The Chronicles of Spellborn - Dev Chat Follow-Up Q&A

Valdios asks: Are there critical strikes or something similar to that?

No

Wolfsheim asks: Can you use abilities while running, i.e. Shooting a bow?

Some skills can be executed while moving, these are mostly melee skills.

Shizu asks: Do we loose all of our PeP when we die or only a few ?

Currently yes, but this might be changed according to our beta results.

LordBachus asks: Since there is no resurrection, don't you think this will work counterproductive, people having worked hard to achieve a task, one dies just before the finall goal, the rest finishes and moves on, or even people having to leave the whole area to pickup the death team member. It does not sound like fun to me?

Respawn shrines are numerous and are also located inside the instances. Players will not loose much time running back to where they have died.

mutantmagnet asks: Did QA/betatesting show that removing collision create more problems for the backstabbing component of the rogue playstyle?

No, backstabbing gains most of it’s effectiveness from casting / shooting animations, which require players to stand still.

Errannar asks: Do all skills have a different movement that tells you which it is?

Not every skill animation is unique, but skills are recognizable by the animation combined with the graphical effect.

mutantmagnet asks: A lot of skills provide nice flashy effects that make it obvious what someone is doing, but what about visuals to identify what (de)buffs a player has on them? Performing tactics on the fly isn't doable if you and your teammates can't tell whose running speed has been lowered or who has had their magic powers increased. I've seen burn and bleed effects in videos, but nothing else.

We have visual effects for both positive and negative effects

Errannar> Do all skills have a different movement that tells you which it is?

Not every skill animation is unique, but skills are recognizable by the animation combined with the graphical effect

lgw asks: How do you plan to elevate the usual problem that pet classes are often more powerful, especially as the Ancesteral Mage does already seem to have a powerful skill list, without even taking his pet into account?

In these 'usual' cases, the pet is an entity on it's own. The Ancestral Mage has a lot of skills which rely on his pet to be alive.

Lessek asks: The trickster class is, the way I gathered it, depends on his movement. If someone puts hamstring on him, this could be devastating for him. Are there ways to prevent or remove spells like hamstring?

Teleporting isn't affected by hamstring, since you stand still while casting the effects. The trickster's bodyslot also has a very strong ranged attack, so even if you have to stay in one place, the Trickster will be more then capable to protect himself while inflicting damage.

LordBachus asks: Can a rune-mage be played as a melee combat type ?

Sure, check Combust, Marked Blade, Life Sink and Shock Blade on the skill page - just a small a random selection of its melee arsenal.

Bedouin asks: Will the Facedancers illusions allow him or her to traverse hostile territory unscathed?

The skinshifter can change into hostile shapes, hostile targets won't be able to recognize a skinshifter in this form. The skinshifter won't be able to fight though.

scaphism asks: I've seen videos of mobs clipping through one another how will we be able to consistantly focus on one if this is happening.

This was partly because player/mob collision was removed at a later stage. The videos you have seen were probably recorded after collision was removed but positioning was fixed. Mobs position themselves around their target correctly now.

Bedouin asks: Will equipment suffer from wear and tear and will there be the need to purchase ammo/arrows?

No and no.

Bedouin asks: Which demagraphic is TCoS more catered towards, the PvPers, the Hardcore Gamers, the Soloers or for the Casual player? I understand you will ofter something for everyone but what will be your biggest market?

Spellborn is a typical 'easy to learn, hard to master', we think players who enjoy combat and stories with depth will be our biggest market, regardless if they play every day or once a week

bornspeller asks: Do you plan to translate Item-, Monster-, Place- Names or just Menue, Story and NPC dialogues?

Current plan is to keep English names intact as far as they are just names. When they contain descriptive elements or titles (for example Lorigel of the Symbols), the descriptive title would be translated. Same for location names, Cherrybow Forest would become the Cherrybow-Wald in German. Similar for items and monsters.