Phobos is near finished!
- Thread starter Emanresu
- Start date
Oh how I would love to map for this server D;
ItWasAllMe
Banned User
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- Feb 15, 2013
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same sprites as zezenia wtf ?
Looks neat 
. I like how all the sprites are custom.
Red
. I like how all the sprites are custom.Red
Combat, especially player-vs-player (PvP) combat, is a topic which divides players. It has also divided the staff. It's clearly a topic of interest though, because after “when are you releasing?”, one of the most common questions we get asked is about PvP combat. And since Andre has done an amazing job with drawing our spells and spell buttons, it seems a shame not to share this with you.
Personally, I love PvP. Not for the loot, or for the power, or for the ‘glory’ (if you like); but for the interaction with other players in something challenging and variable. Because the possibilities with PvP gaming are so much more varied and unpredictable and exciting than PvE combat could ever simulate. So really, there was no question about whether we should have it or not.
When designing our combat system, we decided upon a few essential key concepts. Each of these is discussed in detail below.
Player skill vs. character skill
Probably one of the earliest and most important things that we decided upon was the need to find a good balance between ‘player’ and ‘character’. What we mean by this, is that although the character’s skills (i.e. experience level, skills/attributes, spells/feats learnt, etc.) are very important, the skilfulness of the player (the person behind the keyboard) must have an effect on combat too. Even the strongest and best-built character should be nothing without a good, knowledgeable player controlling it.
To achieve this, we plan for combat with all classes to focus very much on spells and feats. Once you’ve learnt a particular spell/feat, you may select it by pressing a hotkey. However many spells will require aiming in order to cast them. Obviously self-acting spells like healingare an exception to this and don’t have to be aimed.
Moderate healing spell
Fury buff spell
Buff and debuff spells will be extremely effective when used in the right situation, and the range of buffs and debuffs available will encourage PvP combat to be varied and unpredictable. Importantly, whilst buffs and debuffs may be stacked, this puts a lot of strain on the caster. So if you are going to cast more than one buff at the same time, then you'd better have some potions ready, because this will very quickly drain your mana.
Usability
The hotkey bar
A poorly-designed combat system is annoying for the user. An annoyed user will probably either quit, or cheat. So convenience and usability are paramount to making our combat system work. Players will be able to move around using the arrow keys, WASD, and mouse, and we plan to allow players to customise almost all keys as spell/feat hotkeys to make combat in Phobos feel as natural as possible.
Unrestricted (mostly)
On PvP worlds, it should be possible to attack and be attacked by other players almost anywhere. The exceptions to this being in the starting area (Timar), inside temples, banks, boats, and a few other special locations.
We have no plans to add any sort of global automated PvP-restriction system, as far too many games have proved that these systems are easily abused and invariably bring with them as many problems as they solve. Importantly though, we do plan to restrict PvP slightlyinside cities using NPC city guards.
Long live the King!
These guards will challenge players who they see fighting (i.e. hit them with a big sword until they kill the player or the player leaves the city). Having said that, not all city areas are regularly patrolled. You may even find that some guards can be persuaded to leave their posts for a short time and turn a blind eye to whatever evildoings you have planned, for the right price, of course.
Some guards are more helpful than others.
The idea is that this will provide a small amount of protection, especially around banks and the common areas that players congregate. That said, it is not our plan to make it safe to leave your computer whilst your character is logged in, in any PvP area.
Of course, when there is enough demand for it, we will add a non-PvP server. We will also be considering adding another slightly special PvP game world type.
Minimise the appeal of aimbots
Tackling cheating is all about weighing up the risks and rewards in the minds of players. Because we want a requirement for skill, it is sadly inevitable that some time in the future there will be an aimbot for Phobos. Obviously we will be doing our best to limit third party software in any way we can technically and through in-game rule enforcement with a zero-tolerance approach. But that is a backwards strategy, as we will always have to play catch-up with cheaters.
Zero-tolerance for caught cheaters.
So although we won’t be modelling Phobos on expected illegal software, it is something that we have considered in the design of our combat system. We’re looking for a PvP system which will minimise the benefit of using aimbots in a way that doesn’t damage the experience for fair players (easily said, not so easily done). As mentioned earlier, a large part of this is ensuring convenience, because a poor combat system actually encourages players to cheat.
Also, you will find that a large number of spells, including many (but not all) of the stronger spells which will be used in PvP combat are small 'area of effect' spells (e.g. area of effect of 3x3 sqm). This will make aiming at a moving target much easier, but will still require precision and timing from the player.
We’re not naive enough to think that we can deter all aimbot users, but we do hope to minimise it and the advantages they get from it.
Economy
The player economy should be tightly linked with combat. This is another longer-term aim which will be properly added later with the introduction of a crafting system. However to reduce any imbalance caused by the ability of a single class in crafting a consumable, the current plan is that crafting skills will not be class-specific.
Various potions and equipment useful in combat.
We will have some spell scrolls. These will be single-use objects which a player has to click to activate. However they won't be "shootables". Instead, the plan is that some very strong and potentially abusable spells will require a spell scroll in order to cast them. By clicking a spell scroll, the scroll is activated. This temporarily ‘unlocks’ that spell for the caster. The player can then cast the spell using hotkeys as usual (i.e. a domination spell scroll must be activated in order to cast the spell: domination). Importantly though, we don't plan for scrolls to be very common and so they probably won't be used much in normal gameplay.
Summary
We’re hoping that a combination of all these things should give us the interesting, skilful, varied and fast-paced combat that we’re looking for.
Fhew, well I know that was a bit of a wall-of-text. So well done if you managed to read it all. But what do you think? Do any of these plans worry you? What problems do you expect us to come across with this system? How would you like to see us deal with these problems?
Yours,
Before diving into this teaser, I'd like to start with an apology.
A few months ago, we hinted that we were aiming to get Phobos beta-ready by the end of the year. With regret, it is clear now that that is not going to be possible.
