The world outside claims heals over time, going back to its default state. (Each voxel has a "last modified time" attribute on it, and it gets restored when a certain time has elapsed since then)
Ah, makes sense.
The world outside claims heals over time, going back to its default state. (Each voxel has a "last modified time" attribute on it, and it gets restored when a certain time has elapsed since then)
Please be a wipe, just for the drama.
Back up... but no new servers
http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/EverQuest%20Next%3A%20LandmarkSo, the 11-minute video on Kotaku showed me nothing. Any streams?
yeah, they said the new one "Serenity" is coming up in the morning. They sent the devs home for sleep, didn't want to throw the switch without them running tests first.
Great, new server while I'm at work
Anyway, looks like the stuff I built on my claim is gone again, so I need to craft the basics again. Alpha!
Just to be clear an explorers pack gets me in the alpha? Right?
As somone that was heavily addicted to EQ I love a chance to help out in an alpha for Landmark and Next.
Will this claiming/building stuff really be part of the final game too? If so, I may not sweat over not getting into the Alpha... if this is some of the stuff you will do in final game, oh my...
More crafting to come
Of course, seeing as it is just the beginning of alpha (one that Georgeson specifically stated is only 60% done in his alpha introduction video), you know that there are definitely more features incoming to the game, like water, monsters, and combat. It's no secret that crafting is an important topic to a number of Massively staffers, so it was natural to begin the discussion with the in-game crafting system.
As it currently stands, the crafting system is no more than just clicking a button with the resources in your bag and staring blankly at the crafting table. But since several of SOE's other titles, including Vanguard and EverQuest II, have more involved and robust systems, it's understandable that players would expect an innovative game like Landmark to move forward, not back. Georgeson noted that the system currently in game is just the rudimentary beginnings of crafting. In fact, he explained that the team has been pretty pleased to get crafting to the point it was at before the alpha started, and players should definitely be expecting much more to come.
What about the animations, like working the forge in EQII? The answer: "We'll get to that." Georgeson also revealed more of the plans for crafters. "Remember the classes of EQN where you collect a whole bunch of them and you specialize? We're going to be doing that kind of thing with crafting also." So players who have learned specializations will be able to craft different and better things than players who haven't. Additionally, players will have to work together to craft some really great things, as players will have different specializations.
To those who can't find a spot now or would prefer a different one, you'll have the chance to claim a new spot soon. More worlds, each with its own set of island maps, are incoming: one tonight named Serenity, two very soon (as in days), and a whole bunch more when the ordered hardware is delivered. It is expected that many current players will pull up stakes and move to these new worlds, opening up the current worlds up for new players to stake claims.
Home and back again
Georgeson also addressed the problems landowners had in finding their claims. "This week we're going to make it really stupidly obvious where your claims are and how to get there." He went on to note that "in hindsight it was hysterical how big a blind spot [SOE] had for this" since devs never faced the issue on their single island and were focused so much on other aspects like crafting and mining.
One of the bugs that is currently being fixed is the one afflicting players who log into different worlds than they logged out on. While exploration is fun, it's best when it is not forced; numerous players were forced to travel all the way to a portal in order to travel all the way back to their claim -- a very time consuming and annoying process.
That led into the topic of faster travel. We already know the grappling hooks are in game, but what else can players expect? For instance, earning a fast travel to your own claim was mentioned early on. Georgeson revealed that there are plans to have a default fast travel option to the island's portal hub for ease in traveling, but travel to claims themselves is still being debated so as to not negate the process of exploring as players go. "I think we're going to encourage you to actually move to your claim and port back to the hub whenever you want to go to another world," he told me. However, he did assure me that "there are so many cool ways [SOE is] planning to travel in this game... the grappling hook, mounts, gliding, and possibly flight."
Looking to the future
Combat will be at either the very end of alpha or the start of closed beta. The main hangup with that system is that mobs cannot be introduced into the world yet. "The thing that's stopping us from putting monsters onto the game is that we do not yet have pathfinding code written that works with changeable voxels." In other words, monsters can't just follow points on a path, so a whole new AI server has to be in place to handle calculations on the fly, allowing mobs to move around on ever-changing terrain.
Additionally, once liquid is in the game, players will be able to drown as well as burn in lava. On top of that, falling damage will eventually ensure that players will get hurt if they jump off a mountain without having a grappling hook or gliding. And the ability to slide up mountains will be a thing of the past once those mechanisms are put into place.
