We know that, The Adventure Company is making adventure games and improving itself on them. We can say the same things about Slitherine Software that they work onto strategy games. They developed Spartan and Gates of Troy, now they are working on a new project, it’s called Legion Arena. This game has similar properties with Rome: Total War. The most important difference that Legion Arena has, is that it can only be played online. The other properties are same with Rome: Total War. It’s interesting that, developers are all European and Legion Arena is now at first place, in the list of my “most anticipated games”.
May be, Slitherine can be counted as a small firm, but we must consider that they are the developers of “Spartan” that played well in our country. We decided that, making an interview and introducing their games will be a good work to do. Now, here is the interview that I made with Iain McNeil, from Legion Arena, Slitherine Software. As I spoke with him, he was very kind that I understood from his speech and behaviour.
(MK) – Merlin’in Kazani
(IM) – Iain McNeil
(MK) – Greetings from all of the Merlin’in Kazani team. First of all could
you introduce yourself and your company to our readers?
(IM) – My name is Iain McNeil from Slitherine Software. We’re a small
independent UK developer. Till now we’ve been focussing on strategy games, but
with Legion Arena we’re crossing into the Role playing genre.
(MK) – We know you from your successful jobs which Gates of Troy and Spartan
(especially Spartan). Also Legion and Chariot were good. They were strategy
games all of them. Your next game is Legion Arena and it’s a strategy game too.
Let me ask you a question. “Why Strategy?” 🙂
(IM) – The main reason is that this is what we love & know most about. We all
play strategy games from board and card games to computer games. The team also
includes 2 previous tabletop wargaming World Champions, so its something we know
a lot about! Before forming Slitherine the team had a vast amount of experience
in the genre working on games such as Red Alert, Dune 2000 and Dune Emperor for
Westwood/EA. We also felt there was a niche in the market that was not being
filled. There are very few good turn based strategy games out there and we felt
the lack of competition was a good opportunity for us.
(MK) – What are the important things which makes Legion Arena better than the
others or makes it different? It looks like Rome: Total War. Can we say that
Legion Arena is European version of R:TW?
(IM) – Legion Arena is actually an RPS game (Role Playing Strategy) instead of
an RTS (Real Time Strategy). Although at first glance there are similarities to
RTW, the gameplay is focussed in a different area. In Legion Arena it is all
about recruiting, equipping and training the best army. You are in charge of an
army that you take with you through the game. Your troops are not expendable,
but very important. You can name each squad, customize their textures and you’ll
find after a few battles you get really attached to them! It’s not about
building an empire, managing cities, diplomacy, trade & research. It is all
about becoming the greatest general in history.
(MK) – What can you say about units, battles and technology in the game?
(IM) – In Legion Arena there is no campaign map, cities or production. You
recruit men through your fame. You earn fame by winning battles. The battles are
organised into campaigns that follow history. As you complete one campaign you
will unlock the next. So far there are around 120 maps across 20 campaigns and
we’re adding new battles all the time. You can fight the battle of Cannae, the
siege of Alesia against Vercingetorix and many more.
The units available to the player depend on which type of army they choose.
Republican Romans can recruit Hastati, Princepes and Triarii, while the Imperial
Romans are allowed Legionaries & Auxiliaries. Obviously the Gauls get a
completely different set of options. The aim is to release new armies and
campaigns over time so there is always something new to try.
(MK) – RPGRTS (role playing real-time strategy game) isn’t very familiar
description I think. Could you tell us what does it mean and how does it work in
the game?
(IM) – The men you can initially recruit have no skills and as you fight battles
they gain experience. Each time a squad gains a level you can allocate them a
skill. You get to specialise the squad in defence, attack, manoeuvre and a
number of other specialist skills, or if you prefer you can have a
general-purpose squad with a mix of skills.
In battle you can issue a limited number of orders. Every time you do this it
uses up order points. These points regenerate but the maximum you can store &
the rate they regenerate depends on your general’s abilities. You choose whether
to give him command skills to increase his order points and recharge rate or
battle skills to make him tougher in a fight. After a few battles your army will
really start to develop a personality and you will see your progress ranked
against all the other players currently playing Arena.
(MK) – It’s known that Legion Arena will be Internet based and people will play
Legion Arena on Internet with each other. Could you give us more information
about this subject and are you planning to produce Single Player Version of
Legion Arena?
(IM) – In Legion Arena you do not actually direct connect and play head to head.
As mentioned above you are all competing against each other through the
rankings. As every players army is at a different point in the game, a direct
connect style of game would not be much fun. My Level 20 Legionaries are going
to beat your Level 2 Militia now matter how good you are : ) Instead we are
focussing on the ranking system to make it as interesting as possible. We also
want to introduce community features to allow players to interact through the
games UI.
We were not initially planning a one-player game, but so many publishers
expressed an interest that we decided it seemed like a good idea. The one player
version will be similar to the online version, but it will not have the &
community features.
(MK) – The game is in a beta process approximately for 5 months. Are the users
who you have selected as beta testers useful to help you build up the game
better? Do you believe in this?
(IM) – The game isn’t really in beta. Beta is supposed to be when the game is
feature complete. Since the beta started we have added many new features so when
we started it should have been called “pre alpha test” or something like that :
) The beta testers have been a huge help. Many of the new features are due to
feedback from them. Some of the beta testers have even been involved in scenario
design & research, which has also helped a lot. Without them Legion Arena would
be less fun, no question.
We also beta test our games with the gamers and think it makes a big difference
to the quality of our games. When working on the games you get so close to them
that you sometimes find it hard to judge the gameplay objectively. Beta testers
drag us back to reality. We look at something and might know its not quite
right, but to fix it will take 2 weeks so we decide to ignore it and hope nobody
notices. Beta testers don’t care how hard it will be to fix & just tell us what
is fun and what is not and this forces us to fix problems we’d like to forget
about!
(MK) – What can you tell us about the system requirements of the game?
(IM) – We haven’t decided on the final specs yet as there is still some work to
do & tests to run. Legion Arena is 3D only, so requires a 3D card. We’re doing a
lot of work to make sure the memory requirements are not huge and to optimise
the engine and when this is complete we’ll have a better idea. The player also
has controls to reduce the quality of the models to improve the performance. It
won’t require a cutting edge PC to run, but the better your PC the prettier it
will look.
(MK) – Thank you very much. Do you want to say anything else to our readers?
(IM) – It’s great to hear that people in Turkey are looking forwards to Legion
Arena. We hope they enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed making it!
Legion Arena will be free to download & play, and players will only be charged
if they want to access the advanced units and new army packs that are released.
There is no monthly fee, you only pay for the features you want to access, which
we think is a great deal for players and will build up a big fan base for Arena,
which is also good for us.