Today we invite you to take a look at this exclusive interview to Hao Han the Game Director of the expected free-to-play Steampunk MMORPG Black Gold Online, where we ask him about the game and its most interesting features.

Below you can see the answers that he gave to us.

First of all, thank you for giving us the possibility to interview you about Black Gold Online.

In your opinion what sets Black Gold apart from the rest of MMORPGs?

Our market positioning for Black Gold Online is crystal clear: striving towards the direction of an A-listed game. Despite the flood of traditional fantasy themed games in the global market, there is no appearance of an iconic Steampunk product. At the same time, we have rendered a massive world for exploration with action-packed vehicular warfare on all fronts land and air. With the number of innovative elements and concepts we have incorporated in game, we have sufficient confidence to withstand market testing.

How big is going to be the in-game world of Black Gold?

The story of Black Gold will be set in the continent of Montel: created with over 30 square kilometer of vivid landscape. The Ellescadia mountain ranges divide the mysterious Eastern land of Erlandir from the Western, heavily industrialized Isenhorst Kingdom.

Give us a sneak peek on the different races we are going to be able to choose from.

The two factions are rivals in both culture and style: it’s Steampunk versus Fantasy, Warmachines versus Sorcery.

The mystical Erlandir Union in the East: the feline-like Kosh are masters of magic with absolute elemental prowess. The Yutonian humans are equitable in both magic and physical combat. Aureks are barbaric shapeshifters, striking with primal rage on the battlefield.

To the west, we have the steam powered Kingdom of Isenhorst: The fanatical Buvontian humans that denounced tradition for technological advancement. The Lokemean Dwarves are inventors of steam technology, rigorous in their pursuit of science. The Upyrian vampires are cruel and vile due to their influence on the curse of blood, they’re able to match the Kosh in terms of magical prowess.

We know that the game will have 18 different classes. What can you tell us of them?

Every class is unique and specializes in offensive or supportive roles. We’re still finalizing the actual names and design, however.

How can we customize our characters?

The character creation system will implement facial and body sliders, which the players will be able to tweak bottom-down from hair to feet. We offer players 18 basic sliders and an additional 12 sliders for detailed customization.

Players will also be able to save their character template for new characters with just a button!

Can you give us some details about the PvP of the game? Will it feature battlegrounds or openworld PvP?

PvP content accounts for over 60% in Black Gold Online. Faction and vehicular warfare are the core of PvP combat, strategic placement is crucial in turning the tides in one’s favor. The battlegrounds will feature a host of combative vehicles and mechs (war-beasts for Erlandir counterparts) from land to air. Personal vehicles can be customized and upgraded, are deployable outside battelgrounds as well to assist players in questing or open-world pvp.

What can you tell us about the social features of the game?

We maintain all the crucial elements of social features: from the basic guild & recruitment channels, group chat, trade chat, world chat, to the friend and foe list with insights to their level and class. We’re refining the aspects in a regular basis to ensure smooth interactions in a social-heavy MMO.

In what languages and regions are you planning to launch the game?

Black Gold Online will launch in North America first, however we are not ruling out the possibility of releasing the game in other regions and languages, in the near future.

 

When do you expect to releaseBlack Gold?

We are planning the first beta to be launched in Q4 this year, please stay tuned to official announcements.

And finally let’s talk about the store. Being free to play, what can we expect to find in the game's cash shop? Powerful weapon/equipment/characters or just cosmetic items and time savers?

Black Gold Online will not have a cash-shop for micro-transactions nor sport a subscription fee. Black Gold Online’s optional time save system acts as a bonus, completey optional feature to supplement normal game progression. PvE experience and PvP rankings remains unaffected and all levels of equipment and materials(white to epic) can be acquired in game via questing, battegrounds, auction and world drops.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 26th, 2013 at 12:45 pm and is filed under MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.