Monday, May 9, 2005
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"There are two futures, you see. Two ways that it can go. In one future, the Romans sputter and flare like Greek fire, last a few hundred years, and are gone - eaten from outside by barbarians, from inside by strange gods. In the other future, the whole world becomes a province of our empire: the eagle standard will be carried through lands we have barely dreamed of. There are nations beyond the sunset, where we will rule golden ziggurats; and nations to the south where diamonds lay like robin's eggs on the ground... It will be a fine world, a great and glorious world, and that empire will last for ten thousand years. Or more ." - Augustus Caesar in Neil Gaiman's Sandman #30 |
What if the Roman Republic never faltered, but continued to the present day and beyond? Mythic Entertainment, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot, and several other on-line games, decided to take history into their own hands and make a MMORPG based on this premise. In their rendition of history, the Roman Republic never fell; in fact it has grown and flourished some thousand years past even our present day. This is much like the second path that Augustus Caesar foretold in Neil Gaiman's story, and it is the path I got a sneak peak at in early April of this year.
In 2002 Mark Jacobs, President and CEO of Mythic Entertainment began writing the back story for this MMORPG and called it Imperator. During the writing of the story Mark laid down the development/design guidelines, creating a road map for the developers to follow. By January 2004, full scale development started on Imperator. It is now in its 14 th month of development, with a projected launch date set for the summer of 2006, with the beta program due to start in early 2006.
Imperator will be a next generation MMORPG that “… is a science fiction MMORPG set in the universe where the Roman Republic never fell. ” as Mythic's Executive Producer Matt Firor likes to summarize it. Matt stresses that the “ Important distinction here is that it is not the Roman Empire , but the Republic. The Empire was for domination and expansion and the Republic was much more where the citizens were involved, where everyone can participate. So it is important to Mythic that the Republic never fell, because that is the philosophy behind the Romans in the game.”
To create a next generation MMORPG, Mythic has taken a new approach to players' interaction with the environment and advancement of their characters. In fact, because of Imperator‘s strong emphasis on character development, Mythic calls it “character centric.” Player decisions in the course of quests and advancement will affect their path in the game, allowing Imperator to have many possible end games.
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The History:
In the Imperator universe Rome , the capitol of the Republic, is the most dominant civilization on Terra (Earth). However, it is not the only one. There are other civilizations, including the Germanians, the North American Tribal Confederation, Greater Russia, the Numidian Sphere ( Africa ) and the Dragon Empire, which is comprised of the different Asian nations. The variety of civilizations will offer the player the ability to customize their character based on any race or culture on Earth. Matt Firor pointed out that “ Rome was a very inclusive civilization and Sci-Fi Rome is no exception to that .”
Space travel goes hand and hand with Sci-Fi, and Imperator does as well. Rome has expanded from Terra into other solar systems, establishing colonies throughout the galaxy. These established colonies make up the 5 Hubs that the Roman Republic revolves around. “ A Hub is a socialization area that has content around it, ” Matt Firor explains, “ So Terra, for example Earth, is an example of a hub where you can access content from Luna (the moon) and other parts of Earth and where there will be zones to discover, explore and run missions. Hades Prime is another example as a hub. It's a more “Hell” like planet where it rains sulfur; basically it has a hard core Sci-Fi feel. We do not want everything to look just like Earth .“ Each Hub will offer many adventure zones; some will be based on moons around that planet, and others can be found on other planets nearby.
A good space opera needs to have bad guys, of course: especially in a game without the PvP conflict of DAoC. In Imperator's alternate history, the Mayan empire has arisen alongside the Romans. The Romans and the Mayans were the two dominant civilizations on Earth until the Mayans left Earth and established themselves in the outer regions of space. The Romans refer to this departure as the “Great Betrayal”. A century after their departure from Earth, the Mayans decided to claim the Earth as their own, and attacked the Roman Republic . When the player enters the world of Imperator they find themselves in the midst of an established conflict. The Mayans have attacked Earth and been repulsed, but there has been significant damage done to the Republic. Rome and the Mayans are at war.
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Starting Out:
“ We want to get you in, get you excited, we want to immerse you into our world right from the beginning and the way we are doing that is throwing you a curve ball. You're not starting in a nice happy place, your starting right in the middle of a fire fight. ” states Mark Jacobs.
The introduction movie to the game explains that you are an Academy cadet in your final year of training. As a cadet in good standing you have been given the coveted assignment of a 2-week post at Terra Nova lunar base. Terra Nova was the first colony the Republic established outside the solar system. The Republic has since expanded far beyond Terra Nova, making it a safe place to be. Since Terra Nova is a binary star system the climate is extremely nice. Combine this with its location in a nice quiet star system, and you have the perfect Spring Break in space.
While en-route to Terra Nova, the captain of your ship comments that he can not make contact with the planet, but, as Matt Firor explains “ The binary system creates a force field where a lot of times the communications can not penetrate it. This usually happens for 36 hrs .” so the captain does not think anything odd about this. Once you're in visual range of the planet you see that the planet is under attack. It seems the Mayans have taken advantage of the 36 hour blackout period and are laying waste to the planet below. The Mayans turn their attention to your ship when they see you come out of hyper drive. This attack soon results in the ship and its crew crash landing on the planet. When the dust settles (and the spiffy cut scene of the crash is over) you are in full control of your character, with all hell breaking loose around you.