Originally posted by Amathe Will there be an auction house? If not, will you prevent the horrible spam you see, for example, in games like Guild Wars that do not have an auction house?
Here's a quote from Melissa Meyer about that specific topic.
We have the full battery of expected trade mechanics, including fully featured auction houses that facilitate trade on a global level. To deal with the congestion of traffic that is common to public auction houses, auction services are accessible from private inn rooms that can be rented cheaply. Inn rooms also provide the character with additional short-term storage, so renting them is a really good deal. Additionally, inn rooms open into a common area on each floor, where characters can set themselves up to trade services using mechanics designed to facilitate that kind of activity.
Simu's text based games have always had an extremely extensive library of actions and moody emotes.
can we expect that amount of development graphically?
for instance will we see different and varied emotes?
A kiss
VS.
kissing on the hand deep kissing a quick peck kiss on the cheeck Etc.
or more specific emotes like acting flabbergasted, acting repulsed ETC.
I understand Simu's text base games have the luxury of not having to be translated into graphical representations but this sort of development would really foster the roleplaying that ive always enjoyed in their games. will simu have any gm's set aside for these little things that Foster roleplaying?
Again, thank you for all of the answers. I would love to be an off-site GM, but I'm a little busy with real life. I'm a doctor in RL, and as you might imagine, I don't have a ton of time for other careers I wish I did. As is, I prefer to use my free time as a gamer; however, who knows what the future holds. There is always the chance of being a GM and playing a little less...
Originally posted by ZenJosh Simu's text based games have always had an extremely extensive library of actions and moody emotes. can we expect that amount of development graphically? for instance will we see different and varied emotes?
A kiss VS. kissing on the hand deep kissing a quick peck kiss on the cheeck Etc. or more specific emotes like acting flabbergasted, acting repulsed ETC. I understand Simu's text base games have the luxury of not having to be translated into graphical representations but this sort of development would really foster the roleplaying that ive always enjoyed in their games. will simu have any gm's set aside for these little things that Foster roleplaying?
Yes, we are going to have social verbs. Part of making an MMORPG is forming a community and ways for them to interact with each other.
We all need to keep in mind that it's not just coding the verb itself, behind each and every one of those is an animation of some type.
Once the game is released though, the verbs will continue to grow in number and complexity. (Just like our other games).
So, at first you may just get "a kiss", but don't think for one second that it will always be that.
I could name DOZENS of examples from DR and GS of such verbs that started small and grew to very popular because of depth and complexity added.
I can not say if there will be GM's/Artists set aside "just" for social verbs though.
Originally posted by Tiran Royce, Again, thank you for all of the answers. I would love to be an off-site GM, but I'm a little busy with real life. I'm a doctor in RL, and as you might imagine, I don't have a ton of time for other careers I wish I did. As is, I prefer to use my free time as a gamer; however, who knows what the future holds. There is always the chance of being a GM and playing a little less... Tiran
After 7 years I enjoy it still. There is always something new to learn or some challenge to be conquered.
i've been shuffling through the FAQs as best i can and i cant find much on whether or not a guild or clan can raid and occupy a castle or other structures. i read that player houses wont be able to be placed anywhere Nerfing any player cities springing up wherever they may (which i thought would have been a great, is this idea completely out?) but can you organize to take over a castle? and if you can what sort of rewards will ocupying a castle grant you?
Originally posted by ZenJosh Thanks for such a quick reply Royce! i've been shuffling through the FAQs as best i can and i cant find much on whether or not a guild or clan can raid and occupy a castle or other structures. i read that player houses wont be able to be placed anywhere Nerfing any player cities springing up wherever they may (which i thought would have been a great, is this idea completely out?) but can you organize to take over a castle? and if you can what sort of rewards will ocupying a castle grant you?
1) Sure thing!
2) Hrm, we'll just have to wait till more info on PvP and quests are released then. If it's not in any FAQ, then I can't "spill the beans" as it were.
Although I know the answer I am probably going to get (being a tenured Simutronics customer for... going on 12 years now I guess).... but here it goes.
