Submit your question to the Silverfall Dev Team!

[baker011]

Here at Atari we are really excited about the upcoming release of Silverfall for the PC. So to help you pass the time until it is released we are giving you the chance to submit questions to the development team. Just post the question you really want answered within this thread.

[Mistylicious]

I've been playing the french demo and really want to know why the enemy creatures level up with our character when we level up... Doesn't it defeat the whole purpose of leveling up our character to become stronger in the first place??

Alot of people felt it ruined oblivion and I'm wondering why the developers did it...

Barely beating zombies at level 1 is kewl but barely beating zombies at level 12 just kinda stinks... Isn't the reward in leveling up to really kick the butts of the creatures we had problems beating before?

Other than that I really think the game is very kewl...

[Gorkk]

I've been playing the french demo and really want to know why the enemy creatures level up with our character when we level up... Doesn't it defeat the whole purpose of leveling up our character to become stronger in the first place??

Alot of people felt it ruined oblivion and I'm wondering why the developers did it...

Barely beating zombies at level 1 is kewl but barely beating zombies at level 12 just kinda stinks... Isn't the reward in leveling up to really kick the butts of the creatures we had problems beating before?

Other than that I really think the game is very kewl...
I'm not a dev but can partly answer your question. Mobs don't always follow the level of the character. Actually, they have a range of level they can have, depending of the area and the difficulty level (although the range is quite large). If your character is within that range, the level of the mob will be between your level minus 3 and your level plus 3, else they will be at the cap (lower or higher cap, it depends if you're above the max or below the min).
In the swamp around the refugee camp, the max level is somewhat around 10-12 in normal difficulty (around 25 in hard difficulty, and at least 50 in Extreme difficulty).

[DaveyJJ]

Can one of the devs comment and perhaps compare the upcoming editor with the editors available to Titan Quest and NWN2 owners? Perhaps explain how simple things like assigning a quest indicator (!) and text to a NPC get done?

[Gel214th]

Does the game support Co-Op over a LAN? Is this easy to do, and is the game tailored to factor in Save Games in Co-Op, Quests completed, Loading multiplayer saves and continuing the adventure etc. ?

We found out after launch that Neverwinter Nights 2 was punishing on graphics card, requiring either a 6800 or a X800 graphics card and up to really be considered 'playable' at widescreen resolutions, and that cards from the Nvidia FX line (Fx5900 for example) were unusable. What's the true best Playable specs for Silverfall which would allow gamers to experience the game with good graphics details and framerates?

If you could name two games that are similar to Silverfall's gameplay what would those two games be?

What, if any, Innovation is there in Silverfall? What individual features have you done differently from other titles in the genre that Gamers will notice and appreciate?

If you've just used existing methodologies, is there anything unique or innovative in the way you have combined these existing gameplay methods to produce something different?

What are the Combat Mechanics in your game?
What existing title can combat in Silverfall be compared to:
Combo Button Mashing real time combat (Suduko (sp?) for Xbox)?
Do you just control a single character or a Party?
How do you give orders to your party, or are they all AI controlled? (Dungeon Siege? Baldur's Gate 2)
Real Time or Turn Based or Hybrid?


What's the Viewing/Camera Control system in Silverfall like? 3rd Person MMORPG style controls? First Person controls? 3D Isometric...or did you do something different?

What are the top 3 features of your game that you think will draw the player in the most, and that they would most appreciate?

I think that's enough hee hee hee :)

[TerrorFromBelow]

With no offense, belittlement or contempt meant, in a gaming industry where every game developer is allegedly making a "genre-redefining, groundbreaking, next-generation" game full of "innovation", what will you do different?

In other words, are you radical enough to admit that nothing you're doing will redefine the genre, break new grounds or be innovative but instead, will constitute a good game and that's all you're concerned with?

Short version: Will you cut the PR nonsense?

[TerrorFromBelow]

Do you have any post-release worst-case scenarios for Silverfall? Many noticable games with mass-appeal turn out to be rushed for release these days, which lead to consumers ending up with buggy games ranging from reasonably playable to completely unplayable, with promises of patches from developers. With these in mind, have you considered a post-release development plan for such updates and announcements, just in case?

