|
|
| |
|
|
|
Team Areola - Ethermoon Interview
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Ethermoon
Entertainment President, Martin Snyder on Ethermoon's
new game, Strifeshadow
Introduction
by o]SK[o:
As many of you already know, Strifeshadow is
a new multi-player only RTS game that has recently
been released by a company called Ethermoon.
A lot of the game creators are Starcraft fans,
some of whom you might have heard of before
(Zileas, YourRoleModel, Praetor, Pillars--as
a tester). I recently had the pleasure to sit
down (well, I was sitting when I wrote the questions
:P) with Ethermoon president, Martin Snyder
and ask him a series of questions about the
game from a Starcraft point of view. Basically,
the questions were asked so that SC fans could
have a better understanding of the game using
SC as a knowledge base. At any rate, here's
the interview...
teamareola.com:
Since Strifeshadow is a multiplayer
only game, does this mean no computer AI has
been created yet for 1 player mode, or does
it simply mean scenarios and a story line have
yet to be created?
Ethermoon:
Think in terms of how you'd play a board game
like Risk. That's what we mean by multiplayer
only. There is no computer opponent for any
of the game modes, you can only play against
other human opponents. A computer AI is only
one aspect of a single player portion of an
RTS game (storyline and scenarios are others
of course as well as media creation, voice acting,
etc...). Honestly, we feel that if players really
like single player RTS games that there are
plenty of them out there, and plenty more on
the way. It's not something we thought the world
needed. Compare that to multiplayer RTS games,
and there haven't really been many that offer
a valuable game play experience for an extended
period of time.
As for a story, Strifeshadow does have one.
Strifeshadow is intended to support fans in
the myriad of things they like to do to extend
games. StrifeEdit is a big part of that, but
our story is too (so people have a context within
which they can place their creations). Chapter
one of the story is available in PDF format
on our website:
here
The full story is available on the Strifeshadow
CD only and is also in PDF format. It's about
115 pages long or so.
teamareola.com:
It's been said in your FAQ (and appears that
way in the game) that Strifeshadow focuses more
on battle tactics and less on resource management.
Does this mean peon raids are a tactic of the
past?
Ethermoon:
Yes and no. You don't really "pump peons" in
Strifeshadow the way Starcraft fans will be
accustomed to, so raiding peons takes on another
meaning. Resources are just as important though,
they are just collected in a different way.
You're more likely to raid Aether towers than
peons (depending on your strategic goals) as
towers are the primary resource collection vehicle.
When you collect Aether, you build a series
of connected towers, much like telephone poles.
As you build your network, you expose more and
more of yourself to attack. Damage to a tower,
or leaving too much distance between towers
will decrease the efficiency of your collection
network. Of course you can repair and/or add
towers to maintain a 100% collection rate. Ikon
and Arikon are both mined in a form similar
to vespene gas in Starcraft in that you build
a structure and then put units to work in it.
In Strifeshadow though you usually need only
one people (throughout our resource system,
you never have to ask yourself if you're mining
at peak efficiency - it's all spelled out so
you know for sure what's going on). Peons are
also used to set and disarm traps - so in terms
of peon raiding, you're usually trying to accomplish
one of the following:
- 1 - Prevent your opponent from building
structures and traps, prevent repairing,
or otherwise force him or her to spend resources
on replacements
- 2 - Prevent your opponent from being able
to easily detect and/or disarm your traps
- 3 - Prevent your opponent from mining
Ikon and/or Arikon, and potentially steal
those resources for yourself. When you kill
a peon carrying resources, they drop to
the ground and can be collected by anyone's
peons.
teamareola.com:
What kinds of innovative
features does Strifeshadow offer that differ
from current RTS games?
Ethermoon:
We have a section of our website that discusses
this in pretty fine detail: Strifeshadow Features
Strifeshadow distinguishes itself in three key
areas - Strategic depth, tactical focus, and
community features. Strategic depth refers to
the wealth of options available to the player
at every turn in the game. Almost every situation
has at least 2-3 viable response options. The
tactical focus refers to the variety of features
that reward a player's unit control. In some
cases, it's unit specific dealing with spells
and special abilities. In others it's more general
things such as our directional damage system
which rewards flanking and pincer moves.
The community features refers to the variety
of features that are used "outside the game"
- things like:
- - Automated 1v1 ladder, 2v2 ladder and
tournaments
- - StrifeEdit which allows you to create
maps and game mods
- - Replays including a replay annotation
feature
teamareola.com:
Does Strifeshadow have defensive
structures, and if so, how do they work?
Ethermoon:
Each race has one defensive structure which
is general purpose. It can hit both land and
air units with significant power. There are
restrictions on placing defensive structures
though. You can't place them too near other
objects, but at the same time they must be near
a working Aether tower network. In all but the
most obscure applications, they are used for
defensive purposes only.
In addition to this, each race has 3 traps that
can augment it's defense. One of these is always
a direct damage trap, while the other two perform
a variety of other tasks such as spying, teleporting,
paralyzing, etc...
Traps are placed by worker units and can be
detected either by other worker units or by
activating the trap. Traps can be removed by
worker units, siege weapons, or by activating
them too many times, causing them to burn out.
Normally a trap is activated by having units
walk over it, triggering the trap and causing
bad stuff to happen to your enemy.
teamareola.com:
You have included an editor with the game. What
kinds of things are possible with the editor
and are we likely to find "The Fastest SS map
ever?"
Ethermoon:
The editor is actually the tool that Ethermoon
created (or Artius created) used to assemble
the game, so you can make more or less anything
with it. Obviously you can make maps, but you
can also make balance changes, create new units,
and even create whole races. All of this is
easily integrated into the game, and can be
shared with other players when they join a game
you host.
