Rough Ideas

Seriously, do not listen to game reviews to the extent of seeing a game with a 70% rating and thus not buying the game. There are plently of fun games out there that are not in the 80-90% area. Sure, there are most definetly resons for why the game got a 70% rating, but that does not mean that you should not buy it. Often if you read the review, the reviewer will state more facts for the low rating, as well as the high points of the game. Rather, when your going to purchase a game, see some gameplay footage. Find out what you do, the lows and the highs. See if the reviews tell you if the primary reason for the low rating is because of glitches and bugs; often, at least for the PC, those are patched away.

For example, look at the game "Damnation". It got reviews very low, from the 40% to the 60% range. I like that game very much, and was worth my money. Go ahead, tell me that I have bad taste. But that game is quite fun.

Yes, that is a case of the underboob. But isn't that gun strange and original? Been a while since I've seen a new gun.

In Damnation, you play as your regular Mr. Tough Guy Who Eats Bullet Cereal With Flaming Milk For Breakfast. You are fighting Mr. Evil Corperation Who Constantly Fails To Kill You. The cool steampunk style, as they have said, was really only choosen for gameplay and not for the lore (sadly), yet it is still fun. There are some bugs, the vertical combat was a partial success, and the levels were designed only for the vertical movement (i.e. ladders in the middle of nowhere), and animations are not as slick as Assasins Creed. But it is still a fun game. The gameplay is solid. Machineguns are actually machineguns and are not as accurate as a pistol or a sniper rifle. There is a variety of weapons (use the railroad rifle to stick people to walls! ). And the vast tracks of land are quite awesome, even in the areas designed for the vertical climbing only (well, at least they usually show the old way of getting up, usually destroyed).

You still got to remember that this is the first game that this company has ever made (codemasters just provided funding and the such). So if I were to rate this game as if a high-experience developer, I would rate it 60%. But for a brand new company, 85%.

So for my rule of thumb: check out the game mechanics and uniqueness of it, who is making it, how long has it been in development, what is the gameplay like, and please use common sense. Don't base your final decision on getting a game or not getting it on a review, but base it on a fact. For Damnation, if you can survive some lag, third & first person shooters, vertical combat, exploring & problem solving, and hard enemies to kill, then you will like this game. If you like "instant kill them, or be instant killed", don't like some lag, don't like exploring & problem solving, then you will not like this game. Remember common sense folks.

Well, that is this (week's? I hope not!) blog post, see you later. HO WA!

E:

Here is some data about the Artures race (and some other data).

• Artures: The Artures are the second most advanced of the playable race, using steam technology as a replacement for gasoline (as a direct result of gasoline not being avalible in mass production in their area). There is a special compound that they use instead of water that is avalible in huge supply and is more useful.
• World Data: there are strange plants and strange minerals on Iowk that are used for a variety of things; the under-and-above sea race of Scorpleys (wrong spelling D: ) use a special kind of seaweed as a power source.
• Artures like to use heavy armor.
• Artures technology, even though being limited by steam, has continued to advance. They also discovered the alkaline very early and use it massivly.
• Slow vehicles and movement, but high armor (NOT health) and powerful weapons (weapon speciality varies per faction).
• And more info! Classified; don't want people to know everything! :P

Left 4 Dead 2 has been annouced! Awesomeness!  L4D2 is official! Thats too awesome! Check it out on their web site; it looks incredible!

http://www.l4d.com/

The combat in Iowk would be a blend of first person shooters, third person shooters, and online role playing game-style. The combat itself would be faster than in your average FPS/TPS, while slower than your average ORPG (WoW, WAR, etc.). And there would not be a vast array of spells you can cast at any moment, but a smaller and more tactical amount, especially depending on your play style and character 

When you are fighting, you have more than one option for fighting; usually, you will have two options. The first one is like in World of Warcraft; you have attributes that directly effect your chance of dodging a hit, chance of a crit (and a further chance of a higher crit), and most of what you would expect in a ORPG. Then there is the F/TPS style; you need to manually aim your guns and spells to hit the target (depending on the spell) in order to hit them; hit the head for a critical. However with this style, your criticals will not have a chance of additional damage (then again, you will probebly hit them more often with manual aim and hit the head more often), and whenever you hit their body they have a chance of blocking and/or dodging (they don't have a chance of dodging if you hit the head). Thus, neither is more effective than the other because each has different bonuses. There will be other styles as well, but only for special conditions (like Atmoship's, spaceships in the atmosphere).

