MXO E3 Interview
Just wanted to post this in case some missed it. Sheds some light on some of the new content in the works. Definatly worth the read to me. I know Walrus mentioned the new trees in his looking glass post, but this interview gives a little more detail. Whole article @
http://mxovault.ign.com/View.php?view=Features2.Detail&id=106&category_select_id=1Q: Are there plans to expand upon the "dungeon" role of the Exile Hideout or add new, distinctive "quest" areas which support group mission outings? Erik: Absolutely. We have a feature that we’re working on, which is to expand our content. It’s called Pandora’s Box. We have a really good mission system, we have some interesting NPCs and we’re looking at blending all these things and start creating investigative story arcs. They will be divided into chapters and each portion has a big fight at the end, our equivalent to raid content. It’s not supergroups or anything like that, it’s 6-12 people. The first story that we’re working on right now is going to be for levels 30-50. It has cool rewards and it’s gonna use NPCs in interesting places and we’re gonna start using these to provide more background.
Bruce: We call these Pandora’s Boxes because these are things that will be initiated by players finding and opening up something in the course of their investigations.
Erik: Then you’ll be able to get your group together and get ready. It’s kinda like a tactical thing. We wanted something that’s a challenge for even our experienced players. We’re designing this so that there’s some replay value, going back and redoing portions of it and it’s a pretty interesting story. It’s pretty cool.
Q: Past developer interviews have indicated the possibility for new Disciplines. Might the addition of such involve also raising the level cap or would it simply give players more options across the existing levels? Erik: Raising the level cap is not out of the question for the future but it will not be something in the short term.
Bruce: I’m currently designing three hybrid disciplines. Erik likes to call them "stubs" because they don't go all the way down the tree. They’re like the Sniper that’s currently in there. It’s a branch that actually ends before level 50. I’m designing one for the Operative, one for the Hacker, and one for the Coder. The Operative one is the Zen Master which is a side branch off the Aikido Master. It’s Martial Arts with some special moves with different animations, but it’s also got the ability to convert damage into healing procs or even things that remove negative states and help him regenerate his IS faster. It will definitely appeal to those people who like self-contained characters. I think of these as hybrids because they’re deeply grounded in one branch of the discipline trees. They may pick up some tricks from another one of the branches that they went into.
The Trojan Horse is the one off the Hacker branch and that one has got some direct viral attacks but it’s designed to be more survivable against physical combat to get in the middle of opponents. As they attack the Trojan Horse, they end up damaging themselves as the Trojan Horse procs damages or heals to the team members around him. So that’s gonna be a lot of fun.
The Citadel Coder is a specialist form of simulacra. It’s designed to not last as long as your normal simulacra but has the ability to do a tremendous amount of damage or other effects. So it’s somebody who will be able to set some kind of tactical trap. I think teams will be able to do hammer and anvil kind of scenarios - a lot of fun stuff like that.