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Just like we promised, here's a transcription of our developer Q&A stream yesterday, courtesy of Community Moderator, ManicGypsy. Questions are from players and answers are from Producer, Vincent Malley.

1. Q: Where is Panderus?

A: Don't worry, Panderus is fine. He's still working here, he's hanging out, but we swapped spots. We like to shake things up sometimes at the company. I went on builds, he's on Feature development. He actually took a part in the new New Life lockbox.

2. Q: The elusive GWF Unstoppable bug - what can you tell us about that?

A: As you said, it's elusive. Andy here gave us a ton of help giving us a reproduction case for the bug, that he can reproduce on live, and we can't reproduce internally, and working without a consistant reproduction case makes it so much more difficult to find and fix a bug. We want to fix it. It's on our radar. We suspect it has something to do with latency because it involves the live shard but not the internal shards which historically have less latency. So far our attempts to reproduce it are failing, but we are doing our best to find it and fix it.

3: Q: A lot of people have questions about the Foundry.

A: We understand that the Foundry hasn't got the attention it needs. We want to devote some time to get the worst issues fixed. I think right now the issue that we're working on fixing soon is the issues for teleports, where if you preview them it just breaks your map. It's in our systems, softwear is looking into it. I also want to talk to our Art Lead on whether we have the bandwidth to get some of our newer assets into the Foundry. I don't have any promises or estimates on that yet.

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4. Q: I want to talk about the Elven Battle enchantment.

A: We found one repro case with the Elven Battle enchantment. We found it, we fixed it, great - Oh, it effect's some other powers as well. Some other powers are set up in a weird way that it looks like it works normally, but interactions with that enchantment is a special weird case. We just need to get to it and fix it, and I think that's in our system. I'll check with Andy after the stream.

5. Q: Next thing we want to talk about is Divine Protector.

A: I'm not sure how much I can speak for the general opinion on it, but there is clearly a problem with it. It can make people invulerable when used in the right way. That's not a type of gameplay we intend to have out there. That being said, if we just flat out fix it, we also break meta. We break how certain builds work, and how the game is played. So we have to be careful about how we fix that, so we aren't making content impossible for some people because that was the only way to succeed.

6. Q: Can you give them an official answer about PvP balance? Is it gonna happen at all?

A: So, we've looked into balance in general, both PvE and PvP, and what we've found that, over past modules, I'm sure you've noticed that we do bandaid fixes. We fix one thing, and then oh, something else in the game is broken now because we didn't look deeply enough into what fixes it does to the rest of the game. So we're stepping back from that. We don't want to just throw bandaids at balance problems. If there's something that's clearly bugged and fixing it will obviously not break anything, we will get to it. We want to make sure that the gameplay is good for everyone, but for things like Oathbound Paladin and Scourge Warlock, they are at two ends of the balance spectrum that we are clearly concerned about. We do have plans to tackle balance as a whole in 2016, and we've already drafted up how we plan to tackle this.

7. Q: What class do you play?

A: I'm not stating any biases towards fixes, lol, however, I personally play Tricker Rogue, Executioner tree, mainly with Duelist's Fury and Gloaming Cut.

8. Q: So what about dungeons?

A: I know we said before M6 release that they were coming back. We are not changing that plan. I can't tell you the details about it, but trust me, they are coming back.

9. Q: Is M9 Ravenloft?

A: Our mouth is shut, you know... Ravenloft is cool though. It's not in Forgotten Realms, but a few of the players have said there's ways to get there, but it would be difficult to implement into Neverwinter because it's hard to escape.

10. Q: Is there anything about an AD reward for playing for Foundry quests?

A: I'll bring it up with the leads. We'll see. I can't make any promises.

11. The trade bars for Xbox. When there is a trade bar cap of 10k on each character, and when Underdark hits - those trade bars won't go away, right?

A. That is correct.

12. Q. Are there plans to increase the crafting odds on Masterwork Stronghold Artifact weapons?

A. I'm going to have to look into that. I'm not too knowledgable in the Masterwork professions. Asterdahl is the one I'd have to ask. There are no plans to my knowledge, but we can take that feedback and look into if it's something that we want to work on.

13. Q. Next we have a question about the Masterwork professions requiring the Guild Hall advancement. Is this something you are looking into?

A. Right now we're not looking at that issue from a Masterwork Professions angle, we do intend Masterwork professions to require a lot of dedication and will to get through, and be one of the very few that is actually a master of your profession. That being said, if you are in a low population guild, who's having trouble working on your Stronghold, getting it to a higher level, we want to help from that angle. We are looking into ways to make that less painful. We do want everyone to be able to participate in the Stronghold experience, but I can't really reveal any plans on that at this time.

