Stream of 14th September started off with some more new music from Skewsound.
Aegis of Menhir skill
So at the base level of the skill you’re actually only going to hit one target. But once you get that first modifier - extra. I don’t think we could make a shield mastery without a skill like this one, it’s too much fun. There’s a reason a certain character in a previous stream was called Captain America. Sure, just a coincidence.
The second modifier though, not only adds retaliation to the skill, but also gives it a chance to reset its cooldown. Sort of like Ulzuin’s Chosen. And the transmuter for those of you interested in going on the Dreeg side of things, you can make this the Aegis of Thorns increasing the retaliation damage bonus and converting the fire damage to acid. And of course it changes the visual.
Tickerai : oathkeeper + nightblade with shield?
Don’t see why not. I mean, there’s a certain modifier on a certain that turns the Oathkeeper’s Vire Might cold so, why not?
princexavier123: so transmuters change skill effect colors now?
Not all transmuters do. It’s kind of a case by case basis as we have time to do it and how easy it is to do. This one was pretty doable, it’s based on one of the previous skill’s tech so we could just swap out the projectile with no problem.
AngryMoustache: how many targets can the shield hit max?
If you maxed it out you can get up to 5 targets. But there are item modifiers that can push that further. In fact I think the set, yes, the Oathkeeper’s class set actually adds 2 more targets to that. So, how about that - 7 targets.
AngryMoustache: does first target always take more damage than the ricochets?
No the damage is full across all targets.
rainbow_pencils: why its green?
Because I did a transmuter
FicWader: @CrateEntertainment I may have come late, are there shield wps procs? like Defense in TQ?
There are. We haven’t actually gotten to them yet, so you’re not late.
wasabimousse: @CrateEntertainment any new minion in expac?
Tell us what you mean by minion. If you mean by summons, summons pets there’s at least 2 - might be 3. Well, we’ll get to the Oathkeeper summons in a bit, although they’re not pet scaling.
So that’s just Aegis of Menhir. We’ve got a whole skill tree here to look at, although I’m not sure I’m going to show you all of it. Do you guys deserve to see all this coolness in one go?
kakikakeks: Will we see some new skill modifiers for skills of old masteries?
Of course, because there’s going to be new gear. That gear will not only support the new Oathkeeper mastery, it will also support the existing classes and you’re going to see all sorts of new modifiers, new sets around existing abilities. There should be some interesting cool stuff.
gilavar: so it got 2 ultimate skills?
Yes, it has two exclusive skills.
leozar94: Did the beta testing for fg already begin ?
So. Most of the expansion at this point is actually still in internal testing and the closed testing group has for the last few weeks had access to the Shattered Realm game mode which they’ve been playing through for a while. We’ve made some additions which has got us a lot closer to release date like it’s almost, almost feature complete now. So they’ve been playing kinda through it like the alpha stages up and up, I’d say now it’s in beta and soon it will be feature complete. They’ve seen it from it’s bare bones state all the way up to it getting cooler and cooler and there’s still more to come if there’s any playtesters in here. So right now the Shattered Realm game mode is up to I think 21 unique floors and we’re still adding more, there’ll be more boss floors so it’s getting there. And it’s getting awesome.
eGaNeOn3590:I s Oathkeeper the only new Mastery?
Yes. Effectively each mastery we add is an exponential increase in the amount of work it requires to implement. Not only are we having to account for every previous mastery that came out and it’s synergy with it, but we have to make more items, then we have to make old items work with the new mastery and eventually it’s going to get out of control. In fact it’s getting kinda ridiculous already.
rebel7254 : no picking up shattered souls plz, add them to counter automatically
So I have something to tell you about that. We actually changed that mechanic since we showed it to you guys. So what happens now in the Shattered Realm - and this is something we’ll actually talk about in an upcoming Development Update when we give you guys kind of a rundown of everything that’s coming to the feature complete Shattered Realm - currently every monster you kill actually increments the bar and occasionally monsters will drop shattered souls and those souls not only fill the bar more, they also give you a power up. So regular mobs have a chance to drop these souls, hero mobs always drop them and nemesis bosses drop like a super powered one. So it’s no longer about collecting souls to fill up the bar. The bar will fill up inevitably, but the souls are kind of a boost to do it faster and help you kill things faster and die less.
