Everything Origins Of Malu: Recent updates & tons of info

Since there is no forum for OOM to post it in currently, here is some of the more recent info from their site, mostly within the past week or 2 (including their October Development Update which lists some new stuff in the works), and a whole bunch of info I have taken the time to gather from their forum (the CEO and other staff are extremely active there and also hold polls and ask for direct feedback from players in various threads) for those of you who might be waiting for it, or who may not have heard of it. Seperate categories / items areseperated in bold red.

Also be aware that their CEO is planning on making some big announcements next week, expected Oct 24th, with a lot more in depth details about some of the games features & systems.

San's Journey - The story of a character named San, little bit of a preview of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_tyIIuaanI&feature=plcp

(Note, this is early engine footage. Per the October update they are working on a fresh new engine)

The October Dev. Update:

"October is going to be an exciting time for us! We just sank our teeth into a new render for our engine which means better quality for our community. But as we move forward, let’s take a look at everything we have accomplished recently and what else we have up our sleeve.

• PAX with Alienware - While we had a bumpy start, we bounced back to successfully share a small sneak peak of our game.
• Popular Voice Client Integration – Can’t reveal too much yet but let us just say we are stoked!
• Growing Family - Our once humble team of a few is now growing to a big family from visionaries all over.
• New Site - While not a major redesign, it will let us keep you up to date on the latest news faster.
• New Community Manager - Because of growing demand, we have added a new community manager to partner up with our current CM (Darkis).
• Bigger Social Media-  lots planned for pumping up our social media presence as well as getting that all important publicity.
• Fresh New Engine - Awesome results to be announced.
• New Screenshots - We are spending lots of time on our swamp region. Will release new screenshots of our inky marshes soon!
• In-depth Walkthrough of Housing - what’s, how’s, and why you will want to build.
• Announcing a Solid Beta Date – the heart of our love and labor and why we took a small step back from the date until now.

 
A small update but we look forward to sharing lot more soon!
 
Best Regards,
Origins of Malu Development Team"

Death Penalty + Permadeath -  Quoted from the CEO:

"Casuals will NOT have to worry about Perma death ever, Perma is PURE option that you must choose and then re-validate only for the hardcore's.

There are two types:

- Perma Death Duel - Both sides must consent and there are serious of events and rules that come into to play that prevent cheesing it out and abuse, if you die here that's it player gone forever but you will never be forced into this ever.
.
- Perma Death Zones - These will be special area's with a special ruleset, think of a high stakes area in a casino, you will be prompted warned and have to agree before entry and if you die there will be a chance of Perma death here we are balancing it out still to create more fear in these zones for the players.

Now for normal deaths, we have a couple things in mind but its a balance of many different rule sets that are going to exist in harmony and work together. We have been vague because we are not happy yet with the standard system but there is a reason why they are standard."

 

Territory Control Preview:

 

The sprawling depths of Malu are radiant as they are vindictive. Fortify your defenses by merging capable guilds into commanding factions and twisting remote territories to your will.  Explore more about our dynamic approach to factions and territories.

Growing Up Guilds

Power is not born overnight and neither are factions. Before your influence extends to the far reaches of the planet, you will first have to establish a component guild as well as share a stable relationship with other friendly guilds. Already there? Perfect. Next, take at least two guilds who have gained enough experience to begin a faction. The leaders of each guild must vote and agree to merge into one united faction. The once before guilds are now considered divisions of the faction, and a committee of previous guild leaders rules each faction.

The Path to War and Peace

Tyrant or peacemonger. The decision is up to you and your faction’s ruling class. Choose to devour all in your path by engulfing new lands and obliterating weaker foes, and find yourself overwhelmed in the battle for your life. Decide to maintain peaceful relations with other factions, and valuable territories may vanish while more powerful factions take advantage of your diplomatic nature. Conflict and concord are in the hands of your committee.

Unlocking Territory Control

The secret to valuable territory control rests within your faction’s committee’s hands. Strategic planning is necessary to reap the highest benefits and avoid the costly risks. Once you have weighted the gains verses the burdens of growth and collected enough materials, you can now create a territory obelisk.

