News from The Net From Alex van Kaam Over at http://www.rpgplanet.com with one of the creators of Caeron3000: Caeron3000 is a futuristic, massively multiplayer, online RPG being created by Magique Productions, a company founded by Thomas Scott in October 1999. Mr. Scott is both the President and Lead Programmer/Designer. He talks with us extensively about Caeron3000, which is currently at the alpha testing stage. RPGPlanet: Let's begin with character creation. How customizable will your character be? Will every character in the game world have their own unique appearance? Thomas: You will be able to do a lot of things to customize your character's appearance to distinguish him from everyone else. The following is a list of what is planned: Skin tone Hair color Eye color Facial hair Facial features such as nose, forehead, mouth, and ears 3 different body builds (slight, medium, large) Height Clothing RPGPlanet: Caeron3000 is a classless game, but a large list of skills is present for the player to specialize in. Players will be able to put skill points into skills of their choice during character creation. Is there any way to gain more skill points? Can you specialize in more than one skill without any limitations? Thomas: You will gain points to learn new skills by successfully completing missions and quests. These skill points can only be used to open up new skills. You may never take skill points and add them to existing skills. The only way to advance existing skills is to use them. Based on your various attributes (i.e. Strength, Intelligence, etc.) each player will have skill caps that limit them in how far they can advance in certain skill groups. Skill caps are modified by other factors including species. For example, the Darian race has an affinity for Scientific/Technical skills and can reach a higher proficiency at a faster rate. Other than your skill cap you will not have limiting factors when specializing in more than one skill. Check out the whole interview at http://www.rpgplanet.com/features/interviews/caeron3000/ - o - Gamespy has a chat with Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) about the cancellation of UO2 and the shutdown of Origin as a company, check out the chat at http://www.gamespydaily.com/news/fullstory.asp?id=1477 or read it below: "As everyone else has heard, I have heard that Origin is now shut down both as a name, which happened a few months ago, as well as the product Ultima Online 2, and the Harry Potter game and a variety of other services. For me, on the one hand, its very sad to see the company that I founded and shepherded for 20 years to basically be coming to a close as an era, so that's kind of sad. And also to see all of my friends... I've got 85 of my best friends that just got laid off. On the other hand, personally, it could be an opportunity in the sense that my non-compete [agreement with EA] runs out here in about 8 days, and I was debating how to hire a team to get back into the business and I know a lot of the best people, a lot of my best friends who were at Origin, were very committed to their team and to their project and to the leadership around them within that company. Of course there was a non-solicit clause in my non-compete, so it would have been difficult for me to build a team. Well, suddenly now it's not so difficult, so it's going to be interesting for me to go back to Austin and start up discussions with the large stable of close friends who are now looking for something to do, right about the time that I'm looking for something to do, so that should be fun." And read this little part from a chat with one of the game coders: "Electronic Arts has capitulated in the online war for market share in the massively multiplayer online game market. They capitulated. They gave up. There's a fundamental misunderstanding among EA top executives about what would make a successful massively multiplayer game in terms of bringing in revenue long-term. They went for the short term gain at a very extreme long-term cost." "The code for combat was done. Magic was done. Banking was done. Secure trading was done. The interface was completely re-written. We had a completely playable game that needed a huge balance pass but was certainly achievable. Beyond that, I leave you to draw your own conclusions about my current thoughts." Staying with Lord B, check out http://www.gamespydaily.com/news/fullstory.asp?id=1585 to read all about how and why he left Origin and EA and all that. - o - Over at RPG vault http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/specials/dsgamestock2001.sht ml is a preview of Dungeon Siege, a little bit of the game can be read below: Creator of the RTS hit Total Annihilation, Chris Taylor formed his own studio in mid-1998 called Gas Powered Games. Its current project was unveiled to the public for the first time at last year's Gamestock media event held by Microsoft. Despite being in the fairly early stages of progress at the time, Dungeon Siege drew considerable attention because of its non-stop action approach to the RPG genre, seamless integration of strategy elements, and inclusion of powerful editor tools that would allow end users to make their own adventures. The fact that the project was being headed by a well-respected and passionate industry veteran provided an additional spark to media anticipation. Taylor's extensive experience and the clear vision he held for the game certainly helped position it