Xfire Dev Chat

From SOTS

[Xfire] Chatteox: Welcome Xfire users to the Kerberos Productions chat about the new game Sword of the Stars!
[Xfire] Chatteox: We are very lucky to have four of the developers here with us today.
[Xfire] Chatteox: Thank you all for taking the time to be here.
[Xfire] Chatteox: We will now have the guys introduce themselves and jump right into the questions.
[sots] Mecron: Hello folks....great to see you all here. I am Martin Cirulis aka "Mecron", lead designer of SotS and CEO of Kerberos Productions
[sots] Kludgy: Hi guys, I'm Darren "Kludgy" Grant, lead programmer on SotS. Thanks for comin out!
[SOTS] Degrassi: Hey everyone, Thanks for having us :) Im Chris Gerspacher / Degrassi, lead artist
[sots] castewar: Howdy - I'm Chris Stewart, back-up designer and I'm de facto producer.

[AoHx]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: How have you balanced the game between the different races?
[sots] Mecron: Good Question...basically through a LOT of early design work followed up by intensive multiplayer testing...The SotS team have been playing this game for almost 18 months now.

Anti-Camper=Ya Mum: What kind of pc's do you guys use to develop a game like this?
[sots] Kludgy: We're using pretty standard rigs, mostly an assortment of 2-GHz Athlon/P4 or so with basic DX9 radeon and NVidia cards.

Narkis: You have stated before that you are already working on an expansion. Could you give as some more information about it?
[sots] castewar: We've worked out where we want to go with the SotS universe, so we're poised to bring in new races. We dropped a few hints in our recent Game Team appearance on Electric Playground - we're being kind of coy, but we've laid the ground work in the current game and we'll expand upon that in any add-ons.

[AoHx]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: Will there be a online matchmaking service for multiplayer games? If so, what is the service, why was it chosen and how did the multiplayer aspects alter your view on the gameplay?
[sots] Kludgy: Right now Xfire is doing a great job of helping people coordinate their games.  :D There is an official SotS chat room that has been used quite heavily for this.

dragonem: What do you believe was the hardest thing in creating this game?
[SOTS] Degrassi: One of the hardest elements was generating such a large volume art assets. Hundreds of ship pieces and menaces

djchooch: !~Question~! - What Graphic rendering program and engine were used in the making of this game?
[sots] Kludgy: We're using DirectX9, D3D9 heavily, with a lot of work put into the game to make sure it can multitask smoothly with the OS. To create the models in the game we have used 3DSMAX.

sn00b: waht kinds of games did you guys play as kids and how did that influence the creation of this game?
[SOTS] Degrassi: Spaceward ho was definetly a big influence.

{AoN}Zach: I mostly like to play games with somewhat linear gameplay, like FPSs and some RPGs. I know SOTS is a bit of an exploration game, is there a linear plot to follow, and how important is it?
[sots] Mecron: The story for sots is cirtical in setting up the art, gaemplay and bnehaviours of all the races in the game. It also features hevily in the design of the scnatrios played in the game....but it is NOT like Homeworld where you have a story driven single player campaign.

btrad: Are there similarities between SotS and your previous games Homeworld: Cataclysm and Treasure Planet: Battle of Procyon? What features were taken from those games?
[sots] castewar: We learned a whole lot of things in both games - SotS isn't the same type of game, but there's overlap between them all and it's in those places where you'll notice similarities. Weapons load outs and the weapons display, for example. Plus we brought our writer powerhouses from Cataclysm and Treasure Planet. Both games are the spiritual cousins to SotS in a lot of ways.

§àrgôn: =Question= What was your favorite ship/object to design?
[SOTS] Degrassi: Tarkas Seige driver was probably my favourite section to create.

