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SOE trademark H1Z1

V

viveks86

Member
From John Smedley on reddit

Hi there,
I wanted to tell you about an exciting new free-to-play game we’ve had under wraps here at SOE for some time. It’s called H1Z1. It’s a massively multiplayer game in which players fight for survival in a world where death is the only sure thing. The H1Z1 virus devastated mankind and left nothing but death and destruction in its wake and a world nearly empty of human life where the remnants of humanity are in a fight against extinction against those infected with the virus. It’s been 15 years since H1Z1 was first encountered and what’s left of the world before is overrun with the Infected. Humanity has been reduced to hiding in the shadows, searching desperately for food and water and anything that can help to survive even for another day. But the Infected aren’t the only dangers in the world. Everyday life in the Apocalypse means dealing with all kinds of wild animals and the brutality of other survivors, as well as finding your next meal and a safe place to sleep. It also means scavenging or crafting anything that can help you live just one more day. In H1Z1 every minute of every day is borrowed time and fearing for your life… unless you are the Danger (talking to you Walter), but life can and will go on… even in circumstances as dire as this. Humanity has not given in to the Infected. There are still pockets of humanity and the fight goes on!

Our vision for this game is very simple but ambitious. We are starting with what I would call “Middle America” – an “anywhere and everywhere” town. The world is massive as you’ve come to expect from our games. Over time we will grow the world until we have our own version of the U.S. after the death and destruction brought on during the H1Z1 epidemic. It will be our own version of America. We’ll have urban cities and desolate wide open places. All connected seamlessly. Our focus is building a sandbox style of gameplay where players can build shelters out of resources in the world. They can even work together to make amazing fortresses complete with weaponry to help defend against both the Infected and other players. Players also have access to a very deep crafting system that can let players make a huge variety of awesome stuff, including weapons (I made a 1911 the other day) and things like Molotov cocktails, explosives.. and other fun surprises.

I will also go right to the heart of the question a lot of players will have – “There are a lot of survival / Zombie games… how is this one going to be any different?”. First off, it’s a persistent MMO that can hold thousands of players on servers we host (yes there will be multiple servers with very different rule sets). Why is that a good thing? It means a thriving economy (oh yes… there’s trading). It also means you have potential allies in the all-out war on the Infected... and many an enemy as well. It uses our proprietary next-gen Forgelight engine and that means we’ve had a lot of really cool technology to work with to make the game we wanted to make. It’s also designed from the ground up for our players to become part of the design process. The Roadmap system that we built for PlanetSide 2 will be used extensively to clearly communicate what features we’re working on and what you can expect and when. You’re also going to be getting awesome access to our developers. We’ll be opening it up for Player Studio creations too so expect player-created items to make their way into the game. The main thing that differentiates H1Z1 from the other great games in the genre is the emphasis we are putting on player ownership and building. We want you to be able to form roving gangs that are headquartered out of an abandoned warehouse that you’ve taken over... or a house you’ve built from scratch after having cut trees down and secured the resources to make it. We are giving players the tools to make their own towns, camps and defenses, and they can decide how to set up their base (which is in the world btw... not instanced). We’re building in all the social features you’ve come to expect from an SOE game (grouping, proximity voice chat, voice chat for your gang, and many other cool social features).

To use a simple reference I’m sure everyone interested in this game will get... we want our players to make Woodbury from The Walking Dead if they want to. Or take over a prison. Or fix an old car so you and your friends (yeah we have multiplayer vehicles) can run zombies and players over mercilessly, and revel in the sheer delight of hearing a zombie scream as you light it on fire, or craft a gun to take down your friends and enemies alike. Our goal here is to provide emergent gameplay that will allow our players to make the world their own the way they want to. One of the best things about H1Z1 being an MMO is the fact that with a lot of people playing, we’re able to see all different kinds of gameplay. If you prefer a quiet life as a farmer raising crops... we’re going to make sure your zombie apocalypse fantasy is complete. If you’re like me and you want nothing more than to kill everything that moves, by all means see how that goes. It’s going to be a blast!
Check out H1Z1.com and the subreddit ( http://reddit.com/r/h1z1 ). We’ll be adding more information in the coming weeks to the website. We’ll also be very openly answering questions in the subreddit.

