Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Ten Ton Hammer: You are going to be including classes in Alganon? How will studying affect those classes? Will players be able to enhance their class through studying?

Initially, class-based studying will not be included in Alganon.

Anderson: Initially, the studies will be global in nature (i.e. focused on enhancements that aren't class specific necessarily). While it may not make sense for a Magus to study Swordmanship, they will have the option.

Later, as the game develops, we will add studies that are specific to a given class, but we're going to look to how our players approach the classes before we finalize and implement class-specific studies.

Ten Ton Hammer: How much will "studying" actually influence the game? Will players with the highest amount of studying (ie - have had characters the longest in the game) be some of the most powerful characters?

Anderson: An extra 1% here and there quickly adds up. Characters that are older will have that extra edge that younger characters just don't, and, in the right hands, that edge can be the difference between victory and defeat.

However, even if they focus all of their studies in a single area, players will never have a game-breaking imbalance. Studies will never result in a player doing double damage, or one-shotting an opponent. Instead, they will provide an older player with more situations where they have a small advantage.

When a younger opponent realizes you have the upper hand in close combat, and decides to move to range, you can show him you have the advantage there as well. A younger student that has only studied Fire and Flame will lose their study-based advantage if they switch to Cold damage. An older character, however, may have studied both and has more options available to them. An older player is more likely to study Lore and History and use the alternate progression paths to improve their gear.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there anything else you can tell the Ten Ton Hammer readers about Alganon?

Anderson: It's coming along great. We just released our second in-game video and have a lot more planned this month. Keep an eye on the main Alganon website (http://www.alganon.com) as well as the MyAlganon website (http://www.myalganon.com) as we're going to be announcing some new features over the next few weeks!