The problems with creature targeting that we have mentioned before turned out to be a symptom of a much larger problem. And as many of you have noticed by lack of updates in the to-do list, working on this has meant that programming progress has been halted. It's going to be another few weeks before this problem is properly cleared up.
Right now, we can only apologise for this. Even if we didn't officially 'promise' a beta server this year, we did say that we were aiming for it. And pretending that that wasn't a promise of sorts would be insulting the incredible support and patience that so many of you have shown us. Again, sorry. As soon as this problem is sorted out, we will let you know.
Teaser – Creatures
We discussed last month how important it is to have a solid and enjoyable combat system, especially for the purposes of PvP. We’ve not neglected PvE either though. Our resident creature/outfit artist, Alenius, made most of the 65 creatures and several bosses that we have. We will be showing off just a small selection of these in this teaser.
The first part of this thread will discuss the current situation. The rest should describe our vision for PvE combat and creatures in the future.
Current situation
Once the server programming problems are sorted, the basic AI system required for beta should be pretty much working. What that means is that non-hostile creature will try to keep away from players, close-combat creatures will run towards you, and distance/magical creatures will stay at a distance and shoot. This is a simple system for beta, but we'll definitely be looking to expand and improve it in the future.
There will be bosses at release. And they will be strong. So strong in fact that to defeat most of them, you’ll have to fight in a party, and be well organised. Of course, in the beginning, bosses will have basic AI. But again, we will be looking to improve that in the future.
Advanced AI
Apart from just improving the way monsters fight individually, another possible future direction for improving AI in many creatures would be to change the way creatures fight when in groups.
Of course, this should effect different creatures in different ways. Zombies may 'swarm' to attack a single player; with the combined effort of several zombies much increasing the chance of incapacitating a player with a poison debuff ability, before they try to do any real damage. Wargs may keep their distance and surround a player before going in for the kill. Intelligent creatures may have a basic battle strategy, may heal one-another, or may protect the magicians or weaker distance shooters... just like players would.
One possible future AI addition is groups of Wargs encircling a lone target before attacking.
What this will mean is that fighting groups of creatures may suddenly become much more challenging, but also more interesting and immersive.
Bosses
We don't want bosses to be just normal creatures with some extra health and stronger attacks. Boss fights should be dangerous, varied, but also very rewarding.
Most liches were once great shamen who craved power. Whilst pursuit of power is only natural, to pursue it blindly, beyond the boundaries of mortality, is to surrender yourself to the dark arts of necromancy.
Bosses will also play a large part in the dynamic world concept that we’ve explained in a previous teaser, along with being involved in various quests. We are also keen to add some special behaviours for bosses, such as adding several 'phases' in a boss battle, in which the boss will behave differently.
A dynamic world... but with some persistence (!)
Our dynamic world concept means that it is inevitable that some creature spawn locations may change slightly over time. But don't worry, not all areas will be affected by this, and many changes will just be temporary (although that will often depend on the players' response).
Minimise the appeal of cave bots
You’ll all be familiar with the way that experience works in most MMORPGs: kill a small creature, get a little bit of experience. Kill a big nasty creature, get a lot of experience. Well, that’s a good concept, but it neglects to consider the influence of automated levelling tools such as cave bots (or farm bots). Last month we gave you a few of our thoughts on discouraging aimbots. Of course, we have also considered how game design might be used to discourage the use of cave bots.
What makes these bot tools so successful is that most MMORPGs reward players for
completing simple, mindless repetitive tasks, again, and again, and again, and again, and again,
Whilst killing maggots and rats from level 1 to 50 (max level) would drive a human mad, bots don’t mind so much. We do understand the importance of character development and having to put time and effort into creating a strong character. But we also don't think that it should be possible to do this effectively by hunting creatures far below your level, in a situation where your character is not in any danger of death whatsoever. So, we’re going to try a slightly different experience-gain system.
It will work like this: the amount of experience you gain from killing a creature depends on your level. So, the higher your level, the smaller the amount of experience you may gain from low-level creatures. For example: killing a spiderling (a level 5 creature) would usually provide 35 experience points (you cannot gain more experience than that for killing a spiderling). However once you get above level 11, the experience you may gain from spiderlings quickly drops.
The idea is that this will discourage a large amount of cave botting. Of course, as this doesn’t affect loot dropped, we do expect that there will be players who use bot programs to ‘farm’ gold on secondary accounts. But nonetheless, this should decrease the usefulness of cave bots and will certainly encourage players to hunt in areas suitable and designed for characters of their level. And you can bet that we’ll be keeping a particularly close eye on any players who still regularly hunt creatures well below their level.
Summary
We aim for these features to ensure that PvE combat is diverse and challenging. And that we are able to minimise the negative influences of cheaters where possible, so long as it doesn't damage the experience for fair players. As with many features, the exact details will be experimented with during beta, and we'll be looking to you to help us get it right.
As usual: over to you. What do you think? Do any of these plans worry you? Do you like the sound of bosses who can only be defeated by teams? What are your thoughts on lowered experience for creatures much weaker than your character?
Yours,
A few months ago, we hinted that we were aiming to get Phobos beta-ready by the end of the year. With regret, it is clear now that that is not going to be possible.
The problems with creature targeting that we have mentioned before turned out to be a symptom of a much larger problem. And as many of you have noticed by lack of updates in the to-do list, working on this has meant that programming progress has been halted. It's going to be another few weeks before this problem is properly cleared up.
Right now, we can only apologise for this. Even if we didn't officially 'promise' a beta server this year, we did say that we were aiming for it. And pretending that that wasn't a promise of sorts would be insulting the incredible support and patience that so many of you have shown us. Again, sorry. As soon as this problem is sorted out, we will let you know.
We discussed last month how important it is to have a solid and enjoyable combat system, especially for the purposes of PvP. We’ve not neglected PvE either though. Our resident creature/outfit artist, Alenius, made most of the 65 creatures and several bosses that we have. We will be showing off just a small selection of these in this teaser.