SexyJames: How many hours of gameplay do you think a buyer would get out of the game on average? It seems to have a lot of replay value
[sots] Mecron: I was shocked to see people logging in 80 hours on teh demo! I thought we were only giving only about 10 hours of gameplay max there ;) IN the full game most of the people on my xfire list have clocked over a hundred hours in the past couple weeks...so that is a good hint about how much there is to do in this game.

btrad: How are resources implemented into the game and what role will they play in the game play?
[sots] Kludgy: Resources are the foundation of your industry in Sots. Star systems each have base resource values which can change through gameplay by mining, warfare and technological advancements. Resource rich systems can be a major focus for late games where the war is raging. ;)

djchooch: [Question] Is this game rather easy to learn? Or does it take some time to get the hang of the game fully?
[SOTS] Degrassi: The learning curve was set up to be as easy as possible.

btrad: What victory conditions are there for completion of the game?
[sots] Mecron: For the open random game then it is last man or team standing for victory. In the set scenarios there are a variety of victory conditions. For instance "Holy Lands" requires you to find and hold 5 specific worlds for a set number of turns while everyone else tries to do the same.

[SFV]Android - Chris: How were you able to make the tech tree as random as it is in sots?
[sots] castewar: Basically, we worked out the tech tree, race inspecific first. At that point we had the distinctions between core (vanilla) and random tech worked out, but tweaking and playtesting added and changed those some. Then we went to work applying racial weights to the random parts. A dash of what makes sense to the race with a dash of gameplay balance = the tech tree.

[IronChef]Italian: Are there any easter eggs in the game that you would like to reveal to the Xfire community?
[SOTS] Degrassi: Theres lots of easter eggs, but they need to be discovered.

djchooch: Will there be a world builder included in this game so that players can customize there own maps and be able to upload them to play them on multiplay?
[sots] Kludgy: Presently sots lets you choose from 6 different galaxy map shapes and parameters that affect number of starting colonies. And we are looking to expand this further.

Sucklefish: What aspects of the game do you find most inovative?
[sots] Mecron: There are quite a few things but I suppose I am most proud of the variablity of each game in terms of tech and planet environments and the Mulitplayer suite....It is very good to see people excited about playing a strat game online again

[AoHx]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: What measures have you taken to provide a secure game against 3rd party utilites that allow you to cheat and/or glitches/bugs in the game that could be exploited?
[sots] Kludgy: It is very hard to cheat in SotS without being detected, because changes that feed back into the game will cause sync errors if they are not provided by the host.

Anti-Camper=Ya Mum: Starcraft has formed almost a cult like status due to the custom content, is there anything like that with SOTS?
[sots] Mecron: I have personally emailed every person in Korea asking them to play SotS. ;) And yes SotS is very moddable as well and we will always release whatever tools we have to the community.

[IronChef]Chinese: What was the inspiration for the art style of Sword of the Stars ?
[SOTS] Degrassi: alot of the inspiration was drawn from creating something new. Away from mother of pearl shiny ships and back to more vibrant colours and contrast

kingslayer06: what kind of music is in the game?
[sots] castewar: We went back to our pals at Studio X Labs, who did the music for Homeworld and Cataclysm (and many more). They did all the music. We wanted to avoid "strings in space" and they knew what we were thinking when we said things like "We need a battle track for the Liir, but they really don't like fighting, so make it sad. But war. Sad war." And the end results are some really amazing music, unique to each race.

{AoN}Zach: Will there be patches with more content, or only bug fixes?
[sots] castewar: We like to make it worth it to download, so there will be content. We put a lot of GUI additions, avatars, etc. that weren't bug fixes. So, the short answer is yes, we'll always look to add to the game, not just remove bugs.
[sots] castewar: "In our first patch" I should have said.

djchooch: [Question] Does Swords of the Stars just focus on space battles? Or are the a large ammount of land battles as well?
[sots] Kludgy: Sots is very focused on the cool nitty gritty of space battles, it is one of the things that sort of takes traditional 4x and turns it on its head. ;) Now you have a real physics engine, ships get pushed around, big explosions, weapons that you can see, guns you can see coming to bear.. it's very visceral ;)

SexyJames: What random encounters are in the full version? They add some fun surprises and variety to the game :)
[SOTS] Degrassi: In the full version theres lots of random encouters, Von neumans, Slavers and a few other expotionally powerfull foes that might require some team work to deal with

blazerman921: About the races, each are designed to be different than what we espect. Humans, Tarkas, Hivers are all different spins on some of the same things however. The Liir are an entirely new "breed" of space faring creature. Why psychic dolphins?
[sots] Mecron: Becuase they ARE new...and really they are meant to be a twist not on a form but on a 4x game schtick...in this case the tired cliche of the "Research race that is very friendly". The are peaceul...AND scarey ;)

..::[S&H]DirtBag!::..: I've read that much of the micromanagement is gone. How will this impact the sales? I hope in a good way ;)
[sots] Mecron: Considering that dogmatic micromangagement has been one of the things that has been marginalizing 4X over the past 10 years...I hope we will be seen as a refreshing compliment to the more pedantic kind of games that exist already.

