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Warhammer: Mark of Chaos Q&A Feature

Derek dela Fuente

12/12/2005

Warhammer continues to expand upon its presence in the RTS genre as TVG chats to the guys behind NAMCO's forthcoming adaptation...

The billing for the expanding Warhammer brand is that Mark of Chaos is all about war, where players command and develop their army, and defeat enemies by taking and strengthening, and - when needed - defending territories. Black Hole Entertainment believes they can present a landmark RTS game and have brought a leading animation studio to ensure the presentation is equally innovative as the gameplay ideas.

Derek dela Fuente spoke with Chris Wren, Senior Producer, about the direction and ideas behind the game.

Please can you tell us about Black Hole Entertainment; the set up of the team to create Warhammer and what you have previously created either as a team or individually?

Black Hole was founded with the vision to make superior quality, real-time strategy games. They focus on achieving the highest quality in visuals and game play. After four years of development, Black Hole completed the highly-acclaimed 3D real-time strategy game Armies of Exigo. This visually stunning game is set in an intricately constructed fantasy world. What sets Exigo apart from the rest is the dual-layered game play, which brings a whole new experience to gamers.
Prior to developing Armies of Exigo, several members of the Black Hole team individually contributed to the production of projects such as the Ecco the Dolphin series, Hitman: Contracts, Tiny Tank, Three Dirty Dwarves and Dune.

"The vision is to make a great war game that anyone who's ever enjoyed blowing something up can appreciate."

The team is currently developing Warhammer: Mark of Chaos. Warhammer's staff is composed of a dozen programmers, who honed their skills while creating the revolutionary engine utilized by Armies of Exigo. Highly gifted concept artists, designers, modelers and animators all work together to create all of the Black Hole projects. And of course, crazy in-house testers are an indispensable part of the development team. And behind it all: a great team spirit.

What is the vision for Mark of Chaos and do you hope to pull in a new group of gamers who may not be au fait with the Warhammer brand?

The vision is to make a great war game that anyone who's ever enjoyed blowing something up can appreciate. Our strategy is to pull together some of the best elements of RTS and war strategy gaming into a new, dynamic environment creating the best possible war gaming experience for gamers of all experience levels. The Warhammer Universe brings with it a wealth of history, politics and culture which makes for a rich environment for us to build our game in. By no means do you need to be a die hard fan of Warhammer to try it out, one of our goals is to make sure that regardless of what you knew about Warhammer before playing the game, you will be a die hard fan once you've had a chance to play it.

What also do you believe the Warhammer universe offers that has made it so popular and what unique aspects of the license do you pull into the game?

The balance of diversity is something that is fairly unique to Warhammer. Because it has been around for so long, and been expanded upon and refined year after year, it now has an extremely broad range of perfectly balanced factions and units including: flying units, cannons, giant demons, cavalry, magic, diseases, dragons, mutations. Putting together a real time strategy game from this Universe seems like a match made in heaven (or the Chaos wastes, depending on what side you root for).

Can you tell our readers about the armies in the game you can control and what unique qualities they offer?

We are offering 4 complete armies: The Hordes of Chaos, The Empire, The High Elves, and the Skaven. The campaign mode of the game will ask the player to choose to start with either Hordes of Chaos or the Empire and during the campaign it will offer them the option to play with either the High Elves or Skaven depending on the side chosen. In addition to the four main armies, there will be several units from other factions in the universe that will become available both for the single player campaign and online play. We are including Orcs, Goblins, Vampire Counts, Giants, Dwarves, Undead among others in our "dogs of war" pool of available units.

