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| Art by Thomas Frick |
I deliberately avoided talking about this out of fear that I might be accused of "piracy" because I don't have a copy of the Edge magazine. I admit, though, I watched Kweebec Corner's analysis.
Now that GamesRadar has shared the article for all to see, I'm FREEEEE!!!
I wanted to buy the Edge magazine issue and keep it as a "trophy", but I don't dare see Dad use up his credit card. Plus, I don't live in the UK.
Let me say first of all that the Gaia artwork is amazing—it's calming yet powerful and shows Gaia in more than just quick brush strokes like in her concept art. I prefer the one with the Scaraks, though, since...I like fighting too much.
Okay, enough side notes. Let's get back to the task at hand.
As if the progress updates weren't good enough. They just had to talk about Hytale out of nowhere on a freaking magazine, with a worthy amount of new features and history to match. Noxy even described it as the "most comprehensive press coverage of Hytale...[that] goes into deep detail on a lot of interesting topics."
Honestly, I'm lazy to talk about the history of Hypixel and Hytale at this point since it's been shoved down our throats several times, including EGX 2019.
I just shorten it to a handful of sentences: "Hypixel started out of redstone minigames built by Simon Collins-Laflamme and Philippe Touchette... Hypixel became the largest Minecraft server ever and won 4 Guinness World Records... Hypixel tried to work around Minecraft's limitations but even that has limits... Battle royale games like Fortnite were taking over, causing Hypixel to lose its player base... The Hypixel team was originally going to make a 2D top-down shooter but then decided to make a block game because the team was passionate about Minecraft... Hytale aims to have the most empowered gaming community in the world... Hypixel Studios was expecting 250,000 views but was blown away far beyond expectation upon getting 11 million views on the trailer... Yadda yadda yadda." Did I get those right?
They talked more about the business side of things and the expectation management later on, but they eventually got too long and complicated, so I lazily speed-read through it.
Enough introduction because I suck at it. Time to overanalyze individual statements.
Remember, I'll be focusing mainly on tactics, not necessarily aesthetics or modding potential. Brace yourself for the occasional gushing.
Naturally, I'll be skipping to "How Hytale Plays" because the content before that is about history.
"It is dusk in Hytale, peaceful and purple and quiet, save for the chirps of crickets all around."
Peaceful and quiet, huh? Does this mean darkness doesn't always spawn groups of hostile mobs coming at the player while outdoors? Or maybe mobs only spawn once the sun has fully "disappeared"?
Also, are these crickets just an ambient sound effect, or are they actual mobs? I'm getting thoughts of murder-hoboing them for XP...or maybe a body part I can use for alchemy.
Again, is this something like a particle effect, or are these birds actual mobs? They may fly towards a place of interest like a forest or make for good archery practice.
It's super effective! The wild PIGEON fainted!
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| You get the idea. Screenshot from my Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones ROM hack |
"Content lead Sean McCafferty—whose ginger-mohawked character moves in a much more realistic manner than his Minecraft predecessors ever did—starts walking us through the game's crafting loop..."
The mention of Sean McCafferty's movement may imply that he was playing alongside the article's writer, Jen Simpkins. It's nice of him to do so, but this may imply that Hytale doesn't have an in-game tutorial yet. It's "ready when it's ready" for a reason, people!
I'm not gonna talk about the rest of the crafting stuff since it has some similarities to Minecraft. I've heard the crafting system also has similarity to Terraria with the multiple workbenches, but I'm unfamiliar with Terraria.
"[The cave is] also riddled with marauding goblins, who are then dispatched with a few swings of a particularly vicious-looking sword or—more unusually—a well-aimed blast from a magical staff."
"[The cave is] also riddled with marauding goblins, who are then dispatched with a few swings of a particularly vicious-looking sword or—more unusually—a well-aimed blast from a magical staff."
Goblins seem to be common encounters underground. Makes me wonder how often the bomb-throwing variant spawns compared to other goblin variants...
As for the "vicious-looking sword", it isn't mentioned what kind of sword this is, but it's probably not a sword with a typical shape, material, or more importantly, performance. This, along with the "unusual" staff attack, may suggest that Jen has gone past the early game.
Speaking of the staff, magic attacks still seem to require accuracy.
"So far, so Minecraft, then—perhaps if you'd managed to load it up with a slew of fancy shaders and some animation mods."
CATTLE FECES! The hack-and-slash melee combat makes Hytale vastly different from Minecraft from the get-go!
But, in fairness to the author, she mentioned the differences from Minecraft later on.
"There are around 7,000 prefabs currently in the game, [Sean] tells us..."
This is a HUGE step-up from the worldgen introduction back in January 2019, which stated Hytale had 3,765 prefabs. Assuming Hytale was in development for exactly 3 years and each year had the same number of prefabs made, that means 1,255 prefabs were made every year. Over the span of 1 year, though, that number has more than doubled—about 2.57x! Huge respect for Hypixel Studios. MUST HAVE MORE PREFABS!
