SpaceSimCentral

Hi EveryoneSpaceSimCentral has been honored with a Q&A with Dream Builder Studios. The development team behind the upcoming combat space sim game Heresy War. I have been dealing with the DBS dev team for a little while now and I have to say they are doing a great job. A few members c0mas and Vaipa are members of the community and they answer all questions thrown at them about Heresy War's development. If this is the first time you have heard of Heresy War please do checkout the DBS website here: http://www.heresywar.com/There is also a single player demo that has been available for a while now located here: http://www.heresywar.com/download.html. But do keep in mind that a new Multi-Player demo is on the way with all the new improvements that have happened over this past year.So now to the Q&A, answers are from both c0mas and Vaipa. Enjoy.Before we jump right into the nuts and bolts of Heresy War. Can you give us some background on Dream Builder Studios?We're a small independent studio from Romania. Our team is currently 7 people strong : two programmers, three designers , one 2D/3D artist and one sound engineer, all being full-time employees of established game development companies. The team size varied at times up and down, but for the past 3 years we have been pretty constant. We are also functioning as a legal entity, since we figured it would be helpful .The project was started by our lead programmer (he's registered as c0mas here on spacesimcentral.com) together with our 2D artist and it was done completely after-hours. After quite some time Vaipa joined the team as game/level designer and started working on structuring the game design. Soon after, two other people joined the team as permanent members: one designer who is also a very talented 3D modeler and one programmer. Our main advantage was the fact that we used to work together at the same game development company, so we spoke the same language, programmers followed the same coding standards, etc. We also had a lot of luck with our sound engineer, which is an extremely talented individual. Sadly, his talent couldn't shine properly in the build that you are playing because of some problems in the sound system. Last but not least another level designer joined our team recently.As far as technology goes, our engine is developed in-house.This also includes the tools that we use for development: level editor, model viewer / compiler, fx editor and others. The engine is also made from ground up to support mods, and we plan to provide the tools that we used to create the game to any modding enthusiasts that want to expand the game or make anything else they wish with it.The development is done entirely after-hours as stated above, since we are all working full time jobs at the moment. Currently we are focusing on finishing the single player campaign and doing multiplayer from time to time to break the pace.You have two major factions in Heresy War (The Core and The Rising Hand). Will you be able to pick which side you can play in the single player story?Actually the Core and the Rising Hand are the only two factions that we have revealed so far. There are some other factions that you have seen in the demo, such as the High Guard, an elite military unit, sort of like a secret police for the Earth administration. Without spoiling too much of the story I can tell you that you will at least sample all the factions' ships at one point or another.I read that The Rising Hand is trying to liberate humanity from the tyranny of the 7. What is the 7?After the nuclear holocaust that almost wiped humanity, people reunited around 7 great world leaders. These leaders gave mankind new focus and rebuilt the human race into the powerful space-faring civilization that it has become. However, as with any political regime there are opponents that see a different side and/or agenda of the current leadership and strive to become free from it.According to faction portion of your website the Core have seven ships and the Rising Hand has four. Out of these ships per faction how many are pilotable and will you be adding more as game development progresses?The factions section will be updated with new ships from each faction. This does not mean that the Core listing on the site is complete by all means. As for playable ships, Heresy War focuses on fighter combat and thus every fighter and bomber craft from the major factions will be playable. Our data structure allows us to easily add or remove ships from the roster, so game updates will contain at least fixes to the existing craft if not new playable (or non-playable) spacecraft.In most space games there really hasn't been a lot of effort put into the wingmen. How will wingmen help you through missions? Will wingmen advance in equipment/ships and rank?We are currently exploring the possibility of having wingmen advance through ranks and/or abilities. Doing it is not difficult, however we are still evaluating if it will have a significant impact in the campaign. Wingmen will be specific ships which have their own agenda in the game world, however they can be killed so you must protect them if you want their help. We're taking a common sense approach as far as they are concerned, meaning we are giving wingmen the same abilities as other ships. This way we avoid making a game that plays itself or superhuman wingmen that ruin your experience.Heresy War's gameplay is centered around a branching story line of missions. Can you explain how this works and can a player actually go down a path that results in a negative outcome?We have three types of actions that will impact the single player campaigns (including the ones created by the community): show stoppers , major and minor events.Show stoppers are the kind of action that prevents you from advancing the story, such as the player dying, loosing your base or things like that.Major events are what branch the campaign into different mission paths. For example let's say you HAVE to destroy an enemy ship, but somehow it escapes into hyperspace. Instead of proceeding to the next mission of the campaign, another mission (or missions) will be launched which will take you on a chase to catch that ship.Minor events are actually one of the things that we're especially proud of, because they can change the gameplay of from inside the campaign missions. An example would be you rescuing a transport ship in a mission, which was not mission critical. However, after some missions, when you are in a really bad situation, a squadron of friendly ships appears and saves you from your doom. That squadron was made out of the pilots transported by the ship that you previously rescued. If you wouldn't have rescued the ship, the mission would've gotten really difficult.When watching some of the trailers of HW in action you can see some of the larger capitol/frigate class ships taking damage and burning in certain areas. Will the scars of battle be seen or a factor in other missions?For important craft and events some battle damage can be transferred between missions. However, during the war most military shipyards are working overtime to repair and refit ships that have seen too much battle, so you don't get to see too many deformed heaps of metal flying through space J.Looks like you have worked hard on the visuals in Heresy War. Will players be able to just fly around in the game when not working on story missions?Our instant action mode is a tentative to do just that, however Heresy War is a mission-based game, not free-roaming like Freelancer or the X series. To add something here, I would say that if somebody would use our minor events system to its fullest, he could create an entire free-roaming universe..Will players be able to select wingmen, types of ships, and loadouts for every mission?In the single-player campaign players will be able to choose their ships and loadouts, for some missions. Some other missions will have a specific ship or weapon that you have to choose due to story reasons. For multiplayer however you will not have the single-player restrictions when choosing what you fly in.Heresy War has a 16 player multiplayer option as well. What can people expect from the MP option? Will players have the common deathmatch and assualt style matches or can we do the story missions in MP mode?There will be the classic Deathmatch, team Deathmatch options as well as other more focused experiences. The Heresy War multiplayer levels are not strictly limited to a certain game mode, which means we can create a wide array of game modes or scenarios. As it stands right now we have some Deathmatch and assault scenarios playable, but we are not limited to that.As far as cooperative missions go, no coop mode will be available for the single player campaign, and if we ever do this it will be a separate set of missions, like the spec-ops in Modern Warfare 2.In multiplayer you can have online play or lan play. How is the online multiplayer hosted?Both LAN or on-line based are currently supported. However, to play it you will need an account that is activated with a game key. After this is done you create or join an existing game and play with other people. We also plan to deliver a dedicated server executable so people can host their own long-term servers.Are there any cinematics/cutscenes that progress the story? Will there be a lot of voice acting and comm chatter?Cutscenes play an important role in the story development, but there will not be any cinematics. Everything we do is rendered by the engine. Voice acting is also an important part and our aim is to get high quality talent on-board the project for this.As far as comm chatter goes, it will vary from mission to mission. If you have a huge battle you will get a lot of chatter in the background, chatter that is relevant to what is happening around you. However if you go into the enemy territory you can expect very quiet missions.Is there any collision mechanics in place in HW to cause damage to your ship?If you crash into something you do get damage, however it's not a lot of it. Still, if you're badly hurt don't expect to bump into asteroids and live.I know a game is never truly complete. What has been the area of the game that has gone through the most change during development?The visual part and the interface have probably suffered the most iterations. We have gone through 3 complete 3D model changes and we're happy to say that we won't do that ever again J. Also the HUD is on its 3rditeration and there will probably be a 4th. With other areas such as gameplay and controls we got very solid versions early-on, so there have not been complete rebuilds of these features.Looks like Heresy War will ship with some modding tools. Can you give us a run down on what you will be able to change or do with the tools you provide?We're going to have at least a level editor, model viewer , model compiler and effect editor. Our scripts can be edited with any text editor, so nothing spectacular is needed here. With these tools players can create new models, ships, weapons, levels, gameplay modes, menus. Pretty much everything that you will see in the single and multiplayer levels can be recreated by the community without the need to recompile the game executables or libraries.I know DBS is working on a multiplayer demo right now, how is that coming along? And of course the big question, will Heresy War be completed in 2010?Just yesterday we have tested the first working version of the master server which allow players to log in and find available HW games. It's a very important step towards releasing the multiplayer test, however there are still some very evil bugs to fix. As for the release, if it doesn't come out this year, it's not coming out .I would like to thank c0mas and Vaipa for the quick turn around on the Q&A. So put Heresy War on your calendar for 2010!Here is a few screenshots of the game and the offical trailer:Trailer Screenshots

