Codex Gamescom Interviews - Open Call for Questions

[Bubbles]

The Codex will be sending its valiant (and valiantly anonymous) representatives to this year's Gamescom, and they've collected a small number of interview opportunities already. The shorter opportunities may only allow for one or two interview questions in total, so we have to be highly selective. Since we're only sending the best and brightest Codexers to Gamescom, they're already come up with some decent questions for the devs - but maybe our community can do better?

This thread is for collecting questions for developer interviews (or at least for short, muttered conversations on the edge of the presentation booth) on the following RPGs:

Expeditions: Viking
Torment:TON / Bard's Tale 4 / The Bard's Tale (2004) / WL2: DC, virtually every game inXile ever made or will make (anything goes, we got a highly prestigious interviewee)
Divinity: Original Sin: Enhanced Edition
Pillars of Eternity: The White March
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (interview with Daniel Vávra)
Sword Coast Legends
The Mandate
ELEX
The Dwarves
Technomancer
Dungeon of Naheulbeuk

We also have some interviews for strategy games (including Spellforce 3! hype!!!!) lined up; that list is here.
And if you care deeply about Daedalic's adventure games in general and The Whispered World 2 and AER in particular, you can post those questions here.
Oh, and we're doing Mafia 3 too. Maybe it'll have deep RPG elements like weapon stats and stuff.

Our preferred questions are original, incisive, creative, thought provoking, professional, respectful, and reflective of the RPGCodex both as a community and as a household brand. The posters with the best questions will be namedropped in the official Gamescom report. Now go!

 

[Zed]

re: Divinity OS
about the editor. would they be interested in doing an editor as rich and easy-to-use as the one in NWN1? it feels like they had aspirations for a great editor with DOS but it fell flat cuz it was too advanced and developer-focused.

re: white march
are you touching up on any of the content of the original game in 2.0? encounters, writing, items...

 

[Irenaeus II]

Good question re: white march

 

[Rake]

Our preferred questions are[...] respectfu[...]reflective of the RPGCodex both as a community and as a household brand.

Something doesn't fit here

 

[Abu Antar]

Ask them what has been done to improve the Vikings combat over the Conquistador combat. Will there be more types of units, and how will equipment be handled. Will it be handled as upgrades like in the first game?

 

[Bubbles]

Ask them what has been done to improve the Vikings combat over the Conquistador combat. Will there be more types of units, and how will equipment be handled. Will it be handled as upgrades like in the first game?

I know that Vikings will be classless, though I don't think the devs have released details on the exact build mechanics yet. I see a lot of potential problems with a pick-and-mix approach to unit progression - most obviously that it seems like a horror to balance - so I hope that the devs will have some in-depth information on that point.

 

[Ninjerk]

professional

DarkUnderlord

 

[Bubbles]

Updated the OP to clarify that we can ask inXile questions about Torment, Bard's Tale 4, the Wasteland 2 DC, etc. etc.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Why did the Codex representatives opt for anonymity?

 

[Zombra]

Some character-related questions re: the Mandate:

I found some references to character Skills and Traits. Will these be used only for the player's Captain, or will every soldier and technician in the fleet have his or her own "character sheet"? In either case, what will the character sheet look like?

In particular, what kind of stats does the Captain have? Can I make my Captain vastly different from other players' Captains, not just visually, but in gameplay terms? Will we be "allowed" to make Captain PCs with disastrous weaknesses if we so choose, or will every Captain be generically good at everything? How much impact will my choices on the character sheet have on gameplay?

 

[vonAchdorf]

ELEX: Can you smoke ELEX?
White March: Are they interested in a Roxor review?

Sword Coast Legends: Who will need to own the (upcoming) DLC to use it in multiplayer - everyone or just the host / DM?

 

[Explorerbc]

Our preferred questions are professional, respectful, and reflective of the RPGCodex both as a community and as a household brand.

Professionalism was always the codex's finest quality.

You are already being called "ShitComposter" Obshittian/Shitexile/2Shit etc." on our forums by some people. When disputes like this happen between developers and players , especially over games that have already begun development, why is it that you think the developer often takes the blame from the public? As developers yourselves, how does that make you feel?

 

[Zombra]

Oh man, I didn't even see Sword Coast Legends on that list. Now THAT is an interview I look forward to reading.

 

[Bubbles]

SCL is presentation + hands-on + interview, so it's basically guaranteed to be top shelf material.

 

[Ludo Lense]

Divinity: Original Sin/ Larian:

Would Larian consider making a sequel to Original Sin or a new IP RPG which would feature the real life themes brought up in Dragon Commander rather than the jolly humor they are usually know for?

Considering the fact that the gameplay aspect of action points passing from round to round came from backers/testers, has working on Original Sin so close with players changed Larian's perspective on how to design games?

If Kickstarter was available when Larian was created and made Divine Divinity, how do you think the studio's trajectory would look like compared to the present day?



Kingdom Come: Deliverance:

Where do you personally think that the line between engaging and frustrating lies in regards to realistic European medieval combat? (Should things like heat, the fact that heavy armor needed more than 1 person to be equipped, edge alignment etc. be taken in consideration?).

Do you think that motion controls (perhaps combined with 3d or augmented reality technology) have any future in producing games which push towards realistic close quarters combat?