Then again, Noxy explains how fast prefabs are created in this Reddit reply. (Pro tip: Going to Noxy's Reddit profile shows all his replies. It makes source-searching so much easier. Mwahahahaha!)
Then again, Noxy explains how fast prefabs are created in this Reddit reply. (Pro tip: Going to Noxy's Reddit profile shows all his replies. It makes source-searching so much easier. Mwahahahaha!)
"Hytale's maps are procedurally generated, but always follow a rough structure: the more temperate Zone 1 in the middle, the hot jungle and dry deserts of Zone 2 to the south, and the frozen Zone 3 to the north. The climates of each zone also get more intense the further into them that you trek, and the difficulty of missions and their rewards ever greater."
This implies that the player has some control over the game's difficulty simply by moving to different zones or parts of zones. Feeling brave and want a head start? Go deeper into zone 2 or 3 in the early game. Want to steadily progress your way through the game? Gather resources in zone 1.
This also means that luck is less important for finding zones, unlike what I previously prepared for. Unlike Minecraft, the player can progress slowly but surely to a desired zone. You bet I'll start at zone 1 as quickly as possible.
I wonder how Hytale will try to stop early-game stealth strategies in the harder areas...
"A surprisingly beautiful ruined cottage elsewhere catches our eye as a potential renovation project."
This implies that it's still possible to build on prefabs, but I don't want to assume it extends to all prefabs beyond portal dungeons. Terrain manipulation feels like cheating for me sometimes—in Minecraft, have you ever pillar-jumped in the part of an end city with the end rod parkour?
As stated before on a Reddit reply by Noxy, many prefabs in the main world were intentionally designed to be ruins to avoid "intimidating" the player with well-designed prefabs. "Why would you ever want to built a humble home when the Taj Mahal is in view distance?" he said.
Then again, it's kinda weird to me that even these ruins get positive remarks like Jen's—they somewhat defeat the purpose of Noxy's statement...minus the intimidation factor. Actually, I really like the design of these higher-tier ruins from the December progress update.
Okay, back to the renovation thing. Just like Dungeons & Dragons where the story's central focus is always the player characters, I think Hytale is trying to pull off a similar goal with these ruins. After you investigate, survive, and plunder these ruins, what do you do? Simply leave the ruins because you want to preserve history or allow allied forces to do further investigation? Use the ruins as a template for a grander and sturdier base? Or destroy it so the evil cult can't use it again? I know I'd put green details all over the ruins I renovate—green is my "gang color".
"If [the encounter location is] a Trork camp (one of Hytale's more hostile races), you might be told to destroy ten Trorks, or rescue a peaceful Kweebec hostage."
As stated before on a Reddit reply by Noxy, many prefabs in the main world were intentionally designed to be ruins to avoid "intimidating" the player with well-designed prefabs. "Why would you ever want to built a humble home when the Taj Mahal is in view distance?" he said.
Then again, it's kinda weird to me that even these ruins get positive remarks like Jen's—they somewhat defeat the purpose of Noxy's statement...minus the intimidation factor. Actually, I really like the design of these higher-tier ruins from the December progress update.
Okay, back to the renovation thing. Just like Dungeons & Dragons where the story's central focus is always the player characters, I think Hytale is trying to pull off a similar goal with these ruins. After you investigate, survive, and plunder these ruins, what do you do? Simply leave the ruins because you want to preserve history or allow allied forces to do further investigation? Use the ruins as a template for a grander and sturdier base? Or destroy it so the evil cult can't use it again? I know I'd put green details all over the ruins I renovate—green is my "gang color".
"If [the encounter location is] a Trork camp (one of Hytale's more hostile races), you might be told to destroy ten Trorks, or rescue a peaceful Kweebec hostage."
Destroy 10 Trorks? Sounds simple enough. As a hail of arrows and lightning bolts rains down on the camp as if coming from the sky, the bewildered Trorks whose heads are tilted upwards do not notice their hearts being pierced from behind before silently crashing on the short grass, devoid of life.
Corny Dungeon Master narration aside, the Kweebec rescue implies two major things. #1, this may be stronger evidence towards Trorks and Kweebecs being enemies, the other being the fact that Kweebecs wear ornamental Trork teeth. #2, rescue missions, which I talked about in my Hytale gang wars series, are confirmed. Heck yeah, baby!
"You might also be given a treasure map by a vendor..."
How is this treasure map acquired? Is it obtained for free like accepting a quest in a typical RPG, or is it purchased? Why would a vendor give away a treasure map, and when?
Sean: "[Blockgame PvP is] about people who can place blocks at lightning speed – like, you can have a guy coming towards you with better armour and better gear, and you can block yourself backwards across a void and then start hammering blocks he's walking on to make him fall... What we want to do is take the onus off the 'spam clicking' sort of behaviour, and give us a little bit more depth."
