This sounds a LOT like Guild Wars.

Neanderthal

I just went to the site for this game and did some reading.  My first impression is that this game is basically following the Guild Wars design.  That's not necessarily a bad thing since Guild Wars is pretty popular.  But I'm thinking it's probably not something I could get very excited about.

It seems that, like Guild Wars, there will be multiplayer hubs and the rest of the world will be private instances.  Some people like that and some don't I guess.  Personally I prefer more of a persistant world that everybody shares.

I don't know, I did have some fun in Guild Wars but I got tired of it very quickly.  And it never really felt like a mmorpg to me.  But whatever.

Ah, I was going to post some other thoughts and questions but something just came up and I have to go.  Maybe I'll post here again later or maybe not.

Jatar

 

Originally posted by Neanderthal


I just went to the site for this game and did some reading.  My first impression is that this game is basically following the Guild Wars design.  That's not necessarily a bad thing since Guild Wars is pretty popular.  But I'm thinking it's probably not something I could get very excited about.
It seems that, like Guild Wars, there will be multiplayer hubs and the rest of the world will be private instances.  Some people like that and some don't I guess.  Personally I prefer more of a persistant world that everybody shares.
I don't know, I did have some fun in Guild Wars but I got tired of it very quickly.  And it never really felt like a mmorpg to me.  But whatever.

Though Guild Wars is a fine MMO game, please understand that Citadel of Sorcery is nothing like Guild Wars.   If they are checkers, we are chess.  Yes, we both take place on a square board, but after that there is no comparison.

I understand your confusion a little though, as we have not released all the information you need about our game world system.  This is by design.  There are aspects of our game system  that we do not yet wish to reveal.  However, even without that other knowledge, we have told you some fundamental differences in the games.  Guild Wars, like most other MMOs, is a static world.  Citadel of Sorcery is a dynamic world where time moves on and the world is changing. 

Secondly, that you can choose to enter a Reflected World where you have real evolving adventures with quests personally crated for your story (which Guild Wars does not have).  Or, you can choose to be in the MMO areas, with lots of other players.  

As I've said, there are many other differences as well, some not yet released, some that are.  But even with just these two fundamental differences, you can see that Citadel of Sorcery is not like Guild Wars... or any other major fantasy MMO that we have seen. 

I guess it is hard for people to accept this, they keep wanting force us to be 'like' something they have seen.   Honestly, we spent considerable effort to make SURE we are not.

 

Jatar

Citadel of Sorcery dev team member

Neanderthal

I don't know if I came across sounding hostile but I didn't really mean to if I did.  I've just started looking at your game and I'm trying to get a feel for it.

I think I see what you're planning in a general sort of way.  When you say the world evolves I'm guessing that what you mean is that each persons' version of the world evolves for them.

So if I go into an instance and destroy a village that village will stay destroyed and will still be destroyed the next time I go into that area.  It will be destroyed for me personally.  But if player B helped the village instead of destroying it, for him, the village will still be there when he goes into an instance of that area.

That's my guess anyway.  And yes, I'd say that this is not such a bad thing.  If you're going to use heavy instancing you might as well get the full advantage of it.

But it brings up a question.  Assuming that I'm more or less correct in my understanding of how this works, what happens if I group with player B and we go together to the area in which I destroyed the village but he didn't?  I'm guessing that the version of the instance we see will be based on who is the leader of the group.  True?  False?  None of the above?

Also, if we are all following our own private storyline will there be any incentive to group at all?  Don't get me wrong I don't like being absolutely forced to group, and I despise raiding, but if there is no reason at all to group, not even a little bonus experience or something, then it might be a very lonely game.

Another question:  You say that the world is not static.  I'm guessing that this refers to the way the instanced parts of the world will evolve for each person.  But are the multiplayer hubs static?  I would guess that they probably are.

