Lunch with the Developers: Part 1

Pilots!

A lot of things have already been said about the development of World of Warplanes during the multiple Q&A sessions that we held a couple of weeks ago at this year's gamescom. However, we felt that our news coverage of the event wouldn't be complete without a recap of the private interview, which we managed to get from our two resident World of Warplanes experts, Oleg Gotynyan and Miroslav Baranenko. Both developers sat down with us for lunch, away from the bright lights and loud noise of the main convention showground, to have an intimate conversation about the game's current state and Wargaming's vision for its future.

Find out what exclusive information they revealed in our four-part article below. Let's begin!

	Oleg Gotynyan General Manager, Persha Studia	Miroslav Baranenko Head of Art
Interviewed by our World of Warplanes Editor Elijah Tabere

In this article, we discuss...

• Unification of the three "World of..." titles
• A smaller 'Slim Client'
• Mouse 3.5
• New bomber escort game mode

The purpose of this interview is to get a little more of a behind-the-scenes look into the development of World of Warplanes. We want to expand on some of the things that have been said onstage and see if we can't pick up any new scoops in the process.

Let's start with a subject that has been brought up many times during the Q&A's and that captures the imagination of our players a lot: the unification of our three "World of..." titles. We know by now that a first combination of all titles will happen through Clan Wars and not directly within one unified game mode. However, rumor has it that you're working on another way to bring the three games together through the launchers. Is there any truth to that?

Oleg Gotynyan: Indeed there is. We are working on a unified launcher, which in the future, will allow the user to start all three "World of..." titles from one single desktop application. For the most part, it is being developed in Kiev at Persha Studia, while Project Management and Technical Review still happen at HQ in Minsk. Right now it's too early to tell when it will arrive or how exactly it will work. Still, when it does get going, it should be a neat feature for the fans, tying the games together even more and making it easier to switch between the individual titles.

Some players wonder if there is something that can be done about the large size of the game client. Especially now, as a lot of new people join the community for Open Beta, concerns are being raised that downloading the game takes a lot of time. Are we working on addressing that issue?

OG: Yes, there are plans for a feature called 'Slim Client'. As of now, it's pretty much in the same state as the unified launcher. That means that we're talking about it, we know what needs to be done and already have begun some development on it. However, we're still far away from releasing it.

What's the reason for the World of Warplanes client being so much bigger than the World of Tanks one – especially given that the planes aren't even released yet, but already managed to amass a bigger size than the tanks, which have been out for three years now?

Miroslav Baranenko: Because of the sheer size of the game environments, the textures that we use are much bigger than in World of Tanks. Of course, we keep working on optimizing our resources, which will lead to a more efficient size management. However, since we will release new maps and planes, a definitive reduction on what we already have now will be unlikely.

OG: Take our maps, for example. They are not only bigger from a surface point of view, with levels that are up to 10x10 kilometers, they are also very detailed because they have to look good from afar as well as up close.

MB: It takes about four times as many resources to develop a World of Warplanes map than what's necessary for a World of Tanks map. Same thing goes for the planes: textures need to be in a higher resolution, details need to be added and overall, the engine needs to be able to show all of this at a frame rate that will allow the player to have a fluent and visually stunning experience.

OG: This is where the 'Slim Client' will come in. It will allow players to download smaller amounts of data, depending on their needs. People will be able to determine quicker if they like the game or not without the need for long download times.

MB: Also, don't forget that as technology evolves, we will re-work our graphics tools and assets. This will change not only the way that maps look (think about the 8.0 render update for World of Tanks), but also how they are built and how much space they take up.

Controls are always a big issue. You've mentioned onstage that a new 3.5 mouse control option is coming. Can you add to this?

OG: This is a mouse option that was already in the game before and got taken out a couple of patches ago. We know that many of our Alpha and Closed Beta testers liked it, as well as many of our own developers, by the way. It couldn't be easily returned because of the changes we did to the flight model, so we had to find a new way to bring this somewhat 'old' content back. Our guys have been actively working on this since June, and as of now, it's actually already ready. It still requires some testing and fixing of a couple of issues, but the initial feedback from within the team is that we're already pretty close to where we need to be with it. If all goes well, people should be able to see it in the game even before release.

Can you remind our readers how exactly this option plays differently from the two we already have in the game?

OG: It resembles the 4.1 mouse controls a lot. That means that your view stays statically behind your plane's tail and you 'pull' your aircraft via positioning the cursor in a certain direction. However, version 3.5 will auto-center your plane on the position of your cursor. If you want continuous movement, you'll have to keep moving the mouse. The auto-centring function should make aiming a lot easier. In fact, 4.1 was designed as an improvement of the initial 3.5. However, the feedback of our community showed us that both versions have their merits, which is why we're bringing the 3.5 back for those who want it.

Since you play the game yourselves, what version do you prefer when you play?

MB: I play the default 'Mouse' version.

OG: Me too. However, I did enjoy 3.5 a lot. When it makes its return, I'm likely to remember my early days and give it another shot.

For a long time now, whether it's in the forums or at the various conventions, we keep hearing about a new "bomber escort" game mode. However, aside from affirming plans, we haven't seen much development on this front. Can you bring us up to speed on what's the actual state of this feature?

OG: A first version of the bomber escort game mode has been accomplished already way back in November 2012. However, we decided not to test or develop it further. This comes from the fact that we all came together and determined which features, in our opinion, were absolutely necessary for a game release, and which ones could be delayed for later. That means that we had to prioritize and put a couple of active developments on hold, which didn't make it into this important 'Release-Must-Have' category. As much as we all would love to see the bomber escort mission right now, we just decided that having helpful tutorials, for example, will be more important come release time.

In fact, as soon as the game is released, the same team that's working on the tutorials right now will switch over to game mode production and resume the development of this long-awaited feature. We didn't want to rush the production of this. In the end, it's supposed to feel like a completely new experience and not just a clone of the main mode. It's meant to feature unique gameplay, which naturally requires just a little more time.

MB: From an artistic point of view, you also have to consider that maps for such a mode would have to be different as well. The regular maps, which we have in the game right now, are not entirely fit for escort missions, in my opinion. Maybe we'll need to start thinking about stepping away from the rectangular map design and explore different shapes that would be more appropriate for the new gameplay. Sadly, so far, our BigWorld engine doesn't allow for any other formats than the rectangular ones we already have.

OG: Trust us when we say we're also very much looking forward to the introduction of new modes. We will keep working on it, regardless of the challenges we may face. If production of it has been slow, it's not for a lack of will, but because we need to prioritise our resources. If we had more programmers, things could go much quicker. We're in the same situation as the World of Tanks developers, by the way. They, too, just lack the manpower sometimes. We already have about 150 developers per project strictly programming the game right now. As we staff up, development of both games should speed up as well.

This is just the beginning of our in-depth development review. Come back next time when we will talk about topics such as the developers' plans for eSports, new planes, the matchmaker and what new maps to expect soon! See you in Part II, Pilots!