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Embers of Caerus - QA thread
AdamTM
Member Posts: 1,376
Due to the other thread being locked for some reason here are the answers for my questions i posted in it, supplied over PM.
I think its good to have a discussion about it here to see what lurks behind the concept of EoC.
My list of questions from the other other thread (green):
1 - Player skill-driven combat
"Make the difference in battle with your personal abilities, not a character level, character age, or a set of magic items you spent 2 weeks grinding dungeons for!"
How does the skill-based combat work?
Are we talking about aiming here?
Are there hitboxes?
How does the combat look PVE vs PVP (i.e. does it involve continuous circlestrafing? bunny hopping?)
You mentioned Mount and Blade/Skyrim/MO which are nothing alike in combat, so please clarify how these are supposed to work in tandem.
2 -Level-less, classless character advancement
"Play and advance your character how you want instead of adhering to preset roles and restrictions! There are no limits like in mortal online, which required creating other characters for gathering, and no such difference in power like in darkfall between veterans and new players. "
How does this work? There are no limits like in MO, yet there is no difference in power like in DFO?
How does skill-training look? Is usage of the skill a factor? Is it passive skilltrainging? Experience gain and distribution? Perks?
This is contradicting, or at least very hard to swallow without an explenation on how this can work.
Either your skill-advancment influences something and has no limit in the advancment creating a more powerful character, or the skill-advancment doesn't matter at all and creates no power difference.
This is inconsistent.
3 - Full loot, open PvP combat
"Fight for your own reasons, not just because a storyline tells you your character must hate the other guys, but beware the consequences. Whatever you fight for, don't forget to loot the spoils of war!"
How does this work? What kind of consequences are we talking about?
Are you being flagged for looting? Is the looting only allowed in sieges or special PVP "zones"?
Is it hard to play a bandit/thief/outlaw in EoC (as it should be)? How is the game going to restrict the complete gankfest that usually comes with FFAPVP environment (bounties? guards? safezones? gods wrath?)?
4 - Death Hurts
"In EoC death hurts, badly. Not only do you drop your gear, but your character has to recover from their wounds before they will be much help to anyone - assuming their body survives their death at all!"
How will you mitigate the death-penalty and the setbacks this creates for new players (especially in a FFAPVP setting)?
How will the game make death "fun" instead of frustrating and a timesink?
5 - Rich player-controlled market and economy
"Nearly every item is either created or supplied by players. Invest in resources, goods, or the businesses themselves, become a rich tycoon, or just strive to crash the market of your competitor to make them an easier target for the local bandits. Yes, there will be local banks and uneven distribution of resources = caravans + caravans over the sea = piracy. (And since it will take hours to sail between continents... A pretty nice picture, huh? 
)."
How will the game mitigate resource-hoarding and resource denial? How will the game prevent monopolies that prevent other players from taking part in the economy?
What part will the economy play in the overal gameplay? Will items have diminishing returns? Will crafting have diminishing returns?
What prevents a player abusing the economy to make the game unplayable for anyone else?
What safeguards have been put in place to prevent currency inflation?
Can the politics set economical restriction and regulations on conduct?
6 - Extensive crafting systems
"Gather and refine raw resources into usable goods. Create each piece individually with exceptional care that brings in extreme prices, or manage your own workshop that mass produces high-demand goods. Whatever niche you choose, rest assured each and every piece you create has a purpose, and someone out there needs it! There are many different resulting items, and each of them is being handchecked for usefullness."
Keeping in mind that the game has a supposed player-driven economy, how can every item have a purpose and be usefull to someone, especially with the mentione mass-production?
How does the crafting work? Is it interactive? Passive?
Will there be assemblage?
Again does crafting suffer from diminishing returns?
7 - Dozens of professions
"Decide whether to specialize in a single profession or instead spread your efforts across many, ranging from crafting, farming, gathering, alchemy, engineering, and many more!"
Jack of all trades - master of none effect?
How does the game make jacks of all trades viable versus specialization? What incentives are there to not specialize vs. specialization?
