Feel Good Period is Over.

[Kiriath]

Some MMOs are certainly more polished than others at release.

I would agree that the DAoC and Rift releases were fairly smooth.

I would somewhat disagree with AoC and WAR - not based on playability - but on the games themselves. Neither game came close to fulfilling the 'promises and expectations' of their respective player bases on release - although both have filled out fairly well over time.

That said - it's not entirely fair to compare Mythic, Funcom, and Trion to an independent studio. The former have dozens (if not hundreds) of employees.

If you take Xsyon 'in context' and compare it to other 'indie' titles - I believe it does quite well.

The game had to 'scale up' by several orders of magnitude at the last minute - and it still performs fairly well (after a protracted series of hiccups and setbacks). I consider that quite an accomplishment (for a small DEV team).

Is the game all I hoped it would be?

No - not by a long shot and probably not for quite some time. The primary skills I'm interested in aren't even in the game yet.

I don't consider myself a 'fanboi', nor am I 'QQ'ing. I'm just an average bloke looking for somewhere to relax after work. So far - even with the setbacks and delays - Xsyon is still a pretty decent place to be.

The games I quotet was perfectly playable at release, shitty games (except DAoC) but perfectly playable.

Im not arguing that Xsyon should have been perfect at release, its not and I didnt expect it to be either. Im just tired of ppl using the excuse that "no game was or is", because that is simply not true.

We got 10 weeks "free" gametime as opposed to the usual 4, if nothing else then that alone should be an indication that this release is gonna be rough.

[AlexTaldren]

Well, when a mommy Jordi and a daddy Jordi love each other very much, they get together and do something special . . .

That was the best thing I've read in this entire thread. lol

[jokhul]

Xsyon has a more extensive feature list than any MMO ever made to date !

Yet it has one of the smallest development teams in MMO history !

Anyone notice a problem here ?

When I first saw the feature list for this game, I was immediately suspicious, so I started researching the game to determine WHAT was actually implemented, as opposed to promised. The picture that emerged was very different. On paper, the facts said: "Walk away from this one".

However, I still decided to support NC in the hope that they could at least make a good deal of the envisioned systems work at some point.

As with Mortal Online, I'll give the game 6 months of paid subscription. If things do not happen at a rate that I can accept in that time, I'll move on. Sooner or later an indie team will "make it". May not be this one, but I'm happy to give the developers the benefit of the doubt, in case they surprise me one day

[JCatano]

The devs can easily argue "we stated this launch is prelude where the game will only be in it's basic state and build/include over the course of 6 months." <--interview

It's a little misleading clicking the features page and thinking that's what you're getting, but the main FAQ says:

6.) What is Prelude?
Prelude is the first chapter of Xsyon. It is a time of discovery, building, and exploration and will continue through summer as the game evolves to include more content and features.

^That's what's happening to me.

So while they do have features listed on the main page, the main page doesn't say when you'll get them or if they are even part of prelude.

And the forum FAQ section says a bunch of other things. Like a lot of things they've already got made that just aren't in yet. They very well could have 80%+ of the features list completed.

02-23-2010 05:32 AM

Originally Posted by Xsyon:

All the features listed will be available on the Prelude launch date.

The exception is the section titled: Evolution. Those features will spring up during the Prelude this summer.

---

03-04-2010 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by Virtus:

All features listed are at least 80% complete and will be in at release.

Not a dev, but quoted for confirmation of what was stated.

[jokhul]

All features listed are at least 80% complete and will be in at release.

And they are !

Except, because they are all 80% complete, none of them are actually working

When each feature is 100% complete, it can be switched on and becomes available ingame

Or perhaps they can all be switched on now, but then only 5 players can login simultaneously due to lag and optimization issues ?

[JCatano]

And they are !

Except, because they are all 80% complete, none of them are actually working

When each feature is 100% complete, it can be switched on and becomes available ingame

Or perhaps they can all be switched on now, but then only 5 players can login simultaneously due to lag and optimization issues ?

I hope that was amateur sarcasm, because it's quite obvious what Virtus meant after reading Jordi's quote.

[d3m0nd0]

Its not uncommon for MMO's to be in a beta state when released. It being acceptable? Not to everyone, but heres the kicker, Some people like this, They like to feel that the game has been built and developed around them, those people
who still remain playing this game, are most likley those people. And this trend on giving early access to an incomplete game isnt just restricted to MMO's. Look at CS early Beta's or any mod on the original Half-life engine, they were all beta's
all of em were buggy as hell, but no one cared, because people were still having fun playing em. People just constantly want more, for less. Thats a fact that can be proven time and time again.

The lastest example of a game charging for early access, Natural Selection 2. A fellow Indie company, They made the orignal NS1 on the HL engine, a Mod which recieved numerous awards infact. And the developered lived off donations. Now
hes working on the sequel, but allowed people to pre-purchase the game in a alpha state, with some other graphical perks, to allow us to play the game as he improves it. And i love it. I love seeing all his mess up's and him apologising like a mad
dog for em, and now the games hit a beta stage and is finally playable, though still buggy and still causing server crashes, but i dont care, because im having, fun, much like im having fun messing around in Xsyon. So no the game isnt perfect, but
I still see that potential, And i can still see the developers passion for this game to succeed. Is he the best at his job? Hell no.

But he never intended to be, he just wanted to create a game from his own vision. And maybe allow a few people to join him and fund his project. I dont think of this as a company making an MMO for customers, but a community project
which im helping fund. And maybe one day, we'll be rewarded properly with sticking around doing and bug reports, and offering advise.

Peace Out.

[Sirius]

The devs can easily argue "we stated this launch is prelude where the game will only be in it's basic state and build/include over the course of 6 months." <--interview

It's a little misleading clicking the features page and thinking that's what you're getting, but the main FAQ says:

6.) What is Prelude?
Prelude is the first chapter of Xsyon. It is a time of discovery, building, and exploration and will continue through summer as the game evolves to include more content and features.

^That's what's happening to me.

So while they do have features listed on the main page, the main page doesn't say when you'll get them or if they are even part of prelude.

And the forum FAQ section says a bunch of other things. Like a lot of things they've already got made that just aren't in yet. They very well could have 80%+ of the features list completed.

This has got to be the biggest load of BS I've heard out of all the people saying outlandish things in defense of Xsyon. Sounds like you're willing to be told anything.

Even if they actually made it clear on the FAQ page that all listed features were "planned" and nothing more, that would still not be right.

[Dubanka]

the point of my original post was not to start a 'what shoulda been' rehash of the last 6 weeks.

I was merlely trying to cajole the devs into posting something, something in detail, about how they plan on handling some of items in their 'we're working on it' list.

So yeah.

detail.

how do you plan on revamping combat?
what ai changesa re you making...ie. what mob behavior are you trying to alter
are you adressing sync? if not, why not? is it symptomatic of another problem?

[Trenchfoot]

posting something, something in detail, about how they plan on handling some of items in their 'we're working on it' list.

Well put.

People ought to be able to know what they're paying for.

The lag didn't bother me.
The bugs don't bother me.
The lack of features that are already 'mostly defined' doesn't bother me.

The lack of definition of features that are planned to be implemented (game defining features), bothers me.

It isn't so much that the features aren't there. It's that I have little hope of knowing what to expect, and therefore what I'm paying for, when things are defined in such broad statements that you have to collect from pasts posts and IRC.