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Chaos League: Sudden Death Q&A Feature
Derek dela Fuente
01/06/2005
The chaos is back as TVG chats to the guys at Cyanide...
Chaos League returns with a boast of bigger, better and more encompassing gameplay. First time around Chaos presented a quite unique game which sat in between a number of gaming genres. A role playing strategy game where sport and a whole lot of interesting confrontations rule!
The first rule of Chaos League is simple: there are no rules. The aim of the game stays the same, score as many goals as possible...any way possible. Added to the brutal mix are new races, new grounds, 19 additional hero characters, improved commentary, additional in game options, such as auto spell casting, and the ability to beat up the referee. Derek dela Fuente spoke with the Gameâs Designer, Régis Robin, to tell us
about some of the interesting areas of the game that have been worked on.
TVG: Looking back on Chaos League what is the biggest positive and negative you have taken from it and what basically is your objective for Sudden Death?
The biggest positive is that the off-the-wall, fun element came across really well and that gamers enjoyed it and have responded to it. The biggest negative would be that many who tried Chaos League, found it difficult to get into without a big investment in time.
TVG: For readers not au fait with Chaos League, can you give us the basic gameplay ideas and what you believe makes it different?
It's a Windows PC game that's not PC (politically correct). What makes it different is that it's a mixture of genres : sport, strategy and action. There is also a fair amount of humour. The basic aim is to score touchdowns in the opponentâs end zone by either passing/running the ball upfield or by simply fighting the opposition off the pitch. Combats can either rely on physical prowess or on magic. The more matches a Chaos League character plays, the more experience he builds up and the more spells he can master.
The player chooses a team from one of 10 races (elves, dwarves, goblins, humans, undead, ....) and then recruits players (quarterbacks, linemen, receivers, ...). The team starts in the lowest division and it has to work its way up to the Elite. Each match the team earns money that allows it to hire new players and eventually some special individuals with special powers. It would be difficult to get through a season without hiring new players as, unfortunately, player mortality is high. But that's part of the fun!
TVG: What are some of the new additions and also improvements â“ gameplay wise - on offer in Sudden Death? Do you also feel that the game needs more ideas to build its brand?
Firstly, we've made Chaos League more accessible. I can assure the hard core Chaos League fans that this doesn't mean dumbing the game down. It's just easier to get into. Once inside the game, there are several notable changes. We've added a new championship made up of mini tournaments of 4 teams. A team will play 3 mini tournaments (for a total of 12 matches) in a season. We've also added some new pitches as well as weather! Weather will be interesting as it affects the way the screen characters react. When the temperature drops, those with skimpy outfits will be less protected and their performance level will decrease. Finally, it's worth mentioning that there is a new magic system. It works somewhat like in Warcraft, but it's easier to understand.
TVG: How have you worked on improving the AI and gameâs engine and what is discernable in the presentation and the way the game plays and responds from the last game?
I'd say on the whole that players are more intelligent (even linebackers !). Breath, which is key to the game, is much better managed. The same goes for Self healing, which means that it's far more difficult to seriously wound an opponent. The characters are also more aware of what's going on around them. The ball carrier won't blindly fight to get to the line if there's a team mate he can throw the ball to and a player will not seek to pick up the ball if there is an opponent close by. Before, that meant virtual suicide. Now the character will more than likely try to take out his opponent before attempting the hazardous task of picking up the ball. And to counteract the more intelligent attacker, defenders will perform better. For instance, they won't all move at once towards the ball carrier.
TVG: How have you gone about creating new races and what are their individual traits and abilities?
Rather than use a top-down approach where we would draw a race and then decide on it's particular attributes, we built each race on gameplay requirements. We said "what do we want from a new race ?" and once we had decided on the attributes we set about creating the race. We've got three new races: the Cicutas, that rely on poison and venom; the Damned, that draw their strength from fighting (their Breath increases when they fight) and the Gnomes, who are relatively weak (like the goblins) but they can call on machine power to up their performance. (Be warned, they have nothing in common with the docile garden variety!) They should be popular, as it was the Chaos League community that helped to define them.
TVG: Please expand on two of the 19 additional hero characters.
The first one I'd like to mention would be the goblin poisoner. Like with the gnomes, he comes from the Chaos League community. We ran a competition for someone to draw a character based on a list of attributes and gameplay. The resulting image has perfectly captured the essence of this troublemaker. He's not very strong so he relies on poison to make opponents' lives a misery. Basically, he's a pain in the rear end (to put it politely). An equally sneaky hero would be the dynamite-crazy dwarf. I'm not sure that he knows that there is a ball in the game. He's just interested in blowing opponents apart. It's not pretty, but imagine how long the Chelsea defence would last if Morientes, Van Nistelroy or Henry were allowed a few sticks of dynamite!
TVG: What are the new illicit practices?
It was obvious that we'd have to stoop pretty low for âSudden Deathâ, but it didn't take too much time to come up with the idea of putting a price on a player's head. Of course, the intended victim knows nothing about it because there are no âWantedâ posters, but when there is a price on an opponent's head then everybody on the team is motivated to attack that player. Another practice that would be frowned upon, were Chaos League a normal sport, would be attacking the referee. Unfortunately for the man in the middle, it's the spectators that control this aspect of the game. They actually pay the players to give the ref a good going over! Of course, the requirement for spectators to vent their rage on the referee could be removed if there were fewer litigious decisions and if players were better paid. But then again, why deprive spectators of this means of participating in a match?
TVG: What are some of the new management ideas and how do they work in the game?
Although Cyanide is best known for its sport-management games (Cycling, Rugby, Horse Racing), we havenât really gone overboard on management in Chaos League. I suppose that the two main additions to âSudden Deathâ will be player ageing and player contracts. Ageing means that each match, each injury, each performance enhancing substance will take their toll on a playerâs physical well-being. A player will no longer be able to play ad infinitum. Just as a player canât play forever, he/she is no longer under permanent contract to a team. A player is now contracted for a maximum of three years. And if you donât renew the contract at the end of the three year period, the player will slip off into oblivion. He wonât be hired by your main rival.
TVG: Can you please expand on the new type of solo league with ability to play against gameâs AI?
The current situation is that a team plays opponents from a given league right across the season. This focuses attention on the end of the season. Weâve now introduced a league based on a tournament format. There is a succession of 3 small tournaments, each a pool of 4 teams. Each team plays the other, giving 3 matches and then there is a fourth match which is the play-off for 1st or 2nd and 3rd or 4th place. So a team will play 12 matches in all, but there will be more crescendos than in the standard league format.
TVG: Finally, a few who played the original game were slightly bemused and found it difficult to understand. Have you tried to make the tutorial a little easier to understand, has it been a problem explaining the real ethos of the game and do you feel it is a long building process?
Making the game more accessible was the main aim of âSudden Deathâ. Weâve reworked the tutorial and weâve introduced an ultra-beginner mode where the gameâs AI is much slower.
