H1Z1

Hamma · 9 Apr 2014

Officer

Crappy reddit link.

http://www.reddit.com/r/h1z1/comments/22niku/what_is_h1z1/

Hi there,

I wanted to tell you about an exciting new free-to-play game we’ve had under wraps here at SOE for some time. It’s called H1Z1. It’s a massively multiplayer game in which players fight for survival in a world where death is the only sure thing. The H1Z1 virus devastated mankind and left nothing but death and destruction in its wake and a world nearly empty of human life where the remnants of humanity are in a fight against extinction against those infected with the virus. It’s been 15 years since H1Z1 was first encountered and what’s left of the world before is overrun with the Infected. Humanity has been reduced to hiding in the shadows, searching desperately for food and water and anything that can help to survive even for another day. But the Infected aren’t the only dangers in the world. Everyday life in the Apocalypse means dealing with all kinds of wild animals and the brutality of other survivors, as well as finding your next meal and a safe place to sleep. It also means scavenging or crafting anything that can help you live just one more day. In H1Z1 every minute of every day is borrowed time and fearing for your life… unless you are the Danger (talking to you Walter), but life can and will go on… even in circumstances as dire as this. Humanity has not given in to the Infected. There are still pockets of humanity and the fight goes on!

Our vision for this game is very simple but ambitious. We are starting with what I would call “Middle America” – an “anywhere and everywhere” town. The world is massive as you’ve come to expect from our games. Over time we will grow the world until we have our own version of the U.S. after the death and destruction brought on during the H1Z1 epidemic. It will be our own version of America. We’ll have urban cities and desolate wide open places. All connected seamlessly. Our focus is building a sandbox style of gameplay where players can build shelters out of resources in the world. They can even work together to make amazing fortresses complete with weaponry to help defend against both the Infected and other players. Players also have access to a very deep crafting system that can let players make a huge variety of awesome stuff, including weapons (I made a 1911 the other day) and things like Molotov cocktails, explosives.. and other fun surprises.

I will also go right to the heart of the question a lot of players will have – “There are a lot of survival / Zombie games… how is this one going to be any different?”. First off, it’s a persistent MMO that can hold thousands of players on servers we host (yes there will be multiple servers with very different rule sets). Why is that a good thing? It means a thriving economy (oh yes… there’s trading). It also means you have potential allies in the all-out war on the Infected... and many an enemy as well. It uses our proprietary next-gen Forgelight engine and that means we’ve had a lot of really cool technology to work with to make the game we wanted to make. It’s also designed from the ground up for our players to become part of the design process. The Roadmap system that we built for PlanetSide 2 will be used extensively to clearly communicate what features we’re working on and what you can expect and when. You’re also going to be getting awesome access to our developers. We’ll be opening it up for Player Studio creations too so expect player-created items to make their way into the game. The main thing that differentiates H1Z1 from the other great games in the genre is the emphasis we are putting on player ownership and building. We want you to be able to form roving gangs that are headquartered out of an abandoned warehouse that you’ve taken over... or a house you’ve built from scratch after having cut trees down and secured the resources to make it. We are giving players the tools to make their own towns, camps and defenses, and they can decide how to set up their base (which is in the world btw... not instanced). We’re building in all the social features you’ve come to expect from an SOE game (grouping, proximity voice chat, voice chat for your gang, and many other cool social features).

To use a simple reference I’m sure everyone interested in this game will get... we want our players to make Woodbury from The Walking Dead if they want to. Or take over a prison. Or fix an old car so you and your friends (yeah we have multiplayer vehicles) can run zombies and players over mercilessly, and revel in the sheer delight of hearing a zombie scream as you light it on fire, or craft a gun to take down your friends and enemies alike. Our goal here is to provide emergent gameplay that will allow our players to make the world their own the way they want to. One of the best things about H1Z1 being an MMO is the fact that with a lot of people playing, we’re able to see all different kinds of gameplay. If you prefer a quiet life as a farmer raising crops... we’re going to make sure your zombie apocalypse fantasy is complete. If you’re like me and you want nothing more than to kill everything that moves, by all means see how that goes. It’s going to be a blast!

