Eternium Next Generation

[MartinMooser]

That is interesting. I hope Eterium will get some major upgrades and be available on more devices.

[StGeorge688]

I miss the original War Craft and Star Craft. Eternium with campaign! That would be great. Did one month of World of War Craft, then deleted.

[Tin Man]

A very small part of Greenland? Cape Verde?

Four hours ahead of EDT would be places like Mauritania and Mali and any other places that are at UTC without observing any form of daylight savings time, that counts out Greenwich.

In all serious, I wanted to remind about what they said when they introduced the revamped Act II. Players were a bit miffed that they redesigned Act II rather than fix bugs. Players were told that the Act II redesign was artwork only and did not require contributions from the developers, may be using the wrong term here.

Well, they were obviously wrong because, as you have indicated, the revamped Act II introduced all sorts of new headaches. So much for only being artwork changes.

[StGeorge688]

I just wish that they would fix some of the bugs that have been plaguing the game for years. Since they added this weird PvP, they have introduced other bugs that have nothing to do with PvP. Then they change ACT II and introduce more bugs. Rather than spending the time on ACT II they should have written ACT V . Try to play ACT II with only pick up armor.and reduced CL points, don't die else get stuck somewhere in never never land. It seems that every release I find a bug in the first 5 minutes. I did at one time report bugs years ago but it is just a waste of time. I know Tavis does his best but it seems he is the only one. I would enjoy the game more it they just stop development on this platform and fix the existing bugs. I will wait for the new platform without complaint of no new content, just fix the existing bugs so that this version is playable without having to abort the level. I do not even use the armory anymore without trepidation that game will crash. Still haven't fixed the memory leak that has been there for as long as I remember. It is not very hard to write a small bit of code to clean up the sand box every once in awhile. A little bit of code will point you to where your stacks are overflowing. Just write some inline assembly if you have to.

At the top "This is a sticky topic" that is the sad truth

And where it that is 4 hours ahead of EST.

[StGeorge688]

I have so many CT's I am using them on 76's and 75's because they are taking up to much space. I am cutting my ANB's down to every other Bronze.

[StGeorge688]

I was just thinking of that a few days ago. Has it been that long?

[CarnivorousDeathParrot.2]

I think the only real announcement here is that there won't be any more developments/fixes for Eternium.

Instead, they seem to want us to somehow stick around while looking foward to some "Eternium 2" game. . . and then have us put money and time into that all over again - it won't happen.
The Eternium community got screwed over with bad decisions way too many times.

. . .and that is IF they manage to release it within a year or two. With what team? Can't even fix basic stuff. . .

[Jose Sarmento]

Ufff...
I was trying to craft a suitably eloquent response, as I once used to write (or try to) on these forums.

But I'm just too tired, too sick of the same speech, same excuses, same approach every time. The same no-news under the guise of news. This time from the game publisher, not the developers. That's all the more sad.

I'll just sub what would be my eloquent post with some common-sense questions that come to mind. These are addressed to John Welch (CEO), should he wish to comment:

1) back in December 2018 the new crafting system was introduced in Eternium (see Red's post at https://forum.makingfun.com/forum/th...s-and-features). At the time, over Discord we were told two new programmers had been brought into the team & the crafting was one of their first "outputs".

It was *also* said that one of those new programmers had been brought on specifically for his Unreal engine expertise. The intent to port the game (Eternium original) to Unreal had also been stated by Adrian (Developer), at least as early as October that year.

Would you care to elaborate a bit more on what has been achieved between then and now?


2) you mention, and I forget how many times we've heard it, that "it's a small team, has to support both a dead SDK and the game itself, consider how bigger titles have much larger teams etc".

So your approach to a spread-thin team is to spread it *even thinner* between comatose SDK support, Eternium 1 maintenance, and Eternium 2 development?

If lack of resources is the issue, doesn't Eternium 1 provide enough revenue to make growing the team and bolstering its development a feasible strategic investment?

