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Directional wishes for MA to consider under UE5

J

jetsina

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Sep 28, 2010
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2,832
Hi folks,
while the pathways that MA devs are building are not yet set in stone, I'd like to discuss various considerations for UE5 development that I'd like / we'd like implemented. What do you all think? Please informally 'vote' on your # preferences and add your own with a short explanation :).

#1: Please have a safe settings area or test environment available right from the start so that low spec players can assess their graphics settings etc.
This could be an instance or set of instances that is designed with the lowest possible settings in mind, or a land area with the same idea if vision distances have a big impact on fps. I know UE5 can reallocate meshes to simpler ones at varying distances, but it'd be nice if MA devs also do what they can to enable cautious entry into the world.
#2: Please consider the inclusion of low power consumption areas for people wishing to engage in no-movement activities for a lengthy period, such as crafting runs, lengthy time on auction etc. This is probably similar to #1 but is also about allowing high-powered hardware to throttle back in various areas. Even on my 'potato' lappy I notice a big difference in heat generation simply when on a different planet, so the differences for higher spec machines could be huge.
#3: Implementation of a voxel-space environment. I believe it's an add-on to UE5, but not hard to include, that enables voxel world-building and content. I'd like this to be available in Unreal Entropia, even if limited to certain areas or instances where we can 'do stuff' typical of alterable worlds.
#4: Allow much more player-designed content. Whether it be our own homes, shops and businesses, right up to instances or LAs, please allow us scope for constructing the environment the way we want it to be, including mobs spawns and modular building structures with internal content too.
#5: Something silly for the purposes of voting - see below.

Please add your own #s and vote a set of positives or negatives in order, for example:
Yes: #1, #4, #2, #3, No: #5

Thanks :)
 
One of the #s, yes. Also worth considering ;)! - or is it 2 of the #s? And considering some of the high-res mods... sort of the other way around, but now 3 out of my 4, or 4/4? Good post ;)
 
jetsina said:
#3: Implementation of a voxel-space environment. I believe it's an add-on to UE5, but not hard to include, that enables voxel world-building and content. I'd like this to be available in Unreal Entropia, even if limited to certain areas or instances where we can 'do stuff' typical of alterable worlds.
#4: Allow much more player-designed content. Whether it be our own homes, shops and businesses, right up to instances or LAs, please allow us scope for constructing the environment the way we want it to be, including mobs spawns and modular building structures with internal content too.
Click to expand...

#3 is a huge red herring. Voxel transformable worlds are something that people think they want but really really don't. They're often way too performance-intensive, and it is almost impossible to maintain an element of visual fidelity across the brand (And I'm 100% sure that one of the major reasons MA wants to pursue UE5 is because there's a huge delta in the visual quality of environments and assets across each planet), and ultimately the whole 'build everything' mechanic becomes really watered-down if it's not the core mechanic of the game.

How would that balance out in the long term? You land on the planet to be greeted by a monument of dicks that a player had made? 90% of players would probably alt-f4 if that were their new player experience.

#4 is another part of the same problem there, I think there needs to be more consistency across the universe, not less. Either MA needs to provide high-level customisation tooling that works within a pre-defined set of boundaries. But it also becomes a bit of a balancing headache, If a player can control the ores in their Land - what's stopping them from just setting it all to Redulite? Definitely has a lot of potential, but looking at past experiences requires a level of design and foresight that the devs haven't exhibited to date.


I really just think that MA needs to focus on bringing the professions closer together, tightening the feedback loops and providing much more relevancy to the content they create, not creating more disparate features that they'll abandon a few content patches later after players dump their $ into it. And ofcourse, much more item sinks and ways to generate markup within the economy.
 
Nanashana said:
I really just think that MA needs to focus on bringing the professions closer together, tightening the feedback loops and providing much more relevancy to the content they create, not creating more disparate features that they'll abandon a few content patches later after players dump their $ into it. And ofcourse, much more item sinks and ways to generate markup within the economy.
Click to expand...
absolutely
 
Thanks for the comments so far.
For both #3 and #4 I'd like to see some restrictions, yes ("pre-defined set of boundaries").
For #3 (voxels), I'm aware of potential performance issues, but would like MA to at the very least dip their toes in the water with some options. It could be procedural landscaping with 30 metres of transformable space above procedural z-zero, or so, and a protected radius around 'infrastructures' ... I dunno the relative pros and cons for processing loads compared to static worlds with preset shops/homes etc. Up for discussion...

For #4 (player-designed content), we have DNA for mobs and some flexibility already, so maybe that can be expanded for the 'fenced-in mob gardens' idea, and mining (with restrictions) can be added in too. I'd like to see at least modularity implemented for vehicles and building structures, and access to terminals, public or private, via these. This ties in with an addition by Nana I'll take up:
___

Addition #6: (Nana) "much more item sinks and ways to generate markup within the economy". It's very much a balance thing, and I assume on-going decay for item sinks such as player terminals/buildings/vehicles (useful stuff) as well as player visuals (prestige). "Tightening feedback loops", yes, "focus on bringing the professions closer together." #4 modularity of player content would enhance crafting a lot I think!
 
