Any news on phasing?

Discussion in 'Quests & Lore' started by Lord_Darkmoon, Oct 5, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

    Messages:
    4,355
    Likes Received:
    4,999
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Since I've been working with unity I know how easy it is nowadays to make very nice animated scenes with high quality graphics with the same content you use for gameplay. It sure takes time, but its a hundred time easier than it used to be...

    It's almost... fun :p
     
    Numa likes this.
  2. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

    Messages:
    4,355
    Likes Received:
    4,999
    Trophy Points:
    153
    speaking of DDOS, its been a long time since we've heard about that ! :O
     
  3. LoneWerewolf

    LoneWerewolf Guest

    because DDOS 2 is out and praised by critics and players as one of the best RPGs ever- very visible game. Not sure what you mean.


    btw:
    The "show don't tell" advice is applicable to movies. You can't universally apply it to games. We can discuss if the narration in Blade Runner was a good or bad move, but RPGs that use it in genreal tell a better story than if they wouldn't have.
     
    Ahuaeynjgkxs and Lord_Darkmoon like this.
  4. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Divinity Original Sin 2 has a metascore of 94 %! And more than 40.000 concurrent players on Steam.
    Seems that many people like it. Maybe it does some things right?
     
  5. Sir Cabirus

    Sir Cabirus Avatar

    Messages:
    1,083
    Likes Received:
    4,494
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    The Stygian Abyss
    That's the way it is - but some people refuse to see that. Because they want not to see what they don't like or what is outside of their interest.
     
  6. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

    Messages:
    4,355
    Likes Received:
    4,999
    Trophy Points:
    153
    I was making a joke about the acronym :p

     
    Sir Cabirus and LoneWerewolf like this.
  7. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

    Messages:
    4,355
    Likes Received:
    4,999
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Nice to see you around :)
     
    Vyrin, Sir Cabirus and LoneWerewolf like this.
  8. Ristra

    Ristra Avatar

    Messages:
    3,942
    Likes Received:
    5,442
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    Athens
    What we know as the main storyline. Is that the main story?

    The comments made about “the ‘evil’ forces should not be sitting tucked away in an instance waiting to be killed. They should have a plan and we will see that unfold throughout the Episode”

    The hex based design. The overworld map. The way the dragon was shown in the prototype video. The main story should be unfolding each month as they do they releases.

    That’s the story I am here for.
     
    Ahuaeynjgkxs likes this.
  9. Rada Torment

    Rada Torment Community Ambassador (ES)

    Messages:
    1,473
    Likes Received:
    4,645
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Sorry to say @Lord_Darkmoon but we never gonna see anything near to DOS2 here, and we all know this. DOS2 is possibly, at least for me, one of the best rpgs I have played in last ten years (playing now with 2 friends in mp, awesome experience). It's something like when I played Planescape Torment or Fallout 1/2, never found anything similar (questing and story wise) in any of MMO I played in last twenty years.

    SotA is not a conventional MMO, but right now, and I don't think this gonna be changed tbh, we have something more near to standard MMOs than anything similar to any single/multiplayer RPG like those I mentioned (or Ultima rpgs).

    I'm not saying this is something bad or good, it depends like always on what you looking for. After all these years I think it should be good for them, for us, and for the game itself, to lead the project for something more real and specific. People likes to know what game they are gonna play and which way is going to take in the future.

    Saying SotA is a hybrid MMO, or an MMO with single-player options is not helping in any way, it just put more confusion on this.

    If you love rpgs and good stories Darkmoon, we know which kind of games we need to play, we must learn from the past. SotA is another beast, but it's hard to expect to find something similar to Ultimas after 3-4 years and see the direction the game has taken. Anyway, this is just my humble opinion :)

    Hard to see an rpg nowadays with those reviews, and all of them well deserved.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2017
    Cordelayne, Hornpipe, Vyrin and 3 others like this.
  10. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

    Messages:
    4,355
    Likes Received:
    4,999
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Count me in too... but we'd need GMs and seers...

    It's possible tho... as a Gm on many freeshards I built storylines and quests for usually between 1000-2000 concurrent players, on my own, seeding clues and unique items all over the place.

    People were waiting for me to log in at 5 AM sometimes... ready for the next step ! people were so exited they wanted to play BEFORE going to work, and I felt the pressure, a positive stress to keep producing more content and creating art to go with it.

    Thats me on my own (with good GM tools of course), now imagine what portalarium could do... we have 500 concurrent players, so its really not that hard to get them involved in a dynamic story.
     
  11. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

    Messages:
    4,355
    Likes Received:
    4,999
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Thats something we need to keep in mind right now, if players aren't really attracted maybe even downright repulsed by the game, then there is a possibility they would join again if their friends really needed them to help save the world.

