Csim: We’ve heard gameplay in Fighter Squadron is squadron based. What does this mean and what will it look like in multiplayer mode?

Parsoft: In both single player and multiplayer mode, you can play any of the scenarios from each of the three sides in the game—the Germans, the Americans and the British. What this means is that if you are the British on a bombing mission, you will be flying an Avro Lancaster bomber on a bombing mission. To win the mission, you will need to bomb one or more primary air bases. If you are the Americans, you might fly the same mission as combat air support for the British bombers. Completing the mission successfully from this side will mean getting the bombers in and out safely. If you play the mission as the Germans, you will have to defend the base from attack to be successful in the mission.

The game also features an "Open Seat", where you can transfer at any time from the pilot seats to the gunners seat to the bombardier’s seat. Also, at any time during the scenario you can also transfer to another plane within your squadron.

The inside view of the B-17. Click for a larger image.

Csim: Tell us a little more about the campaign itself. Is it dynamic? What will this mean for gameplay?

Parsoft: We don’t have dynamic campaigns, since as we just discussed we don’t have a "campaign" in the traditional sense. Instead, we have the ability to play each of the 30 scenarios from any one of three sides, as any one of the squadrons from that side. You can follow a particular squadron from scenario to scenario, but it’s really up to the pilot. We do give people the ability to create a series of sequential missions in the mission editor that may be similar to (or entirely different!) than the missions that we ship with.

Csim: "Situational awareness" has become a very big issue in today's sims. Different companies are trying various ways to help players create a mental and visual picture of the vast sky battle on a small monitor. How will this be handled in FS:SDOE?

Parsoft: First, the cockpit in Fighter Squadron is rotatable a full 360 degrees, one degree at a time. What this means is no more "canned" views of the cockpit, where you have to look either forward, or left, or back. Instead, you can position the camera anywhere inside or outside the aircraft. Of course, we’ll have snap views for those who want it as well.

Also, one great feature of A-10 was the ability to have views that tracked the enemy aircraft to monitor how the AI was doing. Here, you will be able to track AI opponents and real players both in the scenarios.

Finally, we will have an optional overlay feature that will give you intelligence about the other aircraft in the game. The overlays will provide mission objectives, enemy locations, target status and other details. For the hardcore player, these modes are disabled, of course.

Csim: One of the interesting developments in artificial intelligence we have seen at E3 is the "Virtual Pilot" - where instead of AI controlling the aircraft simply by positioning the entire aircraft according to a set pattern or turn radius, the game models what the pilot of the aircraft is actually doing on the controls and puts his plane through the same physics modeling as the player's aircraft. Tell us a bit about how enemy AI will be handled. Can we expect Virtual Pilots or something similar in FS:SDOE?

Parsoft: The essence of any good AI system is the formulation of an extensive, yet finite set of rules which determine the actions and capabilities of an aircraft (or any other vehicle) in any given situation. The ultimate behavior of combatants in the game is only as convincing as these rules allow. The greatest achievement is when a player cannot differentiate between aircraft which are controlled by the AI and those flown by humans. This doesn’t necessarily mean developing an AI system that makes everything function perfectly. In fact, to simulate the decisions and actions a human might make, its necessary to make sure that there is scope for non-perfect behavior. We achieve this in 2 ways.

(i) We have defined a set of modifiers which factor the choices the AI must make in any situation. These modifiers are sanity, loyalty, aggression, skill and morale. These can be different for every combatant in the game. It is therefore possible to have a squadron of killer aces flying against another squadron of bumbling bozos. The same AI is used, but the choices they make will be different. For example, when an enemy comes into range, a plane with high aggression and high morale will attack. Another plane with low aggression and low morale would flee. All the other factors would similarly affect the engagement.

(ii) The AI actually interacts with vehicles in the same way any human would and all maneuvers therefore require control inputs for anything to happen. All vehicles are subject to the same physics, etc. In this way, if an aircraft is damaged, the AI pilot struggles just as hard to keep the aircraft under control as any human pilot would.

This philosophy, where the same underlying AI is implemented for all vehicles in the whole game, results in what we have termed the ‘live environment’. Even if you don’t get into the action, there is a whole world going on around you. In answer to your question though, we feel that we already have a similar technology which will really give players a convincing impression that this world is humming with activity.

Csim: The flight modeling in A10 Cuba! was state-of-the-art. Fighter Squadron has been advertised as featuring "a ground-breaking simulator engine based on the most accurate inertia, gravity and force calculations to date." Tell us more.

Parsoft: As mentioned earlier, the days of relatively inaccurate integer mathematics are gone. Since we are using floating point mathematics, the physics and simulation engine are much better.

Csim: Given this level of complexity, how will Fighter Squadron deal with entry level pilots?

Parsoft: The game currently features three distinct play modes: Arcade, Normal and Expert. Arcade features a relaxed flight model, which newer players should be able to grasp and play quickly. Arcade mode also offers the ability to turn off certain damage features. Normal mode features a full flight model, and fully accurate damage, but leaves on the ability to select overlays to help the player identify targets and threats. Expert mode disables the overlay menu system entirely—the player is on his own with this one!

Currently we have this list of aircraft: •American: P-38J Lightning •P-51D Mustang •B-17 Flying Fortress •British: DeHavilland Mosquito •Hawker Typhoon •Avro Lancaster •German: ME-262 •FW-190 •JU-88 Heavy Bomber

Csim: Is this final or will more be added?

