To better clarify, do note the numbers in the corner of each image. These as they're seen are the first step in the art development. They're created quickly by a talented digital artist ( check past live streams.. this work had been shown live in the past ) as a sort of draft. When it later comes time to create the asset, we'd choose the most appropriate of the three and it would be done in high detail with any changes requested by the game designers. These three you see were based on the jungle mood boards, which is why they all look somewhat similar. The final product you see in the game won't look just like any of these, but likely close to one of them. The method used here is called compositing, and it's a great way to get a nice looking result quickly, before polishing.

Well, because it's concept art. Artists use the concept pieces there to develop the environment later. The three together are part of what's called a mood board. This is pretty standard.

While you can rent out the houses you buy in the world, apartments cannot be rented. This is because we don't want someone's real-money purchases to give an advantage. For example, renting out that apartment would then translate to in-game currency indirectly. Some may be concerned about people doing this without using game mechanics, but that would require a transfer of ownership (which you cannot do with micro-transaction apartments) or, if the apartment was large enough, setting someone as a co-owner/roommate for in-game money. The latter could be done, but it would be at a great risk to the person doing it as the primary owner could walk in at any moment and take their things. When a house is rented through game mechanics, the renting player has ownership of that property as long as they continue to pay; thus, it's as secure as if they were to own it themselves. As for vehicle ownership, they exist for good reason. The vehicles which we sell are in no way high (or even mid) end vehicles. Similar vehicles will be obtainable quite early on. We've done it this way specifically to stimulate a new economy. The primary benefit of the micro-transaction vehicles is the ability to claim them once on each server. Thus, when a new server is started up, they'll help get resources on the market quickly. These resources will then be used by all players. Without this, the economy would take a few days to get moving and it would not be such an enjoyable experience.

I don't think it matters what type of images they use for concept art or as a base nor where they are coming from. I imagine almost every game developer will use some kind of structures to build form..anyone remember Warhorse Studios showcasing how they build building models for Kingdom Come Deliverance? A lot of stuff was taken from the real places that were there historically and they would modify them. Amazing structures are inspirational it would be a sin not to use them.

I’m sure the digital artist is extremely talented, but they’re not exactly showing it here. The jungle mood boards must have been quite limited in content if these designs were based off of them, because it doesn’t look like the design in question has pulled different elements from multiple sources whatsoever. Sure this ‘compositing’ can be done quickly, but that’s probably because the house is more or less a perfect replica of the source material. The problem here isn’t that it’s the first stage of development and you’re using it for inspiration- that is completely fine. It’s extremely difficult to just pluck designs out of nowhere and I’m sure every other artist does the same. The problem is that you have showcased it in a manner which led me (and I’m sure others) to believe that it was original work and was an example of some of the concept art you had recently created- especially as the dev blogs are usually used to showcase the progress you have made in the previous month. Had you just added that this was inspiration, instead of leaving it up to us to decide, then I’m sure you could have stayed on the beach loungers at the side of the pool, rather than cannonballing straight into the hot water. I still have faith in this game, and I will still support it- but you really are making it difficult for yourselves- hence why people who have been supportive of you, and active in this community for the past 2-3 years are now beginning to raise eyebrows.

Aaaaand why would this matter? The claim is obviously true, no matter how OP found out.

