Gods and Heroes Week Day II: God Powers

Guest Writer Posted: May 2, 2005 8:00 PM ET
Category: Previews 0

MMORPG.com Gods and Heroes In-Depth Preview Day Two: God Powers

Yesterday we began our week-long survey of Perpetual Entertainment’s upcoming MMORPG, Gods and Heroes with an overview of the game. As promised, we will now focus in on one specific aspect of the game per day. Let us begin with something Perpetual is calling “God Powers”.

As briefly touched on in our original article, God Powers are available to the player’s Heroes, who can call upon their godly heritage for an act of divine intervention. These very powerful spells/effects are never actually "performed" by the hero, but instead called down from a higher power. To get a better understanding of how a player can access God Powers, we first need to take a brief glimpse at the Faction System.

Certain God Powers are specific to a Triad, and each one of the three gods that are in that Faction will grant it. In addition, at a certain level of advancement, each hero will be called upon to make a choice and dedicate himself to only one god. This is a critical point in character development, as it defines your path and determines which of the more powerful God Powers you will be able to invoke. To actually, "learn" a God Power, a hero must travel to a temple of the appropriate god, and speak with a Priest or Priestess NPC. Other, more powerful, God Powers can only be received as a reward for completing a God Quest for your particular deity.

Although your Hero may call upon a god for divine intervention, unless you are a favorite of that god, they may choose not to listen to the pleas of insignificant half-mortals like yourself. In order to make sure that you are one of the chosen, you have to make sure that your god is firmly in your corner. This is done through the systems of Favor Points and Standing.

Attaining Favor From The Heavens

Favor Points are a direct representation of your development as a god-like hero, and increase as you advance through the game, much like hit points. Standing is a direct representation of your current relationship with your chosen deity. Standing rises and falls more slowly over time and limits the amount of total favor available to you at any given time.

How often you can call on your god depends on the both the amount of Favor Points you hold and your current Standing. As expected, the most devastating and awe-inspiring God Powers can use up all of your Favor Points.

This system reflects the mythological fickleness of the Roman deities. They were often only concerned with the most recent news, and could change favor on a dime. Gods and Heroes reflects this in the Favor Points system. I was quite impressed in the way this is both a fun game mechanic and a sound representation of mythology in a game.

To re-gain Favor Points and/or improve Standing, a Character has a couple options available:

Tithing - Heroes may purchase and sacrifice animals at temples, or purchase wine and grain for oblation, or donate money directly to a priest or priestess of a temple. Each one of these will give Favor or Standing, however sacrifice of animals or goods will give more than a straight monetary donation.
Quests - Completing tasks given by your god, and performing heroic deeds in the name of your god will gain you Favor and Standing.

The reason you curry the favor of the gods is that they provide you with awesome and exciting powers.

Are you a god? Yes, I am!

Overall, the God Power System allows players to fully realize their heroic potential in Perpetual Entertainment's Gods and Heroes. God Powers are the tide turning events in a battle. They promise to play an important strategic role in the outcome of battle, and provide players with a robust and exciting system to manage and explore. Perpetual has impressively married a traditional faction and magic system into a logic niche in their world; an impressive feat that makes Gods and Heroes more believable and more exciting.

God Powers is but one exciting aspect of this game. As you know, each day this week we will feature another major aspect of the game in highly focused, in-depth expose. Tomorrow we will introduce you to perhaps the core, defining feature of Gods and Heroes: Squad Combat.