I know a quick post already. I am just reading this for the first time as I posted it and here is a few points on interest least for me.
Darkone wrote:
Minor events are actually one of the things that we're especially proud of, because they can change the gameplay of from inside the campaign missions. An example would be you rescuing a transport ship in a mission, which was not mission critical. However, after some missions, when you are in a really bad situation, a squadron of friendly ships appears and saves you from your doom. That squadron was made out of the pilots transported by the ship that you previously rescued. If you wouldn't have rescued the ship, the mission would've gotten really difficult.
This is a great touch to the game and will be great to see this type of detail in mission design in the game.
Darkone wrote:
To add something here, I would say that if somebody would use our minor events system to its fullest, he could create an entire free-roaming universe..
I didn't know this type of event system was in the game and if it is truly as open as the Q&A states people will be able to make and do almost anything with it. I think DBS has a hit on their hands with the modding community
Darkone wrote:
We're going to have at least a level editor, model viewer , model compiler and effect editor. Our scripts can be edited with any text editor, so nothing spectacular is needed here. With these tools players can create new models, ships, weapons, levels, gameplay modes, menus. Pretty much everything that you will see in the single and multiplayer levels can be recreated by the community without the need to recompile the game executables or libraries.
Finally going to try to make my first mod when HW comes out and with these tools I might be able to get something accomplished. c0mas or Vaipa what format will models need to be in for you to use it in the game?

