f13.net forums - Mortal Online = darkfall + mourning?

From the official forum, two player reviews. Since the NDA is still in place, and they let this out "as an exception", you can consider them press releases or just advertising. Still, here they are.

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Combat Beta Review 1
Please note that the NDA is not lifted, and that this review is an exception to the NDA rules. The reviewer is not entitled to answer any questions regarding the game until the NDA is lifted.
/Mats

Mortal Online Combat Beta Review
by Lachrymose

Character Creation
Upon entering Mortal Online’s combat beta, I was first prompted to create a new character. The character creation allowed me to first choose a race, and then combine that race with one of the other available races via the blood mix system. I tried out some of the many combinations, and some mixes were clearly more noticeable than others. For instance, mixing a Half-orc with a Tindremene will result in a relatively unique look, but the effects of mixing a Tindremene with a Kallard aren’t quite as noticeable. However, once racial attributes are unlocked, I imagine the less cosmetic mixes will prove useful.

There are many different types of faces, hairstyle, tattoos, etc. to choose from, and several customization options can be used, such as changing the size of the nose, ears, mouth, forehead, etc. Overall, I was impressed with the character customization, as it offers quite a bit to make your character appear unique. In addition, players are able to select from a range of heights. At the moment, I see no reason to choose anything other than the tallest height, as the benefits gained from having a large character greatly outweigh the benefits of choosing a smaller character. Henrik has explained, however, that this is only because attribute points have not yet been unlocked. Increasing your character size will cost attribute points that could be used to increase your dexterity, for example. In addition, you will be able to create a smaller than normal size character to gain more than the default attribute points, which allows for even more variability when creating your character.

First Impressions
The very first thing I noticed after finally logging into the game is that the first person view is absolutely incredible. I think Star Vault has really succeeded at creating a more realistic first person view than any I’ve ever seen. I spent my first couple minutes in game just admiring the unique perspective and the motion blur as I looked around.

The small island we were placed on looks impressive, especially for being a temporary beta test island, and for some reason, I just can’t get over how incredible the sky looks (something I don’t think I’ve ever really noticed in an MMO). Some of the other beta testers and myself had a lot of fun exploring the island and finding a few hidden ruins. Traversing the island is no easy task, so although the island is relatively small, it certainly seems large. Not only are there mountains and other land formations obstructing any straight paths across the island, but navigating the island is very difficult until you’ve walked around it enough to really familiarize yourself with it. At one point, I broke off from the group to do a little solo exploring, and I quickly realized that I had no idea where I was. For me it was a really unique experience in an MMO because there was no radar in the upper corner showing me where I was on the map. There was no arrow pointing the way to go. I was actually lost, which made for a truly immersive experience, and this was only on the tiny test island we were placed on. I can only imagine what the immersion of being lost in a much larger and inhabited world would be like.

Armor & Weapon Creation
Weapon creation at the moment is impressive. Crafting itself hasn’t been unlocked to players, but NPC crafters allow us to choose which type of material to use for each piece of a weapon (handle, core, blade, etc). In addition, when creating armor, not only do you choose which type of material to construct the armor out of, but you also choose how much material to use when creating the armor. Using less material obviously makes the armor lighter and less cumbersome, but it also provides less protection.

Needless to say, there is a seemingly endless amount of combinations to choose from, but the trick is to determine which combinations are most effective, as some combinations just aren’t very practical. For instance, attaching a great blade to a dagger handle will result in a strange looking and ineffective weapon, and although creating a sword made out of pure gold certainly looks fashionable, it will do little damage and require the majority of your stamina to swing it (if you’re able to swing it at all, that is). The amount of options given to the player is incredible and really adds to the involvement of player skill, as players will have to determine the best gear compositions for their particular playstyle.

The only ranged weapon that can be created in the current stage is a recurve short bow. I learned from talking with Henrik that the bow should be constructed realistically to achieve the maximum effectiveness. I began scouring the internet to find instructions on how to create my very own recurve bow, and I found a very useful online guide and applied some of the same construction concepts to my in-game bow. The result was a bow more powerful and stamina efficient than any other bow I had managed to construct up to that point, which I found amazing. I am excited me to see what other realistic concepts like this will be used elsewhere in the game.

