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Darkstarr's Release 7 Impressions (+ Revised R8)

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by DarkStarr, Jul 3, 2014.

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  1. DarkStarr

    DarkStarr Executive Producer SOTA Developer

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    Greetings Avatars,

    Every release I am reminded that the way we are making this game together is as exciting as the game itself. The invaluable input all of you provide after playing each release is going to make a truly compelling product while providing an amazing journey to get there.

    Release 7 is a great example of momentum on a project at this point in its life cycle. This momentum can be positive with results like delivering over a dozen extra items. The momentum can be negative as well. In the case of R7, some of those new items (like pre-built lighting in all the player houses) resulted in some cost to performance. Performance was also affected by the growing interest that players have shown with our decorating and crafting systems. In Valemark, this resulted in a maze factory and two very elaborate mazes (Riya’s maze with the shelves had over 5000 items in it!) This, of course, made loading and playing that scene almost impossible, but taught us some valuable lessons. However, the results were stunning and really highlighted the power of expression that is in players hands now that we have enabled permissions that allow players to share property.

    Release 7 therefore exposed some issues we need to address soon about performance and optimizations. In order to do so, especially the issues related to decorations, we are going to add item limits to both lots and houses (sad trombone) as well as a handful of other changes to how we handle lights, windows, etc. At the same time we have started adding into our schedule items that players can use to build that are less performance intensive (hedge mazes, wall partitions, etc.).

    Release 7 was the first release in a while where we did not add any significant content to the combat system and we really felt it. It made us realize we need to spend a couple of releases focused on increasing the functionality of our combat. It also prompted us to reevaluate our plan to delay PVP tasks until after combat was more built out. Many of you in the community argued that delaying PVP could be harmful in the long run, and we heard you. We now feel that in order to make combat (PVE & PVP) the best it can be, we need to do PVP now, not later. Utilizing PVP will be an amazing tool to balance combat systems and data. We also feel it is important for us to work on PVP now so that we can show just how committed we are to PVP being integral to Shroud.

    To that end, we have moved our daily play sessions to death matches in the Castle Arena (yes Lum did post a pic to Facebook of himself standing over my corpse after he killed me). We then meet to discuss the results and iterate for the next day’s sessions. Even in this super rough early stage, we are having fun! It is also helping us prioritize what systems we need to shore up, including things like line of sight, combat facing (that matters), damage types / resistances, interrupts (yes!), innate skills, better information about current target, buff/debuff indicators, low ammo indicators, etc.

    [​IMG]

    This of course triggers one of my favorite mantras: “The only constant is change.” In other words we had to completely revamp the Q3 plan starting with R8 (yes I know I just released that plan to you all a month ago). Here is the revised R8 plan (with the old R8 plan below my signature for reference). I will post an updated plan for R9 soon, R10 will remain a polish release.

    RELEASE 8 (revised), July 24 - 27, 2014:
    • Open PVP Areas: Certain parts of the map will now allow open PVP. Currently we have been testing this functionality in the Castle Basement Arena. For now there will be very little structure to this; it will basically be just deathmatch.
    • Combat Systems: We will be iterating and adding to the fundamental systems that support combat, including more secondary effects like bludgeons damaging gear and heavy armor lowering your pool of focus. We are also going to introduce and experiment with interrupts, combat facing, and more sophisticated line of sight checks.
    • Damage Types & Resistances: Damage types and resistances (fire, ice, physical, etc.) will begin to affect combat.
    • Combat Skills: We are moving to a new strategy of going deeper vs. broader in skill creation. For Release 8 our goal is to flesh out more of the schools of Fire, Blades, and Heavy Armor.
    • Status Indicators: We are adding status indicators for things like low ammo, damaged/broken gear, buffs, debuffs, etc.
    • Scenes: Ardoris, the waterfront city on the main continent filled with canals and framed by two opposing castles, will now be available to players. Ardoris will also be the first map with Row Houses. Other adventuring scenes on the main continent will also appear. These new scenes on the mainland will be accessed via the Lunar Rifts which will now change destinations based on time of day.
    • New Creatures: Several new creatures will come online including a new mimic and a Fire Elemental, as well as variations on existing creatures (liches, kobolds, etc.).
    • Crafting: Durability and Repair will come online.
    • Overworld Animating Avatars: Players will now see their avatars (along with their party members) animating on the overworld map.
    • Intro Cinematic: We are making an animatic version of the intro with narration by our very own Bill Johnson (aka The Guardian).
    Also remember Release 7 will be open again for RTX July 4 - 6.

    Release 7 is (not quite) dead! Long live Release 8!

    Sincerely,
    Darkstarr aka Starr Long

    RELEASE 8 (original), July 24 - 27, 2014:
    • Death System: OooOoooOOOOooo! Death will now turn you into a ghost.
    • Advancement: Adventuring and Crafting will now earn you experience points that will level you up and earn skill points.
    • Scenes: Ardoris, the waterfront city on the main continent filled with canals and framed by two opposing castles, will now be available to players. Other adventuring scenes on the main continent will also appear.
    • NPC Schedules and Behaviors: NPCs will now start to have schedules and change behavior according to the time. This will include things like going around turning on the lights around town as the sun goes down. NPCs will also now react to players taking and breaking stuff so watch out when you try to steal that loaf of bread!
    • Books: Books will no longer just be decorative objects! Read lovely poems and stories written by our very own community in the game. Try to collect them all!
    • New Creatures: Several new creatures will come online including a new mimic as well as variations on existing creatures (liches, kobolds, etc.).
    • Crafting: Durability and Repair will come online as well as a first pass on Fishing!
    • Character Hair and Facial Hair: A major update to how we handle hair and facial hair will add layers, transparency, and animations.
    • Overworld Animating Avatars & Random Encounters: Players will now see their avatars (along with their party members) animating on the overworld map. Additionally random encounters will now pull players into scenes while traversing the map.
    • Scene Randomization: Scenes will now be able to start from a set of templates versus just one singular state. These templates will randomize resources, creatures, entrance locations, game state, etc.
    • Combat Skills: More combat skills will come online
    • Interactive Areas: Don’t you wish you could move that chair in the tavern to have a better view of the front door? Public areas like taverns will now be flagged as interactive areas. This will allow more freedom in those spaces by allowing the moving but not taking of items. This will also up numerous other possibilities like interactive chess boards.
     
