Allods Online - The climax of the legend

    imageThere are endless debates everywhere about how online games are destructive for the teenage body and the child’s psyche, but no matter what, proud heroes from all over the world are eager to search for adventures and exploits in endless virtual worlds. Every day these worlds become more and more, now the turn of Allods has come.

    In anticipation of this release, as, of course, a significant event of the domestic game industry, one cannot but pay attention to the unique features of this wonderful game - indeed, a magnificent creation of our game-makers. And I entrusted this holy mission to myself, being a simple admirer of the allods universe, following the news throughout the entire development period, so don’t count it as an advertisement, I just want to share my emotions, admirations and thoughts with the community.

    UPD Thank you all for your karma! Moved to the "Games" blog.

    I ask all interested for a cut, where there are a lot of beautiful graphics and interesting videos.

    Astral and Allods


    The term “ Allod ” is closely associated with feudalism and implies full ownership of the land, in contrast to conditional holding ( beneficiaries , feud ). However, the owner of the allod did not have the right to leave his allod, as it automatically ceased to be its owner. In the universe, which will be discussed below, allod is an island in the Astral, held by the Great Magician.

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    The Allods universe appeared as a result of a cataclysm that split a single world into many small pieces of allods. There are two main theories about this cataclysm: a split of the planet as a result of a meteorite fall and a split as a result of a magical experiment.

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    After the split of the world, all matter began to be absorbed by the Astral (Astral is a kind of energetically active changing substance that fills the inter-allied space), then the most powerful magician Skrakan found a way to hold the earth around his tower, after which the rest of the Great Mages followed his example. As a result, the allod islands were each veiled separately. Travel between them could only be possible with the help of portals or powerful spells. The main condition for the existence of the allod was that his Great Mage could not leave his island, otherwise the spells would weaken, and Astral would begin to absorb allod.

    Power distribution


    As you know, only two states, two empires, two eternal rivals - Kania and Hadagan survived the Night of Trouble (Cataclysm). Which are the main forces of the conflict between the League (the union of Kania, Gibberlings and Elves) and the Empire (the union of Hadagan, Orcs and Rebels (analogue of the undead)).

    And if Kania and Hadagan are human empires, and the Elves, Orcs and Risen (Undead) races are quite classic fantasy races, familiar at least from the Lord of the Rings or Warcraft 3, then gibberlings are a new unique race, which I want to say separately.

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    According to legend, gibberlings populated distant corners of the world in cold and harsh lands, so they never met in the games of the series, after the cataclysm they were the first to travel across the Astral. The gibberlings did not have their Great Mages, so their allods were absorbed by the Astral, which means they were forced to leave their allods.

    The first wave of emigration landed on the allod, owned by the elves, and came into contact with them. The second wave of gibberlings landed on an orc allod. Orcs perceive gibberlings as yet another variety of goblins, and try to enslave them. Many gibberlings die, the remnants of migrants flee and land on the main Kanian allod. As a result, the gibberlings were allocated a separate allod for habitation and accepted into the League.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Fxkj0If5s

    The uniqueness of gibberlings is that, as one independent game unit, a player is provided with a batch of three characters that inseparably follow together as connected, and they will also function together, incredibly interacting with each other and reacting to each user’s team. Moreover, it will be possible for everyone to change the appearance and equipment. Thanks to their humorous animation and external “cavaliness” ^ _ ^ they will win the hearts of a certain stratum of gamers.

    The secret of astral navigation


    There is a beautiful legend about a fisherman who, as a sinker, tied a pebble to a fishing rod, found right there on the shore, got into a boat and went to the edge of the allod to fish, and fell asleep. Waking up, he was frightened, as his boat hung in the Astral a few meters from the edge. The young man noticed that a pebble-sinker glows, and an unknown force comes from him, protecting and supporting the boat. Legend has it that the secret to traveling in the astral was found in the properties of a certain type of stone, however, this is not entirely true.

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    The secret of travel in the Astral was revealed precisely by gibberlings. Out of several allods inhabited by gibberlings, for some reason, only one escaped Astral's absorption, as it turned out, protected by an ancient meteorite that fell to the planet millennia ago and was hidden in the rock mass, it was in the meteorite that the secret of inter-allad journeys was made. The whole coast was strewn with its fragments, and if the first legend concerned the fisherman-gibberling, then everything falls into place. The first gibberling ships were ordinary sea vessels converted with meteorite stones for traveling in the astral plane, which is probably why their form was adopted by other races.

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    Indeed, a unique feature of the game is the ability to make Astral travels and control Astral ships, conduct Astral battle, and, attention, in the game “you can rob the cows” lucky treasures from long trips! In the case of large and medium-sized vessels that are able to go to the middle and far astral, precise actions by a close-knit team will be necessary to control the vessel: each will perform a certain manipulation corresponding to a specific role on the ship. For example, control of a ship, cannon shooting, mending, control of shields and so on, and there will be no rigid fastening of the character, that is, a team can continuously and dynamically change roles during the battle.

    Barrel of Honey: Kania and Hadagan


    It has been repeatedly mentioned in the press that the game is made by Russian developers for a Russian audience. You can bribe your own audience with Russian delights, such as Russian folk tales and Russian folk history.

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    “I want the fairy tale to come to life!” The designers told themselves, and, having passed the way of the Slavophiles, they brought to life what we saw in childhood in old fairy tale cartoons, coloring books, illustrations: carved shutters, small churches with domes, painted huts, birches and daisies, magic wells and street amenities, a hut on chicken legs, and finally, the same flying ships! The collective image of the fairy tale was just as well suited for a good in all relations Kania, a deeply religious and righteous state. I bet it is on the Kanian allods that we will probably see such mythical villains as Koschey the Immortal, Baba Yaga, Viy, yes, the scriptwriters did not limit themselves to only folk tales, perhaps we will see some of the Gogolevsky or Pushkin characters.

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    On the other side of the barricades stands the irreconcilable Khadagan - a totalitarian militaristic state that promotes war as the meaning of life and as the duty of every citizen to his homeland. In Khadagan architecture, one can easily guess the features of the styles of the era of communism under construction, painfully familiar buildings, similar to those that have remained from every Soviet era in every city and have already soaped their eyes. The abundance of red, stars, statues of leaders and other symbols, leaves a persistent feeling of a scoop in the head. I think the scriptwriters did not want to show that the USSR was such a bad and vicious state, rather, on the contrary, they felt that it was this historical period that could show the atmosphere and spirit of modern Hadagan as a powerful spring and a clearly structured state with a solid moral position, always ready for work and defense. The game captivates modern children with the opportunity to plunge headlong into the atmosphere in which their parents lived, to see firsthand the analogue of Soviet socialist society. It is also a unique feature of the game and makes it potentially a favorite for the Slavic player.

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    We cheer for ...


    I would like to say a little more about the Orcs, their uniqueness lies in the fact that besides what we know about them, they are also ardent fans of their own folk sport - Goblinobol, some kind of bloody analogue of modern sports. Orcs are scattered into tribes, each tribe has its own team, its idols and its army of fans, so on some art orcs are depicted by analogy with football fans: in striped scarves and with thematic tattoos, and it seems they use someone else's ball torn off head! Agree, this is also an original innovation.

    A spoon of tar


    The Internet is full of all kinds of disputes that the game is not unique, that the animation, graphics and interface are laced with WOW, that the concept of separation of ship and land modes is borrowed from Pirate, the astral battle is almost from EVE =), that the idea of ​​gibberling as triplets is borrowed at Granado Espada, where you also need to manage a party of three characters, that the Russian-language versions of these games (Granado Espada and Pirate) are officially supported by Nival and he mercilessly exploits their ideas for his own selfish purposes, and so on. Still others say that the game classes: Warrior, Templar, Scout, Priest, Pagan, Wizard, Necromancer and Mystic, are also not unique, they are only named a little differently.

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    However, in spite of all this, I believe that by highlighting the best ideas of famous games, wrapping them in the cartoon graphics so loved by everyone, adding your own unique world known from previous games in the series, building three-dimensional ships, designating the concept of Astral as a living substance having screwed Slavic tales, mysticism and mythology, finally, a scoop, Nival went the way of least resistance and created a big tasty candy that can win the hearts of even spoiled gamers. At least, the game is doomed to success in Russian-speaking countries, and is able to bite off a large piece of the pie from bourgeois projects, becoming our answer to Chamberlain, plugging evil tongues prophesying failure.

    Gameplay


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vij0Rjg1yfI

    Information


    It is worth saying that the game will be distributed free of charge , and there will be no monthly fee , Nival plans to earn money on the sale of game items, however, these items can be obtained in the game itself, but having spent a considerable amount of time and resources on it, therefore, it will be possible avoid social inequality.

    The release of the game is scheduled for March 2009.

    At the moment, people are recruiting for pre - release closed beta testing , you can fill out a participant form ( registration is required on the Nival forum).

    While preparing the article, news appeared in a periodical:
    Company Nival Online and " New CD " signed an agreement under which the latter will act distributor network game "Allods Online" in Russia and the CIS and Baltic countries. The launch of the project will take place in three stages.

    First, collector's and DVDs will go on sale. The collection, in addition to the game, includes a CD soundtrack, an album with illustrations, a user manual, stickers, badges with characters and other souvenirs. The buyer will also receive crystals (game currency) in the amount of 1,500 rubles and a certain virtual item. For all this stuff you have to pay 3,000 rubles. A DVD edition costs half the price, but contains only a game, a virtual item and crystals for 1,500 rubles.

    A week after the release of the above versions, the “budget” version of the game will cost 500 rubles, 300 of which will return in the form of crystals. And only a week later, the Allods Online client will be distributed free of charge on the project’s official website. The start dates for each stage will be announced at a later date.


    Retrospective


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P74Kca1jbbY

    Literature


    In preparing the article, materials from the following sources were used:
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