Other than fixes, what other post-release plans do you have for Silverfall, if any at all? Are there any plans for foreseeable future?

What do you think, what is your stance about "pay-per-mods", like premium add-ons for the original NWN or official plug-ins for Oblivion? Do you have anything similar in your mind?

How long have you been playing RPGs? What are your favourite old-time RPGs and why?

What do you think are the top 3 problems with the state of today's RPGs?

Have you been playing any other RPGs, old or new, for seeking inspiration or assistance in development of Silverfall?

What other games, RPG or not, have influence on design of Silverfall if any, and in what ways?

What are your favourite computer RPGs which have been released in the last few years, other than Oblivion, Fable, NWN2 and MK Apocalypse?

[EvolveTom]

Right on folks, keep the questions coming! We'll get them over to the dev team really soon and you'll get your responses pretty soon after that!

[TerrorFromBelow]

Can you go into detail about Silverfall's world-levelling (or world-scaling) system, as mentioned by Mistylicious and Gorkk? What are your reasons for implementing a levelling system? Besides the benefits you see for levelling, do you also admit to at least a few negative sides about it, and if so, what are they?

What other older and recent games do you think have a good implementation of such a levelling system?

In previous Gothic games, type and difficulty of adversaries were specific to locations, so without exploration of gameworld being limited to a few areas, you couldn't just "conquer" the whole gameworld as a level-1 character. This approach payed off as it motivated players to try hard to progress and to explore those "mysterious" areas once they would become strong enough to afford taking risks by letting their curiousity overcome obvious dangers (no pain no gain). Can you tell if there is anything similar in Silverfall?

What degree of looting can we expect to find in Silverfall? Are the loots levelled as well?

What can you tell us about game world economy? Can the players expect to sell every piece of equipment to every shop associated with the items in question? E.g. can I realistically expect to sell just any type of weapon to any weapon seller merchant? Will there be picky merchants, refusing some items? What about the money stocks of merchants; will they keep buying stuff from the players with an infinite source of money?

[TerrorFromBelow]

Can you address the problems you see in your favourite RPGs, old or new?

[TerrorFromBelow]

Can you name some of the most common clichés used in fantasy RPGs? Like half-naked female fighters, wearing armor revealing boobies?

Do you believe that such clichés have mass-market appeal, so are good for business? Is it the same reason that Silverfall have such elements as well?

Besides chicks with boobies, do your design department have anything in store for female players as well? Like sexy male characters wearing g-strings or muscle-revealing armors with visual implications of covered male genitalia?

What can you tell about the difference between "science" and "nature" in Silverfall? Where is the line between science and nature drawn in Silverfall, because in essence, science is nature? Let me elaborate: "science" isn't synonymous with industrial pollution and destruction of environments, therefore a conflict between "industrialism" and "naturalism" would make sense, but how are we supposed to believe that there is a sensible meaning in "science vs. nature" ? Also, if we go by the word definitions;

sci·ence
n.
1.
a. The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
b. Such activities restricted to a class of natural phenomena.
c. Such activities applied to an object of inquiry or study.

So basically, science is a systematic approach to exploit the nature according to the needs. This means that science is involved in everywhere from fabrication of simple clothing to production of tools for everyday activities and channeling of forces of nature like gravitational energies and chemistry, or in short, taking anything found in the nature as a means to an end.

Going by this, isn't it contradictory to present a contrast and conflict between science and nature? Science is involved in the simplest fabric of clothing, or a wheel of a carriage, without any implication of industrial assimilation. As for manipulation of parapsychological elements, like most commonly "magic" in fantasy games, wouldn't a different word be better and more accurate? Take mysticism for example:

mys·ti·cism
n.
1.
a. Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God.
2. A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.

So, do you have a rationale for coming up with "science vs. nature" thingy?

What do you think about romance in RPGs, and what is your stance on gay and lesbian game characters?

