First Player Skyscraper Erected! [Video Warning]

EthanC

The skyscraper (AKA "The Tower of Babylon) has been a polarizing subject since it first started to get pieces together on the sandy beach of our first player-created settlement in Divergence. For the last 5 days I've been getting messages from people both against and in support of it. Some people want to blow it up, some people can't wait to work on it.

 

Last night while I was testing out some of the new OSI assets we're hoping to announce in the next few days, I walked out onto the porch of the hospital/cloner i was building and saw what you're going to see in the video. No scripting, no editing, I didn't even include music, credits or an opening scene. Just snapped on fraps and let it go, blending between a few minutes of watching it go up, then on the inside of the new superstructure.

The tiny dot you see is one of our early contributors / players adding walls to it and occasionally you'll see chunks of it falling dozens of stories to the ground.

The goal is to see just how large players can make structures in Divergence and I'm very pleased with the results so far. It isn't perfect - Once you get something that massive it begins to lag the area for a fraction of a section when you put up new pieces but that's only when they're placed or removed. There is, as we're glad to find out, essentially no loss of framerate due to the size of amount of content being shown. The only framerate spikes you'll notice are primarily from me running the server, the game client, and fraps at the same time to capture it.

Looking forward to continuing to push the boundaries and see what other people can create out of the tools we've given them

 

 

DashiDMV

It's an interesting video and this game has a very interesting concept but do you plan on answering any of the actual questions about the game? It seems since you brought the game back you are just making things up as you go with a general idea of what you want to accomplish.

 

This on the fly type of design is all well and good but at the same time you are asking people to pay 20 dollar for an emote or hundreds of dollars for rare character types in the hope of getting some kind of speculator's market going.

Ignoring legitimate questions people have about the direction of the game raises all kinds of red flags and to me to looks like you plan to have 3 to 5 total crowdfunding drives. Sorry but you can only milk the same cows so many times.

It's fine if you don't want to commit an answer and get nailed on it later if you decide to change you mind, but don't be surprised if your drive stalls out because people think it's just too big of a risk to take funding an unknown quantity.

polySurface

Totally agree, crowd funding should only allow funding levels that are enough to complete a project collecting dribs and drabs is just milking the system.

mCalvert

Maybe MMORPG.com could post this in the news!

jimdandy26

Originally posted by DashiDMV

It's an interesting video and this game has a very interesting concept but do you plan on answering any of the actual questions about the game? It seems since you brought the game back you are just making things up as you go with a general idea of what you want to accomplish.

 

This on the fly type of design is all well and good but at the same time you are asking people to pay 20 dollar for an emote or hundreds of dollars for rare character types in the hope of getting some kind of speculator's market going.

Ignoring legitimate questions people have about the direction of the game raises all kinds of red flags and to me to looks like you plan to have 3 to 5 total crowdfunding drives. Sorry but you can only milk the same cows so many times.

It's fine if you don't want to commit an answer and get nailed on it later if you decide to change you mind, but don't be surprised if your drive stalls out because people think it's just too big of a risk to take funding an unknown quantity.

Statements such as:

"On a financial note, if you're thinking about pledging $1 for the privilege of being able to leave a comment, please don't. I rely on my ability to say that our average contribution was above average because our fans are awesome but the occasional $1 ones murder that and i'd refund these if I could. However Kickstarter says I cannot raise this amount nor can I do that, so I'm asking people to not do that."

should be sending up all of the red flags you need. When you go begging for money, turning people down and offering to refund it if you could just because it makes your marketing look bad is sickening.

Kraken999

Originally posted by DashiDMV

It's an interesting video and this game has a very interesting concept but do you plan on answering any of the actual questions about the game? It seems since you brought the game back you are just making things up as you go with a general idea of what you want to accomplish.

 

This on the fly type of design is all well and good but at the same time you are asking people to pay 20 dollar for an emote or hundreds of dollars for rare character types in the hope of getting some kind of speculator's market going.

Ignoring legitimate questions people have about the direction of the game raises all kinds of red flags and to me to looks like you plan to have 3 to 5 total crowdfunding drives. Sorry but you can only milk the same cows so many times.

It's fine if you don't want to commit an answer and get nailed on it later if you decide to change you mind, but don't be surprised if your drive stalls out because people think it's just too big of a risk to take funding an unknown quantity.

