The new year is here! And with the new year come many new updates about the indie MMORPGs currently in development and those still in planning. In this edition of the Respec column, there is information, among others, about Shroud of the Avatar, Crowfall, City of Titans, and Project Gorgon.
Shroud of the Avatar
This month, Pre-Alpha Release 26 will launch and will bring new areas Resolute and Aerie among other things. In addition, balancing of the game is being worked on, and there are plans to optimize performance.
The community is currently hotly debating several elements, including the UI, particularly the chat window, which serves both for chats with players and conversations with NPCs, which some players dislike. The reasoning behind the placement of enemies in the game areas is also being questioned, which may be a topic for a future column.
Why do enemies inhabit the places they do?
Divergence Online
The early access phase of the shooter MMO Divergence Online is set to start soon. The developers at Stainglass Llama Studios are just waiting for Steam’s approval. Then players will be able to get a glimpse of the game, which is described by the developers as the spiritual successor of Star Wars Galaxies.
In the game, you create a hero from the four races Humans, Veli, Lokri, or you can play as an AI. You will join the factions VRTEK, Darius-Conrad, Omicron, Vindicator, Verrator, Establishment, or Heresy and explore the areas Lokesh, November, Xerxes, and Northstar.
Divergence Online aims to combine shooter elements with MMORPG features.
The Underground
An unconventional MMO awaits you with The Underground. If you nostalgically think back to the times of the Super Nintendo and would like to play a game in the visual style of Final Fantasy VI, then you should take a look at The Underground.
The sandbox MMORPG offers 16-bit 2D graphics, but has many interesting gameplay mechanics of an MMORPG. This includes open PvP with what they call “nearly Full Loot.” In the fantasy world, you can build, furnish, and expand your own house and even tame wild animals like dragons.
The MMO is already playable and can be downloaded from the official website of Underground. However, it is still in development.
City of Titans
The spiritual successor of the superhero MMORPG City of Heroes is expected to enter a public testing phase in 2016. The developers announced this.
If all goes well, players may celebrate the upcoming Christmas in the City of Titans. To give a little taste of the game, the developers have now released a series of videos, which show, among other things, early gameplay scenes and character creation. City of Titans is being developed with Unreal Engine 4.
Project Gorgon
The developers of the MMORPG Project Gorgon have many bizarre ideas. This includes “Animal Town,” a town where only players who want to embody animals can live. So if you prefer to play as a cow or a spider instead of a warrior or mage, you can meet and interact with other animals in Animal Town. There are no limits to imagination in MMORPGs.
Meanwhile, the development of the game is progressing rapidly.
Crowfall
The PvP MMORPG Crowfall will continue the testing phase in just a few days. On January 6th, a new test will begin on the European server. However, this will only be the first of many further tests, with which the developers will also introduce new features each time to gradually make Crowfall the game that was announced during the Kickstarter campaign.
The developers thank the fans and testers and look forward to a productive year in 2016.
As can be seen, a lot has already happened in the field of indie MMORPGs at the beginning of the year 2016, and we are very excited to see how things will progress in the coming weeks and months!