[12Volt]

I hadn't even known about this game til' yesterday. I had just gotten my new comp and was looking at upcoming games. I tend to stray from the mainstream games as much as possible, and was searching for less known titles. Low and behold I found a really nice looking game. I mean I was immediately drawn to the beautiful graphics. Its like 3d and cell shaded at the same time it looks amazing, unique. I decided to look into it and soon found some gameplay videos. It looked like Diablo!
Thats when the game got sold though, not because of the 'Plays like Diablo'... But because of the concept! I mean Nature V.S Science. Such an awesome idea. I can imagine the replays I would have. I think the trailer I watched said if you continue to go down the nature path you may even become a shapeshifter. Thats what sold it. I soon came to the official website and found out about the awesome monsters. Seriously guys, grats on the concept art. It looks amazingly cool, with the goblins and stuff. Not to mention its like cell shaded but still has that blood. (Bloods never a selling point to me but its always a tad weird to get axed in the face and not have an ounce of blood drop)
Anyways for the questions. Theres a few things that concern me.

1) How are you handling the advertising of the game? I can't stress how much I get worried about this. All the games I've hyped always end up being sleeper hits. Beyond Good & Evil, Monster Hunter, Project Snowblind. You really need to get the word out! It looks amazing!

2) How are the online services, I can't find much info on it. I only read that you can do co-op, but you have to play through the entire game. If thats so that is really a bummer because its a pain having to restart every time.

3) Will you guys be patching the game frequently? And are you planning to have daily or weekly maintenance?

Thats all for now, thanks for giving me the chance to ask the questions. I can't wait for the game I will be getting it on launch.

Lates! :up:

[Vlad the Impale]

:D Just wanted to let everyone know that you dont have to send his questions to the developers because I have the answer right here.

Sorry Terror, but gays will never be in high fantasy, and I hope they are never in video games.

It is perfectly natural to see boobies while we're slaughtering the hordes, and there will never be a "guy in underwear". Sorry to disappoint you.:D

[Vlad the Impale]

I found the game to be a bit tedious due to the difficulty of the monsters and awkwardness of the controls. Will you offer an 'easy' setting for the casual player and/or a way to augment the controls, maybe a standard "W/A/S/D" layout?

Silverfall looks amazing, but why do developers have such a hard time making a game easy to enjoy? Would you consider offering a standard locked in camera that follows behind the player and a 1) keyboard key that allows you to 'unlock' the camera so that you can change the perspective with the mouse (i.e. it doesn't change which the way the character is "aiming" as it does in the 'locked' mode), and 2) a mouse button that when held down allows you to 'swing' the camera around the player to see the action from different vantage points.

[12Volt]

Yeah, I hate to be a homophobe or 'too casual' but I really hated terror's ideas as well, I don't personally care about the breasts. I wouldn't play the game if males we're half naked all the time. I would only care if the gaming population had as much women as men. I can't understand the problem. I mean the RPG genre isn't exactly woman friendly. I mean c'mon, Lineage II the women get more naked the higher they get. (Wait, revelation! Maybe they wear less armor because they get hit less due to they having great skill?!) As well, If it comes down to that much of an equality issue then I don't care. I would rather have fully clothed chicks and fully clothed males then see men in g-strings. Sorry man but that concept is flawed.

And with the science/nature debate, I don't know if you we're trying to stir up a conversation or not but you really are taking that too seriously. The way I see it is that its a society in the midst of an industrial revolution (Boom!) And some wish to not get involved. I mean that makes complete sense, if we had magic and had to pick over weaponry there really would be a conflict. Think of it this way; If you chose to advance with long range weaponry then your society would build around that. Sooner or later you would be having mechanical robots walking around. But lets say you thought of steam powered equipment to be not necessary, due to you being a great shaman. Your city would stay in league with nature and your city would be quite primal compared to the industrial goblins.

God I'm ranting, sorry. I don't even know if my facts are straight. The point is its a really interesting concept and I don't want to look into it too seriously.

