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Originally posted by MMOExposed CoS certainly has aspects of a sand box game, but it is also very difficult to pin down to one thing. There are multiple styles of game play possibilities. At its core, players go on epic quests, however these novel deep stories are non-linear, and customized to every player for a unique experience. Like a sand box game, you may also build up housing, businesses, guild halls, and the towns around them. Yet there is also an overall progressing world history since time continues to move forward in an ever changing world. There is nothing out there like it. |
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Originally posted by Otoan Me too, when can I play? Er... wait, ah yes, we're still working on it. Well, keep up the faith, progress on CoS is constant, and as I often tell other team members, if we keep getting stuff done every day, eventually we have to finish. We do hope to pick up the pace this year considerably, and hire about 100 new team members, so that should help :) |
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Originally posted by Isane Sorry for the slow response on this one, just noticed the question when 'Isane' replied. Archeology is a type of quest in CoS, where you will be sent out to find a First or Third age artifact (see the Lore on our CoS website). This may involve many kinds of things, including digs into ancient ruins, or finding the secret entrance in an old structure that leads to ancient tunnels or dungeons beneath, or tracking down tomb raiders to obtain what they stole, or... well, pretty much anything to do with an adventure that deals with an ancient artifact of unknown powers. Get your whip and satchel, its time to follow the clues and trail to wherever they lead, but don't be surprised if your arch nemesis is also after that same artifact, and racing you to get there first. Just remember: Nothing is ever easy. |
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Originally posted by MiguelAngelo Thanks for the kind words, it helps to hear that players are looking forward to what we are making. I still come here and read posts, and will respond occasonally, though we are doing more of that through the official Forums at the CoS website these days. We just released some new screenshots for the Holidays as well if you go there. As for the game being like Darkfall, that's true only in the sense of breaking the game mold of current MMOs, but we couldn't be more different in other ways. Darfall is hardcore PVP, while CoS is a story driven world, where the emphisis is on each player having a different experience in a world that keeps changing every day. We're looking to make the world a place of vast exploration and discovery, where you never know what you will see or get involved in that day. As for bugs, well, those come along with any game, but we will try our best to give you a very solid game that works at launch, rather than a buggy rushed game. We have taken the time to design it right, and will also take the time to test it before release. This means a lot of waiting on the part of players, but in the end we think it will make for a more enjoyable experience once it is available to play. |
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Due to popular demand we are opening the official forums for the game at www.citadelofsorcery.com today. This does not change anything about this forum, we will still occasoinally monitor the community here to see if there are any questions you want answered, but we invite you to stop by our website as well. See you there. Jatar |
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Originally posted by Loktofeit
Are you being wholly realistic about some of these projects? Probably. About ours? Well, not at all. We certainly aren't 'tinkering in a DIY MMO kit'. Every line of code for every piece of this game has been written from scratch. None of the engines out there could even possibly handle the design of this game, so a team of programmers had to develop the engine specifically to make this game (though they may decide to allow other future games or other industries to use it, that's not our affair). CoS is their prototype testbed for the new technology, just like Unreal or FarCry were for those engines. As for this being a wish list disguised as an actual features list... well, that would be news to the team that has been building this week after week for six years. But nothing I say in here is going to convince certain people of anything. We know that. And it's not that we don't care, we just don't have the time or inclination to give out more than we have already until the time is right. It's OK to doubt us and it's OK to complain, that's your right in life. All we ask is that when we do release the actual game that you give us equal props for actually accomplishing that 'wish list'. We hope to see you all in the game some day in the future, stop by the Queen of Hearts Pub, that's where I like to hang out sometimes when I'm in the game world. |
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Originally posted by PhelimReagh
Everyone is, of course, welcome to their opinion, but opinions have little impact on what we are doing. You asked a simple question of "What indie can afford to keep an MMO team on payroll for over 6 years and still be nowhere near finished?' Well, we can, through milliions of dollars of private investment. We set out to make a new kind of MMO experience, and we had to develop new technology from the ground up to do it. R&D takes a lot of time, and a lot of money, both of which we have been willing to spend. The R&D portion is nearly complete, but there is still more time to be spent making and testing the game play. Though people may get upset about how long we are taking, and have their opinions about who and what we are, these things don't and can't have any impact on the reality of what we are doing. Here is the reality, when the game comes out none of the various opinions about what we did or how long we took will matter. The game will be judged on what it is, and we're fine with that. We continue to work. |
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Jatar - So Christmas is nearly upon us Any Presents ......
