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Project Empire (Forsaken World) -possible blockbuster mmo of 2010
Yuui
Member UncommonPosts: 723
Official(CH) Website: http://shenmo.wanmei.com/
(CH)Closed Beta in: First half of 2010
CGI Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq2EMHuZvDM
So, let's start with beginning.
There were a lot of rumors flying around for at least a year now and a few months ago, with the leaked screenshots, the fact was confirmed - PWE, the makers of Perfect World and its clones(JD, ES, Kung FOO) are developing a new game, which might as well shake up the current mmorpg market pretty hard.
At that time, all that those interested in Project EM(the codename for the game) knew was that it had was one leaked screenshot and the fact that it would be some sort of western-mythology-themed mmo.
Now, with the official opening(sort of) of official chinese website a lot of new facts came into light.
For first - Features:
- Chronological Player-Driven storyline - Every player will be able to impact greatly on appearance of the world and the gameplay itself. Almost each decision will change the world as we know, so if you go inactive - do not be surprised to find a totally different world and game, the next month you login.
- Great variety of races and classes - THe game will offer five races based on real historical regions of Egypt, Greece, Europe, Babylon and Mayan lands. It will also offer total of 8(or 10, the current information is conflicting on this matter) different classes, each differing in gameplay and capabilities.
- Persistent World Effects(Also known as Glistering World) - unlike in other mmos, the world of Project EM will be greatly affected by events happening in it - When strong bosses appear, they will send a meteor showers thorough the world, burn trees, freeze the lakes or wither the grass they walk on. And they are not limited to that. The same goes for Gods, whose appearance will be felt by entire world - blessing those who worship them and instilling fear to the infidels...
- Divinity- Ever wished to be a divine being with thousands of followers and absolute control over your domain? in Project EM, 10 players per server will be able to achieve a status of a God, with different abilities, philosophies, enemies and allies. And no, its not a class. Its real(well, almost) godhood, with others becoming your followers and you having a total control over the Divine Realms you created, according to your will. Of course being a God also will have a great deal of burdens being put on your shoulders, so only those ready to bear the responsibilities, should accept the position...
- Soul and Reflex System(also known as 3D Soul) - The PK system will be reinvented too. Each player will have weakpoints, hitting those will differently affect him. For example your enemy can take away your soul, increasing his own power and weakening yours...
- Wars in the sky - No more guild-war based maps! All the guild combat will happen in one big map, full of Ancient floating bases(with their own defense systems and etc), introducing a whole new level of combat and strategy(as each base can, literally, relocate somewhere else).
- A whole new level of art and details - PWE is employing and hiring high-quality designers for this game and only accepting the best of best.
So that sums up known features.
Now onto Screenshots and concept art.
Concept art:
Concept art can be found there
Screenshots:
--------------------------------------
So far this has really piqued my interest(alongside Secret World and few other 2010 games). Any opinions? Any News?
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
Comments
1-easier said than done.
2-hmm, lets hope the people achieving dinivity are nice people and not ganking jerks.
3-more asian looking characters with swords the size of buildings I gathered.
I didnt catch if it was F2P or not though.
Edit - the official website has no links, just the usual oriental style. one background image cut into different sections. Pro indeed.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
Yeah I have a suggestion that comes in the form of a question. Why do all Asian based MMO's seem to look like action fighting games? The absurd, oversized weapons and the scantly clad females get old after awhile. Plus the game play seems like it is just one round of Tekken after another. If I wished to play a fighting game I'll fire up my PS3 or Xbox 360 and have it. God am I the only one that is just so discouraged every time one of these Asian based fighting MMO's hits the market and calls itself an MMORPG?
2. Well, while nothing firm is known about the whole godhood feature, It seems that the whole "being a god" won't be overpowered and if you will be unwise you might find your "throne" usurped by someone else. The good way around the "Gods are jerks" event would be if your own power would come from your followers - That would mean that you would have to actually please your believers or you might no longer have the power to BE the God.