Melee Combat
To put it simply, melee combat is a lot of fun. Circle strafing and spamming the left mouse button is definitely not the strategy to use in this game, as you will run out of stamina very quickly and be rendered helpless. Attacks can be “charged” so that you can release at the precise moment to hit your enemy, which adds to the skill based strategy of combat. Furthermore, blocking can be very effective, as achieving a perfect block (aiming directly towards the incoming attack with a block) will mitigate a very significant amount of damage that would have otherwise been dealt by the attack. The current prediction system needs a considerable amount of work to ensure that the client side location of players match up with their server side location. It has been frustrating to attack an opponent directly in front of you, only to have the attack miss him. Fortunately, I’m told that the prediction system has been fixed and the corrected system will be implemented in the next build.

At the moment, weapons are imbalanced, so some weapon types are far more effective than others. However, I imagine weapons and armor will be balanced throughout the remainder of the beta.

Ranged Combat
Again, we only had access to one type of bow, so I have little exposure to all that ranged combat has to offer. At the beginning of the beta, kiting was extremely easy to pull off, but by the second build, that was taken care of. However, I feel that at the moment, archery is a little too underpowered because bows drain a bit too much stamina in my opinion. Again, I expect an appropriate balance will be found during the beta process.

Barring any balancing issues, I think ranged combat is fairly good. There is a circular targeting reticle that gets smaller as you pull back the bow string. The circle indicates where your arrow may fly, so the smaller the circle, the more accurate the shot will be. I’m told that the targeting reticle is still being worked on, however, so this likely won’t be exactly what we see on release.

Overall Conclusion
My overall impression of Mortal Online’s combat is that it still needs a considerable amount of work on gear balancing and the prediction system, but it has a tremendous amount of potential once those things are perfected. However, even with those imperfections, melee combat was still very enjoyable overall. Ranged combat shares that same potential, but again, I feel there is still a bit of balancing to do before it is perfected.

Character creation is better than the majority of MMOs I’ve played, and so far we haven’t even seen all that there is to offer, as attributes have not been added to the beta client thus far, and only cosmetic changes are available.

The aesthetics of the game are very impressive, and again, the first person view is absolutely amazing in my opinion. Despite the graphical settings being locked below the maximum settings (for beta only I’m sure), Mortal Online is definitely one of the most visually appealing MMOs I’ve played.

Other than a few other minor bugs and tweaks, the little amount of gameplay that we were given access to gives me very high hopes for Mortal Online. I’m very excited to see the improvements that are made in the next client and gain access to more features and a large portion of the actual world.

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Combat Beta Review
by Shinzon

Introduction
Starvault has certainly made a lot of claims in what Mortal Online is going to contain, and especially after the resounding agreement about the sub-par quality of Darkfall, all eyes are on Mortal Online and in turn Starvault to deliver. The bar is certainly set fairly high with expectations coming from "Old school" players of Ultima Online, the more recent defectors of WoW, and the spaceship hating escapees of EvE Online. The pressure is on, and it's now up to Starvault to appease the ravenous masses. One thing to keep in mind when talking about Mortal Online is that it's an MMO, even though it might seem like an obvious statement, things start getting more complicated as you go along.

Character Creation
Let's begin with something every MMO has and is the very first thing any player has to do before entering the game; the character creation screen. The first thing that will hit the players is the davincian accuracy of the player model; that's right the availability of full frontal nudity. The initial shock value aside, everything as it should be and the multitude of sliders for facial features remind of Oblivion, though nowhere with as many sliders, though fortunately just as many styles of hair and even facial hair to choose from, even a mustache befitting of a German porn star. Then come the tattoos, a wide assortment ranging from scars, to tribal markings, this is where you see some of the features of the Unreal 3.5 Engine, instead of "Popping" into view; the tattoo begins as a blurred version of itself, gradually sharpening as the texture loads.

