With Fractured, we can expect an exciting sandbox MMORPG with an interesting PvP concept. MeinMMO was able to speak with Jacopo Pietro Gallelli, CEO of Dynamight Studios, about the online game.
MeinMMO editor Leya Jankowski asked Jacopo Pietro Gallelli some exciting questions about the sandbox MMORPG Fractured, including the SpatialOS technology used to create the game.
You will also learn more about the exciting PvP principle with the three worlds and how you can plan cities and conduct sieges.
In addition, you can expect a lot of crafting, exploring the three worlds, fighting many monsters, great freedom in designing your virtual life, and a lot of teamwork.
SpatialOS – What is that?
MeinMMO: We hear a lot about the SpatialOS technology and how it helps create more complex worlds for MMORPGs. But it’s hard to understand. You work with SpatialOS, could you perhaps enlighten us a bit?
What exactly is possible with this technology? How does it help you create Fractured and how do players benefit from it?
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: Well, I think you know that creating the backend for an MMORPG is extremely complex and requires a team of senior engineers. And of course, it depends on the ambitions you have for an MMO. If you want to create a game where the entire world is divided into two or more areas with only a limited number of players in each area, then it’s not that complex. It’s still complex, but not extreme.
But if you want to make an open world, like in Fractured … Well, I mean, there are also regions in Fractured. But each continent is an open world, for example 60 square kilometers in size. For us, that is very, very complex. I don’t want to get too technical, as that would be quite boring. However, the best thing about SpatialOS is that it uses a cloud-based system. There are specialized controls, different processes on the server that manage different areas of the world. That’s how it works.
For example, when we conducted our last test, our stress test, we had this one map. There are 60 square kilometers in the world with 48 separate processes managing this map on the server side. But on the client side, you wouldn’t notice it. Players could walk from one side of the island to the other. That takes about two hours. And they wouldn’t notice that they were switching from one server to another state.
Players could also be on one server and see another player on a different server in front of them and shoot an arrow at them and hit them. They actually interact as if they are on the same server, but they are on two different ones. That’s a super simplified way to express it. It’s extraordinary. It would not have been possible for us to develop a game with the ambitions of Fractured if we couldn’t work with SpatialOS. And I don’t know of any competing product that allows for such a thing.
Learning the technology takes a while. Right now, developers don’t really know much about this technology because it’s so new. Whoever is assigned to it must learn to work with SpatialOS. However, that doesn’t take long. I think it’s similar to any other technology of this kind.
When we started working on it, we saw SpatialOS in the prototype phase; the system was admittedly still in alpha. It was still quite unpolished at the time. But we recognized the potential and were among the first developers to use SpatialOS.
There were a few other projects that failed. I think you might want to ask me about that because people usually do. We have always maintained a good relationship with the developers of SpatialOS. They have allowed us to use their service for free so far. The technology is great. The support is great. So it’s really cool stuff.
Loot differently
MeinMMO: Our author, who wrote the article on Fractured, took a look at the game and noticed a few things. He wondered: In many MMORPGs, equipment like better weapons or armor is essential to become better than others. However, in the description of Fractured, it states: “Defeat your enemies through your own skills and cleverness, not through equipment or level.”
What role do loot (and items) play in the game exactly, without focusing on better equipment? Don’t you think a major aspect of playing MMORPGs will be missing?
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: Well, it’s still important to get equipment in Fractured, but in a slightly different way. Progression is horizontal. Your character gets stronger, gains more skills, and over time becomes better suited for our different scenarios. You also acquire knowledge that you can spend on your skills. Basically, it’s about the power gap between players.
Someone might play for three days, but someone who has played for three months might actually be weaker compared to the other. The equipment works the same way. You have many different types of weapons and armor and various types of materials, cross-class and so on. But none of this is frequently stronger than the other, it’s just better suited for different areas and challenges.
We therefore expect that professional players who have been min-maxing for years will actually use many weapons for the different challenges. They play and spend a lot of time obtaining everything. Also because it’s not that easy; there are also some rules. No one will lose equipment items. I think it’s possible to lose materials and reagents and sometimes gold and so on. But you don’t lose weapons.
Everything is crafted, and some of that is to produce certain types of items. Materials are not easily found in the world. So if players want to be really competitive, they definitely have to make an effort to get the good stuff. It’s not something they can do in two days.
MeinMMO: What exactly do you mean by the challenge you have to face and that you need skill and cleverness?
