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

By the Atlantica Online Developers

In Atlantica Online, a new massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) from NDOORS Interactive, the path to Atlantis is beset with countless monsters you must battle.  To save the world from doom, you must defeat these enemies to acquire the clues that will lead you to the legendary lost land.

But getting past some of these opponents won’t be easy, especially if you have to face the likes of Dracula alone.  This is where Atlantica distinguishes itself from other MMORPGs: You don’t have to fight Dracula by yourself or with other gamers.  You just might have Napoleon and Joan of Arc to help you take Count Vlad and his vampire minions down.

You'll need the help of mercenaries to make your way to legendary Atlantis.

It’s this blending of myth and reality and the warping together of different periods of human history that add to Atlantica’s appeal. This wild mash-up is made possible in part through the combatants - called mercenaries - you can bring along in your quest for Atlantis.

Atlantica’s mercenary system enables you to put together a team of fighters with various strengths and skills to take on the evildoers set before you.  Mercenaries can be acquired in a few ways.  They can be bought from mercenary merchants.  You can also hire mercenaries you happen to come across during your travels, persuading them with gifts of money.  Some mercenaries are obtained by completing particular quests.  Mercenaries under your control will be able to have children, and you will be able to raise them to become mercenaries for you in the future.

In addition to procreating, mercenaries have another real-world quality: they age.  Mercenaries under your control will eventually decline in strength and other stats as they grow older.  This means you must continually bring on and discard mercenaries over the course of the game.  You can’t just assemble a super team of mercenaries, expecting them to take you all the way to Atlantis.  A player’s main character, however, does not age in Atlantica.

A similarity mercenaries and your main character share is that both’s skills and magic are dependent upon the weapon wielded. Like a main character, a mercenary can wield either a sword, spear, axe, gun, bow, cannon or staff.  Building a crew of mercenaries with a diverse set of skills and magic might help you go far.

You can take up to 10 mercenaries with you into battle.

You can have more than 10 mercenaries, depending on what resources you have to acquire mercenaries.  When it comes time for a battle, though, you can take only a maximum of eight mercenaries into the fight — that’s a total of nine combatants including your main character.  Strategy comes in when you choose which mercenaries to take into battle.  Some combinations will be better suited for PvE combat, like when you’re pitted against a particularly nasty opponent, and you might need two shamans with healing powers around to help you prolong the fight.  For a PvP battle, a crew of mercenaries heavy with melee attackers might be the preferred choice, especially if you want to just blitzkrieg your opponent.

How you position your mercenaries in a battle is also a strategic choice.  You must arrange your characters in a three-by-three grid. You might prefer to have your swordsmen mercenaries, who possess the greatest defensive strength, to be in the front row nearest your opponent.  Your monk, with the weaker defense ability, would probably be better off in the back.  If a mercenary’s health points are decimated in a battle, he can be revived after the battle by a potion or at a hospital to fight another day.

If a mercenary successfully completes a quest with you, he too can level up and advance.  This is another similarity between your main character and mercenaries, who have their own independent experience score.  When your group completes a battle that earns you a level increase, your mercenaries can receive a bonus point and a skill point, along with your main character.  You can apply the bonus point to boosting one of the mercenary’s attribute and a skill point toward his or her magic skills.

Mercenaries can procreate(!) along with leveling up and being upgraded.

In addition to leveling up, mercenaries can also be upgraded as you increase in levels and acquire the required number of items.  One of the first mercenaries you might hire is the Artilleryman, who uses his cannon to hit multiple enemies from a distance.  After reaching level 20 and amassing 50 Ashen Crystals, the Artilleryman can be upgraded to an Artillery Officer, who has higher stats all around.  The next step up is Artillery Captain, and then, if you get far enough, your captain can be upgraded to Napoleon.  The path to Joan of Arc begins with the Lady Knight mercenary.

The possibilities that mercenaries offers players are numerous.  They’re leveling up and upgrading.  But they’re also aging, eventually becoming too old to be effective.  All these factors, along with their fighting and magic skills, are more variables that you can control and manipulate. This only enhances the strategic element of Atlantica as you pick and choose which qualities to emphasize.

Mercenaries are puppets for you to pull along with you toward Atlantis.  String them along well, and they can help you go far in Atlantica.