Very interesting that minor events system,good to see that the game will accept models made with other 3d software and not just max,will we a new single player demo sometime this year?. I must say the look of the game is just getting better and better.

Firstly, thanks to the guys at Dream Builder Studios (and SpaceSimCentral) for taking the time to do this QnA.
Darkone wrote:
Our instant action mode is a tentative to do just that, however Heresy War is a mission-based game, not free-roaming like Freelancer or the X series. To add something here, I would say that if somebody would use our minor events system to its fullest, he could create an entire free-roaming universe..
I am really keen to see/make a free-roaming Privateer-like full conversion using the HW engine. Will modders be limited to only using the minor events system, or will they be able to also define Major and Show Stopping events in their mods?With the reference to Freelancer and the X series, does this mean that modders will be able to use the various modding tools to create a trade based economy (including trade screens/menus), and if so, will it be possible to have a dynamic ecomomy that is persistent across game sessions/saves?Given that cutscenes are rendered using the engine, will modders be able to create new cut scenes using the level editor and/or scripting, or is there a seperate cutscene editing tool, and if so, will this be released to the modding community?I'm really glad to see that HW supports models made using Blender. Although Blender 2.50 is only at the Alpha 0 release, it appears that the final version will be released some time during 2010 (just like HW ). Will DBS be creating an exporter for Blender 2.50 (as I believe it uses a different model/file structure than previous versions of Blender)?

As we said ,the single and multiplayer modes are basically mods for the engine, so everything that you will see there can be replicated by modders. Cutscenes are just a string of events that are made by using the level editor. You can do as many cutscenes you want in any level .As for the free roaming economy, it should not be a problem as long as you can save the state of the world somehow.

I know MP is still being worked on and people will be able to eventually play on DBS servers, their own servers or LAN. For servers will there be some sort of saved ranking system for MP mode? And have there been any discussions on whether you will allow clan/guild insignia's on ships?

Haven't heard anything from you guys for some time now. I'm glad the project is still ON and I see the screenshots look better and better

c0mas or VaipaIn most of the WC games and in Starlancer. You were able to move around your home base (ship) and go to the bridge, comm or your quarters in-between missions to look at medals, logs or interact with some NPC's. Any plans to put this type of thing in Heresy War?

In MP mode will there be any command and control elements (frigate or capitol ship that is player controlled) or deployable units (extra NPC fighters, drones or turrets)?

I can't believe I didn't ask about this before or I just can't remember :)Is HW going to have newton flight mechanics? And will any of the TrackIR devices be supported at launch? And have you played HW on a 3 monitor system yet and can ya provide a shot

What about the Newtonian physics? I just played the single player demo and it didn't appear to be Newtonian so I'm guessing it's not, which I believe is more appropriate for this style of space sim.
c0mas wrote:
Also, we have have support for various powerups but we have not decided yet if we'll use them in mp . In any case we'll leave them in, ... who knows who will use them.
Well I'll throw in my 2 cents the more power ups, the more better. MP, SP, NP Look at it this way, there is no way upgrades can hurt a game. They're a 100% pure positive the way I see it.

HW Devs wrote:
With other areas such as gameplay and controls we got very solid versions early-on, so there have not been complete rebuilds of these features.
I hope that doesn't mean you don't plan on changing the controller support much, because it still needs much work. Having just played the SP demo for the first time I got a chance to test out the controls using my xbox 360 pad. The issues were too numerous for a controller to be functional at this point. How close to the finished product were the controls on this demo? Besides that, I do want to mention the game looks terrific and I really liked the 'feel' of the game. I'm gonna try it again today or tomorrow. Hopefully I can finagle the controls to be just manageable enough to at least play through the demo once. Maybe I'll make a pinnacle profile for it if I don't have more luck with the native support than I did the first time.

c0mas wrote:
We really think that having a good support for 360 controllers will help our game a lot
Well you know I'm not about to disagree with that. ;)Just keep in mind that the more you still need to use mouse/keyboard, the less point there is to using a controller. What would be nice would be control over the mouse pointer with one of the sticks when paused. And remember your options to allow for adding extra commands where you might otherwise run out of buttons. For example, when I create profiles for space sims with no native support, I love to make it so that pressing a particular button (B on the 360 controller) cycles through enemy targets, while holding down the same button will target the nearest enemy. Much better to do it this way than to waste 2 separate buttons on that.