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Medieval Sandbox MMO from independent team
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True but "old man" doesn't sound that bad "little boy" on the other hand sounds a bit... Vatican worthy <.<.
You say you aren't developing for the masses.. Yet this is a free to play MMO, that can be played in a browser, with the option to grief. Cool story bro..
How is that relevant? The setting, the ruleset, the gameplay might not be for the masses. So what if the payment and platform is? It might just be the most fitting.
Yeah because the setting, ruleset, and gameplay are just going to be so mind blowingly different right? C'mon get real...
Well considering it's medieval with some magic thrown in the setting is pretty unexplored (maybe a handful of MMOs have ever gone this route, DAoC being the one that sticks out most in my mind though I could be wrong), the ruleset is akin to ultima online's first iteration ruleset which is rarely seen these days (FFA full loot PVP with consequences hasn't been seen since... lemme think... EVE-Online and.... yeah EVE-Online, I can't name another game with FFA full loot PVP off the top of my head that also has consequences for your actions of a player based level) and the gameplay is said to be between Ultima Online and League of Legends without us having seen any of it, now depends which Ultima Online iteration the developers are refering to but if it is from the first (IE the pre-conext menu/floaty excalamtion sign/right click and select talk) then I've never seen a mesh of the two before.
That said nice try to troll or possibly spread your obvious disappointment of past games ( scorned fanboi syndrome? ) around. The developers are an unknown quantity as is their game, the least you could do is give the benefit of a doubt.
Disclaimer: This is not a troll post and is not here to promote any negative energy. Although this may be a criticism, it is not meant to offend anyone. If a moderator feels the post is inappropriate, please remove it immediately before it is subject to consideration for a warning. Thank you.
I never said it is going tobe mindblowingly different ; JUST different
Of course currently we have a strange situation. Everyone is waiting for "THE NEW MMO" and as soon as there is a new game on the radar which is "trying" to do different things, everyone is putting his own expectations into this game.
You can be sure that from everyone posted in this thread everyone has a different picture of Albion Online in his mind. Once we reach the next step liked closed beta also itneresting things will happen. People who said I hate Full Loot will eventually like our interpretation of Full Loot while some other die hard UO fans will hate it since it is still to weak or whatever for them.
We have a pretty clear vision of the game we want to create and our main priority is to deliver a solid (bugfree) product, which is fun to play.
Kind regards,
Bercilak
A medieval sandbox MMO
http://www.facebook.com/albiononline/
Sounds like a personal problem to me. I'm sure you can find a therapist somewhere that will help you uncover those repressed memories.
That answer sounds too rehearsed, sounds like a case of:
to me :-?
This sounds very interesting. But I have a big question on players selling things to players. My worry centers around this possibility, and would like some feedback...
Guilds spending lots of real money to buy up everything around them, and using these assets to dominate the game and constantly take what other players work to make (or buy, whatever the case may be).
Your thoughts, Bercilak?
Edit to add: I'm not sure I see this as a good or bad thing. I've often wondered if there wasn't a way to make it work in an MMO in these times of RMT. But if the above scenario is accurate, that leads to some more definitive questions that I'm only now turning around in my mind. There does seem to be the possibility of a great system here.
Once upon a time....
Hi Amaranthar,
I am actively involved in the game design and economy of Albion online and will attempt to answer your question.
At first glance, what you say is correct: if a guild spends a lot of real money to buy virtual currency and then use the currency to buy items in the open market, they will be able to buy a lot of items in the open market (assuming always that *other players* have put them up for sale, though)
On second glance however, given that the entire game economy is player driven, they will also subsidize and indirectly support every player who does not want to spend any real money in the game - somebody else in the game will earn the virtual money that the other guild spent.
As a result of that, it is likely that the market rate for mineable resources (i.e. all resources in the game) goes up, allowing non-paying players to earn their money much easier and faster than before while at the same time indirectly "nerfing" real money transactions as the equivalent real money cost for items increases. If we manage to strike the right balance here, it should work really well. This is one of the areas that we will hopefully learn more about during beta.
-Dominik
Korn, thanks for the reply. Yes, that thought was the first thing that crossed my mind. That's brings a base "fairness" to the player base.
I'm wondering, though, if there are going to be "levels" of items required to make better things. For example, if you need a top level sewing kit to make top level leather armors (or same with smithing). I'm not sure if that would be a good idea. The expense could allow some players to corner markets. I'm not totally sure that's a bad thing, it might depend on how it's done, if it is done. I'd just as soon not see such a feature, though, and keep things simpler.
