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.

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16. How big will trading be in HGL? Will modding contstrain trading in any way, or will it actually help it? How so?

Unfortunately, this is one of those specific multiplayer questions I have to keep a lid on for the time being. Apologies.

17. It was mentioned a while back that the implementation of unlockable artist-designed 'color sets', as opposed to having dyes for each piece of equipment in the hands of players (which would allow for the creation of a myriad of horrific color combinations, producing characters that looked like clowns) would be used to customize armor would be a feature in Hellgate: London.

Right now we're still toying with the way colors will work. As I understand it, the current popular plan is to provide characters with some sort of accessible library of acquired dye sets they can apply to their suits at will. How specific sets are discovered and added to this library and whether or not the library itself will be contained at a vendor or within the player's inventory is still to be determined. Talk is players will be able to purchase new sets, discover new sets as loot, acquire sets as rewards, and even acquire pieces of color sets attached to specific individual items that can then apply to entire suits. In any event, we're still working on, so it's just not finished yet.

18. One of the goals Guild Wars had when making instances of the world was to make the environments more interactive and fun to play in. In Hellgate I have read interviews that says that there will be random generated events while playing the game; such as a NPC's wanting help from a demon attack and such. Can you tell us more about these different kinds of events, will there be events that affect the environment? Like for example pushing a button and a cannon will shoot through the wall making a way for the character or the character have to place explosives on a bridge before masses of demons rushes over it

We do have emergent events planned. Most that I've seen revolve around assisting spontaneously generated NPCs unattached to assigned quests or tasks... Players may stumble upon a group of struggling survivors and provide escort, or they may help fend off an attack, or they may seek out a lost child. It's all that sort of thing. We don't have any environment interactions planned, however

19. Bascially, can you clarify how the aiming system works? It it purely stat based? Can you still miss from a foot away with your crosshairs right over a target? From the gameplay vids I've seen, it looks like if your shot intersects a target, then you score the hit. If that's the case, then what does the accuracy stat do? Determine your chance for criticals?

If you fire at an enemy within range while aiming within its bounding box -- meaning you have a green light, which the game will indicate -- you will score a hit unless said enemy flies out of the way, which is rare. So basically you have to look at a thing to hit it. Even then, most weapons provide splash damage and lots of leeway. And accuracy does determine chance for critical hits, BTW.

This isn't possible. Hitting is hitting.

We don't have headshots or railguns or sniper weapons. Most of our guns do have area of effect or opponent seeking abilities, too. Soft aiming is basically a way to say our game is not reflex intensive. It isn't a hardcore, demanding skill-based shooter like Quake 3. It's an action RPG with a third and first-person perspective.

20. Will it be possible to turn off the "soft aiming" feature?

No.

21. Intel is speculating (or not) that by the end of 2006, +70% of home computers will have dual core processors. With that in mind, will Hellgate: London take advantage of the second core?

It doesn't right now, but who knows? We may find ourselves adding support later on if we deem it warranted.

22. When you have finished the game in single player mode in every difficult, is there a way to use again you single player character for something? In Diablo II you can return to boss for the drop, but you said in the past that boss will not respawn...

After you've finished Hellgate on every difficulty setting you're pretty much done, as I understand it. You'll be able to reenter the game at your leisure, but I don't believe we're providing extra incentive for players to go back in the 10th time or whatever. That's what multiplayer is for. That's how people will continue playing and enjoying themselves.

23. Will there be huge dungeons that needs about 50 players to complete it? (In WoW there are 40man raids)

I don't believe so. I don't think you'll ever really "need" anyone.

24. How much tactic you need when you solo or are in group (like in a raid)?

I already talked about this as well as I can. The 'tactics' questions are also so vague they're practically unanswerable. How much tactics? I have no idea how to even respond, so I'll just throw out an arbitrary number of 78 and say you need a rating of 78 tactics to be successful, provided you first have D-CF-1 Class A Priority Tactics Certification, of course.

25. Is it going to be a max lvl in HG:L and if so, what will it be?

We don't know this yet.

26. Making a guild, do you need to chose more then just name for it? ([tag], cape/logo...?)

This is another specific component of multiplayer I can't really talk about, but we will provide players the opportunity to input more than a simple guild name

27. In Diablo 2 you (almost) only used the money/gold to repair and recharge stuff and buy potions. will the money/gold actually mean something in HG:L?

Almost? What is that? Like you could also use money to buy anything but often chose not to? That kind of almost? Well then that's the same thing as any other game.

Basically, anything you find in Hellgate you can probably purchase somewhere. Whether you choose to or not is entirely up to you and in no way reflects upon the importance of economy in our game, nor does it imply money is 'almost' useless.

That being said, the game is more about discovery than acquisition. We encourage our players to kill monsters because the rewards are worth the work.

28. Will it be some kind of storage/chest/bank in HG:L for each player, and if yes, how big will it be?

I believe there will indeed be some kind of a repository for goods. Its size is yet to be determined.

29. What do you think about the great community of Fansites (actually 20) that follow your project?

I like them quite a bit. Fan participation is very important to Flagship, since happy fans generate positive word-of-mouth, which translates to higher sales, which means we can get paid enough to eat dinner. Eating, of course, is what keeps us alive and I sure do like living free of starvation on a day-to-day basis.

30. Bill Roper said in some interviews that fansite will have a great role in the making of the game: what will be the role of fansite administrator in the next steps of the development of the game?

Hell if I know. I basically just want you all not to kill me.

Also, fansites already host content for us, contribute ideas and concerns to us, and will eventually participate in the game and its beta with us. All this comes in addition to providing places of interest for new fans to congregate. I'm sure later on fans and fansites will also be majorly responsible for ensuring the continued success of the game and Flagship Studios in general by of way of user created content and multiplayer-centric events.

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