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Xsyon Earth 2012: Prelude News - Early Release Begins Tomorrow
Posted by Michael Bitton on Mar 30, 2010 | 61 comments in our forums
Notorious Games, the devleopers behind the post-apocalyptic sandbox Xsyon, have announced their plans for the coming weeks leading up to the game's scheduled April 15th launch in a post made to the Xsyon official forums.
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Their plans for the game are pretty meticulous and we have to commend the developers for being realistic about their own capacities and planning accordingly. The game will only be open to basically as many players as they can handle, and if that means they have to stop selling the game until they are confident they can support more players, well then, that's what they'll do:
If at any point we are getting too many players rushing to order, we will stop taking orders and limit the number of new players per month. Our goal is not to have an influx of 10,000 players, but to let the community grow slowly over the summer. What are the numbers we are looking for? I'm guessing about 500 before April 15th, building slowly to around 5000 active players by the end of summer.
If the game feels empty at any point, we let in more players. We will see how it goes, but I want you all to understand that this will be a controlled launch designed to create a solid and fun community. We can and will adjust to make sure that the first players can build a solid foundation and not be overrun with players from the start. If we need to stop letting in players while we balance the game for the current players to enjoy, we will. In other words, our focus is the game and the community, not trying to get as many player as quickly as possible.
The team will also allow some of the pre-order customers into the game for an early peek beginning tomorrow.
View the full announcement here.
[Thanks rlmccoy1987 for the tip!]
i dont have an extra 40 atm i dont think so : /
The devs of Xsyon have nothing to worry about.
These niche sandbox games never get too populated right away.
5k is realistic atleast. I will give them that.
Glad you found this info, I thought you forgot about it
So, is there new information about this game? Like videos or new screens?
We were at PAX this weekend. Still catching up! :) Back to the real world!
sounds like a scam. STILL no hard information available on this game.
If they can do what Fallen Earth have done (yes it's not technically fully sandboxed but contains a good mix in the current climate of MMO alternatives) then yeah, they could make a profit and work on content.
They're not saying "we can get 1 million subs" like a certain WAR, AoC... lol.. they have realistic ambitions and a plan... which could grow depending while they keep working on the game.
You have to agree it's the best way to do it, rather than piling as many people in as possible (Aion, WAR etc) and hoping they enjoy the troubles AT beta and launch. (those 9 hour queues in Aion haha)
Also works the other way... - alganon for example. (which was so much a WoW clone it even had a keyring in its UI without the game having any keys)
Why is it a scam when they are letting people in tomorrow?
Scam sounds like a game that lets you preorder 3 months before release and then pushs the release date back 8 months, while it still does not have a definate release date...
except theres a free open beta going on so yea ><
Except they have proof that their game exist while this one still remains to be proven.
Remember when AV did this with Darkfall? Having to refresh a buy page constantly waiting to buy the game. It put a whole bunch of people off. Sure you won't get queues but it could be a negative also.
I waited until DF released a NA server due to the way they released the game.
yea no video makes me lil more afraid to pre order. i waited until block d/e for mo to pre order i had extra money to throw away if it didnt pan out
I agree, a happy medium would be understandable.. but for a small company.. you just take the breaks, for now that gamble has paid of in darkfall.
Sure it hasn't got the sub numbers of some mmo's but it's doing much better than anyone would have expected despite a number of people who still view it as an awful game. It's certainly carved out it's own little niche in the market...
i think ill take the chance its only 40 bucks. XD
Better than $75
Yeah it was a good investment. Darkfall is sitting at 15-20k subs which is the best a ffa pvp full loot game is going to do in this themepark dominated genre.
Lets hope Xyson will be as successful.
i only paid 50
yea the tera forming sounds interestign the Love mmo had the same thing but the gfx UGH
This game doesn't 'look' good at all to me. That's not saying that it's not going to be a good game structurally or have some innovative ideas, I'm just not fond of what I've seen in the screenshots. I will keep an eye on it because I like the freedom of a sandbox style game and support any company that is trying to break free of the current trend towards themepark style games, but from what I've seen so far I find it hard to get excited about it.
If I didn't have a couple subs on the go already I wouldn't even hesitate with a pre-order for this game. The Developers and the game itself sound like a breath of seriously needed fresh air.
Looks like I'll be one those 5000 or so to check the game out over the summer.
