Shores of Hazeron

[Zefram]

I'm pretty impressed by this ambitious game. It's a game I have been waiting for for a long time.

Since I suck at explaining games, I'll just copy and paste from their website:

http://www.shoresofhazeron.com/welcomef.html

We took a new approach. No off-the-shelf 3D engine was used. We devoted years to developing entirely new methods and techniques. The result is the biggest most realistic and usable science fiction galaxy that has ever been attempted.

Are you tired of the air tight movie sets of contemporary 3D games? There are no places that are off-limits in Hazeron. Pick a direction and start to walk or swim or fly a riding beast or ride a dirt bike. At best you'll circle the globe and return to your starting point; more likely something will kill you and eat you along the way.

Have you ever wanted to play a game with no boundaries? There are no boundaries in Hazeron. Pick a nearby star in the sky and go there. Explore its planets and moons. Build cities and defenses. Expand your empire and prepare to meet the enemy.

Do you want to discover strange new worlds, beam down and see what's there? There are millions of worlds and trillions of plants and quadrillions of creatures in Hazeron that no person has ever seen, not even us. That's not a worn out movie set down below; it's a dense jungle on the coast of a continent; something lives there.

Have you dreamed about the starship you would drive? The Enterprise? Nostromo? The Millennium Falcon? A Death Star? Perhaps the Battlestar Galactica? Maybe a Borg cube is more your style? In Hazeron you design your own deck plans and lay out the systems of your spacecraft, balancing performance against capability, mass against force. Then you manufacture them and climb aboard.

Can you get together online with some friends to crew a starship for space battles? Prepare to engage the enemy first-hand. Shields up, 80% to front! Sensors on! Lock-on weapon bays and FIRE!

Would you play a massively multi player strategic space war game? This is a real game, the kind that can be won and lost. You develop an empire and interact with other players. Your empire can expand and win or be crushed out of existence. There are no safe areas, not even for us. Come on! Take us on in our own universe!

Shores of Hazeron is growing. The foundation of phase one is complete. We are entering the final stages of phase one. More and more of our efforts will now be directed toward graphical beauty, stability, and performance. Like a plant that germinated more than ten years ago, Shores of Hazeron is about to bloom.

http://www.shoresofhazeron.com/thegame.html
http://www.shoresofhazeron.com/

Since it's still early beta, there is lag and it's buggy, but it's free, so there's really nothing to lose but time.

[Maarschalk]

Wow, this looks massive and huge, people have real lives you know.....LOL....:P:P:P:P

[Nigel_Strange]

The universe looks huge, but low-res. Might be interesting, but graphical improvements will be desired.

I do like the approach of being able to go anywhere. I wonder how the physics are modeled.

[Zefram]

Originally posted by Nigel_Strange
The universe looks huge, but low-res. Might be interesting, but graphical improvements will be desired.

I do like the approach of being able to go anywhere. I wonder how the physics are modeled.

For what it's worth, it's higher res than elite


Anyhow, the physics in space are Newtonian based. The primitive rocket is hard to fly, but the large starships which you can walk around on are much easier because of the systems onboard to counter-act the forces.

[Nigel_Strange]

mouse/keyboard driven, from what it looks like.

Also, is it multiplayer, singleplayer, or both?

[Zefram]

Originally posted by Nigel_Strange
mouse/keyboard driven, from what it looks like.

Also, is it multiplayer, singleplayer, or both?

It's massive multiplayer.

Here's a rundown of how it works:

When you create a character, you can either join someone else's empire, or create your own. If you create your own, then you create a new species in the universe (which spans like 32 light years), somewhat similar in spirit to the spore creature editor. This then becomes the DNA seed which is used for people who decide to join your empire. There are supposedly quadrillions of combinations, and this dna is also used for the randomly generated animals on planets, which exist on the land, air and in the water, along with randomly generated plant life.
http://www.shoresofhazeron.com/animals.html
http://www.shoresofhazeron.com/plants.html
http://www.shoresofhazeron.com/galaxy.html

Anyhow, after you create your species, you are then thrown onto a planet where you can start extracting things from the environment to begin building a city. Once you build houses etc, NPCs will begin moving into your city and helping. (this is all done in first person view). Over time, you start developing technology which allows you to take off into space and start colonizing other worlds (if you choose).


