Interviews

Lionheart Interview

October 11, 2002 10:20 pm
Sean Gibson
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Despite some recent turbulent times at Interplay, the new games being developed by their role playing division – the post nuclear/Dungeon and Dragons demi-gods at Black Isle Studios – remain near the top of computer role playing fans “can’t-wait-for-that” list.

In addition to developing a sequel to the fan favorite Icewind Dale, Black Isle also announced at this year’s E3 a new role playing game: Lionheart. Developed by Reflexive Entertainment, Lionheart is based on the premise of the true historical 16th century world gone awry by an event known as the Disjunction. The Disjunction caused magical and spiritual forces to explode across the world. Though the magical rift has closed, the event has radically altered world history – as you might expect, the Renaissance gets overshadowed by magic and a bunch of unfriendly critters populating the world.

In addition to promising the rich role playing opportunity and excitement that Black Isle games are regarded for, Lionheart uses the open-ended, classless SPECIAL system of character development first seen and relished in Fallout. The SPECIAL system’s skills, perks, and traits offer endless possibilities for character development. Though Arcanum, Wizardry 8, and Morrowind had fantastic character development systems, the SPECIAL system still reigns for me due to its many layers and sense of humor. Players can choose from four character races unique to the setting; the fiend-tainted race sounds particularly interesting.

The game uses Reflexive’s own Velocity Engine. Game play is set in an isometric view with a combat system that will incorporate the “action point” system used in Fallout to determine how quickly one’s character can react. The magic system involves skills in three disciplines: tribal, thought, and divine. In keeping with the 16th century theme, practicing magic could lead to bad (possibly Unexpected) things from the Inquisition.

Gaming Illustrated got a chance to have our questions about Lionheart answered by Ion Hardie, Lionheart’s lead designer and co-producer.

interview

GI: Please tell us a little about yourself, your background in software design, and any role-playing experience you have.
Ion Hardie: My name is Ion Hardie, and I am the Lead Designer and Co-Producer on the project for Reflexive Entertainment. I have worked on a variety of other titles, including Star Trek: Away Team, Swarm, Ricochet and Zax: the Alien Hunter in design, lead design and SFX creation. My role-playing experience started early in 1982 when my friends and I would play D&D after school and on the weekends. I was the DM, and I could practically go through the module “Keep on the Borderlands” without looking at the map. I tried making my own module from scratch at the time, but I couldn’t muster the focus necessary to make an entire dungeon environment, replete with original enemies. Now it seems odd to me that, in a nutshell, that’s what I do for a living. My dad thought I was wasting my time. We also have a lot of other game players on the Reflexive Staff, and they have worked on a bunch of other titles themselves, including the original Icewind Dale and both Fallouts.

GI: Can you provide a brief history of Reflexive Entertainment?

Ion Hardie: Reflexive Entertainment was jolted into existence in 1997 because a fairly wealthy man, made so by his acquisition of tons of Microsoft stock as an employee, wanted to help out his cousin and own a game company at the same time. His funding offer was sudden, surprising, relatively unsolicited, and extremely disruptive to everyone’s life in the extreme. In short, it was too good to pass up, and the core design team of what is now Reflexive snatched up his offer with both hands. We began working on Swarm, and put out a game in 3 months that made the moneyman happy. He gave us funding for an additional 6 months, and we got a contract from Hasbro while working out of a condo in Irvine. We then moved to an actual office. Activision picked up Away Team, JoWood picked up Zax and now Black Isle has picked up Lionheart, and we made Ricochet on our own somewhere in the middle. And here we are. The very short version of almost 5 years of our corporate life.

GI: Please fill us in on the background story to Lionheart.

Ion Hardie: There is a divergent “break” with history that occurred in 1192 during the Battle of Acre in which Richard the Lionhearted inadvertently caused the Disjunction, a ritual that briefly tore the fabric of reality and let loose magic into the world. Chaos reigned, and spirits of light and darkness were spread to the four corners of the Earth. As a result of the Disjunction, many historical events have been seriously altered. The game starts some 400 years later in Nueva Barcelona, a city rebuilt upon the ruins of Barcelona. Spain is about to unleash the Spanish Armada on England, who is occupying much of Northern France. The Inquisition has a strong foothold in much of Europe in its quest to eradicate magic and magical beings. Subtly, and over many years there has been increased unrest in the world and signs point to what could be a second Disjunction. Whether the player wants to play as a good or an evil character, there is a reason for them to care about this happening…and we don’t want to spoil it.

GI: What inspired the story behind Lionheart?

Ion Hardie: Black Isle was originally talking to us about doing an RPG using the Fallout SPECIAL system and pitched the idea of doing a game with some ties to real history, but altered and somehow different. So, after a lot of major brainstorming we began to develop a story based on the design parameters of “historical, yet different.” The history of the Renaissance seemed like an intriguing and rich era to work with, so we began looking specifically at that time period. With everyone doing research into history, including our lead writer Eric Dallaire, many of the events actually presented themselves to us.

