Ashenfold Cartel: Interview with Jeff Grubb and Eric Flannum (2011-12-13)

[Centaur]

A while back the people from the Ashenfold website sent a series of interesting questions to ArenaNet. Here are the answers that they received:

Q: Where is the Arch Exchange located and how big is the organization? Is it related to the Xunlai, and what purpose does it serve in Tyrian economy? Is it a sort of “Tyrian Stock Exchange”?

Jeff Grubb: When Cantha shut its doors to the rest of the world, there were a number of individuals who were left outside. This includes a number of the Xunlai, including Hao Luen, who used the organization and magical abilities of the original order to form the Arch Exchange of Lion’s Arch. Not tied to any particular race, the Arch Exchange has both proved to be a fair dealer in inter-species trade, as well as the financial support for the band of pirates who re-established Lion’s Arch. It is a small but very profitable organization within Tyria, and has representatives in all the major cities. It is primarily a family organization, the current head is also named Hao Luen, and is a descendent of the original founder.

Q: When were rifles and pistols introduce in Tyria? How did humans first begin to produce them? And how common are they in Tyria for regular people of each race to use?

Jeff Grubb: Blackpowder, also called Dwarfpowder, existed back when humans still ran the world (that is, during the original Guild Wars), and was used in larger scale weapons like Canthan Siege Turtles. It’s unclear whether explosives were first discovered by the dwarves, the Canthans, or both came up with the idea separately. Over the centuries, its use has spread among the major and minor races, though only the five major races produce rifles and pistols in any quantities. The charr excel in mass-producing such weapons from a common template while the humans prefer a hand-crafted style. Both races have pistols and rifles, but you will tend to see them in more common usage in the Black Citadel than in Divinity’s Reach. Norn are comfortable with blackpowder weapons, and the sylvari have grown their own gun stocks. The asura use them, but usually in combination with arcane aiming and reload systems of their own devising.

See here for the full interview.

[Centaur]

Looks like I overlooked this (recent) update from Eric Flannum on one of the questions from this interview:

Hey all, I'd like to clarify the answer to one of the questions in this interview that I just got wrong. Custom emotes were not on our intended feature list but Habib, the coder responsible for our emotes added them in (because he's cool like that). Just checked it out in game and it works and has been in the game for some time. Sorry about any undue disappointment this may have caused.

[Vayne]

Thanks for this Centaur...I was a bit surprised it hadn't been included, but I tend to take what devs say at face value. As a member of an RPG guild, it's a relief to hear.

[Tigris Cattus]

What are custom emotes? Player-made ones?

[roshamjoe]

Not sure how other games handled them but the ones I'm familiar with were typcially stuff like:
I type: /e writes a response.
you see: Roshamjoe writes a response.

or something like
I type: /e goes to bed because it's way too late to be up.
you see: Roshamjoe falls asleep on his keyboard.

Stuff like that

[Centaur]

I type: /e goes to bed because it's way too late to be up.
you see: Roshamjoe falls asleep on his keyboard.

That would be a very clever emote system

[Tigris Cattus]

Not sure how other games handled them but the ones I'm familiar with were typcially stuff like:
I type: /e writes a response.
you see: Roshamjoe writes a response.

or something like
I type: /e goes to bed because it's way too late to be up.
you see: Roshamjoe falls asleep on his keyboard.

Stuff like that

Oh okay, just some fine RP elements.

I was really surprised as emotes in most MMOs are also the animation being played haha

[Ruse]

Oh okay, just some fine RP elements.

I was really surprised as emotes in most MMOs are also the animation being played haha

Sometimes if your custom emote includes one that has an animation, the animation will play as well.

IE /laughs heartily would produce "Ruse laughs heartily" and my character would do the laugh. It did this in AoC if I recall....would love it if in GW2 it's the same.