How does the game handle players that played longer with more skills and higher level skills? This ties in with my no-lvl no-class question nr. 2
Those are essentially my basic questions that shape the game and everything else will flow from them.
Answers by "romtim" (red):
How does the skill-based combat work? - You control your character's hits from First person view with your mouse.
Are we talking about aiming here? - Yes, and not only that.
Are there hitboxes? - Yes.
How does the combat look PVE vs PVP (i.e. does it involve continuous circlestrafing? bunny hopping?) - No bunny hopping. No idea on circlestrafing, but should not be it, due to the stamina mechanics.
You mentioned Mount and Blade/Skyrim/MO which are nothing alike in combat, so please clarify how these are supposed to work in tandem. - Something from that, something from that.
How does this work? There are no limits like in MO, yet there is no difference in power like in DFO? - No idea, but it can be for example skills degrading over time if you do not use them.
How does skill-training look? Is usage of the skill a factor? Is it passive skilltrainging? Experience gain and distribution? Perks? - Usage of the skill is a factor.
How does this work? What kind of consequences are we talking about? - Having to recover your power after death as an example.
Are you being flagged for looting? Is the looting only allowed in sieges or special PVP "zones"? - No idea.
Is it hard to play a bandit/thief/outlaw in EoC (as it should be)? How is the game going to restrict the complete gankfest that usually comes with FFAPVP environment (bounties? guards? safezones? gods wrath?)? - As far as I undertand, the system will favor player control of the situation. No insta slaying guards at least. You can set guards to roam your territories however, but there are no safezones. No point in killing lowbies, and retribution coming from powerfull players. Just a few guesses.
How will the game make death "fun" instead of frustrating and a timesink? - Who said death will be fun? I think it should be a thrill to fight for surviving, having your heart beat.
How will the game mitigate resource-hoarding and resource denial? How will the game prevent monopolies that prevent other players from taking part in the economy? - Politics.
What part will the economy play in the overal gameplay? Will items have diminishing returns? Will crafting have diminishing returns? - No idea.
What prevents a player abusing the economy to make the game unplayable for anyone else? - No idea.
What safeguards have been put in place to prevent currency inflation? - No idea.
Can the politics set economical restriction and regulations on conduct? - I think so.
Keeping in mind that the game has a supposed player-driven economy, how can every item have a purpose and be usefull to someone, especially with the mentione mass-production? - Yes, handpicked.
How does the crafting work? Is it interactive? Passive? - Both.
Will there be assemblage? - No idea, guess so.
Again does crafting suffer from diminishing returns? - No idea.
Jack of all trades - master of none effect? - No idea.
How does the game make jacks of all trades viable versus specialization? What incentives are there to not specialize vs. specialization? - No idea.
Comments
My followup questions.
My followup answers. AND AGAIN, IM NOT A DEVELOPER! since people may take me for one.
In general it feels like the developer wrote down a bunch of features without connection.
None of the founders/creators has any game-development experience, the Creative Director is a "gamer" and metal-worker, the Founder is a systems-engineer, and the art-director does art.
This isn't to say they -can't- make this work, but I don't see it happening with this complexity and on this scale.
Especially since to create a functioning economy in a game you have to understand economic systems and nobody in this game (again) seems to understand those.
Capitalistic free-market economies dont "fix themselves" they don't run on "automatic". If you are taking free-market models from real life into your game, you are taking all their flaws as well, and you need to have safeguards for these flaws.
Trust me when I say this, "realistic" medieval economy sucked. Nobody wants to live/play -in- (not with) these economic settings, because they suck.
Realism isn't something to strive for, because realism isn't always good.
To create the game they want it to be, I would highly suggest employing these people as consultants:
- an actual game designer (this game needs it)
- someone with an economics major (for the economy)
- a sociology major (for discovering the expected group-dynamics in the ruleset)
The game has too many unknowns in everything, lets hope the developers have the answers but don't want to post them.
Right now it looks like they are putting the cart before the horse.