These towering pillars will act as a center point for territory expansion by expanding your area by a set amount. A wide range of obelisks will radiate varying territory control ranges along with diverse defenses. Take great care in dispatching obelisks since they cannot function until they are fully charged and can be vulnerable to attack during this time. Obelisk location is also important because they extend different types of benefits when placed in proximity to other obelisks.

 

Why Gain Territory?

Because bigger is better. In this uncertain world, the only stability comes in knowing that anything can happen at any time.  Bigger territory means better defenses against the unexpected. While the enemy can still infiltrate your borders, they can only damage your obelisks. They cannot attack your faction directly until you decide to join the fight.

There is also no better way to boast your faction’s dominance than letting the entire world see a legion of commanding obelisks dotting your boundaries. And yes, there is safety in numbers. The more territory obelisks under your control, the more freedom your faction will have to flourish inside your expanding borders. Grow your territory; your empire will be stronger for it.

 

Open-World Player Housing & Guild cities- 

It seems there was supposed to be some sort of in depth housing preview on their site, but it may be a work in progress since the linka ppears to be down. But what we do already know about player housing is that it is open world and the following:

"Well, in other games, you either place a pre-fab structure or get an instanced house. We're allowing players to build up their houses with different modules and materials. They'll place a foundation and then build pieces on top of it. You may make the resources or get them on the market, etc. You'll be able to resize the pieces if you've focused on certain crafting skills, and you can take a standard component and shrink it down, or make it larger -- it doesn't have to be the default."

Also, their take on housing is wanting it to be like a "work of art", rather than just plain housing.

There are plans to also implement guild created cities, though this may not be in yet at release.

 

Politics, Assassination, Deserter system, etc- 

Quoted from the CEO: "There will be assassins but it will be extremely hard for them to hit there target but if they do it the reward and feeling of accomplishment will be told through the server for a time to come." (This was in regards to assassination and overthrowing of guild & faction leaders.)

Guilds can band together to create their own player run factions, which also have their own forms of territory control, resources, etc.

There is also a Deserter system:

"For those of you that may not play well with others, fret not, Origins of Malu offers a solitary path to dominance. You can choose to be a deserter forsaking all factions. While this will provide independence, freedom has its costs. You will have to seek refuge in the “underground”, an outcast from all faction lands and sole seeker of your own resources.

But don’t dismiss the advantages of being an outsider underground, it brings unique rewards. You will have the ability to take on bounties, where you will venture into the lands of other factions to eliminate the bounty and collect your payment."

 

Crafting -

There has been bits of info released regarding crafting, but it looks like a whole lot more info will be coming soon (likely int heir big announcement they keep talking about). Here is a good post I found with the CEO responding to some questins RE: Crafting:

"Will there be skills like armorcrafing or mining what reqirements would you need then and howmany skills will there be ?

Will there be specialized places where you have to go to craft armor think about workshops or a place in your own house / handcard for the diehard crafters among us and mine ore's in mining area's where you can build your own house ?
- Yes, crafting will be done with a relic replicators node that is managed by the tesseract in the center of Malu. You will need to gather resources of course and how that is done will be released soon!

Will there be various materials of i kind for crafting or just 1 that has to be refined in various stages ?

- There will be different materials indeed.

Is there a level in crafting for example a beginning smith can craft poor weapons a smith can make avarage weapons and so on that there will be a bonus for allot of crafting vs the players that like to go to war more often ?

- There will be different levels of quality based on your skill.

Can a smith or carpenter make everything at start or do you have to collect / buy blueprints to be able to make the items you wanna make ?

- You will need to trade/buy and/or collect blueprints to make items.

Will there be gear / handcarts that you can make urself where you can store / transport more materials you need for example a handcart can store 2500 materials but has a lower speed while a man on foot can only carry 100 at a higher speed.

- I want to answer this one, but coming soon!

And do you need to gather firewood for your own house / workshop to be able to make fire , this for realism not like most mmo's have you gather things and boom you make it without having a fire to cook your meal or forge on a anvil that you have buy to be able to make things.

- We are working out some of the finer details for this and this one depends on timing and resources. We got the direction where it is a little more realistic but we will have to see.

