NEOCRON Interview

Logan interviewed Jens "Nemesis" Bremmekamp, Community Manager for Neocron, Reakktor Media's upcoming futuristic MMORPG, about various aspects of their game. This is a reprint of an interview originally found at Logan's site Reckon! news - more of these excellent interviews will be published here at RPGDot in the coming days

Q: How smart are the mobs/NPC's/bots? Is the mobs behavior static, or is there a psuedo random component? Do they ever run to get help?

Currently they do not run for help but different monsters already use different strategies. Upgrading the appropriate scripts either before launch or at a later time, to make someof the mobs "smarter", will not be a problem though, due to Neocron's great extensibility.

Q: Name three things which intrigue YOU about the gameplay.

The item researching / recycling / construction aspects of the game. The implant skill and realted items, and the fact that you can implant other characters than your own if you have the required skill. The combat system which allows for much more tactical variety and finesse than conventional MMORPG combat systems, while at the same time being very skill dependant.

Q: What is your personal favorite aspect of Neocron?

The story and the background setting. :) I've always been a fan of the darker side of science fiction, "darker" like in "post-apocalyptic" and "cyberpunkish". Neocron takes the aspects we all liked about Mad Max, Bladerunner, Gibson novels and SciFi RPGs and mixes them into a highly appealing world. A world about which, I'm sure, many of us have fantasized now and again to spend some time in - well, not a whole life, granted. ;)

Q: Aside from it not being done, on store shelves and currently selling like hotcakes, what is your least favorite aspect of Neocron?

I know that you probably won't believe me now, but I don't want to lie either, so: can't think of even one.

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

There will be a Tutorial, yes, which will by the way be playable offline, so you can get a glimpse at the game before you even register your game account. Further more we aim at drawing new people actively into the game instead of letting them create their characters and then just leave them standing helpless wherever they just spawned in the game world. When creating your Neocron character you will always start in your own apartment. There you will be pointed to your HomeTerm, which is your private communication link to the city networks of Neocron, and which already contains some emails from the NPC organization you joined upon chreating your character and some spam-like informations about what there is to do in the city. From this point on you will often be pointed in specific directions which you can follow up to, if you decide to do so, so no one should be left standing there without any idea of what to do next.

Q: Is it possible for PC's to get bounties from a game mechanism to go hunt down other PC's who have been naughty?

The main problem here is letting the game decide who's been naughty and who's been nice. Normally this is not possible without being unjust to a certain amount of people. But on the other hand such a bounty system would surely be nice, so we are looking into implementing it nonetheless.

Q: 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?

None. If you can and want to afford two accounts, we will definitely not stop you. Especially since just "slaughtering everyone" is not an offense of our rules of conduct. However, should you exploit bugs as a means to your ends, regardless of your number of accounts, you will surely get into trouble.

Q: What is being done to move us from the widely perceived 'leveling treadmill' that most MMOLG's (AO, AC, EQ, DAOC) embrace?

For instance killing monsters is by far not the only way of accumulating experience points (I guess 'leveling treadmill' refers to the endless killing of different mobs to advance, right?). You can gain experience by using skills, which means you can become more experienced by a wide variety of actions. This includes, but is not limited to, fighting, researching items, constructing items, using PSI powers, implanting/deimplanting items etc. Also you are able to gain experience points by doing missions for NPC organizations.

Q: In games which allow PvP combat and have levels (AO, EQ, DAOC for example) most people have found 'whoever has the highest level wins'. Will it be possible to defeat people of substantially higher level than you through skill alone?

A definite yes. The hard task for us will be to balance the "substantial" in "substantially higher level" to avoid giving anyone too much advantage over others, be it because they can develop their character more quick than other players or because their mouse-skills are better, etc.

Q: 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 of the game.

As I said before, since killing monsters is by far not the only way to develop your skills, you don't need to be a fighter to become a good tradesman.

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

There is a multitude of NPCs to interact with, besides the standard NPC vendors. You can talk to the NPCs in the faction headquarters, who all have different duties and will therefore respond to you differently. Some of them will even give you missions, if you prefer this way of getting your work over browsing through the assignments at the JobTerm. Then there are NPCs on the streets and in public buildings who might give you clues about the ongoing storyline or have general information about the City, its inhabitants and its leaders.

Q: In AO, everyone got a lame appartment to put furniture in. Sadly, the furniture was buggy, showed up wrong, disappeared, etc. Additionally, if you forgot what building you were suppose to be in, you were in trouble as you'd never get back to it, etc. Additionally, the apartments you got were merely separate zones you had to yourself. What will Neocron do to make apartments better?

Your apartments will be furnished. :) It's not unlikely that there will be additional apartment add-ons for the players to place by themselves, but by setting you up with a full-featured apartment from the start the player has a place to call home, a headquarter so to speak, and it spares us from having to hurriedly make up some code for furniture. ;)

Q: Will you have areas in your world which are extraordinary? IE - Dreamscapes, floating castles, etc?

The Swamp caves look pretty much like a LSD trip to me, though I never experienced a real one. :p

Q: 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?

You always have the option to protect yourself from unwanted PvP by implanting yourself the Law Enforcer chip. With this implant you cannot be harmed by other players and cannot harm other players yourself. Of course implanting/deimplanting this chip is not a matter of seconds to prevent it being misused in PvP combat.

Q: Aside from the ability to buy a guild building, what features will be coded into the game to allow guilds to be more than just 'glorified chat channels'?

A short overview of what's planned for guilds: