Posts made by GamerSeuss

@Jetah Depends upon the purpose or driving force behind the particular sale...ie the sales goals. Sometimes they are a dollar amount, in fact, that's usually the case, but not always.

If the goal was to bring in more needed revenue for development purposes, than incentivizing current backers to up their backing would definitely be on the menu (as is, they can upgrade at the same discount anyway, so its not like your losing out here) BUT that is not the driving force behind this sale.

If the goal was to bring in more players to test the game, without always relying on affiliated systems to funnel players into an open alpha environment like they did with the last test, then you mainly want to focus on getting new backers into the game. They can't just open up the floodgates for free totally, because that would indeed cheapen the valuation of what the earlier backers put forth. Alpha and Beta Access were perks you got for being a backer of some kind, and when you could come in was tiered out. They are modifying some of that, mainly because they are modifying their entire Alpha/Beta Schema, and because they are already having to adjust their predicted timetable because of unforeseen circumstances (Covid-19). The do already do limited stress testing near the end of most of their Alpha sets, where they open the floodgates for a weekend to maybe a week, but that's nothing compared to what backers have had exclusive access to. The experiment with the other system to bring people in I assume failed so they are trying a different tact.

In any case, I tend to digress, as the purpose here is to get MORE officially sanctioned testers (not just people invited in through a 3rd party portal) they are going about this sale in exactly the manner they should be from a business standpoint. Business Consulting is what I went to college for, and advising on these kinds of situations is eactly what my degree program was about, well, this and how to rearrange systems internally, etc... (think the 'Bobs' from the movie Office Space, but with a tech-focus as well)

I have said, the last couple election seasons that even though he's dead now (and has been since 2008), I nominate:

George Carlin for President.

During debates and everything, you could just play snippets of his old acts in rebuttal.

"So, Candidate Carlin, what do you think about the State of the Middle East?"

Carlin Recording: "F*ck'em!"

@StormBug said in Death Penalty of losing all gear and inventory: WORST IDEA EVER!!!:

I do NOT, let me repeat that, I DO NOT want to play a game where death has no meaning. It is BORING! Fighting loses all of the thrill it is meant to have. So what if you die; just revive and go at the mob again, and again, and again, and again…. Tedious, Dreary, Dull, YUCK!

There are so many ways to prevent mass loss of your possessions. The worst you really have to worry about if you’re smart is one set of gear and whatever you collected on that particular run; that’s it. You make your own gear so replacing that is relatively easy so we are down to what you collected on that run. You now have some idea of what went wrong the first time. You are better prepared. It is not the end of the world.

I will never again play a game that makes death meaningless. If death were ever to become meaningless in Fractured I would leave the game so fast that the heads of every one of its creators would spin for days. Seriously, what is the point of a game you can’t fail at?

You tell'em SIS!

Graphics can be a tricky thing.

In the first place, you generally expect newer games to have more cutting edged graphics
However, higher graphic demand means less machines can run the software.

Also, from a purely cultural taste platform, look at games like RuneScape. RuneScape 1 came out in 2001, based on Ultima Online and had a very similar look and feel, and is still played today as RuneScape Classic. RuneScape 2 had some gameplay improvements, but still fairly similar graphics to RuneScape 1, and is played quite heavily today as Old School RuneScape, and then there's RuneScape 3, with a major graphics overhaul, some gameplay tweaks, and what have you, and it's got a fairly large following. Of the 3 games mentioned, however, Old School RuneScape is the most played, in my experience, of the group. The Gameplay and the Nostalgia Graphics combine to be an amazing draw of players, both old and new. I know I stream 25+ hrs a week of Old School RuneScape myself. I started with a Nostalgia Gaming show, but it quickly became a dedicated Old School RuneScape stream for the most part because of the fan-base around it. The only thing I do other than OSRS on my stream right now, is Fractured Testing, and a Tabletop RPG show called the RPG College. Even then, I often get people coming into my channel clamouring for OSRS content, even if I'm just grinding out skills.

The take-away: Graphics are great eye-candy, and they drive the tech industry with bigger and better graphic cards and such, BUT they are also a handicap, between Nostalgia drawing people in to certain graphic styles, and the benefit of being able to run a less powerful machine and still play and stream the game has a serious appeal in this now very Twitch-Heavy gaming environment.

Besides, I get great comments from my friends when I do Alpha Test for Fractured, when it comes to the detail and look-feel of the various Giant Spiders currently in the game. Also, some of the scenic views in further away places on the map, like the Vale are breathtaking. I don't expect much environment effect implementation during testing anyway, as it would detract from the gameplay testing.

