Radio Stratics Friday, January 31, 2003 - 1:12 PM [Filed by Herok]
Got this direct from the intervier, Tim "Dariuas" Slager:
The next Stratics Radio show will be done with Serafina Pechan Lead Developer of Atriarch. Of course, this is a Stratics exclusive. The show will be Monday Febuary 3rd, at 8:00 PM eastern time. The show will be done from the Stratics IRC server. Details will follow below. Now, this show, since it is pre-release, will be a bit subtler then past shows. Questions will be filtered by Stratics affiliates, and then relayed to Serafina. The questions will be asked on the air, and credit given to its author.
To connect to the Internet Relay Chat server you will require an IRC client, mIRC just released their latest client, and you can get that at http://www.mirc.com. After you get the client, you'll get a prompt to put in an IRC server address. To connect to IRC, you can use irc.stratics.com, or riot.tac.net, or one of the other server's located at here at Stratics Chat including the Java client, found using a link to the left. The channel will be #radio on IRC, so you would type /join #radio in the your IRC client. How to connect to the show will be posted at a later date as I said.
To connect to the show, you will need some sort of media client, such as Winamp, or Windows Media Player. Once you have your desired client, you will need to "Open Location". For Winamp, simply pressing CTRL-L will open it. In Media player, you'll need to goto file then Open Location. Once you have this box, you'll type in http://stratics.homeip.net:8000
Great to hear it! Look forward to the reading the transcript!
Atriarch.com Updated Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 12:11 AM [Filed by Herok]
Atriarch.com was updated today with a glance at some of the discussions occuring in the community with the developers.
The Atriarch design team has been participating in several discussions threads with gamers on the boards of Atriarch Community sites. You are welcome to join in the discussions and offer your feedback. Here are some of the topics:
Debate: Single or Multiple Character Slots Tuesday, January 28, 2003 - 4:46 AM [Filed by Herok]
Serafina has thrown open the doors, thrown down the gauntlet, thrown up her arms and thrown a fit (but not thrown in the towel!) and initiated another community debate discussion over at the ATV forums. The topic, as this news title suggests, centers on the number of character slots Atriarch would allow.
Here's what Serafina had to say:
This is a discussion we have had many times when deciding how many character slots to provide in Atriarch. I was reading an older thread that discussed this. I decided to make it a new thread. Although, we have awhile before we have to make a firm decision on this issue, it is a good time to bring it up. Star Wars Galaxies announced a month ago that they will be allowing only one character slot. It has spurned a lot of debate on discussion boards all over the place. I would like to discuss that issue here.
I see good and bad things about both single character and multiple character accounts. On the positive side, I like being able to switch around between characters and trying out different races (in our case, species). On the negative side, the characters stay in the world even when the player logs off (at least they do in Atriarch). That means many, many "trial" characters that are abandoned. I'm not talking about mules, but rather characters a person tries out for an hour, then decides never to play again. How do you see that impacting the world?
Financial issues will definitely come into play also (like back-end cost for maintaining characters), especially since characters are persistent. However, assuming financial issues are not a factor... then what are the arguments for and against?
How many characters would you like to see? 1? 3? 5? 20? 100? Why? Also, look at it from this perspective... how many characters would you like for your account versus how many you would like every other player to have. Is that the same number? For example, would you personally like to have 5 characters, but wish everyone else was stuck playing one? hehe... just an interesting way of looking at it I think. Keep in mind there is one world (one English world anyway... Asia gets their own world).
Wish Upon a Star Monday, January 27, 2003 - 8:03 PM [Filed by Herok]
If your wish was for customized client interfaces and the star was Serafina, then your wish may come true...some day. Here in the ATW forum, Serafina answered the question with a firm maybe:
we were totally going to do that. We thought it would be a great idea too. It is one of those features we tagged as "nice to have, but not necessary". Basically, that translates into... it won't make it in for release. However, it is on our list for "when we have time, we definitely will".
Yes, we have many categories for features...