I'm not entirely sure how block placement-only tactics would work outside of niche situations like SkyWars or BedWars where players build bridges to islands that float above the void. In Minecraft, unless the player can place blocks super quickly and accurately similar to the Old Builders in Minecraft: Story Mode (which is VERY hard to do), placing blocks can't stop an enemy who can easily weave through unexpected difficult terrain, whether it's through grace of movement or also placing blocks.
I like to think of the reactive and proactive part with the phrase "If foe initiates combat..." Yeah, I've been playing too much Fire Emblem Heroes.
Putting FEH aside, I have mixed opinions on that combat philosophy which come from my experience as both a gamer and martial artist.
On the positive side, this further adds to the hack-and-slash feel of Hytale combat where defensive tactics can be just as devastating as offensive ones. In the Tekken series, damage is increased when hitting an opponent who's in the middle of attacking. In Prototype 2, when James Heller times his shield block right with an enemy attack, he can either stun the enemy or bounce a projectile like a rocket back. In real life, the impact force of a shield blocking a sword can stagger the opponent thanks to the physical shock, and can even damage the sword! Some weapons tested in Forged in Fire get chipped, bent, or rolled up when struck multiple times on a shield as part of the strength test. I personally want to block with one end of my spear then counter with the other end like I'm using a quarterstaff.
On the negative side, I don't want Hytale to put too much importance on defense, especially to the point where two players or mobs wait indefinitely for one to strike. This can make fights take too long to the point of boredom, or in the case of multiplayer servers, make a game session run so long that a new session can't start because the server has reached a technical limit. I suggest anti-stall tactics like being able to grapple enemies who abuse blocking or parrying, as well as decent availability of explosive weapons (maybe even grenade launcher-like weapons) to stop players who abuse block placement tactics. The dash attack idea is also good for hitting enemies who dodge a lot because it becomes a mind game: Is Player 1 going to dash-attack to Player 2's left, right, or center of Player 2's position? Where would Player 2 dodge?
Regardless, this once again confirms the existence of a variety of attacks with different effects, most notably the newly confirmed dash.
The "maybe even sneak attacks" statement kind of worries me since it's not 100% confirmed and may still be debated within Hypixel Studios. As a rogue in real life, I am a fan of sneak attacks and stealth games. Either way, this implies that sneak attacks didn't exist in the version that Jen played.
Gosh-dang, this section was much longer than I expected. I must really like fighting, huh?
"Weapons in Hytale are broken up into families, with each having their own particular attack pattern to master: one-handed swords, two-handed longswords, warhammers that have a slower, wide-sweeping attack for crowd control against weaker enemies, and axes that have a limited range of motion but whose vertical chops deal devastating damage."
Heck yeah, different moves for different weapon types! Side note: They described "longswords" correctly; they're actually two-handed. The "one-handed longswords" in games are actually arming swords: swords whose lengths are in-between shortswords and longswords. See Shadiversity's video.
We saw the warhammer's "slower, wide-sweeping attack" back in the very first gameplay footage in the graphics update.
Axes may be focused on delivering huge damage to a single target. They might be useful in duels against slower enemies but weak against groups of enemies, especially in difficult terrain.
"While spelunking, we run into a treasure room, in which a miffed treasure goblin chases a mildly panicked McCafferty."
Hmmm, does this mean goblins are treasure hoarders? Or are they guarding some kind of dark secret? GET ME IN THERE!
"In Zone 2, mist creeps over a crop of hot springs near to a settlement filled with people of a fox race known as the Feran. Unlike the friendly Kweebec, we have to work a little harder to build goodwill: our standing with them is currently neutral, but we'll be able to offer gifts of meat or make offerings to their gods to gain standing with them."
Mist creeps over a crop of hot springs, eh? Kind of reminds me of the smoke and sand particle effects in Fire Emblem Awakening when a character hits the ground after a jump. On a more realistic point of view, how much will the mist obscure vision? How big is the mist? Will this have some kind of effect like making the character feel wet due to water vapor? Most importantly, do Ferans prefer to put up settlements near hot springs, or was this Feran settlement generated here coincidentally?
I knew the Ferans weren't friendly right off the bat! I explained before that years of slavery might have made Ferans more skeptical of other people out of fear of being enslaved again, but it's not explained in this article. While the article says that Jen and Sean have a neutral reputation with the Ferans, there's no mention of initial hostility, friendliness, or how much the two interacted with the Ferans before their current reputation, so I'd still avoid jumping to conclusions.
Offering meat seems easy enough, assuming I can produce meat at a similar speed as in Minecraft. "Meat" is a general term that refers to many kinds of animal flesh-derived food, though, so I'm skeptical if Ferans have a preference for certain types or qualities of meat—maybe Jen just said "meat" to shorten the article. Ferans appear to be based on the fennec fox, and according to National Geographic, fennec foxes eat rodents, eggs, reptiles, and insects, so maybe I'd have to take some trips underground to hunt rats.
