Time To Get A Little Crazy: Maniacs and Musicians
Today Atlantica Online's Kim Tae Gon explains the origins of the game's two new character classes, the musician and the maniac, and provides an overview of their abilities in the game.
Keeping Atlantica interesting so that our players continue to return to the game is very important to us. So, like many other MMORPGs, we make periodic updates to bring in new content for players to experience. But, for us, there’s an even greater sense of urgency to keep Atlantica fresh and to maintain that sense of innovation we’ve started with the game’s turn-based combat. Therefore, we are planning to add new content regularly. So just a few months after unveiling the game’s first substantial update in mid-December, we added yet another large update last week, on Feb. 18.
This latest update includes several new dungeons and quests, another mercenary called the Elementalist, who becomes Pocahontas when upgraded, and the addition of Vancouver as a city on the Atlantica North American map. But the most significant new content is two new classes for main characters, and they are called the Maniac and the Musician.
Why would we want to bring in two new main character classes less than five months after Atlantica’s official launch on Oct. 30? The answer is: it’s been in our plans to add new character classes for quite some time. We feel seven main character types are not enough for a strategic, turn-based game as it evolves. It’s important to give a strategy-driven game like Atlantica new character classes that will make it possible for players to come up with new strategies and tactics, rather than forcing them to stay with the same tactics over and over again, which would ultimately make players bored of the game.
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Creating these new classes also factors into many other aspects of Atlantica’s gameplay. There will be all sorts of new equipment to give these new characters, and which will affect their attributes. New equipment also means new crafting skills for players to learn, which will also impact the game’s economy and how players fight in the Free Leagues. We hope all these new options will translate to more fun and excitement for players.
When it came time to come up with new characters, we had some fun throwing out all sorts of ideas. Some of the ideas were a kung fu fighter, a dancer who can increase her allies’ morale and decrease the enemies’ morale, a scythe-bearing person who can attack a lot of enemies at once, a samurai, a machine gunner, and a thief. But we decided on the Musician and the Maniac. However, you still might see some of the other ideas appear in the future.
The Musician is a long-range character that uses a guitar or a similar string-like instrument to attack two enemies in a line. A few of the Musician’s magic skills are the Ravaging Melody, which weakens enemies’ health, attack power, and defense, and the Melody of Madness sends opponents into a state of disarray. The skill Requiem is available once Musician hits level 100.
The Maniac, who wields a power saw, was inspired by the pop culture of North America, and the popularity of the chainsaw in American horror films. We wanted the Maniac to be special; therefore, we made it only possible to create a Maniac main character after a player reaches level 100. And then, he or she needs to start all over again at level 1, and build a new team of mercenaries once more around the Maniac. The Maniac’s melee attack hits all enemies in a row, and its magic skills of Storm Blast, Chainsaw Blade, and Destructive Instinct (which is attainable once the Maniac reaches level 100) does extra damage to a row.
These new character types are part of our efforts to constantly try to innovate. A guitar and a power saw aren’t weapons you normally find in an MMORPG. Offering a gaming experience that is unlike other games drives us to come up with new ideas, which we hope will surprise people. And we do have more surprises planned for the future. So please stay tuned.
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