Darkwind: War on Wheels

C

croga

First time out of the vault
Hi.. I'm one of the developers of a turn-based, post-apocalyptic Car Wars / Mad Max MMO, just wondering how one would get to post images over in the gallery section?

We've been in development for ~2 years, and spent most of 2006 in open alpha. We're currently in closed beta but will be opening 'officially' within the next few weeks (late April/ early May 2007).

The major themes are: race/deathrace/combat leagues; real-world time-based travel/trade with detailed economic simulation. The reason the game is turn based is to allow a level of detail that's not really possible real-time: it's an MMO wargame rather than an MMORPG.

http://www.dark-wind.com


ss11.jpg


ss10.jpg


rocket1.jpg


racing2.jpg
 
Whoa, someone posting on here about a game they're making and actually showing stuff about it? No way!

You caught my interest with the turn-based piece croga. How did you manage to implement a turn-based system into a massively multiplayer online game?
 
Simpleminded: The whole game is split between (1) long-term strategy on the website (travel takes 10s of hours, healing takes days, vehicle fixing takes hours, leagues take 12 weeks which is also a game 'year'), and (2) individual live events using the 3D game client.

The live 3D events are turn-based but run in what would be called an 'instanced' way I guess. No-one new joins them as a participant after they have started (spectators regularly drop in and out though).
 
By 10s of hours, is that real world time? It sounds like it lends itself well to gaming light since you might end up sitting there a lot waiting for travel, all the same, can be interesting. Be sure to let us know when open beta starts.
 
Hi Croga, I posted your game in our news; not purely in our focus, but close enough. Thanks for bringing your game to us, it is really interesting.

To answer your question about our galleries, users do not have open access for uploading images, outside of Fan Art (and there is an approval process in place there). I've uploaded the four screenshots you brought us to the News section for now, and if there aren't any problems, there should be a new Darkwind gallery before long. If you bring us screenshots in the future, we will upload them there.

By the way, with the PsychicSoftware logo in the Darkwind trailer, is the "Technology/Art/Gameplay" gauge a reference to Troika's logo (Design/Art/Code)?

Edit: Silencer beat me to it.
 
Tannhauser/Silencer- thanks for the info and help! Your policy on image uploads makes perfect sense, of course.

RE Troika: well spotted! You're actually the first person to have made the connection. The message seems right for old-school gaming (where the gameplay is what matters most, unlike -ahem- most modern games) and also for indie games in general, where despite everything else we don't have the resources to compete on the graphics cutting edge.

SimpleMinded: sorry, what I didn't mention was that you control a gang of characters, not just one, and you can organise them into squads along with other players' gangs- so although when you set one squad travelling you have to wait a while to play them, you typically have plenty of other characters you can play events for. (A lot of events also run within the town limits - races, arena combats etc.) The thinking behind the travel time is that it makes travel take some effort, and therefore trade a meaningful activity and price differences at different parts of the world map possible. It also fits into the real-world-time strategy that we have put as much as possible into the game.

edit: something else that controlling a gang lets us have is perma-death. IMO, one of the most ridiculous aspects of most RPGs is the sense that death is merely a minor inconvenience. When the HMG bullets start rattling around the chassis of a car driven by a character you have nurtured for the past 6 months, you really do start to sweat..
 
OK, I have just uploaded 3 or 4 new screenshots using your fan art uploads section.

Here's our press-release-cum-mailshot, hot off the presses: :)

--------------------------------------

As you may know, Darkwind: War on Wheels has been in a period of closed testing for the past few months as we have been integrating and balancing substantial new game features. In addition to our racetrack and arena based racing and combat leagues and ladders, we now also have out-of town travel, multi-player squads, and wilderness battles with NPCs and other player squads.

Three of our towns are now live, with more coming soon. With travel times running to tens of hours, on-the-road piracy and a detailed systems-dynamics based economic simulation, trade is a viable gameplay approach that we have put great effort into making possible. Resource locations, distances, and fluctuating piracy levels (which are tied to actual player activity) all contribute to the supply-and-demand calculations underpinning the economy.

We plan to re-open the game next Friday – May 4th. From now until then, we are offering substantially reduced pre-release subscriptions. The game will remain free to play, but many of the more advanced gameplay features will only be available to subscribers.

Thank you for all your support over the past 2 years.. :-)

Sam
Stephan
-------
Core Developers, Darkwind.
http://www.dark-wind.com
 
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