as a title with great potential, and one to watch closely. A scant two and a half months after the event, Dungeon Siege was shown again at E3. Solid progress was evident even within this short time frame, and it seemed that Taylor and his team were onto something that could hold mass appeal. Recently, the game made its second appearance at Gamestock, where GPG and publisher Microsoft projected it for release in the fall of this year. Not long after Lead Designer Chris Taylor discussed the game in the opening portion of the event in his usual animated manner, the game pavilion opened its doors to the press, revealing eager developers ready to explain and showcase their games to the public. The section with a cluster of Gas Powered Games team members was naturally one of our first stops. Once there, we were fortunate enough to get some hands-on playing time, which led to this Dungeon Siege Gamestock Report. In comparison to last year's demonstration, the game has been polished in several areas while the interface looks fully functional. The main menu proper is bright red in appearance against a black background. Standard choices such as single player, multiplayer, options et al are available. The build we played allowed us to control a single character in solo mode, but before entering the game world, we needed to customize our hero through the character generation screen. In this regard, a good range of choices are available. Face, hair and clothes can all be changed to suit your preferences for either gender. As one might expect, the female model was slim but stern in appearance while the male was burlier. The demo showed off some new environments as well. While players should obviously expect a fair amount of dungeon exploration, underground areas look poised to provide a great deal of diversity. After the seamless transition between different levels of environments was once again illustrated, we were treated to a glimpse of a dwarven mine that had been seized by monsters. It was an intricately detailed location that was made memorable by the mine tracks that populated a portion of the area. Here, the player party engaged in combat with the aforementioned golems. The party navigated some outdoor environments as well, like a wintry forest. Perhaps the best part of the demo was when a band of skeletons happened upon the characters. In true Chris Taylor fashion, they were completely obliterated by the hands of a dwarf armed with none other than a mini gun. - o - SirTech, the guys who have Finished Wizardry 8 are still looking for a publisher for the game, you can read all about it at http://www.wizardry8.com/index1.html - they have found a publisher for the Russian version but that is about it...... weird how a promising game can't seem to find a good publisher while we get swamped with crappy games all over the place..... Anyway Ironworks has a preview up of the game, so you can check that out at http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/previews/Wizardry8/wizardry8- preview-0320200 1.shtml and read a bit of it here: Wizardry 8 picks up where Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant left off. You may recall that all hell had broken loose at the end of Wizardry 7. The Dark Savant had taken flight with a device called the Astral Dominae, an incredibly powerful artifact containing the secret of life itself. Following him are two powerful races, the T'Rang and the Umpani, as well as your own brave party of adventurers. Everyone is headed to Dominus, a world on the cusp of the Cosmic Circle, birthplace of the Astral Dominae and home of the Cosmic Lords. Many paths will converge on Dominus, and many long-hidden secrets will be revealed. And don't worry, if you never played Wizardry 7, there will be a special intro for you to catch you up on what happened. The Graphics as I stated above, are great. You can go up to 1600x1200x32 screen res wise, and uses 3D Acceleration, with excellent effects such as Transparencies, Overlays, Lighting, Shadowing, Lens Flares and more! Another thing about the graphics is how 'clean' they look. The textures are extremely detailed, creating a very enjoyable world rendered environment! The monsters that I have seen, such as Crabs, Green Ooze, Scorpions and a few others look good as well. (Good polygon count) The interface is much like Wizards & Warriors except that it's scaleable! Something many wanted in W&W. You can choose from full screen view, medium view, and the old style (Wizardry 7 looking) small screen. Your party formation also plays a LARGE part in combat. The direction of the characters sight and the location in formation will decide if the enemy is reachable by melee attacks. Also, say one of your characters is very low on hit points, you can take a turn to move him into the back (formation change) and the others in your party can protect that character. As with most RPGs, you can click on the player portrait and get the stats and/or the avatar page with all your equipment and items. You will be able to wield two weapons as well (Depends on character class though) In closing, all I gotta say is WOW! This is one polished Roleplaying game, and if you overlook it when it's released, you'll be missing out on a great game with a story with depth, excellent graphics and sound, and finally -- It's from Sir-Tech! (Bows to them) So it seems it's a great game.......... hope they get a publisher ASAP then - o - Staying with a classic name, here