Mordheim - Interview @ Game Watcher

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GameWatcher interviewed Rogue Factor General Manager Yves Bordeleau about the challenges, development, and success of faithfully creating Mordheim: City of the Damned. Mordheim will be launched on November 20.

GameWatcher: The game you’re making is an adaptation of the tabletop game. What led you to pick Mordheim as the basis for an adaptation from tabletop to video game?

Yves Bordeleau:
Well, first of all, we were huge fans of the tabletop game. So we had a good knowledge of the actual tabletop game’s lore and rules. When we decided to move forward with the idea of creating a video game for it, we were concerned with creating a game that would translate well.

GameWatcher:
What kind of steps did you make to ensure a good seamless adaptation?

Yves Bordeleau:
We were aware that sometimes one to one adaptations from tabletop games to video games doesn’t translate well because of the absence of physical human interaction and dice rolls or mechanics that are just clunky on computer. When we decided to work on Mordheim, we went out of our way to spot things that would be problematic in adaptation. One instance was the pace. The tabletop game has specific rules when it comes to things like order of player actions. By those rules, you play all of your units in your warband for a turn, and then your opponent plays all of their units. On a 10 unit vs. 10 unit map, you’d be waiting forever between turns.

In order to break this up, we introduced an initiative ladder, which factors in an initiative stat value given to all of your units and your opponent’s units. The higher a unit’s initiative, the sooner that unit will have their turn. It made the game much more dynamic. It opens the opportunity for players who want to act first and fast to construct their warband with units that have high initiative, sacrificing statistics like armor that other players might favor more.

We also decided to implement a system inspired by the Warhammer Fantasy RPG from Fantasy Flight which used maneuver points and skill points. Our version is blue points and red points. Blue points are strategy points and red points are offense points. There are moves that use points from one category or a mix of both. For instance, reloading a weapon with ammo costs a few blue points and a red point where casting an offensive spell will require red points alone. This helped to add variety to the game. Outside of changes like that, we tried to remain extremely faithful to the original tabletop game with hardcore elements like permadeath and limb loss; you can literally have a leg chopped off. These were fan favorites. […]


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Been playing quite a bit of it, and I love the game so far :). Despite being in early access I have not encountered any crash or bugs so far. Im sure they exist, but at 50 or so hours in I haven't noticed anything yet.

The game isn't for those who get angry too easily :p. There is no save scumming, and the game will punish you for your mistakes. I have had warbands wiped, marksmen losing an arm and unable to use ranged weapons anymore, soldiers losing a leg and being unable to climb up anymore and getting a penalty when jumping down....

The most annoying, yet funniest was a hero with a fractured skull having to roll stupidity check from then on to see if he'd get to move or just skip his turn heh.

I like how the multiplayer actually integrates into your campaign. You can play your whole campaign without ever diving into multiplayer if so you wish, but if you do you can opt to have the mp battles you fight take part into your campaign. I am only beginning to play some multiplayer matches (Mostly vs friends) but it looks like there is a decent community organising stuff for that too.
 
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