All Posts by Drafell

Everquest helped to pioneer a whole new era in online gaming.

I remember playing when it first came out. Sure, there were some annoying issues, and features that may be considered primitive by today's standards, yet it was still the first popular 3D MMO out there, and king of the hill until WoW came along.

Sadly I just can't reconcile myself with EvE's skill system. It annoys me and pretty much removes my enjoyment of the game.

You dropped WoW for EvE?

That is like trading in Key-Lime Pie for cheesecake! How could you?

To be fair, they are both great games in their own ways.

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Originally posted by Bane82

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Originally posted by Waterlily

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Originally posted by Drafell

I am n00b, I don't deny it.

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< N00B too here

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<--- Not a noob here, have been playing MMO's since UO. But I don't resent noobs or WoW players or feel that somehow I'm "better" than the rest.

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How can you not be on the n00b side? Blasphemy!

Tabula Rasa is another game which went the wrong route with regards to graphics. Its major downfall iss the lack of customer base with a system capable of running the game efficiently.

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Originally posted by DrChicken
 
Exactly. There's just a fine line between graphics and gameplay that you have to tread in order to keep that up. One of my main problems with the up-and-coming MMOs on the market is that they don't utilize custom-designed graphics engines - they're all just mimics and continuations of say, the Unreal engine, for instance? (One of the many) A good example I like to use is Homeworld 2 - I keep going back to that game, not because it has "uber-awesome graphics," but because it keeps me entertained with the gameplay. The graphic on HW2 are nothing to scoff at, though (that fine line yet again).

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Especially with some of the graphics mods available. Mhhmmm...

Although I still prefer HW 1.

It's true. You cannot rule out the graphics. Sadly this is a large factor in attracting people to a game. If it looks poor graphically, then you will have trouble maintaining the initial curiosity, regardless of how good the game itself is.

One easy way to try and circumvent this to a degree is to go for a heavily stylistic approach. This is one of the big successes of WoW and games like Darwinia. They have a very stylistic approach to how various game aspects look, which can help reduce graphical complexity when creating new game assets.

The trick is in creating a balance that works for your target audience.

I am n00b, I don't deny it.

I prefer actual game play and design over graphics. Sure graphics give people the "Ooh" factor, but it's that game play that keeps people interested long term.

To get DarkSpace v1.5 published...

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Lol, even blizzard and IDsoftaware share their occlusion techniques. But somehow your little CCC title found something people didn't know yet.
Occlusion and HSR techniques came form mathematics and not from computer sciences, anyone can read and study it. I'm sure you haven't discovered something new mathematics didn't already know.

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It is a proprietary game engine and server model that has been in development for over 8 years. I am not referring to occlusion or HSR(Hidden Surface Removal), those are techniques that are used in graphics, and are very well known. With regards to the NDA I am referring to server architecture and zone management that relates directly the the Medusa platform.

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Originally posted by Waterlily

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Originally posted by paulscott

Zones are still there the user just never gets to see them unless really bad stuff happens.

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That's not true for every game though. WoW is seamless I believe.
Every flight simulator is seamless too. Vanguard is not completely seamless on the other hand.

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You will find that WoW most probably does use a zone system although it is largely transparent to the end-user(it wouldn't be much good if it was visible).

I would like to give an explanation onto how such zone systems can work in seamless universes, but unfortunately I am limited by NDA as most my my knowledge in this area comes from the project on which I work.

The biggest issues on the client side are with the amount of information you can keep resident in memory, as well as hard drive data transfer speeds in terms of loading data do and from the hard disk. The CPU is less of an issue, although there is naturally an innate overhead involved with any of these processes.

The server end is the main limiting factor in any seamless universe. Conventional zones are easy as you can dedicate a few to run on a specific server. You can easily have a relatively slow machine that can run a zone for 50-100 players. You do not have to keep that server closely in sync with others as they are running as a completely separate instance.

Keeping a bunch of servers all in sync in a seamless universe is a big challenge, and there are many various methods for dealing with this, but all of them have quite a significant impact on CPU overhead.

I hope this helps to explain a little.

It's quite simple.

You don't.

Some games focus almost entirely on PvP from the word go.

It entirely depends on the particular game you are looking at, although many popular titles tend to use it as the 'endgame' content once you have finished your character progression.

There are a lot of different games out there, although I like GuildWars.
The only problem is that you still have to buy it.

There are a LOT of EULA's out there that are far worse, and for some of the most popular game titles.

Welcome to the Jaded Gamers Club.

Beverages are available from the in house bar, although it might not offer the refreshment you expect as some of them are still in development even though they have been available for years. You may get a glass of yeast, you may get potatoes, or you may even get a real beverage that tastes amazingly like another beverage of a different brand, only worse.

Good luck and enjoy your stay.

Yeah, sounds like Second Life to me.

For most gamers a good firewall is more important than AV software. There is very little need to have AV software itself running if you use the internet sensibly, keep windows updated, and don't download lots of questionable software. I would still recommend running an AV scan every month, but there is little need to have it running 24/7 as most of these utilities seem to want.

There are a lot of all-in-one suites out there that cover both AV and firewall protection, but in terms of firewalls I would recommend Comodo Firewall Pro.

It's fully featured, free, and is one of the most secure products out there for the home user. The latest version also has the obligatory inbuilt malware/virus scanner, although I can really say how this part compares to other products on the market. It seems to work well enough.

Just remember to un-tick the browser bar plug-in when installing.

You could always save money and build a medium spec PC that will last almost as long, and donate the savings to me for my beer fund.