Team Alligator Interview by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson
	Q: Let's talk about weapon systems and targeting. I remember my first flights in Team Apache. I was frustrated because it was much more difficult to retain a target lock than in Longbow II. Later I spoke to a military chopper pilot who told me that the modelling was more realistic in Team Apache. Will we see similar modelling in Team Alligator? A: One of our eternal frustrations with other helicopter sims has been the poor or perfunctory battlefield modelling we keep on encountering. They have targets that are always easy to see and track; weapons with phenomenal accuracy and kill rates; almost no attempt to model passive or active target defences at all. They create worlds in which everything works perfectly and in which enemies line themselves up for death like ducks in a shooting gallery. We have infantrymen in Team Alligator. Ever seen an infantryman in the field? With very little effort he can make himself invisible at 5 metres. So how can anyone, in a noisy rattling helicopter, expect to see him at 5 kilometres, or 500 metres, or even 50? It doesn't happen. In real life, finding targets, even something as large as a tank, is *hard*. Tracking them for a shot without mechanical aids is *hard*. It's why combat aviators get paid the big bucks. Now, some of that difficulty we simply can't translate into Team Alligator; PC screen resolutions are just not high enough to let the player search for targets by eye. But even with the mechanical aids we provide, such as the 'silicon weapons officer', the radar and the Shkval tracker, you will find it tricky to find these guys and retain a firing solution on them when you do. And we apologise if that causes some petty frustrations, but that's life! If you want realism you are going to have to deal with it. By the way, our bad guys won't take things lying down. Not only will they shoot back at you, but they will lay smokescreens that will make your laser missiles worthless, or they'll have radar-directed devices like Arena for shooting down missiles. They'll have reactive armour on the glacis plate that stops your HEAT warhead dead. And they won't just rollover and die because you say so. Note the vehicles top right. Q: Even spotting targets was very different in Team Apache. If I flew over the jungle at 100 knots I missed everything, but when I slowed down I was more vulnerable but picked up many targets. These constant tradeoffs are challenging, but very realistic. Is this still the philosophy in Team Alligator? A: Everything's a tradeoff isn't it? Speed for life; the vulnerability of a hover for the ability to search and track. A good combat aviator knows there's a time and a place for each of these. There's a lot of this sort of thinking behind Team Alligator and we hope players will pick up on it. Click to continue		Ka52 Alligator Our job as modellers and designers is not to make the player's job easy, it's to make it *hard*. We want the player to use correct tactics and consider the tradeoffs they need to make for each tactic; to make them think *ahead* of time as to what's going to happen at that next ridge or the next tree line. As in Team Apache, we've put the emphasis in the game on tactical difficulty. We want the players to *fight*, and fight smart; we didn't want Alligator to be a dry exercise in systems management, which so many sims seem to be moving toward these days. Q: Team Apache introduced weather effects in a big way, including some incredible storms with lightning, fog and rain. How will Team Alligator follow on these advances? A: With better effects, more convincing-looking weather, and modelling that impacts the battlefield, such as sensors. I can't really say much more that that. Wait until you've seen the demo, our weather effects speak for themselves. Q: Since we are flying a Russian helicopter we are going to see some new weapons. What are they? A: The Alligator carries weapons that are fairly familiar to helo sim fans: the cannon; the laser-guided anti-tank missile; the rocket pod; the lightweight infrared air-to-air missile. But one of the nice things about this bird is that, unlike the Apache, it also carries some 'big boys' toys'. These include the Kh-25ML laser-guided missile, capable of taking on bridges and bunkers; the 122 mm demolition rocket; and the 500 kilogram bomb. Q: Russian doctrine for helicopter combat must vary somewhat from NATO doctrine. Do the differences impact gameplay in Team Alligator? A: They do, but in subtle ways. The Russians tend to mix their formations more than NATO forces do. They lack dedicated scout helicopters, so tend to use gunships in this role. They are also more likely to mass forces; they still regard the helicopter very much as a 'flying tank'. However, the Ka-52 represents a new direction for the Russians, and they don't appear to have completely formulated a new doctrine to accommodate it. It is referred to as an 'intellectual support helicopter', and it's clear the aircraft is designed to operate in support of other aircraft, providing command as well as firepower support. Go to Page Five
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