Epic Games Announces: Fortnite

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Crotale

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Samaritan looks awesome. Epic really need to put their thinking cap back on and get on with this instead.

I could see this being a sort of gametype much like LA Noire, where you can play the role of the "Samaritan" dude, a parallel role of one of the cops *or detective) on the force you just beat down in the video, or perhaps even that of a person from the same planet Samaritan comes from (I'm guessing he ain't from around these parts). Sort of a puzzle solving blended with action kinda game.
 

Sir_Brizz

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I'm sure Samaritan will turn into a game, it will probably just take them 3 years to realize it. There is nothing wrong with them going with this style, as long as they introduce some new concepts and make some gameplay innovations. I just really hope this won't turn into a "game of hats" like TF2 has. Microtransactions make a poor boy sad.
 

Bgood

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Oct 30, 2010
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Samaritan had AAA written all over it , from what they've said recently, they seem to be veering away from those sort of risky big money ventures. Guess Bulletstorm not doing as well as hoped added to that.

Just don't ask when "Fortnite" will be ready...it's sure to be.. two weeks.
 
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DannyMeister

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Dec 11, 2002
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I think it is funny that if you can spot possible inspirations for a game that we've not actually seen any gameplay footage of yet, the developer gets all kinds of knocks. That being said, it's time for a little speculation of my own. :p I wonder if this will go a Monster Hunt type of direction on gameplay.
 
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Samaritan had AAA written all over it , from what they've said recently, they seem to be veering away from those sort of risky big money ventures. Guess Bulletstorm not doing as well as hoped added to that.

Just don't ask when "Fortnite" will be ready...it's sure to be.. two weeks.

sure, maybe Bulletstorm didn't sell very much, but how much was put into it?

Samaritan had "hollow concept" written all over it, as far as outsiders (like us) are concerned.
It was just another teaser.
Something needs to be made out of it.
 

Sir_Brizz

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I think it is funny that if you can spot possible inspirations for a game that we've not actually seen any gameplay footage of yet, the developer gets all kinds of knocks. That being said, it's time for a little speculation of my own. :p I wonder if this will go a Monster Hunt type of direction on gameplay.
It seems funny to me for this to be a "let's see how people respond" kind of trailer. Of course the concept is interesting, but without any gameplay or any description of how things would work or anything, there is nothing to base any interest level on whatsoever.
 

Manticore

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It seems funny to me for this to be a "let's see how people respond" kind of trailer. Of course the concept is interesting, but without any gameplay or any description of how things would work or anything, there is nothing to base any interest level on whatsoever.

My point is:

Fortnite: Interesting trailer but is it going to be yet another tower defense game mechanic? Tower defense is already old. Everyone is doing it now.

Samaritan: Probably not going to be a game but would it be L.A. Noire meets Blade Runner? L.A. Noire is not so old and did take a step forward in game mechanics and mo-cap character animations.

Epic: "Let's see what everyone else has been doing in the past two years and hop on the bandwagon". That's behind the curve thinking.

Epic couldn't win with UT3 because they had already milked their own winning franchise. Gears of War was a hit because it did what it did better than a lot of similar type games.

My point? When did Epic fall off the originality perch in a big way?

For me it was probably when massive sandbox games took over. In that respect id Software with Rage pretty well tanked while Bethesda has made a killing (sorry about the pun) out of the Fallouts and Morrowinds.

And Borderlands isn't true sandbox although BL2 is indicated that it may be.
 

Manticore

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It seems funny to me for this to be a "let's see how people respond" kind of trailer. Of course the concept is interesting, but without any gameplay or any description of how things would work or anything, there is nothing to base any interest level on whatsoever.
The only thing you can base the interest level on is the visuals in the trailers.

Interesting but........
 

JohnDoe641

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Epic couldn't win with UT3 because they had already milked their own winning franchise.
No, that's not why UT3 failed. UT3 failed because it was a bug ridden act of frustration that could have been the greatest FPS game for many years but didn't due to Epic dropping the ball on said bugs.
 

Spiney

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No, that's not why UT3 failed. UT3 failed because it was a bug ridden act of frustration that could have been the greatest FPS game for many years but didn't due to Epic dropping the ball on said bugs.

It's important, and few companies seem to understand it: releasing a multiplayer game in a broken or unfinished state will kill off it's potential userbase instantly.

Sure you need to get it out at some point, but the last decade there are plenty of multiplayer games that crashed and burned because of a non optimal launch.
Most important for a multiplayer game are players, and you need to have launch momentum to carry that momentum through into player counts for at least a year or 2.
 

Manticore

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No, that's not why UT3 failed. UT3 failed because it was a bug ridden act of frustration that could have been the greatest FPS game for many years but didn't due to Epic dropping the ball on said bugs.

I was actually thinking of installing UT3 on this rig after my last comment. It wold run really well at max settings on this computer; bugs and all. But yes; it being bug ridden wouldn't help the release.

