With all that said, nothing beats a good stress test. During one of the early beta phases, Carbine invited large numbers of players to push WildStar to breaking point. The results have already had an impact on the way Carbine works, with teams being formed to respond to that initial surge of players. It’s also caught a number of bugs and generated masses of data. As we enter Winter Beta in December, it’s likely that stress tests will be a regular feature.
There’s one other feature that Gaffney is eager to bring in before launch, and that’s server transfers. According to him, players not choosing the same server is “fairly common,” but there are a number of issues to resolve. He went on to explain that, although a number of games do offer server transfers, it’s rarely at launch. “It's tricky to solve them before you fully understand the economy of one's own game as a developer.”
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Post-Launch Deliveries
Besides sharing what WildStar is likely to launch with, Gaffney also discussed what features he’s looking to add once the game goes live. Most of these are standard services that we’d like to see at some point, but don’t necessarily need to be there from day one.
Top of the list are the ability to re-customize your character, along with racial, faction and name changes. As Gaffney pointed out, most of these aren’t essential for launch but become more crucial as time passes. That said, there was one phenomenon mentioned – players who click through the character creation defaults in order to bag the name they want. By providing the option to reserve names pre-launch or specify one early in character creation, there should be much less initial demand for these services.
Gaffney is also hesitant about using CREDD for other purchases, at least initially. Part of that is because Carbine doesn’t want to confuse players until the system is “fully understood by all,” but it’s also because CREDD is pegged to be equal to one month of game time, and there’s no clear indication yet on the price of other purchases, such as server transfers and character re-customization. Anything like this is likely to be several months off.
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Finally, Gaffney shared some details on their planned Web API. Fans are eager to create services that build on the data kept on Carbine’s servers, and the studio is equally eager to share. Unfortunately, it’s something that we’re unlikely to see when WildStar launches. “The resources that do this are also focusing on little things like billing. Some on our side of the fence would consider [that] a key feature, although maybe one or two players would be happy if we launched without.”
Senior Community Manager David Bass also chimed in. “I know our new web guy is obsessed with APIs. He's built fansites and databases for other games previously, and if he gets his way everything will be API'd eventually. The important thing is that, philosophically, we have no qualms with letting other sites use our data, the trick's just in finding the time to build the API and ensuring that our security for it is up to par.”
With Winter Beta starting in December and launch slated for Spring 2014, is there anything that Gaffney would delay things for? “In general, the features I'd definitely hold launch up for are content and combat related first - if there isn't enough quality, fun, levelling content or if there aren't solid elder games in place. Other features are prioritized to greater or lesser extents around whether those core functions are in place. Winter Beta will have a great extent to say about that.”
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While I have my fingers crossed that there’s smooth sailing ahead, it’s reassuring to know that WildStar will only launch when it’s ready. If you’re interested in helping to ensure that it’s up to scratch, beta signups are open.
Gareth Harmer / Gareth Harmer has been blasting and fireballing his way through MMOs for over ten years. When he's not exploring an online world, he can usually be found enthusiastically dissecting and debating them. Follow him on Twitter at @Gazimoff.
