IamA CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria a Sandbox Open World RPG,RTS,FPS game, By Co-Founders, Arik&Adrian of Larkon Studio AMA!

Are you aware of the very popular /r/civcraft, a minecraft server?

No, but we are not affiliated with the mod for CivCraft in any way

Why did you choose the name Civcraft.

Seeing as you're still developing the game, is there any chance you will change the name to prevent confusion?

No, we have invested in that name and can't change it. There's no actual confusion since we are different genres with different concept and graphics

What makes CivCraft stand out more when compared to other sandbox games?

CivCraft is a Sandbox RPG with both first person and real time strategy. You can choose to go on adventures or to rule a kingdom, and switch between the FPS and RTS mode whenever you want.

This is something you don't see in any game, especially not a sandbox game. Furthermore, the buildings that you build are populated by civilians, which can talk to you, give you quests and have a personality.

check out natural selection 2, check out rust, etc. Learn from their mistakes and see how they handle things to get some inspiration and maybe help you forward I have about 700 hours on rust and tend to get really into these type of things, if you are looking for a professional tester to work side by side with you let me know.

uhh also check out mount and blade war band, there are mods that make it a lot better, great information to be gleaned for how your game should run, Run a kingdom like war band, fight like chivalry and rust, build like rust. this has the potential to be one of the best games ever made

Thanks, we will.

I did play Mount & Blade and liked it a lot. I thought back then "how awesome it would be to increase the troop size and have an RTS menu"

Seems interesting; good luck at launch. :D

Thanks

Im sorry youre being downvoted so much (assuming because of the whole civcraft minecraft server name fiasco), I used to be part of the minecraft civcraft community, so im sorry if it seems like ALL of us are jerks, that isn't the case :P

Heres my question:

Where do you see yourself and/or this game in 5 years time?

We are hoping to have a unique game with modding and multiplayer support, as well as the best graphics possible.

can you tell me how multiplayer is going to work? Is it going to be MMO sized server, or smaller 24 player servers? Will everyone be in the same world?

multiplayer will have several types, but the main one will be an open world free play, were each player receives his terrain and can build his kingdom there. Depending on server rules, you can invade another kingdom and create an empire. You can also visit other player's kingdoms and move freely through their lands, just as long as you don't have an army at your back. For large servers, some players will be kingdom-less and will work to establish their reputation.

Both in single player and multiplayer, you will have several factions to chose from, Each with their own abilities.

The multiplayer server will be smaller (24 player or so), not MMO sized

who would win in an 80s street fight between robocop and blackula mr t (mr t was bitten by a vampire and became a blackula)?

I would bet on Robocop. has no blood for a vampire to suck

kickstarters claims that 2% of the projectbudget will be spend on beer and pizza, what is your favorite beer and does the game offer minigames to make your own beer or pizza?

Nice question :-)

In general, we like Tuborg, but we're not really going to spend 2% on pizza and beer. It's a programmer's joke, from those times when we've stayed up late

Why does the second picture of the front page of your website says FPS and shows a third person view?

Because it's both first person and third person. Like in Skyrim, you can switch between them whenever you want. Since first person is the most known, we wrote first person instead of "First / Third person"

Any plans to make it modifiable? with also steam workshop?

Hi,

Yes, that's our main goal, but since we're still in Early Access, we're relying on the Kickstarter's Stretch goals to add modding to the early versions

The games I've played previously that have attempted this type of combination (e.g., Spore) tend to have a lower quality of each aspect; i.e., the RTS part of the game is not nearly as good as a standalone RTS, etc. What do you plan to do differently than other attempted combination games to make each part as good as a typical, high-quality game of each type?

We're focusing on the first person and adventure elements of CivCraft, and are adding the RTS elements as a way to do things that you can't do in first person. This means that we're not compromising on the depth, graphics and gameplay of CivCraft when it comes to first person

This game seems to have a lot of aspects of Ultima Online in it's inherent design (a living breathing world, which eventually didn't pan out as much as it was.)

How much are you putting into the world to make it evolve and change? Will animals populate and depopulate dependent on use? How will resources be used in this game and gathered? Miners and RTS elements autogathered? Will that be micromanaged? Will resources deplete over time? Will people eat food and drink water to survive? Too many questions! xD Good Luck with your game, already backed ya and will see how money looks next month to throw even moar!

The secret to it is that you can only command soldiers. The citizen in your kingdom has their own job and you cannot command them to move, guard, or do anything for that matter. This means that you don't have to do Micromanage, but instead set the percentage of the worker/civilian/farmers/soldiers/scouts.

The areas have their own alignment system, which affects what creatures are populating them, what quests are related to these areas, and how dangerous it is to build a settlement or go on adventures in that area.

Resources are gathered by building mines, farms, lumber mills or by finding them in dungeons. One of these resources is RiftStone, a very rare resource that is usually found after completing quests.

Thanks for your support!

what kind of games did Lisa, Adrian and Arik play the last few years? What was the best and worst game... and how did it influence the new kickstarter Campaign? ... is Lisa a American television writer ?

Skyrim, Total War series, Mount & Blade, Fallout, Homeworld Series, Never Winter Nights, Far Cry 3, Elder Scrolls - Oblivion, Counter Strike, Spore, War Games Series (up to Red Dragon), Left 4 Dead, Operation Flashpoint, Arma Series, Sanctum 2, Braid, Tomb Raider, KSP, Minecraft, Dishonored, GTA Series, Saint Row Series, Supreme Commander, Crysis....

