One of the most distinguishable features of Mourning, is the character development throughout the game. As I understand it, characters will not have specific classes or even levels; But will have skills that they can develop and improve on as they progress by consulting a "master trainer" of that particular skill. Could you elaborate on how this system works?
Dan:
Well, in part, you're right. Mourning is a skill based MMO, which means players are not forced to use any templates (classes) at the beginning of the game, but rather develop their character while playing. For example, if they pick up a sword, and start fighting wit it, the sword skill, strength and dexterity attributes will start to rise. Also, the skill system means that, at any time, they can stop developing their character in whatever direction they were going and start doing something else. They won't have to roll up a totally new character, as in the class based systems. Regarding the master/trainer system, the player will only need to do this after they hit the maximum skill level they can reach by themselves (which is 50 atm). They can work to raise their skills above that value by themselves, but that will be a very slow process, and most likely they will never reach 60 by doing it this way in a characters life span. The other way is to find a master for whatever skill they want to develop, and become their apprentice. And after a while, they will eventually become masters themselves, giving them the ability to possibly raise their skills to a value of 100.
MMORPG.COM:
Related to character classes and skills, could you discuss what kinds of characters players can eventually make? If the player wishes to play as a traditional spell caster or melee tank archetype, such as a medieval wizard or a holy knight, will this be possible without specific classes? And What if they wish to play as a character with an unusual combination of abilities? Would this too be possible?
Dan:
The skills in Mourning are gathered together in Schools: magic and melee. A player can sign up for as many schools as he or she wants. We won't prevent them from doing that but the total amount of skill points a character can have is limited, so, they'll have to carefully manage it. The much skills they'll took in for development, the lower will be the maximum value which they can reach with those skills. It's a the choices between being highly specialized in a few skills, or know a little from each. Regarding the classic RPG templates (classes), of course they can emulate that, if they wish.
MMORPG.COM:
A common aspect of mmorpg's is death. How might this occur and what penalties might players face in Mourning?. There is an increasing desire for perma-death. Will Mourning implement such a feature?
Dan:
If you want players not to fear playing in a full PvP environment the death penalties should not be too harsh. We will have perma death. At first glance, this seems to be a bit of contradiction, but it isn't that way at all. The perma death situations will be in game, but won't occur in normal playing conditions. I mean, PD will only occur in exceptional conditions (like while fighting with a boss during an important quest, or while attacking a newbie on his own territory and without having war declared, and so on), or in high risk vs reward game play situations. Also, perma death is one the key ingredients in the bloodline system because every character will have a limited life span.
MMORPG.COM:
Another aspect of this game that really intrigues me, is the apparent bloodline system that will actually let player characters have children to extend their bloodlines. Could you discuss this system and how it works?
Dan:
Well, it's pretty simple. Each character will live his or her life and then he or she will pass on. At that moment, a player can choose to start a new one from scratch, or he can continue his present characters bloodline by choosing to play with his previous characters child. By doing this, he'll have a few advantages for example, the child will inherit a high speed of development in his parents previous best skills, and also he'll have access to his bloodlines fame and of course, a few more (including access to his parents equipment also).
MMORPG.COM:
How will Mourning's economy system work? Will items, such as the typical weapons and armor, decay over time and need repair? Will there be NPC merchants to to repair these items or buy and sell weapons, armor, etc?
Dan:
Of course, items will decay in time while being used, also, they can be crafted, enhanced, repaired and salvaged, sold and bought, by either NPC's or PC's.
MMORPG.COM:
This brings me to crafting. Will there be a player-crafting system for Mourning? What sort of trades can players learn, and what can they make? Will players need to acquire an extensive list of resources to make these items? Will player-crafted items be more powerful than items acquired by regular means? Do player-crafted items deteriorate differently from loot or store bought?
Dan:
Yes, there will be a crafting system. Armor crafting, tailoring, weapon crafting, jewel crafting, alchemy, metal working, leather working, cloth working, wood working and some more (like gem cutting, resource prospecting, resource mining etc). Yes, a lot of resources will be needed for the crafting system, and most of them can't be purchased, but instead players will need to find alternative sources for them. There will be the ability to purchase resources from merchants (but only low level resources), salvaging them from items and most importantly, refining them from raw resources (which will also need to be located, identified, gathered and in the end refined to obtain a "ready for crafting material").
