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All I can say is wow, this has to be the perfect game for me right now the only thing what I'm not to keen on is the price for the game + subscription. I guess I'll have to save my moola if I wanna get this beasty game.
Any chance of a trial maybe? like other P2P games I think that would make my day but also have a lot more people purchasing the game.
Thanks Xsyon Citizens :)
Unfortunately Rexx this is a difficult proposition with Xsyon and has been discussed a lot. Unlike typical cooky cutter games Xsyons world environment is directly effected by things we do. People come in and terraform a bunch of land, pave roads all over the forest, pull scraps and burn out scrap piles, then quit and leave an ugly mess, and there is no undoing those changes. So unless Xsyon wants to pay for another dedicated server for trials it's not really a good idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by RexX
As for the cost, if you buy now at $40.00 that buys the game and gives you a month of play. Plus as an active subscriber (might want to confirm this as we all got emails, you might have missed it) you may get two weeks of free play added to your subscription with the current promo coming up. So buying now would be a good deal.
Yeah... I am pretty sure that is not a valid reason for not adding a trial period.
Do you have any idea how easy it is to disable(or limit) any skill by adding a new variable that indicates trial status?
Something along the lines of...
If Trial = True
Teraform = Disabled
Building = Disabled
Even high budget games use simple code to limit access to things based on account level.
Removing these options then giving a trial account would be like trying to play Call of duty with no ammo. People would just quit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael_M
Turning of the "key features" of the game would be like if you have a trail version of Wow but you can not cast a spell or move beyond the first zone ... I dont think that would work as it would not work in Xsyon because the element of a Sandbox game is that *you* change the environment:
-) you fell a tree -> it will be felled for ever - no respawing of that same tree, no creating new trees around it in summer, no picking up sap,twigs etc...
-) if you kill an animal - its dead - for *all* players in the world and it wont create children ... so even killing a small animal will change the world
So only allowing trail players to pick up stones and fish ??? They should not even be able to pick up grass, trash, branches etc. because those things would be missing for paying players eventually
Trail would mean: Lots of people try the game (sounds great ?!?) meaning ...
- Xsyon would need more download server hardware (and internet traffic cost) to support them - although they dont pay anything
- Xsyon would need more server hardware (game, database ...) to support the trail players
- more people like community manager, more guides etc ...
And guess what ... all that stuff has to be paid! Who is paying that - the paying player base of Xsyon, so alot of money is spend for "potentential" customers (lets call it marketing) and not for the better of your actual customers. I have got the feeling (and probably Xsyon shares that too) that "free trail games " need a lot more resources for the "trial" players than for the real customers. And Xsyon is not created for the big masses of players, but for a rather distinct player base that is interested in sandbox games... however its not so easy to "make the sand even" again - it would be like there was never a tide on the ocean and each and everyones "sandcastle" would persist forever ... best to limit the access to the beach - and if it is only be charging 40$ to get there for a month :)
I like that fact that dedicated people buy this game for playing 1 month - means less "Ill tried 5 games today and this one sucks!" in globalchat, less children (they dont spend 40$ of their allowance (AE)/ pocket money (BE)) and less people who are not commited to giving the game a chance (meaning they really try before quitting)
I have ot mostly agree with your. Your statements almost put a tear to my eye and i'm too young to have much wisdom. But look at Dawntide. It wasn't charging people to play it. It told everyone it was beta so they didn't have to pay to play. But you know... people still played it because there was something there. It had value. Anyway, they lost their funding and now the game is dead. I think that for Xyson to survive, asking for money like this might be the only way for it to keep going because NOBODY in the mainstream is going to invest in something like this. The mainstream runs away from sandbox games like they're the plague. Myabe its time niche players put their money where their mouth is and are willing to invest. Otherwise, these kinds of games can only come from open source communities. That means: slowly. Open source can do a lot of things, but it cannot do everything.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomduril
There's just not enough popularity out there for sandbox mmorpgs.
So it's time we do something about it. Talk is cheap and fake. Money is real.
Strange really, that has not been my experience at all. Everyone seems to like a sandbox when you chat to them. The GTA series as a standalone game was a blockbuster because it was a sandbox. Many games like minecraft are popular for allowing you to manipulate the environment. Fallen Earth was a semi-sandbox that has scope for exploration and had a small but loyal base.Quote:
Originally Posted by sparklingshores
The truth is that there's not enough good sandbox games out there and most mmorpgs use the same theme of linear story line, click tab, macro action to kill mob after mob. The linear aspect is usually the number one gripe in my chat boxes so I think the sandbox idea is popular and perhaps just needs some organised activities for those with weak imagination.
As someone who literally JUST discovered this game because of an article posted on Massivley.com, "Why should I give this game a $40 try if I have no idea what it's going to be like?"
I did some beta stuff for Mortal Online and played a LITTLE Darkfall, but this game seems completely different. (Beta was like my Mortal Online Demo, and Darkfall has a free Trial)
Honestly, after taking a look at the forums here, I'm a little disappointed. The game looked and read great in the features list, but I guess it's not quite like that going by what the community is talking about.
I'm going to continue watching "Let's Play" videos. But because I have no idea what to expect of the game, I'll probably have to wait for some time that I literally have enough extra money that I can throw at this game as a gamble. I hate gambling.
Imagine the potential players that thought, "I'll save little by little to gamble on this game." Just like me, but forgot about it, and just went on.
GTA really isnt a sandbox. Its a free form themepark, there is no rules on how you play the game, but you cant advance without following a strict set of predetermined script points. Same for Skyrim, which is often lofted up to being the greatest sandbox ever, nope not really.Quote:
Originally Posted by Qwerty
Minecraft is one of few really good sandbox games out there, but it isnt that great, and wasnt hugely popular till almost a year after its release. And now its fading away, its barely even 2 years old, and isnt a MMO.
Fallen Earth was good, I liked it, I liked it for mainly its theme, and the style it was presented. I didnt care for the lack of sandbox this you should have been able to do but couldnt. There is and was no housing, in game which is hugely important in a sandbox, there was little ownership outside of vehicles and mounts. And until recently there was very limited in world PvP, almost everything was handled in the Bloodsports Arenas.
Darkfall, is a good sandbox, but I like to call it Sandbox Lite, because it simplifies so many sandbox features in favor of more combat mechanics. Which means the game like Mortal Online suffers as there is nothing to do but PvP, or craft for PvP.
Mortal Online as I stated above, is nothing but PvP. There is no Role-playing, there is no use to owning a house, there is no customization, the weapons are often the flavor of the month/patch. The game is bad, but it looks pretty, I guess thats all that matters to gamers now days. I could go on for a while about Starvault and their farce Mortal Online. I played it for 6 months past release, and since Block B in beta. I watched the game change and not for the better. It actually drove me to Xsyon, and lead me to leave Xsyon because of the rough state Xsyon was in on release. After getting duped once by Starvault I was in no mood to let another indie-game company do it to me again, so I left after my free month. I came back about a year later, it has improved a great deal. Is it where it should be, NO, but it WILL be and thats what I am seeing and why I am staying for now.
Come 6 months from now, no telling where I may be. I may be playing Planetside 2, or not playing online games at all anymore because they are all turning into rip offs.
Its sad the two MMOs that kept me the longest are either dead or I am perma-banned from.
Roma Victor(dead) and World War II Online (permabanned for pointing out that DOC knows nothing about anti-tank weapons)
When I first played A Tale In The Desert, they had a tutorial island were you could build, gather and learn the game. I think that would be a good idea here, too. Maybe make it so that skills are capped at a certain level and the whole island resets every day or something.
