Simutronics mention in Wired article

Oh my...I think that's the stuff my company is doing with Simutronics. Or something related.

I recently got to see a PoC done for Simu, along with Streambase's stuff, that was a sort of...hmm...well, it was a map. And you could see PC and NPC location in a variety of ways, with other metrics around the edges. Basically something I'd imagine woudl be very useful for GMs to look for sneaky behavior, or to just generally know what was going on where. (I checked with our folks to see if this was super-secret and they blinked at me in confusion, so I don't think I know anything that can't be shared.) Nothing that told me a darned bit about HJ, mind you, just Hero Engine. But I did have a fun moment at our company BBQ when I was chatting with with coworkers and let out a "WE"RE WORKING WITH SIMU?!?!" sort of squawk. They were amused.

Edit: Yeah, here's the press release from my company:

http://www.sl.com/sl_press_090607_2.html

You can see the picture of the PoC there.
 
Interesting, Foxeye... and welcome back.

The map in the screenshot on your site is a top down view of part of HJ's Grenmeer Lowlands, shown and described previously in screenshots, press releases, lore, etc.
 
My bosses (I have two, just call me Peter... what's happening...) are all flustered about how they got caught scripting in EQ2. They are confused how the GMs could know they were scripting... but software such as this is probably how they can find people... 90 hours of continuous game time, in the same zone killing the same 10 spawns over and over again probably sticks out pretty good on this stuff.
 
There's also the possibility that some people may have noticed it and turned them in, and there's always an activity log in games to check out.
 
I like everything about this. I'm at the tail end of my 14 day Eve trail and lodged a complaint three days into the game about the spam of ingame e-mails to buy ISK (Eve currency) via websites with special promo codes to boot.

It was annoying with only three days of playing!

I think the buying and selling of ingame currency is probably one of the worst plagues on the industry barring sanctioned servers for such. This really goes to show how Simu and Hero Engine seem to have focused in on the industry as a whole and looked at what was needed to move it forward in several ways.

PINN!!!!!

What's all of that purple 'HJ' stuff onya?
 
*tries to hide her name behind her back but it pokes out from her sides*

Ah, nothing! I'm not part of anything. Especially not a minion of some section of some gaming company, nope...Where'd you get such a crazy idea!?
 
So did anyone else notice the secondary class names in the press release?

Beach Comber
Cur
Grenadier

Herald
Necromancer
Rock Climber
Sand Vermin

Shaman
Warrior

Interesting...

(Oh yeah.. First Post.. I'm Ripert!)
 
Aw bummer.

See, here I was thinking I stumbled on a juicy piece of new info! Obviously, I haven't made my way through all the old post yet...

No worries, back to the reheated leftovers. :D

-Rip
 
No worries! There's tons of info to go through. Take your time- there's little enough (*cough*none*cough*) new stuff coming out. Savor every drop of information!

Also, should have said it before, welcome to the forums!
 
So did anyone else notice the secondary class names in the press release?

Beach Comber
Cur
Grenadier

Herald
Necromancer
Rock Climber
Sand Vermin

Shaman
Warrior

Interesting...

(Oh yeah.. First Post.. I'm Ripert!)

I do know for certain that all the data in that display was simulated data, not from an active server. However, it was simulated data provided by Simu, so it may still hold something of significance.
 
I'm glad to know they've been working on something to stop any cheating in HJ. Now if we could only get HJ actually RELEASED.
 
I dunno Daax, maybe there was a problem with GMs ninjaing each other's territories or botting to increase their productivity. Anything can happen in the cut-throat world of real time collaborative MMO development. :P2
 
Get 'em Simu. Fraud detection is important to a game with a solid economy. One cheater can throw a good economy out of whack.

I think it's definately important that HJ have a good economy, making rares just rare enough, and putting just enough money in the system where people can get a good (but not perfect) set of gear from start to finish.

Some games just have a crappy economy, let's be honest. Japan Ragnarok Online had a major problem with bots, and eventually software was implemented to stop botting. It worked, but because rares were soooo rare, the economy actually suffered because bots were taken out.

People stopped playing, and the company lost money because they were enforcing their EULA. What did they do? They removed the bot-ban software. Wow. I say, if you don't put players in an environment where cheating is beneficial, they won't cheat. Like in DR, a starting ranger with a bow he crafted himself and a sword dropped by a local goblin or reaver is viable. A better bow, or sword... yeah, that'll help you, but not as much as actually playing and gaining skill will.

Of course there will be folks trying to cheat the system for money and the best gear, but you cut down on that a lot when your economy is stable enough to where people don't have to use it to play the game.

Think of it like a side-quest, if you want shiny stuff, you can go put forth the effort to get it, but it's not entirely necessary. You're not going to lose that party invite because you didn't.
 
Think of it like a side-quest, if you want shiny stuff, you can go put forth the effort to get it, but it's not entirely necessary. You're not going to lose that party invite because you didn't.

One of the things I'm hoping that HJ does differently in addition to this is to make it so that when new expansions come out, the equipment (or wyr, I suppose) from older expansions doesn't become "outdated" due to the new expansion's equipment being clearly superior to the old expansion. When this happens, it is clearly catering to the hardcore-gaming masses (in addition to being an efficient money-making scheme), but leaves casual players scratching their heads as to why their characters never seem to get any stronger as they play. This, in addition to equipment being too important in defining a character's strength, are the two things I dislike most about today's MMORPG's.
 
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