The first part of this thread will discuss the current situation. The rest should describe our vision for PvE combat and creatures in the future.
Current situation
Once the server programming problems are sorted, the basic AI system required for beta should be pretty much working. What that means is that non-hostile creature will try to keep away from players, close-combat creatures will run towards you, and distance/magical creatures will stay at a distance and shoot. This is a simple system for beta, but we'll definitely be looking to expand and improve it in the future.
There will be bosses at release. And they will be strong. So strong in fact that to defeat most of them, you’ll have to fight in a party, and be well organised. Of course, in the beginning, bosses will have basic AI. But again, we will be looking to improve that in the future.
Advanced AI
Apart from just improving the way monsters fight individually, another possible future direction for improving AI in many creatures would be to change the way creatures fight when in groups.
Of course, this should effect different creatures in different ways. Zombies may 'swarm' to attack a single player; with the combined effort of several zombies much increasing the chance of incapacitating a player with a poison debuff ability, before they try to do any real damage. Wargs may keep their distance and surround a player before going in for the kill. Intelligent creatures may have a basic battle strategy, may heal one-another, or may protect the magicians or weaker distance shooters... just like players would.
One possible future AI addition is groups of Wargs encircling a lone target before attacking.
What this will mean is that fighting groups of creatures may suddenly become much more challenging, but also more interesting and immersive.
Bosses
We don't want bosses to be just normal creatures with some extra health and stronger attacks. Boss fights should be dangerous, varied, but also very rewarding.
Most liches were once great shamen who craved power. Whilst pursuit of power is only natural, to pursue it blindly, beyond the boundaries of mortality, is to surrender yourself to the dark arts of necromancy.
Bosses will also play a large part in the dynamic world concept that we’ve explained in a previous teaser, along with being involved in various quests. We are also keen to add some special behaviours for bosses, such as adding several 'phases' in a boss battle, in which the boss will behave differently.
A dynamic world... but with some persistence (!)
Our dynamic world concept means that it is inevitable that some creature spawn locations may change slightly over time. But don't worry, not all areas will be affected by this, and many changes will just be temporary (although that will often depend on the players' response).
Minimise the appeal of cave bots
You’ll all be familiar with the way that experience works in most MMORPGs: kill a small creature, get a little bit of experience. Kill a big nasty creature, get a lot of experience. Well, that’s a good concept, but it neglects to consider the influence of automated levelling tools such as cave bots (or farm bots). Last month we gave you a few of our thoughts on discouraging aimbots. Of course, we have also considered how game design might be used to discourage the use of cave bots.
What makes these bot tools so successful is that most MMORPGs reward players for
completing simple, mindless repetitive tasks, again, and again, and again, and again, and again,
Whilst killing maggots and rats from level 1 to 50 (max level) would drive a human mad, bots don’t mind so much. We do understand the importance of character development and having to put time and effort into creating a strong character. But we also don't think that it should be possible to do this effectively by hunting creatures far below your level, in a situation where your character is not in any danger of death whatsoever. So, we’re going to try a slightly different experience-gain system.
It will work like this: the amount of experience you gain from killing a creature depends on your level. So, the higher your level, the smaller the amount of experience you may gain from low-level creatures. For example: killing a spiderling (a level 5 creature) would usually provide 35 experience points (you cannot gain more experience than that for killing a spiderling). However once you get above level 11, the experience you may gain from spiderlings quickly drops.
The idea is that this will discourage a large amount of cave botting. Of course, as this doesn’t affect loot dropped, we do expect that there will be players who use bot programs to ‘farm’ gold on secondary accounts. But nonetheless, this should decrease the usefulness of cave bots and will certainly encourage players to hunt in areas suitable and designed for characters of their level. And you can bet that we’ll be keeping a particularly close eye on any players who still regularly hunt creatures well below their level.
Summary
We aim for these features to ensure that PvE combat is diverse and challenging. And that we are able to minimise the negative influences of cheaters where possible, so long as it doesn't damage the experience for fair players. As with many features, the exact details will be experimented with during beta, and we'll be looking to you to help us get it right.
As usual: over to you. What do you think? Do any of these plans worry you? Do you like the sound of bosses who can only be defeated by teams? What are your thoughts on lowered experience for creatures much weaker than your character?
Yours,
The Rental Market
This time we would like to share another planned feature of Phobos: housing and the rental market. Everyone wants somewhere to sleep, right?
First off, why sleep?
When sleeping you will slowly regenerate you health and mana slowly until it is filled up, or you login. Also, Noble Account characters who have slept long enough to be 'fully rested' will get a "rested bonus". This means that your mana and health points will regenerate slightly faster than usual. Of course, this bonus will wear out after a while and regeneration will return to its normal state.
So, what can I rent?
Well, since all property belongs to the Crown no one else can really own anything. But since King Eirim is such a nice guy he lets the Nobility rent off of him.
Houses
In all towns and cities there are houses and flats which may be rented for a reasonable monthly fee to Noble Account players. Some houses and flats may have special benefits such as:
Clanhalls
Clanhalls will work very much like houses, as many of them may function as hostels, and some may also be used as merchant houses as well. Of course, clanhalls may only be rented by clans.
Inns
Most inns have a selection of guest rooms or a dormitories available with beds which all players will be able to rent for the night. Simply pay a small fee to the innkeeper, depending on the length of your stay, and you will receive a key which allows you access to one of the rooms. You may also find that certain other NPCs with a free room or bed may also be persuaded to let you use it for a night. For a fee of course, or maybe a favour?
Short-term rentals
As the name suggests, these rentals are just for a few hours. Short-term rentals will be available for various public buildings and rooms, such as bars, market stalls, churches and temples, and even arenas and other halls. Short-term rentals will mainly serve for events and parties that you might not want to throw in your own house, but that you still want to keep some control over!
House for rent in Mirai
So, how does this work?