Questions? Comments? Ask away!

Using WORDOID, a creative naming service that I got from Chris Pirillo, I have come up with a better name for Delta L! And it is:

Leaderstances! Well, ok it isn't all that great, but its a start. Anyone else have a better name?

Iowk has every intention of not becoming "just another game", or at least what I am thinking of. As many aspects of it as possible would/will be designed for a completly unique game that includes not only RPGs, but TPS, RTS, puzzle, and more. But its designs would not make it a messy collage of genres, it would not be just some failed game attempt that had a horible system. No, it would innovate every aspect of it, providing a experience that every person can enjoy and offering a multitude of options that would not seem daunting nor' overwhelming. All the way to the very lore itself to the gameplay, aspects would be specificly designed to fit scientific facts, gameplay mechanics, cool features, and amazing detail to making a game where you are not limited. For this is Iowk, a video game unlike any other while being the best.

Let me provide some examples: The Steampunk Artures. Normal steampunk has a very victorian influence, having technology continue to advance while remaining victorian and old fashioned. Not in Iowk. Iowk would take a more realistic approach, an approach that has the end-game goal of throwing Steampunk into the main steam. This would be achieved like so: "In the split nation of the Artures civilization, there is little to no gasoline, oil, or anything else "prehistoric". They still have access to some to produce smaller materials, but no where near the amount for vehicles. Thus, Artures society has had to adapt to the large abundence of coal, utilizing it in steam power engines." Their technology is not limited as a result of old-fashioned steam; their architectural knowledge continues to advance, their weapon techniques for creating guns and ammunition continues to advance, every aspect continues to advance towards modern-day technology (although Artures tend to favor shields, revolvers, and explosives). Thus, the race of Artures are made unique in their progress in steam technology.

Dwarven society is much different as well. The Dwarves are the most technologically advanced of all playable races in Iowk, more than even Humanity. They boast a mighy kindom upon a massive plateu that has only two, fortified ways up. Their weapons are extreamly costly, but extreamly powerful. However, they do not like using guns; they like vehicles and axes, but not guns. Thus, the Dwarven Axe is very prominent in Dwarven society, as well as fast & small vehicles. *This is a take upon the "original" dwarves from Tolken, while keeping the modern technological aspect alive.*'

Gameplay-wise, there are many features unique to Iowk. The most noticably of which (for the average action gamer) is the fighting system. This system is like in Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft; only you die faster and use more tactics. A special "stances" button passivly changes your stance, depending on your situation, but also is activatable. The stances give you bonuses and negatives, depending on the stance; some give you additional defense, some reduce defense, and most of them change your walking speed. Another major addition to the warfare is the ability to use first person shooting as well as third person, role playing game spell-based combat, and others. Many will doupt the effectivness and balence of such a system, but it is easily possible to balence it right (I'm not willing to diverge further at hte current time however).

As you can see Iowk is a truely interesting and unique concept for a video game, and if my mind was the universe, then this idea would be the sun, a single star in a sea.

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Thanks for reading! As always, please register and join in on the forums! Ask any questions you like on Iowk, any at all! Questions will help me think out of what I have forgotten in many areas that I shall be covering, and will also help me to come up with even more unique ideas.

The regular fantasy games have very standard races; orks, elves, and dwarves. Iowk shall still have dwarves, and some rare cases of elf-like humans, but primarily focuses on creating new races, races that are completly new and original. Once of these such races is the Artures, which I shall go into more detail soon.

Currently, there are: Humans, Dwarves, and Artures. Two others, one I thought of recently and the other suggested by a friend of mine, are going to be represented in this blog & asked by the community if its a good idea.

Humans

Humans are a primary race in Iowk, and are split into two factions; currently, their names are the "Northern Humans" and "Southern Humans", but better ones shall eventually come (feel fre to comment and suggest a good name!). Humanity is very much the same and diverse as modern society, perhaps even more so.

