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General: H1Z1 Explained in Letter from Smed
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
John Smedley has sent out a letter to give more insight into Sony Online Entertainment's newly-announced zombie MMO, H1Z1. Here it is in its entirety.
Hi there,
I wanted to tell you about an exciting new free-to-play game we’ve had under wraps here at SOE for some time. It’s called H1Z1. It’s a massively multiplayer game in which players fight for survival in a world where death is the only sure thing. The H1Z1 virus devastated mankind and left nothing but death and destruction in its wake and a world nearly empty of human life where the remnants of humanity are in a fight against extinction against those infected with the virus. It’s been 15 years since H1Z1 was first encountered and what’s left of the world before is overrun with the Infected. Humanity has been reduced to hiding in the shadows, searching desperately for food and water and anything that can help to survive even for another day. But the Infected aren’t the only dangers in the world. Everyday life in the Apocalypse means dealing with all kinds of wild animals and the brutality of other survivors, as well as finding your next meal and a safe place to sleep. It also means scavenging or crafting anything that can help you live just one more day. In H1Z1 every minute of every day is borrowed time and fearing for your life… unless you are the Danger (talking to you Walter), but life can and will go on… even in circumstances as dire as this. Humanity has not given in to the Infected. There are still pockets of humanity and the fight goes on!
Our vision for this game is very simple but ambitious. We are starting with what I would call “Middle America” – an “anywhere and everywhere” town. The world is massive as you’ve come to expect from our games. Over time we will grow the world until we have our own version of the U.S. after the death and destruction brought on during the H1Z1 epidemic. It will be our own version of America. We’ll have urban cities and desolate wide open places. All connected seamlessly. Our focus is building a sandbox style of gameplay where players can build shelters out of resources in the world. They can even work together to make amazing fortresses complete with weaponry to help defend against both the Infected and other players. Players also have access to a very deep crafting system that can let players make a huge variety of awesome stuff, including weapons (I made a 1911 the other day) and things like Molotov cocktails, explosives.. and other fun surprises.
I will also go right to the heart of the question alot of players will have – “There are a lot of survival / Zombie games… how is this one going to be any different?”. First off, it’s a persistent MMO that can hold thousands of players on servers we host (yes there will be multiple servers with very different rule sets). Why is that a good thing? It means a thriving economy (oh yes… there’s trading). It also means you have potential allies in the all-out war on the Infected... and many an enemy as well. It uses our proprietary next-gen Forgelight engine and that means we’ve had a lot of really cool technology to work with to make the game we wanted to make. It’s also designed from the ground up for our players to become part of the design process. The Roadmap system that we built for PlanetSide 2 will be used extensively to clearly communicate what features we’re working on and what you can expect and when.
You’re also going to be getting awesome access to our developers. We’ll be opening it up for Player Studio creations too so expect player-created itemsto make their way into the game. The main thing that differentiates H1Z1 from the other great gamesin the genre is the emphasis we are putting on player ownership and building. We want you to be able to form roving gangs that are headquartered out of an abandoned warehouse that you’ve taken over...or a house you’ve built from scratch after having cut trees down and secured the resources to make it. We are giving players the tools to make their own towns, camps and defenses, and they can decide how to set up their base (which is in the world btw... not instanced). We’re building in all the social features you’ve come to expect from an SOE game (grouping, proximity voice chat, voice chat for your gang, and many other cool social features).
To use a simple reference I’m sure everyone interested in this game will get... we want our players to ake Woodbury from The Walking Dead if they want to. Or take over a prison. Or fix an old car so you and your friends (yeah we have multiplayer vehicles) can run zombies and players over mercilessly, and level in the sheer delight of hearing a zombie scream as you light it on fire, or craft a gun to take down your friends and enemies alike. Our goal here is toprovide emergent gameplay that will allow our players to make the world their own the way they want to. One of the best things about H1Z1 being an MMO is the fact that with a lot of people playing, we’re able to see all different kinds of gameplay. If you prefer a quiet life as a farmer raising crops... we’re going to make sure your zombie apocalypse fantasy is complete. If you’re like me and you want nothingmore than to kill everything that moves, by all means see how that goes. It’s going to be a blast!