But I will probably look at installing UT2K4 instead.
 
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Sir_Brizz

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Fortnite: Interesting trailer but is it going to be yet another tower defense game mechanic? Tower defense is already old. Everyone is doing it now.
That doesn't really matter, though. As Sanctum proves, not everything had been done and it's doubtful that everything has been done.
Samaritan: Probably not going to be a game but would it be L.A. Noire meets Blade Runner? L.A. Noire is not so old and did take a step forward in game mechanics and mo-cap character animations.
I think it's likely Samaritan will be a game. It would be pretty cool to have a Blade Runner-esque detective game, though, for sure.
For me it was probably when massive sandbox games took over. In that respect id Software with Rage pretty well tanked while Bethesda has made a killing (sorry about the pun) out of the Fallouts and Morrowinds.
UT has been a successful franchise for years and it could be still. It wasn't other types of games that ruined it.
And Borderlands isn't true sandbox although BL2 is indicated that it may be.
Borderlands is an awesome game that proves that you don't have to be or compete with "true sandbox" if your game is good enough. It also proves that people will put up with CrapSpy if the game is good enough.
It's important, and few companies seem to understand it: releasing a multiplayer game in a broken or unfinished state will kill off it's potential userbase instantly.
While true, I think that Valve has disproven this theory to a certain extent. Epic goes silent too easily now, their lack of open communication hampers their efforts more often than not. What people want is acknowledgement. They want to know that their issue has been identified and that it will be resolved in a timely manner. May I remind everyone that the issues UT3 had with custom content were not resolved for almost an entire year after UT3 released? This from a series that is and has always been renowned for it's mod support? And so many other issues were just never acknowledged at all.

Here is a comprehensive list of bugs in UT3

Of course, there are more issues. But the fact that so many of these issues were either not addressed or Epic admitted they would not fix them is just astounding, really. There are 86 bugs and only 11 of them were resolved is pathetic for a game like UT. Unfortunately, it only highlights the fact that UT3 was not and has never been Epic's primary focus.

I hope that Epic does a few things for the next UT game, if it ever happens:

1) Stay vocal with the community. They need someone that works in Epic's office that is a part of every team meeting that is open to comment on specific things with the community both before the game is released and before every "major" revision.

2) Stop doing major revisions. Multiplayer only games work best with lots of community feedback and frequent fixing. Small, incremental, frequent patches show that the company is watching the reported issues and taking care of things that are important to the community (you know, the people who play, support, populate, propagate your game).

3) Stop worrying about network compatibility. It is my understanding that the Demo Guy Bug in UT3, for example, cannot be fixed because it introduces a break in the network compatibility of the current version of the game with previous versions. Epic needs to stop worrying about this and focus on fixing problems. The majority of people actively playing your game would rather have a working game than be able to play with original retail copies of the game.

4) Communicate the basics of the game to the community earlier and the complex things later. With UT3, Epic was always talking about experimental gametypes and garbage like that. All that most of us want to know is how are level designers trying to avoid things like jagged brushes, simplified "arenas" and ideal flow. How are gameplay designers ensuring that the gameplay they are creating fits within the levels, pleases people who will play the game and helps to create a healthy community of people that enjoy the game. Nobody will care about the gametypes until the game is almost out.

5) Create a testbed game. A simplified and neutered version of UT in the browser or on Steam that is free would allow Epic to test out variations of gameplay, level design, gametypes, etc without affecting a retail launch of a game. I promise that as burned as the bridge is between Epic and the UT community right now, a bone like this would get A LOT of people interested. Especially if feedback was requested, encouraged and responded to. Don't allow modding and set the majority of the game's rules yourself. No intrusion on the retail game, but LOTS of good will to the community and a great way to build rapport and get excellent feedback about the game.

6) Stop bringing people in for 2-4 hour play sessions to tell you how the game feels. People figure out they hate this or that or find bugs after literally DAYS of hammering on a game. Saying that you had "the pros" (whoever that is) come in and test your game tells us nothing and makes it seem like only their feedback matters. Do #5. It will get you MUCH farther in a matter of days that an infinite amount of these play testing sessions ever will.

7) Act like you care... on a daily basis. I know Epic cares about UT. I know they aren't exactly happy about how that whole situation went down. Every once in a while someone at Epic threw the community a bone, and thousands of hounds feasted on it within minutes. The problem is, that bone disappeared right away and it was literally WEEKS (if not months) before we ever heard from anyone again. The community needs bones on a daily basis. This is where this person employed by Epic who is invited to all the progress meetings comes in. They can throw bones frequently.

