After viewing the future of RIFT at GDC, I sat down with Trion Worlds VP of Third Party Development Dave Luehmann to get my first real look at Trion’s MMORTS End of Nations.

A short Q&A session with Dave Luehmann from EON at Gamescom. For further discussion, you can hop on the official forums to see what everyone else is talking about.

Question: As a beginner, are there any perks to get into the game?
Answer: We have several modes, and cooperative missions at the start that will help you get to terms iwth the mechanics of the game.

Q: How many characters can you have per shard?
A: It’s quite flexible, you can have one character per faction per shard, and you can transfer characters from shard to shard. If you’re making choices in your Tech Tree you can also re-spec your points and go down a completely different path.

Q: Will the environment be destructible?
A: You will not have a lot of destructible environment.

Q: How many factions will there be?
A: There are 3, 2 of which are playable at launch. There are plans to introduce more factions in the future.

Q: What will be the difference between F2P and sub players?
A: F2P are not limited by leveling caps or anything, but premium players (micro transations) can buy skins, experience boosts, and ingame wealth boosts to earn wealth more quickly. But it’s a skill-based game and you don’t buy an immediate tactical advantage.

Q: How will the game’s matchmaking work?
A: We have a 2-part match making system that uses queues. First it sorts based on level, and then it looks at a skill-based ranking system. You can make multiple searches, and if it doesn’t find a suitable game for you it will start a new instance and collect other players for you.

Q: What is the server structure like?
A: Multiple clusters per continent, in Europé and America, and we can expand easily as needed. There will not be a need to connect over the ocean for European players.