Nice writeup.

To bad its by a first time poster and an obvious plant.

I am starting to get embarrased i was on the kickstarter for this...

@Onomas

The example you gave and the things you mentioned about SWG are a non issue. We aren't SWG Redux, our systems are not analogous to theirs, regardless of what many people who have never touched the game keep saying. People hear similar features and sci-fi and go "Omg it's the spiritual successor to SWG", but we're not and we're not trying to be that. You won't harvest millions of resources, and if you spend the time to feed 5 crafting lines all by your self, you won't be doing much, if anything, else. Last word was we aren't giving players santioned bots (aka harvesters), so again, non-issue.

We are looking at the good, bad, broken, and nonsensical things many MMOs, SWG certainly but not exclusively, have done in the past, but we're not following any particular games path in the creation of Repop. The team is comprised of people from all different MMO backgrounds, and we're all drawing on that to ensure that Repop is going to be a good game. I have no doubt that we'll make our own mistakes, but we won't be making SWGs or Darkfalls or anyone elses mistakes.

The economy won't be dead, the few people who will do everything won't have enough power to affect the player driven economy on a large scale. There is no difference between one character mastering every skill line and a whole account full of character each mastering a few things, which together encompass the whole set of skill lines. But even if you do master everything, you can't use it all at once. Without help you won't craft in every trade skill because you won't have time. Some of these skills have 5+ dependencies, so to do one completely by yourself you'd have to do 6. If you really want to skill up 6 trade skills at once, you can, but you won't be doing anything else becaue it will be a huge time sink. So basically you can do everything, but doing everything at once makes you ineffective.

I never once said, or even implied, that in a year you won't need anything from anyone. I did say, "If you think the few people who will spend years to master everything in the game will ruin the overall economy, you're mistaken." And I stand by that. I outlined the basic math behind how long it could take, using numbers far too generous, and playing every minute of every day for 9+ months, if you got a skill up a minute you could master everything. Except you can't get a skill up every minute as you progress into higher tiers. It's more like a skill up every 3-10 minutes.

The community picking things out, asking questions, and challenging our perspective will make Repop a better game. But don't assume we're going to walk right into the blunders of other MMOs. The devs are vocal on the forums, they understand the mistakes other games have made, and they are realistic. Keep doing what you're doing, but remember we aren't SWG2.

@hfzzt

The OP c&ped that from a blog. It has some incorrect information in it, but the person who wrote it was obviously an SWG fan who was excited at finding a sci-fi sandbox with similar features. If by obvious plant you mean enthused fan, then you'd be right, otherwise, had we actually planted it, it would at least contain completely correct information. Also, there's the fact that we aren't SWG2 or its "spiritual successor", and that's something the devs have repeatedly said. If we really wanted to plant something, it wouldn't have been the OP.

I think this was already posted in another thread here (as a link to a blog), don't think the OP was the original author, just reposting it. That having been said, if your suggesteing that one of our staff posted that, not likely. This was also posted on our forums, and we were quick to point out a few things about it.

Mainly, we don't want players expecting an SWG clone, because Repop is not an SWG clone. It does have many of the features that made SWG popular among sandbox fans, but our implementations of most of those features are very different.

Originally posted by hfztt

Nice writeup.

To bad its by a first time poster and an obvious plant.

I am starting to get embarrased i was on the kickstarter for this...

If you took the time to be a part of the comunity at therepopulation.com You would know if they wanted to plant something here,  JC, Josh or Kayletta would post it. So far, The Devs for this game have been one of the most transperant and informative dev teams I've ever seen. Thats one of the reasons I backed them.

This thread was made as a 'reply thread' for one I made. Basically why The Repop will fail.........

I, and many of my guildmates, stand by our collective analysis and feel this game will not be able to even

remotely be succesful. Again, it has to many 'negatives' going against it........../shrug

Actually actually actually!

The game failed, completely and utterly, the first time it launched. I see no real reason why it will succeed where it failed the first time.

It's Xsyon all over again, IMO. A year from now we'll be seeing this on Kickstarter begging for money to complete the game they promised people in the first place.

