Crowfall- PvP MMO "With Consequences"

[Ns1]

Naturally, although SWG (and even UO) proved plenty of people are willing to JUST tradeskill.

being a GM leatherer named "Louis Vuitton" is awesome, for instance.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

being a GM leatherer named "Louis Vuitton" is awesome, for instance.

Shit, son. You really think setting up shop all the way out on the forest moon of Endor is gonna save you from a trademark infringement suit?

 

[Ns1]

Shit, son. You really think setting up shop all the way out on the forest moon of Endor is gonna save you from a trademark infringement suit?

I want to go back to UO, buy a castle, set it up with vendors, and call it "Ali Baba".

 

[JamesGoblin]

Here's recent video update on procedural generation (or if you don't have time for the whole video - you can skim tru this to get the idea):

 

[brianmanahan]

pretty cool man

 

[JamesGoblin]

pretty cool man

Thanks! Here's more, recent combat footage (still alphey and bareboney and yadda...):

...and alpha test preview by TheLazyPeon (a kind of outsider perspective, he's total noob to the game):

 

[KMFJD]

Feels a lot like RUST in the way you go about crafting/harvesting stuff....

 

[KMFJD]

The graphics got a much needed update, there's progress...

 

[JamesGoblin]

The graphics got a much needed update, there's progress...

Yip, here's the video:

...also,they removed class/race locks (which is actually the bigger part of the news):

Source (with some more info) - https://crowfall.com/en/news/massive-reveal-day-is-here/

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Looks less cartoony too. That's a good thing

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Whoa. They've essentially gone streamlined full Shadowbane speccing system. This is an amazing thing.

 

[JamesGoblin]

Crowfall just got extra $6M of funding, making it $20 million total and counting. People just won't stop throwing money on them!

Also, the long awaited 5.3 finally hit the test server, here's some player made footage (obviously, it's still alpha...):

 

[rstrohkirch]

Wow, that was an incredibly boring video. I gave up at the 5min mark waiting for the person recording to actually look around and focus on attacking the same toon his teammates were. He'd do it for a few seconds and then run off attacking someone else. If you had a whole group of similar individuals this thing would go on forever.

I prefer shorter battles, more reward for skill. No fun when you have 6vs6 and it takes 7 minutes just to kill 1 person from either side.

 

[JamesGoblin]

Haha, I'm surprised you made it 5 minutes deep! I didn't pick it as a display of skill; Also, the fight is very heavy on tanks + healers, which slows it down significantly (as if Crowfall's combat isn't already slow enough).

Problem is that other 5-6 decent(ish) 5.3 videos I stumbled across are either of worse upload quality or with much worse FPS, rubberbanding, more bugs etc. so I had to pick my poison.

 

[soulein]

Haha, I'm surprised you made it 5 minutes deep! I didn't pick it as a display of skill; Also, the fight is very heavy on tanks + healers, which slows it down significantly (as if Crowfall's combat isn't already slow enough).

Problem is that other 5-6 decent(ish) 5.3 videos I stumbled across are either of worse upload quality or with much worse FPS, rubberbanding, more bugs etc. so I had to pick my poison.

I was the guy who recorded that video. I was calling targets in that fight, and we were definitely focus firing (with the exception of that Dhark6 guy who wasn't in comms). The problem is that we had some low damage, high tank characters vs. an enemy team with very slippery, high mobility rangers supported by tanky healers. Every time we'd focus a target it would blink away, go invulnerable, heal up to full and we'd be off trying to hit a different target while that target was defensive. I hope the context corrects some of the misconceptions you had about how the fight played out.

As for the length of the fight, this comes down to a number of factors:

The group make-up: Lots of tanks and healers will prolong any fight in any game.
The current patch gives all players increased natural damage resistances to simulate more end game armor stats.
Currently, each player's ultimate ability is far easier to charge up than in previous patches. This is giving players longer invulnerability windows, prolonging the fights a great deal.

What do you think might happen in a 50v50 player battle if the time to kill were much lower? It's something one should think about when considering that this game isn't some arena deathmatch, it's about territory control and open world pvp. Mounting up and running across an open world with no fast travel, only to have a fight last seconds isn't fun for anyone either.

Try this video out and see if you like it better:

 

[JamesGoblin]

Hey Soulein, welcome to AnandTech! How did you find us?

