Speaking of playing the same game again, I recently picked up Final Fantasy Tactics for PSP. The game is still fantastic a decade after release. And there hasn't been a single tactical combat game released since FFT that even compares.
However, having no deadline, we are not being pressured by anyone (accept a few fans who want to know when the Beta testing will start, you know who you are!
I wonder who you're talking about Jatar...
__________________________________________________ In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08 - Rest In Peace; you will not be forgotten
I was having a discussion in the General forrums about a game that delivers more in depth game play. I got this response: "Be realistic. It's FAR too much work to create a virtual world for thousands of players among the many other things that must be built (graphics engine, client / server, etc...)." Is he right? Citadel of Sorcery seems to claim differently.
The truth is that he is somewhat correct, it is a lot of work to create a world like this, but we have been working on our own game engine for several years to handle this very issue. So it isn't 'too much work' just a lot of work.
I'm not at liberty to explain how, but I can tell you what we are doing. Adventures will be created for the player, not scripted. In other words, you could not look up an adventure you are going to take part in on a spoiler site, as it is custom made for your character by our Quest Generation code.
This alone has me intrigued. One thing that lessens the experience of a MMO for me is when others have already completed the content, then post it on a guide somewhere. So now everyone just does their "research" and follows the guide. It sucks all the sense of exploration, challenge and difficulty out of it.
I've always said that I'd love to be one of those first people to experience content in a new game, before it's been done and documented and becomes nothing more than following a play-by-numbers routine. Looks like this system would bring me as close to that as possible.
But yeah... Sounds like quite an endeavor to create something robust enough to create that great a variety of random quests for someone where they're not overly generic, are all balanced and work as expected. The internal testing must be interesting :-p.
The magic behind this is not simple, but it is the crux of MMO Magic's Citadel of Sorcery experience. We're betting millions on the technology to give players like yourself what they have asked for, better game play in a virtual world for thousands.
-fingers crossed-
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
The truth is, you will be able to look up some things on spoiler sites about CoS, but they are as likely to mess you up as to tell you what's going to really happen. Our adventures are not completely random generated, we felt that to make our adventures as engaging as possible, each one must be designed by a human writer.
However, once the story is created it goes through a process that breaks it down to component parts that are fed into the Quest Generator. Now many things are altered and changed so that the final output for one player is different than for another. Add to that the multiple route possibilities during the quest based off the player's choices and the number of permutations is... well, large. Therefore, even if you read about a similar quest online that another player wrote up, and you tried to follow in his footsteps, his choices will likely not work for your version.
Our goal is to create an ongoing story for each player that is unique. Not just a bunch of unconnected quests. This means that what happens to you as you play will change and color the quests you go on in the futrure. If you piss off some nasty cult, they will make it their business in the future to make your life hell. If you help some NPC on a quest, he may help you in the future. Yet each player has different enemies and friends, all based on their actions as they play. This fact alone changes each quest you go on and makes it different for you than for another player.
Anyway, this is just a brief discussion on how quests work in CoS. For an early taste of what quests are like, I suggest you read the 'Tour' on the www.citadelofsorcery.com site.
However, we will run lots of Alpha and Beta tests to help us get it cleaned up. There is nothing like a bunch of rabid gamers coming in to turn over every stone and see what we left by accident. Then... we just have to fix it all
I gaurentee you, all you have to do is put up a Alpha/Beta sign up sheet, and you will have plenty of us rabid gamers knockin at your door lol.
However, we will run lots of Alpha and Beta tests to help us get it cleaned up. There is nothing like a bunch of rabid gamers coming in to turn over every stone and see what we left by accident. Then... we just have to fix it all
I gaurentee you, all you have to do is put up a Alpha/Beta sign up sheet, and you will have plenty of us rabid gamers knockin at your door lol.
yes they would me being one of them I am very excited about this game i just hope i don't have to wait many years to play it. I think a big part of mmo failures is having a website and info released to early. They make promises that the game will have this and that. Then they run out of money sing a publisher and get a deadline and can't put everything in they want. I would rather a company be honest and state there overall gameplan like CoS has done but not list features that the game offers until they are already implemented in the code.
Story driven game finally coming YAY i can't wait.
Comments
Speaking of playing the same game again, I recently picked up Final Fantasy Tactics for PSP. The game is still fantastic a decade after release. And there hasn't been a single tactical combat game released since FFT that even compares.
I wonder who you're talking about Jatar...
__________________________________________________
In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08 - Rest In Peace; you will not be forgotten
I'm not at liberty to explain how, but I can tell you what we are doing. Adventures will be created for the player, not scripted. In other words, you could not look up an adventure you are going to take part in on a spoiler site, as it is custom made for your character by our Quest Generation code.
This alone has me intrigued. One thing that lessens the experience of a MMO for me is when others have already completed the content, then post it on a guide somewhere. So now everyone just does their "research" and follows the guide. It sucks all the sense of exploration, challenge and difficulty out of it.
I've always said that I'd love to be one of those first people to experience content in a new game, before it's been done and documented and becomes nothing more than following a play-by-numbers routine. Looks like this system would bring me as close to that as possible.
But yeah... Sounds like quite an endeavor to create something robust enough to create that great a variety of random quests for someone where they're not overly generic, are all balanced and work as expected. The internal testing must be interesting :-p.
The magic behind this is not simple, but it is the crux of MMO Magic's Citadel of Sorcery experience. We're betting millions on the technology to give players like yourself what they have asked for, better game play in a virtual world for thousands.
-fingers crossed-
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
The truth is, you will be able to look up some things on spoiler sites about CoS, but they are as likely to mess you up as to tell you what's going to really happen. Our adventures are not completely random generated, we felt that to make our adventures as engaging as possible, each one must be designed by a human writer.
However, once the story is created it goes through a process that breaks it down to component parts that are fed into the Quest Generator. Now many things are altered and changed so that the final output for one player is different than for another. Add to that the multiple route possibilities during the quest based off the player's choices and the number of permutations is... well, large. Therefore, even if you read about a similar quest online that another player wrote up, and you tried to follow in his footsteps, his choices will likely not work for your version.
Our goal is to create an ongoing story for each player that is unique. Not just a bunch of unconnected quests. This means that what happens to you as you play will change and color the quests you go on in the futrure. If you piss off some nasty cult, they will make it their business in the future to make your life hell. If you help some NPC on a quest, he may help you in the future. Yet each player has different enemies and friends, all based on their actions as they play. This fact alone changes each quest you go on and makes it different for you than for another player.
Anyway, this is just a brief discussion on how quests work in CoS. For an early taste of what quests are like, I suggest you read the 'Tour' on the www.citadelofsorcery.com site.
I gaurentee you, all you have to do is put up a Alpha/Beta sign up sheet, and you will have plenty of us rabid gamers knockin at your door lol.
I gaurentee you, all you have to do is put up a Alpha/Beta sign up sheet, and you will have plenty of us rabid gamers knockin at your door lol.
yes they would me being one of them I am very excited about this game i just hope i don't have to wait many years to play it. I think a big part of mmo failures is having a website and info released to early. They make promises that the game will have this and that. Then they run out of money sing a publisher and get a deadline and can't put everything in they want. I would rather a company be honest and state there overall gameplan like CoS has done but not list features that the game offers until they are already implemented in the code.
Story driven game finally coming YAY i can't wait.