Poe (#8618) wrote:

First. Is it (or will it be) possible to join any of the three factions, or are they only meant to function in the background, like a part of the landscape?

No, it’s not possible to join any of the factions. Instead, you will be earning the reputation for each of them and get certain benefits for that.

Poe (#8618) wrote:

Disregarding these three factions, what will be the political system useful for?

Bear in mind that political system isn’t supposed to be introduced in the first stages, and probably even not with the first update of the release version, so details may change.

Disregarding the lore and world-building aspect, the direct gameplay benefits may include faction specific crafting recipes, skills or abilities, helping or interfering with certain gameplay activities (help fighting or summon a monster, increase success of resource gathering, help with wounds and diseases etc.)

Besides that, the political system is supposed to have two other functions:

• An additional source of segregation both for players and Beasts
• A way to affect global quests not through mechanic actions (like chopping all of the trees or killing all of the monsters) but through political manipulations (like fighting a problem with illegal mining not by fighting each smuggler in person but getting an Administrarium Decree to close the mine)

Poe (#8618) wrote:

Second. What is a significance (or purpose) of so called global events?

Except for the direct gameplay experience and goal setting, global events are supposed to give players a possibility to affect the shaping of the world with gameplay means instead of just posting a poll somewhere in the forums.

Poe (#8618) wrote:

Third. Why do you think it is necessary for an end of a time cycle ("eon") to be accompanied with physical changes of the world? What advantages do you see in it?

We have a procedurally generated world. First, if we have no eon changes, everything new will be appearing on a very long distance from the start locations, and this distance will drastically increase with time. Second, the generation scripts will be improved and expanded over time. The resulting work of the first script versions won’t be that nice, and this would be the only landscapes that a lot of players will ever see if we never change them.

Poe (#8618) wrote:

(I think why this does not happen in real life is exactly because there are no advantages in such a happening.)

Actually this is exactly what happens in real life. Sure, these processes take more time in reality/ Games are more fast-paced to be engaging, but the idea is exactly the same . A few examples:

• Cutting down the woods. The first inhabitants of Easter Island made a choice to deforest everything and build their idols all over the island. They went down into history and created a remarkable cultural object, but the ecology of the island was drastically changed, and their civilization collapsed.
• Global warming. Our civilization made a choice to develop the industry which caused global climate changes and affected literally every corner of the planet from melting of glaciers and rising sea levels to droughts and ocean acidification, destroying the whole ecosystems and giving birth to new ones.
• The creation of Sahara desert. A lush plain was transformed into a desert by farmers who brought their livestock which ate the vegetation and left the soil naked for the erosion.

Could a beast decide to leave your manor(for whatever reason), and if so, might they come back(say if they decide they preferred living with you to being wild, or being with someone else)?

DragonDreamers (#49105) wrote:

Could a beast decide to leave your manor(for whatever reason), and if so, might they come back(say if they decide they preferred living with you to being wild, or being with someone else)?

A Beast can't leave its manor without player's approval. We considered this thing because it fits the concept very nice, but this may lead to a lot of frustration for players when a skilled Beast with custom outfit leaves. However, it may decide that it wants to live in another manor (for example it may want to be close to its loved one), and it's up to the Lord how to handle this situation.

I may have possibly worded the third part of my question, so that it resulted in misunderstanding. I was asking namely this:

The game story relates that, namely the end of the cycle is associated with those changes. Why namely the end instead of just about any part?

(Same for the examples given: What time reckoning techniques make you think it was an end of a time cycle, when the Easter Island collapsed and the Sahara desert was created? The "global warming" starting before the end of the last time cycle still exists, even though the time cycle has already ended.)

Poe (#8618) wrote:

The game story relates that, namely the end of the cycle is associated with those changes. Why namely the end instead of just about any part?

This is just a gaming convention.

Since BeastEon seem to be more of a continuation than a replacement for BeastKeeper, does it still make sense to suggest upgrades for BeastKeeper, as per its part of the forum?

Can be (some of) the upgrades suggested implemented in BeastEon instead? Do you plan to look at them that way, eventually?

Another round of questions. Sorry, I can't help being curious and excited for BE :)

1. Mr Questgiver seems to have a pet cat. In the BeastEon time, do people still have normal pets, and other animals like livestock?

if no: where do meat, milk, wool and other resources come from? Beasts and monsters only?

if yes: what do beasts think about their less-intelligent brethren? Do they have normal pets of their own? (familiars were mentioned on the blog, wonder if it's the same thing)

2. Being able to submit custom items right away sounds great. If it's not too early, can you give any clues about what kinds of items will be needed, and specifications for the artwork?

