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What NDA mean? and is everything really instanced?

MageickMageick Member UncommonPosts: 102

Just wondering what NDA meant, and what in the game is instanced? like is it like guild wars where the minuet u step outside a town your in your own world or is it like other games with a free roaming world for everyone and instanced dungeons?

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Comments

  • LobotomistLobotomist Member EpicPosts: 5,965

    I can tell you one thing withouth breaking any NDA

    PoTBS is apsolutely nothing like Guild Wars



  • spankybusspankybus Member UncommonPosts: 1,367
    Originally posted by Mageick


    Just wondering what NDA meant, and what in the game is instanced? like is it like guild wars where the minuet u step outside a town your in your own world or is it like other games with a free roaming world for everyone and instanced dungeons?

    NDA means "Non-Disclosure Agreement" which means I cannot answer teh rest of your questions

    Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
    www.spankybus.com
    -3d Artist & Compositor
    -Writer
    -Professional Amature

  • BodysnatcherBodysnatcher Member Posts: 141

         As I wait for my new PC to arrive I have not applied for beta yet so NDA does not apply to me.  I also have never played the game so.... From what I understand from things I have read is the instance part is when you encounter another ship in the open sea and want to ship to ship combat.  I think then it puts you in an instance so you cant get a zerg of other ships comming to blow you out of the water.  Although I think I read that you can do 2 on 1 and so you just have to be there when the fight starts not 5 minutes into it.

     

      The above could be wrong I am going off what I have seen posted about this game.  I am going to buy it when it releases and just hope that when I apply for beta later I will be able to get in.

    Kings and Sons of God
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  • A.BlacklochA.Blackloch Member UncommonPosts: 842

    All I can say you is "It's just awesome in every possible way and it keeps getting better and better the more you play. "

    There, I didn't brake the NDA either did I?

  • spankybusspankybus Member UncommonPosts: 1,367
    Originally posted by Mortemia


    All I can say you is "It's just awesome in every possible way and it keeps getting better and better the more you play. "
    There, I didn't brake the NDA either did I?

    er.. that would be "break" the NDA.....Viral Marketing Credibility Hit,

    Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
    www.spankybus.com
    -3d Artist & Compositor
    -Writer
    -Professional Amature

  • A.BlacklochA.Blackloch Member UncommonPosts: 842

    Originally posted by spankybus

    Originally posted by Mortemia


    All I can say you is "It's just awesome in every possible way and it keeps getting better and better the more you play. "
    There, I didn't brake the NDA either did I?

    er.. that would be "break" the NDA.....Viral Marketing Credibility Hit,

    Damn you are right, pardon my english.

    Break.

    It's like kicking a ball and having a ball. English is so weird language sometimes.

  • GinkeqGinkeq Member Posts: 615

    what an stupid response

    If the game is really instanced i can hardly see how that is part of the NDA.  It's not like they are gonna say last minute "oh we will make everything un-instanced like EQ or WoW".   It's either instanced or not instanced, simple as that.  And if it is instanced, no ones gonna play it

  • ComanComan Member UncommonPosts: 2,178

    I also belive you can not say your even under NDA, so saying you can not answer becouse then you break NDA you brake NDA :P

  • NightCloakNightCloak Member UncommonPosts: 452

    Heh... I dont know why so many people are concerned with the NDA. Anything on the forums or discussed publically through any means is not covered by the NDA which means you can talk about the game even if you are under the NDA. Just talk about what is already public.

    The game will be instanced. Like Guild Wars where only towns are public and multiple "districts"? No. Towns are an instance from the travel map, or vice versa. And then individual battles are. I believe somewhere in the forums it had mentioned that if you are part of a group, one of your group members can be placed into an instanced battle without you, that you can go ahead and join.

    As PvP is concerned, there was a devlog that explained that if you were going into a fight with someone, you will be able to see everyone else within range that can join that fight as well. So instances dont always mean private or uninterruptable. However, for the most part, they will be.

    And all that is info from forums/devlogs/site and none from playing the game where the NDA covers.

  • PhosPhos Member Posts: 455

    NDA? All that "secret" information is widely available on the internet. LOL, people are so afraid of the NDA that they don't really know what it means. Not ALL information is "super secret-squirrel" stuff.

