Here is what we learned about Warhammer: Mark of Chaos as the game is today…

Namco’s vision in creating Warhammer: Mark of Chaos (WMC) was to create a game that would be playable not only by experienced RTS gamers but would also be available to those new to this style of game. They were also seeking something unique that would have a long life expectancy in the gaming community. After kicking around a number of ideas they came to the conclusion that the Warhammer universe would be the perfect genre as the base for their new game.

So they approached Games Workshop (GW), told them their ideas, GW liked what they heard and so the new game was born. Their focus for the game was the battlefield, not the management of resources or building structures. This gave them the ability to focus more on the play of the war rather than building up to it. Once GW was on board with the idea, Namco then went searching for a developer to help build the game itself and ended up going to Blackhole. After they approached Blackhole they found that a number of the people that worked for the company were Warhammer fans and played the tabletop game. What could be better than that?

The relationship between Namco, GW and Blackhole is very strong in the development of WMC. The three companies are working well together in sharing ideas and moving towards a common goal to create a great game. The developers at Blackhole are constantly coming up with new and innovative ideas to add to the game, like skill trees and inventories for the Champions. And GW is helping to develop rules sets for the game when they encounter something that has never been seen in the tabletop version before, like the use and management of flying units. GW is also helping out by having their writers help in the development of the storyline in the game so that it is consistent with the Warhammer universe.

One of the goals for WMC is to create a game that has a life of its own in the players themselves by making a game where the players can develop their own custom missions and make them available for others to play. They are also creating the opportunity for the development of clans on their web site so that individual players can join together, create a hierarchy within their clan, and promote clan loyalty through the play of the game in multiplayer mode.

The discussion turned to the AI and how it was balanced for play in the game. This, of course, is one of the key elements to making a good game and the developers are working hard at creating an AI that acts and reacts to the world in a realistic and believable manner.

Each unit looks at the environment around it and then applies that to its own unique aspects like skills, morale and cultural modifiers and then will take all of that into consideration before taking an action. So you may find that some units will run away from you, perhaps to go find some friends. Others may decide they are stronger than you and attack you even if they can’t win.

How the units behave, whether or not they know you are there, is important as well. So when you encounter units that are on patrol, they will be behaving appropriately for who they are, be it Orcs or Elves.

Difficulty levels can, at times, be difficult to determine. As the developers of the game soon become experts at the game the ease with which they defeat the challenges makes it hard for them to be objective. This is where they rely heavily on the beta testers to help them to determine if the missions are too hard or too easy, not only for the experienced RTS player but for those new to the genre as well.

The game is balanced through the use of a point system in the multi-player version. Each unit, skill and item will have a point value assigned to it and when you join a multi-player session, the host of the game will have the ability to limit point values as well as available resources and units.

The developers expect that there are enough options in the game that there will be a lot of variety and diversity to the units created by the players. This aspect will help to create a game that will have a replayability aspect that will pretty much be never ending.

At this time they are looking at having an open beta available to the players sometime prior to the games release which will then be followed by a multi-player demo. So keep your eyes on their web site.

I’d like to thank Chris Wren for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat with us about the game. From everything that I have heard and seen so far it looks like Warhammer: Mark of Chaos will be unique amongst RTS games and will definitely be a must see when it hits the shelves.