If you join someone else's empire, then you don't have to worry about the city building aspect and you can buy a ship from their empire and go right into space. The starships and space stations are 100% player built, and is represented in full 3d, with crew walking around in your space ship. Within the starship, you build stations (helm, navigation, weapons, engineering, sick bay etc etc) which can be manned by other players or CPU controller characters..

Anyhow, I can go on all day, so I'll leave it at that. Check out the manual on their website for all the juicy details.

btw, it's fun to put on an environmental suit and jump out my hull door sky diving back to my home world from orbit. Since my species flies, it's always a smooth landing. .

[Edited on 8-3-2010 by Zefram]

[Nigel_Strange]

It sounds cool...except for the multiplayer part. I just don't like 'em. Other than that, it sounds fantastic.

[Ohsirus]

Wow, this game is so far from being ready from prime time. I feel bad for playing it.

[Maarschalk]

Originally posted by Zefram

btw, it's fun to put on an environmental suit and jump out my hull door sky diving back to my home world from orbit. Since my species flies, it's always a smooth landing. .

[Edited on 8-3-2010 by Zefram]

LOL....Very nice, I hope there are no space duck hunters on your planet.......:P:P:P:P

[ryuu]

lol, i'd like to try it, but the buntu 32 bit build gives a 404 not found error when i try to download it

[Zefram]

Originally posted by Ohsirus
Wow, this game is so far from being ready from prime time. I feel bad for playing it.

I warned you that it's buggy and laggy . Keep in mind, this is a beta stability test, and it has obviously failed that test, but I am optimistic based on what I have seen so far.

[Edited on 8-3-2010 by Zefram]

[Ohsirus]

Originally posted by Zefram

Originally posted by Ohsirus
Wow, this game is so far from being ready from prime time. I feel bad for playing it.

I warned you that it's buggy and laggy . Keep in mind, this is a beta stability test, and it has obviously failed that test, but I am optimistic based on what I have seen so far.

[Edited on 8-3-2010 by Zefram]

I could barely stop laughing at the character screen, had to double check my res. Here's another alpha game that seems interesting. Visuals seem ok, gamplay, eyy Infinity

[Marvin]

Infinity is another game that probably won't see the light of day until I'm dead and buried.

[Ohsirus]

Originally posted by Marvin
Infinity is another game that probably won't see the light of day until I'm dead and buried.

Lol, they have a few servers up running the pre-alphas, might want to check your will. I got my butt handed to me earlier.

[Edited on 8-4-2010 by Ohsirus]

[Maarschalk]

LOL.......to Infinity and beyond........relatively when your dead....:P:P:P:P

[Zefram]

Originally posted by Ohsirus
I could barely stop laughing at the character screen, had to double check my res. Here's another alpha game that seems interesting. Visuals seem ok, gamplay, eyy Infinity

Some of us started playing space games long before games like Crysis were around. You would probably be shocked at the fact that we even played space games with NO textures at all. Just the though of that must sicken you...

[Ohsirus]

Originally posted by Zefram

Originally posted by Ohsirus
I could barely stop laughing at the character screen, had to double check my res. Here's another alpha game that seems interesting. Visuals seem ok, gamplay, eyy Infinity

Some of us started playing space games long before games like Crysis were around. You would probably be shocked at the fact that we even played space games with NO textures at all. Just the though of that must sicken you...

Lol my first space game was Star Raiders on my Atari 800, still love that game.

[Maarschalk]

LOL, first 3D flight simulators for computers the graphics where just lines......I played Figther Pilot on a Spectrum 48.....:P:P:P:P:P