In our interview with lead designer Bruno Parenteau for Mordheim: City of the Damned, we learn developer Rogue Factor is keeping the video game true to the ‘hardcore’ nature of the Warhammer tabletop game.
Unit initiative values decide the specific order units can move, unlike the board game which plays a Warband all at once. We’ll also have to keep an eye on our characters’ limbs.
If an arm gets lobbed off then their dual-wielding days are over. Bruno Parenteau tells us this is a ”hardcore city and a hardcore game,” with the Iron Man play style the norm.
In Mordheim: City of the Damned factions compete to harvest a precious resource that arrived by comet - wyrdstones, made of pure Chaos energy. These we aim to collect to trade for increased reputation which allows us to level up our forces. Rogue Factor are also staying true to Warhammer lore by having the Chaos react unpredictably.
”So on the tabletop game, players would play their entire warband at once, and then the enemy would do so. We decided to move away from that, so every unit has an initiative value, and based on how you build your unit and your equipment, you’ll play your units in a specific order,” lead designer Parenteau explained to us.
”So it will alternate between you and the enemies, and it will go on until the turn ends.” They don’t want to reveal any specifics about the campaign at this time, which has fixed maps so the team can completely control events, but they do reveal four factions are present: human mercs from the Empire, the Skaven, the Sisters of Sigmar, which are exclusive to Mordheim, and the Cult of the Possessed. Any others remain tightly under wraps for now.
Other maps in Mordheim are procedurally generated to keep things random and unpredictable. ”In multiplayer, if you’re the type who wants to know every inch of the map, you can use those campaign maps that are always identical, but if you want more of a challenge you can play with procedural map and you’ll never know how the layout will turn out,” he added.
”Mordheim is a pretty hardcore place, so if your character dies in battle, he’s gone. How this works is in battle your character will become out of action and won’t be able to fight, and after the battle you’ll find out how bad the wound is. So he might not die, but he could end of with one arm chopped off. He can still fight, but he’s not going to be able to dual-wielding, no more shields and so on. So injuries will have a big impact on the game. This is a hardcore city and a hardcore game. It will affect the development of your warband, and this is true for the campaign and multiplayer too.”
Mordheim: City of the Damned releases on PC this year. Check out our interview with lead designer Bruno Parenteau.
