KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Prototype Thread

[Metro]

Nah I'll be backing Bard's Tale 4.

 

[Infinitron]

Somewhat popamole interview with Paul Neurath: http://www.worldsfactory.net/2015/02/20/underworld-ascendant-interview-its-back

The Stygian Abyss, where Underworld Ascendant takes place, is described as a vast world with many different environments. Is it going to be a seamless world, though, or will there be loadings between zones?

We have not sorted this out as yet. Ideally it would be seamless, but there is some tradeoff between detail and scope of each era and trying to keep it all seamless. We certainly understand that nobody likes frequent pauses in game play while levels load up, so we will not be doing that.

How long do you expect the main story to be, approximately? Also, will players find many sidequests in Underworld Ascendant?

On order of 10-15 hour is our target for the single-player story arc. We are putting a high priority on re-playability, where your experience and outcome can vary quite a bit between play through, depending on what type of character you build and on the choices you make. So we think a fair portion of players will play through it 2 or more times.

On the Kickstarter campaign you mentioned that “Rune Gates connect to other worlds as well, including the lands of the Shroud of the Avatar. Over the eons travelers have spanned these worlds, including a band of rogue dark elves who set themselves up in The Stygian Abyss. Discover how these worlds have intertwined over the ages.” Can you explain this part to us?

We are using pretty much the same trope as the original Underworlds where magic portals took the human Avatar from earth to the fantasy world, and often within the fantasy world itself. Where we are going further is in having gates that connect to other worlds, and other times. More to come…

The Improvisation Engine is perhaps the single most interesting feature in Underworld Ascendant. Can you tell us how it works? How much of it is based on physics?

It is one of the most distinctive parts of the gameplay for sure. The Engine is a set of technologies that allow us to create a fairly complex model of a dynamic world, and one where the player has an especially wide palate of ways to permeate the systems through their actions and choices. Each component is not that complex, but the many different ways they can combine and create spiraling effects is what gives it power. We did a comparatively primitive version of this with the original games, including a piece we called the “Act / React” system. Basically going 10-fold deeper now that we have much more powerful hardware to leverage.

Speaking of combat, will there be dual wielding with weapons/spells like in Skyrim?

Great question. Don’t have an answer yet. Something to think about

Can people expect to find way stronger enemies in certain parts of the Stygian Abyss, or are you planning to implement NPC scaling?

One thing we liked about the original games is that the player could get in too deep if they wanted, and encounter a creature that would almost surely overmatch them. We wanted to give players the freedom to push themselves, sometimes further than was wise, but it was always their choice. Same with the new game.

A stretch goal would add the Underworld Builder Toolkit. Are you planning to let folks share their work on Steam Workshop? Would it be possible to create completely different environments, like in a total conversion mod?

TBD

Another stretch goal would add co-operative play with a friend. What about an optional PvP “invasion mode”, though? Would you consider something like this if the fans asked for it?

We have a stretch goal that we’ve not revealed as yet that goes further down the multiplayer path. Let’s wait and see if we approach that before talking further about it.

You mentioned using Unity in the campaign. Is that Unity 5 and if so, are you planning to use PBR and/or Global Illumination by Enlighten?

Our prototype runs in Unity 4.55. We are using this version because it is quite stable, and we can make fast progress on prototyping with it. Our current plan is to step up to Unity 5 as soon as it is sufficiently stable for a full production environment. We will be exploring the various new rendering capabilities.

Microsoft is starting to push Windows 10 and along with it, DirectX 12, which look very promising in the early benchmarks. Are you planning to use DX12 in Underworld Ascendant and if so, do you believe there will be significant performance gains?

I would presume so given when we plan to commercially launch the game, but don’t have the details on that as yet.

I understand you’re focused on PC, but what are the chances to see Underworld Ascendant on PlayStation 4 and/or Xbox One as well at some point?

We’re focused on PC at this stage.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Metro]

On order of 10-15 hour is our target for the single-player story arc.

 

[Infinitron]

On order of 10-15 hour is our target for the single-player story arc.

http://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=275.0

While it may only take 10-15 hours to play through the story of the game, actual game play will take much longer if players do all the other things available in our sandbox. We are designing a game where players can go anywhere and do anything in any order they like, including the main story but also including "the world". Exploring, experimenting, learning and Lore-ing (that's a word, right?) are activities that surround and support the main story, but if someone is not interested in these things, and only interested in the main story, they could be ignored. But for those who ARE interested in discovering all the facets of the Underworld, game play should be much much longer.

