Empire: Total War

[mta35]

Q: You mentioned that there is now a story-driven, or mission-driven campaign in your presentation. Is it something that you can chose to do, or not do?

A: Oh yeah, it's entirely up to you. It's an episodic campaign, the road to independence, set during the period of the foundation of Jamestown all the way through to the American war of independence. It's a type of campaign where if you want to play it you can, if don't you don't have to. You don't have to play it to unlock the grand campaign, you can just go straight into that. But if you want to it's a much more focused and story-driven thing, like - this winter we are finding supplies hard to get, help us out by building a farm, or the x tribe over here to the north is raiding our caravans - we need an army to get rid of their camp up here. Imagine it more like a mission based structure with the player being introduced to things more gradually, and having focused objectives. Rather than just being let loose on the whole world and going where do I go now?

Q: Maybe it's something that will help new players to the franchise to get into it?

A: It's two things. We hope that it's something new players will be attracted to, and find easy to pick up. By the time they come to the end of it, they'll be fighting massive battles, using diplomacy and all the rest of it, and so that when they transfer themselves over they will understand. Not just in the sense of what does a button do, but how does the mechanic work. But then also it's a new experience for our established players. We want the people who have played our grand campaigns to have a go, and say "alright then, I'll see if I go do these missions, how quick I can do them, how well I can do them." We think it will offer something to our new players and our old players.
Q: Will there be any mixture of naval and land battles?

A: It's a common question we get. No, at the moment the answer is no. And the reason for that is sort of manifold, when you control an army of up to ten thousand troops, when you control a fleet you control up to about twenty ships, now you imagine, two different mechanics are involved, the user interface is very similar, but you've got air, breeze and in the other you've got line of sight, direction and everything else. Now imagine telling the player who controls 10,000 troops and twenty ships, and then factor in the fact that there might not just be two armies fighting each other, it might be four. You started adding a layer of complexity to the game that is incredibly difficult to deal with for the player. We are looking into ways of doing it, marrying the two.

Q: ...but isn't hard to find a scenario where that would be natural?

A: There are some limited scenarios, port sieges, where you would have a fleet blockading a port, and maybe a land war going on at the same time. That's possible.

Q:... but another thing is how would that end? If you resolve one part you would still have the other...
A: Yeah, there is more to it than people think. People tend to think of it and say "oh yeah, you should do that" and you're like yeah, but think about it as a player, not a game designer, where is your win condition?

But we are looking at ways to make it work. One thing to say is that the two things depend very much on each other, they're not just entirely separate things. Protecting you troops in transit, your land troops, is a job for your navy. Clearing the coast of your enemy so you can reinforce your colony is a job for your navy. But reinforcing your colonies and conquering those provinces is a job for your army. The two have to work together, if you don't keep your coasts clear, and don't protect your transit routes and your trade, your armies can't grow, your armies can't fight and your armies can't move.

You will find yourself having to with naval battles so you can begin a land campaign. You will find yourself having to win naval battles to unlock a port to bring in reinforcements. So they do work together in that respect, they're just not playable together in the one screen. Again we're looking at ways to making it work possibly, but certainly for Empire things will be separate.

Special thanks to members who contributed questions here at Gamereactor and at the Total War Center forums.