[2019] AMA: We are Phoenix Labs, developers of Dauntless. Ask us anything!

This is a link to the AMA. We will take some time to answer questions here, but the thread will be locked at 5pm PDT!

From the Original AMA, here is a FAQ:

Do you plan on releasing a roadmap at some point?

• https://playdauntless.com/roadmap/ :) - Link to Comment

What has inspired you to create this game?

• We have a pretty high veteran rate at Phoenix Labs - most people have been in the industry for at least ten years.SO, when we set out to figure out what kind of game we were going to make, we knew that we wanted to make something that would both challenge us and something that we would want to play.When you don't have much on paper or in the engine yet, there is downtime. And when there's downtime, there's gaming. And when you're hanging out with people who you respect and enjoy, they're bro-op.We started pulling together the best pieces of the co-op games we were playing, and the next thing you knew we had decided to make the sequel to Pepsi Man. But for copyright reasons we made Dauntless instead. - Link to Comment

Any plans for more fleshed out islands?

• We would love to flesh out islands more -- from hazards to discoverables to aggressive mobs. The first thing that we're working on are the aggressive non-behemoth creatures -- you should expect to see them first as part of the upcoming Trials Mode (a featured hunt + leaderboards encounter), and likely soon after populated on islands. - Link to Comment

Will there ever be a hunt that involves more than 4 slayers?

• I won't lie and say that I haven't fantasized about the 16-player raid equivalent of a Dauntless behemoth, but it certainly would be a massive development undertaking and we haven't poked at that hydra just yet. - Link to Comment

What new weapons are you working on. Is it more melee oriented or ranged.

• We have a photo of this fabled weapon on our wall in the hall of fame.We're already hard at work on the next weapon and should have more to share soon. With each new weapon we want to introduce new challenges to master and ask new questions of the player - weather that's melee, ranged, or something entirely new altogether. Stay tuned to the roadmap at https://playdauntless.com/roadmap/ - Link to Comment

Any fix coming on being able to cancel a hunt queue?

• So, you can cancel a queue, but not once we're spooling up a server for your hunt. Usually this step is pretty fast and isn't an issue, but is seeing a bit of strain right now as we grow (a lot, very quickly!) -- we're working on this from the server side, to hopefully make the inability to cancel a non-issue like it used to be. Thanks for bearing with us! - Link to Comment

Any plans for more narrative content like the opening cinematic?

• Everyone at the studio loves working on narrative content - we have no firm plans for a new cinematic in the future, but we’d love to be able to tell more stories about the Shattered Isles, and to explore different ways that we could deliver that! - Link to Comment

Are you guys aware of the color switching bug?

• Hey there! Art person here to talk about the dye bug - Yep we’re aware! It’s a bug that got introduced when we started doing a dye rework overhaul - it should be fixed soon along with much more flexibility to dye more regions of the armour! :) - Link to Comment

Will there ever be a possibility to lock on to the Behemoths?

• I haven't heard any discussions about changing the FoV, but lock-on is something we might experiment with. It's tricky since it's not just locking onto an enemy that's useful (like most games), since focusing on specific parts of the behemoth is critical to good play. There are some ideas floating around, but nothing we feel confident in as of now. I do recommend hitting L3 fairly regularly in combat though, that will help in camera management a ton. - Link to Comment

Could there be a chance we can get pets?

• We've thought a lot about this, but don't have a course of action quite chosen yet -- there's a wide range: little mini-pets that are fun cosmetic buddies to unlock, little dudes that go gather stuff for you while you fight, all the way to allies that help you in combat. We might start with the first and work towards the last - but maybe a combat ally makes sense as a whole weapon class?Definitely curious what the players would want here -- so let us know! - Link to Comment

Can you make more servers?

This is a great question and I'm going to give a giga-answer which can be copy-pasta'd (everyone feel free to help)

The short answer is that "more servers" is a tempting idea, but it probably won't solve any problems.

Video game server networking and architecture is complicated and hard. If buying more servers would solve the problem, I promise that we would do it in a heartbeat <3

Here's the best way I can break down what's up.

1. No two online games are the same. The requirements for networking are different and require custom solutions. The more involved and sophisticated the game, the more complicated the solution.
2. Networking can always get better. There's always room for improvement, optimization, and enhancement. Except for Halo 2. That sh*t was perfect.
3. Because there's always room for improvement, the people who focus on networking solutions are always working on improvements. From day one, up to launch, and well after launch - these engineers are working to improve networking conditions.
4. Because of this, there is a delicate balancing act. How do we get the absolute latest and greatest version of our networking designs to players? Well, it requires constant testing and iteration. Which is what we do.
5. The closer any game gets to launch, the more we learn about what the real-world environment will be like. Over-estimating or under-estimating capacity is a false dichotomy in this situation. The reality is much more juggling hundreds (if not thousands) of changing variables that are affected by a dozen different companies and partners.
6. So, developers make the best possible guess they can and then they start building. As soon as the game goes live, you start learning about what reality is. Then you shift your focus to make your solution match reality. Then reality continues to evolve. This is the life of a network engineer.

Having enough boxes or a big enough box for everyone is not usually the problem. The problem to solve is how to get everyone into the right box and then move them quickly and painlessly between boxes around the world

Toss in our amazingly ambitious crossplay plans and, well, we are hugely flattered by how many people showed up and we're doing everything we can to get everyone in and playing as quickly as possible

TL;DR Designing network architecture is a lot like being a baseball outfielder, but you're not allowed to move your feet until the ball is already coming down. You use your best instincts and make informed, educated decisions - but sometimes you're gonna have to hustle after that ball! - Link to Comment

Could there be a chance we can get pets?

• We've thought a lot about this, but don't have a course of action quite chosen yet -- there's a wide range: little mini-pets that are fun cosmetic buddies to unlock, little dudes that go gather stuff for you while you fight, all the way to allies that help you in combat. We might start with the first and work towards the last - but maybe a combat ally makes sense as a whole weapon class?Definitely curious what the players would want here -- so let us know! - Link to Comment

Why don't you guys make a game mode that have an open world and put behemoths all around the place?

• I'd love for us to develop a way to just go to an island and hang out there for a bit with your friends -- you could gather, bait out behemoths, just mess around, and leave when you're done. A little bit more of a freeform experience. Not sure when we'll tackle it, but I think there's a lot of potential there! - Link to Comment

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