Empire: Total War

[mta35]

Q: Has the same amount of detail gone in to the non-playable factions then?

A: In terms of their units, and in terms of their conscripts certainly. We have 325 different units in the game across the 50 different factions. That includes Native Americans wielding tomahawks, a whole different animation set, a whole different unit set, loads of different types of them and they do different things - and the same thing with all the European powers. They don't just have standard man, you know who has been re-skinned. They've got different units depending on who they are. But certainly in terms of localisation and audio, stuff like that, we've done as much as we can to make the individual playable nations different from each other.

Q: Speaking of the Native Americans... will they have the same motives as the other factions, will they perform raids, how will it work?

A: They tend to work differently. What's cool about the new AI system is that it understands the abilities of its troops. So it will act depending on the ability of its troops. The native American tribes didn't so well in stand-up fights against established European powers with muskets and artillery. So raiding and stuff like that was very important, and with guerrilla tactics basically. With the AI understanding the capabilities of its troops, if its troops are tomahawk guys and bowmen and stuff, it will seek up close combat, it will seek quick wins... They will still do stand-up fights, if the need comes for it, but it will base its decision on the capabilities of its troops. So in that respect you naturally get the right behaviour.
Q: Will they still strive to expand their territory?

A: It's one of those things... When you've got all the statistics and rules in place, the game makes itself in some respects. So for example when you colonise the new world, there are already Native Americans there, because they are Native Americans... So when we're talking about expanding their empire, what we're actually talking about is defending their homeland. Because they need to fight you off, because you're in their country. And that is not necessarilly expansionism as we would understand it with European powers, but it is in terms of the Native American powers.

You might wipe out one tribe, and so another tribe might try and move into their space or move into yours. It will be an evolving action like that. And although they'll have access to some... well obviously all the powerful navies and so on and so forth were owned by the European powers and a couple of others. You won't find bizarre historical inaccuraties like in the beginning of the game Native Americans building massive galleons and things like this, because it just didn't happen. But as the game preogresses what happens to them is what your enemies and you do. That's the same with Native Americans as it is with any major European power. We're talking about wiping out tribes, but you can wipe out France if you can do it. (laughs) Yeah, we advocate it...