Mortal Online

Q: Are there any plans to change the way Encumbrance and Equipment weight are handled in Dawn? Currently the encumbrance limits the variety of armors, and almost making the heavier ones unusable.

Henrik: Big Changes, the way carry weight is handled is changed in Dawn. Players are able to carry a bit more in their inventory without getting encumbered. There are also two new primary skills that increase the ability to wear heavy armor without suffering a penalty. Meaning that you can build a very solid Tank type character and still be competitive in PvP, opening up space for heavy armors to be desirable by some players. At the same time the impact that heavy armor has on mana regeneration is increased; wearing exceptionally heavy armor will cause the mana regeneration to almost grind to a halt even if you have the skills that allow you to wear heavy armor without encumbrance.

Q: Has anything been done to archery? Right now a lot of players have been complaining about the "Random Shot Circle".

Henrik: In Dawn the entire random circle is removed from Archery, instead there is a small wobble in the bow, that increases the more you move. If you manage to release the arrow exactly on the pixel, the arrow will fly right to that pixel. Good archers will be able to hit players with deadly precision. While there are no other changes to the way Archery is handled besides numerous bug fixes, we want to see how the community responds to this new archery before any other changes or balancing is made.

Q: Previously it was mentioned that horses will have their own minds, what did you mean by that?

Henrik: Each horse has it's own intelligence level which is dependent on it's family, and in the future this trait is breedable, making it possible to make a smarter and smarter animal. Intelligence is the primary factor of how the animal will respond to the environment and danger like cliffs or trees. If you are running into a tree, and don't do anything, the mount will want to avoid the tree and will steer away from the tree. If the horse becomes too scared and starts to avoid everything, it's best to put on blinders to make the horse easier to control. Also once the stamina on a horse is depleted, you can still push the horse to continue running, however health will be used instead, making it possible to ride a horse to death. Depending on the intelligence of the mount

Q: Will the way you control the horse be different?

Henrik: Controlling a horse is not static in Dawn, right now there are static three gears. The horse will take it's own actions if you approach a very scary creature or if you are about to run off a cliff. If it's a dumb animal it will not be as aware of it's environment. The actual control is very similar to the Shadow of the Colossus. If you want the horse to go forward you have to whip the reigns, and if you do this too fast, the horse could potentially stand up on it's two hind legs screaming. This makes it important to have a proper mount that you know the limits off, since if the horse rears up during battle, it will put you in danger. If you do not give any commands to the horse, it will slow down to a speed it's comfortable with so it doesn't lose too much stamina. Also different families of horses will react differently to danger, making it the player's job to find out which horses have what reactions.

Q: How long will it take to convert all of the animals to the Gene System?

Henrik: There are hundreds of different families, with skills tied down to each one. However to build the core system takes a long time, which is what we have been doing in Dawn for the horses. Once we have the pipeline created to add new families with all of the art and skills in place, it shouldn't take anywhere as long to add new families as it did with the horses. However I can't say an exact date on how long this entire process would take. The end goal is to allow an artist to just add creatures as soon as they are complete.

Q: Are there any new sounds in Mortal Online?

Henrik: We have a new sound artist, he is still getting accustomed to our workflow and our pipeline however there is some new stuff in the jungle making it more interesting and alive and also a bunch of new ambient sounds. Post Dawn there are also some new feedback sounds that play depending on how much a player is carrying, making it possible to identify someone who is transporting a lot of goods just by sound.

Q: What exactly is the new tutorial, and what can we expect from it?

Henrik: Pretty much a standard tutorial of where new players have tips that pop up as they are performing different actions for the first time. They don't spawn in a protected area on an island, we are not sure if we want to do something like that. Veteran players have the option to disable these tutorial tool-tips, but for new players they will be essential in providing guidance as to what to do.

If you have any questions please send them to me via PM, with "[QUESTION] Subject" as the title.