Dogma: Eternal Night – Your Guide To Everything We Know So Far!

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Here is every public piece of information given so far about Dogma: Eternal Night, in one place. Hopefully it is of help to new forum members, or potential players trying to find further information.

Please note that the game remains in development, and that any and all details are not final and can change. I will endeavour to try and update the thread as new information arises.

[Last Updated: April 16th 2016]

Dogma: Eternal Night is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG), with a social sandbox focus.

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

The game is inspired by the World of Darkness, but is a completely separate and new entity.

It is being developed on the Unity 5 game engine.

It will use OpenGL, as opposed to Direct X to allow more compatibility with other potential platforms.

The game will launch with English and Russian languages supported. Others may follow post launch.

The intention is to use a single server system, but it may be likely that there are mega servers for the two languages. A shard system is also possible.

A Boomstarter campaign in Russia successfully reached its target funding.

A Kickstarter campaign did not reach it’s funding target in December 2015. However, you can now directly fund the game by pre-ordering your copy now.

The game is open world, with free roam capability. There are PVE and PVP elements, but social interaction allows for you to progress without killing anyone should you so choose.

You start the game as a mortal human. You can remain in this state, or become a Vampire. Vampires can only be created by the Embrace of existing Vampire players, but the mortal must give consent.

There are plans for other playable factions, with Lycanthropes (Werewolves) planned to be the first post launch. Humans (Hunters), Ghosts, Witches and Demons will be considered.

The current animations are only placeholder, and are not final.

The game is expected to receive a mature rating in all territories. (18+)

The expected business model is pay-to-play (p2p, subscription). Free-to-play, or buy-to-play models would not allow them to support their post launch plans. A final decision has not yet been made.

There are no current plans for Microtransactions. But if they were introduced it would be for cosmetic items only.

There are no plans to support private servers.

There are no plans to support Oculus or other VR hardware.

There has not been a decision yet if they will use the Steam platform.

There are plans to support Linux, but not certain yet.

The game is currently set to release on PC only. It does support gamepads, so there remains a possibility of console versions at some point.

System requirements are not yet known. It is far too early, but there will be varied settings to allow low and high end PCs to run the game.

The release date is unknown. The game remains in development.

 

LORE

The Dogma – Vampire society is unified, with a Dogma as their ruling set of laws to be upheld to maintain their superiority and link with humanity. If the Dogma of a city falls, it can have wide impacts such as increasing crime, mafia, law enforcement and military presence. Production, laboratories and contracts can also be affected. It is in the interest of all players to hold true to the Dogma.

Vampire society has four major organizations; The Hort Packs, The Cruor Corp, The Orthodox Theocracy, and the Domini Aristocracy. They are considered akin to political parties, but are not openly at war with each other. They will undermine each other though, through many means. Players can increase their reputation within a Sabbath and are free to join any, or choose to stay independent of them.

Vampire society has ranks, and as you rise through them you can eventually rule over entire cities.

Vampires can communicate in a special language derived from the Codex of the Ancients, using specific glyphs that represent the alphabet and numerics.

Player actions and decisions will have consequences, affecting the history of the world as time progresses.

Coven – A group of Vampires, allied to a common goal. Your traditional MMO guild. Covens will be able to make their own glyphs as an emblem.

Kindred – The common descriptive term used amongst Vampires to describe themselves. The Vampire fights “The Beast” within them, the eternal hunger for blood.

Ancient – A long lived Vampire, usually several centuries old.

Neonate – A newly created Vampire.

Addict – A mortal human NPC who has become addicted to your blood.

 

THE CITY

The game will launch with Los Angeles as the main playable area. Other cities are planned for post launch.

The intention is not to have many loading screens, but this may be unavoidable – such as when moving between cities.

There is no day and night cycle. Only the long, bitter, eternal night.

There are plans for clothing boutiques, hair salons, and tattoo parlours.

The entire city is a PVP zone, but there are numerous safe areas to allow for socialising and role play.

You can gain power in your city by completing quests, missions, orders, or dealing with rival players.

Social Interaction – Nightclubs are major gathering points for players to meet, socialise and scheme their next moves. Unite with friends, gain an enemy’s trust, or destroy them from within.

Havens – These are player owned areas that any character can purchases, such as apartments, skyscrapers or clubs. The current functionality allows for storage of your items, a wardrobe for your clothes, a place to rest and recuperate, and to equip different items. You can catch up on the latest events by watching your television, or browsing your computer. Havens are currently planned to be customizable, with long term plans to allow you to change furniture, materials or redesign them.

