Best posts made by KairosVal

From the mainstream media article:

The key change in the terms of service appeared to be a new block from Unity on using its engine for cloud gaming services that do not have specific authorisation. Narula speculated that the change, and subsequent block was “probably either an accident or a negotiating tactic” on the part of Unity. “We’re waiting for someone in the west coast to wake up and make some ransom demands, basically.”

Obvious interpretation: They realize the value that can be delivered through using Unity as a server in this way, and want to update their existing licence agreements to extract more value (fair). But instead of being upfront about it, they're deciding to be assholes to set up a stronger negotiating position (dickish).

Worse interpretation: They realize the value that can be delivered through using Unity as a server in this way, and they're planning to develop their own Unity-as-a-server platform in place of SpatialOS, so they're blocking any possible competitors from using their own technology before announcing their own product.

Or it could be something else entirely. What do I know?

Fingers crossed guys! Hope this gets resolved with an updated licensing agreement sometime soon.

@xzoviac said in Bit worried where the Kickstarter is:

I backed Star Citizen in the past and it leaves me hesitant on the amount i want to back though

Not trying to do a hard sell on you or anything, basically just using this as an excuse to rag on Star Citizen.

I didn't back Star Citizen because it just reeks of being too ambitious to ever possibly succeed. They were trying to do way too much, way too soon. So far, history has backed me up on that prediction. I look forward to paying full price for Star Citizen after it is released.

One of the things about Fractured that makes me like it so much is that the scope of the project Dynamite is proposing is ambitious but also grounded in what could actually be achievable, and Dynamite has been very restrained when discussing which features will or won't be likely to be delivered on release. Also, the timelines that have been proposed seem entirely reasonable - none of this "We'll go from alpha to full release by Christmas this year." nonsense.

Having worked as a project lead on enough software projects in the past, you get a feel for when someone's estimates are grounded in experience and competent project management, and when they're a delusional optimist. Dynamite's plans pass my smell test.

However, the irony is that precisely because they're being so measured and responsible with their promises, that makes them underwhelming on the marketing front when compared against the kind of wild over-promising and subsequent under-delivering that is the norm on Kickstarter.

For example, Dynamite have stated outright that their stretch goals will not involve core features. That is exactly the right move to make if you want to deliver your vision on time. Kickstarter campaigns that involve core features are basically introducing scope creep as a marketing strategy, and scope creep is poison to project delivery.

The problem is that precisely because Dynamite are level-headed and serious, their marketing seems lackluster next to all the other projects that wildly over-promise. Many people have fallen for Kickstarter hype before and been disappointed. So when Fractured comes along and is making an appeal that is presented in more of a rational "thi-is-what-we-can-actually-achieve" style and less of an emotional "this-is-why-our-promises-are-amazing" style, it doesn't press the same buttons on the amygdala. So people have a chance to engage rationally - and the rational skepticism based on prior disappointment actually gets a chance to be heard, and executive function says no.

So the very fact that Fractured's scope and campaign strategy are achievable ends up working against Dynamite because of how many other game studios have poisoned the Kickstarter well with over-promised feature-creepy delusions.

To be clear, this isn't a criticism of the people that aren't investing in the Fractured campaign: It is reasonable to be risk-averse given the overall landscape that we're all being presented with.

It's just an acknowledgement of the underlying mechanics as I see them. It's a damn shame that the signal of Dynamite's professionalism against the background noise of unprofessionalism is actually working against them. Markets are weird.

This is an idea I had a while back over at Feature Spotlight #1: Three Races, Three Gameplays, but I thought I'd mention it again here to see what people think.

Firstly to get this out of the way: This would not be in the game at launch, and maybe shouldn't be in the game at all. It would probably require quite a bit of work to implement, it would only impact evil aligned players who choose to opt-in to the concept, and arguably we could sort of do this using out-of-game resources like discord to organize things. So it might be that the development time could be better spent on features that would benefit the whole playerbase.

But disclaimer aside: I think it would be kind of fun to have a Babilis worshiping human running around Syndesia that has an ability that lets them summon a demon from Tartaros. Which is to say, summon in an actual player character demon, controlled by that player and counting as a summon in the summoner's creature cap.

