Eschalon community Q&A
Eschalon community Q&A
Interview - posted by Vault Dweller on Fri 1 September 2006, 00:52:26
Tags: Eschalon: Book IThere is a very informative Eschalon: Book I community Q&A, so if you are interested in this indie project, do take a look:
Your character begins the game completely unaware of who he is. As you uncover your past, you are able to make certain decisions based upon what you discover about yourself. Good and evil become subjective.
Quests: the overall storyline deals with a more realistic plot of conspiracy and betrayal, but in wandering around the world you'll find plenty of classic quests along the lines of "please rid my basement of Salamanders!". Remember, this is old-school baby!
...
Combat is turn based point-and-click. When you click the mouse button on a hostile creature, an attack is assumed and all the rolls are made. The outcome of your turn and the enemy's response is calculated instantly and played out.
There are no options for fighting styles (aimed attacks, for example). The ruleset does support this but it would increase the development time considerably to implement it because of play balancing issues. Same thing for dual weapons. Look for these in Book II.
Yes, you can specialize in archery, thrown weapons and/or unarmed combat. You might be able to use a bow exclusively, but you suffer a 50% accuracy penalty for enemies in an adjacent square (5 feet away), so it's best for archers to be skilled with an alternate weapon. Also, arrows are an inefficient way to bash down a door!
...
There are no crossbows in Book I. Again, this was another feature that was trimmed out early due to development time concerns. Crossbows meant yet another Skill, another set of graphics, and even more play balancing... and they didn't offer a significant enough difference in gameplay over bows to justify the added time.
...
This is old-school RPGing, so combat is a big part of the gameplay. But it's not hack-n-slash...E:B1 isn't a Dungeon Siege railroad venture filled with sword fodder. You can gain skills that will help you avoid combat (through stealth) and if you were careful you could get pretty far without fighting, but your character will advance much more slowly without that source of XP. There will be some situations where combat can be avoided through diplomacy, but that's not really a "feature" of the game.
...
Free exploration is a big part of the game. Some parts of the world even exists for "no reason"...meaning, no quest or part of the storyline requires you to visit there. Players will be rewarded for wandering off the beaten path.
For people who enjoy the hack-n-slash style of RPGing, we have regions in the game that exists for no other reason than to be hunting grounds. The main quest will never actually take you through these areas, so when you find them you can just hack-n-slash as much as you want (or skip the area completely).
...
To play the game through successfully you are going to need to develop a wide variety of skills. I like to think of thief/rogue characters in Eschalon being closer to something like "Robin Hood"- masters of stealth and excellent fighters.There is more info at the forums. We should probably do another interview soon.
Your character begins the game completely unaware of who he is. As you uncover your past, you are able to make certain decisions based upon what you discover about yourself. Good and evil become subjective.
Quests: the overall storyline deals with a more realistic plot of conspiracy and betrayal, but in wandering around the world you'll find plenty of classic quests along the lines of "please rid my basement of Salamanders!". Remember, this is old-school baby!
...
Combat is turn based point-and-click. When you click the mouse button on a hostile creature, an attack is assumed and all the rolls are made. The outcome of your turn and the enemy's response is calculated instantly and played out.
There are no options for fighting styles (aimed attacks, for example). The ruleset does support this but it would increase the development time considerably to implement it because of play balancing issues. Same thing for dual weapons. Look for these in Book II.
Yes, you can specialize in archery, thrown weapons and/or unarmed combat. You might be able to use a bow exclusively, but you suffer a 50% accuracy penalty for enemies in an adjacent square (5 feet away), so it's best for archers to be skilled with an alternate weapon. Also, arrows are an inefficient way to bash down a door!
...
There are no crossbows in Book I. Again, this was another feature that was trimmed out early due to development time concerns. Crossbows meant yet another Skill, another set of graphics, and even more play balancing... and they didn't offer a significant enough difference in gameplay over bows to justify the added time.
...
This is old-school RPGing, so combat is a big part of the gameplay. But it's not hack-n-slash...E:B1 isn't a Dungeon Siege railroad venture filled with sword fodder. You can gain skills that will help you avoid combat (through stealth) and if you were careful you could get pretty far without fighting, but your character will advance much more slowly without that source of XP. There will be some situations where combat can be avoided through diplomacy, but that's not really a "feature" of the game.
...
Free exploration is a big part of the game. Some parts of the world even exists for "no reason"...meaning, no quest or part of the storyline requires you to visit there. Players will be rewarded for wandering off the beaten path.
For people who enjoy the hack-n-slash style of RPGing, we have regions in the game that exists for no other reason than to be hunting grounds. The main quest will never actually take you through these areas, so when you find them you can just hack-n-slash as much as you want (or skip the area completely).
...
To play the game through successfully you are going to need to develop a wide variety of skills. I like to think of thief/rogue characters in Eschalon being closer to something like "Robin Hood"- masters of stealth and excellent fighters.
