Ever since Black Isle Studios and Reflexive Entertainment announced at E3 that they would be teaming up to make an RPG, we’ve wanted to know more about it. So when we were recently given the chance to ask ten questions of Reflexive’s Ion Hardie, we jumped at it. His answers below:
GB: How is development coming along? Are any areas of the game finished yet?
Ion Hardie: We are currently in a pre-Alpha state and are getting close to being feature complete. We have been working on Lionheart for about 9 months now on our very own game engine, which has shipped in both Star Trek: Away Team and Zax: The Alien Hunter. Being that it is our own technology, the design team has had a relatively easy time getting things done, though incorporation of 3D characters has been challenging. At this point in time the majority of the art is done, though character animations and spell effects are some of our largest art assets left to complete. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% of the maps are complete and we are still tweaking some of the formulas that control combat and spell abilities. Fortunately a vast majority of the SPECIAL formulas used in programming were laid out and implemented early on in the project, so we have been able to utilize those as the game has progressed.
GB: For those players unfamiliar with the Fallout series, could you please describe the SPECIAL system and how it handles character creation and advancement?
Ion Hardie: The SPECIAL system is basically a system of statistics and rules that allow for classless open-ended character development. SPECIAL stands for Strength , Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Each of these is an attribute you assign some amount of points to and helps to shape and define your character. These rules were first used in the post-apocalyptic role-playing game Fallout, and then again in Fallout 2. This system is immensely open-ended for character development, lacks the drawbacks of a class system, and is infinitely expandable. Characters in the system have Race, Attributes, Skills, Traits, and Perks. Race affects your starting statistics and may give you some special abilities, race specific Traits, and/or race specific Perks. The Attributes are used to make various skill check roles and to determine other derived statistics. At the heart of the system are skills. Skills are measured in points and can generally go anywhere from 0 to 255; these numbers are used in conjunction with other modifiers to determine whether or not you do something successfully in the game. Since there are no classes, your character is defined by what type of skills you decide you want that character to improve upon. You have ultimate control over defining the character however you choose; you decide how you want them to improve and even how much you want them to improve. The system has seen several updates for its use in Lionheart, the most significant of which are the addition of magic and adjusting it to real-time combat.
GB: Have you done a lot of research on 16th century Europe to help create the game’s atmosphere? Exactly how much “official” history do you intend on incorporating into Lionheart’s storyline?
Ion Hardie: At the core of Lionheart is a basis on reality, despite the fact that our world takes place after a Disjunction that alters history as we know it. The story is built upon a foundation of exhaustive research through countless books and websites to get as much knowledge about general historical events and personnel as we could. After determining the general time period for our story, our lead writer, Eric Dallaire, then focused on events that were both interesting and fit our specific needs. He then researched these topics even further to uncover the specific historical storylines and details that now make up the game’s backstory. The intent of building upon this research was to allow us to alter history and still keep as much of the general dynamic behind it as possible. Without giving out spoilers of particular examples of how they fit, it is possible to meet the following historical figures during your adventures: Leonardo DaVinci, Galilelo, Machiavelli – the Italian philosopher, and Cervantes – the Spanish author. and more. If you join the Inquisition and earn the trust of the Inquisitors, you could gain an audience with the Grand Inquisitor himself! As you can see, despite having been altered by the Disjunction, elements of real history and historical figures will play an important part in the game. However, I do want to make sure that gamers realize that this is not a die-hard Earth simulation game. We have changed plenty of stuff about the world we live in.
GB: Tell us a little bit about Reflexive’s Velocity Engine. How does it compare to other two-dimensional graphic engines, such as BioWare’s Infinity Engine?
Ion Hardie: The Velocity Engine is a robust proprietary Reflexive gaming engine that has been used in previous gaming titles including Zax: the Alien Hunter and Star Trek: Away Team. We are using it for Lionheart as an isometric engine to render 2D backgrounds while real-time converting 3D models into 2D images. This allows us to maintain anti-aliasing with our 3D characters and allows for 3D characters to be blended perfectly into every scene. The engine has the added benefit of affording us extensive amount of equipment changes. The Velocity Engine also gives us the power to modify the ground in real-time, making lava or acid literally chase you through a given level. If you had a chance to play Zax, you most likely were shocked to find yourself in the position of having lava eat the very ground beneath your feet. If you were lucky enough to avoid that horrifying experience, consider yourself warned as you explore the worlds of Lionheart. As far as comparisons with other engines go, each has their strengths. I will let gamers decide for themselves when we ship.
GB: Can you tell us a little bit about each of the four races (Demokin, Feralkin, Human, and Sylvant)? What (dis)advantages are there to playing each one?
Ion Hardie: Each of the races has different starting statistics and they have some race-specific perks and traits that you can acquire along the way. Sylvants, for example, are among the most magical of the races. They are descendents of parents with magical spirits, usually elementals, so they possess unique physical traits such as metallic colored hair or skin. The Demokins are tainted with a fiendish ancestry and often display tell-tale physical traits such as pointed ears or sharp teeth, but they are often clever enough to blend in very well with pureblood humans. The Feralkins display obvious signs of a magic ancestry passed down from some bestial spirit. They exhibit a physically larger stature, pointed teeth, and clawed hands which easily gives them away in a crowd. We added these new races to give players a chance to further differentiate and personalize their characters. Without spoiling too much with specific disadvantages, we also created races to allow NPCs to react differently depending on your choice of race. For instance, you will have a more difficult time speaking with the Inquisition if you are not a pureblood human, especially a Feralkin. Other NPC characters have their own likes and dislikes regarding the races, so choosing your character race is important. As with skills an attributes, it is important for the player to balance the disadvantages with the inherent unique advantages each race presents.