I'm planning on playing a hellfire demon, and I think that this could be really neat. It would take some work, obviously. But so many of the pieces of the puzzle for that kind of gameplay are just sort of sitting there in the game design, waiting to be implemented. It sort of jumps out at you as obvious once you've seen it - or, at least, it does to me.

So just some rough back-of-the-envelope thoughts from my original comment:

For example, an evil human can cast a summoning spell that will teleport in a PC demon. A demon can be mentioned by name, or can be left unnamed and mentioned only by race. The PC can opt in or out. Unnamed will jump around online demon players until someone decides to opt in.

The demon comes in and can fight for or trade with the summoner. If the demon does something illegal while under the 'control' of the human, the human carries all the legal penalties for the action as per normal Sundesian law.

The demon can opt to teleport back to Tartaros whenever they feel like it.

The human has a banish ability to try and force the demon back to Tartaros whenever the human likes it, but the demon has a chance to resist banishment based on stats and abilities.

The summoning ability has a duration, at the end of which the banish effect will automatically trigger. The human has the option to trigger the banish effect early if desired.

So long as the human doesn't banish the demon and the demon stays within proximity of the summoner, the demon gets to remain in Syndesia without the normal penalties. But once banishment happens the summoning effect ends, and if the demon resists then they begin to suffer the normal penalties.

Prometheus has already commented on it here:

@prometheus said in Feature Spotlight #1: Three Races, Three Gameplays:

@KairosVal that's a nice original idea, but it would take a considerable amount of work to implement it - so, as you've said, it's unlikely we'll consider such mechanics early on. For sure there's no limit to how deep and creative we can go when it comes to racial mechanics though, so never say never!

So I'm not really expecting anything any time soon. But I think it's a nifty concept that I'd really enjoy.

Thoughts?

@miffi said in Economy and PvE:

The devs have stated in some posts that the best gear will be crafted but that items can still be found on mobs, they just wont be as good. Certain materials can only be found on different planets so it seems like each will have its own economy but going on the demon planet comes with the risk of losing it all very easily but thats why anyone would play that race in the first place right?

Not at all, human. Come to Tartaros. Trade with us. There are riches to be had from trade.

You can trust us to keep you safe.

@darian said in Bear-kin on mount:

@esher A wolf mounting wolves is nothing new. A bear mounting a wolf is ... well, going to have interesting genetic consequences. I guess it's alright, as long as you remain loyal.

I think that's a different forum.

@finland said in Clarification on the target audience:

@kairosval said in Clarification on the target audience:

I used to play as a carebear miner in EVE Online, but even there the potential to get ganked in highsec meant that I had to stay alert and actually pay attention, and that made things more interesting. I think that mostly-carebear-with-some-spice is a good thing, and that if you give carebears the ability to opt out of the spice altogether then enough will do that such that opting for the spice becomes a disadvantage and no-one will pick it.

You have just summoned the worst game ever with the worst cancer community/player base ;). I'm wondering why none of the PvP players I met in this forum so far has never mentioned once to go kill players around Tartaros XD

I know EVE gets a bad rap, but I didn't and still don't see it. It's really not that hard to avoid the gankers in EVE if you just stay alert and keep an eye on local comms. And the gankers are actually pretty useful for taking out bots and discouraging inattentive and over-cautious miners from risky systems, freeing up those systems for players like me.

I think I got ganked once when I was just starting out because I undocked from a trade hub in a mining barge without checking local or mail to discover my guild had been wardec'd. This made it entirely my own fault. But I just scraped off the salt and learned how to not make that kind of mistake again. So I didn't. And I never lost another ship to player activity again.

So the ganking thing was never really a problem for me, you just had to pay attention to what you were doing. I've never really understood what people were complaining about. I always just figured it was themepark-MMO players complaining about EVE failing to be a themepark-MMO... But that's like criticizing a dog for failing to be a cat. It's technically accurate, but somewhat misses the point of having a dog in the first place.

I don't think that Fractured is setting out to be another themepark-MMO either, particularly given the forced-player-interaction-economy thing. That's a good move in my view because the themepark-MMO market is extremely saturated, and I think what the Fractured devs have in mind here is meaningfully distinctive in the MMO marketplace. Really looking forward to it.

