We have a chance to chat with Dan Milewski,Creator of Irth Online, about in-game Open Skill System and PvP System.
MMOSITE: It‘s so special that Irth Online uses open skill system and involves no leveling and classes, could give us more details about your open skill system? What were the main considerations when you made these decisions?
Dan Milewski: Well, it was really a hands down decision that Irth Online was going to be an open skill system without the leveling grind and the predetermined class system that has seemed to have taken over the MMORPG community. Here at Magic Hat Software, we really believe that player options and freedoms are the heart and soul to a great MMORPG. In Irth, you can become proficient in any or many of the 50 available professions to choose from. In addition to this more professions are being added.
MMOSITE: One of the features of Irth Online is that every player with account gets a free house. What‘s the house for and anything special for the housing?
Dan Milewski: Who does not want a free house? We do not just give you an instanced zone that you call your home. Player housing is a large part of our game where communities and guilds are formed around the land. Players can form a guild and have an administrator build them their own guild village on the live world map to their own specifications. How awesome is that! So what can you do with your house/village? Well look at the pictures below, these are taken right off of the live server. Players have the ability to craft nearly anything they see in the game world and can use these items to decorate their homes!!! Some of our players are VERY creative with their home d?cor. The possibilities are endless.
MMOSITE: As the world map is so large, is there any assistance for the road guide? I feel a bit afraid of long time exploring in a large place without any clue.
Dan Milewski: Indeed the world is a very very large place that can often be confusing. There are pre-set travel routes already in place for the players to have a direct path between towns and major areas. You can travel by horse, griffon or take a wyvern around the area. By taking the preset travel routes you can learn the roads quite quickly. There are also street signs in some locations where it might be easily confused which road brings you where. The world map is a very useful tool to help you get a general idea of where you are and the radar map will give you an even more useful look at where you are relative to the road (assuming you have not gone too far from the road heheh)!
MMOSITE: How does the PVP system work, is there any protection for newbs?
Dan Milewski: The PvP system in Irth Online is based around three war stricken civilizations. These civilizations really have a great distain for each other. The Arcadians, the Mezoteks and the Morbus are at constant war with each other and are never safe from the enemy. You can choose to be our fourth civilization, The Avarians. They are the only non-PvP civilization on Irth. You can choose to be an Avarian when you first enter the world and later when you feel your skills are appropriate for you to engage in the PvP system you can return to one of the other three civilizations that you specify at character creation. So in essence, if you want to stay protected you can simply become an Avarian until you see fit otherwise.
MMOSITE: "Community Friendly with High Developer Interaction", does it mean the Developers will be online with players?
Dan Milewski: The developers of Irth Online are in constant communication with our player community. In fact, we consider the players part of the development team. We listen to their ideas and implement as many as we can. We are in game, on the forums, in IRC and anywhere else we can be! We are players just like everyone else; we know how frustrating it can be to have developers that are not very responsive to their player base. Here at Magic Hat we try our best to be sitting in our players Irthonium plate boots. We strive to create a great game that everyone can enjoy and the only way this is possible is through listening and responding to the community.
MMOSITE: How many races have decided until now? And What are they?
Dan Milewski: There are quite a few playable races in Irth. We first developed the human race but decided that more was needed to enhance the player experience. Therefore, we introduced an Elf race and the beta testers really loved them so we had to put in a few others. What good is a game without dwarves?! Well, without dwarves the average height of the characters would be too darn tall! So we put in a dwarven race next. We were going to stop there but we could not stop ourselves from adding just one more. Shortly after the game was released we launched the Cyclops race! So currently you can play an Arcadian, Avarian, Mezotek or Morbian Human, Elf, Dwarf and or Cyclops! You can choose any combination of those to make your character most suited to your needs.
MMOSITE: Contest winners of Irth Online come from different countries, so when the Irth Online standard version releases, which country will be the first to be benefited? Have you got any further plan for the Asian market or anywhere else?
Dan Milewski: Irth Online released on November 1st, 2005. It is available to all countries that wish to purchase the game through our website via this link. In fact, why don?t I offer your readers a discount code for ＄5 off our title Just visit the link above and enter discount code: MD-NOV and ID-Code: CXR-MMOS to receive Irth Online at a discounted rate! We are always looking to broaden our horizons through the European and Asian markets.
MMOSITE: How many players have attended the last beta test event? Are there any other contests or other beta tests following?
Dan Milewski: Oh boy, we‘ve had some very good showings for many events and contests. Wehave had scavenger hunts, pumpkin hunts, GM controlled monsters, player teams led by GM controlled scaled up monsters battling the GM controlled monsters on the opposing teams, etc. We made an epic Irth movie where the beta testers became our leading characters and Irth celebrities. We have had epic quests to save the fair Arcadian princess. There have been so many. We are on the cusp of introducing a series of live events that should prove very entertaining and exciting for our players. We have a lot of fun with events.
It was a pleasure to have this interview with Dan Milewski and thanks to Dan Milewski for giving us the time.
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