 Into online games or find them a total waste of time? To be launched after 20 months of testing, Time of Defiance has been created by a team headed by a well-known industry figure, Toby Simpson, who has worked on a number of top titles including Creatures. The primary development experience of the team is in the field of complex, distributed processing systems - the idea that hugely detailed virtual worlds can be modelled and the ultimate behaviour will emerge from the interactions of large populations of simple objects rather than having to be programmed specifically. Heavy stuff, but Toby is renowned for his detailed and complex titles so when the opportunity arose for Derek dela Fuente to interview him, it was an offer he did not have to think twice about.
TVG: Toby, letās start with the mechanics of the game, specs, etc. before we go into actual game play! Although there is a trial version up and running, do you hope to sell this to a bigger publisher or do it all yourself? (Is there more development still in the process for this title?)
We're certainly discussing Time of Defiance with publishers, as there is always a market for a boxed version of the product. Many players still appreciate having a box and manual rather than working entirely on-line.
As for more development - yes, we plan to introduce new units and features on a regular basis. At the time of launch we have some new additions waiting in the wings that are previously unreleased and unseen.
TVG: Is there any significant difference if any user plays via modem, ADSL, broadband, etc?
No. The bandwidth and line quality requirements for Time of Defiance are very relaxed - the technology means that we're not 'latency sensitive' in the way that many real-time products are. Although we recommend a 56K modem, we've seen one player (with a vast empire of 2000+ objects) connect from a beach in Brazil using a notebook computer, a GSM phone and a (rather poor) 9,600 bps connection. Users with ADSL and other always-on connections are able to remain connected all the time and just dip in and out of the game. I often do this myself at work, just leaving the client connected but minimized. It beeps at me when someone tries to chat, or if someone is invading my empire, so I'm able to react quickly. Modem users can get the same sort of thing through automatic e-mail notifications, and we're also planning to implement SMS notifications of key events direct to players' mobile phones over the coming weeks.
TVG: Where are /is the server/s based?
The servers are based here in Cambridge in our office.
TVG: Does the server do anything different between players with different levels of experience?
No, but players learn quickly from more experienced players. However, we do run a number of different games simultaneously, with each one having its own map and other specific settings. We designate these games according to the experience level we recommend you have to play, but we don't force this on players.
TVG: What about machine specs? Does it play a part?
Not really. So long as interactions can get to the server, and results back to the player, the only difference in the game for higher specified machines is the quality of display and special effects. We do require a 3D card, 16MB texture memory and at least a 500Mhz P3, but other than that, the game itself is the same - just the visual presentation that changes.
TVG: Do you use any kind of protection system to avoid players cheating in the game?
Yes. The first aspect of developing such a virtual world modelling system is security. Whilst obviously I can't talk about the details of the mechanisms we've got in place, we treat cheating as the single most damaging thing that could happen to our game and we go to (continual) great efforts to ensure that our systems can spot unusual behaviour.
TVG: Is there any chance, will there be localized versions (Spanish, German, etc.) of the game? Is this an area you are looking towards?
It is certainly possible, and it will depend entirely on demand from the different territories. Clearly there is still an issue in on-line games with chat, as that will tend to be in English because of the higher percentage of English speaking players but all the in-game text (menus, help files, etc.) can be localized. One thing that may be a lot of fun is to pit the different European countries against each other in some games.
TVG: How much will it cost to play?
At the moment, it costs 5 UK pounds per month to play (and we do some multi-month special packs). The price is likely to rise to approximately 10 Euros before Christmas.
TVG: Is there any chance to play for free in a trial period?
Yes, we run 5-day trial games that allow a player to get a feel for the game. There is no substitute though for the full-on experience of a 30-day game played against hundreds of other players!
TVG: How many players can play at the same time?
At the moment, up to 750 in each game. Because this is an RTS rather than an RPG, players tend to command complex and large empires - we've seen single players with nearly 3,500 objects in their empire alone. With multiple processor boxes though we can parallel process and create larger worlds with more players inside them. Game interview...  TVG: Explain the premise to the game.
Time of Defiance is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game where every one of hundreds of players is human. Explore the vast gaming arena, expand your empire, negotiate deals and settle old scores, but don't forget to watch your back.
To play the game Time of Defiance you take control of a fledgling empire. You then explore, battle and connive your way to control as much of the Northern Continent of Nespanona. You play the game by controlling various vehicles and buildings to extract resources, build warships and explore the continent. You can also talk to other players in the game and negotiate peace or war.
The aim of the game is to amass more points than your opponents. Points are given for the amount of islands you own, how many buildings you have, the ratio of tactical to non-tactical ships, and other factors. You are always aware of the points you have, and in what position that places you.