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: In general, there are many areas of the world where you need to have certain skills. There are monsters that can kill you immediately or almost immediately if you don’t possess that specific item. So there are many cases where if you want to progress, you first need to have the right build and the right equipment. And to get that, you sometimes have to go to another place in the world. Sometimes it’s a bit like a puzzle. You find a challenge; you can’t defeat that monster until you find the thing you need to achieve your goal.
So again, it’s not really linear, is it? Even as a new player, you could encounter something you absolutely cannot defeat if you don’t have the skills you need.
MeinMMO: Okay. You also said that all equipment revolves around crafting. Can you, for instance, find epic or common pieces to build your items? Or how does that work?
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: Some materials are better than others. Enchanting your items significantly contributes to making them better than others.
But considering how the system works, it’s quite complex. Seeing it in practice is easier than explaining it. Sometimes you need that special ingredient, that type of material, to combine it with many others to achieve different results. And that material might be very rare. It’s not that it’s more powerful than the others. But you have to get it. There is this drive to improve the quality of the items you have crafted to play safely with your friends. But we’re talking about pretty small differences.
Fractured will not be a copy of Ultima Online
MeinMMO: Okay. When we looked at Fractured as a team and discussed it a bit, we thought it looks like Ultima Online. What do you think about this comparison?
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: Well, we are of course flattered because Ultima Online is a game I loved as a child. I played it for many years. But I don’t think there are as many similarities between Fractured and Ultima Online, to be honest. I mean, isometric view, sandbox of course, but Ultima Online feels enormously clunky today. When you play today, it feels like a game that is 20 years old. In terms of controls, interaction, features, and so on. It’s a great game, but it feels noticeably old.
Making a copy of Ultima Online was not very interesting for us. It doesn’t make sense to develop a copy today. Some systems in Fractured are very profound and complex, which is also quite old-fashioned. Aside from that part of the game, the controls, the menus, and the user interface, we tried to make everything as modern as possible and user-friendly. Fractured can present an old-school atmosphere if you are old-school players. But it is also accessible to young people or players who have not played Ultima Online.
MeinMMO: We also thought about the fact that the player can lead a kind of second life. And we think Fractured is going in that direction. And here, we also draw the comparison to Ultima Online.
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: Yes, I think we try to do more than Ultima Online in a way to give players a second home because it is a game that players can also enjoy alone. It doesn’t rely solely on group content. I could go through the game without any problems on my own. However, there is a significant part of the game that one will miss if playing alone. For example, we allow you to place a house in the middle of nowhere without it having a real significance or impact on the world of Fractured.
But it can have a huge impact on society if you work together in a community. It’s about building and maintaining a real settlement with your friends or with other people, which is new for the genre.
Three Worlds – One for Every Playstyle
MeinMMO: How do PvE and PvP work with the three worlds in Fractured? Will it be possible to switch between the worlds all the time?
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: Right now, we only have one world. The way it will work is that you choose your people – one of three races: The Beastmen, the Humans, and the Demons. The PvP varies along with the races’ abilities. In other MMORPGs, however, the choice of race doesn’t really make a difference. Only your abilities and your class make a difference. That has always been the case.
When you choose a race in Fractured, you also choose a planet. And each planet has different rules. In the world of Beastmen, there are only a few areas where it is possible to be attacked. But it’s super unlikely to engage in combat with other players. So if you want to play there, there are no sieges and no conquests.
If you want that kind of experience, that is PvP, you would play on the demon planet. In this planet, open PvP exists. There is no justice system. It looks more like a survival game like Rust, including full loot. It’s super competitive, super wild.
Then there are the Humans, where the game works like classic sandbox gaming. There are some small areas that are protected. However, most of the planet is not. It is possible to attack other players, but there is a karma system. It’s possible to become an assassin, but you will receive penalties for it. Militias and factions exist. And there are sieges between cities. So there is this whole competitive aspect. But we have tried to implement it in a way that makes it wrong to kill a random player.
You are a resident of a planet, but you can visit the other planets. You may take your character to close friends. But there are many rules that make this not easy. For example, if you are a Human and a good-aligned character, you can travel to the planet of Beastmen. But you cannot attack anyone there.
However, if you are playing as a Demon, then you are evil. Then it becomes very complex to travel to another world. You can more or less only stay for a few minutes. After that, you will be sent home. So it is really challenging and difficult. Actually, you need to have a goal in mind. For instance: I want to go back to learn those two special abilities. Then I travel back.