General Discussion « Citadel of Sorcery 11/15/10 6:50:42 PM
Hello Isane. Truth is, we ARE just working hard on the game. There will probably be a new dev post soon on the web site about progress on the game, so no need for me to go into that here. The ony 'tidbit' I'll drop is that we have added a new type of quest called a League Action. These have to do with the war effort and are shorter than our primary major quests. We needed someting in between our Adventures and our Quests for when you want something fun and excitng to solve, that isn't so massive it takes two weeks of play, yet is more than a simple 'rescue the town from bandits' type adventure. Hence, the League Action. You pick these up at one of the Leagues you have joined. There you go, a tidbit. |
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Originally posted by Otoan
This is a difficult question to answer as it delves into areas and information that we have not yet released. Therefore I'm not allowed to fully answer this question yet. I will say this, just because you are not forced to grind your character does not mean that your character does not advance. It's just that we don't have situations where you have to just sit there and kill monsters over and over as they pop back into existence so that you can slowly inch your way up to your next level.
First off, monsters don't pop back into existence, ever, so there is no way to stand and keep killing the same thing. Secondly (and here I'm skirting information I'm not allowed to release yet) just killing monsters will not advance your character... er... properly (and that's all I can say on that for now).
The thing to remember is that in CoS your character is going through a unique personal story (not the same as any other player). Part of your advancement is direct improvement of your character, part of your advancement is through the Tier system, and part of your advancement is through the Epic Story line. But, it's much more personal than that, not only will you advance your character, but you have a past history that will come to light. You have personal enemies, and allies, it's hard to explain in a simple post, but think of your character as the sequel to another book, a sequel that hasn't been written yet. When you start playing that character YOU will write each page of that sequel by the choices you make, whom you befriend, and what enemies you make, and you'll be uncovering that original story about your character along the way.
I know this isn't very specific, but there are two things keeping me from getting more specific, one is that we haven't released all of the information on this yet, and another is that we don't know how your story will go since you will be the one making the choices that develop your character and their story.
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Originally posted by Otoan
Hello, Otoan. CoS does not use an auto attacking system. We do use an icon based system, but our objective in creating the combat system for Citadel of Sorcery was to add a lot more strategy and options. But the design of our combat system goes beyond just the options and choices of a player and to the very core of the game. We didn't want players to figure out a single strategy and then apply that to all combat. An example of this would be the 'Tank' system where one player taunts all the monsters and lets them beat on them while the other players have their set roles (one guy heals everyone, one guy casts spells, one guy stands behind the monster to backstab, etc.).
This system will not work in CoS, and the game is designed to keep ANY system from working in every combat situation. Instead, you will need to devise different strategies for each new battle. One reason for this is that your opponents have variable intelligence and will use their own different strategies against you. There are no set roles in our combat, and each and every player will need to be well rounded and expect to do many things during a combat situation.
I don't want to go into all the reasons for this (I'd have to write a novel), but the game rewards players during combat when they do certain things, and every player needs to fight. There are no arbitrary rules in CoS about what a particular 'class' of player can do or wear, there are in fact, NO classes in CoS. We simply give you the choice of over 1800 abilities (no, you won't have all, but you do have the choice of which ones you take), and allow you to make the character you want. That character can wear anything they want to obtain. Due to this, there are no set roles, everybody needs to pull their weight in combat in ALL areas (though they will likely have different ways of doing that due to the number of abilities they had to choose from).
