Last month, NCSoft released a peek at five of their upcoming IPs under development. Now the company has revealed Throne and Liberty and Project E, with new trailers and details.
When the preview was uploaded last month, it seemed that the project codenamed TL and Project E were most likely the MMORPGs, and now we have confirmation that this is the case, and that these two games are the ones that are connected to one another.
Throne and Liberty is a brand new IP , but it didn’t start that way. It was originally planned as a next gen version of Lineage and was known as The Lineage. Over time, things changed and the game steadily became its own IP and concept.
Part of the original development plans were modernized in order to reflect current gameplay and audiences, which also led to a completely new story. They wanted to be a next generation MMO on PC and console and some of the conditions changed including making the play field less monotonous, including terrain changes, and even differences that affect the flow of battle like the wind or discovery of new mobs. Essentially, they seem to put effort into making the game adaptable and having variety built in. In a blog on the new games, they say that, “We expect that diverse variables will create a vast array of gameplay“.
Part of the design planning concentrated on what they feel that NCSoft has been missing and trying to create something new, deciding to appeal to many different audiences. They’ve also considered that players are interested in challenges instead of just min-maxing and competing to reach their limits all the time, so this went into their design strategies in order to create things that people can collaborate and take on together. The team is focusing on the story content, and by doing so have the worldview and content reflected in decisions and characters.
One of the features in this game will be that players can turn into animals in order to move and traverse the land. This makes it a way to use the space and not have something that’s just fast travel but instead blended into the world. There are also different areas that will be better explored by certain animal types. And you can also pick up other players.
There will be a weather system and a day/night system, and circumstances will impact how you play, including the weather. If it’s sunny then lightning will attack a single target, but if you use a lightning based attack in the rain, it will be an AoE. If you are shooting a bow, the wind will affect the range and the direction of your shot. They also give an example of if you are in a siege and you might infiltrate a castle via the sewers, in a rain storm those might be flooded so you’ll have to think of something else. They also hint that under certain conditions the player can change the environment strategically.
Project E is based and set on the same planet in the same time as Throne and Liberty, but they are different. “Important events that happened on the same planet are interpreted and progressed in completely different ways in the two games“. There are core events that occur in each game and affect things differently.
More about Project E will be unveiled over time but it is influenced by the East, which is what “E” stands for in the name, and it’s got a Korean style with a touch of fantasy and influences from various cultures.
There is a new Throne and Liberty mini site for updates and images.
