I love the idea of someone who made the game 15 years ago being asked to talk in depth about it all this time later. I hope they'd be pleased as punch to be asked about it - who WOULDN'T like to be approached by fans of something they made?
I'd love to know how they felt about the project - was it a labour of love or just a trial to see how easy it would be to break into the RPG market? Was it driven by a strong artistic idea or was there a load of technology lying about the place which someone reckoned they could knock together into an interesting RPG in a few months...
I imagine that since I'm not the only Albion fan on the internet, interviews with the staff already exist - so maybe these broad strokes questions have been answered somewhere already. In which case I might settle for more specific questions like : What in the name of all creation were they expecting people to do when they hit the brick wall difficulty spike of Umajo.
What plan did they have for the games rhythm and flow that meant they thought this would be a good time to take half the player's team off them, ramp up the difficulty of the monsters, massively inflate the prices of everything and lead you off on suicide voyages into a seemingly limitless barren desert? ARG!
After last episode's misadventures with the frigging musical crystal of disappointment Hoff leads the team back through Amoeba's illuminated teat to the desert world of the metal makers. This is the one place on Albion where there are people who can mine for ores and gemstones! Exactly how they do it is a mystery that no-one knows and--
"I love to buy things"
"Pardon?"
"Come on... you gotta have something I could buy off ya! Please! I've not traded anything for days now!" (this was just some random bloke I met - he was staggering around alone down a dead end alley. The whole town is eerily un-populated and this is the first person I've seen since I've been here)
"Well I suppose I could sell you this musical crystal... I'm pretty sure it's useless to me now--"
"Come away from him Tom! Don't encourage them!" Hisses Dirr.
The commerceaholic tramp looks bleary eyed into the middle distance. Drooling and muttering he shuffles away into the back corner of the alley saying things like "Buy low... sell high... here's my card... it's printed on the inside of a Fabergé egg... no, I've not heard of them either, they didn't start being made until 1,917 years after my people left the planet earth... that's how impressive this is..."
The last I see of the guy, he's trying to write his name and mobile phone number onto the inside of a discarded kiwi fruit peel with the tip of his finger.
"You've got to be careful for burn outs like that, team" explains Hoff. "This place is VERY economy-driven. That guy clearly couldn't keep pace and now he's just a... well a bally nuisance! Take my advice and don't trade anything with him - for his sake and ours!"
"Ok Hoff. You know best. But honestly, I think we ought to find SOMEONE to trade with. I mean, we've not eaten for days and we're totally broke."
At this point I start to get a feel for exactly how cut-throat Umajo is. I step into a weapons shop and off-load what I THOUGHT was an excellent haul of old knives, bows, Bradir's magic stilletto, axes and sundry weaponry. I was expecting a small fortune in return - but all the man will give me is a measly 300 gold. Only 300 gold?
"Seriouly - what were you expecting? We MAKE weapons in this town. It's the only place on the planet where weapons are made."
Ok. Fair point. So it's no wonder you can't sell weapons and gems for much in this town. But without selling weapons and gems, how am I supposed to make decent money? What were you thinking Mr Blue Byte? Is there something I've missed along the way?
"That was lame. But never mind - we only need to get some food in. We've got all the weapons we could need and we've coped without training for this long - I'm sure we'll muddle through..."
"That's 11 gold per portion of food love"
"What? 11 gold? We only have 300! That means that even if we bankrupt ourselves that's only 26 portions of food! There's FOUR of us! That's only 6 meals each! Do you know how often we have to rest? It's LOTS!"
"I'm sorry love - but we're in the middle of a desert. All we produce is metal and gems and you can't very well eat them. It costs me 10.5 gold to ship each portion of food here so I'm doing you a favour offering them at 11 to you!"
"But can't you use the teleporter network to get food-OOF"
Hoff sharply elbows Tom in the guts for no reason.
Resignedly I fork out for 20 portions of food. I don't want to bankrupt myself getting the full 26.
This place is hardcore! For the last few locations food's been pretty easy to come by - and since it'd been abundant, I've been able to rest as much as I like without worrying about the team eating it all. The knock on effects of it going up in price is that I'm now really worried about getting into a fight. If I take a few blows and need to take a kip to recover then that's one of the 5 "rests" I've got provisions for. All of a sudden I need to make sure I'm using my healer to their best... oh wait! I used to have two healers, but they ran off together to raise interspecies babies a little while back! So really I've got to make sure I make the best use of the various potions and salves I've been lugging around instead...
Reeling at the thought of the challenges they face, the team stop into a bar where the bar man gives them the low down on the local area.
Turns out there's 4 key industrial guilds in the town. The miners, the diamond polishers, the mysterious mountain priests and the weapon smiths.
"Sorry... what was that third one?"
"Oh... The mysterious mountain priests? You don't want to know about them. Have you noticed the lovely sea air we have here? The exotic plants..."
