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

Chronicles of Spellborn may be live in Europe, but the North American and UK (along with a number of other countries) under publisher Acclaim's purview have yet to see this long-awaited title go live. As a warmup to open beta (date not revealed, but open beta is "upcoming"), Acclaim Game Director David Perry brought in Spellborn Lead Designer El Drijver and Sound Designer Matthew Florianz for an hour-long chat with the fans last Friday afternoon.

A major theme was what the Spellborn devs have been working on since the European release. El stated that since release, the team has produced three big patches that were significant in terms of content (a new tutorial, marketplace, new instances and quests, and "all kinds of features"), bug fixes, and class balancing.

The focus now, according to El, is on more "sandboxy type gameplay" and continuing to transform the world a "living, breathing entity" through strengthening the high level PvP-based High House gameplay. One big feature that will contribute toward the High House scrum will be the addition of "demon chests," tied to the eight demons, which contain exclusive loot under lock and key in a PvP-flagged area. Each chest has three locks, the keys to which are rare drops in the game world. What's more - if a player carrying a key is killed in PvP combat while carrying a key, he or she loses that key and it's added to the killer's inventory.

The team is also working on more PvP objectives or incentives by means of an arena-style system, a controlled environment for duels which will allow players to fight individually or in teams earning rewards and rankings. Look for these features to begin rolling out with the next patch which has no ETA yet.One thing that players shouldn't expect, however, is more classes. El explained that since Spellborn's classes are based on a fairly comprehensive set of play styles, the live team would rather expand the existing classes than add new ones.

The sneakier High House Shroud's armor was revealed during the dev chat, complete with a custom look for Daevians (see the horns on the right). More distinctive features for Daevian armor will be added in the future. More images >>

As for what other new players might find unique about Spellborn, El pointed out that what he calls skill deck- and combo- driven "sandbox combat" is the keystone of the Spellborn experience, saying that "letting players define their class by how they play is the heart of this game." Other MMOs leave so much to the roll of the dice, says El, Spellborn allows players to dramatically improve their chances by knowing their skills, building their skill deck, manual aim (no auto-attack in Spellborn) and positioning themselves for combat properly. For example, he noted that a tank might duck behind a tree to negate a runemage's best direct damage spells while engaged with another warrior, but that runemage might resort to an area-of-effect fire ring to pour damage behind the obstacle. Additionally, El related that "root" and "polymorph" effects had been excluded from the game (but not "snare" or slowing effects) since they punish positional players disproportionately.

Regarding how quickly skill repertoires become fully formed, players don't become their class until level 5 and, according to El, the strengths of the class aren't completely fleshed out until level 20. Matthew added that the even pace at which skills are added lets players become well acquainted with even at level 30 (current level cap is 50), he was still learning about his class. And two players with the same class and skill might play very differently both through style and customization options like sigils. David Perry noted that "two boxers might have the same gloves, but the result may be very different."