Although, that's not much different than what I'd like to see (in effect). I'd like to see very rare resources used to make the best items. For example, the largest gemstones to hold the largest magic in magic item creation. But for fairness, that would also require a completely random means of gaining such largest of gemstones (or whatever the resource may be). If such resources or required construction kits are predictably to be had, then the largest powers in the game (those who spend freely to build such power) can control access. And that doesn't seem to me to be a good thing. Rather they have to buy that from other players too, for the most part.
Once upon a time....
Hi Amaranthar,
thanks for your follow-up question.
I can give you some extra information about the resource system.
There are 6 base resources - wood, stone, ore, gems, cloth and leather, rannging from tier1 to tier6.
Frequency of resources from low tiers to high tiers drops in two distinct ways:
i) there is fewer areas in which the resource spawns
ii) there is fewer resources per spawn / fewer spawn points per area.
For armor or weapons, you will usually need 3 different resources. For example, for a sword, you will need gems, ore and wood (to melt the ore). Due to the fact that high tier resources are spread out geographically, it could be that if you wanted to have a T6 sword, the T6 metal spawn might be the in north-east corner of the world whereas the T6 gem spawn might be in the south-west. This will make it virtually impossible for one guild to control all critical resources for a specific high level item. In addition to that, it will encourage trading between guilds, which is one of the core features of our game.
In addition to the above, the actual power-difference between different tiers will not be too high. So, for example, while a T4 sword might be three-times harder to get than a T3 sword, it would only be - based on the current balancing - 20% stronger.
Said differently: if you walk around with high end gear all the time, you should better know what you are doing. Or said differently: due to our loot system, you will be able to snatch super high value items from other players now and then.
- Dominik
Ya know, I am really glad there's someone freely explaining the nuts and bolts. That's a rare thing these days.
Ok, so it sounds like there will be guilds controlling the best of resources. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a little worrisome . Some more questions and comments then.
1) Will there be the rare and rondom spawn of said high end resources outside of the normal places? I really hope so.
2) Design aimed at raiding said resources by outsiders?
3) What about solo play? #1 has a lot to do with this. I do like the idea of social play enhanced in this way as a general rule, though.
4) Cab you give me examples of each tier of one or more resources? What I'm looking for here is, for leather for example, is it Cow > Bear > Polar Bear > Sphinx > Dragon? Or is it Zone1 > Zone2 > Zone3, etc.?
5) Will there be extremely rare resources outside of these normal sets that do something really unique? Like an extremely rare and huge Blue Diamond do do something no other gemstone can do? Damn, I'm getting excited here!
6) Is this a huge world where a player can discover high end resources and keep it a secret?
7) I think 20% per "tier" is too much. That would mean base damage of 10 would go... 10---12---14.4---17.28---20.74---24.88.
So your talking about quite a difference from 2 level separations, for example 17 points to 25 damage. That would leave the big spenders with too much dominance, in my opinion.
Once upon a time....
Sadly I will not support any game that is being made for a mobile device. Doesnt matter the company or IP. To do so is to support the idea that PC games are on the way out or that mobile gaming is on the same level as the PC.
I will not support anything that either helps bring an end to PC gaming...or lowers its quality to that of a mobile device. No thank you...keep PC gaming apart from it, just like console games are apart from it.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
I think you might be in trouble as mobile devices become more powerfull and prevalent. I wager in 10 years you won't see a difference between a mobile computer, your desktop computer and the computer that will be in your fridge.
1. I read the same thing about laptops 15 years ago.
2. 10 years from now, is not now...why allow a massive drop in quality in games today for something that may or may not be as powerful as PCs 10 years from now or risk PCs being pushed out of the market by companies trying to make the same product for everything?!?
I didnt support PC games ported to PC poorly because of lazy programming, nor bought console games on the PC that had piss poor graphics/designs 10+ years ago when consoles couldnt touch PC capabilities...it comes down to this, a PC is the most powerful gaming device right now, and right now, it is under threat from big companies seeing more money in mobile devices.
If a company wants to make a mobile game, thats fine...make a MOBILE game...you dont see a game being released on the PS3 and PS2 at the same time...both with PS2 graphics and features for a reason.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
Hi Adamanthar,
you are now getting into areas with your questions that are actually similar to those questions that we are curently asking ourselves as well
As we are still in an alpha stage, the answer to many of them is yet unknown as it largely depends on the extensive testing that we intend to run in closed and open betas.
