Information Summary

[Traceur]

in most game communities ignorance regarding game info constitutes a reason for flaming. here it seems to be the rule rather then the exception. to help out a little, i summarized all the info we have, spell checked & categorized to make it more accessible.

Mortal Online- info summary (last update: 25th June 2008)
sources: overview, features, FAQ, Q&A 11/04/08, Q&A 15/04/08, Attributes & Skills Overview,

Introduction
Basic information (MMORPG, Starvault)
Player character (races, attributes, skills & classes)
Combat (PvP, loot, etc')
PvE in a PvP game
Greed (materialism, and politics: domains & religions)
The world (external link: list of places in MO by landor)
Animal control (pets & mounts)
Technology (server & engine architecture)
Others: MMO market comparison, influences etc...

disclaimer: not being a dev' and all, my editing & selecting isn't an omnipotent word of a deity, i may have missed something here & there, i may have misunderstood something or taken something out of context myself, etc. basically I'm only human (as apposed to a dev' ). no less important - all information is subject to change by the dev's themselves. so please, take that into account while reading.

[Traceur]

Introduction:

What is Mortal Online?
Mortal Online is a first-person MMORPG in an open player-controlled fantasy game world for the PC. Player versus Player (PvP), or rather Player to Player interaction plays an important part in Mortal Online as trading, learning, combat, rumors and alliances are largely dependent on communication between players.

Our approach to character creation, character progress and skills are to get away from hours and hours of pointless grinding and quickly immerse you into the community – once there, your real journey begins.

Summery:
Mortal Online is a first-person MMORPG in a fantasy setting, where you are free to choose your own destiny.
Mortal Online is a next generation PC MMORPG both in terms of graphics and gameplay. There are no PvP zones, only an open believable world where you choose your own path. Experience true real-time combat where you decide every move your character makes and where your own skill really matters.
Build your own house, or create your own guild to build a keep. With enough power, violence or diplomacy you and your allies will rule a kingdom.
Choose from many different races and professions. You decide your own playing style and whether to focus on PvP or PvE, both sharing the same game world. Devote your life to crafting, combat, magic or trading and discover new skills, tools and resources. Or, be the first to explore new areas and put your name on the map!

Central focus: Live the free world
In Mortal Online we want you to be free. We create a world for you with a minimum of rules but with endless possibilities, meaning you decide the path and goals of your progress, and where your actions are reflected back upon the world. As you decide the fate of your characters during their lifetime, responsibilities and consequences arise with many different options to choose from:
Do you want to walk the dangerous path of thieves and assassins? Or would you choose the path of the honorable, using law and strength to prevent the murderers from ruling the world?
Choose to be a lone wolf or hermit by finding a secluded place to build your house for storage or studies. Or form a guild with others that desire a keep and eventually a fortress.
Steal from or slay whoever you want and loot their items, but prepare for the aftermath and watch out for the long arm of the law.
Devote your life to a crafting profession and become famous for your reliable quality goods. Discover new formulas and recipes and explore the lands to find unique tools and resources.
Choose to believe in one of the Gods and watch its power grow. Fight heretics and burn their temples to rob their Gods of power. Or start a new cult: with enough believers your God might be powerful enough to enter the Pantheon.
Explore the world to discover new places and name them. Venture into ancient caves and temples to find the buried history of the world, including its forgotten knowledge, spells and items. New resources are to be found everywhere in flora, fauna and minerals.

[Traceur]

Basic information
Mortal online is an MMORPG being developed by Star Vault for the PC, starting development in 2005 and in planning since 2002, scheduled to be released during summer 2009 & is estimated to receive an M rating. The game will require a monthly fee similar to other MMORPG’s on the market.

A Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) is a game that lets thousands of players connect to the same game world (server), where they can adventure and interact in many different ways. Every players progress is stored in the same game world.

Star Vault is a newly formed independent game company in Sweden, and with independent we mean self-owned. We are a very small team of developers with years of experience in the MMORPG genre among others, and our common goal is to develop the games we want to play ourselves. To put it simple: we have chosen to be independent as it gives us the opportunity to develop games without the boundaries of a large publisher. Star Vault is a publicly listed company. We are independent in the way we are not dependent on a publisher's money or goodwill.

A beta which will be announced at a later stage. Also, please disregard any of the production schemes circulating on the forum or the web. We ourselves are in control of our development, and schemes taken out of context aren't good for anyone.

[Traceur]

player characters:



Can I have more than one character on my account?
A: Yes. By creating an account you create your own Deva, or “shared soul”, in the game. Your Deva can have several characters connected to it. The Deva grows in power as each of your characters do and can even learn skills that all your characters will benefit from. Read more about skills and the Deva further down.

Will there be different playable races? are races specifically good or evil?
There will be different races in the game. Every race has their own race language. You will be able to speak your race language and also be able to learn other races languages with time. Each with their own unique characteristics, culture and history - resulting in different codex, behavior and hierarchy. If that makes them "evil" or "good" is up to you to decide, and depends on how you and the rest of the players play them.
We will reveal the races one at a time with a proper presentation, & more information will be added as the development progresses.

Revealed races: Half-Orcs.
Mentioned races: Humans & Orcs.

character progression - attributes, skills & classes:

I noticed an attribute called "Size" in the screenshot explaining how skills work, and this got my hopes up that perhaps such brilliantly named attribute would actually have an effect on how large your character is?
yes.

How many character levels are there in Mortal Online?
None. We have no levels and therefore no level restrictions - i.e. certain levels needed to reach an area or to be able to handle a specific sword. You are free to travel the world in any way you like, limited only by the terrain, mode of conveyance or dangers in the environment. In the same way you can use any sword you like, provided you have the necessary skills to wield it.

The skill system itself is very dynamic, meaning attributes and skills are dependent on each other, and that training one of them also improves the other. It also gives you the opportunity to fully customize your character.

how do skills affect the gameplay?
Character skills are very important in Mortal Online, as it is your skills and not any "character level" that define what you can and cannot do in the game, sometimes even what you can and cannot see.

