April 07, 2004 - Apparently posted yesterday, a query session touches on different aspects of the competitive endeavor. In this portion, an in-named respondent addresses the proposed consequences of character death:

The philosophy behind the death penalty system is "don't punish people for having fun." Losing items permanently is not fun. Losing two hours of accumulated experience is not fun. Searching for hours out in the wilderness trying to find your corpse is not fun. The goal with any death penalty system is for the player to believe that death matters, and to break into a sweat when doom is imminent. However, that goal needs to be carefully balanced against the possibility of player frustration when "reaching" into new areas and risking frequent deaths. Our solution is to impose a death penalty that lasts only for the duration of your current mission. This death penalty reduces your health and energy, but disappears when you leave the mission. We have had this system in place for quite a while, and it has proven to be a good balance between these two goals.

On the title's apparent absence of tradeskills, it's revealed that NPC characters will handle crafting, which will be facilitated by loot items with extractable and combinable components.
- Valandil