Check out H1Z1.com and the subreddit ( http://reddit.com/r/h1z1[1] ). We’ll be adding more information in the coming weeks to the website. We’ll also be very openly answering questions in the subreddit.

Next week you can see us do a livestream of the game as we have a playtest. Stay tuned!

Smed
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GraniteRok · 9 Apr 2014

Officer

Will need to see more.... From the little bit in the stream.. DayZ meets Rust...

Khorneholio · 9 Apr 2014

-double post-

Khorneholio · 9 Apr 2014

Considering how ambitious this sounds with persistent housing, complex crafting, emergent AI... I'm stunned that that their talking about it being available to play in about 4-6 weeks!

GraniteRok · 9 Apr 2014

Officer

One thing going for it is Smed's saying that it'll be some intense crafting and it'll be as he said it, magnitudes larger than PS2. I hope character progression isn't too fast that people gear up to become overkill too quickly and that new players have semi equal chances against veteran players. This is what is wrong with DayZ and Rust but then those are dedicated server games where people can exploit their advantages if large grouped to "level" up quickly.

And I agree Khorne... Smed was saying 4-6 weeks to a playable release. They've kept this under their hats it seems.

But hey... Smed says it'll be F2P... I'll be trying it out. Rust and DayZ are fun but they get old quick when a server dies of people or is grossly lopsided of geared to non geared. Hopefully SOE has learned from these and PS2 in putting in consistent content and making it competitive.

Khorneholio · 9 Apr 2014

GraniteRok said: ↑

...I hope character progression isn't too fast that people gear up to become overkill too quickly and that new players have semi equal chances against veteran players.
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Character progression will be interesting considering there are no skills to raise and full-loot pvp.

Asp · 9 Apr 2014

Officer

NuclearMessiah · 10 Apr 2014

Interesting, but I think I shall pass on it. Will likely be an asshole-fest within a few days and coupled with the SOE business model of offering up weapons for cash in their store, not going to be pretty for those fiscally handicapped folks.

Hamma · 10 Apr 2014

Officer

You mean the way they sell weapons that you can also earn without paying for them? Shame on SOE.

Asp · 10 Apr 2014

Officer

I like the idea since I never really got into DayZ or Rust, but do like the concept.. Good re-purposing of the PS2 engine.. Waiting for the "Enclave Zombie Hunters and All Around Griefers Society" to show up..

Curious how they'll try to manage the whole building strongholds idea, I mean unless you keep the thing manned 24/7 any large group will likely just faceroll what you make in short order. Hopefully there will be ways to keep it from being too easy to destroy what you build if you put a lot of work into it.

NuclearMessiah · 10 Apr 2014

Hamma said: ↑

You mean the way they sell weapons that you can also earn without paying for them? Shame on SOE.
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Har Har you know the point I am making. Despite the fact gamers with no life can earn up weapons in a timely matter via ingame resources it is no where near as fast as just ponying up the $$$ for them and punish players who wont. In PS2 it is not as huge of a deal, but in these survival sims which are really more of griefing sims it is going to get annoying quick.

Maybe they will surpise me, I don't care that they want to make money, I spent a my very vast share on PS2. But imagine how unfun it is going to be for the nubs who the second they spawn into the server get sniped by Player Jimmy and his shiny new sniper rifle he just bought instead of earning up.

Which also bring up an interesting point, if we are allowed to buy weapons and you die and the other guy loots it, do you get a new weapon. I foresee the answer being yes cause you know they uproar that would cause, but now that I think about this issue SOE may not sell weapons in the cash shop.

Khorneholio · 10 Apr 2014

Due to full loot PvP I doubt they'll be selling weapons and items at all. I see the revenue stream being more about cosmetic items. Maybe they'll also include something out of the box for microtransactions like upkeep for player made fortifications.

NuclearMessiah · 10 Apr 2014

Khorneholio said: ↑

Due to full loot PvP I doubt they'll be selling weapons and items at all. I see the revenue stream being more about cosmetic items. Maybe they'll also include something out of the box for microtransactions like upkeep for player made fortifications.
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Yeah that is the conclusion I came to at the end of my post as well, cosmetics would seem the safe bet, cause anything you buy that in turn could be looted will cause a firestorm.

