The MassiveOnlineGaming Squad

Well, Early last week, I got the chance to sit down with Keen of  (Keen and Graev.com) and spill the beans on some information about the game. I've been playing the Russian Open Beta for Allods Online for awhile now. So here is a quick list of the stuff, I went over with Keen.

Also just to drop a bit of semi new info, The company has already started work on the first expansion, rumored to be released shortly after release of the game. So we may see a huge content update in the first few months of launch.

I want to express  that all of this comes with a disclaimer that we do not know what will make it into the North American version. This is what the Russians have to play. I'm  hoping that gPotato doesn’t screw us all over and change it.

• - Individual Astral Ships (6-man).
• - Ships take two weeks to thirty days to make. Ships are completed by doing daily quests/world mystery quests to gather the parts. You complete the quests and the ship building NPC’s of the shipyard work on it for you. It’s a big investment of time and effort.
• - “There are permission lists so you have control over your ship”.
• - Astral ship combat is longer than normal combat. It takes time to hurt a ship enough to board it. This is a not a “wham bam” thing. These are fortified vessels.
• - All Astral combat with other ships is in real time. Multiple ships can gang up on you. You can board a ship someone else damaged. It’s a cutthroat place.
• - Your boat can be damaged and you need to go back to port to repair — takes time. Have to collect money and parts to repair it. Not like going to a vendor and hitting repair.
• - Astral Plane is massive (as big as the game world itself — it’s the space surrounding it). Giant raid bosses attack you randomly as you sail around. You can find dungeons and raid dungeons. It’s open, but there are defined locations you’ll know about.
• - Raid and “mini-raid” bosses attack you. Raid bosses are pseudo-instanced but the “mini-raid” bosses are bosses that anyone can sail right up to and fight together.
• - Special Chests drop from these bosses that go onto your ship. You have to take these chests back to the port master to have them opened to see what epic loot you got.
• - Port Battles take place in the astral plane over these raid boss dungeons. You dock your ship and go in to do the boss. The result is a lot of “port battles”.
• - Astra Plane PvP is FFA. Yes, you can even pirate and attack your own faction. This is why the loot on your ship is at danger!
• - Level 30 you get the quest to make your ship. It is set up so that it takes X days to complete.
• - Mounts are coming. Obtainable through quests. More of a convenience thing.
• - There is a city siege mechanic in the game to attack capital cities. “Somewhat like WAR”. The capital city itself won’t be sieged but some sort of instancing is used to make it so that the city isn’t inaccessible or lost to everyone, but attackable. When I asked about instances, he said “in a round about way”.
• - “Epic Lore Raid bosses” are promised. Think “Lich King”. There is definitely a deep lore here that comes from Rage of Mages. READ YOUR QUESTS.
• - “End-game” content (24-man raids) are in the game and more are being tested and developed.
• - Level 23+ there is world pvp. Once you leave your quest hub you are vulnerable to attack and your flag turns on. Enter your quest hub and you’re safe. This is the only area you are safe in the 23+ zones. The story line begins to evolve and introduce the conflict between the sides. “Expect anything to happen while you level.”
• - Control objectives and gain access to a dungeon. When you take over all the objectives your side gets the dungeon, thus taking it away from the other faction. The dungeon remains locked unless your side owns the objectives. It is instanced once you gain control. Think Darkness Falls, but not an open dungeon.
• - Class balance lends itself to group/squad oriented play. Individual class balance isn’t a big thing. There isn’t one class to rule them all or one class that sucks. It’s about synergy. Some classes have minor problems but they are simple fixes. “They have done a superb job balancing classes.”
• - Crafting is important. Good balance of crafted vs. drops. Equal if not better than drops. It’s good old fashion luck with crafting in this game though. It’s like vegas. You can spend the best mats on something but you’re never guaranteed to get exactly what you want — it’s not completely consistent. There are items to make crafting chances better, but it’s still random. Not the best system by any means. More of a mini-game — a bastardized form of the Free Realms crafting system.
• - Cash shop truly is a convenience only thing. Nothing in the cash shop is game breaking, unbalanced, or unachievable in-game. No advantage can be gained from the cash shop.

On a side note some new info has come to light about the Atral Ship vs Ship PvP. After reading the latest patch notes from the latest RU version. They have changed it from (Free For All) to (Faction vs Faction).

If, I can think of anything else this blog will be the first to know any info.

Well back to grinding out my new Orc Warden.

I'm so glad they Extended CB2 for a week now, I can keep playing lol.