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Exclusive Q & A with Snowbird!

Thagarr

Thagarr

Pining for the Fjords!
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Pirate Legend
I emailed Snowbird Games this morning and got a very prompt and enthusiastic response! It seems that they are just as excited to see our response to their press release as we were to see it! They have graciously agreed to answer some of our questions regarding Caribbean! I am not the best at this type of thing, so I need your help mates! I need you to come up with some good questions that I will send off in an email to Snowbird, and they will answer them as best they can. Ask your questions in the comments bellow, and in a few days, I will collect them and send them off to Snowbird! This is something that we have had mixed success with in the past, but with the potential this game has, I am definitely willing to give it another go. Please keep in mind that this game is in development and there may be certain questions that they might not be able to answer at this time.

I am sure you all can come up with some much better questions than this, but I'll get it started with a couple of my own!

1. Is Caribbean a mod for Mount & Blade,? Or is it going to a be a full stand alone game based on the M&B Engine?

2. Will there be a fully implemented economic and trading system in the game?
 

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That is good news! Of course PiratesAhoy!, being a dedicated pirate gaming site, should be able to offer them quite some free advertising, so it should be a win-win situation.

Here's some that I can think of:

3. What will be the options for modding the game after the initial release?

4. What is the intention of this game on the subject of realism vs. more arcadey gameplay? What is the target audience?

5. What type of swordfighting can we expect to see? Eg. hack-and-slash, filmic scenes or something more strategic and slow-paced?
On boardings, will you be able to use the environment to your advantage?
Can you climb into the rigging and have a swordfight on a yardarm like seen in many pirate movies?

6. How much reloading will there be between scenes? Eg. will there be reloading between the sea battles and the boarding scenes?
Will the boarding scenes use the actual ship models? Can you walk around on your ship yourself?

7. How is navigating from island-to-island handled? Will there be a worldmap or can you sail in "3D sailing mode" between islands?

8. Will the player be able to command fleets of more than one ship? If so, how big are the fleets we can expect to see and command?

9. Will the player be able to have other characters and officers join his party?
Will these characters have different personality traits that can trigger unexpected random events making the freeplay more interesting?

10. Will you be able to attack forts and towns from both sea and land? If so, would there be land battles as well?
On land, would it be possible to control "vehicles", such as horses and carriages?

11. How much of the gameplay will be scripted storylines and quests and how much will be random events?
Can you give us more details on the "political intrigues"? That sounds intriguing.

12. Will it be possible to play as a privateer in the service of a nation, or join a national navy as well as being a pirate?

13. How big will be the game world? How many islands will there be? Is there any mainland too?
How big are the islands and how different will the islands be from each other?

The above is far from being all-inclusive, of course, but those do quite peak my interest.
 
Here are some of my questions:

I. Questions concerning the world at all

- Will there be a day-night cycle system?
- Will the game be a full open world game, with a free sailing system?
- Will the game have weather effects, which could actually affect the gameplay mechanic?
- How vast will the world be, will the buildings be accessible?
- Will the NPCs have a life, i.e. sleeping, eating, doing daily chores etc.


II. Questions about historical realism

- When this game will be set?
- Will there be historical persons like Bartholomew Roberts, Henry Morgan, Jean Bart, Samuel Bellamy, and other well known pirates and privateers?
- Will the ships be correctly depicted and will the emphasis be put on the rigging and small details like fixing of gun port tackle lids and canons?


III. Questions about weaponry

- Will the final game also feature scabbards with hangings and holsters, like in the first screenshots?
- Will the rifles have belts for carrying?
- Will there be besides flintlocks also matchlocks and wheellocks?
- Will there be combination weaponry?
- Will the game feature correct and therefore LONG reloading animations for firearms and canons?
- Will there be different kinds of ammunition like chainshots and hotshots?

IV. Questions about presentation

- Will the bodies disappear before the players eye?s (A NO is the right answer)
- Will there be a realistic amount of smoke produced, after firing firearms?
- Will there be a self-healing system? (A NO is the right answer)
- Will there be recoil and misfire?

Yes that would be a small proportion of questions :)
 
It seems that few questions haven't been asked yet::p
14) How many different ship models will there be?
15) exactly what years will the game cover?
 
Some thoughts of mine:
  • Will there be realistic weather effects, such as storms or hurricanes?
  • How many factions will there be, and how many of which will be playable?
  • What sorts of ships do you plan to include? Are they based on real plans?
  • How will the player be able to control their ship (i.e. first or third person perspectives)?
  • What kinds of animations can we expect to see on the ships? (e.g. yards/sails/flags moving with the wind, cannons recoiling, crew members walking around)
  • It looks like there will be visual damage effects (e.g. sails being torn), but will there be any physical damage to the hull or masts? (e.g. parts of hull being blown apart, masts falling, cannons exploding, cabin glass smashing)
EDIT: some of this has already been covered, sorry :oops:
 
I've been looking over the questions, and i noticed some of them are already answered in the article itself. Also, in regards to combat, it might be a good idea to ask how similar the combat is going to be to the M&B series rather than all those individual questions regarding it. Their game based on the napoleonic wars is very realistically designed already and would port quite well into a pirate setting. Still the more specific details referred to in the posted questions are of some importance, especially the visual ones. I'm not one for visuals, but some of your questions regarding them are actually things i found lacking in their other games.
 
Water! Do the ships roll with the waves?
Ships! How many and how realistic?
 
I think just about everything that I could come up with was covered here.
 
Based on the screenshot with the two xebecs, it doesn't even look like the wind is a factor in naval battles. The two square-riggers are obviously running downwind, which would mean that the xebecs are sailing directly into the wind. The models don't look quite right either, but I'm sure that we could change that. We should probably ask them whether the vessels will respond to the wind correctly, or if the wind will even factor into the sailing.
 
I can't possibly imagine such a game NOT factoring in the wind; that would be beyond crazy.
But now you mention it, there does seem to be something dodgy going on on that screenshot.
 
How many islands could we expect to see? Will we have access to what today would be considered Florida? How much of South America will we have access to?

Will there be a storyline to follow or will it be mostly open ended with little story?

What kind of interaction can we expect with NPC's? Will they just be random quest givers or can we expect something more?
 
Good work Thagarr and great find :onya

My question is, are they related to the other Caribbean game in development for M&B which previously announced or is this a new development. (Also, what engine are they making this on)

Also, found a few more screenshots:
Caribbean1.jpg Caribbean2.jpg Caribbean3.jpg Caribbean4.jpg Caribbean5.jpg
 
Thanks Keith, yeah, I am really looking forward to this one as well! Thanks for posting the screenies also Keith, I am getting lazy! :wp

Great questions mates, thanks! I'll leave this open for another day or two, and then send them off to Snowbird! According to a post in the comments section over on their blog, we may be seeing some video soon!
 
Ok mates, I went through the list and narrowed down some of the questions and have sent them off to Snowbird for a reply. There are quite a few questions so it may be a while before we hear back from them. As soon as I do, I will post their response! Thanks again for all the great questions! :onya
 
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