We did see Nathaniel for more than a couple times last 7 days in E2O but it was a pleasant surprise to see WolfGang come in after a while, and he was there for more than 2 hours!
Here is the transcript
Nathaniel (N): Hi Guys
User(U): How can a guy with 8m subs just post a video called "another massive scandal" with ZERO research? It's wild ahaha
N: Yes YT'ers copy each other.
U: He (the Youtuber) is basically reacting to others videos
N: Yes, I mean they watch each others videos. So one of his arguments is that it won't render, but the funny thing is it does and even half optimized it renders very well
U: Yeah, and while the attention is good it’s sad not more gameplay and work could be out already to show them more what to expect in the future... but I mean, we mods will take care of the social media. Hope you devs can find some peace in all the chaos to work.
N: Yes but we're working on it also expanding the team and making good progress there.
U: He (a Youtuber) claimed that if it were a real world simulation, it wouldn't render that smooth. What E2 has is mostly just google maps with a grid on it
N: We have all the terrain physics working now, terrain and stones, trees, trunks, etc... all updating on the fly when modifying...
U: While the YouTube video has absolutely no research , I do agree that barely any proof of development that the devs constantly talk about is being shown and none of us can actually know for sure if Earth 2 is actually making good progress or if it is still a glorified version of google maps and considering people have put hundreds and thousands into this project I think they deserve to be informed more .
N: They have a point, but then we've just released for 6 months, started with a very small company and we've grown a lot already.
U: Is the video recorded yet ?
N: I'm working on it. Not recording yet, but getting all stuff in for showcasing...waiting for some ramps from Ferran to make cool jumps.
U: People saying DRONE was abandoned. What happened to DRONE?
N: We're still in very close contact with each other and didn't abandon it
U: Will it be playable on Commodore 64 (asking for a YouTuber)
N: Poke 53280,0 ;) I still remember the C64 lol, coded on it since I was 8 until 16 or so
U: Very few game devs make their own engine. Is a single Dev working on it
N: It's not a single dev working on it, of course I can't do all this by myself, and explained before we're expanding the team with the most skilled devs
U: How are you going to attach tiles on the terrain
N: They are part of the terrain
U: If you have the experience to build a physics engine from scratch that applies to a 1:1 scale of the entire world, I would love to see any prior work or experience
N: A physics engine is not needed for that, physics is streamed of course. What's need is a custom terrain system, which I did make which you can see in the E2 videos.
U: (on being shown a link of a video of earlier work) - That's literally exporting google maps to unity engine. That doesn't lead to making a physics engine
N: How you think that Unity/Unreal terrain can handle that?? The terrain system I created is like Unreal 5 nanite for terrains...E.g. Check my Terrain Composer 2 terrain tool video. It was one of the first terrain tools to entire compute on the GPU with instant results: https://youtu.be/_4q0eAhpm_g?t=72
U: Is it easy to divide the terrain in trillions of squares?
N: Yea that's solvable
U: Release a video of actual gameplay because right now It's literally begging people to cash in some "tiles" off google maps lol
N: We're working on it, that's why we created the physics now, as it didn't have before
U: Why is Shane never here
N: Shane is all over the place expanding the company
U: Its literally easy to tell by looking at the E2 website they didn't simulate the entire earth
N: Also look at Ferran's turbo squid: https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Artists/Galva858 Just don't call us noobs, because we're not
U: I wasn't calling you a noob, i was just asking for previous projects since i had some doubts, and they were provided, thats my bad
N: Oki sorry about that, no problem. Also can see us here: https://youtu.be/zx-jZ2Rxb_w
U: E2 graphics will be like that? (https://youtu.be/zx-jZ2Rxb_w)
N: Similar and better, those are graphics we made 5 years ago btw
U: When do you think there will be an official release regarding direction of gameplay mechanics (specifically p2) -- not long term 3d engine mechanics? Wolfgang maybe you can shed some light on this?
