Interview with North American localization manager

[wraith]

www.joystiq.com/2008/01/16/joystiq-interview-namco-bandai-stacks-the-deck-with-culdcept-sa/

We do not have any current plans for DLC, but it's something we'll be evaluating once the game is released. There's nothing on the table for the time being, but we'll be watching user reaction to the game very carefully.

[Lizardman]

I would like to see DLC in the future, I don't think that it would cause the game to be unbalanced by adding expansions as long as the new cards weren't too overpowering. To me this would keep the game fresh and exciting. I guess they want everyone who plays online to have access to the same cards to keep things fair. Which is ok, but I am going to be spending most of my time playing single player. I wonder how/where they are watching user reaction to the game. I would be happy to give them my reaction/review of the game.

[captmarvell]

Hello Lizardman,

You say you will be playing mostly single player but I thought a veteran player such as your self would love to play other players around the world. Me? I am new to this but I traded my Phantasy Star Universe when I confirmed this was coming out. I knew the is going to be huge learning curve to be competitve in this game and take up a huge amount of my time. First Culdcept for xbox360 and soon Talisman. These "virtual board games" are just the breath of fresh air for videogames I have been waiting years for.

[Lizardman]

Welcome aboard the forum captmarvell, I won't be playing online until I have collected all of the cards, avatar parts, and completed everything I can in the single player mode. Then I will finally get the wireless adapter and the Gold membership. I am looking forward to playing everyone online but that might be a while. I want to fine tune my books and learn how to play all of the new cards before venturing online. I am also looking forward to Talisman(I own the 2cnd, 3rd, and 4th Editions of the board game). Another board game that would be cool as a video game is HeroQuest.

I wonder if they would add DLC if enough people requested it on the games official site. Or maybe we could start a petition or something like that on this forum.

[TopCat]

I don't really want card expansions for the game. A large, static list is more ideal. Why? Because once experienced several things become apparent.

1) There are no long, abrupt pauses as players read new cards and consider possible moves. Saying the time limit takes care of that avoids the fact that it punishes players ignorant to new cards (we are talking of experienced players here.) When you know every card you've seen by sight strategy and deliberation are much more progressive.

2) There is an Emergent Viability effect which comes into play. This only occurs after a long period of static evolution in a game. For instance, book A may not be viable during the early stages of gameplay. As players and popular strategies grow general 'playtypes' take shape and become discreet, distinguishable play styles. At this point formerly unviable strategies become viable and give the game a sort of evolutionary dynamism.

A game like Magic which is purely dynamic with new cards consistently being introduced doesn't have the effect to th same level. By keeping the playtypes phase as the dominant one dynamism is accomplished by havingplayers constantly defining the general and effective strategies.

3) The more expansions that come out or the more cards in a single expansion that is introduced create bigger playtest problems. It's easy to test 1 or 2 new cards for balance, but if you introduce 20 into a set of 483 you'll run into more and more issues with creating a good balance. It won't so much be the case a person will by the new set and beat experienced people without it. I mean, an experienced biker on a $50 Wal-Mart bike will almost always beat the neophyte on a 2 lb. $1000 bike. Same here, plus the randomness of the die roll ensures that consistent wins purely by card choice are infrequent. However, the point is that th viable play-styles ij upper-level play will become fewer and fewer the more that new cards screw with the balance.

[Moptop]

gooba said:

Welcome aboard the forum captmarvell, I won't be playing online until I have collected all of the cards, avatar parts, and completed everything I can in the single player mode. Then I will finally get the wireless adapter and the Gold membership. I am looking forward to playing everyone online but that might be a while. I want to fine tune my books and learn how to play all of the new cards before venturing online. I am also looking forward to Talisman(I own the 2cnd, 3rd, and 4th Editions of the board game). Another board game that would be cool as a video game is HeroQuest.

I wonder if they would add DLC if enough people requested it on the games official site. Or maybe we could start a petition or something like that on this forum.

Oh, man. I would LOVE me some HeroQuest on LIVE. We can dream, we can dream.

I, too, will be completing a large portion of the campaign mode before venturing online. I'd like to have a solid understanding of the new cards and new card mechanics, as well as a formidable book or two, before seeking serious competition.

My fiance had her own 360 before we moved in together, and she shares my Culdcept addiction. It felt good to walk into an EB last night and pre-order 2 copies. Anyone for 2v2?

Oh, and regarding your DLC petition: Microsoft monitors the frequency and volume at which titles are played via 360s that are connected to LIVE, similar to the Nielsen ratings for television. If enough of us buy the game and play it regularly, we'll get DLC.

[Lizardman]

TopCat, I can see where you coming from, the points you made do make sense. I mentioned in my first post that online play would be affected by DLC while single player would not. Having access to more cards than your opponent is an advantage when constructing powerful books to play online. However, if the new cards created were very similar to the cards already in the game I think it would work nicely and keep the game fresh and exciting. My favorite thing about this game is the artwork on the cards. This is also the reason I enjoy Magic the Gathering. It is always exciting to see the new artwork on the cards whenever a new set is released. Though seeing an overpowered $expensive$ rare that I can't afford always ticks me off. Some of my favorite cards from the last game are missing, most of them are underpowered and would not cause balance issues. Troll, Cyclops, Zombie, Werewolf, and Ghoul. I would love to have these cards available in Culdcept Saga. DLC would also prolong the life and interest of the game as well. I noticed with the last game that a lot of the people who had collected all the cards and medals stopped playing and posting on this forum. This would give them another reason to keep playing. If there are plans for Culdcept 4 then I won't be as disappointed if they decide not to have DLC.

