Shared-World Survival Game Nightingale Gets Intel Partnership, and Will Be at The Game Awards | MMOR

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Shared-World Survival Game Nightingale Gets Intel Partnership, and Will Be at The Game Awards | MMORPG.com

Upcoming shared-world survival game Nightingale will be showing off new gameplay and features at The Game Awards next week. Developer Inflexion also announced a partnership with Intel.

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LamiaCritter

God I'm so curious about Nightingale..

But I will be so, so, hellishly disappointed if the only weapons we'll be allowed to use is just 'basic bitch tired rifle but victorian skinned'.

Please tell me I'll be able to be a legit mage in this /alternate Victorian timeline where magic actually existed/.

Slapshot1188

Please don't in any way shape or form mention Mortal Online 2 and this game in the same article. I have high hopes for this one. If it turns into something like MO2 I will be very disappointed.

Slapshot1188

LamiaCritter said:

God I'm so curious about Nightingale..

But I will be so, so, hellishly disappointed if the only weapons we'll be allowed to use is just 'basic bitch tired rifle but victorian skinned'.

Please tell me I'll be able to be a legit mage in this /alternate Victorian timeline where magic actually existed/.

Im hoping stuff like that is part of the Card System.  Some realms have Magic.  Some do not...

Oyjord

I’m incredibly disappointed this game will be first-person only.

Asm0deus

I have my eyes on this one however inflexion was sold to tencent so.....lets wait and see I guess.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/tencent-acquires-inflexion-from-improbable

Beware that little requirement on the steam page of broadband internet.

As for the 1st person only view I am ok with that, who knows maybe we will be able to get this working with a VR headset. However It does look like it will have some hefty min reqs.

budzi

A survival game? What a great idea !! ....

Sovrath

budzi said:

A survival game? What a great idea !! ....

It is since survival games are great.

ashiru_1978

Sovrath said:

budzi said:

A survival game? What a great idea !! ....

It is since survival games are great.

What about them? Punching trees and eating berries?

Sovrath

ashiru_1978 said:

Sovrath said:

budzi said:

A survival game? What a great idea !! ....

It is since survival games are great.

What about them? Punching trees and eating berries?

Oh I guess you've never played one. You should try it. Having to survive, making sure your character has the resources to be able to traverse the land.

Better than an MMORPG in my opinion.

The punching bushes is probably a resource issue on the devs' side as they probably don't want to make the additional animations. That's a shame.

eoloe

Sovrath said:

ashiru_1978 said:

Sovrath said:

budzi said:

A survival game? What a great idea !! ....

It is since survival games are great.

What about them? Punching trees and eating berries?

Oh I guess you've never played one. You should try it. Having to survive, making sure your character has the resources to be able to traverse the land.

Better than an MMORPG in my opinion.

The punching bushes is probably a resource issue on the devs' side as they probably don't want to make the additional animations. That's a shame.

Overall, I agree survivals are more fun than go to the next question mark to kill 10 rats, then go the next question mark to kill 20 rabbits.

Eating berries can be fun when you have to stealth/fight your way to the bush.

However it stops to be a game and becomes a chore as soon as you have to get each of your 10000000000 stones to build your castle. And they have to be processed in 24 stages to reach the necessary quality.

Slapshot1188

I find I like the base building portion of most survival games.  Conan, Valheim, 7d2D.  All those have great tools for building a place from scratch.

Thats my attraction to them.

Sovrath

eoloe said:

Sovrath said:

ashiru_1978 said:

Sovrath said:

budzi said:

A survival game? What a great idea !! ....

It is since survival games are great.

What about them? Punching trees and eating berries?

Oh I guess you've never played one. You should try it. Having to survive, making sure your character has the resources to be able to traverse the land.

Better than an MMORPG in my opinion.

The punching bushes is probably a resource issue on the devs' side as they probably don't want to make the additional animations. That's a shame.

Overall, I agree survivals are more fun than go to the next question mark to kill 10 rats, then go the next question mark to kill 20 rabbits.

Eating berries can be fun when you have to stealth/fight your way to the bush.

However it stops to be a game and becomes a chore as soon as you have to get each of your 10000000000 stones to build your castle. And they have to be processed in 24 stages to reach the necessary quality.

I'm of two minds about construction.

On one end I think a castle should take time and resources to create. On the other hand, if it takes too long that can dissuade players from creating similar structures, especially if there isn't a huge bonus/reason for having one.

In Conan Exiles I play on my own game solo. I steadily work on my fortress with the original rules for time spent gathering as well as inventory encumbrance.  After a while I realized that I probably should up that as my structure will never get done.

However, in a multiplayer game I think such structures should require the work of every member of a guild, clan "whatever" and shouldn't just be altered so that every solo player can have their own castle within a few days.

For the "survival" elements, I've had some very fun times in the Morrowind and Skyrim (Skyrim using a survival mod by bethesda).

In Morrowind I was a vampire and desperately trying to find a place to hide as daylight was approaching and I'd burn up soon. In Skyrim, a few nights ago, I was freezing cold and trying to get to Windhelm as quickly as possible as my health was narrowed to a sliver, I was moving slower and there were wild animals about that would kill me in one swipe.

