Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest Interview / Preview

Developer	Snowblind Studios
Publisher	Sony Online Ent.
Genre	Role-Playing
Release Date	2/15/04

When the opportunity to talk with Snowblind Studios about Champions of Norrath arose, GWX jumped at the chance. In the conversation below, GamingWorld X gets answers to many of the questions fans have for the team who created one of this generation’s greatest releases, and how Champions of Norrath takes it all to the next level. In the following interview, learn how Snowblind Studios came to work with Sony Online Entertainment, how hard it really is to work with the PS2, and what they are doing to insure that Champions of Norrath is their greatest release yet.

Below, in the sidebars, are what Snowblind’s Lead Environmental Artists Brian Johnson and Brian Sostrom (for this interview, they will simply be known as the “Brians”) had to say.

Is This The Dark Alliance Killer?

Interview w/ the Brians

GWX: Before we get started, allow us to give you congrats on the success of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and becoming one of the most respected development studios in the business. BRIANS: Thank you... We are very happy that people enjoy our work. GWX: How did Snowblind Studios and Sony Online Entertainment cross paths? BRIANS: SOE contacted us near the end of BG:DA. We were planning on doing the BG:DA sequel, but we felt it was time to move on.

To fans of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, the fact that it’s creator, Snowblind Studios, wouldn’t be returning to do the sequel was a heartbreaker; if for no other reason, than simply because fans of the first game wouldn’t trust the sequel in anyone else’s hands. But what we didn’t know was that Snowblind and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) had teamed up to do something more ambitious than just a sequel to an already-established franchise. When we had laid eyes on the EverQuest-based Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest, our longing for the team to be doing the next Baldur’s Gate suddenly evaporated. The masters have moved on to something new, and we couldn’t have been more excited from that point on.

What is EverQuest?
The wildly popular EverQuest universe is a vast world for the PC gamer to get his/her massively multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG) groove on. The game and it’s expansions have sold millions, and jump-started a phenomenon of online weddings and life long friendships. So imagining EverQuest leaving it’s MMORPG roots in favor of an action/RPG is almost unfathomable. For EQ fans, rest easy; the epic online game isn’t going anywhere, and the same can be said to fans of the PlayStation 2’s EverQuest Online Adventures. But to fans of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, SOE and Snowblind Studios has something special in mind for you.

What is Champions of Norrath?
Champions of Norrath is exactly what action/RPG fans have been waiting for. Beautifully melding Dark Alliance’s gameplay with the world of EverQuest, Champions of Norrath is an action/RPG that builds on what Snowblind Studios did with Dark Alliance; in a ton of big ways.

GWX: Was the transition from Dark Alliance to Champions of Norrath a difficult one in terms of design? BRIANS: Only in that there is a lot more going on in CoN than we had time to do in BG:DA. There have also been many changes to the engine that have increased what we can do with it.

Set 300 years before the original EverQuest, Faydwer Forest is being invaded by hordes of orcs and goblins. The leader of the tree city of Kelethin calls forth champions to help his people drive these hordes away, and to learn why the invasion is happening. The journey that players will embark on will be an adventure that takes them through Norrath, from places like Kunark, to the Plane of Hate and Plane of Air.

With the storyline in place and locales innumerable, we can get into the real meat of the game, which resembles very closely to Dark Alliance, but far exceeds it in every respect. Everything is there, including fighting off hordes of enemies, the ability to self-buff (i.e. raising your character’s stats through spells and magical items), and even the multiplayer stuff is accounted for (and is much better than we ever could have imagined. It’s coming from Sony Online, so you should already have a pretty decent idea of where we’re going with this). But rather than just give you a taste, GamingWorld X is here to give you the whole enchilada and much, much more.

Choose Your Brute
In Champions of Norrath, players have access to five different character classes and races. Though you can’t mix and match races and classes, you do have both a male and female iteration of each, for a grand total of ten characters from which to choose. GWX outlines them below:

- Barbarian Warrior
- Wood Elf Ranger
- High Elf Cleric
- Dark Elf Shadow Knight
- Erudite Wizard

GWX: How deep will character customization go? BRIANS: Another thing we wanted to improve on was the level of character customization from our last game. In BG:DA, we only had three predetermined player characters. In CoN we have expanded this to five classes, each a different race, and each with a male and female model. Every character has multiple skin and hair options to choose from. Plus now you can name them yourself! GWX: How much NPC interaction will players have? BRIANS: There are quite a few NPC’s in the game you can interact with. Thankfully, they are not quite as long-winded as the last game! Plus, there are more NPC-generated quests for the player to embark on. Sometimes they will join you for a short time while they help you find an exit or important item.

