Crowfall
- Thread starter Kharza-kzad_sl
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Muligan
Trakanon Raider
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Teekey
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 3,644
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Sort of how I feel about it. It really seems to detract from their "CRUSH 2 WIN" paradigm to give everyone their own personal kingdom to rule over.
The idea of a giant single persistent world that everyone consistently fought for, under a deep fealty system - seemed pretty appealing. They're still marketing the game as a "Throne War Simulator", but we really haven't heard much details about kingdoms outside of the personal kingdoms.
Although I know they're going to have a guild system, I personally think it would be much cooler if they only had an Allegiance/Vassal system sort of like the Asheron's Call series. They've hinted they're going to have a fealty system on top of a guild system...but I think this is the type of game in which a fealty/allegiance system would work well all by itself.
Mr Creed
Too old for this shit
- 2,385
- 277
By now this feels like permanent non-combat world where you play barbie dollhouse dress-up (not that there's anything wrong with that) and when you want some combat you pick a campaign to your liking and hop in (side question, does that lock you to that campaign until the bitter end or can you flee it early if things go south?). Campaigns last longer, maybe alot longer, but it still sounds instanced. I do think that campaigns, even if they resemble instancing, will stay interesting much longer IF the company really produces new worlds for them regularly.
Rogosh
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 897
- 232
voxel-farm-elken-stalkers
Crowfall: MMO - Throne War Simulator
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS | Voxel Farm
1. What are Voxels?
Imagine a world made of bricks - like Minecraft - only with bricks that are much, much smaller. So small, in fact, that you can't see them. Small enough that you can carve a sphere out of a surface and leave it perfectly smooth. You can take a chunk out of a wall or a hill without it looking angular and blocky.
Voxel Farm is a technology library that does two things:
1. It allows you to create things out of voxels, which means that things can be easily broken apart and put back together in real time.
2. It includes a library set for generating Worlds procedurally. More than worlds, actually - castle walls, towers, buildings, rocks. you name it!
This technology, when mixed with a real time physics simulation, opens up a whole new world of potential gameplay.
2. What does a voxelized world allow players to do?
Blast holes in walls. Collapse towers on your opponent. Dig a tunnel beneath a castle wall, so that you can dig your way up into the courtyard and siege from within.
Voxel technology gives the players the ability to (literally) move mountains.
To see what's possible, check out the Voxel Farm destruction demo, here:
3. Is this only on Campaign Worlds? Or on the Eternal Kingdoms are well?
We are using this technology for every Crowfall world.
On the Campaign worlds, the implications are obvious - if these Worlds are going to be destroyed eventually, anyway, why not make them fully destructible?
On the Eternal Kingdoms, the technology gives you the ability to customize your Kingdom or province in unique and interesting ways: construct a blacksmith shop, design a marketplace, build walls and towers and design a Castle.
All of this is possible -- provided, of course, that you win enough materials in the Campaign Worlds, first.
4. What does "procedural world" generation mean?
Most online games use 3D environments created by hand. This process is incredibly expensive and time consuming, as it requires the coordination of numerous artists and designers working for months to create every single area in the game.
Generating a game algorithmically means that this process is automated. Instead of having each World be created by a team of artists and designers, these individuals create assets (like trees and rocks and buildings) independently, as part of a "World creation toolset." Engineers then "teach" an algorithm to create a multitude of Worlds using (and re-using) those parts.
Algorithmic terrain creation isn't great for theme park games where the areas are created to match particular, pre-written storylines. However, it works GREAT for simulation and strategy games (like Minecraft, or Civilization) where your decisions - and the decisions of the other players - form the foundation of the experience.
5. What kind of things can be created algorithmically?
Terrain generation can be done algorithmically, resulting in realistic looking Worlds: oceans, continents, mountains, lakes, hills, valleys, rivers.
Subterranean areas can be included, as well. veins of iron or copper, twisting caverns and underground lakes and rivers. It can even be used to generate an endless landscape filled with ruins.
A great example of what can be accomplished with terrain generation can be found here.
Structures can be created algorithmically, as well. You can use "grammars" (sets of rules) to create walls and towers out of bricks, and castles out of walls and towers. See what kind of buildings can be "grown" algorithmically by checking out this video.
.and to see the real-time architectural tools in action, click here:
The two systems can even be used in conjunction, allowing you to build a continent and then "grow" villages, castles and towns in places where they would be most likely occur.
6. Why is this important for Crowfall?
Crowfall is a mix of an MMORPG and a strategy game.
You know that feeling you get, the first time you log in to a new game - that rush of exploration and mystery? The sense of excitement that comes during first turn of a game like Civilization - the urgency to explore, to expand, to conquer? that's the emotion that we want, every time you enter a new Campaign World.
One of the things that can make a strategy game grow stale is knowledge of the game board. If players learn that the key to winning is to always "take control of point A" and "avoid the choke point at B," it makes subsequent games less interesting.
By using an algorithmic approach to create new game Worlds at the "push of a button," Crowfall can keep the players constantly guessing and keep the game feeling new.
Crowfall: MMO - Throne War Simulator
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS | Voxel Farm
1. What are Voxels?
Imagine a world made of bricks - like Minecraft - only with bricks that are much, much smaller. So small, in fact, that you can't see them. Small enough that you can carve a sphere out of a surface and leave it perfectly smooth. You can take a chunk out of a wall or a hill without it looking angular and blocky.
Voxel Farm is a technology library that does two things:
1. It allows you to create things out of voxels, which means that things can be easily broken apart and put back together in real time.
2. It includes a library set for generating Worlds procedurally. More than worlds, actually - castle walls, towers, buildings, rocks. you name it!
