Cantr II Discussion Forum

Wow, it's been a while. Sorry, folks. I'm still working on this, just doing some overhauls after some of the suggestions, and some ideas of my own. This is really close to being done, but I'm just not going to put it out there until I feel it is ready. I hope you understand. This is going to be a long set of several posts so I can address everything being discussed here.

SumBum wrote:I don't think I ever engaged in PVP within FTO but I do really like the way hunting is done. It's far more interactive than just whacking a wolf once a day. I think PVP is done similarly, though. The char being attacked fights back in the same way the animals do so there's a chance of defending yourself automatically. I also like the "furniture provides healing" aspect and that you have to manufacture all healing items.

I like that Cantr has random animal attacks even if you don't hunt.

I hate that FTO does not have the ability to drag chars (but I like that you can move furniture!). You never realize how much you use dragging in non-violent situations until you can't toss someone out of your house or toss someone inside so they don't die of cold.

That brings up another thing I like about FTO - weather affects your health.

A huge huge request from me would be regarding crafting. I think the best (only?) way to truly have "careers" and valuable skills is to require a certain skill level to be able to make things beyond basics. Cantr and FTO both fail in this. Interaction and cooperation would get a great boost if chars had to seek out someone who has invested time to become specialized at something. That specialized char then has a marketable ability.

Thanks, SumBum. I'm happy to see some suggestions mixing preferred elements of both games as that is sort of the goal here, in addition to new features or features done differently. I'm going to list things in bullet point since it'll just be easier to read, I hope you don't mind.

- I agree that the PVP in FTO is lacking, and I would like to do it differently in Marosia
I never really found the automatic fight scene enjoyable, as it felt very hands off and even though it added more detail to how a fight went it didn't allow you to RP during the fact. Only after. My thoughts on PVP for Marosia would be to have it be more like Cantr where you're allowed a hit every certain period of time, but likely more often, and there would be automatic counter attacks from the defender (making it way less crucial for the other player to be online during the time the fight takes place.) However, there still needs to be a discussion about dragging. While it's a realistic feature, and it has many uses outside of fighting, dragging is hotly debated here where it concerns violence. Since characters can group to hit a single other character more than once and drag them into a locked room, that is what makes the fighting in this game fast paced in what is otherwise a slow paced environment. I'd like to avoid doing the same. I don't want it to take several days to end a fight though either. So, there are some restrictions that could come into play that may help with this. Dragging is up for debate, but I could also limit an individual to being attacked by only one person for a period of time. For example. Person A hits Person C, but Person B can't hit Person C until after a certain period of time has elapsed either. This could work a number of ways. Obviously we want to keep the group element alive, without overpowering it to the point that fighting can happen in an instant where a character might not be awake for several days. Combat is something I want to be great, but I would love to hear more from this community on how to go about doing that, as it's one of the more complicated elements of gameplay.

- Hunting is something integral to the start of survival and is a possible cultural element to communities as well as an opportunity to RP with the environment.

So, the plan is of course to have animal attacks. But this is also debateable. Should there be other things animals do, or is that a waste, and would it be repetitive? Some MUDs have animal RP that generates automatically once in a while to give a clear picture of what the wildlife is doing. Is this something that would provide enriching RP opportunities, or is it something that will be enjoyed for the first few times it happens before it gets entirely ignored? It's something to consider. Hunting itself I expect to be a pretty straight forward process, but again it sort of feeds back a little into what combat should be like, at least where it doesn't concern other players. I think animals should be able to be killed in the same day, at least, instead of the one hit a day situation. Perhaps hunting might have to take all day with several hits, which is realistic at least on your own, but you'd have meat to cook by nightfall, in a manner of speaking, at least. It could work similarly to PVP where it's a single hit with a possible counter attack from the animal, and hit limits are much more than in Cantr. Perhaps every couple hours or so.

- Dragging characters is still a feature I have not decided on
Dragging characters, as I've already mentioned, has a lot of consequences where it concerns violence. Dragging objects WILL be in the finished game for certain, however. I love being able to drag furniture as well, and I've never understood why we shouldn't be able to. It makes moving much easier, and allows you to recycle resources easily. But dragging characters, I can see it having limitations in and out of violence. It may as well be considered different features depending on the context so, I'd appreciate discussion on that. I would think of it as three separate contexts:

Dragging objects

Dragging characters during violence (to that character)

Dragging characters outside of violence

- I didn't consider weather affecting health
How do you see this being a factor? I'm interested, but I've no idea what to imagine. Can you elaborate?

