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Hero's Journey News - Exclusive Q&A #3, Screens #11
Posted by Dana Massey on Jul 12, 2005 | 5 comments in our forums
Simutronics Producer Melissa Meyer has taken the time to answer five more questions in our bi-weekly Q&A series. She has also provided us with two more exclusive screenshots in the 11th installment of our weekly screenshot series.
;) MMORPG.com [Renian]: Will there be quests in common areas (non-instanced)?
Melissa Meyer: There will be quests that occur in common areas, and there will be quests that start in common areas and wind up in instances. We also have special areas (such as Guild areas) that are somewhere between common and instanced in their nature, and quests take place there too. The cool thing about instanced areas is that we can do a lot of neat things in them that are not practical in common areas. For example, in an instanced area you can design quests with defined start and victory conditions that don’t require that you account for hundreds of other people wandering through that have nothing to do with the adventure. Often a quest just makes more sense in a instance anyway… because it’s your party going on the adventure! In any case, our technology allows for the GameMasters to continuously create new quests of all types (even forms we’ve not considered yet). |
You can read the full Q&A and view the screenshots here.
Perhaps. Or maybe it isn't a fist weapon, you just can't see the hand and handle. Although, I think its his helmet
. The screenshots are looking good, more importantly. Bit worrying about all the instancing in Hero's Journey, however.
I was worried about instancing when I first started playing City of Heros, comming from Lineage 2 which was a seemless world, I was worried that the world was going to be small and missions boring, but they did it very well. Allthough I must say I didn't like the way Guild Wars did their instancing. I felt restricted, and you had to beat one part of the world to uncover the next. That was stupid.
Also the people behind HJ have posted that they will also have a fair amount of the world un-instanced, which will let people choose for the most part.
Instancing isn't something you should be concerned about, it's how awsome are you going to make your character. With all the options they say they are going to have in their character customizer, I jsut can't wait.
:) Nice interview.
I especially like the part about the GM's and how they will be monitored. This is somewhat of a concern for me. I have played Simu games before and 99.9% of the times the GM's are freaking outstanding and if there ever is a problem it is resolved very promptly by a higher up. Some GM's are even known for being 'crude' and often times the GM will role play a crude gm. lol I know it sounds funny but I was at events where the GM would kill someone who spoke out of turn. Normally the whole crowd of people was hoping that someone would get killed because the infamous 'evil' gm was doing the work. It was even funny the time I got killed. ;)
BUT Simutronics is moving into a new area. They will be taking on many many new people to be GM's and these GM's will have a decent amount of power. It is nice to know that the issue of 'power abuse' is also on the minds of Simutronics.
I would like to point out, as someone who has applied to be a GM, that they definately do NOT allow just anyone in. I could tell by the questionaire that was emailed to me that they are definately looking for certain types of people.
And since I want only good GM's in game I will give you all the link where you can apply to be a GM, a graphic artist and even a member of the Hero's Council (This is a group that will be comprised of the leaders of clans from other games that will have [from my understanding] special forums where the Devs will interact with some of the playerbase's leaders).
Anyways, I'm rambling... here's the link... http://www.play.net/hj/info/apply/home.asp
Thanks Simu for answering our questions
I love that second screenshot by the way.