Starvault – MMO Fallout

Mortal Online: Not Against Selling The Game

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but so is speculation. Ever since the sale of Earth Eternal following its almost invisible launch and shut down, I am convinced that any MMO has a potential buyer as long as the owners are willing to sell. Over on the Mortal Online forums, Henrik Nystrom has posted the type of long, rambling message that only I could beat or fully appreciate, in which he talks leadership, testing, and potential buyers for Mortal Online.

His somewhat frustrated rant can be summed up rather effectively: StarVault would love to have more testers, better tools, and more developers, but they don’t have the resources. You may remember that Mortal Online is running at a loss due to a lack of subscribers, resulting in two cost cutting measures according to the company over the past few financial reports. Henrik then goes on to speculate on selling the game:

If there is not enough resources we will have to adapt and see what options we have… There are plenty of major companies that have their eyes on Mortal, and have had so since the beginning. They know exactly what is needed to develop and release a game such Mortal on your own, and that alone is a huge accomplishment which we are proud for. They know its almost impossible to develop a large scale such MO with such small team and they are very eager to get their hands on both the game and the team.

Henrik then points out that if StarVault does sell the game, the buyer may very well change the core of the game.

If they share the exact same vision with full loot, full pvp, monthly payment however is another question. Which I guess why most of us is here, us the devs as well, but if it means that if some of those core features changes when a company have the rights for it and it gives a bigger player base then that’s what they will go for most likely.

You can read the entire post at the link above, but it sounds like StarVault’s financial troubles are stinging more than they did a few months ago.

Oorak Two-Horned

Some people don’t like the nudity aspect of Mortal Online, while others don’t mind it. While the Risar (Orcs) continue taking over the land of Nave, you would think players would be focusing on fighting back rather than admiring Oorak’s alien muscle structure, one particular part of his muscle structure.

Of course, this is just a matter of penis…I mean, opinion. And to think, he told me it was another arm.

Bought Mortal Online? Have 7 Free Days On Star Vault

Mortal Online’s launch feels like forever ago, and player reaction is still mixed. Ask a current player and they’ll likely tell you that the game has improved leaps and bounds but still has a long way to go before it is stable, complete, and balanced. Ask an ex-player and you are likely to walk headlong into a Hitler analogy accompanying a rant about how much Star Vault hates making money and just wants to drive their customers away. Either way you look at it, Mortal Online had a rocky launch, not lethally rocky like All Points Bulletin, but heavier than your normal MMO launch. For months, de-synchronization was the biggest issue plaguing the game, among other smaller but numerous problems. Star Vault launched the Epic Patch, promising to fix many of these faults.

Star Vault wants to apologize to their customers, both current an prior, by giving seven free days. In the November Newsletter, Star Vault announced:

Of course actions speak louder than words, so in order to reimburse our customers for the grief the latest patches might have caused we are adding 7 days of additional gametime to each active account today. And in order to give customers who are not subscribed at the moment the chance to check out the new engine build and the new content, we are adding 7 days to every customer who bought any of the game versions earlier and does not have an active subscription at the moment.

In addition, the company is offering free days to those who resubscribe. Five days for one month, twenty days for three months, and fifty days for six months. If your account was inactive, you’ll be able to log into the account section on the Mortal Online website and see:

Your subscription has been cancelled,
but has not expired.

No further payments will or can be processed on your current registered payment method. Your subscription will expire on Fri, 26 Nov 2010. If you want to continue playing after that you need to reactive your subscription.

More on Mortal Online as it appears. Hit more for the entirety of the newsletter.

Continue reading “Bought Mortal Online? Have 7 Free Days On Star Vault”

Henrik: This Patch So Epic, It's Like Mortal Online 2!

slot_machine — This is a Mortal Online picture, right?

Mortal Online has been trucking along at a slow pace since its launch several months ago, but there’s no doubt that the game has had its hitches. Over the past couple of months, Star Vault has been pushing forward the miracle patch that is the Epic patch (named after Epic Games, the company that created the engine), that will end all of Mortal Online’s woes. Okay, not all of them but you get the point.

Henrik Nystrom of Star Vault is very excited for the Epic patch, to the point where he believes it will be Mortal Online 2.

