Face of Mankind Interview

Part 1

Logan Horsford , 2002-07-02

Although roleplaying takes a large part, Face of Mankind is not like usual RPG´s. You have control over a very intuitive interface like known from famous realtime shooters, where you are able to explore the game world easily without learning through pages of a manual.
The cutting edge graphics engine will present you a world of 5 huge cities on earth and several distant colonies in outer space. As a player you are part of an epic evolving storyline. Find out more about Face of Mankind on their website.

RPGDot: What is your name and job title please?

Marko: My name is Marko Dieckmann, producer and lead programmer of the game project Face of Mankind.

RPGDot: Is first person point of view fully supported?

Marko: Absolutely! We have a true first person real-time game interface with a 3rd person perspective as additional feature.

RPGDot: How customizable is the GUI? Are all of the keys remappable or are there 'fixed keys' (ala AO)?

Marko: All keys are customizable by the player.

RPGDot: What things are being done to help the newbie? A tutorial like Everquest use to have, etc?

Marko: First of all we plan to release a detailed game manual briefly before releasing the game. Additionally, there will be training areas to study the game surroundings of the world of Face of Mankind and to get familiar with the interface, although it is very easy to learn.

RPGDot: How many face models are there for each race (not counting the hair)?
Are there classes? If so, are they the standard fare (warrior, rogue, healer, nuker)?

Marko: First of all, we have no different races to choose, but the player may choose from ten different organisations. We plan to provide lots of different variants of looks and clothes. Clothes can also be changed at a later time.
The organisations are:

Government institutions
Freedom Defence Corps [F.D.C.]
Global Intelligence Service [G.I.S.]
Law Enforcement Department [L.E.D.]
Multinational companies
Colonization and Mining Guild [C.M.G.]
American Enterprises [A.E.]
Eurocore (also known as The Core)
Asian Coalition [A.C.]
Clans
Brotherhood of the shadows (aka the Brotherhood)
Guardians of mankind (aka the Guardians)
Mercenaries of the blood (aka the Mercenaries)

Details about them can be found on our official homepage.
At the beginning of the game players will choose one of these organisations to join. There will then be a lot of different choices of clothes and looks available, female or male. It is also possible to choose from three different body sizes.
After the main character generation stage, the player chooses three of his or her best abilities and a name for the character (forename, surname and nickname).
You may leave your organisation and join another one later if you like, but you will start from the beginning. Your curriculum vitae will be visible to other players. So everyone will see how your rank was in former organisations.
Additionally there will be two secret organizations, but you will understand that we do not want to disclose any secrets about them.

RPGDot: Are there NPCs to interact with? If so, how varied are they? How many character models will there be for release?

Marko: There are NPC's. First of all there is the hostile alien species consisting of three different races. They are pretty dangerous and hard to fight. We wanted to make them unbelievably quick, like creatures from nightmares. No one is really able to estimate the possible dangers of these creatures for mankind.
Additionally there will be friendly or neutral NPC's. We plan to fill the game surroundings with beggars, vehicles, strippers and some other civilians to make it more realistic. Killing such characters will also influence mission results.

RPGDot: Any sort of reputation system built into the game for NPC's? PC's? Is it possible for PC's to get bounties from a game mechanism to go hunt down other PC's who have been naughty?

Marko: There is a special institution for hunting "naughty" boys or girls. : The Law Enforcement Department has the task to protect the streets from senseless violence.
There will be a place for bounty hunters in extreme cases.
If you kill someone outside a mission, these kills will be seen in your status summary, so everyone can then see your reputation. This could be an advantage to maybe joining a clan, but a disadvantage if you want to join one of the governmental institutions because they will have set alignments. To intensify the competition there will be status tables visible to everyone in an organisation. You will see how good your teammates are, and if you have to do something to defend your honor.

RPGDot: What elements are in place to stop me from buying 2 accounts, 1 Mr. Respectable, and 2 Mr. Reprehensible, and keep my "woods guy" out slaughtering everyone, and use my good guy to resupply?
What will be done to keep 'd00dz' from banding together into 'clans' of roaming PK'ers? What will be done for those who don't enjoy PvP (or being stuck in the cities if they don't want to get gacked)? What would you say to people to rid them of the fear that the game will not become a 'gank fest' that drove so many customers away from UO?

Marko: We will not forbid you to buy 2 accounts, but there will be no real boosts to do so. You will not have any advantages of running around and killing innocent people. These issues are explained in detail in the combat and PvP section.

RPGDot: Conversely, is the game a skill based game, and if so, is there a ceiling in place, so I cannot become the "best at everything" and have very real trade offs to choose?
If the system is level based, what is being done to move us from the widely perceived 'leveling treadmill' that most games (AO, AC, EQ, DAOC) embrace?
Is combat open ended, like I.C.E.'s system use to be? [I like a PvP system where the uber PK stumbles on someone obviously their inferior, and of course attacks. However due to extraordinary luck (on the order of 1 in 10000) the newbie pierces the PKs eye, killing the foul beast. THIS would make being a PK fun, since you NEVER know if you have a sure win.]

