Design, Whats after pre-alpha?

[Peanut 38/50]

The Design team consists of two people Susanna and myself and we wanted to share a few things with you now that PA is out that might help with some of the issues on the design side of the house.

Everything you do in the game right now was designed for Pre-Alpha, every major system, IE Farming, Skills Tree, etc will re-evaluated and properly updated a section at a time.

So if you are seeing something gameplay right now that is not the final game version, it was the Pre-Alpha version, so no worries! It will have a big update as we go along. The idea in PA was to give you something to do and let you roam around in your new world and give you a little look into the future.

The PA was designed really for 20 minutes and after that, things are going to start to fall apart as the AI and other systems are simply not balanced past that as none of the actual gameplay, true gameplay, is actually in the game currently. We did not want to spend hours and hours balancing a game for hours of gameplay when we would have to tear it all back out as we put new stuff in. Most things are at a set base number, which obviously doesn’t work well.

So whats coming up! That’s the most important question right!!

Most people in the game design world have what is called the “Whiteboard” It’s seriously a whiteboard with sticky notes on it that you slide around with your tasks and its used in SCRUMS. These are the tasks and their order currently however, I can say the order moves around very often.
These will be your updates as we move along. They will be in chunks.
So If we say update  5.3 is coming out, you will actually know what it is. And you can freak out. Because I know we will be!

Note: Unlike PA these design systems will be very close to the final version, they will need to be tested and when you have them in your hands we will have spent a large amount of time testing them ahead of time. So when you play them, you should be getting a good product in your hand.

Also Note: Many systems of course work with other systems so, you might get to see something over the horizon but that might not be functional yet and we will let you know in our release notes.

So what is the list!!!

 

1.       Resources
1.1 Minerals , distribution and mining
1.2 Plants and Farming (UI, functions)
1.3 Forestry
1.4 UI updates from newest systems

 

2.       Research Tree + Upgrades
2.1 Complete skills from Start to Space Age

 

3.       Animals
3.1 Creature Generator
3.2 Animal Loot Table
3.3 Sea Animals and Airborne animal Generation
3.4 Domestication

 

4.       Nugget update
4.1 Stats update
4.2 Mating update
4.3 Job Assignments
4.4 UI updates

 

5.       The Proving Grounds
5.1 Hunting
5.2 Trapping
5.3 Exploration
5.4 Defense
5.5 Upgrades

 

6.       Exploration
6.1 Upgrades in travel IE Vehicles
6.2 Encounters
6.3 Discoveries

 

7.       God Powers
7.1 Powers – UX
7.2 Events and Interventions

 

8.       Space Exploration System basics  
8.1 Telescope
8.2 Probes
8.3 Space Communications Center

9    Planet Health 
9.1 Resources
9.2 Deduction System

So finally, thanks for waiting for the PA and I am excited to send you some patch updates now,
If you want to know which systems have the most traction right now.
Systems
1.1
5
7

 

But again we will be focusing on one at  a time, when updates come out from the design house. So look forward to talking to you in a bit and enjoy the PA!

Peanut
 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2015 by Peanut

[Swapware 8/10]

great news , just a bit fustrating though it all just stops producing after 20 mins, not even enough time for the tutorial to finish, I understand why the session of gameplay is only 20 mins, but your in the middle of building something and the 20 min hard cap expires and the world essentially ends, Only way you can really progress is cheating (suprised you actually multiply your nuggets with a cheat ore kill button on the epicenter table) but it is a tough challenge , and yes you do start to deal with gamebreaking bugs which need to be picked out by the testers, but stopping production etc.. after 20 mins just not long enough if you do the tutorial. I hope im not the only one who feels that way. cheers:)

[Nebulae 39/50]

Thanks! That makes sense because I didn't understand what the 20 minutes message was exactly. Indeed nuggets start acting... "lunatic" after a short while. Lots of issues with interface as well but like you said this is very preliminary. So the fact is there really is not much useful feedback one can give at this stage since it's really "pre", right?

Edited October 16, 2015 by Nebulae

[Poedelini 6/10]

Where does the dinosaurs fit in? And what will be de update frequency?

Edited October 16, 2015 by Poedelini

[Peanut 38/50]

All creatures , in the game will be worked in the 3.0 block. 

