paul-carrico
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H1Z1's senior designer on item degradation, crafting, and more
SOE has released a new H1Z1 dev spotlight video. The dev in question is one Paul Carrico, senior game designer on the open world survival sandbox. Carrico spends the vid's four-minute running time fielding fan-generated questions, one of which pertains to crafting. "Crafting can get really deep," he says, before giving an example of makeshift weapon fabrication. Carrico also mentions ammo variation, though he says that flaming, exploding, and poison-tipped arrows will have to wait until after H1Z1's early access goes live. Finally, Carrico talks about item degradation, which will affect everything from weapons to structures to tools. Click past the cut to watch the full clip.
EQII devs brave class mechanics panel
Interesting tidbits continue to flood the web regarding last week's SOE Fan Faire in Las Vegas, with the latest coming courtesy of EQ2Wire. The Norrathian newshounds have posted a series of video captures from the EQII Mechanics panel, featuring (from left, above) developers Rich Waters, Greg "Rothgar" Spence, Paul "Frizznik" Carrico, and Mike "Xelgad" Ganz. The panel is divided into a series of six 10-minute clips, all of them informative if you're an EQII regular and concerned with any aspect of class and balance mechanics. The dev team fields a number of questions from the audience, including queries on ranger and other assorted class fixes, as well as a clarification of a Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson forum post that some players incorrectly interpreted as foreshadowing major changes. "We're just trying to be more transparent in our design for the classes, not trying to redesign the classes at all," Spence explains. Most questions are answered with a necessarily vague "we'll look into it" and/or "soon," but the videos are nonetheless worth watching to get a glimpse at what your average developer deals with when subjected to a room full of min/max players. It's not quite an inquisition, but there is a palpable combative energy (and a few hecklers) present.
