Topia Online -> Inspired by Haven & Hearth

[Xuvian]

But this game wont achieve anything so there is not much to do against it.

[joshrmt]

I don't understand how anyone can get so emotionally invested into some little project of mine. There is no reason to get this fired up. I don't care if nobody plays Topia, it's just a project that im building because I enjoy game development.

[Amanda44]

Hey, just wanted to say hello to the Haven & Hearth community. My name is Josh, and my game development team has been developing a sandbox game that has been deeply inspired by games like Haven & Hearth. I just wanted to give a shout out to the Haven & Hearth development team (and Salem!). It's a niche and risky style of game, and many game developers are afraid to build games like this. I am hoping to go above and beyond what other sandbox games have done. I've been at work on the game engine for over a year now, and it's finally coming together to a playable state. The great thing is, we are reaching out to the community to create many of the game's features.

We are 2 months away from a beta test. We'll be launching at Kickstarter at the end of November. Please follow our dev blog, wiki, and forum for information about the game:

I don't understand how anyone can get so emotionally invested into some little project of mine. There is no reason to get this fired up. I don't care if nobody plays Topia, it's just a project that im building because I enjoy game development.

Postby joshrmt » Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:16 am

I will only make this one post.

As usual a man of your word!

Tonkyhonk wrote:
now since you pay no respect to the community here, there is no room in here to justify yourself, you can do so in your own community as much as you want. now please get out of here and never come back.

Goodbye.

[painhertz]

I don't understand how anyone can get so emotionally invested into some little project of mine. There is no reason to get this fired up. I don't care if nobody plays Topia, it's just a project that im building because I enjoy game development.

LMFAO Look everyone, it's the Game Developers version of "it was only a farming alt..."

[Eemerald]

I don't understand how anyone can get so emotionally invested into some little project of mine. There is no reason to get this fired up. I don't care if nobody plays Topia, it's just a project that im building because I enjoy game development.

sorry but personal projects dont entail people to pay money in order to invest in them. If this was a little project of yours, then u should have kept it to yourself and not tried to get people in gaming communities to give their money to support it. the moment you do, it's no longer your little project, but an investment by everyone who has paid and supported you. I doubt anyone from this community or salems would have even bothered with this game, or asked any questions about it if it wasnt for painhertz supporting you and your project.

[zacty]

I don't understand how anyone can get so emotionally invested into some little project of mine.

this is exactly what happens whenever someone puts a significant amount of time and effort into a project, only to be shat on like a toilet

There is no reason to get this fired up.

this is a perfect reason to get this fired up

I don't care if nobody plays Topia

if you didnt care, you wouldnt advertise on other communities boards, quite frankly thats all you did here.

it's just a project that im building because I enjoy game development.

this does not justify your actions in the slightest.

not a damn thing you have done in this community, or to anybody in this community, has been motivated by your actions as a person. you want attention, thats the whole reason you came here to begin with, because you figured that poeple here would at least look at your game, which i can understand. however dont come in here and lie to us about being

Inspired by Haven & Hearth

only to totally ignore us when you get a face out there. you've only made a total ass of yourself here.

Goodbye.

also: sorry to steal your format amanda i just like it a lot

[joshrmt]

I work a day job to pay my bills and pay for Topia. It is not my job, it is my hobby. An MMORPG requires millions of dollars worth of investment to get off the ground, which is something that I am struggling to pay out of my own pocket by working consulting gigs.

I came here because there are people in this forum that look for new sandbox MMORPGs. This community is tiny, why would I come here to try to raise funds? There are much larger communitys (redditors, slashdot, mmorpg.com, etc) that have funded 95% of Topia so far. If everyone in the H&H community purchased Topia, it would not even make a blip.

I am building a sandbox MMORPG because nobody else will. And moreover, half the people in this community would rather whine about 'MMORPGs doing everything wrong' instead of doing something to fix it. Painhertz, btaylor, why don't you guys build an MMORPG to match your needs? I am doing this because there are no other good MMORPGs out there, and someone has to step up to the plate. Yet you are so self-entitled that you would rather complain than band together to create a truly epic sandbox game.

[painhertz]

If everyone in the H&H community purchased Topia, it would not even make a blip.

There are upwards of 5,000 people in the Haven Community. They might not be active on the forums currently while development is done on Salem but rest assured that the day Jorb or loftar begins development on Haven again and a new world comes up it'll have 2000 + people on it the first day, if not more. Somehow I think that 5k people at $25.00 a pop would be a bit larger a "blip" than the 600 or so who have bought your game..... once again you allow your elitist attitude to blind you to reality. In reality you know "nothing" about Haven and Hearth and I'd bet that you heard about it from DatOneGuy who is now a KSG fag, otherwise you'd know there are way more Haveners than you will ever have with Topia (Especially now that you have effectively shunned both the Haven and Salem communities.)