How do you think the updating schedule will proceed with this game in relation to other Simutronics games. For instance: I've played Gemstone IV (III) for over a decade, and I've seen promises left and right for things that seemed simple enough. (If you want an example - Demonic Summoning - I know its a Gemstone clich
Originally posted by Valendros Although I know the answer I am probably going to get (being a tenured Simutronics customer for... going on 12 years now I guess).... but here it goes. How do you think the updating schedule will proceed with this game in relation to other Simutronics games. For instance: I've played Gemstone IV (III) for over a decade, and I've seen promises left and right for things that seemed simple enough. (If you want an example - Demonic Summoning - I know its a Gemstone clich
I completely understand what you said about how release dates can change and be pushed back. I work for the IT department of a medium sized Engineering firm. We are presently about to move about 70% of our engineering staff from 6 buildings into 3 (Closing 4 and opening 1). We are moving them in a few weeks (we do have exact dates). Now in closing those 4 and opening a very large one we have a lot of challenges, we have to buy the servers, hook everything up etc etc etc. We also have to move everybody at the right point.
Our date was set over a year ago as "Third or Fourth week in March 2006" and it hasn't shifted at all. We accounted for personnel loss, we gave ourselves enough time to do the work, we did the math on how many temporary staff members we would be needing... My point is: What would my customers think if we pushed it back from "Third or Fourth week in March 2005", to may 05, June 05, October 05, January 06, then march 06. Would they trust us? Would they think we were competent in our jobs? or would they think we are bumbling idiots with no business being in IT.
You MUST account for problems that arise, you must always plan for the best, hope for the worst, and tell everybody a ETA at least 20% worse than your worst. Did Scotty say, "That'll take me 2 days to fix" then ever have it take him 4 days? Never. Scotty said 2 days when he knew it would take him 16 hours. He was called a Miracle worker.
Simutronics has proven time and again that they can't and won't make good on their schedules. You have to prepare, plan, and expect for the staff losses, ESPECIALLY when a good percentage of your development staff are volunteers. You guys are new to MMORPGs. These hard core gamers won't stand for that. I am warning you. I played Gemstone because I loved Role Playing, and I got good at a lot of things because of that game. But I learned not to trust Simu on their promises a long time ago. (Example 2, when were Savants and Monks supposed to be out? Point Made)
I really want to see this game do well, and I WILL be closing my FFXI accounts and opening a couple with HJ when it comes out. And I don't want to see your unwillingness to make accurate ETA's, and inexperience with hard-core gamers to doom you guys from the start.
:::EDIT:::
Re-reading what I wrote I am sounding very harsh. This is just one aspect of Simutronics. The reason I will be playing this game is because I also know the Simutronics that would plan a story that involved the entire server. I'll never forget when there was an invasion going on, and I was pretty far away doing my own thing with my buddy, and something spawned in front of me and turned INTO me. I had a blast trying to destroy my doubleganger, and almost dieing in the process, toward the end it turned out to be a GM character - and he started talking to me.. It sucked me into the story, turned me from the loner I was, ignoring the story, into a participent who couldn't wait until he could log back in and see what new surprises awaited me.
I played Gemstone III for 8 years because of that attention to detail. I wasn't trying to say that this game wasn't going to be too awesome for words, or updated and changed on a daily basis with new and interesting stories. But that technical updates and core changes to the game always have taken far longer than they have set origonally. Moreso than any other game or any other company I've ever known of. I was just trying to ilustrate that you don't want to lose your non-simutronics tenured fanbase simply because you can't deliver on your timing promises.