- Crafting is something that has been heavily thought out, and this is what I have so far.
I've decided to use a freeform system with most crafting elements. This is a little complicated because it depends on what exactly you're making, but I'll try to explain it as best I can - I do like your suggestion though, that certain things must have a certain skill level. I think I could tie that into this system pretty seamlessly.

The way crafting currently works is split between creating items with properties (strength, or potency) and creating items that only have practical use with no effect on the character (machines, tools, buildings).

The items that fall in the first category are: weapons, armor, healing potions, food, and clothing (to a degree). Here is a picture of the board I've been working on. Ignore anything about tech levels as that stat was scratched.



Weapons, armor, healing supplies, and food will have a 'freeform' system where you can take any resource that falls under one of their possible additions, and can combine a number of these ingredients to make a truly unique item with unique properties based on those materials.
Now, these do require certain base recipes. For instance, say you wanted to make a dagger. The base recipe for that dagger is -at least- one metal. However, what metal you want to add it up to you, and it doesn't just have to be one. You can also add gems, or cloth material, or more metal, but each type will have an individual limit. With a dagger you can only add one other element. So that can be any of the above resources. Whatever you do, you'll add some properties to the weapon based on what you choose.

A dagger made with a mix of iron and platinum is definitely going to have a higher attack than a normal iron dagger with leather gripping (which may increase dexterity, I haven't decided it all yet). You can see where this is going, but that isn't all. The skill level in that craft is a major deciding factor on just how potent the properties will be when it's made. All materials used in its creation will be visible to anyone looking at the time, as well as the brand (if added, a sort of signature by the crafter), its description, and its 'quality' which is an indicator of how well the item was made.

The works similarly with food for nutrition, armor for defense, and healing materials for health replenishment. Clothing also has this crafting method, but there are no property additions as it stands today, it just allows a tailor to be truly as creative as they wish to be within the realm of what sort of clothing they're making (there are different base requirements between a shirt and pants for example).

After all that, it's still possible to require certain levels in skill before a certain 'type' of item can be made in this free form style, if the skill factoring into properties is not enough.

All other items will be made with specific recipes.

If you have any questions about this, ask away.

Wolfsong wrote:PvP in FTO is pretty easy to cheese if you know what you're doing - and the way the actual game is coded makes it incredibly easy to "cheat." I didn't care for PvP as it's done in FTO (it felt hacked in and is entirely one-sided) but then PvP in Cantr also leaves a fair bit wanting. The problem is that, in both cases, you're going from a slow turn-based game to an instant action. No matter what happens, combat is going to be unfair toward one of the parties because, most times, one of the parties won't be online when it occurs.

Example #1:

In FTO, if you stockpile enough healing food, you can kill someone within 5-10 RL minutes, even if they're of a much higher strength/skill level. You just attack them until you are injured, then flee and use healing food until you're at full health again, then rinse and repeat. Eventually, because they won't be online to heal after the same fashion, you will win and they'll log in to a dead character. That doesn't happen on Cantr currently due to the one attack a day limit, though it /can/ still happen if you bring 4-5 of your friends to the party. But then, with that many friends, it probably should happen.

---

Going back to spawning mechanics a moment - even though I like the fusion between having the ability to be born into a family, and the ability to spawn as an adult without one, I'm not sure that's entirely balanced. Another frustrating part of FTO is the forced 0-10 year period where you're basically either a mouth-breathing moron who giggles or a stupid baby who poops themselves. I know a lot of people who play Cantr really enjoy playing children, but I am definitely not one of those people - but at the same time, I enjoy family ties. How do you plan on reconciling grown characters just appearing, versus children taking several years to actually become worth playing? Will children have more opportunities for the improvement of skills/stats relative to the grown adult? I guess what I'm getting at is if the child reaches age 20 with godly stats and skills, due to the prior 20 years having been spent mindlessly baby grinding up their base stats and skills up, what's the draw to playing an "orphan" adult and starting with base stats and skills? You would be completely dominated by these people who have a (perceived) unfair advantage. But then, vice versa, if the grown adult has the same stats and skills as someone who grew organically to 20 would, what's the draw to playing a child BESIDE family ties, which can be formed by grown characters anyway, as evidenced in Cantr?

