As the studio continues to buckle down on Nightingale’s development, we’ve been taking some time to answer some of the community questions over on the Official Nightingale Discord™, where there has been no shortage of activity since it launched.
To kick-off the first Discord Q&A we picked 25 questions to answer, which were a blend of highly popular questions as well as other ones that we know we can comfortably answer at this point in time. It may be a case that some of these answers may change or be redundant as we go through development and testing of the game. But we’ll do our best to communicate those changes as they happen.
Don’t forget: hop into the Nightingale Discord if you want to participate in future Q&As! But, without further ado, here we go…
Q: The most recent gameplay trailer shows a zeppelin near the end. What capabilities do you have planned for that vehicle? / Will there be air combat from the airship, and if so, what will it look like?
A: There will be airships in the game at Early Access launch, but not as player facing vehicles
Q: Regarding buildings and constructible Furniture/items, do these recipes all serve a purpose or are there going to be a lot of cosmetic only recipes? This is a big problem in other games of the genre if you are a feature first kind of person. / Will furniture like beds and chairs be interactable to be able to physically sit/lie down on to reward players that choose to invest resources in decorative and world building elements, and if so, will the AI companions be found interacting with them?
A: Buildings will provide respite from Bound attacks. As for the variety of building styles, right now the different styles are mostly cosmetic. As for furniture pieces, we're currently working out what functionalities we can implement in time for the early access launch.
Q: Will you be able to pick back up your build pieces after them being placed or is there like a timer?
A: Currently player placed pieces can be destroyed by you or your party members after they are built. This destruction will give some of the resources back for reuse.
Q: Can we edit existing structures or only build around them?
A: Yes we are working on this functionality for Early Access.
Q: What can we expect from the crafting/building system? Are there any specific games you took inspiration from in developing it?
A: We get inspiration from a lot of games in the genre (and complimentary genres)! Realmwalkers will be given some basic recipes for crafting and schematics for building when they start, and will be able to discover new schematics by collecting certain materials, talking to NPCs, or completing quests.
Q: Will there be a recycle/dismantling system for items crafted in game?
A: Currently you can dismantle build structures like crafting benches, walls, etc. You can also destroy and repair crafted tools.
Q: Are there 'bosses' that can only be fought as a group or will it be possible to completely solo the game with enough preparation?
A: Our intention is that solo players will be able to play the entire game by themselves, but solo completionists will be in for a challenging experience.
Q: What will base defense look like, if any?
A: As it is now, players can set up barricades or structures to keep out Bound or other creature attacks. Players can then attack the Bound from a safe distance using ranged weapons. This is something that's constantly evolving and we'll be showing more of in the future.
Q: What percentage of people registered for the newsletter do you expect to allow into the beta?
A: It's really hard to say right now especially since we haven't done our survey to get a better idea of computer specs yet.
Q: Unlikely, but: Any chance that invitations for playtest could include the option to invite a couple more people to co-op? As playing with friends is usually the most fun way of playing these kinds of games
A: This is something we're considering as we prepare our playtesting surveys, so thanks for the reminder! We can't make any promises yet, but we'll see what's possible.
Q: What happens when only part of a group goes to a new realm? Or do all players have to stay in one realm at a time? If we all have to stay in one realm, what happens when 1 group leaves the respite realm and then someone tries to log in that is in the respite realm?
A: Players can choose whether or not to join their friends in other realms, so you can absolutely be split between different realms! As for someone else logging in, they will need to be given a party invite, and they will be able to choose as to who in your party they'd like to be teleported to.
Q: Will the world save data be hosted in the cloud such that any previous player can start the world when no one else is hosting? Or will the world save be tied to the original host and only be accessible via that player hosting?
A: Yes, world save data is hosted in the cloud. The world save will be hosted by a specific player. Other players in your party will be able to continue playing if the host disconnects, but they won't be able to spin it up themselves.
Q: I know the details of Dedicated Servers is still being worked on, but is there any info you can supply regarding them? Player Cap? Server Specs?
A: Right now we're looking at between 6-10 players in a realm. Much like PC specs, it's a little early for us to share other specific details, as we're still experimenting with a bunch of things.
Q: Can players control access to the realm their estate is in, such that they can invite friends over and give them access to resources without leaving them out for just anyone to take?
