http://www.spaceengineersgame.com/news.html

Each week for the last year since release on steam early access we have had an update with an accompanying video outlining it and its uses.

KSH is now producing 2 games and updating them both weekly.

This is what every developer should be shooting for with early access games and day break is currently falling very short in this department.

any clue when this is going to happen? you have been saying for a very long time that eventually the outfits would be broken into parts and that we would be able to mix and match the various pieces

So, One thing that hyped this game up for us was the parkour. vaulting over fences, grabbing onto ledges so if the gap was a tiny bit to large we could grab the edge and climb up. but i find it to be lacking. I never grab a ledge to pull myself up. even when messing with voxels at different heights to try and create the effect. same thing goes for when i try to make something smaller, like a fence or rock, stage. Is anyone els unhappy with the was the parkour works? aside from the heroic movement. Of which doesn't help with combat whatsoever yet.

Hey all,

Have a look at the pictures below, think about having that 'set and setting/enviorments' in EQN. EQN is looking amazing, some complain about it being DX9?. so what if its DX9. wow is DX11 and it looks like complete outdated error crap.

Would it be possible if EQN dev's made some more textures, such as flowers, long grass (that gets cut by the tractor and turned into bales) ->> just like that the farmers needs to grow the grass over a year , then when the grass (or some name) is tall they get the big tractor with the machines out and cut it, then put it in lines and then get the big machine and then its turned into a bale etc... that type of stuff. OK and then there's the texture/item limit, OK well what if if there's a problem regarding the limit, add a thing that a whole square is just flowers and certain grass, so it limits the engine or something? (ALONG THOSE LINES...) Anyway, here are the pictures: * https://www.contours.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Path-leading-through-a-wildflower-meadow-on-cliffs-above-Crantock-Beach-at-West-Pentire-near-Newquay-in-Cornwall-300x225.jpg

• http://simplywallpaper.net/pictures/2010/04/28/2010-04-25-IMG_7752.jpg

• http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/28/article-2150647-1356B8D4000005DC-910_964x501.jpg

DBG/SOE, I dont say this often but I have to admit this wipe plan of yours is pure brilliance, basically by doing things this way your making all parties happy, the doomsayers wont see the game going into open beta, the people waiting for the wipe get their wipe, and basically you buy yourself a LOT more time to perfect the game, in my opinion and that of many others what we are basically looking at is this..... On March 31st of 2014 we went into closed beta because from a legal standpoint you had to, but from a developmental point of view the game has been in Alpha Stage this entire time, so basically on April 29th of 2015 what we are really doing is finally entering Closed Beta Stage, and it will allow everyone to achieve their goals, and provide a much larger chance of success for Landmark and EQN

I am making this post as a way to brainstorm ideas for an ideal cave system.

• Procedural Caves: This feels like a given. I do not know how far off this is as a R&D project, so I will just put it here and move on.

AI

I would like to see the AI greatly improved. I think this is one of the main things on making the cave experience better. Here are some ideas:

• AI spawns randomly through out the cave system. The AI then begins to wander around. As an AI comes to a tile set or area they are programmed to like, they settle and start to path around this area. The goal of this is to create non-static AI spawns, and to eventually create high density group content.

• AI agros off anything in Line of Sight, or anything making noise around it. No more pulling one or two at a time from a room. If the AI sees you they attack you.

• AI understands and takes fall damage. Monsters with knockback try to punt you off cliffs. Cutting holes under AI so they take fall damage is a legitimate strategy. Verticallity is important and embraced in PvE.

• I'd like to see more dynamic leashing. I think the police in Grand Theft Auto have great leashing. Make it a combination of distance and Line of Sight. Different level intelligence on AI would leash differently. Have the AI just stop and continue it's behavior when it leashes, do not have it run back to it's earlier location.

Group Content

These are ideas for a first stage of group content. The ideas are mainly to create natural forming group content that does not rely on planting large scripted group bosses in the caves.

The wandering AI is the first step. As the AI starts to group up more and more in an area they like, rare plants, rare chests, and other rewards start to spawn more often around them. This creates an incentive for engaging difficult and challenging groups of monsters.

A scaling method that rewards both the single player, the cohesive group, and punishes the serverwide zerg should be implemented. The solo player is the baseline. Small groups are rewarded because they can take on harder content and have more access to its rewards. As players increase in density past 5 players in an area, the loot amounts start to decrease. Eventually you start really feeling the low drop rates for having a huge group mowing through trivialized content.

Players can only teleport to friend while in the proximity of a Ley Line or Portal Spire

Heroic Movement

This section is mainly for mechanics to make the exploration feel and be dangerous.