    Yes, the game is heavily instanced. Check out these videos for info on instances, melee combat, ship combat, etc:

    http://www.allakhazam.com/e3/news/sdetail7370.html?story=7370

    There are tons more videos that can answer ANY question about this game. And that's a GOOD THING. At lease POTBS isn't keeping secrets about their game like Age of Conan is. Good luck getting ANY information about THAT game (not a good sign).

    ("Instanced" means when you get in combat or certain other areas of the game, you leave the regular world and enter a special little zone where only the people participating in that event exist. An "instance" is like a little bubble within the world where you can only interact with those others inside the same 'instance' as you. It's bad for interactive gameplay and eliminates 'chance' encounters while your in this separate little place. Developers make instances because it's easier to program games this way than to have large events or places, like houses, etc... where anyone can just stumble upon them.)

    POTBS looks like it will be a good game, but yes... it is heavily instanced, which is a bad thing.


    - Phos

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  • RedwoodSapRedwoodSap Member Posts: 1,235

    Way too much instancing, this kills immersion and the game for me. Gonna pass on this game.

    Based on what they said in the dev chat, everything will be instanced except the mini-ports which are very small, so basically it's gonna be like Guild  Wars.

    image

  • NightCloakNightCloak Member UncommonPosts: 452

    Not quite like Guild Wars. GW there is no open areas or persistant. Everything is instanced.

    Here there will be a persistant overland map. And Ports are persistant(meaning there arnt multiple instances of them like districts). Battles will be instances viewable on the main map as well if you are near enough.

    I kinda like instances... Less annoyance of griefers and less chance of areas being swamped and waiting 20 min just to finish quests since everyone and thier mother is doing the same thing.

  • RickSaadaRickSaada Senior Developer, POTBSMember Posts: 200

    Instancing has benefits and disadvantages.  On the downside, it doesn't have quite the immersion that you get wandering from zone to zone in WoW, or the ability to stumble onto someone in need of help and jump in.  On the plus side, you don't have boss/spawn camping for missions, and there's fewer problems with lag caused by overloaded zones.  On the down side, you don't see other people doing missions, but on the up side it's possible to do more tailored mission events because as a dev you have more control over the situation. 

    And it our case we've got the added headache of shipboard travel times.  In a continuous world you'd either have insane travel times between ports if ships moved at realistic speeds, or you'd have totally arcadey combat if ships moved in battle at reasonable inter-island speeds.  Have the combat take place in an instanced zone allows us to have reasonable travel times for long haul trips and reasonable battle speeds for combat.   WoW doesn't have that issue because their long haul travel happens when you can't be touched, or in the case of ships, completely offscreen.

    Rick Saada - FLS Dev & EPFBM

  • er99er99 Member CommonPosts: 101

    PotBS is heavily instanced. if your the type that likes immersion in your games you may not like this one.

  • LinnaLinna Member Posts: 387

    Originally posted by RedwoodSap


    Way too much instancing, this kills immersion and the game for me. Gonna pass on this game.
    Based on what they said in the dev chat, everything will be instanced except the mini-ports which are very small, so basically it's gonna be like Guild  Wars.
    It's nothing like guild wars. Not even close. When sailing on the map, you can see all other NPCs and players in range. When you get into combat, you enter an instance, yes, but you CAN call for help from other nearby players, and you CAN escape the instance.

    Linna

  • Agricola1Agricola1 Member UncommonPosts: 4,977

    Personally I hated GW due to the instancing, however PotBS is very different in my opinion. The open seas aren't instanced for each player when traveling. If you're attacked or attack a player an instance opens leaving a flag in the world so friends close by can come to help and enter the instance. The flag disappears after one minute, mission are all instanced (AFAIK) which does give an advantage and dis-advantage. Some immersion has been sacrificed for smooth gameplay and any missions or grinding you do can't be screwed up by a bunch of griefers.

    From what I've gathered from videos and talk through the loss of immersion is minimal and probably compensated for by things like supernatural missions and so forth. Besides TR does much the same with instancing as PotBS and it doesn't see to have hurt the immersion in that game one bit. Ofcourse I haven't actually played PotBS yet but I'm not going to cross them off because they have instances in the game.

    "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"

    CS Lewis

  • ElikalElikal Member UncommonPosts: 7,912

    Monday. I hear we will get mouths be opened.

