The Directors Special Podcast

[Dave Belcher]

I have some questions that you folks may or may not be able to answer at this time but I thought I'd ask anyway.

1. You spoke of expansions after the game's release. Do you have a timetable for how many/often you'd like to release?

In short, nope. Too soon to think about that We will have progressive releases, but larger updates are likely to be tied to new "chapters" in the story of Caerus.

2. Have any of you been through an MMO release from a development side before? If not, have you talked to any other people/companies who have to give yourselves an idea as to what you're up against?

No. We do have people working with the team that have experience of game releases (not MMO), and we have other contacts which will help prepare us. We are, however, as with the whole game approaching the release with healthy caution, and trying to account for every potential issue (drawing on our experiences of bieng on the customer end of MMORPG releases). I think we should do fine.

3. You mentioned Faction as an "anti-noob griefing" system. Can you give us any additional details here? (lol...I'm sure I already know the answer to that one but figured "what the heck!!")

Not any more than was already discussed in the territory blog, at this time.

4. You mentioned the day/night cycle being five hours, 20 minutes. Any particular reason for such an odd number?

Its not exactly 5hrs 20 minutes The reason for that number comes down to a whole load of mind-numbing maths I worked through to ensure that we had a day length that not only had time shift (so the time of day during your playtime changed), but also nicely fit into an RL cycle (so we know exactly how long a game week/month/year is), with the added bonus that public holidays (e.g. xmas, easter etc) will always fall on a predictable in-game date, so we can tie in-game lore to RL holidays. Essentially, with the cycle set as it is, Christmas will be alternately a Winter festival, and Summer solstice within the in-game lore.

PS - Not only am I asking questions because I'm interested in the answers, I'm also practicing on being "less wordy!"

Mission Accomplished! well done that man.

[Stone Dog]

In short, nope. Too soon to think about that We will have progressive releases, but larger updates are likely to be tied to new "chapters" in the story of Caerus.

No. We do have people working with the team that have experience of game releases (not MMO), and we have other contacts which will help prepare us. We are, however, as with the whole game approaching the release with healthy caution, and trying to account for every potential issue (drawing on our experiences of bieng on the customer end of MMORPG releases). I think we should do fine.

Not any more than was already discussed in the territory blog, at this time.

Its not exactly 5hrs 20 minutes The reason for that number comes down to a whole load of mind-numbing maths I worked through to ensure that we had a day length that not only had time shift (so the time of day during your playtime changed), but also nicely fit into an RL cycle (so we know exactly how long a game week/month/year is), with the added bonus that public holidays (e.g. xmas, easter etc) will always fall on a predictable in-game date, so we can tie in-game lore to RL holidays. Essentially, with the cycle set as it is, Christmas will be alternately a Winter festival, and Summer solstice within the in-game lore.


Mission Accomplished! well done that man.

Thanks for the answers! Especially with regards to the fourth question. That must have been quite the equation to cycle Christmas (just as one example I'm sure) the way you described it.

[master]

Its not exactly 5hrs 20 minutes The reason for that number comes down to a whole load of mind-numbing maths I worked through to ensure that we had a day length that not only had time shift (so the time of day during your playtime changed), but also nicely fit into an RL cycle (so we know exactly how long a game week/month/year is), with the added bonus that public holidays (e.g. xmas, easter etc) will always fall on a predictable in-game date, so we can tie in-game lore to RL holidays. Essentially, with the cycle set as it is, Christmas will be alternately a Winter festival, and Summer solstice within the in-game lore.

Two things with the holdidays. Please keep real life symbolism out of the game and have in lore stuff. No christmas trees, easter bunny, cupid, etc. Instead for a winter festival i'd prefer symbols like straw figures representing the king of winter which you burn to drive winter away Secondly, why not have a winter festival and a summer solstice at the same time. I don't see why each hemisphere can't have opposite seasons in the game. And of course each continent would have different festivals so it wouldnt seem weird that the traditions are just switching locations each time.

[Asselman Lorenzo]

If you want to keep real life symbolism out of the game your burning of the Winter king (Wickerman?) can't be put in either. Its from an old pagan ritual. It is nigh impossible to keep all real life symbolisms out of the game if you tie them to RL holidays.

Ofcourse we will try to make our holidays as unique as we can, but there will be influences from RL found in them. It makes it easier to identify with and adds to realism.

Kind regards,

Nadraxes
aka Lorenzo

[Yeti]

I dont know why the developers need to create the holidays, as your probably given the opportunity to create a religion yourself and then it must be up to you to come up with holidays for the deity. Is it a deity that are worshiped by farmers then perhaps a spring ritual and a harvest ritual are those holidays. Heck when we are on the whole subject what if its 8 days in your calendar instead of 7 since the 8th day is the Resting day of your deity. It brings a whole new level of thinking and roleplay..

[Dave Belcher]

The reason why game "holidays" coincide with RL holidays is simply because the players typically have time off work during those holidays, which they intend to use playing the game. We developers therefore put in some cool event during that week both to give the players something new to experience, and also to encourage them to choose to play our game during that holiday, instead of MW3 or whatever other games they like to spend time on It just makes sense really.

It doesn't however preclude us having our own lore-specific holidays in addition to those coinciding with RL holidays.

[master]

If you want to keep real life symbolism out of the game your burning of the Winter king (Wickerman?) can't be put in either. Its from an old pagan ritual. It is nigh impossible to keep all real life symbolisms out of the game if you tie them to RL holidays.

Still better than the commercial symbolism we have now.

I dont know why the developers need to create the holidays, as your probably given the opportunity to create a religion yourself and then it must be up to you to come up with holidays for the deity. Is it a deity that are worshiped by farmers then perhaps a spring ritual and a harvest ritual are those holidays. Heck when we are on the whole subject what if its 8 days in your calendar instead of 7 since the 8th day is the Resting day of your deity. It brings a whole new level of thinking and roleplay..

If you are a farmer you'd probably celebrate the harvest regardless of your religeon. I'm sure the various equinoxes and stuff could be national rather than religeos. Though maybe there could be an advantage to declaring those days as part of your religeons festivals. A booste in power to your disciples depending on the day and the threads. Maybe death thread being more powerful midwinter, while midsummer fire is.

[Dave Belcher]

Also, to be fair, a lot of the people who celebrate christmas aren't at all religious, despite it being a religious festival.

[Eonwe]

I see no reason to keep ALL real life symbolism out of the game. Sure, having Santa flying around is kind of silly, but human experience is tied intimately to symbols and the mental baggage that comes with those symbols. In fact, I think it would be somewhat impossible to not include, even at a basic level, historical symbolism. Even should you do so, it would just make the world feel somewhat alien and less natural.

[Saint]

People do not want that because they play a game to enjoy something else then the real world crap. Bringing real life stuff into a game is like when you pick your nose and someone sees it. Awkward