City of Steam, new steampunk arrives

[BloodOmen]

Following this aswell, been a very long time since I played a decent browser game, this is ticking all the boxes so far

 

[Gwadien]

don't call me surely.

 

[Ctuchik]

I'm the most important person in my apartement so i should obviously be at the very top of the priority list of invites!








no?

 

[Vasconcelos]

its just coop PvE oriented?

 

[CoS_Ethan]

its just coop PvE oriented?

We are still balancing that, and we already improved and optimized the game a lot. It won't let you down from a browser game's aspect.

 

[CoS_Ethan]

Since the announcement of the sneak peek for City of Steam, keys have been snatched up much faster than we could have ever hoped. This leads us to regrettably (and happily) announce that we will no longer be giving out any additional keys through subscribing to our newsletter for this sneak peek. (but hey… please still subscribe, it will be the best way to find about other news!) As of today, Feb. 22, but not to worry, those who have already signed up but haven’t received the keys, should receive them shortly. This is our way of thanking all of you who have come to check out our game and have supported us thus far. We’d like to remind everyone that this is an early test and we look forward to further participation in the future for the alpha test.

The upcoming Sneak Peek is a pre-alpha load test for the servers. Given that this is the first time we have ever set a server up in the US, we’re trying to figure out how many players it can handle. The other major focus will be on the combat system. Although, this is an early version and we still have a lot to do, we still think this sneak peek will show off the potential of City of Steam.
We do appreciate your interest in the game at such an early stage and we look forward to getting more people in to try it out when more features have been added!

Thanks for your support!

 

[CoS_Ethan]

The City of Steam Sneak Peek is going very well and it needs more players to join.

Keys to the Sneak Peek have been snatched up in the past two weeks, and players have begun to experience the unique industrial setting of the World Machine. Despite a rocky start – the test server couldn’t handle the massive influx of players at first – it runs much smoother now.

Over the past week our designers and developers have adventured alongside sneak peek gamers, listening to their suggestions, collecting bug reports and feedback from them on the forum, and improving the game. In the meantime, we’ve been receiving emails from gamers who unfortunately missed the chance to get a key but still want to take part in the event. Originally we limited the test to a small group but since the server is exceeding our expectations we would like to test out its upper limits. More keys have been generated and we’re giving them out to new subscribers to our newsletters by the end of the test.

It’s very simple: just subscribe to our newsletters and leave your email and you’ll get a key post-haste!

 

[MYstIC G]

*merged*

Should be easier for everyone following on here to follow now everything is in one place.

 

[CoS_Ethan]

*merged*

Should be easier for everyone following on here to follow now everything is in one place.

Cool, thanks!

 

[CoS_Ethan]

We teamed up with Big American Films to create CG shorts about one month ago. Now it's the time to show it for you guys.

Yep, you guys can have the chance to take a look into the daily life of different races in City of Steam. We successfully brought three of them to life and shot an interesting episode in our first CG animated short. Thanks to Big American Films, without them, this CG short can't be such gorgeous and impressive. Check it out, you will love the story, and the voice-over is really funny. Check it out:

 

[CoS_Ethan]

We really got some constructive suggestions from players during the Sneak Peek. Now it's payback time. Check out our latest Design Dev Journal and see what we suggestions took in and made improvements for City of Steam.

Design Dev Journal - Marketplace

Also, you can give out your comments and ask follow-up questions on our Payback Time sub-forum, where we show what we've improved the game from your suggestions.

 

[Ctuchik]

All i'm hoping for is WASD movement and slightly better target management.

 

[CoS_Ethan]

All i'm hoping for is WASD movement and slightly better target management.

Yeah, please check out our to-do list in the Design Dev Journal, the WASD control is on the list now.

 

[Ctuchik]

Awesome.

 

[CoS_Ethan]

New update available - head to the NATIONS page to look into detailed nation background descriptions in City of Steam and vote for your favorite.

 

[CoS_Ethan]

Explore the background of Nexus and its suburbs in City of Steam now and tell us your thoughts on the forum.

 

[svartalf]

Massively did a big feature on this.

