Features you might be missing but have been denied / ruled out
Closed Servers
We are aware that some players wish for the game to have closed servers, and in a perfect world that would be the case.
It has always comes down to the initial cost of retrofitting the entire engine to support it, future maintenance costs of such a service and (which is frequently not considered by players) the cost of opportunity (aka the time we spend on this is time we cannot spend on other things such as expansion(s) or future products).
The fact is, about 10% of ARPG players even touch MP (this data is consistent throughout history of ARPGs and remains consistent with Grim Dawn). Just because people have to go online (as with Diablo 3 and Path of Exile) to play does not automatically make them want to share that experience with others.
In the end though, for us, it falls to finances and focusing our resources where they best benefit our audience.
We are not planning any sort of always online components. The game is primarily singleplayer.
A closed multiplayer setup would require fundamental changes to the game engine, not to mention server costs, customer service, upkeep, etc.
It’s a monumental task, and one that would have had to happen early on, not when the game is years old.
Loot tailored to your current character (aka Smart Loot)
smart loot is something we had discussed internally in the past, but by that point the loot tables were heavily ingrained within the game.
To incorporate such a system now would not only take major revisions to how loot is distributed on the code end, but we would also have to rip out all the existing loot tables and effectively start over. Such a system would also necessitate some way of marking items as ideal for a particular class or combination, which would mean we would have to review every item in the game (there’s a LOT of items now! :eek:). Yes, some of this could be automated, but there would be exceptions we would have to consider so that smart loot does not invalidate clever/unusual build ideas.
we’d need to create a new loot / drop system that could tailor drops to your build to some degree… but that’s easier said then done with our class / item system. The flexibility people have in creating builds would be a hurdle in trying to create any sort of tailored drop system… and then, the amount of work that entails and which would be needed to update other systems, makes me feel like the effort would be better spent on GD2, then trying to overhaul the whole game.
Bows, wands, staffs or any other new weapons
New weapon animation sets are incredibly expensive to make, the cost of which has only increased with expansions when we added new weapon attack animations for the new masteries.
On top of that, it’s effectively two animation sets since we have two player rigs.
I also just didn’t really feel compelled to add them. So, it was a combination of saving time, while also building the fictional world as I wanted it.
I’d just made an ARPG with bows but no guns or crossbows. I wanted GD to feel less high-fantasy / medieval and thought it would be cool to stick with just guns and crossbows, for a change of pace. I think that better fit the type of world I was trying to create.
In terms of variation in ranged weapon feel / mechanics, I think we could have had more of that without bows and bows wouldn’t really add that much to it. We don’t mainly because we just didn’t have the capability to spend time creating different nuanced mechanics for different classes of ranged weapons / the pre-existing system didn’t really support that.
medierra:
In GD I’m moving away from the typical feeble staff / wand wielding caster image and towards a more badass image as a specialist soldier type. To that end, casters will wield either melee weapons or guns but there will be a left-hand item called a [focus] that will function as a sort of supporting piece of gear similar to a shield for warrior, but probably more oriented towards boosting offensive power and energy.
medierra:
I’m not afraid of players ignoring melee weapons or guns, I just see staffs and wands as being sort of redundant, not fitting that well with the fiction, and really kind of taking away from what a real spell caster should be - a class that relies primarily on spells instead of a weapon. I mean a staff in TQ is basically a bow with different art and animations. So since we already have a ranged weapon class, I think it is a lot more interesting to have the pure archetypal caster classes using spells instead of an alternative ranged weapon.
[…] Art does matter in terms of the psychological feel of the character. If people object to the look of a caster holding a sword, then we could potentially think about adding in right-hand items with more caster-like art such as a grimiore or something to that effect. Although, like I said, we’re trying to create something a little different than the standard fantasy setting and as part of that, casters are taking on a slightly new form.
Infinite character progression
On top of that, an endless progression system is incredibly punishing/discouraging to new/returning players. Nothing like knowing that the only way you’ll catch up to those who had been playing thousands of hours is to play thousands yourself (which effectively means you cannot catch up if they are also still playing).
We definitely have no plans to add any kind of indefinite power creep to the game.
That is within the realm of mods though, if you really crave something like that.
Support for single mastery and classless builds
Dual Masteries are a feature of the game just as having a gear slot for pants is.
You can choose not to wear pants and will probably beat Ultimate, but this does not mean that you aren’t skipping out on a core mechanic.
As somebody mentioned early on, this seems like a great topic for a mod, but we have no intention of changing something that is fundamental to Grim Dawn.
As soon as it’s officially supported, it has to be…well…actually supported. It needs to be balanced for.
Nevermind the tech costs of implementing such a feature.
Exclusive skills for each dual-class
Apart from the massive amount of work that would require (we’re up to 28 combinations now, each of which would necessitate its own set of unique bonuses), I feel this would have the opposite effect of what you desire, by which I mean it would bottleneck each combination into a particular way to play, unless those class-combo bonuses were so minor that they aren’t really defining the combo in the first place.
WASD control scheme
WASD fundamentally changes ranged gameplay in a way controller support never will. It would necessitate rebalancing the game and, as has been said, requires that we support yet another control scheme.
Controller support enables us to release on console. What does WASD do besides create new headaches?
Need to recover from all what Grim Dawn is not? Have a look at the post-release additions in Crate’s end-of-year reviews .
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