Some areas of the skill tree will be very complex and require a lot of time, and also have great impact on how well you succeed. Crafting is one example.

Some areas of the skill tree are closely tied to PvP and player skill, and therefore cannot have the same range of bonuses. Like weapons and combat. You have to get the skill to be able to use a certain weapon, but having 1% or 100% in the skill doesn't make a HUGE difference in damage. For those kind of skills (the PvP-related), a good example would of course be a fight - a large one. What we're trying to achieve is a skill tree that will give you a small advantage over your opponent in the short run (as you do slightly more damage and are a tiny bit faster, for example), but makes you a much better warrior in the long run (as your weapons and armor will endure much longer and as you can get on with the next fight with a minimum of rest, for example).

will you have “Your skill is too low to climb/wield that weapon/” messages or will skills affect gradually?
MO only uses the "you don't have the skill/your skill is too low to do this" when there's no other possible solution, or when such a solution would take too much time to implement.


the Primary Attributes & Primary skills:

Primary Attributes are attributes such as Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Psyche, Constitution, Size, etc. These are the attributes that define the core of your character and gives you the possibility to train certain skills, and limits to what extent you can train others. You start the game with a certain amount of points that you distribute on the different attributes, and when playing the game you will slowly improve the attributes by using skills. Also, improving an attribute will give every skill based on that attribute a small boost.

The Primary Skills are the most basic skills in the game and also the foundation for the rest of the skill tree. All characters have these skills, and you start the game with all Primary Skills, but it’s up to you which of them to train. To increase them further may require certain levels of your Primary Attributes to some extent. The different Primary Skills “unlock” different Secondary Skills in the skill tree; for instance you will need to train the Primary Skill “Acrobatics” to a certain value to be able to learn the Secondary Skill “Climbing”.

Both the Primary Attributes & skills each have a common cap, meaning once you have reached a certain number of points in all your attributes, you cannot increase them anymore, & likewise that you can never fully train each and every Primary Skill, at least not in the usual way.
This means that you can never max out on all Primary Attributes or all Primary skills, rather you’ll have to choose what will be the strengths and weaknesses of your character. It’s up to you to find the perfect balance for your character, as you can train and untrain these skills how many times you like.
To decrease a Primary Attribute / Primary Skill you'll have to train another Primary Attribute/Skill, and it can be done only when you've reached the cap. (You set a certain skill/attribute to decrease in favor for another.) The speed of this process is limited to how fast you can train the attribute/skill you want to increase. To increase your Strength for example, you’ll have to obtain those points by decreasing another attribute of your choice.
Training the Primary Skills until you've reached their common cap won't take that long, meaning you can get into the action rather quickly and actually make a difference. However balancing and fine-tuning them will take longer, as this will be based on your evolving play style and experience with the game.

Skill Tree:
The Secondary Skills are the bulk of the skill tree. They are of a vast number of skills that are connected to each other in a very complex network. Secondary Skills have to be discovered and learned in the game by books, tutoring and/or to a lesser extent by other means like magic or achievements.
The prerequisite of a Secondary Skill may be another Secondary Skill, a Primary Skill, any Attribute or any combination thereof. For example, learning the Secondary Skill “Advanced Poison Making” may require you to have the Secondary Skills “Beast Lore” which in turn is based on “Zoology”, as well as “Poison Making” that is based on “Basic Herbalism” that is based on “Botany” and so on.

The major difference from the Primary Skills is that Secondary skills don’t have a common cap. There is an individual cap per skill though, and it will most likely be 100/100. You can learn any number of Secondary Skills you like, but the skills you can learn are restricted by your Attributes and Primary Skills. The restrictions also mean that if you “untrain” a Primary Skill or Attribute that is a prerequisite for one of your Secondary Skills, you won’t be able to use that Secondary Skill any more. However, should the prerequisites once again be met it can be used as before (so you don’t have to train it over again). In short, you can explore any area of the skill tree without the fear of getting stuck, as you can always “leave” and “come back to” your Secondary Skills that are already trained with the help of a little time.

Deva-Secondary Skills or "World Skills": To lessen the tedious work of training a character from scratch, if you for example want to alternate your play time between a mage and a blacksmith, Some of the Secondary Skills are World Skills. The World Skills are connected to your Deva - your “shared soul” that connects all your characters on your account - and will improve no matter what type of characters you are playing. This way if one of your characters for example explore the map or learn about history, so does all of the other characters connected to your Deva.
When a World Skill is trained, all your characters will benefit from that training. As all Secondary Skills have prerequisites it does not necessarily mean they can use the skill, but it means it will be there, trained to the same level as for the other characters, and once the prerequisites are met the skill will be active and ready to use.

Two types of skills are Action Skills and Learning Skills. Action Skills will typically be trained by being used in the game, while the majority of Learning Skills are trained in the background and requires some time.
An Action Skill is trained by using it in the game. By using your Arming Sword you train the skill “Arming Sword” (and also, to a lesser extent, the skills and attributes that have a connection to it like “1H Swords”, “Light Weapons”, “Strength” and “Dexterity”).
A Learning Skill is passively trained by “reading a book” or “studying it mentally”. This takes time, and the more difficult the skill, the more time it takes. You can only train one Learning Skill at a time, but during that time you can of course train any number of Action Skills as their training is dependent on your actions in the game. Although most Learning Skills are passively trained, some of them will also benefit from certain “actions” in the game, i.e. the Learning Skill “Zoology” might increase each time you discover a new creature. (In this case, the skill don’t have to be the one “currently studied” to increase). It is not decided whether the Primary Skills can be of the type "Learning Skill" yet. As for now only the Secondary Skills have both types.

Classes:
Classes and Class-Restrictions
Classes in Mortal Online will work rather different than in most other MMORPG’s. You don’t begin the game as a specific Class, although you may choose from different presets to get some help along the way to become one. Classes are managed by special Guilds in the game (meaning “traditional” labor- or profession-guilds like merchant-guilds, blacksmith-guilds, thief-guilds and so on) where you have to apply and get accepted to get the specific Class-title. (You may choose whether to show the title publically or not).

