Info: Unreal Engine 5 Devblog

Personally I think VR is over rated. It'll never become main stream. It'll just be a fad and never amount to anything much.
that's possible

i think it could become more mainstream but there are technical and human hurdles. they have to make it so that people don't get nauseated. it has to become more comfortable to wear, higher fidelity, easier to use, and cheaper.

tech can solve all those problems in time
 
that's possible

i think it could become more mainstream but there are technical and human hurdles. they have to make it so that people don't get nauseated. it has to become more comfortable to wear, higher fidelity, easier to use, and cheaper.

tech can solve all those problems in time

Even with those problems solved who really wants to have their eyes covered? and knocking into furniture or other objects in living room? The amount of space required is not practical in most houses.

VR is limited to one person. Whereas with a tv whole group of people can watch. So everyone wears a "stupid" vr headset? how is that going to work when usually there is hardly any room for one person never mind multiple. These fundamental handicaps by their very nature make the technology impractical.
 
VR is limited to one person. Whereas with a tv whole group of people can watch. So everyone wears a "stupid" vr headset? how is that going to work when usually there is hardly any room for one person never mind multiple. These fundamental handicaps by their very nature make the technology impractical.
When's the last time you played couch co-op with someone?

There's space for both in the gaming world and more importantly in the education and professional world.

We've done some amazing things are my place of work with VR that has helped students with their education and understanding of the material they are learning
 
Even with those problems solved who really wants to have their eyes covered? and knocking into furniture or other objects in living room? The amount of space required is not practical in most houses.

VR is limited to one person. Whereas with a tv whole group of people can watch. So everyone wears a "stupid" vr headset? how is that going to work when usually there is hardly any room for one person never mind multiple. These fundamental handicaps by their very nature make the technology impractical.

the newest generation of VR handles those space-awareness issues

most people do not co-op on the same display in any context these days

the biggest long-term problem with VR is the additional exertion and strain it puts on your body compared to standard play
 
the biggest long-term problem with VR is the additional exertion and strain it puts on your body compared to standard play
Lazy people will never not be lazy unless they want to better their lives
 
I agree that VR will probably be about as popular as quality joysticks. i.e. most won't be fussed and will opt for a joypad or mouse and keyboard (aka - a screen) as they are easier/faster/more convenient/need less space.

But I've had practical hands on with VR since the Oculus DK2 and from that to the Quest 2 was a giant leap in usability that gets it into the mainstream market. The configuration/knowledge/faff required to use the Quest 2 is "plonk it on your head and touch the floor". Honestly phones are harder to use for new comers.

This said about joysticks... I wonder if most folks like this would have ever bought a nice joystick... I'm sure some would have, but not many.


Something we have to remember is that VR gives you something that you can't get any other way. No game that isn't VR lets you be there for real, for example waving "real" light sabers around. It's a childhood dream come true. Personally, I absolutely love beatsaber and probably 95% of my time in VR has been spent playing it. So far, it's definitely VR's "killer app" (until Sword Art Online comes along - bad joke sorry*).

Wistrel

* "I'll just keep that tabbed" - for those who know.
 
Lazy people will never not be lazy unless they want to better their lives
not really the point

if you are one of those people who on a given day might play EU for 4-6 hours (or maybe, on a saturday), you likely will not be doing so in VR. most people need to take a break after an hour or two. there's just more to it. even if playing seated, there's a lot more neck strain.
 
I just can't do VR 🤮

Augmented reality doesn't bother me but VR and even some first person shooters these days are a slow road to motion sickness. 🥴
 
In about a year we aim to have a fully playable part of the world with close-to-final visuals, core functionality and mechanics — enabling us to lay the foundations for future systems and gather your valuable feedback.

Great, more than a year is passed. Enjoying a fully playable part of the world now!
Wait, why mobs are still stuck in a trees and landscape?
 
Were ANY parts of the existing world fully playable? I pretty much avoid edges when swimming to avoid getting stuck for no apparent reason...
 

Welcome to Entropia Universe Unreal

Greetings Entropians! I’m Dennis Antonsson, the Game Director responsible for taking Entropia into the new era that is Unreal Engine 5 — or what is known internally as the Odyssey project. We’ve built an amazing team here to make Odyssey a reality.
But what lies ahead?
Jump onboard, we’re setting sail on our Odyssey!


What is Entropia Universe Unreal?​

Evolution and Migration

In the broadest sense, the project comprises activities related to:
  • the evolution of core systems, such as hunting, mining and crafting
  • the migration of items and value currently present in Entropia Universe

Preserve the Soul, Stay Fresh

The goal of this evolution and migration is to preserve the soul of Entropia whilst staying fresh.
To achieve this we will:

  • Improve and refine the core features of Entropia Universe
  • Appeal to both current and future users.
Many key aspects of Entropia will remain the same:
  • Users will explore and exploit resources
  • The world will be sci-fi themed and single shard
  • Users will have one avatar with no class selection
In addition, we will continue to appeal to a niche segment by remaining:
  • A sandbox MMORPG
  • With a user-driven, real-cash economy
  • Based on PED

Exploration: an End in Itself

We will focus our efforts on worldbuilding to make exploring our worlds more stimulating and exciting. Exploring will become an end in itself!
blog_illustration_concept_20220510.jpg

Gameplay Experience

“Explore and exploit the resources of vibrant alien worlds as part of a real-cash economy that has grown over a period of two decades. Build trade networks and contract other users to work for you. Hone your skills and find your niche as you make a name for yourself in our thriving online community of daring entrepreneurs”.

Vision​

The Holistic World

In Odyssey, exploration will take place in a world which is holistic.
This means that each part of our world will have a function and a purpose, with a defined relationship to other parts.
One of the ways we will achieve this is through systemic design.

