EA announces The Sims Medieval

[Mrbloodworth]

Thats a good reason to buy the box version right there.

[Merusk]

Why would they cripple their online store like that? Are they really that out of touch with what customers expect?

They don't want to maintain the storage and bandwidth for some guy 5 years from now wanting to play one of their least-sold titles.  It's not about the customers, it's about their bottom line.

[Yoru]

I expect it's also legal boilerplate to protect their bottom line in the case that they decide to shut down the digital EA Store and don't get stuck paying for servers in perpetuity because someone bought Barbie Rap Battles 2007 and then sues them in 2026 because they can't download their favorite game from childhood any more because the EA Store went under when every distributor switched to Steam in 2014.

[Paelos]

I expect it's also legal boilerplate to protect their bottom line in the case that they decide to shut down the digital EA Store and don't get stuck paying for servers in perpetuity because someone bought Barbie Rap Battles 2007 and then sues them in 2026 because they can't download their favorite game from childhood any more because the EA Store went under when every distributor switched to Steam in 2014.

I agree, it's a corporate liability move. It's like FOX programming decisions. Set something in crappy slots, set it up for nothing but failure, then shoot it when i fails and fuck over anyone who bothered to invest in it. They are half-assing the product because even they don't believe they can compete with Steam, and they aren't willing to dedicate the resources to try.

[Sky]

I agree, it's a corporate liability move. It's like mmo programming decisions. Set something in crappy releases, set it up for nothing but failure, then shoot it when i fails and fuck over anyone who bothered to invest in it. They are half-assing the product because even they don't believe they can compete with WoW, and they aren't willing to dedicate the resources to try.

[Yoru]

For the other eurofolk on the board, it looks like release for this comes down to 12:01 AM Thursday local time for Denmark/Germany/ANZAC, and 8:00 AM Friday local time for France, Holland, Poland and Britain, going by the countdowns on the various websites. The other European countries have a release date of "release? what game iz zis of which you speak?"

I'm kind of wondering which of those dates I fall into, as I bought the "European English" version from the EA EMEA (Swiss) store, whose interface is wretched enough to not tell you the release date of whatever you've purchased.

Hurry up and adopt Steam already, you bastards.

[Paelos]

Steam has all the other Sims 3 stuff already. I gotta imagine it will come out on that eventually right?

[Ingmar]

It took like 2 years for the Sim 3 stuff to show up on Steam, something like that, so I'm not holding my breath. EA has been kind of lame in their dealings with Steam in general it seems like (see: lack of the special pre-order fancy edition of DA2 on Steam when other services had it).

[Sjofn]

Well, I'm enjoying it thus far, though I'm not really sure how to describe it. They lightened up on the micromanagement of stuff (you only *have* to eat and sleep, stuff like peeing and bathing will give you a buff but you won't, like, pee your pants if you don't bother), so wandering around doing quests is actually fun rather than annoying.

However, I am on a quest I can't finish because my little priest guy has to "contemplate the Watcher" for an hour before he can leave on his pilgrimage, but when I do it, he stops on his own after about 15 minutes (this is all Sim-time, of course) and it doesn't seem to count down at all.    It's a shame, because I like the priesty type Sim (I've unlocked merchant, bard and priest in addition to the default monarch so far), but all his quests are going to want him to do that at least a little, QQ.

[Merusk]

You should have raised his Piety score! 

[caladein]

Does it still do it if you turn autonomy off?

[Sjofn]

Ah, good question, I didn't even think of that, as I am a benevolent goddess that allows her subjects free will at all times. I will have to try it!

[Tannhauser]

They had this at Gamestop, but I decided to get home and check it out on Steam.  Which doesn't have it.

I've never played a Sim game, but I'm interested in this.  Is there combat?  Loot?  Do you have a kingdom with a map of it or what?

[Rendakor]

I've never played a Sim game, but I'm interested in this.  Is there combat?  Loot?  Do you have a kingdom with a map of it or what?

