Questa discussione ha avuto 16 risposte

[MokahTGS]

Keep an eye on Shards Online which has recently met its Kickstarter goal.  This game has an ambitious list of features but most notably, it is a moddible online game that allows user hosted servers for up to 64 players with full world custom-ability.
 
A brief feature list from their website:

• Both official and community-run servers
• Skill-based character development (no restrictive levels or classes!)
• Own your land, build a house
• Tame animals and creatures
• Learn to craft unique items as you explore
• Employ NPCs to do day to day tasks
• Visit worlds that span many genres
• Obtain unique armors, weapons and rare artifacts
• Play by your own rules! Many different rule-sets to choose from
• Create your own unique rule-sets, stories and live content on your community-run server

I'm impressed with what I see so far and also impressed that there doesn't seem to be any form of cash shop or F2P model since its setup as a B2P game like Minecraft.

 

I'll be watching this game VERY closely as it develops.

[kamal_]

I already gave my thoughts on the nwn1 forum thread, so I'll link that.

http://forum.bioware...ast/?p=17861412

[MokahTGS]

Kamal,  Speaking to your concerns of loot.  It looks like the system is not setup for free reign shard hopping.  Worlds are contained in individual shards akin to NWN modules.  Shards are then either stand alone or connected to Clusters which are confined to an agreed upon ruleset per cluster.  So a player playing on cluster A with easy-everyone gets a +12 greatsword couldn't just freely jump to cluster B that uses hardcore rules.  Cluster operators would police each cluster so cheating would be handled very similarly to how NWN PWs work currently.

 

For example the core game comes with access to the game devs cluster of shards, all operating on shared rules so all players playing on that cluster are at equal level.  There does not seem to be plans for players to be able to jump clusters.  Just shard to shard.

[Jfoxtail]

Hmmm.. 

 

Isn't it a very ironic thing that for years Bioware, Obsidian, and countless indy game companies are all claiming to produce the "spiritual successor" of Baldur's Gate - Shadows of Ahm and or the entire Baldurs Gate series....

 

Meanwhile here in the more active forum boards everyone is clamoring for a successor for Neverwinter Nights 1 and or 2 (or both).

 

I guess my point being that gamers all seem to want to mod the games. Indeed the modding community of the original BG series may very well be one of the top 3 reasons the game is still sold in various iterations (GOG, Enhanced, etc) ... Clearly the story line / writing was epic and the game play and art work fantastic but in the end the mod-community further made the game a "community culture".

 

It was never about the graphics. It was always about the "creative ability"...

 

<< and my overly often lament that a great D&D game is not just "an event" ; but should be a periodic publishing endeavor leveraging small and medium content updates much like the original TSR Business model in pen and paper>>

 

I guess this goes back to previous discussions in that I / we hope that some gaming community will actually produce a successor to NWN. One with : 1) relatively easy and intuitive toolset 2) DM client 3) Multiplayer capability 

[MokahTGS]

I've been digging around UToob and found a few videos that shed some light on how things work.  I found this one to be particularly good:

 

 

To me it seems to operate very much like how NWN 1&2 or Minecraft does without the SP component.  Players can host shards just like how you can in NWN.  additionally shard operators can band together to host clusters which are groups of shards with a common set of rules.  Clusters are hosted on central servers.  Players on a cluster can hop from shard to shard within that cluster, but not from cluster to cluster since rulesets per cluster could differ.

[-Semper-]

Isn't it a very ironic thing that for years Bioware, Obsidian, and countless indy game companies are all claiming to produce the "spiritual successor" of Baldur's Gate - Shadows of Ahm and or the entire Baldurs Gate series....

 

that's because those kind of games (isometric, static camera, party control, realtime with pause, beautiful art) died with the infinity engine era. it took years before a spiritual successor worthy of that title became a reality - pillars of eternity. all the others were just throwing names around to draw attention. that's how marketing and pr works.

 

Meanwhile here in the more active forum boards everyone is clamoring for a successor for Neverwinter Nights 1 and or 2 (or both).

I guess my point being that gamers all seem to want to mod the games.

 

with every game there's only a very tiny fraction of the community actively developing mods. even the majority of nwn players back then did play through the oc and the expansions only to drop the game afterwards. it's also no big surprise that the demand of a successor to nwn is especially high within these boards. there are only hardliners left who would sacrifice their first born to get a similar experience with all its features

[kevL]

i haven't done MP for years but will take a jab at this
 

 

Can somebody please explain to me how on line multi player gaming works ? Not the technical bits but how it doesn't descend into chaos with people from all over the place dropping in and out with totally different characters.
 
