Sparren

One of the more ambitious goals I have for the game is to make information valuable. I want npc dialogue, quest text, item descriptions, lore, ect. to be more than just passive entertainment or fluff. Obviously not every piece of lore or line of text can be meaningful and stuffed with hidden clues or references... that would be unrealistic. The idea is just to make it so that every once in a while some of them are. Often enough to keep players interested and reward those who choose to follow the lore and look at the game world with an investigative eye. Any piece of information within the game might be the starting point to a hidden puzzle, quest, progression path, or treasure hunt of sorts. Some of those may be one-time things which can only be completed by a single player or clan (although that will be rare). Discoveries might also provide hints which will help players better survive and traverse the game world. For example perhaps one of the game creatures is a type of bear whose bestiary page includes something along these lines: "Honey is one of their favorite foods. Travelers within the valley are often cautioned not to consume the treat before passing through. Just a hint of it's scent on the breath can be enough to draw the beasts from miles around." In a lot of games that might just be present for the sake of world-building, but in mine it might be a clue to players that if they travel in the map region the bears are native to with honey in their inventory this enemy will be much more likely to spawn. As a result there will probably be some cases where a player or clan wants to keep a discovery they've made through the research/discovery feature to themselves. Doing so won't stop others from discovering the same eventually, but could give the discoverer or their clan a head-start in unlocking any secrets or hidden meaning that might be tied to it. In other words (assuming the discovery is true) it gives them a temporary informational advantage. When it comes to validating discoveries I wanted to allow for a bit of room for deception. Thought it might be interesting... but it is one of the functionalities of the feature I'm still debating since I think the choice not to refute will rarely be used. Anyway, say for example a player belongs to a clan which has had a discovery revealed to it (that isn't available to the site as a whole). The clan wants to know if the information is legit so they ask one of their members with a high rank in research to check it for them. The player checks successfully and finds that it is false but for whatever reason doesn't want the clan to know (maybe he's already discovered the true entry for himself and doesn't want competition in some hidden quest it points towards... maybe he's actually a double agent and the false entry will lead the clan into some dangerous situations) something along those lines. I was intentionally vague about the reputation earlier because I didn't want to run off on too much of a tangent. Lol. I don't mind talking about it though, in essence it's just a special currency. Right now I actually have three different kinds: faction reputation, clan reputation, and fame. Each is awarded under different circumstances. Clan rep is given to clan members as a reward for doing things that help improve or level up the clan (like participating in raids or donating resources). Faction reputation is specific to key powers within the game (mostly deities and guilds) and added or subtracted for performing certain actions they approve or disapprove of while within their domain or sphere of influence. Fame tracks a players impact on the game world as a whole. It is rarer, and is awarded only for significant achievements like making global discoveries, participating in special events, and solving hidden quests. Each type of reputation has it's own store which offers special talents, items, and cosmetic upgrades to players that cannot be obtained anywhere else. So for example if you make a global discovery you'll get some fame plus a small amount of clan rep (if you're in a clan) and some faction rep with the Archive. Sharing a discovery only with your clan will grant clan rep (more than you'd get normally) but no fame or faction reputation. Keeping a discovery to yourself grants a small amount of reputation with only a specific faction (that doesn't yet have a name). Anyway... Glad you found the concept so far interesting (sorry for rambling on so much about it). I don't have a production server up for the project at the moment (just developing locally at this point), but when I do I'll have to invite you to test it out. Ah, sounds like it was for the best then. It's never good to box yourself into something you don't really enjoy. In the long-run it would have just been a bunch of extra stress. If you don't mind my asking, what kind if game is your new project going to be (as far as the genre goes at least)? Another petsite like HK? Adoptables? Something different? Just curious.

StrayDays (http://straydays.com/) Canis Novus (http://canisnovus.com/) Northern Call (http://northerncall.net/) Asmundr (http://www.asmundr.com/) - can register/play now but must pay (it's in paid alpha) Wolf Haven (http://www.wolf-haven.com/) Wild Howlz (http://wildhowlz.com/) Gryffs (http://www.gryffs.com/) Wooly Hooves (https://woolly-hooves.com/) Mweor (http://www.mweor.com/)

