Guild Chat - Episode 48

The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the episode. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.
The 48th episode of Guild Chat aired on May 12, 2017. Host Rubi Bayer and her developer guests (Aaron Roxby, Josh Foreman, Link Hughes, Tyler Bearce) discuss the newest Living World episode, Flashpoint!
Transcription[edit]

Note: The text below hasn't yet been converted from raw subtitle text into pretty print like above.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6J55-Nh790
hi guys welcome back to guild chat
I'm your host Ruby and we're going to
talk about the newest release in Guild
Wars 2 flashpoint today I do have a
quick thing first because you probably
noticed that we are exceptionally well
dressed today I'm going to show off
Aaron and Link as well
we have I didn't even think to ask you
to do cool poses but you guys stepped up
anyway so okay thank you so much
absolutely um we've been talking for a
while about WeLoveFine
we are working with them for
merchandising and they've added some
cool new merchandise this week for the
flash point release so we have Gollum
t-shirts that they were kind enough to
provide for us and Mark if you could put
the link on there we just wanted to take
a minute to show those off and let you
guys know that they're available now so
that's an important thing to tell you
also important is that we're going to
talk about enormous spoilers today so if
you haven't finished flashpoint story we
did wait a week and a half and we're
going to spoil it a lot today so let's
go ahead and get started um I will let
you guys introduce yourselves and talk
about what you worked on for this
release sure I'm Linc Hughes a game
designer on the flashpoint team I worked
on the heart of volcano instance I'm
Aaron Roxby I'm also a game designer on
flashpoint and I did the first time he's
pet project instance and also the
open-world story bits okay well why
don't we go in order we'll start with
time ease pet project and it was all
going on in there there was um so let's
hit the big one first yeah huge reveal
Lazarus identity which was totally your
idea yes 100% from the beginning I came
and I started at the company I said this
is the first no always best get kicked
in no ya know that that that had
actually been I actually started with
the company at the beginning of planning
for season 3 and it was that then so as
long as I've been here it was Bowser was
the the Lazarus reveal and then I worked
on episode 2 you and we
were we were actually dropping subtle
but dropping hints even then if you look
that's the reason that Lazarus uses fire
attacks almost exclusively during
episode two that was intentionally to
sort of them we had the the effects
artist sort of intentionally make this
like this is Balthazar looking fired in
order to again it was very subtle him
but we so yeah from the beginning we've
known that and we were building to this
sort of big moment and as the solder
below well as about yeah there it is
that's so true it's as good as anything
that's right so you did set up the room
you set up the reveal moment though yeah
I did actually yeah so we had yeah um
and that was that was a tough moment to
get right like we had to do a lot of
sort of revision on that we want to make
sure it felt suitably epic and suitably
impressive and and sort of shocking as
well and there was there was some
back-and-forth on how much of it did we
want to portray in cinematics how much
did we want to portray in the real you
know just in games where there was a
version of it that was done with no
cinematics whatsoever where the
transformation everything happened right
in front of you it ended up not being as
impressive like you really wanted that
tight shot in the especially that shot
on kazimierz reaction to seeing it as
that did a lot to sort of bring home
what you were seeing yeah that was kind
of kazimierz reaction was one of the big
moments in there because is it's not
that she was just like okay you know
what I don't really feel like dealing
with this I'm out this is kind of the
six gods are kind of the bedrock on
absolutely one okay one of the bedrocks
on which her life has been built yeah
and it's I think you described it while
we were talking yesterday it's like if
God came out and she started shooting
people yeah exactly yeah I mean it
sounds a little funny but it's kind of
huge for her need no it's it's a
mind-blowing moment for her and that's
that's why she leaves is she just can't
handle it it's too much in that moment
and that sort of that moment of inaction
is on her part is some people had
actually read and see another thing
thought that when she was kneeling
that she was praying to him as he came
out which was yeah which was actually
not the intent of that I don't know um
it's not that she was like oh it's God I
worship you it was more that she just
couldn't handle it and she's sort of
falling too he's just in disbelief for
what's going on and that's that's Oh in
that moment and she just can't get her
stuff together fast enough to sort of be
able to react because he also like you
know I think he from showing up to
attacking Marjorie and leaving he takes
about 15 seconds so he strikes hard and
leaves and that's yeah it's pretty quick
moment even though it feels kind of
stretched out right and and part of that
was was we wanted to like this was the
first instance and this was the the
whole episode was about sort of the
chase and you know hunting Balthazar
down and we didn't want to blow too much
of that right in the beginning like this
was more of just establishing and
showing him and and motivating you to go
out and go get him but we wanted to have
more time to sort of hint and explain
about what he's doing and what his
motivations are tired cetera later in
the insert in the the release yeah if
you had you had some more time to work
with that but getting that big moment
yeah so that that was again yeah there
there was a lot of revision in that and
I think when we came to work pretty well
uh yeah the whole from from the moment
Lazarus comes in we had getting all of
that to read properly and getting it to
it's it's a complicated instance a sense
of a lot of stuff is happening all the
time there's several hundred and pieces
is that show up at various points and
they're all doing things on top of each
other and and getting the other thing we
found and this played into more the
Lazarus part than the Balthasar part but
we said early on we wanted the boss
fight to be all about mirrors and
mirrors why not not just from a Mesmer
magic idea but they were there was the
Matic stuff about identity and and all
that and so we said early on mirrors
were there and we started building it
out and realized that our engine doesn't
actually do reflections yeah
right there they're sort of faux
reflective services and you they they
have a texture on that makes it look
like but they don't actually reflect
what's going on in there and so
conveying reflection without reflection
became something that but we didn't want
to drop the idea of using the mirrors
because we knew again something we knew
from the beginning was that he was using
a mirror of Lissa to uh to put on his
sort of glamour and so yeah we was
