First Descendant - Discord Dev Q & A Summary (20/21 Jan)

[@vikashtudu5572]

this was very helpful, thank you for the video

[@PurpleBadger331]

Thank you for the nice summary

[@varsinzo4844]

Thanks for the video. Not everyone has the time to see the Q&A I have discord and its really hard for me to use it. I dont understand it do this is really helpful. There are some things I dont like in the game like reactor farming I keep getting dumb sub stats like dimensional power increase and fusion power increase on a singular reactor. And I dont like the crazy amount of time it requires to do a single random upgrade on your gun, anyway despite all this I like the game I think its going in the right direction and I hope it will be even better.

[@LBG]

The Dec update to reactors helped a lot but it still needs work. I would have made my Ines build a day or so earlier if i had found the right reactor. Lets see how they improve it.

[@ewonghoabasigabrieledwep3953]

Bro thanks so much very very helpful, cause for people like me who are working during the time of the Q&E, with a video like this I can still be able to follow up, thanks a million.

[@LBG]

Thanks for the feedback. I am always unsure if people are interested in videos like this.

[@Wanderer1361]

Thank you for the video

[@LBG]

You are welcome. Hope it was useful. Let me know if this type of content is something you guys are interested in.

[@racingsquirrel238]

Unfortunately, I will comment in chronological order rather than summarizing what is already a summary. Preface: it is important to remember the business side of the equation. This is a free to play game. Whenever one sees an option to use caliper/real money, that is how we are renting server time and paying for development. There is an option to accelerate research using real money, so if there is a bulk research option, then this affects revenue. For people asking for old skins, a reminder that in previous dev comments, they said that 'limited time offer' under Korean Law means exactly what it says. They cannot sell that exact configuration again without breaking the law. Hence, they are reworking those old skins for forward sales. Note that none of the Season 2 skins say 'limited time.' This mistake probably cost someone their job, as it costs time and money to fix. For those players asking for Bunny and Freyna nerfs, they are selling Descendants: I think the initial Ultimate Bunny Package was 3000 caliber or around 70 Euro. Nerfing a character that you have already purchased would be like buying a computer and then having the manufacturer update your bios to lower your clock speed (oh wait, Intel did that). Thus nothing gets nerfed, there are only buffs to rebalance. Players asking for piercing and tattoos is reasonable, as it could be something one could sell. However, they likely built a tool to construct descendant skins. At the highest level, this tool has six objects (the paintable areas) and one method (paint). Expanding the paintable zones means defining new areas as objects. Adding piercing and tattoos may mean adding both new objects and methods, which is a bridge too far. The path to maximizing profits is to sell more paint by giving us more areas that we can paint, while keeping the development effort low. But I can see how later in the product life cycle one might look at piercings and tattos as an increase at the margins. In a past dev talk, they said they were not looking at different types of fellows. This time, they mention new fellows, a complete 180. What changed? I suspect, fellow customizations have been selling. I know that I bought one. So, if we're buying customizations, that might be an avenue of add-on revenue stream. As for Luna/Jayber rework, I don't play Jayber, but the Luna rework has been okay at the margins. To me, her main problem is that she can only use skills. Other descendants can pull a machine or shotgun at an elite without losing their buffs. For instance Ajax can fire his gun through a barrier without losing his special resource. Luna's pop gun hits hard but not hard enough. Her other problem is that one has to constantly watch the notes, when you should be watching for enemies or watching your feet for fire. To compensate for her inherent negatives, they have done nothing. As for ETA tickets, they talked about it in the previous dev talk. The reply was that you are getting a free skin for no real money. This is the equivalent of offering someone a ride home, and then having them ask for different stops for their errands. It's just plain greedy. The External Component issue has a new insight. While we think of it as a piece of equipment that has module capabilities, they describe it as a resource. Perhaps they developed each set like a descendant skill, e.g., once the two and four piece condition is met and when an other condition exists like low health, for instance, then the method can be employed. If we parallel that to Ines, placing an enemy under conduction opens up additional skills, and when those skills are applied, yields additional damage. While we may think of these as preconditions, they may have a schema and process thst looks like a descendant stepping through skills to get to the ultimate. These Dev Q&A's are the equivalent of watching a football manager's press conference: every new day brings the same old question that has already been asked and answered. I do applaud them for having these sessions, which is a differentiator from other companies. However, they should do themselves a favor and print an FAQ before the event. Just refer to the repetitive questions as asked and answered. I suppose they may be too polite. Thanks for the summary. My basic assumptions are: if they are making money on some things, then they're not going to give it away for free. If they can add marginal revenue for minimal effort, then they will do it. If they are already selling that product/descendant, they're not going to degrade the product after the sale. Power creep is their engine of player involvement: the more we have to grind, the longer we stay, the greater the chance of us buying some new clothes; they are riding a line between giving us more to do (power creep) and reducing the farm (reactor improvements and resource adjustments). If I had spent more time, this comment would be shorter. Apologies.

[@LBG]

Regarding the different Fellows what they said was they will have more Dog Fellows. They seemed to be against the idea of Cats as they jokingly said cats have a mind of their own and won't listen. They had mentioned a Labrador Retriever as the next fellow in the December livestream. When ? That they never mentioned. Only that it will be the next one.

[@racingsquirrel238]

They had that same cat comment on the previous talk. My perception of new animal types is that each different animal has his own way of acting and running. Different methods of running means different animation actions. High development expense would reduce the marginal revenue. Having said that, if people kept buying companion cosmetics, later in the product cycle, they may see this as a way of driving revenue rather than creating new content. I did not mean to imply a new animal species. Just my two cents.

[@LBG]

@racingsquirrel238 yeah makes perfect sense.

[@su88906]

"buff everyone to freyna's level" and yet they nerf valby hard by removing her pull effect. If now almost everyone who play erosion has tactic to hide behind something or have high hp just to push through, valby couldhave stand at enemies' faces and bully them. Because they cannot attack. I guess they noticed this during testing (they need enemies that can be debuffed to promote/showcase the new character) that valby can make erosion too easy, so they nerf her then just "ha, we change it so it is larger and do more damage. nice, right?". All that just to mask the nerf. Her small puddles are already doing good damage.

[@su88906]

so, why replacing her utility skill with something to damage which she already has?