If you are interested in renting, you will simply have to approach the clerk in the area where you wish to rent and ask him what properties are available in the local area. A window will then open where you can browse through the vacant houses, clanhalls and short-term rentals.
For short-term rentals you will be able to choose to either rent the location immediately, or reserve it for a specified period of time in the future. For houses, flats and clanhalls you will have to initiate or join an auction.
Auctions
An auction will start the moment the first interested player makes a bid and lasts for 7 days. Any other player with enough money in their bank account may try to outbid others during an auction, and the player with the highest bid by the end will win.
Prices
The rent amount will be decided by certain factors, such as location, size and number of beds. The exact rent price will also fluctuate somewhat according to the changing market and nearby events. Exactly how this will work out is still not set in stone.
Flats at Central Market in Empo Sar
Special benefits
Hostels
As the owner of a clanhall or large house, you may be able to sublet beds out to other players. As the owner, this will mean that you are no longer able to access the subletted room, unless the subletter allows it. When single beds are subletted in a dormitory, the owner may move freely around the room, however only the subletter may use their bed and storage chest. A hostel-owner may rent out beds for a night at a time to any player, not just Nobles.
Merchant houses
Certain houses and clanhalls will allow you to open a shop or bar by hiring a shopkeeper/barkeeper NPC. You will be able to add items to the NPC's stock, set prices and even control whether your NPC will trade with anybody, or just certain individuals. These NPCs won't work for free of course, so be sure that you have some good stock before looking to hire one!
Thief's Court in Empo Sar
Moving & selling
At some point you might want to move out and sell your home for various reasons. This can be done by simply not paying rent for the next month, by selling it to another player directly, or even by putting it on the open market.
That's it for now, and I hope we'll see a healthy discussion in the thread below. Input is greatly appreciated!
Yours
This time we would like to share another planned feature of Phobos: housing and the rental market. Everyone wants somewhere to sleep, right?
First off, why sleep?
When sleeping you will slowly regenerate you health and mana slowly until it is filled up, or you login. Also, Noble Account characters who have slept long enough to be 'fully rested' will get a "rested bonus". This means that your mana and health points will regenerate slightly faster than usual. Of course, this bonus will wear out after a while and regeneration will return to its normal state.
So, what can I rent?
Well, since all property belongs to the Crown no one else can really own anything. But since King Eirim is such a nice guy he lets the Nobility rent off of him.
Houses
In all towns and cities there are houses and flats which may be rented for a reasonable monthly fee to Noble Account players. Some houses and flats may have special benefits such as:
- Hostel: Includes the possibility to sublet rooms or beds.
- Merchant House: Includes the possibility to run a shop or bar.
Clanhalls
Clanhalls will work very much like houses, as many of them may function as hostels, and some may also be used as merchant houses as well. Of course, clanhalls may only be rented by clans.
Inns
Most inns have a selection of guest rooms or a dormitories available with beds which all players will be able to rent for the night. Simply pay a small fee to the innkeeper, depending on the length of your stay, and you will receive a key which allows you access to one of the rooms. You may also find that certain other NPCs with a free room or bed may also be persuaded to let you use it for a night. For a fee of course, or maybe a favour?
Short-term rentals
As the name suggests, these rentals are just for a few hours. Short-term rentals will be available for various public buildings and rooms, such as bars, market stalls, churches and temples, and even arenas and other halls. Short-term rentals will mainly serve for events and parties that you might not want to throw in your own house, but that you still want to keep some control over!
House for rent in Mirai
So, how does this work?
If you are interested in renting, you will simply have to approach the clerk in the area where you wish to rent and ask him what properties are available in the local area. A window will then open where you can browse through the vacant houses, clanhalls and short-term rentals.
For short-term rentals you will be able to choose to either rent the location immediately, or reserve it for a specified period of time in the future. For houses, flats and clanhalls you will have to initiate or join an auction.
Auctions
An auction will start the moment the first interested player makes a bid and lasts for 7 days. Any other player with enough money in their bank account may try to outbid others during an auction, and the player with the highest bid by the end will win.
Prices
The rent amount will be decided by certain factors, such as location, size and number of beds. The exact rent price will also fluctuate somewhat according to the changing market and nearby events. Exactly how this will work out is still not set in stone.
Flats at Central Market in Empo Sar
Special benefits
Hostels
As the owner of a clanhall or large house, you may be able to sublet beds out to other players. As the owner, this will mean that you are no longer able to access the subletted room, unless the subletter allows it. When single beds are subletted in a dormitory, the owner may move freely around the room, however only the subletter may use their bed and storage chest. A hostel-owner may rent out beds for a night at a time to any player, not just Nobles.
Merchant houses
Certain houses and clanhalls will allow you to open a shop or bar by hiring a shopkeeper/barkeeper NPC. You will be able to add items to the NPC's stock, set prices and even control whether your NPC will trade with anybody, or just certain individuals. These NPCs won't work for free of course, so be sure that you have some good stock before looking to hire one!
Thief's Court in Empo Sar
Moving & selling
At some point you might want to move out and sell your home for various reasons. This can be done by simply not paying rent for the next month, by selling it to another player directly, or even by putting it on the open market.
That's it for now, and I hope we'll see a healthy discussion in the thread below. Input is greatly appreciated!
Yours
I was wandering through the world of Erasan earlier today, and I asked myself the question: what’s actually left to do?! Because in this world I can now walk, talk, sit, fight, trade, gain levels and skills, cast spells, complete quests, and almost get killed by a group of maggots which have 'mysteriously' discovered the secrets of fire magic.
Although we’ve given you a to-do list, we’ve kept you mostly in the dark about our exact progress. But take a seat at the bar, and I'll explain exactly what is left to do.
