Recap: Developer Chat 5/23/13 (RG/TRACY/CHRIS: STORY, COMBAT, HOUSING, MORE)

Recap of the 5/23 developer chat with Lord British (Liege), Tracy Hickman (Story Lead/Author), and Chris Spears (Tech Lead). This includes the major points from the video. As always, I am human and can mishear or misinterpret, so I encourage all to watch the videos.

I also want to add that I am very much in favor of the idea Richard posed at the end of the video - stripping away all the hitpoint bars and numbers and relying on visual cues for damage. Sounds like a lot of fun!

If you notice anything here that is wrong, please contact me. Thanks!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/qzItblcUuiY



- Reinforcing focus on creating the story, character development, creatures, etc. 107 pages of story done so far (mostly backstory)

- Scott Jennings (Lum) is building conversation system

- They may share a 'stand-up' every morning where they will state the plan for the day

- Working on houses and cities vs. towns vs. villages and changing some original ideas, for example: maybe some village plots will be in the nooks of cities, or vice versa, rather than areas being exclusively for 1 type of deed.

- Richard has been talking to "Duke" backers and they are trying to weave their stories into the game

- They are looking for cultural ritual ideas that may help with ideas for the game

- Doing a Rooster Teeth demo in early July - showing town, crafting loop, house decoration, conversation, combat, exploration

- Speaking of house decoration, Richard is open to having an advanced decoration placement UI but in general wants to keep it automatic and smooth - for example, it will know which way to place a book depending on whether you place it on the floor or a shelf.

- Will there be a disparity between the classes (rich/poor)? Tracy talks about Avatars - in rare places they are revered, but in most places they are feared/reviled. In terms of class struggle - each place will have its own social custom/background. There will be some places that have a strict class system or where politics are convoluted.

- Timeframe for releasing chapters of Tracy's novel: Start background/outlining in June. Start doing chapters around July 18. Two chapters per week, and will turn them to Richard for review. Turnaround will depend on RG's schedule. Book will be written well in advance of release. Richard is thinking about 1 every two weeks because of his busy schedule, but will try for 1 every week. Complete first novel may be finished by end of year based on that schedule.

- Tracy is thinking 60k - 80k words for the novel. Maybe a hardback collectors edition!

- What will be released at first for those looking to work on Unity art: A small scene - house, a place to put your art, some sample art. Different buttons to see how it will look in game, lighting, along with a document with tech guidelines. Chris is hoping to release this next week.

- Bag inventory system - old school ultima bag where you can place items anywhere, but they are considering the ability to switch it to slots based on your preference

- NPC familiarity - they will react differently based on your previous conversations.. for example, LB suggests: if during the dialog, you tell the NPC your actual character name, the NPC will remember your name next time (you can't just make up another name, they won't get flagged to remember)

- Creatures with new mythologies? Tracy says, yes, that's what he does! He insists on everything having a legendary root/cause. In terms of creatures/monsters - where did they come from and why do they exist here? Part of the novel will involve this aspect.

Through dialog with fans, RG is more open to the idea of 'traditional' fantasy creatures (like a kobold) but they will have a reason why they are relevant and exist in the world.

- How will the team ensure a deep exploration experience in the dual map? Chris says they are always concerned with immersion elements. The dual map allows for MORE exploration because they can provide more content.

- LB says he is resistant to "trappings" of MMOs - like user interface all over the screen, mainly used to macro combat, and combat has become less about roleplaying and more about spreadsheet management. He wants to strip that away so you have to pay attention to what abilities you have and be more strategic.

Right now LB is posing a thought - could they go so far as to say, instead of hitpoint bars above your head and the monsters head... rather, when you are engaged in combat, don't show a point bar, but if you shoot arrows, show the arrows so you have to judge the damage you've done so far. Then as you take down more health, show a little more damage like more blood, limping, etc. so you get visual cues about how damaged and close to death they are.

He's fine to show your own HP status, but he's thinking about clearing all that off the screen (including damage points each time you hit) and you need to rely on the visuals to gauge damage.

Richard wants our opinions on this. (Tracy loves the idea, and so do I)

- Richard gave huge praise to Chris for being an awesome hard worker

- Richard flashed by a print out of the most recent version of the map, too quick for a real good look. They are still working on it and will release it as soon as possible.

- May start showing some design documents so we get a look at how even something simple can turn into something complex behind the scenes.

 

Nice recap Lori, thanks!

 

Thank you very much =)

 

"- Creatures with new mythologies? Tracy says, yes, that?s what he does! He insists on everything having a legendary root/cause. In terms of creatures/monsters ? where did they come from and why do they exist here? Part of the novel will involve this aspect."

Well there can be many aspects that change. LB, you just fractured your world, changed how magic functions.

This can bring on many changes:
First the physical world fractured could bring forth creatures previously not seen as their environment has now been exposed to the "real world"
Second magic changed and reworked itself. This could cause it to manifest in creatures, change how it manifested in already existing magical creatures.
When you speak of magic evolving/changing or a new magic emerging there are a multitude of new changes a creative mind can come up with from a new variety of races, new and different creatures as well as plant-life.

With the above my mind boggles with all the change possible.

 

Nice Recap! Thanks!

 

fantastic!

 

Very nice. I like Richard's idea about no hit point bars and such. It will make combat more engaging.

 

Dame Lori, once again thanks for this, I never have time to watch the whole videos anymore

 

great recap Dame Lori!!!

If people want to weigh in on Richard's idea on no hitpoint bars we've been talking about it here:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?topic=no-hitpoint-bar-for-monsters

If people want to share any real world rituals like birthdays, and other things that cause people to come together and celebrate, we've been sharing those here:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?topic=real-world-rituals-to-port-in-game

 

I wanted to add a couple of things..

First off, I've got to comment on this. Coming from the perspective of a player who has alpha/beta'd man games where the Devs rarely even talk to the testers and you never find out anything about the game until all the decisions have been made. The chance to be involved in making SOTA is really really cool. Just the daily meeting briefs are interesting and wicked to me a part of.

As far as rituals go. It would be good to see seasonal rituals, say in one culture they might have planting /harvesting rituals similar to the strawman type, "Char you tree" if you've read the gunslinger series. Say another culture might depend on a river, similar to how the Egyptians saw the Nile so once every X time they have a service, then proceed to the river to make offerings. I would love to see a way to become involved in some events, like you could pick up a flower bundle from a pile, mimicking the NPC's then follow them down to the water. Maybe the native people will "chat" as they walk, giving you details about the area, and introducing you to notable people? But if you finish the march, doing what the NPC's do, you get some achievement or sometching real minor.

There's another game in development that advertised its being made "with" the players. Their idea of including the players seems to be popping into the forums and posting how things will be done in the game. Pretty much that's all. To their credit they have utilized a f player ideas into some systems. But after seeing this latest Dev chat, I've got to say that SOTA really blows that game away in terms of Dev interaction.

Thanks for this update, and your dedication to us, the players!

 

Thanks!

About the creatures with new mythologies vs more traditional ones I think that a good combination can be the best idea.

And I like the idea of more variety of cities/towns.