how is the addon comming?

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wuji
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how is the addon comming?

Post by wuji »

I've been wondering how is the promised addon comming with new quests and areas. I'm really looking forward to it.
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BasiliskWrangler
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Hey wuji-

The add-on is still being worked on. We've had a few technical issues trying to implement it evenly on all 3 platforms, but hopefully we'll have some info to share on it soon.
Krafen
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Post by Krafen »

I hadn't noticed there was to be an addon. That's great news. :D

Is there any chance of increasing the level limit in the addon? I always dread reaching the point where I cannot improve any longer. It removes, for me, one of the most fun parts of a game, developing my character.
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sier
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Post by sier »

I'm against increasing the maximum level. Eschalon is not about leveling and power gaming, it is about role playing. With higher levels, one can build a "super character" that is capable of "everything". Level 20 sets a limit on this and you have to pick your skills wisely.
This is one essential aspect of why i like Eschalon so much.
silverkitty
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Post by silverkitty »

if you do everything in the game, then just before the goblin citadel you'll have about 85,000 exp, +/-. you can level up a little and easter egg to 100,000 exp, or level up for a few hours and easter egg to 120,000 experience. when you finish the goblin citadel you'll have about 11,000 more experience. and there's about 5,000 for making destroyer.

so to get to the level limit, you have to spend about 8-10 hours doing nothing but camping and fighting tauraxes. which sounds pretty boring to me.
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BasiliskWrangler
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Culmination wrote:Is this add-on about the boat outside the Lighthouse? Will it take you to Ash Island?
Yes.
wuji
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Post by wuji »

This is good news. I have a few more questions:
  • Is it going to be compatible with existing saves?
  • Also, is this addon only about the boat or are you going to add new quests/people/dungeons to existing maps?
  • Is it going to be challenging? The second half of the game is just sailing the calm waters with 11th level character.
Thanks for the info.
JonRay
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Post by JonRay »

Any idea on costs yet?

and will it be like the natural follow on from finishing the adventure @ the chancellor's joint?

as it could work out quite well and logically if you think about it -
The Chancellor and Council now have an extremely deadly, competent, blood drenched, murdering, Assassin, er... Hero, who's singlehandedly saved everyone, who is a Political Embarrassment, who Knows Way Too Much and who everybody feels Uncomfortable having around or being around -
Best thing to do -
Find a nice Suicidal or Impossible mission for him, in someone else's lands (where there is a high probability of Death by Big Green things with Big Teeth or at least severe steel poisoning), give him the best wishes of the Council and People (then disavow all knowledge of him) and pack the Thug off on the next leaky ship, fast moving horse, faulty magical portal or secondhand Flying Carpet - the hell out of the country.
heheh
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BasiliskWrangler
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

The add-on will be free to registered users.

However, because it is free it has currently taken a back seat to Book II development. The problem we have run into is that Book I's engine is just too ridged and we are having difficulties in getting the additional content to work properly on all platforms.

To work out the solution, we've been heavily modifying a branch of Book I's engine which is becoming the base of Book II's engine. The good news is that Book II is already much more receptive to add-ons and modifications than Book I. The bad news is I don't have any idea right now when we are going to be able to get these fixes back into Book I's engine. We're not forgetting about Book I's add-on, it's just not at the top of the priority list at this time. Around here, we're all talking about Book II :wink:
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Jude
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Post by Jude »

BasiliskWrangler wrote: To work out the solution, we've been heavily modifying a branch of Book I's engine which is becoming the base of Book II's engine.
:shock: I hope this won't affect the system specs at all. My G4 1.25 DP running OS X 10.3.9 is probably at the lowest end that can play the game, now.

Jude
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Jude wrote::shock: I hope this won't affect the system specs at all. My G4 1.25 DP running OS X 10.3.9 is probably at the lowest end that can play the game, now.
We are making huge advances in optimizing Book II's engine which will hopefully compensate for the new features.
wuji
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Post by wuji »

so does it mean that the add-on will come out after book II? since I've read that book II is far away this wouldn't really be great news
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

wuji- I really don't know. I would guess that if we make it all the way to Book II's release and still haven't found an easy way to do an add-on for Book I, then there is a very good chance it'll never get done. We might as well just offer the add-on to Book II which we know will have the proper support.

This comes down to lack of forethought on our part. We had started on a map of Ash Island and a few quests to go along with it, and we thought we had put enough flexibility into the Book I engine to ensure that we could just drop the additional content in place and have it work. Well, it doesn't. Turns out that depending on which version you have, the game may or may not act kindly to the new content. In our effort to get it working, we have made huge, fundamental changes to the engine. These changes are the foundation of Book II's engine which is going to be (as I said above) much more receptive to add-ons and modification.

I don't want to call Book I's add-on "dead" because I really do have hope that we can get it out, but it is just not the focus of our energy right now. There is a mountain of work that still lies ahead for Book II (we are still predicting a 12-18 month development cycle) and we are putting all our resources into that at the moment. If I were to give an estimate for the Book I add-on, it will probably be closer to the summer (maybe around the 6-month mark of Book I's release) and if we still haven't found a way to get it done easily, then we may have to call it dead at that point.
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Post by THX-1138 »

Are you trying to design the patch around all prior versions? It's only reasonable to your time demands to require the latest version for the patch.
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acoustibop
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Post by acoustibop »

Perhaps you could include an update to the latest version as part of the patch?
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