 Sigil Developer Tracker
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The dev tracker is no longer actively scanning, however you may continue to browse the archives collected over the past several years here.
Please remember that these developer posts
are taken out of context, so beware of any silky venom being spewed forth.
Color Key:
Green - Sigil Games Online Employee
Pink - Sony Online Entertainment
Gray - Microsoft Game Studios Employee
Orange - Community Member
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Reolien01 =) |
LOL, the screenshots with the "more brown!" and such dialog baloons cracked me up!
I can't wait until the new screenshots with the correct fog colors, weather, indoor world lighting, etc. start to come out in the next couple of weeks. The 'brown' comments are amusing, and were a real concern a couple of months ago, but I have no worries about the situation now with the final graphics, lighting, atmospheric, and weather effects going in.
And I'm serious: we'll put up a collection of screenshots in various resolutions, with various settings on, taking from our beta testers so you can compare them to what we've been releasing. You'll see a lot of variation, but you'll also see that many beta testers are indeed able to turn the options up and achieve the visual fidelity we've been showing lately. And, of course, as we get closer to launch, and computers, cards, etc. get faster and faster, more and more people will be able to play and enjoy the game with higher settings, so it's just not a big concern.
What's important is that those with lower end machines/specs are able to play, albeit with graphics settings turned down, and have a good time. That those players with newer machines are able to player at higher resolutions and with more options turned on and have a good time. And then finally that, say a year after launch, that our engine is also scalable in the other direction, and the we'll be able to take advantage of newer tech that will be available by then (and that which will be more affordable), such that the game keeps looking better and better. Bottom line: people with lower end systems need to be able to play, even if they don't get the best graphics, players with higher end machines will be able to player and enjoy the graphics more, and that years after release, the game will take advantage of even newer hardware either automatically or, because of the way the engine is architeced, with minimal advancments to the client we can patch in live.
It's impossible to achieve this balance pefectly, accomodating the low end, the mid range, the high end, and then the graphics of the future, but we knew that going in and the way we've architected things, while again it won't be perfect, I'm very bullish that we'll release one of the most, if not THE most, scalable (in both directions) MMOGs engines to-date and that will also stand the tests of time.
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Quote: | Originally Posted by BruuceWarduck im too lazy to use email but you can use this one if you want to show off the char select screen |
email to me please -- please do not break the NDA by posting beta shots publicly.
What I'd like to do is make a compilation of beta users submitted shots and then release a bunch. This would be in good contrast to the nicly set up by art directors using the latest dev build shots that we usually put up.
Last edited by Aradune Mithara : Today at 06:15 PM.
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Esmo When you called, what did bullshit say?
3rd generation *insert anything*. Right now (subject to change with further development) there is nothing "3rd gen" about Vanguard. Nothing. At all. (Subject to change with further development). Maybe when they finish the game there will be but right now there isn't.
Take your Ritalin. And I (along with everyone else) knows generally what they are putting in as we have been given access to the monthly beta newsletters, remember? Even those have some spin in them as I'm sure there is more information in the top sekret beta boards that they don't want made public.
You make a good point though. They release screenshots from the Dev build not the beta build. So that being the case, there is no way you've seen the same graphics as those screenshots in the beta considering the dev build is farther along. So where is the snow in the beta client? I'm dying to know how you've seen it in-game because when I asked my buddy he told me he had not yet seen snow or any weather effect yet.
I'm perfectly aware of that. Advice: when you call bullshit be sure not to spill it out yourself. It makes for a less-than-convincing post. |
1. It's true we often take screenshots from our dev build, not the beta build. Our beta build is usually anywhre bewen a couple of days and a week or two behind dev, but as we get better at patching more regularly, this differential won't be as bad.
2. It absolutely snows on beta. What isn't turned on yet is the global weather system, where weather systems move around the whole world and where the precipitation, fog min/maxes, etc. based on the region affect how the weather dynamically changes (e.g. a snow storm makes its way into a more desert like region, starts to dissipate, turns to rain, and then eventually into a light cloud layer (and vice versa, going the opposite way). But anyway you can head into the areas in the mountains north of Halgarad up towards Dargun's Tomb and see snow right now in beta. Like I said, it (the weather sytem) just doesn't move around yet -- it's more like EQ 1 weather, where it's either raining in an area or not. What to come, with true weather systems moving around the world and then dynamically changing based on the settings of the region the system is moving into (changing snow to rain, or having fog increased, or the cloudd become denser, or the wind change in both speed and direction).
I'd say another couple of weeks and the real rev. 1 of the weather system will make it into beta. (Rev 2. will be even more dynamic, where it actually affects gameplay and where players can actually make an affect on the weather, which is where it really starts to get cool -- calling lightning down and doing more damage because there's a storm -- stuff like that will really be neat because then there's actual gameplay as opposed to just eye candy).
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Larion I would really love to make a long comment here ,but the NDA says no to that.
The only thing i would like to say is that brown is not a problem in the game at all there are other colors being way more frequent.
I also think that most of the screens that are being leaked really suck, because the people taking them are trying for the worst or are unable to set up their system so it looks pretty i have some nice screens myself that really look badass. It is all a matter of effort i guess. |
Feel free to send the screenshots to me: bmcquaid@sigilgames.com -- I would like to start having a subset of the screenshots we release coming from beta players.
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I play the game on VERY HIGH settings, and although my FPS is not great, it certainly IS possible to play on those settings and with many months to go until release, things will get much better. I have watched the screenshots being taken here at the office; there are no shenanigans occuring at all.