The four main armies were chosen because of their significance to the Universe and its history as well as making for a well balanced battlefield for both single and multiplayer. The Hordes of Chaos are Melee specialists; their demonic armor and fierce fighting style make them the tanks of this game. The Chaos army will continue to mutate toward demonkind as you advance them, taking on more powerful dark powers and giving birth to more horrible mutated abominations. The Empire is one of the best all around armies in Warhammer and really benefits from being the most diverse. They have access to cannons and cavalry as well as the fanatical flagellant and magical warrior priest classes which are nearly fearless in the heat of battle. The High Elves bring the most magic to the table, their ranks are not as large as the Empire but they succeed in precise attacks and devastating magic, and having a dragon or two on your side doesn't hurt. The Skaven are all about numbers, they like to go into combat in droves, overwhelming the enemy with hundreds of units and bolstered by some of their technology and genetic mutations they are a powerful force if they can keep their fear in check. In all, the armies provide four really distinct playing styles and each offers a range of strategies which will make for not only a really compelling single player campaign, but also will lend itself to some really epic multiplayer battling.

Please can you tell us any rules and requests that Warhammer throws up that gives the game its innovative qualities and uniqueness and could you explain also the first tasks the player will undertake?

The fiction of Warhammer has the concept of Chaos Taint, the notion that the chaotic forces of the north can spread to other part of the old world, and as they do so they corrupt and twist the land and its people. We are making this one of the focuses of the both the story and the gameplay experience for the player. If they happen to be on the side of Chaos, it is their job to spread this chaos through death and destruction as well as worshipping their chaos gods. If you choose the side of the Empire it will be your duty to cleanse the land of this taint and drive the chaotic factions from it. The player begins with modest means and will need to prove themselves worthy with each battle in order to take on larger responsibilities and to venture into new and forbidding lands.

"We are shifting the focus to balance this equation to allow more time for battling and to give the player more to do while in battle."

The Mark of Chaos offers astounding levels of detail, from a bird's eye view down to the insignias on a warrior's armor along with epic battles and massive landscapes. Can you elaborate on the finer aspects of your camera system?

There are some battles you will experience which will involve thousands of units, we allow the player to zoom out far enough that they can see all of this, as well as allowing them to zoom in close enough to see the color of an individual unit's moustache. The further zooms are intended for setting up your formations and moving troops across great distances. This might involve attaching heroes to units, creating defensive lines, or sending units across the map to take an objective. Once the player is in close proximity to the enemy, the closer zooms will become important. We expect that players will want to be up close and personal to micromanage individual battles, giving commands and watching the chaos ensue from point blank range.

Mark of Chaos lessens the emphasis on resource management and base-building; can you explain how you come to this decision and is there any risk to it with the game focusing on the battles?

It's not that we are getting rid of it; we are simply adjusting the amount of time the player needs to spend doing it. Current RTS games put about 70% of the player's time dedicated to building structures, units and advancing tech trees with very little time actually spent swinging swords, casting spells and giving commands. We are shifting the focus to balance this equation to allow more time for battling and to give the player more to do while in battle. To this end, we are providing many more options for the player to adjust their ranks, change their formations, issue commands in the heat of battle and really get into determining the outcome of any given skirmish rather than just watching it.

Can you tell us about the setting, scenario and storyline to the game please?

The war we are orchestrating takes place in the heart of the Empire. Not long after the Great War where the Hordes of Chaos ravaged the northern Empire, we set our scene. You will choose to play as either an aspiring champion of Chaos or the Empire to begin the campaign. The Hordes of Chaos exist as scattered tribes along the northern border of the Empire, sacking anyone silly enough to venture there. The politics of the Empire have it bogged down so that it is struggling to get itself back together after the war and is in no shape to start another one. The High Elves have remained in the Empire's lands following the war and have a stronghold guarding the shores to the northwest. The Skaven have been popping up everywhere, several smaller Empire towns have fallen victim to disease and been transformed into Skaven lairs. The early missions will give you a glimpse of the battling to come, allowing you to take part in some larger battles, but not making you responsible for their entire outcome. Before you are ready to set out for the front lines you must first gather enough support to be given the power to command a larger army. You will learn the basics of how to command your troops and how to expand your lands, secure what lands you have, and build an army capable of driving the enemy into the ground.