"Yes. It's lovely here. And the plants are very pretty... tell me more about these mysterious--"
"Of course the cost of living is higher here than elsewhere. But it doesn't matter since everyone round here is minted - what with their being a miner, diamond polisher or weapons smith on a planet where no-one outside this town can do any of those things..."
"A miner, a diamond polisher, a weaponsmith OR a mysterious mountain priest you mean..."
"Don't go trying to steal our secret."
"You're what now?"
The man gives Hoff a stern and prolonged glare and, without breaking eye contact, scratches a warning into the wood top of the bar.
"what does that say... 'noy dot Ion sli'?"
The barman glances down. "damn it, I did it again..."
"Is your finger alright" Tom asks, pointing to the bleeding digit the man used to scratch his message with...
"It's fine it's fine. Never mind. I was trying to, y'know, trying to build something up here. But whatever... It doesn't matter..."
"No no, tell us what it means!"
"No it's embarrassing. I did the look but I got the message upside down..."
"Really? Let me look" Hoff tilts her head but it doesn't make much more sense "'ils nol top hoy'?"
"IT'S NOT FOR YOU! It's not for you! The secret of the mountain priests - the secret of how we can mine for metal and gems - it's not for you, that's what it says..."
"That's meant to be an F?" asks Tom
"That's mean to be an R?" adds Dirr
"Shut up! Just leave it! Forget it! I wanted it to be mysterious or significant or whatever and you ruined it..."
"You're the one who can't write..."Siobhan chips in
"Do YOU want to try writing with your FINGER in WOOD without looking?"
"If you ask me--"
"Well I didn't. Just forget the whole thing. You can't have the secret so just shut up about it--"
"Oh! I think I see how that's a T now... It's just a bit slanty..." Hoff, ever charitable is trying to make the bar man feel better about the debacle, but he just looks stony faced and says: "it's 18 gold a pint. Do you want anything?"
"Oh is that the time - well I do believe I have to run and catch my bus! Good day sir! How kind of you to talk to us..."
As they walk away, Dirr makes an un-kind comment about the way Hoff dresses. Hoff asks her why she's such a bitch all the time and she breaks down in tears and admits that her tough exterior is just a defence mechanism. She only bully's people because she had to grow up with a mum who was a prostitute. A cat prostitute. Hoff gives her a knowing, sympathetic look and the two erstwhile rivals feel that maybe this moment of openness could be a turning point in their relationship. The moment is broken though when they hear Tom on the other side of the room cry out "Again! My luck's got to change some time!"
This is another lovely booby-trap Blue Byte've put in the game for people who felt that Umajo wasn't a tough enough place to come. It's not enough that everything costs a fortune, but over in the corner of the pub is a woman called "Amine" who offers to "play dice" with you to double your money. Only it turns out that actually it's a total con - every time you "play" her at dice, she just says "Well look at that, I won" and takes 10 gold off you. I played this game several times expecting it to be some kind of 50/50 chance that you could win it back or something. But no, it's the same every time.
"TOM! YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO WIN! STOP PLAYING DICE WITH THIS MAD CRONE!!!!"
The team drag their all too naive comrade away from the cackling old bag who laughs raucously - staring into Tom's eyes, flicking her tongue and scoring the word "sucker" into the table with her finger without ever breaking eye contact...
We bundle into a booth a little way further towards the door and Hoff gives Tom a few open palm slaps across the face
"Ah - drawn in by Amine was he?" Mutters a figure who was sat in the booth before we got there.
"Oh, Sorry. Yes. I didn't see you there - I hope you don't mind..."
"Oh not at all. Amine's a total cow - we see this sort of thing quite regularly here"
"Who're you then?"
"Oh, I'm her sister. My name's Konny. But don't worry - I'm the nice one."
"You're not going to try and screw us over too then?"
"Oh no no no, ha ha ha - oh gracious no. So what're you in town for? Want to see the sights?"
"Well we're here looking for a giant metal ship that has apparently landed on this continent... FROM THE SKY!"
"Giant metal sky ship eh? Well I don't know about one of those..."
"Oh dear. Can you think of where we should go looking for it?"
"Oh well now. From here you can go north or south. Now I suggest you go north and visit the prison. Oh, ha ha - I know it doesn't sound much, but really it's the closest thing we have to a tourist attraction round here. It's very interesting in its own sort of way. You CAN also go south, but you'd have to get through the IMPENETRABLE MAZE OF BOULDERS and past the HOARDS OF DEADLY MONSTERS, not to mention deal with the HORRIFIC RECENT CATACLYSM."
"Oh, gosh, south sounds pretty unpleasant--"
"oh it is. You CERTAINLY wouldn't want to go south... Trust me! I'm Konny the nice one you know... Northwards to the prison is a much better way to be going..."
"Yes. Yes it sounds like it is. We shall go look in the north--"
"AH HA HA HAHA HAH AH AH AHA HA H AHA HA HA HAH"
"Pardon?"
