone gets the same tasks).
What does leveling my Kingdom get me
– Additional stat point at Kingdom Level 15.
– New stat bonus (Kingdom Team Bonus) for building a kingdom team; 4 tiers of power, 2 past level 10.
– Faction bonuses that apply to the associated faction’s Treasure Hoard; 2 tiers of bonuses mentioned past level 10.
Sirrian states that deeds might show up in Flash Offers. He also expects that it will take players at least a full year to raise all Kingdoms to level 15. At that point, Kingdom Levels will likely increase to 20 (absolute long-term max level planned for the deed system).
What’s are Deed and how do you get them?
– Deeds are currency used to level kingdom levels past 10.
– Deeds are primarily awarded through the Adventure Board. Three tiers of tasks, by color, Epic, Legendary, Mythic. Legendary and Mythic offer Imperial deeds as well.
– No crafting deeds in Soulforge.
– Distribution of deed resources to be tightly controlled. (See Sirrian note directly above)
– May be alternate ways to obtain deeds in the distant future.
How has Kingdom progress management changed? (Question about surfacing Kingdom Power and Kingdom Level)
– Kingdom management is currently bulky; too many clicks, interface streamlined.
– A Kingdom’s levels can be bulk leveled at once (if sufficient resources/deeds are available).
– Kingdom quest can be directly selected from kingdom menu.
– Interface will be further refined in 4.6.
Why are Challenges changing?
– Dated, not very challenging.
– Rewards are outdated.
– To give progression and practice for players to learn how to play endgame-difficulty matches.
– Challenges are now played in tiers.
– Similar to Class Challenges, each challenge is played once. Clearing all challenged in a tier awards a prize and advances the player to the next tier.
– There are 10 Tiers of difficulty (Tier 10 = level 250 enemies)
– Each Tier has a theme reward for prizes.
– Tiers have the same theme reward for the same challenge tier across all kingdoms.
– Challenges are NOT repeatable once cleared.
What happens if I’ve maxed out all my Challenges already?
– If a player has a challenge 5-starred, it will be mark as complete.
– If a player has all 35 challenges complete in a kingdom, they will start at Tier 2 and not 1.
Side discussion:
– Clearing challenge tiers may become a Kingdom Power requirement in the future.
– Explores and base PvP not planned to ever use energy.
With the changes to Challenge + Quest difficulty what’s happening to other game modes that use difficulty?
– In 4.6, all player selectable difficulty modes will be removed (these will still be in place in 4.5). [RIP fire bomb/bombot/firebird teams]
– Needed to happen for the eventual “big 5.0” update in 2020.
Misc.
Anything you can share for the future?
– Nimhain is still working on the spell text normalization. Appears to imply that the work will be completed in 4.6.
Nim also teases that she found a spell error on a unit that players haven’t pointed out to the devs yet; challenges players to find that error.
– No planned kingdom reworks.
– Explore mode rework in 4.6 (will not use energy).
Are Xbox Players going to get another chance at the Shark Week Offers that they didn’t get?
Under internal discussion on what to do. Possibly planned to be rescheduled somewhere in the future.
Open Q&A
– Old cosmetic pet rescue on the weekend where no event currently exists each month. [Open to feedback]
First cosmetic pet rescue this coming weekend. Dragonkitty
– What happened to the Design-A-Weapon winner? Weapon was “too good” for an Epic weapon. It is still being worked on.
– Orbweaver class in PvP: devs are currently watching this, class may be tweaked. However, Sirrian states that the class is not overwhelmingly used in PvP according to analytics.
– Normalizing Haste scrolls in Tower of Doom amongst guilds? Devs will look into this.
– Selectable pet rescues?: Fully chooseable: No. Using a “bait” to get a narrow pull of pets, possible in future. Tying pets to kingdom of the week in future? Maybe. Idea is fluidly being discussed.
– 1500 guild seals per player cap being removed? Sirrian is not a fan of the system. In the distant future, a new system might be designed.
– New guild guardians? Not planned.
– Vash’dagon spell to be modified to be like Black Beast? Yes. In 4.5???
– Kingdom mana color combination banners in the future? Definite plans for exotic banners in the future? Yes. Won’t happen until after all +2 +1 -1 banners are completed. Sirrian lets slightly slip out during this discussion that a third world map is coming in 5.0.
– Underworld delve bug compensation discussion: Sirrian discussed why bug was left in place all weekend and how it slipped through multiple levels of QA {also apologizes for the error} He personally calculated compensation and believes it is fair.
– Lifespan of GoW: Hopes many years. Sirrian states that population numbers are STILL growing after five years.
– Create/Destroy affix/suffix on weapons: Devs have stopped using these on weapons. Regarding old weapons that have these: no good solution has been found. May just replace this on old weapons eventually.
– Redo older kingdom art? Possible. Sirrian even mentioned art on specific troops, as well being replaced…
– Improved Class Event rewards? In the future, likely. Not until after all classes have been released (April 2020).
– Orbs in Legendary Tasks? Nope. Contender for fastest and hardest NO ever on stream.
– Guild jumping for rewards fixes? Might be some tweaks in the distant future.
– PQ Capture puzzles in GoW (or similar)? Nim/Sirrian loves the idea, but it doesn’t match the gameplay of GoW. Also, spoilers for puzzle solutions would quickly be placed on Internet. [Was discussed internally a long time ago] Devs aren’t too keen on adding more new game modes to the game at this point.
– Old hero class trait revamps? Nimhain says yes, it’s planned in the future. Warden given as example.
– Devs wearing GoW shirts on stream; are they available? Dev say yes, by end of year.
End of Stream