Banner Saga 2 - Interview @ Gamereactor

Gamereactor interviewed Stoic co-founder John Watson about the changes coming in The Banner Saga 2:

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GR: How are you taking any lessons learned back then and making them count with TBS2?

JR: We now have a full time Technical Designer on the team. I've taken great pains to make the entire game very content and data driven, but much of the content is quite complex and technical. Abilities are a good example of this. Abilities are driven by a complex system, and defined in data files, but it almost takes a programmer to implement them anyway. Having a Technical Designer allows me to share these tasks that would usually fall entirely to me. He also serves as a supporting role for Arnie and Drew when they need tool help with Art and Writing, respectively.

GR: We loved the first game, but perhaps the combat could've had a little bit more variety. What plans do you have to refine this area?

JW: We agree with this. There were too many combats, especially later in the game, that were functionally similar to others. We're improving this in several ways. First, we are weaving the storytelling more directly into the combat. Scripted events occur, characters have dialogue on the battlefield, establishing shots are made, and battlefield conditions can change during the battle. New units show up, win conditions change. We have a variety of win conditions depending on the story, instead of relying almost entirely on the 'kill them all' win condition that is the default. Second, we've massively increased the number of unique characters and abilities. There are dozens of new units and abilities, both in the player's party as well as on the enemy side. Third, we've extended the maximum rank of units to Rank 10, allowing your heroes to take on a second ability, making them more versatile in battle. Fourth, we've added a Talent system to each of your primary stats. These Talents allow you to put points into perks which improve your battle prowess in a variety of way. Fifth and finally, we've revamped the way the War system works. A War in Banner Saga is a scenario where your caravan encounters as massive enemy force, and consequently the entire caravan is in danger, including the civilian clansmen. Your heroes lead the charge into a battlefield, but at the same time, your fighting population is in battle as well, defending the caravan. The results of your Heroes' battle, coupled with the relative compositions of your fighters and the enemy, determine your casualties, your change in morale, etc... In the first game, the War mechanics were very opaque, confusing, and more or less meaningless to the player. We've improved this by doing a balance pass on these mechanics, explaining them much more clearly, and making the whole system more transparent. As a side effect, it gives the player a much stronger motivation to save as many people as possible.

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Thanks Couch!