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[Melly]

Maybe it'd be interesting if the game had a more subdued color scheme, and a more painterly texture overall.

The ideas that Rohrer discusses are interesting. Obviously, though, those ideas don't fit with the concept of getting rich, which is what many creative people dream to accomplish with their craft.

Not sure about Eskil though.

[shig]

Can't you manually tune down the bloom and bright, though?

[Peevish]

The ideas that Rohrer discusses are interesting. Obviously, though, those ideas don't fit with the concept of getting rich, which is what many creative people dream to accomplish with their craft.

Not sure about Eskil though.

Eskil makes a pretty clear case that he's just trying to earn enough to get by. No one gets rich by going indie.

[Melly]

Certainly doesn't stop people from dreaming.

[allen]

Can't you manually tune down the bloom and bright, though?

Unfortunately no. You can turn on low end mode which turns down the bloom a tad, without a noticeable decrease in graphics quality. But it's not really enough.

[jimmythechang]

Man, if the game's really filled with as many mechanics as it seems to have - architecture, infrastructure, a working sanitation system - I'd be more inclined to check it out if I wasn't perpetually reminded of wearing Vaseline-smeared goggles.

[X3N]

So is the procedural-gameplay generator awesome? Not that great? Interesting?

[allen]

In the beta, I didn't even know the world was procedural until someone told me. I honestly thought it was just big that I kept seeing something different every time I played. I came across some cool generated mountains in the game.

I guess it's not completely awesome, but it's cool. Helps keeps things different and changing. The game would probably get incredibly boring if everything was static.

[X3N]

In the beta, I didn't even know the world was procedural until someone told me. I honestly thought it was just big that I kept seeing something different every time I played. I came across some cool generated mountains in the game.

I guess it's not completely awesome, but it's cool. Helps keeps things different and changing. The game would probably get incredibly boring if everything was static.

But how is the actual.. gameplay? I saw a video a while back of some people rushing a base, shooting some turrets. It looked cool.. looks pretty open-ended though? No win/lose? (unless you get all your cities removed from the map lol)

[Sam]

I'm not quite sure what you refer to by procedural-gameplay generator.

Short version of how the game works from what I've played so far:
You log in and spawn at a settlement.
You can carry four tools at any one time.
You start with just a basic gun (which counts as a tool) and a simple landscape editor tool.
To get more tools, you must build the related building for each tool in your settlement.
To build those buildings, you must go out and explore the world looking for tokens.

Playing the game is basically:
Building up your settlement with the other players - agreeing where to put wall, turrets, etc.
Exploring to find tokens - when your settlement is young you can find the basic tokens on the ground, but once you have all those you'll need to get tokens from inside AI settlements.
Attacking the AI settlements - this is probably what you mean by procedural gameplay.  The AI is astonishing and build up their own settlements on the map in realtime, including their own power routing systems, automated defences, and unique designs.  The power systems and defences use the exact same mechanics as your own, so you can defeat them by for instance rerouting their power supplies rather than just assaulting them front on.
Defending your settlement against AI attack - if you have a well designed and advanced settlement it may be able to mostly defend itself, but the AI are pretty relentless and have artillery.

Settlements
Settlements are entirely built by the players on a server.
It's possible to have more than one active settlement per server, but so far that seems rare.  Even if there were several, they don't directly compete.  Focus is very much "us versus the AI."
So far, settlements do not last very long before being overrun by the AI.
The buildings in settlements are built by finding and placing tokens.
You can use certain tools to change the landscape in the area close to your settlement - build defensive walls, or just pretty things.
When you place a token, the building immediately springs up and works (no gathering resources.)
You may log in when there's no settlement, in which case you can find a monolith token and place it somewhere to act as the centre-point of a new settlement.

