Darkstarr Mia ?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Brass Knuckles, Feb 12, 2020.

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  1. craftymethod

    craftymethod Avatar

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    So who was the guy showing up on the Livestream who just started talking about other projects?

    Does he play the game?
     
  2. craftymethod

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    I think they are putting off factional/territorial warfare because our lords will be overthrown haha

    Would DS and RG be able to muster/maintain the political power in game required to sustain the alliances of the forces of good and evil?
     
  3. craftymethod

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    Im pretty sure LB will be found (in game) to have a retiree existence on an island somewhere and Lord Darkstar will have conceded to a casual DJ celebrity existence.

    If they believe in the roles they supposedly play in the Novian realms lore, I suggest they prove it. If not they should take off their invulnerability flags and give themselves non-exorbant stats.

    they probably do more than it seems for the company (DS really didn't do himself any service going way off topic after the long absence), but I doubt strongly either have the passion to live up to the roles the lore they created calls for.
     
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  4. Bowen Bloodgood

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    I never said or implied anything to the contrary. I merely do not trust popular speculation in general. People seem awfully fond of stating speculations as fact and then it gets around and people accept it with little or no question. Simply 'having eyes' is, more often than not, woefully inadequate in seeing the whole picture when many pieces are in fact hidden. I prefer to not fill in the blanks with unconfirmed rumor. Example: involvement in other projects is not the same as defining to what degree Starr is no longer involved in SotA. Yes it implies, but implication is not hard data. So I am not prepared to state with certainty what he does, or does not do for SotA but the possibility that his involvement could involve part of his original job may still exist. We just don't know unless someone with first hand knowledge actually says so.
     
  5. Jefe

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    It will be interesting to see what projects 3 and 4 are.
     
  6. Sulaene Moon

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    Seems like those projects have a lot of potential. Starr did a decent job of advertising them on that stream.
     
  7. jschoice

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    I don't understand why everyone feels there is some mystery as to the state of the game. It has heembsaid numerous times that Starr and Richard have not received compensation in a long time from this project but they will remain involved in the process to some degree which to me says a lot about their desire to try whatever it takes to keep the game going.

    Another big secret is this team works extremely hard on this game with a next to nothing budget because they are passionate about it regardless of how many hours they personally play it.

    All the hate because Starr and Richard are working on other projects. They need to get income from somewhere and they both are creative people.
     
  8. Magnus Zarwaddim

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    As an aside based on this comment, this was a real missed opportunity for them to get engaged in the game and have us "pick sides" in something truly grand. Alas, we can only dream. For example, to showcase the Inky stuff as well as player-made dungeons, it would have been quite nice for them to have content created (they are busy I am sure, and I wouldn't begrudge them for delegating much of the work) using those mechanics. This would have engaged the community in a way that not many other games have been able to do.
     
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  9. Numa

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    Why not ask the man at one of the upcoming
    Virtue Radio Release parties and get a definitive answer? In my experience the way a sensitive question is answered (or not) already tells you something.

    This is assuming of course that you guys really want to find out. My 2 cents.
     
  10. evillego6

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    Chris did specifically say on a stream that Starr wouldn't be around much for a few months to work on a friend's project for SXSW.
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2020
  11. Xee

    Xee Bug Hunter

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    I think that indeed some of the things LB had in mind which were removed which made things easier did make me sad. I liked that we use to have to fight the sieges to get into the towns. As well back when it was all type in conversations vs click through. I do however like that things are still progressing at the pace they are but with a small team it means things are slower to roll out. The phases of things like Dungeons and NPC stuff makes it harder for some to fully plan things well waiting for something specific in another phase which completes things. Over all I love the game but wish we had more people working on it to get things done abit faster :) But either way I will be here waiting.
     
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  12. macnlos

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    Totally agree that the removal of having to go through Sieges was wrong. They can explain it however they want but it was done because of how long scene loads are and skipping it reduces 1 screen load time. That is akin to saying "we have an issue, let's treat the symptom" which in the long run causes more issues...