I hope there will be a npc to buy production materials / equipment to start and crafting so you can make tools for crafting.

- Some items will be available for purchase from npc's. We want to focus on community trade however, we don't want to time sink the production process either if you need a low grade item to complete your masterpiece.

And is there a waredown on equipment so it has to be replaced / repaired ?

- Coming soon!"

 

PvP - 

Open world PvP with the purposes of territory control, titles, and achievements. No definitive word yet on full loot or not that I could find.

Faction vs Faction (player made factions) warfare.

There will be a bount hunter system. I dont have the details on this yet. (Possibly in big announcement next week)

 

World size -

"We like you (most of you), want a large diverse world to explore and we are not talking about faked out areas to give the perception of a large world. We also like the idea of no level zones, meaning that high level and low level creatures are in mixed up in the same areas so you will need to be careful of where you go and what you attack at all times. It makes for a more natural environment and no one likes rail road tracks.

So to cut to the point:

- Origins of Malu will launch with over 300km of explorable area

We realize there are games with much more space but we feel this is a good and a obscenely large area for a indie to tackle but if we were doing things easy we would be making a much easier game and not trying to tackle a MMO.

Cheers,
Burning Dog Team"

 

Classless skill system - 

There are no classes. The system is a skill based progession system Full details are expected in next week's big announcement (stated by CEO himself)

 

Player owned shops & economy -

Quoted from CEO:

 "There will be:

- Player owned vendors and shops
- You will be able to setup trade routes
- We are against the wow style auction house, we want bartering and people having to talk to people
- Think SWG and Ragnarok and Aion and put it all into one with a couple of twists

Cheers,
mdunham"

There is also a recently started thread by the staff asking for feedback on how players would like some of this stuff implemented: http://originsofmalu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=155&p=537#p537

 

Payment model - 

Has not been 100% confirmed yet, but CEO states that they are looking at possibly doing a hybrid sub / f2p model.

 

Interactive Environment - 

We have placed a great deal of thought into this to allow both creativeness and keep with the sandbox experience with few restrictions. We do have plans around this because the player experience is very important to us and we want to make sure someone who spends a lot of time on their sand castle does not get it kicked down instantly by a bigger player.

The world that you and the community work to build will be robust enough to stand against the few to set forth to destroy it for no other reason to grieve but it will not be safe from the much larger threats that we have in mind.

You will have the tools to do something about it, we promise but it won't be easy.

 

Combat mechanics - 

- Twitchy combat w/ active dodging

- Charging: Rather than pressing a skill and it automatically triggering, you hold down skills to charge them which increases their power with more charging.

Professions / jobs - 

There is currently a staff created thread going on in the Crafting forums (created yesterday) asking for feedback on what sort of jobs / profeesions people would like to see in game. Give your input there! http://originsofmalu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=174

 

Dynamic Battle System -

 

One of the perks to creating Origins is designing situations that steal you away from the doldrums of everyday life and drop you head first into the unexpected of our game. Boss fights will always be different. You can never use the same strategy because bosses learn your tactics and evolve. This system is not just reserved for bosses; almost all creatures of Malu will have a variable nature.

And we don't want simple mindless combat. While there are times when chopping your opponent’s head is appealing, a more challenging and rewarding prey always lurks. And chances are it’s already hunting for you.

 

AI Controlled Quest System - 

"If you are tired of quests repeating the same plot, along with the aggravation of waiting for a respawn because another player just completed your quest, then Origins of Malu is your game. While we may not offer the tradition copious amounts of bland missions, we do produce rousing quests that delve deep into our rich anthology.

We believe in story advancement that actually pulls you into the story, not a weak string of somewhat related ideas to move the game along. AI (Artificial Intelligence) allows us to provide a dynamic quest system that dictates specific quest lines that are customized for you and only occur once. We will provide more information on this very soon!"

Races & Bestiary -

Unique & original races & creatures. None of your typical humans, elves, dwarves, etc or fighting wolves, bears, zombies, etc. All custom made for OOM. For full details check here:

Bestiary: http://originsofmalu.com/?q=bestiary

Races: http://originsofmalu.com/?q=races

(Whew! Done for now. Will update as we get more info)