Our goal is to make the game as awesome as possible whilie staying true to our sandbox and "hardcore" vision - not an easy task. The first challenge we face is that we need to validate that our base game design idea works and is fun to play.
1) In the current version of the game, there are no random spawn points. On the other hand, the game is a lot about conquering and protecting territory. If that works as intended, then we expect a lot of great wars being fought over the high tier spawn points, which should be awesome.
2) Outsiders can conequer your terriroty. Raids can happen in open spaces. A specific "raid mechanic" is currently not planned as we first need to see how the mechanics currently in the game play out.
3) The game is currently not designed for solo play and should be most fun in groups. This applies both to the "carebear" and the PvP component of the game. Building up a village from scratch is much more fun if you do it in a group of friends. And, for the PvP part, as a lot of it is actually GvG, playing as a team is important.
4) It is the usual tier progression, such as for leather: rabbit, wolf, bear, ..., dragon, etc.
5) Such a feature is not implemented yet, but is definately on our list of things to consider as it offers a lot of exciting opportunities.
6) I like the idea of this, however, in reality, this is basicially impossible as secret locations make it to the web in no time.
7) This is something we will find out during the extensive tests that we have planned. Keep in mind that the item costs per tier are currently designed to increase 3-fold and that if you get killed, your opponent can loot your stuff. Taking this into account, a 20% increase per tier is not as bad as it would be, say, in WoW.
-Dominik
Hi jtcags,
being a hardcore PC gamer myself, I can fully understand where you are coming from.
Our game is not exactly a mobile game, it is rather a cross-platform development and I can tell you out of personal experience that it plays really well on PC (actually, it even runs on Linux
). I myself often do the "carebear" crafting/gathering part on my iPad on the couch, whereas for PvP I will switch to PC. The graphics and user interface work really well on both.
-Dominik
Thanks for replying Dominik.
Unfortunately what you said still faills into what I was saying. If you had created either an "app" that allowed you to craft in the game...or do other things...as other games have done, Or at least created different "clients" per platform, it would be different. But, you toned down the PC version to match the other platforms.
This lowers the value of each platform that is capable of greater performance and will allow other companies to devalue the PC more and more for cheaper and easier game making in order to make their product for everything with no difference between them.
Please, for the love of gamers, make different clients for each platform!
The idea for this game is great, love seeing basically any kind of sandbox and love seeing it come from an independent even more...but this hits a soft spot with me because there is just way too much at risk in the gaming market right now with mobile devices and so much being controlled by massive greedy corporations that can crush the PC market into dust fast.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
Actually I reckon it'll be less than 5 before HTML5 starts really purring and you can run Crysis 2-Crysis 3 level graphics on your browser and as for laptops being a it thing... well... how should I put this... I am using a Acer 7750G at the moment and while it doesn't rip the ass off my old rig (and does not even close to my new one) it runs all decently coded MMOs currently out there without any issues at Ultra/High settings (I have issues with World of Tanks and Wurm Online but one's a clusterfuck of coding and the other is, I think, not able to run efficiently on my current hardware/software configuration).
Now advocating segregation of players by devices is something I would think most progresive people would beat down as being as archaic a method of segregation as F2P/P2P. You can easily have good polished games on both devices with control schemes which work (Hell someone mentioned on this thread about Vendetta Online's decent port to mobile devices and that's a mouse and keyboard space shooter MMO) and the devs are by the looks of things putting together a great game, it might not be the flashiest but it looks to be a solid enjoyable game of a type which is damn near extinct so for you to pass it off because it can also be played on a mobile device when their primary platform is the Windows/Linux PC speaks volumes about how your brand of logic works (it seems to be predicated on form over function which tbh is quite bad).
All that said to anyone thinking cross platform games are bad: They are bad as long as the developers have no interest in making all versions equal in their eyes (see: crappy PC ports of console games), in fact to paraphrase the Extra Credits crew a bit: one day you may be out adventuring with a group of your friends on your PC while your significant other is on a tablet tending the crops of your homestead, playing crafting minigames which restock your supplies of raw material or patches up damaged armour all the while keeping an eye out for rumours, news and whatever else may help you out in the long run.
I miss DAoC
and laptops are going the way of the dodo being replaced by taplets and more portable devices.
Actually they're melding tablets with laptops to a degree, as is though I doubt the laptop will vanish as while tablets are getting more powerful they still lack the raw power of the laptop's form factor. In fact pound for pound at least in the circles I run (physics students and professors) the laptop is prefered because of flexibility whereas the tablet just offers more mobility at a drastic decrease in flexibility.