14. Q. Can we talk about the challenge level? Like the players with a really high item level want it to be more difficult? And to would like a scale for that.

A. I do understand that there are a lot of people who are really good at this game, and have crazy gear and can do 3 times the amount of damage that I can in Lostmauth. We took a step towards that with Epic Demogorgon, and it's clear that some of you still feel that it's not enough of a challenge. We want to find ways to give everyone the challenge they need, but it's very difficult to that when there's such a disparity in power across the classes and gear. Some classes scale really well with certain gear. I think Great Weapon Fighters with the right gear can do a LOT of damage, but when not every DPS class can do that, if we make that epic challenging end game content, some classes are just going to be left in the dust. I feel we won't be able to work on super challenging stuff until we work on balance.

15. Q. Do you plan to fix the Lostmauth set?

A. If we do nerf the Lostmauth set, we need to have the Community's backing for this. So I might actually start a poll on the forums, so that if it does come to a point where we do nerf it, I can just point them to that poll, and say "This is what the community wanted".

16. Q. Can you talk about Overflow Experience? And after that, the leveling from 60 to 70.

A. It's common knowledge that the leveling flow from the start of Elemental Evil to the end of Elemental Evil ends you at level 68, about halfway through 68 and you kinda just have to grind for the rest. It's not news to us, we just have to figure out how we want to address this, whether it's adding more content that you can work on between 60 and 70. We took a step towards that with The Dwarven King quests, for that matter, and we want to provide more stuff like that. But that being said, that might not address all the issues. Overflow Experience is certainly a thing that we are also aware of. We currently don't have plans to change the amount of Overflow experience it takes to get an overflow level, and we don't have plans to update the rewards you get from that, however we are listening to feedback. It is now on our radar, so while I can't promise any changes in the short term, I'm happy to listen to feedback.

17. Q. Can you address the latency in maps like Well of Dragons (or Icewind Dale, or Sharandar, Dread Ring)?

A. I'm been working on the software lead on that, it's actually one of my pet peeves. We don't really have any solid leads. It's clear that it's happening in the campaign zones like Dread Ring, Sharandar and Icewind Dale are the top 3, in fact, I think Dwarven Valley was worse than Icewind Pass when I was playing over the winter. That being said, Icewind Pass had some pretty bad spikes. I have a hypothesis that it might be pathfinding related, in which case the current live build should be better in Dread Ring and Icewind Dale. If that's not the case then my hypothesis is wrong, and we still need to look into it.

18. Q. What about the guild chat bug on Xbox?

A. That one is really tough. We have hard evidence that it exists. We have side by side screenshots, and yet we still can't reproduce it. We can't get it to happen in house, and without that, it's very very difficult to find and address. If anyone notices they are doing anything specific when it happens, please let us know so we can look into it.

19. Q. On the same note, on Xbox - the PvP leaderboards - kinda the same thing, right?

A. We are looking into that, we are investigating a fix, but I don't know if we've tracked it down.

20. Q. Chat spam and botters?

A. We have a fix in. I think it will reach the live shards with the next major build. I can't say what's a major build vs a minor build, but next major build to go live where you can not send friend requests unless you are level 15, it's the same restriction with Zone chat and tells, you just won't be able to send friend requests. You will still be able to recieve friend requests, so that's one point towards it. General chat spam - we have made some changes to the threshold in which you get muted. When you report someone for spamming it does count towards some invisible number that says "hey, maybe this person is actually a spammer." I can't give you too much information on how the system works, otherwise it could be abused, but we're looking into the right thresholds for that to minimize the number of false positives.

21. Q. When are you bringing back old transmutes (tier 2 transmutes)?

A. That's a good question. I don't think we have any immediate plans, but I can look into how else can bring them back. If you have any particular favorites you would like us to bring back, just give us a shout on the forums.

22. Q. The Goristo issue - where he doesn't actually spawn?

A. I don't think we have an internal repro case for that, but I and a QA both wrote that up, and that is now on the list for our team to look at, see if our team can address.

23. Q. Can you ask if the companion tokens are going to be account wide?

A. That's actually an interesting idea. It's not in our plans, but it's a neat idea.

24. Q. Stronghold Marketplace food buffs need to be tradable.

A. I think there is a reason it's bind to account, but I'll check to see if that reason still applies.

25. Q. What about duel-specs?

A. it's a lot more work than it seems. No plans for it right now. Trust me, it's been brought up here and there. It's something we'd love to see, and get in game, but if we add it to the game, we want it to be a feature worth showing off to the players. So it will take time.