3. Apparently not. It seems that this time PWE hired designers from outside of asia, thus trying to add something new and original to the designs(which is quite evident when looking at concept art). I am pretty sure that with this whole "its targetted at western audience" stuff, that we won't see any chinese-styled characters(Considering main places seem to suggest Arabian, Egyptian, Babylonian characters). There's only so much of chinese you can add, when the main point of game is the clash of ancient western civilizations.
As for the payment type - its not yet announced, although I doubt if it will be monthly-subscription-based. Some sort of one-time payment might be in store tho, considering that this seems to be their biggest-budget game( during the begining of development the money spent to this project was already going at the six-zeroes zone), with most of china-branch income diverted into this game and its marketing
Its part of marketing. Sex Sells. Big Guns sell.
At least this time they have a good reason for including some big swords, considering the types of medieval weaponry like claymores, bastard swords, brodswords, great swords and etc...
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
And Western MMOs are trying their best to copy them.
Once upon a time....
Looks exactly like Perfect World, and WoW..
I just re-read your post, wow that sounds like a resume for working in marketing. Filled with vague promises and hype. I'm burned out on emotionless asian men and women with massive weapons and bikini's but I'm even more burned out on this endless regurgitation of hype on how "this one will be different, we promise! You'll poop yourself when you see it!"
And when it comes out it's just another redressing of the same tired old tired games that try and mimic each other.
Arioc Murkwood
Environment Artist
Sad but true.
They are copying GW2. Way to go copycats.
*sniff sniff* smell that? Thats the smell of horisons. *sniffs deeper* smell that? Thats the smell of Darkfall. There is, "Too good to be true" "WAY too good to be true," and "Would probably still be too good to be true 10 years from now."
"" Every player will be able to impact greatly on appearance of the world and the gameplay itself. Almost each decision will change the world as we know, so if you go inactive - do not be surprised to find a totally different world and game, the next month you login.""
""Ever wished to be a divine being with thousands of followers and absolute control over your domain? in Project EM, 10 players per server will be able to achieve a status of a God, with different abilities, philosophies, enemies and allies. And no, its not a class. Its real(well, almost) godhood, with others becoming your followers and you having a total control over the Divine Realms you created, according to your will. Of course being a God also will have a great deal of burdens being put on your shoulders, so only those ready to bear the responsibilities, should accept the position...""
Those two things right there would be absolutley completely INSANELY hard to implement properly. The first depends totally on your point of view. If great impacts is building citys ALA darkfall thats one thing. If it actually means what it says then that is COMPLETELY another.
As far as the 10 player devine being thing goes. I'm having a very hard time not just immediatly labling it "Stuipid as hell" somthing I try to avoid unless I have first hand experience. What you gonna do when your "diety" gets burned out?
Power corrupts, Internet + power could go so nasty so fast.
All in all this REEKS of another Darkfall or AoC promising the world to people and then having to eventually deliver. This sounds WAY, WAY, WAY and unless they have some serious genuises figuring this all out WAY, WAY, WAY to hard to implement in a fun ballanced manner that remotely resembles what they promise.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
From the general description presented, I'd say it sounds like an MMO where Goonswarm would kick ass and take names.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
I doubt it will be that hard to implement, considering Perpetuum is already advertised to have some sort of terrain-affected-by-players feature. Of course all of that requires a great deal of work and a lot of attention from would-be-gms.
If course PWE is no indie company(as with the one who developed Darkfall), so they might actually pull it off.
If they pull it off, this could actually take a cake as most innovative mmorpg ever.
Situations like "group of players" searching for a quest which would award them a lot, only to unleash a horrible monster which destroys half of the city and burns the forests around and "group of players" get outlawed by the king, thus being hunted in his lands.
That would make this mmorpg REALLY interesting to play....IF the company making it actually delivers on their promises.
Thats why I think that Godhood feature should have certain limitations(like your power is limited when you are not in your own realm and that your power is directly dependent on those who are satisfied with your reign)
The great thing would also be a godslaying - half a server gathering to slaughter one god, which would actually allow someone to play as the "raid boss".
