Interview with David "Zeb" Cook and Adam "Menzo" Kahn
interview by: Tom Groner - 2003-XX-XX
Zeb: A quick introduction – I’m David “Zeb” Cook, Design Manager for Lords III, which means I’m responsible for (though certainly not the only person involved!) the gameplay of Lords III. I’ve worked 20+ years in the game biz at places like TSR, Interplay, and now Impressions.
Tom: Will Lords of the Realm III have an editor(s) that will make map creation, unit development and direction of scenarios a possibility for custom games to play?
Zeb: I want to include a map and scenario editor with or around the release of the game. We already have the basics of these tools for in-house use, but right now they are pretty ugly and take a good deal of secret knowledge to use effectively. The big question will be whether we allocate time to bringing the editors up to a public release standard or decide to use that time adding and polishing features of the game.
I don’t think a unit editor will be all that effective for a number of reasons. Art is one issue – creating and bringing in all the assets needed for a completely new unit may not be a simple matter of using off-the-shelf (or freeware) tools. The second has to do with multiplayer play where there need to be strong safeguards against cheater hacks.
Tom: Will the AI be more aggressive and smarter in battle sequences than that of Lords of the Realm II?
Zeb: I hope so. Of course, the real goal is to make the AI more “human-like” which means both better while still fallible in a believable way.
Tom: Do you have an idea of how many units can be in one army?
Zeb: Not at this time. We have goals, but we won’t know for sure until most of the code optimization is done and that tends to happen later in the development cycle. Because of that, I don’t really want to commit to a number right now. We want enough men that you feel like you are fighting a battle with real tactical options (not just a skirmish), while not overwhelming you with too much to do.
Tom: Is there anyone in the game that will say, "let's get diggin"? If not, why not!??!
Zeb: Oh my god, I’ll have to add that to the audio list!
Tom: What are the system requirements? Even just a rough idea would be terrific, not set in stone by any means.
Zeb: Some very general things we have already said in our site FAQ, such as the need for a 3D video card. As for more detail, again, like the unit count, we have goals but until optimization and other issues are completed our requirements are not set in stone.
I will say, though, that because system requirements matter to our customers, we intend to be competitive with other games that will be released in 2003. If you release a game with base requirements significantly ahead of where the market is, you’re not going to sell that well.
Tom: In the battles, will the units have morale levels, and if so how will they work? Will it be a meter you can visibly see with known statistical results, or will it just be a matter of "They do better or they do worse"?
Zeb: Morale will be an important factor for your troops and the outcome of battles. Real armies like the medieval ones we are trying to recreate don’t fight to the death. Soldiers run away or surrender long before the last man falls. We want our soldiers to act that way, if only because it makes battles quicker and more decisive. It’s fun to watch the enemy break and run!
Since it has such an impact, you have to give the player feedback, although not a statistical one in this case. In addition to their behavior on the battlefield, there will be visual cues on the interface for each company – possibly a simple color-coding system that will range from excellent to broken.
Tom: Its already been stated that naval battles simply wont be a part of the game, but will there be ships that can transport units in the game? Some maps could have large portions of the map as water; a way to transport troops across such areas would be very helpful.
Zeb: It is our intention to allow naval transport. Those Normans have to land in England somehow.
Tom: Will you be able to ransom knights/nobility captured on the battlefield? If so, can you give us a rough idea on how that will work in the game, from a game play perspective?
Zeb: Yes, ransom will be in. Depending on circumstances, some knights will be killed or captured at the end of a battle. These aren’t faceless characters, but your vassals managing your lands so what happens to them is important. Players will have the option to ransom, execute, or hold hostage the knights they capture. It’s another way to raise cash when you need it, too.
Tom: Will units be customizable, and If so to what degree?
Zeb: Within the game or through an editor? Within the game, troops are relatively fixed, although there will be a good variety of types. Your men will wear your colors. You may be able to add specialists to a knight to gain extra units (siege equipment for example) or modifiers and special powers to your troops (better formations, improved foraging, etc.). As for a unit editor that has yet to be decided.
Tom: Will we be able to execute pre-seige attacks on a castle, like draining the moat? Or throwing diseased material over the walls? Or undermining the walls? Or starving the garrison?
Zeb: Definitely we want dead cow-flinging in there. Starving a garrison is also an option. Some of the other options are almost more the opening stages of storming a castle – filling a moat, breaking down a wall, etc. They require you to have troops out there actively doing something on the battlefield, which means the defenders could try to stop them or at least fill them with arrows.
Tom: What new unit(s) will be introduced in Lords of the Realm III that were not in Lords of the Realm II?
Zeb: To be honest, I haven’t really looked lately.
Tom: Its been stated many times that even though Lords of the Realm III will not be turn based as the other games in the series were, it will not be like other real time strategy games. One large worry by fans of the series is that it will simply be a click fest. Impressions have stated they are designing it to not be like the rest of the strategy games currently being played, can you give an example(s) of what type of things you've come up with to prevent such a click fest from occurring? Anything to wet the fan's appetite would be appreciated.
Zeb: One thing we are very aware of is the whole “clickfest” concern. A big difference will be that in Lords III, you’re not lassoing and giving orders to individual soldiers. Everything revolves around soldiers in companies and in formations. You’re the commander of the battle, so your concern is not that the third horseman from the left should go right around the tree and join the attack on the enemy maceman standing beside the stone wall. You decide things like the spearmen should form into a box and get ready to defend because a host of enemy knights are charging down on them. Battles should be about tactics, not just brawls.
