The Repopulation

[Morreion]

Battle and usability being improved in The Repopulation (Massively)

Someone always wants to play a melee character. You could give everyone in an MMO the ability to shoot something dead from two zones over and there would be at least one player rushing into melee range to smack at it. Hence why The Repopulation has made a point of upping melee's viability by improving its ability to hit a moving target; if someone's going to do it anyway, it may as well be viable. Medical abilities have also been improved, and the game's crosshairs and aiming assistance have both received an upgrade.

Lots of Repopulation bugs were squashed in October (Massively)

The Repopulation's monthly update has been published on the sci-fi sandbox title's website. Polish was the order of day for much of October, as Above & Beyond Technologies asked its alpha testers to suss out the "most annoying" bugs before it set about squashing them.

The Repopulation improves housing and inquiries in November (Massively)

the game has a new UI for placing structures within houses and nations, allowing objects to be rotated and scaled as the placer desires -- and there's the option to save the rotation and scale settings for easy cut-and-paste placement. A new calendar system was also introduced, and the inquiry system has been expanded to allow players a chance at tracing the source of an NPC's problems via the Diplomacy skill.

The Repopulation returns to Kickstarter, launches Steam Greenlight campaign (Massively)

If you still regret missing the opportunity to support the sci-fi sandbox The Repopulation during its first crowdfunding campaign, you're getting a second chance! Above and Beyond Technologies would like to offer players even more features than are currently available and has launched a new Kickstarter campaign to reach those goals. Concurrently, the studio has also launched a Greenlight campaign on Steam to expand the game's exposure beyond its current community and offer an additional payment option. So now players have two ways to show their support for The Repopulation: vote yes to get the game Greenlit and/or pledge financial support through Kickstarter.

It's Like Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online Are Having a Baby (Kotaku)

To be more specific, what The Repopulation wants to do is combine the social and skill-building aspects of the original Star Wars Galaxies with Ultima Online's version of the harsh, unforgiving, player-controlled sandbox—but without forcing anything on the player. Peaceful crafting? You can do that. Dungeon raids? Sure. Exploring the planet, maybe plopping down a colony or two in the process? You bet.

The Repopulation's lead dev featured in three-hour livestream (Massively)

The stream boasts a lengthy Q&A session as well as some never-before-seen footage in the form of world fly-throughs. The Repopulation is currently in closed alpha. The devs have also announced a second Kickstarter drive designed to fund additional gameplay features as well as a Greenlight campaign to increase exposure via Steam.

The Repopulation surpasses 2nd KickStarter goal, moves on to stretch (Massively)

While some were skeptical about a second Kickstarter campaign for The Repopulation, fans showed their support by helping the upcoming sandbox reach its goal over the weekend. Now, with 20 days still to go the focus shifts to the stretch goals, which include various mounts (the Rocharus at $60K is seen above), PvP arenas, a moddable UI, traveling shops, and more. On top of the successful campaign, The Repopulation is also receiving overwhelmingly positive support on its Steam Greenlight campagn; it's currently in fifth place.

The Repopulation Greenlighted, meets first stretch goal (Massively)

It's a pretty good week to be a fan of sci-fi indie sandbox The Repopulation. First off, the game is currently holding down the top stop in Massively's rotating game header. As if that weren't enough, Above & Beyond Technologies has also announced that it's reached the first stretch goal of its new Kickstarter campaign. This means that the Rocharus will be available at launch and will become the game's "first tamed mount."

The Repopulation knocks out another stretch goal (Massively)

The Repopulation has met another Kickstarter stretch goal. Adversarial camps will now make it into the finished sci-fi sandbox title, and more importantly the way is clear for the next stretch goal: Points of Intrigue.

The Repopulation begins lengthy lore series (Massively)

Lore junkies are getting nearly a week-long fix beginning today as The Repopulation starts its new lore series. Chapter one of the short story Evening Star, centered around the landing on Rhyldan, was posted today, and a new chapter will be added each day this week.

The Repopulation aiming to fill the MMO non-combat void (Massively)

Above & Beyond was pretty open about the fact that it's modeling parts of The Repopulation after Star Wars: Galaxies, particularly the latter game's friendliness toward crafters and other non-combat types.

"If you aren't a combat person, you can make your living in trade skills. Advancing in trade skills is independent of combat and does not force you into a combat role. We have a complex trade skill system which allows for a high degree of customization by mixing and matching components. It also has a high degree of interdependency on others, which we feel is going to drive the economy," the team explained.

