At Gamescom 2016, we had an extensive conversation with Crowfall developer Jess Mulligan about the unusual throne war PvP MMO and received some interesting information. For example, that they might want to let players “lose” for real money.
Crowfall is an ambitious MMO project where players play short campaigns instead of in an open world, which are expected to last only three months. Only the housing aspect of the game, the so-called “Eternal Kingdom”, remains as a refuge for the characters between the campaigns. We had some questions about this unusual game approach, and at Gamescom 2016, we were able to extract some interesting answers from game director Jess Mulligan.
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Campaign Multiverse
The campaign worlds of Crowfall have unique rules, so it may be that there is no magic in one world, while in another all players are wizards, and in yet another campaign brutal friendly fire applies, and ongoing sieges turn into bloodbaths. While a campaign is running (developers currently plan for about three months each), the deployed hero is firmly bound to this world.
If we no longer enjoy the respective world, we cannot leave and must wait out the remaining time. However, this is not in the interest of all players, and since they still do not want players to constantly jump in and out of the campaign as they please, the “Pay2Lose” concept has been proposed.
Accordingly, one should only be able to drop out of the campaign (thus failing the campaign goal and leaving the battle for dominance) if they pay real money. Then the character would be free for new worlds again, but since it costs money, most players would probably remain in the world and not cause unnecessary chaos. However, whether the “Pay2Lose” system will actually be implemented is still not final.
Crowfall is expected to have a Buy2Play game model, while an optional subscription only offers time savings by allowing us to train the skills of up to 3 heroes offline and have more space in housing. Additionally, there will also be microtransactions, but explicitly only cosmetic items and comfort features like the mentioned “Pay2Lose”.
Housing and Gestures
As already mentioned, our heroes can spend time in the Eternal Kingdom between the campaigns to manufacture items and train. The Kingdom is similar to the housing plot in Wildstar, only much larger and completely customizable, even in terms of terrain. Jess described it as a kind of “streamlined Minecraft”, where you can build everything to your heart’s content like with Lego bricks. Particularly cool: Guilds can combine the individual kingdoms of their members into a huge empire!
Regarding Crowfall’s combat system, Jess said that we can start PvP right from the beginning, as the actual game is already the endgame. Therefore, you need a lot of skill to do well, and since – for example with magic – the telegraphs for area effects can only be seen once the attack has already occurred, we need to pay special attention to the gestures of the opposing wizard! If he swings wide, he is probably planning a “fire tornado” and we should quickly leave the area in front of him.
If you want to try Crowfall for free, you’ll have to wait a bit, as the open beta will only start next year. However, this year the closed beta starts at the end of the year, and you can still purchase access packs on the Crowfall homepage and participate.
