Hi, my name is Michael Klappenbach and I'm the guide/editor of About.com's Computer Action Games website. I have just recently heard of Savage 2 so these questions are coming from someone who truly does not know much about your game. With that said however, I am quite interested to learn more and share with my readers. After reading through the website the game concept sounds new and exciting.
Q: Can you briefly explain what "Savage 2: A Tortured Soul" is?
Marc: Savage 2 is a competitive multiplayer only game that perfectly melds an RTS game with an FPS game while sprinkling in RPG elements here and there. Imagine playing your favorite RTS game while all the units on the ground are controlled by other players. Or, imagine playing your favorite FPS with a real team effort and playing an important role of a unit in an army used to destroy your enemies base.
Q: From everything I've read Savage 2 is intended to be multiplayer game (with single player tutorials). Will there be any monthly subscription fee involved with Savage 2? Will it have role playing elements similar to World of Warcraft or Everquest?
Marc: There will be no monthly fee, just a one time nominal fee of $29.99 to get an account to play the game online. The game files, tutorial, LAN play, and practice mode are all absolutely free to anyone, anytime.
In regards to having MMO similarities, Savage 2 has persistent experience and items. The experience doesn’t offer your units in matches any significant advantage, it is simply used to determine your real life experience (capabilities) in playing Savage 2. Persistent items are rare items dropped when you kill players (random) that you can save in your account vault and bring into matches. Your vault has 5 item slots and you can bring any 2 into a match when you enter the game.
Q: How will teams be chosen? randomly? Or will players have the ability to pick and choose teams?
Marc: Players can choose which team they would like to join. The servers will not allow an uneven amount on any given team.
Q: Will there ever be an opportunity to place human vs human or will the battles always be Legion of Man vs Beast Horde? Or can there be a team of characters from both races?
Marc: There will be human v human, beast v beast, and human v beast.
Q: Will characters be able to play on different servers or will they have to remain on the server where they are created?
Marc: There are no “servers” in terms of Massively Multiplayer games. Servers are hosted by the community, much like other popular FPS games. On these servers are instances of “matches”. Each server will have an experience range. These are set by account levels. Account levels are determined by experience earned in matches which is accumulated in each players account. There will be server levels 1-10, 11-25, 26-50, and 50+ Higher level players can enter lower threshold servers but will have minor handicaps placed against them. This helps players expand their capabilities without being immediately destroyed by expert players.
Q: The game is being billed as a mix of RTS, RPG and FPS genres with one person controlling the RTS portion (the "Commander") and other players controlling "Action Players" in the FPS format. Will there be an opportunity to switch roles during game play?
Marc: With an 85% majority vote the commander may be removed with voting only allowed every 5 minutes. That is really the only opportunity for roles to be switched during the game. The only other opportunity is the commander leaving his “post” to play as an action player for 120 seconds every 6 minutes.
Q: When I think of an RTS game I think of Age of Empires or Rise of Nations and hundreds of "cannon fodder" units that are pumped out every second. Will Savage 2 have this style of game play for the RTS portion? If so who will be creating/controlling these units.
Marc: The commander on each team will experience gameplay very similar to that of the traditional RTS’s you mention above. However, they will not control NPC units and will only command units controlled by other players on the server.