@Tuoni said in Concerns related to the attributes:

@Gothix If gear is human readable or we can inspect other players, then you cannot keep anything as a secret. Furthermore, the streaming and video culture what we have in games nowadays also takes care of that everything can be analyzed afterwards. So someone needs to fight once against the team #1 and all the builds are revealed.

Armor skins are a thing in the Foundation, and will probably exist as cosmetic purchase items in the store.

I prefer human-readable armor, weapons and magical assets, but there's a tradeoff here between human-readability and a revenue stream to keep the servers running. Cashflow matters if we want the game to persist. It is what it is.

• Will spell effects interact with the travel system? For example, would I be able to get a burst of warmth for my character by self-casting an AOE fire effect?

• Assuming we have the resources to do so, can we create a campfire to respec skills anywhere on the open world map? Or will this only be available at predetermined locations?

• When travelling between worlds, how will the arrival location be determined? Particularly interested in this for demon characters.

Not sure if this is a Races/Planets question, or a Housing/Towns question. Will ask in both places, please ignore in whichever Q&A thread it doesn't apply.

How will NPC town defenders work on Tartaros?

In Syndesia and Arboreus it makes sense, they have a crime system and the NPCs can respond to the crime system. But Tartaros is lawless. So how will town defense work in the absence of a crime system?

@Gothix said in Suggestion: Different spells have different armor requirements:

Just like 3-4, so you can make more distant journeys (further from your home) and still be able to change to fit more scenarios, without being overly limited by your (other items) carry capacity while doing it.

You want to be able to prepare by carrying multiple sets of armor? I think that's great and the game should reward it.

If you want to be able to prepare by carrying multiple sets of armor but not have to pay a tradeoff in terms of inventory space and carrying capacity? I'm much less on board with that.

There are hot paragraph breaks in your area hoping to meet a nice young man such as yourself. Please consider letting them into your life, it'll make things better for everyone invovled.

Secondly: From the sound of it, I do think that the crafting aspect of the game is likely to be thinner than you'd like. But it's going to be deeper than the current alpha gameplay may indicate.

That said, keep in mind that the crafting of the game is currently very very incomplete. We don't even have the alpha cut of advanced workstations yet, and they've already stated that the enchantment UI is getting an overhaul, and we have two whole planets worth of reagents to still be added to the game.

There's still a lot left to go, so don't lose hope completely!

@NeroulGB said in So, what is the plan for "fun"?:

i want to bring a level of peace to a couple of city owning guilds on tartaros send out ambassadors to the human world to find power hungry guilds with/without a town if they aint evil they will be have them trade materials/assistance in gaining knowledge of the human world in exchange for hitting there enemies when the eclipse of tartaros happens and semi safe passage to key locations to upgrade abilities on tartaros, once both parties are able to make use of the varied materials and knowledge that we have over our competitors we will create a hell on earth for the demons to travel to with little worry of human opposition as the rulers of that area will be in leauge with the demons giving them the opportunity for demons to gate into their area somewhere from our personal portal in the city if anyone dares attack our human slaves also if you can bottle blood we will be able to steroid our blood demons more often than others if not we can always demand sacrifice before battle either our corruption will spread gaining more followers on human world desperate for our power in the quest for an immortal empire or we will be beaten back for a time if the humans and the beastmen team up to beat us back

I find your ideas interesting and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Hey guys. Not sure if you're using User Stories. Have something to report/suggest that isn't quite a bug, but also isn't quite a feature.

Writing it up in user story format, hope it's helpful.

Using version A2.2.1b on Windows 10 at time of writing.

As a player I want to be able to fill a large blueprint from a handcart with as few mouse clicks as possible.

Right now I am filling a large chest blueprint form a handcart that is full of wood. The handcart is close enough to the target blueprint that I don't have to walk between them.

For each piece of wood I want to place onto the blueprint, I must:

1. Mouse over the handcart.
2. Wait for cursor to change to cogs.
3. Left click the handcart.
4. Hover mouse over the 'Open Inventory' icon.
5. Left click to open handcart inventory window.
6. Left click a piece of wood from the handcart.
   6.1. Note that here the handcard inventory window closes automatically at this point.
7. Wait for 'collect' animation to finish.
8. Left click the large chest blueprint.
9. Wait for the place animation to complete.