Originally posted by Valendros I completely understand what you said about how release dates can change and be pushed back. I work for the IT department of a medium sized Engineering firm. We are presently about to move about 70% of our engineering staff from 6 buildings into 3 (Closing 4 and opening 1). We are moving them in a few weeks (we do have exact dates). Now in closing those 4 and opening a very large one we have a lot of challenges, we have to buy the servers, hook everything up etc etc etc. We also have to move everybody at the right point. Our date was set over a year ago as "Third or Fourth week in March 2006" and it hasn't shifted at all. We accounted for personnel loss, we gave ourselves enough time to do the work, we did the math on how many temporary staff members we would be needing... My point is: What would my customers think if we pushed it back from "Third or Fourth week in March 2005", to may 05, June 05, October 05, January 06, then march 06. Would they trust us? Would they think we were competent in our jobs? or would they think we are bumbling idiots with no business being in IT. You MUST account for problems that arise, you must always plan for the best, hope for the worst, and tell everybody a ETA at least 20% worse than your worst. Did Scotty say, "That'll take me 2 days to fix" then ever have it take him 4 days? Never. Scotty said 2 days when he knew it would take him 16 hours. He was called a Miracle worker. Simutronics has proven time and again that they can't and won't make good on their schedules. You have to prepare, plan, and expect for the staff losses, ESPECIALLY when a good percentage of your development staff are volunteers. You guys are new to MMORPGs. These hard core gamers won't stand for that. I am warning you. I played Gemstone because I loved Role Playing, and I got good at a lot of things because of that game. But I learned not to trust Simu on their promises a long time ago. (Example 2, when were Savants and Monks supposed to be out? Point Made) I really want to see this game do well, and I WILL be closing my FFXI accounts and opening a couple with HJ when it comes out. And I don't want to see your unwillingness to make accurate ETA's, and inexperience with hard-core gamers to doom you guys from the start.
:::EDIT::: Re-reading what I wrote I am sounding very harsh. This is just one aspect of Simutronics. The reason I will be playing this game is because I also know the Simutronics that would plan a story that involved the entire server. I'll never forget when there was an invasion going on, and I was pretty far away doing my own thing with my buddy, and something spawned in front of me and turned INTO me. I had a blast trying to destroy my doubleganger, and almost dieing in the process, toward the end it turned out to be a GM character - and he started talking to me.. It sucked me into the story, turned me from the loner I was, ignoring the story, into a participent who couldn't wait until he could log back in and see what new surprises awaited me. I played Gemstone III for 8 years because of that attention to detail. I wasn't trying to say that this game wasn't going to be too awesome for words, or updated and changed on a daily basis with new and interesting stories. But that technical updates and core changes to the game always have taken far longer than they have set origonally. Moreso than any other game or any other company I've ever known of. I was just trying to ilustrate that you don't want to lose your non-simutronics tenured fanbase simply because you can't deliver on your timing promises.
Just a couple of comments:
As a hardware guy I've done similar projects and trust me they're much easier to schedule and manage than any software project I've ever been on.
With hardware you can plan for any potential delays due to lack of personnel or material. With software if someone that's been working on a key system leaves you not only have to find someone that's a skilled programmer in your language but also have to give them a chance to go through all the old code and try and figure out how your system works.
For doing a major building move, such as you described, you don't have your customers coming to you 6 months before the move saying "hey there's this new server technology and since we're moving anyway we'd like that implemented at the same time". In software this kind of thing happens all the time. New technology comes available and the customers demand that it be implented, business practices change and you have to change the systems to support that and usually about the time you've gotten those changes coded and tested the business people change how they want something done and you have to scrap it and start over.
With games you have a completely different element to factor in - fun. Sometimes the customer asks for a new feature and you think that sounds cool and it should be simple to implement so why not so you start working on it. First you find out that actually coding it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be because the simple system that you first thought of breaks this other system that you had no clue existed then you find that someone is making major changes to one of the other systems that you rely on so you'll have to wait until that's implemented and tested. Then once all that's done you put it in the game world and start testing it internally and find out it's just not fun. So you spend more time trying to figure out why it's not fun, I mean it sounds like it should be fun, and you tweak it and refine it and test it. Eventually you either figure a way to implement it that is fun, doesn't break 5 other things or unbalance your game and put it out to a small group of players to test and within a day 3 of them find ways to exploit a loophole you missed to un-balance the game. Eventually you figure out all of that and get it implemented in the game and the players say thanks but what took so long this is so simple
The sad thing is that we as players tend to crucify the game company for letting games slip so the company can either decide to live with that or they can pull an Id and just say "when it's ready". Personally, I like the Blizzard system - take the announced release timeframe and add a year but expect the game to work and work well. Of course they changed systems with WoW and it actually released pretty much on schedule but they didn't really announce it until it was almost ready for beta testing so it was much easier.
A) Don't tell anybody a time frame. Just say "It'll be ready when it's ready, You'll know we're making progress when you see screenshots that look closer to a finished game"
or - Any timeframe YOU create, add 150%.
There's something very crucial in what you said. You don't expect these things to happen. WHY NOT. They always happen. You aren't convincing me that your timeframes are accurate, or that you are justified in not being able to create a reliable timeframe. I'm going to go buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201835959/sr=8-1/qid=1141575269/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0023692-2476942?%5Fencoding=UTF8 and read it cover-to-cover. Jgankum brought it up, and from what I was reading about it, it sounds like I will benefit from the teachings found within. Sounds like Simu might too.
As I've said before, this game is going to be my MMO when it comes out, and I will play it probably forever (especially if I get a reduced price on a re-activated GS4 acct too lol). But I vote for not saying anything about any updates, nothing about plans, nothing about options until they are 1 month from being released. Same goes for the game in general right now. When it's 2 weeks from beta, put out a call to testers, and when it's a month from being on the store shelves (you've sent the final product to the DVD-stampers and have the boxing and packaging all going to the printers), tell us when/why/how.
If your game is as good as you say it is, and I'm betting it will be (all your games rock), you don't need hype of people knowing about it 2 years before hand to get them to play it.
I made this account for the sole purpose of posting on the HJ forums. i read through about 25 pages of this thread and i can only think of one question that i havent seen yet (sorry if it's been asked ><)
given certain classes will be healing etc. is there going to be any allegiance to certain gods / goddesses that can differentiate between what healing specialties? (hard to phrase that into what i mean)
for an example, i am a sucker for paladins (who doesnt want to be a holy fighter?). now, say you have several gods that healers can devote allegiance to. i want to devote my life to thor (sorry, unoriginal, but everyone understands what i mean) would there be any uniqueness in my healing and/or fighting capabilities? this is always one thing i think is left out in games (except for lineage, but then you didnt entirely devote yourself to kain, cuz being chaotic meant you had to be really powerful so you didnt die and lose phat lewtz)
Does HJ plan on doing any updates to its official website? The latest news was Jan 18th. A few of the features STILL say coming soon. Basic things like the Lore and Game Features. I'm hungry for some official info and IMHO this does not bode well. I see they relaunched the site on the 18th but what the heck, did they drop the subject after that?
Originally posted by SeveredFate I made this account for the sole purpose of posting on the HJ forums. i read through about 25 pages of this thread and i can only think of one question that i havent seen yet (sorry if it's been asked ><) given certain classes will be healing etc. is there going to be any allegiance to certain gods / goddesses that can differentiate between what healing specialties? (hard to phrase that into what i mean) for an example, i am a sucker for paladins (who doesnt want to be a holy fighter?). now, say you have several gods that healers can devote allegiance to. i want to devote my life to thor (sorry, unoriginal, but everyone understands what i mean) would there be any uniqueness in my healing and/or fighting capabilities? this is always one thing i think is left out in games (except for lineage, but then you didnt entirely devote yourself to kain, cuz being chaotic meant you had to be really powerful so you didnt die and lose phat lewtz)
I've not seen any infomation regarding "how" a cleric/paladin/healer works thier magic. But, I'm almost positive the backhistory will come into play in some very creative ways.
To what degree? I can not answer at this time.
If someone else finds a post/webpage on this topic, feel free to post the info here. I've been digging now for a good 20 minutes.
Originally posted by Torak Not to get off the subject but..... Does HJ plan on doing any updates to its official website? The latest news was Jan 18th. A few of the features STILL say coming soon. Basic things like the Lore and Game Features. I'm hungry for some official info and IMHO this does not bode well. I see they relaunched the site on the 18th but what the heck, did they drop the subject after that?
The gang back at the office tend to do overhauls to websites in chunks (for lack of a better word). Rather than a piece here, and a piece there, they've been known to do larger portions at once.
With some trade shows in the near future though, progress may have also been diverted to other things within the office. (That's not an official reason, I just know they are working like mad right now.)
Fear not though, it's on "The List".
Besides, I can't wait to see what Steph has in mind. I always love reading her stuff. She's got this infectious laugh and smile too.
