BioWare developers and producers hosted yet another Ask-Me-Anything session on Twitter and shared new and exciting details about what they changed in Anthem from the Public Demo for the full release, what plans they have, how the recently announced Roadmap is going to be expanded and more!
Run and Walk speed in Fort Tarsis has been updated
In the Demo it was impossible to run while in Fort Tarsis. The developers said this was intentional as they felt like this slower speed brings out the feeling of being a human. Inside your exosuit you are a “superhuman”, but in Fort Tarsis you are slower, more… natural.
It turned out that the community did not like that one bit. So, changes are happening! Walking speed is being made even slower, but you can opt to run in Fort Tarsis now!
We have increased the run speed since the demo as far as is technically allowed. Also, we felt that we didn’t get the walk speed right, as you would accidentally move past or miss interaction points and NPCs while walking due to the speed being so high, so we adjusted that down. https://t.co/1RPjljtVLe
— Michael Gamble (@GambleMike) February 8, 2019
If an Instance in Freeplay is full, you can’t join your friend, who is in it
Anthem’s Freeplay allows only up to four players to be in one instance at a time. This means that if you want to join a friend of yours, who is already out in the wilds, you will only be able to do that if there is a spot in their instance. If not, you will have to group up before you venture out.
If there is a free spot, yes. Otherwise you will need to both group up and then launch https://t.co/0V3HYVhKJu
— Ben Irving (@BenIrvo) February 8, 2019
You can traverse the whole map of Anthem’s world
In the Demo we only got to see a small portion of the map in Freeplay. In the full game we will be able to traverse from one end to the other without loading times at all. Unless you enter an instance, which is clearly marked with an icon on the map, you will be able to jump and fly your way from one corner of the map all the way to the other.
This is only available in Freeplay, though. In instanced group-based missions such as Strongholds, you will be prompted to keep close to your teammates and if you stray too far away, you will be loaded in to the group after a while.
the above applies to freeplay ONLY. For missions, we dont want folks straying too far off, as youll have friends and freelancers who need you.
— Michael Gamble (@GambleMike) February 7, 2019
Cataclysms are major world events
Remember that first gameplay video of Anthem? The one that ended with the players “entering” what seemed to be extremely deadly storm for an unknown reason? These are going to be major world events, called Cataclysms. They have the power to change the world, but are time-limited and you will have to be careful not to miss the moments when one goes “alive”.
Discover Cataclysms – world-changing, time-limited events including extreme weather, dangerous new enemies, and new mysteries to solve. #AnthemGame pic.twitter.com/yTUnZ55fA2
— Anthem (@anthemgame) February 7, 2019
Alliance System will be live for the launch, Guilds will come a little after
As I already mentioned this in my ANTHEM Alliance System Explained. Guilds Coming Soon post, I wont go into details. Mark Darrah’s tweet simply confirms once again the developers’ plans. The Alliance system will allow you to get benefits (Experience and Coin) from playing with your friends and/or other random players. Guilds will be introduced with one of the regular updates, part of Act I, which will start to be delivered in March.
No guilds at launch.
We will have the Alliance system https://t.co/ZBQiSgNQfz— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
Anthem will have not one, but two Day-One Patches
For many years it has been a tradition that each live service game (and not only) gets a major day-one patch to fix issues and bugs in the last minute before players rush into the game’s world and start exploring. Anthem’s fragmented start will allow the developers to sneak in not one, but two updates with quality of life improvements and bug fixes – one on February 15 for the Early Access and another one a week later for the Full Launch on February 22.
There are updates on the 15th and the 22nd of Feb https://t.co/nzVX1eaJVZ
— Ben Irving (@BenIrvo) February 7, 2019
You do not need to get back to Fort Tarsis after an expedition
The introduction of the Social Hub (Launch Bay) is a big plus for all of us, I think. Especially when we get to the end-game and all the story is behind us. Mark Darrah delivered an expected confirmation that you will not be required to travel back to Fort Tarsis (meaning teleport) to get your loot and gear updated and sorted, pick up another mission and head back out. All of these activities can be done in the Hub as well.
There are updates on the 15th and the 22nd of Feb https://t.co/nzVX1eaJVZ
— Ben Irving (@BenIrvo) February 7, 2019
Racing might be added to Anthem after launch
Anthem will have a long-lasting live support, BioWare claims. One of the possible side-activities might be races. Mark Darrah’s twitter is a bit elusive on the subject. It’s not 100% clear if he confirms that the studio is enjoying these and will offer them soon after launch as an additional activity or Mark simply liked the idea and nothing more.
We will be adding new activities and things to do over time.
Races would be coolhttps://t.co/zb7rG3cFIR— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
Additional Javelin customizations may be introduced in the future
The amount of customization Anthem allows you to do to your exosuit is quite deep, but the developers are always looking to expand this with future updates and suggestions from the community.
