Members of the Jandisoft team held an AMA about their upcoming cross-platform HTML5 MMO, Mad World. Among the issues discussed were platforms, open beta, guilds, alliances, PvP updates, accommodating PvE players, and more.
According to the AMA, which was posted on Reddit, the team plans a “permanent open beta” sometime this year. This will serve as the general release and they will be continuing to develop. One person asked if the open beta would be available on mobile devices, and while they don’t have a release scheduled, mobile UI is still in early development, so while there will be access available through a browser, it isn't yet natively formatted.
Mad World will support guilds of up to 32 players. The team wants to focus on community content with regard to guilds, first building the structure, then add guild battle options in a later update. Eventually, they’re aiming for guild economy features. They haven’t yet decided if there will be alliances though.
When it comes to PvP, given the bleak world setting, PvP is something they definitely want to give a lot of room for, but they're still working out the details on player looting, PvP modes, and also how to better serve PvE-focused players.
According to the answers in the AMA, players won't drop equipment on death but they are looking at ways to create an exception or a new rule that applies to a player with high Madness points. This might mean a sort of bounty or a target on players with high Madness points.
One major consideration they addressed was players that are more PvE-focused and might not want to be attackable in the open world. “
“At first, we wanted an unrestricted PK, because PK fits Mad World universe (world filled with despair) so well. However, through alpha tests, user feedback, change in game trend, we realized that for games which do not emphasize PK as their core feature, unrestricted PK can be harmful for player experience”, so they’ll be looking into ways to discourage PK but for areas beyond Act 3, which are more endgame content, plan to have some zones that are not marked as dangerous.
For more, see the full AMA over at the Mad World subreddit.
