Tired of assuming everything beginning with "MMO" ends in "RPG?" Eager to give real-time strategy gamers their fix is S2 Games, the development house which plans to launch Savage 2: A Tortured Soul some time this year. S2 Games co-founder Marc DeForest has been busy beta testing the game, but he was able to take time out of his hectic schedule to educate me on how the online-only Savage 2 is coming together.
Shack: Before we delve into Savage, tell us a bit about yourself and your history with the gaming industry.
Marc DeForest: About the year 2000, I had had another of other business ventures that were successful, [but] I'd always been an avid gamer since I was four years old. I decided I'd like to get my feet wet in making video games. One of the guys I was doing business with used to be a [3D] modeler, so he had some connections in the business. He put me in touch with Jesse Hays, who's still with us. Jesse was working at AutoDesk at the time doing 3D modeling. He knew one of the programmers there who wanted to get into game design and game programming, so the three of us started S2 Games and took on the project of [the original] Savage. Of course right now we're working on Savage 2, and we're currently developing a third game, but I'm not really at liberty to talk about that just yet.
Shack: You had to work "no comment" in there somewhere, didn't you?
Marc DeForest: [Laughs] Yep.
Shack: What made you and the S2 Games crew decide on an RTS/FPS hybrid for the original Savage?
Marc DeForest: Probably my most favorite game still to this day--Savage 2's going to change that trend--is Allegiance. It's kind of an RTS and kind of an FPS put together, but not in the traditional format that most gamers play. You had a bunch of guys who could get into ships and attempt to blow up the enemy base, fight other ships, and so on and so forth. You had a commander--and not in the traditional sense of a top-down view, seeing all the buildings--but you could see the overall battlefield, move around freely, zoom out and zoom in, send out different miners to bring in resources, research new technologies, new spaceships. The experience I had playing that game, and the experience friends had playing that game together, has not been topped by any other game thus far. Savage [1] mimics it almost ideally. It has minor issues that we wanted to fix in the sequel to prove we could really refine and perfect this genre.
So that's really where the idea first came from. We just decided to take that concept [an RTS/FPS hybrid] which was set in space [in Allegiance]. We're all fans of games like WarCraft III, Command & Conquer, and Counter-Strike, and just about any big shooter out there. So we thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if, instead of being set in space, we'd put it as more of a WarCraft III meets Counter-Strike meets minor RPG elements." For those people who could get by the annoyances that [the original] Savage provided... for them, [it was] an absolute knock out experience. Loyal fans love it and can't get enough of it. Hopefully what we do in Savage 2 is refine that a little more, remove the annoyances, make [the game] easier to pick up and play, to understand, not get your butt kicked right away. You get by the initial learning curve, then we'll get a few hundred thousand people hooked on playing the game.
Shack: The original Savage had a steep learning curve that was made even harder due to a lack of offline and tutorial modes so that players could learn and practice. Will Savage 2 feature these modes or anything similar so that the game is more accessible?
Marc DeForest: Well, you'll have an offline mode in the form of you can download the game files anytime, anywhere. You'll be educated about the game during the installation process, there'll be a bunch of help files, and if you read those you'll have a really good understanding [of the game]. After the game is loaded, you'll have the ability to go into a tutorial which will kind of give you a feel for certain aspects of the game like snap-casting, what it's like to be a commander, what it's like to be an officer, the different things you can do as an officer, and so on and so forth.
We've got two other things to help players learn the game. One of those is tips that display as you're connecting to a server and the game is pre-caching. There'll be little tip boxes saying "Did you know you can do this?" and, you know, just to give people more information about the game. When you first play the game, when specific things happen, we'll have little interface [pop-ups] that tell you, you know, "Did you realize you just leveled up?, You have attribute points," stuff like that. After the first time it happens, you'll never see it again.
