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Nearly halfway to release—time to reconsider features?

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JimG
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Nearly halfway to release—time to reconsider features?

Development team,

I miss CoH, and have great hopes for CoT. Everyone in the forums is eager to share their ideas, and the dev team seems really committed and enthusiastic. Thanks so much for all the effort you are putting into this!

At the same time, it’s November 2014. We are about halfway between the kickstarter campaign and the hoped for release date in 2015.

Honestly, I’m worried about the project. The wish-list of features is extremely ambitious, but you don’t have the money or staff of the original CoH team. It’s great that you are using the UE 4 engine, but the new technology will not compensate for the other limits you face.

The recent animation video confirms my suspicions. Frankly, if you guys were a startup and I were an investor, I would be having a long talk with the team about which features need to be cut. I am familiar with UE 4, and that video is not very impressive for being halfway through your two-year development cycle.

Of course you don’t want to disappoint your fans . You want to stay true to your vision. I respect that, but this is the point where you must let your vision be tempered with wisdom. As some people have suggested, CoT could start with a nice place to run around and hit things and we will be happy. Impatient, but happy. If it works well, then we will eagerly stick around to watch you add new features.

Some things you should seriously consider eliminating from City of Titans v1.0 are:

-PvP
-Mission Creator
-Base Creator
-Alignment system
-Mac client

You will probably not agree with my assessment about dropping these features. Fine. But please, remember in a few months when you are facing this decision, do not be afraid to simplify things drastically. The first release of CoT will be more limited than City of Heroes 1.0, it will NEED to be more limited for you to eventually succeed.

Please do not let the hopes and dreams in these forums influence you too much. I’ve noticed people asking for things that the CoH team was not able to deliver of seven years of game development. Please have the wisdom to listen carefully, then ignore 99% of what we say.

I wish that somebody else had already created an MMO platform for UE4 that you could simple buy. Honestly, I think it would be a two year project to just create a stable and robust MMO framework using UE4. You might consider licensing your network code if you are able to create something decent.

You do have a fantastic community before the game even exists. You might be able to leverage our creativity in creating assets for the game. Let’s say, for example, you were able to create the network code to just let people log into and share a UE 4 map while chatting with each other. No avatars, no NPCs, no animations--just talkative ghosts flying around an empty city. We would wait an hour to get logged in just to see the buildings. We would exhaust ourselves submitting city maps and models for you to review and consider for the game.

I’m sorry if this is discouraging. I have watched software projects like CoT fail again and again. The industry is a graveyard of dreams and good intentions. You can succeed, but your dreams will need to be accomplished gradually, or they won’t be accomplished at all.

Here are two quotes that might apply to CoT:

-----------

“In retrospect, we were in some ways our own worst enemy. Many of the team members had wanted for some time to do a really huge, ambitious role-playing game. When we actually started the project and had a budget and schedule, we probably weren't realistic about how long RPGs typically take to develop . . . We were very reluctant to make big cuts in the design, such as cutting one of the two time periods or removing the multiplayer aspect. Because of this, we eventually had to make the decision to miss our first scheduled release."

http://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/postmortems-from-game/9781578202140/10_Chapter_05.xhtml
from Postmortems from Game Developer

-----------

"First, we make the game playable as soon as possible in the development process. Our initial priority was to get a guy moving around on the screen and hacking monsters. This is what players would be doing most of the time, and it had to be fun. We were constantly able to hone the controls, pathfinding, and feedback mechanisms during the entire length of the game's development. Most importantly, it allowed us to determine what was fun to do, so we could provide more of it, and discover what was awkward or boring, so we could modify or remove it."

http://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/postmortems-from-game/9781578202140/06_Chapter_01.xhtml
from “Postmortems from Game Developer”

--------------

Edit: Whoops, the full quotes are behind a paywall, but these paragraphs basically stand by themselves.

