Rise: The Vieneo Province

[reskin]

I have been reading some of these threads and not only have I had a good time but learned a couple things, thanks!

I have a new game that needs some exposure and constructive critisism.  It went "commerical" back in April and has a 14-day free trial.  http://rise.unistellar.com

Part of the problem is the other games out there, not many have physics that resemble reality.  Most of them have gaming areas that are confined (my favorite is a player we had who came from Star Wars Galaxies and thought that our capital city was an entire planet in and of itself).   

I have been working on this for 4 years now part-time as a programmer alongside a fantastic artist/story guy.  But that's it, just the two of us (plus tons of ideas/feedback from our core players).  So please be gentle!   

[Falconeer]

d20 system?

Even if it's for a bash, I have to try this one.

[Xerapis]

I would just like to be the first to officially laugh at his request to be gentle.  He don't know y'all well.

[schild]

Screenshots? Gameplay video? Any actual info? The website seems to be missing a faq or media section. And I refuse to step foot in any official forums, especially indie types.

I've played too many games to just sign up and go at it because someone says "d20" or "physics that resemble reality." That second one in particular is just aggravating. It's a video game. They don't need to resemble reality. That's part of the beauty of creating your own world.

[reskin]

Okay, point taken about the FAQ or media section.  The screen-shots on the bottom of the first page are a good variety of what you would see in the game, is it disappointing that you can't click/enlarge them?

It takes place about 200 years in the future about 200 LY from Earth.  The planet that everything takes place on is actually a habitable moon in the Yonmaran system, a real star that we had named (HD 182681). 
http://www.unistellar.com/oldindex.html?row4col2=stellarscapedivisionmenu.html?row4col3=yonmaransystem.html

I haven't officially released any video, although there are a couple that players have posted that really help motivate us to do more...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SK229AAxfQ&search=vieneo

Maybe my point about the physics was that there weren't any space games that had the fidelity to physics that I have strived to achieve.  I am certainly a fan of "Lucas physics" so don't get me wrong.  Thanks for your input!

[Falconeer]

because someone says "d20"

Personally, I loathe d20 system. Hence, the curiousity.

[stray]

Is there noise in space?

[Falconeer]

is it disappointing that you can't click/enlarge them?

I would say so.

[stray]

Looking at screenshots before diving in is a long held tradition of gaming. Where have ya been? 

[schild]

is it disappointing that you can't click/enlarge them?

Uh, yes.

stuff

Blah blah blah space star blah blah blah lore. Your lore can be the best lore in the world, it won't get people to play a game. Marketing an MMOG is hard and even when you KNOW how to market an MMOG you still end up with shit like Lineage 2 and Asheron's Call 2. Hell, I can't wait to see Funcom market Conan, no matter how cool it may be.

I haven't officially released any video, although there are a couple that players have posted that really help motivate us to do more...

It should, those didn't show any gameplay.

Thanks for your input!

I think your problem here is your lack of killer instinct. This is a hard market. Probably the hardest of markets and I'm not talking about f13. I'm talking about MMOGs. All types - FPS, RPG, TBS, RTS, etc. Your site and the two posts above say nothing that would make anyone want to play the game. You shouldn't give a fuck about input until we play the game. Getting us to play the game is the hard part. Getting input is the easy part. You could have made a 1 sentence post about the game and say "HI NEW GAME, OK TRIAL, IT'S DIFFERENT" and made a link and some people would have played. But what's supposed to make us want to play? Is the combat interesting? Is there a housing system? Is there a provacative element to the player economy - something that'll blow our (or anyone's) hair back? Is there a reason the world is so big? Big worlds are the easiest way to destroy any fun that could be weened from a game. Look at Atelier Iris, the world is tiny for the most part (compared to most RPGs), but it FEELS like a full world. Does your game's world feel like a full world? You've got a product made with no pitch or delivery method for selling the product.

I don't mean a PR agency or marketing group. I mean you, yourself. What are you trying to pimp? A free game? Is that why you want us to play it? Cuz I just dropped $200 on games this past week and i'm dropping another $70 on the Heroes of Might and Magic Ltd Box tomorrow. Why should I put those down to play your game?

These are the questions you want to be able to answer before you hop onto a message board and try to lure people in. For example, why should anyone here stop playing Eve? Nearly 8% of the active members on f13 are playing Eve right now. I think it represents about $1,000 a month to CCP. Sure, we're not Something Awful or uhhh, Something Awful (I can't think of another single site with 1,000 members playing a game), but we're a market. You want to aim to sell to that market. In fact, I'd say f13 is one of the easiest markets to pimp a new title to. We're into the experimental fringe and all you have to do is make a small group of people think "Interesting. I'll try that out." Yea, maybe no one will like it - most of us hate most of the korean games we play. Most of us don't last a week. But at the same time, most of us are probably paying monthly fees on MMOGs that we meant to cancel 6 months ago. Basically, we'll try just about anything, and you haven't reached that low bar with what you've shown.

