Dungeons And Dragons Online: Dragonshard: Interview with Liquid's Lead Designer

Warcry- Has it been difficult trying to recreate traditional and signature D&D monsters in a new genre?

JT- Actually, that has been one of the easier parts of development. Traditional D&D monsters have reference art and lots of information on how they attack and what (if any) special abilities they might have. So picking which ones we wanted to make and having a basis on how they would exist in the world wasn't too hard at all.

The tricky part was getting some of the unique behaviors we wanted in the game. We have a large drider that reacts differently depending on where you attack it (front, sides, back) and what you attack with (melee or ranged). Our Umberhulk will attempt to bullrush an adventure party, but the player can move out of the way and attack it while it recovers. Behaviors like that required a lot of specific code from our talented programming team.

Warcry- Has there been any crossover development with the campaign setting and Dragonshard?

JT- Most definitely. We have used lots of things from Eberron. The Order of the Flame is a military wing of the Order of the Silver Flame, a faction in Eberron. We've used Dragonmarks, the special tattoo's from Eberron that grant special abilities / spells. We used Warforged, Dragonshards, the Artificer (a new character class), and the continent of Xen'drik (one of the continents of the campaign setting).

The Umbragen have shown up as part of Eberron as well, I believe. I saw them in Dragon magazine not to long ago. That was pretty cool to see.

Warcry- How much of the Umbragen has been fulled from sourcebooks? How much is original?

JT- The Umbragen in Dragonshard were created (for the most part) before there were any sourcebooks with Umbragen. We had to come up with the spells and abilities, and the artists had to come up with a look that Wizards of the Coast would approve.

Warcry- Do the individual maps play to the strengths of one race over the other? What unique challenges have you faced tying in two different types of gameplay into a single game?

JT - In single player, yes- the level can lend it self to certain sides. For instance, in one later level, a main lizard city is completely overrun with Umbragen- so much so that they do not even have a place to start building a town to produce units. Instead they must battle and sneak around to recruit additional forces. The Lizardfolk faction is not a great "sneaking" faction. That sort of work is usually best left to the Umbragen. However, they are made up of some fearsome warriors, so they have tools at their disposal (tough, scale covered tools that regenerate!).

In multiplayer, no- we don't want to create an unfair advantage for competition. We desire as level of a playing field as we can create in multiplayer.

As far as unique challenges for the two different types of gameplay, I'm sure we could write a book on the subject. The biggest challenge is trying to get it to feel like an RPG while still play like an Real Time Strategy where it needs to (things like balanced units, real-time spells instead of spells per day, damage of attack instead of die rolls, etc). The most unique challenges have all been related to the nuances. Getting traps to disarm and having cool monsters at the end of the dungeon. It was a fun albeit tough challenge to get something so essential to D&D as the concept of "the dungeon" to work right in an RTS game, but I think we've done an awesome job.

Warcry- What specific feature are you most proud of?

JT- It would have to be the dungeon. It is just a cool place to be. There are monsters, huge bosses, treasures, items, traps, and secrets...all sorts of stuff that hasn't been done in this sort of game. It took a lot of effort on the part of the team to pull off, but I think it is the best part of the game.

Warcry- Apart from D&D, are there any other mythologies and fictional environments that have influenced development?

JT - Perhaps subconsciously, but not purposely. At least as far as the design is concerned. The artists I'm sure would have a different story (How come you guys never interview them? They do really cool stuff, too!). We wanted the game to have a specific D&D feeling, and we didn't want to focus on any elements that might steal away from that.

Warcry- What kind of audience are you hoping to draw?

JT- A gigantic audience.

More specifically, we hope to draw fans of D&D and people who like RTS games. I think there is enough of each element to please fans of one or the other. And for people who like both D&D and RTS games... I think they will be especially pleased with the results.

Warcry- What play modes will be available for multiplayer?

JT- There is one base type that is always one, the RTS standard of "Raze"- if the player loses all of their buildings, they lose.

However, there are three additional goals that can be turned on; Expansion (where controlling more than 50% of the expansions on a map for a certain amount of time wins), Control (where controlling all of the places of power on a map for a certain amount of time wins), and Capture the Seals (where the player can find a Seal of Light on a monster in the underworld, and carry it up to their base for a point. The first player to a set number of points wins). All of these are independent and can be turned off or on for any game.

Warcry- How is the beta test progressing?

JT- We are re-launching the Multiplayer Beta with a massively updated build on the 8th of July! We took a lot of the feedback and really made some big improvements to the game to help address some areas that weren't as great as they should have been. The Nexus has been improved, leveling is more important, all of the captains have super-cool Level 5 abilities, and expansions are more valuable.

(If you want to go over those changes, we can give you those...it is just a little long for an interview question).

Warcry- What bug throughout the course of the beta has been the most difficult to squash?

JT- So far no one bug has hampered our programmers. Then again, they are the types of people that don't talk about their problems- they "confront" them. Usually as a group, in a place like...the parking lot. So even if there were a bug like that, I wouldn't know about it. Or at least I wouldn't tell anyone about it...because, seriously...it is really dark out in the parking lot at night and I just don't need that kind of stress. I think one of them is watching me now so I'm going to stop talking about them.

The town building aspect of Dragonshard is rather unique; how did this develop? Has the limited space created more importance on territory control?

JT- I'm not sure what you mean by "how did this develop"...do you mean how did the idea come about or how was this developed by the development team? Or something else? Sorry...

Limited space has increased importance on territory control. It has also created a sort of puzzle game at the player's base. What do you want to build? Do you want to level them up? Or do you want to build a Nexus monument? Or do you want to build lots of different types of units? The idea was to make impactful choices at the base rather than just have a set build tree that was a time sink to get to a certain unit. We hope people like it as much as we do.

Warcry- What types of powers can the underground places of power grant?

JT- All sorts of bonuses; regeneration, replenishment of spell energy, attack bonuses, health bonuses, the ability to do siege damage, reduced spell cool-down, a chance to stun on attacks...all sorts of stuff.

Warcry- Any plans for expansions?

JT - No plans that I am aware of, sorry.

Warcry- Are there any unlockable features in Dragonshard?

JT- Yes! The most powerful weapons for the Champions are unlockable, among other things!