[James]

> and one person skype call?

Quick comment on this. What we wanted to avoid was having to do many independent Skype calls. We would be extremely happy to organise a single time when a group of people jump on Skype or Google Hangout all together. So this could easily be shared amongst a collective.

Let me also float a question:

We created the packages pre-emptively (ie. before public release and before backer feedback) to try and create value that players might like to capture. If there was a group of backers that wanted to increase their backing – but the current packages don’t fit – we’d be happy to discuss a new package that works for everyone. So instead of me trying to pre-empt a change – how about you make a suggestion?

As backers what package would you like to see? Price and features. Then we’ll work out if we can make it happen!

[James]

Yeah – cool idea – it’s on my todo list now.

[James]

1. Oort Online is made with the Turbulenz Engine.

2. We’re working on a desktop version for Windows, OSX, and Linux.

3. We plan to continue supporting the desktop and browser based versions. (So you can play when away from home in the browser.)

4. When the game runs as a desktop app, we switch out lots of the JavaScript code and replace it with C++. So we get the flexibility of JS in the browser and the performance of C++ on the desktop.

[James]

Hey Matthias – could you email oortonline@turbulenz.com with the purchase details and we’ll get this fixed. I think I can see the double purchase but I want to confirm everything. Thanks!

[James]

Trees can be made with any martial (at the moment) – so yes – what you propose is possible. Maybe you saw the Iron Mushrooms on Luca? They’re “trees”. Gaia also has some more varied trees.

But we’re also planning to add more world “furniture”, for example boulders, houses, towers, etc. So today make crazy trees, but soon they’ll be other shape functions for creating real boulders and rock pillars. Some of the new functions will allow us to generate more interest rock shapes shown in the concept art for the worlds.

Any other world “furniture” you think we should consider including? Ultimately the question is about the procedural generation of the shape, geometry and variation.

[James]

1. Standard blocks are 1m x 1m x 1m.

2. Vertical limit is currently 256 blocks. We’ve considered increasing this – but it’s parked at the moment whilst we work on other features.

The game worlds are not limited to 16km x 16km. They can be much greater than this. The real limits come from the h/w the world is run on and the # of simultaneous players (and # of entities) in the world.

[James]

This is a great thread – lots of ideas <3.

Now don't take this as an official answer for the game – big caveat there – but I’ll personally be campaigning for a few things within the dev team:

1. All players can build stuff (solo or with friends) and not have it messed with.

2. All players should be able to feel like they’re exploring the environment for the first time. It’s no fun going down into a cave if there are torches everywhere, an empty chest at the bottom, and a stairlift back up again.

3. All players should be able to explore other people’s creations (without messing with them.)

4. All players should be able to join together if they want to build grander ambitions.

5. The game should give players a reason to explore, a reason to go to other worlds, a reason to connect with their friends, a reason to explore their own surroundings and world.

6. I want to avoid the issue that all types of resources are within a 200 block radius of any starting position. Get out there and find what you need.

7. I want to avoid the issue of all creates spawning within a 200 block radius of any starting position.

8. I want every world to feel unique and special. So that every time you step through a portal into a new world you think “Wow! I wonder what I’ll discover here?”

9. The configuration of the game needs to encourage (require?) players who want to see / build / defeat / capture / explore / craft everything the game has to offer – must go beyond their starting horizons.

10. Everyday a player signs into the game they should feel like there is a new world / dungeon / cave to go and explore. Maybe this means daily worlds, weekly worlds, etc.

Finally, I’m not exactly sure what our final world size will be, I imagine it will be dependent on how memory efficient we can make the servers. But I expect that many of the concerns here might be alleviated if players were to spawn 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 km from anyone else. The way players spawn is not what I would expect in the future. A diverse player spawn spread would reduce the density issue – unless players wanted to go find others to build with.

Then there is a list of world expiration issues we can explore. From easy stuff such as: torches expire outside of your beacon, to tress regenerating, to landscapes and resources regenerating.

Any concerns / additions with this?

[James]

I think the idea behind Founders World – is already pretty much what you describe. Only Wayfarer and above are in the game now. When we go alpha (and more people enter the game) we will finalise the “Founders World(s)”.

We’ll ask the community at that point if they want a new special founders world, or potentially they’ll want to keep the worlds they’ve already been playing in.

[James]

Hi! As the post to the news site describes – we’ve changed the packages based on feedback.

Originally: it was the single buyer who gets all the stuff and can then distribute some Instant Access keys and Launch Keys.

But based on feedback from parents (who wanted to make sure their kids get the same extras) and feedback from users (who wanted to band together for the higher packages) – we’ve changed it.

Now: all Instant Access users get all the perks (with 1 exception see below).

When the launch happens – they can give out their extra launch keys to friends, family, etc. The Launch Keys don’t have the perks. Only the people who do the backing get the perks.

Exception: The exception is the world building. Everyone will get access to the tool ASAP, and they can all build worlds, play with the tool, etc. But we can only put one world live – but hopefully this will be ok – as we hope the group would want to play together in a single world.

Finally: Please shout if you think there are other changes that should be made to the packages. We want people to think they’re fair and worthwhile.

[James]

(And thanks for reporting it. I promise you – we’re more annoyed than you about the performance of oortonline.com.)

[James]

> The website at times is down or very slow to respond – the hosting server needs more power. If this site becomes popular, it’ll slow to a crawl.

This is extremely frustrating for us. We’re using a professional service to host the site (MediaTemple) – and they’re basically letting us down. Looks like we might need to find somewhere else to host the site.

> The game itself is very very slow too. I live in London and get 500-600ms. If everyone that has bought entry was playing, would anyone be able to do anything?

Assuming your own connection is decent – then you should get decent pings to the EU servers, as they’re based in Dublin.

Can you check the pings again? (Sometimes the server screen reports glitchy pings – bring it up a few times to make sure you get a decent reading. We’re looking at this as well.)

Can you confirm if you’re on Wireless?

The game servers are running on a different service to the oortonline.com host – and they should be good enough.

[James]

@kori A manual email is fine – everything ok now?

[James]

Hey, email oortonline@turbulenz.com requesting the upgrade and we’ll give you instructions as it’s a manual process at the moment.

(Basically you pay the different and we update your account – and give you access!)

Thanks for backing the game!

[James]

re. Setup for the second INSTANT ACCESS key

Just send a second username in the same way you sent the first – and we’ll connect it.

We’re going to upgrade the notification emails to be more explicit about this – so people aren’t wondering what they should be doing.

re. Perks for the second user

Quite a few people have asked about this – as it’s not clear – we’re going to make a few changes and put up a news item early next week. Hopefully it should make everyone happy 😉

Thanks!

[James]

@Joey – everything sorted now?

[Author]

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