Of course if its implemented as-is without any limitations or weaknesses, the-big-picking-on-the-small will get old fast and players will begin to leave the game...
Well Darkfall is indie-game and I doubt anyone cares about Darkfall
And AoC, well, all it took was one stupid man with the decision-making powers and it all went to hell way too fast. As of now, it seems the devs are already trying to deliver the promises. As it is, The main problem of AoC(As with all Funcom mmos) was that it was launched WAY too soon.
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
Yuui, Merry Christmas but don't get your hopes up.
I may not be a game developer but I sure as heck am an informed player and let me tell you this is the most ambitious progect since horisons.
To be perfectly honest the whole discriptions reads like the marketing done both by David Allen and Tasos in the months and years leading up to the release of their respective pieces of crap. The discriptions are extremely exciting and promise players the sort of features that sound like the holy grail of MMO's.
At the same time the discriptions are just vauge enough that they could release pretty much anything along those general lines and act like they have actually delivered the epic that they apparently promised.
I have spend enough time trying to build maps in multiple rts and rpg games that feature destructable enviroments to know that even the well desgined ones like to skrew up a lot. Making a big, bug free map that is well designed looks good ect, ect is hard. Making one that allows players actions to directly affect said map without enabeling them to either totally exploit or utterly ruin sections of the world is neigh impossible.
I have played perfect world long enough to tell you that it is a million miles away from "perfect" and to be honest I would be skeptical if BLIZZARD or Bioware both of whom produce much higher quality games on a regular basis were to promise me these things.
The absolute BEST thing I can forsee is a game with a large number of AQ type events and a somewhat destructable enviroment ALA diablo. I'm sorry but I cannot see ANY game developer pulling off a title like this ANY time soon, and the last two times I waved the "Theres no way they can deliver on this" flag I was right both times.
Not that I wasn't dismissed as a pessimist troll who just wanted the game to fail because it was going to kick the crap out of WoW.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
Its Christmas and I got a cold so I’m going to take time to put this all into perspective:
“Situations like "group of players" searching for a quest which would award them a lot, only to unleash a horrible monster which destroys half of the city and burns the forests around and "group of players" get outlawed by the king, thus being hunted in his lands.”
First off incase you did not know (I’m sure you did) a man hour is the amount of work done by a worker in an hour. Very important when you have large numbers of people working on the same project and getting paid by the hour.
So lets take your example monster is unleashed by players, destructive rampage follows, half of city gone, players involved branded outlaws. Sounds simple, fun and above all EPIC AS HECK.
To make this all happen you first have to start by designing the city and making certain sections destructible. Making destructible buildings is not as easy as most people think it is especially in a massively multiplayer setting. All that concept art and designing and modeling and coding takes hundreds if not thousands of man hours which costs thousands of dollars.
Bear in mind that the whole city more or less has to be designed to function for this encounter.
Then you have to design the boss, concept art, wire framing, AI, pathing fight design ect, ect, all take a lot of time and effort.
If you want to add variables such as giving players the ability to SAVE certain burning structures and give them multiple options to do or having npcs react in a realistic manner to things such as having their home or shop destroyed that adds a few hundred or thousand more man hours depending on how far you go with the concept and how good your team is.
The forests have present similar problems, if you go the cheap and easy way and just have all the trees burst into flames and all the animals run around like crazy its not terribly hard, again a lot depends on the number of variables. If everything is scripted, what parts burn where the boss goes and so on it still requires a MASSIVE amount off effort and design.
The more variables you add the more epic and awesome the encounters become and the more effect player decisions actually have on the world but the amount of man hours that have to be spent add up exponentially.
If players having an effect on the really means players trigger scripted events that they have no real control over the outcome of. Then its perfectly doable on a fairly large scale.
If players having and effect actually MEANS player decisions HAVE an effect on the game world depending on what they do its pretty much impossible to implement without spending millions and millions of man hours building and testing the system.
There are two other big problems with big world changing events the first is numbers, if the event is over too quickly, is unrepeatable and only 50 people or so get to participate that’s a huge waste of man hours and therefore cash. On the other hand if literally THOUSANDS of players begin swarming the city and zerging the boss you have massive stress on your servers.
