This is very much the case. When it comes to the SWAT module, the mechanics are actually quite simple to create in comparison to the back-end that is the Town Square. The Town Square is just a social module but there's a LOT going on behind the scenes. It is our foundation. Even with my own position, I understand the discontent completely. People are looking for some depth and words only go so far. The reason we haven't shown off a lot is two-fold: first, the majority of the work going into the Town Square is back-end and foundation work. It's grueling work which unfortunately isn't fun to look at. It's the first bit we need to take care of, but it's not something we can show in a visual sense. Furthermore, giving detailed information on the inner-workings of our foundation code can actually do harm when that information falls into the laps of the wrong people. The second issue is one of psychology. Anyone who's been following games for much time can attest to the fact that first impressions are the only ones which matter for most people. This doesn't apply to everyone, but it does for the VAST majority of people; even if people understand something is a work-in-progress when they get their hands on it, the impression they get from that experience will persist. Fortunately, we're coming to the end of the worst wait in this. I know you've heard something like this before, so it's likely taken lightly, but it's looking quite up right now. In fact, we're not far from handing out the Steam keys to prepare for a Steam launch. Our earlier estimates were well off the mark because we ran into some pretty significant issues with the engine. Keep in mind we have a HEAVILY modified version of Unreal Engine 4. We've done some pretty large changes to accommodate a real MMORPG. I wish it hasn't taken this long, but we're committed to doing this right. We're not going to take shortcuts and release a product which isn't up to our standards. The wait is almost over and you're going to be getting some fun updates quite soon.

Political Party Database After having looked at some other boards within the forums, I had noticed that we don't really have a place to find information on the most popular, upcoming political parties here on Identity, except for via The Podium board which would require you to scroll through numerous threads and pages to find the right party for you. I wanted to make this thread to try and group together the most common parties with some information as to who leads it, what the parties believe in and their policies. I also understand that as politics will be one of the final aspects induced into the final game, there hasn't been much need for a post like this, however, many are still interested in the political aspect and I'm always willing to add new parties in to the list via request. If you would like your party added, send me a private message on the forums, or, much more preferably via Discord (ItsDev#3140). I would also like to ask the leaders of the parties mentioned - or those who wish for their parties to be added - to contact me in regards to writing a brief description which best describes their party and the views in which their parties share. The Hamilton Party Leader: @BrianHamilton Website: THP Campaign Thread: The Hamilton Party Brief Description: The Hamilton Party believes in creating a safer and more equal community through protecting the citizens of Identity from hate crime whilst also working to improve funding for the emergency services such as Law Enforcement, Medical Service and the Fire & Rescue Service, whilst also creating more job opportunities for those unemployed. The Royal Family Party Leader: @LuciousTimes Thread: Mr. Lucious Times For Governor ( The Royal Family Party ) Brief Description: A party known for having peace and unity forever. Founded and led by Lucious Times with his other government officials The Royal Family truly is a family. With views both conservative and liberal, the party tends to find favor with all. Being the eldest current party, The Royal Family has set legacy and intends to continue that walk in its existence. Gene Smith Candidate: @GeneSmith Thread: Gene Smith for Governor The People's Revolutionary Party Leader: @DLimit Thread: The People's Revolutionary Party (P.R.P) Brief Description: The People's Revolutionary Party is a Direct-Democratic Communist party that desires to provide individuals with Universal food, clothing, shelter, energy, healthcare, education, and transportation. It appeals to the "Mass-Line Struggle" as a means towards fulfilling the needs, demands, and requests of the working-class citizens of Identity Island via "The People's Revolutionary General Assembly", in-which citizens shall be capable of electing Constitutional Laws and policies through direct-democratic means. Français National Leader: @FrancePourLaVie Thread: Français National {FN} The Technocratic Party Leader: @Anonymous_Citizen Website: Technocracy Identity Thread: The Technocracy Party Brief Description: The Technocratic Party believes that government should be "governed by the capable." Leaders are chosen based upon their individual skill-sets, determining their most strategic position in the nation's structure. The party changes its policies in order to reflect scientific truths and discoveries. The core policies of the Technocratic Party are based upon the principles of strategy, growth, and vigilance with each principle acting as an equal driving force. The Identity Party of America Leader: @ThomasHetch Thread: The Identity Party of America