Next week you can see us do a livestream of the game as we have a playtest. Stay tuned!
Smed
Click to expand...
http://www.reddit.com/r/h1z1/comments/22niku/what_is_h1z1/
 
SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
Jesus they kinda trainwrecked their reveal by doing it via this absurd off-screen randomly commented video of footage from 4 months ago on some completely random Twitch channel.

Why not wait two months until E3 to reveal your game? I don't get it. This game could be a big deal, it seems in alpha state but already more competent than Standalone [vehicles, actual collision detection].

This whole thing is so weird. Also can't believe I stayed up until 2:30 am for this shit.
 
N

Nakazato

Member
The gaf clan will be glorious.

Just think about it runs wars me screaming nooooo when a clan member bites it. Come on cross play

Hell finding players inviting them back to the camp
only to find out its terminus
 
SRTtoZ

SRTtoZ

Member
I think it looks cool,and def gorgeous with that PS2 engine. If I can build a permanent persistent base then I'll be all over this.
 
S

Setsuna

Member
SJRB said:
Jesus they kinda trainwrecked their reveal by doing it via this absurd off-screen randomly commented video of footage from 4 months ago on some completely random Twitch channel.

Why not wait two months until E3 to reveal your game? I don't get it. This game could be a big deal, it seems in alpha state but already more competent than Standalone [vehicles, actual collision detection].

This whole this is so weird.
Click to expand...

Soe has never really played well with Sce
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
SJRB said:
Jesus they kinda trainwrecked their reveal by doing it via this absurd off-screen randomly commented video of footage from 4 months ago on some completely random Twitch channel.

Why not wait two months until E3 to reveal your game? I don't get it. This game could be a big deal, it seems in alpha state but already more competent than Standalone [vehicles, actual collision detection].

This whole thing is so weird. Also can't believe I stayed up intul 2:30 am for this shit.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's a pretty dumb reveal. The main guy's audio is cutting out like crazy too.
 
S

Syf

Banned
Bad reveal, but I like what I'm reading in that reddit comment by Smedley. Crafting structures in the game world (not instanced) from harvested resources confirmed. They say it's a deep crafting system which is awesome. There will be trading in a player economy. Will include wide-open areas as well as urban environments.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
Has the game has been revealed? Someone should make a new thread.
 
G

Guymelef

Member
Funny thing is that Microsoft will come with the State of Decay MMO on XBO... and Sony having a similar product... PC only...
 
H

HowZatOZ

Banned
SJRB said:
Jesus they kinda trainwrecked their reveal by doing it via this absurd off-screen randomly commented video of footage from 4 months ago on some completely random Twitch channel.

Why not wait two months until E3 to reveal your game? I don't get it. This game could be a big deal, it seems in alpha state but already more competent than Standalone [vehicles, actual collision detection].

This whole thing is so weird. Also can't believe I stayed up until 2:30 am for this shit.
Click to expand...
SOE don't really do E3 well. Just look at EverQuest Landmark and Next, they were revealed at their con last year.

I have a very big feeling this will be pushed out the door rather quickly, just like Landmark. That game was in alpha for all of two months before being pushed to closed beta, and H1Z1 will be just the same I reckon. I don't know if that bodes well for design, but honestly from what little that gameplay video showed its just DayZ in PlanetSide 2.

Could that be good? Who knows, but honestly this whole announcement makes me wary just because of how crap it was. Seriously, get your shit together SOE and announce a game properly.
viveks86 said:
Everyone gets to play it in 4 to 6 weeks!
Click to expand...
I wasn't wrong it seems, far too soon with such little information. I think its just going to be as barebones as DayZ except with vehicles.

