Adventureverse - Private Beta

[DrMike2000]

Dear friends, I have been busy!

I've been working with fellow FR alumni skarnold for the past while on Adventureverse, a project heavily inspired by Freedom Force and the mod community that grew up around it here. I've posted about my RPGRules system for Unity a while back - this is what that project has now morphed into. For me, it's been my chance to do everything I did in FFX but without the limits of modding an existing game.

We've now got a working prototype where you can create your own custom characters, create campaigns and adventures for them, and upload them to the cloud to share with other players.
We're looking to launch a private Beta soon (after one more round of polishing/bug-fixing), and are looking for people to register, so that your feedback can help us make this the best it can be.
Needless to say, if you're here you're probably part of our target audience!

Promo video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3zz34hfvD8

If you'd like to register, head on over to https://www.adventureversegame.com/

If anyone has any questions, more than happy to chat here.

[oktokels]

Hello Dr.Mike, i'm a big fan of your work
Great news ! i'm glad to know that ffx kept growing and evolving. This looks and sounds very good and i'm very excited 
Just some questions:

- What is kept from ffx and what had to be left out?
- Will it be possible to be a spectator of battles like in the rumble room?
- Is it possible to modify the ai of the characters?
- To what extent can the game be modified (new animations? new textures?)

Cheers ! 

[DrMike2000]

Hi oktokels!

We've built everything up from scratch here, so there are things that weren't available in the Freedom Force engine (such as Damage Shields and Auras) and other things that I put into FFX that aren't ready to go in here yet.
The gameplay here is Diablo/League of Legends style isometric, and the RPG engine behind it is a mix of Freedom Force, Diablo, City of Heroes, Champions and many other fine games I've played (both computer and pen-and-paper).

Big emphasis on that "yet"
There's a lot of code in the back end that works in a rough-and-ready manner (eg Telekinesis attacks for throwing prop objects at your target like FFX had) and won't get exposed to the front end until it's well polished.
But what we do have working so far should keep you going for a while hopefully.

We don't have Rumble Room mode yet. The missions are set up so that you choose your player character and can bring a few AIs in with you who follow you around and fight with you.

AI modification - oh yes.  Characters will know how to use whatever powers you give them, but you can tweak which ones they favour. You can set conditions on the use of powers (eg only use a big wind up punch on stunned targets, only use your mega-heal at low health). You can also add in options like kiting distance for ranged characters and how much a strong character likes picking up and throwing props.

We don't have a path for user created assets yet. Currently you choose from a few options and themes for each mission map (eg SciFi, Dungeon, Victorian Mansion) and have some tools for making procedural levels with them. You can then mix and match with custom object placement eg populate your Victorian mansion with SciFi equipment to make a supervillain lair. Character visuals are done via a CoH/Champions style costume creator where you pick and colour pieces. And animations are hardcoded for now - you choose your character's basic stance and which animation each power will use.

And this is all just as it is in our prototype right now. We plan to put a lot more work into it to expand all of these areas, and we want your help to prioritise what features you'd like!

[oktokels]

Sounds good, looking forward to it !!

[GogglesPizanno]

This looks rad!

[spydermann93]

This looks and sounds very neat, Dr Mike! Can't wait to see more!

[detourne_me]

Wow! Great to see you again Dr. Mike!
Adventureverse sounds very, very cool. I think this meme is apropos:

Spoiler

[abenavides]

Fantastic news Doc! I took a quick peek and it looks great ! I will sign up when I get sec

[Podmark]

Very intriguing!

[naitvalis]

Very nice to see you here again DrMike! best luck with your project! another superhero game made from someone with your experience in  is a thing to follow, you are pratically a mighty creature here on the forum  .
However if i could voive my idea a thing that i wish i could really see  in a superhero game is a story that lead you to the real action, like for example a text based thing that explain that your character found himself  in that situation so you can make choice that eventually lead you to battle, and this in a random generated event world, so basically you could generate "worlds" and insert in the heroes and have various story you could follow but without create any campaign, you just gave the new world generic directives then is
automatically generated.
I say that this  could be cool even as ony text based until the action come in, expecially for the comic book fans...this could gave a character a background a story, traits...and so on.
I will make an example: i have created a character like batman i insert him in "world Adventureverse" the text "rpg mode"start to say:
Bruce wayne is at the Manor reflecting in the darkness, the bat signal is in the sky and according to the police radio there are many troubles tonight:
(here the list of the things you could do) and whatever you do is important that modify this world ...
that was thar superhero game wich was only text based i cannot remember the name but i found the idea very cool, not so much the realization of it.

[DrMike2000]

Goggles! Alex! Detourne! Podmark! Spydey!
This is great - very much looking forwards to working with you guys on this, and seeing what you can do with our system.

[DrMike2000]

Hey naitvalis!
Interesting ideas. Very interesting. They're probably beyond the scope of what we're doing here in Adventureverse Version 1.

I am really interested by the idea of procedural narrative. Way back in my FF-modding days I had the idea of being able to assign a custom character a trait (eg "gruff") and having them spout an optional line of dialog in context of a cutscene. (eg "Ya gotta be kiddin' me!")
The dialog would make sense with or without that line, but it inserted the character and their pseronality intothat story.
I think as far as I got was the grand achievement of having your custom members of the Strangers present and silent at meetings occasionally.

