This is our first interview with Ivan Sulic, Community Manager of the Flagship Studios. How excepted from the Flagship Studios, it contains some new, interesting information. Our german version can be found here. A bilingual community-discussion with Ivan concerning this interview can be found here
HellgateLondon.de:
If you plan to do so, how will you include British history in Hellgate: London?
Will we meet ghosts of old, famous persons or something like that?
Ivan Sulic:
We're not really going to have direct references to historical British
figures. There are no good ghosts in our game, either. At least, that I know of.
There are plenty of evil spirits, however.
HellgateLondon.de:
How about singleplaying in Hellgate's online modus? Will groups or guilds be
favored by your "reward-system"?
Ivan:
No. We have a very extensive cooperative multiplayer gaming experience
planned, but a lone adventurer will feel just as fulfilled as one who is active
in a group. This is because many of the basic principles that govern our singleplayer
experience carry over to multiplayer. It's not like they're completely different
games.
Just as an afterthought, it seems like a person who desires a big solo experience
probably shouldn't bother with multiplayer. You know?
HellgateLondon.de:
In some screenshots we were able to see vehicles, e.g. huge airships - Will
players be allowed to drive vehicles like in Battlefield or will they support
the demons?
Ivan:
No and sort of yes. There are demons who can be construed as vehicles
(because they're big and other demons could conceivably ride on or in them),
but the player will not ever have control of any vehicle, nor will any demon
ride the equivalent of a demon tank and then jump out like an Elite from Halo.
HellgateLondon.de:
How about character-customization? Wich details of his character will the player
be allowed to adjust (e.g. size, weigth..) Do you plan to implement barbershops
e.g.?
Ivan:
Height, size, skin type, gender, base hair, base faces, etcetera...
We have a full range of character customization options. Incidentally, the systems
that make it all work are actually being put into the game right now.
HellgateLondon.de:
Especially for german players, the Games Convention in Leipzig is an important
event each year - Do you plan something special for players visiting you there?
Will Bill Roper and/or David Brevik be there, too?
Ivan:
I'm pretty sure myself, Bill, and Tricia will be attending. I don't
know about anyone else, though. But I would personally love to setup a private
play session with some of our fans or at least just have dinner and a couple
beers with some of you guys. But we haven't actually made any official plans
to do that yet.
HellgateLondon.de:
Recently, you announced that you'll cooperate with Toykopop to get Hellgate:
London-Mangas published. Do you plan to find a partner for novels, too?
Ivan:
We haven't announced anything, and so I cannot announce anything now,
but it's safe to say Flagship Studios is committed to bringing Hellgate to just
about every entertainment medium it can.
HellgateLondon.de:
Up to now, fans are able to see screenshots from something like the first "act".
How far advanced are you with the implementation of your planned storyline?
Ivan:
The storyline evolves as we develop, but it's pretty much finished
at this point. In terms of implementation, we're not terribly far along. Development
first requires us to build the foundations of the game and ensure the mechanics
of Hellgate are operational and polished before we can commit to implementing
characters, plots and personalities, which is a far easier task. But please
don't mistake me, Hellgate itself is coming along quite nicely. Multiplayer
is being worked on steadily. New art, models, levels and weapons get added on
a daily basis. The AI is continually growing and being improved in a thousand
different ways. And the game itself is more and more stable with each passing
day. It's just that the storyline is a part of the game we'll really focus on
building in later on in the cycle.
HellgateLondon.de:
We recently heard there might be a class or some spells/skills without an auto-aiming
function. If this is true, how are you going to cope with possibly occuring
balancing issues? Wouldn´t a "Counterstrike Powergamer" gain
to much power in comparison to players always using the auto-aim? In addition
MMOs tend to lag sometimes (...), which would make real aiming hardly possible
in times of lag.
Ivan:
This is not true. There is not such class I am aware of.
HellgateLondon.de:
Any news regarding competitive play? We already heard that PvP won´t be
essential to Hellgate, but without, or with just a little PvP, how do you plan
to please all those bloodthirsty competitive players out there?
Ivan:
Unfortunately I cannot talk about any multiplayer specifics at present.
HellgateLondon.de:
Max Schaefer said that it might be rather difficult to create loot-tables for
Hellgate: London due to randomization, and we also know that there will be partly
randomized spells which can be found. Hooray for randomization, but don´t
you think it could become frustrating for a player to create a specific character-build
on purpose if he can´t rely on finding the items/spells/skills he needs
for his build?
Ivan:
Already the game recognizes what type of character you and drops items
of use to you more often than not. It's also a part of randomization and loot
pickups we'll be perfecting as time goes on. I don't foresee this being a problem
in the long run.
HellgateLondon.de:
What would you do if you became Flagship´s CEO for one day?
Ivan:
I'd go home early and charge a $100 steak to the company...which is
exactly why I'll probably never be a CEO of any company.
HellgateLondon.de:
May we once again enjoy those funny randomized monster names?
Ivan:
I think that's pretty much a given at this point. I'm trying to get
some guys here to add more awesome randomized weapon and item names, too. The
people I've spoken with seem pretty hip on it.
HellgateLondon.de:
Being the community-manager for Flagship Studios, did you already recieve some
gifts by fans?
Not unless you count a thank you, lots of help, plenty of understanding, some
praise and general good tidings. But frankly, that's more than enough for me.
You guys are as good a fanbase as any man could hope for. And knowing you're
all already this awesome leads me to believe the future of Hellgate and Flagship's
community is going to be pretty cool.
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