Only scratched the surface...

Kaputzy

Let me preface this by saying I have never played Star Wars Galaxies or Ultima Online but have played (in some cases at a very competitive level) almost all AAAs in recent years.

 

This game needs attention. I mean that in every sense. 

 

Yes it needs work (it is in Alpha after all). It has its bugs and kinks which anyone playing it will tell you. Those same people, however, will still tell you to play and support something special that's being developed here.

 

I paid my $15 out of boredom. Honestly. I've played through ArcheAge's money-grab, WoW's Pandaness, Wushu's P2W, SWTOR's Illum (BAHAHA) and F2P restrictions, FFX14's casual-gamers-come-cosplayers.

I have officially given up on MMOs.

I've given up looking for a long-term MMO home. Now I'm just looking for something that will fill a void like a kebab after a drunken night, or going home that night with the (2 out of 10) rotund *lady*.

It's shameful but I could list countless more games than listed above, but then I'd be embarrassing myself. More.

 

So I log in, graphics are meh and I'm already experiencing frame drops in the starter zone, but I've got the weekend and I'm determined to get my $15 worth.

Did a few fetch quests, meh. Did a bit of combat, meh. Read a bit of the chat, nice community, talked to a few people. 

 

Pressed 'G' in the game. Mind blown.

 

This is the in-game-database offering hints, list of recipes available, components required for those crafted recipes,  and detailing skills you can acquire in the game.  Doesn't sound like much? Take a look yourself. 

For the sake of my own sanity I wont begin to even try and count how many skills you can learn. It's a lot. OK, it's googolplexian. The diversity is mind-blowing.

 

With this in mind, I realize I need a strategy. So I decide to focus on my Flame-thrower and Grenades as weapons of choice.

Meet a guy with +750 skill in taming (considering I'm at level 50 after a day of concentrated farming and the cap for all skills is 60000 afaik) and he whips out his 6-legged-predator-lookalike mount. I'm freakin jelly. 

 

New plan. I want to be a Grand Master Beast Tamer.

 

Meet a guy that has focused on Robotics and Bio-Engineering and he whips out his combat Medbots, turrets and some freakish-looking bio-engineered pets. I'm freakin jelly.

 

New plan. I want to be a Grand Master Robotics Engineer. 

 

I later get invited to, and given a guided tour of, a defended player-made city (yes city). Complete with player-mountable siege turrets to defend against invasion, crafting stations, shop NPC's,  assault course and even racing track. It also has an underground bunker the size of Azeroth.

 

Mind blown.

 

Is this the answer to my MMO-woes? I don't know. Do I see enough potential in the game, activity in the devs, a good community to get excited about? I think you know the answer.

 

People keep talking about their SWG experiences and likening them to what they're seeing develop here. Makes me sad I never played SWG but also happy to be watching this game develop into something f*cking epic.

 

 

Boneserino

I respect your enthusiasm.    

 

I have a different view of it.   Its a good game if you want a second life.  As in time, time, time.   But hey it is supposedly free which is a good thing.  Or is it?

 

Anyway good luck with it.  Hope you enjoy it for a long time.

Kaputzy

Originally posted by Boneserino

I respect your enthusiasm.    

 

I have a different view of it.   Its a good game if you want a second life.  As in time, time, time.   But hey it is supposedly free which is a good thing.  Or is it?

 

Anyway good luck with it.  Hope you enjoy it for a long time.

 

Thanks man, I hope it has that kind of longevity too. Enjoying it immensely so far.

 

I do understand your criticism, it's not casual-friendly and with the amount of depth and the steep learning curve it won't suit everyone, but is exactly what I was looking for!

 

In terms of what happens from now until release including what type of payment model/cash shop they implement, ABT have plenty of time to f*ck things up, and we've all seen it happen before!

 

For now they're saying the right things and I'm on board.

