Eternium - Unity Development Update #3

[Hairball]

I’ve been playing Eternium for a good few years now … the main reason that attracted it to me (other than the content and play style) was the fact I could play it on the iPad by using my fingers … it’s brilliant.

There just are no other options available other than Eternium when it comes to playing on an iPad … it’s the ease with which I can play on my iPad, sit back in my armchair and play, touch screen and gestures make it so easy and playable … I wouldn’t even consider using a joystick or external device.

It is what makes the game unique …

so much so, I run three different accounts, one for each

KEPE WUMA TOXE 3576….. Warrior acc (2249),
WELE QEBU VUYO 4842….. Mage acc (2260),
WOQI ZOBA WUGA 9469….. BH acc (2277)

I’m sure you have all the stats with regards to how many players use iPads and mobiles etc … I would urge you to keep on using the touch/gesture system

[John Welch | CEO]

Thank you for your support! Given your strong appreciation for the gestures, we will be extremely curious to hear your feedback after you play w/ the virtual thumbsticks.

[Arin]

Thank John for sharing developing process and all the answers on discord and forum post. Game pad might be a good future option, but at least Adrian didn't like game pad as far as I know, and I can partly understand why.

Besides the drawing sign system, I think the biggest merits of touching mobs or area directly for attacking or moving, with finger or mouse, is fast subtle control. Warriors (and maybe other classes as well), for example, need to do fast single-mob targeting (sometimes very quickly like changing single targeting 2~3 times a second among bunch of mob groups). Or warriors need to stun other mobs in other area with minion's charge while attacking a specific chosen mob with main toon casting other ability, sometimes not to the mob but on the different third spot at the same time (shockwave, for example). Sometimes this is quickly done in like 0.5 second repeatedly. Or warriors do directly charge to specific point, for long effective movement, or choose to do short distance charge instead of long one to attack only specific mob group avoiding pulling other mob groups by touching or clicking specific point, etc.

I talked about this with a MF developer TalonXZ and got an answer from him that some of such controls are possible with game pad, and some of them is to be considered. My question is, can game pad control these as quickly and easily as direct finger or mouse does? I think this subtle control is the core essence of Eternium, which other games can't imitate. I hope this unique strong point will be maintained in new Eternium whether or not game pad is selected.

I know most skills, if not all, will be changed to new ones in new Eternium, but one important thing will not be changed: will new skills be as sophisticated as current E skills are? and how can they be quickly and easily controlled with game pad?

[John Welch | CEO]

These are excellent points. I can't give definitive answers, but I can offer a few reactions. I won't speak for Adrian or the context under which he may have spoken in the past, but I have good reason to suspect that he likes gamepads plenty now. It is certainly a greater challenge to create a game that can be played with different control schemes and on different platforms, but it is not impossible. The question is what are the tradeoffs and are they worth it to have an fair, effective cross-platform title, which offers huge value for players who care about that. One area full of interesting possibilities is how skills and abilities chain and combine. This offers a large palate for creativity without requiring as much precision as separate, sequential targeting actions.

[CannibaL]

This is a detail we haven't specifically talked about changing (that I am aware of - I am not in all design conversations). That said, I am curious why you prefer pure random over helping a player than has been 'starved'?

Because when I play ANB, I know for sure that if I make 128 crafts, I will definitely get 2 lvl 77 items. And in the top, everyone is dressed approximately the same. There is no moment of luck) like in real life)

[John Welch | CEO]

So... you would rather trade your guarantee to have greater scarcity? I don't disagree, just curious for players' perspectives on this. How do others feel?

[Jose Sarmento]

I completely disagree. Luck does NOT beat skill in this game, and when you get UNlucky it just sucks, as there is no reward for the effort invested. The current GFEM is fine, if anything it could be more "fixed" (I had once suggested one could simply directly craft higher level gear, at a corresponding higher mats and gold cost, with one 77 piece costing about 64x what a level 71 does)

[LodWig]

Is this bad news?

https://www.404media.co/unity-new-fees-prices/

Edit: Here is the announcement from Unity:

https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates

Maybe Eternium is under the thresholds for revenue and installs?

[LodWig]

I also expect some form of back off. The backlash seems huge. Another link: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/...ing-structure/

[LodWig]

More relevant links:

https://www.computerenhance.com/p/game-development-post-unity

https://impromptugames.com/movingtounreal.html

https://github.com/Zylann/unity_to_godot_converter

https://old.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/16hnibp/unity_silently_removed_their_github_repo_to_track/

The backlash is real

[John Welch | CEO]

We (the entire team) spent a few hours talking about this today. We are that much more motivated to get some improvements and new content into the live version of Eternium. Unity is no longer looking like the "next decade" solution we were hoping for. Still, we have a lot of work into the next Eternium title built on Unity, so we aren't going to just drop that. We are, however, exploring what might come next. It could be that Eternium goes from Marmalade to Unity to Unreal. Or maybe to Godot, as I expect that community to get a massive influx of developers including those who can contribute to its evolution. Unity's arbitrary and retroactive pricing gouge is very likely to kill them. Who would start a new project in Unity today?

[Service Cage]

Hello John Welch, my name is Danilo and I'm from Brazil, I would first like to congratulate you and your entire team on the Eternium game. I read all your answers and I understood the idea of the new one, but I would like to make a request (I believe that my request will please other players), would it be possible to create act V? I would really like to face Ragadam with my character (which I spent many days preparing for this fight), thank you.#createactV

[John Welch | CEO]

Hello, Danilo. We really want to "complete" the story in Eternium as well, including a Ragadam battle! I spent an hour chatting with Adrian and Marius today about this and related topics. Stay tuned.

[candypebbles123]

If it isn’t broke then don’t fix it.
used to play Arcane Legends but it’s fiddly with the on screen joystick.