Project Entropia Developer Chat 13 June 2001
13 June 2001
Project Entropia House of Commons Log June 13, 2001
Locke|Stratics: Good evening everyone, thank you for coming to tonight's Project Entropia House of Commons. This Stratics developer chat is a direct connection between you, the players, and the designers and programmers of Project Entropia. Locke|Stratics: This chat will be in a moderated format. To ask a question of the developers, please /msg or /query the question takers that will be listed in the topic of the channel. These question takers will then present the questions to the MindArk development team here with us this evening. Locke|Stratics: Our question_takers tonight are Raven and Destiny. Please do not message or query myself or anyone from Mindark, these questions will be ignored. Following the chat, the logs will be available at http//entropia.stratics.com. Locke|Stratics: And now I'd like to introduce Patric from MindArk, to introduce the development team and talk a little bit about the game.
Patric|MA: Hello every one, My name is Patric Sundstrom and I work at MindArk as Marketing Manager, doing most of those interview you might have seen so far, and a lot more….. Patric|MA: Project Entropia will be a massive online world of interactive entertainment where million of users will be able to interact at the same time. You will be able to create your own player character socialize in a vast online community, use online services and participate in an RPG adventure and more, all in the same world. Per|MA: Hello everyone, my name is Per Edman and I work as a game designer and script programmer here at MindArk. JAP|MA: Hi ho, Im JAP, Lead designer for project entropia Holmsten|MA: Hi, I'm Patrik Holmsten, coordinator of the engine programming team. Thommie|MA: Hi, everyone I am the Webmanager at MindArk and is responsible for the websites we have Fredrik|MA: Hiya! My name is Fredrik Andersson and I'm a concept artist and story writer for Project Entropia. Patric|MA: That is all from MindArk that will answer your questions at this HOC
Locke|Stratics: Let's begin accepting questions! Please direct your questions to the designated question_takers only.
Locke|Stratics: *Cidium* When do you think we will be able to see some of the in_game user interface? Patric|MA: We will present the UI when we fell that it is time for it, properly in the next beta or the beta after that one.
Locke|Stratics: *Cidium* Could you please tell our viewers when you expect the next beta phase to take place, and how many applications will you be accepting into the beta at that time? Patric|MA: We are currently in Beta phase 2, there are currently 50 external user in this beta. As soon as we fell that we are happy with all tests with this beta, then we will start the next one. So we can't give you any exact date for this, but we will announce it when we are closing up to it.
Locke|Stratics: *QuantumDTN* Almost every MMORPG currently has had a dupe_like exsploit post release. If this was to occur in Project_Entropia, and a player made real world money off of it, as they could. Would you reverse the servers? How would the exchange on the credit card work? Per|MA: Duping will be impossible in Project Entropia. This may sound like a brash claim, but it is true. Our system is built in such a way that it is simply not possible.
Locke|Stratics: *Kurtis* It is a pleasure to be here, I feel MindAark has promising future and I thats why I am here. Now my first question, can you atleast give us a faint idea of what the PED to US Dollar exchange rate will be? Patric|MA: We could answer on this question but it would be totally irrelevant since no one know how much things will cost in Project Entropia. This kind of information will be release during some of our Beta Phases
Locke|Stratics: *BuddaChrist|DTN* question how are you today? I was wondering if MA has been taking notice to the disastrous start of wwii online Patric|MA: I have been reading a lot about it, and I don't want to put shit on them, but hrmmm, things could have been handled in a better way. We will not do the same mistake they are doing right now
Locke|Stratics: *Bronco* Without a monthly fee and the game being downloadable or given away on magazine CD's there seems not to be much money flow for you, how will you keep getting enough money to keep up with PE and the development and server costs Patric|MA: This question has been asked thousands of times. Last time a saw this one was at Project Entropia forum posted a few days ago. There is also a lot of information about this at MindArk official website. So please take a look there. I could write about it for hours, and you would get bored.
Locke|Stratics: *Cidium* What current online game do you feel to be your largest competition and why? JAP|MA: Well, Anarchy Online have put a great effort in making a good game. they are very close in the game intrigue to us, although there are many differences andwe believe that we have many benefits in releasing our game after ther release.