Ramping up It's been busy as usual here at the Asylum office! For the past few weeks, we've had our testers running through all of the systems in the Town Square and a whole lot of progress has been made toward release. They've done an awesome job in finding the remaining bugs, and our team's been doing an equally awesome job in squashing them. As you likely noticed when following the Dev Tracker on our website, we're down to the testing stages on one remaining task. We've been working on this one for a while as there were a couple significant bugs encountered. These bugs were deep in the engine and were show-stoppers. Fortunately, we've recently defeated them and put them behind us. We're now knocking out the remaining minor issues being found by our testers and things are looking great. With the new website online (more on this below) we're soon going to be handing out Steam keys for those with access to the Town Square. This doesn't mean you can play just yet, but we're getting close enough that we're going to be bringing you on board in preperation. If you're wondering how it's going to work, it's really pretty simple. Once we launch this feature shortly, you're going to be able to log into your game account on our website. You'll then see the option to link your existing Steam account. Once you've linked your account, you'll be given a key which, when entered into the Steam client, will add Identity's Town Square to your game library. You won't need to log in to play, as we know who you are based on your Steam account. I'd recommend following us on social media (Twitter and Facebook especially) to watch for this coming announcement. Gangs and Warfare We're changing the Identity Insider format! Instead of larger insiders once in a long while, we're going to be sending out more frequent updates. We're talking a few each month! These Insider updates will paint a detailed picture of Identity's full gameplay experiences. To kick this off, we posted the following update on our new website just yesterday: Identity Drug Cartel Concepts (click image for more) You've made stacks of cash pushing drugs and the odd robbery, but when push comes to shove, you'll find strength in numbers. A gang is a group of ruffians with the goal of obtaining power and infamy through the domination of those around them. Gangs are often at war with one another as they compete for limited resources, whether it's turf, drugs or blood. There's no shortage of criminal activity in the world outside of gangs, but true power belongs to the syndicates and cartels with the strength and fortitude to rule over their rivals. Comradery Identity is all about working together with your friends, and gangs are the social structure geared towards crime. You can belong to only one gang at any time, so choose where your loyalty lies. Your gang has a full rank structure and the leaders can control access levels for each member based on that rank. As your gang grows, it can also unlock additional perks for all members. The gang leadership can designate any home owned in the world as the HQ, giving access to all members of the gang. Hang out with your gangmates and stockpile weapons, drugs and anything else you can get your hands on. Your HQ, like your personal homes, can also be used for respawning on death. This makes it an important rally point when *#!% hits the fan! Cartels Cartels are conflict areas which are controlled by one gang at any time, providing the owners with control over trade and traffiking of their related substance throughout all the land. To the victor goes the spoils. The cartel zone is a functional HQ for the current owners. Turf Identity Turf Neighborhood Concept Take control of city neighborhoods with gang turf zones. While cartels control substances across the world of Identity, the gangs who dominate a neighborhood have direct influence over criminal organizations in that area, such as drug dealers. Lookouts in the area will spot rival gangs in the streets of your turf and text message members of your gang in the area. Controlling gangs get access to a safe house in the area, tightening their hold. Warfare Dominate gangs who cross your path and prove your strength. Declare war on your rivals and hunt them down. Gang members who are at war are completely vulnerable to one another through the stress system, and so you need to be on the lookout at all times. Prey on your enemies until they submit to your demands. When declaring war on another gang, the other gang must accept the spoils set by the agressor. The spoils can include cash, turf, real-estate and more. When one side has had enough and ends the war, they forfeit those spoils to the stronger gang. In Identity, most items people carry can be taken if they're killed. What's theirs, is yours. War is hell. New website is finally here! The Identity website has had an overhaul to prepare for the Town Square release and Steam integrations. The new website brings all kinds of cool new features, mostly for the game account systems and the Identity shop! We're also going to be filling up the About page with all sorts of new information from the Insider releases. Now that the website has a true and proper shop, you can now get your hands on cool new items without having to buy entire packages. The shop now has all kinds of exclusive items, including apartment pets! You'll be able to get your hands on friendly critters for your home in-game as well, although those featured on the shop are only available there. Some of these items are only available for a limited time. Some of the new items include: Custom T-Shirt Graphic - Upload an image which can be placed on T-Shirts you create in-game! Each image can be used on 10 shirts. Vanity License Plate - Show your style with a custom license plate, visible on your in-game vehicle. Vanity Phone Number - Want a number that's easy to remember? Get a vanity phone number for yourself or your business. More Apartment Floorplans - Floor plans which haven't been available since Kickstarter, including the enormous Penthouse. Huge Clothing Packages - Clothing packages including clothes with dozens of original brands. Pets! Cats, dogs and more - Pets currently available include sphynx and tabby cats as well as pugs, maltese and the shiba inu (doge?). Another important note: when the new payment options (aside from PayPal) go live, we'll shortly after be removing all of the old packages. We will at this time never again be selling cash, so there's not much time remaining to get starter cash before Identity goes live. This is not something we plan to sell again in the future, but all who have it in their account will be able to claim that cash once on each server. Visit the New Identity Site Now! The Twitch Clips If you've been following Identity's development closely, you probably already know that developers stream their work live on the Identity Twitch channel every Tuesday and Thursday. We also use that time to answer almost every question that gets asked about Identity's development and gameplay. Now that we've been doing this a while, we've answered a lot of questions. Our awesome community manager, BeachBall, has taken the time to compile a massive list of questions linked to clips where they're answered by a developer. Get comfy and head over to the Twitch Clips Directory forum thread. If you haven't found this already, be prepared to spend a good bit of time listening to all sorts of awesome information. This is the best place to get to know the fine details Identity! -- John VanderZwet

