Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends Q&A - More on the Cuotl, Neutral Nations, and Giant Leviathans
Big Huge Games' Paul Stephanouk tells us more about the mysterious Cuotl nation, and gives up more details regarding the game.
When Microsoft and Big Huge Games revealed the third and final nation in Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends earlier this year, it raised as many questions as it answered. The new faction is the Cuotl, a mysterious nation that is ruled by alien "gods" who crashed to the surface of the planet of Aio ages ago. While the Vinci and Alin nations are defined by technology or magic, the Cuotl have technology so advanced that it's almost magical. Obviously, this makes you wonder how the other nations will be able to deal with such advanced technology. To get the details, we checked in with Big Huge Games' Paul Stephanouk, the design lead for the single-player campaign.
GameSpot: The Cuotl are the major new revelation recently, so we're obviously curious about them. We know that they're the survivors of a wrecked alien spacecraft, but what else can you tell us about them? What kind of role do they play in the game's story?
Paul Stephanouk: First of all, I should clarify a point. The Cuotl people are indigenous to Aio. They are the ancestors of a civilization that existed prior to the arrival of the "gods." These Cuotl gods are from another planet and possess a number of advanced technologies. These visitors have subverted Cuotl religion to serve a number of purposes, not the least of which is maintaining control over an entire civilization of people.
But to answer your question, the Cuotl have two roles. First, the arrival of the "gods" long ago was a catalyst that influenced the modern form of more than one culture on Aio. Second, their near-term goals have set a chain of events in motion that send our main character, a young Vinci inventor, on a hero's journey across Aio.
GS: Now, the Vinci are influenced by Leonardo da Vinci's drawings and schematics, while the Alin are based on the Arabian Nights stories. Why did you go with a Mayan-style theme for the Cuotl?
PS: The premise of alien visitors influencing the development of human culture has been around for some time. Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods, published in 1968, became a very popular and controversial book by speculating on how space travelers influenced the formation of several ancient civilizations. The Mayans are among his key examples.
On top of all this, the Mayans were just damn interesting. They had all sorts of amazing technology for their time period, such as a base-20 numbering system, their extremely accurate calendar, advanced architecture, and a civic system allowing population densities that rivaled modern cities. OK, so that last one didn't work out quite as well as the others, but you get my point.
Finally, talking about aliens-as-gods without acknowledging Stargate SG-1 would be like having a game with orcs and elves and overlooking Tolkien as an influence. Our premise and their premise are different, but both are von Däniken mythologies and Stargate is a wildly popular show, so how can it not be an influence? It's no secret that several members of the Big Huge Games team, included myself, are huge fans of both the movie and the TV series. I'd also like to give some credit to the late-1970's TV show Project U.F.O.. Does anybody else still remember it? I loved it and can still recite part of the opening.
GS: The entire point of the Cuotl is that they're aliens who have technology so advanced that it's almost magical. Given that's the case, what's to prevent them from simply wiping out the other factions? What sort of limits are put on them?
PS: At a macro level there are only a handful of them and they don't have full access to all of their technology at the moment. The ship did crash after all. It's not like Marshall, Will, and Holly ended up ruling the Land of the Lost just because they brought some modern trinkets to an ancient era.
Practically, the problem is power. Their technology requires a lot of it and they just don't have the means to use their technology in a totally unlimited fashion, at least not yet. In gameplay terms this means their units are individually more powerful but they have fewer and they are generally more expensive.
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- Microsoft Game Studios
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- Release: May 9, 2006
- ESRB: Teen
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