JUNE 19, 2021: IMPROMPTU CHIEF CHAT NOTES - There's a lot of ideas when you're brainstorming!

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Faeryl

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Hey Reapers, there's a LOT of COOL information here so keep your eyes peeled!!

==== GRUMMZ BRAINSTORMING ====
■ Remember usual caveats apply to these types of Impromptu Chief Chats.
■ Grummz is not setting anything in stone, he likes to discuss it with the community.
■ These are NOT 100% yes were going to do this, this is just Grummz getting your feedback/ideas during a chat.


Merchandise.
We’re thinking of making some merchandise for EM-8ER! Aside from the usual T-shirts and beanies, we can add more options, let us know what you think on this very simple poll [see forum link below]!

While you’re there, consider answering the following Question from Grummz: ”Would you lean more towards the kaiju plushie merch, the waifu pillows, or both?”

This poll is to just gauge interest for Kickstarter and even before on what we should do.
https://forums.em8er.com/threads/em8er-merch-which-would-you-rather-see.2025

For More Details On The Merchandise And Tying It To KS, Keep Reading!
Grummz has been pitched the idea to do merchandise by people who manufacture merchandise. He’s been thinking about tying these to Kickstarter tiers to have an extra physical reward to them.

Grummz has also been thinking about different merch for the three pillars of Em-8er: Mecha, Waifu, and Kaiju. For example, Mecha could be a resin statue. Plushies for kaiju (a cute-ified version). And for Waifus we could do body pillows. Waifu figurines would be very expensive, over $100 by themselves.

They’ve been working on getting a little t-shirt store opened up with coffee mugs and things like that. That’s all easy stuff to do. The more difficult are the custom things like stuffed animals and waifu body pillows.


"MMOs Need To Be A World You Feel Like You Could Live In."
Grummz: I’ve been thinking about and you’ve heard me say this: I feel like MMOs need to be a world you feel like you could live in. And in order to feel like you could live in it, we really need to think about bases having at least partial interiors.
We need to think about scale; about these bases on the terrain be very big, just like Planetside. These things are all in my mind. Some of it can be done later. But some of these things have to be planned for now, before launch. Bases with interiors, we have to at least make the buildings big enough to accommodate interiors for launch. Even if we don't ship interiors right at early access or whatever. We're talking about a game that is about a massive planetary battle simulation across an entire planet.



". . . I'm Just Sort of Fleshing The Ideas Out With You Right Now."
Grummz: None of these concepts are really new, I’m just sort of fleshing the ideas out with you right now. How far do these concepts go in the Vision Book? I’m thinking bigger in terms of base size. Originally I was going to make bases be more iconic and smaller.
But we have giant Kaiju, so we need bigger maps. That became apparent as soon as we built New Copa, it was like, we need big, wider, open spaces for these giant kaiju that will romp through and the bases that will get built. We’re going to need bigger buildings. And then if we’re really going to do PvE Planetside and we want a stronger role for light frames and things like that, they need interiors.



What If Pilots [Characters] Had Roles?
Grummz: What if pilots [characters] had roles? Will pilots [characters] have stats? I’m thinking, yeah. They could have buffs to whatever frame or whatever task you're doing. An engineer pilot [character] - would get buffs when they do engineer type tasks. You could have a role that is non-combat.
We've talked about space truckers. You could be piloting a resource convoy vehicle with big guns that’s multi-crewed; getting these resources to the front line. That could be a thing. You could be a craftsman or a trader.

There's basic and advanced crafting. Advanced crafting could be a pilot [character] role. Mecha pilot could be a role. Tank driver could be a role. It could be like a job system. The thought was that you could have multiple pilots [characters] (Gatestriders). If we’re going to be the PvE Planetside, I think we have to have building interiors. We have to have a way to fight in building interiors and I think Light Omniframes are the way to do that.

The roles are not as strong as being a healer vs a tank or that type of thing. These are small bonuses you get. You don’t have limited slots, and you can switch roles regularly.

So non-combat roles. You’d be your Gatestrider in the truck. And maybe you’ve got a docked engineering [construction?] mech on there, so you can hop into that too.



