suicide squad q/a dev
erano presenti: Ian Ball (Design Director), Johnny Armstrong (Associate Design Director) e Axel Rydby (Game Director).
prima domanda:
What was the funnest part of designing the Squad members for the devs? They're very unique and fun and I'm super excited to meet them! (Hope you're all doing well behind the scenes!)
(risponde axel)
Thanks for the question and for the kind words!
We wanted to make sure each character's traversal was as unique as their respective personalities, and that's why they also occupy different game spaces during combat. You will usually find Deadshot hovering over the battlefield, picking his shots and swooping in for a Shield Harvest or Juggle kill.
Harley occupies the mid height space, swinging through the fight and grappling her way out of dangerous situations. Boomerang is the one closest to the ground and much more up-close-and-personal. Shark presents a mix of the up-close-and-personal but his super leaps and air dashes let him soar (swim?!) over the battlefield as well.
This all presented us with a pretty unique challenge insofar as making sure that each enemy type and encounter type present different challenges for each Squad member, just based on the nature of how each character's traversal works. That was a really fun challenge for us to solve, and it made designing these characters all the more exciting.
(risponde Ian)
Thank you for your kind words. Behind the scenes there is a lot going on as we are only a few weeks away from launch!! We are juggling hundreds of live grenades while going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. But don't worry, we're all good and had a lot of fun making this behemoth of a game.
I have fond memories from early on in the project when we were developing the story. The Squad have such different personalities and there are a lot of natural conflicts that create moments of tension, drama and laughter.
At the start of the game Deadshot is very straight and to the point, he wants to get the job done as efficiently as possible.
Harley isn't taking anything seriously, she's on her own path and doesn't want to be 2nd fiddle anymore.
Shark is happy to be part of a team and is very gullible which the other Squad members play upon.
Boomerang doesn't really know what is going on and doesn't want to risk his neck for anybody.
They start out not trusting each other and want to get out of the situation they are in as quickly as possible. But as they continue through the story they start to develop a bond and their relationships change.
seconda domanda:
I’ve heard a few developers, Jackett mainly, mention about the build possibilities in the game. Could you guys elaborate more on the possibilities of builds for the characters?
(risponde axel)
That is a most excellent question... Where to start... Well, first of all, when we designed the game, player choice and player freedom was one of our core design philosophies. We really want you to feel like you can make each character your own, and build it to suit your playstyle. But if you take the leap and really play into the gear, you can find truly crazy powerful combinations.
At launch, we're looking at hundreds of possible combinations and permutations for builds across our 4 characters, and this is something we're adding A LOT to in post launch. We're not supposed to talk about that today though, but I'm really excited for you all to see the cool stuff we've got cooking.
When it comes to build construction, we have quite a few elements we consider to be core parts.
First and foremost we have the gear and our 8 loadout slots.
Then we have our Afflictions, each developed by Poison Ivy using a DC character's powers: Deep Freeze, Diablo Blaze, Livewire Bolt and Venom Frenzy. Afflictions can be applied to your Melee weapons and, later on in the game, to your Grenades.
Then we have each character's Talent Tree, which is the backbone of each character's playstyle. Harley is very acrobatic and loves explosions, and her Talent Tree reflects this. Deadshot is highly precise and proficient with his weapons, so you'll find lots of Critical Hit talents and Counter talents. Shark is our powerhouse character, so you'll find lots of ways of dominating enemies with his powerful Melee strikes in his Talent Tree. Finally Boomerang is our trickster, and the most all-round character, but there's lots of talents that leverage his variable and fast traversal to quickly close the range to enemies and then quickly get back to mid/long range.
Then we have the character's traversal mechanics, plus their Traversal Attacks & Suicide Strikes, which all have their own flavour for each character.
Then we have each character's weapon loadout. Each character have three weapon types they are proficient with, from our six weapon types: Assault Rifles, Pistols, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, SMGs and Heavy Weapons (miniguns and LMGs).
That's a long way to say: there's a LOT of depth for you all to explore, especially in End Game, and lots of different ways to master the game and change the way you play the game based on how you customise your character.