Have you tried powering down your laptop in power management to help with excess heat and power consumption? Power saver mode in there may help alot but if your laptop is indeed a potato it would make eu unplayable most likely
 
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Thanks for the tip but it's not a problem, just a rather noticeable difference between planets. #2 is thus a request for considering efficiencies as well as playability for lower specs. I expect to need new equipment anyway. My current potato is fine for current EU, though.
It prompts me to add a #7, though:

#7: Linux compatibility right from the start. I don't know whether this is pretty much a given, with all interaction between player comps and the EU platform being via UE5 protocols, or if there will still be a platform component that requires whatever OS. I hope we can freely choose our processing beasts and the OS when the time comes!
 
jetsina said:
Thanks for the tip but it's not a problem, just a rather noticeable difference between planets. #2 is thus a request for considering efficiencies as well as playability for lower specs. I expect to need new equipment anyway. My current potato is fine for current EU, though.
It prompts me to add a #7, though:

#7: Linux compatibility right from the start. I don't know whether this is pretty much a given, with all interaction between player comps and the EU platform being via UE5 protocols, or if there will still be a platform component that requires whatever OS. I hope we can freely choose our processing beasts and the OS when the time comes!
Click to expand...
Will depend on a number of factors, but generally yes. UE4+5 is pretty trivial to cross-compile for Windows+Mac+Linux. However, as soon as you introduce 3rd party libraries and other dependencies, it becomes difficult to support the other environments as you may not even have control over the source code for those tools and DLLs.

MA also then will need to test and support multiple different builds and versions of the client, which might be a struggle when they appear to have some problems QA'ing one client.
 
there's just a general truism when it comes to companies and ventures: most of the time when you venture outside your core competence and market, you fail

it's like a tire on a car being driven in the snow. the tire has a maximum amount of friction it can absorb before it "overloads" and loses control. if you use that friction budget to turn, or to change speed, you have a greater chance of losing control.

if there is a limited amount of total productivity and creativity that MA has, you want it focused on their core competencies and the core brand promise. if you try to get into minecraft voxel building and VR and such, those become a suck that will probably end up a road-to-nowhere, and the core game will suffer for it.
 
Sigh... it oftens seems to me that it is the company that is slippery and has no traction - sort of like slick tyres on snow. (a "slick" company for some, maybe, but it's wet weather most of the time, and always an uphill struggle). Thanks for the metaphor booster 10mg! :)

Anyway, today's new creation I've read is the name Tokentropia. Is this what they are becoming good at, or are they losing control?

As a concept, I like the splitting up of big items into smaller chunks that all players can be a part of. So I like the TWEN tokens, to be fair. However, counting up tokens is A LOT less attractive than back in the day when even lowish players could loot pixie parts with mu and even had the loot window open to catch the graphics. Who still has the window open today to simply see shrap and oils accumulate?

Surely the other way to split up big items into smaller chunks is via crafting, with mats being the smalls and crafting chains leading to bigger stuff. Shouldn't that be a focus for UE5 markets? - even if a bit more complicated than tokenising?
Therefore:

#8: specifically generate crafting chains for moduled stuff (maybe enabling a lot of #4 player-generated equipment). But, make it way better than initially unknown chains of composite planks and whatnot that leads to a skill chain of gardening that fizzles out before it's really gone anywhere. I think people felt 'pyramided' by the whole thing, tbh.
Make it transparent - have examples working in hands-on 'temples of technology' ... whatever (i.e. finished development of at least the basic chain). Have basic tech and improved tech, augmented and perfected if you like, MA. Take what you already have and players know - stuff that is useable and affordable for many, that some will upgrade over time. It could be tiered tech if you prefer, with enhancers on anything from ship thrusters to filters crafters.
 
tokenizing personally i think is a very loot 2.0 way of looking at the game, and while it might improve returns, it probably sucks some of the fun out.
 
I've been thinking fairly slowly about this a bit more and the range of immersion players can have. For me, who prefers to be rewarded for paying attention, not simply pressing F, my range is still between fully active on whatever it is from hunting or harvesting or piloting a repair MS with mobs on it, to the rather bored pressing of F (yes, manually) and autoloot without even needing to move or turn my avatar in some locations.
The bored play is usually to fill some daily mission with as little effort as possible, but it still pisses me off that there are bots around doing even less 'work'. And thus comes #9...

#9: MA, please do something to either separate or prevent botting from areas of the game that people also play 'live'!

I get it that MA makes revenue from people botting away in instances etc., but it is still annoying even if I cannot see them that these avatars are gaining skills and getting tokens up to 24/7 during whatever events or even just normal time, while my avatar is not. If MA were to make tools available and officially allow us automatic play in different areas, then ok too, but give us better returns for actually playing live. It could be that we can boost returns from activities that are super hard to bot within normal play, or interact much more intelligently with our environments in UE5 overall. What do people think?
 
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