FAIR WARNING: This is a REAL beta-test by a small Indie, not some free trial like the AAA games throw.  Expect lots of bugs and unfinished content.  Help bringing the game closer to release quality is appreciated.

An apology, I've been quiet lately, with more than a few details to work out.

Beta-2 set for March 1st 2011 is on-schedule and will feature some major changes to the game.


1. I'm taking the game back to the roots of what inspired me into MMO creation in the first place... classic PC/console RPG.  Of the many games, probably the most influential is TES Morrowind.  I know I'm not alone in being a fan of these games and I believe this design presents a large untapped market in the MMORPG genre.

2. Huge overland world.  I've been working on a technique known as terrain paging, which is how the AAA games produce large seamless worlds.  The world is laid out into terrain-paged regions, with zone portals connecting regions.  With this I've been able to produce a working world surface area of roughly 55 square miles.  This is larger then the western continent of World of Warcraft, and not quite as big as both continents put together.

3. Twitch combat.  Melee attacks are based on weapon area of effect.  Magic attacks are based on projectile hits.  The tab-targeting system is completely removed.  No more tab and mash buttons style combat.  Now it's AIM and mash buttons :-)

4. Free For All PVP under consideration.  [under construction]  There are no good-guy / bad-guy factions.  Anyone flagged for PVP will be attackable by other players.  There are also going to be zones designated FFA, where any player in that zone, flagged or not, is attackable by other players.  Player loot is limited to CASH ONLY.  No gear drop is planned.  [NOTE: I will be working out details with people experienced in PVP gaming.]

5. Hundreds of dungeons.  The landscape of the overland will be littered with dungeon (crypt, cave, mine, other) entrances.  Dungeons are NOT intanced!  All dungeons will be configured as "group" mode, but should be able to be solo'd by a higher level with help of a henchman.

6. Level 20 level-cap.  The maximum level attainable is level 20.  Levels have been adjusted to work like sandbox games where the difference between a level 1 and level 20 is not all that much in terms of performance.  There are no weak nooblings for PVPers to gank.

7. Unrestricted gear usage by class.  All gear that is wearable by a certain class, can be worn by members of that class regardless of their player level.  No more gear or weapon level restrictions.  If you have rich friends, your level 1 can be god-like wearing top shelf gear and weapons.  THIS IS TWINK HEAVEN :-)



Beta-2 is expected to be rough, with much of this still being polished.  The help of beta-testers and advisers is greatly appreciated.  Hope to pick up a bunch more for this round of testing.

Ken

Awesome, Ken. Huge world, free aiming, lots of dungeons, and a low level cap sounds amazing. Can't wait to help test WAC.

The concept sounds good overall with the sandbox type setup. The fact that you are mixing he sandbox element with somewhat open PvP and restraining the player corpse looting to money only is far more interesting sounding that had you just resorted to the sandbox standard of total FFA PvP and full loot. Will be keeping an eye on this game.

Ken always has great ideas, problem with his games -- they never stick around -- he constantly working on a new game -- he must have a short attention span... it's really hard to fall in love with his games now -- knowing months from now he will come up with a new idea... :(

Originally posted by momodig

Ken always has great ideas, problem with his games -- they never stick around -- he constantly working on a new game -- he must have a short attention span... it's really hard to fall in love with his games now -- knowing months from now he will come up with a new idea... :(

I've watched Ken's progress for 3-4 years now and it is definitely true the game has taken a few changes over the years. He started out learning the technology and restricted by what he could do, then he was able to break away and start making his own design. I think the ideas have changed from what looked marketable, to what players said they wanted, to finally looking for that dev sweet spot of making a game the dev would want to play. The latter is the best if you want the dev to have unlimited passion for their creation. His new technology(twitch combat, huge terrains, etc) are pretty cool compared to what technology he started out with. If anything, it is always fun to see what he comes up with next.

If game companies took that approach nothing would get finished.  Again I enjoyed Ken's ideas, but I don't follow his games any more simply because I know down the road the current project will get canceled for another idea.  A dev really should stick with one idea, finish it.... and move on if need to be, or make changes that players want (instead of starting fresh).  To me these games seem more like a hobby to him, that toy model that just never gets painted.  Besides I think he uses the Torque Engine? or something similar.... buy using a 3rd party engine he's very restricted... I've noticed from all his games he has put out 3-4? They were almost identical in UI (due to the engine).  Using pre-made graphics is one thing but 3rd party engines are very hard to customize (look a minions of mirth)

The UI is all changeable through scripts. It just depends on much time the dev wants to focus on it and at what priority because it does take some time.  If the UI is functional and working then I personally rate it at the very bottom of my list.  Adding new technology, quests, art, etc. ranks higher.  He has changed the UI from the original but I wouldn't see any reason to change the UI during each test phase either.