Game Development: Salem & Haven

[jorb]

It's an I/O problem with the present hard drive set up which we use to prevent map corruption.

[cobaltjones]

If that were the case then wouldn't it just be laggy all the time? Or reach a certain unbearable level of lag after the server had been online for x amount of time?

Surely it's still affected by the level of activity on the server, no?

[jorb]

More players means more I/O, obviously. Point perhaps being that it wouldn't be a problem with a better hardware setup. It's loftar's department more than mine, so I don't quite know exactly how it scales (Far from linearly, though), but I think you'd experience the same problem even with a relatively small number online.

[_Gunnar]

Some of my questions may be stupid/impossible to answer right now/annoying/already asked/answered, but I'm tired and hungover... ignore me if you wish, anyone who knows. Sorry.

(1) When Salem is finished, are you actually sure you will be able to return to H&H "full-time", or in reality will you have to be constantly updating/tweaking salem for several years to come? I'm very hopeful for Salem, and I'm sure I will enjoy playing it if H&H continues to be abandoned, but honestly I much prefer the iron age setting.

(2) Will it be possible to play as a non-"pacifist" nomad in Salem? I always wanted to do this in H&H but the "summon at HF" mechanic really means that if you leave scents you have to be behind walls. I'm not asking for it to be optimal (why should it be?), but just a viable way to play. In particular are there any changes to wagons, teleportation, etc, that make a nomadic lifestyle more viable.

(3) How many players do you anticipate/plan for in Salem, and what size world do you expect there to be to house them? (In H&H units, approximately ) I would love a (slightly?) more densely populated world, to increase conflict over resources and create conflict/cooperation that originates in game, rather than on the forums.

(4) Do Paradox/you have a plan to control unauthorized RMT*, or botting? I understand that controlling either of those is practically impossible, so I'm just hoping you are planning the game in such a way as to make neither worthwhile. How much "automation" is going to be built into the actual gameplay, e.g. for farming?

*p.s. I understand there will be a cash shop, so there must be some heavy-duty legal mechanism in place to make sure other traders don't undercut that?

I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens with this project more and more, since H&H is the only video game that has actually meant something to me, despite me coming in at such a late date.

[TeckXKnight]

1) They've stated that they're pretty darn sure one way or another =)
2) No, it's not viable.
3) ---
4) ---

[MagicManICT]

3: Seems like Jorb has mentioned before, but I can't recall details about what he said. I really don't want to put anything out that's half-true or patently false. I'm sure they'd like to see tens of thousands of players spending at least a few dollars a month on the game. If the game gets too populated, though, there comes the problem that you run into on EVE: the PvP battles get too large for the servers, and no matter how much you improve the architecture and speed up processing, players are going to crowd the space till it lags out.

4: Paradox has policies for RMT on their other multiplayer/MMO games. I would guess it will be the same or similar. I seem to recall something from the September (?) demo and Q&A about some sort of player market that would be ran off the in-game currency--silver coins.

Hope you do mind some of us regular Joes trying to answer these. Jorb and loftar are eyeballs deep in game design and don't get out much right now.

[Potjeh]

They definitely seem to be going for automation to remove the need for botting. Stamp mills do that, windmills will do it eventually, and I think it's fairly safe to assume we'll get cotton gins, sawmills, etc.

[_Gunnar]

3: Seems like Jorb has mentioned before, but I can't recall details about what he said. I really don't want to put anything out that's half-true or patently false. I'm sure they'd like to see tens of thousands of players spending at least a few dollars a month on the game. If the game gets too populated, though, there comes the problem that you run into on EVE: the PvP battles get too large for the servers, and no matter how much you improve the architecture and speed up processing, players are going to crowd the space till it lags out.

4: Paradox has policies for RMT on their other multiplayer/MMO games. I would guess it will be the same or similar. I seem to recall something from the September (?) demo and Q&A about some sort of player market that would be ran off the in-game currency--silver coins.

Hope you do mind some of us regular Joes trying to answer these. Jorb and loftar are eyeballs deep in game design and don't get out much right now.

nono, thats really what i wanted... just someone to answer. I should have edited my post, but my head was hurting too much :p, thanks for the replies!

[Shardok]

World size estimate here http://www.salemwiki.net/page.php?id=28

Not remembering where they found that information, but yeah, ~2 Square KM at 1 tile = 1 square meter.

[TeckXKnight]

World size estimate here http://www.salemwiki.net/page.php?id=28

Not remembering where they found that information, but yeah, ~2 Square KM at 1 tile = 1 square meter.

Fuck that wiki.