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Rift : Interview with Chris Mancil
Posted Jun 04, 2009 by Keith Cross
While at E3 Trion Worlds revealed that for the past few years they have been working on Heroes of Talara, and new fantasy mmorpg that is expected to launch in 2010. Dana Massey had the opportunity to talk to Chris Mancil, the game's Director of Community Management, while at the conference.
For many years, the only thing anyone knew about Trion Worlds was that they had raised a lot of money. At E3 2009, the company finally revealed their first major MMO project, an epic fantasy game called Heroes of Talara.
“At its heart, Heroes of Talara is about making heroes,” said Chris Mancil, the game’s Director of Community Management.
It’s a line many games have used, but Trion has a new idea on how to achieve it. On top of regular MMO quests, one core feature of the game is dynamic quests where players should have a chance to change the world and get recognition for it.
Read more here.
Sounds interesting. Wish you guys would include information on whether it will be primarily catering to the hardcore or casual crowd.
It sounds like they are taking an idea that started in Ultima Online with the random monster invasions of Brittania. But then adding a Warhammer Online style contribution point system. It's a very good idea.
Hopefully they do more then just city/town attacks.
Like an enemy fortress/camp will appear off in the wilderness outside of a town/city and players will have to band together to go and attack it, if they don't, the enemy becomes stronger and then attacks the city/town.
That kind of stuff.
I like the idea of being able to switch classes, to potentially level each class to the max is an interesting take on the practice of making alt toons.
The idea of these sub-classes is interesting. Sounds like these cards will add abilities and statistics to the characters primary class in order to change/alter their role.
It's kind of like a respec, but with more options then traditional talent trees. I just hope the degree of hybridization doesn't go TOO far so that your primary class choice is not relevant. Like a Warrior (tank) who picks up healing abilities through his sub-class cards shouldn't be able to be a raid main healer for example, but if well geared pull off healing a smaller group dungeon or be very well suited for solo play self-healing.
Very intriguing. I look forward to hearing more about this game.
[Mod edit]
Interesting, it sounds like they are implementing a similar form of FFXI's job system with the classes being swappable on the same character, subjobs, and gear swapping when you switch classes. This game has me interested ^^
The website makes it sound like there will be pvp with factions fighting over territories to control rewards =D
WOW. Just wow. From what was said about this article Im somewhat sold already. Real live non coordinated world changing quests?! That is one thing I always dream about when I go to sleep. The ability to dinamicly change your class on the fly to take on a new or different challenge is also a welcome addition as well as changing classes without making a new character.
This game is interesting, I hope we get some screenies or trailers of it in action.
Sounds really interesting. I like the art and screenshots, and I love the job/subjob and job swapping system in FFXI so it could port well here. It keeps all areas of the world populated and not just end game areas on older servers. I hope it is a little difficult with some required grouping, but I will definitely keep an eye on it.
I hope that they have some important centralized cities ala jeuno in FFXI allowing large mixes of players and not segregating more advanced characters from lower leveled ones.
Something else I just saw browsing Trion's site is the development of 2 other mmo's. A MMORTS, and a MMOARPG in coop with scifi channel with a show that will blend with the world. Both sound cool. Link - www.trionworld.com/studio.php
Saw the E3 trailer and thought: Meh, another EQ2 lookalike with WoW gameplay.
After reading the interview the only thing i had on mind was: dynamic, world changing quests. That you and your guild can change the world in an MMORPG would be totally mind blowing and furthermore set a template for devs to pick up on the idea in other releases.
Read somewhere Trion raised up to 100 mil from investors. In truth its probably no more than 40, although i think thats even too much. Anyway if they pull it off, i'd definitely give it a go.
Hope they deliver... We heard a lot of promises of innovative gameplay before so ill be sceptically keeping an eye on this game, but i have to agree with previous posters: its definitely INTERESTING.
I've been itching for a game with some solid PvE elements that breaks from the usual mechanics. this may be worth watching.
