Friday with Means - September 2nd, 2011 - Engine Screenshots - Tir

[NoGoal]

If that's your definition of an MMO then I'm pretty sure we can start to put games like Bad Company and Call of Duty into that pot as well, as you log in, lvl up, play with the same people etc..

Well, considering the direction most MMOs are taking, the difference is starting to be really small between a MMO and `non-massive` multiplayer game.

I mean, the ´world´ is mostly a hub with PvE and PvP content inside instances. Diablo (or FPS) are not that far from that with battle.net (steam?) being the hub.

In theory, MMOs have an open world where the amount of players isn't limited. But it's often limited by technology. AO kicks players out of the tower field and, even then, the game is barely enjoyable.

AO is definitely closer to a standard multiplayer game than EVE with its 1-2k pilots wars.

[Mastablasta]

I'd say that EVE is about equally unplayable however there's the fact that the world is constant in AO, while you're fighting towers in EFP, someone is lvling in Inferno and doing battle in BS or outside fighting some other tower war in a different zone. All of them can at any moment break away and travel to your location and take part in what you're doing, but it's all interconnected at all times.

In Diablo your worlds are individualy generated and allow only a limited amount of people to take part in each world, at a time, and there's no interconnection between what players in each their shard of the generated world is doing.

[whitey]

They still need to sort out the sky. Otherwise its just going to look almost exactly the same, but with shadows.

Seriously. Look at the sky from the ogre engine video 3 years ago. Even with the same old textures, it made the game look incredible.

[NoGoal]

however there's the fact that the world is constant in AO, while you're fighting towers in EFP, someone is lvling in Inferno and doing battle in BS or outside fighting some other tower war in a different zone. All of them can at any moment break away and travel to your location and take part in what you're doing, but it's all interconnected at all times.

And it's exactly the same in other games. BS and inferno missions are instances, just like a random map on a random server. The only difference is that, in AO, some actions have long term effects on the `world` (i.e.: towers). But it's quite small though and most games don't even have that.

MMO is just a bad term anyway (thank you Richard Garriott :|).

[Bothead]

Tir4.jpg FTW

[Lazy]

So when is this all coming out?

Q4, 2011?

Q1, 2012?

let me draw a timeline for you (not to scale)


X <-- now
|
X <-- Q1 2012
|
X<-- WWIII
|
X<-- bobby kotick driving blizzard into the ground after milking the last penny out of the last wow subscriber
|
X<-- pigs learn to fly
|
X <-- richard garriot regains sanity
|
X <-- first pokemon discovered.
|
X <-- balance/graphics update for ao comes out
|
X <-- end of zee world

[omegahealer]

wait, pokemon are real :O NOOOOOOOOOOOO couldn't they discover it when i was younger! *puts on hat*

[Kane-Hart]

Pigs already learn to fly

http://deltamike.deviantart.com/art/...agon-251876513

[Zeephonz]

x <-- end of zee world

[Crowena]

On the flip side, I hope the new engine will be out for Christmas.

It is...what... 109 days till Christmas? Seems very unrealistic.

[Facepalm]

let me draw a timeline for you (not to scale)


X <-- now
|
X <-- Q1 2012
|
X<-- WWIII
|
X<-- bobby kotick driving blizzard into the ground after milking the last penny out of the last wow subscriber
|
X<-- pigs learn to fly
|
X <-- richard garriot regains sanity
|
X <-- first pokemon discovered.
|
X <-- balance/graphics update for ao comes out
|
X <-- end of zee world

Your last 2 timeline entries are out of order. World ends first, then the robots that took over the planet finally finish the new engine and rebalance for AO.

[Kane-Hart]

Your last 2 timeline entries are out of order. World ends first, then the robots that took over the planet finally finish the new engine and rebalance for AO.

This :P

[nitr0]

I'm thinking a "1st half 2012" release on the new engine. I hope its closer than that buts what seems most logical right now. What do you all think? (Kintai and Means too)

ppl been thinking "1st half 2011" "1st half 2010" "1st half 2009" "1st half 2008"... before

most logical is: too much work to go and way too less manpower, it will never be done.

[Prosthetics]

What really gets me is not that people expect to get this engine done asap, but that they expect it to get done when they aren't paying for the game anymore. The way I look at it is that with everyone cancelling their account until said rebalance and engine, Funcom isn't getting the money they need to get more resources (coders, designers, etc.).

