Ask the Devs Thread for Devstream 60: July 1st, 5PM EDT

Not exacly a question, but

On behalf of ”SourceSTUFF ” magazine I would like to invite some members of Trendy Entertainment to participate in our special issue, that will be fully dedicated to this company and their work.

”SourceSTUFF” is a growing community project that covers various aspects of gaming community. We already worked with different modelers, artists and other people, which one way or another related to Valve and Steam Community in general, and we wanted to expand our field of work. There are many fans of TrendyEnt among us, that will be happy to learn something new about people who work there, their ideas etc.

This is in a no way a commercial project, so there will be no payment.

You can check some of our previous issues here

And here is the latest issue.

I would like to know if you'll be interested in that.

Can we get more hotfix/updates, to "try" and help these bugs BEFORE a big release hits and infects the game with 40+ more?

We used to have a gear passive system where certain passives would only roll on 1 item (Vector Corrector only on Helmets). This was changed, and split over all items to allow for a more gradual progression towards end-game GG gear. Why the sudden decision to go back to the old system with the original 4 hero re-work? Are you not worried this will leave players with very little gear grind or upgrade options?

When specifically is the Power Up-date coming out?

@littledude701 quote:

When specifically is the Power Up-date coming out?

If you mean the buff to the original 4 heroes, then the only date we have at the moment is "July". Release dates are often announced on the Dev stream, so I suggest turning in to those every other Friday. The next is on Jul 1st.

Can we pre-set buildings before the map starts? For example have all the buildings built by selecting a list of loadouts for the map. Maybe even share loadouts in a community sharing system.

Ok, so I watched the video for the gunwitch and in the comments some people were asking if she had a crush on the apprentice because she was cuddling a little plushie that looked like him.

My question is : would it be nice to see a synergy system implemented giving an additional ability to characters if 2 in the same party share some kind of affinity.

For example, the squire and the countess could do a massive taunt and reduce damage even more if they stick close to each other or the apprentice and the gunwitch (if she does have a crush on him story wise) could cast a big comet falling, doing crazy damage on mobs below.    Both players could have a glowing icon next to the ability bar hinting the special ability is ready.

Chrono Trigger anyone?

@DRAGONVSKIRA quote:

Can we pre-set buildings before the map starts? For example have all the buildings built by selecting a list of loadouts for the map. Maybe even share loadouts in a community sharing system.

even just a replay option that allows you "one click" rebuild on a map you have just completed if you chose to replay the map.
This idea however would be game breaking for build timer maps such as Bastille and Harbinger (after first build phase).

How is drop chance prioritized?

It feels like the following is how loot chance is calculated? is this correct?

1. Only loot that can be used by your current 4 card deck can drop.

2. The current hero selected from your deck is the most likely loot type that will drop.

If number 2 is correct, could that be changed? wanting to gear a monk builder, but feeling that one has to play a monk dps just to get monk builder gear to drop feels bad. It would be nice to be able to play for example the gunwitch, and still have a higher drop chance for your monk or another class in your deck.

I could be utterly wrong with this, but thats why I am asking^^

I like Flamethrowers. They are one of my staple towers in my Fire-elemental playstyle along side Oil effects, However, when I looked at the patch notes for Power Up, they were left unchanged, but the Flameburst gets improvements. Is there any plans to either improve them in later patches, either by making passives outside of Pyromania or stats in general? 

I know I don't speak for everyone so take this opinion/question with a grain of salt.

When are you planning on adding in challenging content for end game players?

I cannot fathom why you are making gear pieces easier to farm, without upping the difficulty. 

Some of us are already sitting on perfect gear (or damn close) with the current gear system and waiting for harder content to use it in. Gear farming for that 1 or 2 more stats or 100 more DPS on gear is the only thing challenging we have right now, and It sounds like it may become even easier to get geared up. At least that is how I understood it from reading the changes, I could be wrong.

When I say challenging content I don't mean maps like Buried Bastille. I loved the idea of a timer, and love the level design. However it is far far too easy. The day of release some of us were already farming the NM4 INC with 300+ seconds left. In the games current state we can farm any map on NM4 while watching TV. Give us something very hard to shut us up and keep us busy. 

Please don't forget about the end game players!
We want to be challenged and have fun too.

EDIT: formatting

Since you spread harbinger weapons among other maps: don't you think this makes fighting bosses useless? Or wi5lö there be another point in farming bosses in the future?