This technology, when mixed with a real time physics simulation, opens up a whole new world of potential gameplay.
2. What does a voxelized world allow players to do?
Blast holes in walls. Collapse towers on your opponent. Dig a tunnel beneath a castle wall, so that you can dig your way up into the courtyard and siege from within.
Voxel technology gives the players the ability to (literally) move mountains.
To see what's possible, check out the Voxel Farm destruction demo, here:
3. Is this only on Campaign Worlds? Or on the Eternal Kingdoms are well?
We are using this technology for every Crowfall world.
On the Campaign worlds, the implications are obvious - if these Worlds are going to be destroyed eventually, anyway, why not make them fully destructible?
On the Eternal Kingdoms, the technology gives you the ability to customize your Kingdom or province in unique and interesting ways: construct a blacksmith shop, design a marketplace, build walls and towers and design a Castle.
All of this is possible -- provided, of course, that you win enough materials in the Campaign Worlds, first.
4. What does "procedural world" generation mean?
Most online games use 3D environments created by hand. This process is incredibly expensive and time consuming, as it requires the coordination of numerous artists and designers working for months to create every single area in the game.
Generating a game algorithmically means that this process is automated. Instead of having each World be created by a team of artists and designers, these individuals create assets (like trees and rocks and buildings) independently, as part of a "World creation toolset." Engineers then "teach" an algorithm to create a multitude of Worlds using (and re-using) those parts.
Algorithmic terrain creation isn't great for theme park games where the areas are created to match particular, pre-written storylines. However, it works GREAT for simulation and strategy games (like Minecraft, or Civilization) where your decisions - and the decisions of the other players - form the foundation of the experience.
5. What kind of things can be created algorithmically?
Terrain generation can be done algorithmically, resulting in realistic looking Worlds: oceans, continents, mountains, lakes, hills, valleys, rivers.
Subterranean areas can be included, as well. veins of iron or copper, twisting caverns and underground lakes and rivers. It can even be used to generate an endless landscape filled with ruins.
A great example of what can be accomplished with terrain generation can be found here.
Structures can be created algorithmically, as well. You can use "grammars" (sets of rules) to create walls and towers out of bricks, and castles out of walls and towers. See what kind of buildings can be "grown" algorithmically by checking out this video.
.and to see the real-time architectural tools in action, click here:
The two systems can even be used in conjunction, allowing you to build a continent and then "grow" villages, castles and towns in places where they would be most likely occur.
6. Why is this important for Crowfall?
Crowfall is a mix of an MMORPG and a strategy game.
You know that feeling you get, the first time you log in to a new game - that rush of exploration and mystery? The sense of excitement that comes during first turn of a game like Civilization - the urgency to explore, to expand, to conquer? that's the emotion that we want, every time you enter a new Campaign World.
One of the things that can make a strategy game grow stale is knowledge of the game board. If players learn that the key to winning is to always "take control of point A" and "avoid the choke point at B," it makes subsequent games less interesting.
By using an algorithmic approach to create new game Worlds at the "push of a button," Crowfall can keep the players constantly guessing and keep the game feeling new.
Bruman
Golden Squire
- 1,154
- 0
The quote from the dev was to make it not sound like an instance, but it just made it seem more like an instance. My immediate thought was EQ2's instanced housing. But now they're calling it kingdom or something. Maybe it's a larger generated mini-world or something - but either way, if everyone gets their own, whether they call it instance or not, it is the same effect.
And on this side of the coin, I'm hoping the things we usually associate with instance don't apply. Usually we're thinking WoW instances (which created the term AFAIK), which were a copy that was unique just to you and your group/raid. Noone else could get in, for the sole purpose of removing conflict (fighting over bosses). Here however, there's no artificial segment like that, and conflict is the whole point. It still has the "non-permanent" feel of an instance, because, well...it's not permanent, but it could still be long lasting, and no restrictions on who could join. I suspect there will a population cap per campaign or something, but that'd be it. In this regard, I get the feeling it'll be more like GW2 zones (when they get full, a new copy of the zone is created - so you could always play).
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Yeah, following the entire voxel dudes website a while back, (I think it was first linked in the eq next thread here) my first thought was a game like this PvP with siege warfare and the like. Also the dude covered a lot of procedural stuff on his website, the dude could make castles, even different ones by just fucking with the formula. It was quite amazing really. I wish I still had the link to it.
edit: I think this is it...Procedural World
edit: I think this is it...Procedural World
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Yeah i mean its the future of games. Take minecraft, refine that shit so it looks good with real physics and you have voxel farm. The thing that intrigues me about it is the procedural stuff they are doing with it. As the dude in that website above says, you dont need programmers to pull this stuff off. He has a architect on his staff that does all the procedural building stuff.
Procedural content is the wave of the future. Like that FAQ said it takes a ton of time and money to craft a world but if you can do it procedurally or at least segments done procedurally, then you'll be able to make games faster and cheaper.
Really depends on the people making it whether or not it looks like crap.
Really depends on the people making it whether or not it looks like crap.
I don't like what I'm reading about hard resets. If the game was continually changing/evolving permanently that would be awesome. But the thought of running a marathon, just so you can start back at the beginning to run it again reminds me of Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill.
kaid
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 4,647
- 1,187
Landmark say what you will does prove you can make some pretty landscapes and worlds that are fully destructible and get an amazing amount of detail out of that voxel farm engine. If they don't make the world as deep as landmarks is volume wise it probably would run fast on most systems. It also allows them to throw out totally new continents to fight over with minimal effort needed which is a huge plus for what they are aiming for.