► "I Want To Start Paying Attention To Some Social Features."
Grummz: And then I think on Home, that’s the social hub, I want to start paying some attention to social features. Some of the skins we have are much more suited for social skins. And other skins we have are much more suited for piloting the Omniframes. I think there needs to be a flag for that. If we do something like a flowing dress or something, that’s not going to work in a medium Omniframe. So, I’m thinking about splitting the two.

► "The Other Thing I've Talked About Is Multi-Role Mechs."
Grummz: The other thing I’ve talked about is multi-role SCVs; sorry mechs. So you have some mechs that are like SCVs in Starcraft, they assist with construction. Buildings build at a certain rate, and the more resources you dump into them the faster they build. But what if it was not just that but, if you got more construction mechs on it, then the build would go faster too. Just like an SCV, you’re convoying resources over and dumping them in, then welding up on a building and it goes a little faster. You can keep going out and bringing the specific resources it needs to make that building faster.

► "The Vehicle Updates. . ."
Grummz: A couple years ago I laid out the update path. We were going to have the base game with invasions, mining, and crafting. The first update was supposed to be the guilds and social update, right? Then there is vehicle updates.
The vehicle updates, rather than being one giant DLC, we might release vehicles one at a time and then you can go and craft them. Now in an invasion, if you want a tank, if you’ve crafted a tank, you can spawn a tank, from the right building. It would be a tank spawning building. It’s just like an RTS because that was always the idea.

But instead of saying, okay now there’s a set of vehicles, I’m thinking about releasing the vehicles one at a time and even micro crowdfunding campaigns for them, one at a time. So it’s like “Hey, we want a tank unlock for everybody.” Okay well here’s a micro crowdfunding campaign to get tanks as an update to the core game. If we reach the goal, there’s tanks for everybody to craft.

We are not selling you a tank. This is an unlock so EVERYONE can craft a tanks. People who helped unlock the tanks might get a unique cosmetic for their tank (similar to the Founder's ship). Think of it like a stretch goal campaign unlock.


==== KETCHUP SPILLED! ====
► Part of The Next Gatestrider Novel Chapter Leaked!
Grummz: “Right now I'm working on the Tsi-Hu culture because that's in the next chapter.”


► Teaser of a Spill!
Grummz: “We’re working on a pitch for a partnership with another company... for something … I can’t talk about yet. But you know we work with AMD and you know we work with Razer. This would be a third potential partner for Em-8er that we’re talking to.”



==== Q & A ====

► Question: What is the incentive for players to use light frames other than mobility? Are heavy frames always going to be strongest in damage output and other skills?
Grummz: I think it's a question of combat roles. I've been thinking about Em-8er very much like Firefall. Remember in Firefall there was the huge invasion mode in beta but, we were going to add more vehicles to it. When the invasions happened, it was supposed to be like full on Planetside style stuff. We never set up our networking right for that (Firefall) so, it never worked right. But in Em-8er we have been planning for that. If you think about what a Planetside style battle entails, it has multiple vehicles in it. One important reason you'd want a Light Omniframe is if you're fighting in the interiors of those bases. You're not going to fit a heavy mech in there... unless it's a Heavy Mech hangar; in which case that would be hilarious.
It's about combat roles and what's the best frame for the job.

► Question: Is there a change password button on the em8er forum somewhere, or do I need to use the forgot password option?
Grummz: If you want to change your password for forums, try doing it from my.em8er.com.

Question: Roles are nice but what if no one wants do to them?
Grummz: Think of roles as more like a buff. It's like slotting materia into your weapons in Final Fantasy 7.

► Question: How much time is expected per play session?
Grummz: If you want a short play session, a T.H.M.P.R encounter is not going to take you more than 20 minutes. If you want to jump in, get some resources, and hop out again, you can. If you want to participate in a battle, you can hop in for 20 minutes, jump to a hot spot, start fighting in battle, and then bail. You can jump in and still get some rewards for participation for that invasion, even if you’re only there for 20 minutes. The war is going to happen with or without you.

