Vapourware Seven Dragon Saga - Gold Box spiritual successor from SSI veterans

[Zed]

and TSI has today launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the game’s development

???

KS going live later today?

First paragraph under "About Seven Dragon Saga"

I'm the only one who noticed this?
What's going on?
Is this real life?

 

[Shannow]

How would the Gateway thing even work? Different games have different character systems. Am I missing something obvious here?

Yeah. I have the feeling that this might be aimed at people with an unhealthy attachment to their game characters. Different settings. Different systems/rules. Why would I even want to make the same characters?
As far as reviving this oldschool feature of importing characters goes, let us not forget classics like the BG, DA and ME seriesses...

Well, as long as it doesn't eat too deep into resources, I assume there's no harm in it...

 

[Grunker]

classics like the BG

BG is a constant Codex top-4'er and an in-house favourite. It's a classic by any definition of the word.

 

[Tigranes]

Sounds utterly pointless.

 

[Infinitron]

and TSI has today launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the game’s development

???

KS going live later today?

First paragraph under "About Seven Dragon Saga"

I'm the only one who noticed this?
What's going on?
Is this real life?

O_o

Yes Kickstarter, no Kickstarter, yes Kickstarter, no Kickstarter, yes Kickstarter...what the fuck, guys?

 

[Dorateen]

The obvious application will be to transfer party characters from Seven Dragon Saga to inXile's Bard's Tale IV, or vice-versa.

I have to support the feature on principle alone, regardless of how it might work out in execution, putting the ownership of characters back in the hands of players.

 

[agris]

I was struggling to find the source, and couldn't find the announcement on TSI's website.. as a matter of fact, I can only find it on Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/press...rossGame_CharacterImportExport_Initiative.php

 

[Tigranes]

The obvious application will be to transfer party characters from Seven Dragon Saga to inXile's Bard's Tale IV, or vice-versa.

I have to support the feature on principle alone, regardless of how it might work out in execution, putting the ownership of characters back in the hands of players.

Those god damn capitalists denying us the ownership of the fruits of our sexual labour!

 

[tuluse]

Not sure I see the benefit of this. Unless there's a bunch of extras added for such characters (which I doubt), it'll essentially just be an auto-generated character in a new system from a bad algorithm, right?

It will be ridiculously bonkers and fun to have one party go through these disparate games.

 

[Infinitron]

I was struggling to find the source, and couldn't find the announcement on TSI's website.. as a matter of fact, I can only find it on Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/press...rossGame_CharacterImportExport_Initiative.php

Yeah, those guys have stopped updating their site for some reason? They never put that yawnsome lore update there either.

 

[agris]

Yeah, those guys have stopped updating their site for some reason? They never put up that yawnsome lore update there either.

Their forums are on life-support and based on this PR "release", I don't think they're very media/update savvy.

Let us hope for a surprisingly good Kickstarter.

edit: From VentureBeat

Ex-SSI Gold Box devs go ‘back to the future’ with tools to transfer characters across role-playing games (updated)

Updated at 11:50 a.m. Pacific with more details on Gateway and quote from TSI Partners.

Tired of painstakingly crafting your characters? Our have you fallen in love that half-orc warrior with whom you saved The Realm? You soon might be able to bring those adventurers from one role-playing game to another.

This morning, TSI Partners showed of “Gateway,” a tool that transfers the characters you make from one supported RPG to another. While this system from former Strategic Simulations, Inc., developers Keith Brors and David Shelley (remember those fantastic Gold Box Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games?) is part of the upcoming Seven Dragon Saga, it’ll also work with Kickstart darlings Shadowrun: Hong Kong and Torment: Tides of Numenera.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because this used to be a staple of CRPGs. You could transfer characters from Wizardry and Ultima to The Bard’s Tale. You could also import characters from certain SSI Gold Box games to others as well.

“… We envisioned this as something that could be a real boon to players. We also wanted to keep things simple for developers and add greater utility to ‘Gateway’ over time,” a TSI spokesperson said to GamesBeat this morning. “Gateway creates a standard character format, so importing games don’t need to know the details of which game the character came from. If they see gaps between the character and their own format, they can use a query UI to allow the player make selections. And, as an example, if the Gateway format has the stats for strength and health, the importer could use them to derive unique stats like willpower; say the average of the two existing stats. The whole goal is to allow importing games to use as much or as little of the incoming characters as they feel comfortable.”

As for importing characters from games with different settings — say, steampunk to fantasy — TSI said that it wants to allow “your characters to continue their adventures in a new setting — while ensuring they can be imported without breaking game play or immersion.”

The studio told GamesBeat this could just include basic details, like the name, gender, age, or race of a character. But Gateway can also bring over classes, stats, and skills, and TSI said that this could even extend to equipment and currency.

“We are really excited about the initial reaction to Gateway from the development community and, as gamers ourselves, we love the idea of carrying across our characters and adventuring parties into different RPGs,” said Shelley, the producer and lead designer of Seven Dragon Saga, in a canned statement. “From a technical standpoint, we are proposing an independent app that avoids any issues with an existing game’s user interface and makes it a quick process for developers to add to their games.”

“Gateway goes beyond being an import/export feature — it represents a development philosophy that I enthusiastically endorse,” said Tides of Numenera project director Kevin Saunders of InXile Entertainment in a canned statement. “By proposing and developing a data standard for game characters, TSI is establishing a stepping stone for independent CRPG developers to collaborate and share content and expertise. It is very much in the spirit of crowd funding and independent game development.