From what is presented in the beta, it seems that there are 5 character slots available per account, though this number is very probable to change around before the final release. The character creation is split into three screens. In the first you select your Species, then your primary race, and then finally gender. The next screen is where all of the appearance sliders and such are contained, and at the bottom the race sliders where you can slide away your genetic history. Everything works perfectly, if you chose a half-Orc as your primary race and you start to wiggle the Khurite slider, your character will smoothly warp to resemble a Khurite with the facial features blending instantly and smoothly. Since half-Orc is your primary race in this instant, it’s impossible to slide any other race more than half way up. You can also have a mix of every race, but the half-Orc slider will never fall below 50%. The next screen is supposedly where you will pick your starting Attributes and abilities, though currently it's only limited to Age and Size, which both alter your character accordingly. The character creation is flexible, large and was certainly built to please. I have seen people build characters that will make you burst out loud laughing, resembling imps, or some that are cringe worthy scarred and old, looking as if they have seen one battle too many.

Environment
The graphics present the player with a lush jungle environment, with vegetation so thick in some parts, making navigation a feat in itself, without the slightest hit on performance; though granted you will not be able to run Mortal Online with a lower end machine, so it's probably wise to upgrade. The current build despite the entire vegetationial prowess of Mortal Online, still lacks grass. Something which will no doubt add even more visual eye candy to an already impressive sight. There are truly some vistas within the current build that could rival a screenshot from Crysis, with crawling vegetation and distant mountains, complete with a sun that will wane as if hiding behind clouds and then coming back out. The game handles large amounts of players honorably, capable of displaying some 20-30 characters on screen all wearing different custom made armor and weapons without the slightest notice of slowdown. Though granted, once the bloody ragdolls start covering the ground, things do slow down, though it has been noted this is a concern point, and is probably going to be alleviated in the very near future.

Combat
The combat in Mortal Online even though still far away from commercial quality without a proper prediction system certainly delivers on the claim of skill based combat. Testers that logged in for the first time or relatively new were absolutely slaughtered by the more experienced ones, though some adapted very quickly and became proficient after a single fight. The combat, though only limited to Melee and Minimal Ranged, is designed so that it can accommodate a multitude of play styles, from aggressive to defensive it is all there. The closest comparison would be the Half-Life 2 MOD Age of Chivalry, as they share a lot of features and dynamics. Attacking and Blocking cost stamina, and stamina regenerates relatively quickly, but not fast enough to make you forget about it. During fights it's important to balance sprint, block and attack otherwise you will run out of stamina in the middle of a battle and will be a sitting duck. You can press and hold the attack button in order to "Charge" an attack and release it at the right moment, but it continuously drains stamina making it unwise to hold down attack forever. In a similar fashion you can hold a block for as long as you want, but it also drains stamina, so precisely timed blocks are advised less you want to drain all of the stamina. It must be stated that characters wearing poorly thought out equipment will not do well on the battlefield. Even if the difference is not that large, it still makes an impact when in battle, as you try to cling on to every possible advantage you can get.

Crafting
The crafting system presented in the Beta version is said to be not fully complete, with some pieces missing, but already it is absolutely massive. Weapon balance aside, it is boggling as to what type of weapons can be made, practical ones and even comical ones, like a two handed great sword handle combined with a spiked ball, make for some interesting weapons with their practicality in question. Each material has an impact on the texture of the final product; it's possible to say that on top of this a dye system can be implemented. When crafting, everything is as described in the power point presentation, with many of the handles and armor requiring a combination of two materials. On top of this the player is presented with the choice of how much of a material to put into the armor. Weight plays a huge role in Mortal Online, a player wearing the heaviest gold armor, even though well protected will move at a snail's pace, and his golden great hammer will take out all of the stamina bar in one swing, making extremely heavy weapons and armor while powerful absolutely useless in any real combat situation, as every action requires stamina. A smart crafter will pick the materials and their proportions used wisely to achieve the maximum effect, making the weapons light and heavily specialized, and in turn a smart player will pick weapons and armor that are a direct reflection of their playstyle.

