This is the Hellgate Guru community interview, with questions presented by the community to Flagship Studios' Community Manager, Ivan Sulic. The original thread can be viewed here.

Page 1 / 2 / 3

1. Is FSS currently developing other titles as well as Hellgate: London?

We're focused on Hellgate: London and have made no other announcements.

2. Will Hellgate: London be released with compatability for Direct X9L from Microsoft since Windows Vista is planned for release in October? They have their own version of Vista called Vista Ultimate which is gamer oriented (this is the OS i am refering to).

Hellgate will fully support Vista, DX9 iterations and DX10.

3. Are there any class specific quests and routes through the game? Like will a templar have to go to the place of his origins for an event (like a holy temple where he was baptised)?

There are class specific quests, but not routes. Environments are shared between classes.

4. Is there any sort of character evolution aside from the base concept of getting ph4t l3wt?

You thinking story-wise? If so, then not really. Players take on the role of character that partakes in a developing storyline, but aside from becoming an ultra powerful champion, that character will not really develop and have a mysterious back story of his or her own.

5. How long will the game/story be time wise? both with and without sidequest?

We're actually not sure right now. As development continues, huge chunks of the game get added and cut regularly. It's thus impossible to pin down exactly how long the entire package will be. But a rough estimation of, "Just about as long as any other action-RPG" would be safe.

6. Will Flagship Studios legally be able to make references to past titles or in-jokes similar to those used in those past titles? For instance, clicking on NPCs repeatedly generating "joke" replies or nods to weapon names in the Diablo series. I've a feeling the answer is no but it's best to voice the question regardless. I figure a cow level is right out.

Not really. We don't make any direct references to older Blizzard titles in Hellgate, but we do poke fun at ourselves and other things. We have some funny items, tasks and Easter eggs scattered throughout the game, anyway.

7. Will Hellgate: London bring back the naming schemes like in Diablo or Diablo 2 when you beat the game on different difficulties and such? Or if they kill main bosses?

We do have different naming schemes, yes.

8. Hacking and botting was a HUGE issue in D2. Blizzard took an "active" approach rarely. It was more of a "if you care enough to fill out all of the paper work, we will be happy to do something about it" kind of thing. Is this the same way FSS plans to go about their anti hacking/cheating ways?

No, I don't think so. I believe we're going to be doing more outsourcing to maintain a stable, cheat free multiplayer environment in addition to relying somewhat more heavily on our publisher. These two things alone should greatly decrease the amount of unscrupulous multiplayer action in our game. Additionally, we have a big internal focus on maintaining Hellgate's multiplayer. It's a huge priority for us, whereas at Blizzard current Flagshippers were split between expansions, other projects and regular upkeep. We get to focus more here, basically.

9. D2, generally speaking of the audience that played it, was a boring game when you went through the acts more than say, 5 times. After that, it was all about grinding your hero to 99. What are you doing to prevent this if you see it as a problem?

In terms of singleplayer, we're not doing anything to extend the longevity of our title past five play throughs. Honestly, if you have completed our game alone five times, we've done our jobs and feel happy that you've enjoyed it that much.

Now in terms of multiplayer... We have a much, much bigger game planned. While we're always quick to point out that our multiplayer game will be everything Diablo was, it's important to appreciate how that's not all it will be. Unfortunately, due to previous editorial agreements, that's about all I can say about multiplayer at this point.

10. Can you be more in depth about your PvP system? Will you "condone" it and encourage it more than casual outside of town PvP battles? How about tournaments or anything like that?

I'm sorry, I can't. Multiplayer details such as these are being kept secret for the time being so as to not spoil editorial agreements we have in place.

11. Will there be a hardcore mode?

Yes, there will be. That, at least, I can say.

12. Do you plan to have more bosses than Diablo 2? Will the bosses be a bit more unpredictable than the ones in D2? How about difficulty with bosses? Will it be more of an issue of being undergeared, or more of an issue of trying to learn of how to combat the boss? Or both? Will strategy be involved is basically what Im asking. How much?

Right now it looks like we'll have substantially more recurring boss-like characters and a few more named bosses. I don't know what you mean by predictable, though. Our bosses are bosses in that they're bigger, meaner, tougher hell bastards than what you've been fighting, but they're still just hell bastards of a different sort. So I suppose they are a bit predictable in that sense, but then they're kind of supposed to be. In terms of strategy, you'll need to learn how to combat bosses since they all have specific strengths and weaknesses and are prone to certain actions. You don't just need to be tougher. It's more that you need to be prepared. Of course, being tougher would certainly help. As an example, Lee beat Shulgoth on the first run as one of our classes because he knew how to handle him with skills and certain weapons. I, on the other hand, died about 20 times because I just tried to hit him with my very strong sword.

13. How far will you take modding? Can you mod weapons in combat on the fly, like in the middle of a battle?

You sure can. Right now you can apply any modification to any applicable item at any time. The game does not require any sort of work bench or vendor to allow for this.

14. In Diablo 2, up until the facelift of Hell, "partying" in the game had no real purpose except to clear an area faster. Will you make partying of bigger importance in HGL? Will strategies be implemented, or will it be more like a run and gun?

Partying won't be required, but since the game configures itself depending on your character / party, playing as part of a group will result in a different experience that requires participants to use their characters accordingly. For instance, the game will identify your party and prepare an instance that plays off your party's strengths. So, when you do group up for a quest you'll need to cooperatively implement low level strategy because the instance is forcing you too. Of course, we're still all about the Diablo-style slaughter of thousands of creatures, so it's not like you suddenly have to put yourself in the middle of a squad-based tactical strategy game. You can just beat things if you please.

15. You mentioned guilds being a part of HGL. In most games (mmo's. Where most of my experience with guilds come from... or just WoW ) with a guild, content was "locked" to those without a guild. Bosses and dungeons were only passable with a guild. Will guilds be more of a community thing, or will they be of dire importance in reaching and passing game content?

More of a community thing. Currently none of our planned content requires guild, clan or any sort of group membership.

Page 1 / 2 / 3