[Transcript] Dev QnA w/ AnhaldT101: Ships 2.0!

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I'll go ahead and do another one of these. I make no promises about future videos.

As with the previous incarnation of this thread, TL;DR/TL;DW is at the bottom:
Key: AT - AnhaldT101; TH - @CG_TopHat ; CM - @CG_CMandellorian ; PI - @CG_ParkingInstructor

[0:57] [AT]: Why don't we just start off broad? What's happening? Give us an overview of what's going on? And we'll kind've dig deeper from there?

[1:00] [TH]: So I'll start, and this is Top Hat, and what I'm going to talk about is that ships is now, I think, as Chris has sort of branded it, has moved into Ships 2.0. So, what does that mean? What is Ships 2.0? It means that we're unlocking Hardware Abilities--that we're now calling Reinforcement Abilities--we're changing a lot of the ship kits, we're updating them and upgrading them in many instances to bring them more in line with it. And the move to the starting line-up of three is also meant to be more tactical, more dog-fightish, it's meant to be faster, so we'll also be lowering the timer.

[1:37] [CM]: So we went ahead and wet looked at all the kits, the reinforcement abilities are finally here and hopefully and it'll give everyone that sense that the battles are intense, fast-paced, and just feel like--a lot more like a dog fight, a lot more like an intense ship battle, rather than safety early on.

[1:56] [TH]: This is actually--what we're moving to, has a lot of elements of some very early designs that we had around ships. And we as a studio went back and forth--y'know, building out a whole battle system isn't something you just go "oh, we just made a whole battle system," so, y'know, this was an earlier version that we ended up moving towards the 5 v 5 version that we ultimately launched with, but as we were critically reviewing it over time we were sorta like, "maybe one of those other prototypes we had maybe was, maybe like maybe it was superior" and that's what I think kicked off the conversation for us: maybe there was something we could go back and re-investigate with ships.

[2:28] [AT]: The change from five ships to three ships... now obviously one of the arguments that's pretty obvious here, is that the reason you deducted the amount of ships at the beginning is for time-saving purposes. To make the battles a bit more streamlined, are there other strategic reasons behind why there is three instead of five? What else is going behind this 3 v 3 aspect?

[2:45] [CM]: I think a big part of it is the reinforcement abilities, like, being able to do a reinforcement ability without having to wait for a ship to be defeated, reinforcement ability is almost like a cards-in-hands kind of feel where you have these options and you're able to view the current state of the battle-field and what is the best choice to bring in here? Reducing it down to three having it be that, like I said, have it be that more fast-paced early interaction and being able to swing the battle with being able to choose your reinforcements.

[3:14] [PI]: Look at ship, like the 5v5 ship, like as a player, it was really fresh initially, but after a month or two it was just like character combat with the 3v3 and the reinforcement abilities we definitely added another strategic layer to the ship combat.

[3:29] [AT]: And I agree, yeah, the reinforcement bonuses definitely change things up, and I want to give a little background, because people might already be kind've familiar with what reinforcement bonuses are as you know the capitol ship when you call in a reinforcement they get a buff for example. Well now it's a bit different, and I'll let you guys explain in a second but before where you guys had hardware abilities coming soon you now added reinforcement abilities to that, and for example I saw that Boba Fett's Slave I, when it's going to enter battle, it looks like it's going to taunt when it comes in, and that's pretty awesome. So why don't we talk a bit more about how these reinforcement abilities work, and maybe while we even talk give another example of another ship and what their reinforcement ability will be when they come into battle.

[4:07] [CM]: Yeah there's all--they're all going to have their own unique feel and I think that, without saying too much, we wanted to give excitement to the ships that--to the identity the ship already had. So taunt seems--might seem really strange--on Slave I, but he also gains retribution with that, so even though he's being hit, he's also--as a high damage dealer--he's also, y'know, you have to hit, you're forced to hit him, and [laughing] suffer the repercussions hitting Slave I.

[4:34] [AT]: Kind've looks like you're kind've mixing up what our typical traditional idea was reinforce was usually for maybe the most part maybe you guys can agree the number one reinforcement that comes in right after was the scimitar, well now after these reinforcement changes with these new abilities when entering someone into battle we might not have a set definition of what should be the first reinforcement character and I think this makes things a bit more dynamic. And when I was testing out the ships for the first time with this new rework you guys got going on and it kind of changed my mentality about how I should go about the battle. So hopefully whatever you guys are doing with reinforcements it makes underused ships more useful and maybe starting ships we've used before maybe they should be in the back and then not start off in the very beginning.

