How do you feel about the current state of PvP in the game in general?
RG: TR is still fundamentally a PvE game, as far as the features provided to date. Our PvP has remained relatively thin and hasn't really been the focus. As we go forward we're definitely not trying to reduce our focus on growth and improvements to PvE, we also just think that a strong PvP game is another piece of the long-term pie that we believe has great value if properly incorporated into the whole. So we're not trying to create what I'll call an alternate game, we are trying to create a game where there are moments of time during your life cycle in TR that getting involved in COCPs will become important to your progression. The totality of your life in TR will be occasionally punctuated by these, hopefully interesting and diverse, PvP moments.
Personal Armored Units (PAU) are something a lot of players seem to be pretty excited about. Is there anything can tell us about those?
RG: Unfortunately I don't have much I can tell you about them, although I agree people are looking forward to them. PAUs are something that even the fundamental game design has been architected to support. You may have seen the garages in places like Foreas Base; those were specifically built for Personal Armor Units to ultimately fit into. And we actually have examples of a fair number of them already created, and every now and then when running events someone (like me) will drop one into the world without permission and give people a quick peek at what they will look like in the future. That's why they occasionally ban my account, which is true (laughs).
We actually don't have any official announcements as to details of that system or its release date, but it's definitely in the cycle.
Okay, I won't pry too much then, but is there any chance that there will be two-seaters that are controlled by multiple players? Like a driver and gunner, that sort of thing?
RG: All I can tell you is, that is high on the interest list within the development team as well.
Has crafting in TR gotten any love? Is it a priority?
RG: Yes, in fact, crafting is another area where we have a fairly substantial overhaul in the works, the details of which are also not publicly released. That is another system where we think that a revision will make it considerably more powerful. While the basis of crafting has some level of functionality within the game, it's not yet to the level of what I would call compelling. We believe we now understand better what the players are looking for, so that overhaul is in progress.
What about end-game content? Are high-level players in the game running out of things to do?
RG: Of course, you always want to have activities for the people that make it all the way up to level 40 or 50, and we are adding content to the end portions of the game, because the people that make it there, while numerically few - statistically across the spectrum of players there is not a vast number of them - however they do generally happen to be your most vocal community leaders that help your game grow or die by word of mouth. Even though it's still a relatively small number of people, we're working very hard to ensure we grow the game in ways that keep them content and wanting to continue to play. To that end we've added a whole new section called Omega Lands which is all 50+ content.
It's evident that not every MMO will be as successful as WoW. Are you satisfied with the popularity of TR?
RG: Sure, I think all games, with the possible exception of those that are way out in front, wish they had more people involved, and we're contining to work to grow TR by all means. But we think that the core fan base that we have is enjoying the game and actively playing, and we think that's the essential element for long-term growth as we go forward. We're happy with where we are today... I don't think that we ever expected to knock-off World of Warcraft or Lineage, but we don't think that's important or necessary from a business model standpoint.
Thanks very much for your time, and have a safe journey to the ISS and back!
