General Discussion

Sounds really nice ..... if the game succeeds it has really good chances to become the best .....and the first of a  totally new type of games .

But as BlindShooter asked previously what happens when u die (does ur character go to heaven or hell) I mean does it get deleted (because if so this will be a major disadvantage) .

And  what is the estimated  size of the game ..........for the world sizes and characteristics u promissed i doubt it'll be anywhere under 20 GB

Btw Won't all this mean that the min requirements for the game to run smoothly will be huge ...... but still it will still be at least 5 more years from now on until the game is finished so maby these requirements won't seem that big than.

Good luck in developing the game ... I'll be looking forward to it

This game has potential you've oppened my apetite.

Originally posted by BlindShooter

900 million km²?

How is it all going to be populated? I mean, sure npcs can be generated, but what about players? I fear it might end feeling like a giant ghost town. The explorer in me is very interested though.

You have to understand a little about how we are going about world history and progression to understand why we won't have giant ghost town problems.  We did not approach the project by creating a game play area and filling it with content.  Instead, we are creating a planet... an unpopulated planet.  That entire planet exists when you start the game, but this does not mean that all areas are developed at release, or that you have access to go everywhere (immediately).  We wanted a place large enough to handle anything we wanted to add to the game as history unfolds.  Your progression out into the world will flow naturally through various territories and kingdoms.  Because our world is an ever changing place, so are the areas in which you adventure. 

A simple example of this is how the world is divided.  These divisions do not remain constant, there is a war going on after all for control of the entire world.  However, at almost any given time Morphael holds certain lands, and these areas are EXTREMELY dangerous for you to enter.  At best you might be on a quick strike raid into his lands, or you may try to enter in disguise for a spy mission.  Either way your odds of survival would be low at best.  This means that a large portion of the world may be somewhat inaccessible to you for more than brief visits (and more likely at higher character levels).. 

Between Citadel lands and Morphael's lands you will find No Man's Land.  Here there is constant battle and yes, danger.  There are no surviving towns and villages in this area, it is a war ground.  Don't enter this area if you don't want to fight. 

There are three other types of areas in the world, the first being Citadel lands.  Here you will still find battle, but also much in the way of quests and adventures.  These lands are also vast, but divided into territories for game flow.   There are also other Kingdoms, where they have neither sworn fealty to the Sorceress of the Citadel, nor fallen to Morphael's army of creatures.  Finally there is wilderness.  These are untamed  lands where terrible creatures wander, but civilazation has net yet penetrated.  As time moves on some of the wilderness will begin to be claimed and developed by the Citadel, Morphael or another Kingdom.   New territores will be opened, lost civilizations discovered, forts and castles built, etc.

The point here is that players will not be dispersing out over the entire planet instantly.  The game has progression and change that will create the areas of community and flow for players.  There is a lot more to this, but it will have to wait.  I'm really only allowed to talk about general elements at this point, but this issue is well thought out in the design.  We'll release more information on the game world in follow up articles; this is, after all, an Introduction article.

 Jatar

Dev Team Member: Citadel of Sorcery

not sure if this has been answered any where ,

can you attack the players that are defending a town?

some big guilds like to plan raids on towns / dungeons / instances  in advance , how will this be possible

if the world is always changing?

and if the content is mostly all instances , then why have a world so huge?

anyway game looks like it can be something but i need to know more on the features.

Ok we all know promise and execution are two different things. But this sounds like a really cool concept. Something I'd surely would like to see come true. A changing world... wow. Lets hope they can live up to their concept.

I too am excited about someone finnally taking this concept and running with it. There are aspects that I dont like as much (instanced quest content) but understand that at this time technologically speaking it is necessary to have the game do what you want it to do.

An example of what I would like to see is having the town crier come through announcing a bounty on say one of Morpheal's generals attacking a province. Multiple groups/raids could take up this quest in a non instanced world and the team that actually kills the general gets the accolades. If multiple seperate groups are involved everyone could get some credit based on thier overall input to the effort. That is something more along the lines of what I would like to see where we compete against other players as much as the envrionment to change the world one way or another. Especially if you had players playing both sides - Morpheal vrs. Citadel and questing could include pvp actions against players of the opposing sides.  With a dynamic quest generating tool that could push the content that the player shows interest in that could be the ideal solution to the casual vrs hardcore vrs pvp vrs pve player types. Players who always choose the short term casual quest types will end up getting more of that etc. I can see so many possibilities with this game :) .

As the dev said if the world is big enough there should be enough of all types of content to satisfy all tastes. A raid oriented player could easily be satisfied by having to attack a general in a middle of an army or a noble in a castle. The quest giver could simpy be a rival or ruler/governer of a province or town. Once the noble is killed the quest dissapears and new politics take its place. For instance the nobles son who happened to survive now has an ax to grind, against the players and the other noble that put them up to it.

Even if this game doesnt make it the knowledge for developing the game will be out there and if its good it will find its way into future games, so this gives me great hope either way.

Something to consider for those complaining about art at this point. I think they are finnaly developing the game correctly. Most game publishersend up redoing 80% of all art during the last stages of beta due to the fact the game and game engine changes significantly through testing and development. Also by the end of development the art/content producers finnaly get all the tools they need to actually create this stuff  en mass. It only seems logical then to simply wait untill this stage has been reached in programing to actually sink a lot of resources into that part of the game rather than spending millions of dollars on content that will only get replaced right before release. Instead spend those same Millions on making the underlying game mechanics work first.

Then again I am the type of person where the art in the game is always secondary to me. So long as its good enough I am content. It does not have to be the best/new/groundbreaking for me to enjoy the game. I would rather have a completely average set of art in a game with a superb set of game mechanics than have superb art and average or below average game mechanics.

 Is there anything else you can tell us about this in house engine?  As I recall you/someone said it was an engine that one of the devs had created in the past and used for something not related to gaming.  Trident3D engine I believe.....Is this the same trident 3d engine used in some military apps?

~Hairysun~

  Oh....and some of us do understand the concept of place holders.  A good programmer isn't necessarily a good artist or modeler.  In due time.........

This sounds like fun.

Can I be evil?

Hmmm, sounds to me like there could be issues with a new type of "world" griefing. If indeed a group can destroy a town then what is to stop a large group of people (I don't know if clans or alliances will be possible in this game) decide that they want to destroy everything?

They proceed to invade and destroy all of it. Now, in a perfect game you then get a new type of world... sort of like a world that has undergone an apocalypse. However, I could also see many players adopting a "this sucks" sort of attitude and going elsewhere.