GB: Can you briefly explain how the magic system will work, and give some examples of spells that will be available in the game?
Ion Hardie: The background for our magic system is a bit different from traditional fantasy RPGS. When the Disjunction occurred, it unleashed various spirits and powerful beings from other planes. While on Earth, these spirits were essentially powerless without a vessel, so many of them sought out suitable hosts. When you make your character, you will be able to choose which kind of spirit you would like to become a host for; currently there are three spirits to choose from. Although the choice of a certain spirit does not prevent you from pursuing any specific kind of magic, it will give you certain advantages. In Lionheart, magic will be a skill-based system divided into three classes: Thought, Divine, and Tribal. Thought Magic has more of an elemental bent (fire, cold, electricity), such as Ice Storm, which rains cold death down from the heavens. Divine is more healing and self-improvement, such as Divine Might, which initially affects your damaging strength and later, as the spell gets better, all allies in a radius. Tribal is more summoning and modifying other characters, such as Summon Undead, which summons undead warriors to fight for you. Within each of the spell classes is a skill tree of specific spells. As you gain skill points by leveling, you can improve the power of a certain spell by adding skill points to it. By placing skill points into spells, you’ll be able to access other spells within the magic class, since many of the more powerful spells have skill rank requirements. To cast magic, you will need to spend mana. Unlike other fantasy RPGs, mana is not based on intelligence, since your spirit generates your magic power. The current model we are exploring instead uses your perception and charisma stats – perception allows you to attune yourself to the spirit, while charisma allows you to better impose your will on the spirit to tap its magical energy.
GB: What sort of magical equipment can we expect to see in the game? Could you give us a specific example or two?
Ion Hardie: One of the cool things we are doing with magical items is that, not only are lots of magical items being randomly created as you play the game, but the strength of the abilities that are added to the base model are determined by how powerful the character is when they find it. For example, if you find a (Two-Handed Sword, Firebrand), then the amount of potential fire damage that the sword can do on a successful strike is dependant upon how powerful the player is when they found it. Designers have the ability to give specific magical strengths so that very powerful items can be found, or stores only have certain types of items, but in general items that are fought for are tailor-made to be balanced for your individual character. We are also having lots of different types of magical equipment, such as amulets, rings, cloaks, gauntlets, belts, wands and the like.
We are also having specific Artifact items that the player can find, and can also be quest items in the game, that have special powers and/or abilities. Some of these have names linking them to historical people and events, while others are totally fabricated for our story.
GB: What types of creatures will the player be up against in their journey? Any particular monsters that you can elaborate on?
Ion Hardie: There are a large number of monsters in the game, but overall there are a fair number of NPCs that could be either opponents or allies depending on how you play your character. The current list for NPCs is over 100, containing monsters, monster variations, special NPCs, and player characters. The creatures you will potentially square off against range from mindless undead to wild beasts to highly intelligent and motivated enemy characters. A specific example of one of these creatures is a barbaric, yet intelligent enemy race that does a remarkable amount of gloating about gruesome and grisly pursuits. In writing their dialog and creating their look, our team did some historical research and chose to blend their historical roots with those of the Mongol hordes that swept the Eurasian continent in an earlier time period. Without giving too much away, the high-brow and darkly-comedic grotesque encounters that these creatures play a role in are fascinating and humorous to become involved with.
GB: Can you give us some details about the NPC companions that will be able to join the protaganist for specific quests in Lionheart? How long will these NPCs stick around? How much control will the player have over them?
Ion Hardie: The amount of time a give NPC stays with you and the amount of control you have over them is dependant upon many factors. For the most part NPCs join with you because your paths have crossed along the way toward a similar short-term goal, and once that goal is accomplished, they tend to go their own way. What is really exciting and unique about Lionheart is that you will have the ability to meet and join with actual historical figure NPCs: famous scholars, artists, conquistadors, and politicians of the time. In addition to Leonardo DaVinci and Galilelo, you will also be able to meet Machiavelli, the Italian philosopher, and Cervantes, the Spanish author. Each of these characters will reflect their historical personalities in some ways, but will also reflect differences as a result of the alternate history. The introduction of magic into the world has allowed some of these historical figures to live longer than their real historical counterparts. Along the way there are a host of historical figure NPCs you can meet that will give you quests or join you for a time on your journey. As far as party control goes, you can directly tell them what to do, such as stop here, fight, flee and so on.
GB: We’ve read that up to three players will be able to play cooperatively through the game. Do you plan on having any further multiplayer functions? Maybe a way for players to participate in some PvP combat?
Ion Hardie: Actually, we are supporting 4 players in our cooperative multiplayer mode. At this point we are focusing primarily on having the cooperative multiplayer component, which will allow up to four human players to go through the single player story cooperatively. In single player mode you create your protagonist and at any given time may have a number of NPCs who have joined with you. But NPCs that join you along the way don’t necessarily stay with you for the entire game. So in single player it is unlikely you’ll be walking around with an entourage of 4 characters very often unless you summoned them. But in multiplayer, you can start the game with 4 characters. This changes the dynamic of play quite a bit because diverse characters will be able to work together more as a team and capitalize on their individual skills more. The game also balances levels based on how strong your party is. The more players you have, or stronger your individual character, the more enemies are created to fight, more powerful enemies are spawned, or a combination of the two. Currently there is no plan for PvP combat. We set out to balance and create the game for a good cooperative multiplayer experience and that’s it. If we can do that well, I will consider our multiplayer experience a successful one.
We’d like to issue our thanks to everyone at BIS and Reflexive Entertainment, especially Ion, for taking the time to answer our questions. We hope you enjoyed reading the answers!