Im in the No to very Limited Fast Travel camp myself.

Caravans - YES
Actual Ship Travel, not portals - YES
but reserve portal type travel to between worlds and asteroids, and maybe between continents, once you've sailed there previously.

I'd also be okay with a Raid Teleport that could bring a group together for an instanced raid, but limited their access to any shops and trading and such so you return from the raid the same as you left, except for gained Knowledge Points/Skills/Talents, etc..

If they do do more extensive Portal type travel, make it as was said, either Naked, or requiring a weight compensation cost involved to prevent people using this as a method of influencing the markets.

@TekNicTerror Death has to have meaning, and in an Isometric Game, where there isn't experience/levels to be lost in death, really, it becomes doubly important that you risk your gear. Remember too that Gear in Fractured is player created and has a durability stat, so you will lose it eventually anyway, so really, its just that death can make you potentially lose it sooner, unless you have the forethought to 1. sleep in the taverns close to your hunting grounds, and 2. enable party looting of your corpse so that your surviving friends can bring back some of your more important gear

@Tuoni Actually, it being the Fractured Forums, it's more like we're talking about New World, in comparison and contrast to Fractured, which means among other things, any generalized advice on MMO design tips would be advice wanted in both games, overall.

New World is also in Beta right now, not alpha, true, but still stuck in beta, so my comment still applies. In Beta-testing, quite often you don't see the full spectrum of mobs the final release will feature, shoot, at final release, you don't, as many 'new' mobs are planned for expansions before the game ever reaches release status. Most games have their first 2-3 expansions at least mapped out in advance.

My reasoning, regardless, still holds true. It would be better to see the new mechanic tested of dynamic organic mobs than just getting introduced to yet another mob in game. It always depends on what your testing, overall...even if said dynamic mobs are not planned for immediate implementation, but rather held back for an expansion.

@Tuoni This being an Alpha Test of Fractured, it only stands to reason fewer types of mobs would be implemented purely for testing purposes. It actually makes more sense, in both the short, and the long run, to implement a new dynamic mob system to be tested while there are fewer mobs out there to clutter up the results.

As the testing progresses, and results come in, new mobs can gradually be added in, but entire games can be focused around a very few mob types and still be done well, all depending on the themes involved.

That being said, when asked, one of the two additional things I wanted to see in the next alpha test myself was the new Troll mobs, because I want more mob variety myself.

@Roccandil complex enough to be tough to code effectively, but very real, and the RPers out there would love something like this.

This brings the MMORPG closer to the true RPG of its roots, where what the PCs do in game can really matter, as well as what they don't do.

To be fair to D&D and Fractured and the like,

These limitations fit with a lot of the fantasy tropes of the times in books and other media. Heavy armor was great for turning a swordblade or blunting the force of a maul, but was shit vs the mysterious forces of Magic, and even detrimental in some cases (Electricity/Lightning magic, Heat Metal spells, Gravity Magic, etc...)

When you did see heavy metal armor effective in regards to all around defense, magic included, said armor was enchanted. In some cases, this was an added, short term enchantment to the armor or shield by a potion, oil or spell/ritual, but for truly defensive armor, able to turn aside any blade, and the fiercest dragon's fire, you looked to ancient armors that were crafted using old secret techniques, often by the races of Elves and Dwarves and that armor had grown in its power as it was used by mighty warriors in epic battles across the pages. You didn't just add an enchantment to make your armor invincible and be done with it, unless that was the entire subplot of a section of a story, you went out and found that ancient suit of armor, or your found that rarest of craftsman to smelt/smith/craft/build/enchant you a suit to fit your needs, OR you talked to a God-being who might provide something useful.

All in all, mobility and training trumps heavy armor in battle, and pretty much always has.

I personally LOVE the implementation of the Enchantment system.

Fractured has put a lot of the 'Magic' back into enchanting by making people use Trial and Error, Experimentation if you would, in order to come up with the best possible combinations. This incentivizes going out and making your 2nd or 3rd, or 20th suit of Cotton armor before you get a chance to come across Spider-silk, let's say. You put one set of enchantments on and examine your handiwork, then you play around with the system and come up with another configuration. In the very beginning, though, you start out cautiously, only trying to add 1 target enchantment onto 1 piece of gear, then going out and exploring to see if that enchantment is helpful, or negligible in your playstyle.

