Agent_Karyo

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 15h ago

I don't see the satire in the game itself, you got to have a satire concept beyond some random assets and random map.

Have the map structured as a US style suburban community, bunch of fast food lying around the suburb.

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Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 1d ago

This is just some random assets and an FPS map. I am assuming there are no custom models or textures. Strange "game".

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 1d ago

Fixed, thank you!

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 1d ago

Depends on the genre:

RPGs: Strong writing and/or world building is a must. I prefer when both are done well, but just strong world building with ok writing works too (more often than not writing us weaker). For me the point of an RPG is to explore a world and try different playstyles, factions and narrative. I enjoy reading in-game texts that provide lore backgrounds, but also minor clues and subtle opportunities to define your strategy.

Strategy/Tycoon/City-builder:

Story and writing are not needed. These are sandbox games, the point is to try different strategies, build your own designs and so on.

I usually don't bother with campaigns for these types of games and just pick the largest map possible in sandbox. I did like the Cities in Motion 1 campaign though.

In 30 years of being a huge fan of these genres, I can't really think of a Tycoon or Economic Strategy where the story was memorable.

One caveat is that if the game is set in a fantasy/sci-fi setting, sometimes strong world building is important, but it depends on the details of the gameplay.

In some cases, the most generic space/fantasy setting is fine, in other cases like with Vagrus, a trading game x RPG hybrid, the relatively unique grimdark fantasy world is a key part of what makes the game great.

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Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 1d ago

This article series by author Christopher Livingston on random first-person sim games has some interesting entries like Ranger's Path: National Park Simulator, but this one is pretty bland and looks like the hundred of UE5 [retail store type] simulator clones that I am assuming are hoping for a viral pickup by streamer.

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 2d ago

I love the 90s orchestral ambient style, both in video games and in movies.

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 2d ago

I do a lot of hobby work with upscaling (both 480p/720p video, low resolution photography) and I am not sure I agree with stylistic directions by this fellow.

That being said, sometimes you need to see the final work in action.

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 3d ago

Sounds like some of the systems are indeed very similar to Legacy, I got that impression from the promo videos, but it seems at least some of the gameplay is also ported (had the suspicion from the trailer, but couldn't confirm) which does not bode well for the game. I don't think Legacy was meant to be a game, just a set ofcheckboxes for covering legal risk.

Does Masters of Albion have a weird crafting bench that is supposed to have RNG to enable not fully deterministic crafting ( or something of the sort).

Legacy was comically bad. I decided to play for more than than an hour when I found that they had no-crypto servers (just to say I actually played Legacy). I was looking forward to finding out how bad it was.

It almost felt like an elaborate and well thought out parody of a strategy game at first glance.

A bunch of random, often unmatched buildings, with some assets styles clearly representing a density level not associated with the countryside and farms is supposed to be towns but instead looks like a failed Potemkin village.

You don't see such errors among new inexperienced devs (I occasionally purchase raw strategy games on itch) because it is easy to catch and fix, and experienced Devs use asset pack or have their own visual styles.

And yet the ratios of stuff and some other patterns vaguely alluded to some higher level logic that implied that there was a system for interactive multiplayer at scale.

Placing a well tile, a tree tipe and three grass tiles in an expandable tile type and covering everything in them is not a representation of the countryside (I am exaggerating, but Legacy did have clearly synthetic patterns).

Any similar issues in Masters of Albion?

Legacy also had stupid wait times which I suspect was tied to the crypto stuff. Would be funny if they never bother with changes to production in Masters of Albion and leave Legacy ones.

Once you got bored of waiting around for the produce, you could try and develop a new furniture item or something. There was no real gameplay progression or the ability to choose strategies.

The "take good care of your employees" text may be copy pasted directly from Legacy and I think the starter towns didn't have food requirements.

I believe I tried trading with someone located on another spot on the map. It was pointless, we traded random shit for no reason.

I do think Legacy was a premeditated scam, an attempt to decieve for personal gain via marketing claims of future profit specifically known to be false in multiple ways (both from a gameplay design perspective and claims of "Play to Earn"). P2E is not possible as it is a pyramid sceme.

They probably wanted to exploit the then current hype in 2021 and then release a game where the only coherent thing is legal risk coverage via a set of unintergrated gameplay features that represent a game in court, but would clearly stand when looking at genre conventions over 40 years.

I wonder if Molyneux wss taking the piss with the name Legacy.

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 3d ago

This is unfortunately a common issue with relatively complex strategy games.

Most of the time you have to learn by doing either some bigger easier being addressed via web search.

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 4d ago

I think "MMO development studio" captures the essence of the game (or so I thought from the screenshots and text).

Could be a word order phrasing style issue, it does sound a bit off.

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 5d ago

Got it! )

Agent_Karyo @piefed.world 5d ago

To be honest, I don't think the indie gaming scene will ever fully transition to his model even in the worst case scenario.

The market is basically large enough that it can support a niche being independent in terms of channel fulfilment and avoidance of console style exclusivety.

Not to mention video games are arguably much more competitive than movies or streaming shows. Often people look to a specific production with shows and movies, with games, new franchises can often build upon and expand upon existing gameplay models.