There are a lot of blanks right now simply because it would be highly unwise to just post, what would essentially be, the entire design documentation. Many of the concepts could then be taken by other companies. Ever wonder why so many patents exist? Because there are a lot of greedy people out there, they can and will steal anything they can get their hands on if it's not secured.
As for experience, just because resumes aren't posted, doesn't mean experience doesn't exist. There are plenty of very experienced individuals on the team. The information given is just an overview, a biographical overview, not a resume.
I'm sure someone else can give you a lot more details and insight, but just because information isn't immediately available, doesn't mean it's non-existent.
he adam.. how do you know all this..???
Excatly.. you don't.. this is your speculation..
i know for certain that there are couple of people from darkfall and mortal online in this team..
So your statements or so called facts are just wrong..
What continues to baffle me is that Romtim continues to call anyone who disagrees with him and/or sees any flaw in EoC a troll. Though there are many trolls out there, I am not one of them Romtim! I just simpley see games for what they are... the good, the bad and the ugly (including GW2, the game I'm going to play).
AdamTM has it right, no one wants to play a game that is realistic, we have our own lives for that. People want to play games because they are different from reality.
By the way Adam, how do you know the background of the founders/creators?
Snoepie, how do you know that a couple of people from darkfall and mortal online are on the team? How many, what were their roles in darkfall and mortal online, and what are their roles in EoC? If you demand that AdamTM provide the proof, I'm still waiting for yours ;-)
Romtim, just because I disagree with you does not mean I'm a troll. Not everyone who posts on mmorpg.com are trolls, and if you thought it a waste of time, then why do you even bother posting here? My previous post was done from my phone at work, I'm home now and I have more time to type up better structured sentences (forgive my english, its not my first language).
Two major things have turned me off from EoC, locked-in 1st person gameplay and Romtim.
I may very well try to contact one of the devs and see if they're willing to add 3rd person gamplay, but I find it somewhat useless because they're still working on getting the funding in order to build a prototype of their concept. In other words, its waaaay to early (4+ years too early) to talk about realistic aspects of the game, let alone promising things to players who donate money now.
Romtim, I'm not trolling, just being realistic and yes, maybe a bit negative on the fact that I think the EoC devs are chewing way more than they can handle.
OK, so this is getting a bit out of hand.
First of all, while Romtim means well, and is passing in information he feels is correct, he does not speak with any authority. For official information, it is best to ask on our official site, to be answered by an actual developer.
But, to try and bring this discussion back on track, I will do what I can with your questions. I cannot answer all of them, as there are many systems we have not yet released information on. This is for a number of reasons which, as you seem to be an intelligent person, I am sure you can understand.
How does the skill-based combat work? - We haven't released any information on this at this time. The broad "feel" of it though is, first person, you swing/shoot where you aim, and you can block/parry (and potentially evade) attacks.
Are we talking about aiming here? - Yes, although there may be some exceptions where you wont be "aiming" as such (some forms of magic for example).
Are there hitboxes? - I cannot answer this at this time (we have a few designs which require extensive testing before we determine the best approach).
You mentioned Mount and Blade/Skyrim/MO which are nothing alike in combat, so please clarify how these are supposed to work in tandem. - While he mentioned these games as influences, that was sheer guesswork. We have never stated specific games as the influence for our combat system. Indeed, in some ways it is wholely different to all, except in some cases in the "feel" of the system.
How does this work? There are no limits like in MO, yet there is no difference in power like in DFO? - Assuming this is related to the skill system. Again, I cannot give an answer in great depth here, as we have not released that system yet. It will be unlike both MO and DFO however. MO has a fixed skill point pool, which caps the maximum spend on skills. DFO has no caps, so anyone can macro to great power. Our system is entirely different, which you could refer to as a soft-cap with skill decay and deminishing returns... but that also wouldn't really fully describe the system. We are very happy with this system however, and I apologise we can't give you more at this time.
How does skill-training look? Is usage of the skill a factor? Is it passive skilltrainging? Experience gain and distribution? Perks? - Again, we haven't divulged the details of this system yet, and dont intend to right now. The high level is, you gain skills by using those skills. There is also a split between "Skill" (or Proficiency) and "Knowledge".
How does this work? What kind of consequences are we talking about? - Again, we haven't released specifics on this system yet, but death will hurt.
Are you being flagged for looting? Is the looting only allowed in sieges or special PVP "zones"? - There are no PvP "Zones", and no flags. You are always "lootable".
Is it hard to play a bandit/thief/outlaw in EoC (as it should be)? How is the game going to restrict the complete gankfest that usually comes with FFAPVP environment (bounties? guards? safezones? gods wrath?)? - Yes, it is. You will not have access to a lot of facilities, due to being an "outlaw" (and therefore prohibited from entering towns you are outlawed from). The system is based on a factions. Every controlled territory, association, and indeed individual forms their own "faction", which dictates how you feel about them, and how they feel about you (quite like the EvE system). This is then tied into the Law and Politics systems, so breaking laws in a territory causes you to lose faction with that territory, with the amount depending on the severity of the offence, ultimately leading to you being "outlawed" in that area. When you consider with the size of the world, the next town may be a few hours away, that does limit your options somewhat! Also, with the size of the world, it should be quite easy to escape into the wilds and establish your own hidden safe haven should you so wish.
How will the game make death "fun" instead of frustrating and a timesink? - Death wont be fun, sorry. It is intentionally painful (while still trying to be reasonable enough to make it not gamebreaking). We want to foster a true fear of death, as it factors into many things, like how people approach fights. How much death hurts is the difference between an army throwing itself at the walls in a seige, and performing a tactical battle. By "hurting" I dont necessarily mean a pure "time sink", it should be much more interesting than that.
How will the game mitigate resource-hoarding and resource denial? How will the game prevent monopolies that prevent other players from taking part in the economy? - First of all, the size of the world. In a game 44,000 sq km, where one continent is 3,800 sq km, not all resources are going to be in one spot. A force may be able to hoard resources in one area, but fair play to them. Thats their way of exerting control/pressure on that area, or getting good profits. Its up to others to either take those resources from them, barter for those resources (find something the hoarders need, and trade on a more even footing), or search elsewhere for that resource. The world is WAY too big to hoard all of the resources, or monopolise the game, especially when you consider resources are spread over four continents.
What part will the economy play in the overal gameplay? Will items have diminishing returns? Will crafting have diminishing returns? - This is obvoiusly critical to the gameplay, which was another consideration with the size of the world. A larger world promotes localised economies, and meaningful trade. Access to resources, and the skill to create items, will factor heavily into the availability of product. Also, with things being lootable, and with natural damage/wear on items, there will be a need to replace items as they get older. There is a LOT more to this, and we do have economic experts on the team who are hot on this topic. It isn't just totally freeform, there are many systems designed just to support the economy.
What prevents a player abusing the economy to make the game unplayable for anyone else? - The size of the world (a player can only dominate the economy in one spot). The full loot-open pvp (if someone gets out of hand, tehy will get lynched). The faction systems (people abusing the economy will likely get thrown out). But, all that being said, creative and sneaky playing of the economic game is perfectly valid. We do have some economic systems planned to stop it getting too crazy however.
What safeguards have been put in place to prevent currency inflation? - I can't talk about everything we have planned here, but there will be plenty of monitoring, and we will have a dedicated team who's job is to both monitor the health of the world, as well as make it feel alive (the DET).
Can the politics set economical restriction and regulations on conduct? - I can't talk deeply about this, but in short, yes to regulations on conduct (they can set laws), and for economical restrictions, yes but I can't go into detail.
Keeping in mind that the game has a supposed player-driven economy, how can every item have a purpose and be usefull to someone, especially with the mentione mass-production? - Who mentioned mass-production? Everything will have a purpose, even if that purpose is just Fluff (we all know players love their Fluff). Outside that, I dont understand what you are getting at with that question.
How does the crafting work? Is it interactive? Passive? - Romtim was actually correct on this one. The player will have an option to craft using the more interactive manual method, or the automated "hit craft" style method (although more detailed than that). The manual method will always create far superior results. We haven't released any information on the manual crafting systems, but it will be a form of mini-game, yes.
