Interview Lionheart interview at eToyChest

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Eric Dallaire; Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader; Reflexive Entertainment

<a href="http://www.etoychest.org/">eToyChest</a> has a very nicely done <a href="http://www.etoychest.org/reviews/interview_002.html">interview</a> with our good pal over at <a href="Http://www.reflexive.net">Reflexive</a>, <b>Eric Dallaire</b>. You know <b>Eric</b>, he's the lead writer guy for <a href="http://lionheart.blackisle.com">Lionheart</a>. It's the CRPG that <a href="http://www.interplay.com">Interplay</a> accidentally forgot to show off at <b>E3</b>, so you haven't heard much from it in all the recent press. Anyway, now that I've managed to work in all the links to this story that I needed to put somewhere, here's the clip:
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<blockquote><b>Q:</b> The words "role-playing game" mean a lot of different things in gaming today. Is Lionheart a game that focuses primarily on combat and action sequences, or is there a good deal of puzzle solving and character interaction as well?
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<b>SPECIAL ED:</b> The term RPG does mean so many different things to so many different people. These days, you have to be careful how you classify your game so that you don't misrepresent your product. Role-playing games often have additional descriptors like 'Action', 'Hardcore', 'Story-Based', or even 'Classic' also known as the 'Hack and Slash'. There are a few games that do each of these types of RPGs very well, and others that attempt to blend multiple types of RPG elements together into a cohesive experience.
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I'd have to say that Lionheart is one those RPGs that combines several different elements from different RPG sub-genres. Lionheart has a rich story, but also involves a good deal of classic leveling, dungeon exploration, and various combat encounters. If you enjoy playing combat based characters that use blades or magic, there is plenty in Lionheart that will appeal to you. If you enjoy searching for traps, sneaking around as a stealthy character, solving puzzles, then there is another character path for you in Lionheart. <u>If you like engaging in dialogue with many characters, and you don't leave dialogue until you've read everything someone has to say, there are plenty of verbose characters that would love to chew your ear off. Our Speech and Barter skills also allow diplomatic characters to avoid sticky encounters with intelligent opponents</u>, though there are times when enemies have no intention to bother talking to you. We've also made a concerted effort to put in hard-to-find extra material in for the hard-core gamer that likes to complete tons of side quests and find all the secrets.</blockquote>
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Whomever thought of making sure that <b>Speech skill</b> made it in to <A href="http://lionheart.blackisle.com">Lionheart</a> deserves much, much, much praise.. And half the profits from the game, I think. At least half.
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Spotted this at <a href="http://www.homelanfed.com">HomeLAN Fed</a>.

 

[Spazmo]

Nah, that guy just needs hugs. Lots and lots of hugs.

 

[Crazy Tuvok]

It's a shame. A lot of the stuff I have read lately about Lionheart makes it sound really good. So I get worked up about the game and begin anticipating it and then I remember that the combat is ughh...pause and play. If this game was tb I would be almost as excited about it as I am for ToEE. As it is I am still taking a wait and see approach.

 

[Crazy Tuvok]

Hey I loved PS:T, but the combat was shite. The game was good *in spite* of the combat. Moreover, it seems to me that much of the elegance of the SPECIAL system in terms of combat requires tb.
Or maybe I am just a hopeless tb fanboy.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Well the pause and play won't be as bad as Infinity Engine P&P.Yeah, you'll be able to pause the game right there in the game but you won't be able to queue spells or healing potions while paused, I think.

 

[Crazy Tuvok]

Well the pause and play won't be as bad as Infinity Engine P&P.Yeah, you'll be able to pause the game right there in the game but you won't be able to queue spells or healing potions while paused, I think.

so what is the point of the pause function? I suppose for targetted shots and such?

 

[Jed]

so what is the point of the pause function? I suppose for targetted shots and such?

The point of teh pause is to please the marketing execs.