P.S. Having women with cleavage isn't a big deal. In ancient Greece they would walk around without a shirt on. Big deal, hell, if you we're fighting goblins you'd be sweating like hell. Not to mention showing cleavage isn't sexual at all, where as an elven male flaunting his brand new leapord g-string is down right sexual. Dumb.

Oh and with the control scheme. Please developers, for the love of god. Please have AWSD scheme. You can't even begin to comprehend how painful other settings can be. My hands tend to hurt like hell from extended typing. I need to be comfortable. Oh and please have every key mappable to an extent, I want to have the option to be able to quick switch to 'spell' with z, or be able to bring up map with b.


My final and most important question: I want to know if you will be attacking other cities. Do any of the races dislike each other? Is there any nation-wide conflicts within Nelwé? I'm just wondering if theres any sort of city attacks or wars in the world. Thanks all you devs! We all appreciate it!

[baker011]

So far some excellent questions guys. Keep them coming :)

[Vlad the Impale]

And for the person who is questioning the rationale of the technology vs. nature theme, once again, for the forum's sake, I've got the rationale right here:

Technology frequently IS in conflict with nature, especially in this context where we're dealing with nature as a primal intelligence i.e. elementalism etc.... wait, is this word? Oh thats right, it doesn't have to be because we're dealing with a make believe world. In any case, the two can easily be in conflict with one another, and in my opinion, (and I assume I speak for the rest of the forum) I think this is a good enough rationale for the conflict in Silverfall.

You've presented an interesting argument for a university lecture and I enjoyed reading it, but
taking game themes out of context is only going to divert the developers' from the real issues with the game, such as the awkward controls in the demo. This appears to be a translation issue only.

[Vlad the Impale]

This is to the poster who criticized the developers for using too many 'fantasy roleplaying game' cliches in Silverfall.

As far as I'm concerned, I think you really need to re-evaluate your goals in making these kinds of statements. You obviously have strong views on the subject matter and yet you are now criticizing a developer who is making an effort to broadcast this theme to a new generation. It is simply a fantastical conflict that reflects some of the real life issues that face human beings today.

First of all, Silverfall is NOT a roleplaying game. Its an action video game that has a few characteristics of a role playing game in that a player can choose what characteristics he or she wishes to develop in an attempt to survive in a conflicted world. A roleplaying game is where a player uses critical problem solving skills to adopt a persona that deals with a threat posed by a scenario in a fantasy or science fiction setting within the set limits of that persona or "character".

Games like Silverfall that "touch upon the surface" of role playing games are doing wonders for the people that are exposed to them. Many of the universal themes that accompany these games like the tech/magic theme reflect many of the issues that face our world today.

[TerrorFromBelow]

As far as I'm concerned, I think you really need to re-evaluate your goals in making these kinds of statements. You obviously have strong views on the subject matter and yet you are now criticizing a developer who is making an effort to broadcast this theme to a new generation. It is simply a fantastical conflict that reflects some of the real life issues that face human beings today. And criticism is bad and world is a better place without it because..? Anyway, I'm not necessarily criticising. I'm just trying to know the developers better, to learn what motivates them into this kind of design decisions; is it because of personal tastes or market-bound decisions? (addressed again the developers, not you)

I see it is that its a society in the midst of an industrial revolution (Boom!) Many of the universal themes that accompany these games like the tech/magic theme reflect many of the issues that face our world today.You see, you both used different words yourself, "industrial revolution" and "tech", instead of science. That speaks for itself. If a certain division between the gameworld population is especially about embracing either of two paths, one leading to industrialism through technological developments and the other through sole practice of innate powers, then there is still scince in both of them. For example, there still are regional tribes living today, mostly by old ways. These people have their own heritage of wisdom regarding survival. They are even capable of making certain medicines, for both beneficial and harmful intents. Does it make any sense to claim that these people use nature and we use science? Science IS nature! They are already using science. It only makes sense to say that we have adopted and adapted to the industrial life while they retain their mostly natural ways of life. Science doesn't equate to mandatory industrial development. All that matters is the degree by which you are able to retain a self-sufficient life. Lower that degree is, closer to nature you are.