I assumed at first that there were only two Hytale gods: Gaia and Varyn. (Note that my classification of Varyn as a god is 100% my opinion; I have no evidence other than him being an incredibly powerful main antagonist. Some translations of 2 Corinthians 4:4 use "god"; others use "the devil".) Ferans worship other gods besides Gaia, huh? Will these gods be actual characters, or are they actually fake gods and Gaia is the only one who exists in-game?
"Still, the [Kweebecs] are no pushovers: 'If you start butchering their children, they call these guys called the Razorleaf Rangers, who are hard as nuts,' McCafferty laughs."
Hard as nuts, huh? We'll see about that. I've killed many cops in GTA and iron golems in Minecraft without breaking a sweat.
Regardless, I like to nickname the Razorleaf Rangers the "anti-murder hobos" of Hytale.
I'm concerned that this might be unintuitive for new players who want to just kill everything for fun, so maybe there should be an in-game warning? Then again, being killed by the Razorleaf Rangers is enough to prove to the player that actions have consequences.
On a more speculative note, what do these Razorleaf Rangers do when not killing murder hobos? Do they do nothing? Do they not spawn until a murder hobo does their thing? Can they be interacted with like regular NPCs? Do they actively defend Kweebec villages even when there are no immediate threats? How strong are they when pitted against common hostile mobs? Can they be recruited into the player's army?
On a more gameplay-focused side, in an evil playthrough, I'd probably assassinate these fools first before fighting other Kweebec archetypes (assuming the Rangers are currently the strongest standard Kweebec archetype). I'm concerned though about the possibility of Rangers spawning infinitely like GTA cops do, but then again, a village having infinite NPCs is unrealistic. If I don't rage-quit, the Razorleaf Rangers might make for good combat practice.
Speaking of combat practice, I'm excited to train against various Hytale enemies in controlled environments...
"In the icy boreal wastes of Zone 3, we meet yet another NPC faction, the Outlanders, who perform mysterious rituals under cover of darkness."
Well, I'd better be extra attentive to my surroundings in order to spot these secret rituals. If all else fails, BURN EVERYTHING!
"Gigantic glaciers cast hulking shadows across snow-dusted dirt; a yeti shuffles about in the distance."
Man, yetis get increasingly significant as the months go by, huh? I keep seeing it: in the trailer, in the zone 3 visual tour, and now here on Edge.
I kept thinking the yeti was some kind of rare roaming mini-boss, but now, my wild guess is that it will spawn as often as an enderman or witch in the Minecraft Overworld.
As for the "hulking shadows", I guess this means light sources will be extra important in zone 3 regardless of the time of day.
"Later, we get a brief glimpse of an intimidatingly large 'stone circle' in the later-game Zone 4, which is flanked all around its edges by viscous, glowing waterfalls of lava. As an important part of Hytale's narrative, there's guaranteed to be a stone circle in every zone: this one, representing the fire element, almost looks like a giant, jagged crown, and is surrounded by burning trees."
Alongside the yeti, the elemental stone circles are honestly a topic of little interest to me—this time, I'm not sure why. Maybe besides the obvious elemental representations, the combat encounters similar to entering a Trork camp, and the potential of significantly contributing to the lore and plot as well as giving the player some tangible benefit like a new magic weapon, the circles largely remain a mystery since the focus of the point of interest blog post was to discuss how such prefabs are created rather than the gameplay or story purposes.
I know nothing about The Witcher series, but this wiki page about the Circle of Elements may be somewhat related to the circles in Hytale. Mages can supposedly "draw power" from these circles.
But enough ranting. I'm guessing, judging by the crown shape, it might be based on the idea that fire consumes all.
"Ashfall flutters to the ground all around."
For the third time, is this just a particle effect, or will this have a gameplay effect? Will it continuously coat the tops of players' builds in volcanic ash? Will a mask or similar method of protection be required for zone 4? What happens if a player enters zone 4 unprotected?
Will the volcanic ash damage blocks that aren't cleaned properly, kinda like wiping an ash-covered car with a dry cloth causing the car to get scratched? How would a damaged block work differently from a "healthy" block? Will such a block be easier to break? More flammable, in the case of materials like wood? More prone to being inhabited by small monsters like Minecraft's silverfish?
"Hytale is, after all, intended to be as much a platform as it is a game."
Well, this confirms CaptainSparklez's statement.
After a lot of statements, it's time to analyze a screenshot:
Before moving to the obvious combat situation, let's examine the GUI, starting with the hotbar.
The item on slot 1 of the hotbar is the same purple spellbook we saw in the graphics update, complete with the green particle effects. The other two items appear to be different kinds of spellbooks—I bet more people are curious about the spellbook with the skull on its cover.
Slot 4 has a bottle with a light blue liquid. Some suspect it's a mana potion, and I kind of agree. It may hint towards the possibility of magic or special moves costing mana, but I don't want to jump to conclusions.
Slot 6 has red liquid, which is typically associated with health. Slot 7 is the biggest mystery—it could be health plus another attribute (maybe mana), but, again, no evidence.
Don't put Anakin Skywalker near this player—he (she?) has 45 blocks of what I think is sand.
Slot 9 has empty bottles.