Armor and Combat
The armor crafting system is worth mentioning because it's nothing like we have seen before in any other game, the paper doll is divided into several slots: Head, 2x Shoulders, 2x Sleeves, 2x Gloves, Torso, Grieves, and Boots. The armor is broken down similarly, with each individual piece custom crafted and placed into each location on the body. So it becomes important to put the most armor in the places that are most exposed with your fighting style. This means a player could potentially place all of the protection, in the torso while leaving everything else relatively unprotected, or spread out all of the armor to provide reduced protection all over the body. A good weapon can take out a naked character with 3-4 swings depending on the health, since body size determines the amount of health, while a fully armored character can take anywhere between 4-6 direct swings depending on health, and armor used. A usually battle can have 4-20 swings in it, because both players will be actively dodging, blocking and sometimes hitting each other’s swords or shields causing reduced damage. It's also a fact that two experienced fighters will battle much longer than inexperienced ones due to this. Also, no healing potions or spells are in at this point, so it's hard to say how this number will be affected. What is obvious though is that the skill of the crafter will be directly reflected in combat on top of the combatant, and it's impossible to separate the two, good items will be determined not by their "Max/Min" damage, but by the use they were designed for and personal preferences of each player, as certain weapons will be heavier, draining more stamina and in return doing more damage, or light weapons that do less damage, it's really up to the player to decide how they want to fight.

Ending Notes
In conclusion from what has been seen in Beta Starvault has defiantly hit the mark with everything they wanted to achieve and promised to the general community. The level of thought taken can be seen in everything you do. Bugs that were posted by the testers were always quickly found and eradicated at alarming speed, which sometimes put up the question if the guys at Starvault even sleep. Games that were mentioned in discussions during beta testing were nearly always single player, or small multiplayer games, and it was very easy to start criticizing Mortal Online for being worse than Crysis, Oblivion, Mount and Blade, Age of Chivalry or any other game, but the fact that this is an MMO must always be remembered, because when contrasting to other MMO's, you quickly realize that Mortal Online is on the bleeding edge. The response from the developers both during testing and the forums makes it clear that this is simply not just a game, but their game, their dream project, something done with love and care. I am sure there are many of us amongst us with such aspirations. Mortal Online stands as a beacon to not just MMO Buffs but other startup developers, and as such it's not a question if Mortal Online becomes successful, but how much of a success it will be. Time will tell.

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MMORPG.com:
For those who might not be familiar with the game, can you tell us a little bit about Mortal Online?

Mats Persson:


Mortal Online is a first-person sandbox MMO set in a believable fantasy environment. Although the game is not necessarily about PvP, its core is built around player skill and PvP as opposed to experience points, levels and a PvP-mode glued on top. Mortal Online revolves around player-to-player interaction more than solo-journeys and quests; it has full loot, sandbox crafting, housing and very seldom follows the streamlined design-rules and automated systems of modern cookie-cutter MMO's. In short, it's a niche skill-based fantasy game for a mature audience. The game is currently in Beta stage with nearly 10.000 accounts.

It's very difficult to describe Mortal Online in a few sentences as it is very different from most of the MMOG's out there. Now please understand I don't use that cliché for marketing purposes, it simply is a niche game that some will like because of its unique approach and some won't because it's too different from their style of play or what they are used to. The game does not necessarily build on or "learn" from the errors or the steps taken by big-name MMO's; it's designed from scratch simply because we want to evaluate each design-choice from the questions:

* How does it affect player skill and player interaction?
* Is it believable and immersive?
* While staying true to the above, what's our take on it and how do we make it fun?

It's very easy to see that many of the systems in modern MMO's are there to actually take away from the amount of player skill and player-to-player (PtP) interaction needed, whether it is minimaps, auto-maps, levels, quests, auto-loot, auto-loot-distribution, auction-houses, global chat etc. It makes them fun and gives them a flow, but it also makes them casual as anyone can play without much thought (and that's also where the big money is). Now obviously we want Mortal Online to be fun to play and successful, but we're not ready to make compromises on our design principles: Player Skill, Player Interaction and PvP, Immersion and Believability. Therefore a lot of the features one would expect to see in a modern MMO are different, or we have simply removed them.

MMORPG.com:
Why the decision to make the game fully first person POV?

