Cabal II: The Neoforce Era was originally scheduled to have a 5-years development cycle, which eventually took 7 now and still counting.
With Closed Beta 2 coming next week, Korean gaming website Inven visited developer ESTsoft to seek out some answers. Note that not all questions were translated and there might be errors during translation.
Q: Why the delay from 5-years of development to the current 7?
A: We met with various difficulties during the development phase and wanted to make the best choices for a perfect game, hence the massive delay. The decision to use CryEngine III was also made in the later stages of development. We also took a long time to confirm which features to remove or add in, and even those features which we approved may be re-designed if there is any imperfection detected.
Q: Using CryEngine III, will the system requirements to play Cabal II be greatly increased?
A: We have been working on minimizing the system requirements to as low as possible, and at the same time making sure the gap between the minimum and maximum requirements is low as well. The game will still run great on the minimum settings.
Q: What main difference will there be in terms of combat when compared to Cabal I?
A: In Cabal II, there will be more Area of Effect (AoE) skills, something which is weak in the predecessor. In place of the various “Dash” skills, there will be mounts instead to increase movement speed. The first mount will be given at level 10.
Q: How about the inconvenient skill UI from Cabal I?
A: The skill UI now will have 2 rows, and all irrelevant skills will be removed.
Q: Will each class be accessible for both gender?
A: In Cabal II, the female gender will hold the ranged classes, while the male gender will assume the melee classes.
Q: What about the PvP systems in Cabal II?
A: The main PvP system will see a nation vs nation conflict. The large-scale 100 Vs 100 PvP found in Cabal I has also been downsized in Cabal II, with 40 Vs 40 and 20 Vs 20 the 2 options. We are thinking of implementing a PvP arena feature. And no, there will be no open field PK or PvP.
Q: Will there still be equipment which can only be traded for using PvP points?
A: Yes, items gotten from trading PvP points will be slightly better than those found in the PvE fields.
Q: How is the crafting/ production system like in Cabal II?
A: There will be a specialized map for this activity now, compared to crafting while hunting in Cabal I.
Q: Why is Cabal II labeled as a 18 and above only game?
A: Unlike the past, we are not deliberating removing some scenes to suit the censors. We wanted to have more sense of realism, and dropping down to the 15 years old section will see many changes needed to the game.
Q: What is the main aim for Closed Beta 2?
A: Closed Beta 2 is for testing the server load, and we will be inviting 10,000 players to join us in this phase.
Comments: Not loving the gender-restricted classes, I still don’t see why is there a need to do this. Perhaps to keep the game client size small… Which is actually 1 of the reasons for some games.
Although the first English server was announced recently, it will still be quite sometime before it actually launches. Till then, hopefully the game will come out good.