another thing we had to iterate on quite
a bit and we ended up coming to that's
why ultimately Casimir's beam she has a
big pink beam that shoots out it hits
the mirror and then hits him and the
earlier versions of that Moore had her
just casting spells at him and while he
was supposed to be sort of caught in the
mirrors but without that that beam
effect it didn't read its hurt as well
yeah what's happening here exactly yeah
all right so I do want you to know that
I went back in and I played through time
he's pet project again after we talked
about this yeah let's talk about Flint
okay because I took what you said into
account I gave him a little bit less but
one got to save the day he did a little
bit that was all you
that was all me that was something I
added into the script and ran it by our
narrative writers and and yeah I just I
thought it would be a good payoff for
him leaving earlier and I also as I'm
turning into more of a cranky old guy I
think is is with him more uh but yeah I
also like it when you have a character
who's not super likable but they get
that that moment of redemption in that
moment of uh you know getting to these
it's not like he's a good person
he pointed this but he does something
useful
yeah exactly yeah if it's still pretty
clear he's doing what he's doing for
selfish reasons but it ends up being a
for the for the good of all he's kind of
once you sit back and this might just be
me but once you take some time to do
more than just kind of hiss at him
rhetoric every time he appears in the
game yeah because like way back when he
took time he's invention and he was kind
of like yes I'm commandeering this yeah
I'm in front of my computer screaming
run tiny right yeah
go go and I haven't really gone beyond
that but once you take the time to kind
of listen to him and you
right he isn't he has kind of a fun
character he is in he's he's a jerk but
he's not totally evil like he's he's not
technically one of the bad guys like
he's working toward the same purpose
more or less that you know we as the
players and that the good guys are sort
of working towards he's just being a
jerk about it and yeah he probably you
know thinks that he is the only one who
can that you know he can't trust anyone
else to do it he's wrong about that way
but yeah his his I think his motivations
are in line with the players he's just a
big jerk I also really appreciated a
plank to that content
just how good the voice acting on Flint
is like yeah yeah such a range of
emotions on display yes I did go ask
this morning who is this voice acting do
you want to venture a guess I thought it
was Troy Baker but I could I have no
idea Steve Blum Steve Blum okay that was
correct I knew it was range is
ridiculous yeah yeah yeah I knew it was
one of the guys I didn't expect yeah I
talked to David Wilson this morning and
was asking and he had a just a little
quick anecdote about that it was
actually just like random old Asura he
was doing his a one-off while he was in
there doing some V of yours and then we
decided you know Flint ended up becoming
a main character right so that voice
became Flint and nothing else it wasn't
just like random oldest or number 14
yeah yeah so Steve Blum is a remarkable
talent yeah yeah yeah
so that's who that is I checked on that
after we talked about it that's cool
yeah extremely extremely good all right
so let's scoot out into the open world a
little bit because we worked on that see
you worked on that tracking down the
druids and since all the stuff yeah true
tracking down the Druids the stuff with
Zins tombs the Mocs stuff all basically
anything that that you were led there
with a little green star on the map I
put all of that stuff in and that was
yeah that was another thing that that
sort of went through changes and
transportations over time there there
was an earlier version where you were
more sort of going around doing things
the various heart areas but we added in
the the actual druid rescue a bit later
just don't you feel a little more
impactful and also to bring out more of
we had the sort of background plan of
what had happened with the druids ends
in and all this in here but in the early
version the only thing you really saw
that was mocks and then the druids who
show up in the events and so in the the
mastery and so we ended up expanding on
a lot of that and putting into the
vaults so you could get a lot more
information about like xin and what
happened to him and then also the druids
themselves like sort of making them
actual characters as opposed to just
sort of creatures who were there really
okay well yeah the flushing map because
that was it was neat going around
talking to them and i appreciated having
that yeah I'm having some background
yeah and then there I think a they were
part of sort of the the Guild Wars
bestiary that like hadn't been touched
on a lot and it was a one that I thought
was pretty interesting and so it seemed
like a good opportunity to bring them in
and bring that all together the Guild
Wars 1 callbacks were a lot of fun yeah
they were in that that went back to also
you know the whole map was meant to sort
of land that time forgot kind of theme
and it was sort of a and so the idea of
having old ancient things there was was
there right from the beginning even
before we decided that it was going to
be mocks like ancient golems were going
to be a part of it an ancient unity and
yeah it was like once we had that there
was like oh and obviously one of them
should be mocks
well thank you I mean it kind of went
from there I was gonna ask how mocks
came about instead yeah random golem
right and that that is sort of how it
came about like we always knew you were
going to that whole area changed quite a
bit in its sort of style and theme from
how it was conceived until and I want to
go too much into the the but just from a
story perspective originally it was
supposed to be this very sort of dark
foreboding scary part where it was going
to be like you go in there and there's
spy that's why there's spiders all over
the place these fighters broken golems
and it was supposed to feel more like
like like a dark scary sort of
phobic space I'm so glad you left all
the spiders yeah but and so as we
started went then we decided to add
mocks into it and as we sort of started
writing with him it just felt better to
have it be lighter and the environment
ended up looking lighter to sort of and
that that went well with that nicely but
yeah there was an initial like the webby
bit came about just uh from an off joke
not hand joke initially and this got
rewritten somewhat but that he basically
was trying to name spiders but he's
robot so he's not creative and so he can
only think of one word to describe them
and so that's why he calls them all by
that name but yet the it was fun and I
like the tone we hit and yeah it is it
is weirdly cute that he's friends with
these spiders yeah and I'll I'll say
they're theirs I've seen some mention of
this on read their site so if people
don't know you can after you've played
through that area in the story if you go
back to your home instance he'll be um
and he does some people have claimed
that he has webby with him some people
have claimed he doesn't he does