Mats Persson:


There are several reasons behind this decision. During the prototyping of the game we experimented a lot with different view-options, but it soon turned out that the aim-based combat we strived for was next to impossible to implement in third-person view without a lot of immersion-breaking graphical gizmos (Mortal Online is aim-based and features several hit zones just like Age of Chivalry, Unreal etc.) Furthermore it became close to impossible to sneak up on people for stealing from or an ambushing them, it became too easy to look around corners etc and all this took away a lot of the tactical elements of the game not to mention immersion. Additionally, I personally wanted a game where I didn't feel like I was watching my character and giving orders by pressing buttons; I wanted to be the character.

In the end we went all-in on first-person view and built the game around it; from aiming in combat, first-person footsteps synched to movement, double-vision when getting exhausted, blood and sweat in your eyes, first-person spell-effects etc, to mounting a horse by taking the reins and getting tunnel vision at high speeds. This is also fundamentally different from MMO's that offer a "first-person view" by zooming the camera all the way in, where you just feel like a bodiless levitating camera and get a ton of graphical glitches as the game is not meant to be played that way.

Many people, some of them on our forums, say they like third-person view more and want us to include an option for it. Although I do understand them it would become impossible to balance out the differences between the two modes due to the reasons stated above. I also think that request has to do with the play-style of the games they have previously played in third-person and the assumption that Mortal Online is somewhat like those games. It isn't, and to me it's like suggesting a third-person view for Counterstrike; it would perhaps work if you solved the aiming-issue, but it would nevertheless be a totally different game.
MMORPG.com:


Are you concerned that as an independent development studio looking to break into the MMO market that your game will be overshadowed by big studio games?
Mats Persson:


No. Mortal Online is a niche game and we don't see ourselves as competitors to the big names out there. To be big you have to have mass-appeal, and to have that you will have to cater to casual players, in turn meaning lowering the difficulty of everything from combat, PvP and crafting, and introduce a whole dimension of solo-play features such as quests and story progression, not to mention easy-to-understand concepts like levels and classes. And that's the opposite of our game.

Instead we hope to attract a core audience and grow slow but steady by delivering something different, and I come to think of EVE Online that I have very much respect for. I do think we will have an initial inflow of players (small for the other companies but big to us) from other games wanting to test our game, but I honestly think most of them will go back to whatever it was they played before. We hope to be able to keep those who are looking for sandbox game play, PvP based on player skill, or simply something genuinely different - but those who just want another cookie-cutter MMO with different graphics (this time set in first-person) will probably be disappointed.

MMORPG.com:
Can you tell us about the advancement system in Mortal Online?

Mats Persson:


Mortal Online has no levels or generic experience points, only skills. You advance by practising your skills, by using them in the game. At the same time we want new players to be able to actually make a difference early on, so the so called Primary Skills won't take much time (approximately a week or so) to fully master. When this is done you are fighting on the same terms as anyone else, character-skill-wise. Now, as combat in Mortal Online has a lot to do with player-skill you will probably have to practise a lot longer before you can compete in a one-on-one fight, just like in a FPS game, but at least there are no virtual numbers that decides the outcome of your battles, it's your own skill.

The Primary Skills are essentially keys that unlock Secondary Skills. There is a cap on the number of skill points for the Primary Skills, so you have to experiment with how to train (or re-train) your character as those decide which Secondary Skills you can use. The Secondary Skills are the bulk of the skill-tree and takes a lot longer to master. In everything that has to do with PvP they will only give you a slight edge in a one-on-one fight, but they will for instance let you use several different weapons, fight more opponents before resting, take better care of your weapons etc. Many of the Secondary Skills are not directly related to PvP, like gathering, crafting, taming etc.

This means that although there definitely is character advancement in the game (by character skills and getting better equipment), most of the advancement is based on playing experience and player skill. You have to experiment and learn which weapons suits your particular playing style as there are no "best" weapons. You have to experiment with skill-builds to do the same. And you will have to learn how to evaluate mobs and your opponents (as there are no levels) and how to fight different skill-builds and weapons. If you are into crafting, you will most probably be able to find a sub-set of a sub-set to specialize in and be famous for thanks to the multitude of possibilities in customization.

