With Perfect World’s recent revealing of its new game, Swordman Online, there seems to be many rumors floating around the Internet. The game, based on the classic Chinese martial arts novel, The Proud Wandering Swordsman, has proven to be quite a hit among the Chinese gaming community.
I can safely say that there are not many well-made games which are adapted from novels. Perfect World has done so with Jade Dynasty, which has also proven to be a successful attempt.
On 4th June, a Perfect World staff, known as Brother Nine (or XIMEN919) in the Perfect World forums, has shed some light on Swordman Online and address some issues players are concerned about.
Do note that these are the official information, and the latest ones. As you might know, Perfect World does not really fear delaying games for months to overhaul the system.
Brother Nine did also state that the first few trailers will only be introducing the game’s basic features and style to gamers. If you have watched martial arts movies, you might have seen the classic “Treading Water” skill, where characters move over water. In many martial arts MMO, this is only used as a skill to increase movement speed.
Brother Nine stated this is due to change in Swordman Online. He also stated that there will be many social features in the game, just that these features will be hard to showcase in trailers.
Q: The graphic of the game does not look measurable to that of Blade & Soul’s.
A: A MMO is not purely judged on the graphics itself. What is most important is the content and playability. There are some games which used to rely on its graphics (he did mention some games, but I shall not list them), but look at what happened to them in the long run?
And from the trailers, I can tell you that it was recorded using a really normal system: Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB Ram and Nvidia G8400. Try using this system to record a trailer like we did on games with high end graphics. Those who have been in the MMO development industry know that making pretty graphics is the simplest task, with minimal technical skills needed.
Q: Is the game in 2.5D or 3D?
A: The game is indeed in full 3D, contrary to many reports found. The source of this rumor might be from the camera angle of the game. Yes, the camera angle of the game will be fixed, which can be previewed from the trailer. Please allow me to explain why.
This is mainly due to the game’s (all these can be seen in trailer 2) living environment system (plants, animals etc will change according to weather and other conditions), weather system which is in sync with the real weather, a robust physical environment and time system (aging etc which will be affected by time).
NPCs will also have their individually scripted AI and patterns. All these running at the same will take up much system resources, hence we decided to have a fixed camera view. We will still be reviewing the camera view feature, so stay tuned.
Q: The battles seen in the trailer seems confusing. Are the controls hard to master?
A: Nope, it will in fact be rather easy. Those skills featured in the trailer are basic skills which is grouped into a set of DIY combo. There is a deeper explanation to skills, so stay tuned as we reveal more on the website. in time to come.
That’s the end of Brother Nine’s short Q&A session. Last year in August, Perfect World did a lengthy Q&A session with regards to Swordman Online too. I am not sure how much information has been changed since then, but here are some facts from that particular Q&A session. I only chose the 5 questions I think are important, so pardon the lazy me =)
1. There will be 10 clans to choose from. Each clan will have its own unique style. We will look into the possibility of adding more clans in the future. The “tank, healer, DPS” model will still remain, but only as the core for us to further expand the clans and their roles in a party.
2. There will be many types of instances for players. Most instances will require players to enter as a group. Many instances will be developed using the novel’s storyline.
3. For now, there will not be any “good” or “bad” factions in order to stay true to the original novel. But this will be reviewed in the future.
4. Players are encouraged to party and play the game. However, due to the spirit of many martial arts novel where some characters are alone most of the time, solo capabilities will be reviewed.
5. There will be many martial arts masters who are not afflicted to any clans. Players can seek them out and obtain skills from them.
