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[Preview] Albion Online: Up Close & Personal with the Game
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In June I had the pleasure of visiting the Sandbox Interactive games studio for an up-close and personal introduction to the forthcoming Albion Online, a sandbox MMO, due out in the last quarter of this year.
Read more of Alexander Brown's Albion Online: Up Close & Personal with the Game.
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Comments
The territory conquest system sounds very interesting, and if they really end up having 800 territories, it may even work.
I've always believed that the reason why EVE's territory control worked was that the game world world was actually big enough to allow various groups to control sizeable chunks of it. Most other MMO's have comparatively small worlds, which means the game design cannot allow one group to hold territory for too long or too exclusively. That usually results in "Keep swapping".
I'm very excited for this game. I'm a very old UO player as well as a bunch of other PVP centric MMO's. This game is really looking to be a great risk/reward game. I am a very happy supporter of the project and have checked out their forums.
The devs and CEO are very open and forthcoming with information and interact with the community their. I'm extremely excited to see the next test phase to come up and can't wait for release.
The ability to control territories, towns and craft all armor and weapons really gives this game the perfect sandbox feel and the ability to do whatever the player desires. This game is definitely one I would suggest to anyone interested in a GREAT pvp game.
Check it out!
Gaming since 1985; Online gaming since 1995; No End in Sight! My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8POVoJ8fdOseuJ4U1ZX-oA
Hi Maelkor,
i am one of the guys working on this title and of course it was important for us to make territories hard to conquer. Since clans will put their heart and soul into building up the villages in their territories. We are still testing out a lot our territory mechanics but it is definetly a key element in Albion Online.
Best thing, when you are a trading/crafting only guild, you can hire the best mercenarys to defend your territory. And even better the game supports mechanics that they only get paid when they win
Kind regards,
Stefan
A medieval sandbox MMO
http://www.facebook.com/albiononline/
Hi SomeHuman,
here a video from our last alpha test in Albion Online, which shows some combat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3HPio2Hjhg
Don't forget we are still in a alpha and aim for a release next year.
Kind regards,
Stefan
A medieval sandbox MMO
http://www.facebook.com/albiononline/
Why do sandbox developers insist on full loot pvp for a sandbox? SWG had neither and was the best sandbox ever made IMO.
I wish them luck, maybe they can be successful where others have not.
Because it is just not sandboxy freedom enough unless you can grief other players.
Help support an artist and gamer who has lost his tools to create and play: http://www.gofundme.com/u63nzcgk
Hopefully they will implement some sort of honor code that makes wonton murder risky.
Fixed.
that bit about hiring mercs is really cool. the fact that you guys put in "legal contracts" for hiring mercs shows me you are really into giving thought and depth to your game and trying to make it immersive for everyone who plays it, regardless of play style.
cant wait to try it.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
Hi paradise2,
what we currently have is the following
So when you attack someone the yellow area you get a crime debuff. It reduces your stats significantly and even more important you are shown on the map/minimap to all other players in the area, so other players start hunting you
The idea is that in the yellow resources you can be attacked but the attacker gets serious consequences. We want to have an area where PvP happens but very selective and that especially the attacker has to evaluate the situation very carefully (in particular since his position is shown on the minimap).
It also creates a special cost/reward situation cause you should be 2 or better 3 tiers above your victim and then it is questionable if attacking him is a profitable move overall, especially since you are shwon to others on the minimap as a valuable target.
And actually this led to very nice dynamics in our last test.
Do not forget there are enough red zones where you have the normal open pvp!
Kind regards,
Stefan
A medieval sandbox MMO
http://www.facebook.com/albiononline/
Exactly! The amount of people that put in the time to gear up, then have it taken away in a flash from unfair advantages, exploits and cheating soon leave. Take into account there are now communities dedicated to griefing players and driving them away, it's no wonder the pops of these full loot MMO's always dwindle within the first year of their release leaving a core group whose numbers are not enough to support the games running costs for any long term future.
A lot of players also don''t stick around because of the resource grind to keep geared to get the practice for the games competitive PVP. PK clans of above average or higher players can turn many normal players per server community away. Uo suffered this, so Tammel was done, Darkfall suffered it ,so Unholy wars was done,and the new take on Darkfall still suffers pop loss because it remains full loot.
Developers should start looking at a semi looting system. You loose what's in your pack, but you keep your armor and weapons, but they still wear and tear over time still of course. This can really make a big difference for people to get into the PVP when their efforts to gear up is not lost in an instant. People get fed up playing MMO online resource grind all the time rather than getting into the action. Talking resources, that's also ends up hogged by the bigger community per server, a mega guild will always form and rules a server or servers and ends up hogging the resources with their farming army.
Kind of sounds like youve never even played a full loot game (well, at least beyond the point of whining that you lost gear the 1st time and ragequitting), especially Darkfall.
Full loot is one of the reasons why people DO play Darkfall and other similar games. They go into it with the mindset of knowing they can lose their gear at any time. You would have to be kind of a simpleton to go into a full loot game and then stressing about gear as if it is some epic raid gear you spent tons of time grinding for a la WoW. Gear is disposable, it will be lost wether due to durability loss or looting, and most players accept that rather than whining that they lost something in a game that they know is full loot.
The downfall of games like Darkfall was not having full loot. It was being poorly developed and run by teams who either a) made sweeping changes that players said they did not want but were ignored or b) simply didnt even attempt to try to change and improve things or communicate with the players at all.
You Two (@Corvucso & @IamMMO) did come up with quick judgements for a game you never played!
What plays an important role here is that you can get your items quicker then in other games, compare it more to Minecraft. We added a lots of game mechanics against griefing and (even more important) zerging. Previous tests showed that most of them seem to work quite well!