MMORPG.com:
Can you tell us how classes work in MO?

Mats Persson:


There are no classes in the game. I'd better say this first to avoid confusion, as by "classes" most people mean some kind of template you choose from the beginning of the game that also defines your character's options and progress in the game. And no, we don't have anything like that.

What we do have are certain "professions/careers/pursuits" you can choose to pursue in the game. I'd rather not call them classes. Basically, there are NPC Guilds (as in medieval confraternities of workers, i.e. a Tinkers' Guild, or secret societies) you can join if you fulfill their initial requirements. These organisations are not to be confused with player guilds or clans; you can of course be a member of both. Joining an organisation can give you a title and certain benefits, sometimes in the form of special abilities and/or skills. But at the same time you have to give up something, like the option to fully customize your skill-tree to your liking, money or time etc. It's definitely not always the "best" choice. This is a general and very basic description of how this concept will work, as you will have to find and explore these possibilities in the game yourself.

MMORPG.com:
Can you tell us how combat will work in Mortal Online?

Mats Persson:


Combat is initiated by drawing your weapon, meaning you enter combat mode. This is very seamless and simply means you enter your combat stance, where you will be slightly more protected at the cost of movement speed and more stamina drain when moving fast. This takes care of bunny-jumping and too fast circle-strafing. Combat on mount is the same as combat on foot; you have no virtual restrictions on what you can do or not on a mount, and your mount can also be trained, equipped, hurt, killed or stolen (and you can not put it in your pocket). Needless to say, mounts and mounted combat fill an important role in the game.

There is no "targeting"; the combat is aim-based and you charge and strike in the direction you want. Each character features several hit-zones or "hit boxes". As each hit box has its own armour part, there is no generic defence value or "AC" and that makes a huge impact on combat. Simply put, if your opponent lacks protection on his/her left arm that may be a good spot to aim for. Likewise, you may choose to use more flexible armour on your right arm to increase the speed of your strikes, but at the cost of protection. The hit boxes also means that you can do more damage by hitting your opponent's head and that you have a slight chance to disarm him/her if you land a blow on his/her sword-arm. Furthermore the weapons and shields have their own hit boxes; it's possible (and recommended) to actively block strikes by holding up and aiming your weapon and/or shield against your opponent's blow. Characters also have general collision, meaning you can block the path of your opponent and even push him/her.

Archery uses trajectories, meaning it's possible to shoot over walls or in fact straight up in the air hitting yourself in the head on the arrow's way down. The aiming-techniques for spells depend on what spell you want to cast. Some spells shoot in a straight line, some are like archery, some use a cone or a sphere for hit detection, others are projected onto a surface, while a few use targeting and are homing. However, we have chosen to only have a handful of important spells for direct PvP-combat. It's tempting to go wild and design a multitude of combat spells, however we want mage-duels to be about coordination, reaction and possible counters, and it's simply not possible to predict your opponent's next move if there are too many combat spells. Ultima Online is definitely our biggest inspiration here.

No targeting, first-person view, character collision and hit boxes also means tactical manoeuvres and training in groups becomes very important. You cannot have archers or mages randomly sending in projectiles or AOE's into the midst of battle as they risk hitting their own. Furthermore it's possible to really use the environment by taking advantage of line-of sight, choke points, terrain height etc.

MMORPG.com:
PvP is going to be a major focus of the game. Can you tell us how that system will work?

Mats Persson:


The game has it's foundation in PvP, meaning both the rules around PvP as well as a purposeful, exiting PvP experience. Don't get me wrong here, it's not to say you have to PvP in the game, but I personally don't believe you can design a PvE game and then add some PvP features in afterwards and get a great result. Purposeful PvP inevitable has consequences on the whole game design and playing experience, and a big game always run the risk of scaring away its casual customers if that impact is too deep. Already by having full loot, we are steering Mortal Online into a niche genre.

