anyone know when beta starts ?
also this post by one of the devs made me respect them a lot :
Hey folks. I'm Garrott (Kruniac to the mortals) , Game Designer for Topia Online.
I'd like to welcome all of you new forum users, and start off with a lame speech.
Ahem.
We've put a lot of thought into Topia Online. Countless hours and countless sore throats have gone into discussing what makes a game "awesome". Going back over the classics of MMO gaming - Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Everquest - one thing is constant: There are good games, and terrible games. There are badass ideas, and implementations which kill a game. When a portion of an MMO's population feels isolated, or gets the shaft due to "patch day", that can send an otherwise boss game into a tailspin from which it can't recover.
All of us here have experienced this firsthand and we decided to do something different. Instead of QQing about how terribad most modern MMOs are, or how typical they are, or how <foo> they are, we decided to create our own.
There are -many- great "indie" games out there. Games which push the limits of our imaginations, our wits, and our sanity. My personal taste leans toward "Survival Simulation" games. The Unreal World, !!Dwarf Fortress!!, Neo Scavenger, and a plethora of other titles which might not be known across the world, but have a dedicated fanbase because they are simply -awesome- games. MMOs like Ultima Online, where the community itself dictates policy and interaction, broke ground for what a "video game" meant to an online community.
As amazing as these games are, one thing I've always found lacking is the ability to DO things. Sure, you can build a fortress. But without other people to admire it (or break it), the glass is only half full. Jagged Alliance taught me the basics of logicstics, !!DF!! the need to feed a community, scores of games showed how fun it can be to build something, Ultima Online taught the predator/prey relationship in an online community, and the list goes on and on.
Taking into account the massive amount of gaming experience we have, we thought to ourselves -
"...Wouldn't it be cool if you could do <this>?"
"Why can't you do <this>? You should be able to!"
"I really wish I could do <this>"
Eventually, after centuries of complaining about features, or lack thereof, and everything in between, we made the decision to take things to another level. We started putting together the best ideas we've had for an MMO/Sandbox/Awesomesauce game, and brought them to life. This isn't simply another game - this is the Sandbox MMO redefined. The creative decisions of grizzled RPG veterans, brought together with the goal of making a dream a reality.
That's exactly what Topia Online is. Our brainchild. Months upon months of creative discussion, brainstorming, what works, what doesn't, what would be lame, what would be so awesomesauce that your nose bleeds profusely and you start shrieking, and what the redefined "formula" is for a "good" MMO. We aren't by any means finished these discussions. We are constantly having such depraved conversations that if you ever were to hear them, you would throw yourself in magma.
PermaDeath. Being captured by creatures. (Including spiders. You do the math.) Hiring henchmen. Terraforming. World building. Items having "histories". A game where -everything- you as a player does has an impact on the game world. Everything is tracked. Everything is noted. The world adjusts accordingly to what YOU people do.
This is not a game where you'll farm mobs for uber lootz. This is not a game where you'll log on only to wait seven hours until a raid boss spawns. This is a game where excessive slaughter can lead to a rise in necromantic forces, where slimes, wolves, and even dragons are controlled by YOU, where diseases run rampant, where The Darkness constantly looms on the horizon, threatening to engulf YOUR civilizations, and/or drag you (literally) kicking and screaming to consume the very essence of your being.
Where the Recently Deceased can be viewed on the web site, including rather amusing videos of how they died. Where conflict is recorded with colorful terms such as "wars, massacres, slaughters, skirmishes, etc". Where raiding your fellow man's supply lines for resources, food, and to inflict punitive damages can be just as important as controlling an empire.
Maybe you want to lay claim to a forest. Maybe you want to protect the trees, like some kind of elf druid hippy thing. Maybe the land appreciates that.
Or maybe you want to pursue the forgotten arts of Necromancy. Maybe you rob graves for parts. Maybe you spread disease intentionally or unintentionally, causing an epidemic that has the entire population looking to put your head upon a pike.
We fully intend to present to our community a myriad of possibilities. We will go above and beyond "Kill creature. Get lootz. Level up. Trololol." We will give you guys a living, breathing world to build or destroy at your whim. Where every decision you make matters, where social interaction is just as important as what kind of a sword you have, where every creature in the world is controlled by YOU, and where the only rules in place are what you folks decide there are.
Also, chopping down trees. You can chop down trees.
Overall, we intend to be forever vigilant in making sure that features are added, user accessibility is constantly reviewed, and the game is simply as awesome as we can possibly make it. So get those beta sign-ups in, be on the look out for dev updates informing you of the latest features, and get active in the forums.
If any of you have any questions for me, fire away. I'll try to answer everything as best as I can, and who knows? Your question might just provoke another grueling 6 hour dev discussion, and could very well shape the future of this project.
Welcome to Topia Online.
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Topic: Topia Online Kickstarter is live!!! (Read 24469 times)