Best of luck to you Notorious Games.
yea like 200 peopel are getting in tommorrow. i wont make it in the first wave
I did not realize this game was another post apoc theme,i thought it was a rpg type copy with a bunch of unique ideas.
I am not a big Apoc fan,as seen in FE and others,the world tends to look dead/empty,it gives the developer too many excuses to make an empty game.I however cannot possibly see it being any worse than FE,because that game is a total vanilla boring game.I hope Xsyon has more going for it than just an empty world for people to PVP in.
Apoc games need to be sort of realistic and don't lend well to creative animations,because they would look retarded if someone is shooting a shotgun and this whacky animation comes out.It is for this reason however that the games tend to look bland,this is why they need to focus a lot on Character customization within the game,give the players something to do besides running around as a Red Green look a like doing boring quests.
Looking at the screenshots,this looks nothing like an Apoc game,it looks mroe like a native 1800's setting,very odd.
Sorry you didn't make it in yet man.
I havn't been following the game much, will it have an NDA? If it doesn't, I would love to hear your opinions when you do finally get in.
All i ask is that any of you who do get in, please get us some more info and a video as soon as you can (if they dont have a NDA disallowing it). At least a decent sample of what running around and a bit of combat & other actions will look like. Ive been keeping an eye on this game for a few months but just havent had the extra cash to preorder it, but if it actually turns out as good as it sounds, and the gameplay isnt completely horrid like most recent games i will come up with the extra $ to get this asap.
Are you trying to say FE is empty? Dude FE is as packed content wise as you will see in any new sandbox game. I would go as far as saying its too packed with content and makes the game way too mission focused.
If you think FE is empty please stay away from this subgenre.
Someone please answer..why wasnt a video released! how are they going to release a game..expect people to pay for it without any video or trailer?
where did you get that number?
Edit: and what is a peopel? lol (sorry had to do it)
Virtus just accidently made a post publicly and deleted it fast. I saw it and it had around 200 names on it... I refreshed the page and the thread was deleted.
The no video thing has been discussed many times. The devs of the game have announced probably about a month ago that basically theyre focusing on finishing the game and ironing out final bugs in time and rather than taking time away from development to make a vid, or hiring an artist to make a video that wont really get the actual gameplay across (as most trailer videos tend to do) they prefer to let the actual players who get in first make the videos themselves and post them up to show what new players will really experience the first time they play. Theyre not looking to hype the game up with fancy videos and ads, they want to keep it very small to start with and expand from there.
Besides, we have had trailers/vids for nearly every game in the recent past, and look how bad those games have all turned out to be...
They are not trying to hype it was the response given. Players will be making videos tomorrow.
I don't want to knock an Indie developer in their attempt to make a game and make a living out of doing it,but i think a video would kill this game,the screenshots pretty much tell the story,this is a low end developer,the game will look much lower end than DF or MO to be sure.It may go over well if it has some good ideas,i am not sure but it looked in one of the screens that trees might actually fall when you harvest them?Not a big deal but a nice touch if it is a fact.Judging from the screens again,since that is all you have to go by,the towns look cheap,like nothing more than some teepees dotted around,not sure how they figure teepees are post Apoc theme?So i would not expect too much attention to detail in this game.
Again i am not really knocking ,expecting a giant Everquest release from a very small Indie developer,i hope they can survive,we need more developers to come up through the ranks.heck i supported FE even though i did not really like the game at all,but i do have a soft spot for develoeprs that try.Geesh i started out buying games like Commander Keen,Heretic,Wolfenstein many other real cheap looking games,everyone has to start somewhere.
Thanks for the update OP.
I will be eagerly watching for screenshots and videos to trickle out into the public eye once early access has begun.
I agree...but if you are asking people to buy a game..some people like to see what they are buying. A Professional video will give us more of a feel on what the game is about. Almost every company releases a trailer before they ask for money.
Perhaps storywise, its post apoc, but its not a typical post apoc setting/theme. I suppose its kind of a post apoc / fantasy hybrid where rather than having a desolate world like FE, we have reverted back to our old hunter/gatherer ways and are rebuilding civilization through tribes and small advancements in tools & technology, but in a pretty full world with plenty of trees/vegatation & other resources (as opposed to the almost desert type of world that is left in FE & other post apoc types).
People will be coming together and forming hunter/gatherer tribes (which is where the teepees come in) and further developing into cities and stuff from there as we unlock new technology and start building more and more. If you read through the details of the features, what you see in those screens isnt all there is going to be. We will start out very low tech, but as we play the game we can actually influence the world over time by using up resources, researching technology, creating new tools, terraforming, etc
Xsyon's a Terraforming Sandbox mmo. FE is a crappy Level and quest based game that has spaghetti armed 1st person.