I hope they introduce some nice community features - taverns/drinking, gambling, etc etc.
The town event sounds very interesting if indeed it is dynamic. Meaning that if no one saves the town the demons will take over and inhabit the town.
However, the contribution system for the event reeks of abuse. Spending an hour fighting demons and fires just to have some maximum level come in and own the boss and get everything I worked for would really make me angry.
The multi class system does not interest me in the slightest. Didnt like it in FF11 havent liked it any other MMO ever. Yeah, you can fill multiple roles on the same character but your character has no indentity.
The sub class cards I dont know. Depends on how they are implemented.
Yeah, its early to making judgements like this but if this the first MMO to maximize the potential of interesting concepts or not let features to be degraded by abuse or half assed implementation then I will be very surprised.
Been let down by upcoming MMOs that have "potential" far too many times to not imagine how things will turn out for the worst.
Is there any word if it will be point-n-clic ( or Tab) to auto-lock during combat, or will combat flow more naturally with twitch-based user targetting?
They seemed to indicate it would be the familiar style of hot bar and auto attack so it should be pretty standard of what is already out there.
Yeah right they are innovating. Oh yeah it has classes and levels.......LOL.
Just another Everquest/Wow clone with some minor changes. Love how these developers try to put the innovative spin on something that is almost devoid of any innovation. The dual class stuff is only slightly different than Runes of Magic.
When are they going to wake up to the fact we are tired of the same old crap. Why can't someone think outside the EQ/Wow box?
I never played FF, but "swaping careers" sounds a bit odd, great of course if you are in need of a melee dps instead of a tank if the only group or guildy is a tank etc.
With regards to the hero - I hope it is not just the one doing the most damage becoming a recognized hero, in the case of the village/demon example, the healers e.g. who don't do damage but keep the "hero" alive would be pissed off after a while and career switch to something else. Just imagine: "please, we need a healer, can't you do it? no, why don't you switch careers, I want a hero recognition for once...."
Otherwise, yes, sounds definetly interesting. I'll be on the lookout for more info in the future.
Because the EQ/Wow box is very popular and proven to make a lot of money.
If you want to invest the 10s of millions of dollars it takes to make a AAA MMO and try something different, go ahead.
I suppose though you think Darkfall is innovative....
Hmm if its truely dynamic it could be an intresting succesor to the traditonal mmorpg however it will probably boil down to something like Warhammer onlines public quests which would mean this is a very unexicting game.
I saw it yesterday on gamespot and went to look it up. Looks promising. Ill keep my eye on it.
I would like to check this one out once it gets out of the Hype stage.
Real time environment changes without instances sounds like a promising step forward in the genre.
This dynamic design is the true future to mmos. This game will be the next WoW if it pull this off.
Now this sounds interesting. I will be watching it.
So if I wanna be the best hero i should play the best dps class so i can deal more dps and then get more recognition? How lame is that?! The job system is gonna be gimp as hell unless they somehow avoid the almighty Ninja crutch that FFXI had. Meaning for those who havent played FFXI. Having a subjob system was a pain in the ass considering if you just wanted to play a Black Mage(wizard) then sorry to bad in order to be the best black mage you can be you have to play a White Mage(healer) which is a class you may want to play or absolutly dread! When most anyone gets into an MMO they decide upon a class they want to play like a Rogue and then take off. When they hit level 16 they dont want to have to feel the need to go do a subjob quest and then level a class they have no interest in just to keep from being what the game considers gimp. Ok guys lets go level our warrior and experience the same exact content all over again now so we can get that increase to power. Not to mention eventually some classes in that game actually required a multitude of sub jobs aka Monk. What a joke. So in short if they make it like FFXI's job system then I honestly wont give it a second look, same thing goes for FF14. To those who dont understand I apologize. You have to go truely experience this monster of a problem for yourself before you can truely be this disgruntled. Not to say that everyone hated this system, but for those who dont have alt-idis it is a nightmare!
