September 25, 2008

Kerberos’ Chris Stewart talks about the next SotS expansion, A Murder of Crows
By Michael Lafferty

“Probably the greatest thing for new players is that it’s a chance to get in on a big game that just got even bigger.”

The franchise Sword of the Stars is a deep, tactical strategy game that is both immersive and entertaining. The battle for interstellar space has been hard-fought since the series debuted in August of 2006. One expansion has been released to date, Born of Blood, that introduced a new race, The Zuul.

Well, SotS fans, get ready. The next expansion is coming down the pipe at the end of the month. SotS: A Murder of Crows. AmoC will, much like Born of Blood, introduce a new race (the Morrigi) that will have never-before-seen technology and ship designs.

Some of the features include:

• The Morrigi, who appeared as a series of mysterious random events in Born of Blood (the first Sword of the Stars expansion pack), continues to evolve the ever-expanding Sword of the Stars universe

• New Ship Sections - Over a dozen new ship sections for all races to match against your opponents

• Unique ‘Grav Flock’ Drive System for Morrigi Ships – The more Morrigi ships in a fleet, the faster they can travel, continuing the racial diversity unique to the Sword of the Stars gameplay experience

• 15 new weapons

• 27 new technologies and the new Xeno-Cultural and Drones tech trees

• Sword of the Stars gameplay continues to deepen with Civilian populations, independent worlds, Espionage options, and demands for planetary surrender

• Drone-carrying ships in all three size classes

• Construction ships, a variety of orbital stations, spy ships, Police Cutters, and more

• A whole new set of GUI enhancements and additions

Kerberos Productions is behind the title, with Lighthouse Interactive the publishers. GameZone.com wanted to know a little more about this title, and Chris Stewart from Kerberos was kind enough to answer our questions.

Q: SotS has seen several expansions over the past several years. Without delving into the specifics of this latest expansion, what is the overall goal with each expansion in terms of adding to the depth of gameplay?

Chris: The core goal of each expansion has been to show another time jump in the SotSverse. SotS starts in the era of first contact when the first four races have just started to encounter each other, often with tragic results. Warfare is direct, brutal and genocidal.

BoB jumps a few decades ahead where the races have started to explore more peaceful concepts like interstellar trade, however this is thrown into disarray by the arrival of the Zuul and their Holy War for some clue their origins. But even from this upheaval and the deadly threat of the AI rebellion comes insights that co-operation between races is possible and viable in the long term.

So, now comes AMoC and the realization by the first four that they are not the first ones to call this part of the galaxy their own and they are unlikely to be the last. And with this insight come refinements in both war and peace as well as the rise in importance of civilian populations and the benefits and problems that brings with it. Galactic civilization continues to uneasily mature against a backdrop of revenge and discovery.

Q: What will the Morrigi add to that concept?

Chris: The Morrigi bring gifts of both peace and war. The truth is that they see themselves as both the guardians of civilization and as victims of this new wave of “barbarity” sweeping the region SotS takes place in – a dangerous combination in an ancient race. The Morrigi are ancient explorers, diplomats and manipulators and they bring to SotS universe the gift of Xenoculture. Where language was once a simple means to make threats or treaties, it now opens a doorway into the deeper understanding of any given race. An understanding that can be used to profit or to conquer.

Tell us a bit about the new technologies that are being added to the game. What effect will they have on the overall game mechanics?

Chris: Well apart from some of the new very cool attack and defence techs, like Dispruptor Shields, Meson Projectors and Kinetic Kill Missiles to name just a few, I would say the new Xeno-culture tree and the techs in it will have the largest effect on game mechanics.

In AMoC you can go far deeper into understanding another race than mere base communication. You can research more intimate languages for a race, which reflect other aspects of their culture like their civilian base and their deepest governing languages. This not only opens up new diplomatic options like demanding planetary surrenders or sending out science mission to teach your allies tech they may be missing, but it also allows you to research subtler forms of trade, dominance and co-existence.

Has the game AI or overall gameplay elements been changed in any way with this expansion?

Chris: The rise in importance of civilian populations means that overall gameplay has shifted somewhat away from the initial “meeting engagement” between empires scenario, where attack and defense are paramount, towards a maturing empire situation where a player must look to the establishment and development of core systems. Civilians provide powerful economic advantages but they also have their own concerns and are far less “gung-ho” about things than their Imperial Military Population brethren that have been the only relevant populations thus far.

Win big and often and every one loves you. Lose and neglect trade and financial health and the bulk of your race may decide they are better off on their own.