So we are allowing interaction between the three communities. But it’s a kind of timed interaction that has to be justified.
MeinMMO: If I understand correctly, you have three planets. One for PvE players, one for PvP players, and one for those who want the classic experience. I can just choose which world I want to play in. If I say I’m a pure PvE player and want nothing else, I go straight to that planet.
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: Yes, exactly. And that is one of the reasons we offer many players in our community exactly that because they are particularly waiting for PvE. Some other games use the formula where the lower-level content is PvE. So initially, there is no PvP. Only at the high-level content or some regions of the world does PvP exist. Then, if you want to progress, you have to opt for PvP.
With Fractured, you can bring a character from zero to 100 percent without having to travel to the other planets. But with the Demons, it is possible to play PvP. But no one really has to do that. You can play your character completely without PvP. Just stay on your PvE planet.
Build and Siege Cities
MeinMMO: Theoretically, it sounds like heaven. I have the game, where I can simply choose my playstyle and then travel to the corresponding planet. But it also sounds like this is not so easy to develop. Mainly because it almost sounds like you are creating three different types of MMOs in one game.
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: In terms of programming, it’s not a big variety. There are just three different rules. The problem is the many assets needed for the three planets as they each have a special climate and geography. For example, we could compare it to Germany. The Humans primarily have forests and mountains, but the planet of the Beastmen is South America. So it’s very warm, tropical, and we need different assets for that. Also for architectures like buildings. They are completely different. And then, of course, there are the character models, which are different again, as well as all the other models and so on.
And if you travel to the Demon planet, it’s the same story. The world of Demons is more comparable to the Arabian desert. Some areas resemble the Middle East. Some places look like desert regions of the USA. So we also need the architecture to reflect this. Therefore, we have to produce a lot of assets. And that is the biggest problem we will face when we start working on the other planets – if we can’t manage to expand the team. Because right now the team consists of eight people. For an MMO, that’s a very, very small team.
But maybe you also want to know more about the city system? To found a city, you need to find a suitable place on the continent. There are about 30 spots on the current continent suitable for large cities and 94 for smaller ones. You can become the governor of a city if you have enough money to run for election. In a small city, you need 14 players to support you, then you become the governor. Your supporters then become citizens of the city.
From the town hall, you can plan your city. It is possible to appoint a fellow player as the master builder to define the layout of the city. You plan the city with blueprints for the buildings from a bird’s-eye view. You determine the streets and lay a blueprint where maybe a forge should stand. Then you assign other players the tasks to construct the buildings. Players can also volunteer for this. Over time, you unlock additional buildings and technologies by spending points on them. You also unlock new decorations.
Your city can even level up. You need prestige for that, which you earn by building ever nicer buildings or by constructing a cobblestone street instead of a sand road. 100 or 200 people can live in a city, and you decide in which direction it develops. There is a complete city planning aspect.
For the PvP part, it is possible to build fortifications as well as walls and reinforced gates. On the PvE planet, however, you mainly take care of city planning. Cities can be connected. On the PvP planet, you attack and besiege neighboring cities. But that is very costly. You need to spend a lot of resources for it. A siege also requires a preparation time of about three days.
The defense must also be planned, including timing. The attackers must produce siege weapons. You need camps and weapons. When a siege starts, it lasts about one to two hours. First, you must destroy the towers and then work through further steps. Anyone involved is located in the city and the surroundings. All others cannot get in.
Every city is also connected to a resource source, such as mining for ore or sand to produce glass. There are four resource sources. Each city can only control the adjacent nodes to allow the battles to take place. This creates constant competition, which can become very complex.
Release set for 2022 as Buy2Play MMORPG
MeinMMO: Do you already know when the release window will be?
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: 2022, in spring. However, we want to start the beta by the end of this year [2020].
MeinMMO: Do you already know what the monetization model of the game will look like?
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: Yes, the game will be Buy2Play and the price will be around 20 to 30 euros. You can then play forever. There is no Pay2Win. However, you can also buy skins for items that only change the appearance. There are other cosmetic things or mounts, and so on. This gives you many options for customization. But that means we still need more assets.
MeinMMO: Will you also release Fractured on Steam?
Jacopo Pietro Gallelli: That’s a good question. It depends on whether we find a publisher. If we publish the game ourselves, there will also be a launch on Steam. But only with the beta. We want to release an optimized game.
MeinMMO: Thank you very much for the conversation.