Also worth noting is the fact that The Repopulation won't "have caps to the number or mastery of skills, so you can invest in each skill line how you see fit."

[Morreion]

Another stretch goal hit for The Repopulation, another short story chapter posted (Massively)

The second Kickstarter for The Repopulation is humming along at a decent clip at this point. It's already met its target goal, and now it's just a matter of smashing down stretch goals. The latest mark has funded the addition of calprate mounts to the game; they're the vaguely deer-goat-thing displayed in the header image, for the record.

The Repopulation passes $100K, eyes traveling vendors (Massively)

Next up is the traveling vendors goal at $115,000. What's a traveling vendor? Well, it basically "allows players to mark themselves as a vendor at any time," Above & Beyond explains on its website. "While this flag is enabled, other players will be able to interact with them to browse and purchase goods which they have marked for sale without any player interaction necessary."

The Repopulation discusses design goals after its second Kickstarter (Massively)

The interview also goes into more detail regarding the game's design goals and how progression will work. As stated before, the game is entirely skill-based, with older characters having a wider variety of skills rather than being inherently better. Grouping is meant to be painless and advantageous rather than mandatory so that there's no disincentive to grouping up with other people while taking on content.

Weapon Abilities (The Repopulation)

Aerosol Tactics

Roles: Short Range AoE, Damage Over Time, Walls

Automatic Weaponry Tactics

Roles: Mid-Range, AoE, Crowd Control
Strength: Light Armor
Weakness: Heavy Armor...

Hardcore Server Rules (The Repopulation)

The Repopulation has been built around the notion of including two ruleset servers. The standard ruleset utilizes an Active and Reserve military system. All players begin their careers as Reservists. This means that they can only attack enemy players in Contested territories. Both factions have roughly 64 kilometers of protected territory where they are protected from attack. You reach contested territory when you move outside of the protected regions. You will receive a warning when this occurs, notifying you that can attack or be attacked by any hostile player while in these regions. If players wish to PvP in protected areas they can enable their Active Military flag, which can be later toggled off after a five minute delay period. Both players need to be Active Military and hostile for attacks to be allowed. There is no player looting in this ruleset. PvP is an optional, but encouraged activity. Nations will be able to build cities in contested regions, and to besiege the cities of their enemies. Contested areas include a high percentage of PvP oriented activities such as engagements and missions which pit the factions against one another.

The standard ruleset should be suitable for most types of players. You have a full compliment of resources and PvE tiers available in protected areas. If you wish to partake in PvP activities you can venture into contested territories. Players can also create Rogue Nations which work as their own faction, allowing them to ally or war with nations from each of the other factions. The nation vs. nation warfare system creates player driven gameplay without harshly punishing players for participating.

This style of gameplay is a little too softcore though for many players who are coming from some other sandbox titles though. And that’s where the “Hardcore” ruleset comes in. It would have been easy to just add full looting, make a few minor changes, and call it a day. But we felt that approach would ultimately sink the server like an anchor shortly afterwards. Many elements needed to be examined to give the appropriate level of risk vs reward, and we’ve spent months collecting feedback and polls from larger PvP oriented guilds to try to find the right balance for this server. And we are now prepared to unveil the rules of this server.

The Repopulation details transportation options (Massively)

Players can always hoof it to their destination, either by walking or running indefinitely, or sprinting until their endurance is depleted. If that seems too slow, there will also be pets for mounts and customizable vehicles. An even quicker method will involve underground stations that will let players take a subway train to specific locations; even large enough player cities can develop a connection to this system. If all that is still just too slow for your liking, there's the instant travel option that lets players teleport back to their faction's capital city once every 30 minutes.

Rogue and Scout Lines (The Repopulation)

One of the types of questions which is often asked is what types of ___ abilities are there in game. Are they supported? The most common of those revolves around rogue types. That’s where this feature comes in. It is dedicated completely to Rogues and Scouts...

Dirty Fighting

Dirty Fighting is another combat extension that fits into the rogue style of gameplay, but it is not restricted to any particular weapon. Some of its abilities require your hands to be free, making it ideal for Unarmed Combatants, where others can be used with any weapon. Its abilities consist primarily of opening creators and debuffs.

