For fans of retro-styled MMOs, Wild Terra is a game to keep an eye on. We had the opportunity to interview the Juvty Worlds development team to find out what has been happening with the project since last fall and as it prepares to launch the large v0.8 update which you can see for yourself during a free testing event on March 26th through March 28th.
MMORPG: Please introduce yourself and your position within the company.
Michael: Hello to readers of MMORPG.com, my name is Michael and I’m responsible for the looks of the project, game design, style and ideology. Being a supporter of hardcore games of 90s, I watch so that Wild Terra does not become too simplistic: whether PvE, PvP or basic arrangement of one’s house, in my opinion, a player should always have to face difficulties.
MMORPG: Our last interview took place in September, where we discussed the basic features of Wild Terra. How did the project change since then?
Michael: Pillaging and demolition mechanics have been introduced to the game; exploration of zones and areas has become much more interesting as well. We’ve added even more castle and civilian buildings and siege weapons. Weaving and pottery have been added, while the capacities of agriculture and other crafts increased. All icons have been repainted; right now we are in the process of reworking the interface. Wild Terra had massive Christmas and Halloween events with a large amount of thematic content. In addition to English and our native Russian, the game has also gotten German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Bulgarian and Vietnamese versions. For the last few months we’ve been working on our largest update yet, v. 0.8.
MMORPG: Recently you have published a video that allowed players a glimpse at the new features that will be added with upcoming update 0.8. What are the highlights of it? Will there be any major changes?
Michael: As players who have been involved during internal testing know – Wild Terra has greatly changed and transformed. We had a huge job and there will be many radical changes. We have rewritten server architecture, thus creating a huge generated game world. To improve the visual part, the team has translated the characters and animals from sprites into 3D-models (and finally added a male character!). But the biggest change will appear in the gameplay – there will be mounts and their domestication, changes to animal behavior (their reactions to the actions of players). We have added safe zones, reworked mechanics of food types and conditions of the character including fatigue, exhaustion, satiation, etc. These, however, are not all the changes coming in the update.
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MMORPG: How was made the decision to improve some models to 3D instead of leaving them in the original style?
Michael: Over time, new animations have been added to the main character as well as different equipment. Sprites began to demand more and more space in memory while offering rather mediocre animation quality due to the limit of the small number of frames. 3D models make it possible to use smooth high-quality animations with fewer resources, thus significantly reducing the size of the game client and increasing FPS.
MMORPG: Do you have plans to make the whole game 3D?
Michael: Such plans exist, but it will take us quite some time. The first step on this long road will be to translate the characters and animals into 3D, and it is almost complete.
MMORPG: You mentioned a new server structure. What are the reasons for this decision? Will it affect the gameplay and how?
Michael: We were very limited by the old server structure and it ran counter to our ideas and visions for the game. The new structure has enabled us to overcome these limits and now it is possible to continue the development of the project exactly as the teams wants it. Update 0.8 will be enormous because of this generated world, the scale of which will depend on the number of players, as well as introduction of the updated resource allocation system. The new architecture has allowed us to solve the bulk of performance problems. Future updates to Wild Terra will also introduce mines, rivers, personal dungeons and a clan system.
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MMORPG: Tell us more about PvP system in Wild Terra. Will there be changes to it with the upcoming update?
Michael: Update 0.8 will not have direct changes to the PvP system, however, some gameplay features will touch on this aspect of the game. In future updates we will, of course, heavily rework the existing system. Our team has many ideas on the subject.
MMORPG: Do you have any plans on how to achieve a balance between open world PvP and safe zones for those who want peaceful gameplay without the possibility of losing things earned through hard work?
Michael: Yes, there are many such plans, and some will be introduced in update 0.8. The entire game world is divided into 3 zones: safe (no PvP or destruction), contested and dangerous. We are confident that our approach will allow the hardcore and casual audiences to join on the open spaces of the game world, while maintaining balance and supporting different styles of play due to the allocation of resources and the exchange of the products between players. For example, you can go and join your clan in PvP battle for a mine in a PvP zone while your wife plays “Facebook farm” in a safe area and your child is busy hunting in the contested zone. They will also be able to trade their products for resources from other zones (this feature will be introduced later). There will be a lot of opportunities, and everyone will be able to find something they like.
MMORPG: Tell us about the mount system. What makes it unique? In addition to features such as domestication of wild animals and the need to take care of them, are you planning on introducing something else, such as mounted combat?
Michael: One of the most unique features of our game is that players will be able to tame any large animal, whether it is a wild boar, bear or something else. It should be noted, however, that domesticated animals can’t be hidden in your inventory. It will either need to be actively ridden by the owner or walking freely around the world.
Update 0.8 will not add many abilities to the mounts, but we are planning to develop the system: mounts will be able to carry items and have their own equipment while owners will be able to engage in mounted combat.
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MMORPG: Can you tell us an approximate date when update 0.8 will become available to a wider audience?
Michael: The update will appear on main servers in early April, but prior to that we plan to hold an open test of the patch on test servers.
MMORPG: Is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers?
Michael: Many thanks to the editors and readers of MMORPG.com! Without you Wild Terra would have developed much slower. Our team still has a whole bunch of plans and innovations to make, and your support helps us to do it in a more active way and to keep faith in the project. Stay with us!
Thank you for interesting questions.
That concludes our interview with Juvty Worlds. Stay tuned to find out more about update 0.8 once it is released and check the Wild Terra site for additional information.