WolfGang (W): The shapes of it will become visible with frequent updates over the next few months. We had to deal with a lot of technical and organizational debt from the wild early days (now that I mention them: we're still in our early days, of course). Now we are able to roll out updates quicker and in a more organized and way better tested way. So the relatively long quiet phase will start to pay off pretty soon.
U: Can you explain how the terrain engine works without explaining the details. I.e is there algorithms to calculate the finer detail in level etc.
N: It basically works similar to Unreal 5 Nanite, with ~31 different terrain mesh layers and each layer is being streamed multi-threaded when moving from the HDD -> CPU -> GPU. It seamlessly updates without popping
U: Wolfgang, where you been, we missed you, could you give us a summary of what we will be able to do in the game? A lot of new people asking that
W: Working on Designs, organisation, other stuff that needed to get out of the way.
U: Is Phase 2 on track for deliver in the first half 2021, and if not, when will the website be updated? We're beyond "the earliest possible point" by now.
W: You don't expect us to make any kind of announcement here, do you? We learned from the beginnings... ;)
U: That's fair, but we're less than 4 weeks out with no official launch date. It's not really a good look. Can't you guys see that?
W: Yes, we can. But we worked hard to get out of a machine that only piled one technical debt on the other. We are just now seeing the first fruits of that - and you can, too. Customer service usually responds in 24 hours now, the last release went without the usual chaos. We will not give up the processes we all will benefit from for a low hanging fruit of again releasing something not thoroughly tested in an unorderly release process. That wouldn't help anyone.
U: Wolfgang, after Phase-2 will you be working on Phase-4
W: That's not how I learned counting in school. Then again, that was in the mid 60ies. Times are changing
U: Wolfgang you've been busy and may have misses some context. We're not asking for Phase 2 right now, we're asking for a realistic timeline of Phase 2 that we can stand by, because the next 4 weeks aren't looking good.
W: I understand that. You will get that timeline when we ourselves can be damn sure about it.
U: I know you mentioned we'll be seeing fruition's of your team's work in the coming months. Is there a plan though to reshape/improve messaging around vision of what you are moving towards as far as gameplay mechanics (publicly).
W: Yes, messaging still needs a lot of improvement. Then again: I don't see a single field where we are not still a few miles away from even being good. On the other hand: if I look back at February, we are learning fast.
U: Nice one, can you tell us approximately? noone wants a date, is more we are going to see the resources before the end of the year?
W: I definitely hope 2022 will be still a while away when we role them out. But development of such vast things are carrying their own surprises
U: We would love a Dev Stream
N: Yes we understand
U: Earth-2 is flat
W: And stop working on the game?
U: I have been waiting for 7 weeks to receive an answer from the "higher level of support" after 5CA forward my ticket to them. should I open another ticket to ask them about my previous ticket or do I have to feel mocked every time I read Shane saying it takes only 24 HR to receive answer?
Thomas: Please send a message to me and I will manage the case
U: How good is Marco
W: An incredible talent
U: Resources values? When?
Thomas: We cannot reveal those details yet, I'm sorry
U: Wolfgang, As members from the community begin to fill your ranks; are you still of the mindset that devs shouldn't own tiles as it may compromise design integrity?
W: I still don't and won't - at least in any significant numbers. Maybe at some point I need to have some to see the game from an owner's perspective. But I would dedicate any financial benefits to charity.
U: We are fighting to keep the good name of Earth 2 in tact. The army against us seems to grow by the second. Thank you for jumping into chat
N: Thanks for that, with time we will prove them wrong.
U: Wolfgang, I honestly hope you are doing great and you get to find a time to rest as well. BTW thought on pineapple pizza?
W: An abomination
U: They said bitcoin was a scam also when it first launched
N: Yep and with Bitcoin you can just buy/sell nothing more
U: All developers!!! I am planning on a project where I need to pump water to a pool. I hope we will be able to pump water. If we can’t pump water then we are missing out on many aesthetics like pools, fountains and man made waterfalls. N: You are from Holland? Lol
U: Can I be poor in Earth 1 but rich in Earth 2? W: If you're rich an Earth 2 you won't be poor on Earth 1, I hope
U: So I can quit my dayjob at 10,000 tiles?