But, somehow, you manged to get me to write a page long response instead of working on a review. Go figure.

[reskin]

The d20 was recently added to solve a problem with use of inventory items.  For example, you have another player's ship you want to break into and steal.  You have a lockpick set.  Your character has an experience level using said lockpick set.  But when it comes down to it, whether you are going to succeed depends on the difficulty of the lock and your past experience, and whether you are able to learn anything from it (add to your experience).

If you think having the d20 on there will only hurt I can get rid of it... 

Is there a difference between sound and noise?    I know vibrations get more difficult the futher and further apart particles become.

I will work on the screen shots, please check back in an hour... 

[schild]

If you think having the d20 on there will only hurt I can get rid of it...

Stop pussyfooting. And don't listen to Falconeer, whether he's right or wrong isn't the point. He's fucking psycho.

I will work on the screen shots, please check back in an hour...

Thanks, I'll check this thread in 13 hours. Consider this lead time to get some sort of information together.

[Falconeer]

"Sick fuck" fits me better, Schild :)

First report on "Rise of..."

Download: went fine and fast.
Installation: Again, fine. But the default directory called "UI sim" doesn't sounds promising. Plus, at the end of it, a readme and a .PDF document opened no matter what.
First run: Not clear where to start. I went with "Client" and a little window box came up asking for a user id and password, and a handle. For "Window box" I mean literally, a Microsoft Windows box. I hit Free trial and expected to get into the game.
I was optimistic.
No clue about what to do to enter the game. I went back on the website and in the "Free trial page" I found some info. Apparently the "Client.exe" connects you to the server. To "see" the world you have to start another application called: "Viewscreen.exe".  *groan*

So, let's try. Viewscreen.exe it is.... a loading screen with a bland art and some loading info comes up... and crash to desktop.
I am done for today.

First impression: not even a tech demo, sorry.
But I'll try again, if it is of any help.


EDIT:
P.S:

Reskin said:
If you think having the d20 on there will only hurt I can get rid of it...  Heartbreak

Actually, I dislike d20 system for PnP RPGs, but I think it is a fair good mechanic (best if hidden) for CRPGs.

[Falconeer]

P.S: the video you linked looks like a remake of Amiga's Resolution 101



but given the absolute lack of apparent life, I will grace you with a slight resemblance to legendary Paul Woakes' Mercenary

[HRose]

I was also trying to start it.

There's that odd chat program that as you connect begins to downstream 4.5kb. I don't know why since it is basically doing nothing at all.

The viewscereen (the second program you actually have to start to see the game, I suppose, and there's an optional third if you want sounds) also loads and then vanishes, the chat program vanishes too but it remains resident in the background, still downloading I don't know what.

That's pretty much what Falconeer saw too. The second program loads and then seems to vanish/crash, even if the main client program is still resident and you have to shut it down with CTRL+ALT+CANC.

At some point I think I managed to create a character with the profile menu and the viewscreen program went a bit on with the loading but then vanished again. I noticed that the client was uploading and dowloading stuff like crazy, It is possible that this thing requires broadband.

If it was like "Driller" on the Amiga it would be a MASTERPIECE. Let's not confuse things here, those first polygonal games were absolutely great.

[Falconeer]

If it was like "Driller" on the Amiga it would be a MASTERPIECE. Let's not confuse things here, those first polygonal games were absolutely great.

Agreed wholeheartedly.
Unfortunately, I was just mentioning a slight aesthetic resemblance. The first generation of polygonal 8-bit games are in my hall of fame. Driller, Total Eclipse, Castle Master.. Masterpieces. Mercenary, Damocles: Legends. Sentinel...  <3 <3 <3 - But that's beyond the point :)
The game doesn't run for me, and the video looks 20 years late. We will see (if it will ever start) about the gameplay.

P.S: Driller multiplayer? No idea how that could work, but I'd pay for it no matter what.

[reskin]

Well I never had an Amiga but maybe I have invested my life in the wrong genre?   :-D

There was a change in the telemetry that required a patch to be installed... I am making it it simpler and compiling new releases that should work right out of the box if you want to try again in like another hour.  I try to do that but I work 12 hours a day on it and there are lots of changes to track...

