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REMAIN IN LIGHT
Lyra Studios discusses their game Reclamation and the history of MMO's.
LQGaming Services:: Please go into a little more detail how the Teacher advancement system will work.
Mark Salowitz: It's highly player-centric. A player who wishes to advance an art will seek a Teacher to receive a task for advancement. That task, ideally, either focuses on the individual development of the character, spawning interaction with others, or service to a guild or other player who needs it. It's very open-ended, and having been on both sides of the Halo so to speak, it's as much fun to give a good task as it is to go out and perform
LQGaming Services:: How many indivdual servers will the game be played on, or will it all be hosted on one shard so that all players have some sort of affect on the overall gameplay? Or will there be different servers depending on what style of game you're playing as in PvP vs. RPG?
Mark Salowitz: We haven't made any set decisions on how many servers will be available. We do want to keep the populations relatively small on each server so it maintains a more "community" feel, versus the mega-server concept flooding the industry. That being said, it's not unexpected to see several player-based storylines and an admin-based storyline running concurrently on even a single server system.. So I don't feel that having multiple servers will have a negative affect on the "overall" gameplay. PvP is inherent in the game as part of normal guild interaction. I don't see a non-pvp server, but if there's enough interest.
LQGaming Services:: Through political intrigue, a player is said able to advance in Reclamation to become ruler of guild. How does this play out in-game? Is your character given certain tools or skills in which they can be more politically effective?
Mark Salowitz: Our guild system revamp includes a hard-coded method for hostile guild takeovers in which certain conditions must be met for it to succeed. More traditional methods include simply working within a guild and proving your loyalty and filling a needed vacuum. Political effectiveness can be had through alliances, experience, good speaking skills, or the ability to outfight someone. There are many paths to power.
LQGaming Services:: Because the game is open-ended, will these player-invented scenarios play a larger, more infuential role in developing future expansions?
Mark Salowitz: The best storylines are always responsive to the reactions of the people for whom you are roleplaying. Some of the best suggestions you'll ever get come from a player with an idea. It is my hope that we can incorporate as many reasonable suggestions as possible into the product as we go into release and product maturity.
LQGaming Services:: Will the main opponents for a player be opposing live-playing characters, or is there opportunity to perform individual instanced quests against NPC's?
Mark Salowitz: We have currently, and will have in Reclamation, four types of opponent: player vs. NPC monster, player verses player-driven monster, player versus admin-driven monster, and player versus player. We do not plan on having instanced zones as it would detract from the overall roleplaying experience.
LQGaming Services:: What new elements will you be introducing in Reclamation that have not been attempted before in an MMO?
Brent Phillips: We're gonna make a game that doesn't suck to play after 3 months.
LQGaming Services:: How will Reclamation appeal to both the casual and hardcore gamer? What is your philosophy in developing an MMO with the open-ended characteristics of Reclamation?
Brent Phillips: It's not necessarily targeted to the casual player. It's a premium game designed primarily for experienced roleplayers. While we certainly expect many new people will understand the concept behind Reclamation and fall in love with it; we expect most of our customers to come from other games who are bored with the same things over and over again in game after game. The kind of people who will love Reclamation are the ones who see how much better things can be than in the day to day grind of most MMORPG's.
--David Dichter
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