The yellow and blue bars stayed full and unchanged just like in the graphics update. When can we see these bars in action?
Now on to the quest box. Only one skeleton is required to complete the quest, which is interesting. Is this skeleton more powerful than others of its kind? Is it guarded by difficult terrain or other mobs? Is it holding onto a valuable item? Or did someone lead the player to hunt down this specific skeleton for revenge, justice, or a bounty? (Yeah, this is what Dungeon Mastering does to my brain.)
Kweebec Corner pointed out another skeleton above the quest box, but maybe that skeleton is part of a separate quest, if it's not randomly generated.
Unlike the graphics update, though, above the skeleton's head in this screenshot is a partially filled green bar which typically represents HP in many video games. (It may be different, though; the player's health bar is red.)
I'm not gonna try to guess how much damage the spellbook did to the skeleton, though, since this isn't live footage that starts with the skeleton at full HP. We don't know if the skeleton was hit once or more than once.
As for the ruined building, it might make for a worthy base for watching things from high ground. Most of the structure is intact so it's not too difficult to patch up.
"[Publishing lead Chris Thursten] equips his character with a cobalt sword and shield; the [modding] interface brings up all the information we could possibly care to know about the model, including its size, what particle effects it uses, what models it uses, how it's crafted and what resources it requires. You're then able to alter it in a dizzying variety of ways to best fit the type of game experience you want to have on your Hytale server. 'That's just a really basic example.'"
It's "basic" but already has a ton of variables that can be changed right off the bat—great for testing graphical effects and metagaming. Me likey.
"Things get slightly more complicated when Thursten turns into a pigeon. This, McCafferty tells us as Thursten tweaks his character model to show us its shape, hitbox, animations and even the camera angle attached to it, is a fairly standard occurrence in the Hytale devs' games. The final touch is an iron dagger tucked under one wing – and absolutely usable in combat. 'Any of the weapons should work with any of the characters,' McCafferty explains: the studio has a naming convention – the pigeon's wings are labelled as 'arms' – which lets the game share animations across different models so that they'll work decently in just their standard form."
You thought Hytale was done with the deadeye pigeon? No, sirree. Even artist Arcanadragon has gotten started on making fan art with a regular pigeon and a deadeye pigeon—I'm excited to know the full story of these two counterparts.
Okay, I'd better stop gushing before things get out of hand.
Hmmm, what's with the shape thing? Is it the sort of "outline" of the 3D model? I'm not sure.
Hitboxes are far more important, especially for those who play fighting games like Super Smash Bros. I wonder how they're changed though: Can they be resized with the mouse? Is there a function to automatically and precisely fit the hitbox to the mob or certain body parts? Do I sound like a game developer when I talk like this!?
I guess turning into mobs is the Hytale team's way of ensuring everything works correctly upon manual testing. That said, transformation sounds like a crazy way to moderate a server or spy on your enemies.
I'm not satisfied until I see actual video footage of a player character in normal form throwing a dagger, axe, or spear. I'm just really lazy to craft a bow and arrows—daggers are hypothetically much cheaper.
Pigeon wings are labeled "arms", huh? Interesting. Would a four-legged animal's front legs be technically considered "arms" as well for the purposes of tool and weapon usage? What about a mob with no arms or wings like a Minecraft creeper? How differently would a crawler fight with a weapon in one hand?
"...you can control the weather and time of day through the interface, so that nature doesn't cause continuity errors on [film] shoots."
How convenient! Though I'd like to add to this: Is it possible to speed up or slow down the day/night cycle for montages with smooth day/night transitions? Is it possible to auto-trigger a weather or day/night transition when a certain event occurs, like maybe triggering rain during a sad scene?
"We watch as Thursten checks a box to relocate the ashfall weather we saw earlier in Zone 4 into the leafy, temperate Zone 1..."
plz no. i liek zone 1. i fear volcano. (intentional bad grammar)
"...then [Thursten] tweaks the parameters and the ordering of combat sequences for a mace."
Yes, you can completely change a weapon's moveset. I'm excited to see how modders would recreate real-life martial arts or the fighting styles of fictional characters.
The next several sentences and paragraphs talk about design philosophy, business, and managing expectations which I'm too lazy to talk about, but here's one last gameplay bit from the philosophy thing:
"The first thing that would happen in Hytale...was that a player would spawn in front of a tree. Blockgames being blockgames, they would then punch the tree, expecting it to break into craftable material. Instead, their character would say, 'Ow'. 'And I thought that was like, the smartest thing ever,' [Aaron 'Noxy'] Donaghey laughs."
Well, so much for my tree-boxing plans. At least it breaks the trope, though!
But what do I do if I need wood? Do I loot a woodcutting axe? Do I bash an enemy's skull into the tree? Do I whack the tree with a tree branch or rock? Do I aimlessly search for fallen tree branches so I can craft a crafting table and a wooden axe? How did prehistoric people make tools!?
