Dawntide and why you should care

Recently I saw an interview for Dawntide on Massively. This was the first I had heard of this MMO. Dawntide would classify as a sandbox MMO, as opposed to the mostly on-rails experience of WoW. There are a lot of MMO's you say? Well Dawntide is a bit different and worth keeping an eye on.

Skill Based. No experience points here, you level up skill by doing them. 50 skills and options to customize your path.

Be your own man (or woman). Want to just be a Blacksmith? Go for it. One of their tenets is to let the player be who they want to be in the game.

NDA, nah. Dawntide is in early beta, but they have decided not to use a NDA. This sort of open development gives me more confidence in their efforts.

Crafting. Finally another game is trying to make crafting as good as SWG. The type of materials you use will affect the final product.

City Livin'. Players will be able to found and develop cities (again similar to SWG). This is another great feature that has fallen by the wayside. of course, this means player housing too.

War. Territorial control will lead to conflict. To me this sounds like they will have areas similar to Eve null sec. Full looting is also planned, but there are safe areas.

Sloop John B. Player boats are in the game. Only a few games have done this (Vanguard, Darkfall?) so far.

Instancing, pass. There will be no instancing in Dawntide.

Dawntide is still in the early stages, but seems to have a lot of potential. As there is no NDA it is worth keeping your eyes on. For more reading, I suggest Keens article or the Dawntide forums.

Posted in: Dawntide