Roadmap To Fall Alpha 2021
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@GamerSeuss im glad you had the privilege's to test beta since 90s, but your experience, is not what the all industry ran by, and yes i said most companies, not all.
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@grofire I'll definitely give you that, every company was different, however, the general standard format for testing was:
Alpha - Mechanics, making sure the systems work
Last Alpha before Beta - Start to wrap the Mechanics into the most enjoyable package possible, mesh mechanics together so they interact well
Beta - Test how the interactions are working, how enjoyable the game is, and starting to instill QoL modifications
Last Beta - A final Beta test went up, this was most likely the open semi-public Beta if they had one, where the game is all but finished, and Beta testers were generally told they could keep some of their gains and migrate them directly into Launch.
Then if everything passes muster, Launch the Game.So, really, the only part of Alpha that really focuses on the Enjoyment factor is the one to two tests just prior to switching into Beta. After all the nuts and bolts are done, they then worry about the bells and whistles.
That being said, I've seen other approaches as well. The so-called playable Alphas, where you try to make it a fully playable game through most of the Alpha and Beta stage, integrating the fixes 'live' like you would do live patches once the game is launched, or DLC content for expansions. This still was mostly sans a lot of cosmetics and QoL elements, but the various 'systems' did interact with each other all through the process, which in one way was good, but in another makes the programmers jobs a lot harder. Its good in that you don't have to go through the extra step of integrating the systems if you always have them integrated throughout most of the process, the bad is, you heavily limit yourself on what you can do, or you stretch out the time it takes to do major upgrades, because your splitting your focus between the system your working on, and the integration of that system.
A lot of companies have different project teams working on the different systems in the early stages, independently, only meeting periodically to appraise each other of their own progress and changes, until they move into the integration step. These independent project teams would run completely separate Alphas, or what was sometimes called Pre-Alphas to test just their raw systems in a vacuum before bringing them together with the whole.
I'm sure there were teams out there doing other methods as well, and I've probably spaced on other methods I've been involved with (or didn't know about as I only came in as a Beta in those) as people are always trying to find a better way of doing things, but in general, most companies still don't worry about building their player base until they are closer to a launch except mayhaps via the hype train, not the Testing phases. This is why it is so nice that Fractured allows actual broadcast of Alpha testing, as usually, companies keep Alpha footage under wraps and carefully selects and cleans up any footage they put in promotional videos.
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@GamerSeuss said in Roadmap To Fall Alpha 2021:
A lot of companies have different project teams working on the different systems in the early stages, independently, only meeting periodically to appraise each other of their own progress and changes, until they move into the integration step. These independent project teams would run completely separate Alphas, or what was sometimes called Pre-Alphas to test just their raw systems in a vacuum before bringing them together with the whole.
I'm sure there were teams out there doing other methods as well, and I've probably spaced on other methods I've been involved with (or didn't know about as I only came in as a Beta in those) as people are always trying to find a better way of doing things, but in general, most companies still don't worry about building their player base until they are closer to a launch except mayhaps via the hype train, not the Testing phases. This is why it is so nice that Fractured allows actual broadcast of Alpha testing, as usually, companies keep Alpha footage under wraps and carefully selects and cleans up any footage they put in promotional videos.well i respect your knowledge, but we not talking about "building their player base" we talking about their core mechanic that people hate, and its not the first MMO, many MMO have this issue, the PVP system and the interaction with PVE players is maybe the most core mechanic in the game...
if people feel that they are gatekept from the end game gameplay since they PVE players, and they are bait for PVP player (which is the minority of players BTW ) then your game is not good, and you can see many failed MMO with is issue.
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I'll definitely agree with you that PvE players outnumber PvP players by an order of magnitude, just PvP players tend to be more vocal about what they want in their games, drowning out the PvE players in most venues.
Also, yes, PvE vs PvP is a core struggle and very important to be addressed. The thing is, Fractured is addressing it, by giving 3 worlds, the all PvP world, the all PvE world, and the 1 combined world. Now, the crust of the matter comes into play, however, is if some of the major content of the game would require going to a world not of your basic playstyle's liking. Like will it require going to the Demon World or Syndesia to max out your Knowledge Point Totals?
How they handle that will be important. If you can get enough KP only on your homeworld in order to max out Talents, and also get the majority of skill unlocks, then it should work fine. If the skills unlocked only on specific worlds are also those mainly devoted to that world's playstyle, then that would also be okay, but if there are skills on each world that every player will consider valuable, then your going to be pressuring the PvE players to go to the PvP and Syndesia worlds just to round out their skill unlocks. Time will tell.