     

    People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert

  • LetMeInHereLetMeInHere Member Posts: 2

    1. People covered under the NDA aren't allowed to tell you they're covered under the NDA.

    2. Any information those people gathered from NDA sources - for example, a dev posting in the beta tester's forum about the start of open beta - can not be passed on to other sources.

    In other, wholly unrelated  news, I can not confirm any particular information regarding this upcoming Monday. Nothing to see here. Move along.

  • ArndurArndur Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 2,202

    they said in the dev chat open beta starts the 3rd. also will open beta still be by invitation or will they get to everyone witha pre-order like other games?

    Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.

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  • melachimelachi Member Posts: 37

    I can say this much, most of the comments here about the instancing and immersion are completely incorrect. It's NOTHING LIKE GUILD WARS.

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  • U-TurnU-Turn Member UncommonPosts: 164

     

    Originally posted by RickSaada


    Instancing has benefits and disadvantages.  On the downside, it doesn't have quite the immersion that you get wandering from zone to zone in WoW, or the ability to stumble onto someone in need of help and jump in.  On the plus side, you don't have boss/spawn camping for missions, and there's fewer problems with lag caused by overloaded zones.  On the down side, you don't see other people doing missions, but on the up side it's possible to do more tailored mission events because as a dev you have more control over the situation. 
    And it our case we've got the added headache of shipboard travel times.  In a continuous world you'd either have insane travel times between ports if ships moved at realistic speeds, or you'd have totally arcadey combat if ships moved in battle at reasonable inter-island speeds.  Have the combat take place in an instanced zone allows us to have reasonable travel times for long haul trips and reasonable battle speeds for combat.   WoW doesn't have that issue because their long haul travel happens when you can't be touched, or in the case of ships, completely offscreen.
    I can appreciate the design issues involved with this very unique game.  However, I do think that the instancing in PoTBS is just too much and will greatly affect your subscription counts.  I would have rather had a reduced world/ocean size.  At a minimum I would remove the little instances in town.

     

     

    I know that Richard Garriott is an Advocate of instancing as well but I just don't agree with this approach.  I am not saying that you should not use them at all but MMORPG players just do not like them.  WoW balances the use of instancing very well but as you said that is a different type of game.

  • LinnaLinna Member Posts: 387

    Originally posted by U-Turn


     
     
    Originally posted by RickSaada


    Instancing has benefits and disadvantages.  On the downside, it doesn't have quite the immersion that you get wandering from zone to zone in WoW, or the ability to stumble onto someone in need of help and jump in.  On the plus side, you don't have boss/spawn camping for missions, and there's fewer problems with lag caused by overloaded zones.  On the down side, you don't see other people doing missions, but on the up side it's possible to do more tailored mission events because as a dev you have more control over the situation. 
    And it our case we've got the added headache of shipboard travel times.  In a continuous world you'd either have insane travel times between ports if ships moved at realistic speeds, or you'd have totally arcadey combat if ships moved in battle at reasonable inter-island speeds.  Have the combat take place in an instanced zone allows us to have reasonable travel times for long haul trips and reasonable battle speeds for combat.   WoW doesn't have that issue because their long haul travel happens when you can't be touched, or in the case of ships, completely offscreen.
    I can appreciate the design issues involved with this very unique game.  However, I do think that the instancing in PoTBS is just too much and will greatly affect your subscription counts.  I would have rather had a reduced world/ocean size.  At a minimum I would remove the little instances in town.

     

     

     

    I know that Richard Garriott is an Advocate of instancing as well but I just don't agree with this approach.  I am not saying that you should not use them at all but MMORPG players just do not like them.  WoW balances the use of instancing very well but as you said that is a different type of game.


    Speak for yourself, please. I don't mind instancing for missions, the way it's done in PotBS, nor do I mind the instancing for small rooms in town. You DO know you CAN jump in to help on open sea combat, right? If the other player involved wants to, that is.

    =p

    Linna

  • kwaikwai Member UncommonPosts: 825

    Well.

     

    NDA = Non disclosure agreement.

