Best posts made by Prometheus

Sorry for being so silent these last couple weeks - I've been doing a lot of dev jobs to speed things up towards Alpha 1 and haven't paid enough attention to you all!

Let's address your suggestions one by one!

@savvym said in what do you like to see next from the developers?:

I would like to see their store working

The store is ready, but we're waiting to release it until we have a new development journal to be published at the same time. We're really close now though!

@zidroc said in what do you like to see next from the developers?:

I want an official trailer

We're going to release one right before Alpha 1 begins. Some short video content before that too hopefully, @jozef

@target said in what do you like to see next from the developers?:

I really want to know more about the gear system, like what kind of stats can we expect on items and how your armor choice will influence your build. I keep seeing the sentiment that because gear progression is almost purely horizontal that "gear doesn't matter", and I'd like to be able to point to something concrete to prove that isn't true.

Gear definitely matters, but not in the "vertical" way (aside from survival/primitive gear - such as stone weapons and hide armors that are objectively weaker). It matters the "horizontal" way - it's situational, there's better and worse gear according to how you've designed your character and what are the enemies you're going to face.

I agree it's not so obvious to "believe" things will actually play out this way, so I'm surely going to write a spotlight on the types of armor and weapons we'll have in Alpha 1 and their pros / cons.

@therippyone said in what do you like to see next from the developers?:

I want to see a bit more about how stats actually translate into effects - how more strength translates into more damage, how badly under 10 stats nerf you, What It All Means, M~A~N~! XD

We've actually just defined the "final" balancing numbers little ago, implementing all of that in this Sprint. Could be a good topic for the spotlight as well, although it'd be a very "nerdy" one. In the meantime, check out this spotlight if you haven't already! @Jarek @TheRippyOne @suruq

@Ladyrowan @Jetah @Genobee we've roughly outlined in this update what's going to be the focus for Alpha 1. Making a really detailed roadmap for Alpha 1 - Test 1 would take a while and we believe it's better to focus on feature spotlights and/or content already developed at this point

@Cinnao religions are going to be implemented quite further down the line, so the spotlight will do as well, I'm afraid.

@Accol @Jetah @Xzoviac @tulukaruk @SlaserX @Razvan @BearRod

The answer refers to Knight/Immortal packs specifically - that is, packs that were never limited in number (unlike Governor and above, which were limited and were all taken, so they can't come back).

We included that option in the survey because in the last few months we received several messages from new users asking how they could get the Immortal pack. That pack was also a very important part of our monetization and it was foolish for us to remove it while still in Alpha in the first place.

What is it that bothers you the most here? Did you think we were considering re-introducing Governor and above, which is not the case, or do you have something against Knight and Immortal too - and if so, what exactly?

I know I'm quite late with this reply but let's clarify the issue a bit.

In Fractured, most actions require some time to be completed and can (almost) always be canceled if you order another action. For instance, if you're mining a rock and issue a Move command, your character stops mining and starts moving. If you're casting a spell and issue a command to pick up a mushroom, your character stops casting the spell and starts picking up the mushroom. You get the idea Obviously, this execution time is always coupled with an animation.

In most cases, the action is completed only when the time required (= the animation) is fully elapsed. If you're mining a rock and cancel the action before it's over, you get nothing. This typically applies to spellcasting too - you can cancel the spell you're casting, but then you just do nothing.

Attacks are an exception to the rule above, also for the sake of realism: if I throw a punch, the character extends the hand and pulls it back, and the damage should come when the hand is fully extended, not in the end of the animation. In this case, you can issue another command (start casting a spell or move, usually) right after the damage is done, performing what is called "animation cancelling". This is not only useful in PvP, but also in PvE for kiting and so on, and it's really not a "exploit" - it's a feature and it's fun! Of course, weapons are balanced also taking that into account

So far, we haven't really felt like animation canceling is only doable by people with low ping. We already host our dev cluster in US East while we all play from Italy (120ms latency or so), and it can be done just as well as with 10ms latency. This is also because in Fractured we make heavy use of client prediction, as customary for action games, which means you typically don't have to wait for the reply of the server when you issue an action to see it executed, unlike what happens in RTS and MOBA games with RTS-like controls.