W: You can quit your dayjob anytime. You will just have to bear the consequences, no matter how many tiles you own on Earth 2. That's called freedom. And responsibility. Two sides of the same coin
U: How will the weather work?
N: When it rains you'll get wet .. :p
U: Will the test country for resources just be a test, then after the test period all gathered resources will be wiped for the start of phase 2??? W: After posting this question 10 times at least without an answer: isn't that answer enough?
U (gurra/elon musk): When resources come out do i need to build some sort of mining machine that mines and will I need for example metal to build it and oil for it to run?
W: You're Elon Musk and you think we will repeat the same mistakes we are making on Earth 1?
U: Nathaniel Can you provide a ballpark of how large the terrain is now?
N: The one in the E2 videos is 30 x 30km, it can handle any size, just doesn't have the data yet. but I made a test of the entire USA before (30 meter per pixel resolution) that to test the streaming (both heightmap and satellite images). 40GB of heightmap data compressed to 200mb and can move around with 80000 km/h (in that test build)
Nathaniel (N): I have to go now, thanks for the chat
U: One thing @Wolfgang that the critics have been harsh about is “what is the game” - if you were to do your elevator pitch to answer this question how would you?
W: Nice try! BTW: I have one answer per two minutes. So be careful what you ask. I won't be here forever.
Well, seems Wolfgang was on slow-mode too in the discord!!!! Who knew?
U: @Wolfgang any hint for lucky country? W: Sweden hasn't seen war since a few hundred years. That's lucky, I would say. U: My question is how you will keep earth2's reputation intact. how on earth do you think you can ignore it and it will pass. of course not. videos like these multiply. the youtubers making them are increasingly bigger channels. penguinz, most recently. 10 million subs, 100k views in 2 hours. people will keep ruining us. fix it or earth2 will forever be a bad name.
Marco : Let's not panic. We are not ignoring this at all, but we can't kneejerk a reaction out either. F'ing this up will just Streisand this out of proportion. DreamWorld caused some waves and the going got rough, sure, but I'm a firm believer that clean delivery of content trumps any "trust me bro"
U: @Wolfgang pretty broad question but, how will the economy system function, will it have in-house system all player dependent or will there be external factors involved similar to a stock market and market system?
W: The economy will work based on - yes - work and community. Trying to play it all by yourself will most probably not get the results you can achieve when cooperating. I'm a firm believer that this world is no zero sum game - and Earth 2 design will reflect this. Going anymore into detail would be a violation of our internal announcements only clause. So any question might be a clever sequence of words, it might even be entertaining. But it's otherwise futile
U: Can you explain how your role might have transformed from when you first entered the scene? Are you still focused on "just design" or has your responsibility increased and if so to what extent?
W: My responsibility always has been more - as is natural in a small but quickly growing company. Those with a lot of experience need to watch out for basically everything. We get more experienced people on board now, so I hope game design will get even more into focus in the future
U: What do you think of external partners as investors? Do you have shareholders in Earth 2? I am referring to large companies willing to provide capital
W: You!
U: When is that likely then? You are the game designer right? You have been very silent for over a month
W: For more than two. We are working hard to get it out as soon as possible. And we are working much more organized today so that once we are ready to go we REALLY are ready to go
U: Except you totally misunderstand what the streisand effect is. You have mods deleting left right and centre and a takedown of the videos in Australia. Streisand effect relates to trying to censor and remove , not reply and respond. you are inviting the streisand effect to happen.
Marco: Oh, you're right about that definition, updating my mind, thanks!
