We got the chance to catch up with Todd Carson the Senior Producer on Dragon’s Prophet at E3 this past week. The game has continues in open beta and Todd is working closely with players on feedback to improve some of the features before they go live with a full launch. After talking about some of the issues the game is now fixing, Todd gave us a look at what is coming for launch and hinted at a solid PvP system for endgame.
Currently the team is fixing issues with lag. They want to make sure the game is running at optimum level when they finally declare launch.Also, they continue to tweak the monetization model so players feel they are getting the most for their money. Todd also said the team is facing some issues with gold farmers, like many MMOs, but they are working on policing that as well.
Todd said that one of the new areas the team is working on is Wintertide. The frozen northern landscape offers a picturesque place to fight trolls, giants, and capture some snow fairing dragons. Wintertide will increase the level cap in the game to 70. Todd was amazed at how fast players leveled up to 60 and reached the cap. The storyline for Wintertide follows the First Elder Dragon War far to the north and you can see the size of the beast as you battle through its bones in one of the areas.
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We asked Todd how players have been handling the classes and skills. He said that a lot of players have been boosting their Charisma stat across all classes. The main reason is players love to fight with their dragons and find that to make it easiest to do so (since it increases the length of time they’re summoned, and more). Intelligence and Strength are the other main stats players are focused on, but that depends on your class.
Todd wanted players to know that there will be no character wipe when the game goes into official launch mode. The biggest thing they are working on now is balancing the classes for the end game that is to come. On that note, Todd said that players will have raids and other PvE encounters to look forward too.The biggest end game announcement came in the form of PvP. Right now they are working on the Guild Fortress or “Citadel” system atop the sky islands.These player controlled areas will eventually become serious battlegrounds. Players will fight over the citadels and try to capture them to control zones. Todd is really excited about this aspect of the endgame which is why balancing the classes is so critical.
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The team at Dragon’s Prophet also are excited about the Dragon Armory they are building up. Players can now see a digital sticker book with dragons greyed out that they do not have. This will allow players to continue to expand their collections and go back to find the monsters they might want to use later on. They want to keep the system of collection as open as possible.
Dragon’s Prophet is staying on course for the summer to hopefully officially launch the game soon. Player feedback is very critical and Todd wants to make sure players know that they continue to tweak systems with the players in mind. Hopefully open beta remains strong and going into launch there will be an even more content and dynamic end game scenarios for players to enjoy.
Garrett Fuller is the Industry Relations Manager at MMORPG.com