[AoHx]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: How often do you intend to patch the game?
[sots] castewar: Well, as you can see, we haven't disappeared, so we're here to stand behind our game. We're planning on at least one upcoming patch, before we get into the expansion era of the game. One of the things we want to do, I'll say unofficially, is to have a contest where people design some ship badges - the winners will then get added into that upcoming patch - I guess that goes back to the last question. Yay me

{AoN}Zach: How much of the game will be diplomatic compared to combat oriented stuff?
[sots] Kludgy: Diplomacy in sots is a means to an end. If you're going to backstabbing another player or AI, best be ready to deal with the consequences!

btrad: how much will tactical options matter in the game?
[sots] Mecron: They matter a lot but in the end its up to you. Some players will want to bandbox and move and the game units are smart enough to make that work at some level. On the other hand a person designing ships for tricky purposes and organizing his squads and laying mines or blowing off enemy turrets will often do much better;)

{AoN}Zach: Is game play going to feel natural, or is there going to be more of a WoW "you gotta put 21 points here and do this" sort of feel to it?
[sots] castewar: We wanted the natural feel, and worked to reduce the raw numbers, spreadsheet approach. There are numbers in the game, but those are usually more for reference, than something tweaky you have to be super accountant to work with.

[IronChef]Italian: I love the idea of being able to leave the game and have the computer play for you until you reconnect later on. How did you come up with this and wow difficult was it to implement?
[sots] Kludgy: This was one of the very early design choices for SotS, the idea that there could be an online presence for a 4x multiplayer game where you'd always have a choice to drop into an existing game or be pitched in war against someone new. It is very interesting to see the different play styles in practice. Technically, it was pretty straightforward.

djchooch: [Question] Which race would you think is less reliant on upgfrades and more on numbres?
[sots] Mecron: Hmmm...the Hivers would be king of the Swarm...but the Tark also work very well with "Russian" tactics

Jacher: Is there anything that didn't make the game release that might release later in an expansion or patch?
[sots] castewar: Tutorial. I mean, we have one, but in a toss up between optimizing the game or getting a gameplay feature in and a more robust tutorial, we always put the programmers to work on the game directly. So, me and the tutorial aren't as ginchy as I'd like. That's the one thing I'm looking to spend more time on in the coming future of SotS.

[IronChef]Chinese: What was the inspiration for the art style of Sword of the Stars ?
[SOTS] Degrassi: The humans I looked towards B5, Battlestar gallactica and WW2 Battleships. The Liir I studied lots of deep sea creatures and bio illumanents. The Hivers we tried pushing away from just bug people and towards a more believable society. For the Tarkas I tried to make some of the most visous ships I could, using animals like the komodo dragon with its low stance

djchooch: [Question] While in game, will you be able to rotate the camera to see diferent views of the battle?
[sots] Kludgy: Yes definitely, it is an important part of combat. A good player will take full advantage of the camera to inspect from many different angles.

acher: After Homeworld became the undispited king of macro space combat, there has been a lot of competition in the space RTS market. Was it difficult at first to find a new way to make the space RTS genre feel new and fresh with the new competition in the market?
[sots] Mecron: Actually the trick wasnt to make it feel new and fresh...it was to make it approachable and usable. Homeworld's was a fabulous game that I worked on personally but it never did break through to more mainstream gamers due to the 3-D movement interface

Anti-Camper=Ya Mum: If you could chose one thing about the game that is the coolest, what would it be?
[SOTS] Degrassi: Multiple tractor beams :D
[sots] castewar: I got asked this in an interview once, but I'll answer again. I love moving the star map around, and I love kicking the aich eee double hockey sticks out of another ship with driver weapons, and watch them get rocked.
[sots] Mecron: All the cool tactics people are coming up with online and the arguments over what "rulz". And the fact that even this far in release no one has a definitive tactic yet. Its a big sandbox of ships, weapons and technologies that rewards everybody's inner Sun Tzu.
[sots] Kludgy: This game has created great camps of players that are for or opposed to very unique tactics and racial preferences. This is just awesome! Multiplayer just magnifies the diversity and it is amazing to see what new strategies come up.

