The Conduit

[david.dakota]

I think that's a major overstatement. Most people don't consider bugs when they buy games.

 

Yes they do- thats a ridiculous thing to say. If you buy anything you'll friggin notice if its faulty. Minor bugs are maybe never noticed, but major ones are of course noticed- and many people would've previously taken them back to the shop for refund. Simple and justifiable. Nowadays, they'd be told to connect to the internet and download a patch, i don't think thats acceptable- its a workaround for a problem that could've been avoided in the first place.

 

Shovel ware, on top of anything, is vastly more decremental to the industry.

 

Really? A very short sighted thing to say. While i don't buy shovelware, its profitable for developers- its their bread and butter, many would simply cease to exist without it (High Voltage Software would be a good example, and without them, we may never have this very thread to discuss patches).

 

It's completely reasonable to announce DLC before a game is released. Games take years to make. DLC has to be planned as well. It has to be tested and approved separately.

 

Thats a gray area as far as i'm concerned- if a developer is working on new assets to a game, at the same time as the game itself, is it reasonable to expect this to be on the final build? But then, by announcing DLC prior to retail, you're advising the customer there are more charges to come.

 

I've personally tried to distance added value DLC from the idea of patches to repair faults. My personal opinion with added value DLC is if its on the disk, you should have access to it without a transaction (but then i'd be pretty miffed if a developer held bits back for DLC). You've already paid for it. If its an extra file containing new code, than yes, a charge can be made.

[dwarf]

Only Capcom with Resi 5 has commited the sin of having DLC pretty much on the disc. I don't any other game has that so maybe you're wrong on that side of it.

[Daft]

Yes they do- thats a ridiculous thing to say. If you buy anything you'll friggin notice if its faulty. Minor bugs are maybe never noticed, but major ones are of course noticed- and many people would've previously taken them back to the shop for refund. Simple and justifiable. Nowadays, they'd be told to connect to the internet and download a patch, i don't think thats acceptable- its a workaround for a problem that could've been avoided in the first place.

 

I don't think above average games come out with noticeable bugs.

 

Getting a patch is seamless. Takes no effort at all. You don't even have to do anything different from how you usually start a game up. It might take a minute to download and install but as the user, you have nothing to worry about. Seamless.

 

Really? A very short sighted thing to say. While i don't buy shovelware, its profitable for developers- its their bread and butter, many would simply cease to exist without it (High Voltage Software would be a good example, and without them, we may never have this very thread to discuss patches).

 

Short sighted?

 

People complain about games like Mad World and Okami falling on their faces but the seven thousandth 'Imagine Hedge Trimming' comes out. I think last time there was way to much shovel ware the industry crashed. Hence the Nintendo Seal of Quality.

 

Obviously a certain amount of shovel ware is necessary but thinking that patches are a bigger problem is just absurd.

 

 

Thats a gray area as far as i'm concerned- if a developer is working on new assets to a game, at the same time as the game itself, is it reasonable to expect this to be on the final build? But then, by announcing DLC prior to retail, you're advising the customer there are more charges to come.

 

It's not a grey area. I've worked on games that have had DLC down the line and if you want it to be worked on because you really don't like patches then these things need to be started earlier.

[Noku]

Perhaps a Mod should split the Patch discussion into a new thread, as its an interesting topic, but not really all that much related to The Conduit. Plus people who don't read this thread don't have much of a chance to contribute.

 

Hear ye hear ye!

[Nintendohnut]

I don't think people realise opinions are allowed to be different sometimes.

 

Some people like patches, some people like a game that is 'properly finished' before it is released. They aren't going to change their minds and noww we're just going around in circles. We know what people think now (I personally think a game should be tested properly and have no bugs at all, and 'patches' or DLC are okay if they add levels, missions, modes etc to a game as extra. If there are already 6 maps and 7 modes in a multiplayer part of a game, its great if a developer adds new maps and modes, or even weapons, but adding a new control scheme or a multiplayer mode after release is the sort of thing you delay the game for and put on the disk). Let's just move on, peoples opinions are what they are, so lets talk about the Conduit, eh?

[Patch]

Perhaps a Mod should split the Patch discussion into a new thread, as its an interesting topic, but not really all that much related to The Conduit. Plus people who don't read this thread don't have much of a chance to contribute.