JimG

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Am I alone in thinking that

Am I alone in thinking that PVP, Mission Creator, and base creator were never on the slate for launch? Also, I think the launch date has been pushed back anyway. For what it's worth, I would not miss any of these features were they not available from day 1. I'm never going to care about the Mac port, personally.

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We had an animation video?

We had an animation video?

Technical Director

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Doctor Tyche
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Radiac wrote:
Radiac wrote:

Am I alone in thinking that PVP, Mission Creator, and base creator were never on the slate for launch? Also, I think the launch date has been pushed back anyway. For what it's worth, I would not miss any of these features were they not available from day 1. I'm never going to care about the Mac port, personally.

They were always on the "We'd like it, but not a high priority for launch" list.

And the Mac port is effectively a freebie.

Technical Director

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Doctor Tyche wrote:
Doctor Tyche wrote:

We had an animation video?

JimG might be thinking fireworks.

(Currently developing the Sapphire 7 Initiative)

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Or that short video of the

Or that short video of the running figure.

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It was my understanding that

It was my understanding that the initial release was only for the character creator. I don't think it was clearly stated one way or the other. Then as time went on they would introduce new modules and things to do stepping from COT 0.1 to COT 1.0 over the course of a few more years. Similar to Star Citizen. I think that worked out well there and while at a smaller scale could work for COT.

I don't think anyone here is here because they made an investment they are seeking returns on. It's a charitable donation to a cause that is close to our hearts.

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I have no idea how the OP is

I have no idea how the OP is making his calculations and I think he's basing his assumptions on a full-time professional studio, that he somehow has interest in. The technology demonstrations that we've seen so far are by no means indicative of the final product. I've seen nothing in MWM's releases that deserves such criticism.

Mmm, and he's been a member of the forum for a month? I'm not sure if that's enough time to read everything that's going on.

Sir, I don't mean to insult you, but I don't feel you have enough invested in this project to credibly criticize the Devs' performance.

Be Well!
Fireheart

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You know the mac client at

You know the mac client at launch was a stretch goal from the kickstarter. Even if it was going to take more than just compiling for and testing on a couple of Macs, they would still need to deliver it.

As for PvP, Mission Creator, and Base Creator, I have seen no promises from any Dev that they would be there at launch. They do need to be considered now to avoid future problems but they do not have to be working at launch.

The Alignment system, however, would seem to be critical to the core game. This is not something that can be added in latter like CoH as it is going to have more of an effect than simply what zones you have access too.

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I'm still optimistic, but

I'm still optimistic, but this kind of sentiment has definitely crossed my mind. There is A LOT of stuff that needs to happen before release. I trust Nate Downes and everyone at MWM, but the project does seem ambitious. The fact that the project's implementation is so opaque doesn't give us a lot to go on from the outside looking in.

Over time, the expected release date moved from the end of 2015, to early 2016, and now to mid 2016. Consider everything that will need to be implemented before release--according to the Kickstarter page--if promises will be kept:

  • Android and iOS versions of the Avatar Builder
  • A MacOS version of the game
  • Auras
  • Wings
  • Swinging, acrobatics, and sky surfing travel powers
  • Five primary powersets per Classification
  • Exclusive base decor
  • 415 player-created exploration badges
  • 113 player-created NPC's
  • 90 player-created weapons or props
  • 21 player-created costume textures
  • A perk once known as "Mogul" that involved player-created buildings

(Note that "player-created" means "players working with the artist/dev teams." Numbers include "all previous rewards" stated in each Kickstarter perk.)

I have faith that everyone at MWM is doing what they can to meet expectations, but they do have a lot of work to do in a little more than a year's time. I also think it's fair for Kickstarter backers to hold the project to its stated goals since they essentially "bought" these expectations.

I'm not saying all of this as criticism, but this realistically describes the present situation, and I understand the OP's point.

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I honestly feel that the

I honestly feel that the mission/base creation abilities will be most valuable at launch because (as with any MMORPG) there will be "thin points" of content that player created missions will do more than adequately fill.

