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An archived Hellgate: London feature. See the Hellgate Archives for more.

Interview: Bill Roper on skill menus, respeccing, mercs, and more.
Date: July 3, 2007
Source: Welten Online

Online Welten Interview

1) Can you delete your spent talent or skill points and redistribute them like in WoW? Many players would enjoy this feature since “mis-skilling” was quite common in Diablo 2.

Bill Roper We know that many players want to redistribute their spent skill points, so we’re looking at ways to incorporate that into the game. There are a few ways to go about it – something as simple as spending in-game currency (gold in WoW) or completing a series of quests to earn the ability to change points around. There are other methods that are also interesting to consider, but we’ll have to look at what makes the most sense given how long it takes to attain certain experience levels in the game and so forth.

2) Will there be any NPC companions like the mercenaries in D2? If yes, will they be more autonomous, for example healing themselves?

Bill Roper We do not currently have the exact concept of mercenaries in Hellgate: London, but there are numerous times in the game where you work with NPCs in the battlefield to achieve your goals. We have discussed how the mercenary idea would work in our game, and we agree that giving them more of their own abilities and autonomy would be fantastic.

3) Are any different types of guns planned? Most weapons in HGL look like in Unreal, but Fallout had everything, from Mauser pistol to laser gatling. Some players would enjoy more varieties of guns, not only Sci-Fi type.

Bill Roper There are so many guns in the game that people have yet to see, we think that there will be something interesting to everyone. That being said, one of the core ideas behind how the demons were able to take over is that normal weapons (such as a Mauser pistol) are wholly ineffective against them. This means that the weapons created to combat them tend top border on the fantastic, setting both an artistic style and continuity with the world we have created.

4) Will there be any different types of melee weapons apart from swords and cricket bats? Maces or staffs, for example?

Bill Roper The Templar have focused mainly on edged weaponry, although there are a handful of weapons that fall outside of the common sword already design in the game. As the game expands and grows through continuing content, we’ll undoubtedly add more types and styles of weapons across every faction – including more blunt-damage melee items.

5) Two classes per fraction are known, but there are more talent trees, as far as we can tell. Will there be a third class for every fraction?

Bill Roper I am not sure what you mean by more talent trees, but every faction can certainly have multiple classes within them. The two that we currently represent are the most iconic and provided the widest distinction of game play while maintaining a high degree of accessibility.

6) Is it correct, that guild leaders will have to be subscribers to found their guild in-game, and utilize guild tools? If yes, why do you make this feature only available to paying customers?

Bill Roper We want everyone to be able to participate in guilds and be a part of this aspect of the in-game community. Anyone who plays on line can join a guild, wear the guild colors, and have access to the vast majority of guild benefits. The formation and operations of guilds, however, is something that we wanted to reserve for our subscribers since it requires a level of personal dedication and commitment. Also, the amount of support we will be providing for guilds is ongoing and non-trivial.

7) What sorts of tools will be available for guilds? Global chat, tabards and housing? Or anything revolutionary and new?

Bill Roper We’re doing a mixture of expected and new features for guilds. Obviously dedicated chat and ways to show your affiliation with your guild is there. We have a bunch of other things in the works right now that will be very fun for players that are interested in the community and notoriety of being in a guild, but we want to roll those out through the beat test period before we talk about them publicly.

8) Have you already decided on methods of payment in different regions? This question is of course mainly about the increasingly important Asian market.

Bill Roper We work closely with all of our distribution partners to ensure that players both get and pay for the game in the way that best suits their region. We have ensured that Ping0 -- the company that we created with HanbitSoft to launch, support, and service our online component -- has created robust and secure systems that can handle any type of transaction required to best serve the needs of every part of the world.

9) You already said it might be possible for players to produce and use addons. Will you support or at least encourage them like in WoW?

Bill Roper We’re always impressed and surprised by what our dedicated players can accomplish, so we’ll be interested to see what they come up with for Hellgate: London. We’re definitely open to the possibility of supporting the use of these add-ons if they improve the gaming experience and are not detrimental to the spirit or performance of the game and do not violate our end user agreements.