► Question: can bases be destructible?
Grummz: Yes bases are planned to be destructible.

► Question: Are there space truck stops?
Grummz: I think there should be space truck stops. That should be a building in a base, right? There should be a transportation building in a base. I think it would be hilarious to style it like a truck stop.

► Question: What about a truck stop waitress?
Grummz: We were talking about social spaces and how to make them more relevant in MMOs. There was talk about Star Wars Galaxies and the dancer class and the musician class and the buffs you could get just for hanging out. I don’t know if that’s the right solution. But it immediately made me think of my favorite series, Firefly; big Firefly fan here. We’ve got waifus and I was thinking, you know what we should have? We should have courtesans like geisha. Just like in Firefly. We should have a courtesan role.

► Question: Can we get some raids though?
Grummz: No this is not a raid game, I’m sorry. This is not a static content game.
There is a raid, in that, eventually as one of the updates, we do plan for you to be able to cross over into the Tsi-Hu world and hunt specific kaiju. THAT part can be considered raid content. Although it is a little more dynamic and you don’t crawl through a dungeon to get to the kaiju at the end. It’s more like Monster Hunter; you hunt on a map to get to the kaiju.

► Question: The thing is with bigger maps: will you guys be able to make them big and meaningful enough at the same time? Or the map is just a battleground, and exploring it does not really matter?
Grummz: For the maps, right now there is no exploration component except for the mining resources and stuff. There’s no encounters or secret caves to go in or anything like that. But I hear you. I know there are some people who want the explorer archetype. I just don’t know how to deal with that yet. Admittedly, exploration is a not very considered part of the game right now.
The main focus is the invasion system, the mining stuff, and the crafting.

In order for a small developer team to make these maps they are procedurally generated, not in real time, but with our tools, and then with some hand crafted areas. But there's no reason to have a specially crafted area yet, as there is no static content in the world.



► Question: Okay Grummz have you thought of a cooking mini-game or a cooking meta? Because one thing I like about Monster Hunter is the way they portray food.
Grummz: Cooking! I absolutely love cooking and with a purpose like in Monster Hunter. I’m such a foodie too.

► Question: Speaking of music, when can we hear what Michael Bross is working on?
Grummz: You have heard some of the music. Some of Bross’ music has been on some of our trailers and things but, we haven’t really developed it further than that. I do need to get on that so thank you because the T.H.M.P.R. encounter is happening so we need to start scoring it. Once we have more of the THMPR encounter fleshed out, community tested, then tweaked, we will need to make sure the music is ready.

► Question: Will there be water transport in the game? Or battles on the water?
Grummz: No, not at this time.

► Question: What’s the catch with Udon?
Grummz: We talked about… Merch. Microfunding stretch goals. The art book. I’ve been approached by Udon who does art books. They want to do one for Em-8er.
Grummz: The catch is, our art is, a starting level production sketch. You start with a sketch and then usually, you take it all the way to a full-color glorious painting of it for marketing purposes. Even internally they do this. And we don’t do that. We skip all that because that would take a lot more time and expense. Why don’t we just take the sketch and go straight to model. So if we had an art book, it would be a lot more of these looser type of sketches. And maybe people are fine with that. It would be like a sketch notebook, rather than a book of production art. I think if we call it the “sketch book” rather than an “art book”, that would communicate better the type of art you’re getting in the book. So it would be something like, “The Em-8er Production Sketch Book”.



► Comment: My concern with making role switching too easy is what's the point with it rather than having to go into a menu and hit a button before doing something else.
Grummz: Role switching happens all the time in Planetside 2. [In Em-8er] Your role switching is only limited by the amount of crafting you've done. If you haven't built a tank, during an invasion, you're not going to be able to switch to a tank. If you want to switch pilots, that's different. It's a little more advanced than Planetside because the buildings have roles. That's been in the Vision doc [Book] for many years now.

► Comment: Exploration could be scouting Tsi-Hu dimension for the kaiju hunt raids. To add to this, maintaining a radar network could be fun. So you need to build radar station around the map to keep vision and alerts updated on the map.
Grummz: You want a radar network?