Also.. Mac port is ESSENTIAL! You have no clue how truly important it is to me and (hopefully) others like me.

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JayBezz wrote:
JayBezz wrote:

I honestly feel that the mission/base creation abilities will be most valuable at launch because (as with any MMORPG) there will be "thin points" of content that player created missions will do more than adequately fill.

I agree that the mission creator will go a long way toward filling up content (you could even have a way for player made content to be voted into the game as official content with some ingame reward going to the creators of selected material.) but I fail to see how a base creator is really needed at launch.

Personally I'm willing to wait a while for a lot of features that I'm hoping to see. Remember in COH we had to wait for capes and wings and oh for heaven sake Soo freeking much. But it made the updates fun. We were always wondering what they would come up with next.

But PLEASE have nunchaku at launch. OH PLEASE, please please please.

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I think it is safe to say

I think it is safe to say that the majority of us have no illusions that the game is going to "spit polished" and perfect when it finally does roll out. Heck, I am just expecting just a character creator, some maps to hang out in with the other players, and a couple minor things to do to keep us occupied. Anything extra is icing on the cake as far as I am concerned.
The miracle is the fact that our Dev's are doing this on their own time, working around their real lives, and that they are Willing to do it at all.
They are paying attention to the forums, and am sure they are making huge wish lists of things to do as time goes on. I expect nothing, and will be very pleased when we get anything at all. From everything I have seen/read, the Dev's are good people and I have no doubt my expectations will be exceeded. Please, take your time Dev Team, Thanks for doing what you can!

They also serve, who only stand and wait.

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radientone wrote:
radientone wrote:

I think it is safe to say that the majority of us have no illusions that the game is going to "spit polished" and perfect when it finally does roll out. Heck, I am just expecting just a character creator, some maps to hang out in with the other players, and a couple minor things to do to keep us occupied. Anything extra is icing on the cake as far as I am concerned.
The miracle is the fact that our Dev's are doing this on their own time, working around their real lives, and that they are Willing to do it at all.
They are paying attention to the forums, and am sure they are making huge wish lists of things to do as time goes on. I expect nothing, and will be very pleased when we get anything at all. From everything I have seen/read, the Dev's are good people and I have no doubt my expectations will be exceeded. Please, take your time Dev Team, Thanks for doing what you can!

I certainly hope so. One of my main issues with new MMOs and there communities in general is that there always was a group of people who would whine constantly about the MMOs not being ''Polished for release'' ''Paid Betas'' and similar statements like that. Not only was it annoying but these people are usually really bad at giving legitimate constructive feedback in a respectful manner. The ironic thing is these are usually the people who praise WoW....when WoW took several years to truly flourish. I really hope these types of people never touch City of Titans. Many MMOs recieve this but Champions Online and Wildstar (probably the only MMOs I actually liked since I was disillusioned from WoW and left CoX under real life circumstances which if I had a time machine I would go back on) when they were released got a huge amount of these idiots and these guys go out of there way to destroy and troll communities. I really don't understand the mentality behind this approach to criticism....these guys waste there time on hating on something they know they don't like or simply do not have the patience for.

The only thing I want out of this game honestly? A good community I can easily make friends in, a good character creator, and to feel like my character is actually powerful.

Formerly known as Bleddyn

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Bleddyn wrote:
Bleddyn wrote:

... I really don't understand the mentality behind this approach to criticism....these guys waste there time on hating on something they know they don't like or simply do not have the patience for. ...

From what i read, he seems like a Developer also, and he spent quite some time around others that work (or Worked) with Unreal. It doesnt seem like hes hating, but is curious as to the number of years the current developers have been using Unreal, since he most likely has online buddies that have worked for Years with Unreal and those buddies have put out slightly better Demos in shorter time(s).