MMORPG.COM:
With a flourishing economy, one needs to store their wealth. Is it possible for players to store such wealth, as in rare items or money in a bank of some kind and / or will there be player housing?
Dan:
Atm we are not planning for player housing, so in the beginning players will store their possessions in some type of individual vault. Eventually, we'll put player housing in also, but they will be more for player organizations (like the orders and guilds) rather than individual players, because they will be very expensive. We don't really feel like filling up our world space with houses for each player (as that will eat a lot of space from the world) and also, we don't really feel like making it available in separate virtual spaces, which have nothing to do with the main game play. That's why we chose a rather elitist approach to the housing system.
MMORPG.COM:
Related to housing, more recently i have noticed a growing aspect of online gamming is community interaction. How will Mourning let players form communities? Will there be Player Guild System and Alliances?
Dan:
Community is the most important aspect in any MMORPG. That's one of Mourning's strongest points. Temporary gatherings (parties, armies), social permanent gatherings (orders, alliances, trade guilds) and political dynamic gatherings (villages, towns, counties, city-states, realms, kingdoms, even empires). This subject is way too huge to describe here in only a few words. The most important thing to remember is that, in our vision, its Mourning's main system in matter of importance.
MMORPG.COM:
A big aspect of an mmorpg is the Combat System and PvP. How does Mourning implement this system and what makes it stand out from the rest? Will there be PvP?
Dan:
LoL, yes, there will be one, and even a full PvP one, including perma death and everything else (parties, armies, duels, wars, sieges, etc). The difference will come exactly from the skill based system. For example, combat actions (styles or spells) are based on different stats from action to action, even if they are from the same school. Also, most of the weapons will have more than 1 damage type, and the players can choose whatever damage they are using.
MMORPG.COM:
Just recently I learned that, Mourning will have a magic system that will let players create their own magic by combining different spells. Something I don't think has yet been attempted in the industry. Could you discuss how this system will work and what gave you the idea to give the player's this never before seen freedom?
Dan:
There's allot of things that haven't been attempted in the industry, can't you tell?
When we started to design Mourning, we had a look at the other large games on the market (and not only MMORPG's) that were made, trying to learn their good points, what gamers would like to see, what needed to be adjusted, what needed to be thrown out and what needed to be added. By studying the way magic spells were done in other games, we saw that most of them had a huge number of spells which in reality were only a few, and modified in some minor aspects. That's why we thought "wouldn't it be better to just make completely different spells as a base, and allow players to adjust some of their properties to make all kinds of variations based on that basic spell?". So, we ended up localizing these basic spells, and offering a set of variations which can, more or less, be applied on the basic spells resulting different spell effects.
MMORPG.COM:
Ok lastly, I noticed you were using the "Abyssal" engine. I do not know much about this particular engine apart from its sophisticated graphical effects and morphing animation. What were your reasons for using this engine rather than some other well known engines, such as the "Unreal" engine?
Dan:
First of all this is our proprietary engine. Back when we started to work on all this madness, we started first with the engine. The first year of development was mainly only working on the Abyssal engine. Also, other engines, like the Unreal engine you mentioned would have cost us a lot of money, and wouldn't really be suited for our purpose (a MMO game), so we would have had to do a lot of modifications to it. Adding to that the time needed to get used to working with the code source of that engine and you'll understand why we preferred to simply build our own. Not to mention the fact that in the end we can develop it any direction we want, we don't have to give any rights to another company for licensing their engine and also, we could now license our own engine out which in fact is just as capable as any Unreal engine powering Lineage2. Why pay 500 grand to license somebody's popular name? It was a logical business decision.
MMORPG.COM:
Is there anything else you would like to add regarding Mourning?
Dan:
I could now say Mourning will be the best, the most, the whatever-marketing-department-says-its-good-to-say-about-your-game-to-make-it-even-better, but I won't. I'll just say the truth, that we're trying to make a better MMO, to bring a bit of fresh air into the genre, which all MMO fans are screaming for but unfortunately are not getting and will not be getting from any of the so called big boys in the industry anytime soon.