I made this account for the sole purpose of posting on the HJ forums. i read through about 25 pages of this thread and i can only think of one question that i havent seen yet (sorry if it's been asked ><) given certain classes will be healing etc. is there going to be any allegiance to certain gods / goddesses that can differentiate between what healing specialties? (hard to phrase that into what i mean) for an example, i am a sucker for paladins (who doesnt want to be a holy fighter?). now, say you have several gods that healers can devote allegiance to. i want to devote my life to thor (sorry, unoriginal, but everyone understands what i mean) would there be any uniqueness in my healing and/or fighting capabilities? this is always one thing i think is left out in games (except for lineage, but then you didnt entirely devote yourself to kain, cuz being chaotic meant you had to be really powerful so you didnt die and lose phat lewtz)
They did it in their text games, heres hoping they continue it. these are the little things that i want to see along with a vast array of social verbs. thing is we probably wont see alot of these fine tweeked things untill the game is well underway and they can actually devote Coders and GMs to solely building them. i swear i heard Melissa myer at least comment on it somewhere... i just sifted through a ton of stuff and i cant seem to come up with it... maybe she talked about it in the video but im almost sure i remember her at least commenting on it or read it somewhere.
in their text game your whole look while casting a spell was different based on who you worshipped.
Originally posted by HJ-Royce The gang back at the office tend to do overhauls to websites in chunks (for lack of a better word). Rather than a piece here, and a piece there, they've been known to do larger portions at once.
I think they'd do a much better job at holding anyone's attention if they updated it little by little. Many sites have updates at least once a week, and it's been almost two months since their site has had any updates.
It would also look a lot less dead if the news page didn't have "Dec 2, Jan 5, Jan 18, Jan 18, Mar 20, May 15..." Giant gaps make it look like they get to updating when they get to updating or only when they feel like it.
I mean, I know it's not the case, but it looks like they just plain don't care about the site or when it gets updated. I hate to go off on a tangent, but it's the same thinking as their forums. It looks really really bad to everyone but them. They know things are fine, but no one else can tell. If someone just found out about the game, they'd look at the site, find no real information about the game, see that it has been a while since the last update (which is when "Coming Soon!" was added all over the site), check the forums, get confused, then leave and forget about it.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
Thanks for the reply about the Webpage, I'm hungry for info.
I have another technical question....
Won't all this customization, like the amount of detail that goes into the "nose" alone on the screenshots lol, cause a tremendous amount of performance lag? If everything is customized I would think its going to create quite the strain on the average PC.
I haven't seen to much on this issue in any of the Q&A's. Games with a high amount of detail usually resort to lots of zoning or very heavily if not totally instanced.
'' Instances come in two varietys, common hunting areas (which are quite large) and specific quest instances. There are also of course towns and cities and such. Now when you deal with quests in HJ, the intent is that everything you do has an effect on you and can affect what is available to you in the future, its a pretty dynamic system. There will be short and long instances, and long story lines as well. ''
Comments
Here's a quote from Melissa Meyer about that specific topic.
We have the full battery of expected trade mechanics, including fully featured auction houses that facilitate trade on a global level. To deal with the congestion of traffic that is common to public auction houses, auction services are accessible from private inn rooms that can be rented cheaply. Inn rooms also provide the character with additional short-term storage, so renting them is a really good deal. Additionally, inn rooms open into a common area on each floor, where characters can set themselves up to trade services using mechanics designed to facilitate that kind of activity.
HJ-Royce
Simutronics Staff (GM)
http://www.play.net/hj/
Sweet! This game keeps looking better and better.
*thinks HJ may be"the One"*
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Simu's text based games have always had an extremely extensive library of actions and moody emotes.
can we expect that amount of development graphically?
for instance will we see different and varied emotes?
A kiss
VS.
kissing on the hand
deep kissing
a quick peck
kiss on the cheeck
Etc.
or more specific emotes like acting flabbergasted, acting repulsed ETC.
I understand Simu's text base games have the luxury of not having to be translated into graphical representations but this sort of development would really foster the roleplaying that ive always enjoyed in their games. will simu have any gm's set aside for these little things that Foster roleplaying?
Be one with it.
