ANVIL Q&A
Questions received prior to Q&A session (excluding the ones mentioned during live stream)
1. Plans for changes to status effects?
- We are testing many ways to improve the status effect interaction. The first step is to lower the status effect immunity of bosses from 50% to 0% which means the initial freeze will last the full duration of the status effect as it does to field monsters instead of half the time. We have many changes planned and will be applied step by step.
- As for shock being op, there was a bug where shock was excluded from status effect immunity. We have fixed that bug and we have further shortened the duration period of shock.
2. How are you going to diversify the Breaker builds?
- The current game version is the Early Access 1st version. There are many works in progress and many things will change, including the addition of relics and effects. Big changes will be coming in February and March at the latest.
3. Can you make an indication of relics that are already replicated in-game?
- We will add this to the development plans.
4. Do fighter-type weapons have a higher drop rate?
- No, it is just your misconception.
5. Any plans to change the stage that only has eggs?
- The intention was for it to be a stage that ties Breakers so that time passes, leading to higher difficulty. However, this led to boring gameplay. We are contemplating on how to change this stage to make it more meaningful yet different/unique.
6. Why can’t I stream on Xbox (Series S)?
- We will look into the issue.
7. Is Status Effect Target: 50% damage increase relic to enemies under status effect not appearing as frequently intended?
- We checked and it appears at the same rate.
8. The Xbox controller settings aren’t saved so I have to reset every time I log in. Can you make the settings last?
- We will make this a priority. At the current development pace, we expect this to be available in February or March.
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Q&A from Livestream (Check Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mkQn-s4nPs&t=179s)
1. Is Crasher shotgun side effect of giving 100% crit chance intended?
- Yes, it is intended. Previously it used to be 100% crit not for 5 seconds on use but at any time. We decided to nerf it to 5 seconds but in that process accidentally deleted the description of applying crit. We will further improve the description of the weapons.
- Plans to change many weapons and update them are in progress.
2. Are there plans to show a stat page at the end to show who does more work?
- We had a blog post during the demo that asked whether we should show teammate DPS, to which many responded “no.”
- Showing everything from healing done, damage taken, monsters killed, shield amount and others will make stat sharing more meaningful and are considerations for the future. However, that feature needs more development. Every Breaker has a different role and is not all about DPS. At the current state, we feel just sharing teammate DPS would have more cons than pros. A possibility would be sharing DPS only among premade team members.
3. Plans for new skin?
- 12 different skins that change the outward appearance of Breakers are prepared. We are contemplating how to make these skins available. At the earliest, these skins can be added in January and will be provided in February and March at the latest.
- We will add the Uzi skin that showed her face to the Jan. update.
4. Xbox Steam cross-platform invite?
- We expect this feature will be available around March.
5. How do the calculations for Attack Power, Weapon Power, Skill Power, Defense Penetration, and other stats work?
- We feel this is something that we need to provide. Just sharing the calculations on a blog post is something that can be done relatively quickly. Showing the calculations in-game so that even players new to the game can see it is proving to be more difficult. As such, the information delivery is being delayed. We will share it as a blog post soon since many players want to know.
6. Will there be more rewards in the Season Pass in the next Season?
- We will add a lot more diverse skins that change outward appearance, not just changing colors.
- At the current state, there is only one way to acquire relics. We plan to add some key relics in the Season Pass to obtain. We are also open to putting starting weapons and starting skill upgrades that players need to acquire to change at the start.
7. Are there plans to balance out existing Breakers like the Jungler, Sandman patch?
- We are thinking of a spotlight renewal system, with the first two Breakers being Jungler and Sandman. We are closely inspecting the results of this patch. Based on the stats we get, it is possible that we make further changes.
- In both February and March, we will be making a rework of 1 or 2 Breakers each time like we did with Jungler and Sandman. Right now, only the Breakers that are popular are getting used.
8. Are there going to be more ways to obtain revives in the future?
- We are in the process of making revive as an added effect. For example, Uzi will have a passive effect called Phoenix that lets her revive once.
- We plan to make relics that revive a Breaker upon death as well as special weapons.
9. Are there plans to nerf Sand Shark and Wind Shark?
- As for bosses, we are looking at the game stats to decide whether to make changes to them. As for Sand Shark and Wind Shark, only certain Breakers have difficulty fighting them. For example, the bullets that bounce for Lightning get blocked by the wind walls which makes it difficult. But other Breaker stats show that the bosses are not skewed to one side so we have no plans to make adjustments. We will be happy to share these stats with the players.
