In Studio Briefing - Part 3
We continue our mission into gathering new intel on SOE Seattle’s upcoming The Agency.
Part 3 – Sent 2/20/09 (Discuss) (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 4)
We continue where were left off, moving onto questions about economy.
JonnyG: How will the auction house work? Will players be able to buy or sell things for real life money?
Hal: Ah, that is a very hot topic. There’s been lots of information going around saying that The Agency is going to be based upon selling your newborns…okay maybe not that extreme, but it’s definitely been blown out of proportion. With The Agency, we will not be discarding the notion of players being able to put things into auction. We’re not going to deny people that opportunity. It will not be a mandate or requirement to be able to play our game and be effective. You will not be getting any advantage over somebody that manually played their way through the game.
So the basics of trade are the basics of trade. You’ve got the ability to go through your inventory of operatives, schematics, items. And you’ll be able to send those things off to “the market.” From the market you’ll be able to set your own prices, sell things to vendors, or let other people buy them.
JonnyG: What about drops, are they controlled by bind on type restrictions?
Hal: We will have drops that are bound to the person that actually gets them. We will definitely have loot that once you get it, you cannot give it to anyone else. It’s a constraining factor that’s been proven time and time again.
Now our drops will not be nearly as frequent as other titles. Our game is more focused on the end result of completing a mission. And at that end result of completing a mission we have the standard story reward that goes along with it, but as you replay that mission and can no longer get that story reward we will also have a slot machine mechanic used for rewards.
Those rewards will be drawn from standard tables; some things will be much rarer than others. I really look forward to the circumstance where players complete the mission with a gold rating and there is a juicy gold reward there, but the bronze reward is fairly rare. So they have the tough choice, to leave the gold and take the bronze instead, or take the gold reward. {Ed: For more information on mission rewards check out part 3 of our Fan Faire interview.}
JonnyG: Cool stuff, I want me some gold rewards, give me my bling. :) On to our next topic, crafting. I would like to know more about the “McGuyvering” abilities, aka crafting.
Hal: Ah McGuyvering abilities, I like it. What I can talk about in regards to crafting is the path a player takes to build an effective Operative network in order to build them stuff. Ultimately, if Operatives did everything for you and you had no input, it would be kind of dull. The point is I get things and those things become other things with a modicum of effort.
So we have the concept of intel. Intel is all throughout our world. There is both physical and visual intel. Visual intel is gathered with a camera, physical intel is gathered with your mitts.
When you get intel, that intel is then analyzed, or processed, by an Operative. Once it is processed, it can result in several things: a new mission that you’ve unlocked, an influence or reputation boost that you’ve earned, an item that emerges from it. But more likely it is going to result in schematics.
Once you get x number of schematics you can then run the blueprint assignment. The blueprint assignment gives your Operatives access to always be able to craft item X. If you want to craft item X, it’s about looking at the blueprint and determining the resources required to build it, then getting those resources.
Resources can be based upon materials, which can be chemicals, minerals, etc. And getting the right Operative to work on it, too. So you could put your combat operative on an assignment building you a new support gadget. But who knows, it’s probably going to blow up in his face. So you might want to get the right support guy who has the specialty to build that element.
JonnyG: So back to these materials, since there are less drops, do you have some idea of how to get them? Say you need chemicals, do you know where to go in order to get them?
Hal: We’re going to try to give people similar paths to know these things. I’ve got to do stuff in this area, my Operatives need to run these types of assignments, or I need to trade with other players in order to be able to get these things. It’s very similar to other games where if you go to region X, you’ll get a random drop list that includes these elements. We’re going to support that same concept through repeatable missions, through Operative assignments, and through random drops.
JonnyG: What kind of items can we craft? We’ve seen weapons, weapon enhancements, what else?
Hal: You’ll be able to craft outfits, accessories, credentials, gadgets, weapons, eventually vehicles, vehicle components, and weapon attachments. Technically, it’s not really crafting but you will also be able to unlock the ability to put an Operative on assignment to look for other Operatives, ie. headhunting.
You’re going to be able to craft anything you can wield in the game. We want to make sure that there is some kind of direct path for you to be able to generate that resource for yourself, your friends, or for sale.
JonnyG: Speaking of weapon attachments, can you go into more detail on how they will work?
Hal: It’s pretty simple actually, a given weapon can have up to 3 visual attachments and one non visual attachment. We usually have to break things down into what is going to be abstracted into the properties and what we have to visually represent and vary on the characters.
So you’re going to have scopes, stock attachments, muzzle attachments, and then magazine extensions. These things are going to enable some basic abilities like scope modes, suppressor, or silencer, or a combination of the two, which reduces the visual or aural footprint for AI detection, or other players being able to see you from distance.
I want to thank the development team and SOE Seattle again for taking the time to answer our questions. We’ll continue to release weekly updates, for a preview of the questions that we asked, click here.