Royce,
Again, thank you for all of the answers. I would love to be an off-site GM, but I'm a little busy with real life. I'm a doctor in RL, and as you might imagine, I don't have a ton of time for other careers
I wish I did. As is, I prefer to use my free time as a gamer; however, who knows what the future holds. There is always the chance of being a GM and playing a little less...
Tiran
Yes, we are going to have social verbs. Part of making an MMORPG is forming a community and ways for them to interact with each other.
We all need to keep in mind that it's not just coding the verb itself, behind each and every one of those is an animation of some type.
Once the game is released though, the verbs will continue to grow in number and complexity. (Just like our other games).
So, at first you may just get "a kiss", but don't think for one second that it will always be that.
I could name DOZENS of examples from DR and GS of such verbs that started small and grew to very popular because of depth and complexity added.
I can not say if there will be GM's/Artists set aside "just" for social verbs though.
HJ-Royce
Simutronics Staff (GM)
http://www.play.net/hj/
After 7 years I enjoy it still. There is always something new to learn or some challenge to be conquered.
And as for the answers, anytime.
HJ-Royce
Simutronics Staff (GM)
http://www.play.net/hj/
Thanks for such a quick reply Royce!
i've been shuffling through the FAQs as best i can and i cant find much on whether or not a guild or clan can raid and occupy a castle or other structures. i read that player houses wont be able to be placed anywhere Nerfing any player cities springing up wherever they may (which i thought would have been a great, is this idea completely out?) but can you organize to take over a castle? and if you can what sort of rewards will ocupying a castle grant you?
Be one with it.
1) Sure thing!
2) Hrm, we'll just have to wait till more info on PvP and quests are released then. If it's not in any FAQ, then I can't "spill the beans" as it were.
Sorry about that.
HJ-Royce
Simutronics Staff (GM)
http://www.play.net/hj/
Although I know the answer I am probably going to get (being a tenured Simutronics customer for... going on 12 years now I guess).... but here it goes.
How do you think the updating schedule will proceed with this game in relation to other Simutronics games. For instance: I've played Gemstone IV (III) for over a decade, and I've seen promises left and right for things that seemed simple enough. (If you want an example - Demonic Summoning - I know its a Gemstone clich
HJ-Royce
Simutronics Staff (GM)
http://www.play.net/hj/
I completely understand what you said about how release dates can change and be pushed back. I work for the IT department of a medium sized Engineering firm. We are presently about to move about 70% of our engineering staff from 6 buildings into 3 (Closing 4 and opening 1). We are moving them in a few weeks (we do have exact dates). Now in closing those 4 and opening a very large one we have a lot of challenges, we have to buy the servers, hook everything up etc etc etc. We also have to move everybody at the right point.
Our date was set over a year ago as "Third or Fourth week in March 2006" and it hasn't shifted at all. We accounted for personnel loss, we gave ourselves enough time to do the work, we did the math on how many temporary staff members we would be needing... My point is: What would my customers think if we pushed it back from "Third or Fourth week in March 2005", to may 05, June 05, October 05, January 06, then march 06. Would they trust us? Would they think we were competent in our jobs? or would they think we are bumbling idiots with no business being in IT.
You MUST account for problems that arise, you must always plan for the best, hope for the worst, and tell everybody a ETA at least 20% worse than your worst. Did Scotty say, "That'll take me 2 days to fix" then ever have it take him 4 days? Never. Scotty said 2 days when he knew it would take him 16 hours. He was called a Miracle worker.
Simutronics has proven time and again that they can't and won't make good on their schedules. You have to prepare, plan, and expect for the staff losses, ESPECIALLY when a good percentage of your development staff are volunteers. You guys are new to MMORPGs. These hard core gamers won't stand for that. I am warning you. I played Gemstone because I loved Role Playing, and I got good at a lot of things because of that game. But I learned not to trust Simu on their promises a long time ago. (Example 2, when were Savants and Monks supposed to be out? Point Made)
I really want to see this game do well, and I WILL be closing my FFXI accounts and opening a couple with HJ when it comes out. And I don't want to see your unwillingness to make accurate ETA's, and inexperience with hard-core gamers to doom you guys from the start.