Boneserino

I am a big fan of the development team too.  I think they have done an amazing job with limited resources.  And they seem to be sticking to the vision, and not softening the game up.  Good for them.

 

Its a game with long term potential if that is what you are looking for, and I agree it deserves support. 

 

I paid for alpha as well and do not regret it at all, even though I likely won't be playing.

Kaputzy

Originally posted by Boneserino

I am a big fan of the development team too.  I think they have done an amazing job with limited resources. 

For me, even this is understated. It's boggling what they've achieved given the true scale and depth of the game. It's huge.

This is an idea of what's behind just the crafting: http://aena.at/craftmap/ 

Good luck if you're an obsessive completionist, like me.

Copperfield

i wonder how the hardcore server will fold out..

 

 

Kaputzy

Originally posted by Copperfield

i wonder how the hardcore server will fold out..

 

 

 

You've got to be a truly brave (or sadistic) soul to be considering this, and I have believe me. It's going to be punishing, arguably too much so.

 

Given the level of importance and how much time is involved in crafting and resource gathering in the game, you'd better be grouped (or in stealth) 100% of the time. 

KenFisher

Great write-up.  I'm glad to see things moving along for them.

 

Good luck in the game!

 

Kaputzy

Originally posted by coretex666

The game seems to be interesting and I am inclined to try it out myself. On the other hand, I do not want to spend money on yet another early access / alpha game. I bought a few and most of them stopped moving forward in their development almost completely.

Will wait until it is officially released. Then I will most likely jump in if only for a while.

 

I totally understand this but can assure you that this game has and is moving forward at a very steady pace.

 

That said, it doesn't concern me that people want to wait until the game is released. I understand your logic and fair play to you. As I said, I only threw some coin at it out of boredom. The game is buggy and yes there will be entire server wipes before release, this will understandably deter people from jumping in.

 

Personally though, not only am I enjoying it and exploring more of the game each day uncovering new stuff, I'm happy to be a part of its growing development. To say the Devs and GMs are active and listening isn't doing them justice.

We had a GM recently taking a tour of one of our Nation's (guild) custom-built cities and were pointing out potential flaws in the defense mechanics which could imbalance sieging, for example.

 

You don't want to pay for a game in Alpha? (very playable but not without bugs) I understand. If you're on the fence however, it's money well spent that you won't regret.

 

 

hallucigenocide

i bought it cheap a few days ago.. have not played much yet.. spent 2 hrs in the tutorial area basically :P

anyway hows the combat? seemed pretty meh from what little i experienced =/

apocoluster

Bought this as soon as it became available on steam. It was fun for uhh 71 minutes and then the SWG nostalgia wore off. By all means ya'll enjoy but i dont have enough time/patience to invest in a gme like tbis again.

xpiher

Originally posted by Kaputzy

Originally posted by Copperfield

i wonder how the hardcore server will fold out..

 

 

 

You've got to be a truly brave (or sadistic) soul to be considering this, and I have believe me. It's going to be punishing, arguably too much so.

 

Given the level of importance and how much time is involved in crafting and resource gathering in the game, you'd better be grouped (or in stealth) 100% of the time. 

The hardcore server is suppose to have faster gathering rates or something and its suppose to have a way for you to essentially get rid of gear loss on death through expensive 1time use items. It won't be that bad.

 

I too worry about the grind. However, it seems leveling up combat skills doesn't do all that much and the real grind is leveling crafting. As !long as you focus play I.e. dont gather and craft and do combat (although everyone will do it all eventually), you'll do fine

Rasiem

   The problem with open world sandbox games is the story's always are lacking and usually suck hard. SWG was an awesome game because it was the star wars universe so it had so much lore to fall back on. Most games like AA for instance that try to be open world don't usually have a story at all and this creates a disconnect later on down the road for players I believe and that is my only fear for this game. But this is just my opinion I have not played it yet but it is certainly on my list, also for these open world sandbox games they really need to get the frame drop situation under control because the amount of data that needs rendering is just to much for the masses and I also believe that keeps these games from getting the amount of members they deserve. Of course these are all just things I have picked up on from my 10+ years with MMO'S and to each his own experience.