If everyone continues down this path, Funcom won't be able to make enough money to fund this project. If everyone resubscribes to the game, the population will rise so there are more people to do things with, and Funcom will generate more revenue to hire more people so they can get the engine up and running so much faster.

[Siahanor]

What really gets me is not that people expect to get this engine done asap, but that they expect it to get done when they aren't paying for the game anymore. The way I look at it is that with everyone cancelling their account until said rebalance and engine, Funcom isn't getting the money they need to get more resources (coders, designers, etc.).

If everyone continues down this path, Funcom won't be able to make enough money to fund this project. If everyone resubscribes to the game, the population will rise so there are more people to do things with, and Funcom will generate more revenue to hire more people so they can get the engine up and running so much faster.

So basically, people should donate money ( stay subscribed ) to support the devs? Ain't gonna happen. They'd have a better chance just adding a "Donate" button to the launcher for the few remaining loyalist to pitch in.

[Chrys]

What really gets me is not that people expect to get this engine done asap, but that they expect it to get done when they aren't paying for the game anymore. The way I look at it is that with everyone cancelling their account until said rebalance and engine, Funcom isn't getting the money they need to get more resources (coders, designers, etc.).

If everyone continues down this path, Funcom won't be able to make enough money to fund this project. If everyone resubscribes to the game, the population will rise so there are more people to do things with, and Funcom will generate more revenue to hire more people so they can get the engine up and running so much faster.

Do you normally pay for a house before it's built? Move in when they're still tiling the floor? Engine was announced in 2007. Balance patch in 2008 or so. Back when a lotta people were playing, and I'll wager it kept a lot of players (like me) paying longer than we were wont to. Both remain incomplete without even a possible horizon to peak over when it will be done.

[Mastablasta]

Do you normally pay for a house before it's built? Move in when they're still tiling the floor? Engine was announced in 2007. Balance patch in 2008 or so. Back when a lotta people were playing, and I'll wager it kept a lot of players (like me) paying longer than we were wont to. Both remain incomplete without even a possible horizon to peak over when it will be done.

The house analogy is pretty bad, though, since you're probably not going to pay the entire bill for the craftsmen in one go.

As for the relation to videogame development, I don't know if you've been keeping up with the news lately, but that is exactly what you're doing with quite a lot of games. Some of the most succesful games these past years have been pay-to-alpha/beta and support development.

Should Funcom have something like this? Well, AO is an indie game. So, why couldn't they?

[gorgenzalis]

I recently came back to check out Anarchy as it was my first mmo and I have been bored to tears with the current offerings in the market place. I thought hey, its free now so why not just see what its like. Well, I have since resubbed my 3 old accounts and added a 4th. I simply love the depth of this game.

This game has so much depth on the player development side that no other game can come even close to. I am not sure why it took me so long to come back but I am so glad I did.

Anyways I plan on being back for quite some time. I am not suggesting that all with Funcom is perfect but the game is awesome. I would suggest they work on their customer service skills.

Gorg

[Chrys]

The house analogy is pretty bad, though, since you're probably not going to pay the entire bill for the craftsmen in one go.

The point is you buy a house finished unless you're some sort of investor and developing the land... which isn't what a typical gamer is. Anyway maybe it's a sucky analogy but pay-to-develop makes very little sense when they aren't marketing and have an attitude of game-in-terminal-decline approach to public relations.

As for the relation to videogame development, I don't know if you've been keeping up with the news lately, but that is exactly what you're doing with quite a lot of games. Some of the most succesful games these past years have been pay-to-alpha/beta and support development.

Yeah so minecraft etc did that but they are novel and unique in their own way. AO is only unique in that everyone else started making MMOs differently after WoW came out and no one followed in AO's path for a number of very good reasons (the neverending balance patch being the most visible sign of how difficult AO's "choice" has become for the devs). It doesn't have enough of a "hook" to be worth paying to support development - especially development of a 5-year-old graphic engine and mere "game balance" (what every MMO does anyway, supposedly). remember all the promises of LE (and then the disappointment)? This isn't even half that

Should Funcom have something like this? Well, AO is an indie game. So, why couldn't they?

AO is "indie" in what sense exactly? That FC fail at game development so aren't big enough to be a real game developer?

[oegaboega]

well they still getting my 5x 1 year sub a year .
wtb engine beta ~!!