Questions
by Cody "Micajah" Bye
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">
Answers
by KiJong KJ Kang, Huxley
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">s Producer,
Webzen, Inc.
As the massively-multiplayer online gaming industry continues to
expand, more and more genres in video gaming are merged with the MMO
acronym. Perhaps one of the more ambitious projects to earn MMO dubbing
is Webzens upcoming MMOFPS (First Person Shooter) Huxley. Recently,
Ten Ton Hammers Cody Micajah Bye had the chance to ask Webzens
KiJong KJ Kang a list of questions about his upcoming MMO title.
Without disappointing, KJ gave tremendously detailed answers, so many
that we are splitting his interview into two parts (see part one
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/39089">here)!
If you have an interest in MMOFPSes, make sure you keep your browser
pointed at Ten Ton Hammer!
Ten Ton Hammer: There are
currently three classes listed on the style="font-style: italic;">Huxley website: the
Avenger, Enforcer, and Phantom. Will the weapons and armor players
pickup be restricted by what class they choose? Or will the class be
determined by what sort of equipment the players are wearing?
hits level seven and moves to the city from the training post, the
first [non-player character] that the player comes in contact with asks
which combat style the player would like to choose. By then players
will have used the basic weapons, cleared a few quests and, through
such experience, developed a good idea about which combat style best
suits them.
In order for the player to get armor and weapons, they must first
obtain the required licenses. License points, which the player needs to
have so that they can obtain various licenses, are acquired when the
player completes the levels. Even though an Enforcer may be able to
purchase a sniping rifle, which is actually designed for a use by a
Phantom, a long-range sniper, there is a restriction to it. For
instance, if a Phantom would have to invest one license point to
purchase a sniping rifle license, an Avenger, a mid-range attacker,
would have to invest ten license points for a sniping rifle because it
is not akin to his combat style, whereas the Avenger would have to
invest only one license point to purchase a shot gun, which is
appropriate for his mid-range combat style.
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The environments in
style="font-style: italic;">Huxley have a dark,
gritty look in early screens.
Ten Ton Hammer: What sort
of massively-multiplayer elements will be incorporated into
style="font-style: italic;">Huxley? Will
players see things like guilds, raiding, sieges, a persistent world,
and a consistently upgrading bunch of content?
designed as an online game that provides both the fragging hyper action
of an FPS and the community, persistence and character growth of an
MMOG. The city life in Huxley is similar to what is offered in other
MMORPGs, complete with housing, public transportation, personal
vehicles, auctions for trading with other players, interaction with
various NPCs for quests, crafting and tuning up combat items.
Of course, clan activities are one of the most essential parts of style="font-style: italic;">Huxleys
activities. You are fighting for your faction, your growth and for you
and your clans reputation. And clans benefit from group achievements,
such as economic benefits that encourage clan activities in style="font-style: italic;">Huxley.
Many of the quests, in terms of their scale and the need for squad and
multiple squad co-op play, will resemble raids in similar MMORPGs. Such
quests will have boss mobs, just like the mobs that are the toughest,
meanest and nastiest monsters in other MMORPGs. The massive scale
battles will resemble large scale castle sieges in MMORPGs.
It will all feel very familiar to traditional MMO players, but
extremely unique at the same time. And unlike any other FPS,
in Huxley the player is *living* in a world of Huxley, where there are
different regions to explore and many things to see. The major cities,
satellite cities, and battles zones construct a very distinctive world
view of Huxley
and follow a compelling and immersive storyline of the game.
Ten Ton Hammer: How many
different sets of armor and weapons are available in the game? How do
you go about balancing all of these variables while also trying to make
the game based on player skill?
use nine different categories of various weapons as their character
develops through five phases of growth. style="font-style: italic;">Huxley has a system
that constantly updates with new content and offers hundreds of
different weapons and armor. Each item can be customized for each
individual player through tune ups and crafting.