kingslayer06: will there be custon user interfaces?
[SOTS] Degrassi: Plans for a sequel will have more customizable options in the interface

moo2niac: Did you ever have personal contact to the lead designer of MOO, Steve Barcia, who also lives in Vancouver now? MOO1 influence of SOTS seems apparent...
[sots] castewar: No, but that would be awesome to meet him!

w00ps: Is there a fairly high end AI in the game, meaning will the software AI be able to disearn between a players differant tactics and such ?
[sots] Kludgy: The AI in sots identifies a large number of tacics employed by players and comes up with some surprising counters. It is of course constantly being refined. :D

[IronChef]Chinese: There are an amazing amount of different upgrades in the game. How do you envision strategies being built around them all?
[SOTS] Degrassi: Lots of big brainstormin sessions trying to think of all the possible combination, and then lots of tesiting to find all the possibilities we had no idea would happen :P

{AoN}Zach: Will there be any curiously intuitive features in SOTS, such as roasting a smaller ship with the engines of a larger one?
[sots] Mecron: Engine roasting was developed but tended to roast one's own ships most often :( So far my favourite use of intuition is grabbing a torpedo with a tractor beam and shoving it into the face of the destoyer that fired it. ;)

Jacher: Valve's game testing setup is massive and grueling, often involving complete changes in level design and programming. Were there any changes that had to be made during the testing of SOTS on that scale?
[sots] castewar: Valve has more money than God, so if you mean, do we have a massive and grueling QA team, no. :) However, we've been playing the game constantly, at every stage of development, for the past 18 months. The results are design decisions being subtly refined, versus sweepingly changed at the last minute.

dragonem: Are the system requirements for this game pretty low or is it graphic intesive?
[sots] Kludgy: We are all playing on basic $50 vid cards here at the office, mid-range pc's, which works like a treat. ;) It does make use of DX9 pixel shaders if possible (this often improves performance as well as appearance), but will also run well on most cards without this.

AoHx]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: How have you managed the length of the single player game? How many single player scenarios are there in the full version of the game? How long would you say it would take a average gamer ot complete the single player game?
[SOTS] Degrassi: Depends on the size of the system and the initial setup conditions. Any where from a few hours of intence combat to days of epic conquest

btrad: what elements from Homeworld: Cataclysm are being carried over into this game? Did the team learn anything about what not to do on a project?
[sots] Kludgy: We learned not to use someone else's code!

blazerman921: Can we expect the same quality of voice acting from future installments? (i.e. do we get to hear Ms. Dembo some more??)
[sots] castewar: Yes! We always work to get Arinn Dembo in to lend her voice. The other talented individuals will be back as well. I'd also like to announce the SotS side game, "Spaceships Fight and The Human Scientist Does All The Talking."

[IronChef]Chinese: How have the legendary franchises of Star Wars and Star Trek influenced the style of the game?
[sots] Mecron: As far as ST goes...I threw some love in with the photonic torpedos and the warp pods on the Tark...and also, of course, the REALLY strong racial flavour of ship designs. Star wars...not so much as their battles are more visual set pieces than huge variations in design and weaponry. To be honest B5 was the biggest influence on SotS combat.

Jacher: Does the AI record/learn from the player's tactics in the game dynamically? When you say it's constantly being refined is that what you are talking about? Or are you talking about patches for the AI to come out?
[sots] Kludgy: We are talking about patches that will improve the AI, giving it a growing database of strategies and counters.. because it plays by the same rules as human beings, and sots is such a strategyically and tactically rich game, we're always learning new tricks to teach the AI ;)

kingslayer06: what are some future titles made from you guys?
[sots] Mecron: Right now "Northstar" a a space trader/adventure game in a NON sots universe is in development, and there are 2 or 3 SotS based but NOT SotS 2 projects in early pre=production

IronChef]Chinese: I'm hearing that the game is a "4x" game, but what exactly does this mean?
[SOTS] Degrassi: 4 X Exlpore, Exterminate, Expand, Exploit

kingslayer06: will there be more upcoming events for xfire chats etc for future games?
[sots] castewar: Oh, well be back as often as they'll have us. We <3 Xfire. We're working on a SotS skin (so it matches in-game... and the drapes), and Xfire is adding linkage, so you don't have to be invited into the SotS chat room. And as new product comes out, we'd love to come back and chat more.