Here we are at the 3 month mark of you showing up here and so far your "Beta" that people paid $25.00 for, (Some idiots up to $500.00?) consists of a multi-player version of the sandbox's you had up in early December... Rest assured that I and Btaylor won't be the last to ask for refunds... You simply have not provided what you charged for, you released a walk and chat sandbox in January, called it a Beta so you wouldn't be sued for fraud, lol then tried to blame me and others for releasing it. (I and almost everyone voted for the Character Planner) You have now lied so much that you are literally tripping over your own lies.... Which was it? Did I want the Beta 0.1 released or the Character Planner?

What have "i" done wrong in my 3 months of supporting Topia? I kicked a guy in IRC...... And I asked for slightly larger chunks of content to test in a post where I ALSO complimented you on your radial menu and pointed out a bug. You conveniently deleted that entire thread.... Everything else you have accused me of is either an outright lie (Painhertz said in a pm that he didn't want to test the game at the rate it was being released), a distortion (Painhertz actively tells people to not use the IRC) or is functionally unprovable in any way ( The community keeps complaining about Painhertz ) Don't you have better things to do than answer emails from a forum that your girlfriend is supposed to be "Community Manager" of? So i get kicked for being "toxic" (You and Garrott must be huge Britney Spears fans??) and then get kicked from the non-beta forum for defending a guy from your little clan of ass sniffers.... So effectively, you banned me for trying to STOP someone from doing what you claimed you banned me for. I've devoted far more time to you in the post than you deserve and although you haven't been banned from here... (Some forums have class) you are just digging a bigger hole. have I mentioned that most Haveners are also SA Goons, /b/tards and also members of various of the biggest communities on the internet? if you were as smart as you seem to think you are you'd have relalized that.... I'm sure we'll all be sharing with our prospective "other" communities all about you and your game and power trips. Game over.

[btaylor]

Lets take a look back at your first post so we can analyze everything that's been said compared to everything that's been done, shall we?

Hey, just wanted to say hello to the Haven & Hearth community. My name is Josh, and my game development team has been developing a sandbox game that has been deeply inspired by games like Haven & Hearth. I just wanted to give a shout out to the Haven & Hearth development team (and Salem!). It's a niche and risky style of game, and many game developers are afraid to build games like this. I am hoping to go above and beyond what other sandbox games have done. I've been at work on the game engine for over a year now, and it's finally coming together to a playable state. The great thing is, we are reaching out to the community to create many of the game's features.

Here is our feature list:
- A fully player-run world, where every creature is controlled by players.
- Permadeath ensures that each player takes responsibility for their actions.
- A powerful crafting system that allow players to create homes or dungeons.
- Dynamic procedurally generated sandbox world with no 'safe zones'.
- Every character is always 'logged in', resulting in a true persistent world.
- Play as any creature in the game, including wolves, vampires, or dragons.
- Built-in scripting system allows players to create artificial intelligence.
- Support for thousands of scripted characters on a single game server.
- Fully customizable game interface allows players to play the way they want.

We are 2 months away from a beta test. We'll be launching at Kickstarter at the end of November. Please follow our dev blog, wiki, and forum for information about the game:

Such a nice little OP, and from what it says the game is nearly playable, you just need people to test the features. Sounds alright so far.



3 months away from the beta you said you would be doing and nothing has been given to us. We're all a little upset at this point because we were promised a beta to test in 2 months, and we paid money to do it (a mistake I will never do again.) But what's this? A lovely post made by Josh telling us everything will be alright. The beta we so anxiously waited for will be here in January, and from what it says we will finally get what was promised and even more! Wow, now we're all pumped and can't wait! This will be amazing! But wait... there at the bottom... "The beta in Topia will be extremely limited and incomplete compared to beta tests offered for major commercial MMORPGs. Beta 1 should be considered more of an alpha test."

Well, if it has everything that was just mentioned and more, it won't be a technical alpha, more like pre-beta. Right?

*logs into the beta*

OH MY JESUS WHAT IS THIS

I would post a screenshot to show you just exactly what we got but since I no longer have access you will just have to use your imagination. Imagine a world where you can't do anything except use a chatbar with NO chat window, so you can't even see what's being said unless you actually read the chat that pops over someone's head. Also imagine a world where you can't do anything except walk around, pick up branches and stones, and nothing else. This is the beta we were given.

Fast forward to yesterday...



Tested.. by a small focus group? Wait, what? I thought we were the focus group? What did we even f*cking pay for if not to test the game? Apparently instead of one giant world we all play in, which was the assumption of what was going to be to begin with, things start shifting to player-ran worlds. Almost the complete opposite of what we were hoping for. So no longer is this looking like a sandbox MMORPG but a sandbox MORPG. Not only that, the beta we were all supposed to have is now being tested by a mysterious "focus group" while the majority of us are left in the dark about what's going on.