    If the mystery and intrigue is high enough, then they will ignore the bad mechanics and make do.

    This is an easy way to double our concurrent playerbase IMHO.

    We've had a hard time building the SOTA community, with all the tests and upheavals we went through, so now that we have a more solid root, its time to consider the advantages of such a social network...
     
  12. Gix

    Gix Avatar

    Messages:
    2,203
    Likes Received:
    4,014
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Treating all media as the same is a mistake. What may work for books doesn't necessarily work for movies nor video games. If we followed books, we wouldn't have any choices to make while playing.

    There is a place for flavour text in video game but it all depends on how the game presents itself.

    They have the technology to do it, they just don't feel like it's a priority or something that their small team can pull off.

    Which is better? Option C: changing the story to work better with what you've got.

    You seem to confuse budget with technology and technique when all we're really talking about (in this tangeant) is how a game should tell a story.

    Final Fantasy is a video game series that I despise but, even then, I can recognize the series' ability to convey character and events with simple sprites. A series that has existed since the early 80s. Even when the characters don't say anything, it's portrayed in some way through character pose and/or dialogue "...". Bravely Default and the upcoming Octopath Traveler are more modern iterations following the same standards.

    Hell, Miitopia, a quirky RPG featuring Miis, conveys character development and emotions a lot better. Better than SotA, better than L.A Noir.

    None of the Zelda games does "flavour text" either.

    No one asked Portalarium to pull off realistic graphics and animations... The more you go that route, the harder it is to pull it off and the more distracting it is to use flavour text.

    ... the more distracting it is when it's not done right.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2017
    Numa, Mykll and Ahuaeynjgkxs like this.
  13. Earl Atogrim von Draken

    Earl Atogrim von Draken Avatar

    Messages:
    6,331
    Likes Received:
    12,109
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    You can always find him in a LDM post. Always.
     
  14. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Maybe he is a clone of me ;)
     
  15. Earl Atogrim von Draken

    Earl Atogrim von Draken Avatar

    Messages:
    6,331
    Likes Received:
    12,109
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    For his sake i hope you did better work than Dr. Evil with mini-me :p
     
    Lord_Darkmoon likes this.
  16. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

    Messages:
    4,355
    Likes Received:
    4,999
    Trophy Points:
    153
    you guys should go read my new thread : Well well well :p looks like this thread (ok ok, the third you make on the subject) is being listened to.

    Of course its just a hint but it shows a very open minded attitude :)
     
    Vyrin and Sir Cabirus like this.
  17. Sir Cabirus

    Sir Cabirus Avatar

    Messages:
    1,083
    Likes Received:
    4,494
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    The Stygian Abyss
    Shared preferences generate predictability - this is not only true for my person ;)
     
  18. Earl Atogrim von Draken

    Earl Atogrim von Draken Avatar

    Messages:
    6,331
    Likes Received:
    12,109
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Correct.
    Non the less i am with you and LDM on this one.
     
    Lord_Darkmoon, Vyrin and Sir Cabirus like this.
  19. Gix

    Gix Avatar

    Messages:
    2,203
    Likes Received:
    4,014
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Whoa there! I never said that the way SotA tells its story was anywhere near competent.
    Nor have I encouraged that they should ignore the single-player narrative.
    Nor have I said that the devs are concentrating on other, more important things.

    If anything, I'd be the first one raising my pitchfork because, as far as:
    • Combat/Skills.
    • Loot/Rewards.
    • Multi-player (group content and PvP).
    • Single-player/solo.
    • Story flow and difficulty curve.
    • Quest design and dialogue.
    ... are concerned, I'm already holding that pitchfork firmly in my hands...

    While these elements are slowly improving, they're nowhere near up to my standards. So I'm the last guy who would ever say "it's good as it is".

    I'm just not so naive to believe that putting flavour text is suddenly going to improve the game and I even argue that it's detrimental to the experience. What they need is better written dialogue, actually take advantage of their instancing for the story, establish interesting and memorable key characters... Write and present a better story than merely following the events of something you weren't involved in.

    Games have done this before countless times already. There are tons of academic research on this and the technology's been readily and cheaply available for a long, long time.

    I'm not the one giving the devs excuses, here...

    The only major difference between you and I is that you blame most of the game's short-comings on the multi-player while I just straight up point at the devs.
     
    Numa likes this.
  20. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Then I misunderstood you, sorry.

    Of course the devs are to blame if something doesn't work or if something isn't good.
    But we heard from the devs themselves that some elements cannot be integrated into the game (like visible consequences) due to multiplayer-features like housing.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2017
    Numa, Sir_Hemlock and Gix like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.