Game Information

[Harv]

Platform: PC Online
Genre: MMORPG/XORG (FPS)
Developer: Smiling Gator Productions
Publisher: Smiling Gator Productions
Status: Development
Release date: 2007
Service Territory:
Official Website : http://www.twilightwar.com

Overview

Twilight War: After the Fall (TW) is an Extreme Online Roleplaying Game (XORG): a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) with an integrated First Person Shooter (FPS) style combat system, where thousands of online players come together in an expansive and immersive three dimensional world. Twilight War takes place on Earth, in one possible future where the planet has been reformed following two great catastrophes – the Terror War and the Doomsday War.

During the first quarter century of the new millennium, mankind suffered through the Terror War. Surviving nuclear fire and biological assault, the free nations of the world finally united and succeeded in reshaping humanity into a proud and productive race that would reach for the stars rather than succumb to the barbarity of the past. For decades after that fateful conflict, mankind lived in relative peace and achieved its goals of colonizing the solar system from nearby Luna to the distant moons of Saturn.

But peace is often short lived in a brutal and often fickle universe.

Another race came to Earth, a dying race, desperate to seize a bountiful planet to be their new home world. The Skel came in three massive crucible ships, and with advanced technology, genetically manipulated warriors, and the will to conquer, quickly overwhelmed Earth’s untested defenses and the fledgling International Space Emergency Force.

The existence of alien intelligence had finally been proven, much to the dismay of those who wished for the discovery.

Those who had time to call it anything called the resulting conflict the Doomsday War. The Skel rained fire upon the Earth, but refrained from total destruction, wanting an intact planet to conquer. Legions of Skel and their genetically bred creations poured from the heavens and clashed with the combined forces of the United Nations of Earth. For years the battles raged, until no major city or industrial complex remained standing. The thousands of satellites ringing Earth were silenced, and the glittering lights on the planet’s dark side were all but extinguished, bringing back a stygian darkness that had not been seen by most of mankind in centuries. The Skel were slowly being worn down by attrition, but the cost was civilization itself.

A desperate sabotage mission on the crucible ship dubbed “Nemesis” yielded a great victory for mankind, but also sealed the fate of both races. Out of control, the massive world ship crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Antarctica, disintegrating the ice cap and causing global wide earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions. When the ashes cleared and the waters receded somewhat, little was left of either great army, and all of humanity's massive coastal cities lay submerged. The Fall, as the event became called by the few survivors, and what resulted from it, became the new common threat, feared by all.

It is now A.D. 2296, two hundred years after the Doomsday War ravaged the planet and forever changed its ecology.

The Earth is a mixture of wastelands, wilderness, mutant and alien biology. Small city states and tribes have risen from the debris of the Old World to reclaim what was lost, and to find what could be regained. Some bring the promise of hidden technology while others bring the rule of the sword. Many fight only to survive the next year. Nomad tribes, lawless brigands, and mutants roam the ruined remains of civilization, and in the darker places twisted animals and horrible creatures prowl. Bioengineered creatures, mutants resulting from radiation, and the descendants of the alien Skel lurk in the Outlands, making them dangerous to traverse, even in modern vehicles, which are rare and worth a small fortune.

The remnants of human civilization is scattered and divided both by vast stretches of wilderness, and by ideological rifts. Many of the survivors have little knowledge of the events that brought an end to the Old World, and most of the rest know only what the current warlords and religious pontiffs want them to know. Most know of the Skel, and they are often blamed for the end of the great human civilizations, but few now living have ever seen a real Skel. Some call them aliens, some demons, and others think of them as creatures created by humans, depending on local dogma. The remaining Skel are also divided and scattered, and retain little of what they had before the Doomsday War, though most still believe this world is theirs by right of conquest.

Though it is common knowledge that Earth is the homeworld of humanity, much of the world was seeded with alien biology during the Doomsday War, making vast stretches almost unrecognizable both in flora and fauna. Over the last two centuries, many of the alien life forms have migrated and mixed with native species, creating a blending of the biospheres. Combined with the devastation caused by nuclear weapons, earthquakes, the rise of ocean levels due to melted ice caps, wild fires, and meteor bombardment, there is little resemblance to pre-Fall Earth.