Programming department
The internal alpha test has seen some amazing progress thanks to hard work from both Robbert and Tobias. The most recently completed server feature was a group/party system. In terms of what’s left on the server side there are only a few more features which need to be completed, most notably: item effects on a character (meaning potions, eating food, etc.), improved monster/boss AI and the guardian admin interface. But those features aside, server focus from now on is mainly going to be bug fixing and content (meaning creature/item stats, spells, damage formulae and a hell of a lot of balancing). Balancing will be an ongoing thing, of course. But we hope to be able to straighten out any major problems during the ongoing alpha and future beta test server. The client is also nearing completion with just a few features left, most importantly: private messaging and improving the spellbook.
Graphics department
As you can see from the to-do list, the remaining material for graphics is in environment, buildings and items/equipment. The environment and buildings part are also graphics required to map the final area which will be accessible at release. The remaining 5% in items/equipment is mainly quest items and a few extra armours which are necessary for balancing.
Writing department
As in the to-do list, our NPCs are almost all done, and the final 5% on the to-do list is largely error checking. On top of that there are a few more NPCs being added which are required for certain quests. There will also be some small adjustments to NPC conversations to make NPCs more ‘human’ and generally easier to interact with; but that isn’t actually required for release, and so will be left until later. Similarly, the final 5% in books is really just spelling and grammar checking. As I've said before: quests are the only area where I feel that the writing department is behind. But we're working on that.
As far as the map is looking, with the few new graphics that are required the last 5% will take about a month, plus time to fix map bugs. Fully implementing the transparent water that you might have seen in a teaser a little while ago will also take a bit of time on top of that. But still, I think you'll agree that it’s a price worth paying.
So, just one question...
How much are you looking forward to playing Phobos in 2012?
Yours,
Clans & Organisations
In addition to doing our regular jobs with spriting, programming, mapping, quest-writing or NPC-writing, we still have a few debates going on on our private development boards. Today we want to share one of the debates that we're soon to close, namely player self-organisation. Player self-organisation is a vital part of any MMO, and we plan to include two different ways to help you organise yourselves and your fellow players. Through either clans or organisations.
So, what is the difference? Well, the main difference is that clans will be exclusive, while organisations will not. This means that a character can only be member of one clan at a time, while it may be part of as many organisations the player wants. But that's just scratching the surface.
Clans
A clan is according to wikipedia "a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent." In Phobos a clan can naturally not be based on kinship or descent, but it is still the strongest way of uniting players under a common banner. This is also why a character can only be a member of a single clan at a time. In addition to the list of features found further down that organisations and clans share, clans have access to our Diplomacy system, and may rent clanhalls which can be found in cities, towns and close to popular hunting areas.
Organisations
Again, according to wikipedia an organisation "is a social entity that has a collective goal and is linked to an external environment. The word is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon which means "organ" – a compartment for a particular task." Organisations in Phobos is a tool for players who wish to organise themselves for a certain purpose, but who don't want to leave their clan. This could be to organise a special event, or to work for a common goal in the long-term. Because of the non-exclusive nature of organisations they do not have access to the diplomacy tools clans have and they may not rent clanhalls.
Common feautures for clans and organisations
Riverview Manor, Yethil
Founding clans and organisations
The requirements for forming a clan or organisation will be basically the same. You need a founder, and a minimum of two co-founders. The founder and all the co-founders must have a Noble Account, and be at least a tier 2 class (Page or Apprentice). Together the founder and co-founders must approach the local clerk that will issue a clan or organisation charter, for a price of course.
Powers
In our system we have decided to let the clan or organisation decide for themselves how they want to divide their powers, whether it be the ability to add new members, manage the homepage, access the bank account, or even declare war. This means that any of the possible powers may be given to any rank within the clan or organisation. The only exception to this is the Founder status. The Founder status may only be held by one person at a time, and this status allows the player complete control over the clan or organisation.
Enora's Keep, Arferniel
Diplomacy
In our diplomacy system we differentiate between three levels of relationships between clans.
Neutral is the standard relationship between all clans.
Two or more clans may sign an Alliance treaty. The terms of an alliance may vary and each treaty is unique. The following terms are negotiable:
Alliances are allowed a common in-game chat channel and a private forum board.
War is the most drastic way of solving a dispute between two or more clans. A declaration of war must, however, be mutual before any action may be taken against either clan.
Of course, declaration of war or not, standard PvP rules will apply to all on PvP servers. But we want declaring war to unlock certain features which would make battling your enemies more... convenient. The exact features that will be included are still up for debate, so if there are any clan or alliance features not mentioned here that you would like to see in-game please feel free to leave your thoughts on this below.
Yours
In addition to doing our regular jobs with spriting, programming, mapping, quest-writing or NPC-writing, we still have a few debates going on on our private development boards. Today we want to share one of the debates that we're soon to close, namely player self-organisation. Player self-organisation is a vital part of any MMO, and we plan to include two different ways to help you organise yourselves and your fellow players. Through either clans or organisations.
So, what is the difference? Well, the main difference is that clans will be exclusive, while organisations will not. This means that a character can only be member of one clan at a time, while it may be part of as many organisations the player wants. But that's just scratching the surface.
Clans
A clan is according to wikipedia "a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent." In Phobos a clan can naturally not be based on kinship or descent, but it is still the strongest way of uniting players under a common banner. This is also why a character can only be a member of a single clan at a time. In addition to the list of features found further down that organisations and clans share, clans have access to our Diplomacy system, and may rent clanhalls which can be found in cities, towns and close to popular hunting areas.
Organisations
Again, according to wikipedia an organisation "is a social entity that has a collective goal and is linked to an external environment. The word is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon which means "organ" – a compartment for a particular task." Organisations in Phobos is a tool for players who wish to organise themselves for a certain purpose, but who don't want to leave their clan. This could be to organise a special event, or to work for a common goal in the long-term. Because of the non-exclusive nature of organisations they do not have access to the diplomacy tools clans have and they may not rent clanhalls.
