Jonric: We concluded the initial segment of this interview by looking at the game's style of combat, which is fast-paced with considerable player involvement. How did you arrive at this system?

Rick Hall: Coming up with this particular system was quite a process of evolution. If you'd seen our original design ideas, you might not even recognize the combat system in its present form. We began with a prototype, built it, and then actually tried playing it. We found some ideas that worked well, and some others we felt we had to discard for various reasons.

Over the course of time, we built, rebuilt, modified and refined nearly every aspect of the combat system. We've held focus group and internal tests, taken player feedback based on our descriptions, and a myriad of other steps to try to ensure that we achieve our stated goal of solid interactivity in combat. It's a long, slow process, but the end result is something that gives a player a lot of choices and flexibility in a fight.