You take part in the game as a member of a Cog tribe - a race of people who live on the remnants of the planet Nespanona. This planet was once home to an advanced ancient race who created fantastic devices and technology, but self-inflicted disaster forced them to flee many years ago. Now the Cog inhabit the planet and only one group has the knowledge to control the ancient devices - the Eighth House - and they are happy to keep the rest of the population in the dark. The Eighth House are at war with another race - the Shadoo - and so throughout the game you will come across not only Cog buildings and vehicles but also Shadoo structures.
TVG: With so many online games being developed why have you chosen this genre?
We've chosen this genre for two main reasons: The first is that it really stretches our technology, and the second is that it really benefits from our technology. Up until now, most RTS products with multiplayer are limited to peer-to-peer games with up to 16 players. The sheer network traffic of managing large quantities of objects in an RTS game does not usually scale well. Our technology allows us to create large, well populated worlds and allow players to interact with those worlds with minimal bandwidth.
TVG: The game area seems massive. Is there a lot of exploring and are you guided, helped, along in the initial states?
Exploring is always a good move - it's nice to know who your neighbours are before they find you :-) With regards to documentation, there is a tutorial on our web site and a lot of context-sensitive help inside the product itself - so you can stick your pointer over anything, press F1 and get some help about it.
TVG: What resources will there be? How does a player gain these? Are they finite?
There are a finite amount of resources in each game and these resources are all locked into the islands. To get them out of an island you need to mine, either with a mining building or a mining vehicle. There are six resources in the game; wood, metal, stone, coal, water and crystal moss.
Wood and metal are used for constructing ships - wood, metal and stone are used for constructing buildings - and coal is used as a fuel by all Cog ships.
The other two resources (water and crystal moss) are not used directly for constructing anything, but they can be banked with the Eighth House and saved up to purchase special units. Some of the units you can buy from the Eighth House are Shadoo vehicles and they use moss and water in a variety of ways.
TVG: Backtracking a bit. Writing online games appears to be an American thing and there are few UK developers creating online experiences. Firstly do you feel the 'brits' look at online gaming from a different perspective and what innovations in the game will excite?
I don't know if the perspective is that different, but we certainly hope that the innovation is exciting!
The majority of online games are RPG or parlour games; there really aren't that many examples of other genres. We're jumping straight in with an established offline genre - RTS - and bringing it into the world of online but at the same time making it an innovative game with many unique features.
No one could look at Time of Defiance and say 'oh that is just <insert name of RTS game here> with an online bit tagged on' - the whole game was designed to be online, all the time, and so played against hundreds of other players.
Playing a four player RTS 2-on-2 was always more fun than figuring out how to defeat the AI, and so now that we have hundreds of players all taking sides and scheming amongst themselves the RTS genre has finally come of age.
TVG: With total dominance in mind how can you tell how well you are doing?
Every player can see their score (and the score of the player in first place), and what position their score places them in. If you are in first then you can be sure you are doing pretty well.
Being in first place though can be a bit isolated - you have no reference to any other players score - whereas if you are in second you can see your score and the score of the top player, which means you can see how far behind you are.
If you really want to know how much of a lead you have then you can buy information from the Eighth House - and one of the options is to get information on the score of the player below (or above) you.
Finally, the cheapest and most social method of getting information would be to talk to other players in the game. You always know who is above you and who is below you in the rankings (but not what score they have) - it is possible to talk to a player and extract that information out of them ... either honestly or with sneaky deception!
TVG: What kind of orders can you give your units and how does the AI work when you send them off?
All ships have a standard set of movement controls for things like 'move to island' - 'intercept ship' - 'full stop' - 'retreat' - 'stay with'. You can also give them a bearing and a distance and they will travel off in this direction.
You have control of the tactical mode of all ships too; these modes dictate how a unit responds to another players unit. The options are to be peaceful (attack only if attacked), attack all enemies, attack only non-allies, attack only tactical units, or surrender.
Ships also have this feature called 'commanders ordersā, which allows you to give a single order to a large group of units. These are used for controlling an attack group, for example, and the orders are along the lines of 'follow me' - 'retreat' - 'change tactical mode'.
Non-tactical units (such as transports) can be set up on trade routes, which means that the ship will follow an itinerary of destinations and actions even if you are not online.
Buildings have orders dependent on their function - so turrets, for example, can have tactical mode changes, vehicle constructors are told what to build, silos can be told to move their resources around as needed, etc.
Lastly there are certain orders only available with particular units - such as the option to salvage a unit (a function of the Salvage Vessel) or to take control of an enemy unit (the boarding party).
TVG: There is a lot to this game - colonising, scouting, building, etc. What kind of hours put in weekly do you envisage for the average player to be able to start achieving something?
