With the imminent launch of style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise,
the post-apocalyptic MMOG from Masthead Studios, Ten Ton Hammer wanted
to look deeper into the game. With a setting that includes a
totalitarian government, an underground resistance, mutants, scarce
resources, and man-eating plants, who wouldn’t want to hack
their survival skills in this post-apocalyptic setting? To that end, we
managed to trade enough non-irradiated water for the chance to sit down
and talk with Atanas Atanasov, style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
Producer.

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Ten
Ton Hammer: From the
screenshots we’ve seen so far, the setting of style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
isn’t the series of bleak, dark, depressing backdrops
we’re used to seeing in post-apoc games. Is humanity truly on
the upswing after the last world war, and if so, could you tell us
where the core conflict of the game come from?



Atanas
Atanasov: The setting of style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
is truly diverse. We’ve been able to combine the typical dark
and desperate post-apocalyptic feeling with equal doses of hope and
possibility. In style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise,
the humans that players encounter won’t be the progeny of the
survivors of the last world wars - they are the survivors themselves.
Using the experimental technology of instant data storage, the
Continoma scientists were able to collect and preserve the minds of
several thousand people. While one can imagine that Continoma will have
full control – they really don’t. Nobody can
“erase” a player, nobody can
“refit” a player’s sentience any way that
they want. The “immortality” technology is pretty
much experimental and almost no extensive tests were done.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87123"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 435px;"
alt="earthrise"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87123">

This is the main reason why Continoma can’t maintain control
of their creation. We have a society consisting of thousands of
individuals that live with the idea that they always have a second
chance. Nobody can restrain such a boiling cauldron of unfulfilled
dreams, ideas of total freedom and lust for power. But the mistake that
Continoma made was to put everything and everybody under strict
control. This created not only the nemesis of Continoma – the
Noir - but also several organized splinters of the once united society,
trying to find their own path of prosperity and independence.

Ten
Ton Hammer: Siding with a
faction seems very important to the style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
experience. Are you forever locked into your faction choice?



Atanas
Atanasov: Players are free to
choose either of the two factions or they can stay neutral, unlike
other games where players must pick their faction before they enter the
game world. We want to offer multiple choices to the players and let
them change affiliation whenever they feel necessary. Such change will
not occur without consequences. Betrayal in style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
is punished very severely.



Ten
Ton Hammer: Gameplay in style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
sounds unique, with weapons and devices determining which abilities
players can use. With this kind of open setup, how will players
differentiate themselves by role? In other words, if I’m
forming a pick-up group, how can I be sure I’m choosing a
good healer?



Atanas
Atanasov: Players in style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
will not be divided into classic MMO roles such as healer, tank, etc.
Parties can assign “roles” based on the gear that a
player has and the skills that they know.  The tricky part in
PvP is that players will be able to switch weapons during combat and
can play different roles at their will, as long as they have learned
the necessary skills. This brings a compelling element of surprise
which is not seen in many MMOs these days.

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alt="earthrise"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/42923">

Ten
Ton Hammer: The art direction
of Earthrise
is unique in the MMO space. I can’t think of any MMOG apart
from Champions
Online embracing the
cell-shaded style. Why was this art style chosen for the game?



Atanas
Atanasov: It was an evolving
process, as we always wanted style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
to have a more realistic look, but we tried very hard to keep the
player in mind and how they can most easily make sense of what`s
happening on the screen. That means to constantly keep in mind what
level of detail a player`s armor has, for instance, and whether the
weapon they are holding is noticeable against the backdrop or not. The
task becomes more complex in the context of sandbox style MMOs, where
players can walk through every nook and passage.  At any point
they might end up in the midst of a messy melee with 10 players and at
another be in a close up. The style is a delicate balance between
oversimplification and cluttering the player`s screen with useless
pixels.

Ten
Ton Hammer: Will style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
offer a number of different servers or shards, perhaps with different
rule sets (Open PvP, Roleplaying, etc.)?



