[Interview] Life is Feudal: Out to Defy the Odds

SBFord

Life is Feudal has been receiving a lot of attention the last few weeks due to the launch of an Indigogo funding project and after releasing tons of new information about a sandboxer's MMO dream. We caught up with Vladmir aka "Bobik" to talk about Life is Feudal and how the team is looking to set the MMO-space on its ear. Read on to find out more before heading to the comments.

MMORPG.com: How did the idea for the project come about and how long has LiF been in development?

Vladimir: Well, I had a vision of that game for a long time and it were keeping more detailed as longer as I have played other MMO games of sandbox genre. In the May of 2010 i decided to start that project with a post on one of game development sites in Russia looking for same minded enthusiasts. There were a lot of flame, skepticism and such, but still some core developers appeared and we had start a development of pre-alpha version. It had featured complete terraforming and most of the free building system as a most complex features in a planned game. That allowed us to find a local investor that was outside of game development business and in November 2011 we had started a full-time job on our project. 

Read more of Suzie Ford's Life Is Feudal: Out to Defy the Odds.

Alomar

Sounds great and looks promising. I know for a fact he's on to something where people have had enough happy ever after fantasy.

Shadanwolf

Full loot...one word

NO

GwapoJosh

Definitely going to follow this game.. Sounds great so far!

TheLizardbones

It will certainly be interesting to see if a "fan" of sandbox MMORPGs can actually build an MMORPG. At least one that's better than Mortal Online. :-)

Kimo

Game looks good, but I'll pass because of full loot pvp.  I am also becoming more and more discouraged at the new trend that nearly all the upcoming sandbox games (Life if Fuedal, Pathfinder, etc..) seem to have to have full pvp implemented.  I guess I'm old school and wish to just play a game, not stress on it.

 

I love the sandbox genre, playing Wurm and ATITD for years, but every pvp sandbox I try I end up leaving because of the implemented system allowing for griefers (Haven & Hearth, Eve, Mortal, and Salem).  Sad too, because those games were fun all the way up to the pvp. 

 

SavageHorizon

 "We have complete terrafroming, with tunnel building and free building. In EvE online you cannot shape the world around you and can place only stations on some moons. In EQ:Next they will have only some destructible landscape features and parts of ground, that will slowly mend into original state - that is not world shaping, rather just another special effect. In our game players will be able to shape world almost the same way they can do it in Minecraft (and Minecraft is an ultimate sandbox IMHO). Skillcap and statcap systems appeals more to a sandbox gameplay, where you can create your own unique set of skills and call it your own class. In EvE in theory everyone can be everything and in EQ:Next AFAIK they just plan to add some multi-classing, but artificial premade classes will still be there"

 

Great answer to the question posed by the mmorpg.com reporter lol. I bet he was squirming when vlad said the above about a game that this site is trying to promote as sandbox lmfao.

Sandbox and true terraforming is Wurm Online and then we have Ryzom Core that was here long before landmark

http://dev.ryzom.com/projects/ryzom/wiki

 

Kost

Originally posted by Shadanwolf

Full loot...one word

NO

Full loot...one word.

YES

Kaneth

Originally posted by Kimo

Game looks good, but I'll pass because of full loot pvp.  I am also becoming more and more discouraged at the new trend that nearly all the upcoming sandbox games (Life if Fuedal, Pathfinder, etc..) seem to have to have full pvp implemented.  I guess I'm old school and wish to just play a game, not stress on it.

 

I love the sandbox genre, playing Wurm and ATITD for years, but every pvp sandbox I try I end up leaving because of the implemented system allowing for griefers (Haven & Hearth, Eve, Mortal, and Salem).  Sad too, because those games were fun all the way up to the pvp. 

 

I have to agree. It's far too easy to grief in these types of games, and that's the damned shame of it all. These developers have really interesting ideas, but they keep hiding behind full loot pvp as their main avenue for content.

I've brought this up numerous times already, but I feel it needs to be said again and again. MineCraft showed how a sandbox game can work without the need for incessant full loot pvp. There's some great pvp options in MineCraft, like the hunger games servers or hell even Spleef, but the majority of the game is building and exploring for many. 

It's great the FFA folks are getting attention though, because their options tend to be few and pretty crappy at best.

SavageHorizon

Originally posted by Kaneth

Originally posted by Kimo

Game looks good, but I'll pass because of full loot pvp.  I am also becoming more and more discouraged at the new trend that nearly all the upcoming sandbox games (Life if Fuedal, Pathfinder, etc..) seem to have to have full pvp implemented.  I guess I'm old school and wish to just play a game, not stress on it.

 

I love the sandbox genre, playing Wurm and ATITD for years, but every pvp sandbox I try I end up leaving because of the implemented system allowing for griefers (Haven & Hearth, Eve, Mortal, and Salem).  Sad too, because those games were fun all the way up to the pvp. 

