Impressions

Page Two

Her vision for the start of the Atriarch is being thrust into a situation where they need to get involved in the community with surrounding players, and doing something useful such as making a bridge so new routes are established, and enabling travel for others. If you can’t tell yet, this is going to be a very building-oriented game. Serafina told us that she has a great passion for Real Time Strategy games which often involve making a lot of building types. However, she wants to expand upon this and to be able to customize and put together parts of the buildings herself. And combining this into a role-playing environment, this is the mixture they are shooting for. Their system for player-based construction will be all in-game -- there won’t be external design or importing. It will be a building block-based system and many different variations and combinations will be possible, but the block types are predetermined so they can control the type of content that will be in the game. In addition, there will be a dependency on material types available on different surfaces. Different pieces will join together using what is currently called the “joint” system, and huge player structures are possible. Next up: “what about character development and combat?”

Player Building

Even though the heart of the game is about the building, there was a very involved skills system. As player utilize their skills, their skills will improve. As certain skills reach a sufficiently high level, new skills will become available. Originally they wanted a very detailed and high level of specialization, but due to some concerns with the possible issues that come with a steep learning curve, they are thinking that it may end up being simpler. As it is right now, there is a great deal of depth and specializations -- even as specialized as constructing the certain type of object during the daytime. There will also be an “Achievement” system, in which people will be ranked in what they’ve accomplished. This appears to be similar to the medals awarded to players in games such as City of Heroes, in which it becomes mini-game to do all that can be done. The difference here is that “Achievements” will actually improve a character’s capabilities in some form or another. I didn’t actually get to see combat, but there will be a location-based maneuvers system. This basically entails people being able to select what areas they will hit, which will affect the end result. Perhaps we will find out more about it in the future.