Hero's Journey: Forum Topic: Questions for the GameMasters by thejeni on the GameAmp Network

thejeni

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Questions for the GameMasters

I know you all have a million questions you would like to ask the almighty GameMasters of HJ. Rather than have a whole bunch of different forum threads started with them, I think it would be easier to post them here. That way if any of them have time to answer, they can find the questions quicker and be able to answer more of them.

Also I will be pinning this thread so everyone can keep an eye on it.

04/27/06 18:22

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Phedre_D

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

Heh I have a question for you. Can you get me a job as a GM where I don't have to move from TN lol?

Unklean, you are a lucky one! Because the answer could be yes. One of the GM that came to visit us (HJ-Royce) does his thing from his home in Ohio. See this thread. So you might have a change too. Check this page for your options.

*Edit* Added quote from this thread:

QUOTE (HJ-Illuminatis)

Speaking of that. If you think you would like to become a GM don't be afraid to apply over at the main site. That lovely little engine of ours has the greatest feature I've ever seen of allowing people from all over the world to help build this game of ours in real time. It's a great way to get your foot in the door if you've been thinking about joining the industry.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

***FEELS KINDA NAKED WITHOUT A SIGGIE***

04/28/06 03:25

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HJ-Sisca

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

Heh I have a question for you. Can you get me a job as a GM where I don't have to move from TN lol?

Sure, start here: HJ GameMaster Info

We're always looking for talented and creative people.

Offsite GM's are basically contractors and we'll get paid a sort of royalty once the game goes live. Yes that means that we're all currently doing this unpaid but for many of us we look at it as gaining the expereince needed to break into the industry (if you've looked at the ads you know they all seem to want 3-5 years or at least 1 shipped title). And as Illuminatis said they tend to offer the onsite positions to the offsite staff before making them public but those do involve moving to St. Louis.

04/28/06 08:41

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HJ-Sisca

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

I've noticed a lot of you here are world designers, so maybe you would know if there will be changing weather in HJ? I've always thought it brought me more into a game when I didn't have the same skies over my character's head every single day. Do you plan on putting in any weather?

I don't what the current plans are about weather but I think you can see from the screenshots that the sky won't always be the same.

As for my personal opinion...I like the idea of varying weather but to be honest it's been bugging me a lot lately in various games. Especially the rain and just how often it rains in these games. I actually logged out of EQ2 the other night because I was tired of the constant rain, it was depressing. What I'd really like to see is a game that had weather effects for those that liked them but those of us that didn't could turn them off.

04/28/06 10:21

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thejeni

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

I don't what the current plans are about weather but I think you can see from the screenshots that the sky won't always be the same.

As for my personal opinion...I like the idea of varying weather but to be honest it's been bugging me a lot lately in various games. Especially the rain and just how often it rains in these games. I actually logged out of EQ2 the other night because I was tired of the constant rain, it was depressing. What I'd really like to see is a game that had weather effects for those that liked them but those of us that didn't could turn them off.

Being able to turn them off would also be great for those people who don't have the latest and greatest computers. I do have to say rain all the time would get old. But it would be nice to know the grass in the world wasn't just green all the time b/c of some mysterous reason.

And I'm taking a quote from the GM Intro thread to ask a question here.

QUOTE

No, I'm still offsite. The world team is actually pretty good sized so we broke it down into smaller teams so that we can split the workload. I lead one of those smaller teams. Basically I try and make sure my team stays on the same page and gets our part of whatever project we're working on done on time.

So when you guys break up in to teams, do you divide the world up among those teams, or do you organize is some other way (like one group does all the plants, one does the rocks, ect)?

And if my questions start getting annoying just let me know. I'm just really curious about the world of GMs.

Siggy created by DeathFetish.

04/28/06 11:04

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thejeni

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

It all depends on what exactly we're building. Teams are each assigned different tasks for every project we're assigned. Sometimes that task isn't even closely related to what the other teams are doing. For example. The first team I was on (I swear they slave me out to everyone these days) got assigned to tackle visibility and FPS issues in a major area while all the other teams moved onto a different project. Eventually we all did get moved over to that project, and it got divided up for each team to work on. Then those division would get divided again for each member of the team to work on. Quest team divides things up in much the same manner, and sometimes Quest and World work together on some projects.

What you're going to find with HJ is that no area is going to be a clone of another area. Much like the real world, you'll be walking and the scenery will be constantly changing. That's the true power of our "Army."

