Grim Dawn - Ask the Developers

[Knuckles 904]

By Essjayehm (I goofed and merged it somehow with my post )
I think Beta started at $35. That's what I went for during the KS campaign but I forget if there was a cheaper option that included Beta access.

After watching Ryan's videos I think I am glad to have waited until Beta... the 3 classes at release don't excite me too much, and there is no MP yet.

 

 

Yup it's 20 bucks at release....which I think is pegged for about September of this year

It's 50 to get into Alpha and Beta and there's another price for getting into just beta but I forget. And for $20 It's well worth the price. The Alpha has worked almost flawlessly for me...couple crashes at bosses that seem to be fixed in last build. Several small things I'd like to see fixed but they are pretty minor.

I do like that it's a challenge right at the start....and the loot is neither over-powering or worthless....it just feels right. Ranged is much easier right now for me, but going to give melee another try now that I got a feel for the game. Just really wish MP was part of the Alpha but guess we have to wait for Beta along with 2 more classes...Really looking forward to the Nightblade class.

Can you believe they're already modding game lol...first time I've heard of an Alpha getting that. Plus the developers are soooo hands on in the forums...so refreshing after some games where the company simply ignored the players. Have had several one-on-one conversations with the guys.

[Knuckles 904]

Well talking to a couple of the devs lately. Asked them if they would be interested in doing a Q&A session for darkmatters and they agreed. I told him I would collect and submit the questions and he'll pm me back with responses.

 

So if you got ant questions on the game....fire away:)

[essjayehm 58]

Gave it some thought overnight... after a brief visit to their site to answer some questions I figured were already common knowledge; I believe I have some compentent questions to ask:

 

Will the Beta have Veteran/Elite difficulties?

 

Will there be a mechanic to change the quality of wares offered at a merchant? Such as a quest that upgrades a vendors' offerings; or a merchant hidden away that has 'better' items.

 

Being a Diablo-style game, where are all the rainbows and unicorns O.o?

 

I will probably have some more, when do you think you will submit the Q's, Knuckles?

[Knuckles 904]

I'll wait at least a week. Hopefully I can get some more questions/interest. But I'll give a couple day notice at minimum

[gogoblender 3,069]

Well talking to a couple of the devs lately. Asked them if they would be interested in doing a Q&A session for darkmatters and they agreed. I told him I would collect and submit the questions and he'll pm me back with responses.

 

So if you got ant questions on the game....fire away:)

wow

well done Knuckles!

 

 

gogo

[Knuckles 904]

The dev's are pretty awesome. They are so involved on the boards and welcome all feedback and respond personally to most. I have never seen a more active/close relationship with the fans. I've even had a number of pm sessions with them. Plus they invited me up to their office (when they get one lol). They all live/work within 70 miles or so of me.

For those unfamiliar with Grim Dawn...think Diablo 2 but darker. I really encourage everyone to hit youtube and look at the vids, but even they do not accurately portray the vibe the game has. If they can keep adding content (which they have promised to do) I can see me playing this for a long time. The skill progression and loot just feels right. I'll add a few questions myself. I really hope we can get a few more people interested/asking questions

 

1) After release, what are your plans for expansions / additional content?

2) Do you ever see dedicated open/closed servers for the game?

3) How will factions work?

4) Would you support an official or unofficial wiki site ?

5) After reaching max character level, will there be any additional challenges for that character?

6) In many games skill progression is maxed out well before max character level. Is there anything for a very high level character to do to improve his character outside of gear?

7) In many games re-playability is an issue (D3 for me). What are you doing game-wise to increase/provide re-playability?

8) Many people love to show off their characters (vanity shots). Will we be able to take close-up pics of our characters?

9) Will there be random boss encounters (like Toxeous)?

10) If there was one thing you really wanted in the game but it was not financially possible, or not feasible due to game mechanics, what would that be?

[Omnicide 26]

The dev's are pretty awesome. They are so involved on the boards and welcome all feedback and respond personally to most. I have never seen a more active/close relationship with the fans.

 

I think that's because it's such a small group which makes communication between each other and the fans much easier. Plus they know a lot of us are supporting there game either in the way of beta testing or financial donations.

 

Like I said before, for the price of $20 (est.), I'm in. I'm especially happy that you mentioned the loot drops will not be under/overpowered, but just right. I prefer a challenge, and I quickly become bored of games that drop too much loot, whether it's overpowered or not. Too much overpowered loot makes the game too easy, and too much underpowered loot is just a nuisance. But I guess I'll be the ultimate judge of that, but so far it sounds promising to my ears.

[Etherian 76]

Questions at a beta are tough, for me at least. So far to go still until official release.

 

Basically, I am seeking a very long adventure. A very long adventure requires patch updates, new content, expanding world, etc.

 

Anything along those lines, much like D2, the game will be very successful...long term.

 

Something I always wanted in D2 was a shared stash per account/multipule accounts. An email system if you will for stashing loot and/or recipie items, which take up vast amounts of space on a given character playthrough/farming scenario.

 

I remain,

[wolfie2kX 528]

Questions at a beta are tough, for me at least. So far to go still until official release.