    I was back reading the lovely Kickstarter page and saw this and giggled...

    • Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtue is the first of a 5 game series of full-length, stand-alone games (each using the same game system), referred to as Episodes 1 through 5. Estimated availability of Episode 1, Forsaken Virtues, is October 2014, with Episodes 2 through 5 estimated for subsequent yearly releases.

    The dates are funny but the whole "5 game series of full-length, stand-alone games" takes the cake.
     
  13. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    I always get a kick out this one:

    "Players will adventure in an interactive world where their choices have consequences, ethical paradoxes give them pause, and they play a vital part in weaving their own story into the immersive world and lore surrounding them."
     
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  14. Beaumaris

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    That'll be the day
     
  15. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Well that still remains to be seen and depends on how "full-length" is defined. I seem to recall EP1 technically fit the bill. Though that line doesn't make any distinction between online and offline. All they really need to do is make sure the new content takes about 40 hours on average to play through the first time. 'Stand-alone' becomes moot though after making them free to play

    Our choices are supposed to have consequences?
     
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  16. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    According to the Kickstarter. :D
     
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  17. macnlos

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    Full-length AND Stand-alone really leaves no wiggle room on the definition. They defined it pretty clearly and there is no spinning any of this to fit that definition. And as for Episode 1 being "Feature Complete"... I'll sell you a car that checks off the noted features but comes without a body, or better yet a body made of tin foil and call it Feature Complete. :)
     
  18. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Yeah, unfortunately that's extremely difficult to do for any online title. The only way to truly make that happen would be to have actual GMs with the power to change certain things in-game on a large scale with support from the rest of the team. That is running events as well as smaller scale storylines and then developing parts of the world based on the outcomes of those stories. Or you can fake it by saying something like.. ok this area isn't working out.. we want to remove these cannibals here and move them over there.. what's the reason for that? Let's have a story event series to give the players the option to displace them.. when they win the fight we'll implement this change.. if they don't win the first time we'll adjust the story and give them another chance.. In that scenario they could already have the change made and ready to go and just wait for the story to play out to give the impression of players influencing the world. Either approach would work but with the team size and budget it just wouldn't be very practical with other development going on.

    Otherwise the world must remain static because every player has to be able to play the same content. (Though we all know that I'm sure).

    UO made the same claim and even though they ran stories the outcomes never made a difference. Anyone remember the battle of Trinsic? Our shard actually won that fight.. we still had people standing at the end. (Largely thanks to have my guild defend the healers). Did it make a difference? Of course not, we weren't supposed to win. The server reset and we lost the town anyway. I was highly annoyed.

    I was never happy with sieges in general but less happy when being able to bypass them became an option. Why even have them at all then? The only purpose they serve now is hunting cabalists who may not even be there. I never had a problem getting through them even at low levels. That's what the side paths were for.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2020
  19. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Well now.. at least give them a chance to fail before saying suggesting they already have. EP2 hasn't even been officially released yet. If you can play EP2 without first playing EP1 content than it is technically stand-alone content. If it's 40+ hours to play than it's full-length. You don't technically have to be online to play EP1 either.. the fact that offline is mostly online design doesn't really factor into the definition.

    What would break this idea for me is if you can't play EP2 without having installed EP1. Not that I think it's terribly important at this stage. It's good enough for me that they were being honest about their vision at the time. A lot has changed during development and sometimes that means it's better to adjust what you're doing. So I'm not terribly bothered so long as they're doing their best they can with what they have.
     
  20. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    Which is exactly my point.

    In retrospect it should never have been listed as a feature on the Kickstarter, if it really couldn't have been implemented in this "selective-multiplayer" game. ;)

    Regardless, I do remember the battle of Trinsic and it was awesome. It's unfortunate events like that don't happen anymore. The few that Travian did were quite fun!
     
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