Sure, in this age, you can go out and find Enchantment guides on the Internet, there are some linked in the various forum topics out there, compiled by your fellow testers, and such will continue as long as the game exists, but there's a mystery and magic to enchanting as it is now, if you choose NOT to use these tables. (for beta-testing purposes, I start without the tables, in the previous test, and used the tables in this most recent test, to get a fully rounded experience in the limited timeframe we had to play, for both me, and my guildies)

I accumulated 10 Large Wooden Chests dedicated to nothing but reagents so my Guildies/Friends had plenty of resources to play around with the enchanting system, while being very cautious of rarer reagents we just couldn't acquire much of, trying our best to find alternate builds.

I wouldn't change a thing with the current system, except of course the aforementioned plans to add even more reagents to allow for the unlocking of tier 3 and 4 enchantments, and of course, the armor/weapons with more slots to handle these larger enchantment tiers.` I think ultimately a large part of the in-game economy is going to end up based around the more rare reagents out there.

Filled out and can't wait for the next Alpha Test!

After the Market and Trolls, if I had to pick a 3rd option from those listed, I'd be hard pressed, as I find them all pretty equal, but for the chance to work on balancing, I think Ability Leveling would edge the other 2 out

@Gothix

That works for people who want to play PvP, but what about those players who don't want to be in a PvP environment? They get enough risk from Aggro mobs and don't need actual players to contend with as well. There are a lot of serious players out there who are seriously anti-PvP. I'm not anti-PvP, however, I am very much anti-Ganking and Spawn-Camping, and when you have a world that encourages that kind of PvP willy-nilly, it greatly lessens the game for a Huge portion of the player base. In general, PvPers are wildly outnumbers in games, so you would be catering to the smallest common denominator.

Guess it kind of depends on what you mean by Casuals.

Hardcore Roleplayers are just as serious as Hardcore PvPs and Dedicated Guilders, even if they are solo and want to roleplay multiple characters based on the given situation from day to day.

MMORPGs are both for community/guild/competitive play, AND for shared world solo play, and Guilds/Group-Raiders need to remember that just because our fun isn't your fun doesn't make us any less 'serious' gamers out there.

I take offense to being called a casual out of hand. I'm not an eSports Virtual Athlete by any means, BUT I am a Streamer and a gamer with over 42 years of gaming under my belt. I just always leaned more towards the solo aspects of the MMOs I played. Coordinating raids with big groups and major guilds might be for some people, but its not everyone's cup of tea, and not choosing that road doesn't make someone casual. I will admit, in the last few years, I've fallen to being more of a casual player in videogames, devoting most of my more serious gaming time to TTRPGs instead, but that's only because of a serious lack of any kind of MMORPG that I could truly sink my teeth into. Fractured has the makings of being one of the greatest MMORPGs I've seen in a long time, and more, it appeals to Serious gamers like Me, not just catering to the Guild/Raider types and PvPers like some games do, but it does make that style of play viable as well.

I'm totally okay with a bartar based economy, EXCEPT for the fact that there is already this massive surplus of gold coins in the game that is going completely unused. An NPC market would probably work best on a Gold/Gold-value standard, while a Player run shop, where the two involved in a purchase can haggle over things, on the other hand, would work really well as a Barter based system. The point being, both things are needed. A way to buy/sell/trade goods, AND a way to make the gold in the game more than just about buying a house and upkeeping a city. If you set up a merchant NPC to 'barter' on automatic while your not there, you would need to be able to set some parameters to any trades they might make, such as:

1. What resource your have in abundance
2. What resource you want the most
3. What valuation system the NPC should use when determining viable trades

John's NPC market may not accept 'Animal Bones' no matter what kind of deal is offered, because John has 8 chests full of Animal Bones he's looking to unload. He might want to buy/sell leather at a minimal profit/loss overall so he sets that as a 45%/55% Barter setting, buying/trading at 45% of the relative baseline value of leather, and selling/trading at 55% so as to make a minor profit on straight transactions, and finally, John might be seriously in the need of 'Goblin Tongues' and 'Crystalized Magic' as reagents, as he can't keep them in stock, their used in so many of his enchanting recipes he regularly uses, so his NPC would set such items at a premium price, buying them at upto 250% of the base value, and not selling them at all as I doesn't want to get rid of them.