Imagine, for instance, playing Skyrim only going through the story (skipping every side quest, most dungeons, secrets, etc). It would take around 20 hours. But there is a lot more going on in that game, that if you try to experience it all, would take you near 300 hours to finish.

Those numbers aren't necessarily the exact numbers, or ratio, we will be going for in Underworld Ascendant, but I think you get my point.

 

[bloodlover]

the single-player story arc

So it will have mp even with the minimum funds?

 

[Azeot]

10-15 hours of content, 85-90 of filler and thrash mobs. But hey, it's replayable...

 

[Bubbles]

While it may only take 10-15 hours to play through the story of the game, actual game play will take much longer if players do all the other things available in our sandbox. We are designing a game where players can go anywhere and do anything in any order they like, including the main story but also including "the world". Exploring, experimenting, learning and Lore-ing (that's a word, right?) are activities that surround and support the main story, but if someone is not interested in these things, and only interested in the main story, they could be ignored. But for those who ARE interested in discovering all the facets of the Underworld, game play should be much much longer.

Imagine, for instance, playing Skyrim only going through the story (skipping every side quest, most dungeons, secrets, etc). It would take around 20 hours. But there is a lot more going on in that game, that if you try to experience it all, would take you near 300 hours to finish.

Those numbers aren't necessarily the exact numbers, or ratio, we will be going for in Underworld Ascendant, but I think you get my point.

Does that mean level scaling is confirmed?

 

[Infinitron]

While it may only take 10-15 hours to play through the story of the game, actual game play will take much longer if players do all the other things available in our sandbox. We are designing a game where players can go anywhere and do anything in any order they like, including the main story but also including "the world". Exploring, experimenting, learning and Lore-ing (that's a word, right?) are activities that surround and support the main story, but if someone is not interested in these things, and only interested in the main story, they could be ignored. But for those who ARE interested in discovering all the facets of the Underworld, game play should be much much longer.

Imagine, for instance, playing Skyrim only going through the story (skipping every side quest, most dungeons, secrets, etc). It would take around 20 hours. But there is a lot more going on in that game, that if you try to experience it all, would take you near 300 hours to finish.

Those numbers aren't necessarily the exact numbers, or ratio, we will be going for in Underworld Ascendant, but I think you get my point.

Does that mean level scaling is confirmed?

That would be more annoying if that question hadn't been asked in that very same interview

 

[Morgoth]

This isn't a Bethesda-sized team that can make a 200 hour game guise. Have some appreciation for what we get.

 

[Athelas]

I'd rather have 15 hours of quality than 50 hours of filler and padding.

It also has to do with the resources they have - this game is getting less money than all the isometric RPG's, despite needing it more, being first-person 3d and all.

 

[Bubbles]

While it may only take 10-15 hours to play through the story of the game, actual game play will take much longer if players do all the other things available in our sandbox. We are designing a game where players can go anywhere and do anything in any order they like, including the main story but also including "the world". Exploring, experimenting, learning and Lore-ing (that's a word, right?) are activities that surround and support the main story, but if someone is not interested in these things, and only interested in the main story, they could be ignored. But for those who ARE interested in discovering all the facets of the Underworld, game play should be much much longer.

Imagine, for instance, playing Skyrim only going through the story (skipping every side quest, most dungeons, secrets, etc). It would take around 20 hours. But there is a lot more going on in that game, that if you try to experience it all, would take you near 300 hours to finish.

Those numbers aren't necessarily the exact numbers, or ratio, we will be going for in Underworld Ascendant, but I think you get my point.

Does that mean level scaling is confirmed?

That would be more annoying if that question hadn't been asked in that very same interview

If you're referring to

• Can people expect to find way stronger enemies in certain parts of the Stygian Abyss, or are you planning to implement NPC scaling?

• One thing we liked about the original games is that the player could get in too deep if they wanted, and encounter a creature that would almost surely overmatch them. We wanted to give players the freedom to push themselves, sometimes further than was wise, but it was always their choice. Same with the new game.

That says nothing about whether level scaling is actually in the game, just that there will be enemies with a minimum level higher than 1.

 

[Infinitron]

You know, we don't even know if this game has "levels".

 

[mindx2]

I'd rather have 15 hours of quality than 50 hours of filler and padding.

It also has to do with the resources they have - this game is getting less money than all the isometric RPG's, despite needing it more, being first-person 3d and all.

