Originally posted by lancelot76

Originally posted by Draq

On hold does not mean "Over". Considering DR and GS are slowly dieing along with the rest of the MUD commnunity and Simu knows it, I doubt they're willing to write off HJ, which could be their only hope of staying in business for another decade, so easily.

Also just because HJ itself is on hold doesn't mean the HeroEngine is. With a smaller staff, It's entirely possible, like I've been saying for months, that they've put HJ on hold because they need to complete work on the HeroEngine first.

It's not a case of lies, evil lies, and/or bell peppers, it's just a case of unfortunate circumstance and prioritization.

 

I agree that this game's fate seems to have fallen to the realities of the market. What looked like one of the more promising PvE stories integrated with the HJ gameplay engine is just another victim of  circumstance. I can't remember now how many years I've been following this game, off and on. Somewhere between 5-10. At least the engine will see the light of day thanks to Bioware and KoTOR.

So maybe this game is "on hold." Maybe in another 5 to 10 years it will have a playable alpha. While there's nothing wrong with that, I'd have to disagree somewhat with Draq. On hold does not mean "over"...but after 10 years go by, in the MMO industry, still on hold means the same thing as cold in the grave. Look up the definition of "vaporware" and you will it listed as "Hero's Journey."

R.I.P. HJ.

Interestingly, lnowing Simmutronics this could still happen, even if the game released in the next 3-4 years plenty of people would still pay to play it.

Originally posted by Yuui

This mmorpg is the biggest mistake Bioware will ever make.

Let's hope that when this ....thing is canceled, arrogant people at Bioware will see their mistake and commit on to develop KOTOR III, instead of Yet another mmo.

What a complete and utter fool.... This game will be phenomenal from the content they are producing and the engine being used.... They have a very high probability of being very very succesful.

FOR real KOTOR fans this will be way better than more of the same dross.

Originally posted by nate1980

My problem with stealth classes in Bioware games is that stealthing is a chore, since you have NPC party members that don't stealth. So you have to leave them at the door somewhere, stealth ahead of them, and then go back for them. So in Bioware games where I did play a class that could stealth, I never put points into that ability since I hated leaving my crew behind or having to go back and get them.

Thios is an online MMO ., you play the one charachter .... not sure waht you are saying is at all relevant.

Originally posted by Jatar

Originally posted by Isane

Originally posted by emperorwings

If this lives and is out of development in under 5 years then i'll give it a try. Good to see NPC acting like players. And if I read right NPC raiding mobs that can hunt you.

 

Very Viable in what is essentially a small group game for adventuring......

The NPCs will just wander to a set of rules and appear to be doing more than standing at a spawn point.

Mount & Blade has a very similar system where roaming mobs track based on skill, pretty easy to do when you may only have 1-10 players in a world instance + all the NPCs.

 

Well, no.  Not exactly.  Your comment about having NPCs act like players being 'viable' in this system is certainly correct.  Where you went wrong when talking about Citadel of Sorcery is the idea that NPCs will 'just wander to a set of rules and appear to be doing more than standing at a spawn point'.  This is NOT how NPCs behave in CoS.  

They will not 'appear' to be doing more than standing around... they are out doing things.  They are given a goal to accomplish.  They will attempt to accomplish this goal.  They have true purpose and take action to accomplish that purpose.  They are also reactive in that other world events like running into PCs, or running into other NPC enemies, will cause them to react and change their short term goals, though the may return to their long term goal afterwords.   This is not an illusion of NPCs moving around to make it look like they don't just stand there, we're creating a living world where every NPC has a purpose and uses our A.I. net to accomplish those goals.

When we repopulate an area, it isn't by respawning the same mobs, or randomly creating new ones to do the same things.  What we do is monitor populations of NPCs in a given area and when it falls too low we set new goals by the enemy forces, who then make plans and send in their minions to try to accomplish those goals.  It is unlikely that you have played any other MMO using this system since we wrote it specially for this game engine and game design.   We hope you'll enjoy it.

I had understood this should not have used the word "appear" with " and act on these". Some of us enjoy games for what they are and play them in a similar way. For me I will be happy with the concepts you guys are working to and the capability to move away from a Zerg mentality, and play something online with new friends whilst actually acheiving. (Dozens in shards and thousands in the citadel :) .

Originally posted by emperorwings

If this lives and is out of development in under 5 years then i'll give it a try. Good to see NPC acting like players. And if I read right NPC raiding mobs that can hunt you.

Very Viable in what is essentially a small group game for adventuring......