Marko: The skill system, combat and PvP can only be explained together. First of all we have to forget those skill-systems of other MMORPG's in Face of Mankind.
Face of Mankind is not based on skills like known from other games in this genre.
There is a ranking structure. Rank stages depend on experience points that can only be earned in missions. These experience points do not depend on weapon practice etc, but only on real accomplished mission results.
The number of experience points gained depends on how successful a mission was. You also will not get too mighty in the sense of abilities if you climb up to the higher ranks. There will be more responsibility, the chance to lead one group or more and of course some special abilities that are only available to specific ranks.
So it is not really possible to "max out" any skills, as they do not exist. Developing a character in Face of Mankind is more finding your destiny in the story.
Throughout the game you will always be a part of the continuing story.

Combat and PvP is implemented into the storyline. Player vs. Player fights are always allowed, but only missions can increase your experience and current rank stage. You will not have any advantages of running around and killing innocent people. Everything, and I really mean "everything" will be part of the story that all players will contribute to.

So, the combat and PvP cannot be totally separated from role-playing in Face of Mankind. In other games it is possible to increase your experience and skill levels by simply practicing them. This is not the case though in Face of Mankind because experience points are only ever collected on the completion of missions. Finally, your combat results will depend on your real abilities and tactical knowledge.

RPGDot: Besides killing people/critters, what can I do? Is the tradeskill system window dressing or a money sink? I.E. is the game set up so ONLY someone seriously gimped for fighting can obtain enough skills to become a master crafter, and thus create (notice I said create) the uber swords (etc) of the game.
Will PC tradesmen be forced to compete with NPC merchants?

Marko: There are very important activities aside from fighting and combat. There is a comprehensive economic system behind the world of Face of Mankind.
Being a member of one of the four companies means a completely different kind of gaming than for example fighting for the Freedom Defense Corps. You will have the difficult task of controlling a complex economic system. Raw materials must be mined from the distant colonies. Financial aspects always have to be taken in consideration here, as transport and the mining process itself costs energy and credits.

Once you have the raw materials available you may produce raw material groups out of them, or directly produce goods. This is the most complicated task, as all products (items, weapons etc.) need a variety of materials. Finally, all products need to be offered on the markets. Another difficult thing is that all markets are separated from each other. Company members have to find gaps in those markets to offer their products efficiently.
As you see, trading and the economic system is a very human part of the game. It is completely done by players and not by NPC's. We try to make the game as human as possible.

Imagine all these possible conflicts and problems to solve here. Companies could hire clans to accomplish their goals in this challenging world. I see a lot of work for L.E.D. and F.D.C. here trying to keep this system clean.
The sheer quantity of role-playing possibilities is absolutely enormous in Face of Mankind.

RPGDot: Do you support a player housing system?

Marko: There will not be any housing system in the regular sense. Other private areas than the player's flat are not available, but being a member of specific organisations means access to specific secret areas. Therefore, a clan member is not allowed to enter the central G.I.S. building or any production areas of company members.

RPGDot: Assuming no mishaps with mobs or players, how long would it take me to circumnavigate the world (if go from end to end if the world is flat)? Could I even do so? Might I need to build a city, then build a ship, then cross an ocean, etc…

Marko: I am not able to tell you how long it would take to travel to all places in Face of Mankind because the final size is not yet decided.
By the way, it will cost credits to travel to very far away colonies. So it is always exciting to get to know about new places that were unreachable so far.

RPGDot: What are the main influences in the creation and design of the gameworld?

Marko: The main influences are our dreams and fantasy, but also those good old sci-fi movies like Bladerunner or all the Starwars movies. Actually there already are a lot of modern buildings in our cities now. There are a lot of influences everywhere.

RPGDot: How smart are the mobs? I mean, if I keep showing up at their daycare center, luring single young monsters away to a nasty death, can I do this forver, or do they eventually take action? Is the mobs behavior static, or is there a psuedo random component? By this I mean, if I shoot a mob with an arrow, A) It always chases directly at me, back to the waiting hoards for slaughter, or B) 70% give chase, 20% attempt to use an evasive maneuver, and 10% run for help?

Marko: There is an overall tactic strategy over all our alien's behavior. They are not simply AI's to fight; they are part of the story and will play a very important role in it.

RPGDot: Many games have attempted to slow their rate of level advancement by introducing downtime. Players are very concerned about it. In EQ, downtime was severe - up to 20 minutes. In DAOC and AO, it is under 1 minute. I view this as an excellent trend. If I was the most powerful fighter possible in your game and wanted to rest after a nasty combat in which I was nearly killed, how long would it take me to get back my full hit points? Mana?

Marko: As explained in the answers regarding your death questions there will be a recreation time. How long this will be is not yet fixed. This will be an issue for beta-testing.

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