Posted By OrangeBoy at 11:43 AM - Sat Dec 17 2016
I can troll better
Please take the OP under your wing. Boy of Orange.
Posted By OrangeBoy at 11:43 AM - Sat Dec 17 2016
I can troll better
Please take the OP under your wing. Boy of Orange.
Posted By SoulSpark at 12:49 PM - Sat Dec 17 2016
Yeh I am a little worried about this game. Everytime someone asks a question in the q&a's the devs basically say yes that's in the game. Its like they're promising us everything we mention or ask for yet the only vids we've got so far is something like a guy in a cloak walking through snow.
I wouldn't worry about that. If you watch a few of the livestreams they do say no to certain things. Also it's worth remembering that the people who're selecting the questions to ask are also involved with the game development, so they'll not be selecting loads of questions that Caspian and his guests have to keep saying 'no' to. :)
You've just got to accept that no man's sky was shit and misleading and believe that some developers (Soulbound Studios) have basic human decency and seem like genuinely good people.
Like every time Sean Murray did an interview something felt wrong, it was like he was either a creepy rapist on trial or felt uneasy as he knew he was lying.
Posted By Mr_Plunkett at 1:24 PM - Sat Dec 17 2016
You've just got to accept that no man's sky was shit and misleading and believe that some developers (Soulbound Studios) have basic human decency and seem like genuinely good people.
Like every time Sean Murray did an interview something felt wrong, it was like he was either a creepy rapist on trial or felt uneasy as he knew he was lying.
I don't necessarily think it was Sean Murray behind the deception. When he sold his soul to Sony they very well could have been the ones pulling the strings.
Think of it this way. Sean can lie and make boat loads of money but be panned on the net. or he can tell the truth and go down as a honest guy with no money because Sony sued the crap out of him for saying things he shouldn't.
From what little I know it seems to me that NML was a labor of love for Sean much like it is for Caspian. But he went the easy way and took money from Sony and that gave them all the leverage for the game. And this is what we got.
There is a huge difference in these two games. NMS only talked about what it would offer and showed us the same staged demo from different angles about 50 different times all the way from start to very bad finish.
SBS shows us almost every time they make something new, and its not the same animated fabricated clips over and over. Now will they be perfect? No game is, but comparing them to NMS is apples and oranges. CoE is not even in Alpha yet, if we get into beta phase and still have painfully limited hyper controlled content teasers you can start to worry. As it is now unless your interested in wire frames and long lines of code, no game has much to showcase this early on.
I think this game is going to be better than No Man's Sky because the devs actually communicate with us. Also, as I've had first hand experienced with SpatialOS in the Worlds Adrift alpha I can tell you that it is at least technically feasible. I too am wary about backing as I got burned by preordering NMS, but I think I will back in the next few days because the devs are so active and I like the concept.
Hail All,
This isn't the first time we've been compared with No Man's Sky and it won't be the last. We've also been compared to EverQuest Next, Pathfinder Online, and pretty much any other MMO-ish game in development that has failed or been cancelled.
Why? Because we're attempting to challenge the status quo and to deliver something people can get truly excited about. If we were a large studio with hundreds of employees, a $100 Million budget, and a proven track record as a company - rather than just a proven track record as individuals than we'd have 2 million followers and an insane amount of hype by now.
But we're not. We're a small studio of just around 15 people that is slowly growing and shaping into the kind of company we want it to be. We're still experiencing growing pains but in general we're maturing as a studio as quickly as we can.
So it's only natural that people will have doubt and reservations and then compare us to the failed projects of the past and present. It's ok. While we're not in love with the idea, we understand and respect the need to prove ourselves.
That's why we presented ourselves as a studio and our ideas for the game a year before even entering production. So people would have a chance to watch us grow, and see that we had gameplay footage and technology proofs a year before even entering Production.
Now that we're in Production, we'll regularly share screenshots and videos with our Early Access and community members - so you guys will know throughout the process how we're progressing.
And, because we value your feedback and want to get something in your hands as quickly as possible, we're cutting the game up into a couple smaller experiences - Prologue, KoE, and ElyriaMUD - so you can see for yourselves what's going on with the game.
Only through demonstrating consistent progress and a pattern for achieving our objectives will peoples' confidence begin to grow. And that's ok too.
In the meantime, just sit back and watch. We've got a lot of things planned and our development process is as different from other companies as Chronicles of Elyria is from other games. If you want to make a different kind of game you have to go about doing it in a different way.
But just remember, while progress may seem slow at times, building a game like this doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes there's a significant amount of work being done with no good way to show it. Also keep in mind that building a game like this is a lot like drawing a sketch. At the beginning it just looks like simple lines and smudges. Only as we continue to make forward progress will the full picture start to emerge. Trust that we know what we're doing, we're doing things in the order they need to be done in and that above all else we have a plan. Give us time to execute on our plan.
Cheers!
-Caspian
everyone knows no man's sky was a joke. Shawn Murray lied through his teeth but there actually has been content of this game on PAX this year. And the combat was pretty nice.