PS As I explained, my primary criteria was good performance (low bugs/high FPS...) and upload quality; Otherwise, I'd pick Confessor or Wood Elf-something, 2/3 vs 1 and such videos with "skillz". This was simply to show the state of the game i.e. 5.3, animations, combat and updated visuals.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

That combat looks awfully casualized considering the hardcore PvP it's supposed to be. Or is the hardcoreness only going to shine in the territory control or whatnot? I actually chipped in on the Kickstarter, but haven't followed closely, figured I'd just check it out at release. Graphics seem to look great but that's hardly the combat I envisioned, being able to hit multiple enemies with every basic attack.

How is the game as far as what you can build in your eternal kingdom or whatever it's called? Is that bit fun? Or is it even in yet?

 

[JamesGoblin]

They varied a lot the degree of aim assist and size of hitboxes, currently it's quite "soft", say hitboxes are huge and there is lots of protests, naturally. On the other side, it's closely connected to engine performance and lag, so there are strong arguments against, say, Darkfall-like combat, which many would like recreated in Crowfall. IIRC Darkfall trusted their clients a lot, in fact too much, which enabled high player numbers but also all kinds of hacks and abuses.

My (totally amateurish) guess is that they will have to sacrifice a lot - possibly even more than what we see now - in order to make the game playable in 200+ man fights; it's possible that we'll even see quite aggressive culling and whatnot.

Building in Eternal Kingdoms, same as procedurally generating the terrain there, is in since million years ago; Here's (already dated) video about terrain generation, and then he puts together some buildings later on:

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

They varied a lot the degree of aim assist and size of hitboxes, currently it's quite "soft", say hitboxes are huge and there is lots of protests, naturally. On the other side, it's closely connected to engine performance and lag, so there are strong arguments against, say, Darkfall-like combat, which many would like recreated in Crowfall. IIRC Darkfall trusted their clients a lot, in fact too much, which enabled high player numbers but also all kinds of hacks and abuses.

My (totally amateurish) guess is that they will have to sacrifice a lot - possibly even more than what we see now - in order to make the game playable in 200+ man fights; it's possible that we'll even see quite aggressive culling and whatnot.

Building in Eternal Kingdoms, same as procedurally generating the terrain there, is in since million years ago; Here's (already dated) video about terrain generation, and then he puts together some buildings later on:

Just from that video the building looks like it might be nice indeed. Is there also going to be building in PvP-active areas? If I end up hating the combat a lot, can I avoid it by just being a miner or something to support a faction?

 

[JamesGoblin]

Just from that video the building looks like it might be nice indeed. Is there also going to be building in PvP-active areas? If I end up hating the combat a lot, can I avoid it by just being a miner or something to support a faction?

PvP "areas" will actually be continent-sized servers, and building/destroying fortifications and castles is actually made for them, connected with sieges, conquering and territory control. Video just demonstrates building in Eternal Kingdom = basically instanced guild housing, a kind of by-product; You are 100% safe in that instance, unless your guild leader (or whoever gets to be the monarch there) turns PvP on and puts a knife in your back...

I guess Crowfall will be as solo-friendly as EVE - i.e. possible but your experience will be better with guild. Also, you won't achieve much sitting in your safe Eternal Kingdom (that guild housing instance) since wood, ore etc. in there will be quite scarce and of the lowest quality, so you won't be able to build much, or even just upgrade - furthermore your house can end up in ruins due to no maintenance.

So you get the idea, high risk / high reward; People will want to leave their safety and fight, or to trade / offer services to warriors in exchange for caravan escorts, protection or just crafting mats. Of course, at this point noone knows how exactly it will turn out.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

IIRC, hit arcs were quite tight in 5.1 and then they relaxed them because registration was a serious problem--probably by too much. This is something I imagine will be further tuned, but yes I doubt we'll ever get to Darkfall-like precision, but I also really don't think it's necessary in this game. The combat always looked like it would be Guildwars 2-ish / BDO / etc.

 

[francisbaud]

The studio behind Crowfall now puts all their energy on delivering the final milestone, which should launch in February 2020.

This milestone includes:

• the Frostweaver
• the Dregs (GvG campaign)
• caravans / mounts
• refineries
• ability to create, move and destroy buildings
• remaining disciplines

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Any AT’ers in This game?
Does it have any potential or is it a super easy mmo or worse a Korean grinder?

 

[KMFJD]

I haven't tried it since last year, i should give it a go again when i lose interest in AAU

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I haven't tried it since last year, i should give it a go again when i lose interest in AAU

Please do and report back.