f13.net

Shane Hensley is leaving Cryptic (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=general&Number=6954797&bodyprev=#Post6954797) to  work on a new project (http://www.peginc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12027).  Nothing is official yet on what the new project is, but signs point to a Deadlands MMO (http://www.peginc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12016&highlight=).

I thought it said 'Darklands' :(.

You could play a fantasy MMORPG made by Germans and pretend it's Darklands.

Shane Hensley has quietly confirmed (http://www.peginc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12035&highlight=) that it's a Deadlands MMOG he's leaving Cryptic to work on.

Still very early days, but it could be very interesting.

Short of full blown wild west, Deadlands is the coolest property for mmo's imo. I had no idea it's creator worked on CoV.

So - how are the rats in the deadlands?

Deadlands has very brutal mechanics which fit well with the horror.  You felt lucky to get through a game night.  I don't see how it can work with the contrivances of MMOG's.  Imagine the whining if people start dying of heart attacks the first they enter combat with a supernatural creature.  There are plenty more mechanics just as brutal, but if you take them out, it'll feel like a cartoon version of Deadlands, not Deadlands.  Not everything should be a MMO.

Maybe Deadlands could a game like nethack when the basic goal it to stay alive long enough to win.

Being the harsh pvp widow that I am, can I expect some meaningful PvP AT LEAST this time?

So did I! Grrrrrrr.

Deadlands is a great setting, with great PNP mechanics, one which I'm sure will be ruined by either the developers or the slavering hordes of retarded MMOG junkies who can't stand to lose.

Well I guess this is better then nobody even trying to make it right?

I don't think anyone has a bigger personal investment in Deadlands than Shane since he, you know, created it.  Given that the setting is his pride and joy, hopefully whatever ends up being released is something he's happy with.

Deadlands is fucking sweet.

But...  I can't see it working as a MMOG.  So much about the game hinged on the fact that all of the characters are basically fucked.  The mad scientists would eventually be blown up by their own inventions.  The supernatural people would eventually have their souls devoured by demons, one way or another.  And anyone who was neither a mad scientist nor involved in the supernatural would probably just go insane from the fucked-up Lovecraftian shit going on.  And that's just not going to fly for your average MMOG-player.

I was a Harrowed priest in one game (Harrowed are dead people whose souls got hijacked by demons on the way to the afterlife and come back from the dead as a zombie-ish creature that looks normal enough, but the person is locked in eternal conflict for control with the demon that powers their undead body.) and was very, very lucky on all of my rolls (you have to roll at least once a day to keep the demon at bay) and didn't lose control to the demon.  But I've known other games where the player wasn't so lucky and their own character fucked over the rest of the party when they lost control and the demon took over their body.  And once the demon starts winning the contest, it gets harder and harder for the player to wrest control back, making the loss of the character more or less inevitable after a couple of unlucky rolls.

I can see Deadlands as a sweet single-player or co-op game, but not MMOG.

Nothing that fudged rolls can't fix.  And if they won't go that far, well, most MMORPGs are trainwrecks by default.

They could do it like the Doomtown CCG with players belonging to the various factions fighting for control over the ghost rock sources.

mmm... fudge rolls.

That's doodoo baby!

All hope abandon ye who enter here'.
Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.

God, I loved deadlands. You can't get much cooler than burning the souls of the dead for fuel. I remain skeptical about it translating well into an MMO.

Don't forget hucksters!

Deadlands is probably my favorite setting ever.  I keep the books in a shelf at home, instead of in storage.  I even for a time got my DnD group to try something new and give it a go, though they wanted to go back to DnD after awhile.  Bleh. 

I had a blast running it though, despite the fact that they couldn't handle the idea of a hero not always getting what he wanted.  One of my friends played a harrowed huckster who constantly drew black jokers for his hexes.  It was always fun seeing how his mojo would go wrong.  The highlight of fun in the campaign was the night he managed to kill another person by a black jokered hex hitting another member in the back instead of the Big Bad, among unleashing various sealed demons. 

*sigh*  I miss that game.  Too bad they discontinued the product line. 

I liked the card game.

I know the setting from the card game.  I loved that game.  It was the only CCG I ever liked.

Bah, WoW warlocks do it all the time.  Little paedo-gnome bastards.

no, ghost rock is much cooler. It's much like coal, only it moans eerily in torment as the fire slowly consumes the soul locked inside. And no one cares because it powers their railroad. Badass.

I have decided to optimistic about this if any IP screams non-DIku/non-UO game design, this is it.  May I humblely suggest a PvP-centric player-monster mission-oriented game.

I can dream, can't I?

He's bringing hope!  Break his legs!