Massively Exclusive: Seeing the sights in City of Steam
by Justin Olivetti on Jun 27th 2012 5:00PMBetas, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Screenshots, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, First Impressions, City of Steam0


I can't recall the last indie MMO that was making any waves while still being in the pre-alpha stage, but that's the strange power that Mechanist Games' City of Steam has. Word-of-mouth and a clever setting have made this a must-see title, and we were pleased to join Editor Gabriel Laforge for a developer tour of the game in its current state.

City of Steam is an indie MMO, but don't let that put you off; the team is substantially larger than you'd expect and brimming with talent. The steampunk title loads extremely quickly in your browser, thanks to the Unity web player and a ridiculously small client size. In its current state, City of Steam has four large overworld zones and around 80 instanced dungeons, and yet the total size is -- get this -- 17 megabytes. Yes, you could fit this entire MMO on 17 colorful 3 1/2" floppy discs (if you still had any lying around, that is).

With the repeated caveat that this was all still pre-alpha and subject to change, Laforge let me log in and explore to my heart's delight. What follows is raw and shocking footage from that journey.

City of Steam begins with a flight over the main city of Nexus. You'll be spending most of your career in the game right here. The character creation screen is pretty neat, as it shows you on a train rushing toward the city. It's here that I created my adventurer, flipping between rooms as I toggled through the racial choices. I ended up with a Goblin, which Laforge said was proving to be quite popular with testers, and I picked the Gunner class because guns.

The dev team recently created a new tutorial, which has you investigating some issues on the train while you work out the kinks of the game's mechanics. The setup is fairly similar to most MMOs, although I would say it's closest to the original Guild Wars. This is because you have click-to-move (in addition to WASD), no jump, and invisible walls hemming you in at times.

So why pick steampunk as a setting? Laforge said that the team prefers to call it "industrial fantasy," as it's a variation that utilizes more fantastic races and magic. In any case, the reason is that City of Steam is the extension of the writings of Lead Designer David Lindsay. Lindsay previously penned several pen-and-paper RPG books in this setting and had a passion for bringing it to life in a game.

My very first impression is that I was amazed how good this game looked and handled in the browser. The MMO community has shown a lot of disdain for browser-based MMOs, but I think titles like City of Steam could go a long way to turning the tide of opinion.

Combat was fast and relatively simple (this being the tutorial and all). Soon enough, I leveled up and got to invest points into the neat "valves and pipes" talent screen. My Gunner gained a second, larger blast to make foes think twice about getting in her face.

There are not only three talent trees per character but buttons on the hotbar to swap between a shield-and-weapon, dual-weapon, or two-handed weapon setup. Laforge couldn't say whether players will be able to switch between these on the fly.

Right now, it's impossible to die in the tutorial; the devs didn't want to discourage newbies right off the bat. That's a good thing because I was repeatedly taking breaks to check out buttons and options and wasn't always paying attention to the big scary monster lasering my face off.

Beat the big monster and a chest drops. In the chest were two currencies of life: money and keys. Keys are used to unlock doors and chests, and Laforge said that you'll be facepalming when you find a chest in a dungeon and forgot to bring a key to open it.

From there, the game dumps you in the outskirts of Nexus in a place called Refuge. It's a smaller area, Laforge explained, one designed to give newcomers time to acclimate and get their bearings. Refuge is quite run-down and drab, with rust and brown being the main color scheme.

Each player race has a main storyline, but these storylines do intersect with those of other races as well. This adds some measure of replayability if you go through the game multiple times with difference characters.

In the middle of Refuge is a brightly colored pneumatic tube. This is the player's stash, which can be accessed in multiple locations because of the pneumatic service.

There are several cool little ideas like that in the game. Another one is the ability to socket gear by adding pipes, gears, and widgets. When you do so, not only do you gain stat bonuses, but your gear changes in appearance as well!

Laforge teleported me into a couple of the game's instances to get a feel for the variety that the team has created. First up was an offshoot of the Gardenworks, a place where machinery has been abandoned and left to the ravages of nature. Grass and plants abound here, but that's not necessarily a good thing. It turns out that these people see nature as a virus out to wreck the progress of the industrial world. Even Elves don't like the trees here.

