RPGPlanet: You plan to have monsters assaulting towns. Are there going to be safe areas for low level characters, where monsters will never attack?

Niklas: First off, we don't feature "levels", so low level characters doesn't exist. Everyone are, apart from their skills and experience, alike, just like in reality. A "newbie" can kill a big, bad monster just as well as the age-old swordmaster - it just takes a whole damn lot of more luck than the swordmaster who has extremely better chances due to his skills. But it isn't impossible.

And there are no safe areas. The safest areas, though, would be inside fortified cities with trained military forces and cityguards. It would take a while for monsters to breach them.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

pailhead: Now one question I have is, will the outcome of the war be pre-set for the Allies to win or is the outcome totally based upon the players Axis's ability to win the war?

Chris: All outcomes will be left to the actions of the players. Our infrastructure and strategic systems allow players to effect the world dynamically with persistent results. If one side takes out a bridge, for example, it'll stay down until AI convoys from that side come out and re-build it. If the attackers keep the pressure on, and interdict the convoys, that bridge can stay down indefinitely. Throw in the resource flow from cities and factories, and a side's ability to store resources, all interdict-able, well, it' makes for the most dynamic combat environment we've ever seen online. It's quite something. The outcome is totally dynamic, and all the result of player actions.

You can read the full interview here.

The 4th Crossroads Network Roundtable chat between the players and developers of UWO:O is scheduled for Wednesday, February 28th, at 7pm CST (5pm PST - 8pm EST).

Roundtable Chats are interactive sessions between the Development team and the gaming community so get those questions ready and you might get an answer you've been waiting for!

The chat will be available to you with the Java IRC Client, which will automatically connect you to the room #origin, at The Crossroads of New Britannia.

Or you can use an IRC client and connect to the SorceryNet IRC Network IRC on the following networked servers, channel #origin:

irc.sorcery.net, port 6667
kechara.sorcery.net, port 6667
valinor.sorcery.net, port 6667


The Crossroads IRC Servers are provided in partnership with Sorcery.net

8) In Ultima Online, if you belong to a Faction and wish to leave it, there is a seven-day waiting period before you are actually removed from that Faction. The effect this has is that players are not able to join a Faction, then right away quit from it, and join another Faction. Will founders be able to remove members immediately from their society, or is there any system set up to discourage ‘society hopping’.

These two things are not related in our eyes -- founders removing members from the society is different from players leaving on their own accord to join another group. The leadership of a group will always be able to remove any member they see a reason to remove, while players who wish to leave the society shortly after joining may or may not be able to do so -- we have a lot to testing to do before choosing which will work best. In one scenario this may be up to the specific society rules to decide, i.e. on joining society A, you submit to a seven-day waiting period on departure while in society B, no such submission is necessary. At this point, this is all very hypothetical and its practical implications remains to be tested.

You can read the full interview here.

Please join us for an Never Winter Nights Chat!

What: Chat to talk about Never Winter Nights. Find out how the game is progressing

When: Thursday, March 1st, 2001 6:00 p.m. PST (9:00 p.m. EST)

Where: http://rpgvault.ign.com/chat/ in channel #ignvault Those who prefer to use a regular IRC client can connect to host17.webmaster.com, #ignvault

Who will be there: Team members from BioWare and Black Isle.

Q: PvP is a serious issue, loved by some and hated by others. Mythic’s creative approach to realm-based PvP (by high level players) might be exactly what we’ve all been waiting for. How is Mythic going to deal with complaints that one realm is more powerful than the other because their classes/skills/spells are overpowered? Will classes/skills/spells be “nerfed” during the course of the game to balance PvP?

A: We’ll always do what we have to do to make the game balanced. If we slip-up and introduce a bug or imbalance that makes one class too powerful, we’ll have to take steps to make sure that the problem is fixed. I’d rather have some disgruntled players whose characters have been nerfed than a completely imbalanced game that is fun for no one. Of course, our job is to make sure that these problems don’t happen in the first place.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

That's where the team structure comes in. Becoming a member of a corporate empire isn't just about selecting a color scheme -- the designers have said that while most of the weapons, implants and vehicles will be similar across the empires, there will be some differences in the advantages and disadvantages of each corporation. While it's not to the extent of Everquest, mind you, it's a way to give you a unique experience playing under the different corps. Each corporation will have its own unique look, and the team has even mentioned using a variety of logos to designate ranking within the corporations, so that you'll be able to instantly recognize someone's rank and experience by just looking at their logo and clothing.

You can catch the rest of the preview here.