Interview: LOCO and the Book of Heroes
Questions by Mohammed Afzal (MageMoa), OnRPG Journalist
Answered by Hendrik Loga
OnRPG: Hi there! My name is Mohammed Afzal and I am an OnRPG journalist. Could you introduce yourself to our readers, please?
Hi Mohammed and hello to all OnRPG users. My name is Hendrik Loga, and I’m the Product Manager for our latest game LOCO – Land of Chaos Online. I’m very excited that we have been able to expand our range of games on the US and EU market with such a strong and breathtaking game like LOCO.
OnRPG: Merinos’ book of Heroes is a helpful guide and it seems to be a great read, especially for new players. What was the idea of creating this ‘book’? There are quite some interesting questions on the back of the book of Heroes. How are the players able to answer those and does it have anything to do with the future storyline of the game?
Well, our idea behind the “LOCO Chronicles” was to introduce the heroes of LOCO to our users. We have prepared a lot of interesting background stories and detailed information that show how lively and varied the characters are who inhabit the Land of Chaos. Each character has their very own story and reason for taking part in the battle between the “Army of Purgatorium” and the “Forces of Nature.” With our constant content updates we will bring more and more interesting heroes into the game. There are some pages of the books still missing, maybe they will be found someday… who knows.
OnRPG: Are there more books similar to the book of Heroes? If so, can LOCO players obtain them in-game?
The second book of the LOCO Chronicles series is Laair Hathy’s Spellbook. Laair Hathy (on the image to the right) is a very disturbed character full of hate and destruction. But deep inside, she is just a lonely and shy girl who only wants to be loved. She is very interested in dark and black magic. Throughout her whole life, she has written all spells she has found all over the world into her spellbook. In her notes, users can read about all the spells of the different heroes with some additional advice on strategies for using them. This book is a collection of all currently known spells and skills in the world of LOCO. We plan to disclose more books to users in the near future.
OnRPG: The book of Heroes introduces its readers to the main characters of LOCO. What would be your favorite character and why?
Well, I currently have three favorite characters; I would guess most players have three because that’s part of the gameplay in LOCO. The player selects and equips up to three heroes in advance before a battle. During the battle, a player can switch between characters and change their tactics according to the hostile reactions and current situation on the battlefield; this is a very important part of the game. Pro gamers always select three chars to optimize their strategy by equipping them with optimal items and by choosing the best skills and spells.
In my eyes it makes sense to choose three completely different heroes to be prepared for every possible situation. I like to play with Stella as a quick melee fighter. In the first phases of a battle it is my task to level up and gain experience as fast as possible. In the next phase of the battle, my teammates and I are going to destroy the opponents’ defense towers. For this job, I like to bring Minity Grey into the battle. She has very weak protections but extremely strong spells against buildings.
The last phase of a battle is the boss fight, having destroyed the enemy headquarters already. This final fight is very harsh and challenging, and I often like to use a tougher character like Atin for this phase. Good preparation, strategy, and equipment are recommended to successfully win this battle.
OnRPG: I have read that there will be a total of 30 playable characters, but not all of them are currently available. Can we expect more characters in future? Could you give our readers some more information about these characters, please?
We decided to stay away from common known hero races like elves or dwarfs and classes like warriors or mages. The characters of LOCO are absolutely individual and uncommon. Currently our users can select between twelve of these unique heroes, and three more will be added in the coming weeks – AAKbah, Partisan, and Ellan. More info about them can be found in the Book of Heroes on the official site. For future patches and updates we plan to offer more and more other heroes, of course.
OnRPG: When playing the game I have noticed that one’s spawn time keeps increasing whenever you die. What was, in your opinion, the reason of creating this?
This is a typical game design question. A match needs to come to an end, that’s how the game is constructed. If people respawn constantly after a couple of seconds, the playing time would be extended dramatically, therefore the respawn waiting time rises constantly with the process of the match. There are some strategy options to reduce this time during a match though, like upgrading the “Recall Spot” – one of the main buildings in the own base.
OnRPG: Our readers have mentioned that the Intrusion System seems to be a bit vague. Could you explain this system to our players, please?
The intrusion system is basically our answer to the commonly used reconnect feature. Reconnects work well – as long as you are sure the player really got disconnected and didn’t purposely leave the game. If this happens, one team will find themselves permanently outnumbered and will have little chance to win. LOCO’s intrusion system does not save a spot for a specific user, but allows the team to vote whether they want to allow intrusion or whether they would like to share all resources the disconnected or kicked player has earned instead.
If intrusion is allowed, the matchmaking system will suggest that game to players who are looking for intrusions. They’ll be taken to the waiting room of that game and will see all players within that game and how long the game has been running, but they won’t see any information that would make it too easy to predict the outcome of the game. If you intrude a game and win, you’ll get Experience, Coins, a Win and you can bid in the auction – if you lose, the game won’t be registered as a loss and you’ll still get a little Experience and Coins, so it’s actually quite worthwhile. Oh – you can of course intrude back into a game that you got disconnected from if the slot is still free! Usually, an empty slot in a team will be filled in under 3 minutes, so winning a game is still entirely possible even after having had multiple people go missing. We are constantly working on the optimization of this system according to our users’ feedback.
OnRPG: The Reputation System seems to be a nice way to reward good players. How does this feature exactly work and isn’t it possible to abuse the Reputation System?
Actually, the Reputation System’s aim isn’t necessarily to reward good players, it’s to prevent “rage quitting”, so you can’t actually abuse it. Basically, if you leave a game before you can surrender, two things happen: your reputation goes down and you will not get the Items, Experience and Coins that you would usually get, even if you were to lose. If you have the best possible reputation, you will get 20% more Coins at the end of a game regardless of the result, simply because of your reputation. Now if you’ve left a game, you won’t have the best reputation in the following game, so you not only won’t get anything for the game you actually leave but you will also get less rewards for the next game you play! If you leave every game you play, you will hit the lowest possible reputation very quickly and that’s displayed as an angry red smiley next to your name, which everybody can see – and once you hit that stage, you can also be kicked from waiting rooms by anyone.
OnRPG: Some hero skills appear to be locked, and players need Skill Scrolls to unlock them. Why did these skills get locked?
Basically each hero in LOCO possesses a total assortment of ten different and absolutely unique skills consisting of eight Basic skills and two Ultimate. From this range of skills the user can select four Basic and one Ultimate within a match. Not all skills are available from the beginning, these locked skills need to be learned over time by using “Spell Scrolls” which can be earned as quest rewards or found in boss loots.
OnRPG: Many players have been hoping for new maps to be released. Will you release any maps in the near future? Can our readers expect an underwater map?
Currently you can play on five different maps in LOCO, including the recently added “Ruined Arena.” Of course, we plan to add more and more maps with content updates, and, who knows, one of them could end up being an underwater map.
OnRPG: Is there anything you would like to add to this interview?
Thank you, Mohammed, for this interview. I’m pretty sure that the OnRPG users will love LOCO – Land of Chaos Online, they just need to register a valid game account at www.loco.alaplaya.net to play LOCO and all other games at alaplaya for free.