 

Basically, I am seeking a very long adventure. A very long adventure requires patch updates, new content, expanding world, etc.

 

Anything along those lines, much like D2, the game will be very successful...long term.

 

Something I always wanted in D2 was a shared stash per account/multipule accounts. An email system if you will for stashing loot and/or recipie items, which take up vast amounts of space on a given character playthrough/farming scenario.

 

I remain,

 

Um.. You mean like the one in Sacred 2.. Right? Individual storage - shared storage...

[Omnicide 26]

I think Knuckles pretty much hit the nail on the head for all the questions I would have asked.

[Etherian 76]

 

Questions at a beta are tough, for me at least. So far to go still until official release.

 

Basically, I am seeking a very long adventure. A very long adventure requires patch updates, new content, expanding world, etc.

 

Anything along those lines, much like D2, the game will be very successful...long term.

 

Something I always wanted in D2 was a shared stash per account/multipule accounts. An email system if you will for stashing loot and/or recipie items, which take up vast amounts of space on a given character playthrough/farming scenario.

 

I remain,

 

Um.. You mean like the one in Sacred 2.. Right? Individual storage - shared storage...

 

Correct, but more, much more. Say for example you want to keep your playable character storage light. You could then email the items you found while farming/questing to a mule account(s) for safe keeping.

 

An example would be your farming boss's with a melee badass. But the boss drops a goldy caster item. Pull up a seperate screen. Type in the account name and password, tab down to the mule charcter you want that specific item stored.

 

But we are not done yet transfering items.

 

The same run, but different boss drops an uber polearm. However, you are duel wielding mallets. Following the same pattern. Pull up the same screen again, once the previous item has been emailed. Type in account name & password, tab down to your polearm mule, hit send. That polearm has now been placed on a totally seperate character and account. All the while your still in game with your melee badass farming boss's.

 

I have never seen such an advanced system of storage in a game. Very simple concept, yet not one game I am aware of has this function!

 

Hope this answers your question.

 

I remain,

[Knuckles 904]

There is a shared stash though no email ability. Plus the stash is fairly small, filled it up with completed components long ago. Already got suggestions in to make it a money sink...Just make extra tabs for it and make them expensive. I already got over 1 mill Iron Bits and the most expensive item I have seen was about 120k

[Spunky 16]

I only got one question, and as the alpha is unplayable for me I have no idea if the game contains it already, if not:

Are there plans of introducing Flail weapons later on?

[Knuckles 904]

Spunky have you visited the forum and posted about it being unplayable? The dev's are very interested in any any pc configs that the game plays poorly on or not at all. They may have a solution or fix for you.

 

I'll add the flail question as I haven't seen a definite answer on the forums

[masteff 64]

A couple I have...

What is plan for max player level? (impacts long term skill planning given 3 skill points per level, takes 50 points for highest level plus all the points in the various skills)

 

On the options menu, there's one about locking item pickup. Is that for multi-player to control whether others can see/pickup your drops or something else?

 

Armor tool tip shows breakdown by slot. Are they planning to add similar tool tip summaries for other stats. Like for damage (by type of damage) "Fire: x-y + z%"

 

And I ought to post this one over at the GD forum but have they thought about drastically cutting the cost to respec skill points just for the alpha (maybe early beta)? Given the hours to get a toon to level 25, it'd be nice to be able to easily respec to try out and test other skills. I started to try it last night and quickly reached a cost of 7000 to remove the next skill point and ran myself broke. I'm torn on grinding to afford a full respec vs starting a new toon.

[Knuckles 904]

I know there has been discussions about the respec cost for the Alpha but would have to dig through forum to see if a dev answered it. Wish we had MP going. I could give ya 500k or so. (yeah I farmed the hell outta that altar exploit - now fixed in last patch )

 

Will submit questions some time in the afternoon this Sunday (the 9th)

[Ryanrocker 200]

Will submit questions some time in the afternoon this Sunday (the 9th)

 

I've got a couple questions from some of my videos so I'll grab them all and post them here sometime tomorrow most likely

[Ryanrocker 200]

Although I know some of these have been already answered in the forums, I figured why not add them to the pile

1) Is there any ETA on the finished game?

2) Will there be more than 3 classes to choose from in the finished game?

3) Titan quest had relics you could form by collecting certain items, scrolls, etc...will you be able to have this as well in the finished game?

4) Will there be class specific gear sets?

5) Will the main character actually speak?

6) What will the next act look like?

7) What will the end game be like?

8) Will we be able to transfer our Alpha character through Beta and Final release?

9) When will the mod tools be released?

10) Will armor sets have more artistic 'pop' to them color wise?

11) How many total classes will there be?

12) Will status effects be more readable (IE: through an icon?)

13) Will there be character customization at creation?

[masteff 64]

Roughtly what % does the alpha playable area represent of the total playable area in the game?

 

Why did they nerf drops so harshly between build 8 and now? My 2 most recent toons have not seen a single blue and only a couple greens. We can't test what we can't get.

[Knuckles 904]

Sent off questions about an hour ago...be interesting what they respond with