 

People talking about me? Interesting? I doubt that.

 

I was going to buy Tomb Raider: Underworld - I haven't played a Tomb Raider game for ages now - but I was put off by the Lever glitch in the Wii version, which forced you to start a new game. So I never bought it and probably never will.

[Kav]

Huh... where's the Conduit chat?

[D_prOdigy]

Huh... where's the Conduit chat?

 

Here's some:

 

HVS held another multiplayer event (in Europe this time) and the press actually got a chance to play it. Reactions seemed pretty positive.

 

- Three Environments were shown: Hospital, On the Streets, the Pentagon

- Hospital: lot of corridors, corners and small rooms. Fit for pistol and small guns

- The Pentagon: Very good combination of big central area with rooms and “balconies”. At the end, everybody goes to the central space. Some sewers, too. Fit for all types of weapons, snipers particularly

- On the Streets: big empty area with destroyed buildings around. This demo was played with Bazookas only

- 25 ranks to gain online, level up with experience poitns

- Three stages types: small (2-6 players), medium (8-10 and big (8-12 players)

[david.dakota]

Here's some:

 

HVS held another multiplayer event (in Europe this time) and the press actually got a chance to play it. Reactions seemed pretty positive.

 

Excellent. Now were just waiting for a couple of reviews to make sure it all fits together.

[Kav]

Here's some:

 

HVS held another multiplayer event (in Europe this time) and the press actually got a chance to play it. Reactions seemed pretty positive.

 

Awesome! Thanks man.

[D_prOdigy]

Multiplayer footage:

 

 

Looks pleasingly silky smooth, even if some of those death sequences are plain comical.

[dwarf]

Looked pretty good, but you're right, the little jump animation after they've died is comedy brilliance.

[GothicPlague]

hmmm graphics don't look too great in that video but I don't care since it seemed to be giving off a Perfect Dark multiplayer vibe (dunno if that's just me) and I love the multiplayer in Perfect Dark even to this day even when people are using a fuck load of n-bombs that slow it down to 1 fps.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Looked pretty good, but you're right, the little jump animation after they've died is comedy brilliance.

 

I saw that and smiled. It's given this game some character, so quite looking forward to it now.

 

hmmm graphics don't look too great in that video but I don't care since it seemed to be giving off a Perfect Dark multiplayer vibe (dunno if that's just me) and I love the multiplayer in Perfect Dark even to this day even when people are using a fuck load of n-bombs that slow it down to 1 fps.

 

It reminded me a lot of Perfect Dark and Goldeneye. In a way, it feels a lot like the spiritual successor to Perfect Dark...just the whole vibe of it.

 

I see your N-bombs, and I raise one...one Laptop gun. Heh. Secondary moded to a sentry gun.

[DuD]

That looks like alot of fun, i wanna play it nowwww

I might crack out timesplitters2 during the wait for this or even dust off goldeneye

 

if i can tear myself from majora's mask that is

 

:EDIT:

 

N-bombs just make me think of a bunch of little racists running around gunning each other to death

[GothicPlague]

 

I see your N-bombs, and I raise one...one Laptop gun. Heh. Secondary moded to a sentry gun.

 

Great weapon that which the N-bomb wasn't just funny what it does to the frame rate.

 

Also Farsight > Laptop Gun

 

 

Actually talking about the Farsight how much does this resemble it.

 

Edited April 28, 2009 by GothicPlague

[Fierce_LiNk]

Great weapon that which the N-bomb wasn't just funny what it does to the frame rate.

 

Also Farsight > Laptop Gun

 

The N-Bomb was intense, though. Quite liked it, although I prefer the traditional proximity and remote mines, taken from the Goldeneye era.

 

Ahh, the problem with Farsight was the reloading, and the fact that enemies could own you whilst you were aiming. The SuperDragon, on the other hand, fucking perfect!

 

Machine Gun, plus a grenade launcher. It was a blatant rip-off of the Pulse Rifle from the film Aliens, but it was oh so sweet and wanted at the same time. My favourite weapon in the game. Simple, but so effective.

 

Edit: After seeing that picture, I almost laughed. That's such a copy, haha.

[david.dakota]

Has it been announced how large the friend roster is? Hopefully, its larger than Mario Karts.