I'm a developer too, but I Never worked with Unreal before, so when i 1st tried out working with UDK (tilted panels GUI stuff, but i switched to making it Unity3D.. video), there was a decent learning curve. I think we need to step back and take a breath. The project will Go On, as long as we want to see it done, no matter how much of a learning curve exists. Plus, MWM volunteers are not full time employees, so a time buffer needs to be padded too. ;D

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Bleddyn wrote:
Bleddyn wrote:

radientone wrote:
I think it is safe to say that the majority of us have no illusions that the game is going to "spit polished" and perfect when it finally does roll out. Heck, I am just expecting just a character creator, some maps to hang out in with the other players, and a couple minor things to do to keep us occupied. Anything extra is icing on the cake as far as I am concerned.
The miracle is the fact that our Dev's are doing this on their own time, working around their real lives, and that they are Willing to do it at all.
They are paying attention to the forums, and am sure they are making huge wish lists of things to do as time goes on. I expect nothing, and will be very pleased when we get anything at all. From everything I have seen/read, the Dev's are good people and I have no doubt my expectations will be exceeded. Please, take your time Dev Team, Thanks for doing what you can!

I certainly hope so. One of my main issues with new MMOs and there communities in general is that there always was a group of people who would whine constantly about the MMOs not being ''Polished for release'' ''Paid Betas'' and similar statements like that. Not only was it annoying but these people are usually really bad at giving legitimate constructive feedback in a respectful manner. The ironic thing is these are usually the people who praise WoW....when WoW took several years to truly flourish. I really hope these types of people never touch City of Titans. Many MMOs recieve this but Champions Online and Wildstar (probably the only MMOs I actually liked since I was disillusioned from WoW and left CoX under real life circumstances which if I had a time machine I would go back on) when they were released got a huge amount of these idiots and these guys go out of there way to destroy and troll communities. I really don't understand the mentality behind this approach to criticism....these guys waste there time on hating on something they know they don't like or simply do not have the patience for.
The only thing I want out of this game honestly? A good community I can easily make friends in, a good character creator, and to feel like my character is actually powerful.

can i have cheese with whine? anyway i agree u radientone

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The Minimal I be happy with.

The Minimal I be happy with. Avatar Creator, One area (not even have to be a full Zone), Chat so we can talk to each other and have costume contest. Beyond that is great! Something to keep the community alive and thriving is more than any other game that suffered shutdown has. The CoH maybe down but it's spirit lives on!

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Izzy wrote:
Izzy wrote:

Bleddyn wrote:
... I really don't understand the mentality behind this approach to criticism....these guys waste there time on hating on something they know they don't like or simply do not have the patience for. ...
From what i read, he seems like a Developer also, and he spent quite some time around others that work (or Worked) with Unreal. It doesnt seem like hes hating, but is curious as to the number of years the current developers have been using Unreal, since he most likely has online buddies that have worked for Years with Unreal and those buddies have put out slightly better Demos in shorter time(s).
I'm a developer too, but I Never worked with Unreal before, so when i 1st tried out working with UDK (tilted panels GUI stuff, but i switched to making it Unity3D.. video), there was a decent learning curve. I think we need to step back and take a breath. The project will Go On, as long as we want to see it done, no matter how much of a learning curve exists. Plus, MWM volunteers are not full time employees, so a time buffer needs to be padded too. ;D

I was agreeing with radientone, not saying he was one of those people who do that. Infact I was providing supporting detail as I have encountered many of this exact people who expect games to be spit polished and bug free by release ''because it's 2014''. Sorry, but I an one of those people who are quick to call out people's bullshit and those guys who radientone are talking about have a lot of it. As I said I don't understand the mentality behind it as you probably seen before if you looked at new MMOs forums these guys pratically expect the game to be perfect at release and they hide the fact that there being a asshole and whining constantly under the guise of ''I am giving feedback'' when the reality is they are giving non-constructive feedback that is pretty much useless.

I am not someone who minds negative feedback mind you. the original post is an example of negative feedback done right. I just hate when someone acts like there giving feedback when they really are not.

