One of the interesting AI factors built into the game is your ability to ask your Adjutant for help. If you want to be involved in the nitty gritty decisions around tank crew and armament, you can do it all yourself. If you prefer to delegate that task, or to ask for some advice, you can do that too.

The interface is one of the most intuitive I've seen. It includes the ability to use your mouse exclusively for live control of your tank. The graphic above appears top left on your screen, and from here you can click and move your main gun (elevation also, I believe), control direction and speed of your tank, and switch to one of the other three tanks in your control to command them.

As was obvious in our interview, after the raw facts of physics, ballistics and armament, atmosphere is everything. The beauty of landscape and the trees in the mist is stunning. But when you've stopped noticing your surroundings you will start noticing the voices: if you want completely authentic, you can select German, American, or British language and read the subtitles as they call out the information. Or, you can have your German gunner speaking English with a German accent.

Not long after we posted the interview someone asked a question about the trees in the game. Teut responded:

The trees are cardboard 3D, ie. NOT sprites. They consist of three rectangles, looking like a mercedes star from the top. This is enough to make a tree believable and functional in a visibility sense. Also the three sides are enough to make movement besides trees believable, ie. they turn properly etc.

Shermans. Click for larger image.

Viewing distance is 500 meters in high detail, ie. you see everything up to that range, nothing will be hidden from you, even tanks you didn't spot won't be hidden (that is, they are there even though you may not have noticed them). Its up to you or your crew to spot them.

Beyond that we drop objects and only show units you or your crew spot up to 1000 meters, further in the flatplane (1.5 kilometers). The flatplane is the horizon in the screenshots you see slowly shading to grey.

With the binoculars the high detail goes to 1000 meters, the low detail to 3.6 kilometers. We are currently considering adding level of detail to objects like trees and tanks to increase high detail to 1000 meters, but we need to benchmark that first, so nothing promised here.

Remember that shooting beyond 1500 meters for even the Tiger was guessworking and only properly done in clear open terrain. Average fighting distance was less than 500 meters in Normandy, less than 800 meters in most areas, less than 3 kilometers in the desert.

I've also received many questions about the campaign scenarios. Here is information from Psygnosis press release:

North Africa

After the allied landing in North Africa (Operation Torch) at the end of 1942, the Germans were threatened on two fronts. With resources already scarce and over-stretched, the Germans retreated to Tunisia. Playing for the American side, the player is confronted with pitting inferior technology against the German forces. Participating for the Germans entails strategic management of limited resources while preparing to retreat to Tunisia.

Sicily

Having survived the latter part of the Desert War, the German player is again on the retreat after the landing of further American forces. The mountain terrain proves a different challenge to the tank platoons compared to the endless regions of the desert.

Italy

After the landing of the Americans in Italy, the German side finds itself on large defensive battles. Meanwhile the American player will receive full support for the first time. Large city battles also provide an additional challenge to both sides.

Normandy

Using the latest technology on either side, the player finds himself in the midst of The Battle of Normandy. The initial landing of Operation Cobra commences with intense artillery barrages. At The Falaise Gap, large contingents of German forces are encircled as the player is confronted with the difficult and dense terrain.

Landscape

The landscape simulated in the game is highly detailed and covers terrain from North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Normandy. Details include bushes, individual trees, houses, ruins, fences and walls.

The terrain features are not just for decoration and serve a real function. Trees can be run over and buildings or walls collapse. Trees hinder visibility differently to houses. Shells exploding leave craters behind (driving becomes more difficult), whereas smoke and dust lessen visibility.

The scale of the landscape goes down to 2.50 meters per polygon. A medium-sized scenario consists of 4 million polygons and represents an area of 5 kilometers squared. With the ground detail and vehicles added, a scenario can amount to over 8 million polygons.

Complete with weather...

Vehicles

The player starts with the basic technology tanks from late 1942 and through experience and success during the course of the game more and more tanks are made available to the player. Modifications become available over time to fine-tune or modify the characteristics of the tanks. This includes additional armor, special ammunition, wet tanks to protect crew from ammo explosions, etc...

German Player Tanks (12, in order of appearance)

• Panzer III H (wing man only)
• Panzer III J (wing man only)
• Panzer III N (wing man only)
• Panzer IV E
• Panzer IV F2
• Panzer IV H
• Panzer IV J
• Panther D
• Panther A
• Panther G
• Tiger I E
• Tiger I E(late version)

American Player Tanks (11, In order of appearance)

• M5A1 (wing man only)
• M10GMC (wing man only)
• M4
• M4A1
• M4A3 Mid
• M4A3(75)W
• M4A2 Late
• M4A1(76)W
• M4A2(76)W
• M4A3(76)W
• Jumbo

Additional German AI Controlled Units (39)

• Panzer II F Tiger Ausf. B StuG IIIG(L) StuH 42G StuPz IV Marder III H
• Hornisse Hetzer JgdPz IV JagdPanther SPW 250/1 Elefant
• SPW 250/sMG SPW 250/8 SPW 250/9 SPW 250/10 SPW 251/MG SPW 251/1
• SPW 251/9 SPW 251/10 PSW 222 PSW 232 PSW 233
• PSW 234/1 PSW 234/2 PSW 234/4 FlakPz IV SdKfz 7/1
• Opel Blitz Kuebelwagen SdKfz 7 Infantry MG-Team AT-Team
• Mortar Hvy-Mortar Pak 37 Pak 38 Pak 40 88 Pak 43

Additional American AI Controlled Units (22)

• Priest Scott Jeep M3
• M3A1 M3 MMG M3 HMG M3A1 GMC
• M16 MGMC M3 Scout Car M20 Scout M8 Arm. Car
• 6 Ton 6x6 AT-Gun 37mm AT-Gun 57mm AT-Gun 3in
• Infantry Parachutists MG-Team Bazooka Team
• BAR Team Mortar Team

Damage Model

In our earlier interview we asked Teut what factors went into resolving damage modeling. Here is his reply:

The collision algorithm provides the angle and penetration values of the shell on the armor. After resolving those formulae, we continue following the path of the bullet through the inside of the tank.

We have a layered model of the interior, where all internal systems of the tank is displayed. When the bullet/shell hits a system, its kinetic energy is lowered and the component is damaged. This continues until the kinetic energy of the projectile reaches zero. This model is adapted to certain ammo types (hollow charges etc.), but fundamentally they all have a similar functionality.

The tanks in Panzer Elite are simulated down to even internal detail. We had access to original tanks of World War II in the Tank Museum in Munster. Their collection had most of the tanks we feature in working order and they even allowed us inside to make photographs and videofootage. We used this knowledge we gathered to abstract the interior of each tank into three layers:

Turret
Superstructure
Hull

Each of those layers is being color coded to represent the interior functionality of the tank. We would then follow the bullets path after initial armor penetration through the interior and decide what is being damaged. This modell actually allows the player to shoot at specific areas of opposing tanks and have the correct results, ie. you can shoot out the driver of a tank at any range, you only need to hit it at the right spot.

At the Turrent level there are eight specific areas that can take damage

At the Superstructure level there are seventeen areas (including five humans) that can be damaged.

At the Hull level there are seventeen areas plus five simulated humans (total 22).

Panzer Elite is being developed by Wings Simulations for Psygnosis. You can also visit the WINGS SIMULATIONS website.