GI: How much historical research went into creating the setting for Lionheart? Will players recognize any real historical places, events and/or persons that have otherwise been altered by the game’s Disjunction event?

Ion Hardie: An extremely extensive amount of research took place as we poured over numerous books and websites to get as much knowledge about general historical events and personnel as we could. Our lead writer then focused on events that were both more interesting and fit our specific needs. He then researched these topics even further to uncover the specific storylines and details that now pepper the game. We did that so we could alter it and still keep as much of the general dynamic behind it as possible and build upon actual history. Without giving out spoilers of particular examples of how they fit, it is possible to meet the following figures: Leonardo DaVinci, Galileo, Machiavelli – the Italian philosopher, and Cervantes – the Spanish author…and more. If you join the Inquisition and earn the trust of the Inquisitors, you could gain an audience with the Grand Inquisitor himself!
GI: Can you describe how the four possible character races fit into the overall story?

Ion Hardie: When the Disjunction occurred in history, it changed both the land and the people forever. With magic now tainting this version of history, it began to physically change humanity over time, causing some bloodlines to manifest what some pureblood humans would consider deformities. As such, we have introduced four races you will be able to choose from: Human, Sylvant, Feralkin, and Demokin. Each of these races has different starting statistics and they each have some race-specific perks and traits that you can acquire. Sylvants, for instance, are among the most magical of the races. They are descendents of parents with magical spirits, usually elementals, so they possess physical traits like metallic colored hair or skin. The demokins are tainted with a fiendish ancestry and usually show tell-tale physical traits like pointed ears or sharp teeth, but they are often clever enough to blend in very well with pureblood humans. The feralkins display obvious signs of a magic ancestry passed down from some bestial spirit. Their physically larger stature, pointed teeth, and clawed hands easily give them away in a crowd. We added these new races to give players a chance to differentiate their characters and to also allow NPCs to react differently depending on your choice of race. For instance, you will have a more difficult time speaking with the Inquisition if you are not a pureblood human, especially a Feralkin, but these disadvantages are balanced with other abilities.

GI: Can you describe the Velocity engine, its features, and how Lionheart will make use of those features?

Ion Hardie: The Velocity Engine is a robust proprietary Reflexive gaming engine that has been used in previous gaming titles including Zax: the Alien Hunter and Star Trek: Away Team. We are using it for Lionheart as an isometric engine to render 2D backgrounds while real-time converting 3D models into 2D images. This allows us to maintain anti-aliasing with our 3D characters and allows for 3D characters to be blended perfectly into every scene. An additional benefit is that we can have an extensive amount of equipment changes. The Velocity Engine also gives us the power to modify the ground in real-time, making lava or acid literally chase you through a given level. If you had a chance to play Zax, you undoubtedly fell prey to lava eating the ground beneath your feet at least once. I promise that evil things will chase you around in Lionheart as well.

GI: Can you give us an idea of what skills, perks, and traits will be included in Lionheart’s SPECIAL system?

Ion Hardie: Lionheart’s rule system will be very similar to the SPECIAL system in Fallout, although we’ve had to modify some of the rules for the conversion to real-time and the addition of a magic system. At the start of the game, during character generation as you would expect, you will be able to manipulate the character’s primary statistics: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Agility, and Luck. The character starts out with some initial skill values based on these attributes. We have Fighting Skills, Thieving Skills and Magical Skill categories that all of our individual skills fall into. There are currently over 65 skills, as we present our magic spells as skills that the player can advance by spending points on. The player will also have the ability to choose tag skills, skills that your character is more proficient at and will increase at a more dramatic rate through the game. Like Fallout, there are no classes because SPECIAL is a skill based system. Also like Fallout, you will be able to choose traits to differentiate your character and add some personality. As you progress, you will earn skill points to improve your character and every third level will be present you with the ability to gain a perk. The design currently has over 60 Perks. Some of them might not make it into the final game, but they cover everything from increasing stats to improving skills, to improving critical hits. One example of a completely new Perk should be nothing of a surprise:

Enlightenment The divine character has become more in tune with the will of their god or gods through extreme devotion and practice. Selecting this perk means that casting costs are subsequently decreased for all Divine Magic spells across the board by 15%. This is a one-time adjustment at the time the Perk is selected.Number of Ranks: 1Requirements: When any Divine Magic skill is at 100 or greater, Perception of 6

GI: Is Pip Boy, or perhaps his medieval ancestor, going to show up in Lionheart’s character development system?

Ion Hardie: We are designing Lionheart to have its own identity and feel. While we are using the SPECIAL system from Fallout, it is important to note that this is not a medieval version of Fallout. We are not going to be using the Pip Boy in Lionheart, as that is a Fallout invention and identifying component.