The new advancements in space station tech also means star systems evolve more as a game progresses. Building new habitation or trade stations may make a system more powerful economically but then perhaps a Sensor Station to warn of incoming cloaked ships or a science station to increase research and warn of incoming menaces is more needed. With even the largest worlds only being able to support 4 stations at the most, a player will have to choose carefully between guns or butter. And of course, because it’s the SotS way, all of these are valid combat targets, not just pictures of buildings on planets.

While the benefit is obvious for long-time SotS fans and players, what does this offer newer players to the franchise?

Chris: Probably the greatest thing for new players is that it’s a chance to get in on big game that just got even bigger. If you were hesitant about the SotS franchise because you thought it might be a little too much about the combat and not enough about the empire then this is an excellent stage for you to come in on. The universe is bigger … six unique races with six unique drive systems to choose from … literally hundreds of technologies … countless ship design combinations … more combat tactics than any other 4X game out there … mysterious menaces that can change the face of any game … deep multiplayer, now with the ability to handicap or advantage any position … a multitude of scenarios … and an all new challenge progression system that will take you from map to map to face off against ever greater odds. SotS is bigger and better then ever and even more NOT the same ol’ same ol’ 4X game!

Plus, not to mention, this is a new chapter based on two years of content updates, story line evolution and a whole load of user suggested interface optimizations. All in all, this is the best time ever to get in on a long history of innovation and gameplay depth.

Tell us a bit about the changes made to the user interface? What specifically has been added or streamlined?

Chris: Well of course the new gameplay elements like station construction, population control, tech sharing, spying and drone design all required additions to the main interface system but they retain the central theme of easy to use slider controls and readily available design lists. Various summary screens have been added to or modified to reflect these new elements as well. The diplomacy screens have also been modified to reflect new options and information.

When you go about introducing a new race, like the Morrigi, was this in response to what players asked for or part of the overall grand design for the game? In other words, how do you manage to introduce new content like the Morrigi into the game without totally messing up the delicate balance in place between the existing races?

Chris: This would be the big advantage of being privileged with enough support both by our publisher and our fans to actually pull off a two-year plan of post release development. The Morrigi and the gameplay elements that go with them actually have been part of the overall grand design from the start of the project. Long-time players have already come to know and enjoy how far ahead the arrival of new races and tech foreshadowed in the updates and even in the last expansion, BoB, itself.

Small changes to balance are always required but they are usually less about the races themselves and more about new mechanics. For instance, when the SotSverse got to the point where interstellar trade made sense, that element and the piracy to go with it was added to the framework. The only problem is that when you have unique races with unique drive systems, one-size-fits-all mechanics just don’t work and so the new systems have to be tailored and balanced for each race. So while tarks and liir may be able to trade and raid anytime/anywhere they certainly have different priorities for those options. Humans may be similar in attitude towards those things as tarks, but their ships, and hence freighters, are constrained to node lines. Hivers may indeed like to trade via their gate system but they can’t exactly do a lot of deep space ambush piracy without FTL drives. And of course, the Zuul love to raid but wouldn’t be caught dead in merchant clothes unless they had just eaten one from the inside out.

So with any expansion there is a lot of tailoring for each race and a bit of rebalancing for everyone which serves to keep things fair and if nothing else, put the fan base on their toes!

What do you feel is the most exciting aspect of the Murder of Crows expansion?

Chris: Ahhh, such a question! It’s like asking a proud parent to pick their favorite child!

I suppose after all is said and done and I am just playing for the sake of having fun, the part of AMoC that give me the greatest thrill is just the feel of how well integrated everything is and how far the implications go. So now that I have stations to protect from an incoming fleet I worry about being able to come between the enemy and my world or my stations. Before I could not be in two places at once but AMoC takes this need into account and now I have access to a system defense manager where I can split fleets and place different groups in different places to spawn when combat starts.

Another great integration is with the cruiser class freighters that reflect the Morrigi’s influence on interstellar trade. They are great for profit but very expensive and ripe targets for raiding. I place more military and police ships on patrol but with spying I know my enemies might be able to pick and choose the least defended/biggest prize routes for a raid. Of course nothing says “Surprise, you raiding bastiches!” more than an innocent cruiser freighter whose loading doors slide back to reveal rows of medium Stormer turrets. That flow from new race to better trade to increased risks to deadly disguised Q-ships is just a level of element integration that you can’t find anywhere else.

Thank you for your time.

Chris: No, thank you for giving us a chance to talk more about our game and specifically, AMoC. We can’t wait for everyone else to jump and try it!

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