We don't want to spoil the exploration of builds in the game too much, but I think we can at at least mention a few early End Game build favourites that are making their rounds within the Dev team. The "SlowMo Crits" is one, where you use two specific items as openers: The Great Suspender Melee weapon to launch enemies into the air in Slow Motion, paired with the Slow n Steady Grenade that launches any enemy hit up into the air in Slow Motion, but does no damage. The Turkey Shoot firearm is a great finisher for this build, since it does guaranteed Critical Hits to enemies in Slow Motion. This is an especially powerful build in co-op, where one can focus on setting up enemies and one can focus on burning them down with damage while they're caught in Slow Motion. There's also a Boomerang talent that send enemies up in Slow Motion on Melee hits, so worth keeping an eye out for that one... Then there's some debate around additional items to make that build really shine. Some go for Dr. Critz, an item that regenerates Shield on Critical Hits, and some go for Hit and Run, an item that gives Traversal Attack resource on Critical Hits. For players who want to swap out the Turkey Shoot firearm, they could lean into the Livewire Bolt Affliction instead, as a way to get the guaranteed crits to happen while enemies are in Slow Motion, and swap in the Super Spreader firearm which spreads any active Affliction on a kill to nearby enemies.
Another favourite in the studio is the "BANG IT UP". Not the most creative of names I'd admit, but it's pretty descriptive. The build revolves around getting the BAAANNNG! Grenade, that does a crazy amount of damage, but you can only carry 1 Grenade at a time. This is paired with the Bullet Propelled Grenade firearm which drops a live Grenade on Critical Hits alongside the Exploding Grace Traversal Mod which drops a live Grenade when you do a Skilled Landing (Ground Bounce or Ground Slides). This means you get two ways to drop a free BAAANNNG! Grenade. Most also pair this with the Prison Pinata Melee weapon, which drops Grenade ammo on Shield Harvesting kills, as a consistent way to get Grenade ammo.
terza domanda:
IS THERE A TEIR ABOVE NOTORIOUS ???
(risponde axel)
Thanks for the question! I assume from the all caps question that you are as passionate about loot as we are! The different rarities of gear in our game are Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Notorious and Infamy Sets. Common to Epic increase in power in the number of possible augments available, but Legendary, Notorious and Infamous is when we really turn up the heat.
Every Legendary item in the game has a unique augment that changes the way you play in some way. Like The Cooler, a Sniper rifle that freezes on a Critical Hit, or the Combo Meal firearms which gives you max combo on a successful Critical Counter. Or my personal favourite, BAAANNNG!, a Legendary Grenade that only lets you carry 1 Grenade at a time, but does 500% more damage with a huge explosion!
Infamy Sets are brutally powerful sets of gear, themed around some of the most iconic and threatening villains in the DC universe. These gain unique effects the more pieces of a set you have equipped and are designed to synergise with Legendary and Notorious gear.
Notorious gear are some of the rarest and, in my opinion, coolest items in the game. All themed after DC villains, both in how they look and their gameplay effects, they completely change the way you play, often requiring you to build around them to get the most out of their unique power.
In End Game builds you will most likely be using a mix of Legendary, Notorious and Infamy Sets to deck out your Squad member, and each build will require that you play the game differently to get the most out of it. When you find that build that suits the character you want to play, and the way you want to play that character, you can create some pretty outlandish combinations that I think feel great to play.
One of the core design philosophies of the game was to create a gear system that doesn't linearly increase in power and have a clear path to the optimal item, but to create items that have wild and game-changing effects that must be actively engaged with to find the most powerful strategies and overcome the toughest encounters.
In that spirit, one of the biggest changes we've made over the last year is to remove Gear Score from the game! This change means that players who find, for example, a Legendary weapon they just love early on in the game, can use it without fear that they're shooting themselves in the foot (as it were) by not equipping a different gun with a higher Gear Score. The challenge then becomes exploring how you want to play the game and find gear that synergises with that, or lean into changing the way you play the game to get the most out of the gear you have. A big part of our End Game is to theorycraft which gear pieces that can synergise and how to construct builds. It's one of the things I'm really excited about when we launch the game - seeing what crazy builds you all come up with!
quarta domanda:
Are there any plans past characters reaching max level? Like a Prestige system or something like that down the line?