THE ROYAL FAMILY PARTY PLATFORM ICA Politics Award - For whoever has been most active and engaging in the political arena. The ICA Politics Award goes to @LuciousTimes - Joel Keys _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Policies (Simplified) : SOCIAL SECURITY: Social Security should be privatized (not to be confused with private savings accounts, but rather, private investments). JOBS: Pro small business. Supports giving small businesses and large businesses a 10% tax on corporation profit ( profit means after employees, inventory, and other expenses have been paid for) so that more jobs can be created. TAXES: Taxes will be a very simple flat tax. 13% of your reported yearly income. 10% tax will be placed on corporation profit, not income. ECONOMY: Supports free market competition and entrepreneurship, corporate deregulation and cutting entitlement spending. SECURITY/DEFENSE: Believe in a limited missile defense. Oppose nuclear buildup in the U.S. Believe that peace is achieved through worldwide relationship building. LEGAL/TORT REFORM: Supports tort reform and limiting victims compensation,especially for frivolous lawsuits. IMMIGRATION: Support illegal alien’s ability and right to become citizens and giving them more protections under the law. FAITH: Advocate free exercise of religion. EDUCATION: Promote school choice/vouchers and homeschooling. Supports voluntary student supported prayer in school. Opposes gender and race quotes in colleges. ABORTION: Generally pro-life with emphasis on promoting alternatives to abortion. ENERGY: Wish to find environmentally friendly energy sources and solutions. Oppose private increased drilling, especially in the U.S. However, government may be held to no large environment restrictions. HEALTHCARE: Strongly supports a complete separation of healthcare and state. However, in Identity our government will provide healthcare as the National Health Service introduced in 1948. 3% of all taxes will be put towards all healthcare needs. Doctor & Dental! FOREIGN POLICY: Strongly supports worldwide coalitions and multi-national programs. Supports aid for disadvantaged countries. Supports the UN. PEACE. UNITY. FOREVER. CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM: No restrictions on contributions form any legal resident. Believe that politicians holding an office should not be able to run for another seat until term is over. ENVIRONMENT: Supports privatizing federal land. Believe in cap and trade market based air pollution reductions and that the market should regulate itself. GUNS: Limited gun control. GAY RIGHTS: Pro private choice and equality including marriage. Laws (Detailed) : Due to the game environment the worst punishment for a crime is prison time and fines. So, for all crimes criminals will be punished by fine and/or prison time. THESE ARE FIRST OFFENSE PRISON TIMES, EVERY ADDITIONAL OFFENSE WILL HAVE YOUR TIME DOUBLED ( NOT EXCEEDING AN HOUR) WITH A $1000 FEE ATTACHED. SO, IF YOU PLAN TO MURDER 5 PEOPLE YOU MIGHT WANT TO BE PROSECUTED FOR ALL OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME. MURDER - 1 Hour THEFT OVER $5000 - 1 Hour THEFT BETWEEN $1000 & $5000 - 45 Minutes THEFT UNDER $1000 - 30 Minutes POSSESSION OF ANY ILLEGAL DRUGS - 30 Minutes ANY ACCOMPLICE ACTIONS OF ANY CRIME - 15 Minutes Five Characteristics of a Lucious Times Economy The main features of a Times economy are as follows: (a) Factors of production are owned by the individuals. (b) Every individual has freedom to start business of his own choice. (c) All economic activities are guided by the motive of profit. (d) Individuals are the owners and acquire property and pass it on to next heir after death. (e) Government has little role to play in the functioning of the economy. Prices of goods and services are determined by the market forces of demand and supply. Important Business Information Tax on businesses is 10% on company profit. After employees have been paid, inventory bought, etc. Depending on what the company reports as profit a business could nearly have no