8) Just do what the Epic Games of 1998/1999 would do. I don't think it's that out of line to say that the community feels like they are dealing with an entirely different company. The Unreal technology blog that Epic ran at unreal.epicgames.com was awesome. It was a great eye opener for the community and it kept people interested in new developments. It was posted to frequently and had technical talk not just marketing mamby pamby information. The community wants to know that Epic is in it with them. They want to be heard and know that the future looks bright. Even if the game has a terrible launch, things can get better. All it takes is communication. A one line post that says "we are aware of lots of issues and we are trying to tackle as many as possible. we'll keep you updated!" does a lot more than going dark and then surprising everyone with a bomb that only does about 25% of what any given individual really wants to see.

9) Focus on the PC platform first and let the consoles get what they can. On PC, you can commit to and do everything listed above. On consoles, you can't. Pick the platform that gives you flexibility first above all. Everything else should be playing second fiddle and should be "simplified" from the PC version. This is NOT an "I am better than you" statement, this is just reality. PC allows you to be flexible as a developer where consoles, in general, do not.

10) Reiterating, COMMUNICATE. We just want to know what is going on. If money has dried up and you can't support the game anymore... tell us! We aren't dumb, we look at the list of unfixed bugs in UT3 and the time it's been since the last patch and we know that support is done. Telling us makes us feel as if we are an important and integral part of the business.

In conclusion, I really do think another UT could be done and be done right. The only question is, is Epic willing to do what it takes to make the game a success? For now, I guess, only time will tell...

TL;DR version: THERE ISN'T ONE READ THE FREAKING POST :p (in other words, I used to write TL;DR sections until I took an arrow to the knee)
 

JohnDoe641

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I prefer UT3 gameplay over just about every aspect of UT2k4, now that I've played it more than 10 minutes.
So do I. UT3 had near perfection as far as weapons balance and gameplay was concerned, but you can't do anything if lack of features/abundance of multiplayer bugs stop you from enjoying the game or even starting matches.
 

Kyllian

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Beyond just the bugs there were other silly things they decided to do and held onto even though a bulk of the community went "WTFEPIC?!"
- Removal of "classic" Linking in lieu of 'proximity' linking(Classic became obvious quickly, Proximity didn't)
- AVRiLs with no ammo pickups on stock maps
- Avrils/SniperRifles not allowed in weapon lockers
- No WeaponThrow by default, excuse being exploit(despite being in UT/UT2k4)
- Removal of Assault, again.
- Unable to carry Orb/Flag in wheeled vehicles(despite being shown in early videos)
- No more Manta-riding in vCTF(out of the 2k4 vCTF community, maybe a dozen complained, the rest knew how to counter it)
- Mass ini tweaks required to remove mouse accel
 

Severin

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@Kyllian

That's just the tip of the iceberg:

A few more for you:

Destroyed vehicles keeping collision detection until the 'disintegration' animation had finished.

Brown on brown colour schemes so you can't see whats going on properly up close.

Removing popular game types.

Retarded bots with perfect aim.

Single player Campaign.

Gimmicks like allowing 64 players on a map designed for 12. (not that it worked properly anyway)

(not from personal experience) Titans.

The U.I

The HUD

Making the player about 3 meters tall (this was fixed but had to be pointed out by a member of the community)

Players shooting from their heads rather than their guns. (looked awful)

Boring and limited maps (warfare)

Unbalanced (and broken) Vehicles

The more you turned up the visuals the less you could actually see. (e.g the fog radius got smaller)

etc,etc ....


@ Sir Brizz

I would add to point 10.

When you do communicate, Don't tell your customer base that they are idiots for thinking that your game is less than perfect. Then go on a banning/censorship spree.
 
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Crusha K. Rool

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To quote a good man:

Piglet said:
That's true. We could modernise it to the point nobody wants to play it and the franchise dies.


Maybe we should also increase the gravity, nerf the shock rifle, remove the light gun, remove double-jump and make the minigun and rox half again as powerful, and add in bubble-thing which either nukes a node and instantly rebuilds it to your team or stops attackers from being able to take it down.

We could then make further modernisation to the graphics and make the screen blur and flash to induce nausia in players, and then remove most of the colour to make it look like shite.

We could make the manta nearly silent, and hide the avril. Hey! Here's a thought, we could make it so that when you finally do find one, and fire an avril you could make the functionality so that just as you're about to make it lock on to target some nub could use their avril gun to change the target!

Then we'd have truly modern ONS.
 

RennyManJr

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Jan 20, 2008
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3) Stop worrying about network compatibility. It is my understanding that the Demo Guy Bug in UT3, for example, cannot be fixed because it introduces a break in the network compatibility of the current version of the game with previous versions. Epic needs to stop worrying about this and focus on fixing problems. The majority of people actively playing your game would rather have a working game than be able to play with original retail copies of the game.
This point could be addressed in a jiffy. Just do an automatic patch check every time you open the server browser. Every MMO has it nowadays.

A simple "A new patch for UT# is ready to download. Note that you can't play online if you don't install it." Yes - dl and install it ; No - return to offline play.

No more network compatilibilty issues.