Help:Contents

This help page will contain information to assist AlthasWiki readers.

FAQ

AlthasWiki FAQ

What is the AlthasWiki?

See AlthasWiki:About.

What is an article?

In the context of MediaWiki, an article is a webpage within a wiki. Nearly every page on this wiki (website) is an article.

Why can't I view, add or edit articles?

At this time, only Epoch Games Developers will be given article viewing, addition and editing permissions. Registered users are allowed to edit talk pages however.

If you are a developer, then please send a PM to Matthew Norman over Slack if you want access. Your wiki account will then be given the proper permissions.

Where can I find the most recent activities on the wiki?

They can be found under Special:RecentChanges.

Why are there "Lore:", "SO:" and "SODev:" prefixes for many of these articles?

They each represent a different kind of article:

• Lore prefix exist only to contain the lore behind the subject in question.
• SO stands for "Sundered Order" and articles with this prefix only contain information related to The Lays of Althas: Sundered Order (LoA:SO) game (usually gameplay-related). We differentiate between Lore and SO articles in order to lessen the potential length of certain articles, and in case this property ever expanded beyond the initial Sundered Order game. So a possible sequel would probably contain articles with its own unique prefix.
• SODev is short for "SO Development", which is for articles related to the development of LoA:SO. These articles will always be private, and will only be viewable and readable for Epoch Games Team Members.

How can I help edit this wiki?

For those of you with proper editing rights (those in the AlthasDev group), feel free to look around the wiki and update any articles with outdated information, or lack of enough information. I recommend reading through Help:Editing for information about MediaWiki syntax.

Even if you know MediaWiki syntax, you should at least read AlthasWiki Tips, as it explains the organization of articles on the AlthasWiki.

For you more advanced MediaWiki types (and/or for those who require use of features not native to MediaWiki), you should look at the list of MediaWiki Extensions I've installed on the AlthasWiki. I make sure to update it anytime a new one is installed, so it should be up-to-date.

When I try to login to AlthasWiki, I receive There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Go back to the previous page, reload that page and then try again.

There are a couple things to recommend:

1. Do as the error suggests. Go back to the previous page in your Internet Browser, reload that page and then try logging in again.
2. Open AlthasWiki in a different Internet Browser and try logging in again. Try more then 1 other.
3. Clear your Internet Browser cache.

If neither of these methods work, please let User_talk:Admin know.

"The Lays of Althas: Sundered Order" FAQ

What is The Lays of Althas: Sundered Order?

See The Lays of Althas: Sundered Order (abbreviated to "LoA:SO").

Why work on this game?

As you may know, most of the members of Epoch Games were a part of the Middle Earth Roleplaying Project modification for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. After the C&D from Warner Bros, we ceased all development of the mod. Many of the people on the MERP team, however, still wanted to stay together and create a mod.

That was when original IPs were suggested amongst the team. The rest is history. You can read a more detailed account here.

Why are you creating the game in Unreal Engine 4 (UE4)?

Originally, Lays of Althas: Sundered Order was planned to be a Skyrim mod. After all, modding Elder Scrolls games was what our team had experience in (from working on MERP). However, certain flaws in the Creation Kit (a game editing tool for modding Skyrim) were discovered: it was difficult to import new meshes, the engine could only accept "idle" animations, and (worst of all) there existed a major bug for large worldspace modifications like ours. This worldspace bug affects all heightmaps greater than the size of 64x64 (all activator objects and AI outside the 64x64 space will not function). The Althas heightmap was planned to be larger then that size; with still no solution to this problem, we would be forced to scale down the size of the heightmap to the size of Skyrim (a choice that did not interest most of us).

One of our team members later suggested CryEngine 3 Free SDK. We looked at other game engines as well, but we saw the most potential with this engine back then. This was a big step for us, moving from being a game modification to a proper game: creating many of the RPG foundations we're given with a mod we now have to create from scratch. However, this project has so much more potential on a proper game development engine than it ever did as a Skyrim mod. CryEngine seemed like a perfect engine for us, especially with news of (CaaS) on the way ... which did not turn out as we, and nearly all of the CryTek fan community, were hoping with.

Without source code and with a Steam requirement, the $10/month service proved to be a bust. We then turned our attention over to Unreal Engine 4: Full source code, shaders, offline mode, subscription cancelation option, allows larger world spaces (important for us with our large Althas map), larger community (more fan and recruitment options), greater developer support, better model conversions, Marketplace (where we can download and buy assets that we are allowed to use for any purpose in UE4), and more. For only $20/month, there were far more positives with negatives, and so we decided to make the switch and have been happy we've done so ever since.

When will the game be released?

Because this is a project that all of us at Epoch Games work on in our spare time, and because this is a non-profit project, we are currently not setting any release dates. So please, do not ask this question. When we have a release date, we will announce it.