Developer Q&A: October 9

Kiwibird brings us a large Q&A this week.

Source: http://forums.defiance.com/showthread.php?225421-Defiance-Developer-Q-amp-A-October-9 

Welcome, ark hunters! You’ve asked, we’re answering. We’re back with another action packed Defiance Developer Q&A! 

1. Not sure if this has been asked either (or if I missed mention of it in the last LiveStream), will the Devil's Carnival crates be available for a limited time this year? If not, is there a way for the outfits from that crate to be made available as drops from the ark falls, or perhaps in a HP syn'd box? Thanks.
   

   We will start looking into outfits that were socked away in previous crates soon. Hopefully we will be able to start a formal schedule release before the end of the year.

2. Will bmg FX be fixed before Hulker Hell arrives ?
   

   Unfortunately this change will not make it for the next update we still have that task on back log.

3. Any chances to add confirmation option to when removing mods from weapons in inventory via quick menu?
   

   There is already a confirmation that appears on both the retrieve mod and remove mods option. Are you asking for an additional confirmation in another part of the process?

4. Will the fix for the instant respawning of conflicts and incursions be implemented before Hulker Hell?
   

   We're taking a look at this, but it will not be resolved before Hulker Hell.

5. Will we see an overhaul of shields in the game? Compared to weapons, they have very limited customization.
   

   We have no plans to overhaul how shields work currently.

6. What kind of new content will be coming to Defiance?
   

   We will continue to add and adjust to the holiday events. We have hinted at some Shrill content but as we mentioned in the last live stream that it may not come out until early 2016 because of scheduling.

7. Are there any plans for a content update that creates alternatives to expeditions?
   

   At this moment expeditions are the most challenging content you will be able to tackle for end game players. We recently added Supreme drops to expeditions at higher rounds. As for Open World content, once we have our shrill update released we will look into the possibility of new dynamic events, including sieges and arkfalls.

8. A few months back, you said you would replace the Contracts that target specific aspects of Expeditions (e.g. Kill the Raging Hulker, but you repeatedly get Dekuso's Offspring) with generic ones to make them more time efficient, how far along are you in completing this task?
   

   Yup, we first wanted to tackle the problem of queuing up for a mutant expedition and ending up in a raider one and vice versa. We will start making them more generic Kills of a “Mutant Expedition Boss”, etc soon, the count will most likely be 3 instead of just getting 2 specific named bosses. With randomization 3 should be the average kill count we were expecting, unfortunately in some current expedition runs some players would get some bosses many times in a row.

9. Will we ever see converters for Paradise and Chimera weapons? Always wanted to try bio with many of the weapons, but dont like breaking synergy. Thanks.
   

   If there's no balance issues, they're probably easy to add. We plan to take a closer look at this.

10. Will there be more self-healing enemies in the future for Defiance? 
    

    We would like to try different things with some enemies in the future, but that is still a bit of time away. Currently, we are focusing on all of the upcoming holiday events and the Shrill update.

11. Is it possible to have the contracts list edited, so they could be arranged alphabetically??
    

    I don’t think that is currently in the scope of current priorities for UI, this may bubble up at some point, but as it stands now, I don’t see this happening any time soon.

12. I know it was said the team was looking into adding armor inspired by the Omec any news on if something has been reached on that and if/when we'll see it?
    

    Yup, we are expecting it to be done “soon”, we had some complications with the design of some of the outfits and how it would react on the player models. Keep in mind once the models are all done we have some processing that we need to run it though before it gets in to the game. So, “soon” in this case is 60 days plus if all goes right.

13. Can we get increased spawn rates for the upcoming event? Seriously, Armistice went downhill on spawns after the first few days.
    

    Spawn rates are what we have set in the current system, it varies from player to player. In most of these events, players can report completing one Arkfall an hour and up to 10 an hour. It is one of the main reasons we decided to add the contract weekly to not focus on the daily count of 1 Major Arkfall a day. It’s a little more flexible, where as you can compete the weekly over a weekend instead of stressing out if you would get to see a major every day for 5 days.

14. Is it possible to increase the limit of friends in the friends list, or have it unlimited?
    

    Currently there is no plan to increase the cap for your friends list. There is somewhat of a technical cap we have to hold at.

15. Any chance of a new incursion/siege in the open world involving Dark Matter?
    

    I hinted at this in an earlier question – but yes we would like to take a look at new sieges and arkfalls after the holiday events and the shrill events are wrapped up on our side.

16. Any chance of more co-op maps in the Chimera daily? The repetition makes it tiring to play.
    

    In general the co-op maps are pretty much set. We can look into adding some expedition contacts, since they are similar content dealing with small groups of players. For now they will stay as they are and not include Expeditions.

17. Would it be possible to make the Salvage Matrix easier to interpret? When I mod my weapon, I never know if my weapon gets worse or better. My eyesight might be terrible.
    

    We can check to see if we can update the messaging of moding a weapon. Currently the best way to look at it is, if the stat is green the modification is better, we do not however show you what it was by comparison. If you have any other feedback please PM Kiwi and she will forward the info to the team.

18. I would like the ability to start a COOP with less than 4 people.
    

    Currently Co-op maps are locked to 4 players, we can evaluate lowering the starting threshold, but as it stands now it would most likely remain at 4.

19. Mastering weapons was mentioned during one of the live steams as something that was going to be looked at? 
    

    This is something that the team would like to implement, but no ETA is currently available because this task is anticipated to be very time consuming.

20. Can we get some bulk prices on Arkforge from the bit store? People are buying in 3500 lots now just to upgrade weapons to supreme.
    

    The discount prices are on the purchase of the Bits itself, purchasing larger bit packs would make purchasing anything with bits less expensive. Also, please note there is also a 10% discount on most items for Patron Pass players.

21. Are there plans to make Heaven Sent Expedition part of the Contract rotation?
    

    At this point, because it is one of the more difficult Expeditions, we are opting to not put DM Expeditions into the contract cycle.

22. Will the encryption mechanic be lifted altogether in the future?
    

    At this time, we have no plans to remove encryption.

23. Can we get an option to join a threat level 11 war master then has much higher health and harder to kill for increased rewards?
    

    This is something we would like to do in the future because players with Cyber Rigs and Supremes are now in the mix. Also congrats to The JR, llls1cKb0ylll. And Angthony Harrist on their 3 man Warmaster kill.

24. Can we get "save points" for Expeditions so that we can continue at the Tier/Round level when we leave?
    

    We are discussing ways that will allow players to achieve higher rounds without having to restart every day.