[Th13f]

Some of you might be wondering what we here at Grim Reaper Interactive were up to since we announced putting Gothic II: Warsong on hold. I feel myself obliged to answer that question. No, the team did not disband, but we moved on to independent game development, as the Gothic II platform didn't allow us to do all we wanted to do. So now, after a period of silence, we officially announce Empire of the Golden Phoenix, an open world action-RPG.

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The game will be set in an apparently typical medieval fantasy setting (we have four races: the elves, who appear to be the great and noble race, the humans, slaves or subjects to the elves, the battle-enthusiastic dragonborn, an alliance of various reptilian races, led by the dragons and the ellusive undead). But, things are not what they appear to be. Initially, the humans were the greatest race, until a great war took place between all the aces of Ayrhed and a race of demons. During the final battle, the elves betrayed the humans by retreating. The demons were annihilated, but the armies of the other races were decimated and the last human emperor, Salazar Phoenix the second, was killed, losing the humans' symbol of power, the Sword of Ages, in the process. Civil war followed, as the human nobles fought for the imperial throne and then the elves invaded, subduing and enslaving the humans. The game itself takes place 1000 years after these events and it follows the deeds of one man, Kainan Wolfe, who, during a period of 10 years, rises from slave miner to new emperor of humanity, restoring the Empire of the Golden Phoenix and uniting the human race against the elves. Wolfe's personal drama will play a very important role in the story, as at some point during the game, he falls in love with an elven noblewoman called Alyssa (who will in the end, become his wife). Wolfe himself is a sarcastic and short tempered man with a foul vocabulary and lust for battle.

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The gameplay will be similar to the Gothic series, but far more complex. We will have the factions system from Gothic and a similar skill system. The skill system will eliminate the concept of experience points and levelup. We have five basic atributes: strength, agility, endurance, magic power and cunning. Skills will be based upon these atributes, sometimes drawing from several at once. The skill system works in a simple manner. As long as you have the specific requirements for a skill, the money to afford it and a teacher to train you, you can learn the skill. For example: One handed sword level 1 requires 10 strength and costs around 50-80 gold, depending on the region and currency. You get 10 strength by using skills based upon strength or doing things that require strength, such as running (which also improves endurance), climbing, swiming or even hand to hand combat. Before you can learn one handed sword level 2, you need 100% mastery of one handed sword level one, as well as new strength and agility requirements. You gain mastery of a skill by using it. This way, we obtain a more fluid and immersive skill system than the classic "open skill tree, click to add skill points, gain xp and leve up for more skill points" system.

We will also have a unique reputation system based on four personal goals: altruism, glory, wealth and power. How does this work? Well, depending on certain actions, like selflessly helping others without asking for reward (altruism), constant boasting and impossible causes (glory), asking for more money than initially agreed upon as reward and haggling (wealth) or acts of corruption for the sake of influence and domination (power), the NPCs will react differently to the player throughout the game. Most of the quests will be dynamic, offering multiple choices and often, multiple endings as well. For example, a farmer asks you to help him get rid of some banditsthat were trying to rob him. You can help the farmer and refuse any reward, gaining points for altruism, unlocking altruism based quests and the reputation of being selfless, you can be greedy and haggle about the reward, asking for more than initially agreed upon, gaining more money, points for wealth and the reputation of a greedy person, you can ask the farmer to tell others of your deeds, gaining fame and points for glory, or you can help the bandits kill the farmer (they were unable to do so themselves), in exchange for submitting to you, which gains you the reputation of a power hungry bastard and points for power. Each personal goal unlocks specific quests once you invest enough points in it.

Also, access with weapons in cities is prohibited (which also gives us the possibility of a "hidden dagger" skill which lets you conceal a weapon) and you can not enter into a city wearing the armor of the enemies of the faction which controls it (entering an elven city wearing the armor of the human factions Covenant or Firewolf Tribes and later on in the story, the Mercenaries Guild as well, will result in the guards attacking you). Stealth will play a major role in the story and gameplay, as most quests will be about infiltrating a location and stealing documents, spying on someone, assassinating someone or framing someone of something.

It is uncertain if we will have full voice acting, that will depend on our budget (we will build our budget through donations and selling the soundtrack), but we will have a cinematic soundtrack with vocals and cutscenes will probably have voice acting. The game will be in english, we will do other localizations depending on budget and availability of translators. The game will use Ogre3D (open source graphics engine) and probably Bullet Physics, an open source physics engine with soft body dynamics (enabling us to have cloth simulation in the game). You can download the Ogre3D sources, SDK and demos from www.ogre3d.org to see what the engine is capable of. We won't have middleware such as speedtree, as we lack the money to pay for expensive middleware. Instead, we will aim for accessibility (Our target for minimum system requirements: Single core CPU at 1.8 GHZ, 1 GB of RAM and 256MB DirectX 9 and pixel shader 3 compatible VGA, like the Nvidia GeForce 6xxx series.). We will probably sell the game for 25$, which is worth paying for, considering what the game offers.