Classes will have prerequisites in the form of skills, attributes or sometimes even things like reputation, social status or wealth. In essence, you will have to give up certain attributes and/or skills in favor for others, meaning your choice of skills will be restricted. In turn, you will benefit from certain Class-bonuses as long as you stay true to your Class by meeting the prerequisites. Whether it’s worth to make that sacrifice or not is of course up to you.

why are there class restrictions?
Mortal Online will have class restrictions for several reasons, the main one being that we want to encourage interaction between players. For instance, forming an independent guild that can manage entirely on its own will require a broad spectrum of characters, not just a few with all the necessary skills. The same goes for the lone wolf warrior – to be really successful in the world you need to interact with other characters by studying for them or at least by purchasing crafted goods you cannot make on your own.

What classes will I be able to play?
You will have many different classes to choose from ranging from the traditional warrior, thief and mage types to some special classes intimately connected to the game world. Also, some classes are reserved for veteran players: e a number of achievements in the game that will determine your official (or unofficial, if you choose to hide it) status. Hopefully there will be enough class variety. It's also a matter of combining Skills. All Classes are somewhat multiclass as it's a matter of what Skills you choose.

You are not limited to one character and one class though. Your Deva (account) can hold several characters that will benefit from each other in different ways.


If the game has a Realistic Combat system, how are you planning to balance classes and skills and more importantly make them diverse?
I really don't know how to answer that. Via excessive testing, testing, and more testing. And eventually, beta-testing.
Also, it's a matter of what you mean by balance and diversity. A warrior-class character is naturally focused on warfare, and won't have a very "balanced" fight against a trader-class character focused on commerce..

[Traceur]

Combat:

Real skill, real-time combat
We want you and your character to be one. Your skills as a player combined with the skills of your character will determine the outcome of any PvP or PvE fight. In the first person perspective of Mortal Online you virtually perform every action your character does – there is no such thing as automatic combat or your character doing the job for you. Aim and strike anywhere you want, and experience your characters combat skill increase as well as your own.

PVP:

What is the PvP like in Mortal Online?
Our game differs from most other MMORPG’s in the way that it is based on PvP and player interaction – the PvP is not a feature added on top of “the real game”. This means that Mortal Online is played on PvP servers only. Your chances of success in the real-time combat are based on your skills as a player, however character skills and equipment is of course an important factor to victory as well.

Can you tell us anything about the death system and the penalties (if any) associated with them?
When people die, they spawn as a "ghost" near their corpses, but in another plane - the "Etherworld". Like in UO, they can seldom be seen and talked to, as they are partly there. You can die again on the way to a healer (in Etherworld). This may have verious results, one is getting teleported back to your corpse as a ghost. As a disincarnate soul existing in both worlds at the same time, you have no physical belongings (they're left behind with your body) and you are very limited in what you can see, hear, and do. The same goes for people in the real world, as they have difficulties interacting with you. The Ether World is a very dangerous place for a Mortal Soul with rules of its own, and you will probably want to get back to your normal self as quickly as possible. To reincarnate, essentially get your body back, you must find a spirit channeler of some sort willing to help you. When you respawn, you get some basic clothing (no effect on gameplay) so that you don't have to be naked. This may be one of the few things you can bind to your character.

are you planning on implementing perma-death in any way?
No.

do you have healthbars?
"Healthbars" are in, but no numbers, percent or details. Believe me when I say this is very far from point-and-click combat in many other MMO's where the healthbars is what you are actually looking at, as your character is doing all the aiming and fighting for you.

After playing Gears of War and Call of Duty (Bleed mod), I find the notion of being dead at 0% health unwanted. 0% should mean defeated, not dead. If your opponent then wants to kill you then so be it, make it pretty and with lots of blood & gore. Mages engulf entire bodies with flames and what-not, warriors stomp them ala Gears of War, or deliver that final blow ala Assassin’s Creed, The Witcher.
We are working at something very similar to this.

will combat be more immersive or will it display numbers such as "120 damage points"?
no numbers.

Free PVP:
You are free to attack whenever and whoever you want, but there will be consequences. There are laws in the world to follow or not, this is your own choice to make. This may sound like a “quake match” for newcomers but it is not. There is a system that detects your action in the game that hopefully will balance PVP in an equal way it worked very well in UO. Playing a murderer will be a risky, hard life and they will probably get many enemies as in other players on the good side and from guards in the game. New players will be protected in towns and hopefully by other players.

PVP is very much player skill based. Luck factor won’t interfere in any way it would in real life. The win factor also depends very much on how you read your opponent in combat.

Can we be expecting an moral alignment system in this game?
Something like that, yes.

will moral alignment affect classes?
It may both directly, or indirectly, affect skills and classes. I have to come back to this later on.

can a new player have a chance at killing a veteran depending on skill, or will character advancement make this impossible?
yes, it's possible. But the veteran would probably win as long as he's not AFK, due to playing experience

will there be instant kills (like throat slitting)?
There will be special moves triggered when the timing is right, but killing somebody in one move will probably not happen.

full loot?
There is full loot in MO as in you can kill and loot whatever you want.
Of course there is laws in the world of MO that wont tolerate thefts and murders
However we have been discussing the partial loot as well when it comes to certain items that I think many players would also like to put out of the free loot system.
Our goal is to keep it simple with full loot as long as it works with the rest game mechanics, let’s get back to this one at a later point.
I would say the majority of the physical items in the game will be lootable. The things that can't will probably be "items" that are connected to your memory i.e. your World Map or Spell Book. We also have some "items" that are intimately connected to game mechanics, that we are a bit unsure of where to put in this stage.

Will you be able to read someone's World Map to fill in blanks in yours, even if you can't loot it?
Very possible.

What is your position on stealth?
You mean in PvP, right? Stealth should be a combination of your skills as a player, combined with your character's Skills. As we can't represent every obstacle to hide behind, or every light source, there will be Stealth in the game that is somewhat "magical". Likewise, detecting something or someone that is "hidden" is not entirely up to you, as one or two Skills might help. It's all about balance though, so we will see.

