10 for the Developers: Episode 01

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

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   [Music] hi everyone I'm Matt Sherman technical designer here at the LA office I'm uh Dave hack I'm the lead writer and we're here with 10 for the developers uh many of you are familiar with our you know 10 for the program that Chris started with 10 for the chairman uh this is a new spin on it where we're going to have uh for today a designer and a writer together and we're going to go over s how we have to collaborate and what that s leads to with uh the rest of the game yeah and uh we've been getting our questions from the subscribers who uh I'm not sure if you're not familiar are uh contribute a little bit of extra money every month to allow us to do this sort of Community Based uh content and

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   uh yeah keep you guys more informed about what's going on yep so yeah thank you to all our subscribers and let's get into these questions our first one from daik says uh hi Dave are you planning on writing any fiction to mirror the development process uh such as being locked to Crusader flying around santon and then finally when we get to jump to other systems it'd be interesting to hear that the system has been in lockdown due to a you know pirate disturbance uh or that maintenance or updates are needed to get the jump Gates running uh I mean we that was something we had talked about I remember in the early days with the the uh Area 18 um the idea that you could go in stores but you couldn't buy anything we were like you know do we want to create some kind of reasoning behind it so you know whatever the credit card machines are down or whatever ccb's offline or

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   something um and then we we kind of stopped talking about it I mean I think part of it was because particularly with like the the the PTU that's coming uh that we're working on like large world was It was supposed to be mostly a test bed so we wanted to be able to try stuff and and get it in the game and start to figure out how what would become the Pu would work uh ultimately and so I think basically if we started adding fiction to it then we would have to come up with fiction as to why things changed and it just felt like it would probably be easier to just you know free ourselves from that and just be able to iterate you know rapidly on as new systems come online we can start incorporating and stuff like that even from the design side I mean like as great as those things would be not

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   having that overhead constraint really lets us make sure that the the design and the gameplay come through yeah but uh now for once we get the whole thing up and running though we've got like the real pu all built out do you think that's something that we can probably exp later I feel like it probably will just because you know I mean Chris Chris likes packaging stuff in the sort of in the fiction because it it gives you sort of a context that that lets you know sort of what the parameters of what you're playing with so I I think it's definitely possible down the line but yeah it seems like once once we kind of solidify the foundation and the of core mechanics that probably'll be more likely cool next question this is from Ramson Cole I was wondering about the addition of belly cameras to the ships to

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   facilitate Landing it's awfully hard to land manually when you can't see what's below you I know I could change my view but that takes away from the emersion aspect for me yep so definitely a great idea um one of the current challenges with that is just how cry engine handles picture and picture so it may not be the most immediate thing but I could definitely see this almost adding a different view where it is than that belly camera Landing view because I mean a lot of people do like the manual control the manual feel on everything as opposed to the automated assist so uh longer term it's absolutely something we can explore but it probably won't be something where you you you see a panel on your dashboard change feed or something like that yeah most likely wouldn't take that shape but it's absolutely something to look into yeah particularly because I crash a lot

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   all right so our next question comes from Superfly 2 asking how hard is it to concept and write about alien races as opposed to humanity um that is a good question uh it's different I mean obviously you know once you start getting into the sort of the nuts and bolts of other civilizations and stuff like that it's always a little a little tricky um you know I mean for me it was always an idea of you know these are still characters and though they maybe Shan or Banu or something like that and they may come from a different Society with different values and stuff like that they're still in a sense characters in a narrative so you know they still have wants they still have needs they have things they don't like and and stuff like that and some of that might be colored by the the civilization that they are coming from but um you know still just looking at them as characters who are trying to

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   complete a story has always been sort of how I've looked at it yeah and even also like on just some of the gameplay side of that something keep in mind is as you know some of our races could possibly get pretty interesting although right now a lot of them have like that humanoid form and a lot of that is like you know if you imagine an arachnid race the kind of crazy culture that would have to associate with it's just a lot of extra moving Parts spinning PL I mean do you know is that because I I remember that's been a popular Topic in the the Asad Dev and stuff like that about like you know having you know six foot tall six-legged things and stuff is that a and and there was some worry about doing it internally I I don't know what the what the deal was Is it feasible to do that is it much harder because it's a completely unique set of Animation or

