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SatelliteMind
Acolyte
5 Posts |
 Posted - 14 Dec 2014 : 08:04:31
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For those of you who are fans of Neverwinter Nights and Ultima Online than you definitely want to check this game out. It will allow you to build your own custom online worlds aka Shards and host them either individually or together in the form of clusters. In addition to the high level of customization you will also have the ability like in Neverwinter to act as a DM and control world events. You can learn more about the game via the Kickstarter page link redacted which has ended a day ago but you can still get acess to the alpha by donating through paypal here link redacted.
It ends December 15th so definitely get on it soon. For those of you who find the graphics a turn off know that this is A ) Still in Pre Alpha B ) Because you will be able to import custom assets and design your own it is possible to make a world that looks nothing like what you see in the screenies in addition to their highly flexible scripting language Lua that will let you write whole new systems. A developer already said it would be possible to write a D20 system for your server if you wanted. Hope to see you guys on the forums!
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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 14 Dec 2014 14:54:36
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 14 Dec 2014 : 14:59:08
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I went into the post above and removed the links (one of which was incomplete, anyway), because the post violates rule A9 of the Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct.
quote:
9. It is not permitted for members to create threads or posts simply to advertise other websites, forums or web services. Feel free to add a link to other sites within your profile signature, but all other advertising should be avoided without first obtaining permission from the Head Moderator.
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Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen!  |
Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 14 Dec 2014 14:59:24 |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 14 Dec 2014 : 18:33:40
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No name? Might be a good plan to include the name of the game, outside of the links, since I'm guessing many forums will disable your links. At least with a name we can google it or search for it on kickstarter.
Graphics are a major part of the allure of computer games, at least for some of us. You're makin me not wanna click, even if there was something to click. If it's assumed that I'm going to design/import my own objects, then you should be showing a wide array of objects and more importantly showing that it's easy to design/import them. Your best bet, in my opinion: get amazing graphics working first, because without that you'll never get positive reviews or acquire much of a customer base. You'll also need an intuitive UI, or you own't keep those customers. Then create at least one small awesome plotline to show in the demo video, so we can see that you know how to craft a great story... something like NWN's prelude. Brief, but it shows off the graphics and teaches the UI and has a basic plot. (Old-school NWN's graphics are meh/gross by today's standards but they were good at the time.) That gives us confidence that your game will get better as content is added. We can accept the idea that there will be more game to play later, but we're not going to believe you if you tell us the graphics will get better... because why would you debut with something that isn't the best you can do? If you're already making excuses for anything, then you're already losing our interest.
Just my two cents. Good luck with your game.  |
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SatelliteMind
Acolyte
5 Posts |
Posted - 15 Dec 2014 : 13:06:18
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| Shards Online is the name of the game; my apologies about the links |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 15 Dec 2014 : 15:35:53
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Okay, having taken a quick look through the website, I'm reassured that the designers are already aware of what I was yammering about.
The interior view of houses looks Sims-ish, but the exterior graphics are reminiscent of Morrowind and WoW so that's not terrible. I crave higher resolution/realism, but I guess that's not yet practical in an MMO, especially one where resources are being devoted to having NPCs walk around and have believable schedules. Which is a cool thing.
Each shard/universe has a capacity of 64 players at this point, so it's at a happy medium between a 4-player Xbox game and a WoW server with a population of thousands of people you don't want to ever know. 64 is more than enough for taking your PBEM to the next level, or adding some visual immersion to your living room D&D game. And that number will probably increase as the game stabilizes and grows.
So now my major concern is how much skill we're going to need to have in Lua. We can write our own rulesets --for example a d20 system-- and that's cool, but it's going to mean getting our hands dirty with some coding. I consider myself pretty adventurous when it comes to modding, but that doesn't mean I have the expertise to do whatever I want to do. There is, after all, a gap between ambition and expertise. How much in-game documentation is going to be devoted to helping prospective DMs/GMs modify/create rulesets?
Not clear. Fortunately, there are books and online references for Lua, so once we figure out what questions to ask, the answers should be available.
The other questions is what's the price tag, and when will we actually see it in stores? |
Edited by - xaeyruudh on 15 Dec 2014 15:36:15 |
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Zireael
Master of Realmslore
Poland
1190 Posts |
Posted - 15 Dec 2014 : 15:54:15
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| Seconding xaeyruudh's questions. I can do some stuff in Lua and would be interested in a d20-module. |
SiNafay Vrinn, the daughter of Lloth, from Ched Nasad!
http://zireael07.wordpress.com/ |
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SatelliteMind
Acolyte
5 Posts |
Posted - 15 Dec 2014 : 16:19:54
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| One of the things that I really like about the developers and the community as a whole is that it is very open. There is usually a developer on the IRC channel and if you can't get an answer from one of them than one of the community members will most likely give you the best answer that they can. I encourage you both to head over to the Shards forums and join the discussions; I have a thread on the Q&A sub form dedicated to Neverwinter Nights and how to make Shards appealing to NWN people which there are already some there. As for the price tag go to the Shards Online website and you will see a big red button saying Pledge, for $20 you can get a digital copy of the game when its finished sometime in 2016. $40 for Alpha Acess and $75 for Pre Alpha (current stage). This paypal drive ends in one day so get on it if you want. There is also a couple of youtube videos made by the devs dealing how the toolset works and scripting you should be able to find it pretty easily. The links are also on the kickstarter page under posts I believe. Hope to see you guys on the forums |
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SatelliteMind
Acolyte
5 Posts |
Posted - 15 Dec 2014 : 16:27:13
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| As for Lua; I have read that it is a very easy language to learn and that is one of the reasons the devs chose it along with its flexability. Hope that helps. |
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SatelliteMind
Acolyte
5 Posts |
Posted - 27 Mar 2015 : 09:56:22
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UPDATE:
A lot has happened since this was posted; I would encourage folks to check out the Shards Online website to see what has been going on as well as their twitch channel with the latest community roundtable having a lot of good info. Modding will start this spring for those who want to become pre alpha admins so hopefully someone from here or elsewhere will start working on a D20 ruleset |
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A spiritual successor for Neverwinter Nights