Lastly, in your view, how did the same (or even smaller) team manage to churn out the game in the first place? Did it also take 4 years to decide which SDK to use?

How would you elaborate a bit on the resource allocation since Glory and the Unique trinkets and 4th class set were introduced in June 2020? It would seem two years would suffice to re-create the game on a new Engine, considering all the groundwork (skills effects, damage, monster HP, etc.) can be reused.


3) you also mention, and I quote, "We will share information about progress and plans as things develop.". That could be interpreted as "plans" only being created "as things develop", which I believe is anathema to the concept of "plan", but let's assume in good faith that there are Plans in place, and you choose not to share details to avoid thwarting expectations later on (after 4 years, not much is left to thwart, but ok).

But you *can*, I think, comment a bit on the *existing* plans for Eternium. Back in August 2021, balancing changes were introduced that helped even the game's builds, but (by the developers' own admission) did not complete that designated goal, and a follow-up patch was promised. To quote Adrian directly:

Thanks again for the detailed feedback.
We'll compile a list of improvements from your suggestions and include them in a new build.
Until then we are going to release this version live to allow alpha testing players to join the new season and the upcoming ANB gold.

Can we still expect that follow-up patch? How long, and in what capacity, will Eternium 1 be mantained from now on?


I do think that's long enough.

[Travis | Support Mgr.]

FWIW, that PvP prototype was actual devs dueling in real time on a local server.

[Ozymandius]

Probably the biggest example of feedback on the forums working to accomplish something positive in Eternium was that after many posted suggestions from players, the developers created a second stash which doubled player inventory. Most of us were more than happy to pay the $4.99 to get the extra inventory, so it was a real win-win for both the players and the game's cash flow. The developers also listened to player comments in the last balancing upgrade, and instead of nerfing the existing meta builds (which had been the strategy of previous balancing changes), the only changes in the most recent balancing upgrade were buffs to lesser used equipment, which made them more competitive.

[Kristoff]

I've gotten pretty far on DI in just a short time, and what I've spent is a tiny fraction compared to what I've paid and continue to pay to support Eternium.

And if I'd chosen not to pay for DI, I don't think it would have made that big a difference in the speed of my character's advancement, at least in my opinion.

After a bit of exploration, you figure out how to level up fairly quickly, even on the cheap. One difference is that in DI, you can make friends with other players who can help give you a boost in-game, whereas Eternium is pretty much a solo experience.

[Kristoff]

Do you know that I even receive communications from people who offer to help me hack the game? I've reported at least one of these to Travis, but as far as I know, that individual is still active on the forums where I encountered them.

[Ezinnul]

Hello Eternium Community and thank you for supporting the best-ever mobile action RPG!

People have been asking: what’s up with Eternium? The real question should be: what’s next for Eternium?

As many of you know, Eternium is written on the Marmalade game engine. It was the best choice when we started development nearly a decade ago, but times have changed and it is no longer supported by its creators. Dream Primer has been doing an admirable job of supporting the engine themselves, hacking at the Marmalade source code we licensed in order to keep Eternium functional and compliant with the ever evolving Apple and Google APIs.

Working on Marmalade has severely limited the ways that Eternium can grow. Think about it: how many engineers do Unity and Unreal have managing their game engines? We have a far smaller number managing the core engine technology while also developing the game on top of it. We are at a severe disadvantage on this orphaned tech; it is time to move on.

Dream Primer took a deep dive in to carefully consider and test the various options – which we quickly boiled down to Unity vs. Unreal. After careful consideration, we have chosen Unreal Engine 5 as the new engine technology platform for Eternium. We are super excited about the opportunities Unreal provides for advancing Eternium, especially its support for real-time multiplayer development.

We will share information about progress and plans as things develop. For now, I’ll leave you with a teaser that Dream Primer has made amazing progress developing a next-gen prototype on Unreal. They will reach an important milestone soon, at which time we will have more to share.