Tom: Above and beyond the obvious England, what countries will the game primarily take place in?
Zeb: France, definitely, especially since the English spent so much time tromping around and despoiling the countryside (but then, so did the French). Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, of course. There will be something from the Holy Roman Empire, although we haven’t finalized just which part. (I’m working on the suspicion that the whole HRE is just too big for one campaign map.) I’d like to do northern Italy, although the area of the Slavic crusades could be another good one. We’re not tackling the Outremer – the Middle East and the Crusades – in order to keep our art and design effort focused.
Tom: Will there be an option of "scorched earth" when evacuating a county?
Zeb: You can pillage your own lands, but it will have significant penalties.
Tom: Will there be unique units (i.e. French Knights, English Longbow men, German Teutonic Knights, etc..)? Zeb: We’re working on the list of those right now. Some may be unique units. Others may be reflected by the tendency for a given nationality to have more of certain troop types available. For example, the French may have the opportunity to build more heavy cavalry, the English more bowmen, etc. National differences will be a combination of a lot of different elements of gameplay.
Tom: Will troops be able to move over mountainous terrain and get a defensive advantage, or offensive disadvantage?
Zeb: In general, you don’t march over a mountain unless there is a road. As for advantages and disadvantages, it all depends on how well (or badly) players use the terrain of the battlefield. There is no inherent “+2 to defense” just because you’re passing through mountains. On the other hand, the map will probably have better ground for defense.
Tom: Will you be able to customize castles' building material (i.e. brick, limestone, granite, wood, mud, etc.)?
Zeb: Wood vs. stone will be there. Any more is a wishlist item since it involves more art and it really won’t affect play much.
Tom: Will there be various roles to play in Lords of the Realm III such as merchant man, cleric, and of course - lord? Or will you play the same type of role as was played in Lords of the Realm I&II?
Zeb: You are a lord – but that just means you are a blank slate. How you choose to win is up to you. You can focus on raising troops, turning your lands into an economic powerhouse, or gaining a lot of favor with the church. Ultimately though, you do need to fight and win battles, although you could do that by making gold and hiring mercenaries just as well as by creating fiefs and calling up troops.
Tom: Will there be different "levels" of maps in the game? Such as one map that covers all of England with little respect to exact detail, and then another map could be just York with more details?
Zeb: The game functions on a resource level where you can see the whole of the world allowed in that scenario (be it Wales, all of Great Britain, France or whatever) and a battle level. The first allows you to make strategic decisions – what armies go where. The second lets you command and control battles.
Tom: What do you think of all those people that showed up in the forums a year early? Do they ever cross your minds while your working, knowing there are tons of people who probably cant wait to see what you have done with this classic title?
Zeb: I love them all and I admire their dedication. Since I read the Lords III forum most every day, I’d say I think about them often. I appreciate the input they’ve given and their forbearance with our lapses into silence as we bury ourselves in work. While we can’t or won’t use every suggestion, it’s better for us to hear them. I certainly hope there are tons of Lords fans out there.
Tom: What will the game challenge more, a player's capability in economy or military?
Zeb: Certainly play is more oriented toward military what with the grand strategy issues the player must deal with. Perversely though, this means that a player who wanted to win primarily though economic means (basically having lots of cash on hand to hire mercenary armies – rather like an Italian city-state) will face a greater challenge since there tend to be fewer tools at his disposal.
Tom: How many players can play the same game at the same time in multiplayer?
Zeb: We haven’t done actual load-testing yet, so I’m hesitant to say. Again, we have a target number, but until optimizations are done (an area that has a really big impact on multiplayer issues) we won’t know for sure. I would hate to give a number that proves to be too high – OR too low – at this time.
Tom: What is the reason for so little information on PR front? Personally, from the perspective of a web master of (not to sound arrogant here) the largest fan site for the series, I can see that a lot of the interest in the game community that once existed has now vanished due to complete and total lack of news. It was just recently that we were able to even speak with members of the design team. Just for example my daily hits are around 1/10 what they were when the game was newly announced. It has been said that the silence has hurt sale potential, because people want to know what they are going to buy, and have been given nothing to go by. What is your response to those issues?
Zeb: My response is that I’ll let Adam who handles PR answer this one!
Adam: Thanks, Zeb! We’ve been managing the PR campaign to make sure we don’t overhype Lords3 too early and burn everyone out with too much information. As we transition into 2003 you can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll be turning up the heat and releasing more info both to the community and press. Lords of the Realm III is one of Sierra’s most important games in 2003!
Tom: How will the ability to design your own castles be implemented into the game? Will they require the player to have the castle pre designed before the game, or will it be "on the flies" per say?
Zeb: Custom castles can be designed in a separate editor and brought into the game. While we could make “on the fly” castle building work, it would never work well, because of both gameplay and technology. Lords III is an RTS with a pretty big scope so every action that requires player attention has a big effect on gameplay. Requiring players to create and layout castle designs (potentially several at once) while trying to handle all the other tasks was not a good idea. From the technology side, the editor allows us to create simple rules that prevent a majority of problems for the processor and to do some pre-processing of game information particularly regarding AI issues.
Finally, having the castle editor separate means you can create interesting (read challenging) castles and share them with other players – basically we’re giving you a castle mod tool.
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