My excitement towards the genre is growing more and more. I see more titles trying to come out with original features and content now instead of trying to rehash the same concepts over and over. This should be an interesting few years.
I think you may be misunderstanding how it works... Either that or I (along with a lot of other people) misunderstands it...
From how I understand it, you're not "merging" the 4 classes when you level each of them up... They're independant entities... You aren't a Warrior with some healer abilities on the side, you're just a Warrior, unless you go to town and switch to the Healer, then you're just a Healer. Basically it's the same thing as logging your Warrior toon out and logging your Healer alt in. Different skills/abilities, different armor/weapons, etc. And also from what I can tell, it's completely optional, if you only want to level up the one class, then fine.
Interesting, I have put this game on my watch list now.
This interview definitely cranked up my interest in this game by a rather large amount, the idea of having a quest system, the game world & NPC's being dynamic enough to be able to give the illusion of you playing a part in changing the world around you by your actions is a pipe-dream for many, this might be just a very rudimentary step or they may have a fairly advanced system that runs this, how effective & engaging it actually turns out to be will pave the way for more innovation in this direction.
I hope the game realises some of the potential that this kind of system could open up.
Nice article. I loved reading it!
The unofficial forums for HoT are growing! Help populate the message board and spread the word!
http://heroesoftelara.forums-free.com/
-Matt Graham
I think you may be misunderstanding how it works... Either that or I (along with a lot of other people) misunderstands it...
From how I understand it, you're not "merging" the 4 classes when you level each of them up... They're independant entities... You aren't a Warrior with some healer abilities on the side, you're just a Warrior, unless you go to town and switch to the Healer, then you're just a Healer. Basically it's the same thing as logging your Warrior toon out and logging your Healer alt in. Different skills/abilities, different armor/weapons, etc. And also from what I can tell, it's completely optional, if you only want to level up the one class, then fine.
Okay, but it still looks like that, just as in EVERY other "bigtime" MMO out there it is focused on combat and to get the "hero" recognition you have to do the most damage to a foe. So, what it's looking like is a funnel to the majority of the players playing a DPS class in hopes of getting "1 more point of damage" than the next guy.
If they put in an equal amount of these "heroic quests/events" that take into consideration the talents of the non-damage dealing classes, well, then the system does sound interesting. But, I have a real good feeling they won't as the combat/DPS route is easiest, I suppose.
It looks like a decent game,with decent graphics,but a couple core ideas,will never land it in my favour.
One player fighting hordes,means group play will be of little use and the majority will not group,so it pretty much means a single player game right out of the gate.
The other thing that i know many like,i do not like one bit and that is the jack of all trades player.By giving everyone the ability to have every single skill,again forges it into a single player game and gives every player in the game ZERO identity,nothing but a bunch of clones.This also means players will have no use for other players as the individuality of other classes wlll not be present and no player will lack anything another player could offer.
This is not even going into the rest of the games detail,but these two factors alone,ruin the game and make it a totally single player game,that should not be listed as a MMO.Too bad i am sure they put some decent effort into this game and a sub class system i do favour,but the core design is a bad one.
Hmm I love how people jump to a million different conclusions about the game based on a single interview. In any case lots of games out there so if it doesnt sound like something you want to play then dont...simple as that.
I like the sound of this one and like the direction a couple of the new ones are taking or trying to take. The dynamic world concept is one I would really like to see implemented successfully and so far this one and Citadel of Sorcery are two that are trying to do that. It can be a monumental task to get anything worthwhile but luckily the technology is starting to catch up to make it possible.
I also like the idea of not having to make alts to play different classes and the subclass thing sounds interesting.
I just hope the difficulty factor is not gimped aka WoW and EQII. That is one thing that turns me off to a game faster than anything else. This is ultimately what is behind the Hardcore vrs Casual debate in any case. It is also good to see other MMO's taking the idea of public quests and expanding on those too. There is a lot of potential in that area if someone can do it correctly.
