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Shadowbane Preview

By Trish Bennon

Shadowbane is a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMMORPG), also know as a Persistent State World (PSW), where thousands of users will be able to interact in a fantasy-based setting. A Persistent State World implies that the game world will always be there and continue to live and breathe even if you are not currently logged in. The same people, monsters, and places will be there each time you play. The game world itself never ends and there is no way to "beat the game" in the traditional sense. The role-playing aspect of the game states that you will take the role of a character and "role-play" as that character each time you login. Your character in Shadowbane has a major role in the ongoing plot of the game; the decisions you make change the flow of the story and determine your character's fate.

Shadowbane is being created by Wolfpack Studios, Inc. Wolfpack Studios is a startup company staffed by personnel with literally thousands of combined years of experience in the market. Shadowbane will offer total immersion with Wolfpack's fully 3-Dimensional gaming engine, the Arcane 3D Engine. You will be able to walk completely around objects such as houses and trees along with rotate your camera a full 360 degrees around your character. Due to the intense 3D graphics, you will need additional hardware acceleration to play Shadowbane.

Speaking of hardware acceleration, the minimum system requirements for Shadowbane are not quite as high as you would imagine. This is because the game engine itself is designed to scale down the quality of the graphics depending on the power of your machine. Though a person with the bare minimum certainly won't be able to enjoy as much eye-candy, the game should still be at a playable point.

The minimum system requirements are:

PC

Windows 95/98/NT 4.0

Intel Pentium 200+ Mhz or equivalent

3D Video Card with 6MB On-Board Memory that Supports OpenGL

32 MB RAM

CD-ROM

Lots of Hard drive space

28.8+ Internet Connection

Macintosh

MacOS 8.1

PCI PowerMac (including iMac)

3D Video Card with 6MB On-Board Memory that Supports OpenGL

32 MB RAM

CD-ROM

Lots of Hard drive space

28.8+ Internet Connection

Shadowbane is the first Online RPG to include an integrated system for Strategic Warfare. Wolfpack has developed a system for dealing with large groups of players that includes sieging cities, territory conquest, and tactical formations. Along with these great aspects, players will still be able to experience all the things every great RPG has to offer. You will be able to adventure and explore the world (in parties or alone), collect treasure and amass wealth, study and master magical or combative arts, and find and dispatch monsters to increase your power and prestige.

Shadowbane also has no Player vs Player flag and no level limitations in combat -- meaning everyone will be fair game when it comes to attacking players. There will be safe zones such as GM Towns or low level hunting grounds, however, if you want to venture deeper into the wilderness, you should be prepared for PvP conflict.

Don't think that there will not be consequences for your actions, though. Wolfpack is a major supporter of accountability and consequence, so you can rest assured that if you are killed by someone double your level, A) He won't get any experience or loot and B) He will be hunted down for his actions.

In addition to this controversial aspect of the game, you will gain experience by killing other players. To avoid possible exploits, though, the killer will always gain less than the victim lost. Along with that, the experience lost and gained will be based on the difference in level between the attacker and victim. If someone is considerably higher in level than you, you will lose very little experience and that person will gain even less. However, in a fair or challenging fight, the underdog will gain a nice portion of experience. To help minimize the pain of death, Wolfpack has promised that you will be able to "bind" up to three items to your character meaning that these items will spawn with you when you die and are, therefore, unlosable.

Along with the PvP system, Wolfpack has expanded the guild concept beyond smaller groups of players--their system makes guilds a large part of Shadowbane. The system encompasses:

The formation of larger guilds: City-states, Kingdoms, and Empires.

Ownership (and control) of territories within the virtual world which includes building up defenses and increasing the effectiveness of their shops, buildings, and city defenses.

Siege warfare--guilds will attempt to topple the city walls of neighboring city-states.

A sub-guilding system that will allow guilds to subguild themselves to larger guilds in exchange for protection. This will lead to a larger host of chains of Guild vs. Guild conflict.

A dynamic, constantly changing political and territorial landscape. Guilds can be expanded into Kingdoms, Kingdoms can merge into Empires, and Empires can splinter under the strain of revolution to collapse back into obscurity.

Each guild will be able to become a specific guild type which will define their building architecture for customizability and allow members of that "preferred class" to gain an undetermined bonus. Examples of guild types are Amazon Temples, Churches, Military Legions, Noble Houses, and Wizard Conclaves. The guild system is Shadowbane's central focus, and it is quite evident from the amount of detail being placed in it.

Another major aspect of Shadowbane is the highly detailed class system. First, your character gets to choose a major class to be a part of: Fighter, Healer, Rogue, or Mage. He can then choose to stay as that class and be average in all areas or specialize in a profession which will allow him to choose up to three disciplines. These disciplines will open up your character to some highly powerful special abilities and powers that will greatly shape the way your character acts. With over twenty professions and disciplins, the possibilities for customization become virtually endless.

Shadowbane looks extremely promising, and Wolfpack has said they have time on their side, so a rush-release will not occur. To keep up to date with the Shadowbane news and the community itself, be sure to stop by Shadowbane Stratics often. If you would like to find out more detailed information on Shadowbane, please visit our massive Frequently Asked Questions List which will inform you about everything you never knew you needed to know! If you still couldn't find what you were looking for, then you can try searching through our Developer's Musings database which stores every post a developer has ever made about Shadowbane. If the public knows the answer to a question, you can find it there!

We hope to see you in the world of Shadowbane!

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