JAB64: @CrateEntertainment do you fear the possibility that people will always avoid nemesis bosses?
I think that should be a strategic choice, nemesis bosses will give you a pretty potent power up. And they’re actually going to be nerfed from their baseline stats. Kind of like in the Crucible they don’t have as much health and they won’t do as much damage.
So the next things I’m going to show you are the two weapon pools skills for the Oathkeeper. The first one’s called Smite. It actually works with any weapon combination but when you hit with a shield it hit with both the shield and weapon.
FicWader: @CrateEntertainment new rooms for Crucible? based on new tilesets?
I’m not sure. We’ll think about it. We might add one post release, we’re definitely not adding one at release. The current variety though is pretty good and I’m not sure how different we could make other layouts in an interesting way.
AngryMoustache: do these work with ranged?
Yes.
anathema2741: new rogue-like someday for FG? or is 4 enough?
First off, 4 is probably enough and the endless dungeon, the Shattered Realm, is actually pretty good alternative for that. Not to mention that we’re adding the challenge layers which I’ve talked about in an earlier Update and that actually makes existing rogue-like dungeons much more interesting.
kyleblake92: Does the Oathkeeper going to have any healing skills>
Sort of.
darkblade305: I have one, prefer the old Main Menu Screen. ¿Can I in future choose between Menu Screen? And ¿Same for Load Screen?. We need more Load screens. PLS
I hear you guys on the main menu swap. I’m not sure how likely that is to happen because it’s kind of a lot of feature for something we need the programmers to spend time on other things. I can’t really promise you that. We’ll think about it because it does seem to come up a lot. Loading screens though are randomised. It’s going to cycle between Occultist, Ashes of Malmouth aether lady and Forgotten Gods dude.
PeredurJoL: is there a release date for the xbox version of the game?
The Xbox version is coming along. I will tell you that it will almost certainly come out after Forgotten Gods. The reason for that is that it would make sense, most likely, what we’ll do is actually make the Xbox version a bundle of all expansions and the base game. That way there’s not going to be any fragmenting of the community on the console versions.
maxahnung: SECOND WPS SHOWCASE OR RIOT
Don’t riot yet. The second one is called Shattering Smash. This one is a shield only technique. It’s pretty fun because it’s an AoE. You hit the ground with your shield and send a shock wave forward. This works similarly to Upheaval where it hurts the initial target and then sends that cone that hurts the target and everyone behind it.
alex99999213: Are we gonna get patch before expac?
Probably. I’m not sure how we’ll do the release schedule on that, but patch 1.0.7.0 is going to be a balance patch. It is going to come probably before, or shortly before, the Forgotten Gods expansion is released and that’s going to apply to all versions of the game: base game, Ashes of Malmouth and Forgotten Gods.
Overbuilt_Gaming: Any update on the 3 difficulties in campaign? You mentioned a few dev streams ago you were going to suggest a way to the team to improve on it.
No headway on that yet, because there are other priorities that we are focussing on, mainly the Shattered Realm features. As I said I do have an idea for how we could streamline it a little bit, but that has to be reviewed by the programmer and see how doable it’s going to be. How many issues it’s going to create because our concerns are regarding skipping difficulties in regards to attribute and skills rewards from quests. And we can’t simply throw those away because certain characters have already done it and can’t give you more because those characters would then have more. And actually editing quests is also kind of a mess. If we change quests too much it creates an issue where quests can end up wiped from your quest log and then we have to come up with a way to restore them and it can be a mess. Which is why it’s complicated challenge.
Ram_111: aether ray getting buffed in balance patch?
Yes, we have taken a look at Aether Ray. It has been reviewed not only for the base skill to help you make the levelling smoother, but is also getting an upgrade to many of its skill modifiers on gear.
RoyJesen: any pack planned with all dlc included ?
I think down the line that’s pretty likely, like a GotY edition or something. It’s kinda weird how people call it the Game of the Year Edition like did you actually get nominated for that? Oh well, seems to be the standard.
Mizzajl: @CrateEntertainment any new “default attack replacer” with oathkeeper?
