A long journey.

[willuwontu]

Thanks for letting us know what's up and happened, however I'm still excited for this whenever it does eventually release. And I'll definitely keep tabs on it as you guys release dev blogs. As far as the future direction of this games release, I believe that you all will figure it out and go about it as necessary.



On a side note, is there a discord server for this at all?

[Aetherblade]

Thanks for letting us know what's up and happened, however I'm still excited for this whenever it does eventually release. And I'll definitely keep tabs on it as you guys release dev blogs. As far as the future direction of this games release, I believe that you all will figure it out and go about it as necessary.



On a side note, is there a discord server for this at all?

Discord server is in the plans. We are currently resetting up all our social media and so forth, and the Discord server will be created somewhere along the way.

[steven61388]

Hello. I bought the 50 dollar tier in 2015. Will my access to Novus Aeterno be transferred to the new game, and if so, when?

[Nick]

Hello. I bought the 50 dollar tier in 2015. Will my access to Novus Aeterno be transferred to the new game, and if so, when?

Yes of course it will! Dates are not set yet depends on many factors on how fast development goes progressing, but we will be transferring all rewords, and adding some extras in as well. this new game is still under development however it is progressing very quickly.

[HitoshiMasaki]

so let me get this straight your telling me the game i help support was unable to be made BUT..... you have enough funds left to make a new game?
How?
How is it hte money you received to make NOVUS AETERNO was instead put to making a new game? explain that to me PLEASE.....
Not saying I want a refund I just wanna know why it is the money for novus aeterno is being spent on another game without the first one being successfully Completed.

[Nick]

so let me get this straight your telling me the game i help support was unable to be made BUT..... you have enough funds left to make a new game?
How?
How is it hte money you received to make NOVUS AETERNO was instead put to making a new game? explain that to me PLEASE.....
Not saying I want a refund I just wanna know why it is the money for novus aeterno is being spent on another game without the first one being successfully Completed.

the kickstarter funds for Novus Aeterno ran out ~12 months after development due to being required to rebuild the entire client on a new engine, (Havok Vision engine stopped being supported). after that the team personally funded the project for another ~3 years by selling our cars and property. we put in multiple times more then the kickstarter money. we then finally managed to get a publisher when we didn't have anything else to sell, however this relationship didn't last and a few months ago we parted ways with the publisher and we where left with no money and a Novus aeterno that would need to be drastically modified to remove all of the publishers IP from it and end up back where we where before working with the pub.

With all of the above, plus multiple core issues with a independent launch of Novus (more detail in update) we knew in our current state there was no way we could complete novus and launch it successfully.

this led to some very hard talks about what to do now among the few remaining members of the dev team. We had spent 10 years on Novus, and honestly it looked like we had no option but to just let it die, something many of us have worked on for a third of our lives and invested everything we had into.

During those talks we decided that we where not ready to give up on our MMORTS dream even if Novus could not be made, so we started designing a MMORTS that we could make, tailoring every element of the design to be something which could be done for cheep with a team of 4 and zero artists and reusing our server architecture we built for novus.

We decided we would spend a few months living with friends or family to make this for free and see if it was as good a idea as we thought it was, if it was then we would figure out how we fund the rest of the development. If it was not as good a plan as we thought, then we would except jobs in other studios and leave all of this behind us as we did not have anything left to invest into novus.

We are all very pleased with that we where able to create in a few months with no budget, so now we are working on figuring out the next steps.


p.s. the update goes into WAY more detail including a timeline breakdown, I'm just paraphrasing what is in there.

[Shadows]

You know what they say, third times the charm. Having to re-do the game for a third time is disheartening, but hopefully enough was learned on the prior iterations to make this new game even better. As an infiltrator backer I can attest to the "bland" feeling that bled through from time to time with AE. This could have been alleviated with rigorous and dedicated effort, which would have happened if Havok didn't fall apart. I think it is the right decision to make a more fun, rewarding experience. Rather than walk down that same road without substantial funding.

Yes, we all wanted the ability to own a large empire in the far reaches of space. But in many games with this mechanic, your rival neighbors end up going offline... and you must find another. Forcing us to consistently encounter other players may actually create a more dynamic game for us in the long run.

I do have a few concerns, and some of them have already been answered! Much like flatlander, I wondered how much these instances would play role in the game. Would we be able to just load up a map? It seems like we will have to travel to the outer reaches of space, surviving along the way.

One thing I was very intrigued with the original game was the research mechanics, and I hope something similar can be implemented in the new game. The ability to unlock a mechanic never achieved by someone else is an interesting concept. Something so simple, but vast can severely increase the replay ability of the game.

Anyway, I appreciate all of the struggle and sheer will you have all put into fulfilling your promises to us.

P.S: It is impossible for me to watch those videos and NOT get hyped. The interior of the ships has improved greatly since the old alpha we had access to. I was dubious of such a feature early on, but it looks like it truly is coming out nicely.

[Sypheria]

We are looking at several games and utilizing various mechanics from them. One that we are looking at is the Souls franchise for how the universe will feel.

[Nick]

I do have a few concerns, and some of them have already been answered! Much like flatlander, I wondered how much these instances would play role in the game. Would we be able to just load up a map? It seems like we will have to travel to the outer reaches of space, surviving along the way.

There are many things to reply to in your email but i am in the middle of a call, however i wanted to say it is a open world environment and the traveling and "surviving the journey" is a very major part of this new game. that said the point of the travel is not to just be long and boring, its to be honestly quite dangerous and create a very notable risk/reward balance, if how far you you really feel comfortable going and maybe you can make it all the way past where anyone else has, but can you make it back alive?

This also adds a lot to the player interaction, if yo find another Admiral WAY deep into the black, sure you can just kill him, but if you do, are you sure you can limp all the way home? Also, could his assistance mean both of you can make it much further.

[Flatlander]

There are many things to reply to in your email but i am in the middle of a call, however i wanted to say it is a open world environment and the traveling and "surviving the journey" is a very major part of this new game. that said the point of the travel is not to just be long and boring, its to be honestly quite dangerous and create a very notable risk/reward balance, if how far you you really feel comfortable going and maybe you can make it all the way past where anyone else has, but can you make it back alive?

This also adds a lot to the player interaction, if yo find another Admiral WAY deep into the black, sure you can just kill him, but if you do, are you sure you can limp all the way home? Also, could his assistance mean both of you can make it much further.

This actually quiets some of my fears.

• Generally I would hate for Novus AETerno to become a game played through the Menus.
• Log into Space Hub.
• Open Star Map.
• Click on Galaxy 2b-459 - 6 million lightyears away.
• Select "Use FTL Drive"
• ""Will arrive in 2 minutes 49 seconds""
• During Warp/Loading you can manage your capital ship/fleet
• ~~Arrive at Galaxy 2b-459~~
• Select Solar System 2b-459-74N32Z
• Select "Use FTL Drive"
• ""Will arrive in 34 seconds""
• ~~Arrive at Solar System 2b-459-74N32Z~~
• Ships actually are finally loaded into the gameworld where they can be effected and seen only by players inside of Solar System 2b-459-74N32Z.
• I fly over to Warp Gate PvE Dungeon Alpha-Beta-Bravo-Orange-Mucus-43 and enter a PvE Dungeon solo.
• ~~Enter another loading screen~~
• My ships load into Warp Gate PvE Dungeon Alpha-Beta-Bravo-Orange-Mucus-43 and I am in a Solo Instance where no one can bug me.

This would be my nightmare and your post made me happy because it is probably not the reality.