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   design or I I I need to check with like bender and rigs on the animation side but I would definitely say part of it because how how an insectoid thing would walk would move would act would be much more based on that thing being an insect and not so much being a human and so to have a drastically non-humanoid rate it does a few extra challenges there so next one is from J Mojo of pxp uh just saw the awesome videos and development about cargo some made me really really happy but one question I have is if we find a rare item on the scale as fully functioning parts to ships weapons for a ship Bulldog missiles and a torpedo handguns rifles other items in that family tree will we be able to store them in the hanger we

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   own like have a corner of our hanger for weapon caches and tanks full of rare ore or gas tucked away for a rainy day yeah yeah I mean absolutely if you if you've salvage or recovered an item off of a ship it would go right into your cargo hold and so the next time you land back at your hanger you can just unload that have that in storage and and available for use so uh now the the ability to to scavenge and recover those parts won't always be a sure thing but it's definitely something that if if you get a stockpile of you know okay here's some spare guns you could throw them away a little bit more if you if you don't want to keep paying repairs on it or you know recondition so all the stuff would be sort of physicalized in your hanger stuff so it wouldn't just be like a I hit a terminal and well so hanger physicalization I think is still sort of being sorted because that could lead to

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    something where if you've got a thousand guns now you've got a thousand objects that the game has to keep updating and rendering but some some representation even if it has to be crated up we should definitely be able to get some way where you can you know see the spoil see it somehow that's cool all right and this one will definitely be a uh fan favorite as Rufus Ultra asks is there any chance to get a fourth starter ship like the Drake dragonfly so I I hope so I love that idea that was that was always one of my favorites that you know I you know it's not up to me but I think it would be amazing well yeah I mean it definitely has gotten a lot of just Community sentiment behind it because just the the idea of the space motorcycle is really cool um long term we absolutely want to have more starter ships in the game than

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    just the current three that we've we're offering uh but a lot of is getting our other ships built out first that we've already sold you um but I think we were been talking like just on some of the like the concessions and and design set up for okay it's it's the space motorcycle but do we have an open air pilot you know exposed to the vacuum of space do we let him go into Quantum you know yeah yeah yeah yeah it's it's so it's yeah it's a very tricky thing because it's if it's really small how big are these components cuz I mean you're heavily involved in the component process so like you know Quantum Drive is not a small thing yeah it's like how small can it actually be how exposed can it be so um but things like that like with starter ships in general we're definitely going to keep exploring stuff down the road uh but just may take a little bit longer before something like

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    the dragonfly Could Happen cool all right all right next one uh this is from asatos we've heard before that the dev team collaborates with the writing team to make sure the lore is reasonably in sync with the actual game mechanics with some creative license and fiction are you actively seing clues in the lore that will lead to bigger Mysteries or hint at Secrets hidden for players to discover later is there room for the possibility that things hidden in the universe for explorers or other players to find might not be found for years or not at all so for proceeding things in the Lauren uh so this wouldn't be so much a like a hidden Mystery type thing to discover but just uh how the first jump drive came about I mean that that started in in the fiction of you know RSI had this malfunctioning Quantum Drive and from

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    there they were able to use it to you know tap into jump technology and start traveling through these jump points right um I mean I remember a couple months ago you know we were sitting down and we actually were going over it's like well okay are these two separate things are they a one all in one um and that was defin a cool thing of going through where it was yeah taking taking the fiction that we have and making sure that the gameplay surrounding it all gels together yeah and I mean also I me with fuel and everything you know how to how to does Quantum Drive versus jump drive use sep fuels and stuff like that that's what sort of ultimately led to the sort of fuel docks of the different types of fuels that you need and stuff like that uh uh yeah I mean the second part of the question you I mean as to are you actively seeing clues in the lore that will lead to bigger Mysteries yeah I mean you know that's always been

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    sort of the thing thing that you know theoretically we we ideally are going to have a lot of narrative threads out there that you could that you could pick up on or maybe no one sees and you know just nothing kind of comes of it but you know that'll be sort of the obviously once we start testing this out and see how it you know exactly how hidden this stuff is because you know I think it's nice to think that oh you know people might not discover jump points for a while they data mind everything yeah uh and then you know they find them within 25 minutes uh so yep all right so our next question is from and pardon the butchering of this pronunciation Jay limal because I go with that it's good yeah uh asks thanks for contributing your time my question

