Shadowbane Intelligence Report
(Reproduced with the permission of IGN Vault Network; written by Ashen Temper)

Developer: Wolfpack Studios

Projected Release Date: According to Todd Coleman, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Shadowbane should be released in August of 2000.

Type: Persistent online world with dual emphases on strategy and role-playing, using third-person point of view.

Storyline: It has been five full generations since the Age of Kings. When the All-Father turned his back from the World, the Realm was cast into Darkness. The sun became but a wives tale, as the World was blanketed with furious storms. Even the clouds let forth endlessly, drowning the land with a sickening rain of blood. Disease and starvation struck hard, turning most cities into little more than festering wounds.

Then came the endless War. Brutal Warlords rose up, turning brigand mobs into formidable armies. The Church struggled valiantly, a final attempt to calm the hearts of the few innocents who remained. Most knowledge was lost, as a new Dark Age descended on mankind. Statues of wondrous might lie forgotten, half-buried in the sand, the Great Library of Aerynth burned, her once great Towers fallen.

The End is Near… and yet even in the Final Hour, a new hope is born. They call themselves the Shadowbane, a light to stand against the Darkness.

Game World: Shadowbane is server-based, but unlike many other persistent online worlds, individual servers, called Shadow Worlds, are not mirrors of one another, but unique. Shadowbane’s multi-world universe is created by connecting the Shadow Worlds to each other. Not only the buildings and terrain will differ between Shadow Worlds, but the underlying physics of the Worlds themselves. Some may have themes, such as Oriental culture, while others won’t support magic casting. This creates a completely dynamic multiverse.

Player Character: This is one area about which Wolfpack has been quiet. They have released some information on the different character types. There will be races such as humans, elves, dwarves, minotaurs, centaurs, and Aaracoix (winged birdmen) but there will not be gnomes or halflings. There is also talk of water-breathing tritons, but this has of yet to be confirmed. Also, new races may be added as the game progresses.

Shadowbane also boasts about having more character appearance customization than any other game currently on the market. This would encompass customization of a character’s face, weapons, clothes, armor, hair, height, weight and much, much more.

Experience System: Shadowbane has an experience system based on both levels and skills. A character gains experience by killing an NPC or a PC (the amount is determined by the levels of the character and the NPC or PC killed). When sufficient experience points have been accumulated, the character advances a level and earns skill points.

The player can use these skill points to improve the character’s abilities. The point cost increases with the skill level. For example, to advance a skill from level 5 to 6 might cost six points, but to go from level 10 to 11 might cost 11 points. This means skills do not increase through simple repetition, effectively making macroing useless.

Furthermore, there will not be a skill cap. Character will have many skills to train in, but skill points will be in relatively short supply. Thus a character will have to weigh becoming a “jack of all trades” versus becoming highly skilled and powerful, but only in a single area.

Shadowbane will not have many trade skills. The only craft skills to be found in the game are those directly related to combat such as repairing armor and weapons.

Opponents: In the beginning, most of the opponents a character will face will be NPCs ranging from humans to immense beasts. But it is expected that the hardest and most entertaining opponents will be the other players.

Feature Characters and Quests: There will be no automated or scripted quests in Shadowbane, controlled through NPCs. Instead, there will be Feature Characters, controlled by employees of Wolfpack, to help move storylines and quests along.

Combat System: As mentioned above, Shadowbane is an online strategy and role-playing game. But, this is not a real-time strategy but rather a multi-player world that incorporates mechanics not found in any other to date. For example, within Shadowbane, there provisions for laying siege to cities, tactical formations, territorial conquests and more.

Shadowbane also incorporates a timer-based combat system. While many have confused this with turn-based combat, it is different, being based on action times modified by factors such as character and weapon speed. Using this type of combat system, a character’s statistics will be much more important in combat than a fast internet connection.

Finally, there are no level limitations in combat. A level 1 player can attack a level 49 player, and vice versa. In fact, experience is learned from defeating PC opponents. To deter people from killing lower level characters just for loot or experience, Wolfpack has installed various consequences and safeguards. For example, a character is allowed to “bond” three items. When characters die, those three items re-spawn with them. In addition, the amount of experienced gained or lost depends on the level difference between the combatants. A level 10 character killing a level 20 character will gain a nice amount of experience, but a level 20 character defeating a level 10 will gain little since the loser’s level was considerably lower. Furthermore, the victor will gain less experience than the defeated character loses.

Little else is known about Shadowbane’s combat system with the major exception that there is no “PK switch” or similar mechanism. Accordingly players cannot simply opt out of player versus player combat.

Classes: Shadowbane has quite a range of character classes, with a mix of novel and familiar fantasy types. Each class comprises a group of different character skills which can be improved as previously described.

