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

Scanning the horizon for upcoming MMO releases, one title that stands out from the crowd is Masthead Studios’ Earthrise which will offer a distinctly sandbox approach to gameplay. While a compelling PvE setting will certainly be present, it’s the title’s open PvP and player-driven economy that take center stage, offering players true control over their experience in the game to a degree rarely seen in today’s market.

Hot on the heels of our recent VIP interview, Ten Ton Hammer took the opportunity to speak with lead game designer Apostol Apostolov to delve deeper into certain aspects of guilds, resource gathering and territory control in Earthrise.

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Ten Ton Hammer: Could you explain how zone control in Earthrise will work? For example, when a guild takes over a specified area in the game do they retain control until a rival guild challenges their holdings, or will there be any kind of time limit imposed before the area is essentially “up for grabs” again?

Apostol: Territory Conquest is all about actual player control over small, important parts of the game world rather than a timed advantage. When a guild takes over a territory, if they can provide the cooperation and coordination needed to ensure a strong defense, they could keep control for long enough to make a sizable dent in the world’s economy.

Ten Ton Hammer: Once a zone has been captured by a given guild, will it remain open to attack from outsiders at any time, or will there be specific windows (player created or otherwise) in which it becomes vulnerable to attack?

Apostol: In order to allow for guilds to maintain control over their territories, we will provide flexible protection against outsider attacks at any time. We are currently in extended internal testing of different solutions and we will chose the one that benefits both sides of the equation without putting too much strain on a guild to protect their territories.

Ten Ton Hammer: In Ten Ton Hammer’s recent VIP interview, you touched on some of the ways resources will be gathered in Earthrise. With some of the rare resources in particular, will they be spread out over numerous controllable zones to help prevent a single guild from claiming too much control over the market value?

Apostol: Each controllable territory will allow guilds to mine only a subset of all rare resources available in the world. Guilds will be encouraged to carefully plan the resource market they want to enter and how their territories conquest plan will be laid out in order to gain an advantage. Still, it is possible for very powerful guilds or guild alliances to gain control over the majority of certain resource productions and manipulate it to its own advantage, although not enough to take the server’s economy out of balance.