Originally posted by Atrocitus

This thread was made as a 'reply thread' for one I made. Basically why The Repop will fail.........

 

I, and many of my guildmates, stand by our collective analysis and feel this game will not be able to even

remotely be succesful. Again, it has to many 'negatives' going against it........../shrug

 

Actually actually actually!

I think you're overestimating your effect on the community. This post was made to highlight a blog that someone wrote.

And for someone who has decided that this game will suck and that it will fail, you're hanging around an awful lot.

Originally posted by Rednecksith

The game failed, completely and utterly, the first time it launched. I see no real reason why it will succeed where it failed the first time.

You may be thinking of another game, as this one has never launched.

I am holding out hope that Turbine's sudden re-opening of Asherons Call 2 is a sign that thier new project is Asherons Call 3, Asheron Call 1's gameplay with modern graphics...sandbox heaven.

Originally posted by Rednecksith

The game failed, completely and utterly, the first time it launched. I see no real reason why it will succeed where it failed the first time.

It's Xsyon all over again, IMO. A year from now we'll be seeing this on Kickstarter begging for money to complete the game they promised people in the first place.

This game is very different than Xsyon.. Nice try though.

Originally posted by KaylettaJade

There's actually a ton of information for people to salivate over, but it's on the Repop boards.

If it's on the Repop boards, you're doing yourself a disservice because it's not reaching people outside the existing circle. Most people will never read the forums for an MMO. Even of the invested players and dedicated fans, only about 10-20% of them will be reading your boards. Even less will be posting there. Your forums are a great place for the core players to get their information but the worst possible place to relay any information that you want the outside world to read.

On a similar topic:

If you are a gaming website and wish to link or publish any of our content we give permission to post any content posted with the news and do any editorial modifications as you see fit.  If you wish to be contacted by us whenever we do a news posting or have questions or like to do an interview with us please email us at admins@therepopulation.com with information about your company/website and any information or questions you might have.

Source: http://www.therepopulation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=199&Itemid=462

The gaming press has dozens of news items to pick from each week, if not daily. Don't wait for press to ask you for news or to even ask to be included in your news list. Most won't unless they have nothing else to report on, which rarely happens. A news blast once a month with the latest updates (include an image or photo!) will go a long way toward increasing the game's exposure and reach.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by KaylettaJade

There's actually a ton of information for people to salivate over, but it's on the Repop boards.

If it's on the Repop boards, you're doing yourself a disservice because it's not reaching people outside the existing circle. Most people will never read the forums for an MMO. Even of the invested players and dedicated fans, only about 10-20% of them will be reading your boards. Even less will be posting there. Your forums are a great place for the core players to get their information but the worst possible place to relay any information that you want the outside world to read.

On a similar topic:

 

If you are a gaming website and wish to link or publish any of our content we give permission to post any content posted with the news and do any editorial modifications as you see fit.  If you wish to be contacted by us whenever we do a news posting or have questions or like to do an interview with us please email us at admins@therepopulation.com with information about your company/website and any information or questions you might have.

Source: http://www.therepopulation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=199&Itemid=462

 

The gaming press has dozens of news items to pick from each week, if not daily. Don't wait for press to ask you for news or to even ask to be included in your news list. Most won't unless they have nothing else to report on, which rarely happens. A news blast once a month with the latest updates (include an image or photo!) will go a long way toward increasing the game's exposure and reach.

I realize most people who have noticed this game haven't read the main forums thoroughly. That's the main reason I come over here - to dessiminate the information to a wider audience. I do recommend people who are interested go to the main forums. There's so much information available there for people who have questions. And on top of that the devs, staff, and members of the community answer questions all the time.

As far as the gaming press goes, I believe the devs send out all of our news updates to the main sites (I'll admit I don't do it, so I don't know who all gets the updates, but I know it gets done). A few sites pick them up regularly, a few others inconsistently. We do try to get them out there, but they don't always publish it. We already do major monthly updates on the game that include most of the change notes and informative pieces on certain features as we get deep enough in to the development to say "This is how it will be". I think that blurb is mostly for the smaller sites/start-ups/blogs and sites interested in doing interviews.