That said, personally I believe that words are not toys, that misuse of words and misuse of language in general is one of the reasons of communication problems, especially with younger generations who constitute the market base for games, and I find it sad that people can so easily become ignorant and apathetic about such linguistic issues. A language defines in part who you are. "Just because" it is a game doesn't make game developers any less responsible of portraying at least accurate use of language while taking concepts with long established words and terms. Also, good luck communicating with each other when everyone has his or her own definition of these "make up" words.

attacking them or trying to intellectually belittle them does not help. I specifically mentioned that wasn't the aim. Perhaps you are reading too much between the lines.

Thanks for the input, now let's hope the developers answer some of those as well, as they were addressed at them and motive of this thread is for those questions only, not regular discussion. Next time, please don't put words into my mouth.

edit: The game looks quite nice indeed. As far as visuals go, I like what I'm seeing so far.

[12Volt]

Well said Vlad. I hope this forum grows more soon.

I seriously cannot wait for this game!!

[Vlad the Impale]

I enjoy these types of discussions in between bouts of gaming but I would say that developers first need to pay much more attention to creating a game that is enjoyable to play in terms of controls and playability. I think there is still a very long way to go before we can take a realistic look at the themes or even the storyline in these types of games, its almost like trying to sit down and have an in depth discussion of the storyline behind something like 'pong'.

And now on to the question that I would like posed to the developers as well as the other posters who may want to expand on the topic:

Do you also think that the term "role playing game" is being blatantly misused to destroy computer games in general? In my opinion, Developers are so wrapped up in trying to provide a 'role playing' experience that they end up completely missing the point of creating an enjoyable game to begin with, and usually the end result is a shotty, slow, boring game experience with terrible scripting and action that is few and far between wrapped around a dull story line. Its gotten to the point where I rarely even consider purchasing a computer 'role playing game' anymore although I have been a longtime fan of real ones. A game should have a central theme or conflict going on, but the action should be limitless within that theme, not bound to it like a lame duck. Do you agree with this and where would you say Silverfall ends up within this spectrum?

[jibikao]

Hello there,

I just found out about this game from gamespot. I am playing City of Villains right now but I don't think the game has enough end-game content and it really lacks "items" to collect and it affects how I feel about my "investment" in the game. I know many gamers think the Diablo2 item system can ruin the balance of the game (due to hacks or whatever) or how D2 game requires no "skill" to play because it's all about having the best unique items, but having played Guild Wars for over a year and now City of Villains, I think unique items are IMPORTANT to me.

I found out about Titan Quest but that game doesn't seem to be a "big" game to me and then I found out Silverfall. I've played Sacred and I really like it.

Anyway, sorry about the introduction, I have some questions for the dev that I haven't found out yet:

1.) The game does offer online multi-player system right? If so, is it more like Diablo2 style (chapters) or more like Sacred style where you don't really have a main story line when you play online because quests are reset after you log off?

2.) If the game offers online experience, is there a membership fee? I prefer having membership fee because the dev will respond much quickly and there are usually faster patch updates. Paying customers can be really impatient sometimes. :) I have no problem paying membership fees as long as the game is GOOD and the dev is very responsive to bugs/crashes/updates.

3.) For some reasons, I really like this Science VS Nature theme. I read about the skill system a bit and it says you only have 10 skills in two skill trees?? I hope there's more than that! Are there enough replay values in terms of different skill combinations or it's just Science and Nature? It's like how D2 has several classes to begin with and under each class there are 3 skill trees to play with.

4.) I read about this companion system and I am wondering if we have any access to companion's AI?? It says that companion performs better when you have more relationship with the person but does this just mean how often the companion attacks/heals or it means that the player can assign more AI to the companions? I am playing Final Fantasy 12 right now and I think the "gambit" system is quite good. You can tell your teammates what to do in most situations. I guess I hope we have the most basic command like "attack my target". I am hoping that with higher relationship with the companion, there are more "commands" available and thus making this companion system more important. I am also playing City of Villains right now and the Masterminds have a lot of controls on their pets and they even have a "Bodyguard" system where the pets can take damage for the master. Just some examples. :)

5.) I am more interested in the Science side and I am wondering if this Science VS Nature theme has a lot to do with your equipment? Are there any summon/pets in this game? I love the summoner-type of skills!

