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First Player Island Shown
Nakoomer
Member Posts: 8
Check out the new Divergence video showing off the first player island created so far. Look's pretty awesome, even has its own psychadelic poppy farm!
Comments
Hooray!
0.02 hype away from the front page. That is just unacceptable lol
Hopefully this'll help make some noise for the project!
What apparently complete features?
As quoted from 2007.
"It's damn depressing to pretty much have a completed product in high demand; to be 90% there and unable to come the last 10% simply because of the lack of petty cash."
That was 6 years ago and the product was apparently 90% there. Surely there would be more to show for it then an island?
Maybe there isn't, Maybe he was overly positive with saying 90%, as he feels most of the coding is done.
I mean it could be just that, him feeling the hardest part has already been finished. At least I wouldn't read that much into peoples statements. Experience has taught most exaggerate to boost themselves somewhat.
But all you can do is keep asking questions which you want answers on and hope they'll get addressed sooner or later.
Heck you might even mail them, cause I don't think anyone else will know. Seeing there is only 4 people.
Found myself wondering the same thing. "What exactly are they trying to show off with this?"
I mean, ya the video looks pretty, but it looks more like a tech demo than anything else. If they are trying to show off engine capabilities (if they're creating their own engine for this), then that'd make sense, but it doesn't look like a finished game.
Honestly, bare landscapes and bloom effects are the least important part of a pre-alpha demo. It's much more important to test / show some of the mechanics.
Camelot Unchained has no demonstration video at all and has reached 900k of funding. This is absurd. We should support independant video gamer creators like this rather than games with zero tech and money of their own to spend.
I do think their questions are valid, but yes I also wonder why games like Camelot Unchained get funded so easily.
Everyone is hoping on a DAOC and I bet they wont get it. (ends in a rage) Especially when you know the guy behind it was an EA sell out. If he could lie with a straight face back then I don't see any reason why he changed.
That being said, I don't know if this will deliver but I have a lot more faith in it than most games on the horizon seeing how most newer games go backwards instead of forwards.
Well I'm not only basing it on this game. I'd question the success of CU campaign even without knowing this game or if this game would have a greater success in funding.
I think Camelot might do more harm than most would think. It is one of the games on kickstarter that I think won't deliver what the people hope for. And I actually think they are after DAOC rather than RVR. Bit like SWTOR, everyone hoping for a Star Wars MMO and in the end you get a bland streamlined game. And then I'm not even saying SWTOR was a bad game. Just not what most people wanted.
And I'm afraid they'll get a streamlined DAOC. And that is the reason I'm interested in this game. Maybe I wont even play it, but just some people wanting to get back to virtual worlds and dare to take risks sounds a lot more appealing to me and worth of my interest. Beats all the mediocracy that is around in this industry (the whole, not just MMO's) these days.
I'd say that 90% is much like the 90% of Xsyon and many other hobbyist/indie devs - they don't realize they're not even halfway to completion until they try to finish what ehy perceive is the last 10%.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
1) Established devs that have already released several titles including a successful one that is in the same style/genre as the one they are setting out to create. That's one reason.
2) Another is marketing and advertising. The CU team knows who to contact, how to write and broadcast their message, and the audiences to reach.
3) The fact that they already had a sizable fanbase helps, too.
The first one is a big one. Way too many indie devs love to chest beat and talk about how they're going to do what the lazy, coprorate developers won't or can't do. The often lose the interest of serious media and serious backers because that's a big red flag that the guy/team has no clue what he's getting into. What they gain is a temporary rah-rah crowd that often quickly leaves for the chest beating of the next 'indie' dev.
The second one there's little excuse for. In today's market, with social media the way it is. An indie dev doesn't need a million dollar marketing budget. If they can build a core audience and create a steady flow of information for them, those fans will be a great asset in evangelizing their game for them. All too often the community outreach of an indie dev is little more than bringing the most rabid fanboi onboard as a forum mod and complaining on forums that no one covers their game.
The third is tricky, but the barbershop/salon technique doesn't hurt. A lot of people follow a particular dev. Bringing on some known talent will bring in new blood to the community and also raise some eyebrows that the game is more than one dude in a basement with a "design document."
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
There's a simple explanation for that actually.
That was with the game we built with our previous engine. We had so much done it was ridiculous but for the next four years we watched the features we needed pushed back further and further on it's roadmap until it became apparent that it wasn't happening. And the features we're talking about are extremely basic, such as being able to have more than two textures on any terrain surface blended at a time and a world size severely limited by an inability to stitch terrains together at their borders. Regardless of how many tricks of camerawork you come up with, it just wasn't acceptable and players would have figured it out very quickly.
So the decision was made to start over and that's where our Indiegogo campaign takes over.
I go out of my way to avoid "badmouthing" former software partners, but when you figure just how long we waited for basic support of basic features, I figure we don't owe them anything at this point. The new software works amazing and performs even better, so there's nothing we're "waiting for" this time around, except the manpower to accelerate it's development.
I hope this clears up some of the confusion. Thanks for your understanding and support.
-Ethan
www.Divergence-Online.com
Do you feel you have any features, mechanics or basic functionalities available to showcase a little more about the game?
....Being Banned from MMORPG's forums since 2010, for Trolling the Trolls!!!
Take that as a NO then.
You need to chill out and understand that they had to completely switch to a new engine. All the footage that was there before, was from the "Pre-Engine Upgrade" Cleary stated across the bottom of both videos.
Obviously that have to rework the features after a big change from that. Give it time. The biggest part is they have the plan down, they know what they want to do unlike funding projects out there like "Embers of Caerus" and "Camelot Unchained" who just say stuff and release dev blogs of themselves talking and a bunch of crappy concept art.
(It sucks you dont wanna see it)
I am pumped for this game. I think because the dev really is only less then 5 people at the moment we should give them some space to grow, while keeping a sharp eye on things. SGL did do a complete upgrade of the graphics and engine (I believe) only in the last year, so being at 90% done and then going back and doing it all better again could be the reason for that delay.
I think Ethan just needs more peopel doing more things on his team, so more written material and videos can get out quicker, more PR, that kind of stuff. At the moment the team is working almost exclusively on the game and just fitting in PR when they have time which must be tough.