Territory Control – Areas of the map can be controlled by specific covens or players, akin to Barons. Holding power in a domain will allow you to control the majority of operations carried out there, such as setting taxes and receiving payments. Territories can be obtained through peaceful or violent means. For example, you could send an Addict in to bribe local government officials, or establish a gangster network. Or you could enter the territory yourself, and hunt down the minions of the rival Baron – directly undermining their power.

Business – Players can create their own business, with the ability to trade or produce your own items. Addicts can also produce items for you, with some specialising in specific fields.

Raiding – Whilst not the same as traditional dungeon raiding, there are plans for a different take on this formula.

Addicts – Multiple mortals can be forced to serve you, persistently. The long term plan is to allow them to be customizable, with you able to spend blood to improve their statistics. They can be sent on missions such as infiltration, espionage and manipulation. The result of these missions will allow you to gain money, influence, blood, and other rewards.

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• This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Sorrosyss.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Sorrosyss.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Sorrosyss.

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COMBAT

 

The intention is to give a wide variety of options to players in terms of their equipment; modern firearms, cold weapons, ancient artifacts, mystical charms, enchanted items, and supernatural powers.

Confirmed Weapon Types – Handguns, Rifles, Daggers, Swords.

Handguns and Daggers are concealable, whereas Rifles and Swords are not. The payoff is that the latter do more damage, but of course carry more risk.

There will be blood magic, known here as Theurgy – more information will follow later.

Catalepsy – If you are downed by another player, you will (after a time) resurrect in a hospital morgue. This will result in losing all of your blood, along with some other assets. You can request an Addict to come to your aid to offer their blood, but this can result in them perishing in your place.

Essence – The essence of your humanity. Every time you go on a killing spree, your Vampire will lose their essence. This will directly change the appearance of your Vampire, as you take on a more monstrous visage. If you break the Dogma rules too often, the whole of Vampire society will hunt you down. Essence will gradually restore over time, but there are other ways to replenish it.

Permadeath – If you purposefully lose all of your essence, upon your next defeat your soul will finally leave your body – and it will reach the Final Death. This outcome is not forced on players, and will only be enacted if the player has purposefully run on a path of self destruction. To this end, it opens up the usage of Diablerie – allowing a Vampire to consume another.

There are no PVP flags. You can be attacked anywhere, except for the safe areas.

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• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  AiryKai.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  Sorrosyss.

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CHARACTER SHEET

 

There are no character levels.

There are no classes. You are free to customize your character as you see fit.

Attributes are broken down as Ability Powers in the following categories:

Physical – Strength, Dexterity, Stamina
Social – Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance
Mental – Perception, Intelligence, Wits
Knowledge – Finance, Occult
Skills – Brawl, Dodge, Melee, Firearms

Clothing will have statistics, that will increase your attributes. Some will have added funtionality, such as body armor increasing your armor level, or high heels that will reduce your jumping ability.

Abilities – These include buffs (short and long term), AoE, Auras, Direct Damage, and other effects.

Each attribute, and skill can have blood invested into it to improve it. Most can be upgraded up to 5 points by mortals, with Vampires able to exceed these parameters.

Customization – You can currently adjust the skin tone, hair, tattoos, scars, jewelry and piercings of your character. There is a heavy focus on clothing, and making sure there are styles that fit the theme of the game.

There are plans for stealth/sneak mechanics, but these will be discussed later.

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GAME SYSTEMS

 

Quests – There will be some quests in the game, but the social interactions of the game will remain the primary focus. The intention is for these quests to be cinematic in nature.

Inventory – There is an inventory system, with drop and drag functionality.

The Black Market – Akin to Auction Houses of other MMOs, this will allow you to trade items throughout various nightlife locations.

UI – The current UI includes an action bar, for skills and keybinds.

Camera – The camera system has a standard 3rd person MMORPG angle, which will adjust and zoom to a shoulder position for a reflex combat camera angle.

External Support – There are plans to support the game from outside of the client. The intention is to use a remote access application that will allow players to log in via Smart Phones or web browsers to access certain in game elements – such as your in-game computer. E-mails can be sent to other players within the game client.

Live Events are a planned feature.

Some elements of parkour are present, as you are able to scramble up the side of buildings, and jump across and down from rooftops.

There are plans for emotes, with idle stances reflecting your mood.

