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Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy - Interview
We thanks Strategy First Inc. [Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy], PRO SOTOS and Friederic Ferland.
[Italian Version]
IGZ. What are the difference between an rpg turn-based like "Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy" and a real time strategy game?
PS. The biggest difference is in the pace. Real-time games tend to be more frantic because everything moves at the same time. In turn-based games, players have the time to make more strategic decisions based on the information that’s available to them.
IGZ. As we can see in the screenshots, the graphic engine has improved a lot from Sacred Lands. Do you think it will be required a new generation graphic card (geforce3) to fully enjoy graphic features without latency?
PS.You definitely won’t need a GeForce3 to play Disciples II. Our programmers are doing all they can to get the game to run on as low end a system as possible. Right now it runs well on Pentium II, with an 8 meg video card and 64 megs of RAM.
IGZ. There will be a sort of multiplayer mode? How did you develop it?
PS. You’ll be able to play a Multiplayer game of Disciples II, on the Internet, on a LAN and Hot-Seat.
Friederic Ferland: Since the DirectPlay multiplayer from the first Disciples game worked fine, we simply reused it for Disciples II. It took roughly two weeks to make the modifications required to support Hot-Seat play.
IGZ. I have read there will be 28 missions to face. There will be linearity in facing scenarios? How important are our choices?
PS.There are 4 campaigns in the game, one for each race and together they tell the complete story. The choices that have an impact on the campaigns are the ones the players make when they choose the items and leaders they bring from mission to mission.
The campaign has been designed to tell the whole story, but it’s not linear in the sense that if you play the Empire’s campaign, you’ve played the first 7 missions, that is not true. All the missions in the campaigns are intertwined, so for example the first two missions of the Legions of the Damned represent the fifth and sixth parts of the story, and the only way to get the whole story is by playing all of the campaigns.
IGZ. Quests. How did you implemented them and how important are?
PS. As much time is spent on creating standalone quests as is on the campaigns. Quest designers have more freedom than campaign designers do because they don’t have to worry about the overall story, they just have one story to tell at a time.
IGZ. Non playable character's IA has been improved? The results are quite realistics?
PS. There is a definite improvement in the AI. With the addition of the event system the game is more dynamic, and to make sure that the players have a challenging computer opponent, a lot of time has been spent on the AI to make it stronger and more intelligent.
IGZ. The game is announced to be released in the first quarter of 2002. There are any news about this?
PS. The first quarter of 2002 is a very realistic date. It’s taken longer than we had hoped to get the game into the state it is now but the results are worth it. In the last few months everything has come together, especially the art and with the extra time we’ve made sure that all the art, programming and design material is as good as it can be.
IGZ. "Interaction with npcs and other elements of the game". Could you tell us something more?
PS. Probably my most favorite feature in Disciples II is the event system. What this allows us to do is create strategy games where we can place more emphasis on telling a story and developing characters. We can have situations where depending on the actions you perform, different situations might arise, you might get unexpected help or you might have an ally turn and attack you. The level of interaction between the npc’s and the players depends on the scenario designer and the story they want to tell.
IGZ. Have you planned to release a playable demo or a trailer in order to see the game "in action"? If so, when?
PS. We are working on a demo right now and it will be available in the coming months.
IGZ. Is there any question i haven't ask, you want to answer? :-)
PS. Every unit can gain experience and move up levels, even the neutral units. So any unit that joins your party can gain experience and move up levels, this includes elves, trolls, and dragons. This changes the game because if you attack a party with a summoned creature, you may weaken certain members, but you may also give certain members enough experience to move up levels.
Miscellaneous Screenshots
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