Editing Project Entropia Developer Chat 13 Dec 2001

[[Date::13 Dec 2001]]

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Project Entropia House of Commons Log
December 13, 2001

*Racor|ES*: Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's Houseof Commons Chat.
*Racor|ES*: Tonight's chat is on Project Entropia
*Racor|ES*: I will be our moderator for this evening. In order to submit questions please /msg or /query Racor. Please /msg different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed this process up. Do not msg anyone from Dev. Team. These questions will be ignored.
*Racor|ES*: Remember that the Dev. Team may not have the opportunity to answer all of your questions. In addition, some questions may not be answered if the Dev Team feel that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
*Racor|ES*: In addition, please do not submit any questions that have already been answered during past conferences. We encourage you to read the logs of the previous House of Commons Chats, which are available at http://entropia.stratics.com.
*Racor|ES*: Thanks for coming, everyone. We will now begin answering questions.

*Patric|MA*: OK, we are soon ready here at MindArk
*Patric|MA*: I can start to introduce our self to all of you, my name is Patric and i work as marketing manager at MindArk
*Erik|MA*: I am Erik, I am the Community marketing manager at Mindark.
*Magnus|MA*: Hello im Magnus im the AI programmer on Mindark
*JonCol|MA*: Hello ppl, my name is Jonas and I am a client programmer...

*Racor|ES*: Ok lets start


*Racor|ES*: *Racor|ES* 1. We've seen screenshots with terminals displaying, "Real World." What are these? Is this a connection to the internal intranet or the web site, or what?
Magnus|MA: Its going to be used as real world information machine. Information that we dont want to expose ingame to disturb the illusion of the gameworld

*Racor|ES*: *Racor|ES* MA have stated earlier that new buildings will have to be built outside the cities safe zones. Does this mean that there won't be any available land at all in cities and that no new buildings will be safe when they are built?
Magnus|MA> There will not be any available land in the citys all new buildings must be built in the wilderness. However when new settlements grow to a certain size they can also become safe zones.

*Racor|ES*: *brett1792* will there ever be a public downloadable beta?
*Erik|MA*: Yes, there will be a downloadable beta, known as the open beta phase.. It is the next phase after the commercial trial we are bout to launch now.

*Racor|ES*: *brett1792* is the weather based on real world physics?
*Erik|MA*: Weather is based on the particle physics that the rest of the graphics engine controls. It is not real world physics, not even real world meterologists can design functioning physics for real weather. But we are as close as you will get.

*Racor|ES*: *Lawryus|UPF* Well he have seen and discused about buildings, could you tell us about what kinds of different structure are intented to be present in the cities? How complex will they be, what kinds of different things are there to be done and explored within them, and what kinds of different objects and beings (besides players) will we find to interact with in cities??
*Magnus|MA*: There will be all kinds of buildings. Everthing from living places to all kinds of shops or institutions. For example hospitals, skills institutions, bars, shops, beautyshops and so forth. Every institution will have its own special NPCs to interact with. The NPCs can be from plain shop owners to "storytellers" or other quest-related characters

*Racor|ES*: *blitcz_FWR* When will there be an movie trailer of PE?
*Patric|MA*: We have a lot of small vidoe clip that we will release when we release Infobooth 3.0, this includes sounds and music as well. When it comes to a half hour trailer is there no ones who knows:)

*Racor|ES*: *blitcz_FWR* A follow up: A follow up on the safe zone q, Does that mean that when the new settlement gets safe zone rights, no new buildings can be built inthat city?
*Erik|MA*: No, there is no restriction on newly created settlements in that regard, only already designed sities are restricted, this is to facilitate the spread of new settlements and cities.

*Racor|ES*: *felix7* will player killing be highly discouraged like it is in most other MMOGs out there or will it be considered part of the game and part of the risk?
*Magnus|MA*: Player killing is going to be allowed but it is not going to be an important part in an economic or skill sense. And the benifits from it will not be that encouraging.

*Racor|ES*: *Tervo* WA question: Will there be a height limit on skyscrapers, or a size limit on more sprawling structures such as malls, or will these limitations be governed by money?
*Erik|MA*: There is a height limit at present of 500 meters. This is to reduce the server load when traveling high above the ground where the number of polygons loaded is enormous. The height limit might be altered as we get futher into production...