The NPCs will just wander to a set of rules and appear to be doing more than standing at a spawn point.

Mount & Blade has a very similar system where roaming mobs track based on skill, pretty easy to do when you may only have 1-10 players in a world instance + all the NPCs.

Originally posted by Gel214th

 I find the article amusing.

Dragon Age copied from World of Warcraft everything but the User friendliness of its interface.

There is no Auto Target or Nearest Enemy Target key. So whereas in World of Warcraft you press Tab to target an enemy and then attack it with a button on your hotbar, you can't do that with Dragon Age. YOu must click the Target.

You also have no Target Portrait, so you need to pause the game to try to figure out who you have targeted. If your ally is infront you...then sorry bub but you can't target anything but your ally...unless you rotate the camera in various ways to try to click the enemy you wish to attack.

Other things are the Map and the Quest targets. In World of Warcraft, especially with recent user created enhancements such as quest helper, Tom Tom and Carbonite you are never at a loss for what you have to do next. However this isn't the case in Dragon Age.

The Codex and Journal are cryptic messes of text that make following quests and storylines very difficult. Whereas in World of Warcraft with these mods you can bring up the overhead map and see exactly where you need to go, in Dragon Age you frequently lose track, especially traveling between cities. Some quests are given in one town, but you actually need to go somewhere else to do the quest...and then return to the town. When you return you'd better remember who gave you the quest and where they were, because unless you are on the right map you won't see the quest marker.

Now let's go onto Leveling up and completing quest objectives.

World of Warcraft makes it very clear when a player levels up, in fact they make it a big deal with a recognisable sound , onscreen graphic effect and text that appears at the top center of the screen, very readable and noticeable indicating you have levelled up.

If you are on multiple quests, a Quest Objective tracker keeps track of the quests, multiple quests, as you do them. You can tell at a glance what you have to do next. If you put the game down for three weeks and return to it, you won't be lost. Not so with Dragon Age. Notifications are tiny and placed in the lower left of your screen, well out of the way of the focus of your eyes. You need to go back and forth to the ineffective and confusing Journal repeatedly to keep track of what you have to do. And at some points you coudl have over 20 quests in the journal. 

Another issue is that the User Interface does NOT SCALE. So whereas with world of warcraft if I set my resolution to 1920 x 1200 or heck..2530 x whatever I can then adjust a Scale to make everything a bit bigger and more readable...you can't do that in Dragon Age. 

Dragon Age's interface is the same interface style we've seen from the 1990s. So unless this Dragon Age spokesperson is saying that Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights drew on the user interface of World of Warcraft, he's full of it. 

World of Warcraft with its user mods are a 10/10 with regards User Interface, Dragon Age would be a 5.5/10

They do nothing new and unique, and do a lot much worse to what gamers are used to in 2009 in an RPG.

Anyone who baselines against WoW is clueless, especiallly considering Bioware and their excellence existed long before wow.

The depth within the DA game is exceptional... as far as MMOs go just watch Bioware take the market with their MMO development....

Originally posted by Sandbagger

I read about the Verdurens on the web site.  So, a matriarchal society, I like it!  From the last paragraph I assume this means that players will be one of the Verduren Sumar?  Warriors without a clan.   I like the camouflage skin of the Verdurens.   What is that like?  Does it change somehow to make them blend in?  I mean, will we see it change in the game?  How does one become a Verduren?  So many questions... 

Thought the article inferred that tribes had their own capabilities and these could be learned/earnedin some way. So there could be some nice variations on the camoflage and nature type abilities to be gained from gaining favor with tribes of Verdurens...

I guess... can't wait for this to come out..

Originally posted by Demz2

Originally posted by Aalthiel

If anyone is SURPRISED to know that there is going to be a Jedi Knight class, after already seeing the reveal of the Sith Warrior, I don't want to play this game with you.

 

Thats fine then, we dont want to play with you either, so its a win win situation:). 

I am with Aalthiel, this is no surprise whatsoever....

UK here and the game playes fine. A must buy best MMO for choice and variety I have played in a long while.

Once the tweak the AI on the NPCs that will be the icing on the cake.

Very Good and accurate summary..... Well done OP

Originally posted by cybertrucker

FE = Vanguard part 2 the apocolypse, only instead of having great graphics. The graphics in FE look super dated and crappy.

Now on that note. Vanguard runs really well now. Granted it took over a year of patching and fixes to get it running smooth for most. So if you can stand the horrible lag much like Vanguard had.. Alot of bugs much like Vanguard had. Mixed with terrible content (unlike Vanguard) and Crappy outdated Graphics (unlike Vanguard) then this might be the perfect game for ya.