"Oh, um... just coughing deary. *ahem*. Gosh I wish I could come with you, but I fear I have to stay in town and look after the poor lost souls my sister carves up with her rigged gambling... Never mind. Have a lovely time going northwards. Noooorthwaaarrrrds.... Noooooooorthhhhhhwwaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrdddddsssssssssss..."
Konny repeats the word over and over until the team get the idea that she wants them to go now. As they shuffle out of the booth she hisses the final s continuously, never breaking eye contact with Dirr but occasionally flicking her tongue in and out, rolling it and blowing little raspberries.
"What's that you've scratched into the table?"
"Oh nothing! Leave now! Keep going! goodbye!" Konny quickly covers over the message she's carved into the table top.
Once the team's left the pub she gets up and goes over to Amine to split the profits from the dice rolling and have a good laugh at my gang's expense...
Such an interview could be really interesting, I agree :) Tracking down those people wouldn't be too easy, though. Blue Byte still exists, but it has undergone major changes - I doubt there's many people left who were there back in Albion times.
ReplyDeleteThe only interview I know of is in German. The Google translation does a pretty bad job, but some parts are understandable:
http://translate.google.de/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.games-guide.de%2Fpcgames%2Frollenspiele%2Fa%2Falbion.htm&sl=de&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8
Your lack of healing and resting can both be answered by the scientist formerly known as Fat Harriet :) You haven't described her magic skills yet, so maybe it's time for that.
But I'm not sure if she has both necessary spells from the beginning - if she doesn't you might want to get back to the Dji Cantos.
"Don't go trying to steal our secret."
Why, of course not. We were going to - but now that you've asked so nicely... :)
Oh my god. Intimate bonding between girly Dirr that should be a man and manly Hoff that should be a girl? I don't even... Does not compute...
Losing your last money gambling? Ouch :D
But you're really getting into a tight spot now, I can't imagine you surviving the two dungeons after the next one without at least some good equipment. And "Buy low... sell high..." doesn't work too well if you don't have the money to buy anything in the first place :/
So you've figured out that going North is a bad idea without actually doing so? You lucky, lucky man. But wait, how did you figure out that they did "ramp up the difficulty of the monsters"? You only meet them from time to time when you go North. (And yes, those are ridiculously tough - for random encounters, no less.)
Yeah - with regards the combat and going north, I'm aluding a little to stuff that'll happen in the next post. This post and the next are write ups of notes from sessions I've already played.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interview link! I'll look at it when I get home :D
To be honest, but the time of the events in this post, I don't think I'd even looked at Harriet\Hoff 2 in combat yet! In fact, although I know she can do magic, even now I've not really explored what she can do! Although I'm definitly going to have to in order to get anywhere in this crazy-hard section! I really hope I don't end up grinding since that'll be really boring to read about. Unless I pass over it like a montage section in a Rocky film...
Wow! I read that interview (although, like you say, the internet does a REALLY bad translation job) - I think it's fascinating to read them talking about the setting and how they didn't want you to generate characters.
ReplyDeleteIt's REALLY interesting to hear how, back in the day, they felt that a story like this one simply wouldn't have worked if you were allowed to build your own main character (like in Baldur's Gate or Eye of the Beholder). To modern gamers I think Tom Driscoll and co must come over like total blank slates with nothing much to distinguish them except a briefly touched upon back story (that could have been the same even if you had generated their stats and aptitudes yourself).
In a time when even the lead characters in brain dead shooters (Gears of War) at least have a personality so you can tell when they're acting out of character, the thought that 15 years ago the cast of Albion seemed inflexibly well defined is difficult to process!
I would LOVE to ask these guys now how they feel about the characters - how clearly they feel their personalities are defined by modern standards.
Actually, thinking about it, the characters aren't devoid of personality in Albion. It's just that you have to go looking for their personalities. Apart from the occasional bit of banter, none of the cast volunteer a great deal of evidence to show what they're like as people unless you ask them about it. In a way, you get the feeling that it's not creating characters that developers have got better at over the years, it's more getting you to engage with them. Making it so that, regardless of how you play the game, you get a clear idea of your team's personalities... I really love this kind of thing!
I'm still a bit confused why you think that this part of the game is so difficult - you might be going somewhere you're not supposed to go yet.
ReplyDeleteWell, probably it doesn't matter. You won't be much stronger than now when you've got to go there.
That part in the interview always had me confused as well. I think it comes down to two things:
- People's introductions are linked to their professions, and their professions are linked with certain physical/mental abilities. Tom needs to be a pilot, Hoff needs to be a scientist (for lots of the dialogue, even), we wouldn't meet Drirr if he wasn't part of the police, etc.
- In that time many RPGs got by without the main character ever speaking a single word. Remember? Even when the protagonist had to ask a question it was only implied - the other person just repeated the question as if they weren't sure if they had heard it right.
But I agree, this has _definitely_ become better in more recent games :)