Jacher: I've learned a bit about the gaming industry in workshops at DigiPen. Were there any times in which a difficult decision had to be made between sticking to budget and creating the dream game that I'm sure all of you wanted?
[sots] Mecron: It was mainly an issue of time not money...this team is so dedicated and so good at what they do, they are like a magic lamp for a designer. I would think of something evil...Degrassi would make it live and Kludgy would make it work.... sadly I found at a point where my requests were slowing production down completely and I had to say..."Fine...it can wait for the expansion" or we would still NOT be on the shelves;)

[IronChef]Italian: What kind of Internet connection should we have to make online gameplay optimal?
[sots] Kludgy: While the game supports multiplayer even on a 56k modem, ISDN or a broadband connection is definitely recommended.

[AoHx]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: What kinds of multiplayer modes are available?
[SOTS] Degrassi: There are custom games and senario games. Custom games where you can set up the universe various different shapes and allainces. Senarios where you have objectives to achieve and stop your oppents from achieving theirs

moo2niac: GalCiv2 designer BradWardell proudly claimed that "his" AI isnt "scripted" at all. Have you also tried to reduce the "number of scripts"?
[sots] Mecron: Well Brad has claimed a number of things but in this case, getting away from scripting is somethign ALL games want to do...its a matter of how succesful you can be. In SotS the AI is deisgned to play to win under any conditions withOUT scripting

[IronChef]Chinese: How broad a range of systems do you hope to reach? Does the graphics engine scale well enough so that even someone with an older computer can have as much enjoyment as someone with a high-end one?
[sots] Kludgy: Happily, we get excited reports from people enjoying SotS on 'unsupported' below spec systems, many of these laptops, which can often be finicky to develop for.

Tssha: has anyone surprised you in a multiplayer game yet and if so, how?
[sots] castewar: Oh yeah, that's the best part, the surprises. Just before the game came out, we were really looking forward to not playing one another, and getting to play other brains, to see what they'd do. I don't get to play as much as I'd like, but I'm across the way from Mecron, and when I hear, "Oh! You little....." then I smile - someone has surprised the Lead Designer - that's when I'm most proud of our game.

Tssha: Mecron, would you care to expand on a couple of those "evil ideas" that didn't make it into release?
[sots] Mecron: Ummmmm....NOPE! ;)

[AoHx]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: Will there be a multiplayer statistics feature available in the game or on the website?
[sots] Kludgy: This is something we very much want to do. These features will be added in future patches.

kingslayer06: did you guys pull any pranks on each other while making sots?
[sots] castewar: Well, Nerf to the head is common, but that's not a prank, per se. Ship and Fleet names got creatively used - "I'm Coming To Get You Richard" was my personal favorite.

dragonem: While making this game what did you do to take a break from creating for a little while?
[sots] Mecron: Taking a break? Whats that? Seriously though...we head off to movies all together, have nerf wars in the office, play board games...that sort of thing.

djchooch: ~Question~! - What is the easiest race to start with when first playing Swords of the Stars?
[sots] Kludgy: Tarka or Liir are the easiest to start with.

[IronChef]Chinese: Is there a 5th race on the horizon?
[sots] Mecron: Yep...every expansion for SotS will be centered around a new race with a new drive technology.

blazerman921: Has working with a small publisher been a blessing or burdon?
[sots] castewar: We're small, they're small, so there are some exposure issues, but what we liked is that we're on a one-to-one basis with them. The responsiveness from a smaller publisher is very high. We never felt like a number working with Lighthouse, which has happened a lot in the past.

dragonem: How many people have been involved in the creation of SotS?
[sots] Mecron: At any given moment I believe our high water mark has been 10...For the first year there was just 6 of us.

[AoHx]Fr0z3n-316-[CSR]DN: Do you expect SOTS will be playable on 64-bit operating systems- Windows Vista?
[sots] Kludgy: We follow the necessary guidelines for vista compatibility, so it is expected to run there. Works fine on other 64-bit windows.