To address the question of multi-classing, Wolfpack has created a system called Disciplines. Each class is offered a level of sub-classing by which a character can select additional powers, skills, etc., called Disciplines. A character can choose a maximum of three Disciplines, but for each one, the level potential of the primary class drops.

Wolfpack states that most classes will not be restricted by race. In fact, this will be a very rare occurrence, and will come out in the background history of the Shadowbane world. The current count includes 21 classes with 53 available Disciplines. A few of the classes are archers, knights, blademasters, summoners, channelers, bladeweavers, rogues, and necromancers.

Guilds: Guilds are the lifeblood of Shadowbane. It is the premise the game is built upon. There are two types, NPC and player-run. NPC Guilds will be static in nature, meaning they won’t grow or shrink in power. They are there to provide a stable foundation for new players to get into the game, learn the ropes, and meet other players. Player-Run Guilds, on the other hand, will not be static. They can grow in power and overtake and control lands, conquer other guilds, be conquered themselves, and much more.

Another distinction of guilds in Shadowbane is that they are bound to a territory within the game. These guilds can expand from small group of players to larger guilds, which in turn can create city-states, kingdoms, and even empires. Furthermore, a player-run guild can pledge fealty to another, creating the possibility of allegiance trees.

Where you find a guild, you may also find a guild town. Structurally, there is no difference between an NPC-run and player-run guild town. Both include buildings in normally found in a medieval town: weapon and armor shops, guard barracks, city walls, and guild halls. The difference stems from the fact that player run guild towns allow players to set the policies such as tax rates, and the fact they can grow or shrink in power.

Magic System: Magic is another area Wolfpack has kept quiet, but some information is known. Firstly, there is no single magic system. Instead, there are various arcane lores and Disciplines. Elements such as mana and memorization vary from one school of magic to the next. It has also been stated that while magic won’t be rare, it will also not be easy to master.

Interface: Relatively little is known about Shadowbane’s interface at this time. Wolfpack has said it will be streamlined, mouse and keyboard driven, and highly customizable. A semi-transparent, circular palette or panel has been shown in some screenshots.

Technology: One of the key elements in Shadowbane is Wolfpack’s Arcane 3D Engine, a client/server based architecture that includes a powerful polygon rendering engine with support for the PC and Macintosh platforms. One of the differences in the Arcane 3D Engine is that the underlying technology performs much like a web browser. For instance, a player roaming around the lands of Shadowbane sees an unknown object. At first, the client will display an image that is the nearest match for it, while, in the background, the software is downloading the actual image. This allows Shadowbane to grow continuously without server boundaries that can cause lag or having to wait for large patch updates. The Arcane 3D Engine also includes technology such as flexible character skeletons, polygon reduction, and automatic fractal terrain generation.

Interaction with Fans: Wolfpack employees visit the Shadowbane Shared DevBoard on a regular basis and provide news, comments, personal views, and explanations. They do not post every day but do read it almost daily. They have also contacted numerous fans via e-mail concerning ideas and to expand on explanations. Aside from that, Wolfpack employees also post on various Shadowbane fansites from time to time.

Positives: Shadowbane has a growing base of fans even though the game is not yet in beta. The development team apparently has a firm grasp on what they are trying to create, a game that emphasizes guilds, political intrigue and player versus player tactical combat. Shadowbane is not a game that is trying to attract all the different types of players, but rather to appeal to certain defined groups. In addition, the development team has significant experience in multi-player MUDs (Multi User Dungeon).

Question Marks: Shadowbane emphasizes player versus player combat. Unfortunately, many players believe this to be synonymous with Player-Killing (PKing). Also, information has been relatively sparse on several aspects of the game and its development.

Outlook: Shadowbane is an interesting entrant into the field of persistent online worlds. Instead of making a game aimed at the full cross-section of potential players, they are putting the emphasis on guilds, strategic combat and politics. The extent to which the current fan base will evolve into a dedicated community remains to be seen.

Overall, the development team seems highly capable, the 3D Arcane Engine is leading edge, and the game’s storyline and concept are both appealing and offer numerous possibilities. However, with relatively little information in a number of areas, it is still somewhat premature for an in-depth analysis.

System Requirements: Shadowbane will be a game for both the PC and the Mac.

PC

Windows 95/98/NT 4.0
Intel Pentium 200+ Mhz or equivalent
Hardware Accelerated 3D video card (supporting OpenGL) - 6MB or better
32 MB RAM
CD-ROM
Lots of Hard drive space
Internet Connection (TCP/IP - 28.8Kbps+)
Mac

MacOS 8.1
PCI PowerMac (including iMac)
Hardware Accelerated 3D video card (supporting OpenGL) - 6MB or better
32 MB RAM
CD-ROM
Lots of Hard drive space
Internet Connection (TCP/IP - 28.8Kbps+)