Expeditions: Viking Interview
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 1962
RPGWatch has published a rather broad interview with Jonas Wæver, Creative Director at Logic Artists, the team behind upcoming Expeditions: Viking. The interview touches on modern RPG market in general, then provides a fair share of insight into “under the hood” stuff like choice and consequence, character design, game's raiding mechanics, and so on. A few lines to get you started:
RPGWatch: Lets start with a general question. What do you like or don't like in RPGs nowadays? Do you miss something in RPGs nowadays?
Jonas Wæver: It's difficult to miss anything in the genre what with all these modern day old-school revivals like Wasteland and Pillars of Eternity. If anything, I'd say I miss something about the audience (including myself) which is that our expectations were different, we had much lower standards for detail and content density. What with the Infinity Engine games being revived by Obsidian and InXile recently, I've been wishing for a modern version of Might & Magic VI, but that sort of game just couldn't exist these days - it's too big and scarce, it'd feel empty.
RPGWatch: Spears can attack targets two hexes afar but is there some significant difference between other melee weapons - axes, swords and single-bladed daggers (scramasax)? Could heroes be overloaded in fight if they carry too much?
Jonas: Both spears and dane-axes have reach. The differences between sword, axe, and knife (we use the Old English word seax in dialogue) is in their stats and the abilities you unlock with them. Each weapon skill has its own set of abilities that require you to be wielding that weapon. Axes have somewhat utility-style abilities that let you mess with enemies' shields or weapons. Swords have abilities that focus on individual combat. Knives are all about being a sneaky, stabby bastard.
There is no encumbrance in the game. Each character has two weapon sets that they can switch between in combat, any weapons not equipped in one of these sets cannot be used.