Havens are planned to have interactive furniture.

There are currently three character slots in the current build.

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SOUND

 

There will be voice acting with several voice actors already on standby.

Chiasm has signed to do some music for the game. She is familiar to WoD fans for her track “Isolated” from the 2004 game; Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines.

Misha Dioxin has composed some tracks for the game, which are used in some of the official trailers:

Dogmat Theme
Neo Dogmat

 

Thanks for reading! As new information emerges, the guide will be updated regularly.

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[mortal Offline]

First of all, thank you for this work, some of this things are new for me.

The second are you sure is neonate and not fledgling.

The third thing, please continue you are doing a good job.

[mortal Offline]

This is fantastic @Sorrosyss, easy to understand and not overwhelming with information, keep up the good work!

"The blood of the ancients are coursing through my veins, the blood from a being man has never known, I am the one who cannot die, I am the the killer for all time..."

[mortal Offline]

Cant wait to support :3

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Anumit said:

The second are you sure is neonate and not fledgling.

Update

After 12 hours of playing VTMB, i finally understood the difference between neonate and fledgling. My mistake. Sorry!

[moderator Offline]

Hehe, no problem. Do remember though, this is not the same IP. Neonate, as a word, literally means new born child. So it still fits in this context. Also sounds rather cool. :p

[mortal Offline]

From the discussion above I have three observations:

1) Based on the current climate in the MMO market, a subscription only game will not work unless the developers intend to never grow beyond a small, dedicated player base. Only two MMOs of note have been able to sustain a monthly subscription in order to access the game: EVE Online and World of Warcraft. 

Even with the high production budgets available to these two MMOs, the fact that they are able to command a monthly subscription is more due to timing upon entering the market than anything else. Recent subscription only MMOs such as Wildstar and Elder Scrolls Online were forced to end their initial subscription models and become free to play and buy to play, respectively but with an optional monthly subscription.

The business model that would work best for Dogmat would be buy to play (at $30 USD or $40 USD), with a shop for micro transactions (especially vanity items, which would be huge in this kind of game), and an optional monthly sub that comes with sub only perks and points to spend in the game store. A similar game to Dogmat – The Secret World – follows the aforementioned business model and it has worked well for them after failing to be a subscription only game soon after launch. The MMO market is just too saturated for a sub game, even for a niche game like Dogmat.

2) Bypassing Steam would be a terrible mistake, unless Steam’s terms of being on their platform are too onerous. store.steampowered.com is the 267th most visited site in the world, according to Alexa.com; there is no better way to get advertising for your game than to be on Steam.

3) The “Project” in Project Dogmat has to be dropped before going into Beta or being made available for Early Access on Steam. Another recent crowdfunded MMO, Project Gorgon, is going to retain the Project in its name after Beta which makes the finished game sound like a work in progress. Project Dogmat should change its name to something along the lines of Dogmat: The Kindred or Dogma before the name Project Dogmat becomes too entrenched.

I want to see this game become a long term success. If the game was made and then had to shut down after a year or less, that would be a tragic waste of resources and also squash the chances of another vampire MMO ever being made again.

[mortal Offline]

@thumotic Im totally agree with the 2th point. About the others points, are already discussed and im not sure if this is the right thread to post.

[mortal Offline]

thumotic said:

From the discussion above I have three observations:

1) Based on the current climate in the MMO market, a subscription only game will not work unless the developers intend to never grow beyond a small, dedicated player base. Only two MMOs of note have been able to sustain a monthly subscription in order to access the game: EVE Online and World of Warcraft. 

Even with the high production budgets available to these two MMOs, the fact that they are able to command a monthly subscription is more due to timing upon entering the market than anything else. Recent subscription only MMOs such as Wildstar and Elder Scrolls Online were forced to end their initial subscription models and become free to play and buy to play, respectively but with an optional monthly subscription.

The business model that would work best for Dogmat would be buy to play (at $30 USD or $40 USD), with a shop for micro transactions (especially vanity items, which would be huge in this kind of game), and an optional monthly sub that comes with sub only perks and points to spend in the game store. A similar game to Dogmat – The Secret World – follows the aforementioned business model and it has worked well for them after failing to be a subscription only game soon after launch. The MMO market is just too saturated for a sub game, even for a niche game like Dogmat.

2) Bypassing Steam would be a terrible mistake, unless Steam’s terms of being on their platform are too onerous. store.steampowered.com is the 267th most visited site in the world, according to Alexa.com; there is no better way to get advertising for your game than to be on Steam.

