Skyforge - Obsidian User Thread

[C2B]

Theres a live chat with Eric Demilt in about 40 minutes.

 

http://www.gamepedia.com/news/377-skyforge-revealing-the-divine-observatory

[C2B]

[sorophx]

these annoying commentators should just stay quiet. it's impossible for me to keep myself in check when I'm witness to such stupidity, I get a sudden urge to go on Twitch, log in an leave a poisonous comment

[Labadal]

Looks like crap, and I am saying that with a positive mindset. I can't write how I actually feel. Let me just say my jaw dropped.

 

[C2B]

[C2B]

[sorophx]

sounds great, but how they will implement it remains to be seen 

[Labadal]

I signed up for the beta. I doubt I will last long, but I at least want to give the game a try.

[C2B]

Technical Beta Weekend.

 

 

Hi everyone! I wanted to kick things off by thanking everyone for their interest in Skyforge. The developers teams at the Allods Team and Obsidian have been working hard to get everything locked down for this technical test, and for our upcoming closed beta activities. Everyone's enthusiasm for the game throughout this year has been a great motivator for the teams as we've focused on the countless tasks that go to into getting an MMO out of "development" and into CBT. This includes working on high end content like raids while simultaneously getting numerous little things solidified – like updating that UI nobody loved.

 

It has been a busy year for the teams working on Skyforge. Content was adapted and used as demos and for reveals to the public and press at several trade shows including; E3 here in LA, Gamescom in Cologne, Igromir in Moscow, and most recently events in London and Paris Games Week. With press events and trade shows building awareness to the game the development teams continued to lock down features and get Skyforge ready for the kickoff of the Technical Beta Weekend. Demos are important, and it's exciting to show off features and content to the press and see player's reactions, but getting the game ready closed beta tests is the "brass ring" everyone is really focused on.

 

Getting to the Technical Beta Weekend - getting "real players" in the game, seeing how game systems behave in “the wild” and iterating based on player feedback & game telemetry is the place all our developers really want to reach.

As many of you have seen we've already begun some testing with players in Russia and are eager to flip the switch on our servers in other territories. The upcoming technical test has two primary goals. The first is to test the infrastructure we've put in place to support critical services like game authentication, client distribution, game server services, and our feedback & support infrastructure in North America and Europe. These critical systems and services need to be in place and tested before we can ramp up into larger closed beta events. Our second goal, and the one I am most excited about is starting to gather feedback and impressions on the game from actual players.

 

This first Technical Test features a very small slice of content from the huge game that is Skyforge. Players will be testing one open world zone (the Lanber Forrest), three solo instances (Okki Island, Kyris, and the Lanber Catacombs), one group instance (Thetin Rift), and one PvP map (Kingesi Arena). You’ll do all of this while playing as the Cryomancer or Paladin character classes. Remember that in Skyforge you aren’t locked into one single class, meaning you can play as both by changing classes whenever you’re not in combat. However, because it is a very small slice of the game you won’t be creating new characters instead, you’ll have the choice of using one of the many pre-made character included in the technical test build.

 

I should also mention that because our invite pool is relatively small, we've disabled the matchmaking rules on the PvP map, so players will be able to get in matches quickly, but you may face opponents of much higher or lower prestige. This technical test is just the first of our upcoming round of Skyforge beta activities. Fan support and enthusiasm for the project so far has been great and we wish we could get everyone in day one, but this is just the beginning. Throughout the coming months we'll be rolling out new beta events, testing new content, and continuing to distribute beta keys. If you haven't done so already, be sure to visit Skyforge.com and sign up for the beta. As beta continues, we will continue to send out additional info on future beta dates and opportunities to earn keys.

 

Thanks again for all the support and for your help in making Skyforge a great game experience.

 

-Eric DeMilt

Skyforge Development Director - Obsidian Entertainment

Got my invite yesterday.

[pmp10]

In case anyone remembers or cares:

Open Beta is now live.

 

Still no idea how Obsidians is involved in this.

Seems like mostly a case of name-dropping. 

[teknoman2]

i always wondered: why are hexagons so closely related to sci-fi?

 

i'll give the beta a go to see what they made, however one thing that almost all mmos i tried lack is uniqueness. even if they have something like a personal story, they lack the variety of options that would make a player unique and important within the player comunity... you are just one of many people doing the same things in the same place at the same time and the same way.

take GW2 for example. i made 4 characters, each learned 2 of the 8 crafting skills, i leveled each by 5 levels while gathering materials, i made a full equip for each and proceeded to get them another 5 levels. rinse and repeat and by the time they all were level 80, they all had maxed crafting and all were wearing full custom top quality gear without me ever needing the help of any other player in the game for anything. it's an mmo, but i could just solo it all the way without the slightest need to interact with other players, which killed the point of playing an mmo in the first place

an mmo MUST be made in a way that you need the other players and they need you at least for 50% of the in game activities if not more. if you can do everything by yourself, you may as well play a single player game

 

here's an example of how to make each player more unique and useful for the comunity

1. each player can have only one character/server and no interserver contact between them.

2. have at least 10 classes that are NOT balanced for solo combat. a healer or an illusionist can barely kill anything for lack of offensive skills while the fighter can kill enemies of a much higher level 1 on 1 but cant handle 2 or more since attacks from the sides or back do bonus damage and a wizard can nuke a room full of enemies but will go down if they look at him the wrong way so he needs to be very carefull with the aggro. now put a wizard and an illusionist in a team. the illusionist makes the wizard nearly invulnerable by debuffing and crowd controlling the enemies while the wizard nukes the world. the illusionist uses his spells to allow the fighter to kill them one by one without getting swarmed. the healer's role is obvious. a ranger can do serious single target damage but cant handle groups and has low defense so he needs someone to keep aggro off him... and so on

3. add professions that are skill based (at least 5x number of classes) and each character can have only one. for example to be a miner, woodcutter or blacksmith you need strength. anyone can be it, but the max profession level (and thus the quality of his work) will be based on his str score. anyone can be a scribe and make consumable scrolls containing one of his skills or spells for anyone to use, but the level of the skill and it's effectiveness will be based on his profession level, limited by his intelligence (same goes for enchanting or alchemy). to make a bow or to harvest animal parts as crafting ingredients or to make jewels you need dexterity and so on

4.make equipment skill based and not class or level based. this armor needs 50 strength? if you have 50str you can wear it regardless of your class or your level. if you have 40, you can find a scribe with a class that has str buffs and buy a ton of scrolls that increase str by 10 for a time to keep your str at 50. and since not every fighter around will be a scribe capable of making such a scroll, the one who is will be rare and important for other players

 

tl;dr

less is more in an mmo. the more you restrict what each individual player can do, the more unique and useful each player becomes to the comunity as a whole and the more you encourage interaction between players

Edited July 17, 2015 by teknoman2

[teknoman2]

after trying it, it has a lot of mechanics and they are well made but it simply lacks the multiplayer part of the mmo. as usual, the game is designed as a theme park for solo players with the option to do missions in a team.

the world is not freely explorable but consists of small maps each with a quest to do in it by yourself, with a team or in bigger maps you can go around with other random players as they do the same quest as you

i dont know if it gets any different later, but so far i found it boring, grindy and repetitive. 

as i said, for me an mmo is about player interaction and so far this has NONE (besides the chat). i wish a developer would make a game with the multiplayer part of the term mmo in mind instead of focusing on combat balance. multiplayer games are about working with or against other players in a virtual enviroment and an mmo's job is to simply upscale the number of players and the size of that enviroment. if working with or against other players is completelly optional and instanced, there is no reason to have the mm in the mmorpg