Anti-Aliased: I can finally stop playing Mortal Online now pt. 2

PvE interactions & combat

I'm not impressed with the PvE. I'm impressed with the depth of the combat and the depth of the crafting system, but I'm not impressed with the PvE. Let me explain this for a moment.

The game's crafting system and combat systems are two of its greatest, most innovative systems. Crafting features a huge number of options, thanks to items that can be created with a wide variety of materials in different combinations. You control what a weapon or item is made out of, how much material is used to create that item, and what different types of materials support it. This lets crafters experiment with how they want to make their items, and how those materials affect the outcome of the item.

Combat has a very similar level of depth. Instead of going for an overall armor class on a character, the game registers different hitboxes all over the character. All of these hitboxes, such as the left and right legs, left and right arms, torso, and head have to be armored separately. This allows you to perhaps choose to wear more protective armor on larger parts of the body, and less armor in other places.

However, should you be hit in a less armored spot, you will take more damage. The system will check to see where strikes hit in the various hitboxes, and it will even go so far to calculate hitting an enemy with your blade or the hilt of your sword. An Elder Scrolls style combat system also allows different types of attacks, such as left or right slashes with different movements, double tapping directional arrows to feint in a direction quickly, active blocking, or alternate attack styles, such as stabbing with your sword instead of slashing.

When you get over to the game's skill system, things start to lose their luster. Skills are ranked from 0 to 100, and each character can only have 1000 skill points invested in their character at a time. As you perform a skill in the world, or read a book about it (a la EVE's training system) your rank in the skill will increase.

The skills, however, are poorly described in the game's interface, hidden under layers of UI design, and are only revealed by reading books. So, even if you want to raise a skill you don't have, you need to buy the book for it. This is a huge problem, as every book has the same description: "Comming Soon (TM)." It seems that Star Vault didn't have time to actually write in what each skill book in the library actually does, forcing you to use an outside information source like Mortal Wiki.

That's not intelligent, puzzle-solving design that requires experimentation on the player's part. That's just being incredibly lazy. (I can say that when this problem wasn't solved 15 patches later at the time of this post.)

Where the game fails is the incredibly pathetic AI and pathing systems they have for monsters. Monsters wander around in open fields, harking back to the days of EverQuest or Asheron's Call. They all have three AI options: attack, run, or stand around like an idiot.

Attacking and standing around like an idiot are all fine and good; it's the running option that leads to most of the problems. The monsters are incapable of figuring out that they're running into your legs, letting you whack the heck out of them while they continually push against your knees. The system also can't tell when the monsters clip the landscape, hit obstacles, or run directly under water. I've had pigs and other wildlife escape me simply because they ran into the river and proceeded to run across the bottom of the water, unimpeded.

Along the same lines is a little error that causes attacking monsters to turn invisible. You'll still get hit like the monster is there, but your client won't render the model, nor will it detect any collisions between the monster and your weapon. This means you have to run away from the evil, invincible Invisopig (TM) until the game figures out that it needs to render the thing attacking you.

And... as for the ragdoll physics... there's only one thing I have to say about that. Or, well, one picture I have to post about that.

PvP interactions & combat

This is, obviously, where Mortal Online's true bread and butter shines. Thanks to the game's deep combat system, PvP combat is actually pretty interesting. Where you aim, when you block, and how you move in combat all matters thanks to all of the options players have. Keeping your stamina balanced while keeping up your offense and defense is truly a real-time balancing act, and I appreciate that.

Plus, my article wouldn't be complete without a mention of the thievery system, which, to some, is the worst system the game could have ever implemented. Sure, it's pretty bad when you find that your money has been stolen from your inventory, right under your nose, by another player. It sucks to lose the things you had and, believe me, I've had things stolen from me in the game.

However, the thievery system is fair and I commend it. If you can spot the crook and push them, they'll be flagged as a criminal (grey flag) for all to see. If you're in a guarded area, all you need to do is say "guards" in the chat, and a magical guard will instantly spawn to destroy the would-be grey-flagged thief. It's a game of cat and mouse, and all it requires you to do is keep an eye out behind you and protect your belongings. Thieves have to get really close to you to use their abilities, so be wary of anyone trying to pop your private bubble.

My one qualm on the thievery system is that you can completely spam it and pretty much annoy the heck out of anyone standing close to you. If you die, you can just come back a few minutes later and keep doing it –especially if you can get to a bank in the meantime. Now, there is a simple solution to this — don't go to cities where thieves stalk.