KI Live - March 2022 Rundown

KI Live – March 2022 (Rundown)

State of the Games:
Wizard101: Starting to drop teasers, test realm “soon-ish” possibly. Not next week, but soon after that. Teasers so far include 5th Age confirmation & the PvP Cast.  (03:00 ~ 03:40)

Pirate101: Continuing to get things “up and running”, breaking ground on a small update they hope they can talk about next time. Excited to start with some content and planning for a special birthday. Introduction of Drew as Pirate’s “Senior System Designer”. (08:28 ~ 09:36)

1. ‘JM’ is introduced as the voice actor for Dyvim WhiteHart. | 10:30 – 11:03. [0]
Though we learn he also voices The Bantam & Johnny Law, and some other mob voices. | 20:04 ~ 21:12 [1]


The show:
Section 1 – Teasers:
1. New PvP gear was shown, different sets per rank, teasing a possible new Overlord rank. [2]
2. Cantrips was finally shown after years of speculation since 2015. Teased as “Magic outside of Combat”, the teaser shows various effects and even some combat features. Coming with the spring update. [3]
3. A new house known as “Open Space” was teased, a very flat terrain exterior house to give decorators freedom. The skatepark castle blocks were also shown. (01:16:00 – 01:17:40) [4]
[2] 05:00 ~ 05:28 /  [3] 06:36 ~ 07:09 / [4] 01:16:00 – 01:17:40

Section 2 – Questions:
Q1. What are you looking forward to the most in 2022?
A1:
    • Falmea – Going back into the office. They're also building a livestreaming room! Excited for Pirate updates & a lot of things that can’t be shared yet. (40:20 – 41:10)
    • Decius (and also Sparck) – Also excited for that streaming room, it will have a dedicated sound board, a machine to do camera switching, recording, etc. (41:05 – 41:15)
    • Vanessa – Looking forward to more plushies! More plushies coming soon! (41:50 – 42:02)
    • Maceryn – Pirate101’s 10th Anniversary!  (42:06)
    • Ratbeard – Getting some “big initiatives off my plate” (42:23 ~42:31)

Q2: Why are most of the characters in both games animals?
A2: Who doesn’t want a world with “dogs in pants” and “cows in kimonos”. More fun that way! [5]

Q3: How do you balance school identity with allowing every school to do the same basic functions?
A3 (Ratbeard): You may have the wrong definition of school identity. It mostly applies to Spells and not Wizards. For example, Life is an example of a very strong school identity. Trying not to spread mechanics specific to a school identity across many schools if they can but can’t do anything about the past. [6] (51:20 – 53:36)

Q4: Any spells that will have their animations updated?
A4: Answer is maybe, a lot of new game modes along with some unannounced game modes. When thinking about rewards, altered animations for (in particular) spells is one way players can flex their success. Practically, they need to decide whether to spend time making new spells or updating existing ones. [7]

Q5: Rhoshambo coming to PvE?
A5: PvP Only spells will be staying there for the short term but with the upcoming Spellements overhaul, many of the Rhoshambo concepts will be coming to PvE, feeding into the wheel. Ultimately this will lead into PvE Hard Mode.

Q6: What are some new rewards being added to PvP?
A6: The PvP gear (cosmetic) was shown, the cast animation (attached to a new PvP weapon). There will be some new craftable gear obtained by participating in PvP on-par with the Motorist’s Overcoat. [9] 01:01:07 – 01:03:15

Q7: Any plans to add new activities or expand on existing ones?
A7: Expanding on PvP, Cantrips sort of qualifies, but not to the extent of gardening or fishing. More work on that end. Nothing really planned short term. [10]

Q8: Can we get some Hybrid hints
A8: The PvP and Beastmoon stuff have none, but there are some Hybrids out recently, and new pets will come out sometime in early May. A hint is they are sea creatures, that like other sea creatures! [11]

Q9: Can we get a friends list expansion elixir?
A9: There is a way but there is no guarantee until programming confirms that way works. If it works out, it will be added to the list and they can do that. [12]

Q10: Have you ever pitched to a network a “Saturday morning” style cartoon for W101?
A10: Since the acquisition they have explored many crazy things, this is not one of them. Though, with on demand streaming it seems more achievable than cable. Cool idea and they’ve always wanted to do it. [14]

Q11: Hardest thing to program in the game? Guess is Lv50 Elixir.
A11: Yep, the elixir was really tough, though it was done by another programmer. Cheryl recently worked on the crowns reward feature, which required coordination and was really challenging. [15]
[5] 43:20 – 43:50 / [6] 51:20 – 53:36 / [7] 57:46 – 58:58 / [8] 59:53 –  01:01:00 / [9] 01:01:07 – 01:03:15

[10] 01:11:10 – 01:12:00 / [11] 01:12:10 – 01:13:00 / [12] 01:13:36 – 01:14:10 / [14] 01:19:00 – 01:20:02

[15] 01:20:41 – 01:21:00

Section 3 – Data with Decius (01:03:59 – 01:05:49):
    • There are 8272 unique spells that were casted by players and mobs.
    • A total of 239,965,118 successful recorded casts in 2021 (players and mobs).
    • Of all spells cast by players and monsters, “Snow Serpent” is #1. It was cast 4,282,968 times.


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Question taken out because of summary-reasons:
Q3: Favorite (favourite) part of the job?
A3:
      Falmea –The people! Both KI people & the community. They have something special here. (4406-4426)
    • Ratbeard – Interacting with the fans, he does it more than most devs and whilst there are bad times, he enjoys those too. (Ha!) (4430-4501)
    • Sparck – Working with the community, though he doesn’t like the “Manager” part of “Community Manager” as it sounds “managerially”. (45:12 – 46:20)
    • Decius – Enjoy being at a game studio that is “super stable” with the MMO group, watching people have families and coming back to play. Other than that, loves fixing bugs and interacting with the community. (46:25-47:30)
    • Maceryn – Being able to make stuff for everyone to see and contributing. 47:49 – 48:07
    • Vanessa – Working on something and seeing it out in the wild. Proud of the GameStop stuff because she can be like “hey I worked on that”. Also the people, the team & the community. (48:08-48:35)
    • Mike – Getting to work with “wonderful weirdos” like JM and having them take words on paper and bring them to life, then see the players enjoy those words.