2시간전에 레딧에 올라온 포스트입니다.

앨런 다비리가 언급한 "영리 관련 인터뷰"와 관련된것인지, 별개의 인터뷰인지는 모르겠습니다만...

뭐 아무튼 아래의 내용도 레딧에서 가장 많이 올라온 질문들을 바탕으로 자기네들끼리 Q&A를 진행했다고 합니다.


https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/8bgxe6/reddit_pax_east_interview_with_the_devs/


We had a wonderful opportunity to chat with Kaeo Milker and Matt “Grand Mage Inquisitor” Villers at PAX East and ask some of the burning questions we’ve seen all over reddit. Some of the text is paraphrased a little. Enjoy!

Q: Deckard Cain. How long was he on the development list? How many iterations were there?

A: We wanted to do him really early on. We wanted to find the right moment. Seriously started work on him in the last year. His previous experience paints him as more of a guide/announcer/quest giver. Not someone who you see on the battlefield. Every other hero shows on the battlefield at least once. What are his fighting abilities? Had to look at Diablo lore. First idea: He’s a Horadric mage. We tried destructive magic first. Playtesters didn’t really enjoy the playstyle. It wasn’t something he would do.

Next version had an Identify theme, where he would channel on Enemy heroes, which would reveal and reduce armor. Channeling however is risky, since you have to stand still for a few seconds and can be easily punished. Didn’t feel like a good tradeoff. Did keep a reveal effect on one of his talents.

Lots of things that were scrapped but inspired future talents. Had a buff that was inspired by Nephalem Glory. Buff a hero, who would have lightning and attacks that would explode. Not very fun – just point and click on an ally and they get a buff. Eventually it was changed to a talent. Lots of crazy ideas. Cain could use heroics from other Diablo Heroes. Imagine Cain casting Judgement. Didn’t last long because it didn’t fit the fantasy.

Healing potion was there from the start. Felt really “Diablo”. It was tactical and strategic. Cain using his wisdom to predict where heroes would go. This became his theme, where Horadric Cube would set up the slows, Scroll of Sealing giving Area Denial. Heroics as well, like Stay awhile and listen, which sets up great with Ring of Frost or Mech Explosion. The idea became that Cain isn’t beating you because he’s destructive or forceful but because he’s an old wise guy; he’s going to outsmart you.

Q: PAX East presentation gave mixed signals. On one hand, Cain’s ultimate saying Lore is so boring that it’ll put you to sleep, but then the second part was all about the lore of Heroes of the Storm. What’s up with that?

A: It’s not a commentary. Actually, we like lore so much we’ve recorded multiple stories for Cain to tell enemy heroes during his ultimate.

Q: What’s the story behind having a triangle selection area for Scroll of sealing?

A: Story time: The original version was to draw your own shape. You’d click on a point, and Cain would start to unfurl a scroll. One end would be attached at the starting point, one end would be in Cain’s hands, and one would go to the targeted point, thus creating a triangle. So, enemies would be watching Cain and trying to figure out how to get out. This was super cool, but it encouraged players to run into the enemy team for the best triangle shape, which doesn’t really fit the fantasy. Don’t want your healer to be running into the enemy. So it led to the current implementation.

Q: We’ve seen a few heroes already released in 2018, and quite a few more in 2017, that have had a greater emphasis on mobility than older designed heroes. How has that philosophy changed over the years?

A: We don’t have a direct rule that newer heroes all need mobility. We try to do it on the Heroes where it makes sense, either due to fantasy or gameplay. We’re trying to be conscious of the different mobilities too, whether it’s speed boosts, dashes, or other conditional movements. We’re also trying to make mobility that has counter play, e.g. Fenix’s teleport has a cast time that can be interrupted, Maiev’s shade is very clear. Trying not to go too crazy with unconditional movement.

To some extent, it’s appropriate. We’re trying to make Heroes feel powerful and fit their fantasy. It’s just a matter of tuning and making sure they are tuned appropriately. We’re looking at some existing heroes that are frustrating to play against and trying to shift some of their power so that they’re less frustrating to play against but still rewarding to play as.

Q: Fenix came to the live game with quite a significant win rate. How do you figure out and balance the raw numbers for new Heroes, from internal testing, to PTR, to live? What’s the schedule?

A: Initial process is all about gameplay, focusing on making sure the hero is fun to play and not worrying too much about balance. Then the hero goes to the Live Design team, who do a ton of playtesting (GM level players). They identify numbers and talents that need changes to bring the hero to an appropriate place. They play a ton of games to try to bring the Hero in at a decent spot. One thing to keep in mind is that there’s a bit of a learning curve when a hero comes out. So we try not to undershoot too much so that the hero isn’t too difficult to learn at the start. We’re always trying to get the hero to come out perfectly balanced. Blaze is a good example.

It’s not just playing as the hero but learning to play with and against the hero. So, usually after about two weeks, we usually push the first patch to get everything adjusted from everything we learn from live.

Q: Question on talent tiers: What’s the philosophy on having talent tiers dedicated to a single skill vs having talents affect different skills (e.g. Lunara Wisp talent tier)?

