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Is this game really sandbox?
Karteli
Member CommonPosts: 2,646
I watched the videos for alpha 1 & 2, and while I'm imtriged, I can't say that I'm sold on this.
I think more video are going to be necessary to keep any kind of interest in this game.
Just as a side note, Aion allows people to place items at any angle they want. This contradicts what alpha #2 shows, with a strict angle gradiant (0 degrees, or 45 degrees, or 90 degrees).
The videos seem very limited. I'm not just being some a-hole nit picking games, I have this game in my radar.
The rest is cool, I like what the dev's put together. Peace?
But is this game a sandbox, or a sandpark / themebox?
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
Comments
Bear in mind Repop is in very early alpha. Not everything is in the game yet, and things in the game are not necessarily where the devs want them to be yet. The videos seem limited because they are limited. The entire world and every system in it isn't ready to show right now.
As to what Repop is, it is a hybrid, a sandbox with themepark elements.
Repop is a Sandbox first and foremost. But it also incorporates some features that have been popular from theme park games, while giving them each a sandbox twist. It has both a randomized mutating public quest system (engagements), and a complex generated mission system, but there is no real linearity to the game. Once you finish the tutorial you can pretty much go out and play how you wish to play.
Sandbox Elements
- Complex Nation system.
- City Building.
- Home decorating.
- Complex Crafting and extensive Harvesting systems which allow crafters to advance outside of combat.
- Non-linear gameplay.
- Generation schemes for both missions and engagements to create ever-changing content.
- Your choices do matter. They can affect future work opportunities and can have an effect on how engagements filter through the world.
- Skills based with special abilities. No class limitations.
- Day/Night and Weather systems mix up the world. Some shops close and NPCs despawn at night time, some mobs are only available during certain times of day. Signs and lights also turn on or off during business hours.
- Extensive pet system which allows you to tame many animals, or genetically engineer species by splicing their DNA.
https://www.therepopulation.com - Sci Fi Sandbox.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
Honestly im kinda sick of the linear themepark being led around on a leash games that have plaqued the industry for the past 8+ years.
I am looking forward to this and archeage. This game reminds me so much of SWG and i can not wait. I just hope they stick to their guns and make the game right, and not sell out to a bigger company and kill it. It has so much potential and not being held down to one thing is always best for a true epic mmorpg.
I think a few good sandboxes being released will help mix things up and help people remember what they lose in themeparks/hand holding rpg's. One of the reasons i feel most the newer mmo's just dont last, they dont offer what the older sandbox games offered. And before anyone says sandbox = open word pvp..... you are wrong,several sandboxes do not have this or its a choice to pvp.
Nothing you listed makes a game a sandbox. In fact if you can apply that to a lot of wow-parks and you could call them sandboxes.
Player housing is more a themepark aspect of gameplay, more themeparks use it than sandboxes. Complex crafting isnt sandbox, though a lot of sandboxes like eve type games go nuts with a player based economy and very complex processes.
Day and night weather...is now sandbox?
This looks more like a feature advertisement than a list of what makes this game a sandbox.
I really wish people would stop calling games sandboxes because you can craft a lot or grow things and theres player housing...really irritates me for some reason.
No classes, no storline quests to feed people gear and xp, the ability to fully loot in pvp (high risk pvp not themepark syle where you die then get a free trip to your bind and no loss of anything) no factions also is a sandbox feature politics must be guild based and there must be something on the line such as territory or clan holdings. This is what makes a game sandbox. Players deciding what class or role they are not the character creation screen, players making their purpose not a storyline and NPC's, players giving themselves a point in game not a quest system, and a market and guild structure based on player politics and supply/demand.
I agree that the line betweeen sandbox and themepark is blurring. ArcheAge looks like a themepark with a fair amount of sandbox features, but it has quest spam quest hubs and the likes...its a themepark if it has rides doesnt matter if you can play house craft a lot and grow shit.
This game will be interesting at least, even if it turns out to be more a themepark than people are suggesting, as i suspect. I am just not convinced a sandbox and selling stuff in a cash shop to keep the game afloat is going to work well. Its a sandbox, all the stuff they sell should be player made in game (imo)
I think you oversimplified a little bit there. But I also think that the lines that separate the two are hard to draw out exactly. It means different things to different people.
How many sandbox games allow you to build a house within the world, and not in a virtual instance? How many are able to allow you to create a city filled with dozens of them and other structures? Comparing the Inn Rooms of a game like Runes of Magic or AO for example, is a lot different than the sprawling housing areas in SWG or UO.
Do many theme park games have day/night? Sure. How many of them alter the spawns based on them? Have shops that close? NPCs who hit the pub? Etc.
As far as crafting is concerned, to me the difference between the sandbox and theme park approach to them is that theme park games typically involve a gear grind. High end crafting gear really doesn't have a place in them. It's all raid gear. Where in a sandbox the approach is very different. You can often exist entirely as a crafter, without being tied into the leveling system, and crafting items are generally among the best if not the best in the game. So yeah, sure both types have crafting, but they are very different uses of it, typically.
On the list of things you consider a sandbox... I'll give you maybe no classes on that list, though I don't think being skills based makes a game sandbox. It is typically a sandbox feature though. Territory control also, as it causes player created activities. Repop of course has both of those things.
The other things though I disagree with. Full loot is not a sandbox element. It's something that UO did and many sandbox titles since have done, but it's also one of the features that turns away casual players, and has caused sandboxes to become a niche genre. All games have factions, though I'm guessing your referring to PvP wise, and FFA. That's not sandbox. That's hardcore PvP.
No storyline quests, I'd disagree there too. Is The Elder Scrolls series not sandbox because they have deep stories? Is Grand Theft Auto not sandbox because you can do the storyline, as well as the sandbox elements? SWG made the term theme park popular in the genre, and it's also considered by many to be the best sandbox MMO to date. I think when you drive players through story in a linear fashion, then it's no longer a sandbox. Having some story though is pretty much required. In a game like Repop you aren't really going to ever have any linear path. Once you leave the tutorial areas your pretty much in a big world. You won't have to look hard for something to do though because you will be receiving job offers in your mail pretty much constantly, catered to your location and skill set. As you travel the world you'll also see a lot of engagements happening. So there will constantly be things to do, but it's up to the player if they want to do them or not.
I think the one big thing with sandbox and theme park discussions is that noone really knows where to draw the lines. To some players certain features are sandbox and to others they are not. To me though I think the biggest thing that differentiates the two is that theme park games typically lead you down a linear path chasing a carrot. Where sandbox games allow you to choose your own adventure.
https://www.therepopulation.com - Sci Fi Sandbox.
For me it's pretty straight forward, most features can fall in one or the other .... or in the middle.
Sandbox = Write a story
Themepark = Read a story
QFT
BigCountry | Head Hunters | www.wefarmpeople.com