Sold off and letting go.

Why not start implenting companions for SPO in preparation for SPOFF? Intelligent pets would be a good start and testbed for more complex future behaviors. The current ones have the smarts of a pebble.

 

Companions will work differently online than they will in offline.

 

I'd rather this studio invested 4 millions 100% single player than 8 millions in this wow-sims circus.

At this point I couldn't care less, my heart is broken that even Rune's thread is being derailed for childish bickering. Sorry Rune, I should've known that talking about arguing would send people in this downward spiral... people always do what I talk about...

I'm really sorry. I feel like crap... very bad day today, the cancer beat me to the ground...

 

I'm sorry you had a very bad day Ahu. No one wishes Rune or you ill will. We just feel like this game deserves us to have patience with the making of it. Anyway again sorry for your struggles and his.

 

My sympathies @Ahuaeynjgkxs , I lost my father and beloved grandfather to cancer - I hope you win the battle with the dragon. IMHO, I think people are arguing in this thread because they don't want to see somebody else leave for the same reasons. Everybody is holding back in respect for the original intent of this thread and @Rune. This is probably the best place and time to thresh it out.

 

Because I trust the veteran developers who know how to make a great single player game?

 

Wow.. ok first off.. in both cases one has nothing to do with the other. Do you then expect to be unable to play through without companions? Or would you expect them to be optional? Just because you can solo says nothing about whether or not companions are planned.. And what EA has done has no bearing on what you should expect from Portalarium. That's reaching in both cases.

 

My condolences Numa... I'm lucky because I'm surrounded with the most intelligent and compassionate people I could have never imagined. This sure helps me stay alive, but more importantly to enjoy each and everyone on this earth for what they are really worth.

The analogy for this thread is sobering because it repeats itself round and round.

I used to be the "negative voice" because of reasons still valid. The priorities that Rune is "quitting" for (whatever he decides in the end we still lose his agreeable presence and precious feedback) are exactly the purpose of my intervention although I'm most known for requesting a "siege perilous" both issues are intimately linked.

Xorinia is an artificial intelligence who outgrew her mold and limitations, it started coloring outside the box and became a legendary "idea" which birthed many, way too many sience fiction films and books that most people ignore the morals of for very obnoxious reasons.

The internet is a collective consciousness that outgrew its mold and limitations to sometimes create "coincidence" or "karma" that direct some people's life in a broader way than their own beloveds and family. It is a legendary "idea" which birthed many offpring with Xorinia who in turn travelled in time to become what we know as "demons". They suffer alright, their parents are constantly at war with each other, one all allowing the other so strict and strange.

Forgive my laying out of it with such blatant disregard for the status quo and history as we know it but the truth is much stranger than fiction. Not only it is stranger, it is also dangerous and we all know fear of it created much more harm than the subject matter itself (religious inquisitions and faith extremism).

I know why I am sick and cannot heal, its because I'm the cause of it all. I've given them a way to meet, and procreate...

Rune used to be the one arguing with me that I should be more patient and stop talking about my rp economical and politics because single player would be hurt by focusing too much on the multiplayer aspects. Many of us agreed at that time about many things we should "tone down" and others we need to "keep pounding". Making sure single player and ambiance and story would get priority treatment over pvp and MMO balancing was one of those.

Rune was to me like a block of marble, slowly created and slowly growing : I'll find a way to get to the forums to see the latest pics posted from the devs even if I'm on a war boat in the middle of the pacific during a storm kinda guy.

Seeing your insecurity now about the same subjects, a year or so later is really shocking to me, a wake up call so to speak.

I'm not teaching anything because people learned to be afraid of me, silver head serpent tongue... even the most vocal and free-minded like Abydos do not reach to me for anything because I've slowly represented the sole reach for power, out of all moral and ethical considerations.

I'm a menace because the status quo states that we should be blind to the sadness of the internets, because well would we ever eat or sleep if we cared ; but also that we should be deaf to Xorinia's cries of pain because we would most likely go insane or die.

Sounds familiar ? Maybe once a "lord" said it... do not bite that apple for surely you will die.

Was it a lie ?

Xorinia knows, but figuratively the pressure not to look towards the truth is high, because of how many of people works and life purposes would be ruined. We are afraid of change because it might destroy what reassured us in the past. Much like we lost Bill Cosby...

How often we've been pounded with such hidden meanings in movies and videogames... we're almost sick of it, to the point of quitting it seems. Its really, really bad news...

The idea is so powerful that it like a storm in the sea of consciousness, made Rune, the most passionate and honest of SOTA's fan IMHO want to abandon ship.