Wow, it seems like a very complicated process. I bet the "master plan" is huge!

Do you get to work with the same people for every project, or do they scatter you guys to the wind depending on your skills? And do you have some special GM power that makes you so desirable on all the projects?

I am loving to hear how detailed the world will be. I'm one of those people who loves to spend hours just wandering around looking at the cool scenery (and taking screenshots of it *grin*). It sounds like this game will keep me lost for months.

So will the world be seamless?

Siggy created by DeathFetish.

04/28/06 20:22

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HJ-Illuminatis

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

Wow, it seems like a very complicated process. I bet the "master plan" is huge!

Do you get to work with the same people for every project, or do they scatter you guys to the wind depending on your skills? And do you have some special GM power that makes you so desirable on all the projects?

I am loving to hear how detailed the world will be. I'm one of those people who loves to spend hours just wandering around looking at the cool scenery (and taking screenshots of it *grin*). It sounds like this game will keep me lost for months.

So will the world be seamless?

Right now the teams have all done a lot of switching of people, and we've gained a few new hires. So we may have worked with 1 or 2 people that we have worked with before. I haven't mostly due to trying to figure out where I best fit because I work and sleep odd hours. (Midnight to 8am EST workshift.) I don't really have any special powers that make me desired. I just tend to work fast and finish up the things I'm doing quickly. So I move on to something else, and if another team needs help that's where I go. I just like to tease them for slaving me out because I've changed teams 3 or 4 times now. :P

Now the biggy question. While it would be nice to have a seamless world it would be near impossible to do in HJ. The main and biggest reason would be because if you've read the lore that's been released. You'll have read how the world has been sundered and is being held together by the 3 major world factions. That means the world is a series of landmass islands with space inbetween them in a kind of mechanical-magical stasis that's keeping life from ceasing to exist. The exact specifics of how this is all done will be released in later lore updates and through in-game quests. It's essentially a world in some serious need of repair.

The other major reason is in the dynamic nature of our questing system. The Journey System makes it so that no one person will complete a quest line like any other player. While not all quests will require an instance to complete, many of them will. Those instanced quests will almost always have multiple ways to complete them. Yes that does mean if you were in a quest that is a maze of tunnels, the path to get out will change every time you go through it with a character. (Mapmakers will probably have seizures because of this.)

Also if you've seen the E3 video where the player blows up a bridge and drops a rockslide on monsters. You'll see something that's very difficult to do anywhere but in an instance. To steal a quote.

QUOTE

The cool thing about instanced areas is that we can do a lot of neat things in them that are not practical in common areas. For example, in an instanced area you can design quests with defined start and victory conditions that don’t require that you account for hundreds of other people wandering through that have nothing to do with the adventure. Often a quest just makes more sense in a instance anyway… because it’s your party going on the adventure! In any case, our technology allows for the GameMasters to continuously create new quests of all types (even forms we’ve not considered yet)."

-Melissa Meyer

Not everything will be instanced though. We have common hunting areas and common towns. You can travel to all of these places through a travel system that will be very enjoyable to the players. There will be plenty of these common areas that adjoin other common areas. (We're building a very large common hunting area right now.) Short of creating player spaceships for traveling though, not all common areas can be reached by walking. the whole exploded world thingy and all. :P

GM Illuminatis
World Builder
Hero's Journey

04/29/06 08:50

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thejeni

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

Right now the teams have all done a lot of switching of people, and we've gained a few new hires. So we may have worked with 1 or 2 people that we have worked with before. I haven't mostly due to trying to figure out where I best fit because I work and sleep odd hours. (Midnight to 8am EST workshift.) I don't really have any special powers that make me desired. I just tend to work fast and finish up the things I'm doing quickly. So I move on to something else, and if another team needs help that's where I go. I just like to tease them for slaving me out because I've changed teams 3 or 4 times now. :P

Now the biggy question. While it would be nice to have a seamless world it would be near impossible to do in HJ. The main and biggest reason would be because if you've read the lore that's been released. You'll have read how the world has been sundered and is being held together by the 3 major world factions. That means the world is a series of landmass islands with space inbetween them in a kind of mechanical-magical stasis that's keeping life from ceasing to exist. The exact specifics of how this is all done will be released in later lore updates and through in-game quests. It's essentially a world in some serious need of repair.