How can you demand someone to give you solid answers when the game is in pre alpha?  That's just a ridiculous statement at best.  The game has a goal and even with 300 million spent on absolute crap like swtor they change the game up every patch.  This is nothing but a troll post at best. 

 

Heretique

Looking forward to getting invited in (someday).

DashiDMV

Originally posted by Kraken999

Originally posted by DashiDMV

It's an interesting video and this game has a very interesting concept but do you plan on answering any of the actual questions about the game? It seems since you brought the game back you are just making things up as you go with a general idea of what you want to accomplish.

 

This on the fly type of design is all well and good but at the same time you are asking people to pay 20 dollar for an emote or hundreds of dollars for rare character types in the hope of getting some kind of speculator's market going.

Ignoring legitimate questions people have about the direction of the game raises all kinds of red flags and to me to looks like you plan to have 3 to 5 total crowdfunding drives. Sorry but you can only milk the same cows so many times.

It's fine if you don't want to commit an answer and get nailed on it later if you decide to change you mind, but don't be surprised if your drive stalls out because people think it's just too big of a risk to take funding an unknown quantity.

How can you demand someone to give you solid answers when the game is in pre alpha?  That's just a ridiculous statement at best.  The game has a goal and even with 300 million spent on absolute crap like swtor they change the game up every patch.  This is nothing but a troll post at best. 

 

Um because he is asking for our money? I'm glad you and the other backers can go off semi-blind faith but that's not the way 95% of the real world works.

If you are calling people trolls for wanting to know more concrete information, I can't see how you are helping the project you say you are so enamored with. I am just going off of the information given in the interview that was posted.

Just remember potential pledgers are reading this and when they see the dev can't come on and answer simple questions posted by members and anyone who wants some solid answers on the direction of the game gets attacked...well how do you think they are going to feel?

 

 

 

mCalvert

Originally posted by Kraken999

Originally posted by DashiDMV

It's an interesting video and this game has a very interesting concept but do you plan on answering any of the actual questions about the game? It seems since you brought the game back you are just making things up as you go with a general idea of what you want to accomplish.

 

This on the fly type of design is all well and good but at the same time you are asking people to pay 20 dollar for an emote or hundreds of dollars for rare character types in the hope of getting some kind of speculator's market going.

Ignoring legitimate questions people have about the direction of the game raises all kinds of red flags and to me to looks like you plan to have 3 to 5 total crowdfunding drives. Sorry but you can only milk the same cows so many times.

It's fine if you don't want to commit an answer and get nailed on it later if you decide to change you mind, but don't be surprised if your drive stalls out because people think it's just too big of a risk to take funding an unknown quantity.

How can you demand someone to give you solid answers when the game is in pre alpha?  That's just a ridiculous statement at best.  The game has a goal and even with 300 million spent on absolute crap like swtor they change the game up every patch.  This is nothing but a troll post at best. 

 

As the others have said, because hes asking for money. If he wants money he has to give us what we want. That's a fair trade.

polySurface

According to their forums Ethan’s Kickstarter account was hacked hence the lack of communication, perhaps his account here suffered a similar fate.

jimdandy26

Originally posted by polySurface

According to their forums Ethan’s Kickstarter account was hacked hence the lack of communication, perhaps his account here suffered a similar fate.

You realize that is even less reason to trust him with our money right?

polySurface

There is always something impeding the development of this game, taking bets on space hamsters next.

DashiDMV

Originally posted by polySurface

According to their forums Ethan’s Kickstarter account was hacked hence the lack of communication, perhaps his account here suffered a similar fate.

 

Maybe it was his evil hand:

 

Stemming from a previous vehicular accident, Ethan suffers from Split-brain as well as Alien Hand Syndrome caused by damage to the corpus callosum; the connecting tissue between the two hemispheres of the brain. He also exhibits minor impairments resulting from prior injuries inflicted by former girlfriend [name redacted] to his neck, eyes, and lower right leg.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Divergenceeditor1/Ethan_Casner

 

This just gets stranger and stranger. On a related note, I don't think the Kickstarter is going to get funded. It needs close to 8k with about 16 days to go. We'll see how it plays out.