See, I've always wanted to see a game do that. Let players actually influence the world, unlock new areas and new content by taking actions etc. However, due to the secrecy around Xsyon, I find it considerably hard to believe that the game actually exists in a workable state, nor do I really trust the developer to not round up a bunch of credit cards and then retire to Nigeria.
Agreed, i wish more would do the same with their feature sinstead of the same borign crap we repeat in 90% of MMOs. The whole real vs vaporware thing has been discussed a lot, and the devs seem to be pretty upfront about what their plans are and basically trying to avoid the pitfalsl of so many other companies by keeping it very small, making sure everything is stable and functional, and then expanding and allowing more in, rather than hyping the game up and getting 2 million people wanting to buy it, only to not be able to handle the influx of people and having too many issues and massive loss of subs and gaining a bad name. Sure we may all run the risk of getting screwed out of $40 or whatever it is, but i guess we should be used to it by now. Ive spent a hell of a lot mor ethan that on games that were only worth playing for about a day, and in the end were about as useful to me as if they had just gone vaporware, and taken my money and ran with it
I can understand this both from the player and development side. Personally, i dont have much faith in what videos, and other media/hype do for games overall, but especially for MMOs. They show us exactly what we want to see, get a lot of sales at launch, and then dissapoint in almost every aspect of what we were shown and give us half finished games thata re barely out of alpha stages. Ive got a little more faith in these guys and their secrecy than most AAA MMO companies right now.
From a development side, if it was me, i would much rather do what theyre doing. Focus on making the game that i want, and offering as much as possible as smoothly as possible to a small group of people and ensuring everything is about as perfect as it can get and allowing players to trickle in over time, rather than having a horrible launch just so i can get more initial sales.
Also, with the way this game sound sliek it is going to be, with the features of influencing the development of the world, etc, this method is more fitting anyway. You start with small groups, and populate the world over time, all while allowing the existing groups to influence the path that the society/socieities that they develop will take and allow newer plaeyrs to eiteh rjoin the existing socieities or try to branch out on their own. Im really looking forward to what people will come up with and to see which ones draw in the most people and becoem the dominant societies. Will the world begin leaning towards reality and developing great technology while using up all teh resources, or will we all become more like a native american (or even elven i suppose) type people "in tune" with nature, trying to conserve resources, not worried about great advancements in tech. Will 1 group/mindset dominate the game and become the norm, or will we have various groups with different beliefs, techs, and ways of doing things much like our different countries?
Yeah we will see when you will play Xyson for real. The game is not even out yet and comparisons and flamig has already begun. Play first so that we can take you seriously.
Still FE and Xsyon share nothing but the Post Apoc Theme.
Please, dude play the game first and then make some informative posts.
Agreed. Hopefully someone will be able to do this tommorrow...
Or you could just stop reading the threads about it and wait for people to play it and give you information, rather than crying that none of the posts are informative when youre obviously aware that people havent played it yet. Do you also have a habit of sitting on sharp objects just so you can feel that prick in your rear (pun intended), even though you already know said sharp objects are there?
**shakes head**
pretty sure everyone is aware (especially considering the title of the thread saying it launches tomorrow...) that it hasnt been played yet and anything said here is either pure speculation or interpretations of what information about the game has been given to us by the devs.
Sure we may not be able to compare it 100% to other games, but we DO know that those other games, such as FE, were exactly what was stated, because we have played those. Based on what information we do have, Xsyon will be a terraforming sandbox game, rather than a grindy leveling game with very little to do with sandbox.
Are you trying to tell us that only those should post here who have no genuine information to share but they do it anyways? and rest of us just shut up? ok hehehe!!
Some correction to the PVE & PVP stuff. Though there will also be decent PVE focus, it isnt anti-PVP or with harsh PVP consequences at all. There are going to be 2 main sides Good & Evil. Good can kill Evil freely with no punishment for the most part, and Evil can kill Good or Evil. The finer details though also have a system which allows the different tribes that form to either be Allies, Rivals, or at war. Good vs Good cannot go to war, only rivals with rules surrounding the fights such as looting rules, etc, but you can still PvP with rivals all you want, though with less harsh penalty to the loser than if you were at war with them.