  2. Doppelganger [MGT]

    Doppelganger [MGT] Avatar

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    Darkstarr! Thank you for the update, although I hope the team is aware of performance issues with not only the playable game but with the overland map. As it stands, there is a heavy stress on the CPU while using the overland map. My temps will jump considerably while navigating it and it certainly doesn't seem normal! Adding additional features like the Avatar and parties may only add to that problem, so I hope that can be addressed...

    I do look forward to the focus on combat though. It is about that time and I can't wait to see the combat in SotA evolve!
     
  3. docdoom77

    docdoom77 Avatar

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    Holy Crud! this is some of the best news ever! Thank you Starr!

    [​IMG]
    Seriously. Awesome news. Combat stuff and an animate avatar on my map! I'm ecstatic!
     
  4. Akrondar

    Akrondar Avatar

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    Great news!. I think currently we have a lot of fun *non combat* activities in the game, so a release focused in combat and PvP is very welcome.

    Ahh Ardoris, i have great expectations for it too.
     
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  5. jiirc

    jiirc Avatar

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    There is lots of great news in this update. I am anxiously awaiting the combat changes and pvp additions. I like the addition of status indicators planned for this release, that was something that wanted to see in the last release. It will be interesting to see how this is integrated into the UI. Hopefully there wll be more things to do with the opening of arborist and the mainland.

    Will we finally be able to see a numerical indication of the focus pool, even if only on the paper doll. The health values are already there, why not focus?
     
  6. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    "When the First Combat Leaders Will Rise!"

    "Bring on the Gladiators!"
    Who of us Spartacus?
    ~Time Lord~:rolleyes:
     
  7. Waxillium

    Waxillium Avatar

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    Will there be a way for players to know when they have hit the housing item limit? Hopefully items don't bounce back into the backpack irritatingly without a reason given.

    Currently there are two ways to place lights. Placing lit lights is affected by the lumens around the light to be placed. A lit light will have a yellow or red dome depending on the lumens around it. With the red dome you can't place the light. With an unlit light there is no interferance from the lumens around it. You can place far more lights and it seems far less cumbersome. Once you light the lights it locks everthing in place and you can't make minor adjustments to the lights because all the domes become red from maxed out lumens per area.

    Artistically I hope you choose to have more lights as an option or increase the candle power per light. The game is quite dark at times. Depending on how this issue is resolved it would be nice to have lights leave a backpack unlit to make decorating easier.

    Looking forward to R7 again & 8!
     
  8. Myrcello

    Myrcello Avatar

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    I think it is awesome to do that.

    I will make my personal bet here.

    I bet that as soon as you let the PvP loving community fumble on your current system it will be the death of that one.
    They will spam you with inspirational feedback delivering a Combat System at the end so awesome, other gaming companies will envy and try to copy.

    I truly believe that in regards to PvP there are Gems of experienced players hiding here. :)

    Have fun Devs. :)
     
  9. Lord Andernut

    Lord Andernut Avatar

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    Alas, you're going to make "the less virtuous one" unhappy about not having functional books for her library - but looking forward to R8 nonethless!
     
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  10. mike11

    mike11 Avatar

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    From testing the 64 bit builds I have good hope for perfomance considering that, from what i understand Unity is still not fully 64 bit through and through.

    All this combined with over the top decorations and decent pop caps I found performane to be better than previous releases in most cases.

    On the down side I did notice that latency was a bit long in seeing you actions effect in the world.

    Sent from my GT-S5690M using Tapatalk 2
     
  11. Numa

    Numa Avatar

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    Row Houses ! And in a coastal city on the main continent ! YES !!!!
     
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  12. Myrcello

    Myrcello Avatar

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    The Housing Item Limit had one side effect - you tend to get more houses. :)

    I think the Item Limit for a Small House in Ultima was like 30 Items?
    I remember that the more rare items always got the priority in my placement order.
     
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  13. Fox Cunning

    Fox Cunning Localization Team

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    Thanks for the update.
    I am a bit saddened by the fact that I will not be able to read books in R8, so I will have to find other ways of killing time. Like, killing people.
     
  14. RelExpo

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    Best news I've read in a while. Great!
     
  15. Gaelis

    Gaelis Avatar

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    maybe you can write a book about killing people in R9, Title "killing times" :D
     
  16. Abydos

    Abydos Avatar

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    I am very excited about this new direction.
    Very good decision.
    Cant wait to the R8 to test everything.

    GOOD JOB PORTA.

    I call my family, friends and all the murderers of this world :D
     
  17. cariac

    cariac Avatar

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    The nose bleed skill ll be a must !



    Tom UP DarkStarr.
     
  18. Mizzen

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    Let's be ready for the great R8.
     
  19. charock

    charock Avatar

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    I hate housing.

    Finally fighting :)

    Best news ever.
     
  20. Swipes

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    Fantastic
     
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