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
God knows what damage this has done to the potential sales of Kversary and future promos.
I made the mistake of rearranging my life around these deadlines that were not only set for the community but also set for the developer teams too.
I won't be making that mistake again come A2 and exposition.
Like many others in the community, I also have my eye on other games.
Posted By Zsiledifyshk at 10:04 PM - Tue May 14 2019
@Zsildifyshk I don't know if your late to the party or not but he did confirm these dates. Thats what the fighting is all about.
He started giving dates again because the community asked him to provide them. It's a double-edged sword, really. The reality is that the game is still in development and all dates should be looked at as a target date and not a hard date until Caspian confirms it.
Talk about a double-edged sword. He just finished saying he dosn't pay attention to the community other than sales yet somehow he responded to the community asking for dates again. So how is it he managed to see that but not this?
And I wonder about that comment in general. This was a much bigger stink than anything here before and he never noticed. And I really don't remember people asking for dates all that much after he decided to curtail them a bit. And why he curtailed them a bit was because of similar problems as this one. So, it sort of makes no sense he would open that door again just because a few people asked for it. I mean "maybe" a few people like now were asking for dates but nothing at all like the people asking him to stop now.
Naw, unless there was a ton of people on discord asking for dates I am not buying this comment. I think he just got lazy and fell back on old habits. I remember when he first hired Vye and she was much more involved with PR. I clearly remember her in several videos trying to stop him from saying too much. He would start to say something and then look at her and she would indicate in some way for him not to say it.
Posted By RedDoggybone at 8:57 PM - Tue May 14 2019
The "giving him a pass" comments I made were more directed at the other two posters I originally responded to and the others that continually do those things.
Well, I can not "continually do those things" because I am back since, what, a week? And I never said to give him a pass. Are you making that up on the fly or are you just so pissed (Disclaimer: I do not doubt your reasons to be) that you let fly without reading stuff?
Posted By Atogrim at 03:54 AM - Wed May 15 2019
Posted By RedDoggybone at 8:57 PM - Tue May 14 2019
The "giving him a pass" comments I made were more directed at the other two posters I originally responded to and the others that continually do those things.
Well, I can not "continually do those things" because I am back since, what, a week? And I never said to give him a pass. Are you making that up on the fly or are you just so pissed (Disclaimer: I do not doubt your reasons to be) that you let fly without reading stuff?
I must apologize once again. You and Xeon posted back to back and I keep lumping your two post together in my head as one. I will try to stop doing that as it is not fair to you.
Posted By RedDoggybone at 11:17 AM - Wed May 15 2019
Posted By Atogrim at 03:54 AM - Wed May 15 2019
Posted By RedDoggybone at 8:57 PM - Tue May 14 2019
The "giving him a pass" comments I made were more directed at the other two posters I originally responded to and the others that continually do those things.
Well, I can not "continually do those things" because I am back since, what, a week? And I never said to give him a pass. Are you making that up on the fly or are you just so pissed (Disclaimer: I do not doubt your reasons to be) that you let fly without reading stuff?
I must apologize once again. You and Xeon posted back to back and I keep lumping your two post together in my head as one. I will try to stop doing that as it is not fair to you.
Fair enough. Thank you.
Posted By Sushislayer at 10:51 AM - Mon May 13 2019
Caspian,
I'm sure this comment will get lost in the sea of comments but I feel compelled to say it anyways. In the future if you want to set a hard date for say a week, Why don't you put those managerial skills to good use and make it 2 weeks. You keep giving the same excuses, "Oh this took so long because the map is so big." It amazes me how your entire community, thousands of people, already knew your map design was going to take longer than a week but you don't.
Words of advise from a business owner:
Stop giving hard dates unless you know for a fact you can hit them and its better to say 2 weeks and be early than say 1 week and be late.
It amazes me that you have missed literally almost every single deadline and you have yet to still figure this out.
Nobody cares about your excuses, just the progress and product. I'm not saying to cut corners. I'm saying to stop lying to the people that pay your bills and yourself.
This is not new feedback to SBS..
https://chroniclesofelyria.com/forum/topic/31275/missed-again?page=6#post347709
@Malais
Caspian always admits defeat a day or two before it is set to release and then what does he do? he jumps on discord pleading with the community even though most aren't even there and that's straight bullshit and you know it.
Everything people suggested was on the forums days prior suggesting the same shit.
So it takes him going on discord (unofficial channel AGAIN) to speak with this so called community, tell me was there a notice posted stating he was going to speak with the community as a whole or was this a play on the people he knows who will support him/sbs no matter what he says? Cause I didn't get NOTICE did you?.
@Malais
"Continue beating on them for a mistake they made but are attempting to do better and grow from or give them a chance to do better. "
What are they doing better? All I see is repetitiveness and not in a good way.
@Malais
"I choose to take the man at his word"
Really? what word, everything he has said and done has failed so tell me what word are you taking him at? want to explain?
Your post was nonsensical..
Posted By Alserian at 04:43 AM - Wed May 15 2019
awesome getting closer and closer to launch.....
whoa
Posted By Zsiledifyshk at 9:04 PM - Tue May 14 2019
He started giving dates again because the community asked him to provide them. It's a double-edged sword, really. The reality is that the game is still in development and all dates should be looked at as a target date and not a hard date until Caspian confirms it.
In this case it's a little worse than just missing their own target date... since DSS requires every backer with a title to be here for a short window of time in order to claim something worth hundreds or thousands of dollars... it forces thousands of people to rearrange their schedules, and if they keep posting a date, and keep missing it, that forces thousands of people to rearrange their schedules again and again. This is a lot worse than just missing a patch date, or an alpha release date, or something where nobody is really required to be there the moment it opens.
It will come when they are done, there is no point too keep bothering them about a date.
It like the community are the donkey in Shrek 2 "are we there yet?" and Caspian is Shrek "No"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vUBsTJYK28