Hacking

The hacking skill allows you to hack into security systems, create software, and to open locked devices. You can use this skill to open locked containers, both in inventory and in clickable objects. It also is used to open locked doors, and as a skill check for various missions. Last but not least it is used as a tradeskill to create software and components for trade lines, and portable hacking kits.

Intimidation

The Intimidation skill is checked in many different mission types in the game. It gives alternate results based on its success or failure. Intimidation also has combat specific purposes as well, allowing you to frighten opponents, convince them to pick an easier target, to discourage them from attacking you, or to send yourself into a rage...

The Repopulation closes its second Kickstarter with triple funding (Massively)

The development team at Above and Beyond Technologies went back to Kickstarter to ask for a little extra funding to develop The Repopulation. The project's goal was set at a very reasonable $50,000. Now the campaign is over, and it turns out that the company's philosophy of starting low and using stretch goals worked out quite well. Funding for this campaign closed out at around $176,000, more than triple what was initially requested.

The Repopulation adds adversarial camps, preps for Alpha 3 (Massively)

In February, the design team added the adversarial camps stretch goal to its sci-fi sandbox, which will allow devs to "generate much of the game's content on the fly and help ensure that players do not have a static experience."

[Regolyth]

Traveling vendors sound really cool.

[Morreion]

PAX East 2014: The Repopulation's Josh Hall on the future of the game (Massively)

So how hard is it to work with a smaller team? The biggest problem simply comes from getting the word out. MMOs are big and expensive projects, and less budget means less PR, fewer releases, and more chance of fading from people's viewpoint. It also means looking for dedicated people willing to work for very little money; with a studio consisting of only seven full-time members, they more or less have to be willing to put in a lot of extra work despite very low rewards.

Hall also noted that there's a bit of a benefit hidden in the game's indie status, as there's no need to make back several million dollars of investment. The bar for financial success is much lower than it would have been for a bigger-budget project, even if the team wants the gameplay to be sterling.

Parallels to Star Wars Galaxies are obvious: The game features a heavy emphasis on player-run cities and crafting, analogues to the Entertainer skill tree, and so forth. But the original design document was apparently even more focused on taking what worked in SWG and moving it into a different environment. Over time, things have shifted and the game has become far more of its own creature, with the biggest parallel to SWG coming in the form of community engagement.

That also extends to courting roleplayers and the RP crowd. While Hall stated that there's a strong component of just putting in tools and letting roleplayers use them as they wish, he also stressed that companies need to court the groups they want in their games. That's as true for roleplayers at is for dedicated PvP mavens or crafting aficionados.

Jukebox Heroes: Talking with The Repopulation's Steven Coltart (Massively)

What are some of the unique challenges and opportunities of making a soundtrack for this game?

As I was involved in The Repopulation from an early stage, I scored all my music without gameplay and artwork references. Instead, I composed purely from email description, which was a challenge, but one in which I feel can offer great opportunity to a composer as you have the chance to write something truly original from your own imagination. I enjoyed that! Attention to detail is everything; that's something I always pride myself on with my work, and I spent a lot of extra time tweaking individual sounds to make sure they blended correctly.

Some composers overlook the importance of the post production stage, but it's as crucial, if not more so, than composing the music itself. You can have a great theme, but if the production isn't right, you lose that professionalism. Each project I work on becomes a key part of my life, and I truly become immersed in it. This helps me to achieve music and production continuity, which I feel is important to give the game an overall identity. I chose to select a few musical keys, used the same virtual instruments and same signal chain (mics, preamps, etc.) across my tracks. An interesting uniqueness for me on this project was that besides my commissioned soundtrack, there are contributors who have supplied additional audio content. That's where my title of lead composer rather than exclusive composer comes in.

The Repopulation team has squashed a lot of bugs (Massively)

Above & Beyond has released its latest monthly recap for crowdfunded sci-fi sandbox MMO The Repopulation. April saw the launch of Alpha 3, and the dev team says that next week they'll start inviting "preview weekenders" to grow the tester numbers yet again.

The Repopulation improves abilities and combat in May (Massively)

May has finally come to an end, and The Repopulation comes ever closer to release with a larger pool of testers on both weekends and a regular basis. It also means that more big changes have been rolled out to the game, starting with Ability Enhancements. These slotted tricks fit into abilities similar to item fittings, with a variety of different enhancements available to improve a character's skills. The enhancement slots are limited, however, which forces players to think about how they want to specialize their characters.

