Matrix Games

Hello, Mark here again (Senior Producer on the game), back with the next Developer Diary for Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance, with the new “We Are Legion” DLC just a few weeks away from release. As you can imagine, we are all busy polishing the various missions, and very excited to almost be at the point where you can play the new levels.

The first diary last month answered a number of questions that some of the community posed, and this one follows up with further answers to even more questions.

So, let’s get hear some of the questions you asked.

I loved the challenge, playing as the “underdog” with T-Force, vs Legion. How will the DLC make playing Legion challenging with them being ‘realistically’ more powerful than other factions? Playing as Legion and not just relying on numbers or technical superpower
Well, there are times where you do get that feeling of ‘over whelming the humans’ with sheer numbers of forces, especially on the easier difficulty levels. Playing on the lowest difficulty level, I find that there is an element of more traditional ‘group and attack in force’ RTS tactics. This does change on the higher difficulty settings though.
But, even with a large, powerful Legion force, there are more advanced human adversaries that Legion fight against. You have probably seen from the shared playthrough of Mission 3 that there is a mission where you are attacking an Integrator camp, with their more advanced weaponry. And now, after Galveston, the Founders have more advanced weaponry (as you saw through the base game with basic vehicles being upgraded with plasma cannons and similar). So, even if you are fighting humans, their tech has been upgraded for a more difficult fight.

How will the units be transferred from mission to mission? Will there be supply factors as per the base game, or something else? What factors will influence the “Reserve” points during missions?
The player has a small core army that is taken from mission to mission in a Carrier. This can be customized and changed between missions. Alongside this, there are the research abilities and the blueprints functionality that I explained in the last dev diary.
There are also Production units that Legion will provide at given points during a battle, depending on certain criteria. These are gained from ‘energy’ that you gain from performing various mission objectives. So for example, if you capture an Integrator power center, you may be given 5000 units to purchase more Legion reinforcements during the battle.

Will the new Legion campaign be similarly linear as the base one or more open ended with different possible endgame outcomes?
The original campaign had a few branches and decisions that ultimately impacted on the final few battles, especially with the final battle at Galveston, dictating which ally forces you received.
There are less branching opportunities in “We Are Legion” when it comes to campaign choices. There are some decisions that you will make that impact the individual missions but not impact later missions.
There is still the whole new research and upgrade unit options that ultimately gives a different gameplay feel depending on your army upgrade decisions, that may have a similar impact later in the game, similar to how in the first campaign, army characters surviving (or not) had an impact later (Big Bob, Kondo, etc).

Which new things do you (devs) find most exciting in the DLC?
I am personally excited about finally answering some elements of the story that were set up in the first campaign. I read a lot (well, all) of the community discussions and it’s great seeing players questioning character motives, what discovered tech was, what are the motives of the Integrators, what the huge prototypes discovered in the game may mean. So, it’s exciting from a story point of view to be able to answer some of those questions and to build on the lore of the Dark Fate Universe.

I have a question regarding the DLC trailer. Who are Legion fighting near the Lincoln monument? Do they have anything to do with the founders in Texas? How big is the founder's faction if they fight in both Texas and Washington? Is the founders leader we know the only leader of the faction or are there others? Does the DLC take place before the main campaign or is it something like a continuation?
The forces seen in the DLC trailer are Founder units. The lore that was written for the Founders was more detailed and in depth than what was seen in the original campaign. We have a history written (that I am sure we’ll share in an upcoming diary) about how the founders came to be, where they’re based, and what their fundamental motives are. I know that their background showed that they were actually based in the North East of the US, and the Southern forces were outposts as they spread into the south. So, perhaps, we haven’t met the main force of Founders just yet!
And as for the Founder leader (Actual) that you meet in the first campaign, he isn’t the only leader. And maybe, just maybe, we may answer some questions about him in the new DLC too!

Will the Integrators be the ones to help send the super soldier (Grace in the movie) to the past?
My take on it is that the ‘Resistance’ that is starting to form from the first game is a coming together of all the factions of humanity, fighting back against Legion. And it’s likely this Resistance that ultimately sends Grace back to help Dani Ramos in the movie (a Resistance that is led in part by Dani Ramos in the movie). So I guess there is still the question, do the Integrators help within the Resistance? Well, we shall have to see.

Can a Legion tank be armed with 2 rail guns in the DLC?
The rail gun is not available to attach to a Legion tank in the DLC. Sorry.

Are we going to see Balzano in the new DLC? I would like to know more about the misadventures of that character.
There are returning characters from the first campaign in the new “We Are Legion” DLC. I can confirm though, that Balzano, unfortunately, is not one of them. 

How do you approach exploring Legion as a Character?
This was one of the most challenging parts of the new story, peeking behind the curtain of the ‘Big Bad’. Legion is written to be very logical, methodical, machine-like. However, we did think that a whole campaign playing as that logical entity may not be as exciting as it could be, so, as I mentioned in the earlier diary, we have introduced some human element to the story. As well as not always playing as the Legion Command core, but elements of it, so there is more of a ‘dialogue’ available. I’d like to say more, but, you know, spoilers…

Well, we are close to the release and so you will hopefully be playing “We Are Legion” very soon. As I mentioned before, I am always reading comments and feedback on the official discord channel, and will always try to answer your questions where I can. So please do join us there. Until the next time.