26. Q. What are your thoughts about companions being account wide?

A. It's something I'd personally like to see, but it would be something like once you buy them, you wouldn't be able to trade them to people. It's basically either/or. If you can unlock them on your account, you won't be able to unlock them and send them to your friends. It's something that has been thought about, and we can talk about it again, but there are no plans to change that right now.

27. Q. What about the Xbox buff bar, can there be a suggestion to toggle it on and off?

A. I think I brought it up with the team, I don't remember if I put an official request in the system, and I don't know how feasable it is. Basically, we might look into it, but I don't have any promises right now.

28. Q. Other than the Owlbears, are there plans for other mount recolorings?

A. It looks like the owlbears are kinda a hit with the community and with the PR team, so I'd like to see them. Send us your thoughts on the forums. There are talks for certain mount recolors, but it hasn't been put on the schedule, so no promises, sorry.

29. Q. What about the bonding runestone issue? Can you talk a little about that?

A. Right now there is 1 medium and 1 major issue with the bonding runestones. The medium issue, the text for the rank 11 and 12 claim they are for only 65%, but really they are 80% and 95% respecitvely. That bug is in the system now. I brought up with are systems lead, the bondings runestones stacking after companions die. So we might take a look into that, it's not anyone's schedule yet, and like any balance issue, we need to see how it effects the game before we take any action.

30. Q. Any plans to advance VIP?

A. No plans as far as I'm aware at the moment, however we have left ourselves room to grow. So it's a possibilty in the future, but nothing concrete.

31. Q. What about fixing the idle pose for female hunter rangers?

A. That one actually wasn't on my radar. Send Andy or me a message on the forums, and we'll see if we can look into it. That being said, I suspect I'll be flooded with messages with this Q&A.

32. Q. What happened to the mount training manuals?

A. They went away. I can't say why just yet, but more information will be coming shortly. Soon™. We removed it for a reason, and we feel that it is better for the players that we removed it now.

33. Q. Is NCL ever coming back?

A. We want to bring it back, but again, it will not be a fun experience until we fix the balance issues.

34. Q. Are you planning on increasing the drop rates on the Legendary rings?

A. I don't think there are any current plans. We hear you. They are meant to be super rare, and super difficult to get, however if it seems to be difficult and too much of a pain to search for them, we can look into whether or not we can change that.

35. Q. Can you release smaller patches more frequently?

A. The problem with that is the more patches we make, the larger the overhead on the development team, which means fewer fixes get made, in order to support these patches. Plus it introduces the risk of human error. I'm the one making these builds, and if I mess something up, it's kinda like moding a game, once a build gets made, and you add in a few patches, if I mess up a single thing in that, I'm gonna ship a bad time to the players, so the more builds, the more chance I have to mess up, so right now are schedule is 1 major build, and 1 minor build, alternating every 2 weeks. And then when the next module goes onto preview, we put a halt onto the live builds, just to keep things for getting to crazy for the players. In addition, the more patches we send out to players, the more bandwidth we need the players to use to play our game.

36. Q. What about the stealth ring?

A. It's not yet hit our radar, but we can look into it. I'm sure it will very shortly.

Well met, adventurers,

On Thursday, January 21 at 2PM PT, we’ll be hosting our first Q&A live stream devoted to addressing the status of current bugs and issues on the live shards. Community Manager, Andy (StrumSlinger), will be joined by Producer, Vincent (Terramak), whose primary focus is on managing any changes that happens on the live servers including bugs, patches and player feedback. We’ll also take this time to have fun and speak with the community since we haven’t done so in a few months. For Xbox adventurers, we’re going to be doing Underdark content at the same time and answering any Underdark questions you may have.

The stream shall commence: Thursday, January 21 from 2-3PM PT (What time is this for you?)

Where: Perfect World Twitch Channel

Previously, we mostly commented on issues on their respective forum threads or when they came up during other live streams. This time, we’ll lay it all out on the table and provide a transcript of answers afterwards for anyone who can’t attend the stream. If this stream is successful, we may continue them on a monthly basis.

We’ll be addressing bugs from the Player Feedback and Bug Reports forums. You may also submit a bug for review at the link on the bottom of this blog.

In addition, the elusive Purple Owlbear will be given away during this stream! Only members of the community team have this mount, which means you could be one of the first to ride it into battle. A total of four Purple Owlbears will be given out with the chance for more – tell your friends! The Purple Owlbear is for PC only; for Xbox, you’ll have a choice of a Stronghold Promo Pack, Mystic Phoera, Harper Bard or Skeletal Dog.

We hope to see you there!

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