Moptop, that is cool that you have someone that you can always play Co-op battles with. To me that is the funnest way to play. My brother and I always enjoyed playing Co-op battles against two story characters. I finally got my own place last year though and won't be able to do this as often. I did not now Microsoft were able to monitor the frequency and volume at which games are played. When I get on Live! they will probably wonder who is this freak that plays Culdcept Saga all day and night everyday of the week.

[wraith]

gooba said:

I won't be playing online until I have collected all of the cards, avatar parts, and completed everything I can in the single player mode. Then I will finally get the wireless adapter and the Gold membership.

If games on the XBLA are any indication, nobody will be playing Culdcept by then. I'd recommend you start playing online from day one.

[Moptop]

wraith said:

If games on the XBLA are any indication, nobody will be playing Culdcept by then. I'd recommend you start playing online from day one.

I think Culdcept Saga will be a bit of an exception, seeing as how a lot of us still play the PS2 version of the game. The volume of players will definitely taper off after a few months, but I think a lot of the forum-goers, myself included, will be playing this for years to come..

[TopCat]

I think waiting so long just to participate online isn't the the ideal way to optimize your time with the game. A lot of japanese players you'll find only have a small set of the single player achievements and yet have 200 wins. They pretty jump into the game and focus on earning cards and getting games in online. I don't mean to say that no one should pace themselves and appreciate the single player game but I think the bulk of the fun experiences come with fraternizing with buddies and good players during a really good match.

Playing offline is not going to get you the competitive edge. Playing people, all kinds of different people, is a different monster and you really can't expect an optimal book build just by experimenting offline. I really think the most fun and worthwhile experience will come if you step in at the ground floor and throw yourself in early so you can be a part of all the burgeoning play styles that will begin to develop. Catching the little details and play mechanics as they emerge can keep you a step ahead of the competition and help solidify your playing and book making abilities.

I think it'd also be easier to participate in discussions here if you have some 2p-4p versus experience under your belt. I can tell you what a big difference there is in style between 2p and 4p games, and how book building in 2p is even different between planning a match in Sentana or Colosseum I and any other map but you'd understand more if you actually experienced and picked up on those differences. Discussions and arguments are also good mental excersices and might help you see some things you might otherwise have overlooked.

Don't forget there is also a sealed book mode which pretty much levels the playing field so far as books are concerned. Even apart from that the playing field as a whole will be even since everyone will be starting from the beginning. Honestly, I won't be playing the US version unless I can manage to keep all of my cards. Assuming we can, Kuroi and I would love to play people from the boards and help develop people's games in any way we can.

[Moptop]

A sealed book mode? The sealed deck format from Magic: the Gathering comes to mind, where you're given a randomly assorted tournament deck and two booster packs to create a deck. Is the sealed book mode in Saga at all similar?

[TopCat]

moptop said:

A sealed book mode? The sealed deck format from Magic: the Gathering comes to mind, where you're given a randomly assorted tournament deck and two booster packs to create a deck from. Is the sealed book mode in Saga at all similar?

It's not quite that robust. You get four book choices. A neutral book (many neutral creatures, a spattering of other colors), a magma book (red and green creatures), a storm book (blue and yellow creatures), and an all book (many colored creatures, very few neutrals). The cards in the book are randomly chosen by the CPU according to the criterion selected.

There are a couple of small caveats, depending on your perspective. Once chosen, another book cannot be chosen; you must either play with the book generated or exit the game and return to the match lobby to select again. This keeps people from continually rechoosing a book to get a better arrangement of cards. You also cannot adjust the numbers of the cards in the book (it's seldom that you get 2 of a certain card and rare that you get 3 of one). The percentage of cards is random; I've seen creature percentage vary between 50-60%, items and spells between 20-30%.

The main point is that you can be given cards that you do not own; any card from the entire collection (save E-cards, I believe) can be arranged into your book. The books created are very poor, so the match will really come down to pure opportunism and solid play. Keep in mind that I've never actually played a game; I've tried to but it doesn't seem to attract much attention in the ranked game category.

[captmarvell]

I agree with TopCat. I used to play a lot of Sports Games over Xbox Live. I would play a half of season off line thinking it would properly prepare me to play opponents on line, I was wrong. The people online had all kinds of tactics (legal and otherwise) to the point where playing it was really a world apart from playing a season. All season play would do is help familiarize me with what each button was suppose to do.

[Lizardman]

wraith said:

gooba said:

I won't be playing online until I have collected all of the cards, avatar parts, and completed everything I can in the single player mode. Then I will finally get the wireless adapter and the Gold membership.

If games on the XBLA are any indication, nobody will be playing Culdcept by then. I'd recommend you start playing online from day one.

I think the majority of the people that get this game are going to be anxious to try the online game. I am also really excited about this feature, however I am going to be playing lots of games with/against my brothers shortly after this game comes out. This game was one of the main reasons they got their 360s, my one brother really enjoyed playing the multiplayer alliance battles with/against me and can't wait for this to come out. They don't have Live and we figure we will be spending many nights playing this game at each other's houses. We all live close to each other so it is no big deal. This is probably why Moptop and I won't be rushing to play online. We already have real players close by who would like to play the game with/against us. After I am finished play testing my books against my brothers I will try new opponents online. Can you play online alliance battles with this game? My one brother and I would love to play against other teams online if this is possible.

[TopCat]

Yeah, there is 2v2. 2v2 is generally my favorite mode in any game, but I haven't yet gotten to play a real alliance match. I really want to test out my Leshy book combo, too.