World of Darkness Online
  • Susarc
    #193
    Here are our notes for the full* 2013 Fanfest WoD presentation. Some of these are repeats of what we stated before, however some are correcting 3rd party reports and new information. Feel free to post your feedback in the comments below.

    2012 was mostly working back end systems like movement, sandbox systems and combat.
    2013 is mostly going to be work on AI, rendering engine (Carbon) paper-doll tech, coffeehouse and theme park aspects.
    They do a "ton" of internal play testing
    They want to emulate EVE on the level players keep coming back to play more.
    Players rewarded in-game for meeting, socializing face to face in-game.
    They do a lot of metrics testing like load balancing and network timing.
    Want some level of interaction via web browser, phone app interface for release.
    Want players able to make, create and destroy things.
    However systems will be in place for kindred not to be hands on crafting but making others (NPCs?) do the actual manual labor for you. As kindred would be above "stitching a shirt".
    Use a custom made scripting engine called "Athena" used to define how powers, combat work for example.
    The art tool used to build 3D in-game environment's called "Jessica".
    Tool "Genesis" used to 'art up' (more or less decoration like windows and stone work to a building exterior) in-game environment's.
    The in-game art assets can be mixed matched easily by their custom made tools for lots of variations and shader effects added to make the environments look slick with rain, reflections/foggy on glass, etc.
    They have been doing "a lot" of motion capture to get avatar movement correct.
    Cell phone used is "art aspirational" in the Fanfest exclusive video and not necessarily a actually usable item in-game.
    Different rules in different countries has created a ongoing internal discussion about things like full nudity and gore. Reiterated avatars won't be running around nude in the public streets but where there is a logic need/place is what seems to be up in the air as to how far they will go.
    No min hardware spec set as of now, will be decided closer to release.
    Rules will be 'bent' as needed to work in a MMO
    Masq & Elysium will be enforced and can't go around killing everyone you see in the streets without some kind of repercussions/limits.
    Release not really a matter of cash, more a issue of building the tools to get to full production. They feel at this time they have all the people they need for the stage they are at.
    Due to changing market of MMO no decision has been made for sub or cash shop/F2P business model.
    Cities seamless not broken up like Bloodlines.
    No current plans for non-PC client but will see down the road. The small market share of Mac/Linux is a concern of theirs also the core engine is based on DX11.
    More or less confirmed our report about WoD on a separate fork of Carbon vs EVE but they are sharing tech between WoD and EVE as they find a logical need.
    Due to the flexibility of the shaders, tools they are considering having cities evolve over time. (ie city becomes more run down, dirty if the city gets taken over by Sabbat)
    World wide network of servers not a single cluster to help with lag.
    Garou and other WoD entities still on the table for expansions post release.
    Travel between cities will have some limits (ie a train that only leaves every hr)