Not sure if you're trolling or what is the case with you, I just told you what they can do. Nobody has the time to sit and watch 3 hours dev vlog of creating a lamp. You can do the same like majority of the new guys, Warhorse Studios showed a lot of behind the scenes of the development, Like showing how their team is developing the game, You see it it's right there no bull. I would love to have a business and customers like you so i can just take your money and pat you down each time i have no answer when will i deliver what i sold to you and each time you just bow your head. Obviously that is just an example and we are not running a store here. But "AGAIN" what part of it you do not comprehend, there are many things they can do and show that they have not done so yet..development is an ongoing process so it does not sit idle. They can be creative, do something like warriors den that Ubi does for For Honor. The demand will be there if you like it or not, Start accepting the fact until Asylum clears up the mess they got themselves into. I mean seriously dude you remind me of the Antifa clowns that no matter what you tell them they are just brainwashed robots with zero commons sense and logic.

I look forward to finding a great beach house.

Nice! Keep this at the top!

Idk what kind lvl of delusion is that First impression? Already done, shady project that never coming out, so much time and money and so little done... if somebody think peoples change their minds because almost empty TS gonna be released in a bit better state than other EA games is wrong. Everyone gonna look behind and "vote" biased on that, rage after release will be huge. Bugs free alpha? Who in the world aiming to release experimental build without bugs? It's hilarious, AAA titles from under best studios after years of development have lots of bugs in the beginning, thousands of peoples playing will always test it better and quicker than few programmers. Never gonna happen, i can bet now that TS going to be bugged and unpolished

You may want to elaborate more on your MC If you want people to join. Try adding pictures too and what not. Good luck to you.

This has nothing to do with asking kindly or not talking to me, you were spreading false information by calling the creator of this topic a liar... you should know by now that the date upon someone joined the forum says nothing about when he pledged or for how long he has been waiting... maybe if you remember that I wont need to quote you anymore. I am not quoting you over some nonsense or anything of the nature, I am quoting you because you were wrong.

Actually as a "pledger" i get to demand. Who is saying i can not you? We all can because we invested real MONEY into this project, Without any of us it would not exist. That is "powerful" So get your head from wherever it is and stop telling people they are not allowed to demand and hold those they invested in accountable. We all have a voice in this. Trust me if my money is involved in something i will as questions simply because you don't live my life, you don't pay my bills, and most importantly you do not work my job and get paid for my effort at it. You want to pretend to be a fan boy and tell people they can't voice their opinions? give your best try cause not every single individual here is half asleep. Maybe it's time you get a reality check cause you going to get checked by those that pledged their money. There are people who invested a lot and by all means not every person here screams "mommy" and their parent's bank account opens up with a cash flow. With the whole disaster Asylum got itself they can fix this by doing something that can give people a better insight on what's going on. You yourself mentioned tons of time by now pointing that most information can be obtained via discord, well this does not make it official, Joe tells Mark, Mark misunderstood what Joe said and tells Fred something else and it's a ever going circle of a mess. I know you want the best for the game, I think all of us do. But there are ways of ding things properly and that is a reason why you got a lot of people pissed off, It's not the fact that it's taking a while, but the inconsistency of what they promise vs what do we see happen.

dayum fanboys defending devs again

gameplay: the features of a video game, such as its plot and the way it is played, as distinct from the graphics and sound effects. you don't just decide what is/isn't gameplay, it is literally in the name GAME PLAY. did they show off the graphics? check did they play the game? check what other features do you want them to show from TS? ts is a social module, there is nothing else to show... just showing of everything woud mean there is no point exploring TS yourself... they played the game and showed it off --> gameplay

What have they shown? Models? , Broken physics? Everyone says we seen game play, Well i am not sure that running around a level with few buildings, couple of models and few visual effects can be labeled as game play. Perhaps they would still have to connect certain systems together in order to make things work properly, but as it stands right now it's not really game play. As i said before i would not care about town square release since people will get bored very quick, but give us some info, show us how you work on this, share a bit of the development like most of the companies do.

