Hi all,

The devs have agreed to answer questions about World of Planes in an ongoing community interview on their forum. Valid questions (about flying tanks and ships probably not, sorry ) have a good chance of getting answered.

Here's the link: http://forum.gaijinent.com/index.php?/to...7433#entry27433

MAC

Cool, I will be sure to check it out, very interested to find out about map sizes, and exactly what they meant by upgradeable weapons!

Cheers mate
Craig

The bit about it not *strictly* being a WWII simulator necessarily got me thinking Gaijin could (and definitely SHOULD) do a *really* nice Korean War era game. Perhaps even down the road we could see some Mig-15's and F-86's come along in future incarnations of World of Planes.

Some Q & A


Q: Will the game have realistic, high fidelity FMs? Will they be the same as the latest Wings of Prey FMs or something different? Will Arcade players fly with the same FMs? Will Arcade players be able to fly without joysticks?
A: We have new FMs based on our experience with Wings of Prey, which are still under development. For now the flight experience is very similar to the one in Wings of Prey. Of course it's better to have a joystick, because it's much better to fly with it. But it will still be possible to fly with keyboard and mouse only. The mouse is not such a bad controller and quite precise, preferably the three button ones. It took me a while to get used to after playing with a joystick, but you can get a good sense of control with it pretty soon. Recently I've been only playing with mouse and keyboard.

Q: Will World of Planes feature a player/aircraft development path? How would that work? Or is there no such path?
A: Yes, there will be a development path, however it will not be in World of Tanks style. For example: better aiming and stamina for the gunners; for the pilots, a better resistance to G-loads. And for aircraft, the possiblity to upgrade to different types of weapons and battle capacity. In fact not much different than it would have been during the War.


Q: Will bombers have cockpits, will there be a first person bomber/gunner view in the game or will it be the same as in Wings of Prey?
A: That is not a priority. However one of the main benefits to have an Online game is to be able to keep development of the game ongoing. in the beginning all fighter airplanes will have cockpits, next we'll develop bomber cockpits and only then bomber views. But it won't be anytime soon.



Q: Will there be dedicated regional servers, for example for Russia, the EU and the US? Or will the be only one dedicated server location?
A: The main problem is the language. Pilots are usually adults and could play together, but the language could present an obstacle. So we're considering keeping them apart, but let's see...


Q: Will the game allow players to create and chose their own skins?
A: Yes


Q: Will there be any sort of training for newcomers so that they learn how to fly an aircraft, like training rooms?
A: Definitely!


Q: Will the game have it's own voice chat system or will players have to rely on third party solutions (skype, TS3, etc.)?
A: We're planning on making one. However we observed that most groups are using their own TS3 or Skype voice chats to even talk to each even before starting the game, so it's not one of our priorities.


Q: Will the game have any quick command buttons, like 'Attack', 'Defend' or 'Retreat'?
A: Yes, it's one way to solve the language problem.


Q: What will the map sizes be like? Would it be possible to reach the end of a map and what would happen in this case?
A: The map sizes are comparable to the ones we have in Wings of Prey. For Multiplayer they are even a bit too big, but they can be used for different tasks. Technically it's no problem to make maps up to 300x300kms or even bigger. For now they are up to 100x100kms, with the standard being 65x65kms.

Q: Will it be possible to destroy ground surface objects, such as houses, trees, airport infrastructure, etc?
A: Yes. Sometimes it's even necessary.

Q: How many airfields will each side have? In Wings of Prey, we only had a maximum of one per side. Are you planning on increasing the number of airfields?
A: The number of available airfields will depend on the maps. It's a question of balancing , and could change in the process of testing.

Q: Do you have a list of airplanes that will be in the game?
A: Yes. It's a big list since there were over 5000 airplane types in WWII.

Q: How many players can play on one map at the same time?
A: For now it's 32. Technically we can do at least 128x128.

Q: Will the game have dynamic weather, wind, rain, snow, etc.? Will the weather conditions affect the FMs?
A: Technically we have already solved this. How and when we will introduce it to the game remains to be seen.


Q: How will it be possible to detect an enemy in the game? Will you only see the outline or a marker? Will the game take visual blind spots into consideration? Will players receive an info when his comrades have detected an enemy?
A: Yes to the last question. This is a matter of a simple gameplay command, we're assuming all are in radio contact. First all you see will be the outline. Blind spots will be considered.

Q: How about gameplay recording and replay capabilities? Will you add something that isn't present yet in the latest version of Wings of Prey?
A: Yes, video recording will be no less than in Wings of Prey. While this is not a main priority in our game development, we strive to please our customers. We're planning to add more cameras.


Q: Will it be possible to perform aerobatic maneuvers such as an 'Immelmann' or the like with the game, based on the performance characteristics of each type?
A: Of course yes. Making a flight simulation game without that would be...umm...strange.


Q: Will there be any night time battles in World of Planes?
A: It's not hard to make but must serve a purpose. There will be some, in specific missions.

Q: Which aircraft types will be in the game? Only WWII or also Spain and Korea?
A: For now it's a secret! But I'll give you a hint:
- only German and Meteor jets is unfair.
- different countries took part in different times and different ways in WWII, some events may not seem to be part of WWII but some armies and airplanes started there. And the game is about airplanes.

Q: Is it true that the top aircraft in the game will be the ones with jet engines? Will their early prototype status with their negative effects be taken into account?
A: We'll make the game as authentic as possible and this will allow us to keep it interesting. Even some of the earlier jets were unsurpassed in their performance. In some situations speed was everthing, although some have never seen action. Just wait and see.

Thanks for posting the Q&A!

MAC

I have bolded the comments above that concern me and keep pointing to WOP being a fps of the skies, this will be fun, but it doesnt look like what I think of as a flight simulator, should be good to fill in a few hours here and there though.

The comments on map size are of great concern, 100km flown at 400kmh means the largest map can be crossed in 15 mins at most, also the much raved about (by nuggetx)dynamic weather is no certainty, looks like CoD may well have it's operational before WOP gets around to it, no worlwide servers, means forget it if you live in Oz, there will be as many online as for Wings of Prey - 0

Last but not least the use of a mouse and keyboard as a controller is fine, but it seems the author is actually preferring it to a stick, not sure how this could be possible if there is any sort of realistic fm under all the gloss.

Old warbirds and aces high allowed to use mouse for people who did not have joysticks, it did not mean the FMs were not aiming to be realistic.

Please bear in mind that all these questions and answers are translations from Russian and may not always give us the exact same meaning as they would to a native speaker. I don't think there's any question that the dev recommends using a joystick for a better flying experience. If he's saying that he's been recently only playing with mouse and keyboard I understand it in that way that they're optimizing these input devices so that newcomers can try the game without first having to buy new equipment.

MAC