Voyage Century Online


Voyage Century Online is a free nautical MMORPG developed by Snail Games and published by IGG. It was the first game developed by Snail after its founding in 2000. It is set in 16th-century Earth and features accurate historical representations of several coastal cities. Players are not required to choose a career path at the beginning of the game. This gives players a rather varied gameplay in which players can either specialize in one skill and trade for resources, or make use of all the skills.

History

Prior to its English launch, Voyage Century Online was available to players in China, South Korea, and Germany. An alpha test open to 1000 players began on the English version on December 8, 2006, and an open beta version was launched on December 22, 2006. The game's full version was released April 8, 2007.

Plot

Voyage Century Online is a game set in 16th-century Europe with its roots in the Age of Sail.
From the 15th century, western European explorers push eastward in an effort to seek treasures, spices and other luxuries of that time. They opened a gate to riches and greed for those in power, who sponsored explorers' cause without abandonment. As the fleets stretched their paths, westerners expanded their influences to Africa. Later they cruised around Cape of Good Hope to reach the Indian Ocean. In the other direction, they explored westward and found the New World. The late 15th century saw the start of the global expansion of Western capitalism and colonial exploitation of the rest of the world.
Voyage Century's storyline begins at the Mediterranean from the late 15th to early 16th century. The western powers start the bloody pursuit of riches that led Europe into an age of great turmoil. Every character in the game was from a mysterious birth. Some of them are descendants of the courageous cavalry in Yuan Empire, some carry the family line of caravan merchants faring the Silk Road, some are the witnesses of the not so well-known affair between of Marco Polo and Chinese princess, and some are even the offspring of West Europe's pirates.

Gameplay

Voyage Century Online is a third-person massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Character, ship and camera movements are fully controlled by a mouse, while skills can be controlled using a keyboard, through the skill shortcut bar. At the beginning of the game, players are asked to choose one of the five professions available, Royal Military Officer, Imperial Guardian, Caribbean Pirate, Treasure Hunter or Armed Businessman. Professions can be leveled, up to level 170, by gaining experience points from performing various tasks in the game, e.g. crafting, fighting animals, completing quests. Leveling profession is beneficial as new profession skills are unlocked with every new level. Each profession has its own unique skill set and role it plays in the game. Professions can be changed at any point which gives players a rather varied gameplay. In addition to professions, there are four different weapons available, axe, sword, falchion and gun. Players are not required to choose any specific weapon, but certain professions will benefit from certain weapons, e.g. Treasure Hunter is specialized in using guns and will do more damage fighting with a gun.
The game features many different systems of which the most noted ones are the skill system, exploration system, trading system, rank system, refining system and upgrading system.

Skill system

Every character has 17 different skills available for leveling, ranging from fighting skills to collection and production skills. Skills are leveled by performing various tasks and gaining experience points from them. Skills are essential to players' progress in-game as they have many uses in-game, of which the most noted ones are crafting equipment and collecting materials. Most importantly they are required for sailing various ships and using various equipment.

Exploration system

Exploration system is a unique system which keeps track of players' exploration progress. Through exploring different areas of the game, players earn points which can be used to take various rewards from the exploration system. Points are mostly gained by killing animals, sinking ships, authenticating plants and minerals, and finishing various quests throughout the world.

Trading system

The trading system gives players the ability to purchase goods from one city and sell them in another city. Every city and colony has its own supply and demand. Having higher amity with countries, grants the ability to purchase goods at lower prices resulting in more profit. Goods can be traded freely between cities for a huge profit and experience. Having goods on the ship whilst sailing on the high seas attracts the attention of pirate NPC ships. Players are able to team up, creating huge trading fleets, allowing them to combat pirates more efficiently.

Rank system

There are 2 ranks available in the game, noble rank and honored officer rank. Noble rank is acquired by gaining reputation. Reputation can be acquired in many ways, some of them being authenticating treasures, discovering animals, sinking ships and finishing quests. Honored Officer rank is acquired by gaining contribution points. Contribution points are gained by participating in Petro Fortress and Labrinton Coast battlegrounds, PvP events with capture the flag-style gameplay. Ranks are required by various equipment, following the common rule: the higher the equipment level, the higher the rank that is required to equip them.

Refining system

Equipment found in the game can be refined through the refining system to add different bonuses on them. Items used to refine equipment, called refining items in-game, can be found either in-game in various instances or in item mall by purchasing them.

Upgrading system

The upgrading system is used to upgrade equipment to a higher level. Unlike crafting, upgrading equipment allows players to keep bonuses which they added through the refining system.