Explore kilometers of wild Outlands and ruined cities. Find, buy, or create a vehicle to suit your needs – but remember that fuel and spare parts are rare. Find and train, or purchase, a mount – more vulnerable than a vehicle but more affordable and nearly self-sustaining. Think you have the perfect high tech rifle? It is the bullets that are sometimes hard to obtain…

Battle among the ruins of Earth against creatures and brigands. Scavenge Pre-Fall materials and sell them for a profit. Travel to other cities and find the best profit margin.

Join an allegiance and fight against their enemies, or remain neutral and indifferent to everyone but yourself.

FAQ's

. What is Twilight War: After the Fall (or Twilight War for short)?

Twilight War is an Extreme Online Roleplaying Game (XORG) that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in the year 2296, two hundred years after the Doomsday War between mankind and alien invaders rendered much of the Earth uninhabitable and destroyed Human civilization.
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· What is an XORG?

It's a new game concept, so it deserves a new acronym! "XORG" stands for Extreme Online Roleplaying Game, a hybrid between MMORPGs and FPSs. An XORG has depth, persistence, expansiveness, adrenaline pumping action, graphics detail, and realism all at the same time

· How many people can play Twilight War at once?

Twilight War worlds can each sustain thousands. Each world is an instance of the game, and each of these instanced worlds is independent. You choose which world cluster to play in.

· How many characters can I have at one time?

Each player account can maintain multiple characters, though only one character can be played at a time. Characters “live” on a specific world cluster selected during the login process. Once a character is created, it can only be moved to another world cluster by requesting the change from the developer via online account management. These requests will be filled depending on the current server populations, as we do not want any one server to be overloaded.

· What are the minimum requirements needed to play the game?

Here are the targeted hardware requirements to play Twilight War.

Minimum

Operating system Windows XP, 2000
Processor 1.5 GHz
System memory 512 MB
Graphics card DirectX 9+ compatible
Video memory 128 MB
Internet connection Broadband
Install media CD ROM

· Is a monthly subscription fee required?

Yes. To activate an account, you must have an active subscription. This fee goes to purchasing the initial game content, server maintenance, customer support, and content enhancements and additions. Subscription rates will be announced during the beta test phase.

· What is the age range target for this game?

The age range has not yet been determined. TW is, however, aiming for more realism in the game than most other MMORPGs.

· How much influence and power will player clans have? What things can they do/own?

Player clans will have all the organizational advantages that any organized group will have, assisting in-game by a clan-only chat channel. Clans can form alliances with other player clans and clans can conduct wars between themselves that will override other faction concerns.

Clans will be able to take out bounties on outlaws that attack their clan members, and they will eventually be able to own clan fortresses (though this may not make release, it will be added in an update). Fortresses are essentially small towns, with lodgings for clan members and some shops and repair facilities which can be added, along with NPC guards.

· Community being critical, what key goals do you have in this area for both in-game and out of game support?

Yes, community is very important. We will have customer support in-game in the form of GMs, and out of game in some fashion that is to be determined. We will also be linking some of the in-game data to our game website, and may even allow other sites to link to the data directly. This will allow players to obtain data on their characters outside the game, to communicate to other players that are online but not in-game, and allow player clans to collect and display membership data direct from the game database.

· What will be punishments for Terms of Service (TOS) Violations?

There will be strict punishments for TOS violations, such as forced character imprisonment, account suspension, and account termination, depending on the severity and number of violations. There can be little leeway to TOS violations, since we don't have the manpower to belabor each case. However, the TOS can't dictate how people act in the game, as that would not be practically enforceable. The TOS will enforce punishments for cheats, naming conventions, fraud (real, not in-game), in-game property rights (i.e. selling stuff on ebay), and the like.

Is Twilight War “player versus player” (PvP) or "player versus environment" (PvE)?

