Fractured Universe - 0.4.1.0 Alpha

Well, two weeks after the contest is over and we're still chugging away. We slowed down just a little just because the at the end of the contest we were spending some crazy hours on the project, so we needed a break.

I was able to spend a bit of time on a nice one-week vacation with my girlfriend around the British Virgin Islands... what a wonderful bareboat sailing vacation. If you're interested in pictures, can you see them here and our crew blog with even more pictures can be found here. Probably a bit boring unless you enjoy sailing and a good read.

Now, back on topic :D (apologies to the MyDreamRPG community for the partial cross post)

Fractured Universe started early alpha testing in the first week of December last year and we're continuing alpha testing as we progress with game development.

Although our testing is still considered closed / invitation only, everyone in this community is welcome to check it out. We're not quite ready for full-fledged testing yet, but if you're interested, feel to download the client and check it out.

But first: Please make sure you register on the Fractured Universe forums and make a post in the Alpha / Beta testing section and indicate that you're from GarageGames.com and you're interested in checking out the game. The installer requires a serial number and you won't be able to get this until you've registered. Sorry for being a pain about this, but it's the only way we can harrass you with e-mails, umm, I mean keep in touch with our testers...

Background:

Fractured Universe is an boutique online role playing game set in a universe of many strange and unique worlds. Some of the worlds are medieval / fantasy worlds, while others are futuristic sci-fi worlds where magic and technology co-exist. Hundreds of years ago, all of the worlds were connected with fantastic magical portals, but a little over a century ago the portals all ceased functioning.

After a few years of chaos, a state of near normalcy was achieved.... but a few days ago things changed. A portal re-opened just right outside of town.

Multiple Shards:

At this point, only the first shard is open, which is a free PVP all worlds complete mixture where technology and magic work in all zones.

Eventually other shards will open to include:

* Medieval / fantasy only, non PVP
* High-tech / near future only, non PVP
* Sci-Fi / cyber punk only, non PVP
* Combined worlds where players of each shard can mix and mingle
* A combination of each of the four above shards with PVP enabled.

This will give us the chance to cater to all sorts of players.

Game Masters:

Game Masters are creative players that create new quests, levels and complete adventures in both private and public zones. Complete in-game quest / encounter / level editors and in-game game-mastering tools allows GM's to run open or closed group / single player quests in the style of pen and paper games, but with the added benefit of the fantastic world of online 3d gaming.

If you're interested in becoming a GM or level / quest editor, make sure you sign up on our forums.

Controls:

Mouse Left clickselects an object / NPC / monster
Mouse Right click / drag - face a different direction
Mouse Wheel - controls the distance of the camera from the toon
Enter - opens chat window
I (the letter i) - toggles the inventory screen
CTRL-O - Opens the Options menu for changing keys and video settings

Escape - Opens the "exit" window to let you exit a zone without quitting the game

In the chat window, enter /quit to exit the game.

Attacking:

To attack a monster or other player, first you must select it by left-clicking. Move within range and click on a spell / skill on the skill-bar at the bottom of the screen. The basic melee skill range is very short, so make sure you're fairly close. Although you can attack an NPC it's impossible to kill them.

Death:

If your toon dies, wait for 60 seconds and you'll automatically respawn at a safe place. At this point you don't lose any XP or items if / when your toon dies.

Player vs Player combat:

Although it's allowed, if someone asks you not to attack them then kindly respect their wishes.

Tips:

Some of these tips are obvious if you've played MMO games, which I'm sure most of you have, but some of the tips are not so obvious and might save your toon from grief.

DO NOT FALL INTO THE HOLE WITH THE RED LIGHTS IN THE CATACOMBS. If you do, your toon will be stuck until an admin moves you.

If you have a problem creating a Toon, try a different sex / archetype. Not all of them are working at this time.

Stay away from Tom B (Mortal) because he's killer with the dagger!

Try not to agro more than one wolf at a time. They have limited range in sight, so slowly move towards one until he sees you and starts to attack, then back away and finish him off before moving towards another wolf. As a Level 0, you can take two wolves at a time if you're skilled, but it's pretty much impossible to kill three.

If you see a monster that's not a wolf and you're level 0... RUN! At this point, until the next patch is out, the wolves are the only things you can kill.

Make sure you check out the next zone by going through the portal just outside of town in the small grove of trees.

Don't try to swim... the swimming physics are not working correctly and you'll end up floating around in a lake for hours.

MOVEMENT:
W = forward
S = back
A - side-step left
D - side-step right
Q = turn left
E = turn Right

Special:

ALT-C - This control will allow you to exit your toon's body and control a camera. It's not a control that will be available in the final game for non-GM players, but as an alpha tester it lets you explore the world at a significantly faster pace.

Near future enhancements:

We're publishing a minor patch this weekend with some nice new features:

* Additional music and sound effects in the Lasphar zone.
* Leska can now train toons. Although some of these skills might be standins,
* Level 0 toons receive two skills and a dagger
* Level 2 toons receive one skill
* Level 5 toons receive two skills
* Additional monsters
* Alpha wolf
* Skeleton
* big bad monster that doesn't have a name yet
* New quests
* Elder Johan has a two stage quest that is available after you complete Ventin's quests
* Father Fryn has a two stage quest
* Elder Johan has a one stage quest available after you've completed his first two quests and Father Fryn's quest
* Ryth has a quest available to all Arcane's level 3 and above.
* Minor improvements to the lighting in Lasphar.

Here's a new screenshot of the "Training" gui.


Long term enhancements:

Over the next two months we'll be concentrating on making a fully playable game before IMGDC, which is mid April, so hopefully we'll be able to demo it there.

* Enough quests to fill in an hour or two of gameplay
* At least 10 different quest types (we're pretty much there)
* 1 or 2 polished fantasy zones, plus possibly a few unpolished zones, including a new high-tech zone
* Stand-in art for monsters and possibly NPC's / toons
* New modern / sci-fi buildings
* First 5 levels of Squire / Aracane defined and in-game
* Two Squire subclasses with at least one level defined
* Two Arcane subclasses with at least one level defined
* Some finished spell effects... standins for everything else.
* Updated GUI
* More items, possibly some rare one's that provide buffs

Possible features if we have time:
* If we have time / art assets, possibly some boss mobs for dungeons.
* Lockable doors / forcefields
* Chests / storage inside buildings

Well, that's about it... we've made a significant amount of progress over the past two weeks and it looks like we're actually gaining moment, not slowing down. If we can keep this moment up, I fully expect to be ready for a closed beta / feature complete sometime this summer and be content complete and ready for an open beta before the end of the year.

Those of you making your own games, probably you don't have much time for playing someone else's game, but those of you not making games, if you don't want to be part of the early apha testing (which I definately understand), try to make a note on your calender and reserve some time for us in April. We should have enough content for you to get a good feel for the game and we'd love your feedback.

Thanks for reading!