Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[puke]

A search did not turn up a thread for this, and I'm a little surprised as it seems like it would be right up the alley for the kind of open world indy dev sort of stuff that is popular around heres.

Free to play, with premium access that is supposed to only be important once you are advanced or far along in the game.

I have not tried it yet, so if anyone has experience with it it would be interesting to hear any impressions. 

Linkey: http://www.thespacegame.com/

Premium features explained:  http://wiki.thespacegame.com/mediawiki/index.php/Premium_Access

A bit about the game:

Ascent - The Space Game is an online multiplayer 3D space simulator with Combat, Trading, Exploration, Starbase Construction, Research, Custom-built Ships, Planetary Mining and Farming, Asteroid Mining, Gas Giant Harvesting, Wreck Salvaging and now, Colonization!

Obligatory screens (huge):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[aristabulus]

I think I remember seeing this on RPS, when the KS was still running...  Saw "$35,000" and "MMO" and closed the tab.  The only thing that will save this from being a bigger boondoggle than Yogsventures is that they don't have a giant audience to piss off already.

Also, spoiler wrapper on those images, mate?  They're ginormous.  Thanks.

[puke]

done.

Not a huge budget, but they seem to be funding the ongoing development through premium access and microtransactions.  Features are being added regularly.

This seems to be an increasingly common model.  Surely KSP would have rolled 1.0 long ago (they even talked about doing so a couple years back) if they were not continually selling product.  Space Engineers might not have as much development if people were not buying it.

I suspect this will be developed for as long as it is making money, despite the low crowd funding number.  I mean look at it, they're not paying for AAA art here.

[aristabulus]

...
I suspect this will be developed for as long as it is making money, despite the low crowd funding number.  I mean look at it, they're not paying for AAA art here.

AAA art is expensive, sure... so they aren't burning cash on that.  The scope of what they're aiming for is still huge, when you boil down the "epic feature list" to actual things-to-do in the code.  I hope they can find their niche, but it won't happen without some deep-pocketed people believing in what they're making.

[Scripten]

I was pretty skeptical, considering the UI looks like something designed by an IT guy, but after doing some research, I may just end up sticking around. The price really is just right, and the focus is on PvE, which exists, well, nowhere.

[Exerosp]

This smells like Shores of Hazeron, me likey.

[Eurylochus]

If only it was actually free to play, it would be an excellent alternative.

[~Neri]

I miss Shores of Hazron.

[Vendayn]

Anyone actually try this and if so, what did you think of it?

Definitely reminds me of Shores of hazeron. But this looks a lot better (to me), mostly because in the features it sounds like the galaxy is huge and hazeron has a tiny galaxy compared to what it used to have. Plus this game is PvE focused, which is a HUGE bonus for me as no sandbox game ever does PvE except Asheron's Call on PvE servers and Saga of Ryzom (oh and star wars galaxies had great PvE too, which is rare in an AAA MMO lol)...its all deathmatch PvP clones. Its why I usually stick with themepark MMOs is cause they are PvE focused even though I much prefer sandbox MMOs lol.

[Gabeux]

I miss Shores of Hazron.

Why? Why did you mention it? 
----
I played this Ascent game when I was in one of my random pilgrimages (?) for underground, indie, openworld games 1 or 2 years ago.
I remember the idea of it being neat, but the execution being terrible.

My experience from long ago - I'll be honest, but I don't remember much since I must have played very casually for a month (when it was free)..so take it with a grain of salt, and don't hate me:
Small game world, grindy and rather boring. Combat was annoying, but had an interesting model.
To build your own base, you had to mine stuff..and mining was horrible. UI was barely functional and you couldn't read things properly, and barely communicate.
However, it had an interesting foundation. I think I actually managed to get past the initial grind and get a colony or something like that, and a VERY grindy upgradable player "HQ". I remember thinking "Maybe in a few years, this dude will have a sort of multiplayer X-game or Hazeron".. and from the few news I read, I remember the dev was pushing development strongly.

However, he had some sort of voting system to vote on new features, and you could make your own suggestion for people to vote and comment on. They'd get tags too, but I don't remember it correctly.
So I posted one or more suggestions and read the comments on other suggestions. The dev seemed extremely inclined to push whatever updates and features he wanted, and would generally discuss most suggestions in a dismissive/negative way.
I remember urging him to make the controls better, because it was simply unplayable - engine, graphical, UI, bugs were present too, but at least getting the controls right didn't seem any difficult - you could kill yourself pretty easily while mining, which was required to grind stuff since the player economy was bad due to minimal playerbase at the time.
Again, don't remember exactly, but he was dismissive about it and said something about it being low priority.
Then I just got too surprised/annoyed he wasn't interested in making the game playable or fun to the people (based on the dev dismissing critical suggestions while favoring his own feature list), and dropped/forgot about it.

My intuition at the time was telling me he wanted to push features that would sound good on a feature list, for no real reason.
But he got on Steam..so maybe that was the reason to prioritize feature list versus playability and fun factor?

Again, this is my past experience with it and it has been a long while since all that. I have no idea about the current state of the game.

I usually don't take this "defensive" stance towards indie games and developers, but I usually don't leave and forget things without reasons.

PS: It HAD a small game world. But just remembered after I left it he started releasing the big map update or something like that.
Didn't catch my interest though.

EDIT: Derp.

[~Neri]

Diiid you ever make houses? Mining is only grindy for the first ten or twenty minutes. Once npc's start spawning, it speeds up fast.

[Chiefwaffles]

Was that about Ascent or Hazeron? I genuinely have no idea.

[Gabeux]

It was about Ascent, sorry if it was not clear.

Yep Kevak I remember getting my colony to mine stuff, but the grindy part was something about not being able to get the specific ores I needed from my colonies.

Still, I'm all about space and sandbox games.
I'm not trying to prevent people to check it out. Just trying to prevent people from jumping at it completely blind...like I always do.

[~Neri]

* Kevak thought you were talking about Hazeron~

[Gabeux]

* Kevak thought you were talking about Hazeron~

Don't troll me like that. 
But honestly, in Ascent I think you can get your colonies to mine iron. Which is just one of the things you need to upgrade.

I should really stop trying to remember things about this game though, otherwise I'll start talking about the day we invaded some PTMC colony because that's the right to do.