Yeah I figured knowing why the 20 minutes was so important would help out and why all these elements seem so half thought out. Its ok, Design did not freak out.
It was just something put in so you can get a sneak peek and give you something to play instead of just the standard tech demo. An example of that would have been just having a civilization already placed, them being pre-scripted to do events, and you just enjoying a scripted series of events. Alex does a great job of making sure the community is involved so we made sure you guys got something to play around with. I think for something just placed in, not bad. 

Update frequency, as most people know or didnt know. Our team is comprised of mostly people who work part time on this project. So they work a full time regular job and then switch from that job and do this project. We obviously are looking for ways to get everyone together or get key staff members working full time. 

From the design area, our job is make the docs, test them and work with programming and make sure the design will work in the game, make some adjustments, then of course Alex has his changes then it shoots over to ART, UI and finally programming swings back in to put it all together. Design will then come back in and test it to make sure everything followed the original design doc and works as it should. So thats the workflow.

The docs will be worked on a section at a time, So I wont speak for other departments but I would assume you are going to see updates (Concept Art, Updates , Forum posts) as each section is being updated. Programming will be updating bugs and making the game better, Art will be doing the same. Which is why the updating system was so important. So that will be moving in on a pretty regular basis. As for this list for each update from every department, too early for that, but I am sure Alex has a plan for it. 

The time frame will be based on a schedule that Alex will look at sometime after things slow down after PA. 
The calculations are taken from how long it took to complete PA, the staff we had and what issues we ran into, then calculating that over the list I just showed you and then that will give us a rough est on how long it will take for each update. That of course tells us how long the game will take to make with our current staff and what we need to add or what we need to add to make it more productive to reach a goal. 

On my side its pretty easy, I just give the list of things and give my time, its hard on Alex because he has to figure all that math out and personal issues and goals and how to reach them. 

But its hard to give exact times right now because we have so many systems that have some work done and some that have had no work, so we have to work on that next week. After PA things slow down. So its more organized not only for you guys but for us as team. So soon as we have that I am very sure Alex will make a announcement with his ideas on updates and his vision on how he wants to proceed. Right now its all about organization for the long haul. 

[Ruebezahl 201/250]

Thanks for the more detailed insight. This is actually the kind of info that we have been hoping for all along. Would be really great if you could give us some updates every now and then (perhaps through Mirror's weekly updates) which issues are the closest to completion or which ones have the most "traction" (as you called it) at the moment, in case you shift priorities. Really, right at this point, I don't see anyone asking for dates, and I would go as far as strongly recommending against giving out any dates or estimates until you really have a very good idea of your remaining work and the team's velocity. It would just be really wonderful to keep getting some insight into your progress.

Just one question: Did I understand it correctly that the pre-alpha is not a "latest stable build" from your development branch, but instead it is a special build that you put together? So you now maintain two branches, i.e. a development/mainline branch and the pre-alpha branch, and you will keep merging stuff from the development mainline into the pre-alpha branch to create patches for the pre-alpha?

If that's the case, wouldn't it be much easier for you to simply release builds from your mainline instead of having this additional effort of maintaining a special pre-alpha build?

[Peanut 38/50]

No the branch is the primary branch and build but many elements in the PA are just stamped in on the build to give gameplay function and will be replaced once the correct versions are completed. 

Sorry bout that confusion. 

Edited October 17, 2015 by Peanut

[Ruebezahl 201/250]

Ah, so you mean some parts of the PA are just quick&dirty hacks you put in to get a somewhat coherent "game" running? I was just worried that you put more work than necessary on yourselves to maintain the pre-alpha "for us". But I guess these hacks are also useful for you then to have a playable build,

I hope that one key message that you guys can take away from the forums so far is that nobody is whining "Boohoo, so many bugs, this is terrible!" People seem to have reasonable expectations. Even if not all bug reports will be helpful, that should be a helpful message in itself.  I think you guys worried too much in the past that the community will rip you a new one if the pre-alpha is too buggy. 

By the way, one thing notably absent from your feature list are non-gameplay features, such as GUI enhancement, in-game settings menu, saving functionality, etc. or do you keep the feature planning for this kind of stuff completely separate right now from the gameplay enhancements?

[Peanut 38/50]

Well the great outcome I personally received from the incomplete systems is we are getting a ton of feedback about likes and dislikes on many UI / Design / Development processes. 