From there, you can go to the jigsaw narrative models, where you craft a story segment for <Urban Vigilante> which involves a <shady contact> and <level 5 natural enemy> and slots them all in.
If something like that works, it can be magic, but it does require HEAPS of testing.
And there's always the worry that the seams become visible, and the players can see or feel the police commissioner saying "Hello <INSERT CHARACTER>" instead of personally responding to your character.
And that's when you're trying to put this kind of thing together within the controlled environment of a games studio!

Our primary aim with Adventureverse is to provide the player with the story crafting tools, so we will be starting off simple and robust rather than trying to create cutting edge narrative engines.

But never say never.
(and if you remember the name of that game, let me know)

[SickAlice]

It's gorgeous. I'm probably easy enough, interest in making creator made art contents and you already covered that here. Initial feedback is visually it's immediately captivating and sharp. Youtube confused it for Marvel Heroes which is a good thing of course.

[DrMike2000]

Aww, thanks, Alice!
I do have a very good art team, it's true!

[hmarrs]

Wow Mike...
I'm just shocked and stuck on stupid.
It's amazing and the Graphics are Beautiful!!
Wow just Wow.

[Epimethee]

Extremely happy to see this, congrats on the new project, Dr! Looks extremely interesting, and what you've mentioned is tantalizing.

I suppose there's no short-term plan to port it on the Mac? I've still registered for the beta, in case I can get it to work under Wine.

[Alaric]

Wow! This looks amazing!

[DrMike2000]

Hey Epimiethee!
No plans for a Mac build yet, I'm afraid. Hopefully Wine does the trick

[DrMike2000]

And we're live now for the Beta!
I've spotted a few of you already in the player's list on our dashboard

If anyone else wants to sign up for this - go to adventureversegame.com and press the big blue button!

[kidnasty]

I got my invite last night, it looks great.      I will try it out over the weekend.  Thank you and keep up the good work.

[hmarrs]

Just signed up just waiting for my Email😊👍

[SickAlice]

Got it, ty. It'll be a bit here. Dial-up connection and my work is on top of me currently. If anything I may be able to offer input about aesthetics though as before from the preview it already looks crisp and good.

[DrMike2000]

I feel you, Alice! I did the entire Strangers and FFX work on dial-up internet, so I get it

And a quick shout out to detourne - I love the characters you're making! Just played Scarab Azure through Mutant City - nice work!

[Borgaster]

Congratulations, is a great job. But the problem(this is only my opinion) is that has a lot of games online similar. Valiance Online, Champions Online,  City Of Heroes is back,  DC Universe Online never was shutdown(Miracle?) and has this project...Marvel Universe Online?
https://themarveluniverseonline.com/

[crosspotts1.0]

this is exactly what i was looking to make one day will it include the ability to skin thing on the basic mesh like body in the future because i think that's what made ff so good and easily accessible i can make a skin of someone i want and put it on a mesh and boom i have them in my game i know your working from scratch but that's probably what will make it stand apart even if you can only use the basic skin on the character but all other assets are pre built in like weapons different kinds of hair armor straps satchel and more
i loved your free roam mod 

[BentonGrey]

Dr. Mike!  So this is what you've been up to!  This looks really cool!  I'm definitely going to have to check it out when I have some time later in the summer!

[DrMike2000]

Wa-hey Benton!
Yeah, I've been busy, dude! I'd love to know what you think of the no-code mission designer system we've built here when you have the time.

Hey Crosspotts!
We don't have plans for the player to import an entire texture into the game like FF does. Our current plans would be to have a much wider library of costume parts (ideally like Champions Online-sized library) and maybe a decal system for putting shapes on the character and moving them around. So it would be more Adobe Illustrator than Photoshop if that makes sense? That's all some way off though.

Hi Borgaster!
I am more than familiar with CoH and Champions Online - spent 1000's of hours in each (and a little bit in DCU). What we're offering here that's different is the ability to create your own missions and tell your own stories. CoH had Mission Architect for that, we're trying to build on that idea to a much higher level and make that the focus of our game.

[Borgaster]

Hi Borgaster!
I am more than familiar with CoH and Champions Online - spent 1000's of hours in each (and a little bit in DCU). What we're offering here that's different is the ability to create your own missions and tell your own stories. CoH had Mission Architect for that, we're trying to build on that idea to a much higher level and make that the focus of our game.
[/quote]

DrMike2000, thanks for your reply, i will check your game when are ready. If the people here on the forum are praising your game so, i believe in these people because they have knowledge and they know what they are talking about. Just one thing, if possible, put a little chance to create a character like Superman with your clothes and your superpowers. I pay you if necessary for make it(Lol).

[Podmark]

This sounds very exciting Dr. Mike. When I free up some time I'll need to check it out.

[cmdrkoenig67]

I?m guessing one needs internet for this? I?d love to be in on this Dr Mike, but I only have internet through deathly slow 4G phone...UGH! Perhaps, as soon as I get my upgraded 5G phone and get hooked up to my computer, I can join up?

Dana