Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria Interview
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GB: First of all, how is development coming along with Warlords IV? Do you still anticipate having the game complete in Q3?
Steve: It may very well have gone gold by the time you read this, so we are right on schedule for the late Q3 / early Q4 release that we planned.
GB: For those viewers who are unfamiliar with the Warlords games, can you give us a brief explanation of how the previous games played and what your design goals have been with each?
Steve: Warlords was one of the earliest turn-based fantasy strategy games. In all of its 13 year history, it has kept the same simple basic and addictive gameplay at its core. You produce lots of fantastic creatures who, led by heroes, travel around the world capturing enemy cities, searching ruins, completing quests and finding treasures.
The goal of the first game was to simply give people a turn-based fantasy strategy game that was (wargame-ish) in nature. The only other alternatives at the time were King's Bounty and War of the Lance, and I wanted something with a very focused military feel that still captured the essence of an RPG.
The aim of the second title was just to expand the first with richer and deeper gameplay options. We also tried to open up the game to user-mod's letting players create new troops and sides. This was hugely popular.
With Warlords III, I wanted to not only retain the flavor and mod-ability of the previous games, but to create a system where players could constantly tinker with perfecting their play style. We achieved this by letting the player choose a small group of units from the overall unit pool. This was called an (army set). There is still a large Warlords III community around today who are constantly adding new troops, rebalancing old troops and creating new army sets they do a fantastic job!
Finally with Warlords IV, we wanted to add some new innovative features. The first and most-requested feature was tactical combat, but we also wanted to borrow the persistent leaders from Warlords Battlecry (our RTS spin-off series), since these provide a real link between games.
GB: What features will Warlords IV offer over that of its predecessors? What RPG elements will you be adding?
Steve: The three biggest new features are Tactical Combat, Persistent Warlords Characters, a completely new spell system, and our open-ended leveling system which allows all units, not just heroes, to gain lots of levels and cool new abilities.
GB: Can you give us a full description of the Speed Tactical System that will be available for combat?
Steve: The idea behind STS combat is to keep the combats short and entertaining without sacrificing depth. That has always been a hallmark of Warlords game. everything is so simple on the surface, but when you start really playing them, you begin to see all the possibilities opening up to you.
Anyway, with STS combat, when two groups fight, each side simply picks the next troop to go into combat. Those 2 units will fight and then when one is dead, that side picks its next unit (or casts a spell). This might sound very simple, but when you factor in 40 special abilities, combat can become a battle of wits. It feels very much like a collectible card game.
And when one side has no troops left, they lose!
GB: What role will a player's primary Warlord have in the game compared to a regular hero?
Steve: Your Warlord is important. He stays in the capital and cannot move out. He is very tough, which means that capitals can be very difficult to capture. The Warlord also learns and casts spells.
Players should try to make sure their Warlord stays alive, since if he is dead, not only are their heavy morale penalties to the side, but no more spells may be cast.
GB: Exactly how customizable will heroes be? Will hero advancement be based on a leveling system?
Steve: Heroes (and ALL units) level up during play. Every time they gain a level, a hero can choose to improve one of his two special abilities, his combat rating, or his life points.
GB: As in previous Warlords games, will players be able to acquire artifacts that can be utilized by heroes? Can you give us some examples of the more powerful items?
Steve: Oh yes! We have over 100 unique magical items. Beware of any hero who is fully kitted-out. They can be very nasty!
GB: Tell us a little bit about the ten races that will be available in Warlords IV and what advantages/disadvantages each may have.
Steve: I could write a book about the 10 races each one has quite different strengths and weaknesses. There are Knights, Empire, Dwarves, Ogres, Orcs, Undead, Dark Elves, Daemons, Dragons and Elves.
Just an example. the Elves can produce archers at twice the rate of any other side and they are very fast, but they have no Siege weapons to aid in attacking enemy cities. The Dwarves on the other hand are very slow, but also very good at stacking their cities full of tough little Dwarves to protect them from invasion.
GB: How many different maps do you intend to have available to players in the initial release of Warlords IV? Any particular areas that you feel really make the game shine?
Steve: The campaign has 32 maps. 10 of these form the core storyline, while the rest make up lots of little side-quests.
GB: Finally, what do you feel gives Warlords IV its appeal and sets it apart from the other strategy/role-playing games currently available?
Steve: The best thing about Warlords IV is that it is quite different from the other turn-based strategy games out there. The nicely-paced STS combat and persistent Warlords are something that nobody has really done in a TBS yet. We've all been working on it very hard for the last 6 months, and I see everybody in the office is still playing it for fun that's always a good sign!
We'd like to issue our thanks to everyone at Infinite Interactive, especially Steve, for taking the time to answer our questions!