sometimes but sometimes when you go into
a home in your home and since there will
be a webby sometimes there's not and
I've not I've not had that yet so there
is a chance that's a fairly small chance
but there is a chance that webby will be
running around in your instance as well
and my thought with that is that it's
not always the same webby he's just full
of them and they're occasionally a very
fight but uh yeah I've got a doleful
spiders into my home instance uh yeah so
um but there are they're nice spiders
they don't attack anything and they're
friendly and they're fairly cute so gone
full of spiders
yep on a scale of spider to cuteness
what would you say webby is well he's
not as cute as like the littler they the
vagina that the cute spider mean thing
like they're not like that like like if
you get up close to them they're fairly
horrifying but from a distance they they
look like it they kind of look like my
dog like they're about the same size
your dog's best they have you know he's
legs like your dog yeah that make sense
yeah and and webby will bark at the
construction across
that's not that's just my dog yeah
the mailman hates me exactly full of
spiders yeah
so what happy bright I mean you can
think of it as he just brought one with
him and sometimes it's off doing other
things okay
that's nuts we're gonna go with that
yeah let's talk a bit hard for volcanoes
I'm so unhappy right yeah and the
thought of diving into a volcano just
make sure all the spiders are offering
kind of a feeling right uh yeah no the
spiders you get D spidered when you go
into that this is why the ocean is
boiling you guys so I can get in there
that's right so Trey's off an exfoliate
yeah it's foliate yeah about that a
little bit but first aid we want to talk
about heart of the volcano because you
did pretty much that yeah that that was
what I worked on um just with help but
yes that's true a little help for my
friends um yeah no uh heart of volcano
we knew the the you're just really stuck
on this uh at the yeah we knew that the
the plot of the episode was going to
take you from the Lazarus reveal to
hunting for Lazarus and then figuring
out a way to follow Lazarus into the
volcano and then we would finish up with
that
so initially just kind of concept in
what that would look like I really
wanted to emphasize that descent right
and so I took some inspiration from a
video game that had this hilariously
large drop in it which was in the vault
of glass in destiny there's this
alternate route you can take to get down
to the Gorgons labyrinth that has you
just like drop through shaft after shaft
that just got ridiculous route falling
forever pretty much yeah and that had
made an impression on me and so I wanted
to try to give that sense of just like
absolutely ridiculous
dropping and I'd asked Josh for at least
30 seconds of freefall time he ended up
delivering I think a total of 72 seconds
it's the tallest map in the game
oh yeah yeah by far uh in fact it it it
was like it's may be nearing stretching
the abilities of the engine the engine
was not designed to do heavily vertical
like crazy midair gameplay
yeah like aerial combat for extended
periods of time yeah yeah that exposed
some interesting foils because
everything that we put in the game
certainly into the creatures that we put
in the game have to be spawned on
something generally unless they're
underwater they have to be on a surface
and so like the initial idea for the the
gameplay involved you like sort of
interacting with creatures in midair
things getting like shot up and
exploding next to you and like requiring
you to get to one side of the other it
was just a little too much and the
engine couldn't quite support all of
that weirdness so actually there was a
point at which we cut the the free
flying from the instance but I'd already
figured out how to get it in there and
when our stakeholders were playing
through they just liked the feel of it
so much really keep that and so the
hound fight got designed around that and
then the Chamber's on on the way down
the chimney similarly yeah so I'm sorry
I'm stuck on what if there had only been
71 seconds of falling would it work haha
yes I was only looking for 30 thanks
Josh yes no Josh didn't meet him gobble
my mouth yeah I did that's it's it's a
really good map and it's an unusual way
of doing combat that we haven't done
before I had a lot of fun going in there
and just being able to jump and use the
updrafts in there with the heat pushing
you upwards yeah it was distracting
honestly like there were times where I
would be working on it and I would like
want to get to the other side of the the
chamber to play something I would jump
and start gliding and my character was
just like and I would like just get a
little lost in flying for a few minutes
yeah just fine hey yeah you're allowed
to have fun when you're playing games
that's fair yeah I mean every now and
then right like I'd be editing an object
and I would have like started gliding
I'm gonna be over here editing I come
back and my characters like up against
the ceilings but I just start dropping
and then go edit something and then
my character would have splatted and get
back up you know and thing you've got
destroyers shooting at you the cuz ya
like giving it airborne
yeah yeah so I wanted to have this like
kind of feeling a bullet hell right and
I don't know that it really quite gets
there is about the third level yeah if
you're trying to get that achievement
that that was the thing that was
intended to be difficult like I want to
balance the instance around just like
spectacle not challenge right there's
there's some challenge there but mostly
if you just fall for instance the
destroyers won't hit you until you like
pop your glider and start staying in an
area right so if you're good about
waiting until they've all fired and then
popping your glider you're pretty safe
but yeah I did some play testing with
some of our producers halfway through
who are ya not um not maybe
excellent at our game and um and Amy
who's in charge of design production was
playing an elementalist and I felt so
bad she played like I think she tried to
get through the third chamber 11 times
and she would just get Myrtle ated every
single time uh and she was such a sport
about it um but yeah I ended up tuning
the the destroyer shots to do a little
less damage fire a little slower and
scale based on the number of players in
there so it wasn't originally he was
just like bullet bullet bullet bullet
all the time and there's it was super
exciting but uh super deadly exciting
can do many things
yes Jake asked is I need to ask you this
the other day and I forgot to say me
cool with you telling this story I mean
it's too late now I'm just curious she
is now thanks Amy
she's gonna be out there when we finish
she got hide yeah there is more than one
producer with the name Amy I don't think
you said the last name that's true
alright yes sir well they're both gonna
be out there oh no only one of the Amy's
played it but um yeah well I mean I can
like throw Tricia under the bus she was
officer than that is just getting worse
and worse let's talk about the final
fight at the boss now yes yeah the
hounds man
that was that was a process that tweak
