Question on (Spoiler)

[Zibbles.6349]

Seeing as Kralkatorik was in the episode, were there any interesting decisions you had to make when designing the fight and its mechanics (I'd imagine it's kind of tough to represent a force of nature that could probably easily wipe out everyone)? Also, are there any insights you're allowed to give regarding Kralk's plans and motivations before/during the episode?

[Cameron Rich.3905]

One thing we knew going into this episode was that we wanted to capture Kralkatorrik's Scale (size) as much as possible. He's one of the biggest creatures we've ever developed, so we went into early development with a big question:

 

*How do you actually fight/damage something that large?

 

To answer that, we began with trying to come up with a plan that was fantastical, but somewhat practical. We thought about bringing the entire forge down on him, impaling him with dwarven stone spears called "Dragonkillers", or even shooting him in the head with a specialized, gigantic dwarven bolt gun that was powered by the forge's heat. As development continued, we realized that none of these really felt like *you* were killing the dragon.

 

This is where the concept of weak points came in. Inspired by games like Shadow of the Colossus and God of War, we wanted to give players a target to attack that would respond and react to the players' actions in such a way that you could *visibly* see the damage you were dealing to the dragon. Ron Harvey, Kralkatorrik's Animator, put together a quick prototype early on, which definitely helped us realize this was the way to go. One of our FX artists, Scott Allan, whipped up a really awesome rendition of the weak point object, and we collaborated on setting up damage states for different health thresholds, as well as a "hit" effect every time you struck the weak point.

[Erik.6951]

I really appreciated flying over Kralkatorrik. My minimap told me I was moving *fast*, while my eyes looking at Kralkatorrik told me I was moving *slow*. Those things together made me realize just how kitten large Kralkatorrik is.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Erik.6951" said:

> I really appreciated flying over Kralkatorrik. My minimap told me I was moving *fast*, while my eyes looking at Kralkatorrik told me I was moving *slow*. Those things together made me realize just how kitten large Kralkatorrik is.

 

Yes, this helped gave the feeling of an epic-sized beastie, whose sneeze would transform the landscape of mountain ranges.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

> @"Cameron Rich.3905" said:

> One thing we knew going into this episode was that we wanted to capture Kralkatorrik's Scale (size) as much as possible. He's one of the biggest creatures we've ever developed, so we went into early development with a big question:

 

Out of curiosity, does finally getting an Elder Dragon of such huge sheer size give you guys a sense of disappointment or wishing you did better with Zhaitan and Mordremoth's fight? As fun as fighting the Mouth of Mordremoth is, it just doesn't have the same feel as when we fight Kralkatorrik, and Zhaitan... well, I don't think anything needs being said.

 

And given the size of Primordus' head in Season 3, how much more challenging do you think that fight would be compared to designing Kralkatorrik's?

 

(I will add, I'm glad you didn't go with the bolt idea, that would just have felt like the Zhaitan fight in new skin by the sounds of it.)

[Cameron Rich.3905]

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

>

> Out of curiosity, does finally getting an Elder Dragon of such huge sheer size give you guys a sense of disappointment or wishing you did better with Zhaitan and Mordremoth's fight?

 

Zhaitan was built in a different environment, with different resources. We've had 6, going on 7 years since the release of Guild Wars 2, so there's been a *lot* of new tech that's come online that the original designers did not have access to. So, I wouldn't say it's a disappointment to look back on Zhaitan when comparing that encounter to Kralkatorrik's - It's more that I'm incredibly proud of just how far we've come in the last few years.