Category Archives: MMO

Quick Look at the Hero Engine 2

  By Creep | December 15, 2012 - 1:03 pm | Game Biz, Game Building, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG
Comments Off
The Repopulation on Hero Engine 2

The Repopulation on Hero Engine 2

So here we see The Repopulation on the Hero Engine 2. The big deal about the Hero Engine 2 is a large update to the graphics engine.

The Repopulation looked good under Hero Engine 1 as far as I was concerned. The pre-alpha videos displayed graphics that were similar to those found in Fallen Earth, a game I played and enjoyed for some long time.

Other additions to the Hero Engine with Hero Engine 2 include a new middleware called Awesomium® which is a web UI browser framework.

From a player perspective it’s an interesting addition since it allows players to see web hosted content in game. Developers could post in game news, or post upcoming in game events to a web host such as the game website. Then the content would be visible to players both in and out of the game (without using the alt+tab option). I’m not 100% sure about how it’s implemented, but it still sounds like a fun addition. I know I wanted to use something like this when working with the OpenSim project for web driven story lines.

From a developer perspective though Hero Engine states that the integration assists with micro transactions and subscriptions. Hey, games have to make money or they don’t stay live.

Another middleware addition is SpeedTree® for Games 6. This middlware addition makes it quicker and easier for developers to add animated trees and foliage to a game. From a player standpoint, it’s not a huge deal, though it is nice seeing wavy grass in game. From a Developer standpoint though, something like SpeedTree® would cut down the back end work of adding custom animations to trees and foliage. Kind of a bonus in my book.

Despite some random MMO forum rumblings, it looks like the Hero Engine 2 is solid. It offers some very interesting features for building games, monetizing games, and giving games the ‘polished’ look that MMO gamers demand. It will be interesting to see what happens with games created on the Hero Engine platform.

Personally, I’m just looking forward to playing The Repopulation.

Resources used for this Post:

Sandbox Game or Emergent Gameplay

  By Creep | November 20, 2012 - 8:37 am | Game Biz, Game Building, Gaming, MMO, The Repopulation
Comments Off

The Repopulation Gallery Screenshot

If you look at the MMORPG forums, SANDBOX is all the buzz.

Whether you love them or loath them, Developers are turning their eyes toward Sandbox game development.

Why? Because it’s much more cost effective than trying to cycle through content that players will plow through in a matter of hours.

Instead of looking to World of Warcraft and trying to emulate that design, it looks like more and more Developers/Producers are looking at EVE online and yes, even Mine Craft.

Mine Craft is no MMORPG, but in multi-player mode it is an MMO. Massively Multiplayer and Online. It sucks people in and doesn’t let them go.

Now why do people go back to playing Mine Craft instead of enjoying the shiny gems that are the current Themepark MMO’s?

Mine Craft gives you the ability to build your own structures. It even lets you build your own dungeons. I mean come on, how cool is that?

Even if you don’t have the patience to build you can explore, mine, then find other people and trade for anything else. There is even an economy in Mine Craft with respect to Emeralds. They’re only useful as currency (and very American, it’s green).

There are no levels in Mine Craft (there is experience, but that is only used for enchanting goods). You don’t find armor or weapons lying around. If you want to equip yourself, you’re going to have to build it yourself.

The thing is that even Developers/Producers are catching onto the fact that while players do love the super fancy roller coasters in Theme park games, you can only ride that so many times before you get sick of it, or from it.

In a Sandbox, you build yourself a castle. Yeah that by it’s self can be boring.

  • What if a creeper walks up, freaks out, and blows it away. Now you have to repair your castle.
  • Say some guy comes up and starts hacking away at it. You have to kill him, and repair your castle.
  • Now your gear is worn down, you have to make new tools and armor. TO THE MINES!!!

There’s just SO MUCH to do, and it doesn’t end unless you walk away.

Game companies have listened to the folks who play single player games for some time now. These people expect that every game they walk into will be like Diablo, Dragon Age, Skyrm.

You start out as the wandering hero to be, you gain strength and fight monsters for the best gear you can get your hands on. Then you get to the level cap and you go off to defeat the evil masters.

This is great and all, don’t get me wrong. I’ve played through Torchlight II and Diablo 3. It’s fun building the character and getting the loot. Thing is though, after the first couple play throughs  random dungeons or not, it starts to get a little old.

When you are producing new single player games, say one project at a time. It’s cost effective. You produce the game, you sell the title. You offer DLC for the previous title while working on the next.

MMO’s don’t work that way. If you want a steady revenue stream, you need a game that will get people interested and KEEP people interested.

In a recent Wired.com article it looks like even SOE is getting into the act by building a new  MMO with more sandbox elements. Thing is though, I’m going to keep an eye on the independent developers. I have a strong feeling that the success of the independent developer projects will set the tone for how many of the big names pick up the idea and run with it.

The Repopulation is my main focus. It looks a lot more like the kind of game I’ve been waiting for. And yes, still no more elves.

Now fun reads for the day :

Wired (Thanks to Trixie in The Repopulation forums) - The Future of MMO Games

MMORPG Forums - We want worlds not games

Fallen Earth: Public Test Server Going Live

  By Creep | November 15, 2011 - 4:41 pm | Fallen Earth
Comments Off

Under a rubble heap in LA

Yeah buddy, the Fallen Earth PTS (Public Test Server) is coming back.

I’m kind of excited about this since it means testing out the new faction control areas and the world events.

Hopefully I’ll have some time to jump into it.