Atanas
Atanasov: There will be one style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
server located on the U. S. East Coast. The rules will be just as
described in the game features – open world PvP with safe
zones.



Ten
Ton Hammer: Regarding
territory control, we see the concept of “ href="http://www.play-earthrise.com/about/started">your
domain”. Will every
player have his or her own area to control and defend? What benefits
does your domain confer on players or guilds, and what happens if you
lose control of your domain?



Atanas
Atanasov: Territory control
is the so-called “end-game” in style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise.
More than half of the game world is reserved for that. Guilds will be
able to capture structures in those zones and claim ownership. Once a
guild has captured a territory, it can create all types of military and
administrative buildings just like in strategy games. There will be
certain time windows when rival guilds will be able to attack those
territories and try to capture them. If a defending guild loses its
territory, it will no longer be able to receive its’
benefits. The benefits will be related to the economy, such as the
ability to extract the rarest resources on the island, which crafters
can then turn into the best items in the game. The military benefits
will be certain bonuses which will affect the guild as a whole.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87124"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 435px;"
alt="earthrise"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87124">

Ten
Ton Hammer: Resource
gathering for crafting is another unique feature of the game. We gather
that crafting resources are gathered in real time, and players must
control these areas 24/7 to get the full benefit from them? Is that the
case, or as with style="font-style: italic;">Global Agenda,
will these resource areas only be “attackable”
during certain timeframes or windows each week?

Atanas
Atanasov: We did have plans
to implement the so called “monster mines”
– places that provide all the basic crafting resources on the
island. The idea was that the more mines that are free from monsters,
the cheaper the resources will be on the global market. All players
would make efforts to free those mines and have cheaper resources. In
the meantime, monsters would always try to come back and take over
control of those mines. However, for release, resource gathering for
crafting will come from loot, quests and world objects. Everyone will
be able to gather resources; no skill will be needed for that. The idea
of “monster mines” will be implemented later this
year.



Ten
Ton Hammer: Will any areas of
the game be protected from PvP to prevent ganking and griefing or to
allow for pure PvE play?



Atanas
Atanasov: Yes, there are some
areas in Earthrise
that are called “demilitarized” zones. Players will
not be able to draw weapons there and fight. Those zones will be the
economic backbone of the game, where crafters will find crafting
stations, traders will have access to the market and all players will
have access to a bank. They will also feature quests and vendors.



Ten
Ton Hammer: Another
interesting feature of style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
is that you can advance your career “with no
limits.”  Could you tell us how this works? Will
players that begin playing on day one always have an innate advantage
over players that begin playing weeks or months later?



Atanas
Atanasov: What we mean by
career “with no limits” is the fact that players
can learn all combat and crafting skills in the game. Player
advancement will only happen online. The limit of skill usage will come
from the player equipment. For example, by equipping a rifle, the
player will have access to all rifle skills, but they will not be able
to use any other weapon skills. Players who begin the game after
release will be able to catch up with the others. It all depends on
their free time and their focus on skills.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67709"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 435px;"
alt="earthrise"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/67709">

Ten
Ton Hammer: How will players
pay for the style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
experience, in terms of box price and ongoing costs? We had to dig
pretty deep to find any info, but is it correct that the game will not
have a monthly subscription fee or microtransaction basis / cash shop?



Atanas
Atanasov: In December of
2010, we announced the style="font-style: italic;">Earthrise
prices. The game will be sold via retail in Europe for €49.99
EUR (incl. VAT). The digital copy will be available worldwide for
$49.99 USD and 49.99 EUR (incl. VAT) for European citizens. The copy
will have one month of free subscription and some other bonuses
depending on the origin of purchase. The monthly subscription for the
game will be $14.99 USD and €14.99 EUR (incl. VAT) for
European citizens. We will not sell any game items for cash.



Our thanks to Atanas Atanasov for this interview.