Testing is focused on Syndesia because Syndesia is the blended world where all things are supposed to be possible. Once you lock down the mechanics on Syndesia, then adapting those parts only used on Tartarus and the Beast World will be quicker and easier. Yes, testing that happened just on the Beast World would appeal to PvE players, as they wouldn't have to deal with the PvP aspect at all, however, it wouldn't be the most efficient use of the developers time overall, unless they switched formats and tried for a more staggered Game Launch, releasing the PvE world first as a fully playable world, and then releasing Tartarus and Syndesia as they are completed as the first 2 planned expansions, but that is a major shift from what we've been expecting, so I doubt they would go there, especially now that Syndesia has been the focal point for so long as the tested world.
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@GamerSeuss yes i agree, and no one said they need to change, and to work on the beast planet, just people said what they fear will happen.
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@GamerSeuss I agree with everything you pointed out. One thing I will say is if the human world has complete PvP then it is nothing but another PvP world. There has to be enough restrictions to PvP to make it different from the demon world or PvE players will not go there. I fully expect to hear a huge uproar from the PvP players once the game launches because the demon world will have so little population. It wasn't long after Trammel released in UO and many of the PvP players quit the game because they had no one to bully since all the PvE players moved from Felucia (their demon world). Most PvP players don't want a straight up battle. The big guilds will try to recruit all the best PvP players and then hunt in huge packs basically having no real challenge. Guild wars and other organized PvP events are what I call real PvP game mechanics. PKing is just anti-social behavior that ruins the game in my opinion.
Also aren't evil players allowed to come to the beast world? If that is the case and they can come pk players then there is no true all PvE world. There is no real Trammel in this game if pking is allowed on the PvE world.
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@Farlander
The devs have said that demons could visit other worlds but also said that the cost to do so would be high and that the further from their natural environment they go (evil > neutral>good) the higher the penalties they would have in any pvp they choose to engage in. A demon visiting the animal planet would be like a shark discovering they are chum, they would have to be very careful to avoid any detection or suffer... and they could only even be there for a matter of minutes before being rubberbanded back to Tartarus.
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@OlivePit to my understanding 95% of beast planet is no PVP.
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https://fracturedmmo.com/feature-spotlight-2-universe-planets-travels/
"The prime way to travel to other planets, Stargates require a great deal of group effort to be summoned and don’t last for long. After crossing one, the time you’re allowed to stay on the new planet is limited and varies according to your race, your alignment and your destination. Demons are a notable exception to this rule, having been gifted by Babilis the ability to travel to other worlds more easily to bring terror to the other much hated races. However, the penalties they’ll be subject to are no smaller than those suffered by the other races… and sometimes, actually worse.""eclipses, recurring events that have a huge impact on the lives of Demons and Humans. " -not beast men!
https://fracturedmmo.com/feature-spotlight-6-pvp-alignment-crime/
"f you flag yourself as Good, you are not allowed to perform hostile actions against any other Good or Neutral player. There are several ways this restriction is applied – some common cases being:You can’t use basic attacks and targeted spells against Good or Neutral players.
Your AOE abilities cause no damage or negative side effects to Good or Neutral players.
You can’t loot the corpse of a dead Good or Neutral player.
Giving the killing blow to a knocked-out Good or Neutral player is not possible.
You can’t take possession of bounty that doesn’t belong to you.
On the contrary, all the hostile actions listed above are permitted against Evil players – and even encouraged by Karma gains!Since all Beastmen have a default Good alignment that can’t be changed on Arboreus, it is literally impossible for them to hurt each other. This also lessens the need for them to form a Party, making grouping easier.
As a Good player, you’re sure to inspire confidence to everyone you meet."
"Arboreus is designed to be the ideal home of PvE lovers. It features large areas accessible only by Beastmen and characters with Good alignment, and a great degree of protection from hostile PvP in the rest of the world. How great is such protection? Let’s go through that together.
First and foremost, travelling to Arboreus is no small feat for a Human or Demon character. It requires good planning and is generally expected to be a group effort. Moreover, and more importantly, things get exponentially more difficult for players of Neutral and Evil alignment, who not only have to work harder to gain access to the planet, but also find it harder to stay.
Indeed, only Humans with Good alignment are allowed to walk the lands of Arboreus for a considerable amount of time – 20/40 real-world hours, thus being able to explore a good portion of the world at once, collecting resources and acquiring knowledge.
If you’re a Human with Neutral alignment, you can also stay for a while – around 5/10 hours, penalized only by a slight stat debuff. However, if you get flagged as Aggressive, you are immediately treated as Evil, suffering all the penalties explained below.
If your character has an Evil alignment and you manage to enter Arboreus, well, now you’re in trouble! The planet itself, pervaded by the primal energy of Elysium, immediately starts fighting to repel you. You become heavily debuffed, and normally pacific creatures turn aggressive against you, seeking you out to rip you apart. Even worse, you are only allowed to stay on Arboreus for half an hour at once, and you are quickly drained of all vital energies if you step into a Good-only area.
