SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Interview: Oleg Discusses What's Next

Tom: One of the strengths of the original game was the ability of the title to incorporate new aircraft and locations. Are their plans to do something in the same vein, to make Battle of Britain the first of several titles using the same engine? Will BOB be like IL-2 in that individuals will be able to make add on aircraft and incorporate it after it goes through your approval process?

Oleg: Yes we plan to get Storm of War: The Battle of Britain as a series of sims with the possibility to add more and more. Really it is our general plan and interface of the sim and code of program we currently design with the look to such features.

Tom: One of our readers stated that you mentioned that there is a possibility of human crewed ground guns or even vehicles. Is this actually planned for the game or is this just a function of the game engine that will allow for additions include ground combat?

Oleg: Can't answer 100% right now. But I can say 100% that we model the ground mechanics with the quality equal or better than in modern shooters.

Tom: Along the same line how do you plan on incorporating the realism of the game while at the same time incorporating these new aircraft. A lot of the aircraft added on to the game either were unavailable in offline games or had only one or two canned missions added to them. Will there be a more dedicated attempt to not only include more aircraft but to incorporate them into the actual game?

Oleg: We will be more open to third party development.

Tom: The IL-2 series really shines online. Online services like Hyperfigher and Ubi's own service have really added to the longevity of the series. What plans do you have to actually improve on what is already considered one of the best online experiences found in a box game?

Oleg: Users will have what they requested playing IL-2 these years, what we already have in IL-2 and new modes that will come in Storm of War: The Battle of Britain for the first time in the world for flight sims.

Tom: In the same vein, what are the planned multiplayer limits for the game? Can we realistically see 128 players flying at a time? Right now IL-2 / AEP can theoretically hold 128 people in a dogfight arena but rarely can a person's system handle that much drain. What do you see as a realistic multiplayer number in Storm of War: The Battle of Britain?

Oleg: We'll see in future. If to decrease the amount of features and data that we transfer in each channel, we really would offer 1000+ players. However our users like the features that they got in IL-2 series (some of the were coming for the first time in the world!) for online gameplay, so we dislike to decrease them that to get massive multiplayer game. Our goal would be the balance of quality and quantity.

The other great problem of modern time that the real speed of online channels has actually decreased compared say to 4 years ago. This is because of the constant traffic going across Internet channels of millions and millions of spam messages. This is the illness that really decreases the overall speed of Internet!

Tom: This is a sticky subject but it needs to be asked. Several of our readers are concerned about copy protection schemes that may be used with this game. I know that Ubisoft is no longer going to use Starforce as their copy protection system but what plans do you have to protect your intellectual property while at the same time easing the fears of some gamers who are put off by heavy handed protection schemes?

Oleg: Protection of Software is a business of Publisher.

Tom: Another question of course concerns the hardware requirements needed to run this game. I know you can't be specific but can you give a guess as to what kind of system will be needed to run the game at a reasonable framerate? A lot of our readers are actually considering total upgrades of their systems based upon this title and want to know what kind of equipment they should be looking at.

Oleg: I think players should upgrade their PC after the release of Storm of War: The Battle of Britain, but not now. Minimum system would be probably like last year good system for IL-2 series.

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