Hardware News

D&D Online Interview

Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

2005-07-31 00:00:00.0


MMORPG.com has sat down with Turbine Entertainment's David Eckelberry for a quick Q&A regarding their upcoming massively multiplayer online RPG, Dungeons & Dragons Online. They cover everything from racial abilities to how the death system will be handled. Here's a blurb:

MMORPG.com: With the real time combat system you are implementing, how do you plan to include feats like Cleave and Power Attack?
David Eckelberry: Tackling some feats is easy, especially when the pen-and-paper implementation is directly transferable to our medium. Power Attack, for example, doesn’t need any real change. It’s a mode the player goes into; while in this mode, the character hits less often, but does more damage when he hits. No problem. A lot of feats meet this sort of direct application.
But some don’t. DD Online’s combat system doesn’t make use of some pen-and-paper elements, largely thanks to being an online role-playing game. We aren’t turn-based, we don’t have “rounds” of combat, and thus Cleave can’t give you an extra attack in a round that you down a foe. When examining feats such as these, my goal is to produce the intent of the original feat (or skill or effect), while making the necessary adaptation for good videogame play. In the specific example of Cleave, use of this feat allows the character to make an area effect melee attack in a small arc in front of the character.


Recent posts