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Fallen Age Interview

 

 
Interview With: Daniel "Savant" Manachi
Conducted By: Hilario 'NightHawk' Coimbra
Date Posted: Wednesday, July 18, 2001

 

First of all, could you please tell us how long you have been working on Fallen Age and what is your role in it?

I'm Daniel "Savant" Manachi - and I'm the Producer of Fallen Age and all our Online Games here at Netamin. Being a small company, I pretty much do everything. Heh. Don't laugh, it's true. :) I do our promotions, handle most of the PR, I make the budgets, make the schedules, design our t-shirts, design our boxes, and just about anything else you can think of minus actually programming or modeling the game itself. :)

 

Can you tell the readers what kind of game Fallen Age is and what is so innovative about it? Also, what types of genres are mixed into this game?

Fallen Age is innovative not because it does one thing so unique, but because it brings together so many genre's together into one great game. First, it's not just Fantasy or just Science Fiction, but a Sci-Fi Fantasy game, where you have a mixture of both genres. Second, it's not just an RPG, and not just a TBS or RTS, but all those three combined -- Not only do you play an avatar and level up, find equipment, do quests, and kill monsters... but you also manage an entire colony with its own army and economy.

 

How do all of these mix in together? What I mean by this is: How does a player go from adventuring with his/her character to running their city? What is the transition?

The views are a little different and at times it may feel like you're playing two different games, but in truth, you eventually realize how great the two go together. Not only because of the interaction between the two, but because it keeps the game fresh and exciting for so long. The transition is pretty seamless: The player finds a "Colony Tower" and clicks on it to be transported to his colony.

 

Do players have the option of just adventuring or just running their colony or must they do both?

Yes and No. A player can technically only play the RPG, but it's in his best interest to use colony (he won't be able to access a bank or warehouse (to store items) without first building them in his colony). A player also gains access to his colony at level 30, so playing the RPG for at least that long is a must -- but again, the advantages to playing both is greater than just one or the other.

 

While in adventure mode, can players walk into their own city? Could they walk into other players cities? 

No... As we saw in other games with housing (Ultima Online) it really clutters up the landscape with housing sprawl to allow for this. So while we'd love to do it, we had to take into consideration that instead of just a single house, players were now getting entire colonies (dozens of houses, factories, stores, etc.) to manage. They are separate.

 

Could you explain what Nations are and the way they fit into the game. 

Nations are Guilds. They not only offer some really cool features in the RPG aspect of the game (such as a warehouse for the guild, or guild wars, or a huge capture the flag system), but also in Colony mode, where Nations are teamed together to try and take over the server.

 

How does the traveling system work in Fallen Age? Do you have to walk real distances to parts of the world or are you 'magically' transported there by the server?

Both. You run most places, but there are recall spells that bring you back to your home town. We're also adding in special compasses you'll be able to set to certain places that can transfer you as well.

 

Could you explain what Guardians are and their role in the game and the servers? How often will a server be administered by one of these Guardians?

Guardians are our GameMasters. They will handle all the in-game support and help run quests and what have you.

 

Now to a more technical point of view. What are the requirements for Fallen Age?

Minimum Requirements 

Pentium Celeron 433 

64M Ram 

170MB hard drive space 

3D card 

33600 modem 

Recommended Requirements 

Pentium II 400 

128M Ram 

300MB hard drive space 

3D card (16M) 

56K modem

 

Servers can hold up to 1500. How reliable are these servers? Are they undergoing rigorous testing during the beta?

Our servers, thus far, have been incredibly stable. We haven't crashed a single time (isn't that unbelievable?) We have had no lag, and have been quite impressed and pleased with how it's going so far.

 

Fallen Age was only unveiled to the world a couple weeks prior to the beta. Why did you hold out for so long?

Because we were just as tired of waiting through 3 years of hype for a game to come out as much as the players were. We're in this for them, and thus, really wanted to make sure they didn't have a terribly long wait from the time they heard about the game from when they could actually play it.

 

What are your hopes for this game? Fallen Age is clearly a breathtakingly whole new aspect towards gaming. How do you think it will fair against other Online rivals? Do you hope to set a new path for gaming?

I hope Fallen Age will do well. It offers many things nobody else does -- Such as, we're the only game sticking to a quality 2D RPG feel, while at the same time, being the first Massive Multiplayer Turn Based Simulation and Real Time Strategy game. I think it's this combination of old and new, along with our dedication the players that will keep us going strong.

Do I hope to set a new path for gaming? Heh, I don't quite know how to answer that. I just like making games. :)

 

Can you tell us when you are shooting to release Fallen Age?

Before the end of this year!

 

Do you have any other comments you would like to share with the world?

Hi Mom. :)

 

 

I would like to deeply thank Daniel Manachi for his time and wish the best of luck to Fallen Age.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 
 


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