 

 

I've brought this up numerous times already, but I feel it needs to be said again and again. MineCraft showed how a sandbox game can work without the need for incessant full loot pvp. 

 

 

Nope Wurm Online shown it long before Minecraft, it came first. Anything i can do in Minecraft i can do ten fold in Wurm Online.

Wurm Online is Minecraft on steroids, not even in the same ball park. Why people get hung up on Minecraft like it was the first is beyond me, Wurm Online leads the way for Terraforming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueIzp5w2QzY

Speely

Love it. Well be interesting to follow development on this. Hope they can realize their vision. Yay for full loot PvP. Between this and Albion Online, it's nice knowing there are some games still trying to do this kind of system right. Hope they succeed. Opens up tons of possibilities for meaningful economies and real risk gameplay

SpottyGekko

What makes THIS project more likely to succeed than Dark & Light, MO, Xsyon, Dawntide and all the other medieval fantasy FFA-PVP games with amazing feature lists that litter the MMO landscape of the past 6-10 years ?

 

I'll believe it when I can play it in a full-featured open beta.

 

Speely

Originally posted by SpottyGekko

What makes THIS project more likely to succeed than Dark & Light, MO, Xsyon, Dawntide and all the other medieval fantasy FFA-PVP games with amazing feature lists that litter the MMO landscape of the past 6-10 years ? I'll believe it when I can play it in a full-featured open beta. 

 

That it's a different game? And I believe we are all waiting to see it to believe it. It's just fun to hope

iridescence

I get distasteful vibes from this because they were caught trying to manipulate their rating on this site a couple of days ago, one of their backer rewards seems pure P2W and they have never designed a game before yet are trying to make probably the most difficult type of game to pull off. Seems even more risky than most crowdfunding.

 

 

madimp76

Originally posted by iridescence

I get distasteful vibes from this because they were caught trying to manipulate their rating on this site a couple of days ago, one of their backer rewards seems pure P2W and they have never designed a game before yet are trying to make probably the most difficult type of game to pull off. Seems even more risky than most crowdfunding.

 

 

Really?  How do you know they where caught out manipulating their rating?? It hasn't got a rating it's still in development!

Oh, you mean the Hype meter, my mistake. Maybe people just voted for it, i know i did as it sounds like my dream game. Not surprised it got a high score, first real news comes out in a while and just maybe people are hyped for it!

SijjvraVisz

It's not a realistic "feudal"society game if you can go around murdering everyone and stealing everything they've got.  There were certainly laws in those days, guards, knights, etc whose job it was to keep the peace.  Leave that up to the players? Yeah right, open PVP games -always always always- turn into a griefer gank fest.

iridescence

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/399081/Hype-Meter-Manipulation.html

Yeah I meant the hype thing. It could be a big coincidence I suppose  but I doubt it 

 

Caldrin

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Shadanwolf

Full loot...one word

NO

Full loot...one word.

YES

THIS

Lahuzer

To bad they aimed so high for their crowdfunding. Should have gone for 50k max. I would love to support them, but the perks for doing so was very expensive. 90 euros for beta 1 access. They have 3 stages of beta and alpha. 150 euro for instant alpha access. And 200 euros for some land near a protected NPC city. That's shitloads of money for very little perks. But I hope they manage to release it cause I sure as hell wanna play it.

Alber_gamer

The game looks so bad... I get it people are desperate for a sandbox that they will play 2 weeks and then forget, but this game looks really, really raw and dull. The atmosphere, the landscapes, the movement, the combat are all so... I'll say mediocre to be polite. 

Silverchild

Originally posted by SijjvraVisz
It's not a realistic "feudal"society game if you can go around murdering everyone and stealing everything they've got.  There were certainly laws in those days, guards, knights, etc whose job it was to keep the peace.  Leave that up to the players? Yeah right, open PVP games -always always always- turn into a griefer gank fest.

 

According to their website :

 

"LiF game design conception is aimed to protect newbies and peaceful players from non stop ganking by PvP hungry players. That is planned to be achieved mostly by bigger impact of alignment system on player decisions. Player with negative alignement will loose significantly more skill points on death and should think thrice before ganking some newbie just for "Lulz"

 

Sounds good. Being a  big bad PK should be dangerous.

Sawlstone

Awesome, can't wait to sit there and craft away. Have a great time at the mini-games. spend a few weeks building something skipping along...la la la......Then have some ass hat come up and kill me. No thanks

123443211234

If these guys can actually put out what they are talking about they will get my money for sure!

headbanz

I think its going to be good.

rainmourn

"We do realize that Fool Loot concept is not that popular amongst most of the players, but hardcore players lack that adrenaline and thrill and are always on the look for it."

*gigglefits* Yeah, that sums it up for me!

Razeekster

It sounds like a dream game especially whereas Medieval MMOs are so rare and I have a fondness for the that time period (not that I would have wanted to have lived in that time or anything...), but it is also sort of something to be wary of and watch and see what happens because this is a completely new team with no experience before this project.