Interview with Mourning's Producer

[Signe]

MourningPlayers.com was lucky enough to have some of our questions answered by the Producer of Mourning, Egomancer.

MP: What is the dev teams attitude towards fixing bugs vs. adding new content to contribute to the overall success of Mourning?

Egomancer: During the first month our priority will be to fix bugs. A feature has no meaning if you can not use it because of the bugs. But there will be at least one programmer that will work to new features.

You can read the rest of the interview below.

MP: Now that the game is getting close to launch, how many hours would you say that you spend during an average week working on the game in the office? How many hours are spent contributing to the project in some way outside of the office?

Egomancer: Well, as a Project Manager (Producer) I have a great responsability for the game so I am constantly doing overtime. As an average I work around 68-70h per week but not all the work is for 'Mourning'. Unfortunately there is no time for me outside the office so I can not contribute to this project more than I am doing now.

MP: What are some of the features that you personally thought would have made the game better, but due to constraints, may have had to do away with?

Egomancer: Well, first and foremost the feature that I regret that I had to cut out from the release is the city conquering and city sieging. Without it the game is not complete and I will do my best to put it ingame as soon as possible. Unfortunately we are behind the schedule a lot and we need to launch the game. The reasons for this early launch from the features point of view are not 100% financial, there are others beside it. I will not get into details but I felt that now is the 'best' moment for release in the given circumstances. During the following months we will constantly adding the things that are missing from the game and the first thing to add is the city management. As I am writing we are working on this feature, but because it is a complex one it will take time to finish it. And after the game launch a lot of work will be done to fix the bugs but as soon as the game is stable enough we will do our best to put the features in.

MP: In terms of the player made cities, how will it work when submitting plans to the gods? Will there be an in-game toolset or will we have to submit the plans outside of the game? What kind of buildings can we expect to be available for building and who will own them?

Egomancer: Well, the player made cities will be the next stage after the city siege and city take-over. If things go right these new features will come with an add-on that may be free. I can not say for sure it will be free or not because I do not know the situation for then, but if it will be good the add-on will be for free (if downloaded from the site). We may change the city building system so you can build the city wherever you want but this is not for sure - we will give more info as soon as we really start to make this feature.

MP: Also pertaining to player made cities; It has been stated that due to the engine's inefficiency to detect collision, you had to take the realtime player made cities out of the release. Are there any plans to work on a realtime system where players construct the buildings?

Egomancer: Yes, there are plans as I already described at the previous question.

MP: There has been a lot of speculation on the magic system. Some people claim it will be difficult to become a pure caster, but others claim that it will be as easy as assigning points to that school. How rare do you think that pure casters will be?

Egomancer: It will be the same, at least at the beggining, to become a pure caster. After we balance the combat we may change this. There were also speculations that the magic combat won't be in at launch. Unfortunately I contributed to them. I want to say that this is the system we are working at now. There are still things that do not work at the magic but this is the system that will be fixed/completed first. The launch is days ahead and we do our best to finish this system by the date of the launch.

MP: What is the next planned set of crafting professions? Can we expect to see some brewers hitting the streets someday in the future?

Egomancer: Well, we did not look so far in the future. At this point the game has some more pressing things that need to be completed. But I never say never and if the players ask for a feature we will do all that we can to give it to them. We are developing this game for 3.5 years and all this time we were a constant presence on the forums. Maybe we did not post as much as needed but at least we read all the messages. I constantly troll the forums both the general ones and the beta ones (the beta ones almost each day) so I am listening at what the community says.

MP: Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule!

Egomancer: No problem. It is always a pleasure to talk with the people that are following our games!

Andrei Gireada
Mourning
Producer

http://mourningplayers.com/main/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8

Not much info here, but at least he said stuff.  Unfortunately, it's mostly, "We might do this but we might not".  A bit too much uncertainty that does nothing to inspire confidence that this team has any idea what they'll be doing.  I wonder just how much of a game they'll have at launch... which is alledgely right around the corner.  They plan on only having a week's stress beta starting sometime this week, so they say, and then the pre-orders are shipped.

[Hoax]

Good god, the masses will have a field day bashing this game...   

[Signe]

Unfortunately, the bashing masses don't even know about it.

[schild]

Egomancer? 

[Evangolis]

After we balance the combat we may change this. There were also speculations that the magic combat won't be in at launch. Unfortunately I contributed to them. I want to say that this is the system we are working at now. There are still things that do not work at the magic but this is the system that will be fixed/completed first. The launch is days ahead and we do our best to finish this system by the date of the launch.

They are going into Open Beta, they are putting magic into the game now but don't expect it to be fully implemented by launch, while they are presently working on combat balance, and the talk on their website seems to indicate a pre-summer launch with crafting, cities, and sieges to be added post launch?

God, I do so love a good trainwreck.

[Signe]

So this will be just a pre-launch launch?

[AOFanboi]

They are going into Open Beta, they are putting magic into the game now but don't expect it to be fully implemented by launch, while they are presently working on combat balance, and the talk on their website seems to indicate a pre-summer launch with crafting, cities, and sieges to be added post launch?

It can almost seem like they are trying to beat the current record holder for "features not implemented by launch" - Rubies of Eventide - which claimed one hundred classes or so. In theory. In practice, many of them were pointless since skills they depended on were not implemented.