Systemic Design

Systemic design involves different systems in the game reacting to each other:
  1. Entities in the game are set up to respond to predefined inputs and outputs
  2. If these inputs and outputs ‘match’, an outcome occurs involving these entities
Before we can really start populating our world with entities we must set up the basic rules of our world. These rules will form the basis for constructing reliable, consistent tools for maintaining our expanding world in the years to come.

A Living World

Users will be able to discover the ‘unspoken rules’ of our world by noting connections between world elements. Knowledge of these connections will help users 'navigate' the world more successfully.
On a grand scale, systemic design produces a living, vibrant world that reacts to the user and to elements within itself. It can lead to emergent gameplay, i.e. gameplay emerging from the interaction of multiple systems rather than the intentional designs of the developer. These varied interactions are stimulating, motivating users to experiment and explore.

Creating the Universe​

What have we been doing?

Up until now we have focused on pre-production, learning Unreal Engine 5 and fleshing out our core system designs. We aim to create better open worlds faster by using a modular approach in accordance with systemic design principles.

Visual Style

We wish to set a visual target that incorporates the alien feel of Entropia Universe and stands the test of time.
Currently, we are evaluating a general art style that is defined as “Stylized realism with a sci-fi theme”. Stylized realism means we can enhance, exaggerate and remove real-life aspects to achieve certain effects — without being overly restricted by ‘true-to-life’ principles. This art style is subject to change, since fully defining our art direction is an iterative process.
The area pictured below is Setesh, a moon of Calypso. Setesh will act as our development ‘playground’ — a smaller area where we can test builds to gather data and feedback.

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Backend

We are building a completely new backend. This work is being achieved using modern techniques and is informed by our experiences from Entropia Universe.
We aim to create a dynamically scalable universe where the game world is regarded as a single world and the computational load is split among servers in a distributed way. All this should be completely invisible from the client side. We are also working with the Gameplay Team to ensure we can implement interesting gameplay utilizing the impressive features of Unreal Engine 5.

The Future​

Teasers!

Using our holistic approach we will create something akin to a Metaverse: an alternate world made exciting by the sheer range of possibilities it offers.
Here’s a quick glimpse of what the future might hold:

  • Fully-functional user-driven economy with a wide range of goods, services and professions enabling users to gain expertise and a role within the community
  • Single shard universe with thematic consistency
  • Properly defined corporations with group characteristics
  • Developed background story helping users orient themselves within the game world
  • Defined biomes teeming with alien life
  • Introduction of environmental dangers
  • Interplanetary jumpgates
  • Contract system: inter-user contracts to harness user labor as well as NPC corporate contracts (i.e. 'missions')
  • Resources governed by consistent, clear rules
  • Relative value of items from Entropia to be kept
  • More information on resources and creatures
  • Ownership (estates, land areas etc.) with a larger range of customizable entry options
  • A truly open MMO world allowing users to drive their own projects, whilst including a multitude of optional goals
  • User revenue from interactions with user-created content
  • Hubs with centralized facilities and features to encourage users to congregate
  • Talent tree: visualized skill and professions with the potential to customize towards your playstyle together with the gear

Roadmap

We are currently focusing on Combat and Hunting; with Mining, Resource Gathering and Crafting to follow.
In about a year we aim to have a fully playable part of the world with close-to-final visuals, core functionality and mechanics — enabling us to lay the foundations for future systems and gather your valuable feedback.
We’ll release a devblog regularly so you can travel with us on our Odyssey to a new and exciting Entropia Universe!
Until next time!


Dennis Antonsson,
Game Director, Entropia Universe Unreal



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This Devblog has been transferred to the forum in order for us to view feedback from our customers.
If you can preserve some of the old assets as you’ve done in the past, keeping entropias history alive, that would be greatly appreciated. Maybe even bringing the older look and feel of some of the pregold pieces. Heck even after that? Like the old billys spaceworld, and camp phoenix. A lot of places still lack that old “project entropia feel”, despite actually having age old relics for models lol. The environment itself can be updated but just bring back some old areas, use their locations as a sort of guidepost.

Also any word on how vehicles will behave in unreal? Will they be faster? Will they transition through areas without lag spikes popping the ship back in jittery fashion? Like can we imply something akin to war thunder or even star citizen ship mechanics? Not as advanced obv, but something close. But vehicles need to be much faster, and be able to exert g-forces and drift. Especially in land vehicles, they need to be able to drift, have proper suspension mechanics, and traction. A decayed vehicle should have its tires dull and oversteer much more. Same with higher TT vehicles they should have more grip and traction. But also instability in the higher speeds.

Mining should be more involved. Like breaking apart rocks, have a chance to explode and injur the player. Give impact armor users more diverse options as the impact from rocks can be absorbed by high impact armor pieces. Depending on the value of the ore as well. The volatility of the resource.

Hunting creatures should also be more involved, like physically avoiding the mobs to not get bit physically. Crits from mobs should have a bespoke animation that the mob latched onto the player physically and bite, or scratch. Player crits should be a cool animation like a roll and shoot. Give players a dodge and roll. The higher the players evade or dodge the more effective the abilities are.

Mindforce should be more animated. Chips should have combos, and special attacks. Akin to Destiny supers. Combustion chips should have its own set of animations not just the base pose and throw. 22 attack per minute, could have a lot of animations varied. Use avatar the air bender for reference, reference the firebenders. Using kungfu, northern shoalin martial art. Use this as a baseline for all the chips and new chips down the road. Higher tier chips yield more and better animations.

This is the kind of stuff that needs to be added to the game. UE is cool and you can do a lot with it. Utilize the cool features entropia has to offer already and utilize the underlying tech as triggers for polished animations and gameplay.
 
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