some yeah well initially so you've
already had the opportunity to fight the
hounds at to get a mastery point in
Oracle and so the the home fight was
based off of that in fact two of the
skills that were put together for that
boss fight basically just copied over
and the question was how to kind of make
this feel climactic right and also to
feel fresh and interesting and so after
going back and forth on it a bit kind of
settled on the idea of the immortality
of these two divine avatars right that
tomorrow into GaN can't die right like
people have been summoning them since
time immemorial you know Balthazar's
avatar something's done etc and so yeah
we fixated on this idea that like you
try to kill them and then they just
start like burning the chain or the the
platform gets really hostile to
encourage you to like fly and then that
heat sucks back in they get back up and
you're just kind of after a like you're
not gonna be able to stop them and so
the fight is about trying to figure out
like how do you circumvent the
immortality of a god the only thing gods
that we've established or afraid of at
least some goers to is our elder dragons
right and you've got this machine that
is basically hoovering up elder dragon
energy and then feeding it to the other
dragon so if we could just fool the
machine into thinking that they are that
they are part of the other dragons then
it will vacuum them up and deliver them
into the mob didn't which happens yeah
and that was pretty fun
I referred to the process of of getting
the fragments as either volleyball
because you're like getting up there and
then spiking the ball or later I refer
to it as dragon balling and there's
actual yeah
the system tracks how many times you
have dragon ball of the hounds ah
because the fight scales based on that
like it yes dragon ball on a much bigger
scale yeah sort of thing um but
it was it was a super cool to see it
work out and I was really glad initially
the version of the fight didn't have the
like bonfires that pop up and look crazy
like sort of turrets that are shooting
big chunky bolts at you I managed to get
those in at the last moment and it made
the fight feel much much better live up
to the spectacle of that space it is it
it does live up to space like you said
it's a stressful fight but in a good way
I know that sounds like I'm saying yeah
your fight sucks it's I like that you're
getting instructions from timing on you
know here's what you need to do and
you're getting it in a really fast-paced
way because I like to at least have an
understanding of what I'm supposed to be
doing and have to become more skilled at
it as I go I'm cool if I fail I'm fine
if I fail at it sure
I'm fine being under pressure in game
yep and screwing it up and having the
opportunity to just get better on my own
and suck less yeah and I feel like that
hit a good balance
thank you as clear yeah there was a so
back in that play test for the producers
um it became clear that uh it was really
difficult to figure out what to do
because of the time there weren't all
the like quest steps kind of walking you
through the process once and then I also
ended up putting in like this whole hint
system that like kicks in so like those
those instructions at time he gives you
there's like actually a bunch of
scripting in the background to like keep
track of how you're doing and like how
many times you haven't succeeded and
then like she'll try to tell you what to
do no I mean it I think it came off
pretty well it took a lot of iteration
to get that right but yeah I was I was
pleased with how it turned out yeah it
was it was helpful yeah and yeah it was
interesting just working with pry mortis
and and Balthasar yeah it was a it was
an instance with with big stakes yeah it
really was um speaking French do you
want to talk about the prime or dis art
and yeah all of that that we went to
yeah that um that almost didn't happen
um like we we knew that the fight was
going to happen on top of prai mortis
right like that was just part and parcel
that Balthazar had gotten as close as he
could to one of the other dragons to
activate the machine and I felt really
strongly that you had to see Prime
aureus and there was some thought
initially that like oh well primers
would just be down under the lava and
you know we won't actually see him and I
thought that felt like a kind of a less
satisfying way out and so kind of had
some back and forth and then the artists
were a bit twitchy about it because the
older dragons are like such a big deal
for our game that even just showing the
nose of this model of the dragon which
is really all you see of prai mortis
they were really edgy about that because
once we show that nose we have committed
to that yes now this huge thing that is
a force of nature yes you know set in
stone what part of it looks like yeah
and so will always always look that way
yeah there was also some back-and-forth
because there's at the end of goers one
the depiction of the Great destroyer and
then this leg dragon eye opening right
when you defeat the Great destroyer and
so there was some question about like
well is that prime mortise is that a
prime Otis lieutenant like what was
going on there I don't think it's ever
clarified if it wears one and we had
concept art that seemed to indicate that
maybe that was much smaller than like
real prime motors to actually look so
there was lot of back-and-forth about
this but ultimately the concept art that
is the loading image for that for that
instance was put together and then our
prop artists Sam and Chris did an
amazing job on that prop Vincent the
effects artists Chuck putting together
the greening animation and everything
just to make that live and it was an
amazing amazing difference from when it
was just like sitting there kind of flat
actually initially
back when the map was just all test
assets Josh had put in a giant version
of the super adventure box alligator as
the prime mortise nose just to give like
a sense of scale which was hilarious you
had this like monolithic like big googly
eyes like looking left and right in the
distance are there screenshots better
anything ah maybe someone preserve this
I don't know I'm not sure I didn't I
don't know yeah smug Josh looks right
now smirk yeah I need to see this at
some point I'll see if I have a
screenshot of it somewhere that is that
is a beautiful note to finish on it was
pretty awesome that's amazing
thank you for sharing this my pleasure
alright we're gonna take a quick break
because we have two more guys to talk to
and we have a short video to show you
guys I had a chat with Paul Ella about
legendary armor Paul put the armor
through its paces and talked a little
bit about the design of it so we're
going to show you guys that and then
we'll be back with Josh and Tyler thank
you guys cheers thank you I'm here with
Paul Ella
he is our raids producer and the product
owner for legendary armor how good did
it feel to finally get this out the door
it felt exceptionally good it was really
good I'm really happy with the way it's
turned out and the fact that we've we
finally managed to get it to the hands
of our players I'm so glad before we get
into the first one you and I were
talking before we have a couple of
