by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson

Q. No problem, we'll send our crack operatives to your URL tonight... Some of these guys worked on Enigma back in '41. But please tell me that you are going to support multiple monitors. If you are not, don't even answer this question. Just do the right thing.

Mo: Well, the Monitor was a civil war ship, and there was only one of them, and it was sunk. We won't be supporting the Monitor at all. :P

AI and Decision Making

Q. I'm not finished on the strategic tack yet. When an online theatre first comes alive someone must be making the strategic decisions. I assume it is either Bill Gates or the CPU. Let's say it's the CPU, we all know Bill is busy. What factors does the AI take into account?

Mo: The role of AI in WW2 Online is totally non-traditional. When you see a vehicle it'll be very clear that a real player is in control. Stuff like supply ships and the like will be AI driven. As far as strat decisions, in the beta, strat features will be run by dev folks here, and some select players. Once we hash out the system under stress we will "employ" trusted players to be in command positions initially until regular users attain higher ranks. Of course we'll reserve the right to be "congress" on any disputes in the theatres ;)

Q. When an online theatre first becomes active there might be only fifty players. How does the AI interact with the human players? There must be more than twenty five vehicles per side. Tell us about the engagement and defensive AI for each side. For example, what are the rules for sighting? Can the AI panic?

Mo: Again, AI will not be rolling in tanks and aircraft. Besides base/facility defense, (otto) it's all player driven in that regard. If there are only 50 players on (I'll be fired), evenly spread between the sides, you WILL only have 25 vehicles on a side. And the battle will scale to that size.

There's nothing wrong with a 50 tank skirmish that I can think of BTW! One thing that seems to be a common misunderstanding is that those 50 guys will be "lost" and lonely in a huge terrain. Well, if you're online, and 10 Panzer tanks attack one of your bases, you're going to want to defend!

The host will control defensive positions only. If it's a pillbox or a static gun position, it'll be AI, if it's mobile in ANY way, a player will have to drive it and shoot it.

The only AI aircrew will be gunners, and yes, they will be under the same restraints of physics as the player.

Click to continue

Dynamics and Graphics

Q. How dynamic is the environment? Define "dynamic" for us in terms of persistence in destruction, resource management, etc.

Mo: Gotta button the lip here too. Let's just say that everything you damage will put more strain on your enemy's ability to wage war, and every mistake made in deployment or supply flow could cost your side time and ground.

Q. Sooner or later we have to talk about graphics. Let's talk. You've developed an entirely new engine for WWII Online. Tell us about its main features.

Mo: I was a skeptic at first. I was kind of attached to the old Graphsim engine that was the final enhancement to what Eric "Hellcats" Parker wrote 10 years ago. The one we have now was written in house by John "Kango" Lundy. The whole home-grown feel had me worried, but after the last 90 days I am completely impressed. It's a full featured engine that supports z-buffering, transparency, poly sorting, bilinear and trilinear filtering, antialiasing, static and dynamic colored lighting, there's a list of more features that I shouldn't bore you with, but, it's VERY fast.

Q. Is weather a factor?

Mo: Oh yeah

Q. Good weather, you guys are all on the beach and we don't see this game til 2001...

The Panzer Elite beta released a few weeks ago, with the most detailed environment yet seen. How detailed is the environment in WW2 Online? Will trees be a tactical factor?

Mo: That game looks really good in some respects. And yes, we're looking to get as detailed as we can. The obvious challenge is to give the ground pounders lots of clutter to hide behind without rendering air support useless due to frame rate drop for the flyboys. Trees, hedges, houses, roads, bridges, as well as military and industrial facilities, they'll all be in there and be a factor.

Go to Part V: Damage Resolution