As for hero title being based on damage, there has to be a metric to try to figure out who deserves it. They will probably figure out in beta testing pure damage as a metric isnt going to cut it as they even hinted at in the interview and they will have to come up with some sort of system that takes other things into account. I will say though that no game has been able to get this type of thing right so far. There is always a loophole that people exploit to screw others over. Here is to hoping they can figure a good way to handle it before release.
While I like the idea of cities which can be destroyed and that anyone depending on his/her skills can do something to help - I don't need another fighting mmorpg where I kill mobs to kill more mobs and so on and on and crafting is just a grind with mostly useless stuff and housing if existing at all a way to show off things.
What I miss in all that stuff is something truly cooperative not just in combat as it was used in Horizons (now Istaria) where crafter were necessary to make things because you had no good loot or could just improve equippment with loot and where it was necessary to build bridges, buildings, tunnels or repair them. Anything about this in HoT (heh, nice acronym!) going? Unfortunatelly levelling crafting and harvesting in Horizons was a hell of a grind too and far from being fun, the same as it is in EQ2 for crafting levelling or Vanguard - and those are still the best. I would be very happy if someone could adopt the Free Realms harvesting and crafting minigames into a "real" mmorpg so it wouldn't feel as much as a grind but be fun to do those things, levelling as a side effect.
So how about for HoT some crafting/harvesting minigames and the chance to rebuild the cities when they are destroyed or repair the buildings instead of plain "Woohoo you defended the city, all the fires are gone and now it is back to perfect shape!".
And some meaninful housing with harvesting nodes (plants, animals) in the yard?
Gotta say when i first looked at this game i wasn't too impressed, just seemed like another go at fantasy mmo's. But the whole idea of having dynamic quests certainly has my attention. I will wait for some actual gameplay evidence before making any assumptions wether it will work or not though.
There are some things im not liking though, the graphics are good but not great...and the styling isn't exactly original. The world also seem a bit lackluster...nothing is really setting it apart from other games imo. Other than that it's just too early too really say much more without actually seeing gameplay footage.
Yes, I have to say I am very intrigued by this new title, although...if they hope to releasei n 2010, they have alot of competition in Final Fantasy 14. Still, I'll give it a shot, I am really glad they are using the one character all jobs aspect that FFXI introduced, been waiting for a game to finally realize the benefit of this system.
I like the take on subjob cards too, sounds interesting, and I like the graphic representation the trailer showed. I'm on board on this one.
Dynamic content that allows you're actions (or lack of) to change the game world?! Oh my god! This is the kind of thing I have waited for years to see in mmos. Finally an mmo is on its way which actually takes real advantage of the fact that it is online instead of just playing like a static single player game in co-op mode like all the other piles of crap which have been spawned over the years. Awesome!
I'm not very keen on the idea of swapping classes on the fly though. That just sounds like a rather stupid idea and doesnt make much sense. Oh well I can tolerate bad ideas like this considering that this game is potentially offering a gaming experience that (if done well) will push the genre forward in a massive way. Who the hell is gonna bother playing some shitty static mmo where your actions dont mean anything when you can play a game in which you can shape the game world?
Oh and the graphics look fantastic too.
It sounds nice and I'll surely check it out.
I don't understand why some people are getting so excited about the public quest they described. Its no more dynamic than a public quest. Its no more world changing than a public quest. What they described is pretty much exactly what was already done in WAR. I mean, that is great, but its not really anything new.
So all we know right now is that they are taking the job system from FFXI (but it sounds more like Free Realms), taking the public quests from WAR, adding a twist on the subclass system similar to Runes of Magic, and using the old tired auto-attack combat system of WoW/EQ. I'll try it for sure, but I'm not all that excited yet. Had they tried to make a new combat system then I would be a LOT more excited. I'm really really tired of the whole auto-attack hotbar whack-a-mole combat system.