Will there be assemblage? - Assuming I understand your meaning by "Assemblage", yes. There will be numerous steps in the crafting cycle, from refining the materials, to creating the components (blade, hilt etc) to assembly of those components.
Again does crafting suffer from diminishing returns? - Why would it?
Jack of all trades - master of none effect? - Yes, although still I can't discuss the system. But if you try to maintain too many different skills, you will not excell at any of them. If you focus on a few skills, particularly related skills, you can master those skills.
How does the game make jacks of all trades viable versus specialization? What incentives are there to not specialize vs. specialization? - Viable? Yes, But nowhere near as good. If you want to be the best, you need to specialise. But, there are deminishing returns, so a 100% specialist will only be a bit better than an 80% specialist, and both will be increasingly more skilled than a 60% specialist. Why would we give incentives not to specialise? The only incentive is diversity, and being able to handle multiple situations, as it is a single character per account game.
Also, to correct your other post. The Creative Director is a long time Gamer, yes, and he has blacksmith training. He is also a Writer and is an excellent game designer. We actually have a full design team, just so you know. I'm the Technical Director, and no im not a systems engineer. I am a Software Engineer, IT Security consultant and researcher, and also a long time gamer. I am fully aware what works or does not work in games, and I have the knowledge to not only design systems, but to engineer those systems, and understand the technical feasibility of those systems. And, of course the Art Director does Art. That is just a silly statement. He also works hard to ensure the artistic direction of the project stays on track, and fits the world we are creating.
We have a large team, all mature professionals, all with a lot of specific skills, and life experience. Do not underestimate our team
Anyway, its getting late, and I am a busy guy. I hope that clarified a few things.
ok, i really dont know much about whats going on in this thread. I've read the planned features but figured since the game was a ways off i wouldnt bother looking into to it more until they were much closer to release.
that being said...is Romtim a dev?
if so, you would think he would know a bit more about the game. way too many "i have no idea" answers.
if hes not a developer, he obviously has something to do with the game. the people in charge should really muzzle him a bit. his one post in this thread is worded in such a way that it may turn off potential players.
calling people trolls, be it deserved or not, is not a way to get people interested in your game. they just lose respect for you, thus lose interest in the game.
just my 2 cents.
Agreed... Romtim is doing more harm to EoC than any good.
Romtim is not a dev, and he has nothing to do with the game. He joined our community last Friday, and is just very excited I guess. He does not speak for the dev team, and we can't really "muzzle" him as he is just a fan.
I have tried to rectify the issue a bit, with my previous post. I will check back with this thread in case anyone wants any more "official" information. But, as for RomTim, please dont think he represents the Developer team in any way. We certainly do not behave in that manner.
Thank you for your understanding,
Dave Belcher
Oh, and the other thread was locked out at my request.
Cheers,
Dave
I apologize if my comments appear to be negative (I'm not trolling Romtim!), I'm just trying to be realistic about certain aspects of the game. I love sandbox games (to a point), and though I may see several obstacles with regards to EoC, I really do wish you guys all the success in the world! :-)
1. finally! I and prob most of us appreciate a dev from EoC coming here and clarafying what was going on with Romtim. Thank you DaveBelcher.
2. Any chance you'll have a 3rd person gamplay option available? Unfortuantely I do not like 1st person gameplay enough to make it a deal breaker for me.
3. Always lootable? Though prob a cool concept I don't think it will work in a game... end up having gangfests and severe camping.
4. Though I understand the concept of factions, what is to stop a ganking majority from making ganking-friendly laws? Of course, the same could be said of the opposite. Thing is, most people who play always-lootable, always-ganking games are people who like to gank... not my kind of crowd.
5. making players afraid of drying in the game will diminish adventure and exploration. I'm not saying have no consequences for death, but there should be a happy middle. This goes back to making a game too realistic, people aren't going to want to play it.
thank you for the clarification. I will nolonger hold his blabbering against your team/game.....not that i really did anyway.
best of luck to you!!!
please have a SWG CH type proffession!! lol
To address the second block. It is very hard to fit everything into a video that has to be short, and has a size limit. In the video I say that the viewer should go visit our game website, and read the overvew, vision, and feature list. That gives a broad overview of how the game looks in our eyes (particularly the vision).