Locke|Stratics: *BuddaChrist|DTN* question in the game would MA take legal action if someone was to cheat in the game involving money, since it would involve real world money? Patric|MA: Yes, we will take legal action against those who cheat in the games since almost everything have a real life money value.
Locke|Stratics: *Faith* Where are you located and will you have external positions availabe or volunteer programs? Per|MA: Faith: We are located in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, Europe. We are not currently taking external employees but we will need to be hiring more people in the future, for various positions. Keep an eye out on our pages as it will probably be announced there.
Locke|Stratics: *Noir* Will PE allow users to communicate in a variety of languages, including those with extended character sets? Will PE support online voice communication? Holmsten|MA: Yes, you will be able to use extended character sets. We will not (initially) provide any translation services, but you could talk to others that speak your language.
Locke|Stratics: *Cidium* Has there been any development, or plans for a downloadable Project_Entropia video trailer? Patric|MA: Yes, we have been looking to this; there are several ways to go. We could do a cheap home video on the screens, but how fun is that? Then we can make a AAA video that blows any other videos, that takes time and effort. So the answer to your question is, yes, there will be a Video, but I can't tell you when we will release it so it can be downloaded.
Locke|Stratics: *Kurtis* I know it will be a few months till open beta... and to keep people like me satisfied... when will you release more weapon screen shots? Not to mention we would like to see their stats also <Per|MA> Kurtis _ We are currently having theme weeks on our webpage every second week, and sometime in the near future we will have a WEAPONS WEEK where every day will contain a new update about weapons.
Locke|Stratics: *Atrayo* Will PE have a political skill tree, like the old Spela interview mentioned player mayors can be elected? thanks JAP|MA: No, no political skill tree will be. The things you mentione will lie on the basis of player activities that are not skill dependent. Societies will have this opportunity, if you like this are an area of organization and having a good interface for it.
Locke|Stratics: *OpifexAgent* How is the money system set up? Is it possible for people to make a living with this game? Patric|MA: We will not go into detail on how economically system works, but in theory it is possibly to make a living on Project Entropia.
Locke|Stratics: *ARM* how will the combat system work? will it be skill based or involve some quick fire mouse action? JAP|MA: The combat system will be skill based. We will although mix it with fire mouse handling, as you say. This for making it exciting and making the combat complex.
Locke|Stratics: *Cidium* 1,000,000 players online at the same time is astounding. To keep players safe from immense latency, how many server base stations to you expect to release, and where do you plan to positions them? Holmsten|MA: We will have a few strategically placed server farms which are interconnected by a backbone network. Those farms will in turn have several strategical connection points. We cannot tell you where these will be located.
Locke|Stratics: *Noir* Would it be possible to allow players to program 'bots' or 'robots' using a simple gui (for logic flow), or other interface as in the Playstation game "Carnage Heart"? JAP|MA: yes you will be able to program robots, the way they will be programmable is for attacks, beast of burdon actions and general service for their master.
Locke|Stratics: *Buzzi* Will players be deemed to fight the robots on Calypso "forever" or are you considering further dynamic development (in the far future) by expanding the gameplay to other planets? Fredrik|MA: The battle against the robots will carry on as the main hostile element but we will add new twists and turns to it to develope the concept even further to keep the main story line fresh and alive. And yes, it is meant to expand further than one planet, eventually.
Locke|Stratics: *BuddaChrist|DTN* How many people are working for ma at the moment? Patric|MA: We are currently around 45 people here at MindArk office and then we have 5_15 external people doing things for us from time to time.
Locke|Stratics: *OpifexAgent* Is your company nervous about the release of LucasArt's Star Wars? Per|MA: OpiFexAgent _ We are looking forward to Star Wars Galaxies, but we are not very nervous because of it.. There already exist immensely interesting MMORPGS out there but we still think that Project Entropia will be something unique. We have no more reason to nervous about Lucasarts' attempts in this field than we are about the already very established games.
