Allods (also known as Rage of Mages) goes online and reaches for the stars, before blowing them away. We find out if Nival has a new hit on their hands.

FreeMMOGamer: Could you introduce yourself and your role in Allods Online at gPotato.eu?

My name is Vince and I am the Producer of Allods Online with Gala Networks Europe, the publisher of free to play MMORPGs that operates the www.gPotato.eu portal. My role as a Producer is to manage all the game operations of Allods Online across European territories. This includes technical issues, processes, pipelines and anything else related to Allods Online. I also manage and coordinate the efforts of the dedicated Allods Online Game Masters and the Customer Support team for all the languages that Allods Online will be available in across Europe. Furthermore, I am responsible for coordinating with Astrum Nival on a daily basis, as well as with our technical, marketing and communication teams.

In the end, my goal is to provide the best service possible to the player who join Allods Online.

FreeMMOGamer: Allods Online follows the footsteps of Allods (or Rage of Mages as it is known outside CIS). What will it take from the previous games?

The core developers team has been working on the storyline of the Allods World for over a decade and it covers thousands of years of in-game history.

The IP is a longstanding one, internationally known as Rage of Mages and Allods Online will extent it. Over a million units have been sold worldwide thanks to its unique setting and compelling RPG/strategy gameplay.

Allods Online is the fourth game in the series and it will available as a free-to-play game for players to enjoy this Autumn at www.gPotato.eu.

It is set on the shattered remnants of the planet Sarnaut, thirty years after the events of the third game ‘Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul’, and a thousand years after the events of the first game ‘Rage of Mages’. Now, the inhabitants of the allods - islands floating in the Astral space - have discovered the secret of Astral travel, removing one of the Great Mages main tactical advantages: control over the Astral portals that grant transportation from allod to allod. This has opened the Astral for exploration.

FreeMMOGamer: Could you describe the Allods Online universe and the races in it?

The universe is consistent with its history, which those interested can read by visiting the official European site at http://allods.gpotato.eu. It unfolds in the Astral space, a mystical substance holding the allods together. The Astral is an evolving and constantly changing place, just like a living being, and can be seen moving from the surface of each allod in game. It is really cool to look at.

The game has a variety of environments; the allods are as diverse as can be imagined, including tropical settings, deserts, ice fields, forests, cities, farms and many more.

There are a total of six races between the two factions at war: the Empire and the League. Each race has its own history and reason to live in the Allods World.

On the Empire side you will have:
- The Xadaganians, the perfect war machine, always ready to fight for their ultimate goal: complete domination of Sarnaut.
- The Orcs, strong and mighty creatures that live in the places that are inhospitable to other races.
- The Arisen, a race of former humans that were brought back from the dead and granted the gift of eternal life

On the League side you will find:
- The Kanians, a democratic civilisation at war with the Xadaganians for millenia.
- The Elves, the most ancient race in the Allods Universe.
- The Gibberlings, short statured, funny and furry creatures who discovered the secret of Astral travel.

Moreover, Allods Online is very similar to leading subscription-based MMORPG we can think of, so players will not be disorientated with the gameplay and depth of the classes. Overall, 28 classes will be available to players from the character creation screen, and you will be able to play as a tank, healer, crowd-control, debuffer and much more due to the different traits and perks of each particular race.

FreeMMOGamer: How did you come up with the idea to create a MMORPG from a RTS game? Any inspiration from the World of WarCraft success story?

Rage of Mages was probably the first RPG PC game with multiplayer content and the team was greatly inspired with the idea of hundreds of players gathering in one world. But in those times (the early 2000’s) the technology was not there to allow them to do what they wished.

Their dream has come to fruition since the foundation of Astrum Nival (formerly known as Nival Online) in 2006. The company has been deeply focused on MMO games since day 1. The decision to make Allods Online was an obvious choice for Astrum Nival. It is a natural extension of the existing storyline, which paints a picture of a sprawling, magical universe filled with unique environments and characters. The game discloses the mysteries of the Great Cataclysm that broke Sarnaut into pieces. The reason this happened has never been revealed to date, although it's the most interesting part of the lore.

Astrum Nival has picked a Western gameplay model where the core elements go beyond just hunting and gaining the maximum possible experience. Players have great opportunities to develop their characters, experience a deep storyline and numerous quests while crafting, gathering to socialize, explore the vast Astral, take part in ship-to-ship battles, play a variety of mini-games, and just have fun, rather than constantly killing mobs. And all of this for free!

FreeMMOGamer: Nival is a developer best known for some great strategy games like Etherlords, Silent Storm or Heroes of Might & Magic V. But how are things going in the crowded MMO genre?

Allods Online is its own genre within the MMO family. Firstly it is free to play, and games of this quality are usually subscription-based. This Autumn, just log at the http://www.gPotato.eu portal, download the game and start playing.

Unlike many other games in the crowded free to play market, Allods Online has been designed by a leading western developer and publisher for western gamers, with over 1500 diversified quests as good as any subscription-based MMORPG. This should help getting rid of the boring grinding principle that has somewhat stigmatised free MMORPG’s in recent years. Allods Online is not a cute Korean MMO, it is a gritty Russian fantasy space opera in an expansive universe that players will love.

With a development budget of over 12 millions dollars, it is a full blown MMORPG. It will definitly set a new standard in the free MMORPG market.

The team has 12 years of successful games behind it. They started in the mid 90’s with offline games and quickly went into online games. On top of development, Astrum Nival operates several Asian games in Russian market, including Perfect World, which is the most popular online game in Russia. As you can see Astrum Nival combine both development and live operation experience in the MMO- gaming field, which is extremely important for the success of Allods Online.

FreeMMOGamer: What is it that sets Allods Online apart from the other free-to-play games?

The main aspect which differentiates Allods Online from other free to play MMORPG is that it was developed like any traditional subscription based MMORPG, with a similar budget.

The game has a wide variety of traditional MMORPG game play features.

-Two opposing factions mean Player vs. Player and Guild vs. Guild battles. Add on top of that the Astral ships battle piloted by a crew of players for Astral Ship PvP battles.
-The crew will involve pilots, navigator, gunners, and many more. Controlling a ship takes a lot of co-ordination. This will be available at high-end level of the game. This is where one of our many game play differentiators enters the game mechanism: Piracy.
-Piracy is an integral part of the high-end and will definitely leads to alliances and politics.
The Astral is a free PvP zone, which provides high-level players endless enjoyment with bloody battles, chases and piracy.
-If you are afraid of heights, you can still do basic PvP on the ground. Just don’t jump off the allods, because you will die.
-If you do not enjoy PvP, you can always go for some PvE, either as a group, alone or in raid. The raid boss can only be defeated with one raid team, you could try to kill it with more than that, but the Raid Boss may then use specific skills which would end-up in many losses. Moreover, if a raid boss is located in a contested area, try to secure the area before another other faction guild stumbles on you. This means players will experience epic battles and lots of fun.
-The game has over 1,500 quests to play through at release. Quests will unravel part of the background of the history of the Allods Universe, the big unanswered blanks of it. It is a unique chance for players to fill in the gaps.
-We have pets in the game but not every class can access them. At the character creation phase, users will be able to customize their pet too and choose their name.
-There is a crafting system which is based on mini-games. For example, you will have to play slot-machine game to boil alchemy potions. This is based on skill level and luck. I am sure that people will also enjoy the mini-game ‘globinoball’, think of it as soccer with the ball being the head of enemies.
-Last but not least, its free. So just try it!

As you can see, anyone who is getting a little bored of their current subscription MMO should definitely check Allods Online out.

FreeMMOGamer: What would you say is the feature you’re more proud of in the game? Exploration? PVP? Character development? The Astral battles?

What is most distinctive in Allods Online is the unusual Astral science-fiction part, which is oriented to high-level players, providing great PvP, some PvE surprises and exploration opportunities. Players will learn about it throughout the evolution of their characters, via quests and because it is everywhere as allods are floating in the Astral space. The game makes it so that players are ready at high level.

I would add something here to make it clear that players can and will have to craft their own spaceship in the dedicated ship hangar bay of their faction. Then after a few weeks of crafting (you do not make a space battle ship over night of course), the captain of the ship and a dedicated crew formed of other players: captain, engineers, gunners... can take off on a new adventure through the Astral space. Routes and directions through the Astral are fickle, so players captaining ships may be in dire peril, or reap the benefits of discovery.

The Astral constantly changes; you never know where you will appear, but you can find treasures of lost civilizations with traces of ancient magic. You can also stumble on Astral demons and they are not easy to defeat and provide a wonderful PvE challenge. Before engaging a demon, I would advise players to think twice, even to flee at first and think it over. This is unless the demon noticed the ship and then rushes it.

Also players must be careful of pirates. Pirates are players on Astral ships. They wander along crossroads to rob ships returning home with their loot. If they manage to immobilize one, board it and defeat the crew, they can grab the chest containing the phat loot. The combination of the Astral ship game mechanism plus the character based gameplay is unique and stands Allods Online apart from other MMORPGs.

I cannot wait to see the first players engaging their Astral battle ships against one another.

FreeMMOGamer: Could you give us a glimpse of how the Astral battles unfold?

The captain of the ship gathers a group of up to 6 players, engage the thrust and leave the hangar to fly in the Astral space. All is fine and players on board the ship are relaxing and enjoying the view. Suddenly a red dot comes over to the ship. It is a torpedo from a hidden pirate ship. All crew to their battle station! The captain starts to manoeuvre the ship to align the cannon to face the pirates and orders his team to fire at will. But as the pirates engaged first, the shield of the ship is damaged and the vessel is losing energy. The Captain then orders a few crew members to grab goblin engineers and bring them to the damaged part of the ship so that they can start the repairing process. In the meantime cannons are shooting torpedos, as crew members fire. The crew on the upper deck and the captain can clearly see from a distance the damage they have inflicted on the pirates, with smoke comes out of the ship’s hull. The pirates’ ship turns around and goes full power to flee. As the vessel is heavily damaged, the captain decides to not follow the pirates, they already had a good lesson to not attack anyone, haven’t they?

Everybody leads the Goblins to fully repair the ship. We never know there could be a demon wandering. After some time the ship is fully repaired and then the captain decides to follow his course in discovery. All is fine until BOOM, the pirates are back and engaged from behind with stronger torpedos than before, hence destroying the back shield. The Captain turns the ship to face pirates, but this was a bad idea as pirates already anticipated that and aligned their own pirate ship to have their torpedos facing the side of the ship.

The captain starts to laugh and orders his crew to not fire back, but simply use goblin repairmen to do their duty. Pirates were so focused on damaging their foe that they did not notice the Astral demon that happened to wander there.

In a matter of minutes the Astral demons destroys the Pirates ship. Once this is done he calms down, turn around, face the vessel, rushes it and destroy the captains ship.

It was a fun journey indeed, and the captain learned his lesson to never let his guard down or take some time off in the Astral space. Nobody is alone there!

FreeMMOGamer: This is an ambitious game, and has already earned some awards. Are your expectations for Allods Online extremely high already?

Allods Online was recognized as the Best Game by the Russian Game Developers Conference at the KRI-2009 Awards, which consisted of representatives from developers and the leading publishing companies in Russia and the CIS. The highly favorable assessment by this group of experts was supported by a vote of the attendees; in addition to the conference's most prestigious honor, Allods Online also won the Audience Choice Award.

Allods Online aims to set a new standard for both western MMORPG’s and free to play MMORPG’s this Autumn. We really hope that our players will enjoy the game as much as we do, and that they feel gPotato.eu’s passion for bringing the best games to European players. We feel the mix of such a high quality game, with our experience as a community gaming company will both bring great benefits to European players. Plus it’s free, so what more can players ask for?

FreeMMOGamer: What is the release date?
Allods Online will be avaible for free at the http://www.gPotato.eu portal this Autumn.
At gPotato.eu we are ready for it, and we hope that you also are. It won’t be long before players can join in the fun!