The size and make-up of your armies is regulated by a points system, and each scenario (or multiplayer match) will have its own limitations. Could you explain to our readers how this will work and the kind of tough decisions you will have to make?

Specific point values are a good way to think of how you might construct an army for a specific purpose. We are regulating the size of various armies by two factors, one is the environment and the other is command. Many of the environments of the game will limit the number of units allowed in that region at a time, for example, a narrow mountain pass might not be able to support thousands of troops at once, they simply don't fit. This kind of environmental limitation allows us to offer a wide variety of battle types and sizes that cater to different play styles. In online play, we imagine that each player will have their own preferred scale, and in the single player campaign you will be exposed to a wide variety of scenarios as you make your way across the land.

"The detail on everything was really important to us to bring Warhammer to life."

Command Authority is the second factor that will determine your force size in a battle. You will continue to grow your command authority as you advance the game, gaining access to new types of units, and larger regiments to control. Each conflict in the game will require the right tool, sometimes that means an overwhelming force and sometimes it means a handful of just the right troops for the job.

Already the game is looking pretty impressive. Can you tell us about the 3D engine you are creating and some of its interesting features?

The detail on everything was really important to us to bring Warhammer to life. If you look at some of the detailed imagery in the books and in the figures, one thing that stands out is the amount of detail. Technology is finally at the point where we can really emulate that level of detail in a large scale war game on the PC and that is one of the main focuses of the engine for this game. We are using normal mapping on all of the units and environmental objects to make it as authentic as possible when you are up close and personal with the camera. To add to this detail, we have real time shadows, detailed particle effects, and interactive environments which all make for a very rich 3D experience. Imagine a cannon blast striking, leaving a crater, throwing troops (and troop parts) in all directions, dust and debris scattered about, the terrain littered with bodies, some still moving, and pools of blood staining the battlefield and you will begin to see the artistic vision of the battles we are planning.

One thing we are allowing is the full customization of units in the game. Players can paint their units and detail the types of clothing and armor that they are sporting with a great deal of variety. This level of customization is new to the genre of RTS gaming and we think for online play this is going to be a really amazing feature.

Supporting large armies is one of the things that distinguish Warhammer from other fantasy war games, so we needed the engine to be able to handle this. As a result, the maps are themselves big, and they can support literally thousands of troops at a time. The images you may remember from movies like Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, Alexander, and Gladiator become possible in an engine like this.

Can you give us an insight to set up of the single player campaign mode and that of multiplayer and other modes?

The Single Player campaign will begin in a small corner of either the Empire or the Chaos Wastes and you goal is to first establish control by driving out your enemies and unifying the allied forces around you. You will then expand into the contested territories, taking objectives like farms and keeps, occasionally diverting to hunt down an ancient relic or do some reconnaissance. When you have advanced enough you will raise a large army and begin the larger campaign of driving out the enemy forces. There is a storyline behind your actions and as you reach certain levels of expansion or when specific objectives are met, the story will advance alongside you revealing the big picture offering new options in terms of troops to command, regions to conquer, and objectives to accomplish.

Multiplayer designs are being kept under lock and key right now. What we can say is that we will be supporting multiple persons online in both cooperative and competitive modes and there will be a lot of variety in how you will be able to play online.

Any final thoughts you would like to convey to our readers?

When we set out to make this game, we had the vision to expand the genre of RTS gaming by bringing to it a bigger sense of a war going on around you, we wanted epic battles in detailed landscapes with thousands of troops, and we wanted to recreate the feeling of the Warhammer world in a beautiful 3D PC game. We feel we are off to a really good start with this one, and the Black Hole team continues to impress us with each new version of the game we see, there is a lot still left to do and in the next year we are hoping to bring a game to the industry that will impress not only die hard RTS and Warhammer fans, but all war gaming and strategy gamers out there.

TVG would like to thank Chris Wren for taking the time and providing us with this insight; Warhammer: Mark of Chaos is slated for a European release during Autumn 2006 so we'll have plenty more coverage in the meantime.