I look forward to continuing this conversation with you. In the meantime, we are always here to support you with any issues you may have with Eternium.

John Welch
CEO, Making Fun
On behalf of the Making Fun + Dream Primer team

Ok, thanks for he info. So we still don't have an answer for the "what’s next for Eternium?" question

Were you guys serious with this post? The community is waiting for real in-game improvement; not wishes like "coming soon" signboard at town. And CEO's message just ruined our expectations. Im done with this game..

best for all.

[Wispy 2.0]

I can't locate my "soft deleted" comment that I was going to fix on pc, so I'll attempt to recreate it from memory (24 hours is a long time for a goldfish like me)...

Most of the people on the forum and indeed in this post certainly are still playing Eternium and to a certain extent still getting enjoyment from it in one way or another. The indifference noted by many veterans in this particular topic is more down to the fact that the Unreal engine has been announced and re-announced so many times over the years. I think the aim of this topic was to generate some hype for future development, but given the history of such announcements it's very hard to take seriously. There's been plenty added to the game over the years that has improved it in many ways, and unfortunately some additions that have made it worse (I still say the game had a Best Before End December 2019 label on it's food label).

My two posts on this topic are firstly my "I'll believe it when I see it" post, as per my opening paragraph. As the OP also mentioned that they are close to having a prototype to share, I decided to hunt down an old video from 2017 which was a prototype of multi-player pvp. Now the thing with prototypes is that we don't know how far down the line of development they were with the prototype. If I were to guess, the 2017 prototype purporting to show multi-player pvp was probably several AI characters made to look like real players, with one human character then fighting multiple AI. To the viewer it certainly looks like multi-player pvp, but as a prototype it probably was just a concept of what that game mode could look like. This is speculation on my part. If that was the case, then running a client side prototype is a whole lot less development than having a multi-client + server battle running which presents many more difficulties and things to consider - as a single example, currently if a single data packet is lost when running a Trial, then the Trial does not count to the leaderboards. What would happen in real-time pvp with such things? Does that count as a death / loss / carry on as normal? At what point do you decide a person has deliberately dis-connected to try and avoid a loss?

Complaining about things beyond ones control....remember the great EA Star Wars Loot Box scandal? As well as being pulled from the game, the fallout is still rumbling slowly through the legislative process and the things are going to get regulated eventually. Across the world, companies have dedicated complaints departments, there are industry ombudsman, even the court systems are full of civil cases. On a personal front, I've been banging my head against a brick wall between two government departments this year. I finally got to meet someone in person yesterday after making the right scary noises (RAWR) - it helps when you identify a breach of privacy and data-protection laws, and that you'll be writing to your MP around multiple other departmental failures as that gets attention very quickly and they become very keen to talk. All of this beyond my control, yet by the time I had arrived home, the management had emailed to confirm that several workstations had been taken out of service immediately and that a full security survey was underway.

In summary, this topic is meh, the game is still fun, complaining works.

And back off to my rock for hibernation. I've already made more posts than I ever intended with this profile.

[Tolimar]

There is another curtain behind the curtain. Nobody appears to be home at Dream Primer dreamprimer.com

Another site listing game developers shows Dream Primer, in its 23 year existence, has developed one game, Mage and Minions/Eternium, released in 2014. Travis says DP is still here and still developing. If Travis says it is so, I believe it.

So, when is Bronze #16 ANB happening? I managed to craft two 77s during War Supplies that I need for my Main, I need those two CTs. Don’t even ask how many days I spent crafting, farming, crafting, farming… I only need one more item after this to have my Havoc/Demo BH fully CTd, and that is… wait for it… surprise surprise surprise, a BoM! I managed to eke out a 74 with Heatseekers bonus, but I won’t CT that. It took me days of crafting just BoMs to crank that one out. I should be able to get my 77 with Heatseekers during upcoming Bronze.