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What is themepark, what is sandbox in AoC?
akabear
Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
After watching the youtube video of "Death of a Game: New World", I somewhat agreed that the sustainability of a smaller developer`s MMO will require a greater emphasis on Sandbox elements. Churning out new content for a smaller developer and smaller population is not so sustainable.
So, what elements are considered theme park and what sandbox in AoC.. ?
And how much tangible control do you think players will notice from their own actions?
So, what elements are considered theme park and what sandbox in AoC.. ?
And how much tangible control do you think players will notice from their own actions?
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And as for sandbox - nodes and sieges (both castle and node ones).
Themepark - we don't really have a clue outside of "it'll have instanced dungeons that will be story related".
The themepark elements are the quests and instanced raids. Not sure what else would qualify, I'm probably missing something though. Lore? heh
Sandbox = Node choices, battlegrounds/PvP and freeholds.
If an MMO developer just jumps right into making a game first, they will have all sorts of issues. If they instead focus on creating tools to facilitate creating content quickly - and only then start trying to make their game - they will be more successful.
This is something I assume Bacon knows well,as he was involved with environmental creation on EQ2 while they created these tools. The games first two expansions were very clearly rushed due to not having good back end, but they created that back end during the development of these expansions, and after that the new content was leaps and bounds better.
Since Bacon is the environmental lead here, I have to assume he has made sure those back end tools are in place.
Ended up alienating both types of fans.
I might play more New World if they had a greater variety of mobs and quests and stories. And if it weren’t so oppressively European/American-centric culturally.
It wasnt clear here but do you know that bacon left a few months ago? I am certain he has left behind the framework of these tools for sure, but alas dear bacon is no longer part of the team!
Need to change to past tense. Bacon left to work at Amazon. Steven has called Ashes a themebox. There will be a mix of both kinds of content. And as you and others have pointed out, they are well aware of the content locusts needing to be fed and have developed the tools to make that easier/speedier for them to do so. Until they say otherwise they plan on smaller monthly content updates and larger quarterly. Many other developers have claimed similar, it is up to Intrepid to make it happen.
All you just said, had nothing to do with NW's demise.
"Oppressive", grow up, I bet you've never battered an eye lid to an all Asian style game.
Bacon is not the lead. He left at the beginning of the year
The game walks the line between theme park and sandbox on almost all elements. Players can influence how the world evolve, but they do not control it. There are multiple choices, but once made they trigger a scripted chain of events with multiple endings depending how the players participate; where they push, where they pull, and where they let things go on their own.
I don't want to sound as if it was a bad thing. Total freedom in a single player game is fine, but in a (massively) multiplayer one it's an invitation to disaster ...abuse, meaning it will be rather niche to the people who enjoy that kind of abuse (giving and receiving).
Why do I hear boss music...?
Building off the other comments, Trystan Snodgrass is the new Lead Environment Arist.
Cool, so the new guy had almost 6 years working with Bacon, and worked on X-COM.
Either way, Bacon had years to set up systems and tools to make creating content easier and faster.
You are correct that many developers have claimed they would add content quickly, and most have failed. I'm always skeptical about claims like this, very few games have managed to achieve this.
I guess that siege pvp could be instanced but not the raids? I guess that was said some months ago in a video.