[Strange Cookie]

A couple weeks ago, Sega held a little soiree out here in San Francisco to yank me out of my gaming shell of cheerleader sims and games ending in “Z” to try my hand at The Conduit. Of course the original intent was to showcase the game’s mysterious multiplayer components, but due to some unforeseen competition from Nintendo’s servers, we pressers had to “make do” with 2.5 hours of the single player mode.

 

First, let me just say that the High Voltage guys are passionate about this game. It’s a real labour of love, and part of that stems from putting their ears to the ground to hear what real gamers and fans have to say and deliver what they want. I heard firsthand that the build we were presented that night was the result of a lot of hard work to show off what they considered “the best build we’ve ever made”, and when things for MP fell sour, you could literally see the heartbreak and disappointment on their faces.

 

Overview & Controls

Needless to say, making lemonade of the situation by turning everyone loose on the single player mode was a great opportunity for me. I’ve said it countless times before, I was open and honest with them then, and will repeat it here again now, but I am an absolute FPS n00b. I don’t typically enjoy or play the genre for a number of reasons, but strangely enough, the response from the event staffer who got me started was, “Great, well this is a game intended to interest players of many walks, so you’ll be a good test subject.” Indeed; I can count my FPS experiences in total with enough fingers left over to still play most Wii games.

 

Many of you diehard followers of The Conduit upon hearing anything to the effect of “wide appeal”, “n00b friendly” or the like will probably start to lose either your tempers or your bladder control thinking the game is a lost cause or is irreparably ruined because it’s less “core”. What I was surprised to find was that yes, I was able to pick up and play with very little guidance, but that’s because I was using the default control set, which is smartly geared to be a good balance of the many, many configurable options. In my head while playing, if I wondered about doing a melee attack… instinctively jutting forth my Wiimote and elbow did the trick as expected. Grenades? A tossing flick of the nunchuck wrist got those enemy spawning portals out of my way quickly.

 

But for you more seasoned players, you’ll be happy to know that just about every freaking function of the controls is configurable… from the button layout to the sensitivity of every variable. If spending precious minutes tweaking things to your liking isn’t cool, they provided some handy control presets labelled as different characters as a shortcut to get you playing as quickly as possible. Even the bits and pieces of the HUD are drag and drop around the screen. Plus, if you decide something doesn’t feel right, you can make adjustments and test live, in-game, and go right back to playing. Thanks to Matt from High Voltage for walking me through some of these features. After showing me his “experienced player” settings, he kindly switched back to “beginner” default for me and handed back my rattle toy Wiimote.

 

Game play

As for the actual gameplay…It wasn’t as daunting as I expected. Sure, it took me a few minutes to get used to the idea of snipers trying to pick me off in the airport, or armoured alien soldiers risking life and limb to snatch off my face, but asserting my dominance with the available arsenal was an easy mental adjustment. I played through 4-5 missions—not sure if they’d be called levels—without being handed defeat but once, and that was my own fault with an accidental grenade ricochet. Well, once… until the last level I played when difficulty started ramping up.

 

Graphics & Design

The level design seemed mostly intuitive. I’m sure there’s a piece of the HUD or a status screen that could point me in the right direction if necessary (figured out how to use the ASE as a pulsing guide along the floor), but for the most part, moving through the levels wasn’t a problem. The ASE puzzles weren’t enough to stump me even for a moment; hopefully that changes elsewhere in the game.

 

Graphically, it looks pretty darn good overall. I don’t really have any frame of reference for FPS on Wii, but my design sensibilities were pretty accepting of the environments. Textures look sharp, effects add pleasing visual character, and lighting was ample that I could see what was going on, even in the darker underground areas. Admittedly, the regular Washington D.C. locations look decent—perhaps pedestrian compared to the non-human related elements which are the most interesting and impressive—but most real-world city locations aren’t that amazing to see anyway, so at least it’s authentic to the spirit.

 

Finale

So by the end of the night, I had a good time with The Conduit. Sega and High Voltage are taking a mulligan and plan to reschedule the multiplayer event soon, and I’ll be there (invitation pending). Several details, interviews, etc. have since answered a few of the MP questions out there, but as I happened to be leaving, I had the chance to chill in the hotel lounge/lobby with David Pellasfrom High Voltage for a good 20-30 minutes and chat about The Conduit, High Voltage, and gaming in general. Long story short, he loves GoNintendo, all of you, and graciously offered to take on some of the questions you have.

