Liquid Entertainment Interview
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Q: Not much is known about Dragonshard (Liquid's upcoming D&D game), but from the few screens I have seen it is certainnly looking sweet. Could you give us just a few tidbits to wet our mouths with? I hear it is an RTS, but
with Role Playing elements thrown in also?
A: DragonShard is definitely a hybrid-genre game. We are absolutely incorporating Role Playing aspects - it is, after all, a Dungeons & Dragons game :) For example, you may have heard or seen that there are two levels of play. The motivation for a second play level was not to create a bullet item for marketing, or a technology or gameplay gimmick, but to allow us to explore the Dungeons & Dragons feel within our game. This second level allows us to provide the "dungeons" part of the D&D gameplay experience. It will be about exploration of the underground with an adventuring party, and paying careful attention to the environment. There will be traps, monsters, treasures, items, weapons, spell, and secrets, and the entire realm will react to the player's presence.
As for RTS elements, we are doing some new things here as well. Imagine the construction of a town being more than just the tedious process of placing down buildings. Now, there will be strategy to how you lay out your village - it will be part of the game. Buildings will grant bonuses not simply because you buy an upgrade, but because of how you decide to expand your town. On the unit side, we are creating a new system of handling your army. Rather than cranking out tons of units and throwing them at the enemy, you will have a variety of Captains, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and they will lead squads of your army Regulars, who make up the bulk of your forces. The Captains will have special abilities that will enhance the Regulars in their squads. Think of the Captains as cool D&D characters who are strong leaders of bands of men.
These few features are just some of the things that we're really excited about. (Some other fun things are a Beholder with eyestalks that track targets individually, a Gelatinous Cube that sucks units up into it, a fully dynamic lighting system, monsters with individual AI, ...)