We also think that most modern MMOs are part of some ‘noobification’ trend, becoming too easy. It also seems as if most of today’s games want to avoid any form of negative emotion or real setback for the player.
But without negative emotions, how can positive emotions have meaning? And without true setbacks, how can a success feel truly rewarding?
Kind regards,
Stefan
A medieval sandbox MMO
http://www.facebook.com/albiononline/
Love that part in red because it is so true. Too many games lately have been, for some odd reason, geared towards the masses who want it easy when the game itself only has a niche appeal to begin with. Instead of focusing on satisfying that niche and actually making the games challenging for the players interested in it, they try to draw more people in by "dumbing it down" for people who arent going to stick around long anyway and at the same time turn away people who would have stuck around if the game wasnt so dull and easy like every other game. This is one of the main reasons why I cant find a steady MMO to play beyond a month or 2 anymore before growing extremely bored. There is little to no challenge / risk in what are otherwise great games. Its just the same old boring easy mode crap over and over again, while there are single player games like Dark Souls which while not flat out amazing games on their own, can actually be challenging and are popular because of it.
Sounds like you guys are interested in actually keeping things challenging and interesting, which is awesome to hear.
These ideas do sound very interesting. As I said earlier in this thread, I believe they could possibly work if the game world is large enough (800 zones ?). If the different zones are too small and/or too few, the system can too easily be "gamed" which often negates any "penalties" for PK'ing.
Hiring player mercenaries is always a good idea on paper, but in practice it seldom works unless it's a clearly define short-term goal (i.e. go kill Mr. X or go and attack town Y). Most mercenaries in RL work primarily for money, but in MMO's there's usually far more efficient ways to earn coin.
Stefan,
Thanks for the link. It really doesn't clarify how combat works, though. It looks like combat runs smoothly, but the screen is really cluttered, which I think could lead to some frustration with targeting. AoE's would seem like the way to go. Is there friendly fire? I'd hope so, but I could see why they might choose to omit it. I saw most of the players were using ranged attacks in the videos. Do the ranged attacks trigger from the cursor's location at the moment the ability is triggered or is it attached to a selected target? If it is a target, is the only way to target a player by clicking on that individual?
I'm just curious about it is all. I'm really looking forward to Albion, and I think the planned features for the game make a great combination. I don't want anyone to read this, thinking I'm trying to bash it. I'm not.
Gaming since 1985; Online gaming since 1995; No End in Sight! My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8POVoJ8fdOseuJ4U1ZX-oA
Not sure if I will be able to tolerate the full loot PvP but will be sure to try it at release. Now there is the possiblity I may rage quit the second time someone steals my crude rock axe and sweat stained loincloth but what the heck. I will just have to put on my big boy pants and dry my tears.Even if I can't deal with the full loot PvP the game sounds more interesting than the follow the quest breadcrumbs to the instanced dungeons and paint by numbers raids I have been playing for the past few years.
I miss DAoC
this game looks extremely promising, and it proves that even with limited resources you can create a good polished game .
only problem i see with the fonts they use cause in large scale pvp you see only letters
but thats a minor anyway. that game has many potentials i believe. also i think it will be available even for tablets which means a large player base can reach it .
Hi there, I am really intrigued by what you just said there. Anti-zerg mechanics?? Count me in.
It may not be a fair comparison, but the game I've been playing for the last 2 years (on and off) does not discourage zerging at all and it really breaks the PvP of the game (Guild Wars 2). Everyone runs in groups of 50 people. People who don't zerg (solo/duo/5-man) just get steamrolled whenever they try to take any objective (even camps), it really makes the PvP garbage.
I really hope your game is different in that regard.
If gear is disposable and easy to get, then why bother having full loot anyway? Without some sort of material gain, full loot becomes nothing more than a way of griefing and inconveniencing people.
As pointed out earlier, full loot also discourages the use of rare and powerful items which can be crafted and found. What good does it do to have if its never used? It's a similar situation to what some people do with vintage automobiles; instead of driving them around and enjoying them in both form and function, they lock them up in secure garages because they're too afraid of what may happen when driving.
I know I sound like a broken record on this issue, but I STILL don't see how a primarily gear-based game with full loot PvP is going to work. Losing your gear essentially means you can't play the way you want to until it's replaced, and forcing someone to play in a manner which they do not enjoy is an extremely stupid and amateurish thing to do.
Maybe I'm wrong, and they have systems in place which they haven't revealed to people yet that will balance things out, but on paper at face value, right now it looks very poorly thought out.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic
@Solar_Prophet probably the best living proof that your argument is wrong is EVE. According to your argument no TItan would ever be used and the oppositie is the truth. Of course people will think carefully when to put on their top tier gear and this is a good mechanic but trust me it will be used.
It just seems you don't have that much experience with these kind of games and you are argueing from a theoretical standpoint. Maybe give it a try maybe not no one forces you to play a game where winning and loosing actually really has a meaning :P
Kind regards,
Stefan
A medieval sandbox MMO
http://www.facebook.com/albiononline/
A titan is relatively easily replaced though, all you need is the resources to build another one. Furthermore there are plenty of uncommon ships in EVE which don't generally get used for PvP, simply because people are afraid to lose them. In fact, most PvP ships (especially in the cruiser and frigate range) are simple, easy to replace models and fittings. I myself had about a half dozen Rifters, a trio of Stabbers, and a few Ruptures fully kitted out and ready to go.
From what I've read, rare gear in Albion will be just that, RARE. If I've got one of the two Hoes of Destruction on the server, you can darn well bet that it'll never see combat.
I played EVE for almost six years, until the toxic community finally drove me away forever. I have plenty of experience with full loot systems.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic