Thursday, August 6, 2009

First Press Release: Atonement RPI

The Creators and Storytellers of the Lost Tales of Beleriand, as well as Northlands and the Fall of Osgiliath on Shadows of Isildur, bring you the Next Generation of RPI and Science-Fiction Mystery: Atonement.

Release of ALPHA roughly slated for Early September 2009.



Just a Few of the Fresh Features and Gameplay

- Stellar MOB AI: be prepared to face enemies who know how to fight and are intelligent, are interactive, use strategies and formations, set traps and can use the environment around them to their advantage against you, and who grow in power as time goes on.

- Our next generation of automated event scripting allows for a more immersive and interactive world than ever seen before on an RPI.

- Our improved crafting system allows for a less confusing, more intuitive and powerful means to create within the world. On Atonement, crafts may not produce the same results in every room, allowing for a single craft to serve a multitude of potential purposes.

- Increased object interactivity. Food and drinks have tastes - and objects have scents. These may play an important part of survival as you look for clues to unravel the foreboding mystery of the game-world.

- Profession code means an easier learning curve for new players. The three starting professions for the "Survivor" race will be Soldiers, Scientists and Engineers. Soldiers will be combat-oriented, Scientists will be focused on medicine, research, experimentation and invention - and Engineers will be focused on repairing broken equipment, jury-rigging systems and computer science. This is not to say that your character cannot combine elements of multiple professions, however, and you do retain a plethora of customization options. Each Profession will have a solo-adventure that you may play through before character creation, so that you can get a taste of what you might expect from that play-style.

- Improved combat optimization and somatics. We are retaining the RPI Engine's wound system, but it is vastly improved to include racial-based severed limb capability, poison, broken bones, concussion, temporary blindness, disease and other, more mysterious somatic affects. For those of you who enjoy playing healers, you will find yourself a much more valuable commodity as you deal with a more realistic and diverse set of health challenges for the Universe's characters! For those of you who love to play combat characters, you will find that your optimization is increased, as is your ability to rise to a legendary level of skill in comparison with the average non-combatant.

- A setting that combines elements from wonderful pieces of literature, beloved cult films and classic Survival Horror games to create a unique and mysterious Universe to discover! Story-lines that demand in-character consequences for in-character action, exploration, teamwork and all of your wits for survival!



Predicted Opinion on Finished Work

- Story-lines for the first six months of play.
- Three "Preview" stories written to give glimpses into the Mystery.
- 1/5th of building for ALPHA
- 1/2 of re-vamping a vastly improved Gaming Engine
- 3/4 of World Design
- 1/5 of Starting Documentation
- Player Volunteer and Discussion Forums Open



While we work to improve our server, finish our website, and have the Guest Lounge for Atonement open for chatter, we would like to invite everyone to the temporary forum for General Discuss and Player Volunteering for Atonement RPI. If you are excited or curious about the game, or want to get involved in helping to create the Universe that you and others will play in, do click on the link below:

The Atonement Project

A special thanks to everyone who has sent us their best wishes or aid on this project. We are more excited than we can say to bring you what we believe could be a revolutionary new RPI, and we are honoured by all of the support that we have received.

Sincerely,
The Team of Atonement RPI
Songweaver, Phoenix, Bangarang, Hulk, Kodiak, Kithrater and Iaew.