Dragon Empires coming soon; workplace productivity to drop 80%

by Louis Bedigian

Remember that little time-devouring phenomenon called EverQuest?  Codemasters is getting ready to compete (and perhaps defeat) the king of MMORPGs with Dragon Empires.

This summer, Codemasters will unleash a mammoth-sized MMORPG called Dragon Empires.  As you can gather by the title, dragons are big part of this game.

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.  Dragon Empires is overflowing with gameplay options and drenched in astonishing graphics.  Do you want to be good?  Evil?  Or somewhere in between?  Do you want to bounty hunt, sell merchandise or rule the world?  The decisions you make, the direction you take and the actions you perform will greatly change the way the game turns out for you.

While shaping the game’s world and deciding the fate of others, your eyes will be mesmerized by beautiful polygons.  The graphics were created using NDL’s new engine, the cleverly titled Gamebryo.  Gamebryo is the new version of NetImmerse, and let me tell you, if the intriguing gameplay concepts don’t immerse you in the experience, the graphics most certainly will.

Being overly anxious to delve deep into Dragon Empires’ enormous world, we decided to venture out into a small woodsy area.  Unfortunately, Codemasters stepped in and advised us to stay safe in the confines of our homes.

Knowing that we were a little disgruntled by the fact that we don’t get to attack (or get slaughtered by) a real-life beast in preparation for their new game, Codemasters lent us their Community Liaison Manager, Peter Tyson, for a day.  Peter found that contrary to popular belief, playing games for a living is a lot easier than making them for a living.  Glad to know this priceless piece of information, he provided us with an in-depth interview about Dragon Empires, its many gameplay choices, what the battles are like and more.

Question: Regarding the three expansive player options: hunting, world leading and merchandising, how do players get started?  Where are you and what is your position/title when the game begins?

Peter: When you start the game you will be a simple bystander, by this we mean someone who isn't involved in PvP (Player vs. Player) conflict. You can do all the usual stuff like fight monsters, level up, join a guild and so on. In order to get involved in PvP you will need to become an outlaw or a bounty hunter. You do this by attacking a special animal or talking to an NPC and getting a contract respectively. You can also take a contract to move resources around the world in which case you become a contract trader.

Anyone is able to start crafting by completing a couple of simple quests that will give them a basic crafting skill. To advance on to more complex items the player will need to complete more quests. Level is not important in completing these quests so anyone, with a bit of work, can become a master craftsman regardless of level.

The list of features that Dragon Empires has to offer is really impressive.  One that immediately caught my eye was the economic model system, which causes prices and profits to fluctuate according to player actions.  Could you tell us some more about it?

PT: Every town in Fortitude has a marketplace where goods are bought and sold. Players are able to bring in wood, iron and other resources from outside town and off monsters and to sell them on the market. Goods are sold to players who have set a price they wish to buy items from the local market. This results in a dynamic and fluctuating market that will see prices change across the world naturally.

Thus, I might want to make swords using my automated workshop (in Dragon Empires you can set your workshop to buy resources and sell products and to make goods whether you are online or offline!) and I see the going price for iron is 5 gold pieces. But, since I think iron is in short supply and I really want to make these swords I tell the market that I want to buy iron for 6 gold pieces. This means that the first shipments of iron to come to town will be sold to me first, at 6 gold pieces, and whatever else is left will go to others at 5 gold, and so on.

Conversely, if the market is flooded and I see most people are buying iron for 5 gold, I could decide that there is a surplus so I will put in an offer for 4 gold. The others will buy up what they want at 5 gold but I'll get whatever is remaining for 4. In this way prices will go up and down as demand and supply changes.
 
This means we can see all sorts of interesting trends come to play. Players could stockpile resources to try and drive the price up. Other players could try and prevent resources from reaching an enemy city, either through force or through buying any traders out, and thus destroy the local economy making players move to better places. Players could simple move goods and resources between cities and make a killing on the price difference. All of this game play will emerge from the simple tools and rules we provide players and I think it is interesting stuff!

Dragon Empires will mesmerize gamers with its breathtaking trees,

snow and hundreds of individual blades of grass.

 
What kinds of expenses will players be faced with in Dragon Empires?

PT: Players will have to worry about keeping their equipment up to date and guilds will have to make sure to upgrade their towns as often as they can.

Do you mean subscription?  Not yet fixed.

It's hard to imagine how the battles will turn out in a game until you actually play it.  Could you fill our heads with a clearer image [of the battles] by giving us a detailed description of the gameplay?

PT: Battles will be exciting to watch with banners waving, horns blowing and some really great magical effects! This is on top of fantastic weapons and great looking armor and items. Combat will involve a lot of energy management and careful ability selection. Pull out the big sword, but be careful which abilities you use or you will exhaust yourself, perhaps switch to two hand axes when your energy is low and then back to the sword when you've recovered a bit. Choosing weapons and abilities will be important in combat, as will how you use your secondary abilities. We want to make sure players feel they really are in control and that skill really matters in a fight. We don't want a boring click-'n'-wait style of combat.

On top of that, during city battles players will fight fighting big groups of other players in and around the cities they want to control. This is going to be great to watch and very fun to take part in, I am sure.

