Frontiers - Project Funded

Couchpotato

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The open world RPG Frontiers has been funded by reaching it's $50,000 goal. You can also watch gameplay trailers from the games official video channel.

I also have an new article from PCGAMER.

In keeping with its focus on discovery, Simkins wants Frontiers’ quests to constantly direct the player towards something new and exciting – rather than what he calls the “FedEx exploration” of picking up an item and couriering it somewhere else. “It’s hard to eliminate those entirely but I try very hard to link them to some interesting lore or to a unique village or something the player wouldn’t have a clear incentive to find on their own. I try to take the same approach to temples/ruins and give the player something to do once they get down there – a puzzle, or a unique item, or a cool machine.”

This also applies to the story. The game starts as your home is destroyed by an ‘Orb’ – the latest in a string of increasingly frequent attacks that continue as dynamic encounters throughout the game. If that wasn’t enough, your uncle – a famed explorer – has disappeared across the “Rift”, an impassable barrier to the South. Finding an answer to these mysteries is high on your to do list.

Unless it’s not. After creating your character, you’ll be given a history, profession and series of “expectations that are placed on you”. But as the player, you’ll be free to decide your own path. “The choices you make from that starting point will take you different places,” Simkins reveals. “You can choose to quit your profession, or simply ignore it altogether. The story and the game world will progress with or without your intervention.”

Beyond your initial choices, you’ll be able to progress your character down a number of skill trees. Pathfinding, for instance, improves path creation, and also gives you access to different modes of travel, including horseriding and hang gliders. “I love hang gliding,” Simkins enthuses. “I love walking up to a cliff, equipping the glider and leaping off, then drifting gracefully down to the rooftops of a city miles away.”

Survival ties into the need to replenish your hunger bar. “You can’t die of starvation,” Simkins says, “but it will keep your health low, and this makes it difficult to use skills and magic.” By investing in Survival skills, you’ll be better equipped to hunt, gather and identify the food you collect, as well as gain bonuses to health. “These types of skills sort of replace the stats you find in a typical RPG.”
More information.
 
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Someone said in one of older posts that he should have asked for more.
There is something in that presentation that attracts.
 
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Someone said in one of older posts that he should have asked for more.
There is something in that presentation that attracts.

Yep… Imo, he should have asked for at least 3x that amount.

I guess it doesn't really matter though. He'll probably still end up collecting that much anyways.
 
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Wow. 50$ for a butterfly companion? o_O
No one is forcing you to buy it. I've seen other people spend more on frivolous junk from other funded kickstaters.:)
 
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I'm glad it made it. It looks like it has a chance to go well beyond the 50 grand. It's already at 56000.
 
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Yep… Imo, he should have asked for at least 3x that amount.

I guess it doesn't really matter though. He'll probably still end up collecting that much anyways.

I often wonder how developers decide on the amount when doing KS. If they price to high, there is a good chance they can price themselves out of the market. However, they may underprice themselves just to get funded. How do they find that balance?
 
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Can't quite see where the gameplay is going to be in this title from looking at the pitch video and haven't backed it so far for that reason. What is it you are trying to achieve? How do you progress? Exploration with some random combat isn't really enough.

And whilst it's pretty easy to make a large landscape to wander around in with Unity, it's harder to populate it with non repetitive art assets, particularly considering that the author appears to be working on his own. Maybe he's going to outsource some of that?
 
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My thinking is that I don't see any new ideas or better implementation of exiting ones. In fact I don't see anything that can not be done as a Mod in the Skyrim or Oblivion engines.
 
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No one is forcing you to buy it. I've seen other people spend more on frivolous junk from other funded kickstaters.:)

True. And I won't be buying it. Not at that price, at least.

Can't quite see where the gameplay is going to be in this title from looking at the pitch video and haven't backed it so far for that reason. What is it you are trying to achieve? How do you progress? Exploration with some random combat isn't really enough.

And whilst it's pretty easy to make a large landscape to wander around in with Unity, it's harder to populate it with non repetitive art assets, particularly considering that the author appears to be working on his own. Maybe he's going to outsource some of that?

I think that's a pretty good question. Well, it's all about the exploration, I would guess, and survival in the wild. You could say it's the journey, not the goal it is about.
I like the idea about the paths, but I do hope there will be some combat/threats other than wildlife.

I share your concern about the repetitiveness and the world content. I also wonder about the general atmosphere, like NPC schedules and stuff.

My thinking is that I don't see any new ideas or better implementation of exiting ones. In fact I don't see anything that can not be done as a Mod in the Skyrim or Oblivion engines.

Well, is there anything you can't do as a mod of either of those? That's not really saying much... :p
 
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Well, is there anything you can't do as a mod of either of those? That's not really saying much… :p

There is. You can't prevent chainsaw sound from books with any kind of mods.
 
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There is. You can't prevent chainsaw sound from books with any kind of mods.

First, I've heard of this

EDIT: Although, to be fair, I did come into Skyrim a bit late and immediately pumped it full of mods (unofficial patches/fixes included) so that particular "feature" might've been moot by then
 
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First, I've heard of this

Well I've heard of it before, but only from Joxer in other threads. Does that count?

Or maybe it's just a weirdly specific occurrence of the audio glitch experienced on some hardware setups where the user's sample rate for their audio device is set higher than 24 bit / 44100 Hz. Though, for me at least, that was fixed with driver update and prior to that could be avoided entirely by changing the device settings. It also wasn't only with books.
 
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Looks great to me. My type of game. Even the profession is perfect. Pathfinder. That is what I did for a lot of my time in Skyrim. I would actually be in with the graphics as they stand right now. I am in.
 
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Looks great to me. My type of game. Even the profession is perfect. Pathfinder. That is what I did for a lot of my time in Skyrim. I would actually be in with the graphics as they stand right now. I am in.

Well in that case just go to the Unity community sites and you'll be in hog's heaven; there are more attractive graphical demos and samples of people running around in palm trees with the odd medieval house thrown in than you can throw a stick at. And if you don't mind a bit of c# scripting you could run something up yourself on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
 
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