Ok, how linear is the world map in comparison to guild wars.  That was one of the things that I really disliked about that game.  The instanced areas mostly just involved following closed in canyons to the next hub.  You are using heavy instancing, ok fine, but will the instanced world be more of an open map or will it be like guild wars.

I'll say that I do like what I read about the personal story lines never completely ending.  Each part has it's conclusion but then there will be a new part to your story.  That was the other thing that really killed guild wars for me.  When I was done with the pve part of the game I had nothing left to do because I didn't care for the PvP in that game.   

Jatar

 

Originally posted by Neanderthal


I don't know if I came across sounding hostile but I didn't really mean to if I did.  I've just started looking at your game and I'm trying to get a feel for it.
I think I see what you're planning in a general sort of way.  When you say the world evolves I'm guessing that what you mean is that each persons' version of the world evolves for them.
So if I go into an instance and destroy a village that village will stay destroyed and will still be destroyed the next time I go into that area.  It will be destroyed for me personally.  But if player B helped the village instead of destroying it, for him, the village will still be there when he goes into an instance of that area.
That's my guess anyway.  And yes, I'd say that this is not such a bad thing.  If you're going to use heavy instancing you might as well get the full advantage of it.
But it brings up a question.  Assuming that I'm more or less correct in my understanding of how this works, what happens if I group with player B and we go together to the area in which I destroyed the village but he didn't?  I'm guessing that the version of the instance we see will be based on who is the leader of the group.  True?  False?  None of the above?
Also, if we are all following our own private storyline will there be any incentive to group at all?  Don't get me wrong I don't like being absolutely forced to group, and I despise raiding, but if there is no reason at all to group, not even a little bonus experience or something, then it might be a very lonely game.
Another question:  You say that the world is not static.  I'm guessing that this refers to the way the instanced parts of the world will evolve for each person.  But are the multiplayer hubs static?  I would guess that they probably are.
Ok, how linear is the world map in comparison to guild wars.  That was one of the things that I really disliked about that game.  The instanced areas mostly just involved following closed in canyons to the next hub.  You are using heavy instancing, ok fine, but will the instanced world be more of an open map or will it be like guild wars.
I'll say that I do like what I read about the personal story lines never completely ending.  Each part has it's conclusion but then there will be a new part to your story.  That was the other thing that really killed guild wars for me.  When I was done with the pve part of the game I had nothing left to do because I didn't care for the PvP in that game.   

Well, you don't have it completely correct... the world is not static.  This means (regardless of instance or not) that the world changes every day, in fact, all the time.

 

The problem here, and I appologize for this, is that there are a few aspects of this system I'm not allowed to talk about yet.  It makes it very hard to clarifiy exactly how the system works, but we have to save SOME things

However, let me give you this one example.  I enter the game world.  While waiting for the ineveitable updates of any MMO game, I can check the game newspaper.   In there I might see that two villages fell to an attack of Morphael's creatures, a new infestation of creatures has been spotted in the lost hills, and there are reports of strange disappearances from the town of Hawkstone.

The player can investigate any or all of these things when they get into the game.  These were not true yesterday, they will not be the news of tomorrow.  In addition, you might be hanging around the Carnival District doing some gambling (mini games) when a town crier runs through telling of an attack from out of No Mans Land on the Garrison at Whitebeach.  This event is happening now, and you can take part in it, or not. 

The world is dynamic, and big events are constantly changing... for everyone, every day, every hour.  This is about as much as I'm allowed to go into at this time.  Hope it helps you understand.

 Edit: Oh, and one more thing...  when you do enter an instance, it is not in any way linear, it is an entire, living breathing dynamic world where you can go on countless adventures.  It is NOTHING like instancing in any other MMO.

Jatar

Citadel of Sorcery dev team member

Hexxeity

I'm not sure if this has been answered or stated ...

Is there adventuring (i.e., PvE combat) in the non-instanced areas?  You said we could choose to be in the MMO areas, but that is not the same as adventuring there.