Still Humming Along

Simutronics: Update on Hero Engine and Hero's Journey

Okay, so we knew that.

Honestly though. That engine must be somewhere near awesome. If they can wear two hats, working on HJ and the new Star Wars (probably training in real time mostly?), thats unheard of in MMO-land.

They better schedule release dates carefully. I'd hate to be torn betwenn these two games. But I can actually say that there are now at least two games coming out that I'd pay to play again.

WOW!!

You guys kept my sword clean!!! *hugs*
 
Here's what's frustrating for me.

If they were truly working on it with a schedule and a set number of people. If they had things planned out and were organized. If they were committed to making a quality game at a reasonable time frame. Then they would have a release date. Everything I've read, and every person I've spoken with that has knowledge of their progress, has given me clues to a very bleak landscape.

From what I can gather from the small answers I have received and the bigger "non-answers" I've had to catch on my own, I'd say there's no more than half a dozen on-site staff that split their time between Engine development and supervising no more than two dozen volunteers. I see management that is taking shots in the dark with no real idea of what they're they are doing or what still needs to be done. I see no ability for even a rough schedule to be drafted.

They are unorganized, understaffed, broke and in way over their heads.

If this game ever generates a dollar of revenue from a player's pocket, it will be the day before rapture. And as for the ever so ambiguous "in development" tag they've been touting. That sure is a broad term. There are a lot of things in this world that are "In Development" that are inching along too slowly to ever be a viable product.
 
I'd say there's no more than half a dozen on-site staff that split their time between Engine development and supervising no more than two dozen volunteers.

Uhm, no. Please stop speculating about how many people are onsite. Whoever you are talking to does not know what they are talking about, nor do they know the people onsite, who works in the office, or how the development of HE and HJ is split up.
 
Uhm, no. Please stop speculating about how many people are onsite. Whoever you are talking to does not know what they are talking about, nor do they know the people onsite, who works in the office, or how the development of HE and HJ is split up.

The Michael J Fox said:
They don't have a choice! Bob Rumson is the only one doing the talking! People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

Valendros on MMORPG.com said:
Notice nobody at Simu Will NEVER, EVER give you a number of people working on it. Or the number of people laid off. They just say their mantra of the vague and ambiguous 'we're working on it'. I'm in IT and the only people I tell 'we're working on it' to is to the people with problems I have no intention of fixing in the immediate future.

Well... This just got easier. Since you aparently can tell me if I'm wrong on how many people are working on it, I can keep guessing and you can keep telling me I'm wrong until I'm right.

Either that or you just broke your NDA by saying that "Uhm, no." statement and you might as well tell us anything else we want to know.
 
If there was any Communication at Stake, i'd be concerned about losing it because of you. As it is, i'll just stick to enjoying your Pestering.
 
If there was any Communication at Stake, i'd be concerned about losing it because of you. As it is, i'll just stick to enjoying your Pestering.

If there were any communication I wouldn't have a need to pester. :-L


Diviana, feel free to answer seperately.
8 on-site full-time employees
40 off-site part-time GMs

(Aparently we know I'm right when she doesn't answer, cause she can answer NO to something, but not Yes).
 
If there were any communication I wouldn't have a need to pester. :-L


Diviana, feel free to answer seperately.
8 on-site full-time employees
40 off-site part-time GMs

(Aparently we know I'm right when she doesn't answer, cause she can answer NO to something, but not Yes).

It's really none of your concern. Now my answers will just be completely vague. :D
 
please-do-not-feed-the-troll.jpg


So how about them Hero Engines, guys?
 
What do you mean? Bioware is making star wars.

Yes. Bioware had two very successful Star Wars based RPGs. I have; and have played them both. The "Knights of the Old Republic" series.

Lucas Arts wanted to develope another Star Wars MMO and Bioware has a legion of still very dedicated fans to the aforementioned series. Couple this to the disgruntled base of former SWG players and you have a built in base to work with.

But they needed something different. Hero Engine was that difference and "Star Wars the Old Republic" will be the result. Brought to you by Hero Engine.