NuclearMessiah · 10 Apr 2014

And funny enough after I come in here complaining about it I see this on my twitter feed lol

Monetization in H1Z1 - We want your input now http://t.co/qlwPskjLoK
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) April 10, 2014

For those "Hamma" who hate reddit here is what smed posted

I wanted to take this opportunity to solicit ideas from people interested in H1Z1 regarding how we monetize it. You will be surprised to hear we have intentionally left the decisions about what to monetize until we can hear from you. This isn't some contrived thing.. I'm being serious. It is a nearly blank slate.

So the floor is open for ideas. I'm going to have a few simple requests for your thinking process:

1) This will be a F2P game (after early access). During early access it's going to cost $19.99 to play.

2) We are not interested in selling weapons. Weapons are only aquired by crafting or exploring and finding one. We are not selling power.

3) The game at it's core is about survival. Our preference is not to sell ANYTHING that can help with that. If this game is too hard for you play another one. We don't want to give shortcuts for our core mechanic.

4) Wearables - we DO see wearables as an obvious "heck yes" kind of thing. I think it's perfectly reasonable to have most wearables be purchaseable. Of course we will still have plenty to craft, find and wear for free.

5) We made this game because we love making games and entertaining our players is why we exist. That being said, we do need to make money. Your ideas are appreciated greatly but if we can avoid the "hey give us everything for free because you owe it to us since you're a big company and we should get free games" commentary it would help a lot.

So with the above in mind, we welcome a serious dialogue about this. We're listening and if you want to have a say in this, now's the time.

Smed
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NuclearMessiah · 10 Apr 2014

I am glad to see #2, consider me re interested in the game.

nachtwolf17 · 10 Apr 2014

If Landmark is any indication, it will be cosmetics and basic resources (wood, stone, etc.), but probably not weapons.

NuclearMessiah · 10 Apr 2014

nachtwolf17 said: ↑

If Landmark is any indication, it will be cosmetics and basic resources (wood, stone, etc.), but probably not weapons.
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According to the blip I posted from reddit you can rule out resources as well, they don't want to sell anything that will cheapen the "survival" aspect of the game.

Khorneholio · 10 Apr 2014

How about purchasing the services of NPC guards to protect your base while you're offline?

Khorneholio · 10 Apr 2014

Woot! My one advice/question I posted in the livestream actually ended up being a reality... there's a "Play as a zombie" mode in the works!

NuclearMessiah · 10 Apr 2014

Another useful blip

[–]TheKillerMark [score hidden] 34 minutes ago

I was thinking something along the line of masks and different wearables as well and different weapon skins. Example:

I purchase a Skull mask an M4A1 skin that makes my M4 look all cute with Nyan cat on it and there should be a VERY wide variety to choose from.

Addition to this, if I go in-game and I play for a couple hours and zeds kill me, and someone runs into my body, they should off course be able to pick this up. The items bought shouldn't be restricted to only the people who buy it, if they die and someone gets their gear, they should be able to get it.

Also lastly, If someone buys like a clothing and a mask, they should be able to choose if they want to spawn with the mask and clothing or normal stuff. I think also for the website forums, you should have forum tags for people who buy this items like ''Contributor'' or something along the lines.

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[–]j_smedley[S] [score hidden] 20 minutes ago

I'm a hardcore player myself. But I wouldn't feel too good if I bought a black outfit for $5 and I died to another player in PVP and he can literally steal the thing I just paid money for.

Oh wait. Yeah I actually like that. In Eve I've had over 1 Billion ISK worth of stuff I had just bought in the hold of a ship I was flying and I got blown out of space coming out of Jita like an idiot. It was fun. an important lesson.

But for our game.. you keep what you buy.
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H1Z1

Hamma Commanding Officer Officer

GraniteRok Executive Officer Officer

Khorneholio DragonWolf

Khorneholio DragonWolf

GraniteRok Executive Officer Officer

Khorneholio DragonWolf

Asp Administrative Officer Officer

NuclearMessiah

Hamma Commanding Officer Officer

Asp Administrative Officer Officer

NuclearMessiah

Khorneholio DragonWolf

NuclearMessiah

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