COMMUNITY - FORUMS - NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Almost But not Quite Done

EDIT: This post has been updated to reflect changes to our planning. The Domain and Settlement Selection site will be brought online in a review-only mode once the integration of maps and site is complete. This will be followed by a short window of time for monarchs to pick their duchies, counties and settlements. Finally, the normal pick process will resume thereafter.

Hail Elyrians!

Over the last week we've made huge progress on all three areas of Domain & Settlement Selection. The content team has completed the terrain generation and we're now sitting on four complete sets of elevation data. Each set is made up of 256 different 4k tiles, totaling over 16 GB of elevation data. On top of that, the content team has finished the higher resolution resource maps that tell us what the surface and subsurface resources are of each parcel of the starting continent. To get these maps created required almost round-the-clock execution of four separate 72 core machines, each running at 100% CPU utilization with almost 200 Gb of RAM. But the work is done, and the content team has moved off Domain & Settlement Selection! Huzzah!


Sample Terrain Tile

The second team, the metadata team, has been working tirelessly to balance the design-time and run-time game mechanics including the resource distribution, tribal distributions, and settlement distributions. While it may not be immediately obvious, there's a huge amount of interconnectivity between the work we're doing on the generation of the maps, and the way the game will be played and feel on launch day. As a result, there's been a lot of effort this week put toward making sure the game is fun at launch.


View of the D&SS Details Tab

We need to ensure that settlements are neither too far away, nor too close together. That they're neither over or under-populated, and that there's neither too little nor too much resources. We're not just building maps; we're building an entire world! The metadata team does have a bit more work to do, however, as the water simulations haven't completed, preventing us from determining exactly where water will exist in the world. As you can imagine, this is pivotal as it's not only a vital resource, but it also plays a role in where settlements are located, which in turn helps determine where county lines are drawn. We anticipate another couple of days of work required to complete the water simulations and rendering. Now that the content team is no longer using the build machines, and the terrain is done being created, the metadata team will be taking over use of the cloud machines.

And finally, the web team is feature complete on the website and is currently working through a full set of tests to validate its functionality. We anticipate being done with the test pass tomorrow.

As you can see, things are coming together -- and we're close -- but we're not quite there yet. This means that we won't be releasing Domain and Settlement Selection to you on Monday, the 13th. Earlier today, I spoke with several hundred of you, including many of the monarchs and nobles of the various servers to discuss the situation and our plans moving forward.

Based on that conversation, and our own internal planning, our efforts to complete the maps and bring the site online will continue as planned over the coming days. Once the site and the maps are integrated, however, we'll bring the Domain and Settlement Selection site online for your perusal in a review-only state. Only then will we officially open the site to resume Domain and Settlement Selection, shortly thereafter.

When the claim period begins, we will begin with a short time reserved for the monarchs, who will choose their duchies, counties, and seats of power, and will then proceed to the dukes as previously planned. By doing things this way, we'll allow the kings time to complete their picks of their duchy, county, and settlement ahead of the ducal picks. And, even as the monarchs make their last picks, the maps will be visible to everyone, ensuring everyone has a period of review before their pick time comes up.

We'll be giving you all regular updates throughout the process with images and other snippets of our progress so you can track where we are as we push to cross the finish line.

It's a been a long road getting to Domain & Settlement Selection folks. In many ways, building and balancing these massive worlds has been just as difficult and complex as building the technology they'll run on. But we're almost done. Just hang in there a little while longer and we'll get back to picking domains.

Pledged to the continued development of the Soulborn Engine and the Chronicles of Elyria,

Caspian


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5/27/2019 8:28:22 AM #166

1 month later from the date announced date in the emails and we are still waiting for just the maps. Ouch.