Twilight War is both. There are some areas where players cannot attack other players, but these areas are restricted to small places of the world, usually around cities. Most areas will allow for PvP combat, and friendly fire is also active, so players will need to be mindful of their weapons.

One thing that makes Twilight War different from most games is that players must actually watch what they are doing – shooting any player or random characters will have consequences: you can be arrested and sent to prison by local authorities, you could damage your reputation with neighboring factions, and you can even be marked for extermination by a bounty hunter. So battles must be chosen wisely.

· What is to prevent higher level people from “camping” newbie areas and killing them for sport?

Several factors. First, there are severe faction hits to attacking other players that are members of non-warring factions. Of course, if the two adversaries are from enemy factions, then there is no issue.

Second, you can only gain experience for attacking a specific player character once in a certain amount of time. So killing the same unfortunate person over and over will not gain you much.

Third, there are many NPC guards that roam around, especially near “newbie” areas. These guards will defend you and will be able to overpower most other players.

Fourth, there is not the usual disparity between low and high “level” characters in Twilight War. Yes, a more experienced character may be able to take and deal more damage, and his equipment may be much better than someone with lower experience, but it is still dangerous to fight other players. A lower experienced character can take down a higher experienced one in some circumstances, especially when the higher experienced player is outnumbered.

Lastly, player-killing characters can have bounties put on their heads, which tags them for all to see and allows other players to hunt them without penalty.

· Are individual missions used in the game?

Yes. Missions are a large part of the game. Players can obtain missions from non-player characters in the game. Mission choices include faction and non-faction related operations, including missions that involve vehicles and mounts, exploration, retrieval of items, spying, scouting, extermination of enemies, courier duty, assassination, scavenging, or drug running.

· Are there vehicles or mounts in the game?

There will be several varieties of all-terrain vehicles in Twilight War (there are not many intact roads anymore!), and a few larger, armored, vehicles. It is too early to say for sure about mounts. There will likely not be any pets for release, but there will be "guards" with the advanced housing expansion.

· What kind of game economy will be present?

There is no standard currency in Twilight War. All things are bartered, though most factions will issue paper currency that has value within the faction. Everything you can pick up is worth something in the game – from the remains of Pre-Fall dolls to the mint condition plasma pistol you found in the ruins of a hidden military redoubt. Your success at trading items for better items is dependent on your skill, primarily.

Players with trade skills will be able to make items such as ammunition, medical supplies, and drugs. Other players can mine or scavenge raw materials or acquire drugs and sell them on the open market. In addition to the small item trading, the commodities market consists of a realistic supply and demand model which will vary the prices of bulk goods from city to city. Traders will be a big part of the game – moving between and trading within all the cities, while dodging bandits and aggressive creatures. When a commodity is “dumped” (given an excessive supply) on one location, its demand and price drop. Consumption will eventually reduce the supply and prices will again rise. Trading is the best way to obtain expensive things in the game – though it can be risky.

· Will clans or organizations be available?

Yes. Players can establish traditional online “clans” and even assign ranks to members. Player clans will have private chat capabilities and have organizational controls for administering their clans. Player clans that become large can affect the game world significantly and will even be worked into the overall game plot. Clan membership is restricted to Alliances – you can only be a member of a clan if your allegiance is in agreement with the clan leadership. Players may also join Alliances with the major in-game factions, and thereby gain rank and benefits independent from their own skill experience.

· What activities can characters engage in?

Combat is a large part of the game, as one would expect given the setting. Combat can come in two forms – player versus computer controlled “bots,” or player versus player (PvP) combat. Fighting is the best way to get your character experienced in combat skills and using weapons. Characters can also engage in mercantile pursuits – buying, selling, trading, repairing, and creating items in the game or even becoming a medic. This is the best way to gain money and expertise in something other than combat. Exploration is also a large part of the game. Missions and curiosity will take you to new and exciting places. Exploration is the best way to learn the world and get along in it. Missions may require you to steal or find something, provide courier service across hostile outland terrain, defend your Alliance’s holdings from intruders, raid an enemy faction, or scavenge from the ruins of a Mutant haunted Pre-Fall city.

