EXCLUSIVE 4Story Interview – Broa… Come Out to Play-ayyy!
Questions by Bryan King, OnRPG Journalist
Answered by Sin Hyeon Ho, Chief Project Manager
With the onset of this new 4Story update, players are excited to see how the game can integrate a third faction and be successful in including a new faction in the intense RvR combat the game offers. Today, to reveal the newest update and faction that has come to 4Story, Sin Hyeon Ho sat down with us today in an exclusive interview that will give you the latest details on the Broa faction and what’s hot with 4Story Online.
OnRPG: Hello, please introduce yourself to readers.
Hello there, my name is Sin Hyeon Ho and I’m the Chief Project Manager of 4Story development at Zemi interactive. Nice to talk to you.
OnRPG: For those who do not know what 4Story is, can you introduce them?
4 Story is a free-to-play MMORPG developed by Zemi Interactive Inc. It is a full 3D world with advanced graphics and invites all styles of gamer to explore the world with more than 2000 quests and the option to take on the large scale warfare that it has to offer. While exploring the ancient world of Lberia you’ll find whatever your fancy, be it: PvP, RvR, Instanced Dungeons, Large Scale Siege Wars, Monster Raids, Diverse Unique Items, Exotic Mounts, Item Enchantment and much more. Based on a unique feature never seen before in MMO’s called RSCS (Real-Time Strategy Command System). RSCS allows players to effectively strategize their group at war by using the mini map interface. Many players often get slaughtered trying to chat in the middle of a battlefield. This is a thing of the past and no longer an issue with 4Story.
OnRPG: How has 4Story grown since 2008, when the global version was first released?
Suffice to say that I’m very excited that it has already been 2 years. When we began there were a lot of concerns and we had a difficult task to make the game more enjoyable for a world-wide audience with several regions that have very different visions to each other and various cultural habits. However, one thing that was fortunate is that 4Story was a true western MMORPG from the start and a virtual reality that gamers were waiting for. MMORPG’s offer worlds that are definitively different from real life and we are confident that 4story has the attraction of living another life inside our virtual gaming world. It’s been great fun for us to keep the game updated and conjuring up new ideas while listening to feedback from our players who have been living in our world for 2 years now.
OnRPG: What actions has Zemi taken since then to attempt to keep and increase the population of the game?
We have been working like bees in order to keep the game enjoyable for all MMO fans. Rather than changing the existing content we have kept focusing on adding new things and spend a lot of time coming up with brand new ideas, especially for our war-system which is the most engaging part of 4Story. We have aggressively attempted to try out various Siege-War features that have yet to be seen in other games and we are proud to announce that one of them is a tournament system where the strongest adventurers will fight against each other surrounded by dozens of spectators.
OnRPG: How have your current players received 4Story, and what countries do you guys currently offer gameplay to?
We are the developer and also, a global service provider of 4Story and there are other outstanding publishers that have successfully serviced 4story within their territories together with us. In result, 4story is being published in 16 countries and it is reaching almost 700,000 active users around the world. Each servers in each countries can give you a more seamless gaming experience since it is a local service and 4Story Global is most likely more diverse than those as you can share much deeper friendships and hang out with various nationalities all over the place in the earth.
OnRPG: Players are extremely excited to see the new update with the Broa race. Can you give readers a short summary of the Broa nation?
Basically, BROA is mercenary kingdom and it allows existing users over lvl 80 to change their current nationality to BROA as well. As a neutral Kingdom, BROA will take on a greater role in sending mercenary troops over to the existing 2 kingdoms. Therefore, players belong to BROA can be active as reinforcements for Craxion or Defugel if they want. If those players do not choose one of kingdoms, they can attack against all of them as a player standing for BROA independently. Also, one of features of BROA characters is a moderator. They can hold bilateral talks with liaising with central figures from Craxion and Defugel and administer transit trading affair between them. In addition, we can reveal the Infinite Duel Zone where users form party versus party duels and get a certain amount of prize as winners and other player in the vicinity are able to tour.
OnRPG: How will the addition of a new faction change the PvP mechanics in 4Story?
As always, if the game is war-driven between opposing factions, topics relating to a siege-war balance can and will be a cause of worry. It can be determined by not only in-game content provided or controlled by developers but also players’ opinions. Therefore, at the beginning, 4story development team decided to fix this problem with introducing separated and instant mercenary group of faction and it now shows up as a form of an additional kingdom, Broa. So, systematically, BROA will be bringing in balance of the forces of the two existing kingdoms. It is expected to solve imbalance population problem between Defuel and Craxion first which means the war between them will be more unpredictable. Additionally, depending on the taste of users, some are expected to, without reinforcement to another kingdom, be a bandit, a robber or like a pirate to engrave their names on a black list. In this balanced and also chaotic fields, new infinite war zone that opens to all users will bring a new form of battle experience.