It’s due to go live Wednesday (11/15). Check out the G1 webby here to find out how to set it up.

Fallen Earth: Patch 2.1 Live and the PTS Returns

  By Creep | November 7, 2011 - 6:54 pm | Fallen Earth, Uncategorized
Comments Off

Stopping at the Stairway

OK if you want you can check out the patch notes for 2.1 here. 2.1 is mostly bug and bonus fixing with a couple of coolness features here and there.

3 BIG items
Progress towns won’t lose buildings via server restart.
Geology and Nature kits are no longer required (that clears up some room in the pack).
And all crafting facilities are now universal.

Now the really big news is the PTS (Public Test Server). According to the news on the FE website the PTS is due to return this month. No time set yet.

It will however have the World Events and Faction Territory Control. Evidently Faction Territory Control will actually have a new zone all to it’s self.

The details for both the World Events and Faction Territory Control sound pretty wicked.

Successful World Events will reward PVE players after they fight off waves of whatever or some giant monster. It does look like it’ll be a different mechanic than Progress Towns so that should be interesting.

Faction Territory Control will actually let a faction take over a town and set up in a keep within that town. While at first they sound like your normal progress towns, they really aren’t. Each one of these areas are going to have 13 points to capture with 7 inside a keep the players can defend, with the other 6 standing out in the open making them harder to defend.

There’s a lot more to it, but until it’s live I’m not going to worry about the details. You can check out the screenies and more over at the Fallen Earth Dev Blog.

Until next time, I’m gonna go get lost in the wastes.

Geistig/Kleineubel

A Little Fallen Earth A Little World of Warcraft

  By Creep | October 25, 2011 - 9:33 am | Fallen Earth, World of Warcraft
2 Comments

Trick or Treat

Figured I’d put up a little post on what I’m up to. I’m still spending most of my game time in Fallen Earth. That’s not going to change (even changed out for a year sub). Thing is I also picked up WoW again to run around with Moms. Yes I play World of Warcraft with my Mom. Running around Azeroth getting lost, getting her killed, and having a good time while doing it.

Her system can’t handle playing Fallen Earth (trust me I tried a few months ago out of desperation, no bueno). It can play WoW though.

They also have a pretty interesting promotion going right now where signing up for a year gives you an in game mount Diablo 3 themed, a copy of Diablo 3, AND BETA ACCESS! I’m such a sucker for beta access.

They’ve announced the Panderia expansion and so I figured, what the hell. I know I’m gonna buy it unless I’m totally broke so I might as well just be ready to dink around in it.

I mean hell, Moms and I were hiding out during the WoW zombie apocalypse before Wrath of the Lich King was released. We also watched as Azeroth was changed forever when Cataclysm hit.

Why would we miss out on rolling a couple of fat and sassy drunken masters (Pandarian Monks). No no… I don’t care what it’s really called, I will call mine drunken master. End of story. Because it’s effing hilarious.

Safe to say I’m signed up for a year of WoW.

The bastards finally found a way to get a full year sub out of me. *facepalms*

Haunted....

It’s not Fallen Earth though. I still love FE. Oh and I decided to sub up for a full year of Fallen Earth too. I couldn’t sub up for a year of WoW and not sub up for a year of Fallen Earth.

Yeah it’s pricy, but seriously, I don’t have a whole lot else going on right now. I might as well take advantage of the situation and game like a mad woman while I still can.

OH!!! I’ve finally hit 180 cooking crafting on Geistig. I’m not too worried about getting it up too much further at this point and I’ll probably go back and research it soon.

Geistig is by the way, is full crafter capable (which means her tradeskills can get up to 196, the current cap). Sadly though cooking is the highest tradeskill I have at the moment.

With the new system I need to spend a lot of time digging in trash (scavenging/harvesting/mining) to 1) have crap I can sell on the AH for some chips and 2) have enough crafting mats to continue leveling. Personally I love just wandering around FE digging in trash all on my lonesome.

I think now I need to focus on Weapons Crafting and research. There’s not really a weapons crafter in The Reavers and since there’s a lot of Melee folks in the clan it’d just be a good idea to have a researched Weapons Crafter.

After that I figure I can work on Armor crafting, maybe even construction, who knows.

I still have a lot of work to do on Geistig and looking forward to it.

I am stepping out of PvP though. True dedication to PvP just takes more time than I can allocate right now. Even though I’d love to be a hard core player, I gotta face it, I just don’t have the attention span for that lol.

I did leave KAOS. It’s not because I don’t love the clan, I still totally do and all the guys/gals in KAOS, end of story, no questions asked.

I was just starting to spend more time with The Reavers, and I really feel like they could use another crafter. That AND I miss getting into crazy RP situations on Geistig. The community just isn’t the same without her throwing monkey wrenches in EVERYONE’s plans.

It’s just how she rolls. You never know what to expect from Geistig.

That AND right now there’s a kid in The Reavers (Canni Belle) who’s stuck in Lifenet. She’s randomly popping around from one cloner to another (using the new Fast Travel system) haunting whoever manages to end up in the cloner at the time.

Safe to say this close to Halloween it’s pretty freakin’ epic.

Yes it’s nerdy and silly, but it’s also creative and fun. Well if you’re a person that likes a good story.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo……

In World of Warcraft I’ll be on either Geistig the Unholy Death Knight (Uldam) or Geistig the Retribution Paladin (Rexxar). I know talk about a mix right?

In Fallen Earth, I’ll be on Geistig. There really is no description for this Geistig, so you’ll just have to roll with it.