There is more... but that's as much as I want to get into right now. Trust me when I tell you that this is not like other MMO game combat, there are many unique elements to our combat, and one major one we have not yet released to the public and won't until Beta. Due to this I can't really give you an example of a 'normal' fight for comparison quite yet as that would give out the information we are still holding back, sorry.
I hope this helps somewhat though.
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So tell me a little bit about the grouping mechanics in CoS
General Discussion « Citadel of Sorcery 8/07/10 12:31:48 AM
Actually, I kind of said that wrong, but yes, you and seven other people (for a total of eight) can form a group. |
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So tell me a little bit about the grouping mechanics in CoS
General Discussion « Citadel of Sorcery 8/02/10 11:13:27 AM
Originally posted by Wizardry Wizardry, You know, we appreciate your concerns, this is not an easy area of design, and we have found that the community is very divided on this issue. Though we are unwilling to force people to do anything since our game is literally about player choices (even in quests) we do appreciate that there are players out there who feel that unless there is very good reason to group up they won't be able to find enough players to group with them. Our way of solving this issue is not to force grouping to play the game, but to make grouping so much fun that most players out there wouldn't even consider not grouping up. This is true in both our Questing Reflections and our Community Reflections worlds. In the Questing Reflections you and up to eight of your friends can group up and go on an adventure. There the group tactics and strategic options will increase by using a group rather than going it solo, or in other words, it's just more fun in a group. In the Community worlds it become even more interesting. There are challenges that cannot possibly be attempted without a group, and even better, challenges that require many groups to cooperate. I'm not talking about our Campaigns, (which are similar to a Raid), these are situations of the war between Morphael's forces and the Citadel forces (of which you are part) that just come about in the world through the normal course of the war, and just one player has no chance... and in many cases, even just one group of players has no chance, many groups will need to work together. Is this forced grouping? You could call it that, if you want, but the truth is you don't have to take on these challenges to play the game, but they are a whole bunch of fun, and if you don't group up you will never be able to have that fun. In these conflicts there are objectives given out by battle commanders that no solo player could achieve, it will take a group working together with tactics to achieve the goal. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we are concerned with the part of the gaming community that wants the game to promote grouping, and we are taking steps to make that happen without making it so that a person who chooses to solo can't play other parts of the game. It's their choice, but we believe that players will choose to group up quite often in CoS. |
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Just how long has this game been in development?
General Discussion « Citadel of Sorcery 7/19/10 12:45:26 AM
It's cool, we have thick enough skin. There are always people who feel they need to attack things on fourms. I guess they just don't have anything better to do with their time. We certainly do, so I'm done with this thread. |
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Just how long has this game been in development?
General Discussion « Citadel of Sorcery 7/18/10 7:27:42 PM
You seem confused and confrontational, but I'll try to be patient. We are an independant software developer, not a publisher. We have been completely up front from day one about the game. From the beginning we told people that we were in the very early stages of game development, and we've done everything we can to keep people informed as to the development progress. The amount of time it takes to make an MMO lilke Citadel of Sorcery is not an exact science, nor is it something we will allow to be hurried becasue someone thinks we're taking too long. When we release the game is our business. How long we take to make the game is also our business. Where we get the financing to make the game is again, our business. You seem concerned that you cannot figure out who is maknig the game... yet we've already told you, MMO Magic, Inc. is making the game and as previously stated we are an independant software developer. Why do you beleive it is unprofessional to be an independant software developer? As for your 'vaporware' comment, your opinion is your own and will not affect the progress or release date of this game in the slightest. It's always interesting when someone complains about something that has cost them nothing. |