This. Inquiring minds want to know! Closest I've ever been to a Sims game is trying to install my girlfriend's copy of Sims 3 on my comp to try it out, only to find it didn't recognize my video card. 

[Rasix]

It's a voyeuristic, virtual dollhouse. 

[Sjofn]

There's sort of combat, but I haven't done any outside the one tutorial fight (I am a peacenik) so I couldn't really tell you if it's actually interesting (I will assume it isn't, however), and there is soooort of loot. I'm not sure if there's kill dude, loot his stuff type loot, but there is crafting and stuff, and the classes all have certain sorts of equipment (bards have lutes, blacksmiths have hammers, the monarch has real armor + weapon, etc). I'm doing a quest on a blacksmith right now, he has to craft traps in order to save the kingdom from Dire Chinchillas.

Sims 3 is the doll house, Rasix. This is ... sort of different.

[caladein]

Yeah, it's very vertical slices of Sims gameplay with a fantasy setting and a bigger emphasis on the tasks (aka wishes).  I like it so far, in large part because I tend to play The Sims kind of that way anyway, creating a family with a set goal in mind and then dumping them when I get bored.

Interface feels... clunkier for some reason even though it's basically the same one as in The Sims 3.

[Sjofn]

The camera control is stupider and zipping around the world is more annoying are my main "the interface is slightly different, in a shittier way" complaints.

There are some annoying AI idiocies going on. I just failed a quest because of it, so I'm sulking. Basically my quest was to get these two crazy kids to ELOPE. The monarch was all "zomg you bastards" about it, so I had to consumate the marriage before her thugs found the groom (who was my active Sim). Well, the bride decided instead of fucking her husband, she'd rather wander between his blacksmith shop and the tavern repeatedly (if you get married, the other sim isn't under your control), which meant I couldn't queue up a woo hoo, which meant my dude got thrown into the Death Pit. Stupid bitch.

[Typhon]

Seems like she was trying to tell you that she needed a little wine to loosen up.

[Stormwaltz]

I am a benevolent goddess that allows her subjects free will at all times.

Free will? You're gaming the wrong century, sister.

[Paelos]

The camera control is stupider and zipping around the world is more annoying are my main "the interface is slightly different, in a shittier way" complaints.

There are some annoying AI idiocies going on. I just failed a quest because of it, so I'm sulking. Basically my quest was to get these two crazy kids to ELOPE. The monarch was all "zomg you bastards" about it, so I had to consumate the marriage before her thugs found the groom (who was my active Sim). Well, the bride decided instead of fucking her husband, she'd rather wander between his blacksmith shop and the tavern repeatedly (if you get married, the other sim isn't under your control), which meant I couldn't queue up a woo hoo, which meant my dude got thrown into the Death Pit. Stupid bitch.

Haha, once again the complications of medieval sexual politics end up with a trip to the Death Pit.

I like the sound of this game already.

[rk47]

will there be Blood Dragon and Sir Isaac Armor? 

Itching to try this, impressions been mixed among friends so far. I've been telling myself wait for expansions or whatever complete package, but I liked Sims enough for a thorough play for a week, unlock careers etc then drop it completely due to boredom.

What's it like? I heard it's got an 'ending' and final tally on scores of some sort.

[naum]

Picked this up yesterday, but didn't have much time to play with last night, other than initial monarch creation and some beginner quest tasks. And left off with my monarch sleeping but unable to summon food -- seriously, why is my servant unavailable? Really, is the Queen going to make her own bowl of porridge?

There is combat in the game, fist fights + sword play, at least thus far, I've encountered, though it appears it's limited to certain "hero" sims.

It looks like a more restricted sandbox than the traditional Sims -- when you build buildings then you can spawn other "hero" sims that can embark on quests to earn more points and such. And it's streamlined -- lot's of stuff is "grayed out" until you progress enough…

[Chimpy]

Do you get to buy land and all the serfs that come with it?