Will character names be visible above the heads of character Avatars?
We're working on this. The current solution is fps-like. If you spot someone you can identify him/her by holding your crosshair (or similar) on them. Also, you can set the GUI to automatically display the names of people that have succeeded in attacking you (people in your Target List), or people in your Group.

can houses be accessed by everyone if door is unlocked?
Yes. But you'd be trespassing. You can also steal the house key off a player character and take his house.

can you rob banks?
Essentially no.

are their actions you can't do while your in combat?
I can’t come up with a scenario in MO where you can’t do that since you are in combat.

Will the PvP system be based on small skirmishes or massive battles?
The PvP is based on one-to-one or skirmishing battles, as that is the foundation for good gameplay in larger-scale PvP battles. However, at the moment I can't tell you the number of players in that kind of battle.

How many players can fight each other at once?
We don't know for sure yet.

will there be city sieges?
There will be siege warfare and destroyable “buildings” in MO, houses are modular. You can improve them. So a guild can upgrade its HQ into some kind of fortress, and why would you be able to upgrade your fortress if it’s not for war?
We have not released any detailed information about how cities and warfare will work yet because of the complexity of the system, and details are not yet worked out, but we do have a really interesting system when it comes to city control and warfare. It is a feature that takes lots of time to get it to work well, but I do believe it will be a very interesting system for most players. As the details are not yet finished we don’t want speak to much on the details as it may change.
There will also be some sort of player housing that works as a safe spot for some players. But they will get involved in one way or another into the city control system. More information will be released when we are sure of how it will work.
When it comes to factions it may work similar to UOs 4 factions, many pvp veterans liked that system that’s why we are looking into it and playing around with it. I also plaid lots of faction wars chaos/order and normal guild wars in UO, and I had the best time of my life in a MMO. We do like pvp and warfare and want it to be a great part of the game. And if we see a system/feature like faction wars that starts to interfere with city warfare in a bad way or just split up the players of the pvp part we will try to remake or just freeze the system which makes the pvp part less fun. This is not something you do over a night and must stick with it. This is a system that needs lots of playtime to get right, but hopefully it will be all worth it in the end. I hope this will give you some understanding of the status and our visions when it comes to warfare in Mortal Online.

how much of the PvP will be hardcoded?
There is no territory control system/map like in shadowbane on release. There will be guild crests. They might not be customizable. Guilds can show (on their characters) how good they are in pvp. For example how many kills they have. There are no hard-coded pvp spots to capture like the mines in Shadowbane. There will be some kidn of faction system to give players reason to fight.

Are you planning on implementing marine warfare?
This will probably have to wait until after release, I don't think we'll manage player-controlled ships for release. But they're planned.


magic:

will it be low-magic setting or will we all be able to be mages?
Well, the original design was much more of a Lord of the Rings-setting when it came to magic, meaning very few dedicated spellcasters or magicians in the world. However that meant we had to introduce very strange and artificial limits on who could be a mage or not, and after feedback we decided to go in another direction. The flashy and colorful stuff will never be in though

will you have an intricate spell system?
We'll of course reveal more of this but later on. What I can tell you is that we decided to skip schwifty-five million different spells, buffs and counters pretty early on as the 1st person view and realtime combat made mage-duels unplayable, or at least completely random. Although we had a really complex and thought-through system, not even we ourselves could stand it as it became inpossible to keep track of all combinations and counter measures - every "duel" ended with people throwing random stuff at eachother as you couldn't read your opponent. A typical example of what sounded good on paper but really didn't work out. It wasn't until we reduced the direct battle/counter spells to around 20-30 that we started to find the balance. This may not sound like much, but believe me when I say it takes days to learn and months to master. When you add other factors to that like melee and ranged weapons (as many mages will put more than one point in those skills too) every duel between skilled players is extremely demanding and intense! Magic doesn't end with "direct battle spells", however. Magic schools and things like the 10-pointed Correlation Spinier (!?) are of course still in but their focus tend to be on direct spells for other uses, more complex spells, enchantments, rituals and of course a lot of PvE-specific spells as well, some of them being battle spells.

will you be able to interrupt spells?
Spell interruption is in, but it’s still being balanced. You’ll have a natural resistance versus interruption that can be improved by skills and vice versa.

Are there going to be things like stuns and mezzes that lock characters down and make them easy kills?
Hopefully no (trained) character will be an "easy kill". Magic is magic though, and there will naturally be a lot of different spells. Mages will also be affected by armor.

will you have to target the spells?
Some spells are “homing”, other need to be targeted like in a shooter. Homing ones are weaker.

[Traceur]

PvE in a PvP game:

Is there any PvE?
Yes, the world is vast and large parts lies waiting to be discovered. Besides the hunting of common and rare animals any traveler is bound to face savage beasts or scavenging mobs. Explorers of the non-human or ancient cultures will find their denizens highly unlikely to leave their treasures unguarded. Some very unique creatures roam the world as well, and to confront them you will need creativity and cooperation with other players.
there Will be quests, Although we promise to try to stay as far away as we can from the "pick 200 apples for me"-type quests.

History doesn’t repeat itself:
Is your goal to face a legendary monster? Well, that is usually suicide – if you can find one. But if your guild would actually manage to kill one, it’s dead. Gone. Rare monsters and quests do not resurrect or come again, whether it’s an ancient beast, a crumbling temple, an island rising out of the sea or a great ritual that fails or succeeds. You might get away with an item never seen before, or the unique scar that tells about the experience. There are not many of these opportunities but they are usually important enough to affect the whole world and its history. All you have to do is be at the right place at the right time.