10. Are there plans to make custom weapon color, bullet color, and other customization options available?
- Right now, we have a skin system in place. Having different skins is probably the way we’ll look at it. That said, we think customization and showing your character is important so we are thinking more alongside adding badges or having a cape that reflects the player. These elements will be handed out as diverse rewards.
11. More detail on Toy Worker 2.0?
- In the demos, we had Toy Workers that fought alongside the players but that was delayed off. We will make Toy Workers able to fight as well as add cool features like being able to revive teammates, drop health packs and give a major buff every few seconds.
- Right now, there aren’t many places to use Crons. In Toy Worker 2.0, Crons will be used to upgrade these Toy Workers and customize them.
12. Will we be able to have a separate upgrade tree for each Breaker?
- Yes, that feature will be available in March.
13. Plans to give us Gold Hound?
- The Gold Hound Toy Worker was planned to be a wishlist prize, but we haven’t hit that milestone yet. If we don’t reach that milestone, we will think of other ways to provide it. We also wanted to wait until Toy Worker 2.0 to revamp the Toy Worker and give a better one to everyone. If needed, giving the Gold Hound a special event soon is possible.
14. When will the January update take place?
- We need to pass Xbox certification so, at the earliest, it will happen Jan. 26, at the latest Jan. 28.
15. Are there plans to change Polychopper reflect pattern?
- Reflect pattern is a unique pattern for this boss monster. We don’t plan to take that away, but we will vamp up the visual effect that reflection is happening so that people are more aware.
16. Are there plans to change the healing of Protian Beast?
- This isn’t a bug, but we are thinking of adjusting so that the interaction seems less unfair. We will try to fix the healing amount for decoys and clones.
17. Any plans to change one-shot mechanics?
- We plan to make the one-shot mechanic more easily distinguishable and add more graphical features.
- In February we have our balance patch #1. Right now, we have a roguelike system where players increase both their defense and attack. If we remove a lot of defensive growth paths, the enemy attacks don’t need to scale as rapidly. We plan to make player growth more focused offensively to make it more fun and make boss attacks scale more linearly than exponentially.
18. Are there plans to make the maps and spawning more random?
- We are considering this and plan to apply it more on the Journey mode.
19. Why does this game not support 4 player mode?
- We tried 2~4 player modes during the demo and came to the conclusion that the top-down format that we have is suitable for up to 3 and feels way too clustered with 4 people. More people will be suitable for more open maps, not the zone type that we have right. But there seems to be no reason to block a 4-man premade party if they are willing to endure the clustering, so we are thinking positively about making this happen.
20. Any thoughts on endless wave mode or endless boss challenge?
- For sure. That is something we are considering.
- The main idea of the Journey mode is for players to choose their path and go deeper in the galaxy. By deeper, it also means harder in difficulty. We are thinking of a type of endless mode in this state where players can dive in endlessly.
21. Any thoughts of being able to sell weapons?
- Instead of selling weapons, we are thinking more about upgrading weapons. Right now, if Breakers of the same type are on the same team, if one Breaker sells the weapon, the teammate might be unhappy.
22. Any thoughts on having a dummy to test out Breaker damage in the lobby?
- We think this would be a good idea to have before the full release and will try to develop it soon.
23. Any thoughts on allowing players randomly matched to play together after a run?
- Something in consideration, but lower in our priority but good to have because we are focused more on the core roguelike play and Journey Mode. That said, we will try to implement this feature before the full launch. In addition, we also added the time after clearing the galaxy in the Jan. update for people to interact.
24. Thoughts on zooming out minimaps or changing minimap position?
- We don’t think zooming out the minimap is necessary, but changing the location of the minimap for convenience is something that will be put in the game.
25. What happens to the difficulty when a person leaves in the middle?
- The moment a player disconnects or leaves, the difficulty is instantly lowered to the remaining player number.
26. Any thoughts on penalties for players who leave in the middle?
- Adding a penalty isn’t difficult, but we are trying to figure out what a reasonable penalty can be.
- Also, at the current state, the game isn’t 100% stable so the penalties will only be added when we are confident in our game stability. We plan for the game to be stable by March, so a penalty might be added then.
Comments
As for the PVP mode, we want to make sure that this doesn’t change our game identity. We are contemplating what would be the best way to incorporate this into our game to make it more fun.
With four Season updates, we will continually make our game better. We will make it a game you can play and have fun and won’t give up on the game.