Does this, among other things, mean that you have to have quick reflexes and quick fingers if you want to be a "pro" in competitive gameplay, other than being knowledgeable? Yes, it does, but that's something we've publicly stated since day one

@Xzoviac said in Alpha 2 - Test 2 Launch Day Revealed:

Will monster tracking be available to the hunter one day? Helping players get skills as a service finding certain creatures for skills

Not planned as of today, but it's something we can consider

@islesofurth said in Alpha 2 - Test 2 Launch Day Revealed:

I hope we will be able to go up mountains again, like i could @ the start of A2T1

That was a bug!

@Logain said in Alpha 2 - Test 2 Launch Day Revealed:

When you're in a party, do all members of the party get 'full' credit to the knowledge tree (unlock and knowledge points), or is it 'shared' to some degree, or only the one finishing the creature?
When you're in stealth and are close to a group of others, do you take highest perception, a sum of perception, or something different to determine the 'counter'?

To get knowledge from a monster you need to deal enough damage to get "loot rights" as if you weren't member of a party. It's never been "only the one finishing the creature" anyway

When you're stealthing and enter the detection range of multiple creatures, a separate counter is started for each of them and you get revealed by the fastest one (you only see the fastest counter at any given time).

@asspirin said in Alpha 2 - Test 2 Launch Day Revealed:

---> do DOTs stack for that matter (are two dots, each for 51 dmg, considered 100 damage at once if they tick same - once per csecond for example ), or are nukes mandatory?

Nukes mandatory - but even cheap spells often do more than 100 dmg at once

@deusex2 said in Funding:

1)No immedient gain. Even if I'm getting the most expensive pledge there is, fact of a matter is devs can promise anything and everything in the future(stars and planets, included), but right now, this moment, I'm getting nothing for my money.

Hi @deusex2 First of all, thank you for your support! Let me address some of your issues:

1. It's true that it might feel quite limiting right now, but we don't have the resources to manage always-online test servers. It's much easier for us to focus the testing, bug reporting and feedback in a limited time frame. Tests are going to last much longer in the future anyway - particularly as soon as we get Knowledge System implemented.
2. Our crowdfunding goals are lower than one would expect - but please, allow me to brag a little We've run the first Alpha test 8 months after the end of our Kickstarter campaign. The build lacked a lot of features, but it was already a game, featuring a 60km2 continent, combat, PvE, crafting, land claiming, building. It was not an arena to test combat or a miniature garden to test gathering/crafting or stuff like that. Servers were stable and there were no game-breaking bugs, too. We might have 1/10 of the funding of some of our competitors, and therefore a much smaller team, but we're delivering!
3. We're very aware of this too, but it's (partially) on purpose. We wanted A1-T1 not to be publicized too much because it was too rough. There will be way more streamers in A1-T2, and we'll start actually getting in touch with the "big ones" in Alpha 2!

@Phylosophys said in Roadmap To Alpha 2 - Test 3:

I understand the "playing a visit to the closest city" need, but thinking about the lore/storytelling and knowing that each planet has one or more deities, given the possibility of building temples and churchs for such deities, why not make the respaw location the closest temple or church?

That's a pretty nice idea. Once we implement temples and religions, we may very well move the functionality to the temple altar instead of the tavern fireplace

@Xanowrath said in Roadmap To Alpha 2 - Test 3:

@Phylosophys I would rather respawn at a location I have been to and should know how to get back to where I am then some new location I may have never been to and using the map to try to find where I died WoW style. Honetly I was hopeing for a more UO system where you just became a ghost when you dies and had to find a way to get a res from a shine or kind healer. Made palying a healer much more satisfying.