Which brings us to Josh's newest post.

I work a day job to pay my bills and pay for Topia. It is not my job, it is my hobby. An MMORPG requires millions of dollars worth of investment to get off the ground, which is something that I am struggling to pay out of my own pocket by working consulting gigs.

You want to talk about hobbies? Haven & Hearth. Created by two people in their spare time, never asked for a dime. Do you know why they get our respect? Because they didn't give a f*ck what we wanted. It was their game and it was our privilege to test it. We didn't ask for anything in return.

It just so happened to work out perfectly, there's no way to explain it. We told them what was bugged, what was broken, what could be made better, and while they didn't try to make friends with all of us by giving us what we wanted, they fixed the bugs and on occasion saw fit to make changes here and there or implement something new.

This forum didn't even HAVE mods, just a handful of regulars and Jorb and Loftar. Nobody has power that they didn't earn here, rather than buying it on your forum.

I came here because there are people in this forum that look for new sandbox MMORPGs. This community is tiny, why would I come here to try to raise funds? There are much larger communitys (redditors, slashdot, mmorpg.com, etc) that have funded 95% of Topia so far. If everyone in the H&H community purchased Topia, it would not even make a blip.

You came here because you needed people to play your game, it just so happened that we were much more than that and you were just too ignorant to realize it at the time. Size does not equal quality, sir. You can have a thousand mouth-breathers on your forum and it wouldn't add up to dick if nobody there wasn't even testing your game, just playing it and waiting for something new to come out. Almost everyone here has tested a game and they know what needs to be done. Report bugs, duplicate them, try to break the game as well as having fun doing it. That's what H&H was all about. Who could find the best bug and dominate the current world. When a world became too unstable it was destroyed and created anew.

What are those thousands of mouth-breathers going to say when you have to do the same? They're going to give you a bigger headache than you can stomach, while us H&H'ers would go "Meh, not so bad."

In conclusion you were just here looking for people to help line your pockets you capitalistic fuck, and when you couldn't keep your word you lashed out at the people who actually did something for your game. I hope you go broke.

I am building a sandbox MMORPG because nobody else will. And moreover, half the people in this community would rather whine about 'MMORPGs doing everything wrong' instead of doing something to fix it. Painhertz, btaylor, why don't you guys build an MMORPG to match your needs? I am doing this because there are no other good MMORPGs out there, and someone has to step up to the plate. Yet you are so self-entitled that you would rather complain than band together to create a truly epic sandbox game.

People are building sandbox MMORPGs all the time, and doing a much better job at it than you, so when you say all we do is "whine" it's probably because you're doing something wrong. Also, telling us to fix the problem YOU have is a little silly. "You don't like my game and you complain? Fix it then." That's YOUR job as a developer. When someone doesn't like your game, YOU have to fix it, especially when they paid you.

Telling us if we don't like it to make our own game doesn't make any sense, either. That's like saying "if you don't like the car you're driving you should just build one yourself." You don't build one yourself, it takes money and resources to do that. You simply find another car that suits your needs. You don't need to be an engineer to say you don't like something about a car and not drive it.

I also like how hypocritical you are, constantly saying things like "this is a hobby project" and "I am doing this because there are no other good MMORPGs out there and someone has to step up to plate."
You're either making a commercial product or you're not, it can't be a little bit of both.

Feel free to defend yourself or provide some sort of proof that you are actually competent in what you're doing, because the mods here won't ban you unless you ask for World 7.

[Amanda44]

also: sorry to steal your format amanda i just like it a lot

np -

I came here because there are people in this forum that look for new sandbox MMORPGs. This community is tiny, why would I come here to try to raise funds? There are much larger communitys (redditors, slashdot, mmorpg.com, etc) that have funded 95% of Topia so far. If everyone in the H&H community purchased Topia, it would not even make a blip.

I seriously cannot believe your nerve! When you came here there were about 5/6 people on your forum, if that! When Painhertz and I showed an interest you bent over backwards to befriend us and get us to get the word out.

Do not pretend to me that you didn't value our input or the people who came over to Topia because of it. Or because of Painhertz, to be more precise.

The begining of this thread is absolute proof you wanted the hnh community, along with the Salem one. Just because this has now backfired on you, due to your own behaviour, don't act like a whiney little boy, man up!

that you would rather complain than band together to create a truly epic sandbox game.

We did band together Josh, sadly you failed to deliver. Truely epic sandbox game, my a***!

Honestly, I have a total lack of respect for you and there are not many peole I can say that about. Furious!