► Question: So yeah, about radio stuff. Could we get live internet radio or maybe in-game radio with D.J.s playing stuff?
Grummz: So you want to pump Spotify in the game? If it’s only for YOU it’s not a problem. If it’s heard by other people, then it’s a licensing nightmare.

► Question: Can we get a public copy of the vision doc?
Grummz asks the community: That’s something I wanted to ask you guys, should I make the vision doc [Vision Book] public? Because I’ve wanted to make the vision doc public and I’ve wanted to update it before I do. The visuals are sorely in need of an update.
F.A.I. (Faeryl): The consideration to remember is that it was a part of most of the previous Backer packs.
Grummz: I could do a condensed version, Fai. I think you’re right. I think if I did that I’d have to do something that’s more like the main overview section of the Vision Book and just put artwork in there and stuff. Because no one wants to read a big thick book. If they want to, they can become a Backer and download the full doc. Maybe we can do that. We can do an abbreviated Vision Book. Yep, I get it. Some backers may be like, “Hey!”. That’s a good point.
There’s a summary section that could be expanded with art work. And I’d want the lore section rewritten so it’s more focused on the Gatestriders rather than the alternative history and the rise of the Enshigi. I mean that stuff is nice, useful, background lore. But, if I was looking at a game, I don’t need to even know what happened hundreds of years ago, I’d like to know the setting now please. [laughs]



► Question from Grummz:
In crowdfunding, do you like it when there’s a physical item that you can get and especially if, unlike these other crowdfunders that say, “At the launch of the game you will be shipped your little miniature figure…” What if during our Kickstarter, you get the plushie in 4 to 6 weeks after funding; like right away. Straight to plushie.
[Discord Community answered in the positive]

► Question from Grummz:
Does the existence of physical merch make the Kickstarter better?
I tend to feel that, at least when I look at tabletop Kickstarters or gaming Kickstarters (for table top stuff), if they have really cool physical pieces, maps, and custom dice and things like that... I think they tend to do better.
I originally, was not going to do ANYTHING physical for Kickstarter. But, I think that especially at the higher tiers where we can cover the costs of that stuff, I think that having physical things that go along with your Kickstarter, make it feel more (real? … it was unintelligible); especially if you know you’re going to get that right away… as soon as the Kickstarter is over.

I’m talking, different tiers have different physical merch attached to it and you get it right away. After KS it goes to the factories. And you’ll have a prototype before KS. We’ll put it on stream and talk about it. Then on KS it’s tied to tiers, and you get the physical merch 4 to 6 weeks after KS ends; maybe a bit longer like, 8 weeks because it has to go to manufacturing. There would be the three pillars: Waifu, Kaiju, or Mecha related merch.



==== QUOTES ====
► “I need a hat, and I need a radio, and a BIG ASS TRUCK!” ~ Grummz
► “Think about space trucks.” ~ Grummz



==== FUN STUFF! ====
“[DeDa4oK] Thank you for the excellent V-Tubers by the way! Here is the art work my friend made and DeDa4oK rigged.” ~ Grummz

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Please if you haven’t already, check out the poll on the forums, link below!
https://forums.em8er.com/threads/em8er-merch-which-would-you-rather-see.2025
 

Pandagnome

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LOT of COOL information here so keep your eyes peeled!!
Much good information :eek::cool:

Mecha could be a resin statue. Plushies for kaiju (a cute-ified version). And for Waifus we could do body pillows. Waifu figurines would be very expensive, over $100 by themselves.
Em8er base for our statues and other toys?
1625655387076.jpeg

Character pilot plushie ?
1625655526124.jpeg


Grummz: “Right now I'm working on the Tsi-Hu culture because that's in the next chapter.”
Tsihu language could it happen?

Grummz: “We’re working on a pitch for a partnership with another company... for something … I can’t talk about yet. But you know we work with AMD and you know we work with Razer. This would be a third potential partner for Em-8er that we’re talking to.”
For something hmm ...does this mean Crixa labs is still incharge of the direction of the game than the others in the partnership ?
 
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