- I totally agree with your statement about PVP in either game.
So I'm going to quote myself on the previous post. Would you say this helps to address that problem of unfairness either way? What are your thoughts?

LittleSoul wrote:I never really found the automatic fight scene enjoyable, as it felt very hands off and even though it added more detail to how a fight went it didn't allow you to RP during the fact. Only after. My thoughts on PVP for Marosia would be to have it be more like Cantr where you're allowed a hit every certain period of time, but likely more often, and there would be automatic counter attacks from the defender (making it way less crucial for the other player to be online during the time the fight takes place.) However, there still needs to be a discussion about dragging. While it's a realistic feature, and it has many uses outside of fighting, dragging is hotly debated here where it concerns violence. Since characters can group to hit a single other character more than once and drag them into a locked room, that is what makes the fighting in this game fast paced in what is otherwise a slow paced environment. I'd like to avoid doing the same. I don't want it to take several days to end a fight though either. So, there are some restrictions that could come into play that may help with this. Dragging is up for debate, but I could also limit an individual to being attacked by only one person for a period of time. For example. Person A hits Person C, but Person B can't hit Person C until after a certain period of time has elapsed either. This could work a number of ways. Obviously we want to keep the group element alive, without overpowering it to the point that fighting can happen in an instant where a character might not be awake for several days. Combat is something I want to be great, but I would love to hear more from this community on how to go about doing that, as it's one of the more complicated elements of gameplay.

- Regarding the differences between spawning and birth, there are a few.
Adults spawned have a limit to what their skills can roll. At most, they can only have half the max level of any skill. Children of course have an inherited set of skills, but they also have the longest true lifespan of any character type, so they have more time to develop these skills than other characters. Characters who are born also are the only character type who have a chance at being gifted magic. There is also one more possible advantage, but it is being heavily developed, and was sort of supposed to be a little bit of a surprise - but I'll try to explain without giving too much away. The short of the reasoning behind this is that in Cantr, while I enjoy being able to create the nuances of things such as a government, it takes a lot of real life time to be able to do so and as a full time student (and during the summer, worker), I just don't have the time to make all the grindy aspects of making a government work. So, I decided to put in a light system for politics that will take care of, and automatic, some of those grindy parts. Part of this feature is making your own government type by selecting several options - and one of those options will be how the title will be inherited or decided upon death - who will be the next leader. If, for example, a leader decided they wanted a monarch-style set up for their government, they might choose their oldest living child to be the inheritor. So, playing a born character may have political advantages depending on the culture of the group you're playing with. However, I don't expect it to be the most common way of inheriting a title or anything, it's just a nice extra little detail for a possibility. I think there could be more ways to balance the two types of character, but this is what I've started out with. If you have any suggestions of ways to create incentive for both sides without nerfing either, I'm totally open to that, but it may be something that has to be played by ear in the early days of release since there's no real frame of reference.

SumBum wrote:If someone takes the time to gather and make all that healing food, then I say well done. lol It at least requires effort. FTO has a pretty high rate of rot, especially compared to Cantr, so you don't have quite the stockpiles of onions a newspawn could stumble upon.

Maybe the best approach is some sort of hybrid. Something like: use FTO's combat system so that the defending char has a chance to fight back automatically, but the attacking char can only initiate an attack once or twice in a 24hr period. At least with FTO's system, the attackers suffer -something- instead of being able to attack then leave the room. The attackers have to use resources if they want to engage in an attack.

Of course, any decent sized group could work around the game mechanics, but I don't think there's any way to prevent that unless you change it to where a "defending char" can only have attacks initiated against them twice in a 24hr period, regardless of which char(s) initiate those two attacks. But people will always find ways around it. Similar to how chars are just dragged into a dungeon in Cantr and left to wait until the attackers can strike again.

- I'm hoping that my system for crafting healing materials will help address some of this.
In addition to higher rot rate outside of containers, the lack of 'raw' healing foods, and the emphasis on skill in creating healing items I'm really hoping that it will be this scenario will be the rare occurrence in Marosia. It needs to make sense. The groups with the best skills, the most people, and the highest technology should be able to make and keep the best items. It makes sense for them to win, but it takes commitment, and any large scale attack is going to have to have cooperation. There won't be two or three people alone making sweep at killing an entire town without huge losses on the part of the attackers unless they've prepared many years in advance and have trained themselves to some of the highest levels in combat - which also makes sense. Even then, they wouldn't be without scratches since, as I mentioned, counter attacks will be available.

