Total War: Warhammer – Interview With Richard Aldridge

During my visit at Paris Games Week, I've had the chance to speak with Richard Aldridge (Games Designer at The Creative Assembly) about Total War: Warhammer, the strategy game set for release on April 28, 2016.

The interview has been recorded and you can check it below, but it was conducted in a room located in the public showfloor, where dozens of thousands of gamers were roaming at that time. As such, it's quite noisy and you might want to read the transcription first. Enjoy!

• First of all, I have to ask about the Chaos Warriors controversy – did you expect this kind of feedback as a studio and overall, how did you take it?
• So, we're taking it very seriously. We understand that people expect Chaos to be in the game and Chaos will be in the game, regardless of whether you prepurchased the DLC or not. Without giving away too much, they're kind of the "baddies" of the game so they will feature.
  If you do decide to prepurchase or maybe buy the DLC later on, that means you get additional playable legendary lords and additional units. So yeah, Chaos will be in the game, as it should be.

 

• You've said that Empire, Dwarves, Greenskins and Vampire Counts are the "core factions" in Total War: Warhammer. Does this mean that they are more fleshed out than Chaos Warriors? What's the difference?
• Chaos Warriors still got a very strong roster of units. All the factions have a sizeable roster, in fact; what we're showing today at Paris Games Week of Dwarves and Greenskins, that's just a small amount of what will be in the full game.

 

• Will the encyclopedia of the game require Internet connection to access?
• I believe so. There will be an encyclopedia to inform you about the different units, the different races. We understand that not everyone is a Warhammer player and some folks interested in the game might just be fantasy or Total War fans, so the encyclopedia will be there to help you. We also have the quests of the legendary lords, each lord has one; they're optional, but it brings out the narrative and history of those characters and their races.

 

• Will there be mercenaries in Total War: Warhammer?
• So, this is one of the campaign features that we'll be announcing shortly and information on that will come in the next few weeks or months.

 

• The players would like to know if it's possible to play two Lords from the same faction in the co-op campaign, like Karl Franz and Balthasar Gelt.
• I think it's fair to assume that. Each one of those lords offers something slightly different, each will have his own strengths and weakness to use in single player or working with friends.

 

• Will there be a hotseat campaign in Total War: Warhammer?
• Campaign features like that are going to be discussed in the coming months.

 

• Will it be possible for Dwarves to trade with Vampire Counts?
• All the features you've come to expect from Total War titles such as diplomacy, trade, economy, technologies, they'll all be there in some shape or form. Some races are more suited for certain things, such as Orcs. They're not much of a diplomatic race, to work together they have the system of WAAGH where the Orc warlords are essentially trying to bring out Orcs and Goblins from the Badlands and form a big WAAGH to go rampaging around. Whereas the Empire is all about taking the Elector Counts from the different regions and trying to get them to work together.

 

• Would you say the game focuses less or more on siege/city battles when compared to Rome II Total War?
• Well, there will be siege battles, city battles and underway battles. We've got lots of different locations; we also have quest battles in Total War: Warhammer, but yes, there will be a number of sieges.

 

• Will Total War: Warhammer have a proper storyline or will it be more sandbox-like?
• That's the great thing, it's both. We do have a storyline for you to be involved with, we have the quests, you don't have to complete them but if you do you'll get items like Ghal Maraz, and if you're successful you can equip Karl Franz with it.

 

• So is there an actual ending, for instance while playing with Karl Franz?
• Yeah, if you keep playing you'll get deeper and deeper into the Chaos that starts seeping and eventually there will be an endgame, but I don't want to spoil that for you!

 

• What can you tell us today about the multiplayer part of the game?
• Multiplayer will feature as in the previous Total War titles. There will be elements of battle and campaign.

 

• Can you talk a little bit about the lack of modding support?
• Well, we're working with this IP and we want to be authentic and we need to respect it. There will be a number of DLCs and free DLCs for the community, adding content to the game over time,
  An example of the free ones is Wurrzag, a legendary lord for the Greenskin and everyone will get him for free. He obviously has his own quest to go on, a background story, something exciting for you to play with.

 

• Will it be possible for players to alter units stats by modifying files?
• Like I said, we don't support modding. We're trying to balance out races to make it a fun experience and each race will actually feel different from the next one, both in terms of campaign experience and battle experience.

 

• Will you support DirectX 12 at some point for Total War: Warhammer?
• DirectX 12 is definitely something we're interested in looking at. I think more information will come at a later date, but we're always looking for new technologies, harnessing that power and bringing it into the game.

 

• Thank you for your time.

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