Jaffa Interrogator: But then what happens on a PVP server or in a wilderness space where there is PVP?
Josh Kurtz: That's a really good question, I'm glad you asked. Basically what this means for PVP is that you need to be very, very careful when moving through wilderness spaces alone in a PVP space. Can a hidden enemy lay around for hours just waiting for unsuspecting players to wander through an unprotected area so he can blow them away before they find cover ... yes he can, but by the same token a sneaky player can be aware of a wilderness space that looks good for an ambush and sneak around the outskirts looking for the ambusher and then ambush him in turn.
Jaffa Interrogator: How open are environments?
Josh Kurtz: That depends entirely on the environment and what we intend to use it for, there will be different levels of open. For example the meadow between two heavily fortified Jaffa camps may not be as open as the desert outside the ancient ruins. As a player you will need to examine an area you are about to wander through and think about what could be lying in wait for you before you go strolling into it. Obviously this will impact the PVP player a bit more than the PVE player but it should still be considered. Keep in mind that no environment will be completely without cover.
Jaffa Interrogator: How does all of this impact world building?
Josh Kurtz: When building a typical fantasy MMO you need to take into account how much room you need for your encounters and your points of interest and you need to make sure it looks good. For us, not only do we need to be aware of those things but we also need to be aware that every object we place, anywhere in the game, has a direct and significant impact on both the combat system and the AI, which means essentially that our construction of spaces directly impacts both the gameplay and the balance of the game.
And with that, we were able to put Josh back to work building worlds and the Jaffa back to work making sure the engineers don't get out of line.