Originally posted by WonderweissM
Idk if this means anything, but only like 1-2k people like it on facebook, and it only got 50k on kickstarter. My question is: Will this game have a good playerbase. By that I mean will I be walking, riding around and not see anyone for good amounts of time? Thanks.

They need to advertise this game, and no it doesnt cost millions to do so. In todays gaming community, word of mouth means nothing like it did years ago.

Originally posted by WonderweissM
Idk if this means anything, but only like 1-2k people like it on facebook, and it only got 50k on kickstarter. My question is: Will this game have a good playerbase. By that I mean will I be walking, riding around and not see anyone for good amounts of time? Thanks.

social media likes doesn't mean anything nowadays, and you cant expect a 50k mmo production budget to be compared to million dollar mmo production

plus, this kind of MMO is dependant on the player base to survive ( since it will be f2p with item malls ), and i believe as long as the players keep buying the items, they should keep running

and i just hope that this isn't another Earthrise, if you heard of Earthrise, they had so much more budget than Repop and they still close down within months

i guess the player base who will be playing Repop are mostly the ex SWG, Earthrise players who always look for sandbox, but GW2, SWTOR etc players will not even look at this

A lot to like about this game. Looks like it has a lot going for it.

Where/what is the best source for the latest info/vids?? Thanks in advance.

Originally posted by MumboJumbo

A lot to like about this game. Looks like it has a lot going for it.

Where/what is the best source for the latest info/vids?? Thanks in advance.

The best source is the website: http://www.therepopulation.com

Tons of information on the forums as well.

Prior to their Kickstarter campaign I spent some time looking into the game and checking out the developer interactions with their community, on the forums, via montly dev updates (which are huge), and even sometimes out in the wild such as here on the MMORPG.com forums.  I was very happy with what I saw of the game and the developers so I ended up intitially backing them for $50, then did another $30 upgrade and finally purchased a $10 "special" perk.  This adds up to $90 which is not only more than I have ever paid for a single game, but is also the most I have backed a game project on Kickstarter.  I feel good about the money I have given them.

I'm well aware that Kickstarter is a bit of a gamble, having backed other projects there including non-games, but I also wanted my money spent on The Repopulation to be a show of support for Indy devs who are willing to think outside the MMO box and bring us something other than another theme park.  I'm looking forward to trying the game out and contributing in beta, and playing it in 2013.

Originally posted by ragnarok635

The Repopulation may be the science fiction sandbox MMORPG that we've all been waiting for.

That's a very grandiose statement to make, I know. Hear me out, though, and you'll see why this may just beStar Wars: Galaxies 2.


First, a little background on the team behind this upcoming MMORPG. The company Above and Beyond Technologies is headed up by Joshua Halls and J.C. Smith. Joshua Halls seems to be a relative newcomer to professional game development, but J.C. Smith has been involved with Nintendo for several years. The rest of the team is an amalgamation of professionals and amateurs with aims to become professionals, and the quality of the game even in its alpha state is testament to their collective skill. Regardless of what happens with Repopulation, I see great things in store for this team.

Back in June, A&B ran a Kickstarter for The Repopulation that asked for the very modest sum of $25,000 to finish the game by mid 2013. Considering that Star Citizen earned itself seven million dollars through crowdfunding, and that The Repopulation itself earned just over $50,000 in its Kickstarter, I think they were selling themselves a little short. They would have been better served by paying more attention to their Kickstarter campaign at this time. That said, the influx of cash certainly has added a lot of polish to an already-polished game.

Spiritual Successor to Galaxies

Even just watching the few videos on Youtube that A&B has released will get you excited about the game if you're a fan of SWG. While the crafting system is certainly different from how SOE did it, preferring to use an overall grading system ranging from F0 to A9 instead of Galaxies' 1-1000 resource attribute system, the feel is similarly complex. Your skill at crafting improves on a per-recipe basis, not just a per-category one, as with SWG. You may be fantastic at producing light weapon components but abysmal at medium weapon components. This kind of system provides for a lot of variety in crafted items, and bodes well for a player economy.