Also one big warning flag that hits me, if this is an MMOFPS, how the hell do you expect anyone outside of America to compete properly? The thing with DayZ is that there are RSP's all over the world hosting servers, and if H1Z1 is planning on being "persistent" with one large server, I will definitely stay well away. I know that PlanetSide 2 has Australian server, but screw playing on high ping.
 
CamHostage

CamHostage

Member
Boy, could you make Sony Online Entertainment look any worse than by having the president of the company interviewed over a horrible internet connection?
 
I

Iadien

Guarantee I'm going to screw up this post? Yeah.
They will most likely have founder packs that will grant early access, similar to Planetside 2 and Landmark. The lowest entry probably around $20.
 
SRTtoZ

SRTtoZ

Member
Crafting, trading, huge world that keeps growing/evolving. Hunting and scavenging for food...

Sounds awesome but will it meet the ambition?
 
M

MastaKilla

Member
Why does Sony have a game studios that doesn't make their games primarily on their game console? I'm not being cynical I'm really asking this, it's kind of confusing.
 
T

Tigress

Member
*Sigh* I wasn't paying enough attention and now realize unless they put it on a Playstation I won't be able to play it (I was thinking when I first saw people talking about it earlier today this was a PS game... that's what I get for assuming Sony = PS). The description sounds awesome :) (of course you can sucker me into anything with crafting honestly).

I doubt they'll put it on Mac (and I'd really want to play on my PS but this game I'd try on my Mac if they actually put it on it.... hahahahahahahahaha.. yeah right).
 
S

Syf

Banned
Interesting line in the last part of that reddit comment.
One of the best things about H1Z1 being an MMO is the fact that with a lot of people playing, we’re able to see all different kinds of gameplay. If you prefer a quiet life as a farmer raising crops... we’re going to make sure your zombie apocalypse fantasy is complete.
Click to expand...

Farming? This is sort of suggesting professions, no? Or if not officially designated professions, professions you can focus on yourself.
 
R

rrc1594

Member
Neuromancer said:
I think State of Decay is going to be a lot more up my alley, if Undead Labs sticks with the PvE route.
Click to expand...

I feel the same I hope, they doing something the complete opposite of this. I'm not saying H1Z1 going to be bad, but it remind me to much of Day Z on first glance.
 
H

HowZatOZ

Banned
Biskie said:
Interesting line in the last part of that reddit comment.


Farming? This is sort of suggesting professions, no? Or if not officially designated professions, professions you can focus on yourself.
Click to expand...
Not professions by standard means, but most likely offering the ability to make a farm or something through collecting resources. Be like in DayZ how people pop-up random stores on the streets.
 
C

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
Guymelef said:
Same answer with Everquest...
I know SOE is a traditionally a PC company but Sony should make something...
Click to expand...

DCUO is on PS3 and PS4. I'm sure once they figure out the kinks of their new engine, we'll see the likes of Planetside 2, Everquest Next, and this coming to the platform as well.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
Biskie said:
Interesting line in the last part of that reddit comment.


Farming? This is sort of suggesting professions, no? Or if not officially designated professions, professions you can focus on yourself.
Click to expand...
Hmm I find that hard to believe, unless there's something in place to stop you from being murdered by bandits.
 
Pop

Pop

Member
Biskie said:
Interesting line in the last part of that reddit comment.


Farming? This is sort of suggesting professions, no? Or if not officially designated professions, professions you can focus on yourself.
Click to expand...

Being an mmo it wouldn't surprise me. Just imagine how far out you would have to be from everything and everyone else. Your fort would need to be massive enough to keep out zombies and people and can't be made out of wood. All sounds wonderful but unless it comes to Ps4 I won't be able to play it. And when it does I would have forgot about it or not care enough as other games would be out by then.
 
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