What elevates Fractured above similar games like Albion Online?
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Was discussing with some friends our first initial impressions of the videos and Kickstarter for Fractured and the general knee jerk reaction was that the game looks and seems to be very similar to Albion online. For others and those who have done more research what does Fractured bring to the table that other similar games have not done or done well?
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I'm just going to copy and paste another comment I made to someone asking "what is Fractured doing that's new." It's not entirely fitting to Albion vs Fractured, but it's close enough:
The alignment system is pretty unique, as are the planet and asteroid systems. Skills are unlocked through a sort of achievement system. Resource gathering is pretty interesting; most resources can't fit into your inventory so you have to physically carry them in your hands or with wagons to transport them where they need to be.
But besides those, it's mostly just combining a lot of existing ideas. Diablo-like combat in an MMO hasn't really been seen (or at least I haven't seen it) especially in a sandbox MMO. The governors and towns are based on Star Wars Galaxies mayors, the skill build system is based on Guild Wars 1. Territory and towns can be conqured and held by guilds and alliances a la Eve. Environmental interactions with elements like freezing or electrifying water or setting things on fire which is similar to what can be done in Divinity Original Sin. The exciting thing to me is that it's taking a lot of ideas I really liked from different games and combining them into one.
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Fractured is almost the exact inverse / opposite of Albion Online.
- Albion is heavily gear-dependent. Your skills come from your gear and each material is a linear upgrade over the previous in a sequence. Fractured is not; your skills belong to your character, and all materials are equal in power with different stat spreads.
- Albion has a linear "order of risk" for difficulty regardless of playstyle (e.g. fighter vs. crafter). Low level is no PVP, mid level is semi-PVP, high level is badlands PVP. Fractured has three entirely separate planets with full content at all levels of play for PVE, "lawful" PVP, and badlands PVP. Nobody who prefers one planet will ever "need" to go to another one for basic progression.
- Albion has a clear gradient of "tier" moving from "starter zones" to tier 8 zones. Fractured does not; relative difficulty of areas will be peppered pseudo-randomly and may change dynamically depending on player activity. Of course, the game does not have strict tiers to begin with.
- Albion has an explicit gate between all game zones. Fractured has no transitions or loading screens between any game zones, except possibly if you were to move from one planet to another or otherwise teleport.
- Albion scams you with premium items (e.g. vanity items) that are actual items thus they 1. affect gameplay 2. don't let you pick the stats of one item and the appearance of another and 3. can be lost, stolen, deleted, etc. All Fractured premium items are floating account-wide unlocks that are not items and cannot be lost (as they should be.)
- In the case of premium furniture, I presume that you must disassemble the furniture back to its crafting mats to move it, and only a premium user has the blueprint to make it again, thus a non-premium character can't pick up a copy and take it.
- Fractured has no other scammy pay to win features such as personal islands only premium users can purchase or upgrade (and that are necessary for guilds to function.) Cities behave identically for all players with the sole exception that players who purchase a Governor pack will be the Governor of a City at launch.
So many misconceptions and completely idiotic questions (e.g. "do Governors get a magic give me my town back button if we lose our town???") about Fractured clearly stem from being used to Albion's broken scammy p2w gameplay like a Stockholm Syndrome victim.
Please check everything you know about Albion at the door; Fractured is unlike it in any way except its camera angle, and God bless that.
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@FibS said in What elevates Fractured above similar games like Albion Online?:
Cities behave identically for all players with the sole exception that players who purchase a Governor pack will be the Governor of a City at launch.
Have they said how you become a Governor besides that way?
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@Pwnstar
Beside the Governor Pack:- At guild towns the guildmaster set the governor
- At free towns the governor will be elected each few weeks.
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Any guild towns on Arboreus?
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@Pwnstar I am quite sure, there will be guild towns at Arboreus.
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Too soon to tell OP.. The game will change heavily over the course of development and we're not even in major testing phase. The major differences that are being promised fall back on the planets, the factions and their unique rule sets.. The politics of the towns.. etc.. Even still, some of these things aren't new.. It's just the packaging that makes them unique. The question is, are these things going to divide an already small niche player base OR will they be the things that draw more people in then before.. More people then a game like Albion Online.
Too soo to be specific IMO, it's all hopes and dreams at the moment.
@FibS said in What elevates Fractured above similar games like Albion Online?:
Fractured is almost the exact inverse / opposite of Albion Online.
etc etc etc
Please check everything you know about Albion at the door; Fractured is unlike it in any way except its camera angle, and God bless that.Sorry to say, this is biased and pretty misleading. I get it, this isn't an AO safe space.. but it's pretty over the top.
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I'll tell you what elevates Fractured aboves similar games when i can test it.
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@Vortech said in What elevates Fractured above similar games like Albion Online?:
Sorry to say, this is biased and pretty misleading. I get it, this isn't an AO safe space.. but it's pretty over the top.
I could have made that post a bit more professionally, I suppose.
But while I do indeed absolutely hate that completely awful, unforgivably exploitative game and will viciously attack it at any chance I get, everything I said about Albion was factually true.
I don't consider it to be a game. It's an insidiously clever scheme.
You know how at the start of Albion you go out and hunt little rabbits and foxes to get mats?
We're rabbits too.
The elite 10% of players (i.e. the ones spending the most money on the pay2win mechanics) are the only ones the game actually cares about; everybody else is basically a player-controlled rabbit or fox they pop to get loot. The rest of us only exist to enrich their game experience, the same way that NPC enemies and resource nodes do.
That's disgusting.
I'm tired of "games" that are just races to spend the most money. When I made that post, I was seeing so many people insult Fractured by comparing them, and it was absolutely infuriating
Albion Online is garbage, and I hope Fractured is nothing like it beyond the superficial.
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We're rabbits too.
The elite 10% of players (i.e. the ones spending the most money on the pay2win mechanics) are the only ones the game actually cares about; everybody else is basically a player-controlled rabbit or fox they pop to get loot. The rest of us only exist to enrich their game experience, the same way that NPC enemies and resource nodes do.
That's disgusting.
I laughed so hard on that one
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I'll go with something very simple.
So far Dynamight has been pretty straight forward about everything including the SpatialOS fiasco, while the makers of Albion Online made a horrible first impression back in whatever it was, 2014 with some pretty scumbag tactics for selling founder's packs. They basically lied about the context of the game. It was so bad that PayPal just blanket granted refunds.
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Thank you for the information
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@FibSI can see that you have some strong feelings about Albion
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I have played Albion Online before and I can see some similarities between these two games. Both are Sandbox MMORPGs with MOBA styled combat. Economy is player driven and most items are crafted by players. Both games includes full loot rules and has somekind of player housing. Both games are diveded to biomes which have own mobs and resources. Also the character progression bases on classless system.
So some base ideas are somehow the same, but of course with own mechanics, content and flavor. Even these two has a lot of same, we can still speak of two different games or at least it looks like that to me. Fractured tries to cater more wider audience when giving PvP and PvE oriented players their own playgrounds. Of course you do not have to be either of these two extremes and you can be anything between. Its hard to cater both sides, but on paper Fractured's concept looks like a success. Even both games have classless system, it seams that Albion is the one with vertical progression and heavy grinding, where Fractured advertise to be totally opposite. Moreover, I guess Albions 5v5 end-game content with territory fight is something we are not seeing in Fractured.. I guess..
I am sure I forgot some points, but this is how I see these two games if I try to compare them. I hope best luck for Fractured and I will definitely try your game out when I get the chance.