Atis-nob

This game is in development for ages, many sandbox titles were announces in that time. If repop wont release within ~9 months, other games will appear and sandbox population will spread among them. Sandboxers are less fickle so they wont drop their game of choice just because Repop got bigger skill tree. ABT better release before its too late and grab all players they can. Cut maps, models, sounds, just compete main systems, fluff and territory can be added later.

Copperfield

Originally posted by Atis-nob
This game is in development for ages, many sandbox titles were announces in that time. If repop wont release within ~9 months, other games will appear and sandbox population will spread among them. Sandboxers are less fickle so they wont drop their game of choice just because Repop got bigger skill tree. ABT better release before its too late and grab all players they can. Cut maps, models, sounds, just compete main systems, fluff and territory can be added later.

funny hope people throw in facts based on own opinions

 

There is not a single sandbox game in development  with the depth of the repopulation

 

Seeing the low budget they had to work with.. i think this team has done a pretty good job

Atis-nob

Originally posted by Copperfield

Originally posted by Atis-nob
This game is in development for ages, many sandbox titles were announces in that time. If repop wont release within ~9 months, other games will appear and sandbox population will spread among them. Sandboxers are less fickle so they wont drop their game of choice just because Repop got bigger skill tree. ABT better release before its too late and grab all players they can. Cut maps, models, sounds, just compete main systems, fluff and territory can be added later.

funny hope people throw in facts based on own opinions

 

There is not a single sandbox game in development  with the depth of the repopulation

 

Seeing the low budget they had to work with.. i think this team has done a pretty good job

Funny people throw in opinions without understanding marketing basics. Most players dont give a damn about vague stuff like depth, and those who do, dont measure it up like you. They see sandboxish enough for them games and jump to them. you can talk about depth till blue in face, NONE CARES, they see funny thing, they play it. Try to go in crowfall forum and persuade everyone how shallow game is in comparison, best answer you'll see will be "go and play repop if you like it so much".

 

I hope somebody in ABT understands hype better that you or they'll end up with 100 players, pompously talking about depth in ghosttown.

Caldrin

Originally posted by coretex666

The game seems to be interesting and I am inclined to try it out myself. On the other hand, I do not want to spend money on yet another early access / alpha game. I bought a few and most of them stopped moving forward in their development almost completely.

Will wait until it is officially released. Then I will most likely jump in if only for a while.

Unless you want to test the game and help find bugs and so on then yes wait until release.

Kaputzy

Originally posted by Atis-nob

Originally posted by Copperfield

Originally posted by Atis-nob
This game is in development for ages, many sandbox titles were announces in that time. If repop wont release within ~9 months, other games will appear and sandbox population will spread among them. Sandboxers are less fickle so they wont drop their game of choice just because Repop got bigger skill tree. ABT better release before its too late and grab all players they can. Cut maps, models, sounds, just compete main systems, fluff and territory can be added later.

funny hope people throw in facts based on own opinions

 

There is not a single sandbox game in development  with the depth of the repopulation

 

Seeing the low budget they had to work with.. i think this team has done a pretty good job

Funny people throw in opinions without understanding marketing basics. Most players dont give a damn about vague stuff like depth, and those who do, dont measure it up like you. They see sandboxish enough for them games and jump to them. you can talk about depth till blue in face, NONE CARES, they see funny thing, they play it. Try to go in crowfall forum and persuade everyone how shallow game is in comparison, best answer you'll see will be "go and play repop if you like it so much".

 

I hope somebody in ABT understands hype better that you or they'll end up with 100 players, pompously talking about depth in ghosttown.