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    about narrative story in the Pu is about playable characters inclusion in the universe if a player manages enough of a specific task such as exploration trade mining or any other job would there be NPCs that can mention the player by name either as a reference or as part of a mission will players eventually be recognized by inhabitants of the system for their acts that is a tough one uh I mean the it's been interesting because that was one of the things that was really fascinating about Fallout 4 was I I didn't realize that they had done the whole name recording thing and I had ended up picking a name that the robot knew and so actually referred to be my name and it and it totally blew my mind uh I mean that being said it's a really really complicated yeah technical thing to accomplish uh because invariably it feels like you have to do so many voice

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    recordings and so many variables and stuff that people will invar will always feel left out because you're not going to get everyone's name it's just not a feasible reality um but now more to like a player's actions I could definitely see us getting something where at least based on your reputation you could have something where oh you've you you're the hero of the uee and when you're walking around people might at least you know act a little bit you know I mean I guess it becomes more strategic you know it's like how we frame it like you know I the the classic example is the you know you you you were the one who killed dread pirate Roberts you might be walking down the street and someone might go you know they killed that's that's the one you know that's the guy/girl that killed dread pirate Roberts because then you only have two options that you need to record yeah uh you know or whatever you

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    know and then but then it feels like the universe is dynamically reacting to the stuff that you've done um so yeah I I think so I mean it's it's definitely going to be seated into the reputation system and that's actually one of the things has been a heavily discussed thing of late of trying to figure out exactly how deep the reputation system goes and how it works and and stuff like that so yeah so like seeding seaing your actions into their responses that that can possibly happen but doing it by character name is going to most likely be a bit prohibitive yeah all right uh next one is from Chris 891 hey guys will it be possible for organizations to actually have ships owned by the organization this would be really good for organizations that are

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    focused on the corporation style or Syndicate style of playing this way the organization feel this way the organizations can be role played as a real business and members will always have a feeling of contributing even if other members are offline so yeah we're we're definitely looking at some more expanded uh features and just gameplay for how organizations will interact with each other I know for a long time we've always been building that you know at least some way that you can share ships within your organization uh the exact details of how that'll structure out is still being sorted um and whether or not you'll have almost an organization Coffer where it's like the the organization saying hey we need to buy an Idis everyone just Chi into this pool and that goes through uh that'd be a little up in the air because at a certain point someone needs to own

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    something so it may you know just default to ownership of like the Organization leader but the ability to share out and allow others to use your ships in a big group is definitely a big thing that we want to deliver digital key Rings oh yeah just drops keys in a bowl yep and then our next question is from Grand Admiral Kern asking about will alien Tech sometimes be better than UE Tech uh for example Banu more efficient jump bin or scanners weapons things to hang off the side will alien Tech be usable on UE ships at the same level of Effectiveness the equipment has on its native vessels um I mean we've always sort of established that the a lot of the the

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    aliens the big alien races civilizations are roughly around the same technological level just because it felt like if somebody had a you know was Far advanced than Humanity then maybe they would just you know if the Shion were were superpowered basically compared to to humanity they would just wipe Humanity out and it wouldn't be much of a war so it's the that idea that like everybody can kind of hurt everybody you know was was kind of important and plus um you know but that being said like each one sort of will have things that we've will they'll specialize in that they're better at uh I mean we've already sort of seen it with with some of the Shion ships that they tend to be very vertical they have uh you know fewer thrusters they have more maneuvering thrusters you know type type stuff so that's trying to give them

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    different feels and flavors and stuff like that yeah even down to the nitty-gritty of the like the parts or the components there there can definitely be some things where you know Bandu make and model things like a scanner could could have some different parameters that a uee making model scanner wouldn't have uh favored but it would always sort of be a give and take where it's like you're you're going to equip either Banu or Shon tech for for this purpose and it wouldn't so much be just a general always better type of thing right right right but do you think as far as like you know can I take an RSI ship and put in a band new scanner i' I'd definitely say so I mean that that's also sort of why we we did some of the component size standardization so that you know we we've got the housing in the Box for