Common feautures for clans and organisations
- Homepage on the official website
(With logo, description, blog/news, member list, diplomacy, statistics and private forum) - Bank account
- In-game chat channel and 'notice board' for important messages
Riverview Manor, Yethil
Founding clans and organisations
The requirements for forming a clan or organisation will be basically the same. You need a founder, and a minimum of two co-founders. The founder and all the co-founders must have a Noble Account, and be at least a tier 2 class (Page or Apprentice). Together the founder and co-founders must approach the local clerk that will issue a clan or organisation charter, for a price of course.
Powers
In our system we have decided to let the clan or organisation decide for themselves how they want to divide their powers, whether it be the ability to add new members, manage the homepage, access the bank account, or even declare war. This means that any of the possible powers may be given to any rank within the clan or organisation. The only exception to this is the Founder status. The Founder status may only be held by one person at a time, and this status allows the player complete control over the clan or organisation.
Enora's Keep, Arferniel
Diplomacy
In our diplomacy system we differentiate between three levels of relationships between clans.
Neutral is the standard relationship between all clans.
Two or more clans may sign an Alliance treaty. The terms of an alliance may vary and each treaty is unique. The following terms are negotiable:
- Length of treaty (can last from 1 day till unlimited)
- Degree of cohesion
- Request: When one alliance member is part of a war it may send a request to other alliance members to join in.
- Required: Alliance members are automatically part of any war the other alliance members are a part of.
Alliances are allowed a common in-game chat channel and a private forum board.
War is the most drastic way of solving a dispute between two or more clans. A declaration of war must, however, be mutual before any action may be taken against either clan.
Of course, declaration of war or not, standard PvP rules will apply to all on PvP servers. But we want declaring war to unlock certain features which would make battling your enemies more... convenient. The exact features that will be included are still up for debate, so if there are any clan or alliance features not mentioned here that you would like to see in-game please feel free to leave your thoughts on this below.
Yours
I hope that this makes up for the lack of april-fools. That would just have been too easy
Classes II
Back in February we introduced the class system and class tree. We've added concept images to that class tree and I would now like to go into detail about the eight 'tier 3' classes: knight, rogue, marksman, ranger, cleric, shaman, wizard, sorcerer.
The following extracts have been kindly provided by Guildmaster Thom Alingson of the Guilds of Learning, Empo Sar.
Knight
Rogue
Marksman
Ranger
Cleric
Shaman
Wizard
Sorcerer
So, which class will you take?
Yours,
The Forgotten Presents I
So, another Christmas almost gone!
You've already unwrapped all your presents and have eaten so much that your belly is fit to burst at any moment! It’s all you can do to sit up on your chair and gaze around the room drowsily, the lights on your Christmas tree twinkling slightly in the winter evening gloom.
Only then do you notice the small mound of presents piled up neatly under the tree still.
“Where did these come from? How did I miss these?!” You ask nobody in particular.
You grab the nearest present from the pile and shake it enthusiastically next to your ear, hoping to get a clue as to what’s inside.
You rip off the wrapping paper and stare expectantly at the rather dull looking box which now lies before you in a sea of torn-up wrapping paper. Finally, after the box fails to do anything exciting, you open up the top of the box and tentatively peer inside...
Yours,
Back in February we introduced the class system and class tree. We've added concept images to that class tree and I would now like to go into detail about the eight 'tier 3' classes: knight, rogue, marksman, ranger, cleric, shaman, wizard, sorcerer.
The following extracts have been kindly provided by Guildmaster Thom Alingson of the Guilds of Learning, Empo Sar.
Knight
Whether as a calm, steadfast tank, or a volatile, raging juggernaut; the knight’s ability with melee combat is second-to-none. With a great number of melee feats at their disposal, knights overcome their enemies through strength and fearless resilience. The knight’s main weakness lies in their inability to comprehend more than the very simplest of magics; knights are restricted to using mainly buff spells to aid their effectiveness with melee combat.
Rogue
Rogues are followers of the mid- and close-combat disciplines; able to sneakily weave their way through a group of enemies and throw a knife with astounding accuracy upon one target before disembowelling the next with a light melee weapon before the enemy knows what has hit them. Rogues are especially adept at incapacitating their enemies with a few well-aimed blows before finishing them off with a single final attack. Though not as deadly from a distance as a marksman, nor as tough or forceful as a knight, rogues are well practised in both distance and light-weapon melee combat, making them formidable opponents in both close and mid-distance combat.
Marksman
Marksmen are unsurpassed experts in the various forms of distance combat; using bows, crossbows and firearms to bring down their enemies in the blink of an eye. A number of different feats are available to the adroit marksmen, ranging from fearsome barrages to deadly poisoned precision shots. As quick, nimble warriors, marksmen tend to stay on the edge of the fray - utilising hit-and-run tactics or exploiting their speed to put distance between themselves and their enemies. Although even when in a close combat situation, marksmen still have a few tricks up their sleeves.
Ranger
Rangers are able to use distance weapons with great precision, but are also patient students of magic. The main strengths of a ranger lie with combining magical and physical distance attacks; using magic to alter the power and to imbue projectiles to cause extra damage or disorientate their enemies. Rangers also have a good appreciation of the natural world, which they may often use to their advantage, especially in encouraging wild creatures to do their bidding.
Cleric
Clerics seek a balance between the ferocity of melee and the fascinations of magic. Whilst not as physically attuned as knights may be, clerics are able to utilise their magical knowledge and combine their abilities in order to execute various devastating melee feats, spells and enchantments. By combining their knowledge, clerics may enchant their weapons and perform dazzling feats even the most skilled of knights would not usually be able to. Of course, not specialising in magic alone, clerics are not as talented magicians as shamen, wizards, or sorcerers. Nonetheless, clerics may protect and heal their fellow warriors, making them crucial team members in group battles.
Shaman
Shamen are natural magicians with a focus on witchcraft and curses. While they may not have such a huge arsenal of attack spells as the wizard and sorcerer, shamen more than make up for it with a impressive selection of supportive spells to drain and weaken enemies to bring them to their knees. Shamen exploit the power of nature and are able to bend it to their will, even allowing them to control the minds of other creatures. Some unspeakable black magics may also be used as the tools of the shaman, making them formidable opponents indeed.