The character would say "ow", huh? I know sound designer Kieran Fitzpatrick provided some voices for the Fen Stalker's sound effects, but will there be full-blown voice acting in a natural language like English? Nah, it's highly unlikely, probably for similar reasons as Pokémon Sword and Shield.
Then again, I want to play a Hytale adventure map that's fully voiced. I enjoy fully voiced games like the newer Fire Emblem games. BRING IT!
Putting FEH aside, I have mixed opinions on that combat philosophy which come from my experience as both a gamer and martial artist.
On the positive side, this further adds to the hack-and-slash feel of Hytale combat where defensive tactics can be just as devastating as offensive ones. In the Tekken series, damage is increased when hitting an opponent who's in the middle of attacking. In Prototype 2, when James Heller times his shield block right with an enemy attack, he can either stun the enemy or bounce a projectile like a rocket back. In real life, the impact force of a shield blocking a sword can stagger the opponent thanks to the physical shock, and can even damage the sword! Some weapons tested in Forged in Fire get chipped, bent, or rolled up when struck multiple times on a shield as part of the strength test. I personally want to block with one end of my spear then counter with the other end like I'm using a quarterstaff.
On the negative side, I don't want Hytale to put too much importance on defense, especially to the point where two players or mobs wait indefinitely for one to strike. This can make fights take too long to the point of boredom, or in the case of multiplayer servers, make a game session run so long that a new session can't start because the server has reached a technical limit. I suggest anti-stall tactics like being able to grapple enemies who abuse blocking or parrying, as well as decent availability of explosive weapons (maybe even grenade launcher-like weapons) to stop players who abuse block placement tactics. The dash attack idea is also good for hitting enemies who dodge a lot because it becomes a mind game: Is Player 1 going to dash-attack to Player 2's left, right, or center of Player 2's position? Where would Player 2 dodge?
Regardless, this once again confirms the existence of a variety of attacks with different effects, most notably the newly confirmed dash.
The "maybe even sneak attacks" statement kind of worries me since it's not 100% confirmed and may still be debated within Hypixel Studios. As a rogue in real life, I am a fan of sneak attacks and stealth games. Either way, this implies that sneak attacks didn't exist in the version that Jen played.
Gosh-dang, this section was much longer than I expected. I must really like fighting, huh?
"Weapons in Hytale are broken up into families, with each having their own particular attack pattern to master: one-handed swords, two-handed longswords, warhammers that have a slower, wide-sweeping attack for crowd control against weaker enemies, and axes that have a limited range of motion but whose vertical chops deal devastating damage."
Heck yeah, different moves for different weapon types! Side note: They described "longswords" correctly; they're actually two-handed. The "one-handed longswords" in games are actually arming swords: swords whose lengths are in-between shortswords and longswords. See Shadiversity's video.
We saw the warhammer's "slower, wide-sweeping attack" back in the very first gameplay footage in the graphics update.
Axes may be focused on delivering huge damage to a single target. They might be useful in duels against slower enemies but weak against groups of enemies, especially in difficult terrain.
"While spelunking, we run into a treasure room, in which a miffed treasure goblin chases a mildly panicked McCafferty."
Hmmm, does this mean goblins are treasure hoarders? Or are they guarding some kind of dark secret? GET ME IN THERE!
"In Zone 2, mist creeps over a crop of hot springs near to a settlement filled with people of a fox race known as the Feran. Unlike the friendly Kweebec, we have to work a little harder to build goodwill: our standing with them is currently neutral, but we'll be able to offer gifts of meat or make offerings to their gods to gain standing with them."
Mist creeps over a crop of hot springs, eh? Kind of reminds me of the smoke and sand particle effects in Fire Emblem Awakening when a character hits the ground after a jump. On a more realistic point of view, how much will the mist obscure vision? How big is the mist? Will this have some kind of effect like making the character feel wet due to water vapor? Most importantly, do Ferans prefer to put up settlements near hot springs, or was this Feran settlement generated here coincidentally?
I knew the Ferans weren't friendly right off the bat! I explained before that years of slavery might have made Ferans more skeptical of other people out of fear of being enslaved again, but it's not explained in this article. While the article says that Jen and Sean have a neutral reputation with the Ferans, there's no mention of initial hostility, friendliness, or how much the two interacted with the Ferans before their current reputation, so I'd still avoid jumping to conclusions.
Offering meat seems easy enough, assuming I can produce meat at a similar speed as in Minecraft. "Meat" is a general term that refers to many kinds of animal flesh-derived food, though, so I'm skeptical if Ferans have a preference for certain types or qualities of meat—maybe Jen just said "meat" to shorten the article. Ferans appear to be based on the fennec fox, and according to National Geographic, fennec foxes eat rodents, eggs, reptiles, and insects, so maybe I'd have to take some trips underground to hunt rats.
I assumed at first that there were only two Hytale gods: Gaia and Varyn. (Note that my classification of Varyn as a god is 100% my opinion; I have no evidence other than him being an incredibly powerful main antagonist. Some translations of 2 Corinthians 4:4 use "god"; others use "the devil".) Ferans worship other gods besides Gaia, huh? Will these gods be actual characters, or are they actually fake gods and Gaia is the only one who exists in-game?