 

[huh]

Well the pause and play won't be as bad as Infinity Engine P&P.Yeah, you'll be able to pause the game right there in the game but you won't be able to queue spells or healing potions while paused, I think.

so what is the point of the pause function? I suppose for targetted shots and such?

yes, targeted shots.

aside, pausable RT strikes me as the goofiest combat system ever devised. "Excuse me mister monster, hold on for a minute, while I rifle through my bag for a better weapon"

TB - lots of tactical fun selecting options and flanking chess board style. action points make it 'realistic'. my preference for isometric crpgs.

pure RT - hectic rush to get it over with, but at least some cool auto combat animations. 'realistic' speed-wise

pausable RT ? some people say it's the best of both worlds, to me it's the worst of both worlds. the fact that it's pausable makes them break up combat into phases which kills the RT part. the AI can't pause either so it's at a major disadvantage. the fact it's not TB makes it dull in tactical options.

 

[triCritical]

I agree with Exitium. Lionheart's pause and play is not really as bad as the other pause and plays out there. Its real time, from what I understand, allows you to have a significant amount of control, like Diablo. Its not RTS pause and play in other words. And last I heard the pausing is limited to choosing crits and inventory management like in MW. To be honest my main concern with the RT of LH before they introduced pause and play was with the crits. I could fathom how they would do it, unless they used something like the number pad.

 

[Jed]

Well the pause and play won't be as bad as Infinity Engine P&P.Yeah, you'll be able to pause the game right there in the game but you won't be able to queue spells or healing potions while paused, I think.

It seems internally inconsistent that you can pause to make targeted shots, but not to queue up spells or potions. I really agree that RTw/P is "the worst of both worlds."

 

[Crazy Tuvok]

Kinda looking forward to LH so don't mistake this for biased bashing but...
seems to me that if you need a pause function in order to make combat manageable, then what you really need is to go turn based. there just is no such thing as a workable, *enjoyable"* real time combat engine that incorporates a pause. doesn't mean the game won't be fun, but I am not expecting the combatt to be too impressive.

 

[Jed]

Kinda looking forward to LH so don't mistake this for biased bashing but...
seems to me that if you need a pause function in order to make combat manageable, then what you really need is to go turn based. there just is no such thing as a workable, *enjoyable"* real time combat engine that incorporates a pause. doesn't mean the game won't be fun, but I am not expecting the combatt to be too impressive.

The obvious choice (for me at least) is to try my best to go thief/diplomat as much of the way as possible.

 

[Eldar]

I don't really like the idea that you can't select spells while paused. You can target a specific area on someone's body while paused but you can't cast a spell? Are spells the supernatual extension of the mage's will or are they somehow less instinctive than a weapon? My fear is that it will be particularly irritating to play a mage if I have to rifle through my spells to cast one during combat. This really bugs the hell out of me. I'd much rather have turned based, that's true, but to let the stinking sword jockey make called shots to the head while my mage can't even pause to select a spell is ridiculous. Maybe I'm reading this wrong, so please tell me if I am.

I would rather have turned based combat, but I'm not against real time. However, I'll cancel the damned pre-order if they've decided to give pause to quite every melee chump in town while punishing my mage for slinging spells. Good God.

 

[Jarinor]

I think it's more of a case of "It's really bloody hard to target shots in real time with a mouse", so the pause function is more to make sure that you can tell your character to do what you want them to do, and so the devs don't get flamed for making it too hard to do so.

Also, does the word hotkey mean anything to the people who are wondering how spells will work in combat?

 

[DrattedTin]

I imagine it'll be like Diablo II. And that's a good thing, gents.

 

[Crazy Tuvok]

edited for spelling

IAlso, does the word hotkey mean anything to the people who are wondering how spells will work in combat?

yuck. I hate hotkeys and never use them or rarely play games wherein they are included. LH might still be fun, but I really dislike the idea of frantic hotkey searching/bashing in order to cast spells. Honestly I would prefer a fully implemented pause function (that allows you to do whatever) then some hybrid version that only allows you to pick crits. As has been said above and throughout the forums, the redheaded stepchild of tb and rt just kinda sucks. If you cannot make rt work without pause, then rt is not right for the game you are making; and I think there are plenty of good implementations of rt. It seems to me that the devs (or the marketing dept) were just so gung ho to make sure the game was rt that they either didn't consider (or perhaps were not allowed to consider) that it will not work well with either SPECIAL or within the kind of game they are trying to make with LH.


edited for spelling