Emp: First, let’s get to our general question out of the way. When you look at the different archetypes, there seem to be some that are clearly designed to be melee warriors based on their skills, for example the Rodon Hunter killer, with skills like impale, maul, wicked strike, and shred. However, every picture has guns (cept for the Salent, who don’t have pictures yet)…and that makes sense, as modern warfare is incredibly focused on long range, rather than the up close and personal fighting of the days of swords and shields. In a war that is not just modern, but incredibly far in the future, why does Prime have melee focused classes at all? And if you’re going to have melee focused classes, why do they have guns in their class pictures, not some kind of lightsaber or vibro-knife or something?
Sanya: So, just so the Rioters know, I was super late getting this interview back to you, and since you wrote this question, we announced that everyone has two different weapons, melee and ranged, and you can cycle between them with a click (CTRL, as a default, though of course you can rebind to whatever). Hence the pictures.
It happens that I don’t believe the PBI (poor bloody infantry) will ever be fully obsolete. There will always be a need for brave people to put their boots on the ground and hold a line. (Starship Troopers, all time favorite book, just sayin’.)
But in terms of Prime, we have several different environments in which ranged combat becomes difficult. There are urban environments, skyscraper “dungeons,” and finally the Mines of Dominus are underground with the usual mix of big caverns and twisty passages.
It's not just an environmental reason, either. Remember that the purpose of the game is to control Dominus, and not just for the sake of controlling it but because that's where the biggest and best deposits of Prime are located. If you kill someone, you can take whatever Prime they happen to be carrying... but as of this writing (7/14/11) the corpse can be looted by either the victim's own group, or ANYONE ELSE in the two enemy factions. So if you shoot someone from a zillion miles off, you might not be able to get to his body before someone else yoinks the goods.
As for images - what is cooler looking, a dude with a little weenie knife or a BFG?
Emp: Onward to the class questions! For today, let’s talk about the archetype that surprised me the most…the Range Damage archetype. Now, sure, the fact that they are there is not surprising, every MMO has one or more ranged classes. And that’s exactly what I thought when I first saw the Devastator/Commando/Rek classes…until I saw their armor and descriptions such as “one of the most durable classes.” High dps ranged classes that wear the heaviest armor in the game? WTF have you guys created here, exactly? Aren’t ranged classes supposed to depend on distance as their main protection?
Sanya: Think of a real tank, not “MMO Tank”. A military tank has a big gun mounted on it, it can take a lot of abuse, and its role is to push the line. Our intent for this archetype overall is that they are next to the MMO tanks in the front line and while the close quarters melee guys are finishing off the ones in front, this archetype is softening up the next batch.
Emp: Just like last time, I’m also interested in how each of the three classes differs from the other two in the archetype.
Sanya: Ranged abilities are still being worked out - we have a lot of stuff going on with diminishing returns, radius, strategy in terms of where the class is standing when the ability goes off, etc. For instance, one archetype is intended to do more damage the closer they stand, very strategy oriented. Another will have less of a range, but less of a chance to miss. I’m being vague because these abilities are actually on the line right now getting hammered on.
Philosophically? Devastators are definitely front line guys. Commandos are more perimeter guys - guards. Reks almost function as a scout type, people who might be very comfortable soloing. But as with all our classes, there is a wide range within those types. You could definitely make a gungho Rek, or a rear echelon Devastator.
Emp: So…I have to ask. Drunken missiles? Tell me what that’s all about.
Sanya: It’s really just a nuke, but it LOOKS cool as hell. You have to have one of the larger weapons to fire it off. You shoot, a bunch of little rockets come out and sidewinder their way over the battlefield until they home in on their target. It’s also an in-joke, a tribute to something in a game John and Warren played a long time ago.
Emp: All three ranged DPS classes have the “Override” skill. What is this? Why do they all have it?
Sanya: That’s the crowd control break, and all classes have it.
Emp: Is kiting going to be a viable strategy for the ranged DPS archetype? If yes, is it going to be a necessary strategy in many situations?
Sanya: If you are specifically referring to a playstyle where there are continual snares/traps on the part of the kiter to get someone down to 30% health before they finally get to you, then no, we’re designing a game that doesn’t rely on that. The simplest response is that everyone has a jetpack. Fly over and kill each other.
That answer applies to small scale fights, though. We won’t rule out the possibility of a group working together to bait someone in that way.
Emp: And finally…what kind of range are we talking here? I know that it’s always hard to balance ranged and melee, but we aren’t talking about bows here, where it’s at least plausible to have a fairly short range. We’re talking about super advanced sci-fi rifles, at least some of them with scopes (if the pictures are right, see the hunter killer’s gun).
Sanya: To some extent, we are limited by technology. I don’t mean Prime, or Salents - I mean the technology of the computer you’re using to play an MMO. Too much of a range is difficult for technical reasons, and damned hard to balance too. There’s going to have to be some suspension of disbelief, here.
Exact ranges are not being published because we don’t think we’ll know until we’ve had some larger rounds of beta.
Besides, not all scopes are for snipers. Some might be necessary for futuristic technology that allows you to set a homing point for a smart bomb.