Optimizations for nVidia cards right now need a ton of work and there are several issues we need to iron out on that front. World lighting, fog, and weather systems are still absent from MOST areas of the game. Without everything working together, the game looks unfinished. Hence, why we control the release of screens.
Grobbee has already been banned from beta and I personally am not bothered by what anyone has to say right now; be it positive or negative. Any review at point is severly premature as we still have a ways to go.
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Ceefo Brad takes this stuff very seriously.. and you do have to understand that he is just human, and most people can only take so much of people slinging shit and spreading misinformation, especially when it's all based upon opinion and lack of first-hand knowledge. Try to put yourself in his shoes.. and imagine how you'd feel if uninformed people kept trashing your baby.. your pet project.
I think his 'good bye' post was more of a goodbye to this thread.. in that he's tried to make his case and state fact instead of opinion, and people just refuse to accept it and keep talking crap. At some point, you have to just decide that people are only interested in fueling a bitchfest.. and stop contributing to it.
I'd be VERY surprised if he was saying he wasn't going to post on these forums anymore. |
True, sorry if I wasn't clear there. Like I said, I come here to promote the game, engage in MMOG discussions and philosophy, and then, when I have to, to clear up misinformation and add clarity.
This particular thread had some posts from people suposedly in the 'know' saying things like ships would't be part of the game -- patently false assertions. I needed to come in and clear that up.
Eventually, however, others who don't regularly post here starting showing up and turning this into a pointless flame war. So I exited from the THREAD.
I really like these boards, amongst others, and I don't mind controversy, skepticism, etc. These things don't drive me away. And I'm not leaving these boards (unless one of the owners asked me to, of cousre). Again, was the thread and where it was heading (or had already devolved into) that left me little reason to keep particpiating in it. As the true flamers head back to their rarely read rant sites and we are left with the regular posters here, skeptics, fanboys, or anywhere in-between, and something of interest pops up or I need to clarify or talk more about Vanguard, I'll be back 
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Gnome Eater If I may ask a very candid queston. How surpised were you and Smed by the success that WoW received? Were you expecting subscription numbers anywhere near that? |
No where even close. Same with EQ. We thought optimistically EQ would get about 75k, yet it topped out around 450k+. Now with WoW doing 5M+? I can't speak for Smed, but I'm blown away. And I'm also very happy about it. I did think that the gamespace would grow this big at some point (and still think it will continue to grow -- online interactive entertainment is going to be HUGE in the next decade -- just think about when MMOGs start apealing to other genres like sports -- we've still only seen the tip of the ice burg, IMHO). But no, I didn't think it would all happen this quickly. A pleasant surprise indeed, especially since this is the business I love and want to be in for a long time to come.
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Quote: | Originally Posted by Maxxius Well from reading this are you basically looking for just a 250-500k market? I can't help but think that any new game would love to draw as many people as possible. WOW was still on the shelf when Vanguard was at the drawing boards. I can't imagine anyone predicting such meteoric success WOW has had in terms of numbers.
Biggest draws of WOW design, imho, was ease of play, pretty graphics, lack of timesinks, no need for a super computer to play it, and noticeable character advancement without major time commitment.
As much as I am interested in VG, I am starting to get concerned that it just won't be any fun, being more of a second job than a game especially if you are just targeting a smaller market. |
Actually, WoW wasn't out nor even in beta when we were designing Vanguard (mid 2002). And you're right, no one could have predicted such meteoric success. That said, making a WoW-clone isn't the right thing for us to do, it's not what we want to do, and we couldn't make such a change this late even were it what we wanted to do. There are many reasons WoW has been so successful, including some of those you mention. I do feel strongly, however, that Vanguard can be a successful game and not have to share every attribute WoW does (even were that possible). But that doesn't mean we're making a game that's no fun, or is a second job -- challenge does not have to mean tedium. We have pretty graphics, although we have focussed on more realistic pretty graphics that do require more computer horsepower (especially in the short term -- but then that also makes us look better longer, so while it might hurt us to some degree short term, it fits in with our long term strategy where we are focused more on retention and longevity whereas it seems Blizzard is focused more so on selling boxes). And we *have* greatly reduced needless time sinks in terms of time to regenerate HP, mana, stamina, etc. So I don't know if you need to be as concerned as you are, but obviously that's your call. I think targeting a smaller, more defined audience is a wise business move for us -- we may just agree to disagree there.
All that said, we certainly would love to draw an even bigger marketshare, and it's certainly possible, especially if other games already out continue to grow the gamespace at rates that keep blowing people away and hushing all of those who claim MMOGs are a saturated genre. But also keep in mind our original projections, budget, design, etc. were built in an era where 250k-500k were more aggressive than conservative numbers.
In any case, as we grow the game, add to its foundation, implement some of our other more revolutionary as opposed to evolutionary ideas post-launch, I think we will indeed be able to build a game that appeals to more and more people while still keeping it all built on the solid foundation it's been built on and that we'd be foolish to mess with. And so if we can do this, keep our existing target audience happy, keep adding content, keep existing content fresh, and the MMOG gamespace grows, then yes, I think over time we could indeed draw in even larger numbers. And we'd still not be a WoW-clone, and of course, as time goes by, the higher end tech we use in the game becomes less and less of an issue for the more casual or cost prohibited person and we can also benefit from what WoW already does by having lower sys reqs.
Last edited by Aradune Mithara : Yesterday at 05:03 PM.
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