Ask Sandy XVI

Article written by Sandy Petersen
Published on 04-20-2000
Tags: , ,

Q) Will there be jellyfish in AOK:TC?

A) Deathshrimp is the current design
lead on AoK:TC, so if there aren’t jellyfish, he’s to
blame. I did everything I could to get them in.

Q) don’t you think that the tetus are
overpowered in the x-pac?

A) of course not.

Q) who has better arbs? Briton or new archer
civ?

A) Briton

Q) who has better cavalry? Franks or new cav
civ?

A) Franks

Q) who has more tech? Byzantines or new
generalist civ?

A) Haven’t counted.

Q) who has better cav. archers? Mongols or
new cav archer civ?

A) Mongols.

Q) what does the new infantry civ get?

A) increased attack.

Q) Has your team at ES thought about adding
more castles to AOK?

A) No.

Q) How did your team envision the Keep being
used in AOK?

A) We thought that at certain times
players might want to have extra strong towers. Not every game,
though.

Q) How many regular military (not produced in
castle) units will be added?

A) Four or so.

Q) You guys are in the final tweaking and
stuff in the Expansion pack already? Does that mean that it could
come out sooner than Fall 2000?

A) Its release date is going to be
based on MS & ES financial needs and the marketplace.

Q) will cav archers in general be improved,
or will it be improved for only few civs?

A) They are improved by means of a
couple techs, so that civs that need cav archers can get good
ones, and civs that don’t, won’t.

Q) Why do my War Elephant die to the enemies
10 pikes?

A) Because indestructible units tend
to upset game balance.

Q) Why do the AI villagers storm my tower in
his base when I have several archers guarding it?

A) Because he’s desperate. He
only does it if he has no soldiers at all.

Q) I have never seen the comp build a wonder,
why?

A) Beats me why you haven’t seen
it. I’ve seen him do it. He’ll probably do it more
often in the X-Pack.

Q) Will any of the new civs be a REAL good
water civ, better than vikings?

A) Two of the new civs are quite good
on the water. I’d hesitate to say they were better than
vikings, but they’ll certainly give vikings a run for the
money.

Q) Did any of the civs in AOK use any of the
new units?

A) Every civ in AoK gets at least one
of the new units.

Q) I’m almost the only one in school that
plays AOK, which means that I have no one to play modem games
against, what shall I do about this

A) Either evangelize the game to your
pals, play against strangers on the Zone, stick to singleplayer,
or find buddies here in the forum to play against.

Q) what will the Russian UU be?

A) I have never so much as hinted that
Russia would be in the X-Pack.

Q) Do you like calamari?

A) I love calamari.

Q) At this stage of development of the xpack,
can any civ still be added or removed?

A) No.

Q) Are you getting ready for E3?

A) We are already done getting
ready.

Q) Is it possible for a lord of the rings
compaign?

A) not unless we want to pay a REALLY
BIG royalty.

Q) Do you think the Goths are weak?

A) The Goths are just the way we like
them. We knew they would never be one of the most popular civs,
but we also knew that some people would really really like them.
We wanted the Goths to be controversial, and they are.

Q) Do you think it would be a good idea for
MS to market AOK as not only entertainment software, but as a
teaching tool as well?

A) Please. Let us stick to
entertainment.

Q) Are the civs/civ in the “new region” one
of the conquered or conquerers?

A) can’t they be both? I mean
there are plenty of one-time conquerors who became conquered.

Q) Don’t you think that Byzantines should
benefit in some way from trade or diplomacy?

A) Byzantium historically was
surrounded by enemies, and was not particularly trade or
diplomacy oriented. Before I get jumped on for saying this, yes
obviously Byzantium had sophisticated trade & diplomacy, but
it didn’t depend on it for survival. Take Venice as an
example – without trade, Venice would die. Byzantium
wouldn’t.

Q) For your job, do you a) just design the
game or b) also do the work (though one could hardly call it
that) of programming the game?

A) I can’t program a line of
code.

Q) Have you worked on any games other than
AoE/RoR/AoK/TC?

A) Er … yes. As far as computer
games go, I worked on Civilization, Doom, Doom 2, and Quake,
among others. Hows that?

Q) Will there be any new boats? Will there be
a new civ with a boat bonus?

A) Yes. Yes.

Q) I assume from his photograph, Greg Street
must have some problems with traditional keyboards. Maybe he is
the test person of special Microsoft ergonomic keyboards.

A) We plug a cable directly into
Greg’s brain from the computer, so he doesn’t need a
keyboard.

Q) Why almost everybody is asking about the
X-pack

A) Beats me. The “ask
sandy” wasn’t just supposed to be X-Pack stuff, but
anything at all they would like to know about ES and how we do
things.

Q) Agree or disagree: chess with a clock, and
especially blitz chess, is an RTS game.

A) Depends on how short the clock time
is.

Q) Need any programmers with extensive gaming
experience?

A) Check out our web site. All job
openings are listed there.

Q) Does the Mongol hunting bonus apply to
just Deer, or to Boars as well?

A) Both

Q) Say you tell the “smart villager” to build
a house, the house is right next to his farm. Once he completes
the house will he go back to his farm?

A) No. He’s not THAT smart.

Q) Have you heard the music for AOK:TC
yet?

A) Yes. I even own two CDs full of it.
I like it very much.

Q) For the capture the wonder game, what kid
of wonder will be there?

