Goblin Squad Member
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@Imbicatus, I've seen that kind of blur lately in other games. I'm almost positive it's an intentional effect.Yeah, I took it for a deliberate depth of field effect, which I was surprised to see.
I don't really care for the effect, as it makes me feel far-sighted. I'm near-sighted without glasses in real life, and it's a foreign pov to me. I'm sure I would get used to it, but I just though I'd mention it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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After seeing the pictures, I immediately loaded the Environment Experience and ran around to look at that tower from the outside again.
It's great to hear that the project is on schedule. Congrats to everyone at GW!
I wonder whether the blog meant "one hex" in the original sense or "one sub-hex."
These screenshots look amazing. I especially like the watchtower.
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Goblin Squad Member
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After seeing the pictures, I immediately loaded the Environment Experience and ran around to look at that tower from the outside again.
It's great to hear that the project is on schedule. Congrats to everyone at GW!
I wonder whether the blog meant "one hex" in the original sense or "one sub-hex."
I'm fairly sure my assumed reading of "sub-hex" = the new hex standard unit, is a good call. IE it's all tech based with scaling one hex capabilities/capacity etc up to however many make the final map? I wonder how much the use of Unity as opposed to BigWorlds influenced, although obviously the design refinement mainly has done (removing all or nothing)?
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Goblin Squad Member
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2. Those guys in the Tavern SS have some of the logest thumbs Ive ever seen...
A little long. Not a lot. Hold up your left hand and touch the tip of your index finger to the tip of your thumb. Compare the length.
The thumbs of the guys' images in the tavern screenshot are not grotesquely long at all.
CEO
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Does Settlement mean we should expect to be able to walk around in our Settlements during Early Enrollment?
You betcha. You can walk around the settlement right now at our first milestone. Now, the only building you can enter at this point is the tavern, but you can walk around the settlement all you want and it is only going to get better between now and Early Enrollment.
I very much like the brightness outdoors, and the bright skies.
Any chance we could get an update on the actual size of the Hex, relative to the Environment Experience, for example?
We are still figuring that out. Part of this milestone was creating two hex sizes and testing to see how they "feel" in-game. Tomorrow, we are going to have the Goblinworks and Paizo staffs all play in this first couple of hexes at the same time to see how it feels. Figure that we will have somewhere around 40 people on at once. Then we will make some final decisions on hex size.
I recall that the idea is we won't enter the buildings initially; they'll be facades that present an appropriate crafting or trading interface.
Correct. Except a few buildings will break this rule and be enterable. The tavern is already.
And does this mean that there will be building interiors and non-lethal combat?
Not sure about non-lethal combat. We haven't discussed that yet. But unarmed fighting, sure.
If the costumes are organised piecemeal, and not as entire outfits, I can already see good possibilities for playing with your appearance via simple mix-and-match.
Right now, we just have single suits. I know the plan is to offer more granularity than that down the line, I am just not sure what the timeline is for that. However, the suits ARE tintable with a wide variety of colors, which can make a world of difference!
The biggest one for me is the vegetation. The character models and building architecture look truly awesome (love that dark gritty feel in the Tavern). But the vegetation looks kinda sparse in all but SS 1, and over all not very convincing (to me).
This is a VERY EARLY look at the outdoors. Consider it a pencil sketch. It isn't meant to convey the finished product, far from it. The vegetation was literally kind of thrown together so we could test the hex with something approaching a normal hex. There will be a lot more care given to finishing out the hexes for actual play. It is intended to give you a rough idea, nothing more.
But definitely vistas from sweeping valley sides and so on is top of my priority list to see. That sense of infinity in a world.
Yesterday, I ran up to the top of the highest mountain in the area and looked around the hexes we have built for this test. It was awe inspiring! Very much a sense of "I wonder what is over there" feeling to it.
I assume that there will be changing night and day, with different lighting conditions,
but will we also see things like changing cloud cover and/or rain/snow storms that also affect lighting/sight conditions?
Eventually, we would love to have those things. When is a good question. Day/night is easier than weather, which has lots of art implications.
Incidentally, what is the plan for low-light/darkvision?
No idea.
Looks great, but.... How long before the "playable hex" is playable?
Any expectations on what this "ahead of schedule" will mean for EE? Or for the arena-like playable demo?