Our goal is to realize the full potential of open world action RPGs, something that all other producers out there failed to do. The objective is to create a vibrant, immersive world where NPCs not only have their daily tasks, but also react to the actions and decisions of the player. We want to make a game that we will enjoy playing ourselves.

If I managed to stir your curiousity, you can follow us on FaceBook, just click the link below or the FaceBook icon in my signature.
Grim Reaper Interactive @ FaceBook

[Larisa]

Gothic II: Warsong on hold.

Oh noes!

the Gothic II platform didn't allow us to do all we wanted to do

Yes, you've done pretty much all that is possible to do with G2. I still remember the fun I had playing all your previous releases.

which is worth paying for

Lol?

something that all other producers out there failed to do

And you'll do it!

[maledepecher]

The game and the story is very awesome.
But I really would liked If you would make a classic level up with learning points like Risen.
Your system of level up is almost like Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion.
I hated that system of level up in Oblivion.
When you use the sword much it increases the sword skill or when you run will increase endurance and stuff like that.
I hate this system of level up.
The Classic system of level up with learning points is perfect and of course with trainers and gold.(at least for me).
Now when will you release a demo of the game?
And what your progress of the game??
And aproximative when the release date will be???

[ICFabian]

This reminds me of my youth; the times I promised the world everything and gave nothing.

Oh wait, I still do that.

Well, have fun. I can't say I don't like doing it. But the excitement fizzes out eventually.

So how's your novel coming along?

[RobinHood 13.]

I'm not sure raising core attributes by usage is a good idea. Doesn't that mean you can get high leveled in all, by doing alot of grinding?

How do you plan to make a vibrant and immersive world?

How will combat system be?

[KingOvi]

Shouldn't people focus more on HOW to do stuff, not what to do?
Oh, I forgot, it works this way:

first, you find what to do
second, you realize you don't know how to do it so you go back and search for something else to do

Repeating that cycle 5 times will actually get you to the point where you're finally able to do something, not only talk about it.

[CrashMorraKan]

Shouldn't people focus more on HOW to do stuff, not what to do?
Oh, I forgot, it works this way:

first, you find what to do
second, you realize you don't know how to do it so you go back and search for something else to do

Repeating that cycle 5 times will actually get you to the point where you're finally able to do something, not only talk about it.

good one, i agree.

[Th13f]

Oh, no. The skill system will be more like Gothic rather than TES. Only that you have to perfect a skill before you can learn the next level of that same skill. We do not have a release date yet, but we hope for Q2 2013. Game is currently in pre-alpha stage, we are currently working on the levelmesh, story, soundtrack and fine tuning the engine. We changed the leveling system with this new one for a more fluid and immersive experience. This way you don't have to worry about numbers all the time, but don't worry. Most quests will also yield atribute points rewards and the biggest rewards will come from quests and some teachers will not be immediately available, as we don't want the player to get too powerful early on in the game. Grinding will have its uses, but it will be even less important than in Gothic. As for combat system, it remains to be seen. But we're thinking of a dynamic combat system with combos and finishers, like Gothic 2. As for the world itself, the NPCs will have daily routines and will react to the decisions of the player. More, as the story takes place during a 10 years time period, some of the NPCs will be replaced with new ones, while others will appear aged to simulate the passage of time. More, some secondary quests will be available only at random moments throughout the game and also, minor random events will also take place from time to time. I know this all seems complicated, but its in fact, easy to do. For example, the reputation system and skill requirements will be managed by the game in the same way resources are managed by a strategy game. You don't have x of the resource y, quest/skill/event is unavailable. Also, we will colaborate with experienced people from teams such as SureAI (Nehrim) and we will have a QA department organized in a professional way, same as the big publishers out there.

[RobinHood 13.]

@Th13f

Looking forward to see what you can come up with, and SureAI has done a really good job. I'm at lvl 5 in Nehrim, and so far I'm really enjoying it.

I hope you're able to make a good fighting system, but I think that will be challenging.