"really want to have, but don't have time" "way cool, try to get in if have time" "can wait for post-release" "must have" "nice to have" "will be drawn and quartered if don't have" "would kick ass, but not feasible for long time"
I should clarify... when I say unfeasible. Sometimes I don't mean because of technology. I mean sometimes because we don't have the manpower. We are a very small team and that does make us prioritize accordingly.
This, of course, prompted the question from Supersloth, "Could you tell us what are some other "perks" that we could expect after the initial release? I'd be interested in seeing some of that list you guys have..."
We'll keep you updated when we hear back. Thanks Serafina!
Nice Package Sunday, January 26, 2003 - 11:42 PM [Filed by Herok]
Following the inventory thread at ATS, Xanvis asked, "Couldn't you just give every object (or, at the very least, the ones that bend, fold, and squoosh) a "Packed size", which is separate from their normal, or non-packed size?" Serafina replied,
Xanvis... what you wrote is pretty close to what we are doing. We are just accomplishing it in a different way. The difference is that we are trying to base as much as possible on the physical properties of the world. We want to take advantage of the fact that the world runs on a physics-based engine. Therefore, when calculating volume, we base it on real physical properties. Each "thing" in Atriarch has mass and density. From mass and density, volume is easily calculated. There is no need to come up with a stat, because the physics engine takes care of it dynamically. If we did not utilize the physics, then we would have to manually go through and give each thing a "packing stat" of some sort. This would be a lot of manual work, especially since the mass and density are already provided. Also, this way keeps things consistent across the board.
What is unfeasible is to calculate folds in clothing and certain shapes from a physics point of view. We will not have cloth dynamics in the game.
Doing it manually is unfeasible as well. Imagine the time it would take to go through thousands items, then break them down to their parts, then try to figure out how each part could best fit together in each of the different shapes of a container. Now imagine all the different combination of whole items, now combinations of item parts. Add in the different shapes and sizes. Now take into consideration container shape and size. One container may be a backpack. One container may be a chest. Another container may be a pot with a lid. Yet another may be a drawer. Imagine the truly massive amount of work it would take to figure out each possible configuration manually. A spoon and bowl may fit into a pouch one direction, but not another. Trust me when I say, volume is the most efficient and consistent way to do this. Then again... maybe it isn't, I'm open to suggestions... preferably ones that allow me to utilize stats that are already a part of items.
Xanis... thanks for the idea! It is people willing to put their ideas and suggestions out there that really help us figure out new and innovative ways to approach things. Even if we don't think the idea is a good match for us, we love to hear your feedback. We are always reading, even though we aren't always posting.
Hope I didn't bore anyone with the physics part of it :-)
Speaking Volumes on Inventory Sunday, January 26, 2003 - 9:33 AM [Filed by Herok]
Over on the ATS forums, in a thread concerning inventory, Serafina elucidated on the fun vs. realism issue of inventory and containers:
The basic inventory in Atriarch is implemented. However, we have not yet completed containers (more below on containers). The basic way it works right now is your character interacts with things in the world, either first person or third. A player has the option of bringing up a "paper doll" I don't like to call it a paper doll, because it is not a 2-D representation. It is a superimposed image of your 3D character. The same 3D geometry that is used for your character in the world is also being used in the inventory screen. You can opt to interact with your character through the inventory screen if you like.
As most of you know, what you see in the world of Atriarch actually exists in the world of Atriarch (with rare exceptions). If your Lokai has a purple polka-dotted Khanja (walking staff), then you and everyone else in the world will see that staff in all its purple polka-dotted glory. If you threw that staff on the ground, it does not turn into a sack or generic icon. It stays exactly the way it was when you were carrying it.
The same goes for containers, such as backpacks. Containers will be visible in the world. If you open one, you will see what is in it. What you will not see in Atriarch is someone pulling out of their backpack three knives, a staff, a horse, a buggy, three hump-back Kompas, and the kitchen sink.
The problem with containers we face as game designers is how to keep the realism, but still make it fun. Some games require a management degree to get through their inventory system. Our philosophy is that keeping it real makes for the most intuitive interfaces. However, we quickly come up against the problem of measuring irregular space, cloth, leather, things that fold and bend and squoosh. In real life, we can arrange things to fit into backpacks, containers, drawers, and tiny carry-on luggage that will fit in the overhead compartment.