U: E2 is a scam, dont buy into it
Marco: That would kinda suck for me bc I'm busting myself working on the game's design
U: Have you seen big you tubers are exposing this lmao, I told you ppl to sell , now everyone is gonna panic sell , the owner literally pays ppl to sit on discord and make it seem like it’s not a scam lol W: It will be interesting to see whether and how they will retract and apologize. Looking forward to it. I for myself would like a good bottle of Glenmorangie Nectar d'or as an apology
U: If they'll need to retract?
W: They will
U: Wolfgang ich hoffe, du hast wenigstens die hommage an dich in der wild west location gesehen translated to Wolfgang I hope you have at least seen the homage to you in the wild west location W: No, Do you have the link
U: Mine is good? Yes or No?
W: There are no bad tiles on Earth2
U: Wolfgang I hope you have at least seen the homage to you in the wild west location
W: What if a certain resource becomes expensive in like 4 years from now that we buried there in the ground? And hardly anywhere else? What I'm saying is: we have the tools in hand to balance that out
U: How about the devs respond to the valid points the youtubers make? W: Why? They are making claims that we are a scam. We never claimed that this is a smooth roll-out. We always were very open where things were. We survived a lot of things that would have killed other companies. I don't see any point in answering some strangers unfounded claims
Thomas: I remember Dec/Jan, that was huge
U: I'm really confused about if you are creating a metaverse or a game ? W: Is that an exclusive or a non-exclusive "or"?
U: Thomas December was fun. 95% of general was "is this a scam?" Thomas: flashbacks U: Make a video to answer the youtubers?
W: No time for such bs.
U: Ah, the hype era. at least it's coming back now, just with far more toxicity unfortunately.
Thomas: We will keep working anyway. If we wanna prove everyone what we can do, we will keep fighting. New project = new challenges = new issues. If we will win...well that's great. That's why we are here, right? To create something new.
U: Are issues solved or just ignored till it not possible to ignore anymore ?
Thomas: Solved. Some of them still need some time but we are all doing our part
U: They (youtubers) are pointing out specific reasons why there is suspicion . Do you know what those reasons are? Do you agree any of them are valid?
W: Yes, and all we can say is: a development like this takes time. We've been overrun by our unexpected success - and we survived it. Now it's time to get things on the road. If you don't believe us, fine. We never said anything else - and we have the reality to prove it
U: Many of us believe in you @Wolfgang . We want to know if we csn believe the website and if not, whether it will be updated by July 1?
W: Again: no premature announcements from my side
U: @Wolfgang if all tiles would be produce resources then what will be the use of earth1 mines???
W: A good market position for a special kind of resource?
Wolfgang quips: Buy the highlands!
U: What what What
W: If you want Scotch... U: @Wolfgang do you prefer uranium or lithium?
W: I think Iridium is the shit!
U: Will scotch be an important resource in e2? as important as in e1?
W: During development? Sure!
U: @Wolfgang say that someone have a 750 in a mine and I have 1 tile? would we both produce same amount of resource or essence?
W: If the majority of the community thinks that would be acceptable and fair game design I might think about it.
U: Don't you find strange that before the devs was silent for weeks while nobody called it a scam and now they're here everyday?
Marco: It'd be strange if we weren't, too
U: (for escape) You could say you'd want to watch football now
W: Season's over
U: Wolfgang I think make it depend on the class not the amount of tiles the more different mines you have the better
W: There will be a lot of different influences
U: Do you envision universities teaching virtual classes through E2 ?
W: Actually, Yes
U: @Wolfgang , we are showcasing the devs on our live stream. Prior to Earth 2, are there any games or projects you are most proud of we shouldn't miss?
W: Check out Incubation, In Between and The Void
U: @Wolfgang can you confirm if tile areas are markedly different between equator and high latitudes and do you consider it significant?
W: No worries there. We have that covered. A bigger tile will still be just a tile
U: Sure you are a dev and not a comedian in disguise?
W: I'm a designer. I've seen so many of my ideas fail over 30 years, that a sense for comedy became a survival strategy.