Will a player be able to advance doing only PvP or only PvE?
Yes. Naturally, as the game depends on both your and your characters skill, you can't for example PvP-fight for a year and then suddenly know all about how to acquire Egg-Mussel Shells from 60 meters depth outside the Tindrem harbor. Likewise, spending all your time in front of the blast furnace won't give you an advantage on the battlefield (except possibly from your gear).

will MO have massive scale Raids? Will that be the only thing offered as far as end-game PvE? What other options will there be, besides the PvP? How much content is being invested into end-game PvE/PvP?
This is a good question that requires an extensive answer. I won't be able to give that answer right away, but I'll do my best:
First of all, I'm not even sure what a "RAID" is, outside "that game". Where I come from, a "raid" is when you gather people from all around to sack a village, make a sudden attack on an enemy and so on. And yes, you will of course be free to do that. But I definitely can't see "raiding" in Mortal Online as the type of establishment it has become in other games.
PvE becomes very different in a PvP (or, PtP, Player-to-Player) game. Let's say your goal is to become a great history writer. The writing itself is very much a solo-thing, but you couldn't do your writing without a lot of PtP-interaction. Or say you'd like to become a master smith. When you sell weapons to other players (PtP), you'll undoubtedly become involved in their PvP conflicts. You'd probably want other people to help out in gathering and refining resources for you as well. Another example is if you (and your guild) is out on a "quest" to resurrect some ancient creature for this or that reason. Your actions will affect other players (resurrecting the creature might upset the balance of the Gods), and therefore other people might try to stop you or help you. I can think of few examples where end-game PvE won't affect the PtP/PvP, so I'm really not sure where to draw the line.

[Traceur]

greed (materialism, and politics: domains & religions):

items:

What kind of weapons do you guys have planned for the game?
We have a lot of weapons covered. They are divided into groups where possible (i.e. 1-Hand Swords may consist of Arming Sword, Rapier, Falchion, Light Claymore, Falcata, Gladius etc.) both for Crafting and Skill purposes.

Will weapons have a stat called "Damage per Second"?
"Damage per second"? How horrible.. aving a Damage per Second-attribute as an ingame stat often implies the technical solution behind it is based on you clicking on an enemy, and the server "ticking" around that kind of damage per actual second (modified with skills, buffs and debuffs) as long as you are still in combat. This of course saves a huge amount of server load and network traffic, but means the sword/axe/whatever-fighting itself isn't based on any action or interaction from you as a player, more than toggling "Godslayer of Hitpoints-Sword" or whatever on and off.

how important is itemization?
Very important, in that you need to find a good setup to match your character's skills and your playing style. You are probably foolish (or very rich, or extremely skilled) to drag your best gear to a big battle though. For PvE (i.e. exploring, hunting, cave-strolling, beating specific creatures etc), itemization is important in the way you'll need the proper equipment for the specific "job".

Originally Posted by Mats Persson

MO will be gear dependent in the way that you have to find the right equipment for your playing style and skills. This can be applied to all weapons and armor, but let's look at swords:

There will be "bad" sword-types and "bad" resources for crafting swords, not to mention "bad" weaponsmiths. Combine these three and you will indeed have a really crappy sword. However, they will still serve a purpose as they will probably sell for only a few coins, making them rather easy to come by when your favorite sword breaks, or when you are resurrected in that unknown village after a fight.

Any good sword-type crafted with good skill and good resources will be a good sword. In a single fight the difference between two "good" swords of different type won't be noticeable.

Any sword better than a "good" sword will be a specialized sword. It might be faster than an ordinary sword, but do less damage. It might do more damage, but have less durability. It might be better to block with, but a bit more clumsy. And so on. This is dependent on sword type, how it is composed and the quality of the crafting. Finding and trying out the type of sword that suits you (play style) and your character (skill distribution) can indeed be regarded as "gear-oriented", but I would definitely not compare it to theme-park/gear-based games (where all swords can be arranged in "levels", each one being better than the one before it).

There will be rare swords that are in fact better than most other swords as they for example combine speed and durability. (We're still not talking about huge differences, though.) However, these swords will of course be very attractive and certainly draw the attention of both other sword-wielders and thieves. Having the sword as a trophy or keepsake (or for challenges/duels) is one thing, but actually running around with it will be taking a huge risk. Remember full loot. And remember that even skilled players will have problems facing two or more opponents.

That said, every sword but worn-out, dull training swords will be a lethal weapon in the hands of a skilled player.

will their be "uber gear"?
No über-gears.

Will there be item decay? (Can items be lost permanently through use?)
Yes.

Will there be rare items to collect? hard to find items, that really have no meaning in the game?
Yes.

Will there be universal banking?
I really don't know yet. We're thinking about a bank-system where items can be delivered with a delay, and at a cost.

what are your plans for a crafting system?
Oh my, this one requires a thorough answer. I'll get back to this later, but in short you need to work very hard to be a good crafter. You need to have the skills for it and know your resources, tools and recipes. Crafting may go wrong and experimenting will pay off.

What are your plans for a crafting system? And will you make crafting class specific?
I will add more about the crafting system later, but I'll try to summarize what's been said earlier:

In short, you will have to choose for your character whether to become the world's greatest herbalist or swordmaster, as it can't be both. (And yes, there will be crafting-specific classes.)

Items are divided into groups where possible (i.e. 1-Hand Swords may consist of Arming Sword, Rapier, Falchion, Light Claymore, Falcata, Gladius etc.) both for crafting- and skill purposes.

There will be powerful items to e found in the world that you cannot make - until you have found one and tried to understand the design and the components needed to be able to make one yourself (and sharing the secret is up to you).
Also, as the resources to make an item is found in the world, let's say Algoron Hide for making a great leather-type armor, you will find "powerful resources" in the game world that can make for a "powerful item", not necessarily the item itself.

Will the most powerful items in the game be craftable or will you to find them in the game world?
If some of the best items are made by crafters, needing ingredients from "bosses" (I would say powerful creatures), you would actually need both. There will be rare items to find in the world. A bear will never drop gold though, and the dragon won't give you any sword.
There will be powerful items to be found in the world that you cannot make - until you have found one and tried to understand the design and the components needed to be able to make one yourself (and sharing the secret is of course up to you).
Also, as the resources to make an item is found in the world, let's say Algoron Hide for making a great leather-type armor, you will find "powerful resources" in the game world that can make for a "powerful item", not necessarily the item itself.