Does Kingdom Come try to portray the concept of medieval chivalry romantically or realistically?


ELEX:

Do you think that the classic Piranha Bytes exploration design with open world highly hostile surroundings is compatible with modern game design trends?

Has Piranha Bytes ever considered making ELEX even more challenging than their classic games to attract players from Souls games and the like?

From the pre-production to full implementation, is the ELEX combat system designed for controllers or keyboard first?


Inxile:


Considering it is one of the most complex genres in the game's industry, how many projects would you usually say a developer needs to reach the sweet spot between creativity and speed thus becoming veterans?

Have you ever had a feature that you scrapped during development because you though it was too modern and your core audience might reject it?

What is the process of deciding if a game shall have an enhanced edition rather than working on a new project?






Pillars of Eternity: White March

Does Josh Sawyer believe that the Germany lost WWI because they couldn't balance their forces between the western and eastern front?

 

[Zombra]

ELEX:

With the recent upsurge in the popularity of xenial games, it's easy to see why Piranha Bytes is creating a xenia-focused title - what is your plan to make ELEX really stand out in the current xenium-saturated market? I think we can all agree that one can't have too many options in xenioid gaming today, but aren't you worried about the current glut of xenii? How many of the dev team are xenios themselves? Would you describe today's gaming climate to be a xeniorum?

 

[Rivmusique]

White March:

Will the quests that are started in Part 1 be wrapped up in part 1? Or will the player that goes on to complete the game and hit the ending slides only be able to see the failed/didn't-bother-with slide for some events?

 

[pippin]

Expeditions: Viking

Conquistadors used a barely explored setting for rpgs, strategy games and video games in general. Why did you decided to concentrate on a more "familiar" setting this time around? If you get to make a third Expeditions game, would you prefer to pick a "new" setting or make some sort of sequel to Conquistadors or Vikings?

Original Sin

Larian seems to be in a position which seems very adventurous for a medium sized rpg company, with all the new studios opening on different countries and etc. How will this affect the Divinity franchise? Does this suggest we will see more Divinity spinoffs in the future? Or are they looking forward to produce third party games?

That's what I'd like to know right now. Forgive me if the wording is wrong-I'm kinda drunk right now.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

No questions for the majestic Sword Coast Legends? Ok then:

(Had to go back to their forums and read some of the older threads to try and recapture some of the peak butthurt levels on display there)

- "Do you think the marketing strategy of refusing to answer questions about your game, while accepting preorders from gamers full of hope due to the DnD label, worked in the long run? Are the extra sales worth it or would a reputation for openness and honesty and a forum free from angry backers have been preferable?"
- "One of the few concrete promises you made was that people could recreate their favourite module in the editor, but now it seems that only randomised dungeons can be created - no tile-by-tile or room-by-room editing. Is the editor gimped to this extent due to console limitations? Why do you insist on one version of the game for all platforms, is this contractual? Wouldn't it make sense for detailed campaign design to take place on the PC platform?"
- "When people were debating your implementation of streamlined gameplay bearing little relation to previous DnD CRPGs, you said it 'was always clear this game would continue the evolution begun with Baldur's Gate and continued with Dragon Age:Origins'. You've made it clear you are proud to have worked on DA:O but are you aware that it isn't actually a DnD game and didn't feature in the expectations of many backers?"
- "Despite the initial announcement and forum posts implying it was a PC exclusive release, non-retarded backers noticed that the 4 PC limit, consolised inventory and simplified gameplay was obviously designed for consoles. Despite your denials an N-Space job ad specifying console platforms was then uncovered. So why later come out with stuff like "They clamored for console... so we circled back and figured out how to do it without compromising our vision for PC gamers." Are you hoping to cultivate an image as a snake oil salesman or do you think the average gamer has the mental capacity of a tsetse fly?"
- "Has your choice of Unity as the engine caused any issues in terms of user-generated content or performance?"

 

[Ninjerk]

Zorba the Hutt, professional badass

 

[J_C]

Divinity: OS - Are you considering using a more serious tone in any of your next games, or you will stick to the light hearted one like in your previous games?

PoE: WM - What do you think is the biggest improvement the expansion offers compared to the original game?

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

re: Divinity OS
about the editor. would they be interested in doing an editor as rich and easy-to-use as the one in NWN1? it feels like they had aspirations for a great editor with DOS but it fell flat cuz it was too advanced and developer-focused.
.

More like, their editor was a piece of garbage that didn't fully support actual development.
@OP: In fact, ask every developer about their stance on modding, whether they want to opt for editor and support it throughout.

 

[APGunner]

ELEX

What will the dialogue system be like?
What are the main sources of inspiration for the game's artstyle?
Will there be a quest compass?
Will gunblades be present in the game?

 

[Jack Dandy]

For Expeditions: Viking

How are you going to implement the player character into battles? Will he have any special abilities?
How are you going to implement overworld travel?
Will you be using Unity 5?
The first Expeditions game had a fun combat system, but suffered from lack of enemy & skill variety. How are you going to handle that? since the game is still grounded in reality, I can't expect Beholders and Umber Hulks roaming around the landscape.

 

[HobGoblin42]

If you guys visit the Nordic games booth (business area) to see ELEX, don't hesitate to stop by at the next door where I present Spellforce III.