At the same time its pretty hard to allow the boss to reset and ravage the city multiple times and allow everyone to get access to the epic encounter.
That is why we have instances and repeatable encounters in most MMO’S so the content and be designed and balanced for a certain number of people but large numbers of people still theoretically get a chance to experience the content.
Sorry for the wall of text and I hope you manage to read it all but this is why I am highly skeptical because realistically while pretty much everything mentioned is physically possible it is insanely hard to pull off.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
A lot of new info got revealed:
- 5 Races - Blood Clan(Vampires?), Titans, Elves, Dwarves and Humans(apparently, after the short training area, the starting areas won't be fixed, so you will be free to start as Egyptian Elf or Mayan Dwarf :P).
- 8 Classes - Warrior, Sorcerer, Priest, Assassin, Guardian, Gunsmith, Blood Demon and Bard. The classes won't be fixed on races. Any race from any starting location will be able to be any class. There will be unique and diverse differences between the races, making the gameplay different for each class, depending on the race you choose.
- English name of the game might be "Forsaken World(s)"
- Its not made by only chinese part of company - the project is worked on by both china and USA teams, alongside countless hired developers, artists and musicians from USA and Europe.
- A short gameplay sneak peak confirms the twitch-based combat, with aspects like being able to deflect enemy attacks back to him and etc.
- The detail level will be higher than in previous games - Monsters will actually drop the items,weapons,etc they are carrying and every ring,necklace,cape,helm will be visible on player.
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
Umm will this come out in the EU?
Im asking this becuase i cant access the website..
That website is for the chinese version(Continents of Gods and Demons).
The European and USA versions(Also known as Forsaken Worlds) are slated to launch at the same time and will most likely have their own websites.
Its just that CH on is the only one up for now but don't worry the website is still empty, with a logo , a bit of art and "coming soon" written near it.
The game itself is already heavily promoted in China and promotions in USA are slated to begin in the Q1 of 2010, so expect websites by then.
EDIT:
System requirements revealed:
Basic System Requirements:
CPU: Dual-Core 2.0GHz
Memory: 1G
Graphic Card: GeForce 9600GT
Hard Disk:
Recommended System Requirements:
CPU: Dual-Core 2.5GHz
Memory: 2G
Graphic Card: GeForce 9800GT
Hard Disk:
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
Happy that the system req is out quickly..
My first post!!!
Anyway, do you have a link to this gameplay sneak peek (assuming it's a video)
and where did you get the classes?
So shenmo.wanmei.com got a massive update.
- The races confirmed. MOst of them come from the legends and myths of our world(like Vampires coming from the whole storyline of Lilith and Titans from greek myths).
- The examples of classes.
- Game lore(which revolves around the fallout of gods and the whole world being "abandoned" by them).
- A lot of new concept art.
- some game screenshots(both new and old)
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
Aaaand the press-release for the game is out:
Also: Business reports Perfect World ltd ended 2009 better than expected and that all branches stopped working on release of other new martial arts mmorpg titles, in order to develop this game.
Also: confirmation that the game will have indoor locations.
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
I find it amusing that when a game looks like every other game people complain that it isn't innovative enough but when a company is ambitious people automatically assume that its doomed to fail. The tentative name in the US is "Forsaken World" no s. The first crowd of super secret first string beta players should be getting a closer look at it later this week but still its too early in production to gauge it based upon what one is able to see in the very limited beta phase it will be entering into soon.
If Perfect World pulls it off this game will be a detailed world where you can live a full, rich fantasy experience including complex mix of merchant, mercenary & community. I really hope they pull it off because it would be awesome.
With no s? Oh well, must have been my imagination
On the news:
- The english teaser site will be coming up soon and the closed beta for usa/europe will begin in 2010 as the developers are wishing for almost-simultaneous release worldwide.