Very fun for me. Once, when exploring a player made dungeon mod, I was fighting three Draugr when suddenly my fatigue started and I was moving slower with less stamina to fight. Was very fun, especially when I actually won the encounter.

Still, any game with such systems also needs systems that support it. I had to mod a ring to "up" my inventory limit as I could barely carry anything on my character because of the Survival mod changes with inventory limits. Ideally I'd have a cart or some way to store stuff and bring a cart but it doesn't exist in Skyrim.

Daggerfall has that system and I think that should have been included with the survival mod for skyrim though probably with a more direct implementation of having an "actual cart" as opposed to the Daggerfall system where it's just a menu that comes up.

Uwakionna

My only distinct criticism of survival games is that they are effectively half a game. Survival mechanics inside an RPG can make for a compelling experience, and there's been plenty of RPGs that naturally carry survival elements.

But "survival" by itself as a genre, ends up being somewhat lacking, and mostly relies on sandbox features to keep it afloat. Which can work for some people, but it's entirely self-directed gameplay at that point, and brings in a unique set of problems with it.

"Survival" and "sandbox" both serve better as toolkits to elevate the other features of a game. It's the hazard of games that are survival-first lean into very flat experiences overall.

Bit of why last time Nightingale had an article here talking about "bringing better narrative to the survival sandbox experience", I addressed that as a rather low bar to be aiming for.

Sovrath

Uwakionna said:

My only distinct criticism of survival games is that they are effectively half a game. Survival mechanics inside an RPG can make for a compelling experience, and there's been plenty of RPGs that naturally carry survival elements.

But "survival" by itself as a genre, ends up being somewhat lacking, and mostly relies on sandbox features to keep it afloat. Which can work for some people, but it's entirely self-directed gameplay at that point, and brings in a unique set of problems with it.

"Survival" and "sandbox" both serve better as toolkits to elevate the other features of a game. It's the hazard of games that are survival-first lean into very flat experiences overall.

Bit of why last time Nightingale had an article here talking about "bringing better narrative to the survival sandbox experience", I addressed that as a rather low bar to be aiming for.

"Which can work for some people"

But that's entirely the point, it works for some people.

If a game developer is making a survival game with the hopes that  it will attract "World of Warcraft at its height of popularity" numbers then they are delusional.

But if they are making it because they believe in that type of game play and they know there is some sort of market for it, then that's fine.

Because it seems with posts like yours (and others) that people are saying "we don't like the game so change it."

It's true that some people don't like self directed game play. I personally prefer self directed game play or at least "mostly" self directed game play. 

""Survival" and "sandbox" both serve better as toolkits to elevate the other features of a game."

But the very well can be their own type of game just like a walking simulator or a game that is mostly narrative (I believe there is a recent vampire the masquerade game Shadows of New York, that is mostly narrative) can be its own thing.

These games are made for their specific demographics. Heck, just like a Souls Game is made for a certain type of person.

And if people don't like these games then they shouldn't play them. Not sure why this is always an issue with extreme types of game play.

Slapshot1188

Sovrath said:

And if people don't like these games then they shouldn't play them. Not sure why this is always an issue with extreme types of game play.

Agreed.  All I ever ask is for games to deliver what they say they will do. I hate when games try (and fail) to be all things to all people.

Uwakionna

@Sovrath

Eh, yes, games should be varietal. That's not the gripe so much as the ability for a given toolkit to provide what's intended.

Your own provided games demonstrates this point. All of them blend some variety of RPG and progression systems to add depth to them with Exiles being the thinnest on such content.

Yes, there are those that may like completely undirected play, but how many? Is there not a reason that sandbox survivals are pushing narrative into their structures slowly but surely?

And I don't quite see what you seem to think is me saying they need to change what they're doing to suit my taste. It was their mission statement to say that they are trying to elevate the genre with better narrative.

What I very bluntly stated my point as, is that they set a remarkably low bar in their mission statement. If anything that's just saying I don't have much guarantees on what the resulting product will be.

EDIT: Point of case being to fulfill the statement from @Slapshot1188 , Nightingale just has to have a narrative and it'll already be a step above 90% of the sandbox titles out there as far as narrative gameplay is concerned. An even half-assed narrative could edge out Exiles , the Forest, etc in relativity to the sandbox survival genre.

Is that the bar we should then be expecting when they say they are trying to elevate the genre?

Sovrath

Uwakionna said:

@Sovrath

Eh, yes, games should be varietal. That's not the gripe so much as the ability for a given toolkit to provide what's intended.

Your own provided games demonstrates this point. All of them blend some variety of RPG and progression systems to add depth to them with Exiles being the thinnest on such content.

Yes, there are those that may like completely undirected play, but how many? Is there not a reason that sandbox survivals are pushing narrative into their structures slowly but surely?

And I don't quite see what you seem to think is me saying they need to change what they're doing to suit my taste. It was their mission statement to say that they are trying to elevate the genre with better narrative.

