Dominus FAQ

Dominus FAQ by Sanya Weathers

Combat FAQ

Q: Are there blocks/parries?
A: Dodge and Deflection.

Q: Collision of any kind?
A: Right now, no. We are still running some tests, and this answer may change, but we are leaning away from it.

Q: When do we find out what each of the abilities actually does?
A: When you get your hands on them. (All abilities are still being changed. We will put up documentation when we feel we are close to a final configuration.)

Q: Do the abilities have refresh timers/cooldowns?
A: This is the GCD question, isn’t it? The answer is that you cannot smack your keyboard with the flat of your hand and expect all of your abilities to fire off at once. Instants can be used in rapid succession, not simultaneously. If you sit there pecking the same key ten times in one second like a deranged woodpecker, it will not fire off ten times. Things with an animation require the animation to be nearly finished before the next ability will work (though you can still move while you’re waiting). Abilities or objects may have their own unique refresh timers.

We think the combat is very fluid and smooth. We are looking forward to hearing your opinions.

Q: What do the turrets (and other pets) do? How do you kill them?
A: Turrets and combat pets do damage in combat for the player in charge of them. They attack the target that the player currently is in combat with. They have their own health so you kill them by attacking them.

I know, I totally just implied there were other kinds of pets. There aren’t, really. There are combat pets and cosmetic pets.

Q: How do relative skill point totals factor into combat?
A: You can get a maximum of 1000 skill points in the game (earned by filling an experience bar, encounter rewards, etc). You can damage someone a couple within a couple hundred skill points above you, and stats play a role as well, but all things being equal, the most competitive range is around 75 points as of this writing: 7/13/2011

Q: How does healing work with the specialized classes? Is LOS required? Are there group heals?
The specialized classes have a variety of additional healing abilities that they can acquire with skill points. LOS is required for healing as well as combat. There are group heals. As with healing, many abilities affect the group if the player has put a lot of skill into it, but note that affect-the-group levels are almost always the very highest of any given ability.

Q: Once you have been acquired as a target, how would you break that contact?
– Kill the target you are in combat with
– Run away and exceed the combat distance

(The exact distance is subject to change based on beta testing.)

Q: Can you crouch/take cover/use terrain to evade damage?
A: Warren says: “You can use the terrain to break LOS, but there isn’t a specific mechanic like crouch for taking cover.”

Q: AOE?
A: Yes.

Q: Stealth in combat?
A: If you are not actively fighting, you can be cloaked. When you attack someone, cloaking will break, and you will not be able to recloak until the combat cool down ends. The exact length of the cool down is subject to change.

Q: What do you get for killing people?
A: There will be titles and leaderboards/kill counters. You will also be able to loot the elements they were carrying, and take control of what they were guarding.

Q: If you get something for killing people, what does the healer get for saving people?
A: We are still working on this mechanic. We know the healers usually end up with low kill scores, so we are working on a counter mechanism that will reward healing players for doing what they do best.

Q: Are there positional combat styles?
A: A few (and those mainly back attacks), but most combat positioning is just that the player has to be facing their target to attack.

Q: How does gear affect combat?
A: Player crafted gear is the good stuff. Someone wearing crafted gear will be better off than the stuff you buy from NPC vendors.

Before you ask: There are no armor drops off open world monsters. There are some NPCs that, when killed, will drop armor roughly equivalent to vendor gear. We are still discussing dungeon rewards and I make no promises as to what that stuff will be like. But we are quite certain that the stuff crafted by players, from the elements that other players died to obtain, will be the best the game has to offer.

And yes, those wearing it will have their stats improved, which will allow them to do more/take more damage. It will definitely widen that 75 point range I mentioned earlier.

Q: Are any of the abilities designed to interlock? (Meaning if I use Ability X and you use Ability Y, do we together form a Voltron?)
A: Not at this time, but we have some cool grouping bonuses planned after we get the rest of this out the door

Q: Energy, is this value static or can it be modified via buffs, gear, or environmental effects?
A: It can be modified by potentially all of those things, plus and minus.