They have mentioned info about these rivalries and wars allowing fights to be to unconsciousness vs death, no loot vs limited looting vs full looting, and several other options all to be determined between the leaders of the tribes. So basically if you love PVP, but dont like being stuck in say a FFA loot PvP game, join a tribe that doesnt use those rules, or if you want the FFA loot PvP join one that does. There will be choices for everyone.
The only time it seems harsh penalties for becoming a murderer of your own side or anything like that is involved is if you are good an dkill good, you will turn evil. But evil can kill all they want without harsh penalties, after all youre evil.
It seems theyre sort of focusing the good side more towards PVE with PVP mixed in for those who enjoy it, and the evil side will be slightly more FFA PvP type. IMO thats the perfect way to do it. I never really understood the concept behind games where there are 2 factions, but the same exact rulesets apply to both sides. Makes much more sense to me to have the good sid ehave seperate rulesets & laws than the evil side.
We will find out soon enought Krux but from my observation non-consensual PvP has few real penalties. In Prelude (the first stage of this game) you may only be protected within your tribe's (clan's) territory and we have no idea how large that will be. True the devs do not want it to become a gankfest but as of now I don't see any real game mechanics that can do that.
As for PvE I don't see any of the conventional PvE things. All quests are generated by tribes. NPC's do not exist. In Prelude tribal quests seem more like buy orders in Eve-Online but those tools will get more sophisticated in time. I just wonder if clans are up to this level of creativity? It should be a roleplayer's paradise though.
Im all for pvp agressor penalties, consequences and checks and balances, but as long as it's not as it is in fallen earth, non-existant and mosltly consensual, and as long as I dont need a declaration of war, I'm ok with it.
Patcher is up, will be ready for the early release tomorrow
Overall I agree with this sentiment....except people are buying the game. Soon enough those like me who are waiting for more info will have that and then the wait will be over. If your not the type to buy something site unseen so to speak then the best course of action is to simply wait.
The devs have their position and its up to everyone else to make their decision. I for one will not put money on something site unseen with no real information as to what actually exists. The best I can figure out reading the dev posts and the game site is that the game just isnt ready to be mass marketed. The only way its going to get to that point is to bring a few die hard players in early get a revenue stream going and work from there. This is not unusual for a low budget operation...the only thing different is most of those are usually free to play types.
Dont matter what they do now anyway game is going to fail soley based on the number of people they are letting in. Who wants to play a game where other players had months to spend in game to get ahead of the pack. This does not work for a pvp game and tehy wil soon find out if they try this let people in slowly thing they are spelling death for the game. Unless they are planning on wiping all servers once tehy think i's rdy for the masses then we have another fail on are hands. I for one will be asking for a refund of my preorder if I dont get into the servers first thing.
Actually they addressed this issue and said newer players would have the upperhand as new technology is discovered in-game.
Yup cause apparently its like.. lets say the older players dsicover agriculture.. well they can just train new players in it without having to grind or do some crazy thing to unlock it. Something like that.
There is a game that nobody ever seen. Except of 12 screenshots ( no proof whatsoever its not just 3ds render ) and list of promised features on some guys website.
Here is a idea
Instead giving them 50$ and risk highly probable scam - here is what you can do :
Give me 15 $ and i test the game for you. If its any good i will return you the money. If not i will keep it , and you will get to keep 35$.
How about that?
And if you dont trust me. Perhaps i should make a web site with list of my promises and 12 pictures of myself ?
more like 40 screenshots and 40 bucks . and plus there is people who have seen the game in motion. but hes kinda worried on whats going to break once they let in people. and if we do get scamed its called calling your cc company and lala your money is back. so i think i can spare 40 bucks
terra forming is meaning less how the F do you know that what mmos have had it?
Definitely watching this one. But still no paypal...grr...
def be easyer to deal with any scams even tho you can call your cc company and accomplish the same thing
You can see terraforming in action atleast in Wurm Online, and it is free to play and download with limited ruleset. After all, we are all entitled to have an opinion of what we do find meaningful in an MMO.
Does this remind anyone else of going to the carnival and standing outside a tent with someone trying to get you to pay to see the "amazing 3 legged goat?" If the game was worth paying for, they wouldnt hide it. They would publicize it.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!
The "amazing 3 legged goat" is advertized in carnivals with a person yelling into a mic "step right up step right up see the amazing 3 legged goat folks. Yes that's right born with 3 legs, you won't believe your eyes".
That is advertising and publicity but they still hide the goat.