Locke|Stratics: *Cidium* In some of the other online games, players can create their own 'guardian' creatures to protect them and aid in battles. Since PE is set in the future, will players be able to research/develope their own robot 'guardians'? JAP|MA: Yes they will. Actually they will be able to create their "own slaves". This is something that the good slave creators will have very thrilling moments, when having the slaves "coming up to life"
Locke|Stratics: *Atrayo* Will players need skill to use vehicles? Thanks JAP|MA: That is a good question, in some ways they will have to use skills to have their vehicles working, in some ways not.Im not going into detail about this.
Locke|Stratics: *Kurtis* When we create our own buildings, will it be outside the town safe area? This can be quite harmful to business if not Per|MA: Yes, new buildings will need to be placed outside of town for various reasons.. Basically the government of Calypso will want cities to develop and so will only allow new cities that expand the boundaries of the cities.
Locke|Stratics: *Atrayo* How many of all types of NPC Mob's will PE have? Thanks Fredrik|MA: Can't give any exact numbers but there will be a lot of different NPC's out there, from native animals and robots to mutants and even humans, and they will keep coming since we'll Project Entropia will be under constant developement.
Locke|Stratics: *QuantumDTN* Players need to incentive to PK/PvP, or it turns into Grief Killing, Like Ultima Online. Anarchy_Online has set up a conflict between two sides, what will Project_Entropia do? JAP|MA: We will implement zones where pk_ing are strictly forbidden, mixed with zones that are pk_areas. To thois we have our insurance system, that will restrict looting. To this we may, and I say may have "intervalkilling", which means that you may pk if you are in the right interval. More rules to this will come, but Im not going into "deep details" about this.
Locke|Stratics: *Kurtis* Lets take the landmass... it seems rather small in comparison to support 1,000,000 people. Even though you have the server speed, you might not have the space. Will there be a large amount of ocean to expand platforms too? If so, how large, and will it be expensive? Holmsten|MA: If we should run out of land, ocean and underground space, it is trivial to extend the world map with both continents and unused area.
Locke|Stratics: *Buzzi* If players get to control their companies will they be able to decide where will the products be distributed?Will MindArk interfere if let's say a group of players get control of the weapons industry and try to make extra profits by selling to the highest bidder thus creating instability and frustration among players? Per|MA: Yes, you will be able to own and control factories, but it is impossible to reach a monopoly situation as MindArk will for example offer in_game auctions for different kinds of objects, sort of like an in_game "eBay" solution where items can be bought and sold to the highest bidder. So even though a player or group of players can create new industries, they can never become a monopoly in the basic markets.
Locke|Stratics: *BuddaChrist|DTN* will there be a form of tv in the game? :) can I see pe version of price's right? Holmsten|MA: I'm not sure which kind of TV you mean... We will be able to show 2D video streams on TV screens. A 3D TV where you can see another part of the game world can be done, but will not be available until we have worked out the bandwidth and resource issues.
Locke|Stratics: *Cidium* I feel better knowing that Project_Entropia will only allow one character slot per account. What has contributed to this recent decision, and why do you feel it is important? JAP|MA: The reason why is for us to have a good control over the accounts. Also this will avoid much problems with cheatings and "not wanted behaviour, like having one kill character and one nice character etc.
Locke|Stratics: *Buzzi* How will research or crafting be actualy realised (point&click?)? JAP|MA: Reasearch and crafting will be by differnt tools, where we have put much efforts in not having a "point and click" system, however it's not possible not to have repetadly "mous_clicks" when crafting, but we are trying to make it somewhat easier.
Locke|Stratics: *Cidium* How is the next version of InfoBooth coming along, and when do you expect to release it? Could you provide the players with any details of its functionality? Thommie|MA: Infobooth is coming along just fine! We are currently implemeting and testing the new "site applications" and there will be a big improvement then the last version that I can promise you all. The release date is not yet set but we will announce it in one of our upcoming newsletters. We will also give more details about the new system then.
Locke|Stratics: This concludes the seond ever PEHOC. Locke|Stratics: Thank you all for coming to this House of Commons chat. Locke|Stratics: and thanks especially to the MindArk team. Locke|Stratics: The logs for this chat will be posted later this evening at http//entropia.stratics.com.
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20021224162634/http://entropia.stratics.com/content/hoc/hoc/061301.shtml