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Sword of the New World: Jon-Enee Merriex Dev Journal
Jon-Enee Merriex, a Game Master for K2 Network's Sword of the New World, stops by to give us this developer journal highlighting the game's "Multi-Character Control" feature.
Currently in MMO games you get one character to explore a world with, Sword of the New World gives you the ability to take control of up to three at a time. And unlike some single-player non-MMO games that allow you to do this, in SotNW you are always controlling all three characters. They live and die by your own hand.
What does Multi-Character Control allow a player to do?
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MCC allows a player to take control of three different characters at once. The player becomes responsible for leveling all three characters, including upgrading their skills, stances and equipment. MCC also delivers amazing gameplay variety. If you want to be a healer, you can do that. If you want to be a tank, you can do just that. If you want to become a damage dealer, you can do that, too. If you want to be more balanced with a little bit of everything, you have that opportunity as well.
The best part of MCC though has to be that no matter what, you are never really locked into any specific job or function. And, you don't have to spend tons of time or gold heading back to a class trainer to change your build. Instead. you can just head back to your family's quarters and change your characters. In internal testing, if there is a group of us and we're all playing on our solo builds, it usually takes less than a minute to determine what classes to bring and completely regroup for squad play.
How does MCC work with Sword of the New World?
Using MCC is pretty simple. When you log into the game you will be asked to select 3 characters from your family's quarters. Once that is done, you can enter the game world and begin advancing your characters.
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Movement is point and click. Click on the ground where you want your characters to move and they will move there. To attack, control + click an area on the ground and your characters will automatically kill everything on their way to the selected location. You can also select one monster by left clicking and all three characters will focus fire on that one monster until it is dead. To pick up loot dropped from defeated monsters, you can just control + shift + click an area and your team will collect all the loot assigned to you on their way to the selected location.
To use your character's skills, you may click the icons on the hotbar at the bottom of the screen or you can just hit one of the corresponding hotkeys. As the game progresses, it will become apparent that you will need to control one or more characters independently of the others. The game allows you to do that as well using the F9 key to toggle between "Select All" and "Individual" mode. "Select All" mode allows you to control all 3 characters at once while "Individual" mode will allow you to control 1, 2 or all 3 characters independently of the others.
What is the benefit of MCC with respect to party play?
While MCC seeks to lessen the pains of finding a squad, playing in a squad is still a very important and extremely fun aspect of the game. The biggest benefit of MCC with respect to party play involves teaming up with other players in order to take on more difficult monsters, which means better loot and more experience for all.
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What are the various AI modes?
MCC excels at scaling to the user. If you are a new user, various AI modes will take control of extraneous actions (such as auto targeting, auto attacking and looting). If you are an experienced player, you will want to be able to control who is being attacked and how. MCC's AI allows you to take greater control over combat as well. Most users will find a happy medium between the two styles and will most likely settle on something somewhere in between.
Is the player in charge of all three characters or do some of the characters act/react on their own?
You are always in charge to one degree or another, but sometimes you can set your characters to act/react according to the orders you give them. In general, you will have your characters on some sort of auto attack. Much like in any other game, auto attack requires only limited player interaction. You can also have the character auto target and auto attack. You can even have the characters auto target when you select their spells and skills to be cast. This all may sound like the player does very little but in reality battles are sometimes so fast paced that by the time you select your spell and select the area, the monster is dead... or you are. So the AI helps out a lot in those instances. It also allows you to focus on ALL 3 characters by not having to select individual targets all the time.
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What is one of the biggest benefits to having your own three-person team?
You will never have to wait for a healer. I think that is one of the best parts of SotNW. No matter what game you have played before, everyone knows the horrors of waiting to find a healer or leveling a healer solo. In SotNW, that is a thing of the past. You don't have to worry about finding a healer because most of the players will have at least one.
In addition to never waiting on a healer, having 3 characters breaks open the possibilities for customization immensely. You no longer have to choose to be only a healer, a dps'er or a tank. You can now specialize in one, do them all, or mix and match. And if you add the amazing stance system to MCC, you can really begin to appreciate how revolutionary SotNW truly is, though stances would be a topic for another post!
Article By:
Jon-Enee Merriex
Wish I could say I would go and buy this game, nice ideas, hate the graphics style and pnc isnt for me. However im sure there are people here who will love these concepts.
To the poster who asked about squad loot. Looting works pretty much the same way as WoW. There are different loot modes and you can obtain loot in many different ways.
So, after reading this again I noticed that the first questions first paragraph is repeated twice...
Ah people, it is still K2, the most dispised gaming company of the face of the globe.
If you want to play this game, check out the Singapore version, you will rue giving K2 any credit card info.
I keep hearing it and keep having to prove people wrong.
1. SOE is the most dispised mmo company and EA is the most dispised gaming company.
2. K2N has NEVER had an issue like Horizons had with payments. Your statement insinuate that they have had a CC Fraud issue and that is untrue (even the BBB agrees on that).
3. I have played GMO for over 2 years now and have not had one issue that K2 was not running all over themselves to help me with.
4. Check their website: www.swordofthenewworld.com The team on this game has really impressed me beyond what I previously thought of the game.
5. Play the SG version. Enjoy your lagged PvP. Ill play on the servers on my soil thank you very much.
The decisions that are made that typically make me angry at a mmo usually arent the sort of decisions that can be applied directly to the producer and expected to be repeated IMO. Usually the choices presented to a games developer are very unique and ultimately the choice is made by different individuals from game to game or from year to year, so applying a choice a big company has made for another game in another year to a game they are making today is just too much I think.
Hmm... this is very true...
I hate to admit it, but after playing SWG, I swore I would never play another SOE game again. The CS was the worst I had ever seen. Then... EQ2 came out and just for my own geekdom I had to play. Again their CS wasn't very helpful, but at least they were able to link me to where I could find anwsers and they were polite (which they had not been during the SWG situation).
I just closed my Vanguard account, and while I don't like the game (Sigil's fault), I can definately say that their CS was MUCH improved. One of their agents worked with me for an hour just trying to get the game to play right. I had not anticipated that. I recongize that as a LARGE amount of time. And to be honest I appreciated it, because in the end... I just wanted to play the game. I still canceled, but I can say their CS was much improved.
So, companies can and do change over time.
uhh..Anime? Those aren't anime graphics.
Anime:
Sword of the New World:Granado Espada
This is what anime graphics look like:
Gameloading, I'm sure theres lots of finer distinctions between modern Japanese cartooning but the graphics in Sword of the New World certainly remind me of all things anime.
Maybe it would be good for me to enjoy this game, as anime has become so popular these days I really should accept and find a way to enjoy it.
The second screenshot looked more like chibi art doesnt it? Thats a sort of sub type of anime I think; actually I think chibis are cute I've seen some funny comics drawn with chibis.
I think the thing that makes me relate sword of the new world to anime is the characters hair, nose and maybe the coloring/gradient/use of bloom on characters. I have to admit though the more screenshots I look at the less anime-ish the games graphics seem to be
I really have to say that SoTNW has some of the best graphics i've ever seen in an MMO. K2 may be hated, but maybe they actually made a game that will redeem them, huh, huh? Give things a chance before you FLAME IT!!!! I know i yell.... I think you all want to.
*COUGH*COUGH*
SotNW IS P2P!!!!
sgGE is still debating wether it should go f2p or p2p!!!!
hmm, game alone looks interesting, but im curious... is this the same K2 network, that hosts Knight Online ?