[HaemishM]

GREAT! Another game released way too fucking soon, sure to be a bug-infested mess, and with promised and important, distinguishing features missing from release. I mean, What the fuck? Isn't one of the defining parts of Mourning the whole player vs. player city war thing? The way he sounded, release was like next week or something really fucking close.

Reach too far, fall too short.

[Signe]

Thing is, though, small companies like this with hardly any staff, eventually have to release because they run out of money.  Biggies like SOE and NCSoft have no excuse.  It seems nearly no one is able to predict with a modicum of accuracy, how long their game will take to make with the resources they have available.  It's fine to hope that you'll be able to pick up more investment money later in the development... but that's just a hope and may never pan out.  A lot of these games, such as Dark and Light, may look good, have loads of interesting features and everyone might want to play them.   At the end of the day, however, they are as likely as not to run out of money and kill the project or release a game in a state that no one will want to play.  If the rumours about only 400 people pre-ordering Mourning, then releasing it with most of the features missing or trying to continue development and delaying the launch with very little funds may ultimately have the same result.

As a person interested in games, throwing money at an small, indie company with good ideas but small wallets feels very altruistic.  Of course, you want there to be, at least, a hope in hell that the game has a chance of survival.  I wonder if this company has painted themselves into a corner where their options are dangerously limited.

[Hoax]

These guys are jackass' I've been told this game was 100% vaporware bs by many people..

 "Well, first and foremost the feature that I regret that I had to cut out from the release is the city conquering and city sieging"

Thats a pretty big fucking feature, kind of like when Blizzard cut their "pvp system" from release...

I wont ever agree with Mr. HaemishM when he says that people should stop trying to do things differently but I can see where he is comming from when I watch shit like this happen.

[HaemishM]

I never said stop trying to do different things. I said "Stop trying to do things you can't make fucking work."

Shadowbane had lots of great features; most of them just never worked right. Don't expexct me or anyone else to pay a dev company for innovation if they can't get said innovation to work right.

[HRose]

I never said stop trying to do different things. I said "Stop trying to do things you can't make fucking work."

Shadowbane had lots of great features

You summed it up pretty well. The problem is that SB is gold compared to Mourning.

[Signe]

All the features in Mourning that I might have been interested in won't be implemented until something like 6 months after launch, from what I understand.  I really have no idea what they will be releasing but I guess I'll find out in a day or so.  Allegedly.

[MrHat]

All the features in Mourning that I might have been interested in won't be implemented until something like 6 months after launch, from what I understand.  I really have no idea what they will be releasing but I guess I'll find out in a day or so.  Allegedly.

[Signe]

I can't argue with your edit.

[Shockeye]

GREAT! Another game released way too fucking soon, sure to be a bug-infested mess, and with promised and important, distinguishing features missing from release. I mean, What the fuck? Isn't one of the defining parts of Mourning the whole player vs. player city war thing? The way he sounded, release was like next week or something really fucking close.

Reach too far, fall too short.

Yep, Haemish is gearing up for his review already.

[HaemishM]

I really have no idea what they will be releasing but I guess I'll find out in a day or so.  Allegedly.

My guess is a walking simulator with a billing engine.

[Mi_Tes]

Looks like Horizons without the miracle build.  At least it will be entertainment to watch it flop for a while until the "next great game" replaces it.

[Evangolis]

I really have no idea what they will be releasing but I guess I'll find out in a day or so.  Allegedly.

My guess is a walking simulator with a billing engine.

Does it have bipedal fishmen with lasers!?!  Caeron 3000 lives!!!

[Signe]

They've said that the beta invites go out tomorrow.  It is a one week stress beta and then they ship.  It also sounds as if the only people getting into it are those who have pre-orders.  Sort of makes their "open beta" sign-up rather silly.

[schild]

Wait, what? This game is ready for release? Whopushedtheshinyredbuttonwtfisgoingon?

[MrHat]

Wait, what? This game is ready for release? Whopushedtheshinyredbuttonwtfisgoingon?

By ship, they mean cruise ship.  And not for customers!

[HaemishM]

Wait, what? This game is ready for release?

You just made the logical misassumption that being ready for release is required for launch in the MMOG industry.

[Shockeye]

Wait, what? This game is ready for release?

You just made the logical misassumption that being ready for release is required for launch in the MMOG industry.

Haemish is going to review it for f13.net's readers. He's taking a huge bullet for us on this one folks and I'd like to thank him heartily.

[schild]

I should really contact them and ask wtf is up.

[HaemishM]

And go ahead and line me up that free copy. I apparently need a spanking this week.

[schild]

Apparently it's already out: http://realmsofkrel.com/press.html

Heh. Psychos.

[MrHat]

I could've sworn there was another game with bloodlines as the main gimmick.

[Evangolis]

They've said that the beta invites go out tomorrow.  It is a one week stress beta and then they ship.  It also sounds as if the only people getting into it are those who have pre-orders.  Sort of makes their "open beta" sign-up rather silly.

No, No!  This is revolutionary!  Now the customers can all get disgusted by the game and drop before release!  It's a great leap forward in MMOG marketing!

[Signe]

I suppose that's why they're shipping one week after launch... they reckon there won't be enough time for people to cancel.  They might be wrong.