My thoughts on SotA

I've made numerous games in Unity as a professional game developer. If that's what you're asking.

 

Examples?
And at what budget?

 

We work a lot under NDA, so I can't share that.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherredden

We have a game on Steam but I'm not too comfortable advertising on here, this shouldn't be about self promotion. You can google me if you like.

Why are you even asking?

 

I presume it asked to compare your work with calling SotA amateur.

This appears to be the latest game from your company. The graphics are fairly simple and cartoonish (though that is obviously an intentional style decision) but I must say the animation work is quite good. All the animations in this trailer are effective and smooth.

 

Its I would "have" not I would "of" sorry just had to say it

 

I just know personally that the Unity animation system is capable of a lot more, and hope they can do some work on it in SotA. My complaints are for love of the game, not to slag it off

Just thought I'd clarify.

 

Unity 5 seems even better in that regard.

 

The main concern being, at what point will it finally be out of pre-Alpha? It went from --> forget the October 2014 launch date to --> no end in sight to pre-Alpha.

 

You weren't asking me, but I originally asked about your knowledge in programming with Unity because I really don't know what the engine is capable of producing. I'm interested in knowing how much more it can be than its current state.

 

The Engine is just a tool. A tool which can be manipulated in very interesting ways if the devs want to (and I am sure they have countless custom scripts.)

It is not as powerful as let's say the Cryengine or Unreal Engine 4. But it can get a game up and running much faster and with less overhead.

 

I understand that this is pre alpha and I actually just upped my pledge level, but I dont know, I am just not feeling the immersion, I am not feeling it, I go out onto the world map and then get popped in to an encounter and then sit there for about 15 seconds while the encounter loads, then I kill 2 or 3 skellies or whatever and wait 15 seconds for the world map to load again, I dunno its just not immersing me its hard to explain.
I have no problems with loading screens heck I played EQ1 for 9 years or so I played UO for 13 years and many many other games as well, I really want to like SOTA but I really hope they do a major change to this whole world map with pockets of immersion system because I am just not feeling it. I am just being honest. to me this is a huge issue, I dont mind the rest of it I understand full well that the game is in pre alpha and that in all probability things like the current combat system will change drastically (thank god cause its very clunky).

in all honesty I want an Elder scrolls/Ultima Online style of game, an mmo that merges all of the best aspects of these games. the problem is it doesnt exist, I have tons of ideas in this aspect and I have 20 years experience testing the genre, I am considered by most as a critic and as such I always try to give my unbiased feelings on a game and on systems. and that is my goal here as a tester as well, to help provide feedback both good and bad to potentially be a part in that ONE game that will allow me to hang my hat in it for the rest of my gaming days.

 

Welcome Dasilva. hopefully you will enjoy seeing the progression. Each release will bring the game more and more out of the clunky state you say you feel. Those of us who have been around for a while are seeing the progression, whew you cannot imagine the beginning lol. So at this point content is not in. So hang in there you may yet get your game.

 

Then maybe this game isn't for you. This is no Ultima Online and no ordinary MMORPG. This is a blend of multiplayer and single player RPG.
I don't even know if this game is for me as I am not in the least interested in the MMO part and want a great single player RPG experience just like in the old Ultimas. I don't know if I will get this. But still I hang on and keep the faith and maybe I am in for a surprise and in the end the mix of single player RPG and multiplayer will work.

 

If you wish to get a feel for Unity's capabilities, you may find this helpful.

 

I understand concerns that people have about the game as it is.

But if you look at the game as presented in Kickstarter ( there is a video where they walk thru an example town, horrid ) and compare it to the earliest releases ( 1 thru 6 ) and then to how it is now... You will see a HUGE improvement.

We are heading into unity upgrade, and the game is far from complete.

So , relax and help the game improve by being part of this insanely awesome community

 

Instances increase resource cost more than open world does.

 

Understandable and I expected it. I was curious though if you'd be willing to share a couple of these professional artists that work for minimal wage, since SotA's budget grants Portalarium no more room then 'do or die', as they stated in an interview and considering LB/DSs level of knowledge and background, I have little (read 'no' ) reason to doubt that they know rather well of what they should be capable to deliver with that given amount of resources.

Ok, I'm flabbergasted now. How's that?

 

kind of like how windowed mode uses more resources in windows than full screen mode does?

 

That's... counterintuitive. Having players participate in instances tends to spread out populations of players, instead of concentrating them, which may reduce or level the workload for both the server and client by limiting the number of potential interactions between players and objects. Because the player characters in the instance do not need to be updated on all the information going on outside the instance, and vice versa for the characters outside the instance, there is an overall decrease in demands on the network, with the net result being less lag for the players. This also reduces the demands on each player's computer, as the number of objects to be processed can be more easily limited by the game's developer. The developer can better reason about the worst-case performance requirements in an instance because they do not have to consider scenarios such as hundreds of players descending on any location at any time.

I suspect you're using the word instance where your intended meaning is level. An open world is one level, but can still have many instances. SotA has many adjacent levels, each of which can have one or more instances.