I know originally when it opened (after the 3 day head start for Kickstarter backers) registration was completely open, so I don't think the current limitations were the plan from the beginning. Unfortunately FR experienced big problems almost immediately because they had hugely underestimated its popularity and rate of growth and also (by their own admission) didn't code it in a way that was very efficient to scale. Things got super bogged down. It's a big part of why early festival items were so rare and also a factor in why eggs no longer 'die' if not tended daily. The coli at the time (if not the site itself) was constantly down or unplayably slow. It was a real fight to do anything. At some point they closed registration 'temporarily' while they tried to manage things and never fully reopened it again. They've been undergoing a pretty drawn-out behind the scenes recode of the site for some time now to improve its efficiency/scalability. They even hired some kind of consulting company to help with it. Once that's done with I think they've said they'll finally abolish the current registration limits. They have loosened them a little in recent months at least. Now registration opens one week a month. Last month it was the 12th to 18th so the next should be somewhere around then. Next week possibly? So in short... they've said they are trying to make the game stable for a larger number of users it just seems to be taking a long time.

Will do. At the minimum I'd like to post those 8 no one got to see sometime to get feedback. It's just a matter of transcribing them from my notepad to the computer, so I might do that this weekend if I have time.

I just finished up Red Rising by Pierce Brown. It took me a couple chapters to really get interested but then it hooked me in. If you happen to like dystopia I'd recommend it. Reminded me of the Hunger Games, but with less focus on romance and more on politics and survival.

Sounds great. If I ever get my projects off the ground I like the sound of the adoptable integration feature you're thinking about. If game owners did offer special adopts here in exchange for reviews there would need to be some kind of quality guidelines enforced though (and the owners themselves can't do it because that might punish or silence negative critiques). If people were to become wrapped up enough in building their collections here I could easily see some really short, inaccurate, or phoned in reviews being posted just for the sake of the reward. Possibly even reviews of games they've never played.

Cool, that's good to know. I have wondered if I was making a mistake taking it rather than something more directly tied to software development, so it's reassuring to hear that my IT experience might be valuable in that area as well.

Yeah I was. I lost a lot of steam with it when VPL went down. It was too easy to stop without an audience to keep me accountable. I got through 8 more days worth (not counting the 6 I think I had a chance to post) then gave up on it. I'll probably try again some time. I doubt I'd be able to keep up with it this month though, too many big assignments coming due.

Thanks! I really love how you've set things up here so far and can't wait to see how it develops. Will definitely be sticking around. ^^ Sure! That's kind of what I've been trying to iron-out with this prototype I've built... I have several different ideas as to how it could work but each has their weaknesses. On one hand I need the gameplay for the feature to stay 'generic' enough that tying new creatures, npc's, landmarks, ect. into it doesn't become prohibitively expensive or time intensive (what's the point of having the feature if I can't roll out enough new 'discoverables' to keep it relevant?). On the other hand, I still want it to be fun. Ideally something more than just a button click and skill check... The prototype I'm testing right now is pretty simplistic when it comes to the actual gameplay. This current iteration pretty much is just a button click and skill check. My thought was to start with minimal implementation of how I envisioned it functioning and work up to see what works. My prototype just deals with creatures players encounter, but a final version of the feature would encompass more. Basically, when players with the research talent of high enough rank encounter a creature about which information remains to be discovered a symbol appears next to it's name indicating that the investigation skill can be used. When the skill is activated the player is able to select a category of information to investigate (ex: diet, behavior, abilities, stats) and a roll is performed (modified by the level of the skill and certain character attributes like luck and intelligence) and determines the success or failure of the attempt. Then the skill is put on cooldown for some period of time. If an investigation is successful new information is revealed, exp and reputation points are awarded, and the player may choose whom to reveal the discovery to (the world, their clan, or no one at all). If they tell all they get a larger rep boost, the information is added to the global bestiary with the player credited for its discovery, and other researchers will no longer be required to investigate that category. If they reveal it only to their clan only the secret clan bestiary is updated, a lesser reward is given, and other players can still make the same discovery with the first to choose to make it global receiving final credit. Choosing to reveal it to no one works similarly. When the skill fails players will usually just get a failure message, however occasionally they will instead make erroneous discoveries. At face value these appear no different than legitimate discoveries and are treated and rewarded exactly the same. Players will only know that an error has been made if they run into problems or contradictions trying to apply the information learned somehow or if discoveries for all of the categories available have been made but the investigation symbol still appears by the creature's name. Researchers of the appropriate rank can use the validation skill on revealed discoveries within the bestiary to test their accuracy. It is an expensive skill with high cooldown, but required to officially detect and remove false entries and allow the true information to be discovered. When it succeeds it tells the user whether or not the information is accurate. If the information is inaccurate they may choose to refute it which costs them nothing, grants a boost in exp and rep, removes the entry, and deals a rep penalty to whomever discovered the falsehood. If they choose not to refute it nothing happens and another successful verify will be needed for the chance to refute again. And for now that's how it works... Of course the whole feature is still very up in the air. There is a lot I'm still debating.... the least of which is what to call it. (As you might have noticed I keep flip-flopping between names for the feature and associated abilities). I'm sure a lot will be changed and I could still wind up scrapping the idea entirely, but right now I'm having fun attempting it at least. ^^ That's a shame. I'd really liked where you seemed to be taking it with the art and lore you'd shown so far. I guess stuff happens though... Glad to hear you have something else in the works in the meantime. I'll have to keep an eye out. P.S. Sorry for the long-winded reply! I can't help myself sometimes.

