Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader Interview

Ion Hardie: My name is Ion Hardie, and I am the Lead Designer and Co-Producer for Lionheart. This means that I live in my office. Luckily, the Producer on the project, Lars Brubaker, is good at going around and talking to people and making sure that they have what they need. I do schedules, make crazy design decisions that I then have to convince others to implement, make and script levels and still try to keep it all real and possible within our milestone requirements. Mixed into this, I try to play the latest games and see what's out there. A real must for people in this industry.

I never wanted to write screen captions... I always wanted to be a lumberjack!

Something's cookin'

AT: We heard that the gameplay is somewhat similar to the one we experienced in the Fallout series. What are the main similarities in terms of gameplay?

IH: The main similarity between Lionheart and the Fallout series is the use of the SPECIAL rule system. I want to stress up front that Lionheart is its own game, and is not a Fallout sequel or derivative work. The rule system will be very similar between the two titles, but there are many other differences between them. For example, we have introduced two exciting new elements that will set Lionheart apart. First we have introduced real-time combat, which you can read more about below. We've also added magic, which is also further discussed below.

AT: Is most of the game combat oriented?

IH: I would say that Lionheart is "combat heavy". There are ways to, in some situations, talk your way out of combat or, in just about any situation, sneak your way out of fighting, but opportunities abound to bust some heads. The real-time combat in Lionheart is exceptional. We've gone to great lengths to make it very realistic. If you have a small sword, it does less damage but is quicker. A very large sword is slow but does more damage. This is analogous to how the APs worked in Fallout, it just takes place in real-time. So, in addition to the combat itself, perks will do things like speed up how quickly you can use a weapon, give you bonus damage for a weapon type, and all those sorts of things that they did in previous SPECIAL titles.

AT: Skills obviously represent the crux of the gameplay. Name some of these skills and explain a little bit about the SPECIAL system and the importance of Perks (and other various abilities).

IH: SPECIAL stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. The SPECIAL system is basically a system of statistics and rules that allow for classless, open-ended character development. Each of the attributes you assign some amount of points to helps to define your character. Characters in the system have Race, Attributes, Skills, Traits, and Perks. At the heart of the SPECIAL system are skills. Skills are measured in points and many can go anywhere from 0 to 255; the value you choose is used, along with other modifiers, to determine whether or not you do something successfully in the game. There are a number of skills including weapon and spell skills, sneaking, lock picking, and more. Since the system is classless, your character is defined by the skills you choose. You have total control over defining the character, deciding how you want them to improve and how much you want them to improve.

AT: There will be four races to choose from. What are they and what are their main characteristics?

IH: The four races are Sylvant, Demokin, Feralkin and Human. Each of the races begins the game with different statistics and have some race-specific traits that they choose up front and can obtain race-specific perks along the way. Sylvants are among the most magical of the races. As direct descendents of parents with magical spirits, they possess unique physical traits such as metallic colored hair or skin. Demokins are part of a fiendish ancestry and often display obvious physical traits such as pointed ears or sharp teeth. However, they are often clever enough to blend inconspicuously with pureblooded humans. Feralkins display clear signs of a magic ancestry passed down from some bestial spirit. They exhibit a large physical stature, pointed teeth and, sometimes, clawed hands which make them easy to find in a crowd.

AT: Tell us more about the character creation system.

IH: In the game you play a single character that you create using the SPECIAL rules system. As discussed above, you have ultimate control over nearly every aspect of your character. You assign points to the Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck attributes. From these stats, all of your secondary statistics are determined. These statistics can include things like Resistances, Hit Points, Action Points, and base Skills. You can then pick Tag Skills, which are basically skills that you want your character to be exceptional at. You then spend points on the various skills themselves. Every few levels you can pick a Perk, which is a special ability that further defines your character.

AT: We saw some pretty neat spells at work on some of the available screens. How does this magic system work?

IH: The background for our magic system has some features that really differentiate it from traditional fantasy RPGs. When the Disjunction occurred, it unleashed various spirits and powerful beings from other planes. While on Earth, these spirits were essentially powerless without a vessel, so many of them sought out suitable hosts. While creating your character, you will be able to choose which kind of spirit you would like to become a host for. There are currently three types of spirits to choose from: thought, divine and tribal. Although the choice of a certain spirit does not prevent you from pursuing any specific kind of magic, the spirits each have their own personalities and will occasionally converse with you during certain situations. Our system is skill-based, so within each of these classes is a skill tree of specific spells. As you gain skill points by leveling, you can improve the power of a certain spell by adding skill points to it. By placing skill points into spells, you'll be able to access other spells within the magic class, since many of the more powerful spells have skill rank requirements. Like other RPGs, you will need to spend mana to cast magic. However, unlike other fantasy RPGs, mana is not based on intelligence, since it is your spirit that generates your magic power. The current model we are exploring instead uses your perception and charisma stats. Your perception allows you to attune yourself to the spirit, while charisma allows you to better impose your will on the spirit to tap its magical energy.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisitionnnnn!

