BioWare’s upcoming co-op shooter Anthem is split between a big, shared world for adventuring, and Fort Tarsis, which is essentially the game’s trading hub and the place where you’ll have storyline-advancing conversations with NPCs. It’s where you’ll handle all your trading, too – and the game’s economy will not include trade between players, at least not initially.
Fort Tarsis is the home to Anthem’s characters, who have jobs as vendors and traders, but who also have their own roles to play in the story campaign. They’ll have things to tell you about what’s going on in the story, and you’ll handle your gear purchases and sales through them, rather than in a marketplace of players.
“It’s something we could add at some point, but it does introduce a lot of balancing concerns,” BioWare lead producer Mike Gamble explained in a press event at PAX West Saturday.
Everything inside Fort Tarsis is walled off from other players, in fact. You can’t visit other player’s Forts, and that has to do with BioWare’s “our world, my story” concept for Anthem.
“If I visit your Fort Tarsis, I’m leaving my story and going into your story,” said Mark Darrah, Anthem’s executive producer.
Darrah said the team is looking at concepts for a social space, something along the lines of Monster Hunter: World’s gathering hub, as a place to hang out while not in a mission.
“We recognize it’s something that people are probably going to want to do, but it’s something we’re not sure about just yet,” Darrah said.
Anthem will launch February 22, but BioWare and EA plan on running a series of alpha and beta tests, as well as a demo, prior to release.