Unique characters, turn-based combat, and a twisted sense of humor are
certainly not the normal descriptions used when describing an MMOG, but
DOFUS certainly deserves them. Now with the release of DOFUS 2.0,
it’s time to show the world why. This week, Ten Ton Hammer
caught up with Cedric Gerard, Ankama’s International
Marketing Manager, to see what makes the game stand out from the rest
of the herd.




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Ten Ton Hammer: For any of our readers that may not be familiar with
DOFUS 2.0, can you give us a basic rundown of the game itself?
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Cedric Gerard

: DOFUS 2.0 is
an isometric 3D Flash based MMORPG, an enhanced version of the first
DOFUS which was originally released in 2004. DOFUS now has 25 million
registered players in the world and over 3 million active players.



DOFUS is a tactical MMORPG, meaning that fights are turn based and
feature a grid system (you probably remember this from offline games
like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Front Mission).



Other than that, DOFUS offers a high level progression up to level 200,
allows deep character customization, features an advanced profession
system and revolutionary item crafting system.



Ten
Ton Hammer: We've read the press release and watched the release day
trailer, but what does the DOFUS 2.0 update really mean to players, in
your own words?

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Cedric:
This update will allow players to rediscover the universe of DOFUS with
new graphics and enhanced performance thanks to the Adobe Air
technology. On the long term it will allow us to develop content
updates more easily, since the game has been entirely recoded in Action
Script 3, meaning that players will have more content available very
soon.



New players used to say that the game was sometimes too complicated to
grasp in the beginning, so we have included a new tutorial system which
will help newcomers to enjoy the game progressively.



Ten
Ton Hammer: 
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the minimum system requirements changed for
DOFUS with the 2.0 graphics update?
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style="font-weight: bold;">Cedric:
Because we are using recent technology and detailed graphics, the
system requirements have changed slightly, but are still very
reasonable in comparison with other MMOs. The client size is still
reasonably low: less than 400 megs to download.



OS:
Windows XP, Vista, 7, Linux, Mac® OS X 10.4

CPU:
Intel Pentium® IV 1,3
GHz / AMD Athlon™ XP 1500+

Memory:
512 MB of RAM (1 GB for Mac, Vista and Windows 7)

Free
HD space:
800 MB



Ten
Ton Hammer: Could you please describe some of the new content available
with 2.0? Is there any new content geared expressly toward new players?

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Cedric:
At the moment in terms of content nothing major has been added apart
from the tutorial zone which is indeed designed for new players. We
will also be releasing new pets before the end of December. We will be
releasing the first major extension early next year, called
‘Frigost: the Ice Continent’.



Ten
Ton Hammer: What makes the classes and their combat abilities unique
from what traditional MMO players might be used to?

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Cedric:

DOFUS is a bit
different from what you would expect from a traditional heroic fantasy
mmorpg. You will not find your usual orc fighter / human paladin /
elven mage combination on the character creation screen. As I said, the
fighting system is tactics and grid based, which makes it unique for a
MMO. We have unique classes like the Ecaflip relying on gamble and
luck, the Xelor, a time mage who is able to steal action points from
its opponents, or the Pandawa, an explosive Martial arts expert, who
had a bit too much coconut milk. Every class can use magic and all of
them have unique spells.



Ten
Ton Hammer: So we've picked a class. We've gotten some solo play under
our belt to get the hand of things. How does turn-based combat work in
group play? Are there timers for each player to take their turn,
similar to single player games like the Heroes of Might & Magic
series?

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style="font-weight: bold;">Cedric:
Yes indeed, there is a 30 second based timer for a player’s
turn. This is to make sure players do not take too long to act. The
initiative order is displayed at the bottom right of the screen during
a fight.



To make it work in a group, each character will have to use its own
abilities, Xelor’s time mages will slow down the enemy and
run away, while Iop’s strong fighters will act as tanks and
take and inflict damage, and Osamodas summon various creatures.



Ten
Ton Hammer: 
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DOFUS website claims it has a
"twisted" sense of humor. What makes it so and how has the team kept
things fresh in that department?
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Cedric:
The idea in DOFUS was to have jokes and crazy items everywhere,
DOFUS
is not meant to be a serious game at all. The game is full of
references to the videogames and popular culture.



The game designers can sit together and come up with pretty crazy
stuff, they have a lot of freedom with regards to what they can add to
the game. They really enjoy the game and the interaction level with the
community is pretty high, we draw a lot of inspiration from players.



In DOFUS, we try to make fun of a lot of icons or existing characters;
the game itself is one big parody. This might sound a bit pretentious,
but if DOFUS was a TV series, we would probably like it to be the
Simpsons.



If you just have a look at the different emotes and animations that we
have for the player characters,
you're bound to find one that... smells funny.



Ten
Ton Hammer: 
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: bold;">Thanks
for taking the time to speak with us
today. Before we sign off, is there anything else we haven't covered
that you'd
like to let our readers know about DOFUS 2.0?




Cedric:
We’d like
them to stay tuned for the Frigost extension, the team has been working
on it for almost a year now and we’re sure they will have a
lot of fun playing it. And also, if you haven’t yet, give the
game a try, if you think the name is weird, wait until you’ve
seen the rest :) style="font-weight: bold;">



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our DOFUS Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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