Well it's actually a really long list. The best game was Skyrim, Far Cry 3 and War Games Red Dragon, since we've spent the most hours.

The worst was Duke Nukem Forever...

and Lisa as executive producer... background as american TV writer or something else? "google says no" when I try to find history with gaming :)

Lisa is not a TV producer at Larkon Studio. She is the business and administrative end of Larkon Studio while we are the game designers and partners.

So, have you been working on CivCraft since day one then? And if you have, what was the inspiration for CivCraft? It is a pretty cool idea to combine all those elements into one game.

The inspiration came from playing video games from the age of 15 or so. I can't say that I didn't take inspiration from NWN, Skyrim, Total War Series and other games, but the idea came from designing a strong strategy game that will connect perfectly to a first person game.

What program would you recommend for beginner developers? I'm currently working on Unity 5 but is there anything else you would recommend?

Unity 5 is very flexible and powerful, and supports cross platform. It also supports C# and JavaScript, which are an excellent choice for any developers.

I would recommend to stick to unity 5. It has, by my opinion, an "edge" over CryEngine or Unreal Engine:

• It has a known language that you can use for other projects/engines
• It has more code packages (logic, AI, utilities,etc.) than other engines, by my opinion
• It's very flexible and easy to use. again, by my opinion.

But the reality is, that you should chose the game engine according to what you are developing. Some engines are better for block games, some are excellent for graphics, and it really depends on your project

Have you think about a system of god or demon in the game?

Since CivCraft is also an RTS, with armies and cities, we've allowed ourselves to really raise the bar on what a true warrior/ranger/mage can do. On higher levels, a mage can destroy an entire battalion with a single spell, or shield an entire part of a city from attacks.

But this is the closer that a player or an NPC will get to a god/demon, except for some of the lore characters you'll meet

in some RPG games the main character builds an emotional relationship with one or multiple NPC's (mass effect 3 for example). In such a way that the player feels more connected with the events in the main story line (and emotions based on a negative or positve changes within that story line). As a player you will feel more connected with the game. Does the game over this kind of depth with a NPC (hero or sidekick)? I can imagine it will be very hard to incorporate such a thing cause you are already doing a great job in mixing RTS/RPG/etc.

Sure, we did. The main part of CivCraft is the RPG, and there are heroes and vital NPC's that follow you and are part of the main story. The important ones (and most of the heroes) will only get wounded in an RTS or Quest mission, or will be captured and there will be a side quest to rescue them.

The RTS part is not a problem to the depth of the NPC's, unless your kingdom is entirely overrun

When do you do you hope to get an alpha release of the game for the kickstarter backers?:)

The early access will be available several weeks after the campaign. It will start with small parts of CivCraft, and as we polish more parts, they will be available as a download or an update.

We can't tell when the Alpha release will be available. That depends on our Kickstarter campaign, but we expect players to receive an FPS/RTS game very soon after the campaign

Could you share you happiest moment developing this game (what/who caused it) and the most frustrated moment ... what have you learned by those? ... sorry for these life-changing questions, I found a cold bottle of Tuborg :)

:-)

The happiest moment in developing the game was when we stitched the FPS and RTS together.

There where people working on the FPS while other people where working on the RTS, and after months of development we combined them into the same engine. That was a happy moment because not only did it work but because we got stuck on playing CivCraft. It was a new gameplay that we never really played before

The most frustrating moment, well, there are always plenty of those in coding :-)

Is there going to be any goal set on updating the graphics later on as the game develops?

Yes, we are planning to focus on graphics update, as well as tweaks to items and game objects. How soon we will update the graphics depends on our Immersion (100K) streatch goal

Will early access have MP mode? Edit: And just to be sure, EA is what you will have access to if you donate $20?

Yes, the early access is available on the 20$ tier.

The MP mode is planned to be included in one of the EA updates, but it's availability and the time that it will be included depends on our Rift (500K) streatch goal

if you reach most of the stretch goals you will unlock a huge world of 450k . How can you make sure the objectives of side-quests will not be 2 much repetitive (have unique experiences, not the same one when different NPCs ask you to make similar activities over and over again with almost same content)? In short: how to ensure the right balance between quantity and quality.

Our 450K land is already designed, but we're not unlocking it because we want to add more quests and depth to it.

Our goal is to add as many high quality quests and levels to CivCraft, and for that we will open as much as we need to from CivCraft's world. We've never considered quantity over quality, and our stretch goals will ensure we won't have to compromise

So, It sure has been a lively AMA, hasn't it ?

:-)

We're going on a short recess and will be back later on. In the meanwhile, thank you for your interest

Can we somehow pledge per paypal ?

Kickstarter doesn't support PayPal at the moment, and we can't open a similar pledge service in the middle of our campaign.

We may open an Early Access process through our site sometime after our Kickstarter campaign, but I don't have information on that at the moment

Hi, Any plans for after CivCraft and his DLC, a new CivCraft or another game with an original concept?

Since CivCraft is in Early Access, we're focusing on CivCraft at the moment. We do have plans for DLC but they are only on paper at the moment.