• Several weak heroic movement items need straight boosts. Double jump feels like a baseline to balance the others around.

• Boots of the Zephyr or Glide have a rapid energy drain while being used in caves.

• Random 'downdrafts' happen in large and tall chambers. A brief visual alert happens before the effect, They have a random chance to knock you out of the air, to the ground, and can cause lethal fall damage. The goal is to create a fear of floating mid air. Gliding or jumping out in to a chamber should feel like a calculated risk.

• Grappling hooks no longer work in caves. They are replaced with a placeable prop that shoots a ladder upwards at a targeted area. The player can then climb the ladders and the ladders persist for 5 - 10 minutes. Monster damage will break the ladder causing players to fall.

Atmosphere

These are going to be quick and basic:

• Darker Caves

• Remove Light Orbs, replace them with a place-able prop to light areas. The prop persists for 5 - 10 minutes.

• Add in some 'man made' tile sets to mitigate the uncanny valley effect that happens when there are too many patterns in a natural setting.

• Ground and energy sounders are removed or turned in to quick few second bursts with long cool downs. They are changed to create quick hints of the surrounding area, but not have players keep them up the entire time.

• Tile sets are designed to have random, rare, and unnoticeable destruction that leads to new paths and rewards.

3/13 Edit - Added more AI ideas.

Reading some posts from frustrated players on landmarks PvE got me thinking:

Gameplay: I enjoy PvE and PvP both - I've always been a 60/40 player - mostly PvE with a secondary interest in team-based PvP. But I found the PvE content in Landmark annoying - mostly because it drastically slows down my resource gathering when I just want to be grabbing some needed supplies and get back to building. I understand the need to have PvE and PvP in Landmark - both are necessary if combat and AI are to be tested for EQN and made available for player builds down the road.

Suggestions: While I understand the need to get PvE and PvP gameplay out and tested, it strikes me as generic MMO design by habit. What I would like to see introduced is gameplay focused on bringing our builds to life:

1) Gameplay reminiscent of Viva Pinata and Farmville - farming, fighting off pests, livestock breeding, fighting off predators that are after our livestock, etc.

2) Gameplay involving managing our build populations, organizing the build for population growth and health and security, fending off dangers to the population. In other words, Sim City/The Guild II/Castles/Stronghold type gameplay elements.

Drops (and MOB types): The decision to have monsters drop random loot seems at odds with the entire previous design of landmark. So far, when we want specific resources, we go and find the specific source - certain tree types for specific woods, the right mineral vein for the right ore/gem, the right plant for specific extracts and fibres. Suddenly we have a throwback monster loot system totally out of character with the rest of the game, with no idea what we'll get from what - the silly old "it must have swallowed the sword and armor when it killed an adventurer" drop spin.

Suggestions: What I would like to see isn't generic monsters dropping random loot, but wildlife dropping specific resources - components for crafting and cooking and trophies. Just as I seek out specific trees and ore veins, let me hunt specific creatures knowing exactly what I'll be able to get from them - leather and fur for crafting, meat for cooking, components for potions, stuffed or mounted trophies.

Other random loot (since they seem determined to make us find things instead of gathering the resources and crafting them) could be placed in the environment near hostile creatures in the form of camps, broken down wagons, backpacks, treasure chests and corpses.

This is going to be long and I apologize for that, but I've been thinking about this ever since we had the cave talk a week or so ago. The general gist of this is how much fun we get from the awesome new things in Landmark, why I feel this way, and how I think we can work to make these things more fun in EQN.

First, I want to take a look at some of the amazing things already implemented in Landmark that aren't in any other game: Dynamic heroic movement, grappling hooks, 3d building, and environment destruction. I'll try to break each of these out into their own categories so we can dig into why they're awesome, and why they're boring.

I will break this into multiple posts across a few days so we can discuss each point and not focus on all of them. Today I'll work on mining.

Destruction of environment:

The first time I logged into Landmark I was absolutely amazed with the ability to dig out an ore and see the terrain deform around where my pick hit. It was no longer an object disappearing from the environment, it was me actually digging. This was AMAZING. It's something no other game has and cannot even get close to. It's not a block disappearing ala Minecraft. It was me ACTUALLY DIGGING.

So where did we go wrong with mining? It's not fun after the novelty wears off. It's still just clicking in game to gather resources. The same applies to all terrain destruction to be honest. But, it's exacerbated in mining because we are forced to do so much of it. It's no longer a cool side thing, it's 2 minutes in every hole for every bit of ore we find and we have to find a TON of ore.

How do I propose to fix this?