tax! The Tale of Lucious Times Lucious grew to be homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. In a city of crime Lucious had to be on the lookout at every turn. In Lucious' young life he grew to be very aware of the crime filled city and knew he had to do something to ensure his safety. At 15, Lucious started an organization with a few neighborhood boys called "The Peacekeepers". These boys were brutal. They cleaned the streets of crime in the most direct ways possible. Showing up to criminal hideouts and wasting away every member present, making fake visits to prisons and jails to poison and eliminate those criminals on the inside, making appointments with the LAPD to let THEM know how things would be done. The Peacekeepers were vigilantes at the finest. The city soon had a crime rate so low new schools were being built and more people migrated to the lovely city of Los Angeles. Through all the harsh deeds The Peacekeepers had done Lucious never was present for the actual action. He was the mastermind, the planner, the brain of the whole operation. Sitting behind a desk as leader of The Peacekeepers. Oh how things looked great! Lucious had made something out of nothing and became a city icon and hero as he grew older. Though soon, things made a turn for the worst. Lucious' closest partner, his beautiful fiance was capture by a man known by the name Gustavo Fring. A now well-known high profile methamphetamine drug lord. He did so because by cleaning up the city Lucious made distribution for Mr. Fring come to a complete stop in the area. Lucious grew furious, so furious he began to walk into a whole new light. The Peacekeepers became a weapon at Lucious' disposal. He thought long and hard and then finally had a plan. After finding where Fring was located Lucious and his team of over 200 men approached the location, guns loaded and ready for anything. However, Fring was already aware of Lucious' presence and decided to retaliate. Fring killed Lucious' fiance, then sent out total war upon Lucious and his men. In the end only two men were left standing; Fring and Lucious. After few words, Lucious caught leverage and killed Fring. Though Lucious was severely injured by gunshot. He called the LAPD. With quickness, Lucious was saved and had chance to speak with the LAPD Chief of Police. He thanked Lucious for his doings and after a long conversation of tears the chief left. Lucious began to realize how much he'd loss. All his men, his fiance, his hold on the city from crime all gone! Three weeks later Lucious walked out of the hospital, grab all $789,211 he'd raised with his people, and began to leave town for a new home. A place called Turtle Beach on Identity Island. However, when he got to the town line he found something waiting for him. Over half the city was standing their with gold-colored gold-scented candles. Some of them stood to give thanks, but many stood ready to follow him wherever he went. A woman by the name of Dorris Jean approached Lucious and told him this: "We give these candles to represent who you are to the city. Forever will you be the gold we all love, the gold we all know has provided, the gold we all know will pay the price. For to us you are a leader and friend. For you have become like royalty in this city. And with you royalty we be your royal family." Lucious was proud. All negative feelings previous washed away. Lucious now felt the obligation to continue to lead. For he knew he was wise and could give great leadership. This time he wouldn't limit himself to the leadership of a groups of boys who run a city, no. That was below him now. Now he needed to lead in higher heights where he could have greater impact and influence. A position of power such as Governor would do the trick! So he then decided to venture into the political field of leadership once he arrived in his new home. A few hours later after a celebratory evening Lucious and the now called Royal Family left. 12 days later they arrived in Turtle Beach on the Identity island and the rest is soon to be foretold...