Brief History

Millions of years ago, Humanity was the only sentient race on Iowk. Much similer to Earth even; over time they advanced their technology, until they were going up a steep hill of advancedment, becoming the masters of the world. In this Era of Technology, many amazing feats were accomplished, like the Thirteen Space Elevators of the West. They colonized the moon, and now had their sights set upon the three other planets in the solar system deemed to be habitable. But before this happened, a massive crisis from lack of oil plagued humanity, degrading international trust and started another world war. At the end of this war, a nuclear apocolypse and nuclear winter destoryed all but a small number of Humanity's massive population.

After two million years, sometimes called the "Dark Era" because very little data has been found to show what happened inbetween then and now, Humanity is on the same track once more. Some are genetically changed from radiation, giving those few massive muscle masses, highly intelligent minds, and other features. The only difference is that they do not have access to gasoline, a key component in their machines.

Many humans travel the world, often becoming part of other races' societies. This is very evident in the Dwarf lands, and in the Artures' 3 different faction-nations.

Appearance

Northern Humans - Very 19th century europe architecture. Technology is advanced to ~1950s. More information shall come up at a later time, most likely on the forums; I will eventually do a recap with all of the current races/factions/nations and their history.

Artures

The Artures are a very unique race, one of the most different of the sentient and playable races of Iowk. The Artures do not have 2 arms, but 4 arms, and are quite tubular in body shape; almost caterpillar-like. The Artures have many inventions and have advanced steam technology, as they naturally love to create new and wondrous inventions. Pictures shall come soon.

Brief History

Located here. Note that the old blog is old, and there are new names being used. Shall be redone in a seperate post.

Appearance

All Factions - Heavy influence from steam-punk architecture, thus advancment is into the ~1800's, however they do have some things more advanced than that. I.e. the Bomtar, a long range gernade launcher fashioned after modern guns. Many designing are quite crude.

Dwarves

Dwarven society has become the most advanced nation in the known world. Their cities gleam in great glory in their golden age as a bastion of light. Their cars and vehicles move faster than any other nation, their aircraft breaking the sound barrier, and they are perhaps the only nation that has exited Iowk's atmosphere with a durable space craft (as all other nations will just use the Space Elevators). However, even with their advanced technology the Dwarven society did not use many guns; they have a deep love and passion for using melee weapons like axes and two handed swords. Even their combat vehicles reflected this characteristic, high speed, low drag, and swinging blades.

Brief History

The Dwarves have advanced greatly in the last 700 years. Once they were nothing, constantly attacked by raiding parties and never recovering in time to make even one city. But they did have one project; creating a road up to the top of the World Mountain, a mountain that streched from horizon to horizon and going up nearly a kilometer high; the mountain was not extremely steep, only high.  But 700 years ago they finished the road, and came across not a mountain but a massive plateau, so huge that they treked for days and could only see mountains on the other side. Later they found that it was in three sections; one larger and higher section in the middle, in the shape of a perfect circle, and the other two like two rectangles coming out on opposite edges. Both of these rectangular plateau's were the exact same size and shape, but were lower than the main area; one was a dessert (used mainly by the military), the other a tropical paradise (which is used for most of the plateau's population). Eventually, they made a great city on this mountain, and from that point on the Dwarves knew an era of peace. Eventually, a second road was made by the dessert section, so the military forces would easily be able to access the sea.

Dwarves still live off the plateau in many areas, although few travel to other places due to their own advanced technology (and not being able to access that in other areas).

Apperance

Plateu Dwarves - Very future tech. Gleaming skyscrapers and high technology.

This is my first non-game blog post!  I hope that this blog will be useful to any that come across it, because it will be the spear head of my website web!

I'm Jerrey Rough, I'm 16 years old and a proud gamer. I play FPS, TPS, RTS, MMORPG, racing games, puzzle games, the list goes on; although I don't play the last two there very often. I have role played on the Cybernations Forums, I have modded for Warcraft 3, and I now aim to create a video game concept that would be fun, long lived, and fit for all types of gamers (including puzzle gamers). I'll post another blog entery about that soon enough.

Well, I got some dreaded homework to do, so see ya'll later!

Jerrey Rough, Delta Roughneck