Wizard
Many years of study has made these students of magic masters in their art. However wizards must often plan their method of attack carefully, as they may have to build up their strength to use their most powerful spells, however this also allows them to harness some more unusual and arcane magics which defy understanding by the other magical classes. A skilled wizard may choose to rain down upon his enemies with destructive powers of great force, or to take a more subtle approach, by paralysing their enemies or even cloaking themselves from the view of unfriendly eyes.
Sorcerer
Sorcerers are masters of the elements, and their knowledge of them is the greatest of all the classes. Practised sorcerers may form all manner of elemental forces to hurl at their enemies; from blazing fireballs to bitter-freezing waves of ice, from bolts of lightning to earth-shattering quakes. However, a sorcerer’s focus is largely aggressive, making them particularly vulnerable to attack themselves, even more so perhaps than the other magical classes.
So, which class will you take?
Yours,
So, another Christmas almost gone!
You've already unwrapped all your presents and have eaten so much that your belly is fit to burst at any moment! It’s all you can do to sit up on your chair and gaze around the room drowsily, the lights on your Christmas tree twinkling slightly in the winter evening gloom.
Only then do you notice the small mound of presents piled up neatly under the tree still.
“Where did these come from? How did I miss these?!” You ask nobody in particular.
You grab the nearest present from the pile and shake it enthusiastically next to your ear, hoping to get a clue as to what’s inside.
You rip off the wrapping paper and stare expectantly at the rather dull looking box which now lies before you in a sea of torn-up wrapping paper. Finally, after the box fails to do anything exciting, you open up the top of the box and tentatively peer inside...
Yours,
Over the past few days we have been running an internal alpha test server to work on stability. This test server is open to staff only. Thanks to a lot of bug finding from staff, and some great work from our programmers, we're gradually seeing less and less of this:
However there's still a lot to clean up and too many missing features to even consider a public test server. I know that I promised you more information on the classes, and we'll get that to you as soon as we can. But for now, we thought that it would be nice to show a little bit of what we've been up to (minus any crashes, bugs and errors!).
Hmm, this looks familiar.
Sheep don't seem too friendly at the moment though...
... I did find the ruins of an old city, but zombies seemed to have taken it over, so I didn't stay long.
Instead I set off to walk the long road to the big city they call, Empo Sar.
But when I got there it seemed to be deserted... *sigh*
I wonder when more people are going to arrive... *stares out to sea hopefully*
Yours,
Teaser – The Dynamic World
We have mentioned before how the map, quests and NPCs in Phobos are all based upon the history and lore of the world. However that is not the end of the story. This is because in Phobos, the world will be a ‘dynamic world’. What this means is that over time, the world will change. Changes will usually be made gradually through regular updates. These changes may be unavoidable from a player's perspective - the will of the Gods, if you like - but in many cases the end result will depend on the actions of players. Allowing players to influence how events turn out is going to be a major part of game content.
As years pass, you will find that the merchant NPCs that you know so well will be replaced by their sons and daughters. New settlements may be built in safe and prosperous areas or around strong guildhalls. Wars may bring fire to the world, shatter cities and force empires to their knees. The Gods may one day be generous and benevolent, but maddened and furious the next. Brave new worlds shall be born. But fragile old ones shall die.
A quiet lodge in Firlow is taken over by a group of orcs.
The dynamic world events (or world evolving events) will help to build communities, friendships and allegiances. Because players’ actions have consequences, and those consequences may change the world forever. The concept of world quests and events isn’t a new one. However we plan to take this concept further than it is being used in MMORPGs at the moment. In doing so, we hope that this will help to make Phobos quite special and much more attractive to play as a 2D MMO.
Yours,
Outfits
The concepts for the various outfits in Phobos are based on the various classes. Each class has an outfit, and at release that outfit will be the only outfit available to the player (plus a noble outfit for Noble Account players). Players will of course be able to customise outfit colours.
All players will start off with the citizen outfit.
The first promotion will result in the player becoming either a page or an apprentice. Characters who become pages will then use the page outfit, and apprentices will use the apprentice outfit.
After the second promotion, the player's outfit will again change. Again the outfit available depends on the class chosen. So sorcerers will only be able to use the sorcerer outfit, rogues will only be able to use the rogue outfit, etc.
The concepts for the various outfits in Phobos are based on the various classes. Each class has an outfit, and at release that outfit will be the only outfit available to the player (plus a noble outfit for Noble Account players). Players will of course be able to customise outfit colours.
All players will start off with the citizen outfit.
Citizen
The first promotion will result in the player becoming either a page or an apprentice. Characters who become pages will then use the page outfit, and apprentices will use the apprentice outfit.
Page
Apprentice
After the second promotion, the player's outfit will again change. Again the outfit available depends on the class chosen. So sorcerers will only be able to use the sorcerer outfit, rogues will only be able to use the rogue outfit, etc.
Knight
Rogue
Marksman
Ranger
Cleric
Shaman
Wizard
Sorcerer
Skills
The old system of slashing/piercing/hacking proved to be too confusing and using separate elements for magical skills simply made it too difficult to balance classes. So instead, the physical skills are as follows: swords, daggers, hammers, polearms (including axes), defence, archery,throwing, firearms.
Kurt, the Page Guild leader in Timar
The magical skills are: nature, destruction, protection, support. You can probably work out more or less what each of those skills contains, so I won’t go into any more detail with that right now.
Arian, the Apprentice Guild leader in Timar
Skills are raised over time and use, so may be trained up. However if you want to increase your skills fast, then standing with a friend and repeatedly bludgeoning each other in the face with a weak weapon isn’t the way to go.
Attributes
Attributes are the general qualities of your ingame character. We have split this simply intostrength, dexterity and wisdom. Many of you will be familiar with what these mean from other games:
Strength is how strong you are (shocking, I know), so characters with a high strength will do more damage with melee weapons and are able to wear heavier armors.