The devs have stated before that the apartments/ vehicles are not the best you can get in the world and they are similar but with a different layout and so you can get the same apartments in game but with different layouts to the pledge apartments. You can get a sports car which looks different but has the same speed etc as the sports car. They will just look different.

Here is the full reason to the picture you see: okay, so that is the explanation for it and I will be locking the subject as it has been answered.

Loll

Nine to Five is an okay (Identity ripoff) idea, but coming from a development team that compares zookeepers and zoologists, and completely butchers the pronunciation of zoologist, I don't think I can trust them.

*Cough, cough* https://clips.twitch.tv/HonorableApatheticGiraffePicoMause Moderators have also said multiple times that you cannot rent out pledged apartments.

Alright, i'll start by saying this. Money isn't my issue. I spent 30 dollars on this game, and it only comes to mind once every couple of weeks. Im not motivated by desire, or a refund, or even anger. So devs/moderators, take this into consideration. All of it. The Dev Tracker is honestly ridiculous and you guys know it is. Whoever you had in charge of updating it wasn't doing that, and it sat on 1-2 things left for upwards of 2 months. That is... words cant describe what that is. The game itself has been in development for YEARS, which is something you have all heard before, and your generic "Developin gayms taeks a lot of tyme" isn't even reputable anymore. It's been too long, and you guys are VERY OBVIOUSLY focusing your efforts on things that are so stupid, SUCH AS: Streaming the development. Streaming takes A LOT of effort, and communication with fans in the chat, and so far your streams have been an accurate depiction on the work ethic. "Hey guys, welcome to this stream where we take about 2 of our (previously stated) 20 developers, and take about 4 to 5 hours making a fucking lampshade! Join us again next year when we start work on the table legs!" Its absurd, streaming it is stupid and time consuming. A whole new fucking website design? Seriously? We're all SCREAMING for an update on progress and the best you can do is make the fucking website look pretty? What was even the purpose in that, just stop fiddling your dick and FINISH THE MODULE. Fucking. Micro-transactions. This is the main reason im making this post. You have over 1 million USD just from backers. Thats the average middle class mans LIFETIME EARNINGS. Yet, you spend more time making pointless things like fucking more apartments? Only this time it costs 100. Fucking. Dollars. I snooped in the store some more, and saw that you're LITERALLY SELLING THE CONCEPT OF A CUSTOM LICENSE PLATE FOR 15 FUCKING DOLLARS. Thats fucking ABSURD. Considering so far we get updates tri-monthly that contain messages like "We still workin on it" and "Hold yer horses, its only been 3 years" you would think they could give us something other than another way to waste our money on hope. Which, ties into my final point. See, i've realized a steady pattern with this development team, and I have a theory. You see, Asylum was a very small team, with a genuine hope to recreate that ARMA RP that we all know and love, but they needed funding. They started simple, you know, advertising an amazing game with a trailer and saying "Please, all we need is funding and we can make this happen" and they said it with TRUTH. Then, the wave. People donating willy nilly, praising this god tier game trailer, expecting an orgasm worthy experience. They have amassed a grand total 1,296,948 United States Dollars. Now I dont know how much it costs to pay for resources like textures, licenses, and a monthly subscription of whatever software they use to develop the game, BUT, I can tell you that there is NO reason it should cost 1.296 million dollars to make ONE MODULE that by the way, has no currency system, is completely experimental, and has a grand total of TWO CARS. TWO. I cant even imagine what the physics system is like. So anyway, Asylum were SHOCKED at this, and noticed that, they were making fucking bank on this. The hype train, the Pledges, the donations, hell, the twitch revenue (cant confirm, just a thought) and them being a very small, inexperienced development team, took the EA route real fucking fast. Overhyping games, putting out JUST enough information to keep the fans from rioting, and collecting those sweet sweet pre-order deals, then the second the game drops, there are paywalls EVERYWHERE. The player had no idea, and now they wasted hundreds on a game that they can barely play. Asylum, you've practically fucked your entire future as a company, and destroyed every last bit of fanbase you had. You needed to release more updates, you needed to put more effort into the game, you needed to stop being fucking greedy, and either release the game, or refund the backers. Judging by the micro transactions, this game is going to be HELL. And I will be refunding as soon as possible.

the middle picture is actually al gores house. Google my friend. https://www.google.no/search?q=al+gore+house&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt7pCO9ovdAhUriIsKHQiqDUkQ_AUICigB&biw=1422&bih=684#imgrc=dG0HunWpGscduM:

Um no, that's not how concept art works...........a mood board, sure, but that is not concept art, not by any definition. You didn't conceptualize that piece. (I'm just saiyan) I don't think it's right to maintain that it is a concept of the team when it clearly is not. Can't change minds, but...............

Not just that, but laziness is a red flag in and of itself. If they're too lazy to make their own conceptual art, then.................?

No. Something tells me that is not alright..........if they're passing it off as their own conceptual art when it's only some minor Photoshop and filters.

Yikes...................Is it legal to photoshop actual places and claim it's concept art? Just wondering.

Holy fuck. This is a huge red flag for me. Here is a better one (the one from the reddit post) https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1504-E-Mountain-Dr-Santa-Barbara-CA-93108/15880573_zpid/

The original comment about the arcade section was because there is a section for other games and that section is called "Arcade". But otherwise this game you think is a lot better is going to be a steam early access and that is not how Identity is doing things. Early access kills games and sometimes it helps but it can kill a game quicker than a game can grow. Just remember, they also are working to have a map the size of GTA's one. That is so much more significantly smaller than what Identity will have and well they are going to have "Game-modes" they will have Ai roaming in one like GTA Online will have. Why do we want a new GTA Online? we don't and especially not one with worse graphics. They obviously took the idea, and it still seems to look more arcade like which is a definite no to me liking it. However it could do well or it could just die. I won't hold my hopes but I will keep an eye on it as it seems interestingly a copy of Identity in general.

I was unaware of this until I read your post. That's a major issue. We'll get it fixed up ASAP. It will work on a desktop browser. Thanks for the heads up. PS: For those wondering about the statistics, the number seems higher because the new site shows number of game accounts while the old site showed number of pledgers.

The funniest thing to me is watching people support every decision of these devs and yet claim to the other side they "don't know how game development works" which IF they knew how game development worked, they'd clearly see the problems happening there. If any of them are in game dev business they need to find another job, stat. I'm in the middle by the way. I just hate seeing people toss "game development!" as an excuse for what's going on here, when there's no excuse at all. The devs said they'd remedy the problems, so for me it's a waiting game to see if they keep to their word. <3

Get your hands out of your ass and tell us why you are using pictures of houses in real life, and call it concept art. Now i demand an answer.. I have been backing you since 2016, and never thought this was a scam, but i must admit, this is damn fishy. I think you owe us an explanation. Busted