We are MMO fans too. We are gamers building a MMORPG. We are fortunate enough to be able to do this on our own and not have to answer to any money hungry publisher who doesn't like this or that or doesn't think that design decision will make loads of cash in the end. And If this offends any publishers I really can't say that I care. Because THEY are one of the problems and one of the reasons why this genre has degraded into clone after clone after boring clone.
We want to play a MMO which really appeals to us as typical gamers, and because none did back then when we first started, we began working on our own. If we'll succeed or not remains to be seen, only time and the players who support our product will tell.
We would like to thank Dan for taking the time to answer our questions. The progress that we have witnessed with Mourning this past 6-8 months has been very impressive and we look forward to watching it evolve and come to life as time goes on.
Sketch are you seriously not kidding about #2? WoW had more player customization then any game I've seen up to this point. Also that whole thing about everyone having the same stats eliminates that crap about totally messing up your character and having to start over.
Ive tried various MMORPG's like EVE and Anarchy but the best yet has to be Achaea. Its a mud, meaning it doesnt have any graphics and everything is text based. Its a really cool and large game, they expect you to put a lot of your time and effort in to it like reading a lot of text about history, species, places etc.. besides theres no monthly fee. Although, i play EVE more frequently.
The best one out is dependant on what you like to do. Space, Fantasy, Loot, etc they are all covered. Just pick and choose.
The most popular coming out are WoW and EQ2 because of their huge hype. Pick either, they look different but have the same gameplay. Don't argue against that unless you've played both betas please, you don't know what you are talking about. WoW is more fun for me in the beta than EQ2 because it doesn't take you forever to level like EQ2. Because they are in such closed beta for now, you can play one of the open betas for free now if you'd like. I think Ryzom and Neocron 2 are out now. I'd not recommend Neocron 2 since it's not a whole new game, but rather an expansion to the failure that is known as Neocron 1.
--Ha, Pwned-- Pvp = godliness
--Ha, Pwned-- Pvp = godliness Playing: WoW Waiting on: Gods and Heroes
I have played almost all of the major mmo's that have come out, and have found something enjoyable in all of them. I've played and enjoy SWG the most. Everquest was good, but it became too repetitious for me, DAoC was great for the fighting system and pvp, Shadowbane was great for the city builing/destruction, but if you didn't join an already made, Large guild, you didn't stand a chance. and SWG is great for the skills. It all just depends on what you enjoy the most, so I agree that you should just try any of the free trial's that interest you, and find what's best for you. Hope this helps.
Asheron's Call. That game is awesome, it has the most content you'll ever find in a MMORPG I'm almost 100% certain of that. The graphics suck because they are way old and the community sucks because there are no newbies anymore (only veterans playing). But if I had to start a MMORPG all over again, I'd pick that one for SURE. And the new systems, especially the loot system, makes it even better. AC is my favorite game ever.
Upcomming:
Darkfall. This game has it all. Well, on paper at least. I can't wait for this game it's the perfect MMORPG. The only thing that could make players go away from it is the lack of safe zones (IMO). On the other hand, dying is not that bad (You only lose all your equipment). It might seem bad but equipment is easily replaced. Also, everything makes sense in this game. There are no "stupid" restrictions (such as safe zones, classes, levels, etc). It's a world of freedom where players do whatever they like when they like. They shape the world, by building and conquering cities, kingdoms and empires.
In Eve you have a huge universe to explore, with great graphics and sound. Its a game of great depth and an expansion is coming that will make the game even better. Soon player run corporations will be able to build space stations for themselves to use and they will have to defend them from attacks as well. It adds even more depth to an already very deep game
OK, the best upcoming game in my opinion is DnL . It just has so much stuff and depth that WoW (dunno about EQ2) doesn't have. I think that the best new MMORPGs are going to come from the small companies, not the big ones i.e. Blizzard and SOE.
1. Anarchy Online Still at the top for me 2. Everquest. The start of it all for me.
And did anybody else feel like SWG was just a badly lagged version of Anarchy online? I mean atleast in anarchy, you could put your own points into your skills after EVERY level up
Originally posted by Xira EVE online bought or hacked it's rateing. That's not legit. EVE is 100% pvp anytime-anywhere and you lose big if you lose. That dosen't appeal to lots of people...Hence it's only got 50kish subs.
LMFAO. Eve Online is the best MMORPG out right now. It has the best rating because more people have sense who vote then who dont.