Social interaction is also a large part of the game. Only those with medical skills can heal your wounds. Only those that can train animals can provide you with mounts. When your vehicle is damaged, you must find a mechanic to repair it. Though most things can be found by talking with non-player characters, it is often cheaper and more convenient to use the skills of other players. Want to take out that nest of viral zombies? You will probably need to convince several others to help.

· What kinds of creatures can I expect to encounter in the game?

Most of your adversaries will be Humans, humanoid Mutants, and mutated animals. The term “Mutant” here is used generically to indicate creatures created by radiation-disrupted cells or genetic manipulation by either Pre-Fall Humans or the alien Skel. Most of the Mutants are actually the descendants of genetic experiments by both sides in the conflict. Aliens are also still around and make formidable foes. Human foes include bandits, brigands, enemy faction members, rival scavengers, gang members, drug runners, gun traders, slavers, outland reavers, and cannibals.

· How heavily dependent on skills/items is combat?

Combat is affected by items. Weapons have different rates of fire, recoils, reload speeds, jamming chances, equip times, and variable damage based on the weapon itself and on the size of ammo it uses, the quality of the ammo, and the type of ammo (such as a barbed bolt vs. a target bolt, or a full metal jacket round vs. a hollow point round). Armor also protects you to differing degrees, depending on the armor itself and the type of damage it is trying to absorb. But armor also encumbers you - so you may move slower, which is a trade off.

Combat is affected by skill. The better you are with a weapon the more accurate you are, the faster you reload, the less chance you will experience a jam (since you take better care of your weapon with higher skill), the more damage you do (though damage will only vary a bit, not as with most MMORPGs), and you are also allowed to make special attacks with some weapons.

All items in the game require a skill level to use as well. So don't expect a newbie to be using a plasma rifle - maybe a crossbow or homemade firearm.

· What are the goals of PvP in Twilight War?

There are several PvP related goals that characters can pursue. The obvious goal is to obtain items of value - you will be able to execute a form of limited looting on downed players. But there are consequences to attacking another player-character. If you declare allegiance to a faction, then you will automatically be considered fair game by enemies of that faction - meaning they can initiate PvP with you without suffering significant negative effects, though they will continue to take faction hits against your faction (but enemies don't care much about that). Therefore, inter-faction PvP fighting is going to be fairly common.

Another goal is to further your faction standing with allied factions by attacking their enemies.

Yet another goal will be for control of certain areas - which will be detailed later. Twilight War will not focus on endlessly shifting territory between factions, but it will be part of the game. Players can choose to take part in this or remain aloof (though everyone will have to be wary about shifting faction areas).

A final goal is that PvP is considered quite fun by many. For those that do not at all like PvP, there are plenty of other things to do - including creating and modifying items, racing your buddies over the wasteland in your supercharged buggies, exploration, scavenging, taking non-PvP missions, commodity trading, and fighting and surviving against nature and its rather nasty host of creatures.

· Why join a faction?

It will allow you to:

Gain rank and rank points, which in turn will give you a faction-specific rank title attached to your character name tag

Have access to certain areas without being shot by the guards

Have access to faction-specific missions

Create a tighter community so that you can find like-minded party members

Spend rank points to purchase faction-specific items

There are other benefits that we don't want to give away yet ;-)

· Is there a way to avoid PvP?

Yes - move cautiously and hide a lot and stay around the guards. There will be no way to totally avoid PvP, it is an integral part of the game.

· What can I gain and lose in a PvP conflict?

You will gain Faction Points and lose Faction Points with certain groups when you attack any character (player and AI), with some exceptions (e.g., animals do not have faction status). You may also gain Faction Points with allied factions for attacking their enemies.

You will gain skill experience by fighting another player-character, just as you would if fighting an AI character.

If you are defeated, your body will be lootable to a small degree - victors will receive random items from you, and you will be able to designate a small set of items as "unlootable." This system will undergo many tweaks and is not set in stone - it will have to be extensively play tested.