GI: Were there any alterations that had to be made to the SPECIAL system in order to incorporate it into a fantasy setting?
Ion Hardie: The SPECIAL system is an extremely robust and adaptable system. When Black Isle suggested the SPECIAL system, it seemed a natural fit; even with the real-time issues and introduction of fantasy elements. As an example, the concept of Action Points will be preserved, so agility is still very important. However, Action Points will be converted into a real-time formula that relates to the character’s overall speed. In general, the more Action Points you have the faster your character will move and the faster your attacks will be. Also, we are replacing guns with bows and crossbows, so many formulas are modified to take this into account. Magic is by far the largest of the differences, but again the SPECIAL system is very adaptable. We simply added Magic spells into the Skill advancement section with other non-magical skills like Stealth and Barter so that balancing them against each other has been easier.

GI: What sort of dialogue system will Lionheart use?

Ion Hardie: Dialogue will play an important role in Lionheart. Just as is the case in previous Black Isle RPGs, you will have the ability to drive the story with your character and choose your own path. During the game you will have the ability to choose dialogue options that will lead you down an evil path, a good path, or a path somewhere in-between. If you happen to acquire speech related skills or perks, it might be possible to use diplomacy instead of combat for particular situations, although other people might still prefer to do battle. Not all encounters will be avoidable through diplomacy, as there are creatures in the world that are unable or unwilling to speak with you. However the skill will be prevalent enough that it will be useful to those people looking for a deep roleplaying experience. Dialogue will be similar to that in Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale, however, the dialogues are real-time, so you can start one and then walk away. We also use a variety of different checks in each dialogue (depending on the character you are talking to) to determine how that character responds to your player, what sorts of things they want to tell you, and even what quests (or lack there of) are available to you.

GI: How open-ended will the path through Lionheart’s quest be? Is it possible to play and succeed as a neutral or evil character?

Ion Hardie: It is indeed possible to play through the game via a good, neutral and evil path. There will be countless opportunities and choices presented to the player that will allow them complete control of their own destiny. In addition to the choices themselves, the repercussions of the various decisions made will have an impact on how the game unfolds. We do have somewhat of an overall story and path that the character explores, but there are different reasons to do different things. And, as our lead writer put it, the evil ending was so evil, he felt bad writing it…which was good, I think.

GI: How will combat be handled in Lionheart?

Ion Hardie: We’re currently still testing the combat balance of the game. Weapon combat currently works on a per click swing/shoot basis AND on a click-once-to-pummel-to-death basis. This means that we are currently testing the game with both “mouse-click”, where each swing corresponds to an individual character action, and “target once”, where the player character will keep trying to kill the opponent until he is told something else to do. The game will have, as its default setting, whichever we determine is more fun to play through extensive testing.

This is the crazy thing: we are considering on both being supported in the final game! It would be as easy as going to the options menu and modifying how the character fights. Other combat options, like spells, would not be cast automatically of course, but the player would have this choice when it comes to hand-held and ranged weapons.

GI: How much will Lionheart emphasize combat? Will non-combat oriented characters be able to talk or sneak their way out of combat?

Ion Hardie: You will be able to use a Sneak skill to assist in avoiding combat. In fact, we’re planning some interesting things for Sneak that will work differently than Fallout. The main concept that we are currently working with is the ability to gain experience by sneaking on a per enemy basis. If you successfully sneak by an opponent, you get 75% of that enemy’s experience value. If you were to go back and kill that enemy, you get the other 25% of the experience. This rewards players and gives them the experience they need to keep using Sneak as a viable option as the game gets harder. As mentioned previously, you will be able to obtain speech related skills and perks. Using these skills, it might be possible to use diplomacy instead of combat for particular situations.

GI: What will Lionheart offer to encourage replaying it?

Ion Hardie: We will be tracking your karma transparently on a per faction basis, meaning that you won’t see your karma rating, but things you do in the game will effect your reputation with the different factions. If you wrong a faction, they will treat you differently – perform tasks for them and they will like you. This will ultimately contribute to Lionheart having different endings, some based on actions and decisions you made earlier in the game, and others determined on your approach to the final solution. Without getting into spoilers, your choice of faction and your choice of a good, evil, or neutral path will also influence the outcome of the last encounter. The choices you make will also affect the types of historical figures you might meet along the way. In addition, the type of character that you create and develop will play the game differently. A stealthy character will have a much different experience than a magic caster who likes to burn everyone up. All of these elements will lend themselves to the replay value of Lionheart.

GI: What do you think will make Lionheart stand out as a role playing game in a Neverwinter/Morrowind world?

Ion Hardie: The ability of the player to interact with historical events and characters from Earth, with an altered twist, is the main differentiation here. We have done an extensive amount of historical research to try to mimic and twist history to suit our gaming purposes. Hopefully this shows in the dialog options and places that the character visits. Also, I think you will see that the graphics are top notch. I am sure that a lot of games say that, but just wait until you see the Spanish Armada in the port of Nueva Barcelona with their flags fluttering in the wind.

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Lionheart is currently in the pre-Alpha stage of development and is currently scheduled for release in Winter 2002. Check out Black Isle’s Lionheart site – http://lionheart.blackisle.com/index.html – to learn more about Reflexive’s exciting revisionist history and your character’s destiny within. Our massive thanks and big handed applause to Ion Hardie for taking the time to answer our questions and to the Interplay PR team for setting up the interview!