The game files can be downloaded any time and any place, on any PC for free, and then you can play LAN mode with no obligation; you don't even need an account with us in order to [play LAN mode]. The reason we did that is, we're avid gamers. We've been to LAN parties, and we don't feel it necessary that every person at a LAN party should have a CD key in order to play a game. Of course, like most LAN parties, most people don't, so [you have people] trying to find a no-CD hack or you just don't play the game. Our thought process was, "When you guys go to a LAN party, you hook up to a network, and you've got the game files on there, so everybody can just [copy and paste] that directory onto their computer." If you want the game to be recognized as an installation, there's a minor installation file in that directory which will register some things in your Windows registry. Then everybody can play the game, just fire it up.
Our thought is that we've made a game good enough that we can give [that part of it] away for free. You got to a LAN party, maybe a bunch of people there haven't heard about Savage. They play it, they love it, they want to play it again so they can play online against everyone else. An account is cheap--they're $30--and we're assuming a lot of people will take us up on that offer.
The way we look at it is, the game itself is free. To play the game online against other opponents who aren't on a LAN, we'll have a free demo time that will allow you to play the game for X number of hours, maybe 3 to 5. After that time expires you can't play the demo any more. You then pay $29.99--one time fee--then you own an account. So, you know, Thanksgiving weekend, you gotta go to your Grandpa's house, you can just download the game files from the website, put in your [account] credentials, and you're good to go; all you need is the account.
Shack: Despite its emphasis on multiplayer game play, Savage had a fairly in-depth back story. Can you let us in on how the sequel's story is shaping up?
Marc DeForest: The leader of the Legion of Man, Maliken Grimm, goes to [the location] where the first Hellgate was ever opened; from there, the Hellbourne poured forth. That land is still poisoned. A creature--we don't call him the devil; in fact, we don't really have a name for him--he kind of possessed Maliken, and used Maliken to get the Beasts and the Humans on what we call Scars, patches of land where Hellgates were opened. The Hellgate ripped back open and came back onto Earth.
"Tortured Soul" has to do with the fact that Maliken's children [are split]. His son rules the Legion of Man, and his daughter rules the Beast horde.
Shack: So is the Hellbourne a playable faction?
Marc DeForest: [Savage 2 still focuses on] Humans versus Beasts. The way the Hellbourne [become involved] is kind of unique. Instead of being a third playable race, each race has access to them. There are two main resources in Savage 2. One is gold, which you get from gold mines, and the other is souls, which you get from killing enemy players as well as high-level NPCs which guard areas such as expansions and gold mines. Once you gain control of a Scar, each race has a sacrificial shrine that they can build on that Scar. Scars are uniquely identifiable on the map, much like a gold mine would be. Once you build a shrine, you can then use souls you've accumulated to enter the shrine and purchase Hellbourne units, which are very powerful.
Each [faction] has access to the Hellbourne units, and they're [designed to sway the tide of a match]. Obviously controlling gold mines is important, but controlling Scars and getting Hellbourne units is as well.
Turn the page to learn about the Legion of Man and Beast factions.
_PAGE_BREAK_Shack: What does the Legion of Man bring to the table in Savage 2?
Marc DeForest: The Legion of Man has seven units. They consist of a builder, who builds stuff, repairs buildings and siege weapons, shield generators to stop projectiles, ammo depots so players can refill their weaponry. There's a scout, a fast-moving recon unit who can use stealth and his back stab ability to sneak up and do massive damage [if enemies are attacked from behind]. They have a sniper bow, which is a long range bow with a zoom capability. They also have demolition charges. There's also the Savage, a mid-ranged unit who's a [decent] damage dealer. He's got two swords, has a couple of fast-shooting projectile weapons, and has special abilities that are all related to doing more damage. One is a critical strike that does a significant amount of damage [upon impact], then does damage over time as they bleed. There's a double attack where he uses both swords to attack at the same time and does a high level of damage and stuns [the enemy]. He has an ability called Rage which makes him attack faster but [causes him to] take more damage. Another ability is called Morale, which gives him 15% greater regeneration of mana, stamina, and health.
