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Dmitry Yudo aka Overlord, jack of all trades
David Lister aka Listy, Freelancer and Volunteer

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

[WoWP] Questions and Answers. Session 1.

Questions and answers session for World of Warplanes. The user questions (italics)  were gathered on EU and NA official forums. The answers (bold) are brief and concise to save your time. If something needs clarification, ask in comments.

Here we go:

Will you have vehicle/nation specific crew/weapon/engine sounds or the generics ones like in WoT?

The sounds will mostly be similar to WoT, however in WoWP we are planning to pay special attention to national crew voice-overs (each nation will get its own voice-over) and soundtrack to make it really catchy and matching the game style.


I was just wondering how the CBT will start. Do we get an e-mail or will we have to keep watch to the WowP portal.

The announcement will be loud enough so as those who are insterested don't miss it. Of course it will be mentioned on the portal, but not only there.


Having flown other prominant flight sims, such as FSX and the succesful IL-2 series, and also holder of a pilot's licence in real life, I am interested to know how many feature's you are planning to include in game. For example will we be able to use airbrakes to give us an advantage in dogfights? Airbrakes are also essential for the ground attack aircraft that are on your tech tree. Can we use flaps to decrease the turning circle and allow us to fly slower + more lift? Also will the game have true to life physics, or will it be another game where the plane's auto-right and automatically turn and bank when you move the stick?

We are not exactly doing a sim, that's why WoWP will be more of a genre mixture. Both landing and take-off are not considered vital for the intended gameplay. Currently we are not planning to include air brakes. As for flaps control it's already in the game and functioning. Flight model is going to be rather complex allowing aerobatics, stalling and such stuff, however we really want that in-game players fight vs players not vs their own aircraft or ground.


What about perks for crew in wowp ? If warplane like Me109 C1 have 4x MG17 and 2x 20mm cannon, its possible to switch between ?  like LPM-MG PPM-Cannon

Crew progression is going to be more advanced in WoWP in comparison to what we have got in WoT, containing greater rpg elements. Mostly because of the comparatively tiny crews in WoWP. Yes, it will be possible to switch between the two.

When talking about the adding of the British tree, you tend to stress it will be soon, more so than you did with the French and WoT. Does this mean we probably won't have to wait as long as we did for the French to be added in WoT?
 

Yes exactly, it's quite safe to say that Brits in WoWP (the initial line) will arrive earlier than French tanks it WoT.

Considering that dogfights were much more dependent on skill than tank battles, how will this affect the matchmaking? I mean, even the tier 1 fighters could take down an advanced WW2 plane with enough skill.


Indeed the influence of skill level will be higher than in WoT by all means, we are planning to smooth over the rough spots tuning the matchmaking.

You've stated that light bombers will be added, now these bombers needed fighter support because they couldn't defend themselves very well. This means we will need alot of teamwork to actually play these roles and judging by the WoT community, these people have never even heard of teamwork and don't have a clue how to do anything other than hide or go forward. Do you have any plans to force these people into actually working as a team? Perhaps a hefty bonus for taking out fighters that are firing at your bombers?


That's actually the reason why bombers were not chosen as a separate class in WoWP. As well as ground attack aircraft those will need to focus mainly on ground targets and require certain support from the team. From our side we would encourage team play by clear designated class roles, clear and concise UI, and advanced tutorial.


I just wondering about the difference game types, al i have heard (read) about it sound intresting but just thinking how it will be when i load up my heavy assult plane with bombs/canones and was hoping that it would be an ground assult map but no it was an plane escort mission i ended up with.
we got the posibilities to pick each fight?


We are planning a couple of game modes for release, most likely that would include some sort of escort with significant PvE element and aerial deathmatch with both aerial and ground targets.


And for secound when i applied for the alfatest i choosed joystik but it showes that my old dusty stick not working anymore, will that have some thing to say on the outcome to be accepted to GAT?


Not at all. We welcome the use of all types of controls.


 will it be a major difrence between the alpha and beta testing or will it be as any other update? I`m not experencd with beta and alpha testing of a game so that is why i am wondering.

In closed beta we will be inviting more players to join than we do now. Of course at that stage we will have far more stuff to try and test as well.


are some planes oversized or undersized in comparison to other planes ?

Intentinally - no.
:)

At the start of the round will we ever have the chance to take off from the runway(like in combat flight simulator 3)?

Currently everyone start up in the air. We would like players to focus on the combat itself.

I wasn't perfectly sure what you meant in an earlier post, when you said something about it being keyboard + mouse only. Did I understand that right, or are you planning support for joysticks and pads? Can't wait to be approved by the way, and please thank the Devs for me, for the awesome job!

Sure thing, they are already supported.


Considering the recent post about the community's artistic side and the fact that the reward is acceptance into GAT, does this mean that any applications to GAT are now no longer being accepted?

We are inviting more and more players in as the alpha testing progress. Plus your application will be still valid for CBT if you are not accepted by then
.

Is the whole game about WWII-Aircraft or are we going to see more modern planes also?
Our time range is 30-50, so we are starting with basic biplanes and going up to early jets.


Will there be a Cockpit-View or only Third-Person-Perspective or both?

Only the latter.
Can you already estimate how big the Game-Client will be?


Approx the same size as in WoT. Currently it's about 1.5Gb


When you open game for more players? CBT or so...

CBT which start around E3 will be more "public" than global alpha, however both limited access and the NDA will be in place. The game will be fully open during open beta stage - OBT.