 

Before turning you loose on the Q&A, I’ll share one quick tidbit in case it’s been overlooked or unsaid elsewhere. The infamous “tip of the iceberg” in Wii graphics? Expect to see something soon, maybe in a month or so.

 

 

Cort: Thanks again for taking the time to talk with us, and reach out to our thirsty community! Can you give us a little info about yourself and what you do with High Voltage? What has your specific role been with The Conduit?

 

My name is David Pellas. I am the Design Director at High Voltage Software. My role is to manage the quality of our products and facilitate our designers so that they help produce fun games while maintaining a high level of enthusiasm for the company and their projects. I have a great job.

 

SMBXJ2: Any possibility of “aiming” solely with the nunchuk, freeing up the wiimote for other uses, like watering flowers?

 

Now that is an interesting question. Unfortunately it won’t be possible for this game, as our aiming system is rooted in the Wii Remote’s pointing functionality. We will certainly look into it for any future games.

 

ECC: Will multiplayer have any kind of lobby system?

 

Yes, we do have a lobby system. The lobby, as we use it, is like a doctor’s waiting room. When you start or join a server, you enter our lobby. This is where you vote for maps, weapons sets, and rules. We made every effort to create an unobtrusive system that is easy to use. We hope you like it.

 

Lockdale: To what extent does multiplayer use Friend Codes for online play, and will there be a way to save random encounter players to a friends list?

 

We do feature Friend Codes. This is something that we hoped to circumvent but we were unable to do so. We understand the frustration that people have with this system, but we believe that The Conduit offers the best solution for using the Friend Codes system while still maintaining an easy, fun experience.

 

Vigo: Any limit to the number of friends that can be kept?

 

32. The Wii only allows for single NAT traversal. With the way we alleviated a lot of the problems with friend codes, we found that it was taking too long to coordinate 64 connections. So we dropped it to 32 to speed up the process.

 

1upart: Does multiplayer have class customisation, similar to CoD4? Also, now that SD card functions on Wii have been upgraded, any plans to support DLC for future titles?

 

We do not have classes in The Conduit, so the unfortunately answer to that question is no. As to the DLC, we would have loved to get that functionality into the game, but it came online too late for us to incorporate it into the game. I will tell you this; we all think it is an incredible technology, and one long overdue. Perhaps we could find a use for it in the future.

 

coffeewithchess: Can lights be shot out that affects gameplay? Other destructable objects or interaction with environment elements? Do shots to different body regions affect number of hits to kill? How realistic are materials and object detection for shots, i.e. can you shoot through walls, objects or gaps in objects?

 

This type of mechanic usually plays a significant gameplay role in stealthy games, while The Conduit is very action-oriented. So the short answer is no. [i tried shooting lights during my hands on, and while they don’t go out, you can get a brief puff of smoke that seems to dim the lights for a second or two —cort]

 

We have lots of destructible objects as well as many interactive objects. [Things I was able to destroy: crates, boxes, helium/oxygen tanks —cort]

 

We do feature multiple hit zones on enemies, so make sure you aim for the head… especially on the higher difficulty levels.

 

The team has worked incredibly hard to ensure that our collision meshes for the world are as realistic as possible. You can shoot through gaps, destroy objects to remove enemy cover, and so much more.

 

Artistic_Anarchy: Approximate length of single player mode?

 

Our internal and external testing leads us to estimate that an average gamer, playing the game on the default difficulty, searching out a few secrets will enjoy a 6-8 hour single-player experience. If you are the kind of player that tries to discover everything there is to find in a game, then it will be much longer.

 

Nightshadow: What were some of the development hurdles? How might those learnings affect development of a sequel?

 

As far as the development hurdles, there have been a lot. From technology to art, since the beginning we wanted to push the Wii more than any other game out there. We learned so many lessons that this answer would take more time to write than it takes to get your driver’s license renewed. One thing I will say though is that we learned so much from this game and what we have coming in the future is going to show you just how much.

 

Sequel? We can talk about that sort of thing later. We are much too focused on getting this game into your hands and we are eager to get your feedback.