questions that have been floating around
this of course like I know um how come
it took two years to get this out the
door not that you were slacking we
originally had the concept for having a
legendary armor reward when we started
the raids and so that's when we kind of
started bending the idea around really
we wanted it to go out with the
conclusion of the Forsaken thicket so
behind that there's there's a lot of
mechanics that have to be done the
engine had to be re-written in certain
places we wanted to push the
the models as far as they would go and
so we got to that period in time and it
it wasn't up to the standard that we
felt the players were deserving
especially as raids are some of the most
challenging content that we've put out
we wanted the armor to reflect that and
it it just didn't at that point and so
we went back and we we kind of reworked
our ideas and our designs so that we got
the the product that we wanted to get
into the hands of the players and so I
guess you could say it was two years but
it was really one year twice do you feel
like the work spent going back to the
drawing board turned out well absolutely
yeah I wouldn't have felt comfortable as
a product owner putting out what we had
put we had originally I think the rework
the artists have gone back they
re-engineered what their their original
concepts were and I think it's a much
much better place okay well let's talk
about one last thing and then let's dig
in and kind of take a look at these do
you want to talk a little bit about rune
swapping on armor but not weapons we did
originally have the plan to put out rune
swapping not only on the armor but also
on the on the weapons as well during our
development cycle we started digging
into the the actual economics around
putting it onto the weapons and there
are just some areas that we feel we have
concerns over the economic impact if we
were to put this in its current state on
to weapons that makes sense all right
let's do the fun thing all righty
start with the light yes so we're
starting with light I've got a light
silvery male here when we move him into
combat you can see quite quickly
so there are multiple aspects to the
armor as it goes into combat as you
heard it has an audio with it each set
of armor each weight has a specific
audio that plays and in fact it has a
selection of audio that it plays from
and it randomly picks as you go into
combat
you saw the crystals here they all came
out the theme around the light is that
it is a it's powered by crystal energy
by magical crystal energy and that is
dissipated throughout the armor causing
it to transform as it does you see the
wings there and the electrical effect
that's that plays whenever you go into
combat and also the aura the electrical
aura that you saw and goes through the
body of the player as you can see the
crystals are alive and so as you idle
the in its idle state here you can see
the crystals are just moving around and
just kind of idling with you and then as
you go into the out of combat mode
everything falls away you still have a
glow on the body which persists
throughout and the idle state and also
continues when you are in the combat
state phase let's look at it one more
time from the back so we get a good view
of those crystals on the back because
that's one of the neatest things about
it
okay he's not cooperating with me he's
turning sideways yeah let's trick him
okay here we go
no I love that so yeah and then you have
the as you can see the glow is
persisting through the crystals the
crystals actually pick up on one of the
dye channels and bleed through so if you
have set that dye channel they will pick
up the color of that dye channel and it
will emanate that color rather than it
just been the white that we have here
okay well um do you want to notice I
would love to see the dye channels
anyway
sure gonna show us what that means in
practice so you should be able to see on
the shoulders and you have the two
channels here one will be for the base
of the crystals and the other one will
actually be for the crystal itself so
from which peak
should be able to see as we go in that
we now have a yellow hue to the crystal
mm what was the hardest part about this
particular set when we got to that
initial design stage we felt that the
weights weren't quite right and we felt
like the medium felt like heavy and the
heavy and the light felt like a medium
so going back in and streamlining and
reducing the actual weight of the cloth
and is one of the key items that that we
took away on our second design pass I
think it's the mechanics the actual
rotating crystals and the crystals
overlapping and folding in on themselves
is a testament to the work that Vinnie
has done on on making the rigs as
amazing as they are and then the the
wings that you saw there the crystalline
wings Franco has just done miracles and
as you know Franco is the raids effects
artist and some of the stuff he pulls
out is just jaw-dropping and again on
all three weights is just an done an
amazing job that's fantastic
well let's take a look at the medium if
we can move up one weight absolutely
into the next weight class our favorite
the Char Char is an interesting one
because as we all know Charla to have
their tails disappearing into the armor
whenever possible that cannot feel good
and is that they're not happy so we we
have done our best to
reduce the clipping as much as possible
the armored our our main aim was that
the armor would not clip with itself so
that's one of the key things we have
noticed for those of you who are
building the medium armor for a char
that there is some clipping on the tail
that seems to have snuck in we are
trying to address that so I just wanted
to let you know that is not something
that we have just decided now we can't
do it as we go into combat on this we we
are channeling a a dragon where that's
the aim here we have the wyvern heads on
the armor we have a bone and leather
type approach to this to this armor you
can see the Y bone heads on the back and
on the shoulder and that the belt is
alive and moving and we are also trying
to have it so the the trench coat is
addressed I'm gonna ask trench coats yes
my favorite we get trench coats are a
design aesthetic they are a a conscious
choice from ArenaNet as part of our
silhouettes for the characters so when
you are fighting another character it's
important that you can tell what kind of
character that is basically from its
silhouette trench coats are a key way
for us to maintain that aesthetic now we
do understand that a lot of people don't
like the trench coats or feel that
trench coats are just overdone it is
something that we wanted to try and get
the best of both worlds so while you are
in combat yes the trench coat folds out
and it is still there while you are out
of combat as you can see it folds away
just into pants I like the little
pulsating glow here and there yep it's
not I see what you mean about the weight
it's not quite as light as the crystals
right but it's still there
yeah it's again this is a glow that
persists a glow that you can color you
can change the design colorful the
headpiece
on the shoulders so we can put a red
glow on the shoulder piece and have that
in place and then you can see the eyes