The Repopulation allows you to queue up 100 recipes at a go (Massively)

If you consider that The Repopulation will feature crafting so heavily, is it any surprise that the team is working hard to beef up that portion of the game during its alpha test? In its end-of-June update, the devs say that they've added a batching system into the game that allows players to queue up 100 items at once. Even so, doing the job by hand will generate better results, albeit over a longer time frame.

Other changes in the game include improvements to harvesting info and the inquiry system. Players can now use the latter to generate missions to take camps in order to get better resources.

The Repopulation looks back at its July test updates (Massively)

The end of the month means a new update for those on the outside looking in at The Repopulation, and July brought with it some sizable changes. For example, the game introduced 27 new areas, with several existing areas seeing new improvements and a lot of extra paths opening up. Any explorer has plenty of new stuff to see throughout the game, from new ways to see old regions to old regions just filled with new things.

PAX Prime 2014: The Repopulation's Josh Halls on beta, fishing, and houses (Massively)

Other big to-do items include putting in a fishing minigame and opening the doors (so to speak) for open-world housing. Fishing will pave the way for other possible minigames, and open-world housing is the next step from the game's existing instanced homes.

Halls said that the dozen or so members of the team are hard at work to prepare The Repopulation for the larger gaming public and that the studio is currently operating in the black.

The Repopulation rolls out open-world housing and tournaments (Massively)

The Repopulation is looking back over its updates through the month of August and letting fans and backers alike know how the game is developing. The biggest addition was the rollout of open world housing in PvE regions; the team has changed how plots are placed to allow players more freedom in choosing locations. City plots will see a similar restructuring for contested regions. More people than before will get to try these changes, as well; the price for early access to the game has been dropped to $100 and all of the Round 1 backers should be invited to the game's test by the coming weekend. Player-created tournaments were also rolled out for testing; while the final version will be available in player-run cities, the current implementation is in a testing instance. The minigame system got its basic implementation, and of course there was the usual array of tweaks, balance changes, and bugfixes.

[Morreion]

Repopulation Releasing in Q4 2015









The Repopulation offers $20 early access (MOP)

Getting into The Repopulation’s early access program is now cheaper than ever, as Above and Beyond has announced a new silver membership tier for only $20. Previously, getting into the alpha cost $50 for a gold membership.

Those who buy a silver membership will not only get into the currently running early access program but be treated to a repop token and the ability to reserve a name. Interested parties can purchase this on both the official site and through Steam.

Today’s Repopulation patch makes ‘massive changes’ to combat (MOP)

Every skill in the game has been examined with an eye toward balance and improvement, with melee skills receiving the most upgrades. New stats have been introduced, while buffs and debuffs have been tweaked to be more reliable and “reduce the amount of chance in an encounter.”

Combat is also getting a visual upgrade, chiefly in regard to ranged weapon animations.

The Repopulation’s next build to feature underground cities, UI revamp, and more (MOP)

The Repopulation’s dev team has finished the quality assurance process on the game’s 15.2.1 build. Why should you care? Well, because it adds some nifty stuff to the sci-fi sandbox including underground cities, a UI revamp, housing rent, and the usual round of tweaks and bug fixes.

Nation cities gain access to “an underground space” at level four, as well as an above-ground teleporter that leads below. At city level 10, players will have four times the space below ground that they have above, and the devs say that there is room for further expansion “once initial testing of the system is complete.”

The Repopulation adds diplomacy minigame with new patch (MOP)

Wait, there are other ways to resolve conflict with in-game NPCs than to stab large holes in their torsos? The Repopulation seems to think so, as the sci-fi sandbox has added a new diplomacy minigame with today’s 15.4.1 patch.

This new system allows you to interact with “intelligent” characters and use various skills such as diplomacy, intimidation, or entertainment to try to get them to see things your way. According to the patch notes, “The minigames offered are selected based on the NPCs current moods, dilemmas, their profession or other elements. Players will be given multiple choice options to take, and a roll will be made against the appropriate skill.”

The Repopulation to launch in Q4 2015 (MOP)

Just when you thought The Repopulation was doomed to be in eternal testing, Above and Beyond Technologies announced that it’s releasing. This year. This winter. For real.

The studio said that it’s targeting a launch window of Q4 2015 for the science fiction sandbox and that the game will be “feature complete” sometime this summer.

Speaking of completing the game, The Repopulation recently updated to Build 15.4.1, which included the new diplomacy minigame, more UI improvements, work on player cities, and the Wailing Chasm dungeon.