"If we wait until we are ready, we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives..." code: CD83B4

5/27/2019 2:47:39 PM #167

Posted By Pendulum at 01:28 AM - Mon May 27 2019

1 month later from the date announced date in the emails and we are still waiting for just the maps. Ouch.

frustration of missed dates notwithstanding, if you think these are 'just maps' you need to educate yourself a little bit more on what is actually being created here

to paraphrase one of my dukes who is far more tech minded than myself, they are technically rendering eight huge maps at the same time with a metric fuck ton of vectors and variables.

Four overworld and four subterranean all of which are completely different.

They pull this shit off they'll be the first developer in history to do that.


5/27/2019 3:22:15 PM #168

Posted By Dleatherus at 10:47 AM - Mon May 27 2019

frustration of missed dates notwithstanding, if you think these are 'just maps' you need to educate yourself a little bit more on what is actually being created here

And if you think that's a valid justification for being 1 month late on a timeline they established themselves and were still gunning a couple days prior to it falling through... then you need to educate yourself a bit more on what it means to deliver on complex projects.

What this says here, loud and clear, is that they didn't have any clue what they were doing as they were working through that world gen stuff.


5/27/2019 3:24:55 PM #169

Oh, and I'll add to that, given Caspian's posts, and Snipe's subsequent explanations, we're not about to see DSS happen, and even much less Exposition,

It seems that they're now just diving into their procedural gen algorithms coming together. It took how long for Sean Murray's team to do the same on something a lot less complex?

Give it at least another couple months before the last mayor can make his pick.


5/27/2019 3:26:29 PM #170

Posted By HolyAvengerOne at 08:22 AM - Mon May 27 2019

Posted By Dleatherus at 10:47 AM - Mon May 27 2019

frustration of missed dates notwithstanding, if you think these are 'just maps' you need to educate yourself a little bit more on what is actually being created here

And if you think that's a valid justification for being 1 month late on a timeline they established themselves and were still gunning a couple days prior to it falling through... then you need to educate yourself a bit more on what it means to deliver on complex projects.

What this says here, loud and clear, is that they didn't have any clue what they were doing as they were working through that world gen stuff.

i wasn't justifying anything - i was pointing out that these are not 'just maps'


5/27/2019 3:59:09 PM #171

Posted By HolyAvengerOne at 5:22 PM - Mon May 27 2019

What this says here, loud and clear, is that they didn't have any clue what they were doing as they were working through that world gen stuff.

Dleatherus wasn't justifying the missed dates, the keyword there is "notwithstanding", which makes it an argument in spite of that. In other words, you're right that they had no clue, which is why they should never have set any dates before they reached the polishing stage. But if you expected them to have a clue, then you're the one being clueless.

The argument Dleatherus is making is in regards to why they had no clue. The time it takes a computer to process waste amount of data that takes hours or days is not easily predicted, especially when the number of loops that will be performed is unknown. In addition predicting the time it takes to output creative work in general is never possible to be accurate.

That is why those of us who do have some clue insist SBS cease providing dates to begin with because there is no way they can actually set an accurate date for projects of this nature. Even if they really wanted to meet it by the anniversary, as it turns out, it's a lot less of a bummer to delay the anniversary event than to actually have several missed dates in a row.

5/28/2019 12:14:13 AM #172

The scariest part of this delay for me is that they thought they could complete the work by April 29th it's been nearly a month after that and it's still not done. I get the "cone of uncertainty" but how could no one on the project figure out that they were over a month behind schedule? Or that April 29th was an unrealistic date?


5/28/2019 12:43:57 AM #173

Posted By Nubz_Unite at 08:14 AM - Tue May 28 2019

The scariest part of this delay for me is that they thought they could complete the work by April 29th it's been nearly a month after that and it's still not done. I get the "cone of uncertainty" but how could no one on the project figure out that they were over a month behind schedule? Or that April 29th was an unrealistic date?

it is a case of April 29th was unrealistic due to unforeseeable bugs and complications associated with the sheer size and complexity of the maps and DSS. There was no way to predict the potential domino effect a single bug might have because it is so complex


5/28/2019 1:58:53 AM #174

Posted By HajimeSaikou at 10:43 AM - Tue May 28 2019

it is a case of April 29th was unrealistic due to unforeseeable bugs and complications associated with the sheer size and complexity of the maps and DSS. There was no way to predict the potential domino effect a single bug might have because it is so complex

You do know that doesn't come across any better. That's basically saying that SBS didn't account for how complex making each world would be. I say world, since other people have said "maps" and got jumped for it.

