Development Blog Update - Unknown Worlds Podcast #27 - Community Q&A
Flayra
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Comments
On a more serious note:
What were the greatest challenges you face while designed the architecture of your engine and what sort of specializations did you implement? (e.g. Creating custom shaders; Movement Systems (Lua?); Networking; Audio; Spatial Partitioning; etc..)
EDIT:
I note that this is very vague, sorry. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
EDIT:
How have you tackled multithreading? Or is the NS2 a single thread engine?
<b>Have you got a release date in mind for the NS2TR, if so can we hear it? And will you still be asking the community for maps... or has this idea been scrapped?</b>
Hope I hear an answer <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
Keep up the good work!
1. What are your intentions for the current abilities of the Kharaa and what they will become in NS2, are they changing completely (being removed), or just small modifications with maybe an extra attack.
2. How do you guys consider NS2, is it an upgrade to NS1 or is it a totally new game and NS1 is just an early blueprint.
and maybe a last questions, i think the most important one... Who or what is Kara Thrace?
In all seriousness can you guys give us an idea of how the aliens are progressing? We hear models are going in, anims as well, but mechanic wise are they fitting in well and are there any tricks up your sleeve? Thank you.
I believe you've mentioned that it will be very easy to modify NS2, how much control will server owners have over how NS2 will play on their server (weapons, bunnyhopping, dynamic crosshairs, resource rates, etc.)? Do you think this will decrease cross-server play as players become more accustomed to certain mods?
Are you planning on using a traditional server-browser, a matchmaking system similar to Left 4 Dead, or something else entirely?
How many players per team do you envision as ideal? How do you hope to account for situations where there are more/less players than this number?
Do you think there will there be alpha/beta-releases for constellation members/pre-orders/everyone?
-4cc
Things I'd like to know:
- Are there any new developments on how players of each team can interact with the DI, and what effects on gameplay the DI has?
- How do you expect the average game to play out? ie team size, game length, phases of gameplay (teching up/etc)
- Will players keep any control over their own upgrade paths even with commanders around?
- Now that we're no longer on the source engine bandwagon, what range of editing tools should we expect to see publically available for making custom maps & game types?
The game sounds like it's very flexible with what would be the 'game code' in a traditional engine being implemented through scripts. Does this provide the same kind of modability as you would get from an SDK like the Source SDK (although hopefully slightly more elegant than that <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />). If not, do you plan to provide this kind of thing to allow people to do TCs?
NS1 had a great competitive scene, however, a lot of functionality in the game that allowed this to really work was down to 3rd party plugins. Will there competitive-orientated features in the game already, are these easily implemented in scripts, or is there a predefined way to make plugins for the engine?
Is the main reason you went with D3D that this is what the 360 uses? I saw mentioned the possibility of an OpenGL version after release. Using opengl from the start would have allowed linux users to run the game using wine at a reasonable speed. Perhaps you have even tried to run the game in wine? Also, as I understand it, OpenGL should make it easier to port the game to Wii or PS3 if you wanted [at the expensive of porting-to-360]. It seems like there must have been a strong incentive to use D3D so basically, why?
Please post more in-game footage! Even if it's just for a tech demo, to me it's a lot better to have a video of the game as opposed to a video of a screen that is displaying the game. I think any bits of video are great for generating excitement about the game.
Oh yes, excellent question. I too would like to know what effect (if any) community input has had.
It would be nice if you could explain which types of roles you want the different khaara lifeforms to play.
I'm not asking for specific details or abilities, more how they will be played and what players could hope to achieve using the Lerk, Fade, Onos, Gorge and Skulk.
<b>Have you got a release date in mind for the NS2TR, if so can we hear it? And will you still be asking the community for maps... or has this idea been scrapped?</b>
Hope I hear an answer <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
Keep up the good work!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<u>WHEN IT'S DONE!</u>
I'm a dev myself and I'm sick of people asking that question. It'll be done when it's done and not before, probably three days after it's done just to be safe. Honestly, asking devs that question WILL NOT MAKE IT GET DONE ANY FASTER, in fact, it'll slow them down because they'll do rants like this unless they have more self-control then I do.
And then who will works on the project?
- Will you add a new Kharaa species?
-Are you creating a more interactible environment?
1) How is the atmosphere at the UnknownWorlds office? Do you do things together besides developing, and if so, what?
2) How are you going to make NS2 stand out gameplay-wise? (eg. CoD4 introduced FPS levelups and perks)
3) How are you going to promote the game?
1) what games have you guys been playing lately that you've enjoyed and even have inspired you guys for ns2 or other possible projects?
2) what kind of things are you doing with physics in ns2? there was talk of barricades and welding things together etc, what about player movement and death animations?
3) is there an demo of welding you can show us? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
4) haven't heard much about dynamic infestation for a long time - hows that going ?
5) are you allowed to reveal approx how much % of the game is done?
6) can you reveal the ambitious changes you have made to the commander UI? (inspired by the 360 control pads)
7) one thing that made battefield 2 and 2142 my two favourite games was the ability to spawn next your friends, and also the ability to revive dead team mates to keep the action up - arre you doing anything similar?
8) what as the BUS or NEXUS thingy for ns1? and is it appearing in ns2?
Good question. I, too, would like to hear, if or in what way community feedback had any influence on NS2 development. (Please give us specific examples. All companies always say "of course we listened to our customers feedback - please prove it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />)
the cummunity aspect leads me to 2 questions I wanted to ask:
1.) "Creative Legacy"
The people who contributed to NS(1) are very talented, wich made it a very polished mod in pretty much all the different department, be it textures, sound, music, mapping, and so on. Seeing KFS is officially on your team now (yay), I wonder if you still are in touch with other NS1-contributors.
I think basically this question could be "How do you chose the people you work with and will old contributors play any role in NS2?"
2.) Organised and Competative play:
Will NS2 include any features that actively promote organised play? I think of (the great) Tribes 2 that came with an online/ingame interface that allowed the forming of clans/tribes, automatically attached Clan-Tags, and so on. How important is organised/competative play in your scope?
Best Regards from Old Europe
Schnitzel
-are there gonna be any cool new alien weapon you guys have been working on, (that you wanna tell us about)?
2. Can you guys recommend some hidden gems in Sci-fi movies, books or comics?
3. Will Matt ever release a learn how to dance video?
4. Why the hell can't find any NS servers with players here in Australia!?! Ops sorry. I just moved here. Frustrating.
Thanks guys!
See Halo-ELO or Microsoft Trueskill for reference.
I would like to know if the Khaara will have a change in their look, showing a more aggressive and terrifying style than shown on NS1.
Thank you.
Just curious about it, really. I'm loving reading it every day.