Also, unrelated but I really want to apologise for taking so long with the last two beast models. I tried duplicating some of the other skeletons (and thus animations) between beasts to save time on editing, but it got messy and now I've had to re-rig them both 3 times. Not fun, haha. Anyway, I'll definitely have them done and sent next week! I hope this delay hasn't caused any problems for development.

I thought th Questgiver WAS the cat. Think about it: he has a zooty medal, he has a human secretary to bring him documents, and he's clearly reading out which quests to give.

Marans (#53943) wrote:

1. Mr Questgiver seems to have a pet cat. In the BeastEon time, do people still have normal pets, and other animals like livestock?

if no: where do meat, milk, wool and other resources come from? Beasts and monsters only?

if yes: what do beasts think about their less-intelligent brethren? Do they have normal pets of their own? (familiars were mentioned on the blog, wonder if it's the same thing)

Yes, people still have pets, both livestock and decorative / companion ones.
Beasts treat nonsentient pets the same way that humans do. And yes, they have pets of their own. Familiars are a bit different group - we use this term for all creatures that accompany Beasts in their travels, sometimes helping or disturbing them. Some of the pets are among familiars as well.

Marans (#53943) wrote:

2. Being able to submit custom items right away sounds great. If it's not too early, can you give any clues about what kinds of items will be needed, and specifications for the artwork?

We didn’t develop a full list of rules yet. From the artistic and technical points of view everything is clear, but subjects that can be drawn and mechanics of custom recipe creation are still in discussion because they involve literally the whole other game.

Marans (#53943) wrote:

Also, unrelated but I really want to apologise for taking so long with the last two beast models. I tried duplicating some of the other skeletons (and thus animations) between beasts to save time on editing, but it got messy and now I've had to re-rig them both 3 times. Not fun, haha. Anyway, I'll definitely have them done and sent next week! I hope this delay hasn't caused any problems for development.

Thank you very much for all your help here!
You’re definitely not causing any problems. Actually we’re going to move the date of alpha testing. It’s clear right now that we won’t finish alpha by the end of this autumn. The project has grown and expanded quite a bit, and we have found that some of the things that we estimated to take not that long are taking lots of time. Just one of such examples is world building and lore in all of its aspects; while in BK we could generate items, events, monsters and even full concepts pretty quick, now it doesn’t work this way as we want everything to be consistent and well thought out. It may seem that it's possible to develop everything else without lore and concept details, but it turned out that this is not true. We were very wrong with our estimations, sorry. Taking into account the development experience in this project, we’re systematizing everything that we have right now and trying to figure out the new deadline that we can meet with some confidence. We’re going to make a post in our blog with the closest milestones to give our readers an idea about the state of the project.

Thanks for the answers again!

That's totally understandable, especially for a detailed "universe" game like this. Frankly I'm just impressed that a small team are trying so much - it seems the type of project so ambitious, both technically and creatively, that normally would involve a large dev team. Is there any other example of an indie game that's MMO-like, possibly thousands of constant AI creature simulations, infinite generated maps, tons of 2D drawn art, player-run and -created economy, and so many other planned features...? This is kinda crazy, but fascinating, to watch as it develops bit by bit.

Anyway the design, writing and code skills on display are already amazing. So I don't think anyone could possibly complain or nag you to work faster. :) More time to wait just means more time for the rest of us to speculate and build up hype - and keep spreading the word about the project.

So is this still a thing? Guessing it's still not out? And will we be able to join as soon as it comes out or will we need to become a beta player or something?

Alexis_, yes, we're still actively working on BeastEon. We were wrong about the initial estimations for alpha release by the end of this autumn, sorry. The project has grown quite a bit, a lot of concepts have changed and improved, and in addition to that both lead developers have some health issues which made the development somewhat slower than we expected initially. We're still working as much as we can though!

You don't have to participate in alpha and beta phases and can wait until the release version.

Hello, I just started playing beastkeeper not to long ago and wanted to know when you open the close alpha could newbie like myself join in it?

Krazy_Faith, your BeastKeeper experience won't affect the chance to join the alpha testing. Our criteria are pretty similar with any other game looking for alpha testers :)

Aww hope you guys get better soon.

I wouldn't know how to Alpha test, but it would be lovely to beta test for you, if it's not too complicated.