OnRPG: What actions did the development team take in developing the content in this patch, and how will players benefit from it?
Aiming for new comers, the initial starting zone will be changed for BROA where high level users will be mixed with new players. The most attractive spot you have to check out is “Eden Square” where infinite duel arenas take in place. Eden Square will be automatically found as a huge playground where all the strong adventurers gather to fight, new comers show up first and merchants open their shops to bring pedestrians’ attention to their luxurious goods. And this time, the intro section of the game, such as a login screen and a character selection screen will be newly designed with cutting-edge high quality graphics. So the first look at the game will be completely varied from before, we hope that new users will simply join the already massive community of the game. As for existing users, they will see the full unprecedented update and all its new content.
OnRPG: There have been many complaints within the community regarding balance issues with classes (Priests and Archers being overpowered, etc.) in 4Story; will this patch or any future patches address this?
Since each class has each different personality, it is not easy for me to pick one of them as the strongest. However, when it comes to personal taste against particular classes, complaints have been made in our community and a lot of it makes sense. In fact, this issue itself has been changed a lot from previous trends and differs among service area over the world too. On our global server, neither the archer nor the priest are seen as overpowered, you can simply face them with mages that defeat other classes beyond strength. We need to take time to analyze more the phenomenon of the unbalancing issue.
OnRPG: Will there be any events tied with this new update to keep users entertained?
Starting from the moment that the servers open on the 25th Nov, we will start various in-game events where new and existing users may hang out each other into the newly introduced land. Opening events have been designed to make all 4story players experience the new content naturally. Survivor Duel event will be in action where 3 or 7 players form a party and fight against a equal number of group of players to win a special gift directly handed by GMs and a BROA Castle touring event will be activated as well. As all the new players (up to 10 level) will start and play in the BROA area so, our GM teams will be standing by to distribute fascinating rewards to players who reach level 10 faster than others.
OnRPG: Many games lack high-end PvE content so players quit early on. Does 4Story have any PvE content that will keep players entertained through high levels?
All quests of 4story has been developed based on one single huge scenario which is spread but linked to each other. Along with controlling the fundamental story line, we have focused on providing gamers with a fast-phase hunting experience with reducing the power of Monsters a little bit lower than normal. And, each chapter is presenting time-space tour quests and various instant dungeons and more raid dungeons will be introduced as well. Once again, the most interesting content of 4story is siege-war and PVP so even low level players are being driven to stand alone in epic battle fields at a early stage. Along with this concept, we introduced Mission War Maps to allow users to enjoy PVE and PVP at the same time.
OnRPG: The new artwork with the Broa race is quite remarkable, I must say. What inspiration did your team utilize to create this?
The main design motif of Bora is Arabian culture. Sculptures in the main castle and market places have Islamic mosques and Persian style ashes are covering all facilities. We hope you all to enjoy beautiful architectures of the Middle East with this update.
OnRPG: Despite the tough economy and the downfall of many MMOs, 4Story continues to thrive and stay alive. What tips would your team give to aspiring publishers on making the games they publish do well within the MMO community?
Me giving tips to folks is pretty much presumptuous I believe. The feeling that we have felt from the bottom of hearts is just hoping that gamers have enjoyable moments during game play and being relieved of anxieties. Our company name is “Fun” in Korean. I would rather say that if you focus on fun as a primary while servicing and making and fall in love with it, your game will be the best in the world.
OnRPG: Are you guys planning any further updates for 4Story?
Much larger scale siege war content that will allow the strongest to be an actual ruler of a kingdom will be introduced. It’s unlikely that we would have a King NPC is standing in the castle not doing anything, you will be able to grab a real chance to be a lord of a kingdom and others will obey you. Addition to this, a mini pet system that will allow you to capture and train monsters and use them as support in PvE or PvP and have them even fight against each other in arenas will be added as well. Please keep your eyes on us, we will provide you all with constant blueprints of development without fail!
OnRPG: Where do you see 4Story in the future?
4story has been known as a War and PvP-focused MMORPG which has endless PvE content topped off with a rich storyline. In terms of siege war, we strive to become the best, but honestly, we are not there yet. We will never stop various attempts until gamers are having endless hungers for fights and feel ultimate satisfaction.
OnRPG: Anything else you would like to tell readers?
We are super happy to give to you with a new kingdom, BROA which we have been working on for almost 1 year now. It might be such a finishing stroke and completion of 4story bolting up year 2010. As always, next year too, we promise that we will bring you all the most interesting content.
Hope you like this update. Thank you!
OnRPG: We really appreciate this exclusive interview!
