Hello everyone,
Firstly, thanks for visiting the Hailan Rising blog. From here on, we will be keeping this blog up to date with all the coolest happenings in the world of Hailan!
But for those who do not already know... What is Hailan Rising? Here comes my 30 second elevator pitch!
"Hailan Rising is an action based PvP MMORPG that pits two factions against one another in a race for territory control! What makes this different than other MMORPGs? In Hailan Rising, there are no classes and no experience points. You use the Etherea System to craft your own unique character that is unlike any other character. And with no levels, we are able to get the players into the PvP the first time they log in!".
Now with all of that said, please allow me one minute to introduce myself. My name is Adam Smith (our players call me CaliMaestro), Producer of the game. I've been working on the game since the very first day of development in 2009. And what a wild ride it has been (we will get into all of that later)!
Today's blog will, of course, serve as an introduction to the world of Hailan for those that are just now hearing about us. So let's get to it!
Firstly - I'll give you a brief synopsis of the world lore.
Hailan was the smallest of 9 continents, and was inhabited by the Human and Orcish kingdoms. The Hailan continent neighbored the Sayla continent which was the home of the Elves. A struggle between the Sayla Elves and an evil Dark Elf sorcerer spawned the creation of a Death God named Krow. Krow, in an effort to destroy the entire world, use his wicked sorcery to flood the planet. The only land to survive the flood was the Highroad mountain range located in the center of the Hailan continent. These mountains were the highest of all elevations in the world, and only the tallest peaks stuck their head above the flood waters. The human and orc races were able to rush atop the mountain to survive the flood, but the rest of civilization around the world was eradicated. Now, as the old world is resurfacing, the humans and orcs are racing to resettle these new lands as they rise above the waters. This has led to an all out PvP war!
If you would like to read the full Hailan Rising backstory and lore, please visit the following link:
Hailan Rising Lore
All right, so now we have established that this is a PvP based MMORPG and you've already read the elevator pitch above. Now let's get into the details!
When TechMech (of APB fame of course!) pulled me into his office and told me he wanted me to design a PvP MMORPG that would get players into the battle on their first day of play, I already had an idea of how I wanted to accomplish that. It has been a longstanding belief of mine that the "Grind to 50" style of MMO progression should just die. The aforementioned Etherea System is something I had always wanted to see in an MMORPG, so it was an honor to be able to implement it into our own new game!
These are the key points you need to know and understand about Hailan Rising (this may sound a bit redundant as I have glossed over some of this already, but - these are vast departures from the standard way of playing an MMORPG):
-There are no character classes
-There are no character levels
-You can get into the PvP on your first day of play
Let's talk about the "No Character Class" concept. How do we achieve this? As already stated, by using the Etherea System. Each player has an Etherea Tablet that has 46 different combat abilities (you can open the Tablet in game by pressing 'T'). You will also notice you have an empty 10 slot hotbar. You do not have to earn or unlock your combat abilities. You simply enter the game, open the Tablet, then drag any 10 abilities that you want into your hotbar. Congratulations! You have created your character build!
You will no doubt want to take your new build out for a test drive to see how your chosen abilities interact with one another, and then of course fine tune your ability selection. Instead of posting screenshots of the Etherea Tablet, I am actually going to post a video tutorial that was filmed by an an Open Beta player by the name of Kesryth. I think it is probably more interesting for you guys to see it described from the player point of view instead of our own.
If you watched the video, you saw how Kesryth was also using Etherea Shard items that drop off of dead mobs to power up his abilities. We will cover that more in-depth in tomorrow's blog, but again - if you watch the entire video you will get the whole scoop on how to progress through the game and get into the PvP!
Here is a look at the blogs we'll be posting through the next few days:
-Upgrading Your Etherea Abilities
-Building a MMORPG in the Unity3D Engine
-PvP Rewards (you get random loot in PvP!!!)
-Screenshots From Open Beta
Please expect people besides myself to be posting blogs. We really want everyone to get to know the entire team.
Oh... so you are still reading, huh? And you are wondering how to get your hands on this awesome game?! Well, you can get it for free by going to:
Download Hailan Rising
When you get there, just click the 'Download Now' button! Also, make sure to register for a GamersFirst account once you get there so you can log in!
All right everyone, thanks so much for reading! We hope to see you in Hailan Rising soon!
-Adam "CaliMaestro" Smith