Merchants have the ability to open factories and keep them running even when they're not online, assuming they have enough money to purchase the resources.  What happens if a merchant is away from the game for a while and the factory eventually ends up losing money -- will it go under or be taken over by another player?

PT: A merchant type will have to set what items the workshop ("Aurochrome" in DE speak) is to make and how much, at a maximum, the workshop should pay for the base resources. Also, optionally, the workshop can be told to make only a certain number of items and also the minimum price to sell those goods on to the market for.

Thus, you can make yourself a new sword, your guild a new sword, or keep making and trying to sell swords to the market while you sleep. Of course, if you try the later and no one buys your swords (maybe your minimum price was too high!) your Aurochrome may keep on buying resources and stockpiling swords. Not a problem if you're rich, too bad if you're short on cash, you'll have dozens of swords and not a coin in sight. Perhaps a bulk sale on the market at a cut price might recoup some losses? Alternately, perhaps if you put some time to hand craft some add-ons to make enhanced items you can sell your supped-up swords back to the market and make back those losses.

Since everyone can run a factory of their own there is no need to worry about losing your factory. The worst you can lose is the shirt off your back in a bad trade move!

Just look at the amazing water reflections.

Absolutely stunning!

It goes without saying that dragons are a big part of Dragon Empires, but what other creatures will you come in contact with?  Are any of them friendly?

PT: There will be wild creatures of various kinds, some aggressive, some not, a selection of undead, elementals and various other creatures I can't tell you about. Oh, and the Kittahs too, of course! (see our message boards for more :)

http://www.codemasters.com/dragonempires

http://koti.mbnet.fi/twinsoft/turhat/kuvia/kittahexca.jpg

Cheating can be a major problem for online games.  Is anything being done to ensure that all participants of Dragon Empires have a fair, equal opportunity?

PT: The game client is carefully constructed to not let the usual hacks and cheats work. We do this by having the server make and check all-important decisions. We don't expect hacking to be a major problem and anyone caught hacking will be dealt with severely.
 
Tell us about the clan system.

PT: Players can form clans with their friends at an NPC. The clan leader will chose a banner design and color for the clan based on a wide selection of choices. Should the clan ever rule a city their banners will fly high over the town. Guilds also get a voting system, guild mail options, guild chat and configurable leadership options. Guilds will also be able to form information pages about themselves on the Dragon Empires web site or use an XML feed from the servers to update their own pages. It is a pretty complete system we figure.

NDL recently announced that its 3D graphics toolkit is being used to create Dragon Empires' gorgeous graphics. What  was the main reason that Codemasters chose this particular engine over other, equally impressive graphics toolkits?

PT: NDL was chosen because of the ease with which we can use it to drop models, effects and animations into the engine.

Were there any limitations with the engine?  Was there anything that you wanted to do, but couldn't?

PT: None that I know about. :)

Are the weather effects (tropical rainstorms, lightning, thunder, etc.) strictly eye candy or will they affect the gameplay as well as the game's visuals?  [If the gameplay is influenced by the weather, please elaborate on that.]

PT: We have decided that the weather should have a limited impact. One big reason for this is we didn't want people to, say, spend thirty minutes organizing a big hunt only to have to call it off because of bad weather. Thus, cold climates will reduce healing rates and hot weather will increase energy burn. Small but possibly significant impacts that smart players will know how to use. Weather also drastically changes visibility so if you're running from folks, head towards the rain and storm clouds!

What determines the game's weather changes?

PT: Each type of terrain has a different temperature and humidity value. Also, it has an altitude which determines the air pressure and influences the other factors. When combined the engine then determines what the weather is in a particular location. Thus, swamps tend to be rainy and wet and deserts have clear skies as often as not. What is particularly cool is that you can use the weather to find your way. I was using the editor the other day and found myself zooming around out at sea, very lost! I headed in one direction and eventually saw some clouds, sure enough, that was where land was!

Is this is a video game or an artist’s

painting of a beautiful sunset?

Has a maximum player limit (per game/server) been decided yet?  If not, what are you shooting for?

PT: Around 2000 players per server at any one time. We'll be testing this in beta.

The Dragon Empires Frequently Asked Questions page mentioned that the game might have traditional, story-style quests.  Is there anything that you can tell us about them?  Are they offline or online-based or both?

PT: Online only, however, unlike a lot of games where quests are simple "go here, do this", many of our quests will be much more interactive with players able to really choose their own path within the stories told. We feel this encourages role-playing and it gives the players [the chance] to be good, bad or neutral as they see fit.  It also gives the game more re-playability for those making a second or third character as they can go about the same quest in quite different ways.

Should you be given the opportunity, would it be possible to port Dragon Empires to one or more of the game consoles?  What sort of things would have to be changed/removed for a console version to be made?

PT: There aren't any plans to move the game onto a console, but if we did I imagine we would have a lot of work on the control side to do as well as graphics adjustments. I don't even want to think about it! :)

That definitely gives console gamers a reason to start upgrading their PCs.  Hopefully no one will have to miss out on what looks to be one of the best PC games of the year.

Thank you, Peter, for all of your detailed information about the game.  I look forward to its release.

GameZone Online will be speaking with NDL about their new graphic engine (which is being used to create Dragon Empire’s mind-blowing visuals) in the coming weeks, so be sure to keep your browser pointed here for the all of the latest details.

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