have changed on there and then the other
channel will change the the glow itself
and the glow is persistent in and out
combat and again those amazing wings
from Franco its Thank You Franco yes
Thank You Franco it is I've seen this
develop over over several months and
each time I've gone back and I've looked
at it the animations have just gotten
better and better and the effects have
just they've just moved it into that
space which i think is absolutely
fantastic again you have the audio
there's the dragon call in there it's a
selection of audios that gets played so
you won't hear the same thing every time
we wanted to make sure that the medium
felt like a medium set we wanted to make
sure that it had the dragon and that it
wasn't too heavy and but it it conveyed
that the look of a hunter that we've got
which is what I'm showing here the
Ranger all right one more one more
so the heavy the heavy is a you know the
Knights of old chivalry big suits of
armor things like that
that's the the heaviness that we wanted
to convey with this one there's a lot of
fine detail on the heavy there's a lot
of filigree within the actual armor
itself which I if I can get in and show
you a little closer you can see there on
the armor the armor is very it's like an
Iron Man kind of approach that we were
taking with this is that he transforms
you into some kind of battle unit so as
we go into combat I'll show you the
close-up on this one well actually I'll
show you the full one
so again we have the wings on here that
shattered and we have the ember effect
that that floats away so you can see
when we get close in there's all of
these armored blades have come out and
as he goes back the actual animations a
bit folding in on itself there's I just
beautiful
yeah there's so much going on the and I
love that it's not just going from that
active to inert state with an institute
change right we go into the combat a lot
faster and because you want to be in
your hand you come back yes as you're
about to be run down but when the battle
is over you can very quickly fold this
away those animations I love it
you can hear the audio is a very
mechanical ratchet sound again there's a
multitude that get played depending on a
random selection now we have the glow
and then Franco is amazing amazing wind
let's um can we zoom out and get like a
full shot of the wings we can see if
they look like because and then we can
hear the animation again and you've got
the the audio as it powers down and it's
shutting down
full or swings looks fantastic
the whole thing does yes we are
extremely proud of where this armor is
of course it's not for everyone
and it does take a lot of time and
effort to get this this armor it's it is
raid only you have to complete a hundred
and fifty boss kills which is
approximately three months worth of
kills full clears on a weekly basis and
each piece of the armor costs around
four hundred and fifty gold so you're
looking around about the same cost as a
legendary weapon about two and half
thousand gold all right
are you planning on getting it
absolutely I was I just wondered I am
absolutely going to be getting my armor
I have my legendary insight I have the
the gold stowed away and all the items
so we have had the recipes out all on
the wiki for quite a considerable amount
of time so that people can start
preparing but when the armor is released
you will also be able to craft any of
the other weights so if when you
complete your first one you'll be
offered a a twosie box for the weight
that you want to take when you finish
the collection and then from there you
will be able to buy from Glenna the raid
guide legendary insignias which will
allow you then to buy the recipes for
the different weights so everybody
should have the ability to create their
to craft light medium and heavy you just
need to be able to have the legendary
insights to do awesome cool thank you
for showing it off and for answering the
fun questions no worries yes I
appreciate it I really appreciate it
thank you very much
keep sleeping baby charm and we're back
with two new people mmm I just totally
lost my voice like right as we went live
and I was like oh gosh I can't talk
so we're brand new people really not
existed in normal they were out on the
street they seemed nice I brought them
in to talk about flashpoint so um I do
want to point out that you guys have new
WeLoveFine t-shirts on too and they are
awesome we have the sleeping baby sloth
asur so those are at the same place and
we love fine and again thinks we love
fine for giving us some little presents
to show off today um same thing I'll let
you guys introduce yourself and talked
about what you worked on for this
release and then we'll jump on in Josh
your closest you can go first
ah-ah I know it's rush you'll be okay my
name's Josh my name is still Josh I'm
almost sure of it what uh I still - okay
and I worked on the open world map and
the the one instance map where you go
and fight it at Durgan heart of volcano
yes sweet I mean top that what what I'm
Tyler I'm a game designer I worked on
the open world for Draconis bombs I
worked on the new mastery Oh carts reach
so much fun okay and it was okay yes
because it was fun
yeah I see you guys making me smile and
have a go bar
yeah all right so let's start with
talking about the map and heart of the
volcano since we finished up with that
um link had link was saying he had some
specific stuff in mind he had he only
wanted 30 seconds but you know uh ever I
aimed over deliver at all time I can't
say I mean you know just look at my
performance here if I do it it's it's
very nice I like the stormtrooper outfit
thank you I'm sorry we didn't
accommodate it better with the t-shirt
I'll do the next times that need to be
troop time right there mm-hmm that's
livestream yeah next livestream very
very soon
okay so link had this huge open space
with the arrow combat that he wanted you
had the interior okay no to work with so
you have a pretty good starting point
than what Oh when we fought a dragon
yeah so well it was was all matter of
like what makes this different than just
a normal ball keno thing because we
already did well I want to call a
episode to a normal volcano as there
were like crazy skulls everywhere and
and weird structures what I did that
yeah I mean that's the last map that I
worked on before this one and when I
found out we were going back to do more
volcano stuff my first thought is well
how can we make this a different kind of
volcano so um yeah I'm my first
conception for the overworld map and how
the fight with the dragon was gonna work
was you know if if the dragon had dug
down through the earth and and it kind
of into a giant cave but under a cave I
don't know I just wanted to do something
different so I kept throwing different
different adjectives at it until it felt
different enough which one works yeah so
yeah and I always wanted to make like a
big Land of the Lost
Journey to the Center of the Earth type
of you know biomes inside a cave and
always but that notion is always
fascinated me so I thought of like how
could you get plant life inside a cave
and so that led me to this idea of like
a boiling ocean that so you've got
you've got you know miss rising and then
