Divergence: Online Hits Steam Greenlight!

As promised, Divergence hits Steam Greenlight today! Thanks to all who helped us get to this milestone, and we can't wait to take this project even further than it's gone before with your help, so follow the link below and click "Yes" damnit! XD

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=530659232

Divergence Hits Steam Greenlight Later Today!

Dear friends,

After much consideration and weighing of all possible ramifications, we've come to the conclusion to go ahead and list the game on Steam Greenlight later today.

The decision comes mostly due to major changes to indieGoGo's features and policies that we were previously unaware had taken place. The details aren't that important, but what is important is that because of these policies, our campaign two years in the making is currently burried on the equivalent of page 10 on their site, and even more unbelievable... It's burried beneath dozens of old campaigns dead and burried years ago. We're still waiting on an explanation as to why a currently live campaign would take a back seat to dozens of campaigns, many of which ended two or more years ago, but in the meantime, the complete and total lack of exposure is murdering us. This cannot continue.

Therefore, we've made the decision to push our plans to Greenlight Divergence ahead of schedule to supplement IndieGoGo's vacuous exposure with Steam's in an addempt to drive traffic to our IndieGoGo "before it's too late".

Steam Greenlight does not mean we're planning on launching the game this month, or even next month. It's simply an introductory step that everyone already knew we were going to have to take to get the game on Steam eventually; We're just choosing to do it now and use that exposure to help benefit the game and finance our combat module before we even think about an official launch.

Therefore what we're asking is for everyone who's supported this project from the beginning and feels as we do that it could end up changing the face of MMORPGs, to help us greenlight the game on Steam and if they have time, say a few kind words to offset the all-but-guaranteed tsunami of trolls that any newly listed game on Steam is certain to attract.

We're never going to stop, but we can't do it alone. You've given us your money, you've given us your patience, and we hope we've at least shown that with us, you always know exactly what we're doing with the trust and resources you've given us, so we hope later today you'll help us turn a current state of struggle into a success.

Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for the steam announcement!

-Ethan Casner

New Power Grids Video Online!

New video showing the basics of power-grid establishment and management is online!

Flashlights, Fix For Black Screen Woes, and New Videos

We're aware that as time goes on, it get's harder and harder for some people to get into the game world and we know why it's happening -

Too much stuff has been built directly outside of the starting cloner in the woods and if you see the black screen for an extended period, it simply means your internet bandwidth bottleneck is insufficient to pipe it all into you before you time out of the game.

We'd planned on optimizing the data stream even more as time went on but we didn't realize how quickly people would start building really big things right in front of where you spawn.

To rectify this, we're doing two things;

1. Optimize all data coming to and from your client and the server.
2. Move existing structures (I mean the really big stuff, like that half-finished castle right in front of the starting area) to a newer, more open area until we can optimize it even more.

To keep this kind of thing from disrupting play again, we'll just have GMs monitor what's getting built and where, attempt to contact the owners if they do dumb stuff (like building literally right in front of the cloner, preventing people from getting out) and when necessary, relocating their constructions elsewhere.

For right now, a quick solution until we can push out a new patch tomorrow or the day after, here's what you can do to get into the game:

When you're at the black screen with my super-cool phrase on it, you can still chat believe it or not, therefore you can still use chat commands, including our temporary "goto" command used to sneak across the world super fast.

Just type in "/goto Castle 1" exactly as it's written there without the quotation marks and caps-sensitive. That'll instantly teleport you to a location that we'd planned to keep secret for the time being; A community "sandbox" area with semi-flat ground that all contributors at or above the $100 level can start building with Ferrocrete once we have that video out.

Again, ignore the fact that it's ugly, it's just a GM testing area, but that should get you ingame at least.

We'll update you again with a more permanent solution in the next few days :)

In addition to this, new in the game is a highly requested "Flashlight". We're adding these as actual craftable objects in the game in the near future, but for right now, night time pisses people off so just press L on the keyboard and voila, let there be light :)

In addition, for those who don't already know, we've uploaded new videos detailing the working of several game features to help you get started. Our next video, detailing factories will be released either today or tomorrow if all goes according to plan. Help spread the word!

Divergence Announces new PVP-Optional Server Stretch Goal!

We've had so many articles come out wherein hundreds, if not thousands, of people make mention in some form that they "would contribute if it weren't for the open-pvp", that we've completely re-evaluated the situation and came up with a potential solution that could benefit everybody!

The game, as it sits right now, has no PVP. Remember, that's the point of this IndieGoGo; To add top-shelf combat to our top-shelf crafting and other awesome features.

We've decided to officially announce our first stretch-goal as an additional "PVP-Optional" server. The new server will have some PVP, but it'll be consentual unlike our primary server. Players on the new server can either spend their days harvesting, crafting, dancing, playing as non-combatants, or flag themselves for PVP with a "TEF" and engage in an afternoon of RvR fun.