The Legionnaire is kind of a damage sponge--very big unit, lots of hit points, high armor rating. He's got explosive ranged weaponry, a grenade launcher and a rocket launcher. He's got a whirling blade which is a 360 degree attack that causes a half-second stun time to any unit and deals decent damage. Reconstitute allows him double health regeneration for 20 seconds. Another ability returns 30% of all damage to attackers. The healer unit, the Chaplain, has the ability to hear a group of allied units, as well as individually heal units. He has the ability to resurrect fallen units, and he has the ability to decrease the enemy's armor in a 75% radius.
The last two units are siege units. One is a steambuchet, a steam-powered trebuchet. It has an ability called Steam Boost which gives it 75% greater movement ability for a certain amount of time, allowing you to get to your target a bit quicker and avoid enemies. Then there's a battering ram, which has an ability called Burn, igniting everything around it, causing 75 damage per second to any unit that tries to come up and use melee attacks.
As far as items go, most are potions related to replenishing mana, stamina, or health. One cool thing we did for health, because we wanted to create a game based on skill where you can't just instantly regenerate health, is we have a cool down timer based on when you last took damage, so you can't be in the middle of the fray fighting someone and almost have them killed--only to have them instantly replenish themselves. Other items increase armor, increase ammo, and there's a speed boost item which allows you to move 40% faster for 15 seconds.
Most of these skills still require aiming and skill to make use of. This isn't an RPG where you freely point and click to cast spells or skills; it's still a matter of aiming.
Marc DeForest: We've been really heavily play-testing the humans, so I'm not as familiar with the Beasts faction; my apologies. I'd like to tell what I know, though. The Conjurer, similar to the [Legion of Man's] builder. Unlike the builder, they [Conjurers] don't repair the Beasts' siege weapons because they aren't mechanical-based. The Shape-Shifter is somewhat of the Scout equivalent. What's cool about the Shape-Shifter is, they can mimic the appearance of an enemy, they can shift into a cheetah-like animal that has very fast movement speed. They also have an ability called Sacrifice where they stab a crystal into their chest and explode. It does more damage than the human demo pack, but you also kill yourself.
A real interesting take to the Beasts' damage dealer--the counter to the Legion of Man's Savage--is the Summoner. The Summoner's an interesting alteration to the gameplay in that you actually summon pets. There's a ranged pets, and there's a bear-like [close combat] pet. You also have the ability to use a ranged weapon. Then there's the Predator. He's a massive damage dealer and can take massive damage. He has the ability to steal life with a carnivorous ability and inject poison into enemies through his claws, which does minor damage over time. The shaman has wards that regenerate mana and health. He has a resurrect [ability]. He lacks a ranged weapon but has a thing called Thorny Vines which is a snap-casting spell. Snap-casting is aim-assisted. I'm sure you'd never admit to it, but if you've ever used an aim bot in an FPS, it's very similar to that. Each spell has its own settings as to how hard it snaps and un-snaps from a unit. There's good feedback; a unit changes color based on whether it's a direct damage spell. So Thorny Vines, basically, when he casts it, vines come out of the ground and immobilize enemy units for maybe 1.5 seconds.
The two siege weapons are the Behemoth and the Tempest. The Behemoth is very much a return to the Behemoth from [the original] Savage, except they're a little more evasive. One of the disadvantages of the Behemoth is that he's huge, so he's immediately targeted. He has a few abilities. One is called Stomp, where he takes his foot and stomps it on the ground, stunning all enemies around him for 5 seconds. It doesn't do any damage, but it at least allows him to evade attacks [or make attacks of his own]. Another ability of his, Shockwave... he slams the log he carries into the ground and sends out shockwaves; that's a damage-based spell. So he's got some good stuff that tries to keep people away from him, because in Savage one, I called them ankle biters, he [the Behemoth] just had everybody hacking away.