The squooshing factor is just not feasible in games... not yet anyway. Our solution to that is to base containers on volume. Every item in the game has a volume based on approximate size and scale. Every container has an empty space volume approximately based on size and scale. Basically, if the item's volume is smaller than the volume of the empty space, then it will fit. This is where we break realism for the sake of keeping Atriarch fun. That means you will be able to "squoosh" pieces that would not necessarily fold, like armor. Our goal is to assume that if you were in real-life, you'd make it fit somehow. It still means that you could not fit your house in your back pocket. However, it does allow enough space to carry reasonably-sized items, even if a bit awkward.
Whether or not a camera will zoom over the container in the world. We don't know yet. Keeping the user interface simple to use is a key objective. Personally, I think keeping all interaction within the world is the simplest way to go, especially with an option for the 3D paper doll. Since containers has yet to be implemented, we will have to wait and see. Anything that has to do with UI will be highly, highly... did I mention very... tested. So, we'll see if my theory on paper holds in real-life...err.. virtual life :-)
Sticky Situation Friday, January 24, 2003 - 5:53 PM [Filed by Herok]
I'm getting the sense that people here think you are stuck in the location you begin. Your starting location is just that... just a starting location. If you want to hook up with a friend then meet up with them. You never have to go back to your starting location if you don't want.
The idea is that players are given an option to start in an area where there is a hotbed of activity occuring in field in which they are interested. Most games have these sorts of areas. You can see people hovered around a forge or in a town that sells a lot of the supplies for a chosen craft. The goal is to start players in the middle of activity. Now the truth is that we can start players in any number of situations, activities or locations. For example, many games start players near a newbie hunting ground. However, let's say you don't care about hunting or killing. Let's say you want to be the best darn Kurin leather belt maker in all of Atriana. Well, why not drop the player off into an area where there is leather belt making. When a new player starts asking around to other players or natives about, then the player will be in the right spot and around the right people to ask about leather making. Let's say that same person is dropped into a newbie hunting zone. The player asks around... "excuse me, where can I find the Kurin leather making school" More likely than not, the person will not know because they are not there to tan Kurin leather.
Wow, that was a long-winded paragraph. Does that makes sense? Basically, it is like starting people in an area where their first experience will be with like-minded people. Nothing is saying they can't venture off and change their minds in what they want to do completely.
This is basically just an idea. Changing the starting location of a new player is one of the easiest things in the game to change over and over and over until we get it right. So, we can discuss this sort of thing until the last minute. However, just because it is easy to change doesn't diminish the impact it has on the game.
Thanks Serafina!
Hotbed of Activity Friday, January 24, 2003 - 11:47 AM [Filed by Herok]
Responding to the concern that trying to hardcode areas of interest in a starting location script would require the computer to have a "taste for meat" (to coin Brundle Jr.), Serafina had this to say about hotbeds on the ATV forums,
I have to agree with your concern on that one. The biggest question we had was... if we do decide to start people in hotbeds of activity, then how do we recognize them? Do we use customer service people? gm's? Is it automated? The answer right now is, I don't know. I figured it would be best to figure first if it was something worthwhile. If it is, then I will spend time figuring out how to do it. No need to figure out how if it turns out that no one likes the idea.
So...do you like it? If so, its time to speak up. :)
Service Interruption Thursday, January 23, 2003 - 8:00 AM [Filed by Herok]
Please note that any time over the next three days the DNS will propogate to the new servers. While this shouldn't affect most of the site, it will affect the forums as we are unable to install the forum on the new site until the domain nameserver changes. We will make every best effort to capture the latest posts and may "turn-off" the forums early to ensure that. If everything goes according to plan, you should not noticed the difference but if you have any issues, please do not hesitate to contact us at webmaster@atwatcher.com.
Thank you to the Atriarch community and World Fusion for your continued interest in Atriarch and helping this site stay alive.
[Admin note: The site is now fully on the new server. If you know someone who can't access it, its likely a DNS issue. Suggest to them that they get their ISP to cycle their cache.]