 

The press circuit pressing The Conduit’s buttons at the Hotel Vitale.

Guy in a floppy green cap: What aspect of the game has been hardest to satisfy fan desires?

 

WiiSpeak was definitely a beast to wrangle. The Nintendo libraries were very helpful for certain aspects of development but for others there just wasn’t much tangible information for us to reference. So when we were creating this game, we knew we wanted to do voice chat and we had a very specific plan for it. When we tested internally, it all seemed to work great, however when we tested it on the test servers we quickly realized that we had to completely redesign it. This was just another one of those lessons learned, but what we came up with has exceeded Nintendo specifications and we are very proud of our team.

 

dandancc: How customizable are characters for multiplayer?

 

Very.

 

Next question…

 

Ok ok, I had to do it… where is your sense of humor? Our character customization options in multiplayer are very robust. Besides being able to name your character, you can choose a skin and then modify several parameters on that skin. This doesn’t even begin to explain all of the customizable control options you can tweak…

 

jonuk: What’s the real scoop on Nintendo putting the kibosh on LAN multiplayer?

 

I don’t think it really is a matter of them putting the kibosh on LAN support, I think it more to the point that they never planned for it. The way the Nintendo system works, all players must ping the Nintendo network manager server. This means that no matter what, you must send data out. When you consider that your single connection would need to account for all of the data packets being sent from all Wiis in your house, you start to get the idea on why it wouldn’t work very well.

 

The great thing about Nintendo is that they listen. When we identified the problem, they recognized it and worked with us on several possible solutions. Unfortunately, none of those options worked, time ran out, and we had to make a call… either spend the next few months polishing the game or trying to get LAN support working. We decided to polish and I am very happy that we did.

 

iambob98: Custom soundtracks or ability to play mp3’s while in-game?

 

We had wanted to do this, but it was a feature that just happened to fall down the list as other higher priority items came up.

 

2dgay: As critical as gamers and gaming press are of everything, how worried is the team about The Conduit living up to it’s colossal hype? What other games or sources have influenced The Conduit? Any news on Animales de la Muerte?

 

One thing that some people may not know about The Conduit is how we developed this game. Sure we started with our own concepts and designs but as soon as we had something to show off, we did. We chose to show the game off to gamers and to gather their feedback. We did this because we were excited about the game, but what we gained was an incredible amount of helpful feedback from the people who we hoped would someday buy the game. When we returned from the trade shows or expos, we reviewed every criticism and every remark for validity. Most of the items people mentioned, we fixed and then we took the game back out to the gamers. The community was an active partner in the development process of this game and we are so incredibly happy with the response the game has gotten.

 

As to which other games influenced us, well we play every game we can get our hands on. The High Voltage Software Game Library is enormous! Because we play so many games, it would be a disservice to say that only a couple games influenced us. If I had to name some of the games that influences us the most, they would be Halo, Half-Life, GoldenEye, and Perfect Dark.

 

Animales? Now what did we do with that? Hmm… I know I had something… Oh well, maybe I will remember while answering some other questions.

 

OnAFriday: For multiplayer… any vehicles? how many playable characters?

 

Vehicles are not part of the multiplayer offering this time around, sorry. As to the playable characters, there are a total of five playable characters and players can modify them in any number of ways to make them unique.

 

linkdarkshadow: What are the pros/cons considered when deciding to develop for Wii only vs 360/PS3? What was Nintendo’s role in the game’s development, especially relating to online/multiplayer? How important was feedback from “the people” for The Conduit, and how was development influenced for the final product?

 

There are many reasons to choose one platform over the other. One of the reasons we chose the Wii is because there just wasn’t any good FPS on the market for the system and we thought the platform offered the best potential for great gameplay.

 

Nintendo and High Voltage Software have a fantastic relationship that stemmed from their early involvement and our technology. We weren’t shy about approaching them and they haven’t been shy with helping us solve some rather difficult problems.

 

In the answer to a previous question I spoke about how important it was to have the gamers involved with the development process. The Conduit is a game created by gamers for gamers.

 

Freeload: What kind of unlockables might the game have? How are the Wiimote’s speaker and rumble used?

 

Hmm how to answer this… well I will say that we feature a lot of unlockable content. I apologize but I cannot reveal the specifics of the content but there are going to be cheats, concept art, achievements, and more! We are pleased with all of the extra content that got into the game and hope that you will enjoy unlocking everything.