I do see that question come up a lot. Does the Oathkeeper have an auto attack replacer? And the answer to your question is yes. Righteous Fervour - functions mechanically similar to Savagery, but has that little bit of Retribution to go with it. But that’s not good enough for Crate Entertainment. We’re not going to just give you an attack replacer, we’re going to give you an attack replacer that let’s you join Dreeg. So if you take Dreeg’s Reproach you’re going to turn that physical damage to acid and that fire damage to vitality. You’re getting to attack replacers for the price of one.
GSkillful: will there be an 64 bits version of the game?
kakikakeks :@CrateEntertainment is there more information about the x64 bit version for internal testing which showed up on the launcher?
That’s kind of a funny thing. So we implemented that for internal testing and the playtesters are actually playing on the x64 version of the game now and for some reason Steam wouldn’t let us set it for data only. It had to be available to all of you so we had to say like internal test only. So whenever one of you tries to launch it nothing happens because you literally don’t have the key to do so, but yes at this point the x64 version is in a pretty good state. I think it’s very likely that it’ll be added to the PC version with the next patch. It’s all up to Rhis to decide whether all the bugs are ironed out and last I checked it was pretty good, pretty stable.
gilavar: acid seems off the theme with OK
Depends on how you look at it I guess. I suggest you read our preview of the Oathkeeper mastery because that is actually exactly what we were going for when we came up with this mastery. We kinda though like acid could use more skill options, but a shield mastery is kind of a logical next step. So how do we combine those two things. And then of course there’s the Paladin theme we really like, and then it hit us. Paladins in the traditional sense are holy warriors, but Paladins as seen in the past kind of depends on which god you’re worshipping so that’s how we came up with the Oathkeeper design. Like Oathkeepers are bound to the gods, but it really depends on which god you’re worshipping. If you worship Empyrion then you might be a righteous holy warrior sending fire down upon your enemies. But if you bind yourself to the Witch Gods that’s a different story and that’s how we get all this acid theme where you bind yourself to Dreeg, the Great Guardian.
CockRockin: @CrateEntertainment do some devotion procs get the percentage retaliation damage treatment?
Yes, Targo’s Hammer, Autumn Boar. Yes, you’ll see retaliation damage being added to several devotion procs.
snowmanplayer123: will there be an impact with Kymon’s Chosen and the Order if you choose the oathkeeper? like there is with the Necromancer for example , where the Chosen just ignore your offer.
We might do some extra dialogue for Kymon’s Chosen with Oathkeepers as they’re kind of on the religious side of things, but Oathkeepers - given their variance in who they worship - don’t really have the same kind of stigma with the Necromancers as an Inquisitor would. And likewise Kymon’s Chosen wouldn’t see them as bad for the same reason.
Is Consecration like Might of the Boar?
Yes, it is. As long as you have Righteous Fervour you will have Consecration.
BadWolfLive: @CrateEntertainment the game has rogue-like dungeons, crucible, and soon shattered realm, as 3 forms of end game. do you guys design them so that each mode is best at farming a certain thing(and if so, could you elaborate?) or do you guys not think about that?
No, we do think about that. We want to make sure that each one is viable for some reason or another. Rogue-like dungeons have the guaranteed drops, they’re not as difficult to run as high levels of the Crucible, they have those monster infrequents - guaranteed drops of those - and coming in Forgotten Gods are unique item sets across the 4 rogue-like dungeons. You will not be able to get that set anywhere else unless you farm rogue-like dungeon final bosses.
Likewise, Crucible I think is kind of cemented as the proving ground and it has lucrative drops if your character’s geared. I don’t think that’ll go away and Shattered Realm - it scales in difficulty much more than Crucible ever will, but in return it had that unique item set. It has the most powerful rune augments and again rune augments you should read about in our previous update, that’s how you get your new movement skills in Forgotten Gods.
morpheus____ :@CrateEntertainment can you tell us more about the release date?