Also, only from a very narrow set of standards would alts 'ruin' the game. To a vast majority of players out there, removal of the ability to play alternate characters would drop the appeal of the game to the point many would back out of backing/playing altogether. Why do I say this? Because, especially in the beginning of a release, players are going to want to experiment with the different races and builds. Most, if not all MMORPG players I know tend to keep at least 3 characters in whatever game they play. 1 is their main character, they spend 70% of their time playing, 1 is their backup character, where they do most of their experimental stuff with before commiting their main to trying new things, and 1 is their totally casual character, one they build usually of the opposite archetype of what they normally prefer, just to get the feel of that other archetypes play in the game, and to have a character of that sort in case friends/family want to jump in and play a few sessions together. They don't necessarily want to stop whatever their doing on their Main account to go play with the cousins or the in-laws or whatever, or guide a noob through the start of the game, so they have this casual character for that. If limited to only 2 character slots, the #2 and #3 types listed are combined, and often deleted/respec'd as needed to fit the bill at any given time.

ANY game of multiple archetypes and races is going to attract players who want to try it all. Even in a game where a character can do everything, all the skills, all the talent builds, all the crafting/fighting/building/sieging, they will still want to try out the different Races and Base Classes/Archetypes, if for no other reason than that touch of variety, and so they can say to their friends they've played it all.

My favorite class in D&D is a Bard, typically I play a Human or Halfelven Bard as my go to for serious campaigns, however in my 42 years of playing D&D, I've played just about every official WotC/TSR race/class combination that has ever come out, even Paladins, and I HATE PALADINS. Why, so as a DM, or just a teacher, helping new players, I can tell them some of how the gameplay feels using that archetype. MMORPGs are an extension of my love of TTRPGs, and I approach them the same way. I want to kick the tires, and put the game through its paces, something you can never fully do with only 1 character.

I truthfully like all 5 options, but if I were to pick the 2 I'd like to see the most:

1. City Markets, it would be nice to see Gold have a use, other than just buying houses. Right now, you buy a house, then your gold just sits and accumulates if you kill humanoids. Yes, there will be City Upkeeps, but what if you don't join a city?

2. Trolls. It would be nice to see the introduction of at least 1 new enemy type, with it's corresponding new material drops and combat tactics. Trolls traditionally regenerate, so such an enemy would be a lot harder to take on.

1. There will be ALTs, period. How do I know this...simple, the Champion Backer Tier includes 2 Additional Character Slots. As with most games of this nature, you can expect at least 2 slots by default as well. People have already backed at the Champion Level, and are still able to upgrade to that level, so Alts are NOT going away as an option. How ALTs are handled may become a thing, but there will be ALTs on almost all accounts.

2. Trading WILL happen. Whether it will be to the extent that Fractured intends, who's to say until the game goes live, BUT there are enough RP type players backing this game that these players at least will be trading for resources. The entire structure of the Beastman world will lend itself to trading over fighting as its a universal NO PVP zone.

The best way to prevent multi-accounting is to allow a good enough number of ALTs on each account by default. In general, unless they are specifically doing the Multi-Account thing to try to break a system (and paying the price for it) people will be more likely to use up their free Alt options before going to paying for another account.

Account locking Guild/City/House membership per planet is a good way to help manage a lot of the worry I see here. Since each planet is Racially biased, and Guilds are also currently Race-locked, obviously playing an Alt with a different race (which is a big motivator for RP Alt playing) will necessitate a new Guild/Home/etc...

As to mega-guilds trying to develop monopolies. sure, some of them might attempt it, but there are enough of us ready to jump in on day one of the game's release that they might get a majority, but its doubtful they will get all on any given world or even continent. Now, with the ability to Siege on 2 of the 3 worlds, expanding their monopolies this way may happen, BUT there is the option for smaller cities to band together to repell such attacks, AND like many games have done in the past, after a Guild/Group reaches too much of a deadlock, the option to open up another world server is generally explored to 'start things over' again.

There should definitely be the ability to have multiple characters. Some of the people interested in the game enjoy exploring different avenues of play, and want to try out the other races, or other build options. Even with the primarily FREE respec ability of the Pre-Sets, I know that I currently have multiple characters in each Alpha I've done, so I could play a good mage, a good fighter, and even an Archer build. Getting to play multiple iterations of the characters is a perk that many people play these kinds of games for.

I do like the idea of binding your citizenship to the Account instead of the Character, based on Race, so you could be a citizen of 1 town per Race. In the Alpha test, your Citizenship is actually linked to your account currently, so you can't join multiple cities...also, if they were to put some kind of waiting period between quitting one town and joining another, that should cut back on all the hot swapping that might go on.