She's gotta be wearin' fire-proof shoes.

AT: Are NPCs crucial to the player's progress throughout the game? Just how important is their role in the game?

IH: There will indeed be NPCs in Lionheart that are crucial to your progress. Some will give you assistance, some will give you quests and some will join you on quests. The significance of a given NPC, or the amount of time they stay with you is dependant upon many factors. For the most part, NPCs join with you because your paths have crossed along the way toward a similar short-term goal. Once that goal is accomplished, they tend to go their own way (thus becoming less crucial to your progress).

What is really exciting and unique about Lionheart is that you will have the ability to meet and join with actual historical figure NPCs: famous scholars, artists, conquistadors, and politicians of the time. In addition to Leonardo DaVinci and Galilelo, you will also be able to meet Machiavelli, the Italian philosopher, and Cervantes, a Spanish author. Each of these characters will reflect their historical personalities in some ways, but will also reflect differences as a result of the alternate history.

AT: What sort of interface have you guys prepared for the game?

IH: The most important feature of the interface is that it is easy to use. This should always be the most important feature, but it is often overlooked to make the UI more sparkly and fancy. That means it needs to deliver all of the information the player needs and offer all the options they need, in the smallest space and in the most convenient way. So those were our goals designing the interface. Some of the specific features include grouping items into easily interpreted forms. For example, in the Skills section we broke the skills up into types so that you can navigate through certain types of skills without them without having to go through every single skill. We provide a series of quick slots for items and spells and whatever else the player decides they need quick access too. The interface features pages for the Character Information, Inventory, Journal, Map, and of course Options. A lot of time and consideration has gone into each of these to make them as easy to use as possible.

AT: There's a lot we wish to learn about the various enemies we'll be encountering in Lionheart; what type of monsters and villains we can expect, the AI routine, etc.

IH: There are a large number of monsters in the game, over 100 if you count the various NPCs that could be either opponents or allies depending on how you play your character. The creatures you will potentially square off against range from mindless undead to wild beasts to highly intelligent and motivated enemy characters. A specific example of one of these creatures is an extremely intelligent, yet barbaric enemy race that does a disgusting amount of gloating about their equally disgusting and gruesome pursuits. In writing their dialog and creating their look, our team did some historical research and chose to blend their historical roots with those of the Mongol hordes that swept the Eurasian continent in an earlier time period. Without giving too much away, you'll get a chance to become involved with the high-brow and darkly-comedic grotesque encounters that these creatures play a role in.

As for the AI, in some cases behavior is as simple as 'if you see the player, attack the player'. That type of arrangement would represent something like a mindless undead sort of creature. The behavior would be further complicated by something like a wild animal that might attack only if threatened and retreat if attacked or beaten down. Then there are complicated AIs such as bosses, intelligent enemies, and so on. These are the ones to look out for as they will use all types of tactics when they encounter the player including healing themselves, casting spells, retreating, calling for reinforcements, etc. So, in other words, keep on your toes as you will never know exactly how well one of them is going to fight back!

AT: The game encompasses over 100 quests. Do any of them bear significant influence on the game's plotline?

IH: Some of the quests play a large role in determining the path that the player will follow through the rest of the game. For example, early in the game the player can choose to follow one of four distinct paths by aligning themselves with one of the main factions. This choice dictates many of the quests that are available to the player for that portion of the game. As for the quests themselves, we are trying to include many different types of quests and, as much as possible, are trying to have multiple ways of solving each quest. Where possible, we will have a dialogue, a combat, a sneaky, and/or a magic way to solve a quest. This won't always be the case however, so don't think you'll be getting out of a big boss that you need to defeat by being sneaky.

AT: Is there anything you can say about the multiplayer aspect of the game? What modes can the players except to experience in Lionheart?

IH: At this point we are focusing primarily on having a cooperative multiplayer component, which will allow up to four human players to go through the single player story cooperatively. In single player mode you create your protagonist and at any given time may have a number of NPCs who have joined with you. But NPCs that join you along the way don't necessarily stay with you for the entire game. So in single player it is highly unlikely you'll be walking around with an entourage of 4 characters very often. In multiplayer, you can start the game with 4 characters. This should change the dynamic of play quite a bit because diverse characters will be able to work together more as a team and capitalize on their individual skills more. The game will also balance levels based on how strong your party is. The more players you have, or stronger your individual character, the more enemies are created to fight, more powerful enemies are spawned, or a combination of the two.

AT: When will we see Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader on the shelves?

IH: Lionheart is slated for release in the fourth quarter of this year.