Usually, one would argue that’s not a bad thing and we’re thankful for you coming back again and again, and, more importantly, staying with us. We’ve had a number of posts on how we’ve addressed our issues and offered insight into those we still have left.
It’s good to see that we have made great progress since launch and we have teams continuing to make improvements and fix bugs. At the very least, the feedback and numbers indicate that you are happier. No, we haven’t forgotten about keycodes drop ratios, extended downtimes or Freight Yard. We know we aren’t perfect yet.
But what’s stated by players and critics alike, whether they love or hate us, is that we’re taking known concepts and doing something new, we’re fun, and we have potential. That’s not an excuse for not being perfect, but I’m certainly not going to complain about trying something new, fun and having potential.
“Defiance is the game that everyone will love” - Said nobody. Ever.
Some comments I’ve even enjoyed quite a lot and yet I’m happy that sentence never came up. It’s not us. We’ve been likened to a good <em>B-movie</em>, being about as deep as a bag of chips but great fun. As having issues, but always dragging you right back in for more … I have no problems with these, because we knew Defiance would be polarizing. We aren’t part of any mold, but we can always do better. Personally, I’d like to get to the two-bag of chip depth category or at least, add some salsas for various textures. We’ll be a party in your mouth before you know it. Your favorite B-movie.
As proof of us striving towards being better we have another major update coming, known as the TV Tie-in or Patch 1.020, and it’s coming out this month. It has further bug fixes, improvements, as well as new TV Tie-ins - one of which will utilize a new open world game mode called Sieges. Details are obviously slim, but it’s a crossover event so that should give you an indication of what this game mode entails in future DLCs.
Which incidentally this blog is intended to be about, the future. That potential.
We do our DLCs a bit differently with Defiance. Every time we do a DLC, of which we have 5 planned this year, we have a free component, a paid component and a store update. The free part is for everyone. We want people to be playing with their friends; we don’t like to isolate players.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be exclusive content in the DLCs, quite the contrary. The difference is that you can usually bring your friends with you. The catch is that they can’t directly benefit from all of it, like DLC specific loot or gain abilities.
Here is an example: The first DLC which we delayed to address live issues but is now en route I am calling: ENTER THE CASTITHAN till marketing comes up with a better name. Why Castithan? Why, it’s because you’ll be able to play a Castithan. Nifty. Here’s the tentative list of items:
ENTER THE CASTITHAN
(or imagine flashy name that evoke deep emotions)
You get this when you buy the DLC for $10:
- Access to play the Castithan Species
- Access to a new Story Mission Line with new Battle Arena Game Mode
- Access to the new Castithan Battle Arenas
- Castithan Charge Blade & Ceremonial Mask as a reward from Story Mission Line
- A unique version of the Raptor, a new 4 player truck of doom
- A unique Castithan version of an outfit
- A Charge Weapons Starter Pack
- Access to New Pursuits
- New Xbox and PS3 Trophies and Achievements
You get this in the DLC for free:
- Access to the new Charge Weapons Class and Castithan Blades
- Access to Sieges, a new Open World Game Mode
- Access to the new Monolith Major Arkfall
- Access to a new PvP Map - Military Academy
- Join a friend into the Battle Arenas Game Mode
- Duel your friends and neighbors in the Duels Game Mode
- Enemies, lockboxes, and events can drop Charge Weapons
- Select a new voice for you character
- Multitude of game improvements from UI to content
You can buy these individually from the store:
- New Mods that tint the color of your Castithan Blade
- Lockboxes have a chance to get Charge Weapons
- More versions of the Raptor, the new 4 player truck of doomed compensation
- Character Customization changes: Appearance change, name change, or everything change
This should give you a good idea of how we build up our DLCs and how we separate them into a free, paid and store component. And that’s on top of the improvements we do, like the redoing of the Salvage Matrix. That thing is like performing autopsies right now. Which … I wouldn’t know how to do of course.
But you get the idea. We take in feedback, we’re agile, we adapt. Things I talk about will change. That I do promise you. Doing the right thing for Defiance is more important than a line item in a discussion between you and me in a blog two months previously. But we prefer this discussion to be more open and liberal. You might not be used to that so I figured I’d point it out. Thanks for letting me share some insight with you, now comment away!
Ave Arkhunter,
Oveur
Nathan Richardsson
Executive Producer Defiance