(risponde axel)
A most excellent question! To start with, each member of the Squad has their own unique Talent Trees: 3 for each character with 10 tier within each tree. These provide powerful upgrades to different playstyles, as well as an interesting choices as to how you want to play your Squad members!
That said, we really want to reward you if you want to keep playing the game past reaching max level with a character. Once level 30 is reached on a Squad member, you will unlock Squad Talents
This is a shared group of upgrades between all your Squad members, regardless of their level. There are a lot of these, and for the Squad Levels they are actually infinite and there is no real level cap. You can freely respec Squad Talents the same as regular talents at almost any time. These also add yet another layer of customisability for different playstyles and builds, but where the Talent Tree provides you with more game and playstyle defining traits, the Squad Levels are geared more towards specialisation with e.g. specific weapon types or game mechanics.
Each Squad member level counts towards your total Squad Levels, and the higher the Squad Level, the more Squad Talents are available. For those of you who are especially astute, that means that if you level up all your characters, you can get additional Squad Levels really quickly. And that of course also applies to the characters we add post launch, but we're not supposed to talk about those today... Sorry…
quinta domanda:
Thx for doing this guys. So clearly movement will be a huge factor in the gameplay, what was the process like in balancing out each character so they feel different but not overpowered compared to the others?
(risponde Johnny)
Not at all, we're hyped to be able to do this and speak directly to you all.
You're absolutely right, traversal is a huge part of our game, both in terms of gameplay and the squad personality. We wanted to give each Squad member a traversal style that made them feel unique, powerful and that made sense for their character. But most importantly, felt fun, moment to moment.
This is always at the forefront of the decisions we make. Does just traversing through the world feel fun? Does this feel good in your hands?
For example, take King Shark. We knew early on that due to his size and weight we really wanted this to come across in how he moved. When we started designing his move set, we actually were using animal references (Rhinoceros, elephants) to try and convey that sense of rampaging, destructive force that builds with momentum. We believe his traversal really captures that sense of animalistic power. When you build up speed, smash through a group of enemies, then leap high into the air then then come crashing down onto some other unsuspecting enemy, it just feels good!
Or Harley, who comes with an expectation of acrobatics and flowing movement. We wanted to add a twist to that with the Bat Drone and Grapnel Gun, as a unique form of movement. And either a grudging nod of respect to Batman from her, or a middle finger depending on how you see it. Though practically, this was done so we could give her a traversal mechanic that supported swinging and grappling, without having to rely solely on having tall buildings, or structures at all, in order for Harley to get around. The ability to use the momentum from a grapple, into a swing, into a dive, into an even faster swing, all without having to touch solid ground, feels super satisfying when you pull it off.
And in terms of balancing them all, gameplay wise, we're in a really good place now where they all feel powerful and excel at different things, which in turn we hope will match players own different styles and preferences.
For example, Deadshot's ability to create vantage points in space by hovering makes sniping very effective, whereas Boomer's instant dash makes him perfect for smash and grab style tactics, where he can get in, smash...then get out.
Being able to seamlessly blend between Traversal and Combat, moment to moment, and making this feel impactful, was always at the forefront of our decisions.
One of the more challenging sides however is managing the speeds of the characters and how they work not only with each other but the game itself. Harley for the longest time just wouldn't get in line with the rest, (Very much on brand as always.) Having a very deep traversal system, she has a lot of room for skill expression in the hands of an experienced player. Unfortunately the skill they wished to express was swinging so fast they break the game . Balancing this so all the characters are in line with each other for Launch and Y1 whilst also making them all feel fun has been challenging but feel they are all in a really good place. Even across the Dev Team, everyone has a different favourite character and Alt to use, which I feel really speaks to the work we've done to keep them all balanced.