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Well, I think what we've

Well, I think what we've mostly seen so far on this thread is valid concerns aired and then realistic expectations given in response, which is good. I think there's also an undercurrent of frustration, which is understandable.

One of the problems is that it's just a difficult situation, and hard not to get a little emotional about. We all want this game and want it to be great, but, until we have it, we're all just waiting with nothing that really properly fills the hole that CoH left, and that gets frustrating at times.

Mind you, not frustrating because MWM is doing anything wrong, or because they aren't doing an amazing job (they are), but because we badly want something that we just simply can't have yet. Then, there's the daunting possibility that for some reason we'll never get the game or that it won't be successful (had to say it out loud, but this is not really an option :P), which just exacerbates things.

And so frustration pops up from time to time. It's understandable and immanently human. But this is a great community and we'll handle it and we'll have our game thanks to MWM.

'Nuff said.

FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)

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I probably should have done

I probably should have done some more research before my original post. I do think that a “minimum viable product” and a short list of release features is the way to go.

>Mmm, and he's been a member of the forum for a month? I'm not sure if that's enough time to read
>everything that's going on.

Agreed!

>Or that short video of the running figure.

Yes, that was the one I was referring to.

Plexius, thank you for the comprehensive list of kickstarter goals. If I had put more time into my original post that’s the list I would have produced and used. I’m concerned that this list has features on it that were not in the City of Heroes 1.0 release such as auras, wings, and customizable colors.

We shall see!

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For what it's worth, I don't

For what it's worth, I don't remember seeing ANY 3D animation from CoH in the year or two before it launched.

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My memory is foggy for this

My memory is foggy for this time period. Luckily, a quick trip via the wayback machine shows that Cryptic Studios had a video of gameplay in the 3D engine in April of 2003, a full year before the commercial release in 2004.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030404134221/http://www.cityofheroes.com/movies.htm

This doesn’t prove anything, of course, but I agree this is an interesting benchmark for comparison.

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I think part of the problem

I think part of the problem is that the team is not updating this site. For example, the FAQ states:

We're aiming to get it in your hands in 2015, but we're hoping to be able to release the character creator and base builder some time before the game goes live.

So even though the devs have stated in the forums that release has slipped into 2016, there is major misinformation on the main page that's supposed to answer questions like this.

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JimG wrote:
JimG wrote:

I think part of the problem is that the team is not updating this site. For example, the FAQ states:
We're aiming to get it in your hands in 2015, but we're hoping to be able to release the character creator and base builder some time before the game goes live.
So even though the devs have stated in the forums that release has slipped into 2016, there is major misinformation on the main page that's supposed to answer questions like this.

Thanks for reminding me that the FAQ needs updating. Parts of it stem from when we were working with CryEngine.

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Hello. It's a pleasure to

Hello. It's a pleasure to hear some frank discussion here. I have to say that JimG's concerns are valid, but his suggested fixes don't match our designs.

And I can tell you why. We knew what our planned features were, and therefore, we designed them in a slightly more integrated way. The 'base creator' is going to be a subset of the mission creator we use to make our in-game missions. The public mission creator (which we don't plan to release at launch, we'd like you guys to play some of our game before making your own) will also be a subset of the full creator we're making. As such, provided we actually complete the game, there's no technical reason to delay their creation. The better the internal mission creator is, the more missions we can make. So it's worth making our internal creator work pretty well, so our writers can do their work without bothering the artists and programemrs.

As for the Mac client, thanks to Unreal 4 having that capability built in, it's not really going to be a showstopping concern. We'll probably stagger it a week or something just so we can focus on one set of glitches at a time, but it should be out with the main game.

As far as auras, wings, and so on, they're really not any more complex than 'has a left arm', from a technical standpoint. It's all a matter of designing and implementing properly.

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warcabbit wrote:
warcabbit wrote:

As far as auras, wings, and so on, they're really not any more complex than 'has a left arm', from a technical standpoint. It's all a matter of designing and implementing properly.