Will there be player housing?
Yes

can you decorate houses?
Yes, we'd like to see decorations.

politics & religions:

any city building?
I'll have to come back on this later.

will the admins allow a guild or clan to control regions with influence?
Yes, that is our plan.

Will there be factions and opportunities to raise our standings in those factions?
There will be Guilds and Cults/Religion. How the larger scale "factions" and politics, i.e. alliances of Guilds etc, will work and be administered will have it's own topic in due time.

with the religion system, how will having a powerful god affect gameplay?
A Cult or Religion will work almost like a Guild, but with the Role-Playing addition of a belief-system or codex. A God might give prophesies and commandments to its believers, and maybe also certain gifts.

can you be an atheist in the religious system? will we be able to create an atheist alternative with equal benefits and negatives?
To clear things up a bit, even before anything is posted about the backdrop or "story" around Mortal Online, I think I can say this:

Gods work in a different way in MO than in real life. In real life, there can be a serious debate about whether a certain God (or any God) exists or not, but in MO they are real whether you like it or not. Well, at least most of them are. When enough believers share the same faith in a God, the balance shifts in the Pantheon and sooner or later a God steps out from the nothingness to claim his/her Power, and to give some of that Power back to his/her followers. This is the way the world works, no matter the original intention of the believers (it might have been a fake-cult for gaining money, for example). What is really strange is that the God in question now seems to have been there forever, as the materialization of a God is not bound by time as we humanoids know it. Of course there is rivalry and outright war among the Gods, but the vast majority of the believers (and Gods) acknowledge the other Gods. Who would they otherwise fight or ally with? It would also be strange to proclaim that for example the Sea-God doesn't exist (it would be like saying there are no oceans), unless you worship another Sea-God (the one and only!). It all comes back to the nature of the Pantheon: most fights among believers are about what God is the strongest or most meaningful one, not whether the other Gods exist or not. Even a Plague-God, Death-God or Destroy-the-other-Gods-God would have to recognize the other Gods.

But of course you are free to believe in what you want, including nothing. However, as the Gods are real, there are two options for a "non-believer" / "atheist" / "nontheist" in MO:

1. You are oblivious of the Gods or ignore them, meaning you don't worship them. And as you don't worship them, you won't get any of the benefits or drawbacks the believers of Gods do. This is not entirely uncommon, but remember that even primitive tribes that worship "nature spirits" worship either each individual spirit as a God, or recognize a God that unites these "spirits".

2. You don't acknowledge the Gods and actively denounce faith in them. This can be done in two ways:

2a. You can start a fellowship that denounce the Gods, but this would be made outside the religious system, as the religious system is God-centric (it circles around actually praying/worshipping/offering to some/one/thing).

2b. You start a cult that prays to No-God. You gather enough believers that agrees with you that there is a "No-God" (an entity that is not a God), and that there are no other Gods (also meaning there are no other Gods to fight). Eventually this No-God would actually enter the Pantheon, and this would mean serious problems for the Pantheon and the other Gods, as the prerequisite for No-God is that s/he is not a God, and that no other Gods exist. As the other Gods are real, and closely tied to such diverse things as agriculture, time, war, knowledge, mountains, famine, sanity and so on, the world itself would be really upset. With enough believers No-God would eventually destroy or drastically change the world, the Gods and everything created. More on this in the chapters of the history of the MO world.

So would allowing a No-God into existence be a paradox? I'm assuming, of course, that only Gods are allowed in the Pantheon, and being in the Pantheon makes you a God almost by definition. Like you said, Mats, allowing a No-God into it would certainly cause trouble for the other gods... It's impossible!
The Pantheon is in essence a collection of beliefs. If you decide to worship a piece of charcoal, and get a thousand others to do so, a Charcoal God would probably manifest itself. The Charcoal God would co-exist with the other Gods, competing only by number of worshipers. However, worshiping something that in it's essence is a non-deity, an anti-god, would result in a disruption of the entire belief- and religion-system. Something that isn't god-like (chaos? rootlessness?) would appear to replace the Gods. Compare it to if like 60% of the population voted for a political party whose only purpose would be to disband itself when elected, but with no safety-nets like re-election.

What if a large amount of people decide to start worshiping the There-is-only-one God? His entrance into the Pantheon would also cause a paradox.
Yes, but you have to remember that the Gods are dependent on their believers, and that they pay well for the faith. If you could get enough of the population to vote for the There-is-only-one God, simply by arguing that the believers would have to go without the blessings of their original Gods, then fine, the There-is-only-one God would rule. But to do so would mean that the There-is-only-one God would also have to be the God of Luck, Monsters, Fire, Wisdom, Death etc, i.e. replace the other Gods by being an "average" God. In any case, that is not the same thing as being an Anti-God.

But how free to believe will we really are? I think, a lot players, who don't want to join a religion, will indirectly forced into one of the religions, because they don't want to be at disadvantage.
The world in Mortal Online is a religious one whether you like it or not, and religion is deeply connected to the setting, just as in any historic culture and society. I have said it before, and without passing judgment on any of todays religions, the gods in Mortal Online are real, meaning atheism or nontheism isn't really the same as it is in our own world. Without saying too much, the Gods are forbidden to physically manifest in the world, but are allowed to communicate and appear in other forms. Seeing this but not believing it would be kind of like saying "I don't believe in this waterfall, and not in those Trees either, by the way". That's not to say you have to worship one of the gods, or that there cannot be two conflicting gods both claiming to be the God of Trees.

Please don't read too much into the religious system. In short, the Pantheon of Mortal Online is very much alike the Greek/Roman or Norse Pantheon. For instance there is one god for the sea, one god for the sea-creatures and one god for the sharks, and they are probably hierarchically related in ways that corresponds to sea-seacreatures-sharks, to take a rather crude example. Each god has his/her/its place and there's always conflicts and intrigues (to make it clear, these gods are just examples).