Q: Targeting: It says that you will target the first enemy in front of the toon. If we pan the camera around, does the lock move with the camera or stays to whoever is physically in front of the toon?
A: Once you’ve started attacking (or healing) that person, the target is locked unless he dies or you click on someone else. Until you start attacking or healing, the target will be whoever is physically in front of the toon.

Q: When X faction is killed by Y faction, crafting materials are lootable, but will it be only lootable by Y that killed him, and locked to the player/group, or will Z faction be able to come in and ninja the loot?
A: Right now (7/14/2011), here is how it works. If you die, your group can loot your corpse and save the materials for you, but no one else from your faction. Anyone from the other two factions can loot. Corpses do eventually rot, but the timer is quite long.

This is subject to play testing and feedback.

Q: With 48 man raids, will there be private chat channels and what would their cap be?
A: Yes. Currently no cap, so more than 48 people could conceivably join the channel.

Q: Since energy applies to gadgets and not the shooting… Is there ammunition or any other mechanic tied to the shooting and ability use?
A: No.

Q: Can we get more details about how the Arenas work?
A: We aren’t ready to discuss the exact particulars (7/14/2011). All we can say for sure is that you won’t get gear from arena combat, you will get titles, and that killing other people does give you experience – but the scale of the arena will be such that the experience won’t be a lot. Really, arenas are just meant to be a fun place to go kill people if you’re in the mood at a lower level than Dominus or the borderlands.

Q: Immunity timers?
A: Some abilities grant immunity timers at higher levels.

Q: AOE CC?
A: Not at this time. (7/14/2011)

Q: I see skill points mentioned, how about a faction point system?
A: Not at launch.

Q: Will vehicles or siege rigs be part of combat at launch?
A: We have some stuff in testing, but it’s too far from completion to know if it’ll make the launch or not.

Crafting FAQ

Basics

Q: How many points does it take to master a profession?
A: 1000.

Q: What do you get when you’re maxed out?
A: Besides pride? You can potentially find every schematic, you can use any material, you can make the very best ordinary stuff, and you can also make “master grade items.”

The best master grade items are better than any gear you find in the game, period – including Unique items, which are dropped from world bosses.

And speaking of Unique items – they’ll be awesome, but their stats will be fixed. Someone who has mastered his profession will be able to customize his items for his customer.

Q: You’ve said you can only master one profession, but you can still dabble in the other six. Define dabbling.
A: 200 point ceiling.

Q: Can you change your mind about which profession you’re going to master?
A: Yes, but the exact mechanism is not yet final (7/28/2011).

Q: Can you craft anywhere in the world? Or do you need a special workbench?
A: Crafting can be done anywhere as long as you have the materials. Bear in mind, of course, that making something on the fly without having a customer in mind means not being able to properly customize the item.

Also, we’re talking about ways to build hubs of crafting action, and there are lots of options on the table. Anything from vendor location to time reductions for crafting in a particular area. So we’re happy to hear feedback on this topic!

Q: Is the crafting level tied any way to your combat skill level? In other words, can you max out your craft skill without having a lot of regular skill points?
A: There is a tie between crafting level and skill point level – meaning there will be some missions to advance your crafting level that you can’t get without having a certain number of skill points.

There are systems where people can have level one alts with maxed out craft skills, but in such systems, you might as well let every individual master everything, because that’s what it comes down to.

With that said, we’re aware of the frustration that can accompany our chosen design, and we have not yet set in stone where we will set the hurdles. That decision will be made with feedback from our players.

Q: How can I sell what I make?
A: There will be an auction house. You can consult the AH from your PDA, but you cannot send or receive items without being at a “mailbox” for lack of a better word.

Q: The timer in the screenshot was long. What did the timer mean? Can you do other stuff while the timer is ticking?
A: Experimentation timers are a bit long right now, though we’re still messing with them. You can do stuff while it ticks down, though, you don’t have to stand there and stare at the interface. And see above about potential ways to reduce that time.

Q: Will there be some kind of “craft queue?
A: No plans for that.

Q: How will you raise your skill in your profession? Make 40 of the same schematic for a possible point each time until you unlock a higher tiered schematic, rinse, repeat?
A: You COULD level up that way. /shudder

Not only would that be a miserable grind, and one you inflicted on yourself, but you’d be an embarrassment. You would be a high level crafter with one schematic to your name, and then when you go back to “do” new schematics (because you downloaded them from a website, you weenie), you wouldn’t get anything (skill-wise) from the process.

