April 08, 2005 - Mars is the father of Rome's legendary twin founders, Romulus and Remus. For this reason, the people of that great city feel a special affinity for him. The son of Jupiter and Juno, he is mighty in battle and handsome of visage, but also callous, brutal and cruel. His brother, Vulcan, was cast out of Olympus as a child because of his ugliness. However, he set up a forge beneath the volcanic Mount Etna, where his incomparable skills as a metalworker and craftsman eventually led to a reconciliation. He is the creator of his father's devastating thunderbolts, Apollo's sun-chariot and many other wonders. His wife is Venus, goddess of love, beauty and desire. She resents her spouse for being as unsightly as she is fair, and has had numerous affairs, including a series of dalliances with her brother in law.

Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising is Perpetual Entertainment's persistent state offering in which these and other deities, a total of 12 grouped into triads, will play central roles by appearing in the game to provide quests, support and great powers to those who align with them. Players will be heroes of the Republic around 300 BC, a period when it is growing but still faces threats from the likes of the Carthaginians, Gauls, Samnites, Greeks, Etruscans and Sabines. The game will also integrate other dangers such as creatures drawn from myths and legends; a few examples are gigantic Cyclopes, snake-haired Gorgons, mighty Minotaurs, cannibalistic Laestrygones, Volta wolf-men and fire-breathing Chimeras. Since an initial glimpse in early March when the title was announced, we've definitely been eager to know more, so it was great to question two of the project's principals.

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Jonric: To get started on an introductory note, what is the underlying premise for Gods and Heroes?

Lead Designer Stieg Hedlund: Gods and Heroes is a world based on the history and mythology of Rome around 300 BC. The gods and creatures of myth are very real and alive, as are the many gods and spirits of the world. Rome is just carving out its niche in the Mediterranean, and is not yet the ancient superpower it later became. The Italic peninsula is very different from the modern one - wilder and less domesticated, and populated with warlike tribes, and fearsome beasts.

each player has a level spanning epic quest path that is also a primary driver of story and character development.

Jonric: How did you arrive at the game's highly unusual concept of squad-based play, and how many soldiers will a player be able to command?

Executive Producer Chris McKibbin: From the start, we all really liked the idea of bringing squad-based combat into an MMO. We all played games like Dungeon Siege and Warcraft III - both of which show different ways of thinking about using squads as a primary game mechanism. In Gods and Heroes, heroes will be able to command squads - planning squad strategies and giving squad orders. Players do not "jump into the skin" of their soldiers - they lead through the abilities and actions of their hero characters.

Early on, we focused on two goals. One was to allow players to build pretty balanced squads that will make solo play more interesting and capable. The other was to give groups of two to six players the ability to make specialized squads, command small "armies" of, in this case, 18 to 54 characters, and have larger-scale action than traditional online games. Currently, we plan for squads to be as large as eight soldiers that a player acquires over time, although this will be something we tune a lot. Squad play is only one aspect of the game, but we think that it offers an interesting variety of gameplay elements compared to other MMOs.

And finally, squad-based combat first just made sense in the fiction. Mythological heroes often led groups on their adventures, and all the races from the past fought in organized groups.

Jonric: How much of a story element should players expect to experience within the game, and what will drive it?

Chris McKibbin: Gods and Heroes is set around 300 BC. Rome was a young republic at this time, surround by lots of enemies that were also developed and pretty powerful. In the gameworld, the gods and monsters from mythology are very alive and very powerful - just like the Roman's believed at the time. The overall story is pretty well known; Rome is an aggressive, expansion-minded republic pushing to take over all the territory it can. It is also vulnerable to attack on all sides. Clashes happen often.

At the same time, the gods have their own agendas, which they play out through interaction with humans. The gods are a large source of story and quests. At the player level, each player will respond to quests presented by Rome and her citizens as well as the gods. Additionally, each player has a level spanning epic quest path that is also a primary driver of story and character development.

Jonric: Will gameworld include many different environments? How much will be instanced vs. persistent space, and how much of the latter will there be at launch?

Chris McKibbin: There are a variety of areas with distinct attitudes and environments, populated with interesting objects, towns, enemies and NPCs. Currently, we are not giving a final persistent map size, but it will be in the range of 50 to 75 square kilometers. A lot of gameplay in Gods and Heroes will take place in Dynamic Zones - both zones rooted in the territories and always available, and zones that are spawned specifically for quests or challenges.