One such idea comes from this tweet:
Not at launch but we definitely want to look at some of thesehttps://t.co/02jTgj8S9y
— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
You can play the core story campaign of Anthem via matchmaking
I am a SWTOR fan and a veteran player of that game. Duh! As such, I know how frustrating is when you want to enjoy a class mission with your friend, significant other or just the player waving at you near the entrance of the instance. Anthem will allow you to go through 100% of its core story campaign via the matchmaking system.
— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
Once again, no plans for romances in Anthem
It has been said several times in the past months, but the studio is firmly staying behind their decision to not include romances in Anthem. You will be able to get to know your crew and other characters in the game. You will create special bonds and relationships with some of them, but romancing them wont be possible.
For now…
https://t.co/WBnvvRDgnE
No romance right now
Nothing stopping us in the future is people want it— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
You can customize your character, the pilot. Once!
The human character has not gotten much attention from the developers publicly yet. This doesn’t mean you wont be able to modify the appearance and some other characteristics of your main hero. First, you will get to choose between male and female voice, of course. Second – you will get to choose a face out of a number of pre-made models.
What’s most interesting is that for launch you will only be able to do that once – at the start of your game. Maybe later there will be an Anthem version of a barber shop introduced, but for now you have to be careful. Your character’s body and face wont show up much, mostly in cinematics in Fort Tarsis, but this doesn’t mean you should neglect picking the most suitable visuals for them.
Yes though only at start of game
No
No
Maybe. Not at launch
Only 1 question per tweet pleasehttps://t.co/QUwQjUdYMl— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
We have focused our personalization efforts on the Javelin.
For the pilot, you will pick a pre-generated head from a listhttps://t.co/bgWJXGLlSv— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
Devs made significant performance updates since the Anthem Demo
When Anthem was first introduced at E3 2017, it looked absolutely stunning. What we got to see in the VIP and Public Demos, however, was quite disappointing. Don’t get me wrong. The game still looked amazingly good, but not even close to the visuals of the clips from two years ago.
It’s clear, BioWare downgraded the graphics to achieve at least some level of performance balance for the demo. Since then, the studio claims to have made a number of updates to make certain the target FPS for consoles and PC are met easily.
Will that be so, we have a week to wait and see!
There are significant performance improvements between the Demo and today.https://t.co/FU8OKMQGZi
— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
Will Iron Man suit be available in Anthem? Probably not
Everybody who has played the Demo seems to feel like an Iron Man. I personally only felt it when I was in the Colossus exosuit. I felt like that bulky suit Tony Stark got on top of his regular Iron Man armor.
BioWare’s response was vague and more leaning towards a no. You will likely not see an Iron Man inspired javelin from the studio. That doesn’t mean you can’t adapt one of the existing suits to match the superhero’s appearances!
This would require a conversation with Disneyhttps://t.co/AkEdGYUgMn
— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
No Photo Mode in Anthem
One of the most requested features for Anthem is the Photo Mode. This game is absolutely beautiful to look at and the amount of customizations you can do to your javelins, is insane. With that said, it’s only logical that we all want to take snapshots with high quality without the annoying HUD in the way.
The biggest issue that prevents the devs from including a Photo Mode is the fact that Anthem is a live game. There is no pause button. The moments you would want to take an image of yourself or the environment, would be outside the safe zones and that’s where time never stops just because of you.
That is why BioWare doesn’t want a Photo Mode in Anthem. But, who knows… the future will tell if the devs will give up to the high demands.
Not at launch but it is widely requestedhttps://t.co/NjrJXjjKCj
— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
No swappable melee weapons at launch
Each one of the four javelins has a melee attack. There wont be a way for you to swap out the melee weapon, though. At least not for launch. Even if it appears as an option later, it would most likely be just a visual/cosmetic attraction as including and allowing different weapons to be used by different javelins would mean a lot of tweaking and re-balancing.
We have melee weapons. As to swappable ones, not at launchhttps://t.co/z6btEk7pBY
— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
No Spactator mode at launch of Anthem
In the Anthem Demo one of the most annoying things was when you are defeated and have to wait for a friend to fix you. During that time all you see is a darkened image with a huge flashing red circle on your screen. spectator camera would be a great addition and the devs know it. However, this feature will not happen for launch.
Probably not for launch but we are looking into thishttps://t.co/rABZulktdv
— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) February 7, 2019
That’s all I have for you for now. There are a few more bits and pieces, but most are either not set in stone and devs are giving rather evasive answers or they are repeating already established facts that you have seen covered here on VULKK.com. Stay tuned for more Anthem news and updates as the game is preparing for its official launch!
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