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Originally posted by Juztinb42 I guess the word is 'yes', there is a day and night cycle. But, I could expound more on this issue if you wish. Day and night is more than just light and dark times in the game, NPCs treat night like it is supposed to be, meaning, most of them go to bed, shops shut down, people go to Taverns and pubs, theives come out to steal, city guards start night patrols, night creatures come put to prey, Caravans stop to camp, etc. Anyway, hope that answers your question, if not, let me know what else you wanted to know. |
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Originally posted by Isane
For the most part, that is correct. The major difference is just that we load up a massive Quest or Mission into an RW. Other than that, the two are the very similar worlds, but remember, they are Reflections not duplicates. This means that it is the same world, but not exact copies of the same world. A reflection is not a copy, it's just very close to the same thing. We have to make this distinction because what people do in one World changes things, and so therefore the reflected worlds may have differences. Still, for all intents and purposes, they will seem like the same world to you unless you start comparing notes with a player who was just in another RW or CRW. There they might have killed a bandit and his men, while in your reflection that bandit escaped and wrecked havoc on a caravan. So, as you can see, things are not the same, they are similar. But... geography, llocations and major changes to the world (war, etc) are the same, it's the day to day, minute to minute stuff that varies. It has to, players are in the world doing things. One thing to note... you can still do all the other kinds of game play (Adventures, Crisis, etc) in an RW, you will just be doing them solo or with your small group. If you go to a CRW you can do those things with other players in the world, but you won't be on a major Quest or Mission. Where confusion will probably happen is that people who read this will start thinking that the CRWs have no game play in them, this coudln't be farther from the truth. They are packed with game play, much more than players are likely used to in any other fantasy MMORPG. Every location in the world can have a new adventure running that day. We build a new version of the World every day, and if you go out into a a CRW or RW you will likely run into challenges that were not there the day before. These are not our Quests and Missions, these are daily happenings that are caused by time moving forward, a war going on, demons trying to reclaim dominion over their human food, Citadel legions trying to quell local uprisings against the Eyes of Darkness, and more. These worlds are dynamic changing places, and all of that is outside of the Quest and Mission system. Here, I'll use Lord of the Rings as a story and world example. While Frodo and cohorts were on their way to destroy the ring the rest of the world was out there. All the other places that were dealing with Sauron's forces, with dragons, or goblins or wars, all of that was going on, and the world was moving forward in time each day as every country was swept up into the return of Sauron. In our game if you wanted to take on the mission to destroy the ring of power, you could, and would do that in one of the RWs. If you instead wanted to just travel to Mirkwood and get invovled with something going on there (perhaps with a lot of other players) in the dark tower that was mentioned back in The Hobbit, then you could go in the CRW. You could just enter a CRW, head for Mirkwood and have various adventures along the way, only finding out what is actually happening when your reach the tower. It's the same world, you just choose what you want to do it in, and if it is MAJOR quest undertaking, you do that in an RW, if it is general adventuring, do that in a CRW (or RW, that's your choice). |
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Originally posted by Isane
That's a really good question. The answer is that we are trying to keep the Reflected Worlds as similar as possible, so there may indeed be monsters and armies and raiding parties out there that are too tough for you to handle solo or with a small group, but this was already true of the RWs in the first place. It's a dangerous world out there, with a war going on. No group can handle everything.
Comparing this to the real world, imagine that you are a Seal team, one of the best trained military units in the world, taking on insane odds with six to eight members in a team. No matter how good you are, there are situations where you can't win. I know this because a friend of mine was a Seal, and the sole survivor of his team twice. This is similar to our groups of Fallen Heroes. Compared to most adversaries, you have amazing Abilities, but there are situations beyond your skills, so avoid them, or change the odds, and choose to take on the ones you have a chance to win.
Remember too, that CoS is not a hack and slash game, which is not to say you won't be in a lot of combat, but there are other choices. You can usee concealment, flight, disguise, ambush tactics and other methods by which you can avoid or change the situation at hand.