I really want to buy me some people like they were trees!

[kildorn]

Sjofn, oh wikipedia of all things sims:

Is there anything I'm supposed to DO during forging? Like, there are bars, and it says "keep it from hitting this or that point", but I see no obvious way to do that beyond letting my sim-blacksmith do what sim-blacksmiths do. Which is, apparently, sucking at blacksmithery.

[Sjofn]

A tutorial tip should've popped up when you do your first blacksmithing thing, you should've read it! But the way it works is you let your sim heat the metal. While s/he is doing that, click on the anvil and GET READY to click "hammer metal" when the leftmost bar (the heat one) gets close to the red. Before it hits the red, command the Sim to hammer metal. Sim will automatically stop heating the metal, and start hammering the metal. Watch the heat bar, and when it is getting close to the blue, click on the forge and "heat metal." Go back and forth until the item is done! Whenever the metal meter hits red or blue, it counts as a "mistake" and the quality score takes a hit (the middle bar). Some items don't actually come in a quality (quest stuff you're supposed to forge didn't, anyway) but I think you can still fail if you screw up enough.

Another thing to keep in mind is the coal will deplete in the forge, so if you think your blacksmith will have to refill before the item is complete, try to give yourself enough hot metal leeway to make sure it doesn't drop into the blue while the sim adds more coal to the forge (which it will do automatically during the heat metal process).



There DOES seem to be an end, you get a certain number of "quest points" that you spend to ... get quests. I assume the game ends when you run out of those. And then new scenarios unlock? I don't know, I haven't actually finished my first chunk yet, but that seems to be the case.

You don't really buy serfs, but the peasants and such can be pretty well pooped on by the monarch if that's how you like to roll.

[Sky]

The Sims did better smithing than every mmo? 

[Sjofn]

I'm pretty sure if smithing worked like that in an MMO, people would bitch about it. 

[Hutch]

Or write a script to macro it, Tale in the Desert style.

[kildorn]

Ah, I was trying to use the icons at the top thinking it was a UI of sorts, not thinking I had to futz with world objects.

As for being MMO crafting: all I can say is this system would make hinges even more atrocious then they were.

[Sjofn]

So yeah, once you're out of quest points, you get a HOORAY YOU FINISHED THIS thingy, and it unlocks further ... scenario isn't really the right word, but I can't think of anything else. I opened two with the completion of the beginner one. One is "LET'S BUILD AN EMPIRE" and the other is "MAN I LOVE QUESTS." Those will unlock two or three (I forget, it's a web wheel thingy) when I finish each of those, it seems. I will find out tomorrow if there's a decent difference between thingies, because right now I am going to bed!

Oh, it also seemed like I could keep dinking around on my kingdom after I finished the thingy, but I didn't bother, because I need to progress. I need to progress for you people. I know f13 is counting on me.

[Lantyssa]

Yes, so why are you sleeping?  Get to it woman!

[Tarami]

I can't stop staring at the new moodlet icons. They're too pretty.

[Sjofn]

Yes, so why are you sleeping?  Get to it woman!

I had to get up early today! For stuff.

[Sjofn]

OK, so, the other THINGS are basically you get scored in different ways. So like the YAY EMPIRE thing, your goal is to annex as many territories as you can (you do this through spending Resource Points on opening relations with a country and then doing special quests for said country), the YAY QUESTS is you want to complete as many quests with as high a score you can. The quests are all from the same mega pool, though, so you'll have to repeat them from thinger to thinger, although a lot of them can be done by multiple classes, so you can approach them differently at least. Like my blacksmith deals with a Dire Chinchilla problem smithing traps for the local hunters, my bard decided FUR IS MURDER OMG and concocted a wily plan to chase them away before the hunters could get them, etc.

I'm sure one of these is going to be like "have X number of Heroes over level Y," I have no idea what some of the other ones will be. Updates as events warrant, I suppose.