And no it isnt 100% PvP anywhere. There are police in a great deal of space. And the losses in the dangerous parts of Eve are only as bad as you make them. Its not really the ships that are worth alot because of your insurance payout, but its what you put in your ship that could hurt you financially. And you can avoid PvP all together and make vast amounts of money trading or mining in empire and doing missions/hunting.
ive only ever played 3 mmorpg's. I'm not a huge rpg fan but the ones which appealed to me were Mir2, Lineage2 and mir3.
Mir2 out of the three was best it was cheap has plenty to offer, its simple and it had a sexy community although the company running it has run it into the ground hard, which is why i'm now happily plauing mir3 which imo will kick all other mmorpg's to touch. Its not the same as most and offers different more immersed gameplay and will eventually offer europe a huge community.
EVE Online definitely. Most helpful tutorial in any MMO, makes it very easy to get into and have fun. And kater in the game when you get into corporations... oh man that's good stuff.
Originally posted by ih8phatheads From what ive heard, WoW is going to blow most MMORPGs away. I think it will become the best one out there when its released.
I have to somewhat disagree with ya. While I do think WoW will blow MOST mmorpgs away, I think EQ2 will be slightly better.
Reason is: WoW really doesn't bring anything new to a mmorpg but it'll be a great game for many people.
Originally posted by WizGamer Now hear me out, its just an opinion, I don't want yours. .
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
EQ2 does look tight. I saw a 5 min preview of it at the movie theater and it looked freaking cool. I am definitly going to get WoW or EQ2 but which one? What does EQ2 bring that is new?
Comments
this will help you choose the game you will play:
When we started to design Mourning, we had a look at the other large games on the market (and not only MMORPG's) that were made, trying to learn their good points, what gamers would like to see, what needed to be adjusted, what needed to be thrown out and what needed to be added. By studying the way magic spells were done in other games, we saw that most of them had a huge number of spells which in reality were only a few, and modified in some minor aspects.
That's why we thought "wouldn't it be better to just make completely different spells as a base, and allow players to adjust some of their properties to make all kinds of variations based on that basic spell?". So, we ended up localizing these basic spells, and offering a set of variations which can, more or less, be applied on the basic spells resulting different spell effects.
Why pay 500 grand to license somebody's popular name?
It was a logical business decision.
We are MMO fans too. We are gamers building a MMORPG. We are fortunate enough to be able to do this on our own and not have to answer to any money hungry publisher who doesn't like this or that or doesn't think that design decision will make loads of cash in the end. And If this offends any publishers I really can't say that I care. Because THEY are one of the problems and one of the reasons why this genre has degraded into clone after clone after boring clone.
We want to play a MMO which really appeals to us as typical gamers, and because none did back then when we first started, we began working on our own. If we'll succeed or not remains to be seen, only time and the players who support our product will tell.
We would like to thank Dan for taking the time to answer our questions. The progress that we have witnessed with Mourning this past 6-8 months has been very impressive and we look forward to watching it evolve and come to life as time goes on.
feeb
Steve Wilson
Staff Writer
www.mmorpg.com
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
EQ2
www.everquest2.com
I am 58% addicted to Counterstrike. What about you?
I am 58% addicted to Counterstrike. What about you?
All time best - EQ
Other great ones are DAoC.
But considering there are many new mmorpg coming out best to wait for WoW.
The best one out is dependant on what you like to do. Space, Fantasy, Loot, etc they are all covered. Just pick and choose.
The most popular coming out are WoW and EQ2 because of their huge hype. Pick either, they look different but have the same gameplay. Don't argue against that unless you've played both betas please, you don't know what you are talking about. WoW is more fun for me in the beta than EQ2 because it doesn't take you forever to level like EQ2. Because they are in such closed beta for now, you can play one of the open betas for free now if you'd like. I think Ryzom and Neocron 2 are out now. I'd not recommend Neocron 2 since it's not a whole new game, but rather an expansion to the failure that is known as Neocron 1.
