COMBATSIM.COM: The Ultimate Combat Simulation and Strategy Gamers' Resource.
 

Fighter Ace II with Peter Connelly

by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson

 

Q: FAII is primarily an online multiplayer game. What difference does this make for the developer, compared to a game designed primarily for single player fun?

PC: As we have hit on above, online game development has many technical issues that single player games just don't have to address. Multiplayer gaming across the internet introduces complex issues, including latency of connection, data loss and client performance - all are paramount in the online world. There is nothing worse than closing on somebody to find in the next instant that they have jumped 100 yards and are now on YOUR six.

In addition there is the element of real people playing against each other. This introduces the human element, undocumented and totally unpredictable! Complexities ranging from hack prevention, to ease of inter-player communication, to dispute resolution are major challenges for online developers that are simply not as significant for the developers of stand alone games.

In the case of FAII, we also added the "massive" to multiplayer. The community IS the game!! Pleasing people in a massively multiplayer world is a lot more challenging. In massively multiplayer games, more people equates to a greater the challenge, and for the player - a great deal more fun!!

The Mission Set

Q: What kind of missions will the offline player have to choose from?

PC: The missions will introduce people at a gentle pace to the world of combat flight. We will teach people basic flight techniques, air combat maneuvers and also gunnery, basic ground attack and situational awareness. We have a scripting language that allows us to respond with messaging to the actions a user takes. This way, we can guide and teach in a hands-on fashion. Because the user can choose offline the flight difficulty and effects they want to model, the training becomes as hard or easy as they want it to be.

The new physics model has also enabled us to produce drone planes. These computer controlled enemy and friendly planes combined with the training missions can simulate real online battle and teach the skills needed to survive in the online world. With scripting for these planes we can have users attempt to down bombers, dogfight with multiple bogies etc, all from the relative security of offline mode.

Click to continue

 

F4U on Runway
F4U on Runway

Q: Is there a mission builder? Will player created missions be available for online play?

PC: Rather than have users create missions, we've chosen to improve the ability for users to host private games. Users can choose what planes are available, determine what physics model to use, choose limited or unlimited fuel & ammo, select their own victory conditions, and most importantly - they can password protect the arena so they can control who they fly with.

Q: How do you prevent players from cheating by flying a light model when others are flying in high realism?

PC: We control key variables like the physics model from the server side. The arena definitions are published for each arena type, so players will know what to expect. We will be able to control the plane and country available and flight model difficulty. Everybody in a particular arena will be playing by the same rules.

Q: Will FA II support dynamic entry?

PC: Fighter Ace has always supported dynamic entry. All games, even private games are hosted here on the zone, so the performance of the server is guaranteed and users can jump in and out as they please.

Q: Will there be real time voice interaction in the sim?

PC: More and more users are utilizing some form of voice connection when playing online. It can really add to the game quality, particularly in squadron play. FAII will not integrate support for any real time voice software into the game client, but FA already works with voice technologies such as BattleCom and Roger Wilco.

Go to Part VI

 

Copyright © 1997 - 2000 COMBATSIM.COM, INC. All Rights Reserved.

Last Updated September 1st, 1999

© 2014 COMBATSIM.COM - All Rights Reserved