9. How does the level up system work?
Level up is handled by three separate systems that work together to give both a skill based leveling experience as well as some traditional leveling elements. Firstly we have the traditional level up that occurs when a player amasses enough experience points. We call this the base level. When a player gains a base level, they are given points to invest in their core attributes. We have not decided on a base level cap yet since this is something we ultimately want the help of our dedicated testers to decide, but there will be some sort of cap. Secondly we have the skill chain system. Each skill category, ex. 1 Handed Blade, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Archery, etc, has 25 skills/spells associated with it. Of these 25 skills/spells, 5 are taught by trainer NPC's. These main 5 spells each lead to a chain of skill/spells called branches. As you use spells in a particular branch, they will unlock the next spell in the branch. Each branch consists of 5 spells. Lastly, each spell has its own level that advances as you use the spell. Each skill/spell can be leveled indefinitely, however the time/uses it takes to level a spell increases exponentially.
10. Will Aerrevan be free to play?
No, Aerrevan is a subscription based game. We decided to go with a subscription method early on based both on our design and on the recommendation of our community. A subscription method also gives us more financial security and stability which is important for a smaller developer.
11. Will there be an item mall? If so, what types of items will be included?
We will not have an item mall. We decided against doing microtransactions to keep the game fair for everyone. I'd rather keep the gameplay experience fair than give players unfair leverage.
12. What is your favorite area of the game and why? May we have a screenshot?
As one of the people heavily involved in the design of ingame locations, I like them all! My favourite places aesthetically(for now!) are Rovara Yor, the valley of the gods, the city of Derlon, and just about anywhere in the elven forests. The Valley of the Gods is probably my favorite overall since it is where the central conflict comes to a point. I also like how we designed the foliage in the area.
13. Will Aerrevan feature competitions and tournaments?
Since Aerrevan is a completely un-instanced game, it is hard to have tournaments / arena type organizations. What I will say is that we will have a web-based ladder system and periodic competition events. We are a very community-oriented team and one of our main goals after launch is to have as many ingame events as possible!
14. What about mounts?
Aerrevan will feature a mount system. We don't have plans for flying mounts (at least not right away!) but we will definitely have horses, etc to allow players to navigate Lurris more quickly. We will also have a fast-travel system that will allow players to travel on pre-determined paths for a fee.
15. Is there a guild system in place?
Guilds are a central part of the Aerrevan gameplay experience.
16. Where can players go to get signed up?
Beta applications are being taken now on our main website. We have a web-based portal for applicants to submit their applications. In an attempt to put as much load on the servers as possible, we will not be as stringent in our selection of beta testers as we were with alpha, so even if you aren't 100% sure if Aerrevan is for you, feel free to give beta a try!
17. When will beta testing begin?
I won't announce any solid date yet in case we run in to some unforeseeable issues, but we are working hard to have the beta test commence as quickly as possible.
18. What are the system specifications to play the game?
Beta will help us determine the final specs, but one of our goals was to keep Aerrevan as accessible as possible. We did not design the game in such a way that you need the latest and greatest hardware to play comfortably. I would recommend a Geforce 6600+ / Radeon 9800+, 1.5gb ram and a Pentium 4 Prescott / Athlon 64 or better. If you have slightly lesser hardware than this and still want to give it a try, feel free to do so. We may discover that the game client can scale better than we anticipated!
WarCry thanks Sean for this informative interview!