it forms a cloud layer and that rains
and then there's got to be a light
source so there's like I love that that
little worm cave in New Zealand it's got
the glow worms on the ceiling so I was
like we got to get some of those in
there and so those create some
artificial light she'll be that later
cuz that sounds cool let's look at the
bottom one if you ever look at the
ceiling there's all these blue daily
bits well no the actual cave in New
Zealand oh yeah yeah yeah you book it up
online videos one cave New Zealand I
remember early on when you were pitching
it and some of the designers are having
trouble visualizing what it might look
like and you're like trust me it'll be
good and lo it was okay so I'm moving
back out to the open world you mentioned
the Oh cards reach mastery which you
worked on I did and are you happy with
it
yeah yeah everybody else is yeah
yeah it was actually cut from episode 2
in ember Bay it wasn't a mastery then it
was just like a grappling gun where
you'd pick up a bundle in the caldera
region to do a task heart there and you
would like grapple up to the the higher
elevations in the caldera and we had a
bunch of content spawn it like you would
collect dwarven artifacts and fight
Librans up there wow I just heard that
one
shouting Noren and the Shiverpeaks about
dwarf an artifact sorry yeah but but the
reason we didn't include it in that
episode was if it felt too cool to just
be tucked away in a little heart
somewhere and we wanted to make it a
bigger feature where a map really
focused and revolved around it yeah I
was thinking I'm so it doesn't really
hurt I wanted to do a cave yeah yeah I
mean it was a dream things to grapple to
if I were an interior what is the
ultimate playground for this type of of
mastery yeah I mean we've got this whole
map now to play with this in and this
was I mean you worked on the map and I
think playground is the best descriptor
for it this ended up being it would have
had to be a really collaborative thing
with you guys working together okay
what's the best use we can possibly make
of I keep saying grappling hook Oh cards
reach mastery I think we all know what
I'm talking about I mean you know
everybody's screaming spider-man
different things like grappling vine is
also really common and and it went
through several versions like themes as
it went like at one point it was going
to be literally a spiderweb right like
we talked about heavy having a literal
spider on your arm what is from you guys
like as I was it was a gun originally
that shot like a dart with a rope
attached to it and we also had an idea
where it was like more of like a tractor
beam or something or shoot like a beam
of energy that would pull you do that
later yeah
I just like the idea okay um I wanted to
talk about designing the map a little
bit because you had talked about how you
had this great top-down view and
everything worked really good and then
you added art and everything just yes I
mean it was a bit of a sell like well
first of all anytime you do anything new
it inherently there's risks with it and
all the systems and processes and
pipelines that we have in place are
oriented to make what we've done before
so I really wanted to do this crazy new
thing I had to get the designers on
board with this crazy new thing and and
I mean it was very important for
usability that players were able to tell
where they were supposed to go what they
were saying do that kind of stuff and so
originally was just going to be this
giant massive cave complex with all
these floors everywhere and going going
through the design process we were like
okay well we need to make sure the
hearts are spaced out in such a way that
you're it's clear like if you're on the
floor above or below it you're not there
you know we didn't want stuff stacked up
on top so so we kind of cut it down to
two primary floors and I further
differentiated those by putting
different biomes and then making them
look distinctive and stuff and so so on
paper it all looked like it was gonna
pin that it was going to work out
perfectly but then we hit some snags
once I started going in and making it
arty you know making it not look like a
diagram the official term yeah art the
map once he ordered the map
yeah um yeah so that introduced problems
where I was trying to make things not be
totally flat and have some interesting
shapes and variation and stuff like that
and had it at points it was pretty scary
as far as just people were completely
lost had no idea where to go their
perception was that there were like ten
floors really there's there's basically
two but I mean there's ramps and there's
like subfloor so yeah it was it was
tricky to kind of nail that balance
between discoverability where you spend
time in the map and you learn in and you
get to know it and that process is fun
for some people
for other people it's not fun for other
people they want to go into a map and
just like beeline from one place to the
right so of me it give me a flat floor
yeah and all the hearts run here in here
and that's death was interesting to me
to learn that you had simplified the map
quite a bit I'm trying to imagine what
that previous iteration was and just
stay in the end just picturing my
character standing in the middle of the
map like weeping like I don't know
pretty much that's we ended up making a
lot of people weep we had to pull back
so yeah fix that a little bit oh gosh um
the mastery you know we talked about the
Oh carts reach mastery a little bit and
I've had as much fun I think watching
people figure out what all you can do
with that as I have playing with it
myself because watching people find out
I can use this thing mid glide is
incredible and I'm sorry that the diving
goggles and the little tiny bucket you
don't look sorry but so many people are
just like I landed on the edge of the
bucket again it hurts so bad
yeah the bucket was a piece of content I
implemented in edge of the myth spec
when I worked on world versus world and
it was a fun little gameplay element
there and when I saw how tall this map
was and we needed somewhere to dive to
but if you dive from anywhere you would
either hit concrete you know or the rock
or but boiling see neither of those
things you really want to dive into so I
was like oh the the bucket from edges
the mess would make a good thing
floating in the boiling sea and you can
land in that and if we make it this big
yeah but then uh you jumped in it and
you were like oh well now I'm stuck in
this bucket in the boiling sea like
where do you go from there right so I
added an interactive would hop out of
the bucket super high and into an OP
traffic and source is my life and play
from there the bucket I've found so many
people saying okay but if you do it just
right
you've got the grappling hook you can
like yo Inc yourself into the bucket so
it's it's been neat the creativity and
finding out oh this isn't just a thing
where you stand on the flat ground find
a rock up high and okay now I can get
there
so really really well done on that and
it's been so much fun seeing the
collaboration between the map design and
this awesome new mastery that does so
much stuff yeah I mean that that's
always the goal and game design is to
have all the different disciplines