Even if we move the respawn point from a town tavern to a town temple as suggested by @Phylosophys above, it's always going to be a choice to rebind your spawn point at a specific temple - you won't get just sent to the closest one. Also, it will be possible to be resurrected by an ally within a short time window after death if the ally has the Resurrection spell - but you won't be able to move around like UO

@Razvan we're going to rebuild the map and minimap before the next test, hopefully we'll manage to make paths clearer On a side note, what were the coordinates of the place in your second screenshot? That's not meant to be passable eheh

@Jetah I clarified to @BellumLee via email that Governors can choose an authoritarian rule and not be subject to elections. Also, the process mentioned in the roadmap to claim an unclaimed city doesn't include an election - it's just a way to assign the city to the first group that's large enough to claim it.

We fixed it yesterday

Hi everyone,

we've just completed the migration of the Fractured website and forums to new servers.

The old (virtual) machines hosting them were poor both in hardware and bandwidth, which made them sluggish whenever load was higher than usual - such as when we put the game down for patching during open weekends.

The porting started yesterday morning and took a day and a half to complete. We moved the forum database yesterday night, which means the messages you posted in the last dozen hours were lost - sorry for that!

You can expect the forums to go down again in the next few days for further fixes - yes, we are aware emotes are kinda broken and it's no longer possible to stop following forum categories.

Thank you all and stay tuned - we have big news coming in the next few weeks!

@humerus said in Suggestion: Currency names:

Dear Dynamight,
I think it would be reasonable to suggest you reconsider how you call either one of in-game currencies, because currently they sound pretty similar and to a player newly introduced to the game "Gold" and "Dynamight Gold" may look exactly the same.
You can see how this would cause unwarranted drama and misunderstanding and harm both the community and the game in general by spreading factually incorrect info.

Yep, we've been aware of the issue for a while. We've renamed the currency a couple days ago, probably at the same time you wrote this thread! It's called Dynamight Tokens now

Hi all!

Today we have some game-changing news for you - and that's not an overstatement: the cost of Alpha has been reduced and all Founder Packs are ON SALE for a limited time!

Get permanent access today for €44.99 on the store!

Read the full announcement

Enjoy Fractured!

Our terms of service are pretty clear, the content we do not accept is that which

"violates any third-party right or any intellectual property or proprietary right; (ii) that is unlawful, harassing, abusive, tortious, threatening, harmful, invasive of another’s privacy, vulgar, defamatory, false, intentionally misleading, trade libelous, pornographic, obscene, patently offensive, promotes racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual; (iii) that is harmful to minors in any way; or (iv) that is in violation of any law, regulation, or obligations or restrictions imposed by any third party"

Our moderation stance will be different on the 3 planets. Arboreus will be strictly moderated, while we'll let cursing and such flow more freely on Tartaros.

That being said, some things have no place even on Tartaros. Racism, xenophobia and homophobia are clearly such things. The user mentioned by OP has been banned from the open playtest, by the way.

Also, our community is usually super nice, I've only ever seen this kind of stuff happening during open weekends

The first content patch of Fall Alpha has gone live – featuring legendary creatures, lost tales and and city decay!

Read the announcement

What cities will survive and thrive before the end of the Fall Alpha? Will any player be able to gain 100% of the Knowledge that can be acquired in the test?

In the coming days, a ranking menu is going to be added to the game. The TOP 10 cities by rank and the TOP 100 players by knowledge acquired are going to be made immortal in a web page commemorating the Fall Alpha.

Are you going to make it to the top? The next 2 weeks will tell!

Enjoy Fractured!

@Chapex said in Foundation and Future:

I do not know if the Fractured Store contemplates the amount raised in the initial campaign or if it is a total raised independently.

The amount raised from Kickstarter is included in the total in the Funding page. What's not included in there is equity money, ie what we raised from investors in 2018. That number is private.