     

    About the instance part, sorry can't tell you :)

  • U-TurnU-Turn Member UncommonPosts: 164

    Originally posted by Linna


     
    Originally posted by U-Turn


     
     
    Originally posted by RickSaada


    Instancing has benefits and disadvantages.  On the downside, it doesn't have quite the immersion that you get wandering from zone to zone in WoW, or the ability to stumble onto someone in need of help and jump in.  On the plus side, you don't have boss/spawn camping for missions, and there's fewer problems with lag caused by overloaded zones.  On the down side, you don't see other people doing missions, but on the up side it's possible to do more tailored mission events because as a dev you have more control over the situation. 
    And it our case we've got the added headache of shipboard travel times.  In a continuous world you'd either have insane travel times between ports if ships moved at realistic speeds, or you'd have totally arcadey combat if ships moved in battle at reasonable inter-island speeds.  Have the combat take place in an instanced zone allows us to have reasonable travel times for long haul trips and reasonable battle speeds for combat.   WoW doesn't have that issue because their long haul travel happens when you can't be touched, or in the case of ships, completely offscreen.
    I can appreciate the design issues involved with this very unique game.  However, I do think that the instancing in PoTBS is just too much and will greatly affect your subscription counts.  I would have rather had a reduced world/ocean size.  At a minimum I would remove the little instances in town.

     

     

     

    I know that Richard Garriott is an Advocate of instancing as well but I just don't agree with this approach.  I am not saying that you should not use them at all but MMORPG players just do not like them.  WoW balances the use of instancing very well but as you said that is a different type of game.


    Speak for yourself, please. I don't mind instancing for missions, the way it's done in PotBS, nor do I mind the instancing for small rooms in town. You DO know you CAN jump in to help on open sea combat, right? If the other player involved wants to, that is.

     

    =p

    Linna

    First I said "I" in my post meaning that is the way I feel and no one else.  However, I do think there are others that feel the same way.  Even the open sea combat is instanced.  Everything is instanced.  Only time will tell whether it appeals to Gamers or not.  Guildwars is instanced like this and it is doing well, however, D&D online is not.

    Due to the nature of the game I can see why they did what they did but I also think it is a problem.

  • LinnaLinna Member Posts: 387

    Originally posted by U-Turn


     
    Originally posted by Linna


     
    Originally posted by U-Turn


     
     
    Originally posted by RickSaada


    Instancing has benefits and disadvantages.  On the downside, it doesn't have quite the immersion that you get wandering from zone to zone in WoW, or the ability to stumble onto someone in need of help and jump in.  On the plus side, you don't have boss/spawn camping for missions, and there's fewer problems with lag caused by overloaded zones.  On the down side, you don't see other people doing missions, but on the up side it's possible to do more tailored mission events because as a dev you have more control over the situation. 
    And it our case we've got the added headache of shipboard travel times.  In a continuous world you'd either have insane travel times between ports if ships moved at realistic speeds, or you'd have totally arcadey combat if ships moved in battle at reasonable inter-island speeds.  Have the combat take place in an instanced zone allows us to have reasonable travel times for long haul trips and reasonable battle speeds for combat.   WoW doesn't have that issue because their long haul travel happens when you can't be touched, or in the case of ships, completely offscreen.
    I can appreciate the design issues involved with this very unique game.  However, I do think that the instancing in PoTBS is just too much and will greatly affect your subscription counts.  I would have rather had a reduced world/ocean size.  At a minimum I would remove the little instances in town.

     

     

     

    I know that Richard Garriott is an Advocate of instancing as well but I just don't agree with this approach.  I am not saying that you should not use them at all but MMORPG players just do not like them.  WoW balances the use of instancing very well but as you said that is a different type of game.


    Speak for yourself, please. I don't mind instancing for missions, the way it's done in PotBS, nor do I mind the instancing for small rooms in town. You DO know you CAN jump in to help on open sea combat, right? If the other player involved wants to, that is.

     

    =p

    Linna

     

    First I said "I" in my post meaning that is the way I feel and no one else.  However, I do think there are others that feel the same way.  Even the open sea combat is instanced.  Everything is instanced.  Only time will tell whether it appeals to Gamers or not.  Guildwars is instanced like this and it is doing well, however, D&D online is not.

    Due to the nature of the game I can see why they did what they did but I also think it is a problem.

    You made a broad, generalised statement saying 'MMO players just don't like them". In my experience, some don't, some do, and many don't mind either way. I loved the way pre-cu SWG was open, but that world was a LOT larger. Also, the price we paid was killstealers and 20-1 gank fests. In the PotBS context, I think the choices they made were wise ones.

    Linna

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