George Chrysochoos: The biggest franchises of PI are Hearts of Iron and the Europa Universalis series
Johan Andersson: Yes, these are probably our most popular games.
GC: There was a lot of criticism with respect to Hearts of iron 3, especially with its supply system
JA: It seems that some people do not want to have logistics. Most players that understand the logistics concept believe that it’s great but there’s a lack of understanding from a significant number of people, attributing issues to bugs or lack of unit supplies. What we’re doing for Semper Fi for those players that do not want to deal with the logistics layer of the game, we have what we call ‘Arcade Mode’. In Arcade mode, a player does not have to worry about supplies and fuel being transported to formations across the map. As long as you produce enough in your country for your troops, it will be enough.
GC: A simplified system
JA: Yes
GC: Besides the logistics Arcade Mode, are there any big changes from HoI 3?
JA: The biggest improvement in Semper Fi besides the Arcade Mode is AI. We’ve made it to fight better, plan for tactical withdrawals, in-depth defence, better invasions as well as use of paratroopers. In addition, a substantial number of interface changes will make Semper Fi easier to play like graphical interface for orders of battle (OOB) organisation charts. There will be a representation of a unit’s hierarchical structure.
Moreover, the player will be able to select a number of victory conditions as well as player performance in achieving certain milestones affect overall gameplay, even the possibility to have historical battles should certain events or player actions have been taken.
GC: Will naval and air units have their own organisation structure such as HQ’s in Semper Fi or still attached to land formations?
JA: There will be still under Theater Command because they have to co-operate with land forces so it makes sense to keep them there, as assets to a given land formation. You want your air force to co-operate with ground forces, not independent.
GC: What about system requirements for Semper Fi? Any changes from those of Hearts of Iron 3?
JA: They will be the same.
GC: After the dust has settled with Semper Fi, are there any plans for a modern grand scale strategy title? There was an attempt with the ambitious Supreme Ruler 2020.
JA: It could be cool to do something modern, do something different. Some game starting from present day perhaps. It’s different.
Inside the belly of the beast
GC: Moving on to Victoria 2, is it going to be under PI’s Clausewitz engine or something different?
JA: It will be Clausewitz as it’s more powerful and can handle games better than our previous engines.
GC: What are the main changes in Victoria 2 with respect to Victoria?
JA: There are not going to be any revolutionary changes with Victoria 2 in the manner of Hearts of Iron 3 to Hearts of Iron 2. It’s more like an array of tweaked features from Victoria. One of the main differences is the Politics system. It will get a lot more ‘feel’ where things really matter such as trends. Not a simple hard-coded chain of events in given dates during playing. Politics will play an integral part of overall gameplay.
In addition, the economy system is now more or less a ‘proper’ economy system where income does not pop up magically but it’s a system easier to grasp and logical, because money does not appear out of thin air.
GC: System Requirements for Victoria 2?
JA: Compared with Hearts of Iron 3, they are going to be lower so in essence if you can run HoI 3 you can run Victoria.
GC: Any plans for an EU3 expansion?
JA: Not at the moment. We’re focusing on our current projects.
GC: Paradox has broken into the consoles market, especially with Lead & Gold. Are there any plans to capitalize on this and take it further?
JA: I’m not sure, we’ll see what happens. There are always things you can do on consoles but we would have to solve some interface issues first.
GC: E3 is just around the corner. Can we expect something big announced from Paradox?
JA: Not really. We’ll show our current line-up. However, if there’s something worth announcing, we’ll do that.
Crazy George