From here, you can select a plethora of options, customizing your character’s hair, skin tone, face, and even tattoos. You can even name your character! (There’s a new one, huh?) Now, during combat, and all throughout the game, you are able to increase your stats in a number of ways. Your main attributes -- which are Strength, Intelligence, Stamina, and Dexterity – will have a select number of points put on them by you, and you can increase them over time, assigning the points where you deem necessary. Each class has 20 different abilities, and each can be leveled up to 20 times. Some of these skills and abilities are passive, whereas others are active. So while some of these are skills the player must activate, others take effect automatically.

The Health, Mana, and Experience bars from Dark Alliance, and are not-surprisingly very similar in basic structure. One really big improvement to those that continually use magic will find that they no longer have to cycle through spells, but instead will be able to map a radial structure to the controller’s D-pad for instant use of any spell or feat assigned to that direction.

There will be three different difficulty settings, and only one will be available until players complete one, in which case another will then be unlocked. The purpose of this is for extended replay, as players will be able to run through the game three different times with the same character. Each difficulty level offers tougher enemies and more valuable experience points.

Gameplay, Weapons, Armor, Magical Items and More Galore
You can travel alone and we’re sure you’ll have heaps of fun, but the idea of playing with buds is what Champions is all about. Hook up a MultiTap for some four-player enjoyment if you wish. Adventuring together has it’s ups and downs, most especially during combat. Reap 60% of the experience if you deal the killing blow to a creature, while the remainder of your party splits the 40% left over. Know that you also now have full control over the camera, including the capability to swoop in on your character. The character’s graphical details really shine here.

GWX: Will the game's difficulty step up relative to the number of players playing? BRIANS: Yes. The more players currently in a game changes the strategy a lot as well. Just be sure to share the spoils!

Not only does combat experience require knowing how to share, but the spoils of victory are another area where players can’t be greedy. There are over 10,000 in-game items of random generation, which include different weapons, armor, and artifacts. In addition, players will have the ability to create their own by fusing magical components with different weapons and armor. Nifty.

GWX has been given some small examples of weapons and armor players will find, buy, and sell in Champions of Norrath. Keep in mind that the examples provided below is just a tiny fragment of what Championswill offer players.

The Beauty of Norrath

GWX: Is Champions of Norrath running on the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance engine? BRIANS: That is what we started with, but we have improved it in many ways. We have added non-dynamic bump mapping, random dungeon generation, online play and several other features. It is a far more robust engine than what we finished BG:DA with. GWX: What have some of the greater challenges been in creating Champions of Norrath? BRIANS: There is a lot of content in CoN and it takes a lot of time and effort to create it. We have done a lot to streamline the art path and design process, but it could always be better. We are always bumping into memory and storage concerns as well. Juggling all this while attempting to maintain an enjoyable game experience and high frame rate can be very difficult. GWX: One of the unique features of Champions that has us intrigued is the randomly-generated environments, but games in the past that featured randomly-generated areas didn't fare well. What is Snowblind doing with Champions of Norrath that will set it apart from the typical random dungeon? BRIANS: One of the things we were really pleasantly surprised with about BG:DA is how many people played through multiple times. We wanted to add to the replay value in CoN by adding randomized dungeons, a detailed skill tree, more armor and weapon choices, etc. The levels are not purely random either. Our designer has full control over the size and general layout of the levels. We are confident players will find the random levels as well-crafted and fun to play as our hand-built ones. GWX: Champions of Norrath looks stunning. Snowblind has been praised before on knowing their way around the PS2, and it is no more evident than in Champions. Is developing on PS2 as difficult as everyone originally said it was? BRIANS: Yes... Perhaps even harder! It may not be the easiest platform to develop on, but it is a powerful piece of hardware. We have a very talented team of programmers and a dedicated art staff who put in the extra effort needed to get the results we want.

Anyone who has ever played any EverQuest game before knows that the world is vast, and just as rich and vivid in detail as any world in Dungeons & Dragons that Snowblind has worked with before. What is most captivating to us is that aside from the towns and cities (that will serve as level hubs where you can talk with non-player characters (NPC’s), and buy and sell equipment), every portion of the game is randomly generated. This of course, means that playing through Champions will be different every time, for nearly infinite replayability. While it’s true that other games haven’t fared so well with randomly generated areas, Snowblind Studios insist that their levels will be different, and just as creative as their hand-built levels, partially due to Snowblind’s designer having full control over the general level layout (See interview). There will be an overland map available, as well as autosave checkpoints that can even teleport you back and forth from town.

