ES Vol.III No.3: Mod Focus - Zhanguo: Total War
Interviewer: Justinian
Mod Representative: Sephodwyrm
For those not in the know, what's the setting and idea behind Zhanguo: Total War?
Well, now the DEMO has been released, I must say that the DEMO is not pertaining to the Zhanguo era directly. Zhanguo was a term used by a Han dynasty scholar to describe the period of time around the death of Confucius in 479 BC (and hence the last year of Confucius' Spring and Autumn chronicles) to 220 BC in the unification of China under a centralized authority. It was one of the more war-intensive eras of China, in which there's an absence of a central authority (the Son of Heaven of the Zhou dynasty was a mere show) and feudal lords declared themselves princes and kings and fought with each other with armies of ever increasing sizes.
The DEMO, really, is a backdrop to the onset of anarchic warfare in China. It took place in the period of 528 BC to 473 BC, and it is centered on the beautiful green plains of the regions south of the Yangzi river (the longest river in China). Independent kingdoms of Wu, Yue and Chu were either established by natives living there, although their legends like to say how their roots go back to the Central Plains (the Yellow River up north) as an act of claiming the entirety of China proper. Thing is, we have 3 major kingdoms with a long history of bloody warfare and feuds, and great heroes whose names we would know throughout the world - Sun Zi.
The lush green plains and the wide Yangzi River
What are some of your main goals with the mod?
I can list two of the most important ones:
1. Good gaming experience
2. Good MODDing experience...for me at least. The other members of the team are extremely talented and experienced.
We're aiming for a good conversion of the original Rome TW to a TW with what I would personally consider archaic Chinese background. Hopefully we can relive that ancient and mysterious atmosphere to know what it's actually like to be Sun Zi himself.
Sun Zi ponders what troops he should bring to this custom battle.
We tried to create 2 unique rosters for the DEMO. There'll be more in the upcoming projects with better skins.
What's your inspiration for the project?
Well, Sun Zi was a biggie. He supposedly wrote the 13 chapters (more commonly known as the Art of War) and served the kingdom of Wu. According to history, he led 50000 Wu troops to defeat the great powerful kingdom of Chu. Of course, this also has to do with the fact that he's aided by a Chu refugee named Wu Zixu. The story of Wu Zixu is very well known in Chinese folklore. His entire clan was executed by the King of Chu and he fled to Wu and planned to exact his revenge. It took him 19 years to get back to the Chu capital as a victorious conqueror and to level the royal tomb of the Chu king. The epicness of the story is what get me started. The historical records wrote how the tattooed and short-haired "barbaric" troops of Wu crushed the Chu army with ease. We like to recreate that.
Choose the kingdom that will unite Southern China!
How is your team creating a unique and different mod for R:TW?
By praying to Heaven (event picture from movie)
Just kidding. Hahaha. We do this with a variety of ways: art work, new unit and building skins and new maps. We have several extremely talented artists such as maqiangk that helped us to create a few event pictures. There are other small (but significant to some) things that we would be trying to do, namely portraits, ancillaries, quotes etc to make the experience more immersive. There's another great MOD out there, Ran no Jidai, that's doing the same thing, and they're doing a very good job too.
How far along have you progressed since you first started work on Zhanguo?
Well, a playable DEMO is out. We have a small (and growing) fan base that is actively helping me out (I have poor text editting skills regarding to RTW) and the English patch is working well. We have gained a lot of experience to get onto our subsequent project of the Three Kingdoms to incorporate more features such as passes, crazy terrain, awesome walls and more advanced BPI (ok, the tech boys are sleeping now and I don't want to disturb them).
Some cutscenes.
What are your plans for units?
Units are the basis of any TW game. The way we did ours was through a series of steps:
1. Historical research...not many around that pertains to the Wu-Yue period of 520 BC to 470 BC. Fortunately the research body in China is amazingly active (hobbyists are hardcore fanatics) and they provided a great deal of help
2. Conception. There are not many remains of the units in picture or artefacts. We did have some well preserved weapons. So that's where I come in. I started working on the concepts when I'm just an amateur illustrator. I must confess that I did learn a lot.
3. Modeling and skinning.
4. Balancing
As mentioned before, we hope to create a unit roster that would represent the characteristic of the states. For example, the Chu units would be rich, well armed but have poor morale, the Wu would be disciplined, tough and hard-hitting, while the Yue represent something like uncontrolled beast smashing her way through impossible defenses. A lot of it is based on historical analysis.
Chu troops ready to attack. Unfortunately mixed unit action cannot be realized with the TW engine...
How do you view historical accuracy vs. gameplay? Are the two mutually exclusive?
Well, historical accuracy definitely cannot be realized completely in gameplay, but I feel that we're doing our best to bring it closer to accuracy than to fantasy. Historical accuracy is a core foundation we use to design a game to maintain gameplay integrity in the entertainment. We have a lot of arguments and bad blood over this within the team, so it is a serious issue. But we must also realize that there are many things that cannot be reproduced via the Rome TW engine. How are we going to make, say, new navigable riverways in the campaign map (canal projects were initiated in the Warring States to move armies to the front more rapidly)? So there will be compromises. I hope that with the development and maturation of the game engines CA would one day be able to create a TW game that achieves both without fail.
What are your plans for the campaign map?
We have a full sized map getting primed with passes and crazed terrain for the upcoming Sanguo MOD. That map is getting ripped up and redrawn with much angst and vigor. Lots of bad blood again, but we're doing it...
Thank you for the interview!
More screenshots (my PC is sub-performance cheap deal so...yeah...)
Showdown between Tang and Yue troops.
Tang cavalry winding from the rear and charging home.
