Interview Lionheart Interview at Worthplaying

[Mistress]

Tags: Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader

<a href="http://www.worthplaying.com/">Worthplaying</a> have put up an <a href="http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=7481">interview</a> with <a href="http://lionheart.blackisle.com/">Lionheart</a> producer Chris Parker.
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Here's a couple of tidbits for you:
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<blockquote>12.Will there be any kind of laws? Or can you do pretty much anything you want?
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I don't recommend casting magic or attacking the guards in Barcelona. It's not wise. In most cases, committing evil actions have repercussions, but it depends on quite a bit on who and where those things take place. Breaking laws is of course punishable by death, because watching your character rot in a prison cell wouldn't be much fun.</blockquote>
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Awww...no rotting?!
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<blockquote>22.When is Black Isle going to make a 3D First Person Shooter?
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I don't know if we ever will... who knows? We've thought about it a couple of times, but while a lot of us really like FPSs, that doesn't necessarily mean we'd be really great at making one. We like making our role-playing games and I like to think we do know how to make them great.</blockquote>
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*shudder*
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Spotted over at <a href="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</a>

 

[Chadeo]

I don't know, I had a ton of fun playing System Shock 1/2. Dues Ex was also fun, though I thought the beginning was far better than the end. Nether game was a true hard core RPG though, but I still think one could be done.

If done right I think the FPS could use many rpg elements well. Then again the kind of people who enjoy playing mindless death matches over and over and over might not like an RPG, and the people who love turn based combat might hate FPS's, so it might be even more of a niche game.

I just think that it should not be dismissed out of hand, that’s all.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I don't know, I had a ton of fun playing System Shock 1/2. Dues Ex was also fun, though I thought the beginning was far better than the end. Nether game was a true hard core RPG though, but I still think one could be done.

If done right I think the FPS could use many rpg elements well. Then again the kind of people who enjoy playing mindless death matches over and over and over might not like an RPG, and the people who love turn based combat might hate FPS's, so it might be even more of a niche game.

I just think that it should not be dismissed out of hand, that?s all.

I shutter to think what BIS would do with a FPS shooter. There's a thread on the BIS forums where one of the BIS developers suggested making a first person shooter out of Fallout, which annoys me. Fallout's already been put through one ill fated spin off, and they're ready to drag it through the muck again.

I'd hate to see Fallout end up like X-Com.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Most of the people working at Black Isle Studios are intermediates, and have very little experience in RPGing aside from making pen and paper games and most of their experience lies in isometric CRPGs like IWD2 and so forth. They're just not ready for a project like System Shock 2, so they should just stick to designing what they do best.

I'd hate to see Fallout: The FPS as some lame experiment that will only serve to fuck up the entire franchise if they ever went through with it.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I don't recommend casting magic or attacking the guards in Barcelona. It's not wise. In most cases, committing evil actions have repercussions, but it depends on quite a bit on who and where those things take place. Breaking laws is of course punishable by death, because watching your character rot in a prison cell wouldn't be much fun.

I seriously hope Chris Parker is, yet again, ignorant of a feature of the game. The whole idea of committing a crime, getting caught, and having the whole town attack you is just silly. There should be consequences for actions, sure.. But this is not only taking it a bit too far, it's also half assed.

This is especially the case for casting a spell in town. Attacking a guard probably would result in the guards killing you, but casting a spell? Pick pocketting? Ugh..

They did this in Icewind Dale 2 and used the excuse that it's just a dungeon crawler, not a full fledged CRPG. So, what's the excuse for Lionheart doing it?

 

[Sol Invictus]

Personally, I'd prefer if they did it in the style of Morrowind than the usual IE faire of "I pickpocketted someone, and now the whole town is going The Invasion of the Body Snatchers on me."

It'd be nice if you got caught doing something illegal, you'd have to either pay the fine, bribe the guard, fight the guard, or go to jail.

 

[Spazmo]

It's interesting how in most RPGs, the only crimes you can get away with are the ones that are quests.

 

[Eric Dallaire]

I don't recommend casting magic or attacking the guards in Barcelona. It's not wise. In most cases, committing evil actions have repercussions, but it depends on quite a bit on who and where those things take place. Breaking laws is of course punishable by death, because watching your character rot in a prison cell wouldn't be much fun.