WoWP will have AA guns? If they are in game, will be available for players like arti in wot?

Yes, there are AA guns controlled by AI.


Tail-gunner will be controled be AI?


Yes.


High tier Planes will have misiles (like X-4)?


Yes.


What type of customization we have in wowp?, example, you can swich diferent machineguns/canons, or/and you can add more or remove machineguns/canons. Example of 4, 190WA4 basic = 4 canons and 2 guns, if you can customize, 4 guns, or only 2 canons and 2 machineguns....

That's not exactly customization. It's upgrading, currently we are working on different setups of upgradable modules for aircraft, which won't be limited to weapons only.

Hey i accidentally entered the Ru site of world of warplanes , and out of curiosity i used google to translate . Turns out hey have a lot more contests wich ... doesnt sound very fair to me .Could we get more contests too ? Also , dont take this as an insult , its just a desperate man begging for alpha acces.

We are inviting approx the same percentage of players in every region. So the number of contests in terms of GAT invitations doesn't really matter.


will there be stalls? (esp.due to low airspeed)  what about plane-ground interactions? Will we crash into the scenery if we're not careful (or if we stall )?

Yes to both. However auto-pilot will be in place to prevent uncontrolled maneuvers from player's side. Of course it will still be quite possible to actually crash.


Are crews going to be visible in the aircraft? In WoT, there are no crew in open vehicles. However, in the teasers, I noticed that aircrew were visible. Will we be able to see our crews?
Yes, the crews are visible both in combat and in hangar.


i was wondering if there are going to be objectives in this game or is it goin to be like WOT where you just start shootin ppl up

Game modes with different objectives are planned, apart from standard deathmatch and shooting ground targets, we are also working on escort mode, where you need to make sure your VIP(lane) survives or destroy the enemy's one.


"Planned" or "in" is the question here, simply because WoT has been running now forever on one mode and it was promised long ago that new modes were coming so "stay patient". So if I were to hear "planned" I'm just going to assume they're not happening any time soon. I would like to see their "planned" content timeline as well.

WoWP will start with at least 2 game modes and advanced combat tutorial. Unlike WoT.


Question: will exist something like a "blinding sun"?
 

Yes, this effect is planned.

will you restrict the tiers of planes fighting each a little bit more then in WoT. I would love to be in Dog fights with only tier 5 planes, rather then battles with planes from tier 4-9. Especially if I'm the Tier 4 plane. I know the waits would grow, but still. I'm imagining the tier 10 planes almost never being bothered by the lower tiers.

The MM spreads most likely will be tighter than it WoT now, however tier 5 only battles are not exactly the pattern we are aiming at.


Will the all planes be able to gain the same heights? I've been wiki'n the planes and noticed the different ceiling levels. Will a tier 1 plane be able to reach the same in game height as a tier 10 plane?


No, we are capping the max heights artificially for the sake of gameplay. In general fights will take place on a lower heights than they did historically so as to enable taking advantage of landscape and fighting ground targets.


If Sim, can you stall out. does weight vs power effect climb rate/angle. On A scale of 1 - 10 (1 ace combat - 10 L-2 Sturmovik ) .. where would it land ?

Stalling is in place, however deadly maneuvers are prevented by auto-pilot. Weight vs power effect climb rate/angle will also be added. Closer to arcade than to sim. You can't control air-fuel mixture.

  
A lot of people are going to play this game and I wanted to ask if there is any sort of plane customization being implemented. I ask this because a lot of pilots in WWII had custom symbols or emblems on there planes usually self chosen ones and it would be a really cool way to see what people come up with on their planes.
We are planning to implement advanced customization tools to the game. E.g. the camo system is already in. Each plane will get a set of unique camos, unlike WoT where camos are mapped/tiled for all vehicles of a particular nation.

Are there any plans to Introduce Compatibility with Linux platforms Given the growing popularity and use of platforms like Ubuntu?

Official Linux support is not planned in the foreseeable future.


1. Will there be a fuel limit or just no fuel at all?
2. Is there going to be mid-air crashes or not?
3. Will there be any mountains or hills you can crash into or land on?


1. No fuel limit just like in WoT.
2. Yes, sure thing. Ramming FTW!

3. Many mountains, hills, towers, etc to crash into. :)


1. Since there will be no stall from maneuvering how realistic the world physics will be?
2. What the max altitude a plane can climb?
3. Will the bombers have rear gunner protection?
4. Will the planes have gas or ammo or even better the pilot him self weak areas?
5. Will there be female pilots?(For the USSR mostly since historically there were many women soldiers and pilots)
6. Well the skies are different from the ground and there are not many places to hide, what about the visibility? Can i spot a plane in an open sky up to 1000 - 2000 meters?
7. What about pilots skills and perks?


1. Flight model is going to be quite complex allowing aerobatics and preventing player from commiting deadly maneuvers.
2. It will be different for different tiers/groups of tiers. There would be an artificial cap to keep fights closer to the ground, so as to enable players to take advantage of landscape and fight ground targets.
3. Some ground attack planes already have it.
4. Yes, each plane will get its own weakspots, realistic armouring is already in place. Pilots are currently exluded from the hitbloxes for gameplay reasons.
5. Possibly.
6. Yes, enemy can be spotted being a few kilometers away.
7. Since planes obviously have smaller crews than tanks, we will pay special attention to crew progression devising a lot of skills and perks some of which will progress simultaneously.


If your question is not on the list, you can ask in comments to this post or in the respective Q&A thread - EU or NA