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    this is the volume of a of a small class power plan or a small class radar but what each individual race and manufacturer delivers for that could could look very different while the functionality in that interfacing into the ship is still very much the same or it's converted to thing yeah adapter plates yeah we got to go before construction starts again uh this is from Fallon light has the idea of terminal illness or Genuine disease been discussed for example players happen to discover a shipwreck and they find some strange food stuffs like the stuff the movie about killer yogurt uh strange biological container and try to eat the food and sell the container this is just this stuff uh they get sick possibly only as carriers but then you know you have an inverse pandemic I'm curious if the simple addin by developers would cause the entire verse to go nuts both government and player Force youth in

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    Asia jeez uh extreme traffic control blockades that sort of thing uh the point is that player psychology would be studied for decades by in real life teachers during term papers about how ingame players react to a pandemic was there was their blood did they handle well how different was it from a real scenario so devs don't even need to set up the government just let the players do the work and I'll bet dollars to donuts and publicity will go through the roof I will leave you to think with this link of something similar that happened in World of Warcraft so this is actually an interesting story for both of us because uh the actually the the link that Fon light mentions at the end so at the time that happened I was actually a customer support rep on World of Warcraft and you were mentioning that you were actually in game when this was happening playing I logged in when it was so happening just for a little bit of context uh the the incident in

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    question is is you know what was described so a virus got Unleashed into a massive populace it was a bug it was like a there was a a dot yeah it was a debuff effect that was causing this virus and yeah it wasn't intended that it was going to wipe out the the world timer wouldn't end yeah um and it was contagious the other very contagious and so the high level idea of this where yeah you do have this uncontrollable viral outbreak is an insanely cool highle thing but something to consider with it is just how destructive that is um in this example it like even as it was say saying here player forth or forced euthanasia or government forced you euthanasia um that was how these

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    situations had or that situation had to be contained entire player well not player cities but like main hubs of a game had to be just wiped out every living thing had to to die um and so to do that for the Pu like having some sort of a viral incident definitely want to explore that having it be something that could contaminate and infest the entire universe is a little less huge content shift I mean yeah because then that would effectively mean it's like cool let's just eradicate Tera and everyone who lives on there um and it's not really the the friendliest option yeah well and also I mean it be that becomes the story like you can't do like I'm gonna go pick

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    up three tons of iron ore and move it to Stanton because there's a oh my God there's a pandemic that's making people bleed on me you know so everything else it feels like everything else kind of grinds to a Hal and that was the thing I mean like as you mentioned I I logged in randomly while that event was going on and I spawned in orar and there were just corpses everywhere and I had no idea what was going on on and I was like uh you know and so I just kind of took off cuz I started saw bading people and just started running uh so I mean it's a it's a great narrative hook no doubt uh but yeah it would be God dangerous yeah the dangers of it are definitely there um although even on a smaller scale like having having a shipwide event that's probably something more you could see so say you're doing some research on your

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    Endeavor or Another Science type ship and something goes wrong there uh that that could definitely be more of a case where it's it's that same kind of fear and that same kind of panic but in a much more controllable scale where billions of entities won't have to die just to get things back to normal yeah and I mean you know even like there could be a planet that's needs to be quarantined because they had a thing but then it's again it's still it's a very it feels like it's a very guarded type thing where it's like oh well they need more resources to combat this to to maintain this quarantine and then maybe you could have the the narrative of like oh the quarantine starts to fail and you know but it's again it feel that feels more of a kind of a scripted yeah thing rather than just sort of you know creating a virus bug and just letting it go and run rampant so yeah so it it's definitely something that we want to

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    explore but it's making sure that we can explore it without uh being too punishing to everyone else who may not find viral outbreaks the most novel use of their gaming hours yeah yeah all right all right that's it y that has been this week's 10 for the developers really hope you guys enjoyed the new format uh sorry for any noise you may have heard in the background uh we're still getting settled here into the new Los Angeles office so there is a little bit of ongoing construction but I hope all the answers were loud and clear and thank you again for contributing hey guys thanks for watching um temp for the chairman uh if

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    you guys would like to uh see more episodes go here if you guys would like to subscribe to our YouTube channel and always keep up to date with all our video content go here and uh if you guys would like to watch episodes of around the verse go here please and I will see you in the verse this video made possible by the ICC Stellar surveyors and subscribers like you [Applause]