Players will be bashing skulls in over 45 levels in 50 different areas total. Aside from the normal hacking and slashing through the main storyline, there is a multitude of side quests that can be embarked upon as well, adding to the meat of an already beefy game as is. Each of these fully 3D environments is interactive, and are some of the most striking environments yet seen on the PS2. If you’ve played Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance (and if you didn’t, what’s wrong with you?), you’ll know that the game is still among the best and best-looking that this generation has to offer on any platform. Well, Champions of Norrath -- with the usage of Snowblind’s advanced and much-improved Dark Alliance engine -- easily dwarfs that game, and any of the provided screens we’ve shown you during this feature doesn’t do the game proper justice, trust in that. The stunning graphical work is equally impressive on the character and creature models, sporting almost every effect one can think of, including bump mapping, remarkable light and shadow, and reflective surfaces. Truly, Snowblind has outdone themselves, or so we’d think. Consider this: Champions allows for up to 40 characters onscreen with full effects at once without a performance hit. Now that is impressive!

What’s an EverQuest Game Without Online Play?
Well? We suppose it wouldn’t be an EverQuest game at all, but no worries. This is where Sony Online Entertainment puts their talents to work. Not only is Champions of Norrath going to go online, it is coming with a unique match-making service to group together like-minded players for maximum enjoyment.

Even though Dark Alliance touched down on the idea of sharing the spoils and playing through cooperatively, the game definitely allowed you to be all about yourself if you chose to play that way. Champions allows the same, but further encourages actions that will benefit the entire party, not just one individual. In fact, the online portion of the game is where the community feel will play the biggest part, so naturally, being a greedy Gus will prove to be a lonely affair for you in the future. After all, who wants to play with a selfish gamer? This is partly where the match-making comes in, as it matches you up with players who are most like you, and your playing tendencies.

You will start at the main menu, where the services from SOE will hook you up. After finding players you want to adventure with, the game is actually hosted on the PS2 itself, not SOE’s service. While steps will be taken to prevent use of certain cheat devices, Snowblind does say that tracking and eliminating every possible exploit isn’t feasible. Again, the match-making service should help keep the undesirables away.

GWX: We understand that Champions of Norrath will be going online. Can you briefly explain how the online component will work? BRIANS: There is an option on the main menu to start a networked game. From there you go a type of match-making service that SOE put together for us. Once you use their interface to set up a game, it should be very similar to playing with your friends in the same room. GWX: Some games that are currently online have suffered from the use of numerous cheat devices (cough, SOCOM, cough). Will there be steps taken to prevent this in Champions of Norrath? BRIANS: The way our networking works prevents the use of many cheats. Each player's game must stay in sync at all times. However, it is impossible to predict every possible exploit.

Snowblind and SOE have taken some of the more commonly-known exploits of these types of games, and have at least somewhat rectified them, such as power-leveling. Power-leveling is when an insanely powerful character(s) leads lesser adventurers into highly difficult battles. By having the powerful characters do most of the work in killing off the creatures, the lesser characters gain experience in colossal chunks, allowing those players to level up very quickly. Snowblind and SOE has somewhat eliminated this by only allowing multiplayer games to be played on the lowest common difficulty setting. This in itself will only allow those lower-experienced players to gain experience normally, while greater characters will just have to advance much more unhurriedly. The host of the game determines where the characters will begin – as the party will start at the host’s last save point.

And the most fantastic part of this online capability? It’s free of charge.

An Action-Packed Package for Four
So, what have we got? An adrenaline-pumped action title beefier than Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. A game that offers five characters from which to choose, the ability to customize their looks, a much more elaborate and detailed skill tree in which to build your character the way you want, and four-player MultiTap support. The game includes 50 different areas to explore, thousands of items to find, and even the ability to create your own through magical components.

Are we done yet? Not even close.

GWX: We would like to thank you for taking this time out to talk with us. Is there anything you'd like to say to GWX readers? BRIANS: Thank you. We hope everyone enjoys Champions of Norrath!

Some of the most jaw-dropping graphics on any platform, hosting just about every special effect out there in both the characters and it’s beautiful environments, 100 hours of gameplay per character class, randomized, yet fully-controlled level generator for a different game every time you play, more interactive NPC’s, and the capability of taking this entire experience online to hook up with three others? And you can do all this without any extra subscription fees!

Is Champions of Norrath Game of the Year material? We don’t doubt it for one second.

GamingWorld X would like to take this opportunity to thank Brian Johnson and Brian Sostrom of Snowblind Studios for taking their time out of their schedules to talk with us, and also a very special thanks to Tamara Sanderson of Sony Online Entertainment for setting up the interview, and for providing never-ending support of GWX’s Champions of Norrath project throughout it’s long process.

Preview by Brendon Hivner