You will not lose skill experience by being defeated. There are other disadvantages to being defeated, which will remain a mystery for now ;-)

· What consequences are there to PvP?

There are consequences to PvP. You will always take major faction hits for attacking another player-character. This is fine if you belong to an enemy faction. If you do not belong to an enemy faction, then it will make dealing with the victim's faction more difficult for you. This can be severe - kill a few Silic-allied characters and Silic guards will attack you on sight. The Faction Point hits for killing AI characters are less severe, but will eventually affect your standing as well.

If someone who is not a member of an enemy faction shoots you, you will be able to log a complaint with the local authorities (any nearby authority you choose, in fact). Complaints filed with local authorities further decrease the assailant's faction standing, and will eventually cause a price to be placed on the assailant's head. This will allow anyone to attack that character without fear of a penalty (their name tag and description will identify them as an Outlaw), and will activate Bounty Hunter missions against that character that other players can take.

Players will only gain benefit (experience and positive faction) from killing another player-character once in a set amount of time (the time limit is to be determined). Killing the same character over and over will only yield negative faction hits and nothing else.

AI characters will also defend players based on faction alliances, and on the situation. For instance, if you waylay someone in a market square, then the local guards (if they can catch and defeat you) will imprison you for murder or attempted murder. This gets complex and the details are not ready to be released - but you get the idea. Imprisonment means you cannot play that character for a set amount of time (though you can play other characters on your account), and there are other penalties for imprisonment.

Lastly, once you are attacked, you will be able to defend yourself without fear of taking faction hits or getting complaints logged against you. You have the right to self-defense.

· What if I am neutral (unaligned)?

Neutral characters can attack or be attacked by anyone. They suffer all the faction hits (positive and negative) according to who they are attacking. Neutral characters do not confer faction hits onto assailants. Neutral characters can file complaints against anyone who attacks them, and vice versa. But, complaints from neutrals will be ignored by authorities if they belong to the same faction as the attacker.

· Is there a long term goal for factions in this conflict?

Of course, this is all subject to adjustment when we go into testing, but you get the idea. There are lots of other details, such as partying (grouping) rules, looting rules, faction wars, missions, etc., that will not be revealed until we get closer to the test phases.

· How much variety can we expect from the weapons, armor, and equipment?

There will be a wide range of weapons in Twilight War. The most common will be simpler weapons: crossbows, revolvers, shotguns, etc. There will also be a variety of explosive weapons: molotov ****tails, dynamite, grenades, and others. Ammunition will be available in different qualities at different costs, depending on who made it. Of course, skilled players can also make it themselves. Advanced Pre-Fall weapons will be rare. Part of the game will be hunting and scavenging for Pre-Fall weapons, ammunition, and other technology.

There will be everything from scale mail to advanced composite power armor, from crossbows to plasma weapons, as some of the survivor cultures have more tech capability than others. Naturally, the higher your skill, the higher tech equipment you can use - but it is not as restrictive as most MMORPGs. A new character just entering the game will be able to use low tech or low quality firearms of one sort or another. Of course, using a crossbow or other low-tech weapon has advantages - they are quiet, have no muzzle flash, are cheap to maintain, and the ammo is more readily available. Attribute scores also play a small role in what you can use.

Most equipment will be usable halfway up the skill progression tree. Most of the advanced equipment will be rare, and it will need expensive maintenance. Other items that will be available include radiation counters, medical supplies, drugs, herbal salves, binoculars, weapon scopes, silencers, sunglasses, dyes and enamels, paint, weapons parts, tires, vehicle parts, robot sentries and about a hundred other different things, each with varying degrees of quality and usefulness.

Equipment can be acquired many ways - through spoils of combat, scavenging in ruins, rewards for completed missions, trading with other characters - player characters and NPCs - and as a reward for faction service.

All items will degrade with use. Keeping the game world from filling up with tens of thousands of items is one of our goals, and maintaining equipment to keep it from falling apart fits with the genre. This will also help to maintain a realistic in-game economy, so there will never be a glut of something and most everything will have some value.