So, the game has full loot, meaning if you die someone can loot all your equipment. You are also free to fight anyone anywhere. But there are also consequences, administered by the players themselves as well as a flagging system. The flagging system keeps track of your actions and sets your flag accordingly. If you for instance steal from or kill someone that's innocent (neutral) you will be flagged as a criminal or murderer. People can call the guards on you if you are in a guard zone, some NPC's won't trade with you etc. For murderers additional penalties apply. The flagging system is deep and very hard to explain by words, but pretty easy to grasp when playing.

It's also worth mentioning that guilds at war will not be affected by the flagging system. It's very possible to fight out your battles in a city, attacking and killing members of the opposing guild will not lead to a murder flag. You are still flagged if you attack other people though.

MMORPG.com:
What tools will be available to guilds?

Mats Persson:


Guilds can be formed when someone owns a large enough house or building and then acquires and activates a Guild Stone. The guild stone (and building) then acts as the central point for the guild where members are accepted, promoted and titled. Declaring wars are made with the guild stone and it can also upgraded with more abilities such as guild chat. Guild property is administered by storage spaces such as chests, with the ability to set rights. There will be a lot more to guilds, especially when it comes to building upgrades, keeps and fortresses, but I'm afraid it's too early to talk about as many of these mechanics and sieging most probably won't be in at launch. We have decided on getting a solid foundation for one-on-one and group-vs-group combat before we move on to the next step, although a lot of it is planned and some aspects already tested.

MMORPG.com:
What kind of options are available to players who might prefer to play solo?

Mats Persson:


I have mostly been talking about the PvP aspects of the game, but there are indeed a lot of features that has to do with solo-play. Gathering, refining, crafting and building are typical examples. The sandbox crafting is definitely worth mentioning, as the weapon crafting alone has over 142 million possible combinations of grips, handles, blades, heads and materials - not counting bows or shields. The armour crafting has even more options. Each piece and material has its own pros and cons and there's no such thing as a "best" weapon, not even a "best" sword, or a "best" short-sword. Instead players will have to try different compositions to suit their skills and playing style, and often discuss the various options with you as a blacksmith.

"Gathering" or "farming" in Mortal Online is also rather different. You actively have to hunt many animals as they will flee and not mindlessly attack any player in their vicinity. Also, neither bears nor terror birds drop gold or swords, and their value instead lie in meat, skin, teeth/beek and bone, if you have the skills necessary to skin and process them. Many creatures act in groups, and the more intelligent ones will use different tactics depending on who they fight and what happens to their group. Rare locations, items, creatures and ingredients will have to be searched for and that can be done alone or in small groups.

As the NPC vendors will only sell the most basic items and only very few creatures will drop crafted items, the crafting and economy is player-driven. There is a lot of money to be made in both crafting and trade, and logistics and transporting of goods (and defending these caravans) will be very important.

There are no regular "quests" in Mortal Online. There are however a lot of events, special places, artefacts, and rare creatures and beings in the world waiting to be discovered, used, protected or killed. Exploring the (map-less) world and finding the clues to these quests, puzzles or enigmas can often be made solo if you are prepared to take the risks.

Nothing of this is really solo-play, as eventually you will have to sell your masterpieces to other players to make money, or you will have to agree with another player to transport his or her goods someplace. Or you may have trained a skill to perfection and written some skill books that you need to sell to other players to get money. I do understand that a Massively Multiplayer Online Game doesn't have to be about people actually interacting online, but however strange it may sound this is what Mortal Online is about.

MMORPG.com:
What, in your opinion, are the features that set Mortal Online apart from the competition?

Mats Persson:


If you've managed to read this far, I hope I've been able to shed some light on what those features are. We are not afraid our game won't stand out; rather we're afraid people will find it a bit too different ;)

For those of you who want to know more and get a better overview of the game, I can recommend the PowerPoint presentation at http://www.mortalonline.com/files/presentation/MortalOnlinePresentation.rar (You don't need PowerPoint to watch it, just read the included .readme file on how to start it.)

I would also like to take the opportunity to mention that if you are quick you may still have a chance to pre-order a boxed or Digital Download version of the game. As a bonus the pre-orders give free access to the Beta all the way to launch, planned for Q4 this winter. Please see https://account.mortalonline.com.

Thank you for reading, hope to see you in game!