Functional Locality Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 4:46 PM [Filed by Herok]
Reviving the thread on start locations, Serafina hit the community forums with this topic-twister:
Here is a new twist on this topic. It is an idea that Arc brought up today while we were discussing the long debated topic of starting locations.
What if we gave players the option to start in a "functional" location. For example, if you want to start in a location where there is a lot of trade. Or let's say you want to start where there is a lot of hunting. Basically, there will be hotspots of centralized activity and your character could choose to start in one of those hotbeds of activity.
This would put player's characters right in the middle of what they are interested in. For example, if you wanted to learn construction, then it would be a waste of time to start you near a hunting ground. Instead, wouldn't it make more sense to start you near a where a lot of construction is going on?
It may not necessarily fall strict world rules on where someone would be born. However, we do want to remember the first rule of Atriarch... IT MUST BE FUN! Doesn't it make more sense to start a player where they would be interested in doing something rather than forcing it upon them? I think that would make it a lot more fun. Of course, that is just my opinion. What do you all of you think?
Size Matters Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 4:45 PM [Filed by Herok]
Last week Serafina discussed some of the impetus behind the new screenshots over at the ATSforums:
Hi all!
Thanks for all the great words and encouragement about the screenshots. Arc took those screenshots. As most of you know, Arc is Eshlar. Arc really wanted to put some new graphics features into the engine before we put out new screenshots, especially since the next region we were showing as of the Eshlar. LOL! of course, he wanted to make sure his Eshlar area looked as beautiful as possible. However, I told him the community would shoot us if we didn't put out something now! I promised! So, I made him do the screenshots.
Arc did them in a way to make sure people would get a perspective of how large everything is. From our very first screenshots of Atriarch a few years ago, the most difficult aspect of static images in an alien world was giving a sense of scale. I think Arc did a great job in getting the right camera angles to show just how grand the area is.
However, I have to say, no matter how large it looks in the screenshot, it doesn't compare to actually walking around it. The first time that Mo gave us the content to import into the engine, I just sat there waiting for it to import... la de do de da. I create my character and am sitting at the computer ready to test it out. No big deal, because I had seen the concept renderings and the content before it was ever in the world. I had even seen the scale given. So, I am fully prepared for what I was about to see in Atriana, right? WRONG!
My character is born into the world facing a rock (ok, first thing I mark down... fix stupid starting location). Alright, time to walk around and see what content bugs there are... things like where there may be missing polygons, etc. I start in first person perspective (my perspective of choice). I turn my character around and my eyes (real-life eyes that is) open wide. I was taken back by what I was seeing. I was looking at this massive canyon with a trail built across it and being held up by these monumental pillars built over the mountains. I was in shock. This is exactly what I saw in the concept rendering, but now I was in it! I started to walk forward as more of the background came into focus. Off into the distance, in the middle of a bay surrounded by sheer cliffs with visible strata, there was this platform upon which a massive pyramid-style structure was built reaching to the clouds. I immediately went to third person camera and zoomed out to see more. Before I knew it, I was a dot amongst towering structures, cliffs reaching down to the waters and an elevated trail over the rocks. The majesty of the area hit me as my character (an Unarra of course) became a tiny little creature, then a tiny dot, then completely disappeared into the scene all together. Until I was there, I had no comprehension of exactly how epic everything is in scale.
I mentioned this once before. One of my favorite and most recent movies is the Two Towers. Why? Well, besides obvious reasons, the sheer epic nature of the world engorges my every sense. I want Atriarch to be like that. I want players to feel like they are both crucial and insignificant at the same time. I want players to walk upon the world of Atriana and know they are a pebble in the ocean, and yet knowing that they are they pebble that can change the course of the tide.
hmm... ok, I'm done smoking... back to answering more practical questions. Yes, there will be a limit to how far you can zoom out. If for not other reason than incredible player imbalance it would create to be able to see everything.. or even a lot.