[23:17] <@HenrikNystrom> epic patch is getting closer, we just want it to work well, and of course to live up to most expectation
[23:17] <@HenrikNystrom> As, there is indeed major differences

[23:19] <@HenrikNystrom> if you wont notice a diff, then I dont know hehe..
[23:19] <@HenrikNystrom> We are talking Mortal Online 2
[23:23] <@HenrikNystrom> like I said before, it gives tools yes, and also instant changes and fixed,
[23:23] <@HenrikNystrom> but also the possibility to fix tweak other areas better
[23:23] <HobboBobbo> instant?
[23:23] <@HenrikNystrom> yes, the most critical issues will get an update along with that update.
[23:23] <@HenrikNystrom> hence thats why we focus evertghing on this patch

You can read the full log in the link, but everything is getting fixed! Lag, login issues, a new installer, high resolution, a new inventory(?), new AI, GM capabilities to help players, more PvE rewards, pet improvements, and a lot more. Henrik also revealed plans to advertise Mortal Online once the new patch is out. This sounds like a lot of change, Henrik…

[03:04] <@HenrikNystrom> but I think it will be worth it, as it wont look like the mo you are used to anymore

Thank you Henrik. I still have Mortal Online installed on my system, so I might check it out when the Epic patch goes live.

Henrik: This Patch So Epic, It’s Like Mortal Online 2!

Henrik Nystrom of Star Vault is very excited for the Epic patch, to the point where he believes it will be Mortal Online 2.

[23:17] <@HenrikNystrom> epic patch is getting closer, we just want it to work well, and of course to live up to most expectation
[23:17] <@HenrikNystrom> As, there is indeed major differences

[23:19] <@HenrikNystrom> if you wont notice a diff, then I dont know hehe..
[23:19] <@HenrikNystrom> We are talking Mortal Online 2
[23:23] <@HenrikNystrom> like I said before, it gives tools yes, and also instant changes and fixed,
[23:23] <@HenrikNystrom> but also the possibility to fix tweak other areas better
[23:23] <HobboBobbo> instant?
[23:23] <@HenrikNystrom> yes, the most critical issues will get an update along with that update.
[23:23] <@HenrikNystrom> hence thats why we focus evertghing on this patch

[03:04] <@HenrikNystrom> but I think it will be worth it, as it wont look like the mo you are used to anymore

Thank you Henrik. I still have Mortal Online installed on my system, so I might check it out when the Epic patch goes live.

Mortal Online Shows Off Old Models.

This video surfaced on Mortal Online’s Youtube page a couple days ago, showing some of the original models.

Henrik Nystrom Speaks: No Mortal Online This Month

I told you this weekend that Henrik Nystrom would be giving a special announcement on Monday in regards to the status of the game. Yes, it is fifteen minutes to Tuesday, but you can blame my busy schedule for this late news. Long story short, Mortal Online is not being shipped this month, in order to upgrade the issues with networking and desync.

As of now there is no release date for Mortal Online, which means don’t hold your breath for an April release either.

Dear community,

As you know we have been working hard to solve our desync issue within the game to have a proper release of Mortal Online. We have made some progress but we think we have hit the limits on the current version of the network solution we are using. We believed we had the solution before end of March but we now see that this is not possible at the moment therefore we have to postpone the release for another month. We have been working very hard day and night now for some years and finally started to see the goal and release, we just have to put another gear in before we are going to release Mortal Online. Thank you for your feedback and support that helped us to take this important decision.

Both the community and we here at Star Vault agree that we need to have the desync issue solved before we can release Mortal Online. We have decided to upgrade our network solution with Epic Games to improve the overall network structure.

We have already started the merge a week ago which means we are converting all our current features and content into the new structure, this will take some time for us to finish before we can test the result of this with your help in the open beta. We will also fly some of our programmers to the US where Epic Games are located to work within their team to get their fully support on our game and update of the network structure in an efficient way other than distance cooperation. This will improve the speed and quality of us going into the latest build of Unreal Engine and the network solution which should eliminate most of our current issues, both in performance and network wise. While our programmers work directly on the merge and some bug fixing our artists will continue to work on the world, and bring us a few new interest points to Nave. This also means we get the latest build of Unreal Engine which gives us the opportunity to evaluate SpeedTree 5.1 and some other interesting tools.

We will announce a final release date at a later time.

Good Luck Mortal Online: Launching This Month

This new decade shall bring great MMO improvements. — The baby Mortal Online was born...

March is upon us, and StarVault has used this opportunity to announce that Mortal Online will be shipping this month to…what? Stop snickering! I’m serious…yes, this month. No, I’m not being ironic. The company has admitted that there are numerous issues that need to be worked out, such as desync problems, among other gripes, but the desync fix should be coming as early as next week.

The announcement is a breath of relief for some and a daunting announcement for others, as there are some who still feel that the game is not launch-ready yet, especially considering the numerous delays over the past six months, it is possible Mortal Online may be launching early to stave off that ailment Gary Whiting knows only too well, bankruptcy. As for what Mortal Online will launch into is another story. A brick wall? A wall of trolls? A fountain of cash? Your guess is as good as mine. MMO Fallout will be here to bring you the coverage.