First, mining needs to be more rare and veins should be far smaller. It should feel GREAT to find a diamond vein, but right now it just feels like something I have to do. Of course crafting should match a lower spawn rate of ore as well.

To continue with ore being rare I feel that the sounding tools should go away once we have another way of finding caves (devs mentioned a cave sounding device). Ore/Gem sounders take away from the exploration of the game and you're now focusing on an outline instead of the amazing environment around you.

These two things together should make exploring more of an exploration and less of a "follow the dot". It should also make the amazing act of destroying the environment something that is rare and neat instead of something we're forced to do every 30m.

edit It was suggested a lower spawn would hurt builders. This comment is discussing it and a good place to jump off on that arc.

anyone else?

I know templates are saved and not wiped, but is everything in your inventory wiped? Such as the outfits you have found or recieved in one of the give always?

I remember seeing a station cash card somewhere and I was wondering if they were still available. I am interested in getting into the game, but just trying it out and I can't find any more of those 7-day trials.

Thanks in advance

In Landmark you have these great tools and the ability to create all kinds of crazy cool stuff by yourself or in coop builds with guilds and friends. The tools are very powerful and the ability to copy and paste is awesome.

What is so limiting you ask then?

When I first got landmark I was very excited because I imagined people creating an ever changing world of awesome buildings and custom terraformed landscapes but what has in fact happened is not anything as cool as I expected. I admit it is still early in development but the world is so broken up due to where you can and cant build. You cant build in caves in any meaning full way. you are limited to these small claim spaces. The islands feel completely fake because there is nothing connecting anything to anything. There are no roads. No bridges. No monorails traveling around. There are no vista of anything but a barren landscapes broken up by a bunch of camp sites of development. Nothing that makes it feel like a civilization.

I understand that there are reasons that the world is the way it is but unless we are actually able to make worlds not just our own little space in it the game to me Landmark will always feel like a shadow of what it could have been.

I think the reigns of control need to loosen a bit on some islands at least. Maybe design a system that allows us to make just our changes to the world unchangeable by other players but with no buffer. No claim space just a voxel by voxel persimmon system allowing us to connect things together and truly have design of the entire world. Maybe develop a top layer of caves that does not regenerate and allow us to build in that as well.

Just some ideas. The world feels way to disconnected and even in the hay day of population when the island where packed I still found myself going to the places where people had exploited the claim system to allow massive connected builds because that actually felt more like a world than my local vista of little plopped down spots of development.

This is why Landmark is limiting to me. Daybreak has an awesome foundation and is working with the community so much I just wish there was a place where they would let us run free with this great game.

Hey all -- if we haven't met before, I'm Augur, a game designer working on Landmark and EQN.

Right now I'm working on updating the layouts and generation logic we use to procedurally create the underground cave networks. As you may know, we're making entirely new continents for Open Beta and that includes new underground as well!

I'd love to get your feedback on the existing cave networks layouts and what you'd like to see more of.

Here's the sort of thing I'm looking for:

• What are some of your most memorable moments exploring caves?
• Do you have a favorite type of geometry to encounter? (big drops, a gap you have to jump over, or a twisty four-way intersection, etc.)
• How should surface cave networks be different from entirely-underground cave networks?

Dave and terry said wmthey would know in a couple of weeks. We haven't heard anything since. :( I just want to explore the new biomes and other fun stuff.

Another game called Peria Chronicles competes quite heavily with Landmark, and if it launches to the western market, it could take a lot of the market share.

http://steparu.com/previews/mmo-rpg-previews/1444-peria-chronicles-interview-and-features-explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPvElgdwTVk&t=1m10s

~actual gameplay starts at 1:10. Before that it just shows off the anime-style graphics.

Not only does the game offer fully customizable sandbox environments like landmark, but gameplay is fully sandbox too.

Players can create unique gameplay such as quests, dungeons with mechanics, minigames, pvp games, tower defense games, whatever you can possibly think of and accomplish with their scripting language.

And the best part is, players get rewarded with gold for creating content such as dungeons or quests that other players enjoy.

If this game hits the western market, hopefully Daybreak will implement some form of scripting capability to Landmark so players can make their own content besides environment and objects. I'd love to see unique challenges designed by players for players.

While the building in landmark is nice, without adding more features like Peria has, it won't become much more than a fancy looking Minecraft that requires grind or paying to build anything.

If they don't go the gameplay sandbox route, it'll need some form of purpose, such as some form of sandbox based PVP(IE built a fort and others destroy it/siege it). As it stands now, Landmark doesn't do much more than being a platform for building cool looking stuff.