We do need to realize this is pretty much a AAA game being created by a part time team, some with first time or little large game project experience, Coming in as one of the newer guys coming from AAA studios it's absolutely impressive. This work the team has done is amazing.

Now the team has this experience under their belt it's easy to say, what was right or wrong in our processes or designs and what is the feedback we are getting. Because obviously a beta can't have this may bugs on launch or issues design wise or their might be some pitch forks involved and rightfully so. 

The list was last updated about two or three months ago, I assume administration will be making a full update to that once we get past the firestorm of PA launch. Good catch tho and noted!

So thanks to all the people and yourself,  I read through every single post last night and learned so much.

 

[IzznO 27/50]

Well the great outcome I personally received from the incomplete systems is we are getting a ton of feedback about likes and dislikes on many UI / Design / Development processes. 

We do need to realize this is pretty much a AAA game being created by a part time team, some with first time or little large game project experience, Coming in as one of the newer guys coming from AAA studios it's absolutely impressive. This work the team has done is amazing.

Now the team has this experience under their belt it's easy to say, what was right or wrong in our processes or designs and what is the feedback we are getting. Because obviously a beta can't have this may bugs on launch or issues design wise or their might be some pitch forks involved and rightfully so. 

The list was last updated about two or three months ago, I assume administration will be making a full update to that once we get past the firestorm of PA launch. Good catch tho and noted!

So thanks to all the people and yourself,  I read through every single post last night and learned so much.

 

So whats your expected time to get the first update out?

[Stronkie 134/250]

So what is the roadmap of this game now. The last post is almost a year ago. Looking in what happend the last months.. I can not see any progress. I mean the video's with the space stuff and the modern buildings etc.. Were they fabricated????

I was happy with the game when I played it the first time. Thought it was just released its alpha etc. But now I see the game is a lot longer in developement.. Like ok.. Why are we not further then the stone age. I mean come on guys..  Would like to be able to do more with the game now . It seems people are only concentrating on the stoneage and to add more buildings and features to it..

Well what I would like to see is a roadmap when different ages will be added to the game.. And do not say , It will be happening when it is done.. cause that is indeed such a "stone age" reaction.

So I would be happy , if there is or any roadmap which I can focus on.. Cause a new building every month and new feature every month in a update makes only the stoneage last for more then 2 years more... Please do not let me wait until I am in an elderly people home to busy to remember where I put my teeth then wanting to play that game , that I would forgot then.

[Starewars 10/10]

On 8/10/2016 at 3:23 PM, Stronkie said:

So what is the roadmap of this game now. The last post is almost a year ago. Looking in what happend the last months.. I can not see any progress. I mean the video's with the space stuff and the modern buildings etc.. Were they fabricated????

I was happy with the game when I played it the first time. Thought it was just released its alpha etc. But now I see the game is a lot longer in developement.. Like ok.. Why are we not further then the stone age. I mean come on guys..  Would like to be able to do more with the game now . It seems people are only concentrating on the stoneage and to add more buildings and features to it..

Well what I would like to see is a roadmap when different ages will be added to the game.. And do not say , It will be happening when it is done.. cause that is indeed such a "stone age" reaction.

So I would be happy , if there is or any roadmap which I can focus on.. Cause a new building every month and new feature every month in a update makes only the stoneage last for more then 2 years more... Please do not let me wait until I am in an elderly people home to busy to remember where I put my teeth then wanting to play that game , that I would forgot then.

You purchased the game knowing it was not a fast developing game. They're letting you play it as they progress, and as many people have stated before the requirements to go pass the stone age amount to a complete system, encompassing of most the game I'm sure. Many elements are made already that you simply cannot see, and this is done because they cannot be implemented without many other things also working correctly. This is not even in beta yet, it just got past pre-alpha. Monthly updates you can see compiled with thousands and thousands of ai and coding you don't see. This is a new game, on a new engine, with amazing capabilities but it's just that; new with a small team working on it.

 

I don't think nor did I expect a roadmap, not until at least it's getting close to beta. You're lucky if it's finished within another year or two.

[MontyZuma 12/25]

Im excited this has the chance to be something so great! Keep up the good work. FYI the fact that I plan a time on one of my few days off a month just to mess around with current interface should excite you all as well. Im loving it!