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Some GREAT Info Reveals between both Sep Update and the Sep 28th Interview!
Tyranthraxus
Member
Some BIG info came out this week, between both videos - including news about Naval Weapons!
For anyone who doesn't regularly follow them, here's a link for the monthly update, for September:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVWJQY8K8NY
And here's the Big Cheeked Giant's interview with Steven Sharif, from the 28th:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkWLLLOlm2E
The biggest things that stood out to yours truly were:
= Node Map-Tracker Simulator and it's implications
= Info about Neutral looting after a Siege
= Why Tank is "Tank"
= Tech Processes (showing 1000 character avatars)
= Naval Launchers!
The Node-Tracker shown in the Monthly Update was neat to see, but it also revealed mechanics I hadn't previously realized/considered. Primarily, I had no idea that the Spheres of Influence weren't limited to just the areas that the Castles overlook; The Tracker even showed cross-continent territory claiming. When it's been stated in the past that "no two servers will be the same", I kind of thought they just meant which Nodes will have Metropolises. Instead, it turns out that you can stretch and even have dis-conjointed territorial claims by the Spheres of Influence.
It was VERY good to find out that - *if* neutral players are allowed to loot Siege remains - that there would be a timer for those who took part to get first pass at the spoils. Yours truly kind of figured this, but it was good to hear it directly from the Creative Director.
Heh - Tank is "Tank" because it's players' colloquial term for the combat role; Even if there were multiple Tanking classes, players assembling a group would still "LFG for Tank". I've felt the exact same way. In the end, *players* label classes; In RP, toons would largely just view themselves as adventurers, explorers, and settlers.
One of the cooler technical aspects of the monthly update came with seeing the difference in crowd-optimization for the 1000 avatars. *Their* computers ran at 3 FPS with 1000 unique on-screen characters, and the difference with optimization (how we will see most players NOT uniquely-rendered in a massive battle) really made a BIG difference in both FPS and the feel of navigating the game camera around a crowd of 1000 avatars.
Lastly (and at long last), we finally got some news on Naval weapons! Even if we don't get portable "potion launchers" as weapons for our toons, the ships' weapons will largely "be based" on these - including different types of ammunition. In his layout of what to expect from Alpha 2, SS mentioned 3 classes of naval ships that will hopefully be in, and gave a brief description of what Naval weapons will be like, since AoC will lack gunpowder.
Very exciting stuff! This was a BIG week for new info on AoC. Some folks were more happy with the reveal of the Orc art in the monthly update, but I'll wait until we get some character models before deciding what to think of the two races. Orcs will apparently be the tallest player-race - which makes sense.
For anyone who doesn't regularly follow them, here's a link for the monthly update, for September:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVWJQY8K8NYAnd here's the Big Cheeked Giant's interview with Steven Sharif, from the 28th:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkWLLLOlm2EThe biggest things that stood out to yours truly were:
= Node Map-Tracker Simulator and it's implications
= Info about Neutral looting after a Siege
= Why Tank is "Tank"
= Tech Processes (showing 1000 character avatars)
= Naval Launchers!
The Node-Tracker shown in the Monthly Update was neat to see, but it also revealed mechanics I hadn't previously realized/considered. Primarily, I had no idea that the Spheres of Influence weren't limited to just the areas that the Castles overlook; The Tracker even showed cross-continent territory claiming. When it's been stated in the past that "no two servers will be the same", I kind of thought they just meant which Nodes will have Metropolises. Instead, it turns out that you can stretch and even have dis-conjointed territorial claims by the Spheres of Influence.
It was VERY good to find out that - *if* neutral players are allowed to loot Siege remains - that there would be a timer for those who took part to get first pass at the spoils. Yours truly kind of figured this, but it was good to hear it directly from the Creative Director.
Heh - Tank is "Tank" because it's players' colloquial term for the combat role; Even if there were multiple Tanking classes, players assembling a group would still "LFG for Tank". I've felt the exact same way. In the end, *players* label classes; In RP, toons would largely just view themselves as adventurers, explorers, and settlers.
One of the cooler technical aspects of the monthly update came with seeing the difference in crowd-optimization for the 1000 avatars. *Their* computers ran at 3 FPS with 1000 unique on-screen characters, and the difference with optimization (how we will see most players NOT uniquely-rendered in a massive battle) really made a BIG difference in both FPS and the feel of navigating the game camera around a crowd of 1000 avatars.
Lastly (and at long last), we finally got some news on Naval weapons! Even if we don't get portable "potion launchers" as weapons for our toons, the ships' weapons will largely "be based" on these - including different types of ammunition. In his layout of what to expect from Alpha 2, SS mentioned 3 classes of naval ships that will hopefully be in, and gave a brief description of what Naval weapons will be like, since AoC will lack gunpowder.
Very exciting stuff! This was a BIG week for new info on AoC. Some folks were more happy with the reveal of the Orc art in the monthly update, but I'll wait until we get some character models before deciding what to think of the two races. Orcs will apparently be the tallest player-race - which makes sense.
5
Comments
I wonder if smaller nodes will have competing influences from different higher level nodes around it. Can a node change it's parent just by the influence pushed on it by another node? How does the node decide which node it will be under when it loses its own parent node.
Yours truly had thought about the same. It's still not clear to me how a parent Node will "conquer" a vassal Node that is already under the influence of another sphere of influence.
Plenty of material for next month's update Q&A!