Yeah, that question’s been coming up over and over and what I’m going to tell you guys is that we’re actually going to be pushing the expansion back to quarter one 2019. Probably not the answer people wanted to hear to that question. There are a couple of reasons for that: We want more time to keep our Crate Entertainment quality bar high. The expansion has gotten really big as is our standard, as you can imagine. So once again a big expansion with way too much stuff, and just as we went through things in internal testing we weren’t really fully happy with them as they were and given that we have that option to extend the deadline - we’re not bound to publisher due dates here - so we thought why stick to what we think is okay, when we know we can do better. So we’re actually revising some of the areas we built, we’ve had some animations that needed revising so yes, sorry, going to come out quarter one 2019, not 2018. Official. It’s not coming this year.
tuftyfella: when its ready is always the best answer, so no problem
When it’s ready is always the best answer and I agree and that is precisely what our goal is here. We want to give you guys the best experience for your money. We want to give you the best we can do and that’s why we want to give ourselves more time. Again, we’re not beholden to publisher deadlines. We have that option and we’re going to use it.
Okay, I’ll show you whirlwind. But it’s not known as whirlwind, it’s called the Eye of Reckoning. The programmer has gone behind the scenes and implemented the whirlwind ability. The seventh movement type skill in the game. And it’s exclusive to the Oathkeeper mastery and one relic. Eye of Reckoning requires a melee weapon as you can guess. It works with every weapon set: dual wield, two-handed. Whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys are getting too excited. You have no idea how cool this gets. You think this is it? This is all the Eye of Reckoning is? Well, let me show you what the Eye of Reckoning is. Now it’s modifier Soulfire adds a little bit of a twist to the standard whirlwind formula. Yeah, that’s the Eye of Reckoning guys. I told you the Oathkeeper had some really cool stuff. How do you make spin to win better? By adding more spins. Eye of Reckoning guys. You got your whirlwind - and then some.
FicWader: @CrateEntertainment you said the level cap will be “similar” instead of “same” … does that mean my decked out characters will need to get new max level versions of sets to stay strong in cruci / shattered realm??
Um, how do I answer that question? How many spoilers do I give you guys today. Since I’ve given you guys quite the spoiler already here, the level cap is not changing, it’s staying at 100. We felt that having to recollect all that gear you’ve already had on all your favourite characters just so it could be 10% stronger kind of a sucky feeling this late into the game. So what we’re giving you instead is tons more new gear to hunt for, we’re giving you new movement skills to hunt for and we’re giving you a new game mode to push those characters to the limit. And you’ll be able to earn skill points and attribute points through quests and through the Shattered Realm. So no level cap increase in Forgotten Gods.
lastdinosaurt: will you lvl up in shattered realm or you have to do it otherwise?
The Shattered Realm does grant you xp, I think time will tell if we decide it’s the most effective way to do it or not. From the playtesting phase we’ve actually rewritten the xp formula for the Shattered Realm 3 times now. I think I’m happy with it now, we’ll have to do more testing. The idea is you get a reasonable amount of xp, but not like an excessive amount like it’s the only way to play if you want to level alt.
bleezip: What’s been your favourite thing working on Grim Dawn as a whole? Sorry if that’s been asked before.
If I had to say just one thing I would say the devotion system. That was one of the biggest challenges that I’ve had to face from a design perspective. And turned out, I would say, pretty satisfying. I am very proud of how the devotion system turned out.
So the Guardian of Empyrion is a player scaling pet and it looks like this. But why have one? But that’s not enough. You can’t just have a pet that slashes things, that’s so typical. We also have the Celestial Presence on this pet. And yes, that is an actual cleave. So this pet gets an aura that hurts your enemies, reducing their resistances and any damage that aura steals is converted to health for you, the player. AND some of you might have noticed there’s a transmuter on this pet. Yes, you can make it the Scion of Dreeg.
Caerbae: I sure hope that also delivers reflect damage to the player via a glitch
I mean, it’s not a glitch. The pet is an extension of you so any damage it does is effectively your damage so that’s why reflects works that way on pets that scale with you.
Iceberg_: will there be a way to make those permanent ?
Not permanent, but there will are skill modifiers that help you make them last longer and you get more of them too out of one. Item modifiers increase duration. How many of them can be summoned? How short can you get the cooldown.
At release Forgotten Gods is adding 12 new sets.
crackedlocks: Will there be MI gloves with modifiers? Surely…
We are not actually adding glove monster infrequents. There will however be some new crafting recipes for you to find for legs and for gloves.
