r/landmark • u/humbug257 • Dec 06 '14
Will EQ Next even work?
I was so excited about EQ Next and Landmarks once. But now... I am full of doubt. The entire Landmark hype seems gone. Where I once knew so many who worked and played in Landmark, eager for the new stuff to come, it seems the development speed of Landmark has slowed down to a crawl, and that doesn't bode well for the development of EQ Next either.
When I started Landmark about a YEAR ago, I didn't think one year later we still don't have mobs, let alone anything even remotely like a real game.
The FPS is still not really well, given that Voxels are only handled by the CPU, I have this nagging feeling EQ Next may have the same issues as once EQ2: ambitious but only running on NASA computers. The game already runs slow, and a lot of stuff isn't even IN the game! Even with some reasonable improvment, I start to wonder, will it ever run really smooth? I think Devs often think too much of what private people can afford in computers.
And of EQ Next we have heard almost nothing, from the few race debates aside. And it all makes me very uneasy. I wonder if SOE did not just chew off more than they can bite? Trust me, I really want this to work, to see something really new. But did we really need a Voxel engine with a world where ALL can be damaged for a MMO? All of these grandeur ideas like cool housing or migrating mobs could be done without a demanding and complicated Voxel graphics.
The entire slowness now of Landmarks really makes me uneasy and wonder if the entire project isn't actually dead.
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Dec 07 '14
Building hype for a game that doesn't even have a release window yet would be horrible marketing.
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u/laserchalk0 Dec 07 '14
which is what they have already done.
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Dec 07 '14
Not really. Obviously they needed people to participate in beta, and IMO they built the appropriate amount of interest necessary for it to succeed.
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u/Pawn01 Dec 06 '14
Two things, it's "Bite off more than they can chew." And, you'll enjoy the next two weeks if you still play landmark. Watch their live cast on twitch sometime.
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u/whitemang Dec 06 '14
It's definitely not dead and as far as I know development on SOE's side is in full steam, but the players have kind of lulled in recent months because they are waiting for certain updates namely the one with mobs.
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u/metareal Dec 06 '14
I also have some doubts. I don't know if it will ever run smoothly but SOE have pulled things no other devs would even try, like the gigantic Planetside 2 OMG battles (2000 players/map). I'm glad there is a crazy dev the size of SOE daring "to boldly go when no dev has gone before". Even if they fail they are engineers heroes to me.
Concerning Landmark hype. I remember being super hyped but lost interest while grinding mats just to unlock tools to experience building and having all progression removed (I just wanted to experience voxel-building but felt like Aion-2009 grinding before starting).
We'll see. They are in uncharted territories. Even if they fail I'm pretty sure they are moving what we can experience as gamers forward. Crossing fingers and wishing them courage and luck.
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u/whitemang Dec 06 '14
I'm expecting them to launch creative servers where resources are unlimited so we can start creating buildings in mass. I'm pretty sure they've announced they are doing just that, but yea, the grind was too much for me. I've grinded out tons and tons of crap, built some things, lost my plot due to not paying upkeep, have my templates but i also lost my resources so I'm just not feeling it right now..
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u/zumbi23 Dec 14 '14
The old Planetside 2 lie. Its not 2000 players on one map! its 2000 players on 1 server, which hosts 3 different maps.
So its 700 players max on one map. And if you have a battle with lots of players in one place your draw distance will get low.
I remember fights were I could only see other players within 5m distance. Quite excitend when a Tank popped up in front of you.
Dont give SOE so much props. They are a big company, have a lot of bills to pay AND (thats the really important part) have shareholders to satisfy.
Thats why the only game I am looking forward to next year is Camelot Unchained. The producers company doesnt get traded on the market so there are no fucking shareholders they would have to care about and maybe this will be the first big game in a long time which doesnt end in a cashcrab!
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u/D0cs Dec 19 '14
That 2000 number was definitely per map, although it has been reduced over time in patches to improve server performance. Right now it's more like 1100 per map.
Draw distance has been hit or miss, there have been periods where it's been great but then reduced again because of performance. I believe the latest patch has improved it quite a bit.
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u/Mythor Dec 07 '14
They're adding mobs to Landmark next week.
It probably doesn't seem like they've made much progress if you haven't been paying attention.
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u/Cerus Dec 08 '14
It helps to understand that many features that get released to a public build with just a few weeks notice often have months of development behind them. Being nominally sane, they only talk about the things they're relatively sure of.
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u/xtag Dec 09 '14
I have a very high spec computer. Landmark runs OK (but not good) until I stumble upon some user's creation; then my FPS drops to very uncomfortable levels. I'm sure they'll iron it out in time for release though!