[5:12] [TH]: I want to hop in and also say and caveat and things like I traditionally do whenever we talk and say that the Boba Fett's his taunt and retribution are works in progress it's one that we're pret--comfortable with, but there's a chance that it changes. Just so that people don't think if it launches differently, so they don't think "well what happened?" We're still testing it, we feel really good with it, something may change the boat.

[AT makes a Darth Traya joke]

[5:42] [AT]: Now we have all of these changes, one of these things that's still kind of a big concern is time dedication to ships, for me personally, I got a lot of stuff going on I already do my arena for the one hour slot and ships is right after it. I'm not going to lie, for the longest time I've always done one battle on auto, what is time commitment going to look like? Are you guys going to be changing how the pay-out works? How much time is going to be needed for battle? Is this going to be something for people who aren't fully committed to ships? What's going on here that you can kind of tell us a bit more about?

[6:15] [CM]: So we're definitely doing more--since the battles are starting with three and they are more fast-paced we're definitely making some changes in terms the battle time, we've reduced the timer from seven and a half minutes down to the like normal five you'd see in squad arena so they should be quicker.

[6:31] [PI]: Yeah cause the accompanying change in damage and health as well that comes from that.

[6:35] [AT]: When you're talking about stats here and stat changes, is it fair to say that ships will be nerfed to some extent? Is there a nerf across the board to make health lower so the battles are more fast paced? What exactly are we talking about with stat changes here?

[6:49] [TH]: Yeah, so, it's interesting. Is it a nerf? Potentially? We've had to make a number of changes. And we hope that the players understand sort of what the spirit of it was. We see on reddit and our forums people asking for more diversity and a different experience. To delivery that requires some, I'm going to use the word, compromises and that sounds ominous but it's not meant to be ominous it's meant to say we heard you and we wanted to make some changes and those changes resulted in changes it's a very different experience and some numbers had to be changed and most of the ability kits have been updated some more dramatically than others. But yeah we wanted to make sure it was a way different experience.

[7:30] [AT]: So what're kind've saying is that some underused ships will become more used and I'm guessing it might be fair to say that some of the more popular ships we're seeing now we might see them get a reduction a use in fleet arena?

[7:40] [TH]: It's not necessarily a reduction in usage, more often than not what we're doing is bringing lower-used ships into parity. It's no different--it's like ships are a much narrow space, there's fewer ships, it's no different than whenever we go through and kind've rework a faction. There's some natural drift inside the game and we spend our time bringing other characters and things up, you can kind've think of this more as a larger rework across ships generally, and making sure some of the underused ships have a identity inside the game as well.

[8:09] [CM]: Exactly.Yeah rather than like looking as it as stats coming down, it's like because the other ships are more viable we'll see more changes because ships you've wanted to use but maybe weren't viable are now definitely an option.

[8:20] [AT]: That's cool! I mean that's that's always great to see, ships is something I want to see some shake up in, so hopefully the ships we still love will still have some viability and those ships that you guys may have wanted to see a lot more of use of, maybe it's time to pull them out of your roster and gear up that character up a little bit more. And we're going to wrap up here with like two more quick thoughts here, we're mainly mostly focused on fleet arena here, but are these changes the reinforcement changes the stat changes are they going to apply to other parts of the game perhaps? I know we're going to talk about the new PVE table you got going on so is this something across the board or just fleet arena changes?

[8:50] [CM]: That'll be more across the board, Territory Battles, challenges, we're going to make sure it's fresh, it's balanced across everything ships touch.

[8:58] [AT]: And will the AI also have access to these reinforcement bonuses or is it something just for the user to have?

[9:03] [CM]: The AI will have access to it as well, we made some AI improvements to be able to look at the reinforcement abilities bring and choose based on the current state of the battle.

[9:13] [PI?]: We think it's an improvement especially for something as complicated as ships combat so we think it's an improvement but obviously we'll monitor it in the wild and make improvements as we need to.

[9:24] [AT]: And the last question we got here! You guys I believe talked about this on another interview somewhere out there and I believe Carrie said this on her Road Ahead post but a PVE ships table. Now If you guys don't what PVE if you guys are familiar with the light side and dark side battles you faced as a beginner players, we're finally getting that for ships. What can we talk about here? Is it exactly like light side and dark sude battles is there maybe a story attached to it, a new way to farm characters and gear? this sounds like a whole new area of farming potential. Kind of curious what you have here.

[9:53] [CM]: It's pretty much exactly it, it's where we can put other stuff for you guys it's a little different it's not necessarily light side/dark side it's got a bit more of a cantina feel to it because there's going to be like a mix and match to it, in terms of the similarity it has we're looking at hard nodes on it as well.

