Dragon Empires Interview #2: Skills & Economy
Wouter "Hyrrix" Ryckbosch, 2003-09-10

As the Dragon Empires beta test is steadily going forward, we continue to put Peter Tyson, community liason manager at Codemasters, on our grill to question him about their ambitious mmorpg Dragon Empires. In five interviews we hope to bring you a close to complete overview of what Dragon Empires will play, look and even smell like. In today's second interview we take a closer look at the classes, skills and economics of the game.

Peter Tyson: We have three races. Humans, Dragonbloods and the Shadow. The later two have, in a way, evolved from humans. Humans tend to be more interested and adept at magic, the Shadow are excellence scouts and the Dragonblood tend to be strong and fierce fighters. However, these categories aren't exclusive so players have a freedom to chose the race and style of their character.

Peter Tyson: There is a connection... but we haven't released the details yet. It's in the lore and we'll tell it in time! ;) ..They have greater strength and endurance than normal humans and they have a more rugged, slightly reptilian appearance reminiscent of the Dragons. They can also develop spines, horns, that sort of thing, as they play and gain appearance points.

Peter Tyson: Yes, within the borders of each empire you have a specific role based on actions you take. Everyone starts with their PvP flag off, a role we call the ‘civilian'. If you want to go hunting outlaws in the empire you are in you go talk to an NPC and sign up for a period of time. Thus, while you are in that empire you are an outlaw. Should you cross the border you will be a civilian in the next empire, unless you have your role changed. To become an outlaw you hunt the venerated beasts of the empire you are in. Venerated beasts are special creatures held sacred to each empire. Killing them annoys the local dragon and makes you persona non grata in that empire! You can then end up fighting other outlaws or bounty hunters. However, the loot the venerated beasts drop is quite worth the risk.

The final role is the Trader. This is a merchant type role where you are paid gold and experience points to move goods between towns or between a resource point and a town. Now, anyone can move goods and make cash without being a trader, a civilian can do it, but if you want to earn experience poins while you do it then you must risk being attacked by outlaws.

In the end everyone who wants to rule a town or be a part of a famous guild needs to be invovled with PvP. It is how clans raise their status and maintain their status once they are ruling a town.

Peter Tyson: The details of the unbound class aren't yet set in stone. We plan on having a way for players to access a class-less character after some time of playing and will probably offer it as an unlockable character. The unbound character will be able to pick and chose the skills they want and thus create a unique class. However, there are obviously balance issues in this and so we are examining the issue carefully. I can report back in a month or two with more information but can't really say anything more definite than that for now!

Peter Tyson: I think there will be a lot of variance. Firstly, you have several body types, many heads and features to chose from and hairstyles. That's at the basic newby level. From there you can get tattoos and body paint to further make your ‘toon look unique and cool. Later on, as you complete certain key quests, you can gain appearance points which allow you to change the features on your body. You can gain scars, grow horns, all sorts of cool things depending on your race. This means if you see a top player walk down the street not only will they have the best kit but they will look quite different from newbies.

Peter Tyson: Very much so. There is a complex and detailed economy in Dragon Empires that needs to have people working in it. Each town buys and sells goods to other towns and players act through the central market place in their local city. In Dragon Empires it will be possible to cap your character without ever fighting a monster. You can solely run trade missions and do quests if you chose to. Most people won't want to take this route but we think it is fun to offer it.

Peter Tyson: The link is very strong. When clans gain control of a city they must make sure it is a popular place in order to maintain their position on the city league tables. Should they drop too low and they could end up being challenged for control of their city and lose it to a rival. In order to maintain and improve their status they need to regularly be involved in PvP and keep outlaws from their borders, they need to make sure they are generating a good tax revenue and also make sure other cities support them and vote in their favor.

Now, the economy side is important. Tax take only comes from people buying and selling goods in your town. However, when you first take over a town it is a rather poor place to manufacture from as the town will not have workshops and so-on to increase production efficiency. The new clan have to make those and build them onto the city. So, your first task as a clan leader wheny ou take over a town is to convince all the players there, whatever clan they are in, to stay and to keep working! You could offer a tax break to help them or just bribe the best people to not leave. If you can keep a good trade base working in your town you will earn good tax revenue and people will come and visit to buy the goods made there. If you fail or manage to annoy the usual residents they will soon leave and move to rivals who will find their position bosted by the tax take and popularity of their city.

As you can see the system is simple but with many possible permutations for players to explore. The game also gives the little guy a lot of power. If you're a solo player who is a top crafter then well known and respected clans, even huge ones, are likely to want you to come work from one of their cities.

Peter Tyson: It might sound complex but it's not really that bad. You set yourself up with a workshop quite easily. In fact, I think everyone has a basic one by default. You then set a maximum buy price on resources you need for the goods you want to make. The workshop will always try and buy those goods cheaper (you can supply them yourself as well) and if the price goes to high it won't buy them. Then, you set it to make, say, the Sword of Doom. The workshop sits there buying resources and outputting Swords of Doom. The manufacturing takes place whether you are offline or online.

Once you have your selection of swords of doom you can either sell them back onto the market (setting a minimum price) or you can take them and enhance them. Each item has a number of inlay spaces where you can add special resources to the item to enhance it. Thus, a ruby might make a sword a fire sword (complete with firey effect on the blade). Lower level enhancements will probably come from mobs or can themselves be manufactured, higher level ones will require a bit of work to put together.

I think the end result is a system that is fun because it focuses on the inputs and outputs rather than the process itself. Making the right goods for market demand is important, having access to good enhancements is important.

Our system also means that players can chose where in the whole manufacturing process they want to get involved. They can simply move resources or finished goods around the world for profit and experience if that is there thing, they can bulk manufacture potions or weapons, they can spend all their time taking finished goods and adding enhancements or they can just work on high level stuff like houses. This flexibility adds a lot of fun to the system.

As for making buildings to add on to towns, that will be quite an involved process. First you are likely, for example, to need a lot of planks. These will need to be manufactured. You may also need nails, also requiring manufacturing and other bits and pieces. Getting all of this organised will probably take the effort of a few crafters (or one who can buy a lot of finished planks off the market!). Buildings will be quite a project but very worthwhile for the town they are added too and enhance.