It's not about thing being handed on a silver platter. Weather you like it or not there must be some kind of industry standards...The constant excuse of Asylum being a indie developer, or that it's their first game won't fly anymore, This excuse got old and got abused too much. Obviously they are digging themselves a bigger hole and they are doing it to themselves. Maybe that is the idea, game is too ambitious so let's get the pledged money and take off. The forums have been buzzing for a while and they have no clarified much at this point. In terms of patience i have been patient since the kick starter was announced and at this point i would like to hold Asylum accountable and have things clarified.

Ranting on the New Screenshots thread, nice one. Don't forget this is a crowdfunded game. If you're skeptical, no need to pledge, you can just wait and see videos when it'll be released.

The developers that appear on the Asylum Development Streams are exclusively tailored to work on the visual aspects of Identity. It would be great to have them help out with the programming! But it's unfortunately not something they're specialized in. The programmers are working throughout for the duration of the streams, and they'll sometimes listen in or comment in the twitch chat while their work is compiling. Regarding showing things off in Town Square, we've had 2 streams in the past where we got to see John run around the Module's environment. The stream on May 29th showed off the character creator and general environment of Town Square, where the stream on June 28th demonstrated a few of the interactions players can partake in. The CEO mentioned at the end of a recent development stream that the next piece of gameplay media we want to present will be a feature video of sorts. As John put it, "we need to have a video that represents the Town Square" for when our Steam page goes public. Here's the excerpt if you'd like to hear it: Misc (Any word on the next gameplay video? Media for Steam page?) https://clips.twitch.tv/StormyAcceptableHerdDBstyle (I'm unsure if we'll see another gameplay stream before the launch of the Module, but I have been pitching the idea to the devs so they definitely know there's interest.) We're going to try to include everything you've seen in the streams into the Day 1 build of Town Square where possible. Should the final UI task on the tracker become completed while we're still importing furniture/clothing/hairstyles etc. then we'll include the rest later. The art assets integral to Town Square's launch have been completed and we won't hold up its launch to import a recently modeled/designed item or graphic. The task tracker has indeed looked the same for quite a while. While the final "In Testing" task denotes the integration between the UI and the Housing System, the team discovered some serious bugs at a deeper level of the game during its testing phase. This was mentioned briefly in Dev Blog 20, where the CEO states that the significant bugs the team encountered "were deep in the engine and were show-stoppers". They needed to be addressed immediately, which explains the slow progress time for the final testing task. The major issues the devs ran into have since been rectified, and we're now focused on eliminating the minor problems still present with the UI + Housing System integration. Regarding PR, we do have plans to reach out to the community more frequently in the future through the release of more Identity Insiders and a change to the Dev Blog format. In Dev Blog 19, John mentions users will be able to look forward to "more frequent developer video blogs", with the idea that the transition to a video format will be both more entertaining and engaging for the community. In Dev Blog 20, he also states that we'll be sending out more frequent Identity Insiders soon ("We're talking a few each month!"). For the present moment, however, we do realize news has been slow. The entire team has been heavily invested in finishing this final task (apart from the artists as mentioned above of course), making it difficult to get out consistent updates. It would be great to compile a list of weekly updates from each specific developer, or sit down with the guys in the office at the end of each week on stream to discuss current progress! But this would come at the cost of making Town Square release later, and getting the Module out right now is our #1 priority. This is why the recent Dev Blog released later than usual, as John needed to focus more on Town Square's programming (as well as help the web dev out with some website tweaks). Even I've been tasked with helping test Town Square, so I apologize for not being as active on the forums (I'm definitely making an effort to appear here when I can though). In the future we'll definitely discuss updates more frequently with the Insiders and video Dev Blogs, but right now we need to devote as much time as we can into getting the Module completed. I hope this post helps address some of your concerns FuzzyDoesMedia (and I apologize for the wall of text).

I love the weird logical fallacies some people come up with "you joined this year; therefore your opinion is invalid" yeah... okay...

We all get it, some people are getting fed up because it's been months after the first official release date. We're all upset about it, and so are the developers. I admit a single module shouldn't be taking that long, but I'm still being very patient. I've also stopped caring about when they say "soon" or any similar key words. I just tell myself it'll come when it'll come. I'll compile a bunch of comments from the team below (I wish there was a spoiler but whatever), but I know some people might TLDR:

You should really find something else to do with your spare time.