It's an ongoing debate as to who is the best, which is ridiculous…
...as it's obviously Shark.
(risponde Ian)
No way!! Harley for sure, you just don’t have the skills Johnny.
(risponde Axel)
It’s true, Johnny needs to up his traversal game 😛 But Deadshot is clearly the best. Creating your own vantage points and Sniping from above, afterburning into ground slides, and looking awesome while doing it?! Come on, not even a contest!
(risponde Ian)
Deadshot is easy mode…
(risponde Axel)
Dude, Deadshot takes skills. I've got skills!
(risponde Gaz (marketing game manager))
It's Captain Boomerang and I will die on this hill
(risponde Axel)
Boomer's a close second, definitely
sesta domanda:
Can you swap characters at any time in the game? Can you swap in both co-op and single player? Are skill tree points shared between characters (if you can swap them)? If you have a skill point and use it on a character, is it still available for the other characters (if you can swap them)?
(risponde Ian)
You can swap to a different Squad member any time you're out of combat. In a 2-player session, you each have a bot character that you can switch to. In a 3-player session, the session owner gets the honour of having an additional bot character they can switch to. When you're in a 4-player co-op session, you will have to travel to the Hall of Justice to switch.
You can also change your whole squad line up no matter the number of players when you are in the Hall of Justice.
If you are playing single-player, we also have our 'Psyched Up' feature, where a certain Squad Member will be 'Psyched Up' for specific missions. For example, Boomerang has a lot of history with Penguin and when you "recruit him" for Waller, he's Psyched Up to get to see Pengo again. Of course Penguin doesn't remember him at all...
If you play the mission as a 'Psyched Up' Squad member, that character does extra damage and takes less damage, and will also gain a massive XP boost from the mission. This is a great way to quickly level up different Squad members and get a taste for how they all play, without worrying about any single Squad member falls too far behind.
Each time a character levels up, you get 1 skill point to spend on that character's Talent Tree. All Squad members have separate XP, levels and Talent Trees because we didn't want you to have to constantly manage each character's Talent Tree as soon as you switch to them because they have points left to spend.
However, as mentioned earlier, past level 30 when you unlocked the Squad Talents, those are shared between all Squad members.
settima domanda:
Will there be free roam? Will there be collectables after you completed the game?
(risponde Johnny)
There will be free roam! After Amanda Waller has given you 'permission' to carry out your mission, the Squad have access to the entirety of Metropolis. Once the shackles are off (or on, not sure where I've gone now with this analogy...shackles off, but brain bombs in, that's it) you can choose to explore the city however you wish. There will be side missions, enemies patrolling the city, iconic Metropolis landmarks, and plenty of hidden (and not-so hidden) Easter eggs for you to find.
We really want players to be able to just enjoy banging around Metropolis, causing havoc. Whether you choose to do anything 'productive' or not is on you
(risponde Ian)
There will also be plenty of collectables! The Riddler has made his way to Metropolis, he's pissed that he wasn't recruited for this mission and wants to prove his superior intellect. He is testing the squad both physically and mentally.
He's set up AR courses to test your prowess in traversal, if you get around the courses quick enough you'll wind up Riddler and also be rewarded with some free outfits pieces for the Squad members!
Riddles are back to test your mental skills and your knowledge of the DCU.
And there are trophies, it wouldn't be an Arkhamverse game without some Riddler Trophies.
ottava domanda:
Will we see the environment change as the seasons progress?
(risponde Johnny)
Most definitely! This is something we knew we wanted to do from the start. To be able to keep Metropolis evolving along with our players. And seeing how Brainiac's has the ability to phase in portions of other worlds…
Metropolis is a constantly shifting battlefield and as your battle with Brainiac and the Justice League progresses you can expect the city to change along with it, not only across the duration of the Story but post launch also.
This was very important for us in the dev team. To be able to create a City which players could experience, enjoy, learn all the best routes through...and then be able to switch things up on them. So you'll have to make sure you get your bearings, as what you were previously using to navigate by, may not be there next time.
nona domanda:
Is it true that my squad of friends can select my character when I'm not playing (I'm at work or something), and if my squad takes my character with them, I can also get mission loot & experience points?