 

We do utilize both the Wii Remote’s speaker and rumble features. The speaker is primarily used as a secondary indicator when you are near a secret. The rumble is used to provide gamers with feedback from weapons, damage, etc.

 

keyz: What can you share about the available multiplayer modes for launch? Anything not yet revealed you want to share?

 

We are confident that we offer the best online multiplayer experience on the Wii. We feature 3 Game Types with a total of 13 game modes. There will be 8 weapon sets and 7 maps to choose from. Our Elite Rankings system offers players who devote the time, skill, and effort the chance to become true masters of the game. We also offer the ability to customize your characters.

 

So who amongst the crowd thinks they can reach Elite status first?

 

yomanDS: How many levels of difficulty does the game have, and how does it affect the AI? What is the team’s reaction to the willy-nilly term “generic”?

 

We offer five levels of difficulty. They are Low, Guarded, Elevated, High, and Severe. The game defaults to Guarded, which is a very fun play through. Low difficulty is for those who need to hold hands while crossing the street. Severe is for those who have a death wish. I have been playing this game for a long time and have only beaten Severe twice. If you think you are up for it, try it out and let us know what you think.

 

Our A.I. system is a very comprehensive system. The enemies are programmed with a specific set of variables or behaviors. They react to the player’s current behavior, position, weapon, and a vast number of other things. They do change their minds when recalculating their situation. All of this and more is part of our complex A.I. system and each parameter changes with the difficulty setting. The problem that we are always going to have with AI is that you can never make it perform like a human opponent. That would be Skynet and I don’t think I would like being a slave to robots.

 

We tend not to get into shouting matches about appearance, design philosophy, audio, or any other thing pertaining to the game. We love this game. Instead of arguing, I would ask the person who would make such a statement if they had the chance to play. If they answered yes, I would ask them how long they played. It seems that that those who use the term have either not ever played the game or have only played for a short time in a loud room.

 

ABOVE ALL ELSE…. THANK YOU FOR MAKING THE CONDUIT FOR US WII GAMERS!!! Love, GoNintendo.

 

Thanks guys. This game is just as much for all of you as it is for all of us. GoNintendo is an amazing site which I frequently view and respect. I was very happy to meet Aaron cort at our San Francisco event a few weeks back, in fact I hunted him down… you will have to ask him to clarify…

 

I look forward to showing you all the amazing multiplayer action at the next event. Stay tuned for more news on The Conduit and the future of High Voltage Software!

 

 

Most bizarre question: "Any possibility of “aiming” solely with the nunchuk, freeing up the wiimote for other uses, like watering flowers?"

Edited April 28, 2009 by Strange Cookie

[Kav]

That's a great interview there, I like to hear about the extensive AI... I hope it lives up to their promise!

 

I really can't wait for this game!

[david.dakota]

Has it been announced how large the friend roster is? Hopefully, its larger than Mario Karts.

 

Vigo: Any limit to the number of friends that can be kept?

 

32. The Wii only allows for single NAT traversal. With the way we alleviated a lot of the problems with friend codes, we found that it was taking too long to coordinate 64 connections. So we dropped it to 32 to speed up the process.

 

Oh. I suppose it is larger than Mario Karts... But 32?! Bloody friendcodes.

[Emasher]

I can understand why its only 32 now. Although, I doubt most people will have 32 people they frequently play the game with anyway.

 

Great interview.

[lostmario]

32 is fine. I'm assuming you can pick who is on your team right for team deathmatches?

So we can create N-E clans and face off against each other.

[david.dakota]

I suppose for purposes of team fights, you could have player 1 and player 2 linked as friends, team 1 friends with player one and team 2 linked with player two, thusly requiring only two codes, rather than 12. Right?

 

Although, that sounded a complete mess.

[Emasher]

I suppose for purposes of team fights, you could have player 1 and player 2 linked as friends, team 1 friends with player one and team 2 linked with player two, thusly requiring only two codes, rather than 12. Right?

 

Although, that sounded a complete mess.

 

No, actually that makes sense. We could just get one person to register all the friend-codes and everyone would just have to register the code of that person. The only problem would be if that person couldn't go on for some reason.