Making gear for people who need it and experimenting whenever you find something new would be more fun. Good grief, ANYTHING would be more fun.

Q: Does the quality of the weapon affect damage output? Or the quality of the armor affect damage received?
A: The quality of the gear has an affect on your stats, and that can affect damage. So, a definite maybe? It depends so much on which stats we’re talking about and the context in which the gear is being used.

Professions

Q: What’s the difference between the Biotech and Chemist professions?
A: The Biotech is more focused on augmenting items, whereas the Chemist makes consumables. Though we did end up deciding to give the Biotech the ability to make dyes for you to apply to your gear.

Q: If anyone can experiment with schematics, what does the Inventor do?
A: They make gadgets. The extent of gadgetry remains to be discovered, but of the most immediate interest are the jetpacks and harvesters. Inventor-made jetpacks will fly farther and longer for less energy. Harvesters will… harvest more. Etc.

Schematics

Q: Can every level of crafter discover every schematic?
A: No. Your ability to discover grows with your skill. If you try a combination and it doesn’t work, the problem might not be the schematic – the problem might be you. Try again in a few skill points.

Q: Is the system of schematics discovery scripted, meaning we can find only schematics that have been coded by devs?
A: Yes.

Q: If ANY player combines the same items, will it produce the same result each time?
A: Yes, meaning a schematic that makes a hat will always make a hat. But no, in that the stats on that hat will vary depending on skill.

Q: Will people just go to a website to see how to get item “XXX”, enter the ingredients and “find” the recipe?
A: Eventually? Probably. Anyone trying to stop the internet from being the internet needs a hobby besides tilting at windmills.

But there are some things to keep in mind:

One, we’ll constantly be adding new things. And we won’t tell you what we added, either. We’ll just say we added in X new schematics, have at it.

Two, if you do find something awesome, maybe you shouldn’t be in a hurry to put that schematic on the internet Unless someone gets the item from you and reverse engineers it, or unless you are the target of successful espionage, the only way someone can make the item is by experimenting on their own. With the sheer number of components out there, you could stumble onto something amazing. Reserve it for your guild’s benefit.

Q: Can you craft all schematics in all locations, or are some schematics tied to a claimable place? (In other words, I’m only able to make the Wicked Helmet of Doom in Dominus Mine Base #2 — so as to make certain places a desirable place to control.)
A: Currently, anywhere at any time, but awesome idea, sir or madam

Q: Does each schematic have one look to them and you play with the stats within it, or are the looks of the items also selectable during the creation process?
A: The former. The stats can change based on the quality of the material (in the schematics where that applies) and the skill of the crafter. The look of an item is not adjustable during creation.

Afterwards, you can apply dyes, which are available from the Biotechs.

Q: How do you communicate schematics?
A: You can give someone an item you made from your own schematic, and they can reverse engineer it. You can tell someone what the materials used were, and when that person makes their first item, they will know the schematic. And someone can steal the schematic from you (though at this time, 7/28/2011, we are not ready to discuss the espionage system).

Q: Are any schematics one time use only, or are they all permanently added to your library?
A: Currently all permanent, but that could change!

Materials

Q: When one of your experiments goes horribly wrong, do the materials vanish?
A: No.

Q: When I plant my harvester, will I know what grade of ore I’m going to get?
A: Nope. Good luck!

Q: Items appear to potentially require a lot of ingredients to create. Can you go into any more details on this? Are these “extra” ingredients reasonably easy to come by? Can you just purchase them from an NPC in order to craft what you need without a major time investment or serious grinding to get them? Are they fairly standardized components used in many/most schematics?
A: Yes.

Q: From the website: “There are ranges even within each quality. One rare item will more than likely have different stats from an identically produced and named rare item.” What affects these different outcomes of the same schematic? I see the crafter’s skill level plays a role. Is there any other factors that also change the stats?
A: Well, you put in the highest grade stuff, you get better stats.