Our Favorite Developer is at it Again! Wednesday, January 15, 2003 - 2:34 AM [Filed by EdgeofEpsilon]
Serafina, in another grand moment of community interaction, posted on both ATS and ATW DevBoards today. She had this to say about combat and queuing:
The purpose for queueing (did I spell that right?) is to give combat more of a twitch feel, but without the need for fast connection. It gives the server time to get your next combat manuever while your character is still performing other manuevers. [In Atriarch,] each manuever takes anywhere between 1 - 5 seconds to perform before another one will engage. At least that is the time we are using for now. That is all stuff we will be testing. It works for now, we'll see if it still works when there are 10,000 people on... or even 100.
She also posted an additional message on that same thread in response to a question by Super Sloth, our lightning fast forum poster.
Returning to the Wonders post, she had this and more to say:
This is just an idea, but what about not actually having Wonders defined at all, but wait until we see something in the world that seems as though it is a wonder and then declare it one. For example, let's say that someone builds a building that reaches the height of one of the moons. Ok, I would say that would probably be a wonder. It could be submitted to the dev team or a volunteer committe or whomever is designated to review and decide if it deserves "Wonder status." That way, it doesn't really require any additional coding or development on our part, yet we can still have it in the game... and of course, be more subjective rather than clearly laid out... like a Wonder needs to be.
Interesting idea, and definitly something for a post release feature. Whilst on ATS, she took the time to post a description of her first seeing the Drasius platform in-game.
Alright, time to walk around and see what content bugs there are... things like where there may be missing polygons, etc. I start in first person perspective (my perspective of choice). I turn my character around and my eyes (real-life eyes that is) open wide. I was taken back by what I was seeing. I was looking at this massive canyon with a trail built across it and being held up by these monumental pillars built over the mountains. I was in shock. This is exactly what I saw in the concept rendering, but now I was in it!
Now we know the difference between those screenshots and being in the game, so we know what to expect when it comes out. Wooooo World Fusion!
Serafina Posts on "Wonders" and Perspective Modes! Thursday, January 9, 2003 - 5:00 PM [Filed by EdgeofEpsilon]
Serafina responded to one of the posts mentioned below, concerning player constructed Wonder. She also revealed some details about the player constructability of the Drasius platform and shared her views on the time it takes for construction.
A lot of discussion has been brought up about the time it takes to build in Atriarch. That is actually a really good question, because that is a topic that hasn't actually been discussed outside of World Fusion... Building will take a long time in real-life time to build. We are going through a lot to make player construction something important and really cool in the game. Thefore, I also think it is important that it takes much more time than stamping it on the ground. In fact, I think it should take a lot of time.
She also made a second response to the thread on ATV devoted to the new Drasius screenshots. It became a little off topic, talking about the perspective the screenshots were taken in. Among other things, she had this to say:
Even though I prefer to use 1st person almost every time, I find myself playing 3rd a lot in mmog's. Why? The reason is simple... monsters can pop out of nowhere. It is too dangerous to use 1st person perspective. Without having the camera pulled back, I can't tell if something is getting too close. I've died way too many times purely from my use of 1st person...
We play many other games, and unfortunately, not always just for fun. We play to evaluate things like play perspectives, camera controls and key/mouse controls. We want to make the default use of the controls as intuitive and useful as possible. What we are learning is that no single way is best, so we better make sure lots of different ways are viable :-)
Thanks Serafina, I know the community appreciates hearing from you. Woot!
It's nice to see some orange posts when you log in. Way to go guys!
Screenshots on RPG Player Friday, January 3, 2003 - 3:07 AM [Filed by EdgeofEpsilon]
Synon recently discovered some unique screenshots. Amongst several previously seen screenshots, there are three that are new to most of the community. Check them out here.
New Screen Shots Unrolled with New Year Thursday, January 2, 2003 - 5:48 PM [Filed by EdgeofEpsilon]
Evidently one of Serafina's New Years Resolutions was to remember to hand out those screenshots she promised us back in late October, because there they are, in all their rocky-skinned glory. Check out the new screenshots of the Drasius Port, but don't miss Serafina's new Full Screenshot Section! I know she worked hard on it.
Woot!
PS: Serafina commented on the screenshots on the ATV DevBoard. Check it out here.
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