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Mortal Online
Developer(s)	Star Vault
Publisher(s)	Star Vault
Composer(s)	Patrik Jarlestam
Engine	Unreal Engine 3 Foliage - SpeedTree Terrain - Grome
Version	Beta v0.14.21.27 [1]
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	March 2010 [2]
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Media	DVD
System requirements	1 GB RAM 3 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor 256 MB video card 5-25 GB hard disk space[3]
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

Mortal Online is an upcoming First Person, open-world, Player versus Player MMORPG by the Swedish video game company Star Vault that is currently in an open Beta testing stage^[4][5] after starting Pre-orders on July 13, 2009,^[6] and Block A of its Beta on July 20, 2009.^[7] The game is inspired by the desire to return to Ultima Online's player-controlled, sandbox-style game design;^[8] however, it uses Unreal Engine 3 by Epic Games and will feature a skill-based, action-style combat system.^[9]

Mortal Online will not have a traditional level/class system, but rather a skill and attribute system similar to the Elder Scrolls series.^[10][11][12] There are different races for the player to choose from and players can have multiple characters per account, but all characters on a specific account share a soul called a Deva which binds the actions of all characters together.^[13][14] Finally, Mortal Online will feature a non-repeating history designed to dramatically enhance the game's persistent world realism.^[15]

Gameplay

Attributes & Skills

The simplest of all attributes and skills are the Basic attributes. These describe the initial parameters of a character (such as its name), and they are, for the most part, unchangeable after being set. It is the primary attributes and primary skills of a character which, more than anything else, determine what a character is and is not proficient at.

The primary attributes and skills each have a maximum number of obtainable points. Thus, no character can fully maximize every primary attribute and every primary skill. This ensures that characters in the game must interact and work with one another. However, attribute and skill points can be redistributed as the player sees fit, allowing unhampered experimentation throughout the course of the game. These primary attributes and primary skills determine secondary attributes and secondary skills.

The primary attributes of a character may be considered the starting point of in-depth character customization. At creation time, the distribution of attribute points is determined by the player directly as well as by traits (such as height or ancestry) chosen by the player. Once set initially, these primary attributes determine the levels of both their primary skills and secondary attributes. These Secondary attributes define the base statistics of a character (e.g. health), and although primarily determined by primary attributes, secondary attributes may also be affected by certain skills.

The primary skills are available to all characters, but their effectiveness is determined by specific primary attributes. Primary skills are leveled up by being used in-game, and leveling them up, in turn, levels up the specific primary attributes to which each skill belongs. The primary attributes then provide small bonuses to all the skills associated with them. Thus, a dynamic feedback relationship powered by player activity exists between primary skills and primary attributes.

Secondary skills form, numerically, the largest and most complex set of character traits. There are far more secondary skills than can be known by any single character, and they may be unlocked in any number of ways. Certain primary skills, attributes, other secondary skills, combinations of these, along with books, tutoring by other characters, or achievements, among other means, may be used to unlock secondary skills. They have no shared limit like primary skills and attributes, but they are, of course, inherently limited by their prerequisites.^[16]

Overview of skills and attributes in Mortal Online

Action Skills

An Action Skill is trained by using it in the game, so, for instance, by using the Arming Sword skill you also train it, and to a lesser extent, the skills and attributes that have a connection to it like Strength and Dexterity. Any skill utilized is trained when used.^[16]

Learning Skills

A Learning Skill is passively trained by “reading a book” or “studying it mentally”. This takes time, and the more difficult the skill, the more time it takes. The player can only train one Learning Skill at a time, but during that time the player can of course train any number of Action Skills as their training is dependent on the player's actions in the game. Although most Learning Skills are passively trained, some of them will also benefit from certain “actions” in the game, i.e. the Learning Skill “Zoology” might increase each time the player discover a new creature. (In this case, the skill does not have to be the one “currently studied” to increase.)^[16]

Deva skills

Some of the Secondary Skills are tagged as Deva Skills. (The Deva is the player's “shared soul” that connects all the player's characters on the account.) When a Deva Skill is trained, all the player's characters will benefit from that training. As all Secondary Skills have prerequisites it does not necessarily mean one can use the skill, but it means it will be there, trained to the same level as for the other characters, and once the prerequisites are met the skill will be active and ready to use.^[16]

Notes

External links

• Official website