*Racor|ES*: *Tervo* WOk a question: Will the starting apartments have a restricted amount of "uses" or a time limit, or will users be able to have their starting apartment forever without ever paying anything for it? What differences are there between the starting apartments and those who have to be bought? Why would people abandon the free apartment to buy a new?
*Magnus|MA*: The starting apartment will be there for as long as you want. Some of the reasons why you would like to buy a new is that the starting apartment isnt that big and hopefully you will have more stuff than i could hold. Some other functions does not even exist in the starting apartment.

*Racor|ES*: *Merloth* What options will there be for society meetings in game? How many will be able to participate?
*Erik|MA*: Societies will be able to meet and confer inside Project Entropia. There is no restriction set on number of participants so far. we anticipate seeing no problems with hundreds of users at once. But this is subject to futher testing.

*Racor|ES*: *Tervo* Will societys that creates a city be able to control who builds what/where and when?
*Erik|MA*: No creating a city is not a question of marking it as a city. This would require the society to own the land in question. And that in turn requires them to build on that land within a set period of time. Otherwise someone else can construct on that land after the time limit has expired.

*Racor|ES*: *Ethan_H* Question: can newly built buildings be destroyed and is there insurance for this???
*Magnus|MA*: Player buildings are not going to be destroyable.

*Racor|ES*: *blitcz_FWR* Will buildings be put together room by room, like a jigsaw puzzle, will there simply be many blanket building designs to choose from, or will they be build wall-by-wall, such as in The Sims?
*JonCol|MA*: Buildings will most likely be put together in a room-by-room manner. For instance, there might be a fixed number of different rooms that can be put together to form a building.

*Racor|ES*: *Ethan_H* when is the closing date for beta 3 applications????
*Patric|MA*: We will start to ship the next phase at the end of next week, so, 6 days as most if you want to have a chanse to get in. However, we will most likley expand that phase further on before we start the open beta.

*Racor|ES*: *Grifter* Will the Linux client be out at the same time as the win client, if not, what is a time estimate for it?
*JonCol|MA*: The first concern is to support PC
*JonCol|MA*: ...PCs primarily running the Windows operating system, but we will possibly look at other platforms as we make progress. Our graphics engine, NetImmerse, supports a wide range of platforms and this of course makes it a lot easier to port the game once we decide that is the way to go...

*Racor|ES*: *Merloth* If a society or a person claims a large piece of land, will they have the rights to decide who can build there? Could you explain more about the process of claiming land and building on it?
*Erik|MA*: Societies can calim a piece of land in the same manner as anyone else. Which requires them to construct on in within a certain timelimit. If not they will lose the concession. This is done to prevent landhogging in a large scale, If you want a a piece of land you have to claim it and use it. Or you will lose the rights no matter if you are a single person or an entire society. Whoever claims the land have to build on it. If a society claims it they have to build there themselves. They cannot turn the concession over to anyone. Even a member of that society.

*Racor|ES*: *Lawryus|UPF* Could you finally clarify about geography... Will Calypso be round from day one gold, or open, will it spin and have regular days and nights, will night/day times be equal?? Whats the estimated size of each of the 3 continents, will weather conditions vary according to specific region??
*Magnus|MA*: It will have days and night but the nights will not be as long as the days. There will be certain climates in certain regions. The size of the the three continents will be aprox 2700 square kilomters.

*Racor|ES*: *Roo_Avery|SoF* You've stated how robot slaves can be programmed to preform certain tasks such as body guard, etc. How flexible will this programming be? ie. If I were to have a factory creating weapons, would I be able to have robots automatically mine ores then when at capacity bring the ore back to the factory in my absense?
*Magnus|MA*: The robot slaves will be able to perform relatively complex tasks. But some tasks will have more of economic constraints, like mining for instance. And for that matter the robots have as you know done a revolt and it is not easy to get a co-operative robot, they might revolt again.

*Racor|ES*: *tech_1* will you be able to bring people into your house and if so will your furniture be safe from them running off with it?
*Erik|MA*: Furtniture and fixtures iniside a property of structure is considered part of the owners inventory kept in that structure. It is safe from looting, you can bring people into your home and it will be safe from thieves.

*Racor|ES*: *Lawryus|UPF* is there any limit on the charachters you can see at once on screen? When Calypso gets more populated will it be common or possible to see more then say 100 characters while in a city for example, with no frame problems??
*JonCol|MA*: Of course the computer will be under much more strain at times when there are a lot of characters on-screen. This is a very important problem we are currently working hard on. Our goal is of course to have as many characters as possible being rendered without frame-rates dropping below playable, we are contemplating having an increased fog with many users in a certain area to avoid the problem. As you understand there is no way we can allow an unlimite

*Racor|ES*: *Merloth* Could you tell us more about R&D, how will the skill work and can you do cooperative R&D?
*Erik|MA*: Research and development is a skill that requires you to study a particular item or occurence. Sharing the findings is possible, however the study as such is a personal endeavour. You will have to complete the particular part before moving on. At present you cannot share the burden of a singular task with another user. This might be changed in the future.

