A New MMORPG Lurks In Hidden Waters

New Australian developer Hidden Waters has announced their first project, a fantasy based massively multiplayer online role playing game entitled Restless World. Utilizing a heavily modified version of Garage Games’ Torque Engine, RW will offer a unique fantasy realm not tied to the more traditional Tolkien archetype. Players will be able to choose from ten character classes, increase a variety of skills through repeated use, and unleash death upon their foes with a Mana based spell system.

Restless World is set in a varied 3D world full of all sorts of interesting creatures, which are unique to this world and not drawn from a Tolkeinesque world. There are no standard fantasy races like elves and dwarves, but players have access to a character palette with enough variation of physical appearance that they may create a character that resembles one of these races.

The rule-set has been designed so that no one build is more powerful than any other build. The taxonomy of the plants and creatures, the crafting system, the kinds of damage that can be dealt, and basically everything in the world revolve around a system of four elements – earth, air, fire and water, split again by the three alignments of good, neutral and evil. Neither one player character nor any creature can become an all-rounder, they will tend to specialize in a particular element. We believe this system will discourage power-gaming and power-building and encourage parties that have at least one member from each elemental group.

Here is a clip from the web site:

Welcome to Restless World. You have found an under-development Australian massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), set in a medieval fantasy world. The world will be full of interesting things to do, provided you stay within the server rules.
The game will run on Windows, OSX and Linux. We are aiming for a closed beta around May and release in the second half of 2006. It will be subscription based, and will only run on our own server cluster. Some key features of the Restless World will be:

• The world is a persistent one spread over a small continent with 7 major cities.
• Its very role-play centric, with balanced combat and crafting Something Else To Do rather than the Only Thing To Do.
• There will be strict role-play rules (unlike many servers) which you can find listed here.
• Outfits and avatar customization will be a major part of the world, and the avatar can be changed in-game not just on character creation.
• NPC quests tend to be delivery or taking on an employment role rather than combat focused.
• It will be player-driven, where players can contribute the books in the library, tunes on instruments and act out plays or recitals in-game.
• Its also player-driven that players can suggest or outright contribute clothing, items, maps and monsters, provided they fit into the general theme.
• Once contributed, new additions are available to everyone not just the contributor.
• The world is aimed at adults and sign-up is age-restricted, but there is no explicit content – just some content in clearly defined areas that is definitely not for children.
• GMing facilities will be available to leaders of role-play groups on request, with no obligation on the GM to enforce server rules or GM to people outside of their group (unless they want to, of course).

This project is sponsored in part by the Federal Government New Enterprise Initiative Scheme (NEIS), which keeps us fed.

New Australian developer Hidden Waters has announced their first project, a fantasy based massively multiplayer online role playing game entitled Restless World. Utilizing a heavily modified version of Garage Games’ Torque Engine, RW will offer a unique fantasy realm not tied to the more traditional Tolkien archetype. Players will be able to choose from ten character classes, increase a variety of skills through repeated use, and unleash death upon their foes with a Mana based spell system.

Restless World is set in a varied 3D world full of all sorts of interesting creatures, which are unique to this world and not drawn from a Tolkeinesque world. There are no standard fantasy races like elves and dwarves, but players have access to a character palette with enough variation of physical appearance that they may create a character that resembles one of these races.

The rule-set has been designed so that no one build is more powerful than any other build. The taxonomy of the plants and creatures, the crafting system, the kinds of damage that can be dealt, and basically everything in the world revolve around a system of four elements – earth, air, fire and water, split again by the three alignments of good, neutral and evil. Neither one player character nor any creature can become an all-rounder, they will tend to specialize in a particular element. We believe this system will discourage power-gaming and power-building and encourage parties that have at least one member from each elemental group.

Here is a clip from the web site:

Welcome to Restless World. You have found an under-development Australian massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), set in a medieval fantasy world. The world will be full of interesting things to do, provided you stay within the server rules.
The game will run on Windows, OSX and Linux. We are aiming for a closed beta around May and release in the second half of 2006. It will be subscription based, and will only run on our own server cluster. Some key features of the Restless World will be:

• The world is a persistent one spread over a small continent with 7 major cities.
• Its very role-play centric, with balanced combat and crafting Something Else To Do rather than the Only Thing To Do.
• There will be strict role-play rules (unlike many servers) which you can find listed here.
• Outfits and avatar customization will be a major part of the world, and the avatar can be changed in-game not just on character creation.
• NPC quests tend to be delivery or taking on an employment role rather than combat focused.
• It will be player-driven, where players can contribute the books in the library, tunes on instruments and act out plays or recitals in-game.
• Its also player-driven that players can suggest or outright contribute clothing, items, maps and monsters, provided they fit into the general theme.
• Once contributed, new additions are available to everyone not just the contributor.
• The world is aimed at adults and sign-up is age-restricted, but there is no explicit content – just some content in clearly defined areas that is definitely not for children.
• GMing facilities will be available to leaders of role-play groups on request, with no obligation on the GM to enforce server rules or GM to people outside of their group (unless they want to, of course).

This project is sponsored in part by the Federal Government New Enterprise Initiative Scheme (NEIS), which keeps us fed.