What do you mean by playable? As for being "ahead of schedule" our schedules haven't changed at all. We are still planning to release everything when we said we would. It won't be earlier. If we have gained any time on the schedule, we will reserve it against the inevitable problem that causes the schedule to slide. If at the end we have extra time, it will allow us to implement more features for EE. But for right now, it is good just to be on schedule.
Umm, what basic game mechanics have you created?
As of yesterday afternoon, four attacks, a fun little lightning bolt. There is a basic UI with health and constitution and a timer to let me know when my constitution will be refreshed. Simple tab targeting. The ability to run around a couple of hexes and when I die, respawn back in the settlement. Pretty basic stuff. But fun.
Look at that art. How many artists do you guys have on staff, again? It's like vertigo. I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been a few months at most...
Right now we have one character artist, one concept artist, one environment artist and one art director. We had a second character artist for most of this milestone and are currently reviewing resumes to replace the one that left.
Is there some special benefit for reaching the highest ground? A specific in-game personal title? Kingship?
You get to proclaim yourself King of the World. Of course, nobody will listen, but you can proclaim it! :)
Any plans to add domestic animals wandering around town? Dogs, cats, chickens... a British-style "common" for sheep grazing would be very nice. And practical; it keeps the valuable wool/meat animals protected in the settlement. All of these would add a lot of background "life" to the settlement. (For all I know, you've already planned for that, and I know this is early days. Just spitballing.)
Eventually, there will be lots of "set dressing" to make the world come alive, but right now, it is more important to get something playable with the basics in it.
I think we must be really near the fulfillment system too. ;)
I have a meeting to review it in 15 minutes. Soon. Soon.
Now let's hope I haven't said anything that is going to get me in trouble! :)
-Lisa
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Goblin Squad Member
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You can walk around the settlement right now at our first milestone.
You have no idea how much I want to take that literally and ask for the connection info :)
Tomorrow, we are going to have the Goblinworks and Paizo staffs all play in this first couple of hexes at the same time to see how it feels.
Need any temporary staff? *grins*
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Goblin Squad Member
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As of yesterday afternoon, four attacks, a fun little lightning bolt. There is a basic UI with health and constitution and a timer to let me know when my constitution will be refreshed. Simple tab targeting. The ability to run around a couple of hexes and when I die, respawn back in the settlement. Pretty basic stuff. But fun.
So, is "constitution" the new term for the round-simulating stamina bar we heard about before that refills every 6 seconds?
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CEO
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As of yesterday afternoon, four attacks, a fun little lightning bolt. There is a basic UI with health and constitution and a timer to let me know when my constitution will be refreshed. Simple tab targeting. The ability to run around a couple of hexes and when I die, respawn back in the settlement. Pretty basic stuff. But fun.So, is "constitution" the new term for the round-simulating stamina bar we heard about before that refills every 6 seconds?
As Vic said above, I got the name wrong. It is stamina. But, yes, it refills every six seconds.
-Lisa
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CEO, Goblinworks
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The game mechanics in the game right now are really basic "lets make a system test" things, not real game mechanics. They exist just to map out the pathway. We need UI, we need an animation. We need some interaction between attacker and target. We need to show results of combat. The game currently does this.
With that level of system in place now the designers can start building a real game mechanic, and the artists can think about real UI, etc.
i like the artwork hanging in the tavern... seems familiar. :D
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Goblin Squad Member
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The game mechanics in the game right now are really basic "lets make a system test" things, not real game mechanics. They exist just to map out the pathway. We need UI, we need an animation. We need some interaction between attacker and target. We need to show results of combat. The game currently does this.
With that level of system in place now the designers can start building a real game mechanic, and the artists can think about real UI, etc.
Got it. I was hoping for some insight into the eventual mechanics, but I got what you're saying.
Thank you Lisa, Vic and Ryan for the insights.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I don't really care for the effect, as it makes me feel far-sighted. I'm near-sighted without glasses in real life, and it's a foreign pov to me. I'm sure I would get used to it, but I just though I'd mention it.@Imbicatus, I've seen that kind of blur lately in other games. I'm almost positive it's an intentional effect.Yeah, I took it for a deliberate depth of field effect, which I was surprised to see.
The major alternative is showing you exactly how bad the texture is. Reasonable hardware cannot accommodate very many textures with a small pixel size and large tiles without looking horrible at a distance. Shamus Young discusses that issue at the beginning of that article, then goes into related things that may or may not be of interest.
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Nice work GW!
Only 3 things stood out to me as issues.
