With the recent reveal that players will soon be able to shape their world Pioneers of New Dawn, we talked to the developers about building this new world.
Pioneers of New Dawn is a unique proposition on the MMO landscape, an MMO that eschews the progression grind and tries to really build a new world. That same hyperbola is all too often spouted at the opening sword swing or early launch of a new game, but things are somewhat different this time. Developed by a team with EVE Online and The Sims at their back, Arctic Theory isn’t asking you to brandish an exalted weapon or survive a raiding party. Instead, it’s all about cooperation in a uniquely persistent realm.
Is It EVE?
The idea that a bunch of ex-EVE developers might want to construct something that puts down the mass accelerators in favor of more constructive endeavors doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable. After all, the achievements of player Corporations when they’re not busy blowing up space stations or politicking themselves into oblivion are extraordinary. You need to take a look at the latest EVE battle reports to see what they’re capable of building. The Sims, however, might seem strange until you realize that Pioneers of New Dawn is all about building your legacy.
Players are at the core of this upcoming MMORPG. Gísli Konráðsson, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Arctic Theory, described the aims of this ambitious new title.
“We’re trying to bring back some of the experiences that people had in the early MMO games, where most of the content is the people you're playing with. You can never write code that is as good as the interactions between players. The world of Pioneers of New Dawn is the sandbox, and we’re giving players a bunch of tools to tell their own stories.”
That initially elicits ideas that this will be a survival sandbox, filled to the brim with warring factions and peasants like me trying to scrape by long enough to build a wooden hut. Not so much. Gísli described Pioneers of New Dawn as a collaborative experience in a persistent world. There’s no place for cutthroat mercenaries here. He even confirmed that this is more than just a creative decision. Arctic Theory tried turning on PvP, noting that, “It wasn’t the worst idea, but we really did try combat. The competition and the conflict, however, was so intense that it took away from the core vision of the game.”
The Vision
The core vision that Arctic Theory bring to the table is one where players make their mark on a truly living world. Players who head out into the wilderness and interact with the game’s simulations won’t always face the same situation. Anybody entering an environment might come back a few days later to find it changed because another group has cleared it, built a new structure, or nature has started to reclaim it.
They’ll also find a deep myriad of systems that can shift and change. Arctic Theory wants to discover the world to be more than just a walking sim, with Gísli explaining the process of surveying a new region of the world as “this kind of surveying element where you go to an area. Once there you need to measure the environment, like what is the temperature here? What is the amount of wind here? Because the world shifts and changes, it won’t always be hospitable either.”
Whether players build cities or manufacture components using those resources is up to them. Research and construction aren’t just about being the biggest or best, either. Items like infrastructure play a role in shaping the world. Bridges built act as memorials to the early pioneers, for example. It’s a way to help players do more themselves. “It gets written into the lore of the game”, confirmed Gísli.
There are a myriad of potential things to do in Pioneers of New Dawn, but with any massively multiplayer title, there’s always a worry that some players will be left behind. Large organizations are incredibly powerful in other MMOs like EVE.
Even without PvP in this world, It still concerned me. Gísli explained that the team is “working really, really hard towards in game collaboration. There’s not levelling, because functionally it’s problematic to play together. A lot of our systems don’t care how effective in the world you are. There is or there are always opportunities for you to play with people. Power actually comes from social connections and what you can all do together.”
Where that starts to become something special is the massive and persistent world. Gísli already talked about the way the game becomes the biggest challenge. Players out in the wilderness might harvest some resources, but these resources can grow back based on game rules. It’s a fundamental part of how this new MMORPG creates a living world. With asynchronous gameplay, you could group together and build a shelter or reconstruct one that hasn’t been tended to in a while, rescuing it from decay.
That’s not even mentioning how the climate models in Pioneers of New Dawn work. Gísli noted, “If you choose to build something in an area that is has a difficult climate, for example, it is going to be more difficult for you to do that. But the experience that we're building towards is not one of survival. It is a lot more about making the right decisions, and this is where other players come in and working towards a common goal.”
Player Choice
Commonality doesn’t mean you’ll be forced to play together; Gísli was keen to point out that the choices are all up to the player. Whether that’s exploring, trading, or simply looking at the resources available.
“This world is full of opportunities, yeah. You can walk pretty much wherever you want. The decision is about where you will settle, how you will build it out, and who is around? The available resources will need to be around, but what do you want to do when they are exhausted? Do you have an area you just pack up and leave, or do you just leave it to decay?”
Tools of the Future
There’s no doubt that Gísli is enthusiastic about Pioneers of New Dawn and the world it opens up, but even more so about the way that the game’s tools make is all a reality. In the two years since an earlier declaration of intent, Arctic Theory has been working on tooling, preparing the systems, and giving players a world that evolves with them.
“The founding team kind of came from EVE Online and that's been running for 20 years. You can see the end game content, in particular, in EVE online like it is really, really focused on the activities of the players and the social part. So, we saw that. This was one of the drivers for us. If we are going to be making an MMO game like we don't want to be in this kind of cycle of we need a DLC every three months to keep people in.”
So now, it’s all about answering the core question that keeps coming up in this discussion. Is it fun?
“This is the stuff that we've tested, and we've had fun. With it and some of our kind of close community has had fun with it, so we're really. Confident in it,” says Gisili.
Right now, Arctic Theory is out to test if what they think it fun engages the player base. Testing is ongoing, and two years of work laying the groundwork means an ability to move fast. With that core capability built the team are “in a position where we can iterate really fast and we can ask a question, is this fun? And we can get an answer almost right away.
Right now, we are especially focused on this meteorological element that has to do with the distribution of resources. Once we once we are confident that the simulation is working the way that we want it, we can just start adding layers and layers on top of it. This is the stuff that we've tested and we've had fun with it and some of our kind of close community has had fun with it, so we're really confident in it.”
If you’re looking for an MMO that gives you all the power but won’t gate you into a gear grind, then Pioneers of New Dawn might be exactly what you need. Find out more on the website now.
