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Is there a "skirmish" mode?

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jecjackal said:
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/impire/881/preview.html

The last paragraph mentions skirmish.
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Thanks! It's an old preview but hopefully that remains true. I also saw this mentioned:

To keep things interesting, Impire features two distinct factions, one more traditional, and the other undead themed. Both have different looks and play styles, with unique buildings and traits now found in the other faction.
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Is that still the case? The store page mentions nothing about it.
 
Impire DOES in fact contain two different factions for you to play. There is also a skirmish mode for 2-4 players. (You can't play the skirmish mode solo as the single player AI was made to handle the story campaign and not centered around building opposing dungeons. We wanted a more specific "crafted story" feel to the campaign, which is something you don't see these days when procedural generated content is common, so that's where the focus was. (Not that there's anything wrong with procedurally generated content- Impire just works better as a hand-crafted experience where every level is unique.)
 
Thanks for the additional information, Joe.

If Impire does well I would be very interested in purchasing a DLC that contains skirmish AI! I play a lot of MP but it's typically coop. Having skirmish AI will add replay value for my friends and I once the campaign is beaten.
 
goodgimp said:
Thanks for the additional information, Joe.

If Impire does well I would be very interested in purchasing a DLC that contains skirmish AI! I play a lot of MP but it's typically coop. Having skirmish AI will add replay value for my friends and I once the campaign is beaten.
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Well, skirmish AI is something that should be in full game. I can be content with the later update adition after release, but DLC?!!!! Horse armor DLC on you!
 
goodgimp said:
Thanks for the additional information, Joe.

If Impire does well I would be very interested in purchasing a DLC that contains skirmish AI! I play a lot of MP but it's typically coop. Having skirmish AI will add replay value for my friends and I once the campaign is beaten.
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Yep, me too. Definitely interested in a skirmish AI. I'm sure I'll like the campaign though. Is the campaign designed to be replayable, or is it a one time and you've seen it all experience?
 
Considering how little interest I have in multiplayer, I suppose my ROI will be about $1 / hour of the campaign. I would still have preordered as it appears to be fun, but I wish I had realized that there was no single player game as most RTS contain.
 
Colombo said:
Well, skirmish AI is something that should be in full game. I can be content with the later update adition after release, but DLC?!!!! Horse armor DLC on you!
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It's a $20 game so my expectations are set accordingly. If this were a big budget $60 title like Starcraft II and it wasn't shipping with skirmish AI it'd be another story altogether! Expanding AI from knowing how to play a scripted campaign to being able to free-form create dungeons in a competitive way is a large undertaking, which is why I wouldn't mind paying for it if it's an included feature in a DLC content pack or expansion.
 
goodgimp said:
It's a $20 game so my expectations are set accordingly. If this were a big budget $60 title like Starcraft II and it wasn't shipping with skirmish AI it'd be another story altogether! Expanding AI from knowing how to play a scripted campaign to being able to free-form create dungeons in a competitive way is a large undertaking, which is why I wouldn't mind paying for it if it's an included feature in a DLC content pack or expansion.
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As a game maker you always want to include everything possible in a game to make it as good as it can be. At the same time, you have to work within the scope of your budget. One of the things I'm really proud of with Impire is how much we actually managed to cram in there. We're nipping at the heels of games that cost LOTS and lots more to make, with much larger teams. Somehow we even managed to get AAA voice talent in there- people that act in mega-budget titles that sell millions. I've explained a lot that the Cyanide team working on Impire in Montreal is completely new and that this is their first game together, and after this I'm really looking forward to seeing what they can do next. A huge budget isn't always to your benefit either- there can be a tendency to feature creep if that little voice in the back of your head says "just throw some more money at it". There's this friend of mine in the industry that is fond of saying "You have to respect people in this industry that can actually dig in and deliver content." and I firmly agree.

Oh, and yes... there IS incentive to replaying the campaign for a few different reasons- customizing Baal, branching story... things like that.
 
JoeF: I think that with CK2, Paradox has found realy nice strategy with DLC. Features in free patches and EXTRA content for those, who pays extra. I think, that this is quite honest way of doing that.
So, I do stlll think that if I buy Impire (and I am realy looking to it, but I have quite specific taste and I am realy scrooge too), I should get skirmish AI where skirmish is possible and I should get the promised multiplayer (and cooperative multiplayer). I can be content if it wouldn't be right after release and thus will be in better quality, as you said, Impire is rather cheap (though from what I have read, Cyanide has little problem with finish up interesting concept they tried and looked realy promising, still Chaos league was realy nice game with great humor).
But if Paradox would extend their honest policy to this game as well, happy players would gladly throw more moneys for extra features they don't realy need. And if would be the game of my taste (as Dungeons wasn't) and the strategic map looked like realy good concept (eg. going of dungeons to loot and pillage, destroy kingdoms and be the Horde, Scourge of living, something I wanted to do in DK), I would me likely to throw extra moneys too (and more if I would think I got something extra and something free or as gift)


Argh, I again forgot why I was writting this.

Short: Skirmish should be in game as part of full game, not as DLC. Can be free DLC-patche content as in CK2 (realy good concept there). New features->happy players->more likely to buy DLC (as I usually bought game when Paradox Newsettler send me game for free).
(It would be still interesting if the honest policy bring more money than the dishonest one, selling numbers etc. as it is too good to be true)
 
I just wonder how long the campaign is? if its only like 10 hours, ehh then It is not worth it for me alteast.
And just a simple question are you planning on making a skirmish mode/AI in the near future?

On the other hand I am thinking screw it! It has been way too long when a game was released where you could be evil!
I think I am going to take my chances and just buy impire right on release!
 
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The campaign should take the average player 20+ hours to complete on medium difficulty, NOT counting replays if you want to try the alternate branch of the story. It it quite long.

While the game does have very robust multiplayer, it IS heavily focused on single player. Coding a skirmish AI that plays like a human player building his or her own dungeon is not something that is done in a week or two- it's a fairly large undertaking. I'd love to have a skirmish AI in there too and if this game had a budget the size of certain AAA titles (together with a AAA price tag) I'm sure it would be included, but as I've said before, if you want to bring the oven and the refrigerator, sometimes you just have to leave the kitchen sink behind and see if you can come back for it later. I can't say exactly what the future holds for the game yet beyond that we will do our best to support and expand it it as long as the player base supports it. We'll certainly be listening to what everyone wants to see once the game is out there. Just a few hours away now!
 
yesexcellent then let my evil reign begin! mwoehahahaha.
But It is totaly understandable with the budget for the game no arguing about. Hell I would even pay for skirmish AI and some other DLC with it.
I guess it is up to the players right now, So people lets make it possible so that Impire can get that kitchen sink!
 
A good skirmish AI would be awsome.
I also think that a small studio should get extra money for the work of an AI. I know how hard it is to build one, we tried that in the university.
But I don't think that it would be a good idea to sell the AI as a DLC.

I would say the AI should be part of a DLC which improves the game. For example a DLC with much more ways to build and manage our dungeon plus the AI for 10 bucks or something like this.

If something like this would happen, I would exactly do what I did with the game: I would preOrder the shit out of it! :D
 
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