Whatever type of character you play will most probably have a faith that fit inside this system. You may role-play a a humble fisherman, once in a while sending a thought to a sea god for safe traveling, or you may role-play a bizarre dark priest that have dedicated her entire life to collect every species of snake for offering them at a temple to "create" a specific one-eyed-snake-god-of-pestilence-justice-healing-and-rain, that forces all believers to speak in rhymes. And if you don't like this idea at all you are free not to worship, but then again, don't count on getting anything back from the gods.

do we have a religious setting or do we have a system for creating our own religions? or both?
You have both. The world, civilizations and gods are not starting from scratch.

[Traceur]

The world:

How will the player's actions affect the world? Will we have a static environment like your typical MMORPG or will we have a dynamic living and evolving environment?
To be honest, for now the environment is based on randomness and ecological variables, but unfortunately static in itself. This means that if you for example were to kill off every predator in the woods, the number of herbivores won't go up. We'll have to manually adjust things like that over time. We'll see what happens as the development progresses.

how big is the world going to be?
Big enough, and it will grow. Also, some places will unavoidably be kind of desolate in the beginning, waiting for people to move in. There will be ways to travel over the world, more details will come later.

Are you planning on implementing changeable weather effects? If so, will they effect gameplay in any significant way?
Yes, weather, and day cycles (including astronomical changes) are on our list. Whether weather will affect gameplay is still up for review though.

will mods take the roll of some npc's? Is there a possibility that boss fight encounters will be GM controlled rather than AI controlled?
Yes, most likely.

Will there be inns and taverns?
Yes.

[Traceur]

animal control:

Are you planning on implementing pets that can help you in fights for any or all of the classes?
With enough knowledge and skill you will be able to (try to) control & tame various creatures (possibly as a class). Whether the system will be old-school or not is up to you to decide. This is something we will have in our game for sure. We hope to make it balanced enough so it works in both PVE and PVP.

Mounts:
There will be some different interesting mounts in MO for example the 2 mounts you see in the teaser, more details on mounts will come later.
Fighting on mounts is really fun in Mortal Online, as we play it today it changes to third person view when on mount to get a better control when fighting from mount. What I can add on this is that Mount and blades inspired us on some aspects when fighting on mounts. Our vision is also that your mount can get damage when you are riding it in combat, it may even die if not taken care of. Being able to steal mounts is also something we are discussing.

Will you be able to pickpocket a mount?
The mounts will be vulnerable to pick-pocketing, meaning you can steal from their saddlebags and such.

Will you be able to summon mounts?
The mounts won't be "pocketable", i.e. you can't put your mounts in your pocket. You could argue that there are spells/scrolls you can tweak to get a similar effect (i.e. Raise Steed), but for that to work you'll need a dead horse or such. But that's more of a special case.

will there be flying mounts?
I can't answer that right now.

can you eat your mount?
Theoretically yes. If you kill your horse, you can get its meat. And you can eat horse meat.

Are you planning on implementing mounted combat?
Yes. here Will be archery & magic mounted combat. We also have weapons only usable on certain Mounts.

are mounts race specific?
No. But I can think of a few examples where you could argue that they are - as being able to ride a mount depends on size, mentality and skill set of both mount and rider.

[Traceur]

server & engine architecture:

Next generation graphics
With Mortal Online we aim to take the MMORPG experience to a different level by creating a fantasy world that is believable and cruel, and that vision requires both realistic graphics and sophisticated gameplay.
To meet these highly set standards we use a state of the art engine as well as a comprehensive toolbox. Unreal Engine 3 is our weapon of choice, and together with Grome and Speedtree we are able to make our vision a reality: a world of detailed characters, realistic terrain, lifelike creatures and intricate detail all coming together to immerse you visually.

servers:
It is too early to give accurate information about our server types.
As Mortal Online is very much player skill based on real time, ping time is important. This will only give us some choices when it comes to server solutions. Unreal Engine 3 provides us with excellent frame rate with amazing graphics but as ping time is one of the most important factor, region based servers looks the best way to go. We don’t want lag to make you miss when striking at an enemy do we? More information about this will come later.
the U.K and American servers will not be different from each other, originally. But as time passes and people in the different worlds choose different paths, the worlds will be affected and thereby (most likely) end up different.

any instancing?
Depends on what you mean by instancing. I can't give you a full answer yet, but we certainly don't plan on any "instances" where you enter and can't be followed by any friend or foe.
I'm sorry, but it's really too early to tell how we will handle instances/zones. A lot of work is going on here at the moment. But I want to give you at least some idea of what we're dealing with:

When for example entering a city or a cave, a short loading time (and zone-splitting) gives us the opportunity to create really unique content for that zone, both visually and gameplay-wise. It could be specific buildings, creatures, mechanics and so on. This would benefits both PvP and PvE. However, if there are zones the transition must be handled very carefully as to not ruin the everyday PvP. Border-ganking is one of those issues. Another issue is of course that loading time (even as little as say 20 seconds) tends to spoil the feeling of a seamless world. We are of course trying our best to avoid them.

I personally feel that instancing is totally ok when it can be motivated in the game. To give you an example, Arena Fatalis, the large gladiator court in the capital city of Tindrem, will most likely be an instance. In role-playing terms, the arena will simply be "full" when enough people participate and/or spectate. I simply don't think it's necessary for a player to find out that it is "full" by walking in and watch it lag, and possibly spoil the ongoing fights.
However, more info on this later.

are there many artificial barriers? (can we climb the mountains?)
You will be able to climb mountains, if you train for it. But I can't give you a proper answer on "barriers" yet.

[Traceur]

Others: MMO market comparison & influences:

Will Mortal Online be another clone of that game?
Definitely not. There are two main categories in the MMORPG genre which are often referred to as “Theme Park” and “Sandbox” respectively.