Check out H1Z1.com and the subreddit ( http://reddit.com/r/h1z1 ). We’ll be adding more information in the coming weeks to the website. We’ll also be very openly answering questions in the subreddit. Next week you can see us do a livestream of the game as we have a playtest. Stay tuned!
Smed
Comments
"[M]ultiple rulesets". They are dodging one bullet right off the bat. :-)
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
i am... cautiously optimistic about this. If they manage to make a working smooth and tad bit less dickish DayZ they would have my money for sure. No disrespect to the DayZ crew but put against SoE what ever headway they have done is a fart in space. But i will forever be thankful that they made a "proof of concept" that properly funded developers now are picking up on.
But as they say the proof will be in the pudding.
This have been a good conversation
SOE is really impressing me lately and for that matter so is Trion with Trove. I am really excited with where the genre is going right now.
Meh.
Remind me again in 3 years, when there is some reason to give a shit.
Yeah and even though alot of SOE haters out there and will post negative comments on a game they wouldn't ever play by SOE like it or not this will happen....why? because the Dayz folks while I love the game the team is to small to underfunded to put anything out at pace players will enjoy.
Not bashing Dayz like other games it sparked a genre for people as well as the movie The Walking dead etc. to become invested in and enjoy.
So we can only give it a chance I mean it was just announced and as I said SOE haters here in full force and none of us kno w any or everything about whats actually is going into the game.
So to the haters wait and see! To the rest let's enjoy the ride and hope it becomes more then what Dayz had hoped to be as an actual release not a mod.
Just do not get arrested like some staff did on Bohemia for Dayz and hence the delays an while Dean's ego gets the best of him with a new studio.
This sounds actually....really good.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic
can I preorder now so I can save the names Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon and Michonne
Thank God for that. Now people won't be complaining about 'where is my full loot open world pvp' and God these people are annoying.
I know right, you should really get into marketing/PR.
I have a few already, Wildstar = WoW in Space, ESO = Skyrim Online, Landmark = Pretty Minecraft. Man this is easy.
So stupid of them to try and answer questions before they are asked and get the hype train rolling on their product.
I do feel bad for DayZ/Rust though, game over for them.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
No bashing to Sony. I think Smed learned his lesson (actually I think SWG was just bad timing and pressure from Lucas) And is a guy that now really wants to push boundaries of MMO
In fact Sony could be the ones that actually save MMO
They have the money and enough brains to see the ship is sinking if something is not changed.
And as for DayZ - Rust similarities
The game of this scope probably started production at the same time or even before.
Just Sony cleverly learned from previous mistakes and never talks about a game anymore until its almost done.
All in all - potential is here. Hopeful for this.
I'll believe this when Amerish, Indar and Esamir are seamlessly connected on Planetside 2.
Sheesh. Sell magic beans much Smed?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sounds interesting if there a pve server or voluntary flagging system for PvP. I'm not really keen on a kill everyone on sight dayz setup.
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington
This only plays to what I always said : MMOs take to damn long to make.
When they started working on this Zombie trend was starting, and survival aspect was only hinted as maybe next thing.
And than when they finally make the game, everyone is fed up with zombies and survival games are common place.
I still hope that they can bring good spin on this.
Because good game is good game. No mater what.
And survival/zombie still has long way to reach its real potential.
Exactly. The best part is that this game will offer a lot more, their engine is just far superior to ARMAs bs for this kind of game, in addition they have a lot more ambitious plans to make such a game. A game map size of U.S, their virtual own US? Intelligent AI, different zombies, wild animals? Proper day and night cycle where you can't server hop to avoid the night?
What else? In-depth crafting? Building your own forts / towns? Farming for food?
Best part: Early access in 4-6 weeks on Steam (20 USD) sorry DayZ, but you just got beaten, HARD
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Youtube newb:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC96N3cxBuqKTPV2BQNlzGUw
All my non-neckbeard friends who would never touch a fantasy MMO(like WoW) for fear of ridicule play tons of zombie games. They don't have any fear when talking about their latest feats in these games while out in public, nor do their girlfriends get angry with them for playing these games.
I think the "zombie" part of the video game makes it socially acceptable to most people because it's cool to like all things zombie right now. Soooo that means that if done right, this game could appeal to your average joe who has never touched a MMO before and bring them into the genre, like WoW did.