What was the hardest challenge the art team faced when bringing Crusader to life as a gas giant? Let's do it for Crusader and for Orison, because those had to be two very different challenges.

It turns out making a gas giant is hard, right? Well, let's see. So we started off by seeing how far we could get with the current tech. I think the last time I spoke with you, Jared, we were like, okay, we'll see what we can do. Abuse the rules, see what can happen. I think we got pretty far. We showed it to Chris and Chris was like, nope, we're missing the volumetric clouds, right? So the focus then turned into the volumetric clouds. But whenever you create something for the first time, it's always hard because it's the first thing. You've got to go through that process of trial and error. So with something like the gas giant, instantly the scale was the hardest part. For example, the radius of Crusader is, I think, about 7,500 kilometers, right? And, for example, Hurston is like 1,000, or one of the moons is maybe 300. So it's considerably larger. So with that scale, when the player flies in, you come up with a design and then you fly into it and you don't see anything move. So instantly that scale became the first thing that became a concern. And then second is just, we've never made a gas giant before, and you can look at fantastic satellite imagery, but we wanted to do something that was a little bit different. Chris had a very specific look in mind for Crusader that we wanted to achieve. And remember, like I said, that sort of feeling that wind has blown these clouds over the surface, so we wanted a particular look. So then the tech develops, and then Carsten, and Seb did a fantastic job as our principal tech artist of being that communicator between the art team and the tech team and translating what features we would need and how the tech works. So like I said, there's a lot of trial and error there. But then once you start doing look development, you start getting something. There was one day, OK, it was like, cool, this is working. And then Jake, who's previously been responsible for the space gas and the gas pockets and stuff in the game right now, he just had a little play, right? He was just very curious. He took the tech and then he tried something out and instantly it was like, that's Crusader. He hit it. The man was talking about the layer in. He just tried something out. We all looked at him and were like, that's fantastic. So Seb kind of took it from there and stabilized it. But it was quite a difficult journey just because it was the first thing for the game and it's brand new tech, right? So I kind of see it where, where we were a few years back in terms of planets, if you look at how they've developed and grown and increased in fidelity, it might give a good example of where we are right now with this new bit of tech.

And then for Orison, this is a classic example of taking a concept art that you look at and go, that's just going to be the best. Orison was always my favorite of the Stanton locations. I fell in love with Orison a long time ago. I looked at the concept art. And guess what? We put that blockout in game and it was like, this looks horrible. Horrible. Turns out a floating latticework in the sky with thin struts doesn't translate well from concept art into game. It tested us as a team. It tested us. But I think I speak for the team: through hard work, passion, dedication, just trying ideas, trying things, what we ended up with, we're quite happy with.

I sit in on those Tuesday reviews every week, and I remember a year ago, the first early tests of Orison and that latticework that you were talking about, and going, I don't know how he's going to do that. That doesn't look like it's working.

Yeah, it was a definite... okay. We had to fight for every win on Orison. Although we came with the experience of making previous LZs and previous modular locations, it tested the team to the fullest. But I think they did a fantastic job.