How much more complex is multiple arms? I presume more complex than "has another left arm".


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desviper wrote:
desviper wrote:

warcabbit wrote:
As far as auras, wings, and so on, they're really not any more complex than 'has a left arm', from a technical standpoint. It's all a matter of designing and implementing properly.

How much more complex is multiple arms? I presume more complex than "has another left arm".

programemrs lol

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Multiple arms is trickier

Multiple arms is trickier because they overlap in range of motion. Animations can get ugly there. For simple creation, not really.
If we were to design the game so everyone had four arms like a Spidey variant, it'd be not that much more difficult.

Now, changing it for one guy? That's tricky.

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If I remember right about

If I remember right about that Running animation it was less about the animation and more about how the Costume can be Asymmetrical and what they can do with the tools. The Mannequin had on mix matching designs and textures. As well as the basics of the costume editing tool as well as a few other little things. It was not a demonstration of the Animation or a real demo of the character creator. Just a show of how it can do more than people thought. Of course that just what I remember and I could be wrong.

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1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP

DesViper
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warcabbit wrote:
warcabbit wrote:

Multiple arms is trickier because they overlap in range of motion. Animations can get ugly there. For simple creation, not really.
If we were to design the game so everyone had four arms like a Spidey variant, it'd be not that much more difficult.
Now, changing it for one guy? That's tricky.

It's still in the "would be nice pile" for me, but figured I'd throw the question out there.


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desviper wrote:
desviper wrote:

warcabbit wrote:
Multiple arms is trickier because they overlap in range of motion. Animations can get ugly there. For simple creation, not really.
If we were to design the game so everyone had four arms like a Spidey variant, it'd be not that much more difficult.
Now, changing it for one guy? That's tricky.

It's still in the "would be nice pile" for me, but figured I'd throw the question out there.

I'd say there's a general principle at work here.

We'd all like all of the customization and features that we can get, but some are easy and some are difficult. So, except for in the case of key game features, we should get all of the "low hanging fruit" first, and then more difficult ones can be worked on for later release.

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7thGate
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Personally, I've always felt

Personally, I've always felt 2015 was an overly ambitious release date, and am not surprised at all that it is slipping. If this was a project at work, I probably would have given product development an estimate of end of 2016, although it is hard to tell from the outside just how many resources they have from the part time team. I won't be surprised if this ships somewhere around Spring 2017, honestly. Huge projects have a way of slipping deadlines, especially software projects because it can be very hard to estimate the time impact of unforseen issues up front.

I do feel very encouraged by their approach to a number of stated goals because they match decisions I would have made designing this, namely the choice to build a full featured level editor that can be stripped down into a functional mission and base creator for public consumption. They need to have those tools internally anyway in order for the mission designers to do the levels, so given that we know that there is eventually going to be base and mission editors available to the public, it makes sense to build the internal tools with that in mind. By designing for it up front, they will be able to minimize the amount of extra effort they need to release those features. Likewise, a Mac port is one of those things that is really easy if done up front and really hard if you accidentally lock yourself into technologies that don't work on the Mac, so I fully agree that building it in from the start seems like a good plan.

Alignment changing could have been postponed if it had been designed that way from the start, but from what they have put out in updates it seems to be a fairly intrinsic part of the overall design at this point, so its likely not feasible to rip it out in the interests of saving time. PvP likely can and possibly should be scheduled to come out post launch due to the huge amount of balancing it requires, but you have to lay the groundwork for how you're going to include it or you hit severe problems.

Personally, I'm cautiously optimistic at the status of the project at this point. I get a distinct competent engineer vibe coming off of a number of the technically inclined devs, which I think will mean that the game at least launches at some point. They're still doing regular updates, things seem to be progressing. The lore looks good. Things that make me nervous at this point are a significant lack of gameplay demos, since something rough should be possible by now even if it is missing crucial pieces, and the missing character creator. It was theoretically supposed to launch in April, IIRC, and got delayed. I wasn't expecting it to launch by April, honestly, but I would have expected it to be done by now if it remained a priority, or at least be in a functionally working state with only a portion of the final art assets planned for launch available. I haven't been keeping 100% up to date on new developments, so I might have missed info related to that, and its also possible I am misremembering when it was supposed to launch, but it isn't overly encouraging.