Dexterity is how good a character’s hand-eye coordination is and how agile they are. Having a high dexterity skill increases the damage from distance attacks, and will raise the chance of a successful hit from any attack.
Wisdom is how intelligent the character is. So this is the attribute most important to magic users. Higher wisdom means greater magic attack damage and defence.
Unlike skills, attributes cannot be trained up. Instead, whenever a player levels up in experience they get a set number of ‘attribute points’ to spend on attributes. Apart from affecting how much damage you do, the choice of attributes will also influence the HP and MP gained at each level up. So choose wisely.
Now of course, this means that on reaching max level, no more attributes can be gained. But this also means that you get a certain amount of flexibility with how you build your character, whatever class you are.
Yours,
In the picture above you can see the new client interface. As you can see there are many changes.
- It will be possible to have different kind of settings of spells
- You're able to use emoticons in the text (they can also be turned off)
- Text can have different colors.
- You will be able to make screenshots with a PNG format instead of BMP
- The framerate is adjustable.
- The red bar is a connection indicator. If it turns red the connection is very bad.
-The orange bar is the new experience bar, the skill list can be opened in a popup.
- On the left you see lists for friends and parties.
- On the bottom right you see your inventory.
- The two slots are for your right and left arm.
There are many new things which can be told about it, but please don't ask questions about the user interface yet. it's still not finished and some parts might still get modified for better use.
The great thing about this new interface is that everything is made graphical instead of using shaded lines to create depth. Another new modification that has been made to get a more intense game feeling is that the unused space has now been moved outside of the actual gaming area (not between the inventory but to the right of it). Below I've added some more screenshots to see how these new wide-screen features work out in the game.
screenshot #1
screenshot #2
screenshot #3
I hope you all like this teaser and I hope you all understand that we are busy and can't all work as much as we would like.
Kind regards,
Myth Entertainment.
And finally !!
This time, we would like to present to you an important feature which will greatly affect the gameplay – in a positive way.
For those of you who are new to MMOs, a level cap is a fixed maximum level. For example, if the level cap is set to 20, a player won’t be able to gain levels above 20.
In Phobos we'll start with a level cap of 50.
In order to avoid having a lot of players who have the maximum level, the level cap will occasionally rise, making it possible to gain more levels.
Some of you might be thinking “BUT WHY? OH WHY!?”, but the answer is pretty simple; we encourage role-play and teamwork. You will require the help of your friends in order to hunt the stronger creatures and that again requires trust and loyalty.
The fact that a lot of people will reach the same level eventually is inevitable, which is why you will still be able to advance your skills without limitations. In Phobos, the skills and weapons will be much more important than the level you have.
Moreover, there will be an additional level cap for Timar Valley, which will put to 20.
We chose to use a level cap because it is a counter-measure to power abuse and botting, but more importantly because it increases the value of role-play, teamwork and supplies. You won’t be able to simply reach a higher level than anyone else, but you will still be able to become the strongest.
!!This time, we would like to present to you an important feature which will greatly affect the gameplay – in a positive way.
For those of you who are new to MMOs, a level cap is a fixed maximum level. For example, if the level cap is set to 20, a player won’t be able to gain levels above 20.
In Phobos we'll start with a level cap of 50.
In order to avoid having a lot of players who have the maximum level, the level cap will occasionally rise, making it possible to gain more levels.
Some of you might be thinking “BUT WHY? OH WHY!?”, but the answer is pretty simple; we encourage role-play and teamwork. You will require the help of your friends in order to hunt the stronger creatures and that again requires trust and loyalty.
The fact that a lot of people will reach the same level eventually is inevitable, which is why you will still be able to advance your skills without limitations. In Phobos, the skills and weapons will be much more important than the level you have.
Moreover, there will be an additional level cap for Timar Valley, which will put to 20.
We chose to use a level cap because it is a counter-measure to power abuse and botting, but more importantly because it increases the value of role-play, teamwork and supplies. You won’t be able to simply reach a higher level than anyone else, but you will still be able to become the strongest.
English Gmaeplay?
Quote:
ZeroCoolz: Hello Aeris! <smiles>
Aeris: Just a second... Ahh yes! Now what can I do for you?
ZeroCoolz: Do you have a task for me?
Aeris: In fact, I could use some help. I'm trying to create a new potion, but I need some more ingredients. Could you help me?
ZeroCoolz: Of course! Yes!
Aeris: Wonderful! I need 3 rat tails, 5 pieces of fresh cheese and a wolf paw to finish my potion. Please come back when you have them.
ZeroCoolz: I'm going to find them for you, good bye!
Aeris: Have a nice day, ZeroCoolz!
< ZeroCoolz starts to look for the requested items >
ZeroCoolz: Hi Aeris.
Aeris: Two more of those, and... Oh! Didn't see you coming.
ZeroCoolz: I finished the task!
Aeris: Have you got the ingredients I asked for?
ZeroCoolz: Yes, I think so.
Aeris: It looks like you didn't bring the ingredients I asked for. I asked for 3 rat tails, 5 pieces
of fresh cheese and a wolf paw to finish my potion.
ZeroCoolz: Oh, when you say so I did forget a thing or two. I'll be right back! Bye!
Aeris: Goodbye, ZeroCoolz.
< This time ZeroCoolz made sure he remembered all the items >
ZeroCoolz: Piew! Hello Aeris!
Aeris: A little more of that and.. Ohh! Hello there, ZeroCoolz!
ZeroCoolz: I've finished the task for real this time!
Aeris: Have you got the ingredients I asked for?
ZeroCoolz: Yes! Yes I have them! <proud>
Aeris: Great! You brought them just in time. Here, take these as a small thanks.
ZeroCoolz: Thank you very much Aeris! I really appreciate it! Farewell!
Aeris: Have a nice day, ZeroCoolz!
ItWasAllMe
Banned User
- Joined
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n1 thanx for super long useless text saying the game is exactly like tibia
