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

Ten Ton Hammer: Would you mind explaining how the power stones work with the individual classes?

Rubyor: Let me go into class differentiation first...

Ten Ton Hammer: You got it.

Rubyor: We have three classes: Warcaster, Elementalist, and Eidolon.  The Warcaster class is all about creature control and has a secondary focus on structures. This means that the Warcaster is the "tank" powerhouse of the three classes.

The Elementalist primarily focuses on AOE and range spells with a secondary in structures. So most of his spells are derived from the elements and he can control a variety of different structures that manipulate the battlefield. He's like your wizard in an MMO.

The last is the Eidolon. He's very much a hybrid of the three classes. He’s great at healing and does decent damage if configured well. His stones can be spec’d out in a way that can be all healing, a combination of healing and damage, or all damage. He's a great class to have, especially in the higher tiered instances.

All stones are class specific for launch. But we do allow players to equip stones from another class through unique slots. As the player levels their cross class stone slots will increase in number allowing them to equip more stones.

Ten Ton Hammer: You’ve made comments alluding to the fact that your microtransaction system will be worked seamlessly into the game. How does that work? Whenever you’re altering gameplay for one person over another, it means that someone is gaining an advantage, correct?

Rubyor: We truly believe that micro-transactions should really be limited to cool visuals and convenience rather than game-breaking unique epic items. It would just stink if players were able to buy their way to the top.... that isn't any fun or fair.

Let me give you some specific example of buyable versus droppable items that we have in our game.

An item a player will see as a F2P (Free to play) is the Shield of Perseus. It drops off the god Hephaestus. Anyone can get this with a little luck. Or you could go to an RMT vendor and buy the Mirrored Shield of Perseus... it has the exact same functionality, but has a cool glimmer effect on it. It's all very cosmetic.

Ten Ton Hammer: Does a player have to have the dropped item before they can buy it from the vendor?

Rubyor: No. There will only be level reqs.

We've also done some fun things with potions. A lot of our RMT potions affect a group as a whole. For example "The Speed of Hermes" RMT Elixir will affect your entire group and everyone will get a speed boost. "Protection of the Titans" does something similar and gives everyone a damage resistance buff. So when you have a paying player in your group, you're definitely going to get the benefits of it.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there a limit to what players can buy? Are the items level restricted?

Rubyor: We do have level restrictions in the game, so if the Shield of Perseus is level fifteen, then the Mirrored Shield of Perseus is also only usable after level fifteen. It just wouldn't be fair to do it otherwise.

Ten Ton Hammer: How many stones are you planning on having in the game?

Rubyor: At launch, we'll have close to 200.  We'll continue to add more stones on a bi-weekly or monthly basis as content updates and sales promotions.

Ten Ton Hammer: The game seems set up to have competitive or tournament play in the game...

Rubyor: We do have competitive play, and there's going to be a ranking system within the game.

Ten Ton Hammer: Final question: Can players progress through PvP matches?

Rubyor: That's something we're experimenting with. I don't think it's a bad idea, but I'm just not sure how well it will work in Mytheon. After the game releases, maybe it's something we could further explore.

We are looking at implementing some scenarios where two teams battle to reach a kill count goal. The winning team will have the right to fight the PvP boss for the map. Dropping the boss will yield the team some awesome PvP gear and stones. It should be fun.  =)

Ten Ton Hammer: Thank you for your time, and I hope we can talk again soon!