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Customising for battle with turn-based strategy game Mytran Wars (part 2)

Talking to the man who’s the world expert

Customising for battle with turn-based strategy game Mytran Wars (part 2)
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PSP
| Mytran Wars

Yesterday, we kicked off our mammoth interview with Mytran Wars’ lead designer Gabor Komor, looking at the inspirations behind the game, as well as specifics such as the technology tree and currency.

In part 2 of the interview, we’ll consider the customisation options and the multiplayer modes, amongst other things.

Pocket Gamer: How deep are the customisation options in terms of weapons systems, extra shields, longer movement etc?

Gabor Komor: Basically, there are three type of units in Mytran Wars (light, medium, heavy), and each type has seven(+ 1) slots where you can mount up the researched accessories. Each of these types has its own technologies and skillset that it's able to use.

Practically speaking, this means you cannot mount a heavy weapon/shield/whatever to a light unit and vice versa. (Though there are a few exceptions - some accessories can be attached to any kind of unit, but there is a reason why we call them exceptions.)

Another thing we should mention here, there are seven stats that describe a unit: attack range, movement range, sight range, structure, and three damage resistances. Most of the upgrades will modify these stats, while some of them will provide additional skills and abilities.

The system is well-balanced, which means if you build up a unit which is extremely strong in something, it will surely be extremely weak in something else.

Let's see a few examples:

a unit carrying four weapons at the same time will be pretty vulnerable without extra defences
a unit that is almost invincible will surely lack decent firepower
a full supportive unit with reasonable healing capacities shouldn’t be kept too long in the line of fire
a unit with very long attack/sight-range won't last too long in a melee-combat situation
and so on

The point is, you have the possibility to make units have longer movement, extra defences, tremendous firepower or extra skills (like partial invisibility, full immunity for a short period, or sharing damage amongst allies), but it always costs you something. And if you don’t notice it at first glance, you’ll certainly learn it on the battlefield.

Do you carry your units from mission to mission, upgrading them as you go, or do you start each one with new, standard units?

In the first few missions you will start with new, standard units because we didn't want to scare the players off with the huge and complex research and unit customisation system at the beginning. That would be just too much information at once.

So we've decided to give enough time for everyone to learn the basics of the game before they need to care about such things. After you've completed these missions, the researching and customisation options become available. With these you get a unit pool as well, in which you can upgrade/buy/sell units and carry them from mission to mission.

How many different units can you control during your missions and can you combine them together in terms of group attacks?

How units differ from each other - even within the same unit type - really depends on the player. There are enough possibilities so you could make all the units in your unit pool unique. The number of units you can control on the battlefield is between six and 12.

Since units cannot be assigned to groups and combining different unit types won't provide any passive bonuses, we can't talk about group attacks in a classical meaning.

But you can benefit from moving your units together, just in a different way. If you keep your units next to each other they will receive a defence bonus, and if you flank the enemy from multiple directions you will decrease its damage reductions.

Are there neutral/enemy buildings facilities in the map that you can capture, and do you have buildings etc you have to defend?

Yes. There are neutral/enemy buildings and facilities in certain missions that you can capture or destroy, and of course you'll have your own buildings you need to hold and defend.

Some buildings provide you with decent firepower when in your possession, others provide global bonuses for your entire army. And there are more building types, but I don't want to kill every surprise so just go and find out yourself.

Will there be any multiplayer modes?

Yes, there are three different multiplayer modes- Co-op, Deathmatch and Last Mech Standing.

Co-op: Classic cooperative mode where two players (two armies) fight against the AI. Some maps have unique objectives such as defend something/someone or destroy/capture a target. Others have simpler rules - eliminate all your foes, as in a classic team-deathmatch game.

Deathmatch: Basically this mode is about defeating the opponent player before he/she defeats you. This is a clear-cut, no special objectives, no big surprises... except one thing. We've added some mini-games to this mode to spice up the classical approach a little bit. This is an optional addition you can turn off anytime at the multiplayer lobby.

Ok, now let's see how this works. Every time it’s your enemy's turn, you get a mini-game. When this happens, half of the screen shows the battlefield and your enemy's actions. The mini-game takes place on the other half. Your achievements in the mini-games will affect your entire army in your next turn by providing global bonuses (or maluses, if things just didn't go too well).

Last Mech Standing: This mode is pretty much like a chair game. Every three turns random locations on the map become a hot-spot. The number of these hot-spots starts from 11 - one less than the number of units on the map at the beginning - and decreases by 1 every three turns.

The goal of the game is to reach these locations with your units before the time is up or your enemy does. Those units that are not standing on a hot-spot at the end of every third turn will die instantly. You win when your opponent runs out of units.

Note: Researching and unit customisation is not supported in multiplayer modes. Instead players are able to choose from 13 different predefined armies, and each army contains six units.

What do you think is the most impressive element of Mytran Wars?

Well, I could praise the graphics of the game, or tell you how perfectly the melodies and sound effects fit with the atmosphere, or I could even talk about how entertaining, instructive and funny the background story and the cutscenes are, but I won't.

I also could approach this question by looking at the raw numbers and bring you some examples like: the number of available technologies (240+); the four single player campaigns (30 missions) with secret missions and boss encounters; or the three multiplayer modes (24 maps) with great replay value; the number of cutscenes (60+); and the five alternate endings, but I won't do that either.

Why? Because I’ve got used to these things and I really don't know which would impress anyone out there. I'd rather tell you two simple things that can still impress me about Mytran Wars.

1) After I've been working on this project for two and a half years, after I've spent many, many hours playing this game - I can assure you, the person who played this game the most on Earth is certainly me - Mytran Wars still can impress and entertain me EVERY single time I start to play.

I can still have the wow effect. I can still enjoy it. The game can still challenge and surprise me in spite that I already know everything about it. And this... this is not a usual thing for me, even though Mytran Wars is my fifth project.

2) It's hard to believe that you can actually play a game like this on a handheld console. It's long, huge and complex with an insane amount of content. The attributes and quality of Mytran Wars can be compared to games on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or PC, but this is a PSP game.

Thanks to Gabor for his time and enthusiasm. And don’t forget to check out the first part of our interview about Mytran Wars.
Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.