PVE

Voyage Century features 22 different PvE instances, areas that will generate a new copy of the location for each team of players that enters the area. This ensures that different teams are able to interact with an area privately, without interference from other teams. Teams can contain up to 5 players. Instances are divided into two main categories, land- and sea-based. There are 6 sea and 16 land instances available in total. Instances contain special monsters and ships with valuable drops. Most of the items required for refining and upgrading equipment are found exclusively in these areas. Beside instances, almost all cities have suburban areas with various vicious animals ready to attack. In addition, the game features historically famous pirates like Hayreddin Barbarossa, William Dampier, John Hawkins and others.

PVP

Voyage Century has a very restrictive PvP system. Players are able to experience PvP in certain areas like suburbs, offshores, islands and dungeons. Players are not allowed to experience PvP in city residential areas and ports. Attacking another player will result in gaining notoriety points. Notorious players are marked with red names and will be hunted by guards and patrol ships. Notoriety will also result in dropping items from the player's inventory should the player die. Notoriety can be removed by going to jail or by using special items. In addition to regular PvP, there are special events like guild wars, siege wars and battlegrounds. Killing players during these events will not result in gaining notoriety.
Guild wars are guild PvP battles in a specifically designed enclosed area away from other players. They feature last man standing-style gameplay. Players start fighting in a sea scene allowing them to launch massive sea attacks on their opponents. If the attacking team manages to sink all players from the defending team, the fight will move on the land. The last guild with an active land player wins. Should the defenders sink all players from the attacking team, the land fighting part is skipped and defenders are automatically declared victorious. Winning guilds will gain a small amount of guild funds and points, as opposite of losing guilds which will lose a small amount guild funds and points. Unlike siege wars, in guild wars, guilds will be aided by guild defense towers, NPC ships and soldiers.
Siege wars are massive PvP events which happen once a week. Guilds are able to siege cities to claim ownership. Owning a city has many benefits, some of them being, an ability to purchase special limited items or collecting taxes from NPC traders. Guilds are allowed to invite allied guilds to aid them. Siege wars contain two main components, city's barbette and mothership. Prior to the siege, an attacking guild has to set up a mothership somewhere on the high sea. Mothership contains a flag and serves as a spawning point for the attacking team. Barbette contains a flag and serves as a spawning point for the defending team. In order to claim the ownership of the city, the attacking guild needs to destroy the flag located on top of the barbette. Should the defending guild destroy the flag located on the mothership first, the siege will end resulting in a victory for the defending team.
Battlegrounds are small PvP-based events with capture the flag-style gameplay in which two teams fight for four flags located on various points on the map.

Expansions

Since the first release, the game has received 12 major expansions.

Doom Treasure

Released on November 30, 2007, it was the first major expansion. It has introduced the first instance, refining system and first refining items along with other small changes.

Colony Age

Released on June 24, 2008, it was the second major expansion. It has introduced guild built cities, new level 11 ships, new equipment, AFK system, new pirate bosses along with other small changes.

New Era of Conquest

Released on February 24, 2009, it was the third major expansion. It has introduced professions, 6 new instances, new profession-based equipment, the American continent including 6 new cities along with other small changes.

March to Glory

Released on August 4, 2009, it was the fourth major expansion. It has introduced 2 new instances, wedding system, new pet system with 4 new pets, along with other small updates.

Atlantis

Released on March 1, 2010, it was the fifth major expansion. It has introduced 2 new islands, 1 new sea instance, 4 new land instances, new profession-based equipment, Atlantis and North Island exploration systems along with other small changes.

Harbor Blockade

Released on June 27, 2011, it was the sixth major expansion. It has introduced 1 new sea instance, level 13 ships along with other small changes.

The Gate to the Poseidon Temple

Released on December 14, 2011, it was the seventh major expansion. It has introduced a brand-new redesigned guild system, 2 new land instances, binding system along with other small changes.

The Pirate King's Treasures

Released on May 9, 2012, it was the eight major expansion. It has introduced 3 new sea instances, 1 new land instance, new Portobello exploration system and new profession-based equipment along with other small changes.

Hurricane Island Mystery

Released on February 12, 2014, it was the ninth major expansion. It has introduced 2 new cities, new sea instance, new land instance, new profession-based equipment, 3 new exploration systems, level 14 ships along with other small changes.

The Cretan Renaissance

Released on March 29, 2016, it was the tenth major expansion. It has introduced a Generals system, new PvP events, level 15 ships along with other small changes.

The Defense of Yizhou

Released on June 6, 2017, it was the eleventh major expansion. It has introduced Yizhou land and sea instances, level 165, 168, 170 and 170.1 land gears, profession level cap has been increased to 170, gear promoting and upgrading system, along with other small changes.

The Epic Of Jiawu

Released on November 19, 2018, it was the twelfth major expansion. It has introduced Jiawu Bay sea instance, level 160, 165, 170 sea gear, a new equipment piece called Flag, some profession skill trees were rebalanced, along with other small changes.

Other distributions

The game is available in other languages. Snail Games has licensed a number of companies for distribution of localized versions. Some of them being: