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How can Masthead produce both ER and Fallout Online?
charlionfire
Member Posts: 166
It spins around in my head: a somewhat new development studio in Bulgaria developing not one, but TWO AAA MMOs. To me it sounds like complete overkill, it is impossible that they have enough creative/talented individuals to create two really unique products. If they split their masterminds between the products... oh boy, will they suffer.
My conclusion is that the products will probably be A or AA products like Fallen Earth and Darkfall, and that the receptions will be luke warm among the general public. (Note that I hope the best for ER and especially FO Online).
Comments
From my understanding masthead is basically just allowing interplay to use their engine, not actually involved much in the development. I heard this awhile ago though, so it could be wrong.
They cannot, which is why ER has been delayed for the better part of a year and Fallout Online is tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2012.
I'd trust the newbie studio of Masthead to work with two mmos before I'd trust Interplay to make one.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
No FO has nothing to do with the delays of ER. MHS is a fairly large company for an indie company. I think they are on the lines of 30+ devs. I believe the delays are due to the fact of them balancing and making mechanics work out. One of which is real -time, non-instanced sieges which will take place across a totally seamless world. Yeah, that is not something that is easily achieved. In fact I think you can actually count the amount of games that actually have such features on one hand.
if they have developed another engine outside of one used for earthrise, than they are definately making 2 games at the same time. Which probably explains why there is so much delay and no new info about development of the game. But a good thing is i believe that they couldve also droped ER altogether and canceled the game in favor of Fallout, which is not surpsing anymore after abrupt cancelation of APB. But if they really have decided to take on 2 projects at the same then they should really think about the consequences. THEY WILL NEVER BE SAME
Okay this has to stop. Lets get this straight, they have NOT dropped ER and they have NOT put FO in front of ER. They are only working on FO as suppport with their engine. The majority of work is done by Interplay. So once again MHS is NOT putting FO in front of ER and also the delays are NOT because of FO at all! They have told us this many many many times.
Lets also get one more thing straight! There ARE people in the community who are in closed beta! They have release information on the game and they do it weekly. Also they have released actual in-game beta shots that were made by closed beta players. The only thing we have not gotten is an updated in-game gameplay video. Be PATIENT it WILL come!
Edit: Here are a few links of some recent interviews!
http://www.massively.com/2010/09/17/massively-exclusive-dilov-and-hristov-on-the-systems-of-earthrise/
http://www.gameogre.com/forums/mmo-interviews/8114-earthrise-interview-w-atanas-atanasov-producer-earthrise.html
http://www.onlinewelten.com/games/earthrise/specials/bleeth-entwicklertagebuch-zu-charakter-archetypen-6613/seite-3/
http://www.onlinewelten.com/games/earthrise/specials/zart-zerbrechlich-dennoch-gefaehrlich-masthead-studios-praesentiert-tommie-6652/seite-3/
http://www.onlinewelten.com/games/earthrise/specials/flammenteufel-freddy-6682/seite-4/
If there would be a beta, then why there's no beta-footage leaking?
There's not even some people to be found claiming to be in beta.
Besides the stuff Masthead is telling, there's no other indication for an ongoing beta and Masthead would be the last to trust on this topic.
There has been a lot of in-game beta screenshots leaked actually but no in game footage to my knowledge. There is many reasons why there have not been any footage released.. I trust MHS 100% with them saying that they do have people in closed beta and that there is an on going beta.
They did not develop a separate engine, they sold the rights to use the current. One engine can make many games. Haven't you ever noticed games that have the Unreal engine logo in the opening splash screens?
In that pile of recent "interviews", you might want to find a single new thing, as all of it has been said before, over the last two years and maybe a little longer.
The reality here is that there is an announced release period of "Q4 2010". The inside of that window is less than 10 days away, and the outside is about 13 weeks.
So, if you were not having problems meeting your (revised) release date, you sure as hell would release more than 3 screenies a week and you might plug the upcoming release in those insterviews you so thoughtfully pointed out.
Since this has already been done once in the past, (the announced Q2 2010 release), and the pattern is indeed excatly the same, a month or so of 3 screenies a week, a few interviews regurgitating the same old vague ideas, I feel quite confortable speculating that ER is indeed going the way of vaporware, or possibly will release someday by 2015 (making it vaporware.. with the advent of the new quantum processors announced a few days ago, in 5 years, the gaming world will change and ER will be outdated). I understand that this is a difficult idea to grasp for you and a few others, as you have wasted several years and thousands of posts on a forum that has no real game associated with it, but there it is.
