Physics

Feb 22, 2006
Now you guys are getting the right idea. It's not a single physical interaction like what we see in most shooters that warrants Sacred's use of the PPU. Rather, it's a combination of elaborate actions that cause still more physical interactions on their own.

For instance, I might be able to beat some dude in the face and cause a ragdoll just fine, but what if I wanted to beat some dude in the face and have his ragdoll crush a barrel that shot out a hundred oranges that tripped up a couple monsters that rolled down a hill scattering rocks everywhere? That's where dedicated hardware will come in handy.

Feb 22, 2006
We're using physics to create ragdolls, if only because it's pretty much a standard these days (should have been a standard since Hitman, actually). We're also binding exploding debris with physics routines. Right now Havok does not govern the movement of enemies attached to the grappling gun, however. Nor does it have anything to do with the more advanced maneuvers and combos that are actually bound to skills, AFAIK.

March 13, 2006
We do use Havok physics, but mainly to simulate deaths. Our environments are largely static. No random environmental objects can be used as weapons, anyway. Only crates and barrels and that sort of thing are manipuable and subject to the whims of the physics engine. You cannot destroy buildings.

Map randomization

Feb 13, 2006
Think of the streets as paths through a canyon. Those buildings are the equivalent of walls. There are certainly indoor areas in the game, though, and there are also indoor to outdoor transitions. It's just that you can't go walking into every building you see.

Think of randomization like this... There's point A and point B. A is a town / safe haven / hub / whatever the hell you want to call it. So is B. A and B are always laid out the same. Everything between them, however, is randomized within limits. For instance, this whole place will be randomized, but made to look like a certain part of London that may or may not include this and that.

April 06, 2006
The actual layout of the tubes is randomized, yes. Stations are preset, but are not 100% accurate models of real life environments. So no, you really won't be visiting real places exactly as they are in real life. But, you will be in places based off real world environments and it's pretty much close enough.

Environment

Feb 22, 2006
Q. I wonder whether metal and/or water will conduct electricity or not. What about light affecting some demons?
A. No, no and nope. I don't think any of that is planned for the game right now.

Feb 23, 2006
There's pre-scripted movement (lava, smoke, etcetera), but the environment does not change dynamically.

Feb 24, 2006
Q.Can you destroy objects? Like blowing up a telephone booth?
A.Nope. Just objects that are obviously destructible, like barrels and boxes and crates and stuff.

Feb 27, 2007
The world will vary considerably. The environments we've shown thus far have all been from the same general area. Other areas are noticeably different.

Feb 28, 2006




Those are the equivalent of power-up pillars you can receive temporary bonuses at while within random instances. I believe that first one enhances attack accuracy for critical hit bonuses, or perhaps it imbues the player with a specific type of attack bonus (shock or fire damage or whatever). The second is a defensive bonus, though I'm not sure if it decreases the amount of damage a player takes when hit or if it decreases a player's chance of being hit. Anyway, the fact that there are two may be coincidence, or it may just be because whoever made that screenshot thought it looked cool.

March 11, 2006
There will be predetermined weather effects (lightning and falling ash, basically), but it will not have any actual impact on the player.

March 15, 2006
1. It's about a 50/50 mix of claustrophobic interiors vs. larger exterior streets. We have a variety of train tunnels, catacombs, WWII bomb shelters, condemned lines and sewers. Then we also have various surface areas and canals planed out, in addition to other areas.

All of these areas, given that they're randomly generated, are capable of featuring any number of large open rooms and narrow passageways. I wouldn't say our game suddenly becomes Serious Sam or something like that, though. Despite the aesthetic, Hellgate is laid out very much like a conventional action-RPG, in that the player is fairly linearly directed through structured environments.

1. So far we've only announced a select few locations around London. I can't really say what the final collection of environments will feature.

March 18, 2006
1. Q.Will we be on the surface and under ground most of the time? Can you tell us the proportion, like 50:50 or 30:70?
A.I asked this same question when I came on and Bill and Ken told me it'll be about 50:50 in the end.

2. We have a lot of environments, actually. Among others I can't talk about, we should have sewers, tunnels, tubes, WWII bomb shelters, abandoned lines, stations, catacombs, dried up canals and various types of streets scattered throughout London.

April 06, 2006
We have realistically themed areas like Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Holborn, River Thames, Tubes, Moorgate, Piccadilly Circus, Camden Town, Tower Hill... In terms of specific places, the design docs call for the British Museum, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, Piccadily Circus and a bunch more.

April 20, 2006
1. There's ash and fog of different values and some thunder and lighting, but there's no rain or snow. Earth is going through THE BURNING, remember...but of course that doesn't effect fog...because we said so. :)

As for sunshine, there are lighter skies where the sun peeks in, but I wouldn't expect to see a clear sunny day in the game.