· Will there be siege warfare?

In a sense. There are no special rules for conducting a siege, per se. A group of like-minded player-characters can indeed attack an installation and kill non-player-character guards and defeat enemy player-characters, and even use some support weaponry. Installations will also be guarded by weapon emplacements in some cases (that can be manned by player-characters). There is nothing stopping them from doing that if they think they can pull it off.

There will be "control points" where characters can take control of some areas, and some places will even spawn friendly NPC guards to help you hold it when you leave the area. Some may even spawn resupply vendors. Certain skills can allow players to allow respawning of friendly players at some control points. Players can use these as they see fit - hold them against enemies, expand the influence of your faction, create relative "safes zones" to rest in, or just create a resupply/regrouping point for hunting in the area.

· What kinds of computer-controlled enemies will players encounter?

Many of the AI characters will be other humans and mutants fighting to survive like you are - Outlander vagrants, biker gangs, wasteland wanderers, bandits, brigands, slavers, drug runners, cannibals and faction soldiers will be some of the main challenges you will meet.

There are also many creatures, most of which are either alien in origin or the descendants of 21st century genetic engineering, which was all the rage before The Fall. One such creature is the Colossus, which is about the size of a house. Another is the Smilodon, one of several prehistoric animals recreated originally to entertain the masses but who now more often prey on the masses!

· How do you intend to implement quests, missions and GM-driven events?

Quests and missions will both be in the game. In our case, a "quest" is doing a favor for an NPC, like delivering a letter, finding a lost relative or tracking down a dangerous animal. A quest can be short or very long and complex. "Missions" take you to different mission zones and involve everything from inter-faction raids to stealing technology.

· Will the game be oriented more towards groups or players who prefer to solo?

Being in the company of friends is bonus enough - you watch each other's backs and defend one another. The game will be more hazardous for solo players, and will consequently be more challenging for them. Groups can accomplish more and do it faster than solo players by virtue of numbers. Twilight War caters to both group and solo players, without giving either an artificial bonus.

Grouping, or partying as we call it, can be done at any time, in the regular manner of most MMORPGs. The only restriction is that characters must all be friendly or neutral with one another - no grouping of enemies will be allowed (determined by faction standing). Several parties can also be linked into a common chat interface for larger scale coordination.

Players in parties will have to learn to share in the spoils of victory, as all members will have looting rights. A message will announce what each party member takes from the loot, so there won't be any secrets and it'll be up to the players to treat each other fairly.

· Will there be different hit locations and different effects for being hit in one?

At the very least there will be head, torso, leg, arm, hand, and foot hit boxes. Torso MAY be split into abdomen and chest, we'll see. Head may be split into head, face, and neck, we'll see about that too. Get hit in the hand that holds your weapons, and your weapon takes significant damage. Armor likewise with all locations. Get hit in the leg and you may stumble…

· How important are food & water in Twilight War?

Twilight War is a survival game, food and water will be VERY important. You can die of thirst or starvation in the game, and going hungry will impede other things like regenerating health and endurance. You can carry food and water, find it lying around, trade for it, and hunt for it.

· What are the penalties for character defeat?

With FPS combat, your character will lose all their health points a LOT more in TW than in standard MMORPGs, a condition we call "player defeat." There are two seperate "states" of defeat, "unconsciousness" and "respawn." Exactly which one of these occurs under what conditions is something we can't divulge now.

As for penalties, you will not lose experience. You MAY lose some equipment unless you can have a friend grab it before someone else does (or if you return quick enough to loot your own body). Some items can be tagged as "non-lootable" or "seldom lootable" (we haven't decided which yet). How many you can tag will depend on your character’s overall experience.

Other penalties for defeat are something we are not going into much yet. There will be others. Nothing that is too annoying, but we do agree that defeat should have penalties, and they should be somewhat inconvenient! (duh) This will affect tactics. If you know you won’t just respawn ten seconds away from the battle with no ill effects, you will be less likely to just rush in blazing. We think this is a good thing.