Soldier For Hire

Q: How does one establish himself as a soldier for hire and how do you go about “protecting” other players? Are you given some sort of custom mission from a terminal or something?
And what exactly do you do then after you’ve decided to be active as a soldier for hire?
A: Players that are looking for someone to escort them through a tough mission will post a contract. Soldiers will be able to see these requests, and choose which ones they’d like to accept.

The group leader (or solo player) will get a message saying the contract has been accepted, and group up with the soldier. At that point, the soldier is simply a member of the group (and can be kicked out if he is a jerk). When the mission is complete, the soldier can collect his reward from the game.

The soldier has no limits on grouping, and may group with guildmates.

We are experimenting with requiring the hiring group to kick in some cash, but right now “the faction” pays the bills.

Q: Are Soldier-For-Hire weapons better than what any crafters can make or is it more of an accessibility thing?
A: Soldiers are the only ones who can buy/equip gear from special NPC vendors. Soldier gear is unique in that it cannot be reverse engineered and made by crafters. In keeping with how we feel about crafted gear, Soldier gear (weapons and armor) will be at the top end of the gear available from vendors, but still not better than the better/best crafted gear.

Other FAQ

Q: Will there be any communication between the factions?
A: No. The other two factions are there for you to kill. There is no way to communicate with them. There are plenty of ways to declare non-verbal truces in the event that you find yourself in an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” situation, but there will be no trashtalking, or game-enabled methods of being a traitor to your own side.

Q: Will there be a FFA server (or a full loot server, or a hardcore server, etc)?
A: No. The design and code demands of taking a game designed for one type of gameplay and setting it up for a completely different concept would mean we’d need two entire dev teams, or else the “retrofitted” server would always be a buggy, awkward hot mess. We are focusing on making an awesome three faction, loot-the-craft-materials, FVF game.

Q: Can our victims be looted?
A: Yes. If the player you killed had any craft materials on him, they will be on his body when he dies. If the corpse is from faction A, it can be looted by anyone in factions B or C. It can also be looted by the groupmates of the victim.

Beta FAQ

Q: I can’t get into the alpha test.
A: The alpha test is currently closed. Check your spam filter for the email announcing the end of the alpha – I want to make sure the mail system is working.

Q: When is the next phase of testing? What will be involved?
A: We don’t have a date set. The next round will be a very small group of testers, mainly those who were most active during the last round plus a few others. After that, we will have a phase that includes all of our alpha testers, plus some selected from our forum community. I have planned nothing beyond that, as we need to see how those tests go before we make any more decisions.

Q: Will there be a guild beta?
A: Heck yes. More details to come.

Q: How do I register for the beta?
A: If you have a forum account, you are registered. If you are an unregistered lurker, stop it right now and go register! http://www.primeonline.com/signup/

From the forum discussion:

(Regarding how people from the forum will be chosen)

The first round that includes people who weren’t in the alpha, people won’t be chosen randomly – they’ll come from the forum, and they will be handpicked.

Post count will not matter, because what we’re looking for is a certain sort of anal retentive mindset and clarity of expression that is good for testing. With that said, every time you post you demonstrate your mindset, so someone who posts a lot will have had more chances to show us what he or she is about.

Basically, don’t post just to post, but don’t lurk either. I can’t read your mind and know you’re awesome. After that, don’t worry about it. There are more wonderful people on the forum than there will ever be testing slots, so luck is always involved. If you have “bad” luck, it means you won’t be subjected to an unstable and buggy experience, right?

(Regarding the way beta = PR stunt at many companies)

Well, I’m not saying you’re wrong, because that IS what they’ve turned into. And that really bothers me, because what *I* need in order for my game to have any chance at success is an actual beta. A test process where people don’t try it and then go out like a whiny [deleted] into the universe and complain that the game wasn’t done. Believe it or not, I’ve seen a couple of said whiny [deleted]s out on other forums complaining that the alpha… more accurately, the engine test… didn’t have anything to do. Uh… duh?

We need testers who are looking for bugs and know how to report so we can reproduce and repair. Whatever else a beta has become for other products, we do not have that luxury. If you are testing with us, you are going to be playing an unfinished game where very little is set in stone.

Our “hype” beta, if we have one, will be an open beta (which, if we are going to be accurate with our words, used to be called a soft launch).