This of coarse is just my opinion on the game from the limited time I spent in it. But from the basic gameplay this is not hard to figure out.

 

You obviously have never played FE at all, are TROLLS allowed here.

Originally posted by heremypet

I wish I had played UO back then, but I played EQ and would do it again if given the chance.  EQ had a sort of emergent life-like property that I'm willing to bet UO shared, which I believe outweighed it's flaws.  It was a great experience for many people, despite the failures it left in its wake.

So true , real challenge existed at the inception of EQ, the game was great.

I am sorry but blaming EQ is a load of tosh.

Lets list the real Issue that have led us to where we are at:

• Internet access and availability of it to the masses rather than expensive dial up costs which meant that a lot of online games were limited to educsted , well paid individuals who were capable of more than grunting.
• Increase in mass of the player base, has resulted in the dumbing down of games introducing automated features that ruin community and gameplay(The win at all costs and end game scenario
• It is not about fun anymore just winning and showing I have the biggest Epeen syndrome.

EQ was never the problem ....... In some ways the games of old that were fantastic to play and had real communities will never come back unless a limited capita/server model is reintroduced.

Originally posted by Dawnsinger

You sound pretty desperate to try and prove this, Zeno. Are you sure you're not trying to convince others, but only yourself?

What he says is true, for some reason you don't seem to like the truth?

Not sure what your point is here but you don't seem to be contributing, just trying to be negative like so many here.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

In my opinion "innovative" would be a game where the players can change the world.

I've played million First Person Shooter games. Making a First Person Shooter with 3K people on a server instead of 64 doesn't really seem innovative to me. I can't shoot people fast enough, and I die plenty with a 32 vs 32 player game. I don't really need a 1,500 vs 1,500 game for a first person shooter to be fun. It's already fun, till my fingers hurt from shooting, and then I need to take a break.

I'm not interested in MMOFPS games, I'm insterested in the evolution of the mmoRPG.

Sadly that won't happen as people are unwilling to play..... I would give it 10 years so that we have 10 million WoW players who deon't just want to win at any cost and decide they want to play an MMO in the right spirit.

So yes about 10 years... and you will have a new playebase who have done the powerleveling bit and done the end game in a week bit and realise that what they did was good but what about the fun ?

Originally posted by Bamanen

the drop is because people just like to complain.....even if a game is playable and stable at launch...they have to have something to cry about.....and the reason is fanbois of other games come to this site and troll, after so much trolling they will let u rate and down any game u want. It's mmorpg.com, site isnt what it used to be.

I.E.  The ratings are out of context. And mean very little here, it for all intents and purposes is like a game ... What shall we do today lets try to get the rating up and tommorow down... Amusing but true.b

Originally posted by Jairoe03

I wasn't really looking for worth as much what the hell do I do with them, lol. It isn't as much brainstorming I do as more of developing an idea into something with more depth etc. into an overall system. So I want to think its a little bit larger scale and these are ideas that do in fact require much thought and time into writing it and putting it on paper. I mainly want to know, how would you get it out there? Is it possible that leads will listen to their "subordinates" on their team when it comes to certain game designs etc.? My niche seems to revolve around a lot of game design and possibly would like to be involved with the implementation (hence programming, for now its a hobby that I'm enjoying but still trying to organize my life while considering how I'm going to get my foot into the game industry). I'm not sure how you become a game designer or what it exactly involves in terms of software and PC games especially for MMO's. The feedback is great, but would like to know whether or not ultimately, would an idea be even given any consideration within an established company or would I be better off spending my time continuing on my game designs and finding different ways to implement them and other rule sets independently?

 

EDIT: Think the above post helped clear it all up for me. Thanks for the feedback ;)

So lets say your ideas are more than that and they are documented , costed and have an associated value and even copyrighted(may or may not help). You set up your little company and you go out and sell like you would anything else. The problem is is that unless you are a genious and what you are trying to sell is that one in a million idea, you will have little credibility, so it is a difficult one.

You also risk loosing your IP, if you are very confident that what you have is valuable try to develop your own game .... very risky as a startup but it is really upto yourself.

Originally posted by Sandbagger

Yes, I would play!

I'm an avid table topper who has also tried countless  (well maybe not countless) MMO computer games and I've been  looking for something that gives me a little of the game play depth of a table top adventure.   I am so bored with all the cookie cutter MMOs that come out.   I read their back story and then go do what every other player has done... and that back story doesn't even matter.  