"Still, the [Kweebecs] are no pushovers: 'If you start butchering their children, they call these guys called the Razorleaf Rangers, who are hard as nuts,' McCafferty laughs."
Hard as nuts, huh? We'll see about that. I've killed many cops in GTA and iron golems in Minecraft without breaking a sweat.
Regardless, I like to nickname the Razorleaf Rangers the "anti-murder hobos" of Hytale.
I'm concerned that this might be unintuitive for new players who want to just kill everything for fun, so maybe there should be an in-game warning? Then again, being killed by the Razorleaf Rangers is enough to prove to the player that actions have consequences.
On a more speculative note, what do these Razorleaf Rangers do when not killing murder hobos? Do they do nothing? Do they not spawn until a murder hobo does their thing? Can they be interacted with like regular NPCs? Do they actively defend Kweebec villages even when there are no immediate threats? How strong are they when pitted against common hostile mobs? Can they be recruited into the player's army?
On a more gameplay-focused side, in an evil playthrough, I'd probably assassinate these fools first before fighting other Kweebec archetypes (assuming the Rangers are currently the strongest standard Kweebec archetype). I'm concerned though about the possibility of Rangers spawning infinitely like GTA cops do, but then again, a village having infinite NPCs is unrealistic. If I don't rage-quit, the Razorleaf Rangers might make for good combat practice.
Speaking of combat practice, I'm excited to train against various Hytale enemies in controlled environments...
"In the icy boreal wastes of Zone 3, we meet yet another NPC faction, the Outlanders, who perform mysterious rituals under cover of darkness."
Well, I'd better be extra attentive to my surroundings in order to spot these secret rituals. If all else fails, BURN EVERYTHING!
"Gigantic glaciers cast hulking shadows across snow-dusted dirt; a yeti shuffles about in the distance."
Man, yetis get increasingly significant as the months go by, huh? I keep seeing it: in the trailer, in the zone 3 visual tour, and now here on Edge.
I kept thinking the yeti was some kind of rare roaming mini-boss, but now, my wild guess is that it will spawn as often as an enderman or witch in the Minecraft Overworld.
As for the "hulking shadows", I guess this means light sources will be extra important in zone 3 regardless of the time of day.
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| I normally don't care about this mob, but after having it shoved down my throat so many times, I can't wait to kill it. No offense. Screenshot from Hytale |
Alongside the yeti, the elemental stone circles are honestly a topic of little interest to me—this time, I'm not sure why. Maybe besides the obvious elemental representations, the combat encounters similar to entering a Trork camp, and the potential of significantly contributing to the lore and plot as well as giving the player some tangible benefit like a new magic weapon, the circles largely remain a mystery since the focus of the point of interest blog post was to discuss how such prefabs are created rather than the gameplay or story purposes.
I know nothing about The Witcher series, but this wiki page about the Circle of Elements may be somewhat related to the circles in Hytale. Mages can supposedly "draw power" from these circles.
But enough ranting. I'm guessing, judging by the crown shape, it might be based on the idea that fire consumes all.
"Ashfall flutters to the ground all around."
For the third time, is this just a particle effect, or will this have a gameplay effect? Will it continuously coat the tops of players' builds in volcanic ash? Will a mask or similar method of protection be required for zone 4? What happens if a player enters zone 4 unprotected?
Will the volcanic ash damage blocks that aren't cleaned properly, kinda like wiping an ash-covered car with a dry cloth causing the car to get scratched? How would a damaged block work differently from a "healthy" block? Will such a block be easier to break? More flammable, in the case of materials like wood? More prone to being inhabited by small monsters like Minecraft's silverfish?
"Hytale is, after all, intended to be as much a platform as it is a game."
Well, this confirms CaptainSparklez's statement.
After a lot of statements, it's time to analyze a screenshot:
The item on slot 1 of the hotbar is the same purple spellbook we saw in the graphics update, complete with the green particle effects. The other two items appear to be different kinds of spellbooks—I bet more people are curious about the spellbook with the skull on its cover.
Slot 4 has a bottle with a light blue liquid. Some suspect it's a mana potion, and I kind of agree. It may hint towards the possibility of magic or special moves costing mana, but I don't want to jump to conclusions.
Slot 6 has red liquid, which is typically associated with health. Slot 7 is the biggest mystery—it could be health plus another attribute (maybe mana), but, again, no evidence.
Don't put Anakin Skywalker near this player—he (she?) has 45 blocks of what I think is sand.
Slot 9 has empty bottles.
The yellow and blue bars stayed full and unchanged just like in the graphics update. When can we see these bars in action?
Now on to the quest box. Only one skeleton is required to complete the quest, which is interesting. Is this skeleton more powerful than others of its kind? Is it guarded by difficult terrain or other mobs? Is it holding onto a valuable item? Or did someone lead the player to hunt down this specific skeleton for revenge, justice, or a bounty? (Yeah, this is what Dungeon Mastering does to my brain.)
