Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

They didn't seem worried about the economics but handing players systems that can increase their abilities by 10%-20% surely must have an impact on combat? Walling disagreed stating he thinks it will actually make it easier for them to balance things by having a more standardized baseline. While I personally think we're going to have actually see this idea in practice to truly grasp the concept, but if nothing else those high end instances will see more use.

As touchy as the subject is, I couldn't avoid the mention of Station Cash in relation to Research Assistants. “I think we're going to keep it away from the Station Wallet,” Kirstie stated. “There are absolutely no plans to make it a Station Wallet item.” Walling quickly followed up stating their intention is to make this mechanic available to everyone in the game. It sounds like it's not on the table for discussion yet, which should make many old school gamers very happy for now.

Without Station Cash in the way, I asked the pair about the hurdles they expected to have to jump on the way to implementing Research Assistants. Kirstie had one in mind, “One thing that came up immediately was the time line. How long would each spell take to research and what kind of curve would we have? When you compare a level 20 to a level 80 what should the difference be?” Looking for just the right amount of progression sounds like an on going challenge that will require frequent adjustments.

As the interview wound down, I asked if them if there was anything they would say to the community if they had the opportunity. Kirstie's response was there would be no Station Cash involved in the mechanic followed by an assurance that research spells are not tradeable and would go straight into spellbooks. Walling discussed the difficulty of the last expansion content and how players improving their abilities will put more people together in a violent, loot hungry harmony (I might have embellished). His message was one of bridging the gaps between the hardcore and the more casual.

The last question I snuck in was “What is next?” Believe it or not they have an idea in mind to expand this system beyond its current form. Remember those skills you don't ever use like Fishing? Have you ever wanted to harvest furs in the highest zones but refuse to go skill up in a level 10 area? The possibilities sounded deliciously endless and with that in mind I thanked them for their time.

As you can see, their proposal shows SOE's continued diligence to try the extraordinary and while some drama has already surfaced, there are many people making valid suggestions all over the official forums. How much player feedback will be used and how quickly we will see this on the Live servers remains to be seen. All we do know is there is a good chance we'll have our own research toadie to give use master spells in the near future.