Now, I'm not expecting a table top game here... but there HAS to be a game that gives us more than the current crop of retreads. 

I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing for something more... something more immersive, where I can really enter a different world and feel like my character's life is on their own path.   Where the story advances with time... and what I do matters.   CoS seems to be that game.  If  it is at all what I've read about, this seems to be the game I've been waiting for all this time.   I'm certainly willing to wait longer, but it is nice to know there is something out there worth waiting to play.

Some of the things that concern me are:

1) Are there enough of us?  Meaning, people like me, who want more from a game.   People who want cooperative intriguing adventures with serious depth to the story?   I'm so tired of mindless killing, (I'm all for combat... lots and with serious consequences and good strategy).  I just want a point to the battles, not just "I got 50 EXP, 20 gold and a dagger".   The question is, with all the people playing games like WoW, and being used to that kind of game, will this game be too different?   Will people not play it because you have to actually think and follow a story? Are players afraid of change?

2) Can enough content actually be included in this game to achieve their goals?   It is want I want, no doubt, but how can it be done?    I'd love to hear more about how the quests will be accomplished.  How each player's journey through the game is different.  How the choices and actions I take can possible affect my character's life or the world.    Or... how they can even just change the outcome of the quest.   Seems a tall order in a computer game... easy in table top though.

3) Long development.  On their site they show this as being in development for some time, but from what I gather this is still got a ways to go.  Now, I don't mind waiting, that's not my issue.   How will such a big game get done by what seems like a small developer?   I wish I could help.   I'm just looking for reassurance that this game will actually get done.   All of my friends are talking about this game and all of us want to play, so I'm really hoping for the best.

 

Anyone else out there ready to play this game?

1) The reality is is that by controlling group size , you can hark back to the good old days, as for following a story ... it will be mindless for a better want of terms with consequencies. Your story will play out regardless so I do not see it as an issue. What has started to happen in MMOs is that vast numbers of additional players have entered the areana and whereas in the past online gaming was not affordable (Mid 90s) now it is and yoiu have a mass who wan't "End Game" and instant gratification.

So the answer is yes people will play it (I will 100%), wheather they will stay is debateable. You see I used to enjoy playing in the good old days to get hold of a mastercraft dagger as and improvement ... these days people expct flashy rewards...

If the game can form small community group then it will be fantastic but in reality this game will play out as close friends and groups which suits me fine , not getting a great feel for mass end game raid content here(I would hope groups of 5 or 6 peeps can be heroic enough to cope with storyline content.

2) I am not sure how hard it really is once they have the factional elements sorted out, the way I see it is there will be a hard coded core storyline taht you end up at. Plus generic quest content  which is as they have stated could be unlimited. They have already stated that the 1st release is finite and the story will end. (i.e roll another char start again follow another path).

They could have 50 different factions and a chance of a generated enemy per quest, if you don't kill them all at the first opportunity you could have some real wierd combinations for quests. And grouping with others with conflicting factions and alegiances could prove very ammusing. Your friend spawns in a mission and will immediatley attack your group member....

On top of this you have the general loot and enemies that may spawn in the reflected world you are playing in , or you may be in the one world... who knows. This is probably the most exciting aspect of this game.

 What we have to hope for is that after a while all teh quests and option and variation do not become too generic...

3) How big is it really if a lot of content is auto generated, and for all intents and purposes if they are clever , we may all be playing in the same world its just that our poersonal group and quests are only visible and tagged to ourselves.

All in all looks great. and for me all that matters is gameplay and the ability to get a bit of immersion.

Originally posted by Ysls93

 

TY very much Alx_Starfire ^^

sorry to bother with that, i really should have searched a little more and i would have found the Q & A

too bad that it will be a paying game lol... that's bad news to me cuz i cant afford a monthly fee (if there will be any monthly fee), cuz the game seems to be really a must  play!!!

well... what was i waitting for anyways! i couldnt be expecting that such a game would come out for free *sigh*  :/

If you own a PC, and an internet connection , then an MMO is on of the most cost effective forms of entertainment that exists.

The number of hours that you can play it for against the monthly charge means that if you can't afford to play any mainstream MMO, then in reality I am flabergasted. A couple of packets of ciggarettes, a couple of Beers , a couple of pizzas or some plastic fast food(Big MAc etc etc).... give up any of these once or twice a month and you have your subscription fee.

Originally posted by wese

Good interview, i wonder why there is no single word on Darkfall, just Eve as another Sandbox MMO.

The reason the will steer away from mentioning Darkfall is obvious. The so called originality and differentiators MO provides don't exist especially when DFO came first.