[Th13f]

A good fighting system is not the problem, the AI is. If the AI isn't challenging, you can have a hell of a combat system and the best controls, it will still fail. The best example is Gothic 4. We will have to work hard on that as stealth plays a major role in our game and for stealth oriented gameplay to be any fun, you need a very good AI.

[RobinHood 13.]

A good fighting system is not the problem, the AI is. If the AI isn't challenging, you can have a hell of a combat system and the best controls, it will still fail. The best example is Gothic 4. We will have to work hard on that as stealth plays a major role in our game and for stealth oriented gameplay to be any fun, you need a very good AI.

Gothic 4 had crappy controls. They offer little directional precision, and the perspective camera offers little immersion into the actual fight (it's much more intense in first person, or the camera/controls seen in PB games).

Usually stealth works because the AI has incredibly bad sight and hearing.
Some problems you might wanna adress (often seen):
- When an enemy see's you he will often follow you to attack you, and knows exactly where you are, even though you chose a sidepath and the enemy did not see where you went. It should be possible to break vision.
- enemies must have some convincing behaviour on what to do if they lost you when trying to track you down.
- Stealth should feel natural when it is used. I'm not sure stealth killing your way through a large dungeon is convcining.

Anyways, good luck.

[Th13f]

Gothic 4 had crappy controls. They offer little directional precision, and the perspective camera offers little immersion into the actual fight (it's much more intense in first person, or the camera/controls seen in PB games).

Usually stealth works because the AI has incredibly bad sight and hearing.
Some problems you might wanna adress (often seen):
- When an enemy see's you he will often follow you to attack you, and knows exactly where you are, even though you chose a sidepath and the enemy did not see where you went. It should be possible to break vision.
- enemies must have some convincing behaviour on what to do if they lost you when trying to track you down.
- Stealth should feel natural when it is used. I'm not sure stealth killing your way through a large dungeon is convcining.

Anyways, good luck.

Stealth quests will involve sneaking into some place undetected to perform a certain task. Killing your way through is not a sollution, as NPCs will react to corpses and even missing patrols will trigger an alarm (simple to do. If NPC X does not cros a certain waypoint, the alarm is triggered). As for sight breaking, we plan to implement a line of sight system. If NPCs lose sight of you, they will search the last area you were seen in. This is also simple to do, but it requires some heavy scripting, as the AI will need to know what each item is (walls, etc). Next, its a simple matter of detecting whether there are any obstacles between the NPC and the player within a certain "visual range".

Stealth will play a major role in our game, but there's no way you can finish the game with stealth alone. Some quests will involve major battles and leadership skills will play a major role in these. Going to war when your army's morale is low can be quite problematic.

[WernerTWC]

Screens?

... Artworks?

Something?

Whatever, good luck.

[Th13f]

You can see the full map of Ayrhed on our FaceBook page. As for screenshots, none worth publishing right now. Just wait till the game goes into alpha stage.

[Rashnu]

Just wait till the game goes into alpha stage.

What timeframe are we talking about?

It's an ambitious project and I wish you all the luck you need to bring it to fruition.

[KingOvi]

It's an ambitious project and I wish you all the luck you need to bring it to fruition.

If only that would help

[Th13f]

What timeframe are we talking about?

It's an ambitious project and I wish you all the luck you need to bring it to fruition.

If all goes as well as it does now, we might enter alpha stage somewhere in february.

[one-cool]

I think have fun is fitting here?

[rekinu]

The game itself takes place 1000 years after these events and it follows the deeds of one man, Kainan Wolfe, who, during a period of 10 years, rises from slave miner to new emperor of humanity, restoring the Empire of the Golden Phoenix and uniting the human race against the elves.

OMG, that's so gre... wait... what? -_-
Who's your storywriter?

I think it's way too soon for you to make promises.
It's much wiser to talk about something only after it's done.

If you are in the pre alpha stage and only have a map to show us, good. Show it to us. But that's it.
Don't go on telling people how uber great your game is, when all you have is a map.

I was really hoping to play Warsong, too bad you ditched it
Good luck with your project.

[Gor_Na_Drak]

First off good luck with your new project.

A good fighting system is not the problem, the AI is. If the AI isn't challenging, you can have a hell of a combat system and the best controls, it will still fail. The best example is Gothic 4. We will have to work hard on that as stealth plays a major role in our game and for stealth oriented gameplay to be any fun, you need a very good AI.

Arcania (will not dis the other Gothic games by calling Arcania Gothic) is a crap example of a combat system. It's bad all the way around, not just because of the bad AI, but because it's a hacker. A good system would be a combination of both a good interactive strategic system for the player and a good AI that allows the character to be interactive and use strategy. One without the other is pointless.