“As a fan of SSI’s titles, I’m thrilled at their return through Seven Dragon Saga and am excited they are spearheading this initiative through Gateway.”

 

[m_s0]

I was struggling to find the source, and couldn't find the announcement on TSI's website.. as a matter of fact, I can only find it on Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/press...rossGame_CharacterImportExport_Initiative.php

It's from the newsletter, as usual.

That, or I just made it up to spite all of you.

 

[Zed]

TSI Games ‏@TSIGames 12m12 minutes ago
@dphanto Stay tuned for more announcements. But no, we wouldn’t just drop something like that without warning.

 

[m_s0]

TSI Games ‏@TSIGames 12m12 minutes ago
@dphanto Stay tuned for more announcements. But no, we wouldn’t just drop something like that without warning.

Countdown confirmed

 

[Shannow]

classics like the BG

BG is a constant Codex top-4'er and an in-house favourite. It's a classic by any definition of the word.

A) That's what I wrote. I can be serious about one word and sarcastic about the next
B) But I'm a casual-fag. And if you call the BGs "classics", you are too. You'll never win an edginess award that way.
C)

With Gateway, TSI is inviting RPG developers to take part in an initiative that hearkens back to the days of classic RPGs like The Bard’s Tale, Ultima and Wizardry -- a time when players could fully transfer their characters and parties into different games, without having to create them from scratch for each game.

Yeah. We couldn't do that in the last 15-20 years! Oh wait, we could.
In fact, one of the biggest western RPG dev studios tries to implement such features in most of their games. And no, I'll not start an argument how Bioware is shit, or how their exporting/importing is "totally" different.
TSI should simply have focussed on that which is really new: The cross-studio/cross-non-sequel-automatic-algorithm aspect. No "oldschool" bullshit-marketing-speak needed.

Anyway, I hope there'll be more news when I wake up tomorrow. This is the project I have the highest hopes for.

 

[Grunker]

This is the project I have the highest hopes for.

I think you're wrong but I hope you're right.

 

[Zombra]

At first glance, Gateway sounds pretty stupid. I don't want a bunch of different games in different franchises to start putting all their characters into the same format. That's part of the point of playing different RPGs - the fun of making characters in different systems. YAY, everything is d20 now! Bor-ing.

I can easily see a negative impact on systems development for new RPGs. "Well we shouldn't have perks because that doesn't translate into Gateway" etc.

But, fuck it, I can be wrong. Let's see what they come up with.

 

[Infinitron]

Yes, I'm sure a bunch of disparate RPG devs will start hamstringing their character systems to fit in with obscure TSI's obscure platform that only a minority of players will ever use.

The compromises will have to be made on the conversion side, not on the games' side.

 

[Zombra]

The compromises will have to be made on the conversion side, not on the games' side.

I hope they are, but they won't have to be.

 

[tuluse]

A) That's what I wrote. I can be serious about one word and sarcastic about the next
B) But I'm a casual-fag. And if you call the BGs "classics", you are too. You'll never win an edginess award that way.
C)
Yeah. We couldn't do that in the last 15-20 years! Oh wait, we could.
In fact, one of the biggest western RPG dev studios tries to implement such features in most of their games. And no, I'll not start an argument how Bioware is shit, or how their exporting/importing is "totally" different.
TSI should simply have focussed on that which is really new: The cross-studio/cross-non-sequel-automatic-algorithm aspect. No "oldschool" bullshit-marketing-speak needed.

Anyway, I hope there'll be more news when I wake up tomorrow. This is the project I have the highest hopes for.

Bioware only lets you import MC, not the whole party.

 

[Morality Games]

WAT. Wow, there really is an oldschool RPG cartel. That's awesome!

Guess I'll call them the Seattle Outfit.

 

[LeStryfe79]

This is the project I have the highest hopes for.

I think you're wrong but I hope you're right.

 

[Jaesun]

This is the project I have the highest hopes for.

I think you're wrong but I hope you're right.

What concerns do you have exactly?

 

[Shannow]

And no, I'll not start an argument how Bioware is shit, or how their exporting/importing is "totally" different.

Bioware only lets you import MC, not the whole party.

Predictable

Possible concerns I can think of:
Vapourware (Chaos Chronicles still hurts)
Deeply flawed (ToEE says "Hello")
Deeply bugged (Arcanum says "Hello")
Completely unbalanced system (Sawyer says "Not fun!")

The only thing that really concerns me personally is the vapourware one. Hopefully Grunker can't come up with any convincing concerns. I want to believe.

 

[Grunker]

This is the project I have the highest hopes for.

I think you're wrong but I hope you're right.

What concerns do you have exactly?

Inb4 Shannow trashes me for being butthurt about the game by responding to your question (since I already answered it twice in the thread)...

What we've seen so far is:

1) Words that hint at the rules implementation being an "adaption", as well as cooldowns. This hints at something that isn't 5E but rather just bears its name and symbols.

2) Quests that hint at an action/collection structure.

3) Linear maps.

I am saying, and have said repeatedly, that I don't know more than you. But to be optimistic, you need a reason: just something that tells you: this is not an action RPG. This is something there is a reason to be hopeful about.

There is nothing, the way I see it. When we have something, let me know.