[10:09] [AT]: And is there going to be a whole new energy for this or are we going to have to share energy that we already use for the other side of the cantina. That's a big concern I have it's already so limited and I'm already farming five different hardnode characters. Are we using the same energy for this table? That's kind of one of my concerns.

[10:24] [CM]: Then I think you'll be glad that t is a new energy that you can use. You don't have to use cantina energy or anything [garbled] there will be ship energy for the PVE table.

[AT talks about how tight energy is; thanks them for coming; picks on them for making Fleets the unwanted middle child]

TL;DR - Battles will run for 5 minutes instead of 7; you will start with 3 ships rather than 5; number of reinforcements appears to remain the same (nothing explicitly stated, but video shows 4); hardware abilities are now "reinforcement abilities"; reinforcement abilities are bonuses gained by the ship reinforcing; reinforcement abilities seem to be upgraded with an as-of-yet unknown ability material, the type required seems to vary by ship (as seen by video example rather than explicitly stated; subject to change); updates will apply to all ship areas of the game; new ship PVE table will be neutral--neither light or dark side--and have its own, unique energy; ship table may come with hard nodes.

I may have mixed the devs up, and if I did I apologize. I will edit this for clarity/grammar a bit later.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzIo_jiZqhU

Replies

  • catharsis478
    676 posts Member
    edited April 2018
    I am not doing the CubsFan Han video, someone else can get that one!

    Edit: I had a listen through the CubsFan Han video and didn't really hear a lot of relevant information. All I really took away from that was that they're still looking for a place to put these special ability mats and that they're meant to be roughly equivalent to zetas (at least in terms of power, we'll have to see where they wind up and how difficult they are to get).
    Post edited by catharsis478 on
  • SeanutB
    482 posts Member
    edited April 2018
    Is there a way to hide that massive textwall of a transcript behind a spoiler or hidden tag, just to be less annoying
  • TVF
    36518 posts Member
    Or you could just not read a thread that has a transcript of a 12 minute video.

    Thanks for doing this again @catharsis478
    I need a new message here. https://discord.gg/AmStGTH
  • SeanutB
    482 posts Member
    TVF wrote: »
    Or you could just not read a thread that has a transcript of a 12 minute video.

    Thanks for doing this again @catharsis478

    oo sassy
  • TVF
    36518 posts Member
    It's not sass, it's logic.
    I need a new message here. https://discord.gg/AmStGTH
  • Yea! Really great. Tysm. Time consuming and on a Sunday, it is much much appreciated.
  • Aliea
    63 posts Member
    Thanks for this transcript
  • SeanutB
    482 posts Member
    TVF wrote: »
    It's not sass, it's logic.
    lol
  • TVF
    36518 posts Member
    Likewise.

    You're the only one in this thread complaining, everyone else is grateful. Maybe you should quit while you are behind.
    I need a new message here. https://discord.gg/AmStGTH
  • I for one thank you @catharsis478 for taking the time to do this. Great job!!
  • Thank you catharsis478! Very helpful
  • SeanutB
    482 posts Member
    edited April 2018
    TVF wrote: »
    Likewise.

    You're the only one in this thread complaining, everyone else is grateful. Maybe you should quit while you are behind.

    What...who cares about being the only one doing anything. The thread would be much cleaner if the transcript was under a hidden thing, the TL DR at the end would be easily accessed and then if someone wants the full trans, one can click and bam it appears. I dunno if this site has that function.

    It's a reasonable opinion and just for saying it I'm a hater, complainer, and don't appreciate the effort or somethin. Thanks for the transcript Mr Catharsis it's much better than listening to a dumb 20min mess of a video

    Offtopic but: I think I used to post like you Mr Tvf, once hehehe...somewhat edgy, nerdy (not in a bad way really), yet still a bit oddly aggressive. I don't really know exactly I just get a vibe as the reader. Eh I don't mean offense I'm just thinking
  • JKRevan
    156 posts Member
    GJ catharsis for taking one for the team, i gatehr that was a multiple watch-process.
  • dad2my3
    1561 posts Member
    Thanks so much!

    I don’t know how long the video was, but I scanned through that transcript in less than two minutes, and I appreciate having the ability to read it instead of being forced to wait through some long YouTube video just to give somebody a bunch more hits.
  • Thank you for this. I hate having to watch videos to get basic information.
  • Thank you so much! Being hearing impaired really makes getting info from video a wordwhichwillbeswitchedtokittenifitypeit. You rock!
  • urtil
    73 posts Member
    Thanks for the work! Much appreciated! :)
  • Thanks for the effort @catharsis478 , appreciated.
  • Athusk
    348 posts Member
    edited April 2018
    Thank you, I wish the Devs or the Content Creators would write up summaries, I do realize they want to gain attraction on their channels, but it is extremely annoying to check the forums and the watch through YouTube videos to get info on the updates.