 

Marketing 101 by Atis-nob:

Release unfinished game so that player base is not stolen by Mystery Game. Sandbox players are less fickle so will persevere with Mystery Game regardless of product quality or vague notion of game depth and complexity. All 'game depth' must be replaced by 'funny thing' to attract more players. They must see 'funny thing'. 'Funny thing' > game depth.

 

 

I can understand people getting anxious and want the game released sooner rather than later, but I'm relieved and reassured that the devs have continually reiterated that they will release the game 'when it is ready' and are taking serious strides to get it to that point.

Your 'release it quick' strategy doesn't seem to have worked so well for other titles Atis-nob, but thanks for the lesson in 'marketing basics'. 

 

 

Phry

If the game is released feature incomplete, then yeah, that would be a mistake, i don't think anyone who is seriously interested in the game wants it to be released in an unfinished state. But, how long before they have a beta version of the game, that its still an unfinished alpha would seem to indicate that the game is still years away from release

Kaputzy

Originally posted by Phry
If the game is released feature incomplete, then yeah, that would be a mistake, i don't think anyone who is seriously interested in the game wants it to be released in an unfinished state. But, how long before they have a beta version of the game, that its still an unfinished alpha would seem to indicate that the game is still years away from release

The devs are maintaining their 'aggressive target' of a release at the end of this year but have also stated that they won't hesitate in pushing it back if it's not ready. 

Most people will tell you that their target is optimistic but its certainly not 'years away'.

My own personal experience and development overview leads me to thinking that a release next year is more likely.

 

 

TsaboHavoc

Interesting.. will try it.

Kaputzy

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc

Interesting.. will try it.

If you're in the US I'd recommend rolling on the East server as it's the most populated of the 3 and plenty of people will help you. You'll definitely have questions to ask!

Eladi

I own the game for quite a while now but unfortunate could not play for long, I realy like(d) the game.

You need a fairly good machine to avoid the alfa lag and frame rate issues,  there bin nearly zero optimisation that actualy helped mid range and lower range machines .

 

what i could try was awesome.. hope by the time it releases they made the game playable to anyone without a monster pc aswell :P

Kaputzy

Originally posted by Eladi

I own the game for quite a while now but unfortunate could not play for long, I realy like(d) the game.

You need a fairly good machine to avoid the alfa lag and frame rate issues,  there bin nearly zero optimisation that actualy helped mid range and lower range machines .

 

what i could try was awesome.. hope by the time it releases they made the game playable to anyone without a monster pc aswell :P

 

The game undoubtedly needs a lot of optimization work and even on my *decent* machine I get frame spikes/lagg in a lot of different zones but it's very much playable.

I share your enthusiasm for the game in content/gameplay terms and also hope they iron out the optimization issues.

Atis-nob

Originally posted by Kaputzy

Originally posted by Atis-nob

Originally posted by Copperfield

Originally posted by Atis-nob
This game is in development for ages, many sandbox titles were announces in that time. If repop wont release within ~9 months, other games will appear and sandbox population will spread among them. Sandboxers are less fickle so they wont drop their game of choice just because Repop got bigger skill tree. ABT better release before its too late and grab all players they can. Cut maps, models, sounds, just compete main systems, fluff and territory can be added later.

funny hope people throw in facts based on own opinions

 

There is not a single sandbox game in development  with the depth of the repopulation

 

Seeing the low budget they had to work with.. i think this team has done a pretty good job

Funny people throw in opinions without understanding marketing basics. Most players dont give a damn about vague stuff like depth, and those who do, dont measure it up like you. They see sandboxish enough for them games and jump to them. you can talk about depth till blue in face, NONE CARES, they see funny thing, they play it. Try to go in crowfall forum and persuade everyone how shallow game is in comparison, best answer you'll see will be "go and play repop if you like it so much".

 

I hope somebody in ABT understands hype better that you or they'll end up with 100 players, pompously talking about depth in ghosttown.