We also have a number of videos. One is a game presentation I gave at a security conference, where I give an overview of the game, the other I talk about the seige warfare mechanics.
As for the feature list, that is the cut down list (there really are some crazy ideas that either weren't feasible, or didn't make the cut), to only those systems we have solid designs for, and know have a very high likelihood of making it into the game. We have been VERY cautious through the whole development livecycle, and with our interactions with the community, to not make promises we didn't think we could keep. We entered this project as some of the many gamers who have been through great dissapointment MANY times due to games promising one thing, and releasing some half-rate subset of that thing. That is what drove us to start this project, and this is what keeps us honest. It would be hypocritical to enter the project for one reason, then do the very same thing!
Anyway, if you haven't, read the Vision post on our game site, under game info.
Agreed... I earlier menitoned how because of Romtim I was turned off to EoC; that is no longer the case. All games have their crazy fans, for good and for bad. I guess now the only real reason wh I prob would not play EoC is primarily because of the locked-in 1st person gamplay.
Best of luck to the devs of EoC!! its good to see that games can still come from the "small people" rather than from the giants (EA/Blizzard).
1. You're welcome.
2. Unfortunately not. We went through many designs discussions covering first person, third person, shoulder cam and hybrids of those. We, for many reasons, went with First Person and have subsequently based many, many system designs on this decision. Moving away from this now would mean many large redesigns, and honestly we stand by this decision. We are sorry if this means you will not want to play our game!
3. It works fine in many games: Eve, Darkfall, Mortal Online to name three. This is a killer feature for many players, and we also believe it fits the style of game we are trying to make. It also is a factor in the balance of many other systems, including the economy (if you can't lose your stuff, where is the demand on crafters?).
4. If a "ganking" group wishes to claim some territory, and put in "ganking friendly" laws, that is perfectly OK. I wouldn't expect many players wanting to go live there though! And again, with the size of the world, noone can dominate any significant part of it. I also disagree with your comment about people who play full-loot, full-pvp games. There is a whole HUGE crowd who like the risk and excitement of it who aren't gankers. Its just games that are badly designed drive those people away, so only gankers are left. We aim not to make this mistake.
5. There will be a happy medium, and gameplay always trumps realism... but there needs to be enough realism in a game like this to make it nicely immersive. As I said, death isn't game-breakingly bad. It is just "Seriously consider my actions based on the consequences" bad. And, "I think I will hire some protection on this trip" bad.
First of all thank you for answering the questions, I didn't want to come over as overly critical but given the guessformation of RomTim I was getting plenty frustrated with not getting actual answers (i simply believed he was a long time fan and somehow connected to the team since he presented himself knowledgable about it).
Second I obviously didn't want to underestimate or ad-hom your team with my comments, they were merely observations from my point of view and the available information (at that time, and some of them wrong).
If I might suggest, this exchange strikes me as important information anyone interested in the game will want to know, so you should consider posting it on the Kickstarter/Website/Forum.
The kickstarter-video in particular had little to no substance of information on the game itself and provided a very poor motivation to donate/be interested.
The responses you now provided eliviate most (but not all) of my concerns, I am now happy to pledge money for your project and wish you all the best in the creation of your game.
I will be keeping a close look on it for sure.
PS: I'm a 2d/3d design generalist with experience, if you are looking to offload work (for free, if i have time in my schedule), if interested -> PM
1: There are actually quite a few of us watching this thread as well as several others, Dave just happened to be available at the time to try to straighten the mess out. It's a busy week for us.
While RomTim is in no way associated to Forsaken Studios, we still offer our sincerest apologies for any problems, or confusion his posts may have caused, whether intentional or not. He is a new member of our community, and has perhaps not yet caught the spirit of our community which has thus far proven to be extremely helpful, mature, and friendly to any and all who come asking questions.