*Racor|ES*: *Merloth* Could you tell us more about the size of buildings and rooms, ex. what will be the height/size limit in one room? Is there any limit how large a building can be on the ground?
*Erik|MA*: Rooms will not be limited as such, it is entirely possible to buid a full size hangar for instance. The problem might be finding a contruction site that will allow for large size buildings.

*Racor|ES*: *Roo_Avery|SoF* You've mentioned an "ebay" like capability for your website. How will this work? If a purchase is made, do the two people involved in the transaction have to meet personally to make the trade or will there be some type of external delivery? (FedEx?)
*Patric|MA*: What we will have inside Project Entropia is auction like they have on e-bay. There will be auctionhouse where user can put there objects and then it will be there for such long time as the auction is going on, can be for one week, or for a couple of hours. During this time is it possible for all other players to make bids on the objects that are in for selling, when the auction is over, this amout of money will be withdraw from the buyers account and
*Patric|MA*: and he or she will get the object. However you can't bid on a object if you don't have the money for it.

*Racor|ES*: *Batty* Regarding advertising in the game (billboards, etc), do you have any big companies interested? (don't have to name them of corse!)
*Erik|MA*: Yes we are in contact with a number of companies that have global distribution of their products. Some are household names all over the globe. Project Entropia is a chance to enter a truly new and unique market and many coorporations have already shown an understanding of this.

*Racor|ES*: *Guest503359* It mentioned the neccessity for substinance..how will food be available and will we be forced to buy food?
*Magnus|MA*: Food can be found, bought or grown. You will not die without food or water but if you want to be in absolute full vigour the food will help you. And of course some dishes are a necesity when you are having a heroes feast =)

*Racor|ES*: *Batty* Will there be some places (like cave systems) where a person will have to use flashlights to see around? (That would be really atmospheric).
*JonCol|MA*: Yes I agree, flashlights are cool :-). It will be taken under serious consideration.

*Racor|ES*: *Merloth* Do you have any new info about vehicles you can release, like what fuel is needed and can they break down so repairs are needed
*Erik|MA*: Vehicles will need both fuel and maintenance. You cannot mistreat any equipment in project entropia. Just as the real world equipment. Equipment in project entropia will deteriorate over time.

*Racor|ES*: *blitcz_FWR* How will time run in PE?? How long is the day, month, year, in relation to Earth time???
*Magnus|MA*: A day is going to be aproxametly four hours and the night about one hour.

*Racor|ES*: *Lehubiner* Approximately how long after the release of PE do you hope to "discover" another continent, and will the continent be the same size as the original one?
*Patric|MA*: Well, what we are talking about is to discover new planets with total new lifeforms, when it comes to new land areas is it up to all users to be part of building up new landmasses. We will build out the whole universe instead of just building out Calypso:) And it will be possibly to travels to other planets after they are discovered

*Racor|ES*: *Lawryus|UPF* Tell us a little about vehicles, what sorts of vehicles are intented to be released initially? Are there hovers, small ships, ground vehicles, bikes? Will it be possible to fire from inside a vehicle? Is it possible for skilled personal to assemble custom vehicles? Any war vehicles? Are they expected to be released, by gold time??
*Erik|MA*: Initially there will be one person hoverers. As well as multi-person transports. In addition to these there will be large haulers traffiking the world as well as public transport "buses", wheeled vehicles, marine ships etc are planned for initial release but has not been decided upon yet.
*Erik|MA*: There will be possibilities to lay down fire from vehicles, yes there will be war vehicles. Cusomisation is also on the planning stage. If we get them out by gold or not is something that we cannot anticipate yet. But it is what we plan for.

*Racor|ES*: *Tervo* Will there be MA-buildings in game where users can go and as MA employes questions, report bugs etc in real time?
*Magnus|MA*: There will not be any buildings for that. Instead you will have the possibility to contact game operators through your UI or by meeting them in "person" in the game world.

*Racor|ES*: *Neutron|UPF* Will there be a local newspaper with information on local wild life? or some way of writing books?,
*Patric|MA*: Yes, there will be different newspaper for each continent, and even local newspapers for cities, and of course global news as well. What we want to set up is that like local newspaper, where people that want to run a paper or fanzine can write about what is going on and now. Those will be published both on the web and in the game as well.