A: It depends on what dimension you’re trying to alter on the hero. Is it a utility tier, or a damage tier? Would it be exciting to have multiple abilities that could be modified on that tier? Say, for example, you have a hero that has only one utility ability. It’s a little awkward to put a utility talent on the same tier as their main damage skill, so you might try to group them together onto one tier.

Or there are other cases where you might want to have specific builds, so you want a talent for each ability on multiple tiers (e.g. Valla). Alexstrasza has multiple tiers designed for specific builds, such as her Q build, W build, or E build, but also has a few tiers that are build agnostic where you can decide what you want on that tier. We don’t try to do too many tiers where it’s one ability on the same tier, but sometimes they are appropriate. For Lunara specifically, we’ve gotten the feedback that the Wisp tier isn’t very exciting. We’ve teased a little bit that we’re looking at Lunara, so something could happen there.

Q: Hanamura. What lessons did y’all learn?

A: Hanamura had a lot going on all at once. We like having the choices, but it created too much confusion in a team based game. Not a lot of clarity on what you should be doing, leading to a lot of frustration in every match. So we pulled it and have been reworking it. It will come back Soon ™. Aesthetic will remain, as it is a beautiful map. New incarnation will be much more focused.

Q: Thoughts about a “grounded” effect where movement abilities are restricted?

A: Not sure we want to introduce a new status effect. Would prefer to come up with different ways to deal with that, e.g. Maiev’s chain ability. Any effect where there’s a clear area which if you leave has a downside is a clever way to be a counter effect. Makes you think about how to play in a different way instead of disabling a movement ability. Looking to experiment more with such abilities.

Q: Mega Bundles. Coming back any time?

A: We’ve heard the feedback and discussed it internally. Nothing to announce.

Q: API. Any update on how it’s doing?

A: Made some progress recently. HGC website has a lot more stats exposed, which is tied to the API and how Blizzard uses data internally. Paved the way for future work. Just a question of time and priorities and amount of support that people will want.

Q: Thoughts about a third ban, now that we’re at 76 heroes with Cain?

A: We’re open to it. No announcement, but we talk a lot about it.

Q: Raynor could use a little pick me up. Any plans for a rework? He’s one of the first heroes that new players pick up.

A: I don’t think that because he’s one of the introductory heroes, we can’t take a look at him and make him more interesting. There’s definitely room to do that. Valla is a straightforward hero, but still has a lot of depth. She can be played at a high level and at a low level. There’s room for that with Raynor as well. We’ve heard the feedback.

As you’ve heard, we’re shifting a little energy into these hero reworks. We want to take all the ideas we’ve learned over the past few years and apply them to older heroes. Raynor could be one of those heroes. No timeline to announce.

Q: I imagine that you approach things a lot differently now than a few years back.

A: Absolutely. We introduced quests, got really excited about them, put 7 million quests on every hero. Now we’re thinking that maybe we should be a little more thoughtful about where we put those quests. That kind of stuff. For a long time, we didn’t have any displacement abilities. Then we had a bunch all at once, with Garrosh, Stukov, Junkrat. Philosophy is always evolving. Supports also have an evolving approach, so it was no longer playing whack-a-mole with HP bars, but requiring players to be a little more thoughtful with their abilities, e.g. Malfurion with Regrowth. Really want to create a space for supports to show off their mastery.

Q: Since the game is constantly evolving, with new heroes and patches almost every week, some players might not be adapting as quickly and keeping up with every change to every hero. Some players only play once a week or a few times a month. Any plans to help re-educate people when they haven’t played in a while?

A: That’s a big challenge we face, because in a game where we are constantly adding new content and evolving the gameplay. There’s no single clean solution to solve it. If you play the game constantly, it’s easy to learn a single new map and hero at a time. For new players, you’re presented with a bunch of new content all at once.

We hope that voice chat is a way to help with this issue, as it’s another clear channel of communication. Largely, we’ve been hearing that it’s been working. We want to make more tools, but it is a massive undertaking to stay on top of all the changes.

There are other, smaller ways to help with that as well. Earlier, we changed the Battlegrounds to help make objectives more uniform and easier to understand. Target Info panel is another that can give you a lot of information.

Q: Speaking of which, how has the voice chat feedback been?

A: It’s still early, but it’s been really positive. Personal experience: in QM, a few people occasionally get on it. In HL and TL, I’ve seen a lot more people in voice chat.

Q: What are your main heroes?

A: Matt: I play a lot of Jaina and Li-Ming and various support heroes.

Kaeo: Nazeebo! Followed by Li-Ming and Blaze.

Q: What happened to the Bunker health increase and decrease in every patch?

A: That lasted until we actually had to nerf Bunker.

Q: Where do you get inspiration for announcers?

A: A lot of it is done by the writers, who just wrote really fun lines before announcers were even in the game. When recording, there are a ton of voice lines that are made for every possible hero interaction that might happen in the future. For example, Chromie had a line for Alexstrasza way before Alex became a hero. Of course we’re always listening to community feedback.

And that's the interview! Thanks again to Matt and Kaeo for the wonderful opportunity! Hope you enjoyed the interview.