Imperator Online Preview

The guys at GameSpy have put together a three-page preview of Mythic's Imperator Online, based upon what is known about the MMORPG up to this point. Check it out:
There will be a fighter type, which will encompass various roles: melee attacker, tank, and ranged damage-dealer; also, a scout type, who specializes in stealth technology, and various forms of infiltration; a healer, of course, who keeps the other characters buffed, and in fighting condition; and finally, a "weird" type, who's privy to the myriad (meta)physical forces that compose the universe. "A sort of engineer/scientist type?" I asked. "No. It's more of a very weird type. This is the class that's messing around, truly, with the quantum forces. They're doing very strange things. We're trying very hard to make sure that they're not just magicians in space." Enough said. Though it's tempting to think of them in terms of Anarchy Online's nanotechnicians, those pretty much embody what Jacobs said Imperator's "weird" profession wouldn't -- nukers, in a sci-fi context.

Though he was clear in saying that he didn't want to reveal too much about this cryptic archetype, Jacobs elaborated a little bit, when pressed on the matter. He lingered on the topic of quantum mechanics, saying that the early developments in the field that we see today (scientists "teleporting" beams of light) could very well translate to seemingly magical feats of technology, if expanded upon. Just like Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Let the magic analogy end right there, though. "I don't want a system that is simply 'spells in space,'" Jacobs stressed. "I want a system that can have a grounding in science today, and certainly can be hopefully something that our civilization can achieve in the future." Here to us not blowing ourselves up before that can happen.