really aiming towards the same thing and
pulling that off and I think we did a
good job on on this particular instance
we hit that sweet spot where the
environment calls out the best of the
mechanics and vice versa so yeah and the
oak arts reach almost didn't even make
it into this episode even though we cut
it earlier because come on you know
there are people that didn't like
believe that we could do it like in a
really good polished way that we could
like feel proud of when we shipped it
right yeah that was scary since the map
was already pretty much laid out and it
was built around this will cut this
whole mechanic good luck it so there was
like a lot of back-and-forth even like
moderately the way through the
development of the map but I pushed hard
on it because I really wanted it it was
it was super fun to me and it seemed
like a shame to not like she's thinking
about that map without the master Ian
yeah
I'm just running up map ramps for the
rest of my life and hoping yeah a lot of
the craziness of the map and the
verticality and stuff is only warranted
by having you know the ability to to
discover new ways to get around in it so
that does speak to what you said a few
minutes ago about doing something new
from a design standpoint and having to
kick down those walls and okay you
really see what happens yeah let's just
do this we can and I think it worked out
for ya and I was saying that the mastery
was in flux even midway through the
project the fact that there's a druid
presence in the map wasn't something
that was part of the initial design that
actually came as part of the theming for
the mastery right like our mastery for
the season was ancient magics right so I
we decided to be druid magic and maybe
nature-themed and stuff but now we
needed a druid presence on the map to
help sell that that's why you're
learning this
thank air right and then that sort of
got more and more integrated into the
story as time went on that's pretty cool
how all of that came together because I
can't imagine how difficult that was
trying to make all of these pieces fit
so yeah it's always an interesting
collaborative iterative process of just
kind of finding ways to make stuff fit
together it's a moving target yeah to
what congratulations on hitting at them
so you mentioned the boiling sea earlier
and you and I were talking the other day
about how much of a kick I got out of
the exfoliating I just lost the word for
achievement how much I liked the
exfoliating achievement because I found
it by accident yeah I just somehow fell
into the ocean and said well I can't hop
out because now I'm too far away from
the shore and you know how you do like
that frantic just pound on the space bar
trying to get out no now I'm dead hey
achievement who did that that was a
hilarious just I love those little one
offs that you stumble into by mistake
yeah that one was too much it is
something that I really wanted to add
because I'm a troll in game and any any
time I can like take those little pokes
and like make a funny thing when you
know and you know what it takes the
sting out because I got an achievement
so thanks for that um I was going
through something to do that yeah I told
I needed to sign it on reddit that
there's this hidden achievement so I was
purposely dying in the water okay guys
there are some really fun achievements
in there um there was one that we've
talked about here and they're on our
different channels the Wayfarers
backpack is really really awesome but
was kind of unlike crashing the map so
yeah yes yeah you're not that big of a
troll no we had to disable a couple of
the conversations for planting seeds
because they were crushing the map and
thinking the Tuesday update will have a
fix for that okay yeah so it's not
disabled forever yeah
hang in there it's coming back so it's
not fun when that stuff happens I mean
we know you guys are working toward it
and I know a lot of people are kind of
like it's almost there so you know
thanks it was like checking to see if
you had one seed but it would take two
so if you only had one seed then it
would crash but if you had two or more
you'd be fine right
and the Kershaw had like a different
number of seeds that you needed to not
crash them up what's the progress I'm so
sorry that you guys are having to deal
with that because I know you actually do
have other work to do but no we do move
now and chillin like okay you're coming
here take a nap abroad you know no big
deal
but yeah I mean we do we want you guys
to have your backpack but we don't want
it badly enough to keep crashing the map
for the entire playerbase so working on
it um I did want to mention the lessons
learned achievement because he did I
mean you did the work on mostly
achievements didn't you but not that one
seriously yeah you are a troll I know
you're the worst I was just really happy
to have like another oh this thing eats
unbound magic okay so once I get
everything that I want I don't have I'm
not like stuck with all of this extra
stuff I like anything that's useful for
me after I'm done getting everything I
want
so think whoever yeah uh Charlie and
Elijah also worked on the open okay map
so it's like trouble go I was trying to
give you credit for that one yeah well
I'll take it okay you can't answer I
don't I don't see Charlie so you know
and the rock collector achievement yeah
I really like putting things in easy
places to find yeah easy the easier the
more fun nights I don't know I love
Easter egg hunts alone I love doing them
and I love studying them up so this this
was a particularly exciting one for me
because of the vine mastery and being
able to actually populate like every
little nook and cranny and even the
crannies without nooks weird something
about that yeah yeah just yeah yeah cuz
you could go everywhere in this map and
and trying to lean into that as opposed
to fight it was was kind of the theme of
the map yeah are you happy without
turned out you know it's one of those
things where it's way easier to find map
outs and so I'm still like patching
holes in the map you know weeks
afterwards which is not the best but I
feel like the the bang per buck ratio is
still there
what reason oh I was just gonna say that
like it's sort of always just a constant
battle of like how much do we go towards
the the hardcore like the people that
are super invested in exploring and like
not scare off the people that are you
know more entry casual like the early
version of The Rock collector
achievement hints had like really vague
clues right you know yeah under a curved
rock and you'd be like well there's lots
of rocks in this giant mountain cave
volcano so only don't look under the
rocks that are perfect so I was like no
we need to like at the minimum put like
the sector name in front of every clue
and then like preferably give them
better you know this is North Way north
east of this EUI or something this is
near a volcano I make the maps enormous
oh well thank you for making it a little
bit easier for casual and that is that's
the thing about an MMO
External links[edit]

Guild Chat episode 48, Flashpoint on ArenaNet's official channel on YouTube
Guild Chat - Episode 48

Transcription[edit]

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