A) It is a randomly chosen wonder from
the 18 now in the game. I think, but am NOT certain, that it is
never a wonder of the civs participating in the game.

Q) Has Es ever though of putting AOK on
Nintendo 64?

A) We consider everything.

Q) Have YOU ever been to Canada?

A) Sure, I love Canada &
Canadians. My jab about archaic language was just about the
excess “u”s that Canadians like to add onto certain
words like humour, colour, and so forth. Actually, the only part
of Canada I’ve been to is Vancouver, but it was terrific.
Especially the rabbits.

Q) Will the diplomacy be better in SINGLE
player?

A) Way better.

Q) I hope you won’t feel unwanted when all
the AoK:TC info is revealed at E3

A) It will be a huge load off my
shoulders. Well … actually, it will probably heat up the
speculation to fever pitch. Plus everyone who didn’t get
their pet civ into the game will get all mad at me.

Q) Do you like living in Dallas?

A) I actually live in Rockwall, one of
the suburbs of Dallas. But yes I like the area. Except for the
fact that it has no mountains. (I grew up surrounded by mountains
and always miss them.)

Q) What state in the Union would you most
like to live? Which state the least?

A) At the moment, Texas. I’d
rather not say which is my least favorite, for fear of offending
forum members who come from it.

Q) Did ES feel that Hand Cannoneers were one
of the underused units that needed to be “tuned up”?

A) Yes.

Q) There was considerable talk about adding
an upgrade to the pikeman line. Was there also consideration for
an upgraded skirmisher?

A) For the skirmishers? There was some
for a while, and we actually put one into the game, but then it
was removed, because archers aren’t really that big a
threat in AoK. Adding a super archer-killer would upset more
things than it would help.

Q) what do you think about Simón
Bolivar and the South American independence war?

A) I view it as a great pity that they
weren’t able to create a united South American nation.

Q) What do you think about Union Gen. George
Brinton McClellan performance during the Civil War, specially
during the Peninsula/Seven Days campaign?

A) McClellan was excellent at
organizing an army and making it fit for battle, but he
fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the war he was
fighting, and was a big coward to boot. He actually whipped Lee
almost every time they fought, but then McClellan would freak out
and retreat, proving that he’d been beaten morally. What a
jerk. He probably prolonged the war by a year or more through his
personal problems, not to mention his egotism.

Q) When you came to Canada, did you …
Find the people more friendly(that is a widely shared view)?
Notice that we say “eh” a lot(also widely shared view)?

A) I did not find the people any
friendly than in the US. I think that this theory comes from
Americans who come from big cities (where no one is friendly) and
go to Canada (where there are few big cities). Rural and Southern
Americans are just as friendly as any Canadians I’ve ever
met. Canadians did say “eh”, though, to my amusement.
I didn’t actually expect them to.

Q) Are Queen, Pope, Cardinal units added in
the X-Pack?

A) Give us a break. MS lawyers made us
change the hats on the Janissaries. If they saw that we were able
to attack and kill the pope in the game they would all
immediately have heart attacks and die.

Q) Will there be any new heroes?

A) Yes.

Q) Is ES gonna release an official ES
strategy guide?

A) We don’t publish strategy
guides. Probably someone will, though.

Q) What’s YOUR favourite civ that didn’t make
it?

A) Philistines.

Q) Were you surprised by the success of
Doom?

A) Yes. We thought it would do okay,
but we were stunned at the magnitude of that
“okay”.

Q) Had Jubal Early’s raid on Washington
succeeded in capturing the city, do you feel it would have
dramatically altered the course of the American Civil War?

A) There are a lot of events way
likelier to have altered the course than Jubal’s Raid. Like
Antietam, Atlanta, Pea Ridge, or the Vicksburg campaign. If Jubal
had captured the city, it would have been a stunning upset to the
North, and might have brought out the peaceniks in droves,
demanding a negotiated end to the war.

Q) If you HAD to seriously **** off and
suffer the wrath of one of the following people, who would it be:
Caligula, Torquemada, Robespierre or Kenny G?

A) Robespierre. His method of
execution is quick and humane.

Q) Who is your favorite James Bond
villain?

A) Goldfinger

Q) Who is your favorite Bond girl?

A) Either Pussy Galore or Domino.

Q) will Pikemen be toned down slightly?

A) Hmm. Most folks are asking to have
them improved.

Q) How are you so cool?

A) Air conditioning.

Q) will we be able to determine if an enemy’s
ram is garrisoned or not?

A) A garrisoned ram has a flag, just
like a boat or a house.

Q) Will any civs from AoK get a new unit that
isn’t part of the Xpac added to their army?

A) No.

Q) Do you get a lion share of profit when ES
releases games or just a little?

A) ES invests its money in doing
better games, not in lining our pockets. *sigh*

Q) What did you actually do at ID when Doom
was in production?

A) Designer. I designed all the levels
in Episodes 2 & 3, and two of the levels in Episode 1. Plus I
helped design the monsters’ hit points and attacks, chose
their names, and many of the weapons used by the player.

Q) Any new colors?

A) No new player colors.

Q) Is there a game format where each person
gets a hero they have to protect depending on civ?

A) Sounds like Regicide.

Q) Are the non UU new units going to be
upgrades of other units or actual new units?

A) Both

Q) What is your favorite unit and UU unit in
AOK?

A) It’s one of the new ones.

Q) are Teutons really as powerfu; as people
say they are?

A) At the moment.

Q) Will TC have any new terrain?

A) Yes.