--Ha, Pwned--
Pvp = godliness
--Ha, Pwned--
Pvp = godliness
Playing: WoW
Waiting on: Gods and Heroes
--Ha, Pwned--
Pvp = godliness
--Ha, Pwned--
Pvp = godliness
Playing: WoW
Waiting on: Gods and Heroes
I have played almost all of the major mmo's that have come out, and have found something enjoyable in all of them. I've played and enjoy SWG the most. Everquest was good, but it became too repetitious for me, DAoC was great for the fighting system and pvp, Shadowbane was great for the city builing/destruction, but if you didn't join an already made, Large guild, you didn't stand a chance. and SWG is great for the skills. It all just depends on what you enjoy the most, so I agree that you should just try any of the free trial's that interest you, and find what's best for you. Hope this helps.
Released:
Asheron's Call. That game is awesome, it has the most content you'll ever find in a MMORPG I'm almost 100% certain of that. The graphics suck because they are way old and the community sucks because there are no newbies anymore (only veterans playing). But if I had to start a MMORPG all over again, I'd pick that one for SURE. And the new systems, especially the loot system, makes it even better. AC is my favorite game ever.
Upcomming:
Darkfall. This game has it all. Well, on paper at least. I can't wait for this game it's the perfect MMORPG. The only thing that could make players go away from it is the lack of safe zones (IMO). On the other hand, dying is not that bad (You only lose all your equipment). It might seem bad but equipment is easily replaced. Also, everything makes sense in this game. There are no "stupid" restrictions (such as safe zones, classes, levels, etc). It's a world of freedom where players do whatever they like when they like. They shape the world, by building and conquering cities, kingdoms and empires.
Try the highest rated game on this site
Eve Online
In Eve you have a huge universe to explore, with great graphics and sound. Its a game of great depth and an expansion is coming that will make the game even better. Soon player run corporations will be able to build space stations for themselves to use and they will have to defend them from attacks as well. It adds even more depth to an already very deep game
OK, the best upcoming game in my opinion is DnL . It just has so much stuff and depth that WoW (dunno about EQ2) doesn't have. I think that the best new MMORPGs are going to come from the small companies, not the big ones i.e. Blizzard and SOE.
i still say that the 2 best are
1. Anarchy Online Still at the top for me
2. Everquest. The start of it all for me.
And did anybody else feel like SWG was just a badly lagged version of Anarchy online? I mean atleast in anarchy, you could put your own points into your skills after EVERY level up
EVE online bought or hacked it's rateing. That's not legit.
EVE is 100% pvp anytime-anywhere and you lose big if you lose. That dosen't appeal to lots of people...Hence it's only got 50kish subs.
LMFAO. Eve Online is the best MMORPG out right now. It has the best rating because more people have sense who vote then who dont.
And no it isnt 100% PvP anywhere. There are police in a great deal of space. And the losses in the dangerous parts of Eve are only as bad as you make them. Its not really the ships that are worth alot because of your insurance payout, but its what you put in your ship that could hurt you financially. And you can avoid PvP all together and make vast amounts of money trading or mining in empire and doing missions/hunting.
lol ohmygawd what a n00blet
My best mmorpgs:
Eve-Online
My favorite upcoming mmorpg:
EverQuest 2
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
ive only ever played 3 mmorpg's. I'm not a huge rpg fan but the ones which appealed to me were Mir2, Lineage2 and mir3.
Mir2 out of the three was best it was cheap has plenty to offer, its simple and it had a sexy community although the company running it has run it into the ground hard, which is why i'm now happily plauing mir3 which imo will kick all other mmorpg's to touch. Its not the same as most and offers different more immersed gameplay and will eventually offer europe a huge community.
Nim
This is tough, these games change over time.
From 99 through 2001 - EQ1 (I think they've messed it up as of 2004 however)
Currently - Eve Online (great game)
"EVE online bought or hacked it's rateing. That's not legit."
LOL
Ahhhh somebody sounds mad that Eve's got the number one rating....
awwwwww poor baby.....I dont know what your game is but too bad they didnt have the time to come and vote for their game.
EVE Online definitely. Most helpful tutorial in any MMO, makes it very easy to get into and have fun. And kater in the game when you get into corporations... oh man that's good stuff.
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My Xanga Site!
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I have to somewhat disagree with ya. While I do think WoW will blow MOST mmorpgs away, I think EQ2 will be slightly better.
Reason is: WoW really doesn't bring anything new to a mmorpg but it'll be a great game for many people.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.