 | In our eleventh Q&A, Producer Melissa Meyer answers our questions In addition to today's screenshots we also have four more answers from Hero's Journey Producer Melissa Meyer as our bi-weekly Q&A series continues. This week she answers questions on naming, underwater areas and mounts. | | MMORPG.com: | Mounts have been mentioned as a means of transportation. Is there any chance we will see a variety of mounts, not just horses, and what kinds of mounts might those be? | | Melissa Meyer: | Because travel in Hero’s Journey will be inherently more convenient, there will be less dependency on mounts for transportation. They will certainly be useful for such, but players will probably enjoy their role in combat a bit more. Similar to items, mounts will provide a player with additional abilities while the mount is in use. The player will likely find some of their typical abilities unavailable, as they would be inappropriate for mounted combat. (A jumping, spinning attack may be fun on the ground, but it’s a whole different thing while trying to balance on the back of a horse.) As with all inventory, players will be able to select the appearance of their mounts as well as advance their mounts abilities. Types of mounts that will be available is still undetermined. |  | | MMORPG.com: | Music often plays a substantial role in creating the atmosphere in a fantasy game, and often MMORPG developers hire world renowned composers to create music for their games. Frequently, the music is dynamic, allowing it to change from a traveling score, to a combat score, to an idle score depending on what you are doing in the game. Who is composing the music for Hero’s Journey, and how will music be handled in game? | | Melissa Meyer: | Music is being composed in house along with help from our GameMasters. The music in Hero's Journey follows the cultural lines of the races and groups within the game. Each race, Human, Ilvari, Stoneborn, Suwari and others have particular styles and instrumental preferences. Where Human music is jovial, pointed and strong often using concertinas, guitars and tamborines, Ilvari music is beautiful, delicate and soul reaching played on wood flutes, harps and double stringed lutes. Songs composed in these styles will be heard in taverns and inns, played by bards and minstrels. Many of the songs will be available to be purchased or learned from travelling bards, and playable by your character if they have an instrument to play. In addition to the cultural music, dynamic background music will be done, changing with situtation of your character and influenced by the nature of the danger as well as the strength of the threat. | | MMORPG.com: | Many MMORPGs force you to deal with a single, short name for your character, or artificially limit you to a first name until a certain level is reached. In almost all games, you are forced to choose a different name from everyone else, resulting in characters named John, Jon, Johhn, Johnn and so forth. How does Hero’s Journey deal with the naming dilemma? | | Melissa Meyer: | Players will all have first names that are unique to each game world (what others call shards or servers.) There will be restrictions built in that prevent the most obvious of naming infractions, but we will also be monitoring names to ensure that all names meet our naming standards. Our standards will be available for review at any time. There are a wide variety of ways a player may further customize their name once in the game. They may join a clan and take on the clan’s family name, and there are a wide variety of ways to earn pre- and post-titles: Guilds, Advancement, Special Awards, etc. We’re not sure if anyone has solved the dilemma of limited names. We’re willing to hear any ideas out there. |  | MMORPG.com
[Stradden]: | Recently, certain games have made spectacular use of underwater and swimming abilities. Should we expect to have our HJ characters take the plunge? | | Melissa Meyer: | Hero’s Journey will have swimming. Currently, there are no plans for swimming beyond simply allowing it, but it’s a good area for future expansion. We will, of course, also have other water-based activities such a quests aboard sea-going vessels, the ever-popular fishing, and some other surprises. | | Thank you to Melissa for taking the time. If you have any comments, please post them here. |
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