A lot o screenshots have been revealed in MMO Culture blog. Some of them I find really interesting as it clearly shows on how much detail went into player and landscape models this time:
So far I can say that this is best looking PWE game ever created and I like some creative decisions in the designs.
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
I, for one, am actually going to place this game in the "look forward to" folder.
Right now, it's frustrating to get much info, (unless you're blessed with a mind that can read Chinese), and I've had good past performance with both "Perfect World" and "Ether Saga".
PWE is a company that hasn't cheesed me off, (unlike NCSoft , for whom I'll never give another penny...yeah *still* ticked off about the early access lockout), and so, I'm willing to give them another shot..as well as my money. They haven't screwed me over, and as long as they keep their corporate interests "in check" vs "the little guy" (i.e. 'We , the player"), then I can tentatively be hopeful for Forsaken World.
/ $0.02
(p.s..okay, can't resist...Vamps + that one "particular" castle= "Castlevania much?" XD )
A new feature was revealed- "Job Professions",like:
- Social Specialist : Better capable at "persuading" npcs to give quests or reveal certain info(think of [Persuade] and [Intimidate] Dialogue options in KOTOR).
- Explorer : His job is to investigate the world and and report any changes in it(like locations changed by strong bosses appearing there or things changed by player decisions in quests and gameplay). The knowledge they gain from studying this profession "gifts" them with talents of seeing things in the world no one could.
- Businessman : Change of prices, rate of money, cost of various t hings. Businessmen know it all and their jobs are not that different from the jobs of real-life businessmen.
- Collector : Not unlike Explorers, Collectors investigate the changes in the world, although unlike Explorers, who investigate the changes that happen currently in the Grand Mundo world, Collectors investigate the past, the changes that already happened no one noticed. Collectors are capable of collecting the valuable information into books and copying other books/scrolls. They do not "discover new" they rediscover and spread old.
- Runeman/Runecaster : They are the most capable of utilizing the various Runes - artifacts of the past. A lot of secrets lie inside the Runes and this arcane power might bring you good luck, knowledge of past and future or protection from evil itself. However, while The Runes might grant you your utmost wishes, they can also damn your soul forever, bringing the worst possible results.
- Botanist/Herbalist : Masters of Nature, only they know the true properties and meanings of various herbs
- Astrologist : The masters of arcane art of Stars, Astrologists can observer the stars and constellations, noticing the changes made by events in Grand Mundo, or...the changes that will soon influence the Grand Mundo. They are also said to be able to prophesize the future and talk with Gods themselves.
- Blacksmith : The men who bend the steel to their will, Blacksmiths are capable of creating unique weapons and armors that are said to have their own souls. However as great and powerful these creations are, some of them will be sure to lead their owners into damnation. The best blacksmiths are Titans and Dwarves.
- Tamers : Brave people who venture into the wilds to befriend the vile beasts. Capable of taming and selling various animals, even the dangerous unique beasts. However if pet tamer is too overconfident, he can bring bad things not only on himself but on entire world.
- Alchemists : A total opposite of Herbalist, Alchemist tries to control everything with science, capable of creating various potions and poisons. Some even are said to be able to create potions that bring others to life, however that's not always a good thing.
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
If it sounds too good to be true...
News about the Pet System:
- The pets wont be your typical "additional weapon you summon" like in other mmos.
- The pets in Forsaken World are more like "living" Partners you go through the game with - think Tamagotchi.
- In order to NOT cause imbalance in PvP and PvE, pets play only support roles - for example Wolves are irreplaceable when you need to track someone or something by scent.
- Currently only "common" pets have been revealed like wolves, boars, etc. However it seems this game might take a page from Mortal Online and make every monster tame-able.
# A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
# ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
# A MASKED CRY ADORING
# A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON
There's also a second category of special pet, a rare drop called a "Soul Pet", which requires special skills to capture. This and more can be found at my Forsaken World Blog., if you're interested. Always looking for new info, and currently VERY interested in finding a Chinese/English bi-lingual person who can tranlate the Chinese forums better than "google translate". As for me? My Chinese is at the "Ni-hao, Kai-Lan" level.