Iterate those steps 10 times to place everything for the blueprint.

The animations are a little annoying, but don't bother me too much. Animation time feels justified in gameworld.

But having to do the mouse hovers and clicks on the cart every iteration feels like too much clicking and it could be simpler. It feels like the GUI is obstructing me from doing what I want to do.

Suggested fix would be to just keep the handcart inventory window open so long as the player is standing close enough to be able to pull from it. This would remove steps 1 though 6 from each iteration. I feel that this would help my user experience stay focused on the game world instead of getting annoyed at the GUI.

Thanks for reading!

The first housing plot I found was south-southeast of the starter area. I went mage. The area has a lot of wisps, and I just couldn't kill them.

So I did a bit of looking around, and wound up in the goblin hills. When I stumbled on the fire shaman? Very happy, I really wanted the fireball and the totem spells.

So I hung out in the area for a while. Unlocked the shaman and the normal goblin types, filled up my inventory with crafting reagents, then teleported home when I got cocky in a fight with a war chief and forgot to heal.

Came back, and with fire totem, fireball, and some enchanted gear, I now had the missing burst dps I needed to take down a wisp solo - and the fire damage is making sprouts and treants a cakewalk where they used to be something I had to think about a bit to not get overwhelmed, so that was a nice bonus.

Now I've got the wisp's arcane shield thingy to use against the wisps themselves. Suddenly, so long as I take care to only go in 1v1, they fall over like it's nothing.

It wasn't that long ago that the wisps were kicking my ass 1v1 and felt broken unfair and unbeatable. I set myself the goal of getting strong enough to take them down, and it feels really satisfying to have achieved it!

Great emergent little character arc. The system is really working for me so far. Feels good.

The politics system will be really impactful here - and that's the topic for the next Q and A.

I'm not planning to be a governor. Not enough free time.

But if I were, my concern with letting a guild move in would be: Could the guild consolidate a voting block with the numbers to vote me out of power?

If the answer is 'yes' then I'd be opening the town up to having the governor replaced with a guild member, then having every Jon-guild member kicked out of the town. Real Guiding Hand Social Club stuff.

I'm jumping to some very stereotyped conclusions based on very little information here. I don't really know anything about you or your situation, so I apologize in advance if I've got the wrong idea or have misjudged the situation. If I do get it wrong, I beg forgiveness on grounds that my mistake is grounded in ignorance.

I am assuming that this is a lady that you already know reasonably well, are not in a professional relationship with, and are not currently in a romantic relationship with. But that you would like to be in a romantic relationship with said lady.

If that is the scenario, then I'd go with something like: Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something. I like you. Would you like to go on a date with me sometime?

Embrace the emotional vulnerability of talking about your feelings simply, honestly and directly.

Doing so is actually a win/win scenario. A 'yes' is good, obviously. But even a 'no' is good, because at that point you know to emotionally disinvest and get on with your life, which leaves you smarter and better off than you were before. And I can't think of a single one of my friends-who-are-also-ladies that would respect a man less just because he communicated his feelings clearly and politely.

Hidden messages are for scavenger hunts, not relationships. Stop overthinking things and just do it.

If you ignore this and go with the playlist idea: FFS don't use the transformers reference. I've been a transformers fan since I was a kid in the 80's and even I wouldn't have picked up on what you were getting at.

Again: Apologies if I have misconstrued the situation.

Thanks.

So weird. I swear I searched the forums for that. Must have typo'd or something.

Also, hyping too early can take away all the oxygen that would have been most useful once the company is actually ready.

I think the Kickstarter campaign will be the time to start getting excited.

Eh, no harm in taking a break. I got really buzzed on Fractured initially, but then there was a long wait until the Kickstarter. So I've been mostly disengaged for the last six months.

After the kickstarter campaign, regardless of success or failure, I'll probably be really active for a week before bugging out again. I'll eventually come back in once alpha access starts - presuming of course that I get access via kickstarter.

So if you're feeling burned out, there's no harm in taking a break and coming back later. Might be easier to sustain the buzz closer to release.

You do you buddy.