- Counter attacks with balanced timing between attacks on characters are planned.
It's a key difference that will balance combat, I think. Combat should be a serious and well thought out event, and with the mechanics I've mentioned placing, that is the result I hope to get.

- This is why I am hesitant and asking for debate on dragging.
Exactly the last bolded statement in your quote above, SumBum. The mechanics support this kind of behavior in combat in Cantr, so it's natural that people will use it, but it totally kills roleplay. That's something I want to prevent, which is why I am not sure about moving characters in violent situations unless there are some very specific conditions or restrictions on it being done. In Cantr the key elements to combat go in order of 1. Keys 2. Healing food. 3. Dragging power. 4. Combined attack and strategy. Dragging combined with keys completely changes how combat works, and I want to have keys, so I'm not sure how dragging would (or should) fit into violence. It's realistic, yes, but I won't put realism at the expense of fun. I've always hated how people could just throw someone in a locked room isolated from RP in Cantr.

Wolfsong wrote:On FTO, you can duplicate any resource object in the game in seconds, resulting in hundreds (or thousands, if you like clicking) of resources of the same type. Because resources are not given unique IDs, you can gather 1 water, then spend 24 hours making 24 water healing objects. That's 1 RL day for 24 healing objects, plus an hour for the single resource you'd need to duplicate to start the process. As I said, it's poorly coded and is very, very easy to cheese.

Edit: Additionally, rot doesn't occur when something is held in a container. So you can gather/craft from about age 5 or so, which means if you spend each day making fresh water, or whatever it's called, you can have a LOT of it kicking around by the time you're 10 and able to murder your parents/entire family.

That's a really good catch. I didn't know that was an outstanding bug in FTO. Resources in Marosia will have unique ids (every item in the game will, as resources are considered a category of item as well). So that should keep part of that problem from occurring in Marosia. Without this bug, I'm thinking that rot rate not occurring in containers shouldn't be as big of a deal, especially when considering the already discussed system of how combat would work. Again, something that might have to be played by ear, and definitely while keeping alert for game breaking bugs like this.

This might be a good example to use as a possible discussion to open up about what exactly children should be able to do, mechanics wise.

Might PM you about another "bug" on FTO, so you can verify you haven't built your game with similar security issues.

Wolfsong wrote:I suppose combat is tricky because, again, of how these sorts of games work - you have turn-based games that flick over to instant combat. Combat isn't tied to anything else about the game - not turns, hours, etc. - it exists wholly apart from all that. Other games are either entirely turn-based (where combat is also turn-based, and slow) or instant, as in MUDs (everything occurs in real time or the game approximation.)

I'd still like to have a combination of both, so I will requote my touch on combat again. I think it may address a lot of these problems.

My thoughts on PVP for Marosia would be to have it be more like Cantr where you're allowed a hit every certain period of time, but likely more often, and there would be automatic counter attacks from the defender (making it way less crucial for the other player to be online during the time the fight takes place.) However, there still needs to be a discussion about dragging. While it's a realistic feature, and it has many uses outside of fighting, dragging is hotly debated here where it concerns violence. Since characters can group to hit a single other character more than once and drag them into a locked room, that is what makes the fighting in this game fast paced in what is otherwise a slow paced environment. I'd like to avoid doing the same. I don't want it to take several days to end a fight though either. So, there are some restrictions that could come into play that may help with this. Dragging is up for debate, but I could also limit an individual to being attacked by only one person for a period of time. For example. Person A hits Person C, but Person B can't hit Person C until after a certain period of time has elapsed either. This could work a number of ways. Obviously we want to keep the group element alive, without overpowering it to the point that fighting can happen in an instant where a character might not be awake for several days. Combat is something I want to be great, but I would love to hear more from this community on how to go about doing that, as it's one of the more complicated elements of gameplay.

Wolfsong wrote:

Tiamo wrote:

Wolfsong wrote:... Take a page from the book of mobile gaming and give everyone a limited number of actions that replenish slowly, accruing again every turn or something...

Please DON'T use this system. It only leads to short sprints of (asynchronous) activity, without a chance to roleplay. It's an immersion roleplay killer.

