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PAX Interview with Mark Hill (Neverwinter Online)

As you know, this weekend is PAX East and our very own team of Chaotica, Pixyl, Discord and Uriain have been out getting the scoop, the lowdown and of course all the juicy gaming gossip for you to read, hear, salivate over and of course enjoy. And in the first of many interviews and fun times Chaotica spoke to Neverwinter Online senior producer about the upcoming free to play MMO from Perfect World.

Click below to see what happened and what to expect from the game.

 

 

Neverwinter Online is the next MMO coming from Perfect World and set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, it's currently in it's third closed beta for which SI Radio has been giving out codes too and also has an open beta coming “soon”. No date has been released for the open beta yet, nor has it for the game's release but senior producer, Mark Hill had a lot to say and a few secrets to keep.

 

First, the game will have that familiar MMO feel to it with the promise of an intuitive UI that will be easy to use and get to grips with for new and old MMO players alike yet will still be comfortable for those who are age old D&D players who've been playing the more traditional versions of the game. We were told that this was a difficult balance to achieve, but the team are confident that the system will work well for everyone including the most hardcore of D&D gamers.

 

As a fully featured MMO we can expect a lot of things such as partying systems, guild support and the usual community based features, and they'll all be there. Raid bosses have been promised, loot systems and gear has been promised and of course we can expect the usual dungeon crawling fun that the D&D franchise has bought for so many years. We were told that, although not all of these features are implemented in the current closed beta that this has been a difficult mix to achieve but Perfect World are happy with the feedback they're getting on how all this works and they are always updating the game and it's features.

 

We all know that PVE and PVP are both very popular in their own rights in MMO gaming, and in this weekend's beta they've actually opened PVP for us all to try. At the moment it's a 5 v 5 domination game with points to capture, and the usual battling, killing your friends and community fun you'd want from PVP, but one thing we were told is that PVP isn't going to be bringing special gear or any advantages to the PVE area of the game. So, it all looks like the PVP is just for the fun of it.

 

On the subject of gear, the tried, tested and obvious green/blue/purple/bind on equip loot system will be there in the PVE game. It's pretty much a staple of the MMO genre now, so again this will be a familiar sight and much welcomed by the MMO community as a whole.

 

Another staple of RPG gaming is crafting, and this will be in the game, but this is one of those afore mentioned secrets. Mark They were tight lipped on crafting, again not in the game but certainly in development and Mark Hill was very tight lipped on this one, but let's face it surprises are always nice, especially when people pretty much say that we'll like them. More details on crafting are due soon, but as it stands that's all we know.

 

Now, two of the most important things in an MMO (aside from thee buxom Amazonian wielding a sword almost bigger than herself) is the level cap and the classes. And No level cap has been announced for the full game or even the open beta, but for the closed beta it is set at 50. We have no word as to whether this will change or not but we are promised a levelling system more akin to the usual MMO style. We were told that this would roughly equate to 6 MMO levels being the same as 1 tabletop level. But it is difficult to equate that properly as it's not a perfect mathematical science but does in some ways offer a familiarity to both the MMO and tabletop gaming camps.

 

And of course there's those all important classes. There will be five in game, which are Devoted Cleric, Great Weapon Fighter, Control Wizard, Guardian Fighter and Trickster Rogue. To go with these there will be all the expected skills and power sets and skill trees that will allow for some customisation within classes and daily powers.

 

Finally, when questioned there was no word on any included familiar story lines or quest lines from classic D&D. Whether this will actually happen in game is nice to speculate about, but, hey this is the internet after all, it's designed to make our desires come true.

 

The open beta is to be announced soon, and the game proper which will be free to play will be launched at a mystery date.


This article was written from an interview between Chaotica and Mark Hill at PAX East 2013