Sounds interesting, eager to see if they can pull this off and what it will play like.
The game looks like it has a promise ,well worth watching
The concept of quests changing the world is not new ,both Citadel of Sorcery and Mortal Online offer similar experiences ..of course none of these games have been released so we have to see which game gets it right :)
There is a subtle diffrence between what HoT is trying to do and Wars's PQ system. in war pq system imps atttack the city and u either save the day or dont. in 5 minutes imps attack the city no matter what the outcome was before hand.
HoT is suggesting that imps attack the city if u fail the city is burned to the ground and u get quests prob ably to repair the city. If u succeded maybe tommrow a dragon will attack the city. Least this is how i interpedt the interview in the video section.
Its just a matter of perspective and correct me if I'm wrong because I didn't play WAR for very long. A WAR style PQ is just a series of phases starting from the idle phase. The idle phase is just what happens when no one is around to start the other phases.
Now imagine the idle phase in HoT being a burned city. That is what happens if nobody does anything. From the idle phase you do the steps needed to restore the city. Then the last phase is another attack. I guess the big difference is that the last phase can repeat if the attack fails to destroy the city.
There is no doubt that its a good idea. The PQ system from WAR had plenty of room for improvement. I hope that the HoT system expands it a whole lot. I would like to see them effect everything both big and small. Instead of phases with simple objectives, have quests and entire quest chains that trigger phases. Let the phases of one PQ effect the phase of a larger PQ. Its on the right track for what I think people are wanting, but it still depends a lot on how HoT implements it.
I hate the idea of contribution points and some arcade-style high score reward system. It cheapens the experience. I would prefer a more subtle reward system.
Wait for the wowkiller, vaporware and fail. ;)
Another game to play. Seems to be nice.
Its just a matter of perspective and correct me if I'm wrong because I didn't play WAR for very long. A WAR style PQ is just a series of phases starting from the idle phase. The idle phase is just what happens when no one is around to start the other phases.
Now imagine the idle phase in HoT being a burned city. That is what happens if nobody does anything. From the idle phase you do the steps needed to restore the city. Then the last phase is another attack. I guess the big difference is that the last phase can repeat if the attack fails to destroy the city.
There is no doubt that its a good idea. The PQ system from WAR had plenty of room for improvement. I hope that the HoT system expands it a whole lot. I would like to see them effect everything both big and small. Instead of phases with simple objectives, have quests and entire quest chains that trigger phases. Let the phases of one PQ effect the phase of a larger PQ. Its on the right track for what I think people are wanting, but it still depends a lot on how HoT implements it.
I hate the idea of contribution points and some arcade-style high score reward system. It cheapens the experience. I would prefer a more subtle reward system.
I did play War and in essence you got thier pq system correct. There are 3 to 4 stages in each pq and players can do things on any pq at anytime and the pq will stay wherever the players left off on it. Most of the later stages are timed though and so if no one does anything on them it resets to stage 1 thus completing an infinite unchanging loop.
While the example in the interview is simple the idea behind it and what the devs are saying they wish to achieve is the fact that the game world can change on a permanent basis according to what players do and do not do on these public quests. Maybe the town burns down and dissapears forever. Perhaps later a new town springs up nearby based on player actions or maybe no town reemerges. There is no guarentee of the infinite loop in this game. Some parts of the game world will be basic MMO stuff with repeating infinite loops to cater to the people who just dont want to get involved on any particular day, however, if the devs get what they wish the majority of the world will be everchanging based on what the players do and dont do.
So the real question is: Can they pull this off? or will they end up with more infinite loops to cover the content gaps that might still occur? I am betting the will fall somewhere in the middle, not nearly dynamic as most people imagine it will be or what they want it to be, yet not so static in the infinite loop sense that current MMO's are known for. Thus hoping they can make some sort of system that can be copied by future MMO companies and made even better until we truly get a dynamic non instanced world.