Kweebec Corner pointed out another skeleton above the quest box, but maybe that skeleton is part of a separate quest, if it's not randomly generated.
Unlike the graphics update, though, above the skeleton's head in this screenshot is a partially filled green bar which typically represents HP in many video games. (It may be different, though; the player's health bar is red.)
I'm not gonna try to guess how much damage the spellbook did to the skeleton, though, since this isn't live footage that starts with the skeleton at full HP. We don't know if the skeleton was hit once or more than once.
As for the ruined building, it might make for a worthy base for watching things from high ground. Most of the structure is intact so it's not too difficult to patch up.
"[Publishing lead Chris Thursten] equips his character with a cobalt sword and shield; the [modding] interface brings up all the information we could possibly care to know about the model, including its size, what particle effects it uses, what models it uses, how it's crafted and what resources it requires. You're then able to alter it in a dizzying variety of ways to best fit the type of game experience you want to have on your Hytale server. 'That's just a really basic example.'"
It's "basic" but already has a ton of variables that can be changed right off the bat—great for testing graphical effects and metagaming. Me likey.
"Things get slightly more complicated when Thursten turns into a pigeon. This, McCafferty tells us as Thursten tweaks his character model to show us its shape, hitbox, animations and even the camera angle attached to it, is a fairly standard occurrence in the Hytale devs' games. The final touch is an iron dagger tucked under one wing – and absolutely usable in combat. 'Any of the weapons should work with any of the characters,' McCafferty explains: the studio has a naming convention – the pigeon's wings are labelled as 'arms' – which lets the game share animations across different models so that they'll work decently in just their standard form."
You thought Hytale was done with the deadeye pigeon? No, sirree. Even artist Arcanadragon has gotten started on making fan art with a regular pigeon and a deadeye pigeon—I'm excited to know the full story of these two counterparts.
Okay, I'd better stop gushing before things get out of hand.
Hmmm, what's with the shape thing? Is it the sort of "outline" of the 3D model? I'm not sure.
Hitboxes are far more important, especially for those who play fighting games like Super Smash Bros. I wonder how they're changed though: Can they be resized with the mouse? Is there a function to automatically and precisely fit the hitbox to the mob or certain body parts? Do I sound like a game developer when I talk like this!?
I guess turning into mobs is the Hytale team's way of ensuring everything works correctly upon manual testing. That said, transformation sounds like a crazy way to moderate a server or spy on your enemies.
I'm not satisfied until I see actual video footage of a player character in normal form throwing a dagger, axe, or spear. I'm just really lazy to craft a bow and arrows—daggers are hypothetically much cheaper.
Pigeon wings are labeled "arms", huh? Interesting. Would a four-legged animal's front legs be technically considered "arms" as well for the purposes of tool and weapon usage? What about a mob with no arms or wings like a Minecraft creeper? How differently would a crawler fight with a weapon in one hand?
"...you can control the weather and time of day through the interface, so that nature doesn't cause continuity errors on [film] shoots."
How convenient! Though I'd like to add to this: Is it possible to speed up or slow down the day/night cycle for montages with smooth day/night transitions? Is it possible to auto-trigger a weather or day/night transition when a certain event occurs, like maybe triggering rain during a sad scene?
"We watch as Thursten checks a box to relocate the ashfall weather we saw earlier in Zone 4 into the leafy, temperate Zone 1..."
plz no. i liek zone 1. i fear volcano. (intentional bad grammar)
"...then [Thursten] tweaks the parameters and the ordering of combat sequences for a mace."
Yes, you can completely change a weapon's moveset. I'm excited to see how modders would recreate real-life martial arts or the fighting styles of fictional characters.
The next several sentences and paragraphs talk about design philosophy, business, and managing expectations which I'm too lazy to talk about, but here's one last gameplay bit from the philosophy thing:
"The first thing that would happen in Hytale...was that a player would spawn in front of a tree. Blockgames being blockgames, they would then punch the tree, expecting it to break into craftable material. Instead, their character would say, 'Ow'. 'And I thought that was like, the smartest thing ever,' [Aaron 'Noxy'] Donaghey laughs."
Well, so much for my tree-boxing plans. At least it breaks the trope, though!
But what do I do if I need wood? Do I loot a woodcutting axe? Do I bash an enemy's skull into the tree? Do I whack the tree with a tree branch or rock? Do I aimlessly search for fallen tree branches so I can craft a crafting table and a wooden axe? How did prehistoric people make tools!?
The character would say "ow", huh? I know sound designer Kieran Fitzpatrick provided some voices for the Fen Stalker's sound effects, but will there be full-blown voice acting in a natural language like English? Nah, it's highly unlikely, probably for similar reasons as Pokémon Sword and Shield.
Then again, I want to play a Hytale adventure map that's fully voiced. I enjoy fully voiced games like the newer Fire Emblem games. BRING IT!
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