:::EDIT:::
Re-reading what I wrote I am sounding very harsh. This is just one aspect of Simutronics. The reason I will be playing this game is because I also know the Simutronics that would plan a story that involved the entire server. I'll never forget when there was an invasion going on, and I was pretty far away doing my own thing with my buddy, and something spawned in front of me and turned INTO me. I had a blast trying to destroy my doubleganger, and almost dieing in the process, toward the end it turned out to be a GM character - and he started talking to me.. It sucked me into the story, turned me from the loner I was, ignoring the story, into a participent who couldn't wait until he could log back in and see what new surprises awaited me.
I played Gemstone III for 8 years because of that attention to detail. I wasn't trying to say that this game wasn't going to be too awesome for words, or updated and changed on a daily basis with new and interesting stories. But that technical updates and core changes to the game always have taken far longer than they have set origonally. Moreso than any other game or any other company I've ever known of. I was just trying to ilustrate that you don't want to lose your non-simutronics tenured fanbase simply because you can't deliver on your timing promises.
"The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering" by Frederick P. Brooks.
read it, live it, love it.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
I've searched high and low for an answer to this from onsite, it appears one does not exists yet.
Sorry Amathe.
HJ-Royce
Simutronics Staff (GM)
http://www.play.net/hj/
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Just a couple of comments:
As a hardware guy I've done similar projects and trust me they're much easier to schedule and manage than any software project I've ever been on.
With hardware you can plan for any potential delays due to lack of personnel or material. With software if someone that's been working on a key system leaves you not only have to find someone that's a skilled programmer in your language but also have to give them a chance to go through all the old code and try and figure out how your system works.
For doing a major building move, such as you described, you don't have your customers coming to you 6 months before the move saying "hey there's this new server technology and since we're moving anyway we'd like that implemented at the same time". In software this kind of thing happens all the time. New technology comes available and the customers demand that it be implented, business practices change and you have to change the systems to support that and usually about the time you've gotten those changes coded and tested the business people change how they want something done and you have to scrap it and start over.
With games you have a completely different element to factor in - fun. Sometimes the customer asks for a new feature and you think that sounds cool and it should be simple to implement so why not so you start working on it. First you find out that actually coding it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be because the simple system that you first thought of breaks this other system that you had no clue existed then you find that someone is making major changes to one of the other systems that you rely on so you'll have to wait until that's implemented and tested. Then once all that's done you put it in the game world and start testing it internally and find out it's just not fun. So you spend more time trying to figure out why it's not fun, I mean it sounds like it should be fun, and you tweak it and refine it and test it. Eventually you either figure a way to implement it that is fun, doesn't break 5 other things or unbalance your game and put it out to a small group of players to test and within a day 3 of them find ways to exploit a loophole you missed to un-balance the game. Eventually you figure out all of that and get it implemented in the game and the players say thanks but what took so long this is so simple
The sad thing is that we as players tend to crucify the game company for letting games slip so the company can either decide to live with that or they can pull an Id and just say "when it's ready". Personally, I like the Blizzard system - take the announced release timeframe and add a year but expect the game to work and work well. Of course they changed systems with WoW and it actually released pretty much on schedule but they didn't really announce it until it was almost ready for beta testing so it was much easier.
Well... then either...
A) Don't tell anybody a time frame. Just say "It'll be ready when it's ready, You'll know we're making progress when you see screenshots that look closer to a finished game"
or -
Any timeframe YOU create, add 150%.
There's something very crucial in what you said. You don't expect these things to happen. WHY NOT. They always happen. You aren't convincing me that your timeframes are accurate, or that you are justified in not being able to create a reliable timeframe. I'm going to go buy this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201835959/sr=8-1/qid=1141575269/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0023692-2476942?%5Fencoding=UTF8
and read it cover-to-cover. Jgankum brought it up, and from what I was reading about it, it sounds like I will benefit from the teachings found within. Sounds like Simu might too.
As I've said before, this game is going to be my MMO when it comes out, and I will play it probably forever (especially if I get a reduced price on a re-activated GS4 acct too lol). But I vote for not saying anything about any updates, nothing about plans, nothing about options until they are 1 month from being released. Same goes for the game in general right now. When it's 2 weeks from beta, put out a call to testers, and when it's a month from being on the store shelves (you've sent the final product to the DVD-stampers and have the boxing and packaging all going to the printers), tell us when/why/how.