If I start up my character and enter an online game what happens ? If I meet some other people that are on line and we then all go off to the dungeons of certain death, what happens if one of them or me gets a visit from a friend or an important phone call and can't play any more, surely the party's been messed up ? What's to stop other people running in and grabbing the loot ? Can you have more than one party in a dungeon and who kills what or gets the treasure ? What happens when the person running the game goes out, to bed or can't be bothered to deal with all the people on his/her computer ? What if I make a dungeon of even more certain death and unplug my computer or do something else when people are in it or am I committed to leave it on permanently for them unlike NWN where you just upload your mod and leave it ? Do people have to get together and promise to play a game for a certain amount of time which seems a bit weird because I can never tell what's going to happen in my life and neither can they ? What happens when somebody turns up with the ultimate sword of awesomeness and butchers your party or brings it into a module not ready for it ?
 
I've played Mario Kart on line and with that the races last a few minutes so you just pop in and out whenever you feel like racing some strangers but playing a campaign with a whole load of strangers with completely different agendas seems hard to accomplish. So how does it work ?
 
I don't understand how it works.

 

a lot depends on 'common motivation'. That is, as a principle, it's not in anyone's interest to screw things up. (read: they can be screwed up intentionally, or unintentionally, but the same give&take happens online as happens in RL). So, if someone's agenda goes too far left field, such player either gets his/her CD-key banned by the server's admins - or gracefully steps out.

I didn't like playing MMO servers because the number of players increases the chance of a character appearing with a name like "you don't want to play on this server because I'm here!" rather, My favorite NwN servers had about 5-10 players online. Roleplay, as in *believable roleplay* went up exponentially.

[kevL]

... more of a single player take your time hit pause and wander off save that for later because ...

 

I actually practiced playing *not* using pause in SP, before humiliating myself online 

 

i didn't regret it

[MokahTGS]

i haven't done MP for years but will take a jab at this
 

 

 

a lot depends on 'common motivation'. That is, as a principle, it's not in anyone's interest to screw things up. (read: they can be screwed up intentionally, or unintentionally, but the same give&take happens online as happens in RL). So, if someone's agenda goes too far left field, such player either gets his/her CD-key banned by the server's admins - or gracefully steps out.

I didn't like playing MMO servers because the number of players increases the chance of a character appearing with a name like "you don't want to play on this server because I'm here!" rather, My favorite NwN servers had about 5-10 players online. Roleplay, as in *believable roleplay* went up exponentially.

 

One of the features for SO will be the ability of shard owners to whitelist players.  This means that if a specific shard or even a cluster wants to restrict a playerbase to a certain size, it is very possible.  Depending on how easy it will be to bend rulesets, and content I foresee all sorts of roleplaying servers popping up.

 

The key, as it was and is with NWN 1/2 is the ease of the tools that are given the community.  From reading the forums, it sounds like people are already asking these questions and getting good answers from the developers.

[Snugglehoof]

This is shaping up to be a fantastic game. It has come a long way since Pre-Alpha 1, and will be in Alpha 1 this spring. Their latest newsletter came out yesterday. 

 

A group of us is working on a Persistent World server already. It certainly has the potential to go much further than what Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 offered, and I feel like it is really more than a worthy successor to these games in regard to the tools for player servers in terms of custom content and modability.

 

There is already someone who is planning to write a d&d based ruleset for the community to use as well. 

[kamal_]

Does Shards Online have an estimated release date? Their kickstarter mentions :Estimated delivery :

Mar 2016. They are still in pre-alpha according to their webpage (Current Version: Pre-Alpha v0.3.2) so that estimated delivery isn't going to happen.

[Snugglehoof]

The release date has been pushed back a little since the kick starter campaign. Alpha will be released in Spring 2016, while the Steam launch will be closer to the end of the year. The community has been very supportive of them not rushing it out, and of them deciding they want to bring a more polished version to Steam at the end of this year. 

 

I have been part of the Pre-Alpha admin program since early last year, and the progress they have made is fantastic. Our team is already modding the code of our test server. Compared to NWN 1 and 2, you can do so much more in terms of scripting. The developers are also incredibly supportive of both the player and the modding community.

 

What the delay of course means is that the area design for servers who want to have custom shards and the custom assets (comparable to hak content) will be something we need to wait for a while longer. So right now it remains very restricted to the coding level.

[Snugglehoof]

The Steam Greenlight Campaign just kicked off. Be sure to check it out. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU1Xk6iexno

[neltymind]

As much as I'd like to see a worthy successor of the NWN-series, I have my doubts here. To me, this seems more like an successor of Ultima Online. So basically a pre-Warcraft MMO. This is not necessarily bad, but certainly different.

 

I don't think that MMOs with hundreds of players on one sever will have the same spirit as a Persistent World in NWN I or II. This seems to be online-multiplayer in MMO-Style only. So P&P-style gameplay in either Singleplayer or in a small fix group running the game one on the computer of one of the players and playing a campaign seems not to be possible. Speaking of campaigns: As far as I know the developers are not planning to create one. I suppose users will create quests, but I fear this will be more like most MMOs with repetitive quests and no strong story.