Valendros said:
Here's what's frustrating for me...

Whatever.

Besides, oh impatient one, with the economy the way it is - and who knows how far into the future it will last (if not getting worse) - lack of discretionary income may also have a dramatic effect on the gaming industry. Busy yourself with something else and ocassionally check back in. Where's the hard part?
 
I've been seriously thinking of playing FFXI again since I have some free time.

It got a lot better. There's sort of like the Gemstone Adventurer's guild type of thing now (Like adding a bunch of WOW or EQ-type quests without adding quests)... Also level sync... they made Soloing very viable... it's almost a whole different game.
 
That's exactly why I've been considering playing again because of the lvl syncing and soloing. However, I'm trying to convince some of my RL friends to play with me this time.
Do you still play Val?
 
It got a lot better. There's sort of like the Gemstone Adventurer's guild type of thing now (Like adding a bunch of WOW or EQ-type quests without adding quests)... Also level sync... they made Soloing very viable... it's almost a whole different game.

That's hard to imagine. Unfortunately though after playing EQ2 for so long the FFXI graphics make my eyes bleed.
 
That's exactly why I've been considering playing again because of the lvl syncing and soloing. However, I'm trying to convince some of my RL friends to play with me this time.
Do you still play Val?

Ya, I'm on Fenrir. I'm playing around with Blue Mage at the moment. Pretty fun, but some of the spells take FOREVER to learn - Spent 4 hours trying to get Healing Breeze off a Dahmel yesterday. But then I got Queasyshroom on my first Fungar, Headbutt on my third Quaddav, and Helldive on my fifth bird. So most of them are quick. I read that HB is specifically hard to get.

Lethe5683 said:
That's hard to imagine. Unfortunately though after playing EQ2 for so long the FFXI graphics make my eyes bleed.

That's strange. That's what my buddy who plays WOW said. That may be true if you don't change any settings, but if you hack the resolution, it's not bad at all. I play on a 1440x900 screen windowed to 1280x800, with a 1280x800 resolution and mine looks fine IMO. The defaults set you to 256x256 or 512x512 resolution. So on a rectangular screen you've got more pixil resolution on the Y axis than you do on the X, so it looks funny.

ValAndAuri.jpg

Those are my guys. so CUTE... The castle thing in the background is a city so the resolution on it looks terrible, not sure why it is but all the cities do that.
The girl Taru is my wife's character she stopped playing after she got her WHM to around 50. I leveled the bard up from 0 to 75. Is great to have 2 accounts (and for the price of one Gemstone account).

Cloister2.png

The thing I see right off the bat is the pixilation around the edges... My Laptop's card doesn't have AA, but my desktop's does. I'll see if it makes a difference.

I guess the graphics have never really been a clincher for me. The gameplay and community are what matter IMO. I played EQ2 and WOW and I don't really see a huge improvement over the graphics, and both of the games in general were just aweful.
 
That's strange. That's what my buddy who plays WOW said. That may be true if you don't change any settings, but if you hack the resolution, it's not bad at all. I play on a 1440x900 screen windowed to 1280x800, with a 1280x800 resolution and mine looks fine IMO. The defaults set you to 256x256 or 512x512 resolution. So on a rectangular screen you've got more pixil resolution on the Y axis than you do on the X, so it looks funny.

Yes I was using the registry hack to get 1360 x 768, my "TV's" native resolution. I have TV in quotes because it's only 23" and I use it more as a monitor than as a TV.

The performance is amazing since as far as I could tell it was impossible to get the frame rate to ever drop below max, even in the most crowded areas with max settings. But the graphics are just so... crude. It seems like it has 16x aliasing in that game or something. Also the lighting and shadows is... I don't even know how to describe how bad it is compared to eq2. Well anyways, I can't really play that since it literally hurts my eyes.

Edit: I thought of a good comparison for the lighting shadows. EQ2 is to FFXI as C&C 3 is to C&C 1.
 
Back
Top