Mortal Online Analysed

Star Vault, developer of upcoming MMO 'Mortal Online', has released a presentation revealing some key facts about the game, highlighting the main differences between it and other well-known MMOs such as World of Warcraft.

The aim of the lengthy presentation is set out right at the beginning: to make it perfectly clear that Mortal Online is no generic MMORPG:

“We would like you to please forget your preconceptions of MMORPGs. Mortal Online deviates from most modern fantasy MMO's, and although it contains a lot of elements from let's say World of Warcraft or Age of Conan, the playing experience is very, very different from those games.”

We've heard this claim from plenty of other game developers in the past, and sometimes we've even believed it, until we find ourselves in the game looking at the same UI, same mini map, same taskbar and so on. However, as the presentation goes on it becomes clear that Star Vault isn't just full of hot air. For instance, Mortal Online has no levels, no experience points, no quests, no 3rd person view, no global chat, no minimap, no instances and no dragons that drop swords.

What does that leave  for the game then? Player housing, for one thing. The Mortal Online world, Nave, doesn't have instances so these houses will spring up wherever players chose to build them, in true sandbox style. Star Vault state that Nave will be a very barren place to begin with, but it will populate over time as villages are formed by the community. Houses can be extended and even turned into shops with the addition of a vendor, or a guild headquarters and later a castle, if there is enough space in the surrounding area.

Star Vault hopes this dynamic environment will encourage player interaction. Trade will be a huge part of the game, as every single usable item in Mortal Online can be crafted. The crafting system is huge, and recipes or plans can be learnt by finding the items in the world, or researching, not just by training from an NPC. 

An example of the crafting system is given; To make a sword, players need to first make a head -  there are about 50 heads, 20 of them are sword type blades. Players must then choose from up to 40 materials such as iron, copper, bone etc. to make the blade from. Then for the hilt -  there are around 30 different handle shapes, allowing the creation of glaives, halberds or polearms as well as swords. Some of these handles can be used on their own as a staff or club. Handles have a core and a grip, so players need to chose from 20 materials for each of those. The quality of the finished weapon also depends on many variable factors, such as the quality of the materials and the skill of the crafter. Are you wondering roughly how many  possible weapon combinations that makes? 142,662,744, according to the presentation.