6.) When is the game coming out?

Sorry for the long post. I just watched the trailer and the game looks exciting. :)

[12Volt]

Welcome, I hope you stay a while! Haha the forums kinda dead but it will be kicking soon enough. Great looking game so far. Really kinda quirky, stylish!

[Gorkk]

1.) The game does offer online multi-player system right? If so, is it more like Diablo2 style (chapters) or more like Sacred style where you don't really have a main story line when you play online because quests are reset after you log off?
Yes it does offer online MP. There's no closed servers, and it's more like Sacred style (no chapter), with two MP modes: campaign, and free (respectively you do the main quest, or you do only secondary quests). Currently MP over internet is not quite functional (people can't join - it works in LAN), but that should be solved with 1.12 patch next week, and hence for international releases at the end of Q1 2007 (and by then there should be plenty of improvements over French initial release ;)).

2.) If the game offers online experience, is there a membership fee? I prefer having membership fee because the dev will respond much quickly and there are usually faster patch updates. Paying customers can be really impatient sometimes. :) I have no problem paying membership fees as long as the game is GOOD and the dev is very responsive to bugs/crashes/updates.
No membership fee. It's a H&S above all, and H&S are not Pay to play games. It's not an MMO.

3.) For some reasons, I really like this Science VS Nature theme. I read about the skill system a bit and it says you only have 10 skills in two skill trees?? I hope there's more than that! Are there enough replay values in terms of different skill combinations or it's just Science and Nature? It's like how D2 has several classes to begin with and under each class there are 3 skill trees to play with.
There's only 10 techno specific skills and 10 nature specific skills. But there is as well 10 skills specific to each race, and the 60 other skills common to every race and alignment.

4.) I read about this companion system and I am wondering if we have any access to companion's AI?? It says that companion performs better when you have more relationship with the person but does this just mean how often the companion attacks/heals or it means that the player can assign more AI to the companions? I am playing Final Fantasy 12 right now and I think the "gambit" system is quite good. You can tell your teammates what to do in most situations. I guess I hope we have the most basic command like "attack my target". I am hoping that with higher relationship with the companion, there are more "commands" available and thus making this companion system more important. I am also playing City of Villains right now and the Masterminds have a lot of controls on their pets and they even have a "Bodyguard" system where the pets can take damage for the master. Just some examples. :)
You can give simple behaviour orientation for your companions, but it's quite simple. On French release version, each had only two behaviour. For fighters (either melee/range/spells), there was "attack everything" or "attack only those I already attacked" or so. Healers had two settings as well: "heal and don't attack" and "attack and don't heal".
The 1.12 patch that will be released next week (and will be already integrated in international versions by the time it's released there of course) will add another behaviour (maybe two, not sure) for healers, letting them attack and heal.

5.) I am more interested in the Science side and I am wondering if this Science VS Nature theme has a lot to do with your equipment? Are there any summon/pets in this game? I love the summoner-type of skills!
Your techno/nature alignment (because it's technology/nature and not science/nature ;)) has a lot to do with your equipment. There's neutral gear, nature gear, and techno gear (with various techno/nature prerequisite levels - i.e. % of alignment - for aligned gear, the best ones requiring to be more specialised).

6.) When is the game coming out?
English versions (US and UK) should be released end of March 2007. German version will be out end of February. French version is already out ;)

[Mistylicious]

Can the dev's elaborate on the editor,

1.Will it be included in the north american release?
2.Will it allow for mission/quest building?
3.Can users add new content? Say for example can modders add new models and textures?

Off topic- Let the dev's answer the freakin questions :bulb:

[baker011]

Thanks to everyone for the great questions. We’ll be picking ten questions to send on to the development team, and the responses will be posted on the soon-to-be-launched Official Silverfall Blog.