It's really the main excuse I see people still using, when others ask why the maps aren't ready. "That it's so insanely complex, with so many different moving parts that can't be changed later. Well of course it got blown out".

So really who is the bigger fool here? Us for believing SBS when they said date after date or SBS for thinking they could pull it off so easily? At least most backers can fall back on just being clueless about the whole thing. SBS being professions, should know better or at least know better than to use "it's just a few more days" so many times in a row.


5/28/2019 5:21:26 AM #175

And this is how the world ended, no one could have predicted that it would have occurred so soon.


Fc:772197 []

5/28/2019 9:28:08 AM #176

Posted By Dleatherus at 12:47 AM - Tue May 28 2019

if you think these are 'just maps' you need to educate yourself a little bit more

Your quote of me is inaccurate and misleading.


"If we wait until we are ready, we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives..." code: CD83B4

5/28/2019 7:30:49 PM #177

"The argument Dleatherus is making is in regards to why they had no clue. The time it takes a computer to process waste amount of data that takes hours or days is not easily predicted, especially when the number of loops that will be performed is unknown. In addition predicting the time it takes to output creative work in general is never possible to be accurate."

As others have said, this excuse does NOT make SBS look any better. 3 times the day before they were still saying it would be done in days. And yet here we are still waiting. The question is how could they so grossly miscalculate the amount of time needed 3 separate times? It makes laymen like me speculate that they do not know what the fuck they are doing. And I am sorry but most people here should be speculating that too. And you guys keep acting like each new miscalculation is a separate thing from the many others they have already made. At this point, it is not one tree in the forest you should be looking at but the whole dam forest.


5/28/2019 7:42:44 PM #178

Oh no a development team with a crazy ambitious goal has missed a deadline because what could be something that was unforeseen or a small error, or even a big one.

I backed this game in 2015 knowing 5 years seemed like a pretty ambitious but realistic goal. Sure, they set dates that got things hyped up, that was a miscalculation, but damn....slow your rolls people! They are creating worlds!

Plus I'm pretty sure there are supposed to be continents we don't see yet, I'm not sure if those are being implemented at the same time, or they will begin to be generated when the worlds have discovered seafaring.

I will end my 2 cents with patience! Just have a little patience! Go outside, the weather is nice! I'm stuck in a hospital and will be housebound for the foreseeable short-term...wish I could enjoy outside!


5/29/2019 5:02:35 AM #179

You know how chrome has that dinosaur game for when there is no signal? Would be nice if SBS would give us something persistent to occupy ourselves while they keep missing deadlines. Maybe instead of another event they can release that standalone architecture tool they promised then pushed back to Alpha phase.... Or humor us and make a Minecraft texture pack. Or give us free copies to Life is Feudal to kill the time... I'm just peeved at how I got honeypotted by D&SS being up for 5 days and ended up dropping even more money. Got EP when the EP shop was merely conceptualized and will probably have issues working when/if it launches (maybe?)

5/29/2019 8:25:56 AM #180

"Oh no a development team with a crazy ambitious goal has missed a deadline because what could be something that was unforeseen or a small error, or even a big one."

EVERY goal has been missed or dropped is the point. If this were the only one no one would be complaining. Maybe we should be starting to think that it's too ambitious for them? Has it not occurred to you that there may be other goals they are missing we don't even know about?

They change directions like they are the wind. If they would just stick to one thing until completion we would be seeing something by now.


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