Also, the models which were shown on facebook are surprisingly good for a pre-alpha. Hopefully things get funded, will try and spread the word.

I must say, the current patch does have a different feel to it. While not significant (Understandable) I really like the rock explosions or whatever animation those thugs use, looks promising. Hopefully animations get to where they should be. How long has VO been in development? Hopefully we see an Alpha this year.

TheCity wrote:
I believe that it would be very beneficial releasing the standalone for free. Saints Row did this with SR3 and the demo for SR4 where you can use spend all the time in the world making your character up so that when the game was released you could basically just plug-in and play. I find it's a good way to get yourself right into the game, especially if you're like me and want the costume to match the theme your going for, but also want to feel comfortable in that skin too.

I can understand, due to all the shit that has been spewed out with people doing Assetflips and shit there is a lot of crap that leaks out which creates a highly negative opinion of ANYTHING in Early Access. It's a good thing that Valiance Online haven't yet been moved from Greenlight and onto Early Access because it is WAAAAYYYY too soon. As long as the devs time this right and release it when possibly late Alpha or Beta into the Early Access scope and be one of those games that deserves it, much like Darkest Dungeon, Nekro and Unepic. The latter being basically finished, but needing time for the multiplayer system to be added.

I have confidence that there won't be a problem. Especially as the Devs have no problem with us posting up vids of the gameplay, spreading the word and interest across the web.

No matter what you do - you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. There is no way to release a character creator any earlier than anything else, then have to compeltely revamp it for the new system - throwing away the hours and hours people spent playing around with it, because it will lno longer integrate with the new chracter gen system. Some people will say 'yeah well whatever, I expect that' others will say'holly hell! wtf mnan??!' no matter what.

VO has been good enough to let us play along for the ride. If you get that it is a test environment then great. If you don't get that it is a test environment then oh well. It's along the lines of Minecraft. That thing was unplayable garbage in the very beginning. Then it was sort of fun about the time he started selling copies. Kind of. Then it got better and better over the course of a few years until 1.0 hit.
Personally, I totally dig 'being there' from the beginning of projects. Helping to bug test, get early access to builds, get in on the inside if I can, etc. It is just fun being a part of the growth process.

There will be detractors no matter what you do, and supporters alike. I hope they go for it. I think all they need to do is get the base powersets all fixed up, some travel powers put in, and the new character generator with the new models put in place (with a decent variety of costume stoofs), and let 'er rip. They need income to keep moving forward and Early Access is a good way forward. If they provide a good, playable Alpha with a few good missions, sewers, and plenty of street sweeping available... and then keep updating regularly... I think it is a no brainer win.

My $.02 anyway

Haplo wrote:
With the amount of crap thrown into Early Access, it would really help if the Dev team makes sure to be open and honest about everything, which I'm sure they will anyway. I'll spread info and I'm sure Jim Sterling might pick the game up to give it a try of sorts, though maybe he avoids MMOs, I'm not certain.

I think having a creator like the one I mentioned wouldn't be too difficult it was often updated. For example they could treat the creator as a sort of "demo" set up, being completely free and updating with the game as more costumes and powers are added over the course. But, it's best not to jump the gun and only work on it if the Devs are confident that it can be updated in such a way that it'll always be as up to date as the game itself. That is just my opinion though, it's best to focus on the core game ATM and maybe do this if they raise enough money to turn this into their dayjob.

Oh I completely agree that it would be a great additional feature... I wouldn't be surprised if they do a separate character creator. I just don't think we will be seeing one until sometime around the final Beta stages when things will be stabilized to the point that it won't be a problem to keep the systems in sync.

I keep going back to it, but the recent release of Black Desert is a good example. Their character creator was available for not quite 3 months or so prior to the game's release. Basically buttoning up the last of Beta. Like you said - they even had a few updates to it along the way as well. So it is totally doable, and maybe the VO team will come up with some way to do it earlier than others have.

It is even a good idea with a hugeongous game like MMO's, because it allows for the game client to give you something to toy around with, while it downloads the rest of the game in the background over time. I really liked this because our internet SUCKS. We have limited DSL, so downloading 10 - 21GB games can take us days and days to get. Also another reason I'm a big fan of action / casting bars compared to all the twitch-trends these days. I don't have the ping times needed for 'instant-cast / button-mashing' to keep up with a fight.

Hells Wing wrote:
That would certainly be quite awesome. I've not heard of this "Black Desert" what's it about? The idea is great though, allowing players to spend time playing with the character creator and then import it either right away or, if the game is still in Beta or even the last stages of Beta, to hold onto the character concept until release as I'm sure some people would do.

Haplo wrote:
That's a pretty good idea actually. DCUO on XBone allowed me to login and play the starter mission while still downloading. Something along those lines would be pretty fantastic for the final product.