Parsoft: This is the final list of aircraft, not including the OpenPlane™ module that users can build and trade amongst themselves. We also plan to do a mission pack which will feature new planes and a new geographic region.

Csim: Will we see wind and weather modeling in Fighter Squadron?

Parsoft: Wind is fully modeled in the game. Another feature that is modeled is air density, so that the planes will actually fly faster at higher altitudes, as is true of real aircraft. Weather effects will not be modeled, which is due to time constraints. Look for it some time in the future.

Csim: What forms of multiplayer support will be provided and what kinds of multiplayer gameplay will be included?

Parsoft: There is no difference between the single player scenarios and multiplayer scenarios, other than the number of human pilots. We are currently shooting for 16 players in LAN mode, but can definitely promise 8. It will all depend on playtesting and speed.

Csim: What kind of future expansions are likely to appear for the game?

Parsoft: We are planning an expansion pack, but it’s too early to discuss this right now. We’ll keep you posted!

Csim: Which 3d accelerator cards will be supported and what kind of system do you recommend with and without a 3d-accelerator card?

Parsoft: Planned support at ship is for native (not Direct3D) support for the following cards: 3dfx, Rendition, ATI, PowerVR. Our estimates right now are probably for a Pentium 90 with 3D acceleration and probably a Pentium 133 without acceleration. These items may go lower, but won’t go any higher.

Csim: Will force-feedback controls be supported and, if so, how will they be put to use? Parsoft: We will support all DirectX 5.0 compatible force feedback devices, including Joysticks and Flight yokes. We are still working out all of the details, but expect it to be much like the physics engine — done in a realistic and not arcade fashion.

Csim: How will other new technologies impact Parsoft/Activision simulations: I’m thinking of multiple monitor support in WIN 95 and the VR support that is being worked into DirectX.

Parsoft: The Macintosh has supported multiple monitors since the early days, and Macintosh versions of our games already have support for up to 3 monitors. As far as the PC is concerned, we are aware that support for multiple monitors is a planned feature of future OS releases, and multiple monitor support should no doubt feature in future titles if practical. VR technology is still a bit young at this point. However, high-res headsets for the consumer market are currently in development, and as the technology matures in the near future, this should become a viable proposition.

Csim: Will there be a MacOS version of FS:SDOE? Do you feel the Macintosh still has potential for gamers?

Parsoft: There will definitely be a Macintosh version of Fighter Squadron. The Macintosh has always had, and still has a large installed base of users who like to play games. We have been able to run a successful and profitable company for the last few years based on Macintosh sales alone. Although there is now a lot of uncertainty about the future of the Mac, impressive sales of recent titles that were hits on the PC (Quake, Duke Nuke’em and others) suggest that the installed base are still hungry for new titles.

Csim: If you could ask yourself and answer any one question in regards to Fighter Squadron: Screaming Demons Over Europe, what would it be and how would you answer it?

Parsoft: This question is the one that all developers probably ask themselves. Although an obvious question with an obvious answer, it is nonetheless vitally important.

Q. How do we make this game better than everyone else’s.

A. There are two types of feature which make up the best flight simulation games. These are the known successful ingredients, i.e. the features that players already know and expect from a game, and the unknown ingredients, i.e. the features which players don’t know and expect from a game, but that the developer hopes will become tomorrow’s known ingredients.

What this basically means is that game developers must be aware of essential features of the game and should definitely drive the game design to incorporate many of these features. However, this is only enough to be the same as everyone else. To be better, developers need to push the limits of all the technologies used in the game. Sounds, graphics, physics, AI, editors, gameplay are all areas where someone can break new ground. Obviously, in the real world, developers have finite time and resources to develop a title, so the dreams have to be balanced with what is practically achievable.

Getting this balance right has become more and more difficult, and as different games add more features, it has now become impossible to develop a game with all the features that people expect, as well as some new ones that they didn’t. The balance however, is not just for the developers to consider, it is also for the media and the game-players themselves. There is only so much that is practically achievable, and while game companies must learn not to make exaggerated claims, the media and consumers must similarly temper their expectations.

In the case of Fighter Squadron, this time of course we’ve done it all and Fighter Squadron will really change the flight sim world forever.

Csim: If you had all the resources and talent in the world, what would be the next simulation you would design?

OParsoft: This is a tough one that we ask ourselves a few times each year as we look at future project plans. Our strength is in simulation, and although there is always talk of developing titles of a different genre, we are pretty focused on the flying vehicle thing.

The main differentiators for flying vehicles are realism/fantasy, jet/prop/rotary and historic/modern/futuristic. Fighter Squadron is a realistic flight simulation of historic propeller aircraft. Ideally, with all the resources and talent in the world, we would like to simultaneously develop a number of non-competing titles. For example, a WW-I game and a SCI-FI space simulation. The neat thing about the way we have developed our technology is that it would probably be possible (with a little asset juggling) to fly the WW-I fighter against a spaceship.

Csim: Can you give us an idea of what's in store for the future for Parsoft and Activision?

Parsoft: Working with Activision has been great. Not only do we get to work with what we consider to be the best entertainment software publisher, but we are also associated with the other great partners that work with Activision. We have developed a franchise with the Fighter Squadron series that we will definitely pursue in the short term with mission packs and new versions of the game. In the long term we would hope to develop titles beyond Fighter Squadron as we discussed.

The terrain graphics in Fighter Squadron look incredible...

Main  Air Previews