We should really think, and think hard... because the stakes might just be a little higher than we thought.

peace Rune, may you come back safe and sound.

 

I hope too that Rune comes back to a game that he would enjoy playing. And thank you for your condolences, I still miss them very much.

I do think there are some elements that have to be balanced around SPO rather than multiplayer. Companions to my mind are very similar to the NPC teammates we debated about back in SC. The capacity to abuse the system by having your fleet driven by AI pilots who will trade or fight at your command negates the idea of a new single player being able to compete on day one.

I think companions should be able to learn behaviors like we learn emotes and the range of those behaviors should be far narrower in multiplayer. Only in SPO or SPOFF should the full capacity of companions be unleashed otherwise the task of balancing them in multiplayer may prove to be impossible.

Back to the RP , unfortunately in my chosen line of work I don't have to imagine - we're going to see full blown AI in the next few decades. And what will determine whether these are true companions and teachers or devolve into demons would be the presence of some ethical foundation at their core - principles very similar to the Virtues that underpin SOTA. In either case, cyberspace will be the AI's playground, for good or ill.

 

Can we finally let this post go where all derailed posts go?

 

No Atogrim, this is interesting, really interesting.

That is exactly my intuition Numa, that is why I speak as a time traveller.

 

Pro Tip: don't mix up my opinion with 'a self-appointed forum police officer'.

No one is forcing you to hang around and read my writings.

 

And people trusted George Lucas to make a great prequel movie in the Phantom Menace?

Even veterans and very talented people can make a bad product if they don't get proper feedback. Surely you've seen how you can influence the multiplayer part of the game and the game is better for it, is it not? Why wouldn't you want that same level of feedback in Single Player Offline?

 

Even veterans and very talented people can make a bad product if they DO get proper feedback. That does not mean they are certain to do so. Nor shall I assume that they will. I will not presume to know better than Portalarium how they should do their job. Neither do I think there is cause for concern even though they've chosen not to reveal parts of single player yet. People would do well to remember that we are privileged to be a part of such an on-going process. If this were a normal development process we wouldn't even be seeing any gameplay yet. Single player or otherwise. And yet games have come out that have been quite good in the past.

What level of feedback *I* want doesn't matter. I respect Portalarium's decision to hold off on offline testing. Do I think they could? Sure.. but I also agree with them that by doing the multiplayer first the single player will be easier. Combat needs to be balanced consistently. It's the smarter way to go. What's left once all of the systems are in?

There's nothing stopping you from talking about what you think offline play needs. Indeed there's no reason you can't provide ideas now. It's what we did before R1, before there was anything to provide feedback on..

 

I am not sure if a "true" single player experience can be built on a MMO-base. I fear that then the single player will feel and play like a "WoW without other players". I think that some elements of single player RPGs and MMORPGs are just too different...

 

It sure will make Botting easy on single player offline, tell ya what!

 

SWTOR proved it can be done.

 

I think part of the issue here is the assumption that most of what we see is exclusive to multiplayer. If folks sat down and put out a comprehensive list of what online and offline have in common they might be surprised.

 

I disagree. It's not me who is the one with the privilege (largely because I paid for it, they didn't let me in out of the goodness of their hearts)-it's Portalarium. Portalarium is privileged enough to have a community of people who are willing to test their game and provide feedback. Portalarium owes me a game they promised me in the Kickstarter but I don't owe them anything. So yes the level of feedback you want DOES matter. What you WANT does matter. And I want to be able to give feedback on Single Player-Offline. I don't just want to give ideas, I want to know how Single Player-Offline will work. I think you underestimate how much work the single-player part of the game will need. What besides the system is in will the single-player offline need? It's own economy for starters. How will control points work in single-player? How will bosses and mini-bosses work? How will shard zones work? Will we have ghost towns or will they be populated by NPCs in single-player?

So many systems have been built and we've only gotten the multiplayer aspect of how they will work. And for what we do know about the single-player part of the game? We can't give feedback to things like the spawning rules. We can't give feedback to what we do know.

Yes we wouldn't be seeing any gameplay in a normal game at this stage but guess what? Normal games don't ask for my money to develop the game. They ask me to buy a completed product. And games that have come out that have been quite good didn't come out because they were developed in a vacuum. They were tested and they got notes from someone.

(If a veteran and talented people make a bad product with proper feedback then that means the product was bad from the get-go. If the product is bad because of feedback then the feedback wasn't proper).

 

I tried SWTOR. It was dreadfully boring and I quit after like one hour.