Interview Eschalon community Q&A

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Eschalon: Book I

There is a very informative <a href=http://basiliskgames.com/>Eschalon: Book I</a> <a href=http://basiliskgames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=39>community Q&A</a>, so if you are interested in this indie project, do take a look:
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<blockquote>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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.</blockquote>There is more info at the forums. We should probably do another interview soon.
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[Elwro]

Everything is as automated as possible while playing.

Shamelessly taken out of context, of course.

An interesting read. I somehow had an impression they were going in a different direction. It seems that combat will be the focus, but the fighting system will be without special attacks...

 

[Paranoid Jack]

You had me at, "E:B1 isn't a Dungeon Siege railroad venture filled with sword fodder". :wink:

 

[Ivy Mike]

An interesting read. I somehow had an impression they were going in a different direction. It seems that combat will be the focus, but the fighting system will be without special attacks...

That's the exact same impression I've gotten from the developers untill now.

Taken from their website:

Strategy is paramount to success; careful skill management, equipment selection and magic usage will win your fights, not rapid button clicking. We are very pleased to say this is not another "action RPG"
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A non-linear storyline means that the game world is open to explore as you desire. Follow the storyline or don't...it's up to you.

In the light of this interview that basically means that's it's a dungeon romp (even though the developers claim it isn't, any game where the "stealth" exits to help players avoid combat and your character "will advance much more slowly without [combat]" is a dungeon romp in my book) game with the freedom NOT to follow the main quest. What makes it different from, say, any recent CRPG is lost on me (yes, including "action" variants). Do we know if the storyline will be branching? Will there be multiple solutions to quests (including non-violent opptions)? Will the player character have an impact on the world?

 

[almondblight]

It seems that combat will be the focus, but the fighting system will be without special attacks...

I imagine it will be like playing a singleton in Avernum (which was kind of fun), but better. I've played Rogues without special attacks, and they were fun.

And I don't think the makers ever claimed that it wasn't a dungeon romp (I could be wrong here). I think the point was it wasn't going to be as arcadey as recent games, but have more strategy with the combat (turn based) and general game system (the character needeing to eat and drink, dying if they wander too far right off the bat, etc).

 

[Elwro]

I imagine it will be like playing a singleton in Avernum (which was kind of fun), but better. I've played Rogues without special attacks, and they were fun.

Well, I played Avernum from start to finish and think it's a fantastic game... but, the main features that kept me playing were 1)the sizeable amounts of well-written text, 2)a detailed world outside dungeons and 3)quite an engaging main plot and other quests. Not the combat. Combat only wouldn't keep me playing till the end. It was fun, but not very diverse, and when I got the proper formula of action (and learned Beast Ceremony :D) 90% of the fights became similar. I hope the guys behind Eschalon infuse their game with lots of non-combat bits, flesh out the world, write some good dialogue... even if combat is to be the heart of the game.

 

[suibhne]

Well, I played Avernum from start to finish and think it's a fantastic game... but, the main features that kept me playing were 1)the sizeable amounts of well-written text, 2)a detailed world outside dungeons and 3)quite an engaging main plot and other quests. Not the combat. Combat only wouldn't keep me playing till the end. It was fun, but not very diverse, and when I got the proper formula of action (and learned Beast Ceremony :D) 90% of the fights became similar. I hope the guys behind Eschalon infuse their game with lots of non-combat bits, flesh out the world, write some good dialogue... even if combat is to be the heart of the game.

I wish more devs would have this attitude. Tbh the only RPG I can recall where I played because of the combat is ToEE. A few fights in BG/BG2 are interesting, but most are a chore; Wiz8 has generally enjoyable combat, but it feels excessive and imbalanced; FO combat doesn't detract but isn't good enough to be a draw on its own; PS:T's combat is actually bad; etc., etc. Combat alone isn't a powerful reason to play most RPGs independent of characters, plot, and the like; RPGs just don't do a good enough job of combat for it to carry the games. Yet RPG designers keep building combat-heavy slogfests that don't seem to play to the potential strengths of the genre (or maybe it's just that I have different tastes from the rest of the market ).

 

[almondblight]

Well, I agree with most of what is said but I wouldn't dismiss combat heavy slog fests. If more emphasis is put on exploration and survival I think they can be pretty interesting. Upping the challenge and adding lots of things to do goes a long way (again, thinking of Rogue type games).

Anyway, if anyone is interested or concerned I suggest going over to the forums, the developer has been pretty good about answering questions about the game, and seems like a decent person.

 

[NeVeRLiFt]

I really like this!
I can't wait to play it, please keep us updated on its progress.

 

[mytgroo]

These guys refuse to contemplate a betatesting schedule.

These guys refuse to contemplate a betatesting schedule. Don't expect them to finish it anytime soon. We have no betatesting schedule we are trying to get the best game possible. Amazing.

 

[Paranoid Jack]

I read on a thread they were doing internal testing first then a limited external beta test. But my guess is "when it's done" is the formal stance.

 

[Elwro]

Three new screens, one with some writing!

(Source: RPGWatch)

 

[sheek]

I've been checking up on this but for some reason it doesn't inspire so much.

 

[Higher Game]

That looks absolutely beautiful. Beautiful stats and interface. Yeah, and graphics, too. :D

 

[Jasede]

Pretty good, yeah. Maybe the first indie-game I will buy. I hated Avernum/Exile/Geneforge, but I can't really pin-point why.

 

[trystero]

New features...

They have added several features that they were going to omit from this first game.

Although the interview snippet above claims that aimed and special attacks are out, they actually put them in afterall. Aimed shot, backstab, etc.

- trystero

 

[Jasede]

Your message consists of two lines and your name. You do know that your name is displayed next to your post, don't you? Or do you just like seeing your name?

- Vipera

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Hi :D

- Vault Dweller

 

[trystero]

Your message consists of two lines and your name. You do know that your name is displayed next to your post, don't you? Or do you just like seeing your name?

Your message consists of one line and an image of Nordom under your name. You do know that you aren't a modron, don't you? Or do you just like pretending you are?

- trystero

 

[Jasede]

Well... to be honest, I feel a lot like a modron, which is better than a moron, I take it.

- point taken