Nazdar

This will seem unrelated, but I have a rant and a request. The Rant I'm starting to see a pattern. Establish a high-level goal Hand off design of a sub-system to a team Once the subsystem is created, realize that it doesn't mesh well with the goal Instead of making deep changes to the already built sub-system, modify the high-level goal slightly to match This time, it was in relation to the changes to skill trees. High Level Goal: let players make important choices that define their character in meaningful ways Sub-system: it was built to be overly complex to the extent that players cannot figure out the consequences of their choices without trial and error. Conflict: Trial and error are heavily penalized, so the system is frustrating to explore (when it should be fun!) Result: Instead of dramatically altering the complexity of the skill systems, a compromise is proposed where players will have fewer significant choices so that they don't get as frustrated. Do you see what's happening here? No single compromise is "breaking the game", but this pattern keeps happening. Slowly, but surely, the original high-level goals are being compromised to accommodate sub-systems that are poorly aligned. The Request Please, go watch (or rewatch) this GDC talk to remind yourself of the importance of Role and the dangers of Complexity. Then, do as he says. "Once you're done, cut half." Please. For the love of the game we were sold.

"Fun", he says about cutting features. Riiight. We all know y'all are sweating bullets right now.

https://youtu.be/rL0c8snCGz4?t=124 R.I.P.

Regarding "thin" professions, compare the two options just numerically. 1.00 : 1.50 = 67% vs. 0.75 : 1:00 = 75% In plain English, the bloated skill is worse of a problem because it's farther from the normal. Please go with Todd's gut and split weapons / armor. I challenge you to show me data implying that the number of recipes in the other skills is optimized to make the player experience fun. Your fear of a "thin" profession is overstated. Based on the bloat I've already seen, most professions are already too thick.

I've had the devtracker bookmarked for years. I've been casually checking every week and was really starting to feel really depressed that nothing was going on Luckily it dawned on me that I should check the announcements forums just in case. HOLY CRAP. I missed a lot during the last month! This is kind of a big deal. It seems like it would be better to remove the dev tracker link than to have it sit dead for several weeks.

I hope all this lore gets its own tab on the main site someday. And Todd, if you ever retire, I hope you write a novel.

Dayum. That hellcat tho.

We're still with you. You guys are the pros. Just keep making the money flow, and we'll continue looking forward to a well-baked game. It's been stated before, but MMOs live and die by how good they are, not by when they launch. Stay the course!

Most satisfying infodrop in a while! Thank you for giving me something fun to think about. It's been a blisteringly rough year so far with work. I haven't had much time/energy to keep up with Crowfall progress. It's fun news like this that renews my interest and keeps me feeling connected. I'm glad I dropped in today!

To be clear, this "batching" is only referring to advertising and new player acquisition, right? I'm assuming that everyone who is currently a backer will have access to the soft launch on Day 1.

Beautiful. Inspiring. If you can make the game feel like that concept art, you've won.

It's a very interesting update, but so very.... vague. I understand the basic design ideas you're trying to incorporate, but this infodrop lacked the detail to even start discussing the implications. I'm still hungry.

This is quality stuff. You, sir, just made my day.

Really enjoying this. I have it running on my second monitor at work, and several people have stopped to admire. May I ask: what sound tracks are these?

...is clearly this guy