3) The “Project” in Project Dogmat has to be dropped before going into Beta or being made available for Early Access on Steam. Another recent crowdfunded MMO, Project Gorgon, is going to retain the Project in its name after Beta which makes the finished game sound like a work in progress. Project Dogmat should change its name to something along the lines of Dogmat: The Kindred or Dogma before the name Project Dogmat becomes too entrenched.

I want to see this game become a long term success. If the game was made and then had to shut down after a year or less, that would be a tragic waste of resources and also squash the chances of another vampire MMO ever being made again.

1. Yes the mmo market is saturated wow-clones mmorpgs , but it’s not saturated at all with vampire mmo.

There are no vampire mmos right now, I think it’s the perfect niche for subscription based game

2. I agree

3. I agree

[mortal Offline]

“Yes the mmo market is saturated wow-clones mmorpgs , but it’s not saturated at all with vampire mmo.

There are no vampire mmos right now, I think it’s the perfect niche for subscription based game.”

No recent game has been able to maintain a sub only business model. The Secret World is also a niche game in the horror genre but was not able to make a subscription model work, even with being developed by an established studio (Funcom) and a $50 million budget. A subscription model is not where the industry is right now – players just have too many choices available to focus on one game exclusively.

[mortal Offline]

thumotic said:

“Yes the mmo market is saturated wow-clones mmorpgs , but it’s not saturated at all with vampire mmo.

There are no vampire mmos right now, I think it’s the perfect niche for subscription based game.”

No recent game has been able to maintain a sub only business model. The Secret World is also a niche game in the horror genre but was not able to make a subscription model work, even with being developed by an established studio (Funcom) and a $50 million budget. A subscription model is not where the industry is right now – players just have too many choices available to focus on one game exclusively.

I still believe that subscription can work on Project Dogmat for the following reasons

1. The secret world is nothing like Project Dogmat

2. I am pretty sure this studio spent most of the $50 million budget on PvE stuff and cut-scenes. PvE is very costly,takes a lot time to do and players finish it very quickly.

3. I believe the WoD fans are quite hardcore compared to others

4.  Players have too many choices  of junk and boring mmos. If you want to play a vampire mmo inspired by WoD you have only one choice

5.Let’s just wait and see how Kickstarter goes and what’s the opinion of those that actually funded the game.

[mortal Offline]

I read it before, but since I wasnt registered, i did not comment. Thanks for the efforts to put all that info together!

[mortal Offline]

Thanks for the update. Definitely it’s a lot of info out there.

[mortal Offline]

Well, really nice work with the collection of informations. Well done and thank you Now, about the subscription, you could start it, and If you see that it doesn’t work, you can change it (Like what TSW did). No harm (since the game is bought, so surely you will be refunded for your work) and you will get some money extra (from the subscription). If you see that subscriptions doesn’t work, well, you can turn it into a b2p game…

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  scorpion75741.

[mortal Offline]

I’m not sure if this is the right page for this, but I watched the character creation video (which looks amazing by the way), and noticed a feature called “archetype” that hasn’t been added yet. Any news or thoughts on that?

~Shadow is but the result of light.

[moderator Offline]

Hi Urbanmagi, yes we believe that Archetypes to be a personality trait system, akin to Storyteller – if you are familiar with that.

Apologies to all, I have a series of updates ready to add to the list, just waiting for a formatting bug on the forum to be corrected first.

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Made some typo adjustments, and updated a few items.

[mortal Offline]

Just wanted to say thank you for all your extensive work, Sorrosyss!

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New updates added, including attributes, and the Kickstarter launch date.

[mortal Offline]

Do you plan on adding Fera(Werewolves(Garou) are also Fera, but others are such as Werecrocodile(Mokole), Werecoyote(Nuwisha) and ect) and will the Fera have gifts, gnosis and rage? I’d also like to see the possibility of the forms being scripted. Lupus – Normal Wolf Glabros – Human with hairy features, fangs and claws Hispo – Dire-Wolf type wolf Crinos – War-form resembles Hollywood werewolf

Keep up the good work though, its looking great.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by  Ronald.

[mortal Offline]

I would definitely love to see Werewolves and Hunters (Humans). Something I would like to see is also mages and warlocks (as something like witchs) oh I am rambling stuff now, bleh! Do things that you guys feels passionate about!