    Watching YouTube videos is extremely time-consuming, especially when there safe points in time where someone would just ramble on about something useless or irrelevant.

    Another idea that might be a little more helpful is to put all update videos into one channel (an official swgoh channel). This way it would be easier for us to at least search for the videos or stay in touch with updates, rather than subscribing to ALL content creators to get the info. (Yes, I do realize that they give pop-ups in game to the videos, but if you do not have time for it, your only other option would be to cruise through all the channels - if you are not subscribed).
  • Thanks for the effort. Double the above - would be great to have a transcript - if not a simple summary post like your own TL:DR was for us - then if someone is interested enough after the summary they'll go watch the video for any of minutiae.
    #AcolyteShootsTwice
  • Dralkyr
    457 posts Member
    Hmm. I'm intrigued by most of this. What I'm most wondering right now is the Reinforcement Abilities. If these are as they logically appear to be - that is, abilities or bonuses granted when a ship is sent as a Reinforcement - then it seems the starting lineup of 3 will be kinda nerfed. If Slave 1 has a Reinforcement Ability of Taunt + Retribution, then why would I ever put Slave 1 in my starting lineup?
  • Gifafi
    6017 posts Member
    this is so awesome, thanks
    Maybe End Game isn't for you
  • Dralkyr wrote: »
    Hmm. I'm intrigued by most of this. What I'm most wondering right now is the Reinforcement Abilities. If these are as they logically appear to be - that is, abilities or bonuses granted when a ship is sent as a Reinforcement - then it seems the starting lineup of 3 will be kinda nerfed. If Slave 1 has a Reinforcement Ability of Taunt + Retribution, then why would I ever put Slave 1 in my starting lineup?

    That’s a very good question. How strong will your initial 3 have to be to survive until reinforcement? Should be interesting!

  • BhMojo
    50 posts Member
    And still the Jedi get no rework
  • I don't have the time and/or patience to do a full transcript of Warrior's video--and without one there doesn't seem to be need for a new thread--but I will go ahead and do a TL;DW for it real quick:

    • add tools to toolkit; versatility for various play styles
    • faction synergies revisited/emphasized; looked at F/O, rebels, geonosians especially for synergy
    • devs reiterate that they want to bring uncommonly used ships up; not reduce factions like Empire
    • That they want a rock/paper/scissors dynamic to fleet arena
    • reinforce is an additional ability that can only be used when a ship is called to reinforce
    • ships without a full faction have been made more modular so you can plug/play them
    • Poe Dameron's reinforcement ability will give him a buff that will reset if he kills an enemy ship with it.
    • ship stats were adjusted across the board rather lots of individual adjustments
    • "we didn't purposefully buff or nerf any ships;" "don't compare 5v5 numbers and 3v3 numbers it's like apples and oranges"
    • Arena fights: "usually takes around 3 minutes, depending on your opponent"
    • but perception of the fight is more "intense"
    • complete picture; ships being reworked across the board tb, tw, events, etc
    • Home One, challenges; will 'definitely' change 'it'; it'll definitely feel different

    Just because there was more information than "reinforcement abilities are like zeta materials but we don't know where/how hard they'll be to get" and "GeoSpy can force enemy ships to taunt" and "Carrie can do a terrifying impersonation of CubsFan Han."

    The video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_9EY5lN3U
  • When you make TL;DW, but edit it to add a link to the video and it disappears into the spam filter.

    @CoastalJames @Kyno - I love you both, but could one of you clear it please? I'd rather not rewrite it (then feel paranoid that I missed something people'd want to know).
  • has it been announced when this ship update is coming out?
  • Nadebotfm
    546 posts Member
    edited April 2018
    also, no talks about a ship raid?
  • I believe they are shorting their timer from 7:30 minutes to 5 minutes because people are using it to hold their position in the last hour of combat so they do not lose their spot. Personally the long timer helps. If you don’t attack until the last 2 minutes then you have 5 minutes of holding you basically have an hour where nobody can attack you to advance in positions. I’ve found this tactic to help me stay in the 1-20 rankings for fleet
  • Muaddib
    563 posts Member
    Depablo wrote: »
    I believe they are shorting their timer from 7:30 minutes to 5 minutes because people are using it to hold their position in the last hour of combat so they do not lose their spot. Personally the long timer helps. If you don’t attack until the last 2 minutes then you have 5 minutes of holding you basically have an hour where nobody can attack you to advance in positions. I’ve found this tactic to help me stay in the 1-20 rankings for fleet

    You've posted this exact thing in every discussion on the topic. Can't wait to see them all get merged and then read this on every page. :D
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