*Racor|ES*: *brett1792* Will people be able to post advertising on their own property and gain commission from the company that the billboard, etc... is advertising?
*Erik|MA*: Advertising in the game is what keeps project entropia freeware. MindArk will reserve the right to collect revenue from advertisments. And we will produce buildings that are suitable for the purpose if neccesary.

*Racor|ES*: *Neutron|UPF* Any plans for tactical weapons like mortors, grenades or heavy artilery? Will be able to connect a laser sword to your gun as a bayonet,will there be ecm weaponary to disable robots,
*Magnus|MA*: There is no concrete plans for any large tactical weapons at the moment. However the weapon system is going to allow you to build and modify your weapons. So the laser sword example may be possible. Grenades and rocket launchers is going to be a part of the game. Specific anti-robot weapons will be avilable. After all they are our worst enemy =)

*Racor|ES*: *Tervo* Will there be any to create society-specific clothes, ex. with a soc. symbol that shows the rank of the member?
*Erik|MA*: Societies will be able to request clothes designed from MindArk, the design and markings are subject to MindArk approval. And there is no guarratees that the designs will be released. The designs will be launched with mindark approval and might be withdrawn on a later stage. This is to avoid the use of certain symbols that are considered unwanted. But yes we do plan to allow societies to have uniforms.

*Racor|ES*: *Ethan_H* Question: You have stated that when starting will we recive an appartment what other items or inventory will we start with?????
Magnus|MA> The apartment and some clothes is going to be your starting gear.

*Racor|ES*: *tech_1* Do you expect to have more people playing the game as a game or as a job to make money or an equal amount of both?
*Patric|MA*: Well, what we are on our way to launch is the first true virtual universe, and how people will use it is up to each one. Some will go in really hard for the Role playing, and other will use it just for fun, and some will be there to make profit from it. We want Project Entropia to be what you as a user want it to be, so everyone can fullfill their dreams or whatever they want to get out of it.

*Racor|ES*: *Sawz* Will you have to buy a new insurance policy every time you die? Or, is it good for a period of time until it expires? Can you insure categories of items, single items?
*Magnus|MA*: It depends on what insurance you have bought. You will have the possibility to choose.

*Racor|ES*: *Batty* There are a lot of ethical questions about gambling, which you will have in the game. Will you set limits on the amount of money people can gamble in, say, one day?
*Patric|MA*: Well, yes and no, we are setting limits to what you may spend in a 24 hr period. Regardless of the use. We are not setting a specific amout for gambling. However, as usual it is up to you as a user to take care of your own money, this is one of the reasons why we have the adult limit.

*Racor|ES*: *Guest503359* Of the many creatures in Project Entropia; is there any you will be able to tame, keep, even mount?
*Magnus|MA*: There will be creatures to tame and use to diffrent tasks like protection, riding, holding stuff for you or just like a pet.

*Racor|ES*: *Tervo* MA please explain this (from the CHQ interview not long ago): "You will at all times be required to consider your food water intake. You can die from starvation and dehydration at any time."
<*JonCol|MA*: You will not die from starvation or dehydration, but you will notice the adverse effect by e.g. having your skill-levels decrease until you eat or drink.

*Racor|ES*: *Lawryus|UPF* You just talked about robots and mining... Well I’d like to know more about programmable robots/droids and hired NPCs, to which extent are they both "programmable"? May I tell him to follow me around with a weapon like a bodyguard? Can they guard an area? What sorts of different activities can hired NPCs/Bots perform, and what at are the main differences between them in that "task assignment" sense?
*Magnus|MA*: Yes you can get the NPC to guard you as you walk around, or guard an area. The difference between them is that the robot is in a sense part of the enemies, and can not always be trusted.

*Racor|ES*: That was the final question, hope you all enjoyed it and it was informative.
*Racor|ES*: Thank you all for attending. This HoC has been a fabulous succcess, thanks you all for turning up. I hope that this will occupy and entertain you all for a while at least. Hehe, till the next HoC, Enjoy!!! Don't forget, discuss on the fourms more.
*Racor|ES*: Finally MA have a few words to finish this event off.
*Erik|MA*: We here at MindArk would like to thank all of you for tuning in to this HOC.. We appreciate all the really good questions and we hope to see more of the same enthusiasm in the future. These are the things that lets us know that we are on the right track. From all of us to all of you.. A very Merry Christmas and a happy New year.
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Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20021020131633/http://entropia.stratics.com/content/hoc/hoc/121301.shtml