Also, The Repopulation has a unique item decay system. Items have a Minor and Major condition, which decrease over usage. They can be increased by repairing an item, but repairing reduces the item's durability. Eventually, you will either wear out or repair your item into oblivion, requiring a replacement in much the same fashion as SWG had.

The Fittings System

Interestingly, The Repopulation has an item customization system which completely separates visuals from mechanics. You choose the appearance of items using molds, and then you can give the items stats by adding various Fittings. Fittings wear out just like items, and come in the same F0 to A9 grades. There's a lot of complexity here, and a lot of opportunity for customization. Now, that does mean that inevitably there will appear Flavor of the Month item Fitting combinations, but no game is safe from that.

Fittings first appeared in conceptual form in the now-defunct Hero's Journey, the very first MMORPG built on Simutronics' Hero Engine. Hero Engine, made famous by Star Wars: The Old Republic, has a special place in my heart. I worked as a world builder GM for Hero's Journey prior to its cancellation, and the engine was so easy and fun to work with that I was giddy with anticipation on what HJ would amount to. While that game never materialized, Fittings have seemed to survive through The Repopulation, which also uses Hero Engine. That makes me very happy.

These Graphics Don't Suck

Generally, indie games tend to fall into one of two categories - either they're artsy, or they're just bad. On rare occasions you'll find one that hits a very high-quality mark that competes with AAA titles. The Repopulation is one of those that has great visual appeal without catering to a niche audience. Some of the visual feel is comparable to Star Wars: The Old Republic, in terms of animation flow and physics determination. However, most of it has its own particular theme that suits the game's premise very well. The GUI is well presented and clean.

In essence, The Repopulation's UI looks a lot like how I'd imagine SWG would look, if given ten years to advance. The spiritual succession remains intact there. The icons being 2D instead of 3D is a departure, but a lot of the flavor is still present.

Creature Handlers Rejoice

The Repopulation features a pet taming system comparable to SWG's. You find juvenile creatures and tame them, then teach them abilities they can use in combat. Also like SWG and other games since, you can harvest creatures for their parts. However, The Repopulation's creature-harvesting system is even more complex than SWG's. Like with item crafting, you gain skill in harvesting from specific types of animals, so while you might be excellent at fetching skins from the six-legged scorpion-like beasties, you might suck at getting bone from others.

Oh, and Entertainers Too

Yes, The Repopulation will have entertainers. And yes, they're a lot like SWG entertainers, being able to buff other players at campsites by dancing or playing music. But they're a lot more, too - they can weave stories, tell jokes, and customize buffs to a degree Galaxies players opined for.

Nation Building: Beyond Galaxies

In SWG, player cities were a much-anticipated and enjoyed feature. However, The Repopulation goes a step beyond even this. Not only can players build out cities using buildings, furniture, city walls, and other decorative goodies, but they can populate those cities with NPCs, manage the NPC populace, declare war or allegiance with other player nations, and command player militaries with custom ranks and titles.

The nation system provides the third faction that SOE never got around to developing in SWG. If you choose to align yourself with a player nation instead of one of the two NPC nations, you have access to a host of customizations that are currently only touched on in EVE Online.

The One Failure

No game company, especially an indie company, is immune to failure. In this case, Above and Beyond's big failure is in its marketing. Only through word of mouth is hype spread about this game. While A&B does have a presence at a few major industry conventions, they have no advertising to speak of, and no marketing strategy. As a result, the player population could be devastatingly small at release for such a player-centric game. This may spell disaster for A&B unless they have help.

So, if you're at all interested in the kind of sandbox MMORPG that Star Wars: Galaxies presented, give The Repopulation a look! I know I'll be following its development very closely over the next year. There's a lot more about the game that's similar to SWG, so head over to their website and check it out.

 

Source: http://www.dicejockey.com/2012/12/succeeding-star-wars-galaxies.html

Three words of wisdom:

• Temper your expectations