is another preview of Pool of Radiance: http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0,10869,2715184 - 3,00.html The world of 3rd Edition D&D differs in quite a few respects from the 2nd Edition D&D we're used to in games such as Baldur's Gate II and Icewind Dale. All classes have their usual abilities -- like the ability to turn the undead for the cleric or better attacks and hit points for the fighter -- but one big difference is that characters now have more special abilities and capabilities. For instance, every character now gets to learn feats every three levels. Some feats even let you perform special attacks. For instance, if you learn the cleave feat, you get a bonus attack against any adjacent enemy any time you land a killing blow against an enemy. In effect, your attack is so powerful that you cut through your first target and continue on to slice his buddy standing next to him. Another feat is point blank shot, which gives you an attack and damage bonus with your ranged attacks when you shoot an enemy at close range. Other feats are passive, giving you constant bonuses. One feat, called improved initiative, gives you a bonus to your initiative roll before each combat. Unlike Baldur's Gate II, Pool of Radiance has turn-based combat, so each character has to go in order. Before each combat, your characters and the enemies all roll for initiative, basically rolling to determine who goes first. The improved initiative bonus often lets you act before the next character's turn. Other feats are defensive in nature, giving you bonuses on your saving throws to resist magical attacks. There will be about 17 feats in total, and each class will have its own feat list, although there is a lot of overlap in the lists. - o - Gamezone has another Preview of the Dragon Riders of Pern, which should be out real soon. http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/previews/apr01/drag n.html Anne McCaffrey games don't seem to be having much luck. The poorly received Freedom: First Resistance, based on a McCaffrey novel, wasn't exactly a triple-A title and indeed our very own Bruce Pulver lamented the hopeless enemy AI and 'stagnant gameplay' in his review. So when the imminent arrival of Dragon Riders was announced, another title based on the works of Mrs. McC, many skeptical GDR reviewers took to the hills while I, foolishly tricked into following a trail of midget gems, was hit upon the back of the head with a 3 Kingdoms manual. When I awoke, I found myself in a tiny cage with a computer and an early preview copy of Dragon Riders. A post-it note stuck to the screen said I wouldn't be let out until I wrote something loosely based on play time with this game. What they failed to realise, though, is that it's actually not that bad at all. For those who don't know, Pern is a world inhabited by mankind some time in the future. Unbeknownst to these settlers, however, once every 200 years a mighty comet passes, and in the tail of this comet lives a parasite known as 'Thread'. This parasite kills every biological substance it comes into contact with, and destroyed many of the settler's communities. Eventually, mankind was driven into the hills and it was there they were able to genetically modify a breed of fire lizard, the only creature able to fight the parasite. These new lizards were named Dragons, after the legendary Earth creatures. You play D'Kor, a young Dragon Rider who is sent on a quest to find a new Weyrwoman when the current Weyrwoman, Nalaya, mysteriously dies. Naturally there's more to it than this, and soon you're plunged into a world full of treachery and greed. If there's one feeling you get from DR, it's one of depth. A whole society, an entire culture has been created and modelled brilliantly in this game. At first, it's all somewhat confusing as a million names are thrown at you, and for all the sense they make might as well be Klingon. But persevere and you soon get drawn in. As it stands, however, Dragon Riders is shaping up to be the first decent adventure game since the last Monkey Island. If you're a fan of Pern, then there's little doubt that this should be top of your gaming shopping list when it hits the shelves, likewise for starving adventure gamers. Look here for the definitive review when it goes gold. - o - And to finish up here is a preview of the add on for Baldur's Gate II, the Throne of Bhaal as it will be called: http://www.pcgamerweb.com/previews/pc/bg2throne.html Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the true expansion to last year's highly acclaimed role-playing game isn't a true sequel, and as such, doesn't really constitute a third installment in a trilogy. But, expansions are surely cool, aren't they? Especially for the lovers of the original game. As you can remember or not, Baldur's Gate 2 had 200 hours of gameplay that kept the RPG fanatics near the PC desk for hours and hours. But it seems gamers wanted more, and Bioware is already hard in works in an expansion. Since Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhall is an expansion, you'll need to have Baldur's Gate II installed in order to play, and Throne of Bhaal picks up immediately where Baldur's Gate II left off. Actually, part of the expansion -- a massive dungeon called Watcher's Keep -- will be accessible even before you've finished the main Baldur's Gate II quest. Altogether, the expansion will comprise at least 40 additional hours of gameplay. - o -