Pathfinding sounds like a huge problem for this game, but still surprised that they don't have a working solution yet, so far into development.
Solution: We are completely overhauling the map and claims interface to make it extremely easy to understand at a glance.
Details:
- You will never see a Claim buffer again. We still HAVE claim buffers, but they’ll be invisible. You will have “claimable space” and “unclaimable” space. Claimable space is blue, and unclaimable is red.
- This is just a ‘paintover’ of the terrain on the map. No more 3D representations of buffer spaces. Those are dead, dead, dead.
- To place a claim, you just open the map, look for a blue section and go place your claim there.
- On the other hand, your claim boundaries will still be shown as a 3D box. That way you can see where the claim is located vertically. (up in the sky, on the surface, or below-ground)
- There’s a few more nice things getting added since we’re touching it, but those will be obvious when you see the new interface.
We intend to get this improved interface up and running this week sometime.
Equipped items are there, just can't see them. If you have two items you can equip the one you see in the slot of the one you don't and the invisible item goes to your inventory.
Also, if you check your stats you should see the stat boost from the item.
Also, Serenity delayed:
> David Georgeson‏@DaveGeorgeson·3m
> We are holding off on the launch of Serenity until we get this new voxel issue resolved. There's no point otherwise. More soon.
https://twitter.com/DaveGeorgeson/status/430760713913528320
Yeah, stats still showing the effects, cheers
Damn, so what's a newcomer supposed to do now, just mine/gather I guess?
Damn, so what's a newcomer supposed to do now, just mine/gather I guess?
When everything is completed will this game interact with EverQuest: Next? If yes, how?
Thus far all I have seen is vague comments that state one's efforts in Landmark could contribute to the final product.
Player Studio is a program that offers players the opportunity to tap into their own creativity by creating in-game items that can be sold in the marketplace of their favorite participating online game.
Damn, so what's a newcomer supposed to do now, just mine/gather I guess?
Either way, I just learned about the claim overlay bug! Turns out if you don't relog after moving islands (via that crystal thingy) the claims overlay doesn't update properly, there's more space than you think!
http://i.imgur.com/YvNoGDE.png[IMG]
At the top left of Courage / Mesa, so I'll still move quick when the new server opens, it's quite a trek! :D
Now to lose it because, lol Alpha! :P[/QUOTE]
Yeah there's a placement bug too, where the box is red, but you can still place a claim.
Also, props dissapear on your claim? Delete it, re-log and place it back down. Boom all your stuff back. Somehow I have 4 flags (not claim flags) now, lol.
I have pretty consistent 60 FPS as well, i5 2500k, gtx 670, 8gb ram. I have a few tweaks that I have done though, such as setting shadows to low (everything else is on high). Playing in windowed mode also improves FPS right now, for whatever reason. As well as a few tweaks in the control panel:
"To improve your frame rates in game if you're using an NVIDIA graphics cards, open the NVIDIA Control Panel. Click 'Manage 3D settings' and in the 'Progam Settings' tab, click 'Add'. If 'Everquestnextlandmark64.exe' isn't listed, browse to it. Down in the feature box, set 'Power management mode' to 'Prefer maximum performance' and set 'Texture filtering - Quality' to 'High Performance'. This change barely reduces the quality of the in game graphics, but makes a HUGE difference for consistant framerates. "
What's your specs of your computer, and what settings you running at? Surprised the framerate is so steady... mine jumps around like mad.
I have pretty consistent 60 FPS as well, i5 2500k, gtx 670, 8gb ram. I have a few tweaks that I have done though, such as setting shadows to low (everything else is on high). Playing in windowed mode also improves FPS right now, for whatever reason. As well as a few tweaks in the control panel:
"To improve your frame rates in game if you're using an NVIDIA graphics cards, open the NVIDIA Control Panel. Click 'Manage 3D settings' and in the 'Progam Settings' tab, click 'Add'. If 'Everquestnextlandmark64.exe' isn't listed, browse to it. Down in the feature box, set 'Power management mode' to 'Prefer maximum performance' and set 'Texture filtering - Quality' to 'High Performance'. This change barely reduces the quality of the in game graphics, but makes a HUGE difference for consistant framerates. "
Are you using hard drive or SSD storage? I noticed this game puts a lot of data in the cache folder, so I bet that stutter is due to storage access. My install was up to like 25GB so I recently cleared out my cache folder.
You should make a bed and other stuff so that it looks like a regular house and put in a proper trap door
Awesome stuff!