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Chris's Release 4 Ramblings!

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Chris, Apr 3, 2014.

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  1. D A Morton

    D A Morton Avatar

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    Firstly congratulations on being a Father, its the most rewarding thing in the world :).
    Its comforting to know that the Devs are watching the forums and can see the problems what people see regarding certain features.

    I think R4 was really good to be involved in. Although rudimentary, the combat system was OK. It brought back to mind the system in UO which I always liked as opposed to how the combat is in WOW and other mainstream games. I am not knocking that way of combat as I play WOW, but I am looking forward to how combat will develop in R5. It was a shame quests like the Red Sash was bugged as I was really wanting to finish that one. Great news on 8000+ players, theres going to be a super community in this game. I am looking forward to R5 coming out.
     
  2. rune_74

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    Thank you so much that worked!

    Now, hmmm, I can definately see what they want to do. It totally has potential. I wonder if they had a better grass texture it would come off so much better...at the moment it looks very sterile. The pictures for the hills and the trees don't match the hexes.

    I cand definatley get an old school ultima vibe from it though, map wise at least. I wonder if they went more the ultima 7 style in game map with brighter more vibrant colors.

    Can't thank you enough:)
     
  3. mike11

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    That is the thing, I think myself and some others are trying to tell you guys it needs much more than just graphical adjustments.

    Tweaking graphics should come after adding a whole slew of functionality improvements, thus would be a waste of time at this stage just to "win people over".

    I was among one of many whom I believed took one look at the early version map and then logged. Winning people for the short-term will not be good for the longer term as I'm sure you guys know.
     
  4. Asclepius

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    @Chris

    Firstly, congratulations on achieving fatherhood. It's an awesome ride, and all the very best for the many years ahead.

    Secondly, many thanks and kudos for continually listening to the community. That in itself sets this game apart, and in my opinion will make it an absolute winner. I have no real clever suggestions re the map - OK, maybe it was a bit basic, bit I did find it was really easy to navigate. Maybe dressing it up a little will make it look nicer? - I look forward to seeing what you can do.

    Bottom line - I have faith in you and the team; keep doing a stellar job.
     
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  5. enderandrew

    enderandrew Legend of the Hearth

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  6. Ungoliant

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    Chris,
    Can you at least talk about the reasons for the change to the overworld map? I understand your earlier point about not being worth the effort to deliver Civ5-level quality, but why the complete overhaul to a completely different artistic style? I also understand that there are many features still to be added to it, but are any of these things that weren't planned for the previous map as well? What are the real advantages of this new style from a player perspective? I feel like I'm missing something here, because a majority of the community has expressed that they prefer the style of the old world, something which you've said you're open to reverting to, so why is the next step polishing the new map and trying to "win people over" instead accepting that feedback and at least trying the old version for R5? It feels like you're already committed to going down this new path and devoting resources to it without any real explanation for how it even makes the game better.
     
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  7. enderandrew

    enderandrew Legend of the Hearth

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    The original overworld map we saw when the KS campaign first kicked off looked pretty nice.
     
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  8. Winfield

    Winfield Legend of the Hearth

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    Congratulations again Chris on being a Father! I hope the family is well.

    Your analogy to seeing things change with visual progress nearly every day is very good. We see more going on in the SotA community every day. The R4 interaction in-game was a blast! I know technology and performance is on your mind. I think your approach for early intense and huge releases with 1000's of people is a great approach. Statistics and metrics suggest good progress which is great! I'm glad such metrics are monitored this early -- in so may roll-outs, the true metrics are seen on Publish ... a little late to learn things.

    With all this parallelism in your life: Maxine and your wife -- and Richard and DarkStarr (and the rest of the team). *smiles* I imagine your stress levels will push you to extremes and excellence! (and you will probably enjoy the subsequent quiet times in both places ... home and work.) Congratulations on your personal life and how SotA is progressing!
     
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  9. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    I'm curious, whichever overhead map is used, will we please be able to see the time of day (sun/moon) or at least changes in lighting while we're in the map view? -this is something we could see in the original Ultimas, even the ones with an overhead map.. And being able to see the position of the sun and moons in the sky is one of my favorite aspects that make Ultima, Ultima.
     
  10. rune_74

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    That is an excellant suggestion:) I will take it one step further, how about weather indications. The more info on the map the more it will be accepted at least in my mind.
     
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  11. Nemo Herringwary

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    Nerf Dev Fertility! The spawn rate is imbalanced :p
     
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  12. lanica

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    Don't worry, I've bought more memory ;) I've been meaning to do that anyway. 4G to 16G should do nicely.
     
  13. Rhiannon

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    I have nothing to offer on R4 as I was visiting MY child in another state (although he is 29 now, he's still my baby). I wanted to take a moment to say CONGRATULATIONS on the complete non-reversible change in your life! There is nothing in the world like becoming and being a parent.
     
  14. Polaris Penguin

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    The Linux patcher worked well, actually worked as well as the Windows version, unfortunately a rather nasty bug in the Linux prevented the user from interacting with NPC's and also affected crafting as it just didn't work in R4, but things like this can be expected. Hopefully R5 will be better :)
     
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  15. DyNaMiX

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    Can you not do both and allow the player to customise the appearance between the two?
     
  16. Dorham Isycle

    Dorham Isycle Avatar

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    I love it when people use that term. 99.9% is still a "fraction of the logic" lol
     
  17. Golem Dragon

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    Could we get more details and information as to why the more drastic change? Was it really just due to wanting to take the cloth map and integrate it more into the game? Was it a tech issue? implementation issue? time issue? The art style, while one I adore, seems to cause a break in the immersion for many in the community. In games like Arcanum, which use a paper map style for the large scale over-world map, the UI and other features help bring it into a focus that makes it feel like the art style belongs in the game because you the character are actually using the map while you explore. One thing I know I did both for my own sake as well as due to requests from community members was make a rather lengthy post to Ultima Codex doing as objective an analysis as I could at the time on it.

    We know that the change came in very short order before R4, but there really was limited info from both you and Starr on this change both during and after R4 when the questions and concerns, love and hate all came flooding in. Could either or both of you go into more detail as to the whys and thought processes that went into this sudden change from the past prototypes and demos. I know from my own work in coding and art that any prototype is only to show a proof of concept to help get a project moving in the right direction, and in many situations is rarely how things are in the end. You guys have been awesome with transparency in many areas, I think a lil discussion on this might help alleviate some of the "pains" that some in the community are having.

    Keep up the great work. I personally am excited to dig more into the game and doing more art for the College of Arms as well as maybe finally getting my own assets submitted when i am confident enough in their quality. <3
     
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  18. Lord_Darkmoon

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    Also now that many fans have said that the overland map is much more to them than a simple means to travel from point A to point B but instead is a subsitution for exploring, feeling and roaming around in a zoomed out living world does this change how you perceive the overland map/view of SotA?
     
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  19. Nightwolf2

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    fumblefingers I would give the map a shot. Personally I like it so far and it's art style. I don't see any valid criticisms beyond ones that involve the fact that it's in a Pre-Alpha stage.
     
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  20. enderandrew

    enderandrew Legend of the Hearth

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    There are no valid criticisms for the new map?

    The old map conveyed information, such as wildlife in the area, which towns were under siege, etc. The new map doesn't convey that information.

    The old map showed the player's avatar as designed travelling the world. This was reminiscent of early Ultima games and is decidedly Ultima like.

    The old map added to immersion since you always felt like you were in the world, regardless of scale. Immersion in a virtual world is a core design tenet of the game.

    Aesthetics are purely subjective, but I really prefer the look of the old version as well.
     
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