(risponde Axel)
Woohoo, it's a-me again!
It doesn’t work quite like that, if anything it’s even better as you’re not just limited to friends and that person can also be online when you get their characters into your Squad!
We call this feature “Social Squad”.
With Social Squad, if you’re playing alone and you’re not planning on playing certain members of the Squad, you can replace those Squad members with those of other players… and as we mentioned before they don’t even need to be your friends! If you want, you can go to the Leaderboards and find the best players in the world and get their characters into your Squad. Or maybe you have a favourite streamer and want their characters in your Squad?
Social Squad team mates will keep all of the gear, cosmetics and talents that their original owners have equipped just as if you have joined them in a co-op session. It’s a really interesting way of getting that feeling of playing with others, even though you’re just chilling in a solo session.
(risponde Ian)
My Harley will be beating your Deadshot even when I'm sleeping.
(risponde Axel)
The original owners also get a kickback if their characters are used in someone else’s Squad. When they next jump in-game they will receive a small portion of the resources and loot you’ve earned while playing. This is separate from the rewards you earn for yourself, so it doesn’t take away from the loot you’ve earned while playing.
decima domanda:
What will endgame be like?
(risponde Axel)
Oh look, we're out of time... KIDDING!
I love this question, because End Game is one of the things I'm most excited about to share with you all! But I'm also worried that I'm going to get tackled by our community team for writing an essay on this topic so I'll try to break it down into smaller segments.
After you've completed the main story, End Game is a huge, constantly evolving and challenging experience for you to put your skills to the test.
Our core philosophy for End Game was, essentially, Mastery. Mastery of your character, traversal, Talents, enemy types, mission mechanics and, of course, your choice of build. And as the difficulty increases, you will have to find new builds to overcome the challenge. That's why we have three distinct Tiers of Infamy Sets in End Game, all themed around an iconic DC character. For launch, that character is Bane, and his Infamy Sets are all themed around different ways of dominating your enemies and harnessing the chaos around you.
We have a somewhat chaotic game, with a constantly changing battlefield with lots of things going on. The game is frantic and fast paced, and we've purposefully made it to feel like the Squad is always surrounded and in the middle of the chaos, and Mastery of the game comes from you harnessing that chaos and using it as one of your strengths, turning the very thing Brainiac is throwing at you right back at him (Ian & Johnny, stop rolling your eyes, that's a totally awesome boomerang pun).
Because our game is chaotic and because we wanted our End Game to lean into build construction as well as Mastery of mechanics, we've made our End Game revolve around a core backbone of mission types that provide a more predictable experience and challenge. But that doesn't mean that Brainiac is just going to sit back and let you go head to head with his forces without throwing a spanner in the works, or that you know what's going to happen in each mission. Brainiac keeps evolving his forces throughout End Game and you'll have to adapt your builds to match this.
There will be several types of missions, from the snappier Incursion Missions, where the poor Squad is sent into Brainiac's domain under the protection of a very fickle Promethium Shield that protects you from the Skull Ship's tentacles as well as the full force of Brainiac's army. The Squad have to fight their way through Brainiac's forces - often with the help of the Support Squad - to make it back to Metropolis. But once the mission is completed, the Promethium Shield goes down so the Squad has to leg it. Waller's really not doing the Squad any favours here and she seems intent on emphasising the Suicide in Suicide Mission. Then we have the more grand Killing Time missions where the Squad is battling an increasingly frantic horde of Brainiac's enemies, and they have to keep killing enemies to fuel the Promethium Shield because once it goes down, there's no hiding from the Skull Ship's tentacles.
As the difficulty levels go up, so do the rewards, and we have some quite frankly insane Infamy Sets and Notorious items that are earned from the highest tiers of End Game. That, paired with Global leaderboards for Solo, 2-player, 3-player and 4-player groups, mean that there's plenty of friendly competition to go around... And if you want some tips on how to build your character, the leaderboards will be a good place to scout around.