It is definitely the sort of game that appeals to players who enjoy a longer-term challenge against other players! That said, if you have managed to get yourself a decent sized empire then you could just log on a couple of times a day for an hour and take care of business. As a guideline we think that a couple of sessions a day of around an hour would be enough time to get most things done. Missing out on a day's play is no big problem though, if anything it can be useful, as you will have mined more resources. If you want to get involved in a big attack, or explore more thoroughly, then spending extra time every now and then won't hurt at all.
It can take up to an hour for a ship to travel to a relatively close island and you don't have to baby sit-it the whole way which means you can log off and check up on it later. There are quicker methods of moving around though, but they cost water or moss, and essentially involve using the jump gates scattered around the world.
TVG: How involved are the tactics, picking the right craft, etc? Are you aiming this at avid strategy players and is a good amount of tactical acumen required?
Well being a strategy game there is an element of tactical thinking required, but the units themselves are simple which allows for more interesting uses of them.
This isn't a strategy game that has 1000 different units and requires the player to memorise a chart of attack Vs defence for all combinations of these.
There are a lot of ways to deploy the basic units - and with each game we've played so far there have been new tactics rising to the fore. By far the most important strategy a player will need is diplomacy and dealing with other players. You can win a battle against another player
without firing a shot, if you are so inclined.
TVG: Explain a little about trading?
With a massively multiplayer game it is essential that players have a freedom to create their own mechanisms - their own protocols and treaties, if you like. In the game, you have a unit that can take control of another players unit ... this could be used in a hostile attack situation but it is also used to transfer a unit from one player to another. If this unit is a trader full of resources then you have a mechanism to give resources to another player.
Players have already set up various trade groups, and they have the freedom to dictate their own rates of exchange and terms of trade. In one game there was even a communal island set up that had access to a quantum gate - any player who signed up for the group could then use the resources of this island, and use the gate as a stepping stone.
We intend to introduce a centralised trading system in the future, whereby a player can buy/sell resources through the Eighth House - but until that time it is an open market.
TVG: The games interface - explain.
The game is all command menu driven - in general you click on a unit to produce its command menu and then click on an option to give it an order. There are controls on screen at all times to navigate between the main game screens, and a help button to access the in-game help. In addition to this there is pop-up help available on every unit ... just hold down F1 while clicking on a unit and a help page will appear for that unit.
TVG: How does the in game interaction work?
If they have a unit in the same region as one of your units then you will be aware of them. You can zoom in and take a look at the unit - you can see which direction it is heading and how fast. From this unit you could then send a message to the player and make contact, or you could intercept it with some of your ships and try to destroy it (or take it over). Or you could just ignore it and let it continue on its journey.
TVG: How many ships can you control?
Theoretically, as many as you can build! In practice, by the end of the game the top players can have over 3000 units if they've been doing really well.
A normal mid-game attack fleet might consist of anywhere between 5 and 30 ships - but there is always scope for bigger battles if you've done the planning! Some of the biggest battles so far have featured over 200 ships all-battling for control of one island.
TVG: Is it a perpetual Universe in that the game carries on even if a player stops for a while? Where does he rejoin the game? Won't this cause disadvantages?
Yes, the universe is perpetual - your vehicles will keep moving if they've been instructed to and your constructors will still build while you are offline. Because every player is in this situation there isn't really any disadvantage one way or the other - a good player will set up trade routes, automated resource mining and have queued a lot of ships to be built just before they log off. When they log back on they will have access to more resources and more ships will have been built.
If you are attacked when you are offline then your units will do their best to defend themselves - they don't sit dumb waiting for an order to retaliate. We've also got a system that allows you to receive email messages if you are attacked, so if you are close to your email you can be informed within seconds of an attack.
TVG: What are the victory / winning conditions? Indeed, can there ever be an end to the game?
Each of our games has a fixed duration - when the time is up then the game ends. The player with the highest score wins, but every player in the top 10 will be given league points. In this way a player's score goes beyond just the one game they are playing at that time ... and enemies have the chance to get revenge in another game
TVG: What is the mix between RPG/strategy/combat? Is any one way more advantageous?
I would say that the game is 60:40 strategy: combat ... although the RPG side of things is more of a personal take on the game. There are no traditional RPG elements in the game - such as character development or special items to collect - but players do get involved in the game and role-play to the situation at hand. This isn't essential though and just adds to the atmosphere of the player community.
Strategy is important, because that covers how you expand - how you explore - and how you interact with any other players you meet.
Combat is a tricky one, because this varies from player to player. For some players, combat is considered the only route to bettering yourself - take out your neighbours and claim their resources. For other players though combat is more of a threat to be used as a deterrent to hostile neighbours.
As every strategy fan should know, war is an expensive business and while you are building fleets to take on an enemy your neighbours could be using the same amount of money to strengthen their position. The cheapest war is the war diverted.
TVG: Sum up the experience in a sentence!
Massively-multiplayer-mayhem and machinations across a huge world where expansionist, tactical, and diplomatic skills are tested to the limit against REAL people.
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