Codex Interview Temple of Elemental Evil interview

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil; Tim Cain; Troika Games

Our interview with Tim Cain over the upcoming Temple of Elemental Evil CRPG from Troika, published by Infogrames.

1.) You've said you felt nostalgic over the Greyhawk setting. Is this the only reason you picked it over, less conventional D&D settings like Dark Sun or Planescape?

Tim Cain: When the opportunity to do D&D 3E came up, I sat down with my entire collection (100+) of modules and tried to decide which one I wanted to do. The module had to be one I enjoyed playing (of course), but it also had to be big enough to feel "epic". Many of the modules that fit the bill were Greyhawk modules, which I had grown up playing with AD&D. The Temple of Elemental Evil became the obvious choice when I noticed the level range began at level 1, while my next favorite, Against the Giants, started much higher. ToEE is a big, fun adventure, more complex than the standard dungeon fare of the time.
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There you have it, big and fun!

 

[Mistress]

Basically, because we are making a turn-based computer version of a turn-based game, we haven't had to fudge a lot of the basic D&D rules. We can use them as they are written in the book.

Hooray! Three cheers for turn-based.

ToEE supports levels 1 thru 10.

Nice.

In addition to the speech skills (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, and Sense Motive), NPC's will also react to the things like class, alignment, and some stats like intelligence and charisma. You will also see changes in some NPC's depending on how you solved certain quests (not just that you solved them, but HOW you chose to solve them).

Excellent - so the decisions you make actually have a direct effect on the game. I look forward to seeing what they've done there.

NPC's will store a running reaction to you, like In Arcanum, so expect to pay more for a Raise Dead if you piss off the town priest.

Good stuff. At the moment, playing through NWN modules, one thing that is pissing me off is the fact that you can, for the most part, say whatever you like to the NPCs, then start the conversation again and say something different.....bleh, it's like talking to a town full of goldfish half the time.

I really don't want to give too much away. Let's just say some paths are easier to do in an evil fashion, but doing so may make later events more difficult. And as always, the game records what you do for the end slides, so don't be shocked if you see some horrible consequences to your evil ways.

Bring it on! :twisted:

Well, sounds interesting at the least. Here's hoping.....

 

[Jarinor]

Three words:

Gimme gimme gimme.

 

[triCritical]

Three things that really stood out and made me want this game even more then I already do,

1) How do you keep a player from learning a NPC's true motivation before joining your party? And I liked how you would only control them in combat, making the combat slightly more tactical, without losing the ability to roleplay your character. In other words, just because I have a thief NPC, I won't be able to use him to sneak and steal something. If I want to roleplay that kind of a character I need to make him from start.

2) Something that I have been campaigning for a long time now, is non-diplomatic and non-combat solutions to quest. FO introduced disquise and sneak, which was an amazing feat, but I really like his story with the bard and the nasty critters. If a solution like that could somehow be integrated into a CRPG that would be great.

3) Lastly, I am jubilant with the description of the combat. Tumbling, combat reflexes, AoO's all done right its like a dream come true. I think a lof of the critics really don't understand TB combat. TB combat is just a way to simulate combat in an easy and fun way without losing the tactical integrity of the situation. No one ever said it had to look and feel like I you were in the sh!t in the jungles of VIETNAM WITH BULLETS FLYING EVERYWHERE!!

 

[Nexus]

Good article, but I'll wait to see what Mr. Cain has to offer. I wasn't particularly impressed by Arcanum, as much as I was by Fallout.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

4.) Most party based games demand a balanced party because they lay out areas with monsters and traps. Will Temple of Elemental Evil require a balanced party? Or can you use an all similar class party?

Tim Cain: From the very beginning, we have checked our design to make sure we are not requiring any particular class to be in the player's party. This is easier in 3E, since many skills are available to more than just one class. But we also had to make sure we weren't making any bottlenecks in the main story arc that required the use of a particular magical spell or class ability, like turning undead. We realized the player may take a party of all fighters or all bards, and that party should be able to finish the game.

Wow !
That was one of things that could not be done in bio^%$^% games and i hated them for that .

You had to have a mixture of different classes and in reality that meant that you had to create the same party every time

1 or 2 casters 1 or 2 priest 2 tanks 1 archer.

Yea it sucked.

I am happy that now i will be able to create the party i really want.

 

[Michael_Wolf]

Great interview! :mrgreen:

 

[Walks with the Snails]

It's nice he's not going for the typical CRPG level inflation and will stop off at 10. Really, at least in PnP, I always enjoyed low-level characters the most, we'd usually retire them at 9th level or so and start over.

Only thing is, I have a hard time seeing a 10th level solo character beating the game, especially through combat. Solos are hard to balance, though. If there's no cap and really high-end equipment for sale that's too expensive or rare to equip a whole party with, they own everything, since they can get ridiculously high-level and stack on all the best equipment. If the cap is set to about what one member of a 6-member party will have at the end, then they'll get slaughtered, plus you get bored when your character stops advancing when the game's only half over. Maybe if they don't set a level cap but stick to the CR system with the adjustments for party size for all experience awards it will work out, though.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Great interview! :mrgreen:

If you use any of it for your FAQ, I demand a link to RPG Codex! :D

It's nice he's not going for the typical CRPG level inflation and will stop off at 10. Really, at least in PnP, I always enjoyed low-level characters the most, we'd usually retire them at 9th level or so and start over.

I agree. After level 10 in 3E, characters just get way too uber.

Only thing is, I have a hard time seeing a 10th level solo character beating the game, especially through combat.

This was what I was wondering about also. If you solo, and you're capped at level 10, you'll end up with the same problem as Fallout Tactics since it divides experience by 6 regardless of how many people you have. The main difference is that you'll get as far as you can get faster.