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Im not worried. Stuff comes

Im not worried. Stuff comes up and you have to adapt, and as long as you dont give up... you will Succeed. ;)
MWM has had a few bumps, but nothing that cant be overcome withing a short amount of time.

From a technical perspective, things like:
- Switching from Unreal Engine 3 to 4.
- Having most learn an additional 3D package (Houdini).
- Reworking the 3D Rig so that limbs/etc.. can be ex/changed with other kinds later.
- Learning about Unreal Engines...
-- Particles and how it works as part of Visual FXs.
-- Animation Blending and seeing how it works with the 3D Mesh.
-- (Multi-)Layered Materials and how to optimally apply them to a mesh.
-- Optimizing Material Shaders to Look like you want them to look.
-- Coding the back-end to take all those tiny little pieces and make it act differently in different scenarios.
- etc...

Sooo... a little bit of patience is in order. ;)

I know how slow it is, since in my own project, i'm only up to (83% complete) the part of working on the Text Shaders that can let the user change the Text Fill color gradient, Text Outline color, and the DropShadow color.. values in real-time. And taking into Account the Alpha values of each and making sure that the mask works correctly. :(

ex:

Takes time. Not So easy! :P

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Thanks for the reply! I'm

Thanks for the reply! I'm happy to hear some of the reasoning behind your choices. Thanks also for updating the FAQ.

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Ohh, i just checked the Reply

Ohh, i just checked the Reply to Post #'s.. they are not showing the source, just its own Post #. :/

Scott Jackson
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That's pretty much my

[pointer to 7thGate's post]
That's pretty much my assessment as well. I do have some concerns, though not to the level I sensed in the OP. One possible confidence-builder that I didn't see mentioned earlier - how about a window into organized planning (such as a gameplay/systems wiki) even in the absence of share-worthy progress on the avatar builder?
[edit - got an official response on this here, that some work on the website (MWM's? This site?) may include it. The work was intended but then delayed by other priorities, so I am now searching for posts regarding its revised timeline. [edit - no luck]]

I can understand if the switch to UE4 or the sheer complexity of the effort has delayed the sort of videos people might have hoped to see by now for the avatar builder - even while ensuring a better end result. However, if overall gameplay / system planning has proceeded mostly intact, that would be reassuring evidence of steady progress being made toward a full-featured successor game, just as lore updates have shown that a storied world is being created.

To be clear, I don't think now is the time to do what the OP suggested; that decision-making process which balances between features and deadlines is actually continuous. If MWM simply strives to be honest on both sides of the equation (what is possible and when), the rest will fall into place with continued player support and understanding. Unlike most development efforts that face the biggest risk from above (funding cut or mismanagement by a production company), our attempts are most dependent on reputation and trust - which can say strong except through repeated, unacknowledged failures or broken promises.

Doing a project like this in the most efficient way (critical in a player-driven development model) requires careful engineering to avoid unintentionally dynamiting a bridge that MWM wants to cross in the future. The socket for a system like PvP or user-generated content could be left empty, but the socket still has to be designed to smart standards so that it won't conflict with PvE, either in its unplugged or eventual plugged-in state.

Cost/deadline priorities which hinder that planning will basically guarantee later issues and expansions will be expensive and slow to produce. For instance, I wouldn't see much value in getting a stripped-down version of CoT released a year earlier, if that makes the gaming public question the value of the game box and subscription, and then wait years for a "full game". I'd rather bite the 1-year bullet and see that the focus remains on quality and a noteworthy launch of a competitive product. Warcabbit's description of the base builder and mission creator leads me to believe the focus is still on the long-term success of a quality game.