U: I believe you said phase 3 will be endless. Did you mean that because of the vast diversity in biomes it would take ages to cover it all and that it would be a gradual process covering them all?
W: That - and human evolution will never stop. At least not in my lifetime
U: Will I be able to use a pc in earth 2, and will I be able to install windows and play earth 2 in that pc in earth 2
W: Sure. And Consoles. And VR, MR, AR... All at there time and for their own purpose
U: Wolfgang, if you are able to disclose the info, what's the patch number we're currently on?
W: We're still in the negatives. Started at -100.0.0.0 for a reason
U: Can you answer "So what have you thought of so far for giving out resources or essence?" @Wolfgang@Marco
Marco: We can't if we want to keep our jobs.
U: When we can expect a playful part of phase 2 (at least a light version if there will be one at all)
W: Hopefully some time before the year is over.
U: @Wolfgang have you seen Ready Player One?
W: Read the book a long time ago. Have to re-read it.
U: Favorite band ? @Wolfgang
W: Quite some. Generally I'm into Classic Rock with a blues base: Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix (if I were to pray to a god it would be him). Probably the one fixed star. But there are an awful lot of great bands, ranging from The Beatles (obviously) to The Clash, the entire Seattle line-up, The Libertines had two great records. But there's Jazz and Funk, too: Brecker Brothers, recently Collier - and yes, after resisting hard for a week or so I have to admit that Maneskin are a very good and promising band. And I really enjoy Billie Eilish. But if you'd ask me who the greatest musician on this planet has been. Like ever? Beethoven. And there are only distant seconds.
U: Mozart’s requiem is probably the most amazing ever in my opinion
W: As I said, I consider that a character flaw of mine. But I take Beethoven's Missa Solemnis over the Reqiem anytime.
U: Which is your favorite jazz musician?
W: Billie Holiday. Such raw emotion
U: @Wolfgang , if y’all want people to believe in y’all so much, why don’t you fix simple things and give people more updates regularly like a great team does
W: Because we are not yet a great team. But we are on the way to become one.
U: @Wolfgang I am not a German but I am living in Germany and know a friend who has a Nickname "Wolfi" for his name Wolfgang. Do you have a Nickname?
W: Yes. It's not Wolfie. It's a little bit more off.
U: You think Germany will win the European soccer championship this summer?
W: No. But Rudi Bommer was a great and underrated player for my favorite Team Fortuna Düsseldorf
U: @Wolfgang in one sentence, just 1, can you tell everyone why we should invest in e2 when there will be competitors coming out soon like Sony and Epic games, why e2, one sentence
W: Because they a priori have to have their stockholder's interests in mind. Our stockholders are you
U: Fortuna? then i am surprised you did not mention die toten hosen as one of favorite bands.
W: Because I went to school with Campino. We lived 300 meters away from each other as kids. Hard to become a fan then...(true story)
U: See what I dont get of these nay sayers. I bet they spend THOUSANDS a year on video games anyway. Thats money they never have a chance to get back! Whats the difference in taking your video game budget an putting it here where u have a GOOD chance at making money.... these people dont think.
W: Once we get our gameplay up and the general idea behind it becomes visible I'm sure you will be asked to sell your tiles again
U: No, because you need buyers, and no one can guarantee you buyers. Contrary to the stockmarkets where selling and buying shares is much faster.
W: Still you need buyers. It's a numbers game. U: May I ask why haven't you dropped in here for so long? Like no time? At all?
W: Because I worked 100 hours a week for like three months straight.
U: @Wolfgang if earth 2 is a game, then What happens when all the tiles are sold, Bc that will happen if this game gets big and nobody will buy all the water tiles
W: People WILL buy water tiles when we give them reason to do it. And there are 5.1 trillion tiles out there. I don't see them bought up anytime soon
U: @Wolfgang would you put your mom and dads life on the fact that this isn’t a scam? I am a big soul guy and don’t think you would lie on your mom and dads soul
W: Well, my Dad died 22 years ago. And I wouldn't put anybody's life on a bet before I bet on mine. Surely not my Mom's. If that is a scam it is the best hidden scam I ever saw. We are hiring people, expanding the costs, paying third party to up our game - Shane must be the worst scammer ever!