A: Players can invite people to visit their respite realm and kick people from their realm. We are investigating more specific access controls, but currently if you invite someone into your realm they have total access to everything within it.
Q: Will characters be tied to specific games/ servers or will we be able to take them haunting around like in Terraria.
A: Players can have multiple characters, and any one of those can join any other player realms once invited.
Q: About 'Death' in general : how punishing are 'death' in game?
For example, if you die, do you spawn back in saved spot (estate) and drop your inventory on the spot you died or do you lose partial or all of the inventory? or do you not lose any of your inventory but lose 'hope' bar instead? if you could grab the inventory that was dropped , would there be a timer to get back your inventory?
A: Right now we have a fairly standard death system where players lose their full inventory on death and respawn at their respite spawn point. There are no timers to get your inventory back and there are death markers to show where it is. Any buffs you may have had pre-death, will also be removed (such as eating recently).
Q: Will environmental resources respawn or will they be only available the one time after having been foraged (trees cut down/herbs or plants picked/rocks or ores mined, etc)? Will there be ways to replenish resources such as farming/planting if they do not respawn?
A: Most resources don't respawn naturally. The main way to get additional resources is to venture into further realms.
Q: What can I expect out of the Hunger System, a split for food and water, different types of foods providing certain buffs and nerfs to your character, Food for specific situations, and is there a way the hunger system will be unique from other survival crafting games?
A: As it is right now, going hungry will give you certain debuffs but will not kill you. As for other systems, we're experimenting with a few options and will detail them once we've made a decision.
Q: What will end game look like?
A: It is our ambition that there will always be something to do in the game. New realms to explore, new structures to build, new gear to craft - all in the spirit of "Endless Adventures". We'll have more to say about specifics later!
Q: As a Dev, what was the trickiest part about designing Nightingale?
A: We have so many cools ideas but picking which ones to prioritize is tough. They always take so much more time to make than to think up! We're very excited about the universe and want to do so much, so questions and thoughts from the community are really valuable to help us prioritize and plan.
Q: How much and what kind of narrative are you going to build into the game? / I'm a lore lover... Will this game have a deep lore?
A: Nightingale is a gaslamp fantasy universe. So expect some mysticism and a darker tale of survival. Some of the narrative will be told through the environments, some of it through codex entries, and some of it will be through NPCs. We'll show this off more clearly closer to the launch. Our narrative team has put a lot of work and thought into building the world of Nightingale, so we're excited to share it throughout development with you.
Q: Anything more about how using magic will work? / what kind of type magic will be in the game, like directional, fire, traps?
A: As humans lack innate magickal abilities, spells need to be tethered to a weapon or tool crafted in the realms. But be warned, using the spells will use up some of the durability. We'll have additional details about how many spells are in and their natures closer to launch as they're still in development.
Q: Will Nightingale have mod support for a more customizable player experience? An example being custom building assets or armor skins. / Modding support?
A: We're still looking into this one. We'll have a definitive answer closer to the early access launch.
Q: How in-depth with the settlement/village building be? Will it have a size limitation, and about how much of the 2kmX2km area will the limit be if so? Can NPCs build for you via something like a project board, as long as you provide the mats?
A: Currently players can build wherever they like, landscape and other natural features permitting. We are working hard to ensure performance is maintained even with very complex player-built structures.
Q: Will there be plans for Mounts/tamed animals/pets? Or other forms of transportation fitting to the theme? / How do you obtain a pet? / Are pets/mounts/tames functional (mount)/cosmetic only or combat assist capable? Will we be able to issue orders? (stay, follow, attack, don't attack, etc) / Will there be a feature to tame creature to our side? / So youve hinted at befreinding gaints depending on how you play what about animals and fantastical beasts could you become something like a beast tamer/trainer? Will you be able to craft gear for them in turn like ive seen air balloons could you hook an animal up to a cart or carriage perhaps? A camping wagon?
A: Pets and mounts are two different systems in our game. Pets have been prototyped but we haven't moved them into production. Mounts have not been looked at to any significant degree. We'd love to have pets ready during Early Access!
Phew! And that's the end of this first round! Thank you all once again for your questions. Head over to Discord and submit your questions for the next Q&A.