The concept behind the Client.exe and Viewscreen.exe was to have multiple Viewscreen.exe's running on different machines on a network so you could build a cockpit and have a wrap-around view.  I take it this concept is a little dated as we are moving into the RPG idea.  Same thing with Sound.exe, you could run it on a different machine if you wanted... I thought people love options?!

The screenshots are also posted on the website and you can click on them to enlarge... 

[HRose]

So, no autopatcher?

We have to redownload the whole client?

[reskin]

The autopatcher is coming, it keeps getting put on the back-burner in favor of adding in-game content.  The Patch171.zip which appeared earlier this morning simply replaced the changed files from the release build but it was frequently omitted by new players...

The short answer is yes, you have to reinstall... but I provided the links below...

http://www.unistellar.com/downloads/uisim172.exe
http://www.unistellar.com/downloads/uisound112.exe

[koboshi]

thanks for the picture enlargements

 now that i have seen what the game looks like what its like to drive in it and where in space your planet is could you answer a question or two?

Who am I?
What am I?
Why am I?
Who do i kill?
Why do i kill?
Who can i kill?
What do i buy?
What do i buy it with?
How do i earn it?
What can i make?
Why do i make it?
What can i use?

...and so Schild dosen't have to ask it...
Why didn't you tell us all of this earlier?

[reskin]

 :-D

You define your character's name and gender.  Your character has been released from the prison system under a program by the United Stellar Republic (USR) to help develope this fledgling planet Vieneo.  Your memories of the past have been erased.  If you had loved ones, you have no recollection of them.  You have skills and abilities, but you will have to rediscover them.

Just as in real life, killing is usually motivated.  A player crashed into your farmhouse, stole from your township, stole a vehicle, robbed your character of a valuable object... it can be more organized as in an alliance (commercial or political) that has declared war on another group or individual.

You can buy vehicles (cars, planes, spaceships), mods for vehicles (radio, map display, weapons), PODS containers (passengers, cargo, construction, fuel), objects (lockpick sets, medic bags, repair kits), land, outfitting (farms, mines, towns), commodities (to play the stock market), just off the top of my head...

The currency in the game is the USRD (or just called credits abbreviated CR).  You can earn it by carrying passengers and cargo between locations in the city or to outlying colonies and docking facilities.  You can also earn it by producing food, building materials, and raw resources at your colonies.  You do not "have" to make anything.  If you are content being a taxi-cab driver in the downtown area and taking your money to the casino at night, that is entirely up to you!

You can use vehicles, and use them to load/unload containers and other vehicles, passengers, cargo.  You are given an apartment in federal housing downtown.  You can use inventory items (such as a lockpick to break into a car).

This is the kind of stuff I need to put on an "About" or "FAQ" for the game website, no?   

[Krakrok]

It's uh interesting. I don't see that there is an actual game yet. Seems more like a simulation (like WWIIOL+Outpost).

There doesn't seem to be a sky texture? I'm also not seeing a texture on the 'cars' or on the 'spaceplanes' (that I can't seem to use). And there isn't any reason why the sound and the viewer/client aren't all in the same install file. Additionally it would be a simple task to have it auto launch the viewer and sound after the client. I never figured out how to get out of my car either (you said there was a lock picking skill but if I can't walk around how would I use it?).

Bottom line is you've built a lot of simulationy stuff which is cool but there doesn't seem to be much cohesive glue holding it all togather.

This should probably be in the Game Design/Development forum.

[HRose]

Bottom line is you've built a lot of simulationy stuff which is cool but there doesn't seem to be much cohesive glue holding it all togather.

As for many indie project he's a programmer, not a game designer ;p

[HRose]

The new client seems to work.

The controls in the apartment could be better. Movement is too slow and you have to press the right mouse button to turn. But if then the mouse pointer reaches the border of the window then you have to recenter it on the screen so that you can turn some more.

From the apartament cubicle you move to the car by pressing a key. The controls on the car are definitely counterintuitive but then I managed to make it go as well. Sadly the car tends to suddenly flip upside down as you go with no apparent reason since the world is all flat. "You have collided with the terrain!" Duh?

It reminds me of Serek Dmart. With some polish and actual content it wouldn't be too terrible, but at the moment it is just an odd sandbox where (I suppose) you can drive or fly around.

It could also be a good thing if it was more mouse-driven more than keyboard-driven (for example clicking on the door of your apartement to move to the car, instead of pressing a key). But that's still secondary to the lack of content and direction.

EDIT: I figured out the car flipping problem. When you drive you have to remain within the TEXTURE of the road.