The number of different weapons and items that are currently offered in
the current [open beta test] service in Korea exceeds 500 (yes, you
read that right). Adding different skill sockets onto armor will
further diversify the different kinds of customized items. Of course,
players game play skills have a significant importance in winning
battles and completing quests in Huxley.
However, the PvE battles require less player skills than
[player-vs.player] battles and will reduce the stress the less skilled
player might feel if they are always getting killed in PvP battles.
[Player-vs.-Environment] battles will also give the less skilled player
the opportunity to practice and improve their control skills.
In addition, the various items provided in style="font-style: italic;">Huxley do not have
standardized status like the items in regular FPS games. For example,
if you have obtained and equipped yourself with a rare item weapon and
armor through PvE, your efficiency against better skilled players will
increase giving you a better chance to win.
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Use of the Unreal
Engine means Huxley
has outstanding visuals.
However, from the very beginning of development, the designers took
into serious consideration about how to balance the players control
skills and the improved abilities, gained through progressing up levels
and growing the character. The team was fully aware that
style="font-style: italic;">Huxley cannot just
simply allow higher level players to be able to defeat low level
players no matter what. As a solution,
style="font-style: italic;">Huxley has been
designed in the way that if the player level difference is within 10
levels and the lower level player has better control skills, they can
defeat the higher level player.
Ten Ton Hammer:
style="font-style: italic;">On
another point, how are you incorporating earned player abilities into
the FPS mix? What sort of abilities will players have when theyre
playing the game? How do you keep that balanced?
consists of two races per faction and each race has different abilities
in terms of HP, recovery, speed and dodging. Regardless of the race,
players also choose their combat style from Enforcer, Avenger or
Phantom, each having their own different advantages and disadvantages.
Players can develop growth trees by investing growth points and
customizing their weapons and armor that they obtain from FPS based
battles.
Basically, Huxley
is not a 1:1 game, but instead it is an exciting and ever changing
multi-player online game. No one player will ever have the absolute
advantage over the other players in battle due to the unlimited
combinations for squads and the various specialized abilities they
could develop. In the early stage of character growth, players will
clear quests and enter battlefields according to which character growth
phase they follow. When in the massive scale battles where the
objective is to obtain a stronghold within that level and collect
resources for their faction, limited participating rights shall be
given according to the users growth speed, which is naturally adjusted
and maintained throughout the game.
Ten Ton Hammer:
style="font-style: italic;">In your opinion,
whats the most compelling part of the
style="font-style: italic;">Huxley
experience? Why should gamers take a look at this game and spend money
on this product rather than any of the other MMOGs that are coming out
in late 2008?
than because Huxley
is the first ever Unreal Engine 3-based twitch-action MMOFPS?
The most significant experience that style="font-style: italic;">Huxley
offers to gamers is that it is a persistent FPS where the users
character growth directly impacts the game. Current online FPS games do
not allow the items obtained to be subordinated to the players
experience, whereas in Huxley,
the character growth is subordinated to and maintained in the players
experience. Thus, Huxley
further motivates users to keep on playing the game and find additional
ways to have fun. We are aiming to deliver a game that
provides
enough satisfaction to make the players feel rewarded from their
investment of time and effort.
Ten Ton Hammer:
style="font-style: italic;">Is there anything
else youd like to tell the Ten Ton Hammer readers and
style="font-style: italic;">Huxley fans?
of all, I would like to thank Ten Ton Hammer and each and every one of
your readers for keeping interest in and waiting for style="font-style: italic;">Huxley. Over the
past couple of years, my developers and I have been crazy about
bringing Huxley
to the players and offering them such a new experience. style="font-style: italic;">Huxley is making
initial achievements with the OBT in Korea and we aim to deliver style="font-style: italic;">Huxley to the North
American gamers as soon as possible. I promise that you will
be very surprised by Huxley
and hope we can meet and even exceed your level of expectation for
the game!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Huxley Game Page.