1. As Xaer has already pointed out with how the shadows for the trees cut out towards the back of SS 2.
2. Those guys in the Tavern SS have some of the logest thumbs Ive ever seen.
3. The biggest one for me is the vegetation. The character models and building architecture look truly awesome (love that dark gritty feel in the Tavern). But the vegetation looks kinda sparse in all but SS 1, and over all not very convincing (to me).
This is meant to be constructive, so please take no offense.
The people in the tavern lost there hands in a bar brawl, But PFO have been able to transplant a new hand using a monkeys foot.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Lisa, can we get the area view from the highest point, so we can get a feel of large the visible view of the world would be.
Oh, more screenshots would be nice too.
The ones in the tavern look rather drunk already. Can't hold his beer mug nicely.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I notice in the settlement image that there appears to be a fort in the background on a mound.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I notice in the settlement image that there appears to be a fort in the background on a mound.
I noticed the palisades, too. It makes me wonder if the houses we see outside are the "suburbs", and all the important buildings are enclosed behind that stakewall.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I notice in the settlement image that there appears to be a fort in the background on a mound.I noticed the palisades, too. It makes me wonder if the houses we see outside are the "suburbs", and all the important buildings are enclosed behind that stakewall.
I find it interesting that we see differently.
The same image is present to each, yet my perceptual assumption was that the low palisade enclosed the buildings we were looking at.
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Goblin Squad Member
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... my perceptual assumption was that the low palisade enclosed the buildings we were looking at.
If you look closely, you can see the corner of the palisades. The buildings in the foreground are obviously not enclosed.
Moving your eyes from right to left, you will move past several buildings and then clearly see an open path to the forest before you get to the palisades.
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CEO
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I notice in the settlement image that there appears to be a fort in the background on a mound.I noticed the palisades, too. It makes me wonder if the houses we see outside are the "suburbs", and all the important buildings are enclosed behind that stakewall.
The building behind the palisades is an early version of the keep, the building where all the administration of the town takes place. It will be a very important building in PFO. Eventually, it will evolve into a castle, but in the earliest versions, it is actually a tent. The evolution of buildings is pretty cool and our concept artist, Darren, has been working his butt off to concept these evolutions out.
-Lisa
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Goblin Squad Member
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I notice in the settlement image that there appears to be a fort in the background on a mound.I noticed the palisades, too. It makes me wonder if the houses we see outside are the "suburbs", and all the important buildings are enclosed behind that stakewall.
The building behind the palisades is an early version of the keep, the building where all the administration of the town takes place. It will be a very important building in PFO. Eventually, it will evolve into a castle, but in the earliest versions, it is actually a tent. The evolution of buildings is pretty cool and our concept artist, Darren, has been working his butt off to concept these evolutions out.
-Lisa
I vote you send hardworking, talented Darren to Chateau Guedelon in France. It's research!
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Goblin Squad Member
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There's a reason most, if not all, animators, at present, try to avoid realistic human faces: The Uncanny Valley.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I love the idea of an MMO that I can play that constantly gets better and better. Many Co's have promised the moon and delivered @&*!. I think that GW will do better by us.
I am ready to put my trust, my time, and my gaming budget at PFO's disposal to help with and enjoy the enviroment that You provide.
Just wish that I had gotten into the kickstarter so I could start in EE.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Just wish that I had gotten into the kickstarter so I could start in EE.
You can... there have got to be people on these forums with extra guild pack invites or people willing to add to their current pledge to upgrade to guild packs or add an extra &35.00 pledge to their current pledge.
I had asked Ryan, directly, if it would be possible for me to switch my $400 pledge (Brew Master + 100 in extras) to a higher pledge that included a Buddy Pack ($175 for 2 x KS) and some extras.
I was told, "Yes"... I'd guess as long as it remains the same or more of a pledge.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Just wish that I had gotten into the kickstarter so I could start in EE.You can... there have got to be people on these forums with extra guild pack invites or people willing to add to their current pledge to upgrade to guild packs or add an extra &35.00 pledge to their current pledge.
I had asked Ryan, directly, if it would be possible for me to switch my $400 pledge (Brew Master + 100 in extras) to a higher pledge that included a Buddy Pack ($175 for 2 x KS) and some extras.
I was told, "Yes"... I'd guess as long as it remains the same or more of a pledge.
Thanks Bluddwolf. That gives me a little hope. I want to get in as early as possible to play cat and mouse with The UnNamed Company.
Yes, I know I will be the mouse.;)