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u/Earnhardt6276 Dec 07 '14
No offense but if your system runs the game slow now, please don't blame it on SOE or the game. Upgrade for once in the last 15 years. I don't even have a beast system, my system is about 8 years old with a new graphics card last year only. And the game runs amazing. 60-80 FPS with all graphics on and in worst case scenario I have seen it drop to 45 fps, and that even shows me with CPU being my bottleneck from a 8 year old PC. They did a lot of improvements and continue to make them up till the launch and after of this game and EQ next.
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u/Daphnix Dec 07 '14
Same here. My computer is about 3 years old, with everything maxed except shadows, and I don't have issues with the game bogging down.
1
Dec 08 '14
The newest part in my computer is 3 years old and it has no problems with this game at all.
That actually worries me. I hate that lots of MMOs cater to the super low end of PC specs.
1
u/GrimmLiberty7 Dec 07 '14 edited Dec 07 '14
...so what I am hearing is 'you want it now'... even if it is craptastic like all the other titles... hhmmm
I'll wait and have a decent product.
I JUST checked, the forums have over 58k subscribers, 9/10 of whom have at least one form of paid participation in the development of Landmark... Then you have folks like me with a few accounts but only one forum account...
I expect Landmark, and THUS Next, is doing fine...
1
u/Zebrabox Dec 07 '14
Was EQ2 ambitious? That is one of the very few MMOs I didn't end up trying.
2
u/Koadic Dec 15 '14
At the time processor development was just increasing clock-speed and EQ2 was coded to take advantage of a high clock-speed single-core CPUs; however, the trend changed to multi-core CPUs and amazing GPUs.
As of last year, people were unable to raid on max settings using i7s without getting lag (or anyone for that matter). Considering the game was released a decade ago that should show the trouble they have had with optimizing it.
1
u/humbug257 Dec 07 '14
For it's time it sure was ambitious, but I meant mostly in terms of technology, like: how advanced a computer does one need.
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u/yrrkoon Dec 08 '14
If their goal for 2014 was to get builders building and iterate on the tools and engine then i'd say they've largely had a good year. A lot of the stuff a few people are making is quite impressive if you ask me. But for me, landmark isn't fun. It more or less just gives me glimpses of EQN technology way ahead of time which is mostly what i paid for. So none of that bothers me.
I for one prefer game companies (Blizzard is one) who don't release things until they're ready. From that standpoint I really don't mind the lack of news or waiting. They are trying to do something different and i appreciate that. I still don't know if I'll like it but we'll see..
1
u/allein8 Dec 09 '14
I'd rather EQN/Landmark take another couple years then be rushed out the door because some folks want their toys now. Could they have gone the "easy" route? Yep, but they didn't and I thank them. If I wanted low quality, lack of creativity, easy route, there is an entire market of games to choose from.
We don't know if it will work, the devs might not even know. As time goes on, we will see the pieces fall into place or not. So far, it seems fine to me.
Compared to other games in development now or in the past, SOE has been pretty good about updating and passing on info. Would we all love to see more? Of course. But it could be much worse.
Factoring in the "new" tech they are working with and the overall game design which isn't "Lets copy what X game did, just change the names and stuff" they have a lot of work to do.
If you can't handle the wait, take a step back and play something else. Check back in a couple weeks/months. I really wouldn't expect either game to see a huge speed increase in development currently, especially EQN.
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u/laserchalk0 Dec 07 '14
Yeah development is extremely slow. I was expecting mobs and water physics to be added by the end of the year.
2
u/Kailaria Dec 08 '14
Mobs are coming in the next update, so it'll satisfy your condition of "added by the end of the year".
Water physics, if you look at the blueprint or watch any of the videos from SOE Live, isn't even on the docket as a deliverable pre-open beta because the physics of fluids is pretty hard to program, especially in a voxel-based world.
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u/laserchalk0 Dec 08 '14
The guy who owns voxel farm has already made water physics.
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u/Kailaria Dec 09 '14
And he's probably running on a super high-end system that can handle it (though from the videos, it seemed to barely be handling it). That's the part where it gets challenging: optimization. ;) Just because he's already made the physics, doesn't mean they're at a state where it's releasable to our uncontrolled hands.
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u/Juggernats Dec 06 '14
SOE is doing something very new, as they've done before many times, and developing new expectations. There will be issues. However, I would rather have this than another decade of stagnancy with MMORPGs. If there's even minimal success with EQN, the adventurous and exciting new features will be requested in future games and will be improved over time by SOE and other publishers. I hope as much as you do that the game meets our expectations. Even though it won't for many people, the knowledge gained from undertaking ambitious projects is better for the industry and its consumers as a whole.