The other major reason is in the dynamic nature of our questing system. The Journey System makes it so that no one person will complete a quest line like any other player. While not all quests will require an instance to complete, many of them will. Those instanced quests will almost always have multiple ways to complete them. Yes that does mean if you were in a quest that is a maze of tunnels, the path to get out will change every time you go through it with a character. (Mapmakers will probably have seizures because of this.)

Also if you've seen the E3 video where the player blows up a bridge and drops a rockslide on monsters. You'll see something that's very difficult to do anywhere but in an instance. To steal a quote.

QUOTE

The cool thing about instanced areas is that we can do a lot of neat things in them that are not practical in common areas. For example, in an instanced area you can design quests with defined start and victory conditions that don’t require that you account for hundreds of other people wandering through that have nothing to do with the adventure. Often a quest just makes more sense in a instance anyway… because it’s your party going on the adventure! In any case, our technology allows for the GameMasters to continuously create new quests of all types (even forms we’ve not considered yet)."

-Melissa Meyer

Not everything will be instanced though. We have common hunting areas and common towns. You can travel to all of these places through a travel system that will be very enjoyable to the players. There will be plenty of these common areas that adjoin other common areas. (We're building a very large common hunting area right now.) Short of creating player spaceships for traveling though, not all common areas can be reached by walking. the whole exploded world thingy and all. :P

It sounds like you guys are meeting a lot of different GMs with this project, and I think that is really cool. They are switching you around so much though! Maybe they just love you best and it has nothing to do w/ your time schedual. But that does make me wonder if you guys all work at the same time as the rest of your team? And how do you communicate with eachother? Is it via phone, IM, in game?
(Every time you answer one question I'm always filled w/ a million more!)

As for the instances, I actually prefer my quests/missions to be instanced. CoH was the first game that I played that had that, and I think it really made the game better. It is nice to inneract w/ lots of people, but when I'm doing a quest I don't want to be pestered.

And it does sound like there will be lots of places to explore, that makes me happy. I would enjoy reading some of that lore though. It is "Coming soon" on the official site. Also where could we find a copy of this E3 video? It isn't on the official site, either.

QUOTE

So will players be choosing from multiple races or will everyone be human? And everyone loves town clothes and pets, any chance of any of these things upon release?

You will have a choice between a few races. You can find them here. You will also be able to have pets in game. I sat down and wrote up a FAQ for other cool general info that I found in my reading. You should give it a gander here.

Siggy created by DeathFetish.

04/29/06 11:24

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thejeni

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

The unofficial FAQ

The site owner has pretty much collected everything for info out there and put it all together.

This guy put a lot of love and work into his site. I learned a lot about HJ because of him.

Siggy created by DeathFetish.

04/30/06 10:53

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Phedre_D

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

Just a quick reply. I'll get back to answering stuff later.

The unofficial FAQ

The site owner has pretty much collected everything for info out there and put it all together. I'll hunt down the video later.

Wow, that is some FAQ. Thanks for the link. I'll be busy reading up and brooding over ideas for a while now.

***FEELS KINDA NAKED WITHOUT A SIGGIE***

05/01/06 05:19

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HJ-Royce

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

Last years E3 Video is up on YouTube. For some reason it's flagged as mature content so you'll need to login to view it, not sure how that can be fixed.

Wow that video had a lot of background noise. But it was nice to see some of the in game stuff.

I did notice how the combo system worked (where you ask for "help" from your teammate). I was wondering how many combos will be in game? And will we get a list to choose from? And do they get more advanced the higher level we get?

More details on how many, what level.. etc. have not been revealed yet.

But there will be more and they will progress as your character does. It's even been stated that multi-character moves "like" that will involve more than 2 people as well.

HJ-Royce
Simutronics Staff (GM)
http://www.play.net/hj/

05/01/06 12:41

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blackphoenix

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

Not everything will be instanced though. We have common hunting areas and common towns. You can travel to all of these places through a travel system that will be very enjoyable to the players.

I'm glad to hear that. I really love how in Lineage 2, everything is open, no instances or zoning. I wish more games could be like that.

05/02/06 08:26

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thejeni

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RE: Questions for the GameMasters

QUOTE

I don't believe there will be any official movies from E3, there just isn't time to actually put one together. I'm not sure if there will be any unofficial ones or if maybe after E3 one might get put together but I'll ask the crew while we're there.

Could you maybe beg the crew for me? I really want to see a movie!

Siggy created by DeathFetish.

05/02/06 10:29

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