2. I don't think there's any rain in the game. But our atmosphere is pretty good. We have creepy background effects, good city effects, multiple skys, multiple color palettes... It's certainly not bad and it's not finished, too. I'm confident it'll feel good when you play it.

August 11, 2006
Unfortunately, we do not have dynamic day and night cycles in the game, nor do we have dynamic weather cycles.

Economy

Feb 17, 2006
Trading and the online economy in general are components of multiplayer that have not yet been finalized. We're still looking at what to do here, so input of this sort is certainly appreciated.

Feb 22, 2006
Q.How will we be able to search (good) Items?
A.Instances on higher difficulties and later on into the game will be more prone to dropping these "perfect" items you speak of. But it won't be necessary to continuously fight the same boss hoping to score something good.

Aiming

Feb 14, 2006
You do have to generally look at what you're firing at. But the AIM assist and bounding boxes are setup to make contact easy.

March 8, 2006
There is no first-person sword fighting. You can, however, shoot and hack from the third-person. The combat feels very much like an RPG with a good sense of freedom in this respect. You can certainly dodge enemy attacks, but that is not the focus of the game. And while you can make it your life's mission to pull the trigger at people's faces like a madman, it's not going to do anything for you, because if you point at a body and shoot, chances are you'll hit the body. Hellgate does not require precise aiming or advanced maneuvering.

April 20, 2006
Our targeting mechanism is based on both distance and exact positioning, with distance taking precedence. That is, if I'm aiming precisely at some dude's face, but there's something else standing just in front of him, only slightly off to the left, there's a good chance I'll be shooting at Lefty Mc Stand In Front instead of over-the-shoulder dude.

August 11, 2006
1. Certain weapons have splash damage with varying levels of effectiveness. If an enemy is missed, but falls within that weapon's splash radius, he may yet perish.

2. Damage Types:
Physical (Direct & Splash -- Stun & Knockback)
Spectral (Direct & Splash -- Stun & Knockback & Continued)
Fire (Direct & Splash -- Stun & Knockback & Continued)
Toxic (Direct & Splash -- Stun & Knockback & Continued)
Electrical (Direct & Splash -- Stun & Knockback & Continued)

Armor Defense:
All Purpose & Specific. Armor will defend against everything with specializations based on damage type. Armor rating determines effectiveness. Ineffective defense results in a loss of life. Armor can still be functional and reduce the loss of life upon each sustained attack.

Shield Defense:
All Purpose & Specific. Shields will defend against everything with specializations based on damage type. Shield rating determines effectiveness. If Shield is ineffective or is sufficiently reduced, Armor sustains attack and effectiveness is then calculated for that Armor.

Attacking:
If you hit, you hit. There is no impact without a hit. If you impact an enemy's bounding box, you will hit that enemy.

Critical Hits:
Chance of Critical based on experience level and how many points have been spent on Accuracy. Chance of Critical is also dependent on item rating.

Movement and camera

Feb 10, 2006
A few little bits of info regarding movement:

1. You can use WASD and the mouse to move and aim like any FPS.

2. It is possible to pivot the camera up very high right now. It's not so high to make it clearly overhead, but it's situated far higher than a typical third-person shooter.

3. There's an on-screen cursor that can be activated -- this frees the mouse up from looking, so you can just click things on-screen without turning around in circles like a moron.

4. There's a button that makes your character continuously move in whatever direction you're facing.

Basically, Hellgate is a game that should fit just about any control style preference. It's very adaptable. I expect the final will include even more control considerations I am currently unaware of.

Feb 13, 2006
Just to clarify, as you zoom out (currently bound to the mousewheel by default) the camera automatically pivots slightly to give you a better vantage point.

Feb 27, 2007
Q.Are there different movement speeds?
A.Yes

Q.is something like stamina used to slow players down (in D2 it became redundant when you reached a certain level anyway)?
A.Nope.

Q.What about jumping. Is it essential to reach some areas in the level? What about strafe jump, bunny hopping and other shooter-like stuff? (maybe for the class without auto aim?)
A1.Nope, but you can certainly jump. The option to jump is being provided in Hellgate because ours is a 3D environment. And in 3D environments, players will invariably find themselves caught on some kind of obstacle, somewhere. So instead of having to walk all the way around a railing or a bunch of cars or whatever, we just let you jump over the crap and get back to the point.
A2. No, no and no. You can strafe. You can jump. You can even jump and strafe at the same time, but it's entirely unnecessary. There's a big auto aim system in the game, since it is an action RPG. Thus, simultaneously jumping and strafing will do nothing for you offensively or defensively.