In my opinion combat should be an activity like any other: it takes some time to complete, uses tools, engages both the attacker(s) and the defender(s), and leads to a specific result (many outcomes are possible, from inflicting damage to knocking down, pinning down, dragging, disarming, fleeing or even cutting a Z in the clothes of your opponent).
The only special part is both sides should have their say in the action, either by choice or by preset default if the defender isn't online before the action is resolved.

You can say Cantr already uses that system, though, with every character allocated one "action" each turn. I'll continue my earlier post now that I'm home now, but I want to break down the turn further.

computaertist wrote:Is it really difficult to conceive of combat as a project, like any other project in the game, so it's not a jarring leap from one form of play to the other?

Or are there glaringly obvious downsides to such a system keeping everyone from mentioning it that haven't crossed my mind for some reason?

I think the mobile version of combat mentioned could turn fairly OP, and even if not, it would mean every keeps saving their turns and it's a draw that just comes down to skill level - making action points.. pointless. All it would take is a couple of people with decent skill and a high amount of points to go through and slaughter. Allowing turns to accrue like that will make it very fast paced, with the way I imagine it happening, which would kill the RP which I'm trying to preserve in combat through the design of the mechanics.

As for a project based attack system, I think Wolfsong makes a good point about being heavily favored by defenders. It's also a little more slow paced than I had envisioned. It's awkward to try to rp during the 'act' of hitting someone, waiting for a tick to occur. It feels unnatural, and you won't be able to RP really until the tick happens because you won't know the results of the hit attempt.

I am going to push again for a re-examination of the combat system that is hit per period with counter attacks, where dragging may not even be an element in play. With the other systems for healing and crafting being a more complex and designed with combat in mind, I think it will make a huge difference.

I think I'll be sticking with slow paced hit-per-period with counter attacks, and a more balanced attack skill/weapon/healing crafting system with the possibility of -not- having dragging during violence. Dragging is half the reason it becomes fast paced during a fight anyway, because it doesn't take time. Perhaps that a possible solution to keep it - make dragging a project? It's a spit ball suggestion if we're intent on keeping it as an element in combat, but I don't know if I really like that idea either. The waiting can become pretty moot under the right conditions.

SumBum wrote:The only thing I can come up with to force a slow-down on combat is to limit it so that a char can only have one attack initiated against them per day. But, again, that does not guarantee the victim a chance of RP, retaliation, escape, etc. If dragging is an option, the attackers will just toss the victim behind a locked door for safekeeping until they can initiate another attack. I simply like FTO's combat/hunting system because it at least allows the victim/animal to fight back automatically, unlike Cantr. So, there's at least a little risk and harm done to the attacker. (unless you're a giant stomping bugs. lol)

That's the sort of system I'm envisioning, and why dragging needs to be seriously considered as for whether or not it is a combat element or only an element outside of combat, as well as what that means exactly.

Wolfsong wrote:

Wolfsong wrote:Just brainstorming here, but combat can exist in a couple of different ways - let's say either it's tied into the same system of time that exists for everything else, or it's separate but has its weird idiosyncrasies explained by IC mythology. That doesn't mean it needs to be turn-based if you use the former idea... or strictly turn-based, I guess. Take a page from the book of mobile gaming and give everyone a limited number of actions that replenish slowly, accruing again every turn or something.

(to be continued)

Since I am literally just throwing out ideas on the fly, I'm going to try and talk my way through this to see if it would even be viable. It's something I've thought about in the abstract plenty of times, but haven't designed anything concrete for.

So let's say you have turns every 4 hours or so. These are fixed, happening at a certain time each day. In addition to having these ticks, each character has 10 "action points." Obviously, the amount of "action points" and the length of turns are completely made up and aren't balanced, but here's what I'm thinking, roughly - everything: crafting, fighting, travelling, etc., takes action points. Certain actions could even take multiple points. Incredibly difficult actions (long-term crafting or building, perhaps) take more action points than a character has in their pool. So let's say you're trying to build a house, and that takes 15 action points. You use your stored 10 immediately, and accrue 1 action point per turn. You can either continue working on this task (putting a point into it automatically each turn when it replenishes) or stop to work on other tasks in the mean time, occasionally spending points on your building or whatever. Once 15 have gone in, the task is completed. Let's say dragging and attacking also cost points. Being particularly skilled might even lower the action point cost, though never reduce it to 0 - though maybe high skill levels have a *small* chance of immediately replenishing an action point on use in a relevant skill? Brainstorming. Poorly skilled people could increase the amount of action points it takes to complete a task, as well as reducing the overall quality of the item produced.