SexyJames: How long have you been working in the games industry?
[sots] castewar: Mec, 15 years (including reviewing), me 10, Kludgy 8 and Degrassi 6, I think. The rest of the team has similar years.

SexyJames: What kind of differences are there with Dreadnoughts and Cruisers than there are to the Destroyers that you get in the demo? Are they just bigger, stronger versions of Destroyers or do they have extra jobs and functions?
[SOTS] Degrassi: The Cruisers are much more then just larger destroyers, alot more specail are available for large fire power and strategic use such as mining and salvage vesseles. Dreadnoughts are at the extrem of the tech curves for the speices, getting as much raw power onto the battlefield as they can

kingslayer06: will sots run on windows 95 through mellenium?
[sots] Kludgy: win95 and variants are unsupported, they are missing too many important features.

sirtomster: How close is Sots to the perfect game you have in your heart?
[sots] castewar: Given we didn't have unlimited resources, pretty darn close. It's not just the game, but Kerberos was formed so we could look for a better way to make the game, and that's been really satisfying too. More sleep would have been nice though.

[IronChef]Chinese: Do you incorperate any "power user" settings or console commands?
[SOTS] Degrassi: The interface was set up to be easy to grasp and with a flow for quick easy use

btrad: A 3D star map is quite unique among 4X games, how do you think this will change game play?
[sots] Mecron: Its a massive strategic change that really tightens game play up a lot. 2D starmaps create artificial choke points and fronts that really limit things....Crossing a 200 star flat map in 2-D is a grind...in a 3-D sphere you can reach out and nuke someone in a surprisingly short period of time.

kingslayer06: do u all feel like family?
[sots] castewar: Yes - that's one of the things we wanted to do different in starting Kerberos. A dev team that wasn't interchangable people, but an actual team, in the strongest use of the word. And I like Pizza subs!
[sots] Kludgy: Yes! It is a great thing :)

Outlaw Immortal: Is there anything equivilant to a Zergling Rush in this game?
[sots] Kludgy: No. There are destroyer swarms, but they must be constructed and applied with some degree of forethought.

Jacher: The way I see it, SOTS hasn't gotten much media response. Do you guys like sticking to the small developer groups or do you wish some day to make the massively popular game like Starcraft or Half-Life?
[sots] Mecron: Oh I dunno...doesn't take the media to realize a game is good...usually they follow, not lead. SotS may be massive someday but to be honest...all I care about at the end of the day is that its a good game and its not just more of the same. ...there is no amount of cash to make it worth SotS NINE being the same as this game just with more pretty stuff;)

[Xfire] Chatteox: Big thanks to the guys at Kerberos Productions for taking the time to participate in this chat today.
[sots] castewar: Thanks gang
[sots] castewar: My fingers hurt
[sots] Mecron: your are most welcome everyone...thanks for coming!
[sots] Kludgy: yes thanks for coming everyone!

[Xfire] Chatteox: The prizes for this event will be 2 Sword of the Stars posters and 10 copies of the Sword of the Stars game.
[Xfire] Chatteox: The winners are as follows...
[sots] castewar: (drumroll)
[Xfire] Chatteox: Sword of the Stars posters:
[Xfire] Chatteox: 1. cathexis
[Xfire] Chatteox: 2. Jacher
[Xfire] Chatteox: Sword of the Stars game:
[Xfire] Chatteox: 1. Kyle Lionheart
[Xfire] Chatteox: 2. [IronChef]Chinese
[Xfire] Chatteox: 3. djchooch
[Xfire] Chatteox: 4. {AoN}Zach
[Xfire] Chatteox: 5. ..::[S&H]DirtBag!::..
[Xfire] Chatteox: 6. [=NA=] §àrgôn
[Xfire] Chatteox: 7. blazerman921
[Xfire] Chatteox: 8. dragonem
[Xfire] Chatteox: 9. Anti-Camper=Ya Mum
[Xfire] Chatteox: 10. [SFV]Android - Chris

• UPDATE

As of 10/09/06 contest winners began recieving prizes. Take a look for yourself. Xfire will do this sort of thing fairly regularly so if you want some cool loot enter! Kerberos Forum