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Colony of Gamers has posted a new interview with a Basilisk Games representative about the company's upcoming Eschalon: Book II, the second title in the old school inspired RPG. The interview touches on a variety of topics including Book I's sales, new features in Book II, and the company's upcoming sci-fi based game.

When released Eschalon: Book II will feature a new 1024x768 default resolution, gender selectable characters, changing weather that can impact gameplay, new skills, new challenges, new goals, and a larger game world.

2. Eschalon: Book 1, your first game, has been out for just over a year now. How do you feel the reception of that game has been?
We are really happy with the reception of Book I. To be honest, we set our original sales estimates low because we wanted to be realistic about how a game like this could perform in a marketplace dominated by MMOs and Action RPGs. We ended up beating those original sales estimates which is incredibly thrilling for us, but I always feel that I need to put a realistic spin on our success for others who have dreams of following our lead- Book I has sold well for a first time independent title, but our sales are not even a fraction of what a game like Fallout 3 has seen. The only thing saving us from failure is that we have a very small studio with very little overhead, so we've been able to survive. If we were larger and had 3-4 salaries to support, we would have closed our doors by now. It is incredibly important for a small studio to get every single sale we can.

8. How have you changed combat to make it a bit more strategic?
We have added a few options which increase the tactical aspect of combat. For starters, there is now a "Combat Mode" selector that switches between four styles: Normal, Power, Finesse, and Parry. For example, selecting Power mode allows your character to use extra force while attacking with a weapon to incur 20% more damage, but at a -20% ToHit penalty. The opposite is true when using Finesse mode, where you gain 20% more ToHit accuracy at a cost of 20% less damage. The third mode is Parry. While in Parry mode, all the skill points you possess in the weapon that you are holding are applied to your Armor Rating- so if you have a sword skill of 10, these 10 points are added to your Armor Rating. However, this defensive posturing has a penalizing effect on your ability to attack, as both your ToHit and your maximum damage are reduced by 20%.

9. There were two major complaints for the first game, length and speed of walking, have these been addressed in book 2?
Yes, we've increased the walking speed by about 20%. This gives the character a quicker stride and allows you to cover more ground in less time. Also, we've added more QuickTravel points so that once you've reached specific destinations, you can add that location to your QuickTravel menu and instantly return with the click of your mouse.
As for the length of the game- Book II's regional areas and dungeons are larger than its predecessor, and we've extended the limit of your character's development out to level 30 (Book I has a level cap of 21). Our goal is to make Book II about 15 to 20 hours longer than Book I.

11. After Eschalon: book 2, what is the plans for Basilisk Games?
Of course we are going to be focusing on wrapping up the trilogy with Book III, but we will also be revealing our next game outside the Eschalon universe. More info on this will be revealed later this year, but we can say it will use a completely new engine and it will be sci-fi based, not fantasy. We will be developing both titles simultaneously, though it's far to early to say which game we are likely to finish first.
I can also say we have no plans to use the Eschalon Isometric engine beyond these three games. Along with Book III, we hope to release many of the in-house tools we used on the trilogy so that others can make their own adventures for many more years.

Colony Of Gamers: Basilisk Interview

Basilisk Games

Eschalon: Book II

Buy Eschalon: Book II

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