2: Unfortunately, a 3rd person camera of any kind simply is not possible, as it would destroy a lot of the planned features, as well as present balancing issues. This question has come up many times in forums, PMs, emails, and even in our IRC channel. We have considered all possibilities, the pros and cons, as well as the consequences of all options and made the decision that we must remain with a first person view, only. While we completely understand that some players do not like or prefer this view, we ask that those players be understanding of the fact that it is quite literally impossible to create a game, (or anything for that matter) that every single individual is happy with. Instead we are chosing to remain focused on the FPV view and ensure that it is the best that it can possibly be, while adding things like ways to see your character while wearing new armor/gear to address the concerns that we can. Unfortunately, some of the concerns are just not possible for us to address without changing the view.
3: When Dave spoke of always being lootable, what he was saying is that no where in EoC is intended to be 100% safe. Just as in EvE players can be attacked in 'safe' areas of high-security space, so to can characters in Embers of Caerus be attacked anywhere in our world. There are of course consequences, some of which are extremely heavy, which will act as deterrents, especially in areas that are meant to be relatively safe, particularly for starter areas.
4: If a ganker-friendly group wants to try to make a faction and establish their laws in a particular area, it's a good bet that other players will be well aware of these laws, and know to either expect a fight when in those areas, or avoid them entirely. When considering how large the world of Caerus is, and taking into account the logistics that are required for daily living, let alone city management, war, etc, it becomes obvious that the entire wolrd will not be ruled by a single group - though they may well dominate a sizeable area. This is in essence, no different than a large alliance or coalition controlling a large section of Null-Sec space in EvE. Those who are not friendly with that alliance or coalition know to steer clear. Common sense is a powerful tool, and we strongly recommend that players use it.
Also keep in mind, while there are possibilities of groups creating areas that are hostile, there are equal chances for groups to make neutral or 'safe' areas for other players.
5: There are always two sides to every coin. Keep in mind that if death hurts, it also hurts the gankers if they're foiled. That means that it takes them that much longer to gear back up, and hunt you down again. It also means there are severe consequences for them to consider when choosing to become an outlaw.
One of the largest issues I have seen, personally, in other games with open pvp is that people could often die, respawn, run back to town grab another set of gear and get right back into the fight. This eliminates any kind of use of real tactics, and heavily favors those with larger numbers and more resources.
I know of a paricular case where, in one game which I won't mention the name of, where a small group of 4-5 guys assaulted a town, and killed dozens of players. Except they weren't unique players, they were the same 7-8 guys coming back out with more gear, and no ill effect from death, effectively making it impossible for the attacking force to gain the upper hand simply because the defenders happened to be close to a respawn point and their guilds storage area. In the end the attackers had to break and leave despite the fact that they were clearly the victors. This is clearly not a balanced system, and it's things like that which we aim to resolve with better designed and balanced systems.
Again, remember, death may hurt you, but it hurts the other guy too, and it also means if you're smart, careful, and a little lucky, you can end up making off with some great spoils of war, and making sure those pesky attackers don't come back and try again any time soon.
Excellent questions, valid concerns, and very maturely presented despite the problems in this thread. Thank you.
SWG creature handler type proffession?
RSteele and Dave, thank you so much for your in-depth and prompt correspondance. I really do appreciate the time you guys took to answer our multiple questions and concerns. I have to admit that you guys now have me quite interested and intrigued in EoC. Though the locked-in 1st person gameplay is still a sticking point for me, you guys have successfully removed most of my concerns regarding my other questions. I am actually looking forward to seeing EoC develop throughout the years until release. Though I may not be at the point where I'm ready and/or willing to support you guys financially, I will be keeping a close eye. If I like what I see in the coming months I will most likely begin to help out in any way I can, including and especially with donations/investments. I'll be visiting your website quite often to see the growth and development of EoC.
Good luck!! :-)
Thank you joocheese, and its no problem. We are likewise sorry for the confusion earler.
We will certainly welcome you along for the ride!
Cheers,
Dave