Yeah, Joe Pesci only had one scene in A Bronx Tale, (Two if you count the murder scene but he was in that for literally 5 seconds) but even in that movie he delivered very powerful, quotable lines. He'll always remain a legend in my book. I've only seen him in Goodfellas, Casino, Raging Bull, and Home Alone 1 and 2, so I have yet to see all the films he's starred in. I make it my objective to see the rest of his work, a marathon if you will. The Irishman is gonna kick ass and that's what I'm really looking forward to with Joe Pesci. We'll see how it goes.

I admire your love for Joe Pesci, I too share a love for his acting. I think his role in Goodfellas tops his performances in his other films. That being said his roles in his other hit films are not as serious as that as Tommy in Goodfellas. Screen time is limited in Casino and Raging Bull. Joe has only one line in A Bronx Tale, but it was very cool to see a cameo from a skilled actor in mob acting. A Bronx Tale is second after Goodfellas on my top ten movie list. On the contrary, who can hate Home Alone? Such a good movie to watch while it's snowing out.

@subway244u should come on the discord more!

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

You just love to quote me, it's not false he did join this year. Bye

Have seen some of ur messages in this forum, damn dude, you're such a pessimist. If you're still not impressed by what they have show'n (off identity) than you shouldn't be here at all.

The finishing touches Greetings, and again thank you, to all of Identity's backers receiving this dev blog. Everyone's been hard at work putting together a game that can change the industry, and you're soon going to be getting your first taste. With the Town Square (Identity's first social gameplay module) nearing release, we're hard at work testing and putting the finishing touches on two of the major features. Everything's been progressing very well and I'm quite proud of the team. These last systems are the art/canvas mechanics and the player housing. Both of these have been functional for a long time, although a couple tweaks need made before we push Town Square out the door. A few minutes of decorating an Ash Hill penthouse We've added a new button in the elevators to allow you to visit a public version of any apartment. You can run around and see them in their default state before committing to buying them for yourself. This will be a very useful way to explore the available options, given that some of the floorplans will be very rare to come across with other players. Above is the penthouse after a few minutes of quick decoration. I'm not exactly a decorator, myself, but you can get a good idea of the way it looks now! It's a huge space with three large bedrooms (which means you and two friends can use it as your home) and tons of storage. We've had to refactor the backend of the housing system a good bit, but the end result you see is everything you saw in the prior Identity Insider apartment video. All features shown then will be ready for you soon in the Town Square! We have lots of other cool features coming for your house parties that you haven't seen yet, too. In case you hadn't seen that video, or you want to see it again, I've linked it below. Identity Insider: Housing - CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO Town Square gameplay live stream With my last developer blog post I included a link to gameplay video from our live stream showing character creation and the exterior environment in the Town Square module. Recently, I joined in on another development live stream to show about 20 minutes of more Town Square gameplay. This time I showed off interior environments as well as a few of the gameplay mechanics you're going to come across in the Town Square. YouTube Town Square preview live stream 2 - CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO The team and I are so very excited to show you guys what we've made in the Town Square and beyond. The Town Square isn't enormous on its own, but it's a very good way to give you an idea of how the world looks and feels. The task master The Task Tracker is a new tool on our website which displays up-to-date data pertaining to how much work is remaining for the Town Square release. If you've been following our progress through the tracker, you'll have seen that just a couple of days ago it progressed to its current point, with only two tasks remaining at the in-testing state (the ones I described above in this blog post). Keep your eye on the tracker to get the best idea of when we're ready to go. You will of course also get notified by email when the Town Square is published on Steam! The future of the Dev Blog This may be one of the last couple developer blogs being sent out in this format as we're planning on soon transitioning to more frequent developer video blogs! In the past, it's always been myself who wrote these blog posts. They've been a great way to reach out and letting everyone who doesn't follow us on social media know what we've been up to. That said, I think I speak for most people when I say video is more interesting and entertaining! Look forward to meeting the team face-to-face in short but frequent videos. Some will be general updates about our work on Identity and some will be focused on certain aspects within the game. Also, on that note, you're going to be getting a very interesting Identity Insider very shortly, covering criminal activity and gameplay. It's a major part of the game and we've surprisingly not been asked many questions about these systems in the past. You'll be getting all kinds of juicy new information and ideas of what you're going to encounter! 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