What's up with Teamspeak?
Even though I maintained a teamspeak account on Darkstar for many years, the server never got better. Anyone who spent time on our TS remembers it going down for minutes or hours virtually every day, so we finally junked it and moved to a new TS provider.
Since we're really close to being able to open the server back up after our overhaul to aspiring settlers, I figured why not go ahead and open them back up around the same time. This means we'll be announcing it's server address probably within a day or two before we open the gates to players.
What is still left before players can return to the world?
- Game Patcher. Before, we used a proprietary patching system that streamed the game contents to the end-user on demand. While no system is 100% unbreakable, it was pretty damn solid. What we have right now might allow connections, accounts, players, etc, I can't just zip it up and give it out to everyone on the internet or.. They'll have our raw game files. Therefore this is one major thing we're hashing out before we can open the world up again.
- Server State. While block placement are once again working in the game, they don't persist when the server restarts and you can imagine why this isn't something we can glaze over. This is our "for real" version of the game and people will expect that the creations they give life to this time around will be there for all times. For this reason, we still need to solidify the new server's ability to save and retain this data in the manner required.
Divergence Land Grab Event
It's been a long road, getting from there to here. But we're finally on the horizon of being able to open up the Land Grab Event to those who bought it as a perk. What this means is that anyone included in this event will be granted a 24-hour early access to the game world to strike out and find that piece of land that appeals to them.
What races and breeds will be available this time around as opposed to the prototype?
Once the server's go online players (depending on their contribution level of course) will be able to choose from all five breeds of human for both male and female, Lokri male and female, Vindicator, Verrator, Ennie and Synthetic. We're even investigating the possibility of having DT in at launch.
What all options for character customization will be available as opposed to the prototype?
In this final version of the game the player has a ton of customizability. This is of course based totally on their choice of species. Synthetics have the least in that they merely inhabit a piece of machinery. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Humans and Lokri have have up to nearly 100 individual sliders to tailor their character's appearance exactly as they like. In addition to the options available at character creation, we're engineering the Image Design profession in-game to offer customization-levels beyond you can even accomplish in character creation.
What all professions will be functional?
This is something we're going to be building while we're moving. Meaning that at first, most likely only a few basic ones. The focus right now is to simply get people back into the game world playing and having a good time, then over the course of each week and month introducing more and more profession functionalities.
What's up with the new IndieGoGo? What happened with that?
I still plan on doing on in the near future but it will probably go live near the opening event. The reason being we plan to offer some collectors pieces such as unique tattooes or markings for a small fee to try and finance the game.
So last I heard you were flat broke? Is that suddenly not the case anymore?
It is, trust me it is lol. The only income we have right now is a couple paypal sales per week of early access to people who just recently found the game and are interested in contributing, so for any and all potential contributors, definitely keep those emails coming in :)
Holy crap, does that mean my chance to own a Vindicator or Verrator are up? What about the Ennie I wanted as well?!
This is going to be included in our IndieGoGo. We'll be giving one final chance to buy one of these breeds before saying "That's all..." Once that happens, barring extenuating circumstances, The number of living Vindicator and Verrator will be tallied and displayed for all to see, finally bringing into the forefront their struggle to resist the tides of extinction.
At that moment, the Veli story begins.
Thanks for your patience!