I seriously hope Chris Parker is, yet again, ignorant of a feature of the game. The whole idea of committing a crime, getting caught, and having the whole town attack you is just silly. There should be consequences for actions, sure.. But this is not only taking it a bit too far, it's also half assed.

This is especially the case for casting a spell in town. Attacking a guard probably would result in the guards killing you, but casting a spell? Pick pocketting? Ugh..

They did this in Icewind Dale 2 and used the excuse that it's just a dungeon crawler, not a full fledged CRPG. So, what's the excuse for Lionheart doing it?

We're debating about the guards attacking you if you cast a spell. It's part of the backstory - you would expect an Inquisitor to react if you summon a zombie in front of him. There are time constraints with what we can do and with what time we have left, but we are debating about this one right now.

As for guards attacking, they will attack and try to kill you if you attack a guard, or even vendors, as that's what's they're paid to do. But not if you pry into a chest and liberate the contents, attack a thief in the port area that attacked you...

 

[huh]

OK, I can understand how spawning zombies in a large public park of Barcelona would 'attract attention'. But doing the same in a dark deserted alley agains a couple of Inquisitor guards shouldnt affect my 'global standing' with the Universe.

Is it really that more time consuming to implement 'local' NPC reaction as opposed to 'global' NPC reaction? I don't know, just curious. (unless you don't have dark deserted alleys in your game)

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Good question. Lionheart supposedly has line of site for NPCs, so if you summon in a place where there aren't guards, what happens then? What about casting while sneaking? Or invisible? Do guards automatically know?

It would just be nice for once to have a CRPG with better consequences for actions than just every guard in the town trying to kill you. Chris Parker mentioned jail not being fun, for example. That's very narrow-minded. Jail doesn't have to be boring.

Look at the old CinemaWare title, It Came from the Desert, where you woke up in the hospitol every time something bad happened to you. It gave you the chance to stay in the hospitol, and lose out on time, or escape. Why not have a similar thing in jail?

You could have escape as a possibility, using lockpicking and sneak. If you have a high speech, you could talk a guard in to letting you go, or talk another thief in to helping you break out. If you're a great fighter, you could fight your way out. With a high Unarmed, you could win your freedom with pit matches. Naturally, killing guards or escaping things, this would lower your chances of moving around freely in the town, but it's something better than all the guards trying to kill you.

 

[Chadeo]

I shutter to think what BIS would do with a FPS shooter.

I still think that the FPS view/control system could be used very successfully with an RPG. In fact I think that my dream game would have a FPS view that would switch to an "over the shoulder" view during some situations (like say climbing a wall). I have not played it, but I really want to get my hands on Metriod Prime (Gamecube) to see how the switching view point and jumping actually feels during play.

I do agree though that the BiS guys would receive a huge dose of skepticism if they attempted this. I just wish someone out there would take the FPS viewpoint and make an RPG out of it. Heck I even consider half-life to be a bit of an RPG. It was liner and you could not pick your role, but still it was a fleshed out role, and it was an FPS.

So as long as we are all "BIS FPS=shudder" and not "RPG FPS=shudder" I am cool ;P

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I'm not a huge fan of first person CRPGs at all. It's the purist in me, but I fail to see why I have to aim and dodge for my character when they have a dexterity attribute.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

I'm not a huge fan of first person CRPGs at all. It's the purist in me, but I fail to see why I have to aim and dodge for my character when they have a dexterity attribute.

In a traditional RPG in the FP format, you do not have these kind of stats.
DX did not
SS Did not.
So, what is your point?
However, I doubt that BIS could currently pull of an FPS- just look at Torn and Lithtech, for Christ's sake.

 

[Section8]

There's no reason why you couldn't have a turn-based FPS. :D

 

[Sol Invictus]

There's no reason why you couldn't have a turn-based FPS. :D

The latter episodes fo the M&M series. That's why. If not done properly, it's like moving forward by 5 steps, clicking 'next' and watching as 100 monsters swarm on your ass and drain you 1 hp at a time. It's also a lot more difficult to plot your moves in a first person turn based game.

I'd prefer if turn based games stuck in a isometric 3rd person style of play.