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Status and Priority of Pledge Rewards, Kickstarter Stretch Goals, and other items

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by DarkStarr, Aug 8, 2017.

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  1. DarkStarr

    DarkStarr Executive Producer SOTA Developer

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    Recently some of you requested updates on the status of Pledge Rewards and Kickstarter Stretch Goals that have not yet been delivered. The good news is we have delivered almost all of them so the undelivered list is thankfully short. Yesterday during the R44 Postmortem I provided a brief update on the status of these items which I am documenting here in this post.

    When we started the Kickstarter we were still designing the game and many systems were still in flux. Now that we are nearing completion there are a couple of items that no longer make sense so we are going to retire them. It is worth noting that we have added at least 5-10 items per pledge since the Kickstarter, not to mention the tons of new features and content we have also added to the game. With that said we understand that those new items and new content were not specifically noted as replacements for these retired items so we will be creating two new rewards to replace the retired items. We will update everyone as soon as we know what these replacement rewards will be.

    Retired Items:
    • 2 Week Skill Head Start: This would have serious balance implications and would only enrage players who did not have access to it.
    • Pick Last Name Early: This simply does not work at all with our current naming system.
    The remaining items can be broken down into 3 priorities which will determine the order that we work on them. This order is based on other system dependencies, lead times, resource availability, partner commitments, and overall impact to the entire audience.

    Priority 1:
    • Multiple Characters on Single Account
    • Localization (non-Asian languages)
    • Physical Goods: Cloth Map, Box, Trinket, Signed Deed, Coin, etc.
    Priority 2:
    • Alcohol/Brewing (for German Beer Recipe reward)
    • Names on Tombstones / Domesday Book / Credits Page: requires a way for players to select what name to display so we will be adding a name entry function to the account page
    Priority 3:
    • Fyndoro's Tablet of Finding
    • Puzzle Box
    • Theater System
    • Castle Defense Scenarios / Castle Types / Castle Merchants
    • Shipping Lanes aka Boat Schedules, Random Boat Encounter Scenes
    • Heraldry aka Custom Family Crests for players and Guilds
    • Custom Duke/LotM Heads
    • PDF of Design Docs
    • Custom Static POTs
    • NEW: "The Lost Vale": A new mini-adventure centered around a lost valley previously hidden to players, now visible only during special astronomical alignments. NOTE:This will be a location and a quest within the Hidden Vale that is only accessible during the above mentioned alignments. Also note we are not going to use the name "Lost Vale" because it was a cancelled add on to Ultima 8.
    NEW NOTE: The Hidden Vale is the "New 'Mysterious Island'" mentioned in the Kickstarter
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2017
  2. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    Since we can already add text to any other gravestone, will this be visible as a texture on the tombstone (vs simply a tooltip)?
     
  3. DarkStarr

    DarkStarr Executive Producer SOTA Developer

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    That would result in a lot of custom textures and be very detrimental to performance.
     
  4. Tahru

    Tahru Avatar

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    Thanks for doing this. The most important thing on that list to me is Heraldry because that will introduce a new feel to towns besides just rearranged items.
     
  5. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    Even applying it as a glyph based decal?
     
  6. Atticus Gryphonheart

    Atticus Gryphonheart Legend of the Hearth

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    Where will designing an NPC fall on the priority list/when will next opportunity arise?

    I've had an idea for one for a long time, just been waiting for a call for that particular city.
     
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  7. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    imagine having to load a unique, single use texture for every tombstone in the Brittany Graveyard..
     
  8. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    Thanks for putting this together. I appreciate the clear message and attention to detail here.

    A few questions regarding Priority 3 items. Do you plan to give more guidance on the two year road map? I understand you're limited by time and resources, but I recall the goal was to complete all of these before work begins on EP2, is that still the case? If so, does that mean that everything will fall into the two year road map with the intent that all these items will be delivered during that time (thus pushing EP2 out at least 2 years after launch)?

    I'm not trying to be tricky here or box you guys in. Just trying to get some comfort that I can reasonably expect to see a custom duke head (and other items) before I see an EP2 Kickstarter. That may mean that once we increase the player population and secure more funding you guys may consider hiring more people to quickly deliver the remaining priority 3 items? If all goes well, I hope this is aligned with your current thinking, now that we're launching EP1 (soon) it seems like all of these items would take some form of priority in the two year road map.
     
  9. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    A glyph is the graphical representation of a letter (or rune, which I would prefer). You would have one glyph for each letter, probably in a texture atlas, not one texture for each name. Every tombstone would share the same textures.
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2017
  10. MrBlight

    MrBlight Avatar

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    Is this going to be player vs player related or solely focused on siege scenarios vs mobs like the current sieges?
     
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  11. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

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    Just curious... since this crowd-powered localization effort has started, I have sent my candidature to 4 different "representatives" which all told me great we need ALOT of help (french in my case) and then radio silence, my last attempt wasn't even answered.

    Am I really black listed or am I just being paranoid as usual ?

    I was really motivated, but now I'm really discouraged.
     
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  12. Tahru

    Tahru Avatar

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    I want my tombstone to read "#@&~% WTF Yeah!"

    j/k "He was red, then dead" will do.
     
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  13. monkeysmack

    monkeysmack Avatar

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    Instead of having a texture for each name, you could have a texture for each letter and then assemble them into names. Should be less of a performance hit.
    Edit: Also have only 1 LOD and require the avatar to be very close to see the name (e.g., 2 meters)
     
  14. Preachyr

    Preachyr Avatar

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    Also curious what sort of timeline this all fits into. Are any of these priority lists going to happen before launch? Is this the priorities for immediately after launch? Or will it be stuff that is worked on as Ep 2 is started... How does it fit in with the 2 year plan?

    You get the idea.

    Hard to get excited without some sort of context of timeline in relation to other things.
     
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  15. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    Ah I see what you're saying.. one small texture per letter.. then it just becomes a matter of placement.
     
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  16. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    Yes. Otherwise, what's different from the tombstones we have now?
     
  17. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    It'd be new tech but the application of it could be many fold.. signs. book covers..
     
  18. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    Saw alcohol scheduled for R45 or R46?
     
  19. redfish

    redfish Avatar

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    It would be really cool if we could choose the style of gravestone also... I'm assuming that wouldn't be too hard since the placement is procedural generated. I asked this early during the telethon yesterday when you were discussing the rewards, don't know if its in the list of questions ;)
     
  20. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    Not as new as you think. They're already displaying lots of text throughout the game and, by the look of it, I believe that they have switched to signed distance field rendering of text. Those same glyphs could be applied as say a bump map in order to make it look like the text was carved into the tombstone.
     
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