Sure, we don't know what we're getting just yet, but that's why we're all sitting here waiting for the updates. If it turns out to be one huge joke then, well, hey. it's like EVERY OTHER MMO SO FAR TO DATE SO NOTHING NEW.
Anywho...I'm just going to sit here stuck in a que in this mmo for another hour bored off my ass and day dreaming of CoE lol
PS - I don't care if this game takes a while to make. You guys are doing fantastic. I don't want the game to get pre-launched and fail because it "didn't live up to the hype" because you fell into the trap of "we wanted to release early cuz ppl begged"...You do you, fam. You're a wonderful man, Caspian, for challenging the current boring meta of MMOs.
Soldier of Dread Legion
In many ways it seems crazy comparing CoE to many of these other titles. The fact it, it's different from all of them, and getting people very excited about the whole thing.
They don't have massive exposure. They don't have tend of millions to throw at the game and marketing. They don't have an existing fan base as a company. What they do have is the right mentality, the right ideas, and the skills to actually pull it off.
We've all seen the problems with the big budget titles. Poor design kills games and we wind up leaving them a week later the moment something better comes along. Elyria looks set to shake a sleeping market up in a big way.
For such a small company to get as far as they have already come is a massive success already. Over $1.8m and a player base of over 12k and growing already, so far from launch is a massive achievement. The content we've been shown so early in the process demonstrates all the pieces gradually coming together.
Perhaps much of it is psychology, understanding what it is the players need and what's been missing from the market. Much if it is the SBS mentality, the groups talks, the bouncing of ideas and the intelligence of those working on it.
Sometimes it's just the willingness to go back to the board and rework a problem even if it means picking something apart. There are no shortage of other companies out there that simply shrug and plough on regardless, bad design and all.
In short, I'm loving where this is headed, loving the mindset behind it, and looking forward to where this game will go. Well worth backing and promoting ;)
Hey Caspian, that post might be worth pinning to the featured list on the front page. Well written, honest, and sincere, and might be good to have visible for first-time visitors to the site who have worries about the game failing before it's fully fledged.
To touch Divinity, one must be prepared to brave Reality.
No Man's Sky (NMS) was just a PR disaster wrapped in huge sales and not much beyond that.
For a small company like HG which is roughly the size of what SBS is currently, they got a lot of commercial backing to help them ramp up the hype surrounding their title. SBS has not had that. All of the hype and fame that CoE has gotten since the KS has been mostly perpetuated by the community. Sure, there have been some media articles covering CoE, but not all that many.
Let's be real. Shortly after NMS's release, the many sales it had tapered off quickly and for good reason. For starters, I don't want to re-litigate Sean Murray's interviews and what he did or didn't promise by talking about features that ultimately didn't make it into the game (coughmeetingfriendscough), but ultimately the reality is that people are very angry because the have come to feel mistreated and taken advantage of. Again, for good reason. People who once anticipated this game have pored over every video appearance and print interview with Sean Murray for evidence that he lied or mislead them. I've heard that Hello Games is actually being sued for false advertisement too. I'll be honest here, I'm one of many who think they kind of deserve it. You reap what you sew, as it were. And I don't blame whoever filed the lawsuit, because the evidence against Sean Murray and Hello Games is pretty damning. To the point that discussions surrounding NMS are dominated by anger, hurt and betrayal.
Sean Murray didn't have a PR person to help him with interviews and public discussions, of course, but he missed one large detail when he conducted said interviews. That is that developers of triple-A games stick to talking points and carefully constructed news cycles. In most cases, they won't even bring up anything they're not absolutely sure will be in the final version of the game. This is mostly a survival tactic more than anything. Other companies will even say point blank that certain elements may not make it into the final version, and they do so with heavy caveats. Because if we learned anything from NMS, it's that you can't just assume that fans will automatically know that everything you show them in a clip, every expectation you speak of to them, may not make it into the final product. Hell, each new feature or character is discussed and approved by management before it is brought to the public's notice. When you look over previous interviews, Sean Murray was unable to stop himself from making lofty claims pertaining to expected features in NMS. Even when he was trying to rein in interviews to discuss what he hoped the game would be or what they were trying to do with it. That ultimately hurt his image, and now he is paying the price.
Hello Games also did not have an embargo in place with the press. No review copies were sent out, because Hello Games did not want anyone playing the game before the day-one patch. That didn't stop a lot of people leaking footage, but it led to some speculation regarding whether or not the lack of early press reviews meant the game was going to be bad. Which did cause a lot of people to stop paying attention to the game overall.
I'm pretty sure we can count on Soulbound Studios not to make these mistakes. This might be Caspian's first rodeo, but he didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. He, and his team, know what they are doing. What Hello Games did taught the gaming industry a number of things, things that many studios and developers are bound and determined not to repeat. Hello Games have not been very active on their social media accounts, nor have they engaged the community to nearly the same length that SBS has. SBS has been VERY straight-forward with their expectations and very public with their progress, and what they believe they can and cannot do with the game. They have been discussing with the community more than HG ever did. SBS is also giving us innumerable amounts of footage and photos for as early into development as this game is. Something that, again, HG did not do well. They are listening to the community and taking our feedback to heart, which is something that even a number of triple-A developers never do. We as gamers expect to wait while the developers work in silence. But just like all other expectations surrounding this game, SBS is smashing that one as well.