Flavourius: can we see one of the 2 exclusive buffs now? enough questions for now @CrateEntertainment
Top it is, Divine Mandate. This exclusive deals physical and fire damage.
PeredurJoL: where in gd world does the expansion starts?
It starts in any of the major hubs: Malmouth, Homestead, Devil’s Crossing, witch coven, because you will actually use a portal to take yourself to where the Korvan Basin is located, the land of the lost Korvan people.
rebel7254: bring spirit guide back to devil’s crossing please, and put inventor in all hubs.
Doesn’t really make sense thematically to bring the Spirit Guide back to Devil’s Crossing. However, in Forgotten Gods quest hub you’ll have access to every single NPC all in one place.
snowmanplayer123: Will we get access to the area east of Devil’s Crossing? the area with the broken bridge
I think you’re talking about south of Devil’s Crossing and the answer is actually no. There are several reasons for that, the biggest one is camera. For me going south on camera kinda sucks. And in terms of story it didn’t quite make sense. When we were actually working on Ashes of Malmouth originally, when we were still scoping out exactly where it can take place in the world, how it’s going to flow the story actually had you go south first to meet the witches and then go way, way north to Malmouth. But actually it kinda sucked to play that way, it felt kinda disconnected so it felt much smoother to progress north and then up, up further north and that’s how we ended up with Ashes of Malmouth.
IMayBackstab: @CrateEntertainment any plans to assimilate some of these inventory/stash mods for a 5 or 10 dollar fee? Your players would be happy to spend that while also not splintering the player base as much with mods
I mean the people who have created these utilities for you guys have done them from their own free will for free and us basically taking that and charging money for it seems very unfair to them. And from our development perspective we have design decisions for why the bags are limited as they are. It is not just arbitrarily limited to screw you guys over, there are genuine reasons why that isn’t the case. But for those of you who want more stash space, that is why we allow modding and that is why you can use those utilities so you can have as much space as you want and because they work outside of the game they don’t splinter the player base. You can’t only play with people who use GDStash or GDIA, like you can play with everybody.
Thewordbearer: will there be a chaos based auto-attack replacer? cos chaos need some love
Right, I’m in a good mood so I’ll show you something. Look at all that gear. All that loot. Your question was do you get a chaos attack replacer? Now, caveat right now, this gear is work in progress, the art is obviously not finished. If anybody judges this gear for how it looks Rah’Zin’s Armour.
rebel7254: yay, specific loot will be harder than ever to find
So I have two things to say to you regarding that. First off, as we did in Ashes of Malmouth when we added more loot, we are increasing the drop rates to compensate for the increased loot variety. And one of the features being introduced in the Forgotten Gods for the inventor NPC is called the set transmuter. A transmutation. So you will be able to take a set piece and turn it into either another random set piece or a random set piece from the same set. Effectively you’re reducing your risk of getting a duplicate significantly. You get a duplicate, that’s great you can turn it into another set piece or entirely new sets.
Flavourius: @CrateEntertainment What happened to Korvaak’s mythical relic skill?
It’s been replaced, it’s no longer a charged skill. That’s been relegated to a new rune augment. And I’m going to show you so you can see for yourself.
Sauroc: are you also removing chaos strike from riftstones?
Yes. So just like with um, the Korvaak Deception relic, the riftstone is also going to lose it’s mobility skill, it’s going to get a chaos aura instead.
mauric1us: i want to see what Ascension does. Will it make your char bigger ?
You must be referring to how Possession used to work during beta. There’s a reason why it doesn’t exist any more because it was buggy as hell and kinda sucky. It made your character so big you couldn’t fit through doorways. It had issues where the visuals wouldn’t stay if you transitioned through the door like a transition to a dungeon. Or you’d get stuck permanently, but your character had already shrunk. It had so many problems it just wasn’t working out.
rainbow_pencils: Wii characters cap (50, right) increased? So many items and builds…
You’re referring to the Steam Cloud character cap? Um, unfortunately we can’t increase that. That is actually a file limit that is set by Steam for cloud save. Quite simply if we let you make any more characters than 50 you are going to go over the character limit and your save files are going to get corrupted. Which is a bad thing. So unfortunately we can’t increase that cap for Steam Cloud. If you want unlimited characters I recommend switching to local saves and then you can have as many as you want.
apouche_: how do you split your workload? do you work exclusively on GD? you probably have other projects going on as well. How many Crate employees currently working on GD?