Marco: This is my first project in this industry. My face is out there. If it was, I'd be done for
U: Wolfgang if you could change one thing Tech wise in the last 30 years that you think negatively impacted society what it it be and why?
W: I would go back even ten years more and prevent the elections of Thatcher, Reagan and Kohl by whatever means necessary.
U: Will players be able to "moderate" visitors on their own properties to an extend?
W: Sure
U: I’m just confused how tf people can build on your land, like what if someone builds a house on my land then wtf do I do ? We need explanation
W: Who said that was possible?
U: Its on the main website
W: How old is this? There's still a lot to clean up. We never claimed differently
U: @Wolfgang Is there the current technology to achieve the goals on your website? Can any platform hold this many people playing at once in real time in such a huge metaverse? A lot of people believe this isn't technically possible? This is really important to me as its the one doubt in my mind currently.
W: We believe it's possible. Otherwise we wouldn't attempt.
U: The website and texts should really get priority?
W: Yes. Problem: we have a lot of prios for still a rather small company But we're working on it.
U: To hold 100,000s of people playing in real time? Im asking if severs etc can handle this volume
W: We think we know how to do this. Doesn't say it's easy
U: @Wolfgang How is the economic structure coming along?
W: It's still a moving target, but it won't evade us forever.
U: Will E2 have a marketing department responsible for advertisements and business development or is this outsourced?
W: As a designer I'm not allowed to discuss design details. And I'm not qualified to discuss business issues.
U: @Wolfgang since Shane has his « food drama » regarding pineapple on pizza, what would be yours?
W: Bananas and pineapple on pizza.
U: How's health of your Family? everything's fine?
W: Thanks for asking. Yes. I'll get my second shot in a week, my daughter's the last to get vaccinated very soon and overall we were spared from serious illness. And as far as I know I forbid my family to invest in E2 in order to not compromise me.
U: LinkedIn says there is 19 employees?
W: Add to this a number of freelancers.
U: is the dev team aware a youtuber with 8 million subscribers just posted a video calling Earth2 a scam that has 300,000 views
W: Yes. I couldn't care less.
Marco: Yeah, it freaked me out a bit at first but Wolfgang's calm rubbed off quickly.
U: Your family doesn't invest now, but does it mean that they might do it later? And if that's the case wouldn't they kinda miss the early train of early investment?
W: You know, I really hate it when people exploit privileged positions. That's how I was raised and that's how I raised my kids. If they miss out on the inside knowledge that's part of our ethical design. We live well enough with it.
U: I agree with you. But what if they want to invest without asking for any inside info from you? They might feel kinda punished not even to be able to invest in something they believe could work.
W: I don't have control over their bank accounts. They are grown-ups. If they ask for inside information my lips will be sealed - and they will know that they disappointed me.
U: this is the wrong attitude.... Why? Because you could mitigate players agreeing with these youtubers by addressing issues some have raised even if they are farfetched.. long term less people will come into the project and they will just have screenshots of this one comment to make a point
W: What do you think am I doing here since two hours? I said I don't care about the video and the guy who made it. I care about our users.
U: Your users have paid eye watering sums for virtual land, which due to ever increasing tile prices they may never get that money back as they have to sell it on. Now confidence outside of this Discord is extremely low, how would you feel if all holders are now stuck with useless virtual tiles? You're a game developer so probably have no say on the economics but the way this is structured means eventually people will lose money, it's inevitable.
W: No its not inevitable. The biggest risks to the challenges of E2 are impatience and the destructive force of greed.
Wolfgang(W) : Okay, folks. Gotta go to bed. Closing in on midnight here. It was a pleasure and I hope to drop by more often in the future. Have a good night you all!