If your game is as good as you say it is, and I'm betting it will be (all your games rock), you don't need hype of people knowing about it 2 years before hand to get them to play it.
I made this account for the sole purpose of posting on the HJ forums. i read through about 25 pages of this thread and i can only think of one question that i havent seen yet (sorry if it's been asked ><)
given certain classes will be healing etc. is there going to be any allegiance to certain gods / goddesses that can differentiate between what healing specialties? (hard to phrase that into what i mean)
for an example, i am a sucker for paladins (who doesnt want to be a holy fighter?). now, say you have several gods that healers can devote allegiance to. i want to devote my life to thor (sorry, unoriginal, but everyone understands what i mean) would there be any uniqueness in my healing and/or fighting capabilities? this is always one thing i think is left out in games (except for lineage, but then you didnt entirely devote yourself to kain, cuz being chaotic meant you had to be really powerful so you didnt die and lose phat lewtz)
Not to get off the subject but.....
Does HJ plan on doing any updates to its official website? The latest news was Jan 18th. A few of the features STILL say coming soon. Basic things like the Lore and Game Features. I'm hungry for some official info and IMHO this does not bode well. I see they relaunched the site on the 18th but what the heck, did they drop the subject after that?
I've not seen any infomation regarding "how" a cleric/paladin/healer works thier magic. But, I'm almost positive the backhistory will come into play in some very creative ways.
To what degree? I can not answer at this time.
If someone else finds a post/webpage on this topic, feel free to post the info here. I've been digging now for a good 20 minutes.
HJ-Royce
Simutronics Staff (GM)
http://www.play.net/hj/
The gang back at the office tend to do overhauls to websites in chunks (for lack of a better word). Rather than a piece here, and a piece there, they've been known to do larger portions at once.
With some trade shows in the near future though, progress may have also been diverted to other things within the office. (That's not an official reason, I just know they are working like mad right now.)
Fear not though, it's on "The List".
Besides, I can't wait to see what Steph has in mind. I always love reading her stuff. She's got this infectious laugh and smile too.
HJ-Royce
Simutronics Staff (GM)
http://www.play.net/hj/
They did it in their text games, heres hoping they continue it. these are the little things that i want to see along with a vast array of social verbs. thing is we probably wont see alot of these fine tweeked things untill the game is well underway and they can actually devote Coders and GMs to solely building them. i swear i heard Melissa myer at least comment on it somewhere... i just sifted through a ton of stuff and i cant seem to come up with it... maybe she talked about it in the video but im almost sure i remember her at least commenting on it or read it somewhere.
in their text game your whole look while casting a spell was different based on who you worshipped.
Be one with it.
It would also look a lot less dead if the news page didn't have "Dec 2, Jan 5, Jan 18, Jan 18, Mar 20, May 15..." Giant gaps make it look like they get to updating when they get to updating or only when they feel like it.
I mean, I know it's not the case, but it looks like they just plain don't care about the site or when it gets updated. I hate to go off on a tangent, but it's the same thinking as their forums. It looks really really bad to everyone but them. They know things are fine, but no one else can tell. If someone just found out about the game, they'd look at the site, find no real information about the game, see that it has been a while since the last update (which is when "Coming Soon!" was added all over the site), check the forums, get confused, then leave and forget about it.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
Thanks for the reply about the Webpage, I'm hungry for info.
I have another technical question....
Won't all this customization, like the amount of detail that goes into the "nose" alone on the screenshots lol, cause a tremendous amount of performance lag? If everything is customized I would think its going to create quite the strain on the average PC.
I haven't seen to much on this issue in any of the Q&A's. Games with a high amount of detail usually resort to lots of zoning or very heavily if not totally instanced.
'' Instances come in two varietys, common hunting areas (which are quite large) and specific quest instances. There are also of course towns and cities and such. Now when you deal with quests in HJ, the intent is that everything you do has an effect on you and can affect what is available to you in the future, its a pretty dynamic system. There will be short and long instances, and long story lines as well. ''