Not really. From what I gathered from my visit the 3d environment "creation" isn't the hard part (remember this isn't going for AAA resolution so you can see the sweat on the creatures brow in HD). They put together their little tech demo video in less than three weeks. They actually said they made a mistake by not putting more effort in creating it as they felt too many look at it and said, "Well, that's no Bioshock or Dishonored... next game please." Creating the mechanics behind the environmental interactions, faction and monster reactions, etc. is where they are spending their time. They told me not to worry that the game will look good just not AAA $20,000,000 good.

You know, we don't even know if this game has "levels".

Not as distinct as in UU I & II.

 

[Infinitron]

Like I said earlier ITT, it may be a myth that "first person games need more budget". Unity, Unreal, all these engines, they're build to create first person games pretty much out-of-the-box, and there's lots of knowledge, tools and assets to support the development of that sort of game. It's the isometric games that need lots of work to reach a basic level of implementation.

 

[tuluse]

Like I said earlier ITT, it may be a myth that "first person games need more budget". Unity, Unreal, all these engines, they're build to create first person games pretty much out-of-the-box, and there's lots of knowledge and assets to support the development of that sort of game. It's the isometric games that need lots of work to reach a basic level of implementation.

I've fired up Unity. You can get an "RTS camera" from the asset store for free and have an isometric level up and running in 30 min with no knowledge of how to use Unity and only the most basic programming skills.

Plus, the WL2 way of using 3D assets means you can just drop stuff designed for first person into the game.

The pre-rendered 2D of PoE and TToN are obviously more expensive though.

 

[Metro]

On order of 10-15 hour is our target for the single-player story arc.

http://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=275.0

While it may only take 10-15 hours to play through the story of the game, actual game play will take much longer if players do all the other things available in our sandbox. We are designing a game where players can go anywhere and do anything in any order they like, including the main story but also including "the world". Exploring, experimenting, learning and Lore-ing (that's a word, right?) are activities that surround and support the main story, but if someone is not interested in these things, and only interested in the main story, they could be ignored. But for those who ARE interested in discovering all the facets of the Underworld, game play should be much much longer.

Imagine, for instance, playing Skyrim only going through the story (skipping every side quest, most dungeons, secrets, etc). It would take around 20 hours. But there is a lot more going on in that game, that if you try to experience it all, would take you near 300 hours to finish.

Those numbers aren't necessarily the exact numbers, or ratio, we will be going for in Underworld Ascendant, but I think you get my point.

 

[tuluse]

Up with shorter games, down with RPG size queens!

 

[Bubbles]

On re-reading that answer, it also implies that learning is an optional activity that can be completely ignored during the main quest.

 

[Zombra]

the single-player story arc
So it will have mp even with the minimum funds?

Not necessarily - all that means is that there will be a single-player story arc.

 

[Metro]

I don't need some 50+ hour imuuuuuuurrrrsiiiiv wuuuurld but 10-15 is a little on the short side for something that's open world. For a linear shooter, yeah, that would be fine.

 

[Athelas]

I'd rather have 15 hours of quality than 50 hours of filler and padding.

It also has to do with the resources they have - this game is getting less money than all the isometric RPG's, despite needing it more, being first-person 3d and all.

Not really. From what I gathered from my visit the 3d environment "creation" isn't the hard part (remember this isn't going for AAA resolution so you can see the sweat on the creatures brow in HD). They put together their little tech demo video in less than three weeks. They actually said they made a mistake by not putting more effort in creating it as they felt too many look at it and said, "Well, that's no Bioshock or Dishonored... next game please." Creating the mechanics behind the environmental interactions, faction and monster reactions, etc. is where they are spending their time. They told me not to worry that the game will look good just not AAA $20,000,000 good.

I wasn't actually talking about the expense of graphics, but more about each area/encounter being distinct and fun to play. That obviously is harder to achieve when you have a ton of content.

 

[Zombra]

I don't need some 50+ hour imuuuuuuurrrrsiiiiv wuuuurld but 10-15 is a little on the short side for something that's open world. For a linear shooter, yeah, that would be fine.

What they should have said is that the critical path will be 10-15 hours. Futzing around in the open world will likely boost that figure by a couple orders of magnitude.

 

[Metro]

Perhaps that's it. Sure you can speed run Morrowind in like 30 minutes or whatever. But I always assume a developer is going to overestimate the content for marketing purposes.

 

[Tigranes]

They'll get 600k from KS. UU1 wasn't that long either. I don't think this type of game needs to be very long. Bigger than Shadowrun or Banner Saga, surely, but doesn't need to be DOS or WL2.

 

[Infinitron]

UU1 wasn't that long either.

They just threw out that number, anyway. They don't have a clue at this point how long the game will be. You'll see.