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Written by ctlaltl33t

Dragon Empires is a new MMORPG in a persistent world created by Codemasters. Dragon Empires looks to expand on the tried and true MMORPG formula by adding some new features and improving on others.

Graphics/Engine:

Dragon Empires features a breath-taking environmental engine, with pixel shaded water effects and real-time weather and a day/night cycle. The weather will actually change based on humidity and temperature, producing realistic variability in weather cycles.The sun shines through clouds and casts shadows very realistically, and also reflects on water. The game also features various exotic environments from tropical to mountainous terrain. Another feature that stands out is the extremely dense terrain throughout the land. Waist high grass covers the plains, and thick bush covers the jungle areas in all directions. The world is massive, spanning 580 square miles complete with almost any environment imaginable.

Gameplay:

The developers of Dragon Empires are working hard to compliment their powerful graphics engine with superior gameplay to offer refreshing ideas to the saturated MMORPG field. While most MMORPGS focus on leveling and NPC fighting, Dragon Empires focuses on city management and clan warfare. The game will feature five different empires with player created and controlled cities. Clan matches will actually be set at certain times to allow for more organized battles and to provide more streamlined gameplay.

Dragon Empires allows the players to actually construct their own cities, and even influence the economy within them. The players can add buildings and expand their city while changing the economy and encouraging trade. However, if the city is not well defended, it is possible for other players to take over their city.

The game will feature approximately 15 playable character classes, including the Humans, the Dragon Blight, and the Shadow. Each class has specific strengths and weaknesses. One interesting aspect of the player characters are the player models. Rather than simple skinning, the armor the character wears is actually modeled in 3d, so different pieces of armor will always show on the player's body. The armor can also be changed with dyes to have a customized appearance.

Another area the developers are hard at work at improving is monster and NPC AI. While the game does not focus on fighting against monsters, the game still features them for experience building and monetary gathering purposes. The monsters are planned to feature advanced AI traits such as being attracted to certain colors the players are wearing and weapons they are using. There are also plans on making the monsters react more realistically when attacked. Overall these features look to make fighting monsters much more exciting.

Dragon Empires is set to launch in 2004, and will be scaled for a mid level system with a Geforce 3 and a 1 ghz processor.

Go back to the Dragon Empires page.

Screenshots