March 11, 2006
You can switch to third-person view at any time and at various zoom states.

May 22, 2006
1. Players of Hellgate can, at any time, switch between first and third-person viewpoints. Our third-person mode also allows players to zoom rather far out from their character, giving the game a very Diablo-ish like quality.

2. So right now here are the action keys:

1) Left-click
2) Right-click
3) Shift
4) 1 - 0 along with "-" and "+"

F1 - F3 are reserved for weapon groupings.

By default, left-clicks fire weapons held in the left hand while right-clicks fire weapons held in the right hand, be they swords, pistols or otherwise.

At any point a player can decide to assign left, right, or both click functionalities to either physical button on the mouse. So... If I have two pistols in my hand, I can configure the mouse to fire both when I press the left or right mouse button. This frees up an additional button on the mouse I can assign to any active skill. Of course, I can always assign skills or items to the hot keys, as well.

The shift button is a context sensitive skill initiator. The game determines what the player is doing at any given time and will present an icon that indicates what will happen if the player hits shift at that specific time. So, while I'm running straight ahead it may present the icon for a speed boost. Thus, hitting shift at that moment will initiate a speed boost. Similarly, the game will determine when I am surrounded and offer me a whirlwind assault or it'll see that I'm facing one guy and offer me a jump slam or it will encourage me to trigger an aura boost. It's just a way to let players very quickly trigger a bunch of skills without using up precious hotkey space. It's also like the lazy man's skill trigger.

The function key weapon groupings just allow users to quickly assign up to six weapons and six different actions (be they simple fires or skill triggers) to the mouse buttons. This means I can have a rocket launcher and a summon skill on left and right clickers in group two, but I can have two pistols and a spectral lash skill on group one and a couple of skills and a focus orb on group three. I can then switch between them instantaneously by hitting either F1, F2 or F3.

The context sensitive shift key combines with the hotkeys and configurable weapon groupings to create a very fast, potentially complex sort of action. The design is such that it allows more active users to rapidly dish out all kinds of different damage.

3. So basically there are no combos in the traditional sense. That is, pressing a series of keys does not result in a very specific action that is designed to play only when you press that series of keys in that sequence. There is no Street Fighter fireball or Mortal Kombat forward, back, A, B maneuver. What we do have are a whole lot of special assaults or animation routines. These make up the bulk of the Templar's skill set and allow him/her to really kick ass.

So... You click the mouse constantly or hold it down and homeboy starts swinging his sword(s) in alternating patterns all normal like. That's business as usual. But, if you assign any or all of the assault skills to the provided hotkeys, you can also press any hotkey at any time and initiate an advanced attack in-between the normal face smashing.

Por ejemplo:
Click -> Click -> Click -> Numeral 1 (spin attack) -> Numeral 2 (jumping smash) -> Numeral 3 (spear) -> Click -> Click -> Numeral 4 (whirlwind strike) -> Click -> etcetera.

It works exactly like initiating a series of spells or commands in sequence, only instead of casting magic, you smash things with melee weaponry.

Acts, Quests and Tasks

Feb 28, 2006
1. There are acts laid out in the design docs. That, however, may be transparent to the player depending on how we ultimately string everything together and lay the final game out.

2. Our Tasks are separate from our actual Quests. They are not bound to the storyline, but they are capable of expanding upon it. Completed Tasks also reward players with experience, items and other special goodies directly related to class.

April 20, 2006
The initial quests may differ (they do already, anyway), but by and large the adventure between classes will be the same. Hostilities between classes may eventually develop, but players will not experience any of that right off the bat. We do not have obvious "good" and "bad" sides, however. Our distinct classes just approach tackling the demon problem differently, is all.

May 22, 2006
1. [about first quest]Lil' Joey lost his lil' prosthetic leg inside an abnormally sized Hellmeat we call The Taint. The first mission is to retrieve said leg, though it is entirely possible to use the leg as a weapon after you pick it up.

2. All quests involve entering instances and combating demons. If you are referring to a quest-driven instance where you will have to complete said quest while simultaneously battling other players, then probably not. You enter an instance and stay with your party by being a member of the party. Thus, you would not ever party up with people, enter an instance, and then kill the lot of 'em because you felt like it.

May 24, 2006
Quests are story-driven and preset. Tasks are factional, preset and unrelated to the overall storyline. Events are randomized encounters within instances.

August 11, 2006
1. We have no escort missions planned. If we do implement one, that which you must escort will be indestructible or will be designed to die. Promise.

2. [Total time to complete the storyline quests] Forty hours for the main quest sounds about right. That does not include random tasks and the like.