Dev Hangout - 4/12/2013 Synopsis

The Developer Hangout took place on 4/12/2013 at 12 PM CST.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W9mEHDwM-M

http://www.rusticdragon.com is hosting a SotA funding celebration party this Saturday, April 13th

Community
- Everyone that entered the video contest will receive the in-game title "Royal Crier".
- All 5 video finalists will receive the hand-signed cloth map and village house deed.
- Space Bards is the contest winner and receives a city house deed.
- A set time has not been determined for the weekly dev hangouts. These hangouts will focus on Q&A.
- The forums will soon be moved to a new system or updated to allow for private forums. The update is targeted for the end of the month.
- Potential creation of FireLotus Tavern concept art.
- Tracy Hickman indicated that the KS stretch goal novel will be a prequel to the game's story.
- A future e-mail will be sent out to all Developer+ level backers with details on the private developer chats. These developer chats will send out agendas beforehand and usually have a focused topic.
- The SotA online store is targeted to open on Sunday, Monday at the latest.

Game Design
- An option to form formal parties will most likely be included in the game. However the developers hope that the automated system will properly match you the appropriate players.
- The game is being designed with a uniform, non-punishing difficulty level. Players with more skill will potentially need to burn through less consumables.
- No decision has been made on how to handle guild recruitment.

Character Design
- The possibility of races other than humans are still in discussion.
- The game is being designed around players having one character. The developer hope to learn more about the reasons why players want multiple characters and design solutions for these around the single character model.
- Player characters will be "class-less" but not "role-less". Characters will still have specific roles but will be able to migrate to different roles.
- There will be character levels in the game. Levels will focus on granting more options rather than power. There will not be exponential power differences between characters as there are in most RPGs.

Housing
- Villages will have more space allocated to housing. Cities will have less space for housing but provide all NPC vendors/activities.
- NPC vendors can run out of inventory. Players will need to wait until it is restocked, visit another town, or gather their own.
- Players will most likely be allowed to own multiple housing deeds. How multiple deeds will be managed is still under discussion.
- There will not be any vendor focused houses offered initially.
- All player inhabited areas will have a good reason to visit them.
- Players will potentially be able to provide a whole suite of services/industry within a village dramatically advancing the village. This advancement may be visually represented in the overworld map.
- There is a high possibility of player village/towns in the catacombs.

World Design
- Most of the game's discovery will not take place on the overworld level.
- Scene areas are mapped 1:1 on a hex in the overworld but may not remain constant. Areas can be changed dynamically or have a variety of different scenes (even up to 10 or more) that the player will be randomly taken to when they visit the area.
- If an area is changed its visual representation on the overworld will reacquire the fog of war.
- "Catacombs" is the official name of the underworld area. It will be a series of interconnected dungeons. Most towns/cities will be connected via the catacombs. New dungeons can be added to the catacombs and the connection paths may change over time.

Crafting
- Some crafting reagents will only be available through gathering and may be limited by things such as the moon cycle, time of day, and location.
- The importance of food within the game is still being discussed. Food won't be punishing by allowing you to starve to death but will still be important for health and replenishment. The hunting/gathering/cooking professions will be integral with the food design.

 

Thank you for the fantastic summary. I was able to watch most of it today, but having it written out is invaluable.

Thanks again!

Daniello

 

You Rock Kaimuki!!

 

Again, these kind of summaries are really helpful. Well done!