The Tempest, he's more of a ranged [attacker]. One ability is called Meteor Strike. He casts the spell, the sky turns dark where he casts it, swirling clouds appear, it looks really cool. A fiery meteor comes out of the sky with a fiery trail. Another thing he casts, Hailstorm, sends down shards of ice. Neither of those two affect [player units] because there are just major balance issues. Some of the human spells are like that as well. The Tempest has another ability called Pushback, which allows him to summon wind and push an enemy away from him, because he has no other way to defend himself, which was done on purpose because we don't want siege weapons to be used to kill players. He can also become a ghostly form of himself, and he's impervious to physical attacks at that point.
Shack: Do the Beasts have different items?
Marc DeForest: Right now, we've made no attempt to differentiate the items between the races. That's more of a time issue than anything else.
Turn to the last page to read about the commander role and the prospects of new game modes for Savage 2.
_PAGE_BREAK_Shack: Playing the commander was my favorite role in the original Savage. For those unfamiliar with the first game, tell us a bit about the commander.
Marc DeForest: The role of the commander is very much like playing a traditional RTS game. [You're given a] top-down view, you build buildings, you research technologies, and you give commands on the battlefield. Unlike a traditional RTS where the units just do what they're told, you're trying to persuade units that are being controlled by human players to follow your rules.
Shack: What new responsibilities will commanders have in Savage 2?
Marc DeForest: In Savage 2, we've done a really good job of implementing squads and officers; every player is in a squad and under the command of an officer. We've allowed the commander to be able to communicate with less people in the event that they just want to communicate with the officers. With stuff like the ability to draw on the minimap--which is really cool; I use that nonstop--you can give real specific orders and then draw [them] on the minimap. I have to say, people actually listening and seeing what you want them to do right on the minimap, giving direct orders with waypoints, is much better than the way we did things in [the original] Savage.
The commander has the ability now to cast some spells on the battlefield, obviously only in areas that have been revealed through the fog of war. He can slow units in an area of affect spell, because the commander has a mana pool much like the player does, and none of the skills are so over-powered that they would ultimately affect a skilled player's ability to perform well in the game. Just like in the first Savage, in Savage 2, the name of the game is your skill and your ability to play an FPS, as well as adding [RTS elements] on top of that.
Shack: Do commanders handle upgrades, or are those the responsibility of the players?
Marc DeForest: Players come stocked with all abilities. The only thing commanders give players access to is a second set of ranged weaponry. Each unit--I'm assuming this will make it in the initial release, but it depends on if time permits--we have an idea where each unit has a specific upgrade or two. Right now the team levels [up] just like a player levels [up]. Attributes spread across all players, such as base health, base mana, regeneration rates, ranged and melee attack damage, armor. Players level those up as they level up in the game. We've talked about taking those skill points and allowing the commander to go to each building and have some specific upgrades that cost level up points to really take the team in kind of a different direction if you really want to hone in on doing this better, or that better.
Shack: Many RTS and FPS titles have different game modes such as capture the flag to keep the gameplay fresh and exciting. Does Savage 2 contain any secondary game modes?
Marc DeForest: We talked about adding new game modes down the line but really the ultimate point of Savage 2 is based on our gameplay set. Starting out with one base, building it up, enhancing units, getting new units, and then fighting it out [to gain] certain chokepoints or certain resource points on the map, and then eventually breaking through and destroying the [enemy's] command center. We can put in other modes like deathmatch, and capture the flag, but they're really not the purpose of what Savage is.
We've got some cool ideas that we would like to put into the game, but they're almost full-blown, separate games. Granted, we wouldn't have to redo all the art assets and stuff, but in terms of game mechanics and rules, and a whole bunch of different programming and some new art, we want to do those. Maybe a melee arena game mode, and then a fort defense mode where one team starts out and has the fort and they have X amount of time before the match starts to build certain reinforcements and find certain [defense points] while the other team puts together their strategy for where they're going to try to create weak points. Again, those are ambitious projects, not just, "Oh, let's add a new mode!"
Shack: Thanks for your time.
Marc DeForest: Yeah, thanks for your support. I always consider Shacknews to be quote-on-quote "friends." You guys know your games, you're always prepared for stuff, so now that I have you on the phone, I'm glad I got the opportunity to say that.