 

Marketing 101 by Atis-nob:

Release unfinished game so that player base is not stolen by Mystery Game. Sandbox players are less fickle so will persevere with Mystery Game regardless of product quality or vague notion of game depth and complexity. All 'game depth' must be replaced by 'funny thing' to attract more players. They must see 'funny thing'. 'Funny thing' > game depth.

 

 

I can understand people getting anxious and want the game released sooner rather than later, but I'm relieved and reassured that the devs have continually reiterated that they will release the game 'when it is ready' and are taking serious strides to get it to that point.

Your 'release it quick' strategy doesn't seem to have worked so well for other titles Atis-nob, but thanks for the lesson in 'marketing basics'. 

Your complex and deep game strategy surely worked for Fallen Earth, Vanguard and other ghost-towns.

EVE was released in completely broken state and is a king of sandboxes now. They didnt wait when competitors establish their titles, they started early and outlived other deep projects.

Game's depth is not something measurable. You cant say "this title is 10% deeper than that", but you can say "this title is funnier to play for me". Depth requires time to understand, to feel, so it helps with retention but not with promotion. For getting initial players flow fun>depth any time.

 

Blizzard can afford "when its ready", because it got tens of millions ?? followers, indie title - cant. If sandbox player starts in another game, gets tied in social life, builds a house, its much harder for him to properly try Repop later. So just dont release Repop later, main systems are almost ready and sandboxers can live without megatons of much initial content, release few months before competitors and use MMO hooks to your advantage. Repop's community, cities and perspectives should keep players from switching game, not wise versa.

 

What exactly titles had all mechanics working, released early and fail?

 

WOW got his pop because it started at right time, when potential MMO players were not hooked at another theme park. later projects were worthy themeparks but never had a chance for jack pot, WOWers had their game and wasnt looking for another.

 

Right now there is a sandbox wave incoming because there is demand for such games. Repop can be forerunner and win big or follower and stay with tiniest pop of devoted fans.

Also people follow people. Its not fun to play in semi-empty socially based MMO, so deep game with no people to play with will lose to shallower one with high pop. No initial pop mean no pop at all.

Kaputzy

Originally posted by Atis-nob

Snip*

Your complex and deep game strategy surely worked for Fallen Earth, Vanguard and other ghost-towns.

You're using examples of failed games that suffered because they were released unfinished, which is exactly what you are advocating and encouraging ABT do with The Repopulation!  

 

EVE was released in completely broken state and is a king of sandboxes now. They didnt wait when competitors establish their titles, they started early and outlived other deep projects.

 

I think you've nailed it! I hope all aspiring game developers are reading: The key to a successful game lies in releasing it early in 'a broken state'. Brilliant deduction! 

I'm sure Eve's longevity despite a poor launch had nothing to do with a die-hard player base eager to play a space combat, sandbox MMO. Something that was unheard of at the time.

Good games stand the test of time. It has nothing to do with 'whichever is released first is and will remain king', otherwise we'd all still be playing Ultima Online.

 

Game's depth is not something measurable. You cant say "this title is 10% deeper than that", but you can say "this title is funnier to play for me".

 

I don't even know where to being here...

Who said anything about quantifying the level of depth in this or any other game? What are you even trying to say?

Look, I can say (opinion) that Archeage has more depth than Pokemon Online. I could also say (opinion) that it is more fun to play. I've never heard anyone say (example) Archeage is 10% more fun than Pokemon Online, or Archeage is 10% deeper.  

What you also fail to understand is that the level of depth and how much fun someone has playing a game, more often than not, go hand in hand. 

 

Right now there is a sandbox wave incoming because there is demand for such games. Repop can be forerunner and win big or follower and stay with tiniest pop of devoted fans.

 

Alternatively it could have an abysmal launch and turn people away forever.

Or - Continue the solid work they're doing so that, on release, the game will meet expectations and have fulfilled its potential. Something we all know it has in abundance.

 

To be honest Atis-noob, I get the impression you are very confused. That and I thank God you're not developing this (or any other) game.