Stonecape:

Hello everyone, this is Stonecape from Aegis Imperium. Welcome to our 5th Videoblog. In our last video blog we discussed our interpretations of the available concept art. Today we are going to focus more on the game mechanics; specifically, flagging.

In the Mortal Online World you are free do whatever you please, but there are consequences to your actions. The flagging system is similar to karma and is affected by the way you interact with other players. A players flag and basic information can be seen by targeting that player. The flagging system is broken down into base flags, local flags, global flags, and add-on flags each with their own unique characteristics.

Lets start by looking at the base flags. The base flags are what will be displayed when no local or global flags are in effect. There are 3 different kinds of base flags a player can have: fledgling, neutral, and hidden Criminal. When you begin the game everyone starts out as a fledgling. As a fledgling you are protected from being wounded, poisoned, stolen from, or affected by spells. You also can not join a guild. Both yourself and other players will see you as a fledgling. You will remain a fledgling until 20 hours have passed, you become a murderer, or you chose to no longer be a fledgling. If you have not committed any evil acts after you stop being a fledgling you will take on the neutral base flag. As a neutral player you lose the protection that you had as a fledgling and are able to be harmed or even killed. However, if you are killed as a neutral player you have the ability to place a murder count on all those in your assault list. The assault list is simply a list of people who have attacked you within the last 2 minutes. As a neutral you also gain the ability to join a guild. Both yourself and other players will see you as neutral. The final base flag is that of a hidden criminal. A hidden criminal has committed an evil act in the past but no longer has any local or global flags as a result. Hidden criminals do not have the right to place a murder count when they die. Although you will see yourself as a hidden criminal, other players will see you as neutral. The only way to lose hidden criminal status is to die.

As stated before, there are consequences to your actions. You are free to wound, poison, steal from, cast spells on, and even kill neutral players, but you will be flagged accordingly. This is where local flags come in. If you do decide to take one of these actions against a neutral player you will be flagged as local allowed. You will still see yourself as neutral, however other players will see your local allowed flag and be free to take any of these actions against you without consequences. Makes you think twice about attacking your fellow players doesn’t it. You will remain locally allowed for 2 minutes following your most recent evil act. If you commit an addition evil act, then the timer will begin again. There is only one other local flag and that is that of a trespasser. Certain zones such as a player’s home, a guild keep, and even NPC areas, may be off limits. If you enter one of these off limits areas then the owners of the area will see you flagged as a trespasser. This then gives the owner of the zone the right to take any means necessary to defend their territory, including killing you. Other players will still see you as whatever your base flag is. You will remain flagged as a trespasser only as long as you are in the illegal zone.

Depending on the number and severity of your evil acts, you may end up earning a global flag. Global flags are seen by all players including yourself. The first global flag is global allowed. The global allowed flag functions the same as the local allowed flag, including the 2 minutes timer, with the exception that anyone and everyone is able to attack you. The last global flag is that of a murderer. Being a murderer comes with the same consequences as being global allowed with the additional consequence of possible stat loss. Each time a murder count is placed on you by a neutral player it adds a 20 hour murder timer and a 5 hour stat loss timer. If you have 5 or more active murder timers then you are flagged as a murderer. If you die and are resurrected while you have an active stat loss timer you will be subject to stat loss. It may be possible to reduce the amount of time left on murder count timers more quickly by spending time in a city dungeon or attending anger management however this has not been confirmed.

Add-on flags are in addition to the other flags discussed earlier and will be displayed next to the standard flags. The add-on flags can change the way that the standard flags function. There are currently 3 add-on flags: group, friendly guild, and enemy guild. Here is an example of how these would work. You are strolling through the woods and you see another player. You target them and notice that they are flagged neutral so you are hesitant to attack them. Then you notice that they are part of an enemy guild so you charge in and kill them. The enemy guild flag would most likely allow you to attack them without consequence and without receiving a murder count.

This is all for this time. Thank you for listening. Stay tuned for our next video blog.

Lion:

Hi everybody, this is Lion1978. Thanks for watching our 5th blog. Special thanks goes to snc2007 and Stonecape - two of our Citizens* for their great help with this video blog. I hope you enjoyed it and stay tuned for our next episode. See you!