What I very bluntly stated my point as, is that they set a remarkably low bar in their mission statement. If anything that's just saying I don't have much guarantees on what the resulting product will be.

EDIT: Point of case being to fulfill the statement from @Slapshot1188 , Nightingale just has to have a narrative and it'll already be a step above 90% of the sandbox titles out there as far as narrative gameplay is concerned. An even half-assed narrative could edge out Exiles , the Forest, etc in relativity to the sandbox survival genre.

Is that the bar we should then be expecting when they say they are trying to elevate the genre?

My examples are games that are very much of a type.

The souls games are light on quest "anything" tell most of their story through item descriptions and environmental clues and are very punishing. Yet people have decried these things and have asked for easier game play or some sort of difficulty slider/option.

Vampire the Masquerade Coteries of New York is more of a narrative "game" and I can't tell you how many people have decried those types of games or "walking simulators" because they aren't really "games."

Conan Exiles, at least my experience with it, is a survival game through and through, no quests but a way for players who play on larger servers (as far as population) to attack each other, claim their own areas.

All of these games have their detractors because people think the game play should be different..

Just like a survival game has its detractors because people don't like what they have to offer.

Varietal ( and I am assuming you just mean "having variety") is important within the context of what the game is trying to do. How often have we spoke about games that try to do too much and fail because they can't deliver?

Yes, there are those that may like completely undirected play, but how many?

 What does it matter AS LONG AS the developers know they can have a player base/customer base that can support them.? If the developers of Nightingale want the survival elements to support or "raise up" other aspects of the game then "great!" That's the game they want to make.  but let's see what that is and let's see if it works.

And I don't quite see what you seem to think is me saying they need to change what they're doing to suit my taste. It was their mission statement to say that they are trying to elevate the genre with better narrative.

You weren't clear about what you were talking about and seemed to be talking about "survival games in general."

Quite frankly, while there is room for improvement, I dont think we need any narrative other than one that supports a more living world. No quests (sick and tired of quests) but a world that is fleshed out and supports the players with their own goals. 

In my opinion. 

Uwakionna

True, opinion would b e a guiding subject here, as a lot is still quite debatable.

Souls games have a lot of quests in them. What it lacks, is a quest log. The thing people complain about is seemingly more so the lack of hand-holding in understanding it. Same with difficulty slider, the games have inherent difficulty ramps tied to different weapon and skill options. What people want is seemingly less esoteric methods of approaching difficulty.

But it's notable as a result that souls titles still consequently have both those features. They aren't missing mechanics, they are just presented differently.

VTM Coteries I have no ability to comment on as I am unfamiliar.

Exiles, similarly, has narrative as well as a story objective, which is carrying through the steps to break your bracelet and escape the exiled lands. It runs it exceptionally thin in favor of mostly filling out the setting through narrative rather than making any kind of complex forward direction. In doing that though, they have also built out subplot narratives based on history between dungeon bosses and the state of the exiled lands. They are not bound to quests, but that does exist as a story to explore within the game.

And sure I mean varietal as in it's definition "relating to or forming a variety". What I meant there though simply is having different games with different goals.

However, my point in bringing up "Yes, there are those that may like completely undirected play, but how many?" was in my follow-up statement right after it. "Is there not a reason that sandbox survivals are pushing narrative into their structures slowly but surely?"

Point there was noting that devs themselves seem to be conscious of limitations and staying power. We have how many successful sandbox titles that aren't at least minorly driven by narrative? Three? Four? On top of that, looking at many classic RPGs we can tend to identify survival gameplay elements as fundamental parts of the RPG toolkit already. D&D inherently has rules about rations, camping, etc. While I'm sure plenty of players ignore them, it's a classic component of many PnP resources and even CRPGs which only waned with the focus on action gameplay.

And apologies, not sure I could be more clear than making a closing statement expressly stating the point of my post. Perhaps the opening statement was more vague, but I would point to my above point about survival gameplay being an existing part of RPG toolkit as to rationale there.

Ultimately, yes, the devs claimed they wanted to elevate storytelling in sandbox survival games. Yes, we should wait and see "if it works". But also, to my point, see what that even means, because the presented goal is simply a very low bar and rather open to interpretation since the RPG genre itself has carried such things for a long time already.

EDIT: To be even more succinct, the criticism is that they could effectively claim they are making a lite RPG and it'd be no more or less explanative of the goal and end product.

Mensur

I dont get it- is this an mmo or some kind solo survival crap where you can play wit a few people?

Scot

I will pitch in just to say Survival is naff and proper MMORPG's are ten times better. Nuff said.

budzi

Surival games always feel to me like they are unfinished games.

Slapshot1188

budzi said:

Surival games always feel to me like they are unfinished games.

That seems to apply to 99% of games today no matter what their genre

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Tokken

I'm certainly curious about Nightingale.... I like what I see so far!

Iselin

Looking forward to this.

Seems like survival games might be growing up by being PvE-only and including interesting stories and quests instead of being just empty sandboxes.