Buildings
Some buildings just provide you with their associated tool.  Point at the building and press 1, 2, 3 or 4 to assign that tool to one of your tool slots.
Others manufacture "powerups", they need power to do so.
There are aturrets and shield generators which also require power to function.
Power is generated by windmills or power wells, which are dotted around the map.  Exploring to find one and then routing the power it generates back to your settlement is quite fun.  You can't build the power routing buildings outside of your settlement so you have to find existing ones to bounce it off.

Tokens
The most basic (and essential) tokens can be found just randomly dotted around the landscape.
Walk over one to pick it up, carry it back to your settlement and you can build it.
The other types of token are held by the AI in their own settlements.

Movement feels like classic FPSs - fast, fluid, no fall damage.

I find when you're actually playing, the visuals are much easier to make sense of.  When you're in that kind of close interactive relationship with the world, the slightly hazy forms make more sense than watching a video.

Sadly my overall impression so far is "oh, the server's down again."  It might be sensible to hold off a week or two before playing, if you're interested.  That'll also give a chance for the Wiki to get decently updated and stuff.

[The_Flying_Dove]

I'm not quite sure what you refer to by procedural-gameplay generator.

Short version of how the game works from what I've played so far:
You log in and spawn at a settlement.
You can carry four tools at any one time.
You start with just a basic gun (which counts as a tool) and a simple landscape editor tool.
To get more tools, you must build the related building for each tool in your settlement.
To build those buildings, you must go out and explore the world looking for tokens.

Playing the game is basically:
Building up your settlement with the other players - agreeing where to put wall, turrets, etc.
Exploring to find tokens - when your settlement is young you can find the basic tokens on the ground, but once you have all those you'll need to get tokens from inside AI settlements.
Attacking the AI settlements - this is probably what you mean by procedural gameplay.  The AI is astonishing and build up their own settlements on the map in realtime, including their own power routing systems, automated defences, and unique designs.  The power systems and defences use the exact same mechanics as your own, so you can defeat them by for instance rerouting their power supplies rather than just assaulting them front on.
Defending your settlement against AI attack - if you have a well designed and advanced settlement it may be able to mostly defend itself, but the AI are pretty relentless and have artillery.

Settlements
Settlements are entirely built by the players on a server.
It's possible to have more than one active settlement per server, but so far that seems rare.  Even if there were several, they don't directly compete.  Focus is very much "us versus the AI."
So far, settlements do not last very long before being overrun by the AI.
The buildings in settlements are built by finding and placing tokens.
You can use certain tools to change the landscape in the area close to your settlement - build defensive walls, or just pretty things.
When you place a token, the building immediately springs up and works (no gathering resources.)
You may log in when there's no settlement, in which case you can find a monolith token and place it somewhere to act as the centre-point of a new settlement.

Buildings
Some buildings just provide you with their associated tool.  Point at the building and press 1, 2, 3 or 4 to assign that tool to one of your tool slots.
Others manufacture "powerups", they need power to do so.
There are aturrets and shield generators which also require power to function.
Power is generated by windmills or power wells, which are dotted around the map.  Exploring to find one and then routing the power it generates back to your settlement is quite fun.  You can't build the power routing buildings outside of your settlement so you have to find existing ones to bounce it off.

Tokens
The most basic (and essential) tokens can be found just randomly dotted around the landscape.
Walk over one to pick it up, carry it back to your settlement and you can build it.
The other types of token are held by the AI in their own settlements.

Movement feels like classic FPSs - fast, fluid, no fall damage.

I find when you're actually playing, the visuals are much easier to make sense of.  When you're in that kind of close interactive relationship with the world, the slightly hazy forms make more sense than watching a video.

Sadly my overall impression so far is "oh, the server's down again."  It might be sensible to hold off a week or two before playing, if you're interested.  That'll also give a chance for the Wiki to get decently updated and stuff.

In other words, this MMO combines RPG, strategy, and action elements. I guess you could say that it also involves city-building, as you form building and other forms of architecture. Hmmm....seems like a unique approach, compared to many other MMOs.