As a result, Hello Games is likely going to suffer the consequences of their decisions for many years to come. It may even lead Sean Murray to hang up his game developer hat.
But SBS doesn't exaggerate, they don't blow smoke up our butts, they are very honest and straight-forward about everything. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if sometime soon down the line we got images of the biomes they spoke about in Q&A. Even if those images are just concept art. But that is how open about their progress SBS is and has been, and personally I find that refreshing.
We've seen development footage, seen pieces of concept art, pictures of pre-alpha testing, etc. SBS is doing things completely different from how HG did things. As a result, I think it is very unfair to try and say CoE will be just another PR disaster like NMS. Especially this early in development, and with how different SBS is going about their development in comparison to HG. If you don't want to invest, fine. That's your choice. But then leave the rest of us alone and sit quietly in your corner.
The biggest problem is that a lot of games are so sub-par and either don't make it out of early-access or don't fulfill their promises. If Soulbound Studios does not live up to the expectations they've set, it's our responsibility to hold them accountable. While it's wise not to invest in an unfinished product and be wary, many great projects need the support of large groups to get off the ground, and that's where we come in. In reference to OP, yeah, it could be "like no man sky". Or DayZ, RUST, ARK, WatchDogs, etc. But don't let one game ruin your hopes. Be patient, and follow up.
I stand corrected, this is a bonafide troll, even got Caspian to reply
You may have erased my signature, but you can't corner the dorner
Posted By Stormynature at 03:20 AM - Sat Dec 17 2016
Well let's see, in order to do that we should probably
1) Arrange a special deal with Sony for lots of money and an undue level of influence in the game on content and release date and then have them betray us after release citing that they are also victims.
2) We should totally tweak the videos to maximise the best of all possible worlds and outcomes and graphical settings when we present them to the general public.
3) We should immediately sack those people who were hired out of these forums as they obviously are fake hires in order to hide "the truth"
4) We could totally hype the game up with extra features made up by people not associated with SBS (I personally recommend many of the media outlets for this)
ah the list of the many things we could do to ensure that this game can be the NMS, but you know what?
Don't buy the game until after it is released is the only sensible solution to such a question.
My personal opinion is that it will not be the perfect bees knees that I would like it to be, but I also quite happily spent $500 US in the expectation that it will be more than good enough for my gaming needs.
<3 Stormynature, spent half the time giggling at how true your post is.
For the OP and everyone, in comparison 100% of the contact about features and development of the game have been from the creators themselves, be they design, art, or Jeromy Walsh who himself (like many of the Soulbound teams friends and family) are personally invested in the game.
Doing what I do professionally I have worked with many small to large businesses with a grate deal of those having personally invested CEO's, and from that I can tell you that the man or woman who puts their nestegg and immediate comfort on the line is a focused pit bull that you do not want to try and separate from it's pups.
Why did I keep investing past the kickstarter, the team, they are creative and sensible and have only promised the things that they have shared with us that they are confident in creating, which shows restraint and wisdom.
A boat load of the systems they are crafting this game with have been technically possible for a long time (except the ones touching on the massive data crunching part, thank you spacial OS); It hasn't been an issue with not technically possible for big studios to make a game that uses some of these systems, it's been a narrow vision and greed thing.
Let's take aging and death, age is but a number, literally a number that you RNG at character creation and, sure have the player die on a day in the future + or - good living; Big studios wouldn't green light that kind of a game because traditionally that just isn't done, they get to decide what people like and edgy isn't a word in their dictionary because edgy = risk to a company that separates the money from the talent sometimes by whole continents.
How about crafting?
Mini-game skill based crafting requires skill + time to produce a single result and currently you only see with player skill (not paper doll skill) with small challenges in games for example Elder scrolls series has been lockpicking for years now, so why haven't we seen it used as a staple in an MMO?
Answer: Player skill, and time investment (not count down timer investment) have been considered an unused Z factor resource, materials and paper doll skill have been the X and Y factors in games along with cooldown timers where if you have 3 shibble dibble blues and a shibble dibble red along with 187 skill in shibble dibble crafting you make a shibble dibble magenta of smiting and you can do that on timer once every whenever.
It makes no since in real life as I am not a shibble dibble factory, where as if I really wanted to go out and buy a straight peen hammer and a blacksmith anvil for 100 bucks (yep ebay), I would need personal skill not just paper doll skill, yes along with materials, to craft a sword, and sure, I might mess up and have to start from scratch.
A single sword in real life would take, hours, days, maybe weeks to make right, it would take attention to the details which can be represented in a skill based challenge via UI. In the end it would be worth it and would not just be a stack of shibble dibble magenta that I couldn't be proud of if I tried.
Life is hard, and Elyria should be hard but fun too, I don't trust the game studio that says they are going to offer me 100% of what I want out of a candy fountain that brings utter happiness with no drawbacks, but I'll trust the honest developer that says they will try their best to make the kind of candy fountain that they would love to play with too.