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Originally posted by Acapella75 Actually, I wasn't talking about you Acapella75, when I mentioned combative... there are those out there though, but we understand. Hell, I wouldn't believe that we're building what we say we are building if I wasn't part of the team. I've been burnt by too many games claiming similar advancements. All of us gamers have purchased the newest and greatest MMO only to sometmies be disappointed. In the end, no matter how much I tell you that we're making a new kind of game, you won't really believe me until you play it. I'm cool with that, I've always said that we don't have to convince anyone ahead of time, we just need to make the game. Or, the proof is in the pudding.. so to speak. As to Beta testing, no, sorry, not close to that yet. I know that's frustrating, but that's the reality. We really are building what we say, and that makes it VERY hard to do. Progress is at times agonizingly slow, (even more frustrating in ways for us). But, part of that is because it is so very hard. We go down paths and then find out that we need to write all new code to make that idea work better, or to speed up the frame rate again. We redesign the tools to make things more effecient so that we can build more content faster with fewer people. Most annoying of all (and I'm going to get yelled at for talking about this) features that worked dissappear as new or replacement systems mess up an existing system. Awhile back, for example, we had really nice window glass. How can window glas be nice? Well, glass could have imperfections in it that were picked up by the light passing through and projected where the light landed, and the light also picked up the tint of the glass as it passed through. This was particularly cool with things like stained glass windows. Then... one day, all the glass in all the windows disappeared. We're still waiting for it to come back. Programming tells us that it disappeared because they are writing a new faster and more efficient way to handle translucency, but it feels like a step backwards (even though in the end it will be a step forward). It's frustrating though. Right now the major effort is in the new Terrain system, which is vital to the planned size of the planet, (which is basically about 1 million times larger than most MMOs worlds you may have played). But that technology is so cutting edge that progress is slow and kind of sporadic as many new systems are added, discarded, rewritten and then improved. But there is progress each week. Alpha testing (not Beta) is still a ways away because we cannot progress certain portions the game without the new Terrain system working fairly well. All I can ever tell you is that the team keeps working on it, and we are sticking with the original design goals (only adding to them, but not compromising the original plans). It's going to be very cool, trust me (or not). I will tell you that when the new terrain system is functional we will finally release some new screenshots. We just felt that the next round of officially realeased shots needed to have a major leap forward, so we're living with very old (five years) screenshots of the game prototype out there. But don't hold your breath, the terrain will take a few months, minimum. But once that is done... then the speed of development will pick up significantly. That is the last major hurdle before we march toward the testing phases. Am I promising a time? No, you should know me better than that by now, we don't release dates that we cannot guarentee. It will get done when it gets done. At this point we have several potential publishers wanting to see the game, we're making them wait as well for the same reason, we want it to be right before we show it to anyone. |
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Hey, it's all good people, everyone is welcome to their opinion in life. I certainly have mine :) As for what games I personally saw at E3 that I liked... well, War in the North looked particularly good to me (from WB Games). There were some aspects of Gothic 4 that I liked, though it is only single player. I even liked a few of the elements in the new Disney RPG game, based off the Pirates of the Caribbean world, some interesting combat in that one using a boat anchor, believe it or not. ;). Of the MMOs that showed at E3 I thought that Rift was the most forward thinking and interesting. As stated, none of them were trying to do what we are, which is good for us, but that's not a criticism as much as an observation. We like being unique, though that won't last forever. We believe that this kind of deeper game play is going to be the wave of the future as player start asking for more for their money. We just hope to be the first to make this big a leap, but only time will tell. We do appreciate all the support we get from some of the people here, and we even appreciate those who are a bit more... how shall we say, combative. They keep us thinking our goals, and make us take a good look at what we are doing. Doesn't mean we will change anything for them... but at least we take another look at what we are building to make sure it is still holding up. |
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Originally posted by Isane No, not at all. While on a Quest or Mission you will be in your own RW with just your group. It is only while doing other things that you can choose to be in a Community RW. The knids of Adventures you will go on in a CRW would allow cooperative adventures with other groups, or things like Bounty Hunting, where you are hunting down a unique prey that no one else is after, or Monster trapping, or general war combat, or exploration into the Wilds, and more... but not Quests or Missions. Quests and Missions are very involved stories using great portions of the world, whole kingdoms at times, and many other major elements. Thus, we let you have an entire RW for your Quest or Mission, but when you want to go into a massive multiplayer CRW you can do so to work with other players. To switch all you need to do is enter any portal, make your choice and step out into another Reflected World. |
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