The overwhelming majority of MMORPG’s today belong to the Theme Park category. A Theme Park is often carefully planned and can deliver some very unique attractions. On the other hand, the attractions usually require you to be of a certain age or length to ride them, you have to stand in line, and none or minimal interaction is needed from your part. Like a real theme park it always looks the same and chances are you grow tired of the rides after 20 times or so, unless the theme park creates new exiting rides to keep the park entertaining.

In a Sandbox game you are able to create your own rides, and you interact with other players most of the time instead of NPCs. Every time you play will be a unique experience as the player interactions determine the outcome, and the world changes and reacts dynamically to their actions. This type of game typically lasts longer, but requires more involvement by the players.

Mortal Online is a true sandbox game, and with its focus on a realistic graphic style and the deep skill- and PvP-system, it is far from the typical MMORPG fantasy games seen today. The open and player controlled world is just one of the many features that makes Mortal Online unique.

Is Mortal Online comparable to any other game out there?
It’s never easy to compare your work to others. The core team comes from the beta days of Ultima Online and wants to build a PvP game in the same spirit but with today’s technology. Some of the very first MMORPG’s had features we have always seen as primary for the genre, and we are surprised to see that so few have developed games based on those features since that time. In short, we find many of today’s MMORPG’s impressive and fun, but see most of them as “cooperative PvE” games with only rudimentary PvP functionality. This makes us even more determined to see our vision come true in Mortal Online.

I remember UOs “golden” days, it took me 2 minutes from I logged on my character and had some really fun moments at the “graveyard” PVP there was amazing. We are trying to capture that essence for excitements when it comes to PVP or thieving etc.
We differ somewhat in our opinion of the best mmo. Henrik would say UO without blinking. Me being more into PvE-with-PtP would say.. ..it hasn't been made yet. At least not in a fantasy setting.

Is Mortal Online going to be a lot like Ultima Online...But different?
A: That will be up to you to decide, and depends on which mechanics or gameplay you mean. We're not after cloning UO, if that would even be possible due to the move to first-person 3D. However there are a lot of mechanics and gameplay elements in UO that we like.

Is this game for the casual or hardcore gamer?
With its deep game system, Mortal Online will probably be regarded as hardcore by many, but we hope that our hybrid skill advancement system and freedom to choose your own style of play will appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers. Mortal Online won’t require you to put hundreds of hours of game play to be able to join your more experienced friends or contribute to the game world. However, Mortal Online is not a point- and click game where only the stats of your character decides the outcome of a battle, and that may indeed be regarded as too hardcore for some.

Any Pen & Paper influences?how's the PnP RPG influences in the dev team?
(by Lead designer: Mats) My personal background in PnP RPGs mainly comes from the Swedish PnP Drakar och Demoner (released 1980, and translates to "Dragons and Demons". It's not being made anymore.). This originated from Chaosium's BRP (together with Magic World) and evolved into a PnP series of its own with lots of different expansions and modules.

Although being the first PnP I played, the DoD (Drakar och Demoner) or more accurately the expansion "DoD Expert" ruleset has stayed with me until now and been the base for 90% of all my campaigns. I'm actually not sure how much of the original rules I'm still playing with though, as I have expanded them with I don't know how many pages (books?). Most importantly however is that for a very long time now I've felt that too much dice-throwing and numbers take away from the actual role-play, immersion and action.

The rules of DoD Expert where very basic at first sight, but as it was more of a base and a thought-through system for how to expand them yourself, I've never felt the need for another system. Even if I wanted a completely custom skill like "History of Ritualistic Architecture" for some purpose, it was obvious how to implement it and how it should work. And as I know the rules by heart, if I ever wanted to play in a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings setting, all it took was a couple of their rulebooks for inspiration (creatures, ships, type-of-skills, and the odd chart for thermal-grenade-efficiency-falloff etc), and then we played DoD-SW or DoD-LotR, which in my opinion worked in a much more logical way than the original rules did.

I remember saying in some post that I've never read the Dungeons and Dragons manuals, but that's not completely true. Of course I know the basics (from the PnP, not to mention the flood of digital offspring based on the same type of rules) and I've tried the game a few times as a player. However, I've never understood or liked them, at least the old ones I played. Levels? Classes? "Dragon Fire"- "Spell"- and Whatnot-resistance? Detailed die-throw charts for how the skill "Lockpicking" works, but no mentioning whatsoever of immersive skills like Fencing, Anthropology, Heraldry or Mathematics? And if I wanted to invent those skills myself, where should it put them? Next to the imaginative "Armor Class"?

I've read quite a lot of PnP rulebooks as I'm interested in the lore (but not DnD's, as already DnD-books with titles such as "Knights of the Silver Dragon" or "Key to the Griffons Lair" scares the hell out of me). Due to its grossly exaggerated setting, it is interesting to read the massive amount of lore in the Warhammer PnP universe, but due to the same reason I find it hard actually playing it.


I like most of my fantasy worlds and campaigns to be grave, believable and marked by sober sincerity. That's not to say there can't be humor, huge beasts or heroes in them: what I think is most important is to have contrast in the world - for me putting a dragon in every cave, or having all towers be a mile high doesn't mean that the world becomes more "epic", rather the opposite. Also, in most of my PnP campaigns, I make huge efforts to give my players the feeling that they are living in a world that is alive and that would exist without them, as opposed to them being the center of the world and the whole campaign. A book like the masterpiece "Thieves World" would be a great example of all of the above. (And for Mortal Online, seeing the slum-quarters of Vica Caducus in Tindrem become like the setting in the book would be a dream coming true.)

I would say my main fantasy influences comes from twisting our own world and our history. Movies, books, games and art, often of fantasy or SF nature but not necessarily, that can be fused into my PnP setting. For instance, I may borrow an idea from Miyazaki's anime Princess Mononoke but turn it into something "real" that would fit the visual style of the movie Gladiator.

So, I'm sad if I disappoint you, but I really haven't tried that many PnP's. I'm sure many players feel that the specific ruleset for a game is tied to the lore and setting (even if it's Star Wars PnP), and perhaps it's therefore they have played so many of them. But that's never been the case for me or any of the groups I've been GM for.