What's a TEF?

A "TEF" or "Temporary Enemy Flag" occurs either intentionally, by flagging yourself via chat command, or by performing certain actions. A few of those are:

• Healing or buffing factionally-combative players in a state of PVP.
• Killing or harming faction NPCs, such as town guards of an opposing faction.
• Being forcefully ejected from a player city or establishment where you are unwelcome.

Essentially, if you're playing just to craft, harvest, dance, or even if you're healing or aiding other players (so long as they are not recently engaged in PVP), you can no longer be harmed, debuffed, or otherwise negatively affected by other players.

Won't this require your current game code to be changed, and how soon would this be available?

Running a secondary "PVP-Optional" server will not require significant changes to combat, since that's already the focus of our IndieGoGo, there is none! It will simply require more resources to be directed at developing the aforementioned "TEF" system. This is something we're more than prepared to do for the players, so long as we don't have to detract money from the overall development of the game to do it. Therefore, what we decided to do was add a brand new stretch goal to invite the players to make it possible for us to develop this "optional PVP".

What we hope this'll do, is give all those people who write us and say "I'd contribute but... Open PVP" a way of putting their money where their mouth is. while simultaneously funding both the game itself, and the style of gameplay they prefer. We could bring it online even before our Steam release for testing.

Will there be any other differences between the Primary server and the secondary "PVP-Optional" server?

There will be a few minor differences between the two geared mainly to gently nudge people towards our primary server, such as story events, and GMs playing notable NPCs and faction leaders on the primary server, but as far as game mechanics and features are concerned, they both get the same content. Additionally, we're experimenting with the idea of allowing characters to transfer between servers if they meet certain stipulations and even keep their character names, so long as it can be done in a manner that neither rewards nor penalizes the practice.

What if people contribute specifically to make the PVP-Optional server happen, but then it doesn't meet that stretch goal?

In that case, depending on how close it comes to the goal, we'll either elect to do the PVP-Optional server regardless of that fact, or we'll offer refunds to those people. Basically in either scenario, you can't lose :)

Thanks again for all your support guys, and let’s make this damn game happen!

-Ethan Casner

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/divergence-online--2

Divergence Stage 3 IndieGoGo is LIVE!

After more than two years of backbreaking labor, Divergence's Stage 3 IndieGoGo is finally live!

The first video ended up being over 16 minutes long after we'd already condensed it down as much as physically possible, so we hope there's enough in there to tide people over until the next video goes live tomorrow :)

Thanks again for all your help and support guys; we couldn't have done it without you.

Check back tomorrow for the first of many instructional videos, and remember you can always download the latest build of the game at www.divergence-online.com/download

I'll also be bringing the game forums back online within a day or two and make an announcement on that, just as soon as the latest PHP is finally updated on them, as well as our public Teamspeak server info!

-Ethan

New Continents and Ferrocrete Coming!

Late July and Early August have been spent doing a multitude of things. Among the biggest and baddest:

1. Full-integration of our high-res blocks-building system known as "Ferrocrete". You know, the one everyone loved in Alpha 1, only four-times the resolution of our previous blocks, allowing for intricate design work not seen in any other game!
2. Adding two totally new and huge continents!
1. Akkhera - A vast desert of red quartz and sand, for those players who want a lot of empty space to build upon unobstructed by potential geographical and natural formations.
2. Malkav - A huge, mountainous continent, containing both grand snow-capped peaks, mountain valleys, and rolling hills, inundated with rich and dense woodlands.
3. Total upgrade to existing screen effects, including a new volumetric fog solution that just looks ridiculously good.
4. A few new assets that we believe old SWG fans will appreciate, including the "Kash" trees shown below ;)
5. Numerous bug fixes.

What's left for August?

1. Fix a ton of bugs.
2. Move Arabast to the polar region where it's supposed to be.
3. Create a mass transit system to allow players to travel from one continent to the next. Originally, this was meant to be accomplished by the use of boats traveling over the ocean, but due to time constraints, we may just settle for a teleporter for the time being.
4. Fix the issues associated with conflicts between our day/night system and new effects that are causing artifacts, such as bright fog at night.
5. Create functionality allowing players to craft their own ferrocrete so they can get started building that skyscraper they want to!
6. Build the whole IndieGoGo page.
7. Capture, edit, and narrate several new videos for the aforementioned campaign outlining all this cool stuff we've done for the game and also how to play it.
8. A few other odds and ends.

Our next big patch will come once Ferrocrete is functioning 90%, which will also be the patch where we introduce the new continents and hopefully a method to traverse them.

Thanks for your support!