I work exclusively on Grim Dawn. I have at times stepped out to assist with our other project, but those are like a little temporary thing to help out on a specific design goal. Right now my focus is entirely on Grim Dawn Forgotten Gods, post release of Forgotten Gods. In terms of other projects we do have a project that Medierra is spearheading, he’ll let you know about that when he’s ready. It is pretty cool, visually looks awesome and the mechanics are almost getting to that release state. I’ll let him talk to you about what it is exactly and whether I work on that more later we’ll see, but we do have some other projects in mind that we’ll probably start ramping up in the future. And we’ll talk about those when they exist, because right now they don’t.
How many people are working on Grim Dawn? Let’s see, artists, programmers, 7 people are involved in Grim Dawn.
l3vwa: Please add official Russian localization
Localisations are actually handled by the community. I believe there is a Russian one and if you want to improve it you can talk to those guys and help them out.
FreezardB: any info on how retribution added to attacks will work?
It’s very straightforward. You take your retribution damage and take a percentage of it after being modified by your percent retaliation bonuses.
Plasmastrike67: Word on the streets of Cairn is that Aether Ray is being touched upon. Care to give us a taste of what is in store?
It’s getting a buff to it’s modifier, it’s getting a buff to it’s base skill, it’s getting a buff to how fast it activates, it’s getting a buff to how fast it rotates and getting a buff to item skills modifiers. I think it’s getting a buff, I think that’s kinda the summary here.
bigpapabear888: will existing masteries keep movement skills (nightblade/soldier)?
Yes, existing masteries will keep their movement skills. In fact the Oathkeeper gets one of the new ones. The rush mechanic - and that’s going to be the last skill I show you today. Vire’s Might. Volcanic Stride. But why just charge something when you can charge something and leave it on fire along the way. Tectonic Shift reduces the cooldown.
SkyllaSkylla: i hope that whirlwind will be somehow available as a movement skill for other masteries
It will actually be on a relic.
Dorkanaut: does your shield block chance change when the shield is thrown?
No.
Sa10_nephalem: are you going to add retaliation damage to skill in other masteries as well?
Yes.
SlamDeath: Will Oathkeeper and Soldier be the tankiest tank of all the tanky tanks in tankland?
I think that trophy might be disputed between Warder and Oathkeeper/Soldier or Warlord. Not sure yet which one’s going to win.
kaibamon: ever considered adding a pet/companion/minion alongside your character?
Um, there’s these little crystals you can get in Ashes of Malmouth and the Wisp you can get from the collector’s edition.
anathema2741: what about retaliation damage added to attack to component skills, like shield slam and brutal shield slam?
Yes, to one of them.
MrT3k: What about the transmuter of the mobility skill
Volcanic Might. That adds a knockdown effect and makes it more fiery. Because you always need more fire.
Vorx002: what will be the theme of next GM
The Oathkeeper, so you guys had a bit of a spoiler for what’s coming on Monday.
bigpapabear888: one last time asking: Will there be a transmuter for the whirlwind skill for 2-h weapons that gives increase damage/reduced mana/whatever?
That is actually on my if needed add later list and it’s going to be determined later. I’m not convinced it’s necessary. If it is then it’s something we can potentially add during testing.
Tactics777: When will Oathbreaker class be available on grimtools?
When we are happy with it to the point that it is releasable and it’s not changing much any more, because you know everything you’ve seen today could change, then we might tell Dammit to let it out there on grimtools for you guys to mess with. Just like we did with Ashes of Malmouth release we told Dammit he could open up grimtools ahead of time, we’ll probably do that same thing again. Give him the go ahead so you guy can play around with all the items, all the new skills before Forgotten Gods actually releases.
alex99999213: Are there gonna be support for chaos casters?
New itemisations, yes.
The stream in on youtube:
GM #147 also covered the Oathkeeper mastery skills.