Overall, we are not swimming in money like new Scrooge McDucks, but we are doing fine given our monthly expenses. We are a small and young team and operate with much lower costs than you would expect

That being said, we'd like to expand our team, that's for sure! In the coming months we'll put way more effort into marketing and promotion. First of all, by making more video content, specifically game trailers. Plus, we are actively working to receive further capital from investors - that's not strictly needed, but it would definitely give us a great boost

@Ostaff said in Winter Alpha Spotlight – City Overhaul:

I have talked to @Prometheus about the %, and we are hoping that he will agree that Arboreus should at least be 80% if not 90% free of PvP. He has also stated that they will work hard on keeping the PvE content on Arboreus updated and fresh.

Yes, aggression on most of Arboreus is not possible, period, and the planet will feature mechanics that strongly prevent it in the remaining areas anyway. The definition of "PvE planet" is therefore a good one.

Given that Syndesia already has a ton of PvP, Arboreus is obviously the second planet we're going to work on @LilCassiopeia It's absolutely coming sooner than "5-6 tests"!

Also, don't forget about the criminal system (evil status, bounty hunting, jailing). Being a "PK" on Syndesia is not easy and we expect more guild / faction wars than "PKing" for that reason. Don't take the last 2 open weekends as a benchmark - they were basically a big arena for testing PvP balancing with no consequences for Evil players.

That being said: please stay on-topic here, we're trying to gather feedback on the announced city changes (note: we're open to revisions) and questions for the Q&A this Sunday. This is not a thread for the usual PvP vs PvE quarrels. Thank you.

@Nyquil44 said in Two Handed Melee build:

Disparity between mage and melee was very glaring at the moment reason this post was made.

There is quite a disparity right now, it's true. The reason is twofold. First, even though half of the existing abilities are for warriors, there are many kinds of weapons - thus only few abilities for each. Second, we are very short on animations, while on the opposite we have VFX to spare. This makes it easier to produce new mage spells rather than warrior spells.

Our next focus for non-mage abilities is going to be marksmanship, since bows literally have 0 right now and they don't require specific animations. We'll try to throw in something for melee weapons too though!

That being said... Have you tried the Bleeding/Blinding/Crippling Strike + Strike Wounds combo for daggers and Concussive Strike for bludgeoning melee weapons? They deal a lot of damage

@Tero-Kaze said in Two Handed Melee build:

We do not have Metal weapons, wood and stone make all current weapons. No Swords, Pikes, Halberds, Battle Axes, a bit of perspective is always good. Yes it is frustrating but keep in mind these are not our "Final" Characters.

This is a very important point indeed. Primitive weapons have reduced damage compared to regular metal weapons (about 20% less), that throws the balancing off for now. Blacksmithing will have a definite impact @Yitra @asspirin

Hi everyone!

It's been really hard, but we finally made it: city sieges are live, and all players with a founder pack can come test them out, disregarding its tier. Yes, today marks the start of a new All-Backers event!

...and sure, we are aware many of you got tired and decided to quit and wait for the Summer Alpha. That's why we've made sieges resource-free to test (almost costless!) and got rid of city maintenance and requirements almost entirely until the end of the test.

What took us so long? Why releasing them now instead of a dedicated test? How long is the Spring Alpha going to last? All the answers are here!

Read the full announcement

Happy sieging!

@Aristeaus said in Stress Test Server Issues:

@Prometheus

What does the worker metrics say? How is your bridge to engine latency?

Oh it's nice to see other devs using spatial in the Fractured community!

Runtime to server worker latency is always low and stable (30ms), before and after the issue takes place. There is nothing anomalous in the metrics, not in latency nor in the number of commands, component updates, CPU and RAM usage, etc. No workers are being killed and recreated - workers metrics are great, all server workers are stable at their intended framerate (20 FPS) and with a large margin to receive more pressure.

The only anomalous metric is memory usage by the runtime which about 20-30 minutes after the issue starts manifesting jumps up and eats up all the RAM of the deployment. That happens when the deployment is already FUBAR though, likely because of the crazy amount of messages queued up.

Hi, fellow gamer and MMO enthusiast!

After 2 weeks of Early Access, 5,000 copies sold and $118,000 raised, let's have a look at how we've been doing so far!

Read the full review

See you tomorrow for a large bugfix patch, and next week for the first major changes and content!