Fresh from a visit to Nexus, Robert Gray interviewed executive producer Jeremy Gaffney about the Settler and Scientist paths

With higher risks on a PvP server, when I build a structure that someone from the other faction is going to want to come blow up, would it mean that the Settler interaction is different on a PvP server versus a PvE server? Gaffney thinks that's the case, to an extent.

“Maybe all that stuff that would normally be really useful in PvP happens to be useful because of a dynamic event that happens, where there is a flood of monsters attacking and the normal guards would be overwhelmed. Part of what goes on in PvP is that it's a very dynamic environment and so some of that gets mirrored by the dynamic stuff that we do. Some doesn't - players get really evil about screwing over each other and what not. Our monsters aren't quite as good at that as players are. [evil chuckle]”

Deciding which structures can and cannot be destroyed, or what level is needed to destroy them, is something that Gaffney hasn’t decided yet. Much of that will have to wait for open-world PvP in CBT3.

“Not all the Settler ones will probably be destroyable, it's ones that make sense to. We try not to have super rigid rules around what our designers can and can't build, so much as letting them tune things to an area. That's one of the reasons we build the world in a very flexible way, and in part that's because we want to react to the beta data. We're not doing the beta as a ‘hey let's just go raise buzz for the game’ (well we'd still like to raise buzz for the game too), we're doing it because we have to learn stuff from having real players run around.”

“We have bot armies or a couple thousand robots that run around and test things like load balancing and crash bugs, and they even accidentally wander into things like instance entrances and dungeon entrances and things like that. Ten robots made it into a dungeon entrance the other week for the first time, very smart little robots.”

“It takes real players in there though to get the real stuff and we change based on that. We change based on feedback all the time.

We have a crap ton of stuff in closed beta two, for instance, I have 42 pages of patch notes in front of me for what's going in from our six weeks of learning from closed beta one; including raising the level cap to thirty, including the open world PvP, including adding in a new dungeon, a new battleground for the first time (we'll do our smash and grab battleground). There're a massive number of class changes, more path variety with new missions and that kind of stuff, there is a ton of stuff that we just add week over week. And because we are very good at generating large chunks of this stuff it means that we are pretty good at listening and then actually changing what we're working on based on that. It's very valuable having real players in.”

I thought back to World of Warcraft’s early open PvP days, with running battles between the old Tarren Mill and Southshore. There wasn't much you could do beyond charging in, killing all the guards and then sitting in their town with nothing to do until the other faction could boot you back out again. Would we be able to take over a whole town in WildStar, wreck shop, destroy everything that's been built there and actually feel like we're really setting the other faction back by destroying their settlement?

“Let me give you a deep answer on that. Tarren Mill was actually quite fun, it was sort of imba because it tended to be higher level players griefing lower level players and then they couldn't get their quests done and had to find other ways of doing it - elements that are actually pretty fun, even though it's griefing and all that kind of stuff. And so we're trying to have a world that's rich enough to be able to have some of that stuff happen in it.”

“Why don't you build PvP objectives into every bit of your open world leveling content? Well the reason why is that you have this huge bell curve of players that go through each zone. The PvP starts off boring because there are two guys in the whole zone, gets really interesting because there is a huge mass of people in the zone, and then the people leave and then it gets boring again. Putting a lot of time as a dev into that is very frustrating because by the time you get enough data to make it better the people have left it already.”

“More so, the games that have done that right are games like Dark Age of Camelot. Three realm open world PvP is frikkin' fun. The downside is that you have to make three times as much content, so you end up with less leveling content. What Camelot Unchained does with that may be very interesting, if they mirror that cool aspect of it.

Stuff that we're doing that's awesome on that front; we're channeling a lot of that energy into Warplots. It's 40v40, it's like housing on steroids, where you build up a massive fortress that is destructible so that you can get all that ‘destroy all your stuff’ out.”

Right now, Warplots are faction based warfare that will see the best of the Dominion trade blows with the elite of the Exiles. A ranking system will make the top tier particularly impressive to watch, if only from a safe distance.

“I'm not sure if we'll open it up to be guild versus guild as well, we'll kind of see, get some feedback on it and tune it. But the goal is that it's hardcore, you get the best of the best doing it. So it's not as much beating up noobs as its beating up other people who are good at it. We do it in tiers so that as you rank up you're fighting against guilds of your epicness.”

“Because at the top level of this you go capture raid bosses out of the raids and pin them down on your Warplot and go have them fly over and blow up the other guys town. That's cool, but that's for the best of the best to be able to unlock. Your average 'I play an hour a week' guy will probably only ever see that in videos, or maybe after 3 expansion packs when that content has become trivialized because we've done cooler stuff. We don't mind that.”

“As I read the forums right now, if we see a lot of feedback on wanting more open world PvP, we'll do something. But it's going to take players getting in there and playing it to say "Hey these are the things we want and that compel us." Where does our 'Tarren Mill' end up being inside of our game? I couldn't even tell you what zone that's going to be in, why was it Tarren Mill in WoW? I don't know.”

Would Whitehaven end up being the open world PvP focal point, or will players choose another part of Nexus to settle their factional differences? I left the thought hanging in the air, as I only had time to ask Gaffney one final question and I wanted to make it count.

ZAM's Editor-in-Chief, Scott Hawkes, is known for his sinister British accent. Could Carbine sneak him in somewhere for some Cassian voice talent?

“[Much laughter] Yes, yes I think so, we have so many diabolical plans we need some creepy speaking Brit accents in there to make sure we nail it and properly communicate all our diabolical plans.”

With the interview complete I was set loose to enjoy my remaining time in Nexus, and enjoy it I did. I want to thank all the staff at Carbine and NCsoft for a fantastic event, and especially Jeremy Gaffney for taking the time out to speak with me.

Before I wrap up, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my few short hours spent on Nexus left me invigorated and hopeful that WildStar will deliver on the huge expectations that have been placed on it. There are certainly many people out there looking for a new MMO to really sink their teeth into and from what I have seen so far, Carbine may just be poised to cash in on waves of hungry gamers.

Only the full release of WildStar and time will tell for sure, but I'm optimistic that San Francisco will always have a place in my heart as the city where I first played my new favorite MMO.

Robert “Caergan” Gray