Another Friday and another Prime: Battle for Dominus live Q&A/Info dump. Unfortunately, no gameplay video yet again this week but still some good information from the Pitch Black Games team. I was able to attend the stream as it was live this time (instead of missing it by one hour) and I really like the connection it creates with the community and a small dev team; it personalizes the development experience and lets people feel included.   I wrote down my notes while watching and pasted them in for you all below.
Beta
Only about 30 people got online in the beta and due to some issue with servers being at an old location the connections were not stable. They’re working on bandwidth issues on their end. Pings from as far as the UK were ~200 or lower. The “gear” they’re using is “world class” now in the new location and they seem quite confident in how things will perform going on. The beta itself appears to be, in my opinion, more of an alpha testing experience as they still get their hardware set up and test minutia. No complaints from me since I think it’s impossible to over-test a MMO.
– Guild Pages and Signups should be done early next week.
Bases
– Set locations. Can’t just build anywhere. Can choose what is built at them, though.
– No Siege Engines
– Can’t claim a base without destroying it. Each faction’s bases look different. “Not just one type of base”.
– Only takes one person to claim a base and build it up. Good luck defending it, though.
– Bases do not have shields or domes protecting them, so a fleet of jet packers *can* jump into them. Turrets are mean, though.
– 7 Kinds of things that can be built in bases. Not ready to reveal these just yet.
– No Vendors or NPC guards protecting bases. Just turrets. (Subject to change.)
Crafting/minerals
– Profession made items are the best items in the game.
– All items are homogenous together. There is no “PvP gear” seperate from “PvE gear”. Crafted gear, bottom line, is best.
– 50-70 types of minerals being tested.
– Abundance of minerals changes and won’t always be the same. This detail was a little fuzzyily explained. I assume they move around the planets, perhaps weekly.
Random Mechanics/Features
– Open world, go anywhere, do anything. Standard “see a mountain and go there” stuff.
– Lava = instant kill
– World bosses can be static (in one place) or patrolling.
– Line of sight is fixed at a “pretty far” distance for everyone.
My question(s) that did not get answered: Do guilds, alliances, individuals, or factions claim bases? Who has control over what is built? Like in DAoC a guild claimed a keep. Can I claim a base and not let anyone build or harvest in it? Bottom line, who manages the base once it is claimed?
If anyone knows and can give me the info, that would be great. I feel it’s an important enough detail. I’m hoping that a base is claimed for the entire faction to use. I’m skeptical that this is the case because of the ability to add various things to the base. Someone has to have control of what is added, unless each base can have ALL of those things and it’s up to the entire faction to work together to build it up.
I’m adding “PvP/Combat Video” to my list of want-to-see’s for next week. Once they iron out the tech issues it would be great to see even a 20 second clip of players fighting each other. More nitty-gritty details on how server community politics play out, like those alluded to in my question above, would also be welcomed.
Watch the video of the live stream by reading on.
Tried helping you out with that question on the live-stream, as far as asking it for the devs. I feel like they’re not quite ready to talk about it yet, but hopefully that will be the next big info drop. It would be great if guilds could claim, that was always fun. If so, I think it would be neat if the guild that claimed would have to front a certain amount of cash, and then the rest of the additions to the bases would be available to do by anyone in the faction.
Still wondering exactly what kind of incentive there will be to building, holding, and upgrading the bases. Can’t wait for that info!
I think the first and foremost obvious incentive to hold the bases is Prime Element. It’s used in crafting the best stuff in the game. That’s huge.
In WAR there was always a race to see who could claim the keeps since it leveled your guild. I hated that crappy community-dividing mechanic. I prefer the DAoC feel where a guild claimed it and did so not for the glory or personal gain but because they contributed to the realm holding a keep for access to relics or Darkness Falls. Everyone could help upgrade it and it was more of an entire Faction effort.
Hopefully it’s totally open to the entire faction to use, harvest in, and fortify.
can we see videos of any of this? can beta players post videos or is there some kind of NDA in effect?
i would really like to hear/see player impressions in the form of video media, ie youtube.
I thought it was really neat that he said the bases “came down” and that there were buildings that were chosen.
Not some sort of castle or giant, boring keep but a real base with buildings and turrets. Sounds so cool.
Who gets to choose those? Big question i’d like to know too.
@JT: There’s a NDA. It’s early beta.
Open World?! It is about damn time.
My biggest question remaining is what the feel is for actual gameplay. UI/movement/combat fluidity, etc… hard to get that question answered without playing though.
Getting more excited about this game the more a read about it. Here is hoping I can get into Beta to help get this game polished.
This game sounds interestingly similar to Asheron’s Call…
The great ideas combined with the horrible tech issues give me a “Mortal Online” vibe. Of course, this game may actually get better under the hood between now and launch. File under cautious optimism.
I don’t think anything can compare to the fail that resulted in Mortal Online.
@Slothbear
Major differences with the devs of mortal and Prime’s tech issues is mortal’s engine was crappy “let’s-push-video-cards” nonsense. That does not work well on an MMO where you want hundreds of people in the same area without lag or server crashes.
Prime’s appears to be more about their network and figuring what hardware to use for beta/alpha testing. Which is and should be forgivable especially for a small studio.
@Darkstryke
“I don’t think anything can compare to the fail that resulted in Mortal Online.”
Darkfall =P
For all its faults, Darkfall didn’t fail.
You may of not liked it but I don’t think it failed.
I think it is a fairly pessimistic attitude to be critical of a game that exhibits network problems during a beta, i.e. the time when they have to identify potential bugs in the system.
That was @SlothBear btw…
Darkfall failed just as Mortal Online failed. Both were supposed to be sandbox games and ended in PvP gankfests. For me, that’s a total failure.
Anyway, just see how many people play those two games… no further proof or comment is needed. It’s not a matter of me not liking it – the facts are there.
I was looking at the empirical evidence rather than your personal opinion. They knew they were designing a niche game. They’ve kept enough people interested to grow, put out expansions, hire more staff and continue development. That’s success. The facts stand alone.
You said so yourself “For me…that’s a total failure.”
You have an opinion on the matter? That’s super-duper. I’ll file that right here under “really important things.”
We’re not here to talk about Darkfall.
I hope Prime doesn’t follow in their footsteps, regardless of where they are now.