Now, attacking takes an action point - that's similar to Cantr without the one a day limit, meaning you can attack multiple times, drag, and still put the defender at a very unfair disadvantage. But what if, if the defender had remaining points in their action point pool, they could automatically retaliate against attacks? Additionally, what if there were options to dictate how a defender retaliated against an attack? (Such as: attacking back, not attacking back but getting a boost to defense instead, etc.) That would level the playing field a bit.

Obviously vehicles would have to have their own variation on the system, since I don't foresee ships and cars having action points, but it could at least tie crafting and combat together more closely than they are currently meshed in FTO/Cantr.

I feel like this is a more complex system that possibly achieves the same result as using counter attacks during period based combat? The way you have laid it out here seems to work, except for my earlier mentioned issue with concerns about accruing points becoming moot between the two sides. Lets say it does work, though. Even so, if a simpler system that will allow you to have counter attacks with better skill consideration during attacks and the complexity (and not easy to access right away) of crafting healing items, I don't see why we would use this one over the other. It might even be more complex than some people want to micro manage, it's something to consider. I appreciate the thought you're putting into these posts, Wolfsong, but the system I currently have in place would need to be overhauled to achieve this. I really need to know the glaring benefits if it's something I'll consider changing, and I'd still like to discuss the current plans first before trying to consider moving on to something different.

rd1988 wrote:I think it turned into Vaporware right now.

It's very much not Vaporware. I'm just extremely busy - it doesn't mean I'm any less passionate about the project.

I want to thank everyone who has participated in this discussion, long winded as it has been in my absence. Thank you. I really keeps me inspired to make it good to hear people care enough to spend time talking about it.

Wolfsong wrote:Might PM you about another "bug" on FTO, so you can verify you haven't built your game with similar security issues.

Please do. That'd be extremely helpful, and I appreciate any security advice offered.
I'd rather not be working on and off for several years on a game that gets broken by something silly I could have known to avoid.

Thanks, Wolfsong.

So, I stopped reading after the first mention of there being magic because I don't really need to know anything else to want to play. But, it said random beta chars would be chosen to have magic. Hypothetically, could someone keep rolling new beta chars until they got a magic one?

Beta chars?
Edit: Ah! Now I remember, you must have read the beginning of the thread. I'm sorry.
During beta, I think I had in mind to select and implement the magic to characters myself in order to test, so it wouldn't be based on any random number generation, or by the player. It's just something where all magic types would need to go through testing, but some things from back in the thread where you read have changed. I'd probably test magic types in alpha with predetermined temporary characters. Then, in beta, the below answer would be appropriate. You'd have a random chance during any character you have being born.

Well, there's a character limit of five so unless you completely want to mess up being able to play instantly (by spawning alternatively) in favor of waiting in a birth line to get a character that may or may not have magic, no. But technically, yes? If you spam anything that is based on RNG (random number generation) enough then you'll get something that meets the conditions eventually. But of course, it's not meant to be played that way, which is why it's discouraged. It's supposed to be a fun rare RP element rewarding people who play a character from childhood, and rewarding those around them who will suddenly have someone very very interesting in their lives, enriching everyone's story.

To be clear to anyone reading: alpha testing comes first and is conducted with a select group of individuals who will play through all the mechanics for debugging purposes. Then comes beta, where the game is open to the public to test collectively, so that I can polish the game. After beta, the game is technically finished and will receive regular content updates as well as be maintained with story arcs and so on.

I've just finished a map for what the first island will look like, and I thought it might be nice to post it here for those curious. Thanks to those who gave me some helpful opinions during its making.

Are you actually still programming the game, though? The site's been in "hiatus" for months (years?) and the forum, well I don't think I've ever seen it up. It should take less than 2 minutes to get it back online.

I've been in the same situation 10 years ago where I felt inundated with the amount of work involved and end up focusing on the things that don't matter rather than digging into the tough challenges, so was curious what you see as the roadmap for the game (when will the alpha/beta be available, when will it be "released", etc)

It's probably easier to just run it locally.