Nepthys
|
Holy updates batman!You wanted more info on the game? Well here it is:
Link to the weekly recap: http://potbs.coldfront.net/index.php/content/view/180/1/
Serious amounts of information is flying around the net and the FLS site so this is a fantastic resource where they pulled it all together into one easy to navigate list. Check it out
Some other exciting game news on the link above (if you havent already clicked it)
| Quote: |
Dev updates:
Opinion about the Community:
To quote robespierre's humor laced post directly... "... we see every potential player a$ more than just a paycheck. I'm glad to know our time spent interacting with the community is paying off ... er, I mean, appreciated.
/hug$ to all! "
Instant Action Teleports
There is no such feature planned for the game at this time that will teleport people immediately to areas where the action is
Avatar Deaths and Ghost/Zombie returns to corpse
Currently, plans for Avatars when they die is like many MMO's out there; you will wake up somewhere and resume your activities. The ghost/zombie things from games for returning to corpses are mechanisms to prevent rapid respawning. Robespierre doesn't see the need for that in this game at this time, but if the need arises they'll craft something up.
Risks/Rewards for Adventurers trading in PvP zones
The general design is that.. "... the more danger, the fewer merchants, the bigger the profits." Robespierre continues on to say that clever players can game these systems, so it wont be a direct correlation. In general, if the reward is too low, it will get higher
Improving Cannons
The original plan was less an upgrade than a tradeoff. Beta will tell more. Says Robespierre, " Our goal is often though not always, to offer players a choice rather than an obvious single path upwards. "
Walking around on our ships
What are the issues that surround walking on the ships? Robespierre with a detailed response. Don't look for this in R1, it is in the pile of things to be considered in the future. The list is copied here or you can visit/discuss it by clicking the link.
1) require us to make a nav mesh (the thingy that tells avatars where they can walk) for each deck plan.
2) require new controls. right now in ship mode we can dedicate the limited buttons & key mappings to ship controls and camera controls. walking around would mean we need the avatar AND ship controls at the same time.
3) issues of collision with crewmen and other dynamic objects on the ship.
4) belowdecks is another whole nightmare since we don't model that area of the ship.
5) going aloft is another set of controls and pathing code. While there are plenty of examples we can choose from, I've never been thrilled with the 'climb' controls in any FPS game ever, and we'd need to design and test that for climbing.
Line of Site
Robespierre really turns it up this week. A direction answer to the topic.. "LOS is not infinite"
Economy
Robespierre talks MMO economy, saying MMO economies tend to blur the issues of players crafting items and players wanting to participate in the national economy. Mass production requires a consumer to be interested. FLS Goal: " generic stuff gets consumed by the war effort, or as part of the supply chain leading to population happiness, well stocked armories, solid forts, etc. Cool specific stuff is made in small quantities, is mostly for the player as an end-user or as components for player-used items. " To add to Robespierre's quote, he mentions much of that will be post R1 work. They believe that in the success of this design they will have created a fun experience for 'captains of industry', 'merchant adventurers,' and 'crafters.'
PvP and Penalties
Robespierre lays it out. I'm not even going to recap it. It's a detailed subject, it's a wonderfully detailed answer by Robespierre. If this topic interests you at all, you should read this posting. Personally, with all the hundreds of pages of death penalty postings out there, I'm suprised it didn't stir up more soot. Maybe people are burned out on the topic, maybe some have given up, or what I believe is maybe Robespierre answered the question so clearly there is no room left for discussion. Wouldn't that be nice to see this one put to rest (I'm dreaming).
Crafting
Robespierre doesn't like the "make tons of useless crap" phase of crafting. FLS is hoping to avoid that.
Instances
With instances 2 things can occur in one game. Fast travel times on the map and reasonably slower battles. The feel that can be created in instances cannot be duplicated on the navigation map. A good followup post follows shortly after to describe how a scenario can be fun the first time, but not the next.
Obtaining Valid/Invalid ships
Robespierre states, and I quote.. " We're looking at missions, 'faction points' (not exactly but something other than cash), PVP reward points, and yes, cash too." He also says an abundance of cash can make items intended to be rare more prevelant. Lastly he reminds us that anything he says can and may be wrong. That's our Robespierre.
|
So much more here but those are a few snippets! I know you have clicked the link by now *winks*. And remember - alot of the game WONT be ready for R1 (release one) which is why its numbered. The waves of content updates will be a steady stream due to the coldstream technology (check out the coldstream site for more details on how it works) but there is more then enough to get into the game and start to sail the 7 seas, pillage towns, hunt for treasure AR! or of course join up with your favorite military and come hunt me.. um I mean.. pirates down *winks*
|
Dew
|
This game is really starting to sound interesting.... arrr
|
Nepthys
|
Current Milestone Goals
The last milestone completed at the end of February. There were two huge changes: First, we reduced the overhead of the game significantly so that it can now be played on 512 meg systems with ATI 9600 cards. Second, we put in the real navigation zone. There was a lot of polishing as well, and some new features, but these were the biggies. While there are new features coming, most of the work left in the game is polishing what we have. To that end, we now devote half of each milestone specifically to bug fixing. This milestone started on 2/27, and is projected to end on 4/14. So far, we’re tracking nicely on it. Here’s what’s coming:
New Missions Now that we’ve polished our current missions in the last milestone, we’re adding a whole bunch of new ones in this one.
AI Work We did a lot of this in the last milestone, but there’s always more to be done.
Battle Marker improvements This is new work to propagate information up to the navigation zone about what’s going on in a given battle.
Flags!!!! Long promised, finally delivered by Brendan, a new programmer who just joined us last month.
Ship Sounds Brendan’s also doing much in the way of going back into our sound code to make sure all the correct sounds in a battle are being played.
Bow sprays will move with the bows Look closely at our videos, and you’ll see either a mysterious lack of bow sprays, or sprays that don’t move correctly with the ship and the water. My year long griping will finally be silenced.
Surf Effects For the islands and the waves.
New Town Construction We have a new process in creating our towns, and it should both speed up the process as well as create a more distinctive, lived in look. I’ll make sure that the artists generate a dev log on the new process.
Convert to Visual Studio 2005 Words cannot express the horrors of our old version of Visual Studio. Life is finer in 2005.
More Avatars More, more!!!
New Economy We’ve talked a little about this in the forums, and now it’s being implemented. Players will drive the economy. This is probably the biggest single piece of work in this milestone, and is mondo exciting.
Loot Board a ship and loot it!
New and Improved Animations More and merrier.
Some great new screenies to - wow are the women stacked lol must be male develpers!!
|
Dew
|
This game sounds better by the minute.... I think I will really be giving this one a go. Specially now with stacked women 
|
|