In a perfect world, we would offer options for everyone to do anything. But we don't have a budget, we don't even have Firefall's budget. We have, as of today $3000 (which we used to pay for the website software, concept art time and backer fulfillment, etc.). I have to plan for that and not commit to saying "yes, we can do xyz option no problem!" Because every piece of art, chunk of armor, feature, and slider costs hundreds of not thousands to make. I'd rather offer fewer things, at higher quality, and focused on gameplay, than 1000 options.
So if I sound hesitant on "why not just make it an option" its because we have to be very frugal. Ember is going to be have to be different simply because of math and dollars. I'm just trying to find creative ways that satisfy me as a creator to keep to the general principles of Firefall and match my original, but Ember will still be very different in execution. It has to be. Firefall cost over 60 million to make, while we have $3000. Firefall had a 150 person team, we have 2-3 part time people right now, and our team size will probably never exceed around 15 people. We can be true to Firefall's spirit, but there is no way we can be Firefall 2.0 and match them option for option, feature for feature. Nor should we, Firefall ended up being a huge mish-mash of half-completed features going in a thousand different directions.
Imagine if we drew a concept of the recon frame and said "this is it! The one and only frame for Ember!" (because that's all this game can realistically afford: is developing one universal look of frame). We would have even more people in here that really miss their Assault and Arsenal frames.
Omniframes have fast movement, gliding, jumpets and preserve the mobility "feel" of Firefall, which IMHO was the most important part of that aspect of frames. The gameplay trumps all.
Meanwhile, I'm spending a lot of time figuring out how to do things in new ways to keep costs down and offer more. We're looking heavily into procedural tools for terrain, texturing, photogrammetry techniques for 3D modeling, and motion capture for animation. We're also looking at radical ways to keep server hardware costs down for a type of MMO that is traditionally extremely CPU heavy (action shooting, etc.), so that Ember does not require huge monthly server costs and a team of 8 dedicated IT staff to run (like Firefall did just to keep servers running).
I think we can do it. I'm more encouraged each time I see the support grow in the community. But remember, its still going to be a "mini" MMO.