TL;DR
If you play as a Beastman on Arboreus, you’ll often wander zones completely devoid of hostile PvP – particularly as a new player, and you’re unlikely to be the victim of an aggression from other races in the rest of the world as well. If you’re Evil and looking to travel to Arboreus to go on a killing spree, you won’t succeed – you’d rather have a clear PvE / gathering objective in mind and complete it as fast as you can!"
Thank you to the devs and simple news system which made looking up these quotes so easy and quick for me to do.
Read more of the news posts to get a better idea of what they are aiming for instead of making assumptions.
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@OlivePit maybe little outdate but this the best place for knowledge https://forum.fracturedmmo.com/topic/1612/a-compilation-of-everything-we-know-about-fractured?page=1
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@grofire yes that is a good resource but very wide and deep, I was being more specific to concerns raised but thanks for reminding everyone of it !
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@Farlander Time will tell
However, you are probably right. Hardcore Gankers will be disappointed by the fact that the Demon World will be so scarcely populated by easy pushover prey. They will try to go to Syndesia, and if the Devs aren't careful with balancing how much PvP is available on Syndesia, how rewarding it is, etc...then they will take over Syndesia and forget totally about the Demonworld.
Good sportsmanlike PvPers will on the other hand appreciate the PvP world for what it is, a place where they can challenge each other and leave the PvEers mostly alone. I really think, for the most part, heavy PvP in Syndesia should be reserved for like a Guild War that is challenged, accepted, and declared.
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Some PVP’ers like to kill everyone and everything, break things or the game. Why go on a PVP only world and lose targets. Very likely the game will become two worlds only. PVE and mixed human world.
The evil players (or neutral) on the human world will then try and conduct raids onto the PVE world to cause mayhem. Some smart players will work out the mechanics to maximize their time on the PVE world.
The only things we do know is that end game PVE’rs won’t stay on the mixed PVE / PVP world.
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@GamerSeuss said in Roadmap To Fall Alpha 2021:
@Farlander Time will tell
However, you are probably right. Hardcore Gankers will be disappointed by the fact that the Demon World will be so scarcely populated by easy pushover prey. They will try to go to Syndesia, and if the Devs aren't careful with balancing how much PvP is available on Syndesia, how rewarding it is, etc...then they will take over Syndesia and forget totally about the Demonworld.
Good sportsmanlike PvPers will on the other hand appreciate the PvP world for what it is, a place where they can challenge each other and leave the PvEers mostly alone. I really think, for the most part, heavy PvP in Syndesia should be reserved for like a Guild War that is challenged, accepted, and declared.
This is precisely why I so strongly advocate for a system that permits but heavily deters ganking/griefing.
@Prometheus's recent Discord conversation with @Nekrage helped clarify the issue with respect to alignment IMO. Whereas a ruthless guild warlord would be considered Neutral, Dynamight regards an Evil character as a ganker or griefer.
I hope Fractured helps bring about a resurgence of roleplaying found in the late '90s sandboxes like Ultima and Wurm. So for that reason I want players to have the option to be bandits, brigands, highwaymen, and all other manner of asshole. Believe it or not, there's content and fun to be had because of those types of players. What would Game of Thrones be like without Bron or Walder Frey or Ramsay Bolton or Joffrey? Pretty damn boring.
That said... systems must be imposed on Syndesia that strongly deter excessive Evil behavior. MMO history has consistently proven that griefers can't be trusted to curb their own excesses and that other players can't be relied on to keep the griefers in check.
The bounty/prison system has so much potential there IMO; gameplay loops galore. Griefers grief; their victims can post a bounty at a local prison; players can take the contract and hunt down the griefer. The griefer may never be caught, might be caught but escape by killing the bounty hunter, or might lose and be imprisoned. But the prison is prohibitively expensive in terms of character gold and player time. Make it hurt.
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There are also other ways to grief without direct PvP. Blue killers were notorious in Trammel. The most used in UO was to lure spawn to players and then hide. Kill stealers, blue healers, I'm sure the list can go on for more examples. Point is how do you control griefing in its many forms? Evil players can hide behind any alignment.
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@Farlander said in Roadmap To Fall Alpha 2021:
There are also other ways to grief without direct PvP. Blue killers were notorious in Trammel. The most used in UO was to lure spawn to players and then hide. Kill stealers, blue healers, I'm sure the list can go on for more examples. Point is how do you control griefing in its many forms? Evil players can hide behind any alignment.
The goal is/should be to deter griefing as much as possible, but there's no way to completely eliminate it. I have no idea how to control for assholes intentionally AGGROing mobs and luring them to you or you to them. Attacking and killing another player is much more straightforward, more easily identified as griefing, and therefore easier to combat.
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Nice news! Good Job) But about looting, 1-2 pieces, hmmmm... it is wrong way, my opinion
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Glad to read some news from you guys and see the dream is still going strong! Go go Dynamight
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Where is matrial arts school?
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@Vorch21 I am also waiting for it. No abilities for it yet to my knowledge. I think it was said at some point that it would be one of the last things to be added.