If you believe the game is vaporware so be it. There is nothing that I can say or do to change your mind, that is left to the devs to do so. However I know as a fact that this game is real and in fact is in some what of a working order. The island is there, the combat is there (getting there at least), the crafting is there, and other mechanics. All of these are being worked on by closed beta testers (more then 30 maybe even 100). I am not too worried about the release date as I am predicting it will be some time soon maybe not this year but maybe next year. If they want to enhance their game so be it because as it stands there is no other game in development (to my knowledge) right now with such mechanics that ER has to offer. Especially one that is a sci-fi.
Where's the evidence of beta-testing?
Masthead can tell 10 times a day that there's a working beta-client and beta-testers, but aslong there's no evidence there's no beta-client and no testers.
Screenshots are no evidence! I can produce hundreds of those screenshots in Photoshop and claim that there's a MMO called BlibBlop-Disaster in beta-testing without even having a single line of working client-code.
The video they showed allmost 1 1/2 years ago to the public is the only real evidence of a somewhat working game-client so far, but as they revamped the whole thing there's nothing actually, that can be seen as an updated and working game-client. It's just words and a few pictures, but no evidence!
With just some 13 weeks left this year, we can be 100% sure, that the game won't go live before Q2 2011 and at this point nobody cares too much about it anymore, as several other MMOs will be released at the same point with a much higher attention to them.... Rift, SWTOR, TERA, and even Secret World (lol Funcom) are running their beta-tests at the moment and they'll be polished by the time we can expect Earthrise.
It doesn't help Earthrise to be FFA-PvP, classless or sandbox to be competitive against those games. The timeframe it had to be released to be successful is up and that's why I'm disappointed the most actually. The game might be good, but I sure don't wanna play in an empty world with a mere 1000 players online at the same time.
Great, you just had to spoil the surprise of my upcoming project. Thanks a lot.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Masthead can tell 10 times a day that there's a working beta-client and beta-testers, but aslong there's no evidence there's no beta-client and no testers.
Screenshots are no evidence! I can produce hundreds of those screenshots in Photoshop and claim that there's a MMO called BlibBlop-Disaster in beta-testing without even having a single line of working client-code.
The video they showed allmost 1 1/2 years ago to the public is the only real evidence of a somewhat working game-client so far, but as they revamped the whole thing there's nothing actually, that can be seen as an updated and working game-client. It's just words and a few pictures, but no evidence!
Great, you just had to spoil the surprise of my upcoming project. Thanks a lot.
Ooops...
lets rekindle old flames.
I love the anouncement from Moll saying that MHS is not using up any ER resources for V13 project aka Fallout for Interplay, and that only people who are not needed for the ER development are working with V13? What does it mean exactly? Did people who are working on V13 project got fired from ER project, were they janitors with no programming experience? I mean what kind of explanation can you possibly come up here? Why cant they work on ER instead of V13?
I despise liers who just keep on going with their bull sh1t story. Why not just come out and say yea, we did it for the money!
http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=6462.0
Quote
We are making concrete decisions about game design, content, art, etc... Masthead has been sending us all sorts of character models, animations and other bits of art for our comments. They are able to produce an amazing amount of work in a short period of time. Unfortunately, I can't show what they are doing. I can't show what we are working on.
It means that some parts of ER are finished. I don't know which parts tho. For example, you don't need a model designer if all your models are done.
I guess the people who are done with their part are maybe helping Fallout? But I guess they are still in the same building, so they will help ER if there goes something wrong;)
Lets take the main word there being ART. Besides what proof do you have that they are lying? Show me the proof then I will believe you. Either then that we all can just make false assumptions and stop with this ridiculous flaming of MHS/Earthrise.
P.S. Masthead Studios does not need money at all that is the least of their worries. Yes the extra money is nice and all that but they really do not need it.
Masthead have been for the last couple of month speaking with various outsourcing companies for the game support side of ER and these discussions are still ongoing so the game itself is definately not vaporware (as yet anyway)
I sadly can't supply proof without giving more info than I should/can.
As for FO-O my understanding of it from what info has come my way.
Masthead provide the engine, development tools and tool support and some art assets whilst interplay are actually making the game itself.
Thatim: in most companies and especially a start up one like MHS, you dont employ temp designers, they are provided with work to last while the game is stll active; this is an indy company there are simply no temp workers.
Joker and Thamighty: Did you read the quote? "Models and concept art", not just art and support. V13 started at least in 2009, in 2009 ER's models were no where near finished with all the rehaul they were doing. "Short period of time", that means they had to work faster than usual.