@SingSong Thanks! I'm glad to have found this place. A lot of familiar faces around. I've had to put most of my projects on hold now that the semester is winding down (seems like the professors all conspire to pile us up with work this time of year), but I was able to prototype the research and discovery system/mini-game I've been planning for one of them. In a nutshell it will allow players to investigate and reveal new lore or information about enemies, locations, npc's, crafting materials, ect. within the game world (for themselves, their clan, or the game community as a whole) which might help them progress through difficult areas or quests. There are still a lot of kinks to work out with it, but it's been fun to work on so far and I'm excited to see where it goes. How about you?

I've also been playing and have really enjoyed the game so far. Hunting down all of the different machines is a lot of fun, and if you aren't prepared extremely challenging. I've got it cranked up to max difficulty and am also the kind of player to be easily distracted in open-world type settings, so despite my 20 hours of play I haven't progressed the story very far yet. What I have seen has been really intriguing though. I've already heard some rumors that they'll be making a sequel and just based on what I've played so far I really hope they turn out to be true.

Chrono Trigger is probably my favorite RPG storyline of all time. Radiant Historia and Dragon Age Origins (despite it's abundant tropes and cliches) are close seconds though. I highly recommend them to anyone who hasn't had a chance to to check them out before.

@Hare It probably wouldn't help find tracers (although they do provide take-down request services and template legal documents that might help deal with them)... but I've seen a couple people on Artists Beware recommend a site called CopyPants which provides services to artists for detecting and resolving theft cases. Maybe that could help? I'm not an artist myself so I've never used it and can't really speak to whether it is any good, but they seem to have a free plan that might be worth checking out if you continue to run into trouble. Good luck!

Wow, we have a pretty diverse group here! I'm currently working part-time as the Systems Administrator for a college in my hometown. I'm finishing up a degree in Computer Science, so although we didn't really cover a lot of IT skills (I took introductory Networking and Information Security classes as electives but that's it) I guess it's related to my field of study... The college I work for and the one I'm attending aren't one and the same so there is some weekly travel required and also a bit of a learning curve, but I'm learning a lot and have really enjoyed it so far. I'm also a registered Pharmacy Technician and have worked in both hospital and retail pharmacy over the past 6 years. Now that I have the IT job I've been transitioning away from it though, and only work prn.

I'm finishing up my Bachelors degree in Computer Science this May. In retrospect I feel like I could have learned a lot of the information we covered through self-study, but I like the more structured approach a university setting provides and the deeper focus on topics like algorithms and data structures which I might have neglected if left to form my own curriculum. Outside of my required university work I am also really interested in languages, mythology, game design/development, and Asian/European history. I'm actually pretty excited about finishing up my degree because I'll finally have the time to really apply myself to those studies, particularly my language learning goals. In the past I've studied German and Japanese. I reached basic fluency in German, but haven't really touched it since the end of high school (I haven't really been able to find any interesting media or practical use for it here in the states) so I've grown pretty rusty. I know some basic phrases and vocabulary in Japanese but never got very far with it. Definitely something I'd like to go back to at some point. Right now my main focus is Korean and I've been really enjoying the learning process. The Korean alphabet (Hangul) looks intimidating at first but is actually really simple. There is also a lot of free Korean media online (games, dramas, music) that I enjoy which has helped to keep me practicing and motivated.