Here's the text, from archive.org. We can stick it somewhere someday:
Erin Roberts on Starlancer
The first exclusive interview with Erin Roberts, lead designer of Starlancer.
modified: Tuesday, 29-Jun-1999 20:48:22 EDT
LN - Hello Erin and welcome to Lanced.Net. It's good to speak to you at last.
ER - Hello, it's good to be here.
LN - I wanted to start with the concept of Starlancer, how did you guys originally come up with the storyline?
ER - Well, the original premis of the storyline is to start out what happens in Freelancer. Which is basically that there is a big huge solar war that causes the expansion that occurs in Freelancer. Starlancer is the story of that Solar War. So, Starlancer covers the exploration and colonization of Sol, and the period of the Great Solar War.
LN - So Starlancer was developed particularly as a prequel to Freelancer?
ER - Yeah, we wanted to tie the basics of the two stories together. How Starlancer shows the epic struggle around earth and then Freelancer basically will show what happens in the later future.
LN - Starlancer has made quite a bit of progress as far as the storyline goes. I was reading some of the very early fiction on the game and noticed that we started off with a Baron von Richtofven in the game. Want to tell us more about that?
ER - Well, sure. That was a VERY early concept, and we've changed a lot of that. That was AGES ago, it was actually around three years ago. Back then Starlancer was going to be a sort of virtual war feel, a sort of Knights of the Stars, hence the name Starlancer, it was sort of a chivalrous space deal. As we moved on we found we wanted more of a second world war feel pushed into the future.
LN - The game seems to have taken on a very multicultural aspect to it. What's your thoughts on that?
ER - Yeah, well, the idea is basically that there is the Alliance and the Coalition. The Alliance is loosely based on NATO, or what's left of it after it nearly gets destroyed at the beginning of the war. And these countries have banded together in a defense for their friends. On the other side is the Coalition, sort of the Eastern Powers so to speak, which basically fight against you.
LN - One of the really intriguing things that I've noticed is the emblem that you can find in the center of the briefing room on the ANS Yamato and on the Starlancer Preview page. It has eight sides and eight stars, but I've only been able to define 7 of the countries of the Alliance. Is there any significance to that?
ER - No, basically it's the Alliances flag. What happens at the beginning of the game is that each country sort of has it's own identity. When the Alliance is crushed the countries sort of ban together as one nation, and form the flag then.
LN - Chris and you have a very definite way of telling a story. It always seems to be epic in scale. How is Starlancer going to hold to this tradition?
ER - What we've tried to do is create a HUMAN conflict. I was really interested in pitting human against human and avoid the sort of alien bias which most games tend to do. So, what we're building is basically designed with the epic theory that you're the underdog, the civilian. You've put your foot in and joined up to fight for your survival. This epic struggle to try and just basically survive, and then to take back some ground which was lost in the early Pearl Harbor type of attack on Alliance forces. So, this is sort of the feel that goes on, but wrapped into that is the fact that the story is told THROUGH the missions. All of your story information comes to you through the missions. Plus, on board your ship you get news reports of what's going on in the war as a whole. So, it's not only what you do, it's also how the rest of the fleets doing and your fellow civilian fighters. So with all of this information you get the feeling that your just a part of the bigger story which is going on.
LN - I've noticed that you're quite a Naval History buff. Is that going to play out in the game at all? Are we going to see some famous naval re-enactments?
ER - Umm, I'm not for sure, but the battles for Japan is the sort of feel we are trying to wrap Starlancer in. Trying to pull people into traps; the whole feel of the battle for Midway, it was all about who found who's carrier group first. The Japanese had many more carriers, much more fire power, but the US forces won because they found the Japanese carrier group first. That's very much the play, very much the feel we are going for in Starlancer.
LN - Wow, that's great! Tell us a little about the process of creating the game. How many artists, designers, and programmers does it take to create a game like Starlancer?
ER - Wow, there is actually a very big team on Starlancer. There are five programmers, seven artists, and six designers. And then we have the audio works of which we have three in-house audio people plus we contract out for a lot of the audio plans. Then support for the special effects, the team that worked on Wing Commander: The Movie's special effects are helping do that, and there are eight full time in there. And plus some others. We've got a pretty big team.
LN - Lets talk about you and Chris. How does the relationship work? Is there a lot of jealousy, rivalry? What's it like?
ER - Umm, well actually it's really good. When we were younger we used to fight alot. We've settled all of that basically since we were sixteen. We still are quite competitive when it comes to sports and what not. We play a lot of table tennis. But when it comes to games and work we get along great.
LN - That's great, it gets a better game in our hands that way I guess
Back to Starlancer. The multiplayer aspect is getting very interesting. I've read that we'll be able to choose from a class of characters as to who we will be in the multiplayer game?
ER - Yeah, there is a roster of pilots and you get to choose which of the pilots you want to play. Then you take that character into battle, and build it up with experience. If you die then your character has to start all over again, rebuilding its experience. It's more of a risk to let your character die.
