Age of Wushu’s Unusual Offline System
Age of Wushu bucks the trends set by traditional MMOS in a variety of ways. No classes, but rather an expansive customization system to build your own personal Martial Artist. There are no levels for the character, but rather leveling up skills that you want to level up. There is another addition that Age of Wushu offers, not seen in many other titles. When you log off after a long day of playing, your character continues to work for you and collecting experience and more until you return. The Offline System is a unique reward for those that need to disconnect for a few hours or days, but it also adds a new adventure for those online too.
When walking into a town or an outpost, there are a lot of NPCs to interact with; Bankers, Blacksmiths, Café owners, etc. In addition, you will see occasional street performers dancing and breathing fire in a square, maybe a servant sweeping the steps of a tavern, or even another patrolman walking the streets. These are not your typical NPCs, they are your friends or enemies offline. The “occupation” you take on, while you are off, depends upon the location you sign-out. In a Town you can become one of the previously mentioned roles above, if you log out on school grounds you become a disciple working to teach or protect that temple. Different scenes offer a variety of different positions.
Being offline isn’t just having your character do “stuff.” You will be compensated a salary for the job your role performs while you are away. When you log back in, the money that you have earned from the tasks and the amount of time you performed that duty will be available for collection. Some players will also have the option to open stalls and sell goods they manufactured while they were online. There is even an opportunity to cultivate offline and train skills while you are away. Some of the interactions that you make offline can lead to the valuable Random Encounters when you log back in.
The rewards are many for an offline role to collect, but so are the risks. Offline characters are susceptible to kidnappings by vengeful or otherwise evil online players seeking to make a little profit by selling you into an employment you cannot take benefit from. The money that you would have made offline is no longer yours as you are a “forced” employee for certain stores and outfits. The stalls and cultivation you may have started end as well and you do not reap any of those benefits.
While offline at your school, you can benefit in patrolling the school as an Intelligence Disciple. During Spying events, other players now have to compete tasks against your character, with the strength and levels that you have cultivated. This can prove a lot more difficult than trying to spy around normal NPCs. Successfully chasing off spies while offline yield their own rewards and bonuses when you log back in.
Offline in Age of Wushu offers a richer gameplay than other games that let you sign out and forget about your character. You can see the results of the role you have cultivated when you log back in with the rewards and money that they have earned. Log out and leave a comment on the forums, or peruse some of our other articles, then log in and see what you’ve done.