TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Questions by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
Answers by Atanas Atanasov, CEO of Masthead Studios

The beginning experience in a massively multiplayer online game is often what makes or breaks an experience for a beginning player. To release a game without a thoroughly immersive initial play experience is akin to dooming your product to the depths of the bargain bin, and so developers all over the world are striving to insure that their games have stellar new player experiences. Since the initial play session in a MMOG is so crucial for players, Cody “Micajah” Bye sat down with Atanas Atanasov, the CEO of Masthead Studios, to discuss what players should expect to find in Earthrise, the upcoming MMOG being developed by the previously mentioned studio. The answers that Ten Ton Hammer received were fantastic and are definitely worth a look.

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Atanas Atanasov, CEO of Masthead Studios

Ten Ton Hammer: To start, character creation in massively multiplayer online games is an essential piece of a player’s initial experience. What sort of options are you presenting to players in Earthrise, and what can they expect when they begin the game?

Atanas Atanasov: Player creation in Earthrise will offer a lot of options to all those players who want to make their character unique looking. They will be able to select gender, skin color, hair, height and body shape, pretty much everything that a player expects from a good MMORPG nowadays.

When players start the game, they will not be overwhelmed by decisions what class or player statistics to choose simply because Earthrise is a skill-based game and everyone will be equal at the beginning. Skills will be raised by doing certain actions in the game and the more players advance in the game the more they will differentiate from each other.

Ten Ton Hammer: From the previous interviews you’ve done with Ten Ton Hammer and other publications, it sounds like Earthrise will be a fairly intricate skill-based game that has elements. How are you planning on balancing PvP in the game when you have a high number of variable skills for players to choose from?

Atanas: Balancing is always an issue when it comes to MMORPGs. Providing players with a fine-tuned set of skills and abilities to use is very important and it requires countless hours of testing on the designers' part, but even then, players always figure out new and exciting ways to make more of the game. From here it’s up to the designers to step in and make changes to the game. Earthrise's PvP will go through a lot of development and we plan to invite experienced and influential PvP guilds into the closed beta to help us with rooting out most of the problems associated with creating a complex skill-based system. As for the huge number of skills and abilities in the game, we will use both gameplay testing and analytical tools to allow us to predict closely the outcome of possible conflicts.

Ten Ton Hammer: How do the two factions - Continoma and Noir – operate within Earthrise? Will players be doing quests/missions for these two factions? Will each faction have their own equipment?

An exclusive look at an environment in Earthrise.

Atanas: Continoma and Noir will both be deeply involved with the quest system. Their presence will be strong in the main storyline as players have an opportunity to aid their preferred side as the conflict deepens and secrets and political intrigue are uncovered. Meanwhile, organizations such as the Red Dragons, The Syndicate and Alpha Sisterhood provide randomly generated quests with a great level of variety in their goals. These quests will allow players to earn reputations within the organizations and in turn, use their reputation for favors, such as technologies that organizations have monopolies on. Once these technologies, design blueprints, are placed in the recipe to create a new item with enhanced capabilities the process will result in equipment aligned with that organization's configuration. Use of aligned weapons and armor within the enemy faction’s territory will put the player at a disadvantage by triggering aggressive behavior from the guards.

Ten Ton Hammer: How does the combat mechanic work in Earthrise? Will we be seeing something akin to Tabula Rasa with the “sticky” aiming, or will it be closer to an actual first person shooter?

Atanas: The combat mechanic will be a hybrid system between third person shooter and a classic RPG. It will rely both on players’ skill and character statistics and gear. Players will see their character from third person just like many popular MMOs on the market. Earthrise will feature WASD character movement with mouse movement of the camera.