LN - Are we still staying with 4 players per squad with multiplayer and 8 on LAN?
ER - Umm, it'll be 4/4.
LN - The other way kewl thing that I've noticed that sets Starlancer apart is the very unique on board environment. Could you talk a little about that?
ER - Yeah, we wanted to give it sort of a more first person perspective. You're basically walking around. You can go in and sit at things, you can watch things on a screen, you can walk around the ship, you can walk past people and bump into them. If you do well on a mission some guy might High-Five you as you walk down the hall, or if you don't do well, they'll just shake their head. You can walk to the captains office and he'll talk to you about how the mission went. And they'll bring you in for a medals ceremony. It's all on that sort of level, so you really get a feel for the game.
LN - One of the more interesting posts on the Forum from the Warthog guys was about the implementation of the Asteroid fields and how we'll be able to use them. Can you tell us a little about that?
ER - Sure! yeah, we are trying to make a very realistic asteroid belt. A usable field, not just animated objects.
LN - Lets talk about the space flight model itself, the physics of space flight in this game. Any clues as to how realistic it will be?
ER - Yeah. Obviously we have a lot of realism. We are looking at features you can turn off and on. Some players may want a full physics model for space where others are more comfortable with traditional flight. The missiles will have different turning ratios as will ships. The bigger the ship the slower the turning, that sort of thing. We are adding strafing models to the game. We are looking at our customers for features to add in this area.
LN - Wonderful. I know the pilots I talk to want the strafing effects added in. Another big topic on the forum is the Enemy AI. Can you tell us how smart the Enemy is going to be?
ER - Well, when you deal with enemy AI's you generally get one of two things. Either the enemy just comes in and shoots with all it has directly at its target and it just becomes a "kill them before they kill you" affair, or the enemy becomes a super turner and it becomes a war of who turns the fastest to get a shot off. What we've tried to do with Starlancer is keep it from being just a fight to turn your joystick left and right, but to actually become a dogfight. With experience you'll really get good at knowing the enemy fighter's potential, you'll learn how it turns and when it's going to try and shoot. It adds a learning curve to the experience and is much more realistic.
LN - I also read that we've changed starting points. We're no longer in orbit around Oberon. It's now Triton?
ER - Yes, we've changed to Triton now.
LN - Any other special characteristics about the game that you'd like to point out?
ER - I guess basically the multiplayer aspect. The fact that you can fly the entire campaign from beginning to end with friends online. That's something that hasn't been done before. It's not just one mission but the whole story. And the other would be the whole living space aspect. We've worked hard at making the space around you seem alive with different things going on, so that you don't feel like it's just you out there, but that you are a part of a larger story, a living, active universe.
LN - As I mentioned the Warthog team have been stopping by the Lanced.Net forum and have been posting lots of interesting tidbits and answering questions. Making a lot of happy gamers
. Can you tell us about your relationship with Warthog?
ER - Yeah, they worked with us and were a part of the Privateer 2 team. They were the top guys on the P2 team and when we left EA they left as well and formed Warthog. When we started Digital Anvil, I felt like we could fit really well together for Starlancer. Because we had worked together before and I knew what they could do. I mean, some of these guys we've worked with all of our lives it seems. We have similar backgrounds, we worked in England together, and when we left for Texas they came with us and then ended up going back to England, so it's nice to have some ties back there.
LN - Ok, umm. How far along is Starlancer now? Are we still on track for a Christmas release?
ER - Umm, at the moment, yes. Absolutely. We are however looking at a lot of fan feedback. We want to make sure that we get the features that the customers want in the game added before we ship it. But, pending any additions that fans want, it should be out by Christmas.
LN - Are there any current plans for an open beta test of the Multiplayer aspect of the game?
ER - Well, that's up to Microsoft. So I'm not sure about that.
LN - There's a mission editor in the works I hear?
ER - Yeah, actually it's already here. We're using it to design the story. The question is whether it will ship with the game or be available via online download.
LN - Wow, that's kewl. I can't wait to see what missions people come up with, hehe. Let's see. Will Starlancer support BattleCom (voice communication software) and Force Feedback?
ER - Umm, Starlancer and BattleCom, that's something I'd like to see. I'm not sure if it will be, but that's a good idea. And yes it will support Force Feedback joysticks.
LN - I think that about wraps it up on Starlancer. I have one more tough question though. I've heard that there are Six games in development at DA right now. Any hints on the other two?
ER - Well, we have one that is code named Brute Force now, which is a ground based futuristic, multiplayer game. The other is ground based as well, but isn't as fully developed yet.
LN - Wow, great Erin, thanks for answering all of my questions. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about before we go?
ER - No, I think we've about covered it all.
LN - ~~~, we sure have. Well, thank you very much then and we hope to hear from you soon.
ER - No problem. If you have anything else you need to chat about just give me an ring and I'd be glad to discuss it.
LN - Wonderful. Thanks again Erin, bye bye.
Well, can't beat that. Some great info. there. I'd like to thank Microsoft Game's PR team for making this possible. And until next time...
Intwy,
signing off
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