From there, we went into the Sunken Lode, a dim mine with hissing pipes and angry Orbolgs. These orc-lizard hybrids flew at us with gusto, but a few shots from my pistol sent them sprawling in the dirt. We had a lot of fun being vandals, as barrels, carts, and even some walls are destructible.

Was there PvP? In response to my question, Laforge initiated a duel. This transported us to a private instance where we could settle our differences without disturbing the townfolk.

However, dueling is the full extent of the game's PvP at the moment. The team has plans to expand this in the future.

Our final stop was to the crown jewel of Nexus, Central. It used to be the starting zone, but the devs have taken it out of the alpha for more work. I can't wait to see what it'll become because right now it looks incredible. Tall buildings, huge airships, Starbucks on every corner -- that sort of thing.

With the small size of the game and use of the Unity web browser, I commented that this will be extremely accessible to anyone with any type of computer. Laforge confirmed this and said that the team's even working on versions for Android and iOS devices as well, although that may come later.

Despite being in pre-alpha right now, City of Steam might actually launch this year. Mechanist is starting up its alpha test next month, followed by a larger beta in the mid-fall. Laforge said that the devs want at least 10,000 players for the alpha test but only have half of that so far. You hear that, Massively mob? Get to it!

We want to thank Gabriel Laforge for taking the time to walk us through this build of the game!

Massively's not big on scored reviews -- what use are those to ever-changing MMOs? That's why we bring you first impressions, previews, hands-on experiences, and even follow-up impressions for nearly every game we stumble across. First impressions count for a lot, but games evolve, so why shouldn't our opinions?



Tags: city-of-steam, David-Lindsay, dev-tour, fantasy, featured, gabriel-laforge, galleries, gallery, goblin, guild-wars, hands-on, industrial-fantasy, interview, interviews, mechanist, mechanist-games, nexus, pictures, preview, previews, sci-fi, screenshot, screenshots, steampunk, tour

 

[svartalf]

City of Steam begins third alpha weekend tonight
by MJ Guthrie on Aug 3rd 2012 10:30AMBetas, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Events, in-game, New titles, News items, Races, City of Steam0


The human and elven races have already flocked to the declining metropolis of Nexus in City of Steam's first two alpha weekends. Tonight, the steampunk MMORPG kicks off its third alpha weekend at 10:00 p.m. EDT.

Regrettably, not all of the greenskin races will be available in this alpha weekend as previously planned. On the plus side, the Goblins, one of the most anticipated races, will be featured. If you were really looking forward to either the Orcs or the Hobbes, take heart -- the studio has announced there will be a fourth alpha weekend which will include all nine races, more daily quests, and even more content.

Supporter packs are still available on the official site for those wanting priority admittance to the alpha.

[Source: Mechanist Games press release]

• More coverage: City of Steam official site

Tags: alpha, alpha-weekend, city-of-steam, fantasy, fourth-alpha-weekend, goblin, Goblins, mechanist, mechanist-games, races, sci-fi, steampunk

 

[svartalf]

City of Steam's final alpha weekend begins
by Justin Olivetti on Aug 17th 2012 9:00AMBetas, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Free-to-play, City of Steam0


City of Steam is waving goodbye to its adolescent phase and preparing for adulthood, as the steampunk MMO heads into its final alpha test weekend. This fourth alpha weekend begins tonight at 10:00 p.m. EDT.

Mechanist Games said that its priority for the weekend is to stress test the game, so the team wants as many players as possible to dive in and give it a whirl. You can sign up for testing on the game's website.

For this final alpha test, Mechanist Games has spotlighted Orcs in its most recent racial dev journal.The Orcs were former barbarians that are trying hard to integrate into this increasingly civilized world.

Massively has a new hands-on tour of City of Steam coming to you shortly, but in the meanwhile you can check out our pre-alpha visit to this industrial fantasy playground.

[Source: Mechanist Games press release]

• Source: Orc dev journal
• More coverage: City of Steam official site

Tags: alpha, alpha-test, alpha-test-weekend, beta, beta-test, city-of-steam, fantasy, goblin, mechanist, mechanist-games, sci-fi, steampunk, stress-test