I do understand what you are saying ,i am sort of a FF expert ...lol
I can feel your pain,if you are shunned because you are not playing the stereotypical setup others want you to play but..............
If you open your mind to understand the over all concept,you realize the sub job system is miles the best.Think of it this way,if you wanted to play a BLM as you stated,would you not want your blm to be the best it can be?ignore the fact there is sub jobs,just think of the facts,you would want it to be the best it can.
There is NEVER a set subjob other than say PLD/war.Certain situations offer better setups than others.What this does allow for is versatility,witch is always a good thing.You also have to remember why you have chosen the said job/class.if it does not offer what you want out of a game,then you should be playing something different.
I will relate to your blm query once again.Imagine you have a group but no healer,a blm/whm can work as a healer especially if it is a Taru,so you would have a working party instead of no party at all,so you see why the system is a much better one.
The sub job system opens up many options ,not only in party situations but solo or nm hunting or duoing,it gives the game a FULL appeal,WITHOUT ruining the mechanics with a jack of all trades system.
I may have misunderstood this game as i thought they were going to implement a jack of al ltrades system,witch really dumbs a game down into a solo/single player game not a MMO.I think what they are saying is that you are open to all the spells /skills in the game through the sub class system,at least i hope that is what they mean.
There is another aspect that "IS" VERY important ,especially when playing a well developed game with unique mechanics.That one thing is "UNDERSTAND" the other class/job roles in the game.there is no better way to understand them,than to play them.I have seen thousands of times ,players do not function well or understand a game propelry ,solely on the fact ,they do not understand the other jobs/classes.A VERY simple example,you do not understand a thiefs SATA and use your TP ability in between the sata turning the mob and ruining it.You could argue,well don't make a game so complicated,i do not think it is over complicated,i think it offers unique game play and not the same old ho hum over and over.
It sounds like Darkfall is the perfect game for you, it has everything you are requesting.
Now please go play Darkfall and leave games not fitting your playstyle alone.
It looks like an interesting MMO is coming our way for 2010 and I'l probably give this one a go =).
Overall I have no trouble playing an MMO that has similar qualities that is contained within other MMO's, I've yet to play an original MMO.
The graphics look good and the setting looks pretty solid aswell and I like the art direction aswell, nothing too off the wall and the monster characters look refreshing aswell.
If they can deliver on their proposed ideas then I will enjoy this game.
Just checked out the site and...
Trailer/Graphics: CHECK! It looks good
Description of Gameplay: CHECK! Sounds interesting. I'll be keeping my eye on this one, may be my next fantasy MMO, but I don't know, there's still T.E.R.A.
The core design decison I personally need to know more about is solo vs co-op play before I too excited.. I won't play anymore solo mmorpgs where grouping is 'optional' (ie non existant).
Looks good though so far based on whats here.
Talin,
I'm with you. The game sounds like it has a lot of promise; however, many games hold promise and it's often the community that adds the final polishing. Thanks for reminding them.
I would like to know why Jon Van Carnegham is no longer involved with the company, considering he started it. I was drawn to this project because of his Might & Magic games and when I saw that he had left NC Soft to form his own company and that they had raised $100mil in capital I thought that this had to be the MMORPG for me.
Recently a memo hit the Internet stating that he had been transitioned out. Kinda smells bad to me.
It's too bad FF14 will release so close to it and will probably occupy my gaming life for years, but i'm still looking forward to it. Will definitely keep up with info they release in their newsletter.
So is it not yet known if the game will be P2P or F2P?
It is stated to be P2P (thank god) in the FAQ.
I kinda agree with Prof here... a lot in this game looks good, but if FFXIV is anything like it looks to be I won't be trying it, which is a shame.
Still, nice to have a back up plan :P
Good to see Scot hartman attached to this... maybe he will bring that old EQ vibe to the party.