Greg Black Interviewed About Patch 1.05

[Sonic 296]

GameReplays.org have posted an interview they had with Greg Black. For those who don't know who Greg Black is, he is EA's balance designer for Command & Conquer 3. GameReplays.org asked him many questions about himself, the upcoming 1.05 patch for Command & Conquer 3, and what goes into creating such big patch. Here is a sample.....

 

Gamereplays.org: Some members of the C&C community have argued that C&C3's fundamental gameplay was simplified to allow the port to the Xbox 360 and that it lacks the depth of previous C&C games because of this. Do you think this is a valid complaint or are players confusing the current balance problems for a lack of gameplay depth?

 

Greg Black: I can assure you that there was no intentional watering down of C&C3 for the console version; I wouldn’t stand for it to be honest. C&C is and has always been primarily a PC game, and that’s the platform we designed for. As for the question of C&C3’s depth vs. that of previous games, I think that C&C3’s depth actually exceeds that of most previous command and conquer games, with the possible exception of the Generals games. My hope is this will become more apparent with the 1.05 patch.

 

Gamereplays.org: Do you sometimes find yourself needing to make balance changes that go contrary to the game's design intent? Or can you always find a happy solution to every balance problem without sacrificing the way the game was meant to feel? In other words, where does design end and balance begin?

 

Greg Black: This is a tricky question. There are times where the design of units, abilities, or game systems seems to contradict good balance principles. Generally we’re able to identify these types of problems in the paper design phase and redesign accordingly. When we catch these types of problems late in the development cycle it’s usually rectified with a compromise solution between the lead designer and I. Ultimately I feel that balance should trump design intent, but I don’t always win that fight.

Check out the rest of this interview right here.

[Luk3us 63]

Yeah, I want the patch like now...