So the start of May, I'm sure this means a day off work for most, or for a few it means grumbled mutterings about capitalism while you cover your face with a bandanna and go around waving a red flag. One person who hasn't been slacking around or sticking it to the establishment is Val the 2nd, who has been too busy working away at his new project "Through the roads of hell". This is your standard scenario about the crusades, but there shall be no Saladin and Henry duking it out as we have seen it countless times before for this scenario is based exclusively on the Fifth Crusade. Being fans of a historical RTS game, I'm sure you know what happened in the Fifth Crusade, but according to this delightful encylopedia (that anyone can edit!) the main belligerents were the Holy Roman Empire and their rabble of knightly orders and alies against the "Ayyubid" dynasty (I can't take this anymore, let's load up the simple english version)! But you get the idea, it's the Crusades, religious wars, and sticking true to form of most other Crusader scenarios, Val has gone for a fixed force style of gameplay. You will have to fight hard and fight well, or you will be driven into the sea.

Yet another dabble in desert warfare, with endless desert terrain you all groan. However, Val has decided to take a different approach, and he states that the gameplay with largely misson-based, with each misson being rather small yet instense. The thing that holds the scenario together in terms of going from one misson to the next is the story; which is based on a Hungarian novel. Val was rude (yet right) to assume I don't speak any Hungarian, and thus did not tell me the title, but needless to say he has resassured me there is a nice balance between fiction and history. It is also nice that Val will be brining a book to a wider audience by releasing a scenario in english based on the text; maybe it'll inspire us to start learning and pick up original text (that or use an online translator).

I managed to ask Val a few probing and insensitive questions about his personal life, but the answers were rather too racy to show here. So here are some questions are answers I made up!

So the Fifth Crusade - are we going for historical accuracy or an 'inspired' tale with the Crusade serving only as a back-drop to your own interpretation of events?

Val the 2nd: The Crusade plays just a background role for the campaign. I'm intending to follow a not so well known historical novel about the characters presented in the introduction. I'm planning to recreate one or two historical battles, as well as the historical background as accurately as possible, but the rest of the campaign will be centered around our main characters. The character's life story is based on a chronicle which, I think, could still be found as a manuscript as late as the 19th century - so it is reasonable to expect the main events to be true, maybe exaggerated in a romantical way as most medieval historians tended to write.

So you say you've gone for a more linear approach instead of a sprawling map - but how do you tend to keep the player focused when they have a lack of freedom?

Val the 2nd: What I mean by more linear is that it will not be an interactive open ended kingdom simulation as I planned in my first campaign idea - which I postpone until I practice my editing skills, as this is my very first scenario which is more than some experimenting. So the player will still be able to solve missions in more ways, take sometimes different approaches, but the main order of the events will be fixed - I'm trying to tell a story rather than have a free-roaming rpg.

You've released an early version of the scenario already - but what do you plan to accomplish by the final version when it is in the Blacksmith?

Val the 2nd: The first map is just an introduction presenting the main characters. It was intended to be just a cutscene, but it grew a bit to become a mini-mission. This scenario will not be developed much further than fixing bugs or polishing it based on the advices of more experienced editors. However, it might be possible for the player to revisit this map, or part of it later in the game . The next scenario of the campaign will take us into the Crusade itself, guiding our two heroes through skirmishes and battles- and then in the middle of it there will be a sudden change of perspective, and we will follow the story through the eyes of someone else discovering hidden motives and traits about our heroes, being introduced to secret societies like the hashashins.. but I will try not to spoil everything too soon.

You said yourself that 'a lot of newb first scenarios are based on either Robin Hood or the crusades' so how do you plan, as a relatively new designer, to buck the trend and create something fresh and original?

Val the 2nd: By mentioning those two kind of scenarios I was not meaning to criticize all of them - I've seen a few quite good ones too. I think the main difference between those clichéd first scenarios and what I'm planning to create, is the storyline. So it will not be about "You have an überskilled hero, go kill everyone". As I'm planning now, this campaign will be somewhere between a cutscene and fix-force: to tell a story, but add some missions and maybe puzzles in between. At least that's how I planned it.

No tirade of screenshots this week, for I think I can best that this week with the whole first chapter of the game. Download "Through the roads of hell - Chapter One" from the Blacksmith now!

[This message has been edited by Scud (edited 05-04-2009 @ 06:25 PM).]