Of course, you can also use StrifeEdit to examine
the existing units and races in great detail.
Someone will probably make a stupid map or mod
sooner or later. How successful something like
that is really depends on the community more
than us. We try not to encourage stuff like
that though as it causes breakdowns in the game
dynamics.
teamareola.com:
Damage types and unit size play an important
role in SC as far as tactics go. Are there damage
types in Strifeshadow or some sort of tactical
equivalent?
Ethermoon:
Yes, there is a counter system built into the
Strifeshadow engine. It's not focused on groups
the way Starcraft is, rather Strifeshadow is
based on unit types. For instance, archers are
more effective against air units than they are
against other units.
teamareola.com:
Is there a way to write AI computer scripts
or will there be a way in the future?
Ethermoon:
There isn't right now. It's something we're
considering for the future though.
teamareola.com:
From playing the demo, the controls look to
be very similar to controls of any RTS. Does
Strifeshadow have any more controls for the
more advanced players?
Ethermoon:
No, we more or less stuck with a simple control
structure like that. Advanced players typically
don't press the UI buttons though, they rely
more on hotkeys. We have two hotkey systems.
A "logical" one similar to what Starcraft does,
and a positional one where the hotkeys are attached
to locations on the UI.
teamareola.com:
Since units engage other units in melee combat
such that they can't turn to face flanking enemies,
is there ever a way to retreat from battle,
or do you just take extra hits if you do?
Ethermoon:
The easiest way to retreat in that situation
is to not commit yourself too early in a battle
(before you know if you're outnumbered or not).
Once you get surrounded by greater numbers,
those units are pretty much dead. In even numbers
though, you can escape engage fairly easily
- you'll only take a couple of extra hits and
will probably lose 1-2 units.
Keep in mind that you don't have engage until
a few minutes into the game, you have to research
it or earn it by having your units level. Also,
not all units can be engaged. Most of the basic
combat units and spell casters can be. Peons
and mid-tech combat units cannot (in general).
Engage slows affected enemy units, but only
for a short time, and although it is automatic
after research, it has a slow reload time. However
when 5-6 guys surround 1 or 2, and each of the
5 or 6 can 'engage' in a slightly staggered
way just by nature of when they can reach their
target, those 1-2 units are basically "hauled
down and killed" if they try to run... so it's
better just to fight.
teamareola.com:
Are in-depth details of unit statistics available
yet?
Ethermoon:
Because of the way the combat engine works,
specific stats don't have much meaning since
everything happens in the context of what unit
your fighting against (and potentially several
other damage modifiers). You can look up the
raw values easily in StrifeEdit, but the most
important thing to understand is the matchups.
When you face spiders for instance, archers
are your best weapon against them, melee fighters
your worst, and many other units are more or
less even. That kind of understanding is far
more important than knowing any numbers.
teamareola.com:
Did there seem to be a race preference in beta
testing, or do people seem pretty much evenly
split?
Ethermoon:
A lot of this has to do with play style. We
did several experiments with the balance of
specific units during the beta which caused
the preference to switch fairly often.
I would add that at the end of the beta, and
right now, it does indeed look to be pretty
even.
teamareola.com:
There has been some disappointment in the SC
community over the RPG (role-playing game) integration
of Warcraft III. Does Strifeshadow have RPG
elements?
Ethermoon:
Not really. Units can level, but that's about
it. It doesn't really impact the game in the
way hard-core RPG features would. The idea of
Strifeshadow is to refine the multiplayer RTS
experience. As many people have realized if
you add a lot of hybrid features, you significantly
change that original experience.
teamareola.com:
For people new to the game, is there a way to
ramp up (i.e. play the computer, etc.), or do
newbies just have to learn the hard way?
Ethermoon:
There are a series of tutorials that explain
the game mechanics. Most people jump in and
get killed their first game, but they can easily
save the replay to watch what was done to them.
Nothing gets you up to speed faster than copying
your opponent after getting killed. Usually
just takes 2-3 games to figure out everything
you need to know. For many people that's faster
than reading a manual or watching all the tutorials.
teamareola.com:
Looking forward, will Ethermoon be starting
a new project, or will you guys be simply supporting
and expanding Strifeshadow?
Ethermoon:
For now it's the latter. We're focused on supporting
Strifeshadow and increasing it's availability
to international markets.
teamareola.com:
Are there likely to be expansion packs for Strifeshadow,
and will they be available for a price or as
patches?
Ethermoon:
Anything's possible - it mostly depends on the
community that forms and what makes sense at
the time. As for whether they'd be for a price
or as a patch, that would largely depend on
exactly what we put in it :)
teamareola.com:
What people in the SC community REALLY want
to know is how the hell you micro your reavers
and shuttles so well ;)?
Ethermoon:
Ha, too bad for you Zileas didn't answer these
questions
BTW... a three ranger drop with the speedy Sylvan
Divan Chair can take out unprotected towers
quickly in a manner not entirely unlike a Reaver
Drop.
teamareola.com:
Anything you guys would like to add to this
that would be of interest to the SC Community,
feel free to add. :)
Ethermoon:
I would add that as a Starcraft player myself,
I was frustrated that very few other games offered
that fresh and new feeling of discovery when
playing online with other players... it seemed
like, other than Starcraft, very few other RTS
game paid much attention to the player vs. player
details and balances that made learning SC so
much fun. We've had people tell us that Strifeshadow
has given them that same feeling of discovery
and excitement when you start to get past learning
the units and start to try out different combinations
of strategies and tactics.
For more information please visit:
http://www.ethermoon.com |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
