12 replies to this topic

[AndY]

Ask the Devs! is back, now called Ask the Team!
After a short hiatus, AtT! has finally returned, and with a new name!

At the end of every month, we'll be starting a new thread where you'll be asked to post any and all questions you have for us. 72 hours later, the thread will be locked and we'll be posting answers to as many of them as we can, as quickly as possible!

Ask us about our two games, our tools, our development process and our team, or even about the weather, our pets, hometowns... anything that comes to mind! (Take a look at the previous AtD!s for examples.)

For this first AtT!, we encourage you to ask us how we plan to solve in IA! some of the biggest problems encountered in OW.

Ready? Set.. Go!


The thread will get locked on Tuesday the 31st of January at 20:15 UTC/GMT; answers will be posted soon after.

---

Answers

redMatter said:

• Coppermantis asked:
  
  • What are your favourite games (other than your own)?
    
    • A1win: StarCraft II (moddability!), Magic: the Gathering, Arkham Horror.
      
    • AndY: Half-Life, GoldenEye 007, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
      
    • bnuh: Super Mario Bros..
      
    • Kil: Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
      
    • Kitto: Banjo-Kazooie, Skies of Arcadia, Deus Ex.
      
    • Kolbias: Elder Scrolls series, Battlefield series (mainly 2142), most of the Metroid series.
      
    • Namen: Zelda and Metroid franchises (aside from Other M, that was horrible), all SNES/PS1-era Squaresoft RPGs.
      
    • Sebastian: Mass Effect 1 & 2.
      
    • Yakko: Deus Ex, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, Men of War, Rise of the Triad, Total War series.
  • What are your favourite mods (other than your own)?
    
    • A1win: Natural Selection (HL), Sven Co-op (HL).
      
    • AndY: Sven Co-op (HL), They Hunger (HL), USS Darkstar (HL).
      
    • bnuh: Super Afro Bros. (SMB).
      
    • Kil: True Combat (ET), Hidden: Source (Source), ZPS 1.0 (Source).
      
    • Kolbias: Nightmare House 1 & 2 (Source), Morroblivion (Oblivion).
      
    • Namen: Desert Combat (BF1942).
      
    • Sebastian: Decadence (Source), Renegade X (UT).
      
    • Yakko: Finnish Defence Forces (OF), Sven Co-op (HL), They Hunger (HL), Desert Combat (BF1942).
  • What are your favourite movies?
    
    • A1win: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Serenity, The Bourne Trilogy, V for Vendetta.
      
    • AndY: Star Trek, Star Wars (4-6), The Matrix, Ip Man, GoldenEye, Enemy of the State.
      
    • bnuh: Miller's Crossing, Paths of Glory, The Prestige, 25th Hour.
      
    • Kitto: Inglourious Basterds, The Fifth Element.
      
    • Kolbias: Donnie Darko, Pulp Fiction, Deathproof, Drive, A Scanner Darkly.
      
    • Namen: American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction, Pulp Fiction, Velvet Goldmine, Scott Pilgrim.
      
    • Yakko: The Prestige, Perfume: Story of a Murderer, Beneath Hill 60, Letters from Iwo Jima, Shadow of the Vampire.
  
  
• The Joker asked:
  
  • What is the greatest film you've ever seen?
    
    • A1win: The Usual Suspects. Watching it over and over again knowing it all (even though not knowing is the whole point of the movie) feels like learning something new every time. If it were a game, it'd be one of those games that I'd play to learn how they're done instead of playing them just for fun.
      
    • AndY: The Lion King. Hakuna matata. :)
      
    • bnuh: Glengarry Glen Ross. Angry men and tons of swearing.
      
    • Kitto: Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino's writing keeps me absolutely rapt. The dialogue is easily as thrilling and compelling as the action scenes. The characters are each 'a big deal', where good guys are bad and the bad guys are really bad, but all of them ooze awesome- larger-than-life without ever becoming goofy. It's a movie set in a period of history that's become predictable, and turned it into a genuine, fresh adventure story. Oh and for me, Hans Landa played by Christoff Waltz is the greatest villain in movie history.
      
    • Kolbias: Donnie Darko. It's hard to explain why I like it so much, I guess it's because it takes multiple watches to completely understand the full concept. I can watch this movie over and over and still enjoy it.
      
    • Namen: The Entire Harry Potter Series^TM (especially Order of the Phoenix). I like stories that keep me young at heart, and the Potter series has done that well. I can generally have one of these movies on in the background when I'm doing just about anything and maintain a nice light mood. I have a Peter Pan complex I guess, but that's probably why I make games. :)
      
    • Sebastian: Blade Runner. A gorgeous and original kind of Sci-Fi.
      
    • Yakko: The Prestige. It's well-acted and well-written and set in a time period I really enjoy. Check out Waterloo as well, spectacular film.
  • Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3?
    Both. Neither. We can't really agree on this point. :P
    
    
  • Has anyone ever been (or wants/is planning to be) in the armed forces?
    Seems like it's a no for everyone except for A1win who was in the Finnish Defense Forces for half a year.
  
  
• rickinator9 asked:
  
  • Was it difficult getting used to UE3?
    
    • A1win: Still learning and mastering, but it seems way easier than Source, for instance.
      
    • AndY: Not at all! The UnrealEd and its subset of tools (Content Browser, Kismet, ...) are quite easy to pick up. Epic did a fantastic job with both the software and the documentation that comes with it (UDN).
      
    • bnuh: Audio-wise it's got a bit of a learning curve, but its internal logic makes it easy to dive into.
      
    • Kil: It is a fair bit different from Quake-based engines such as Source but with plenty of documentation and tutorials on the net, it wasn't too hard to make the transition. You run into things that seem rather foreign compared to what you are used to a fair bit, but you get used to it reasonably quickly.
      
    • Kitto: I wouldn't say so. In many ways, the technological advance of games' graphics has somewhat reached a plateau; it's now more about improving our techniques than engineering new ones. The UDK makes it as easy as possible for anyone to create 'next-gen' games and graphics, which is just amazing considering how powerful and endlessly complex the engine is. If you invest enough time in it, you really can create another world.
      
    • Kolbias: I'm still learning but I can say right now that I love the UDK. It's simple and fun to use (at least in terms of Audio).
      
    • Namen: Yes and no. I'm far from a master but I'm getting pretty good. From a pure programming standpoint it's fairly different than most programming environments in a lot of ways, so that has taken some time to get used to. Networking is both a blessing and a curse in a lot of ways. Overall I'd say it's been a smooth transition. It has a moderate learning curve, but once you start moving you can really make things happen faster than in any other engine I've worked with.
      
    • Sebastian: I'm still learning but it's fun.
      
    • Yakko: I spent a lot of time browsing forums and tutorial sites for answers back in the day. Combined with my university course and a genuine curiosity, I was able to figure things out fairly quickly. That said, I'm likely going to learn so much more on this project. If you're looking for answers, Polycount have an amazing wiki and community, and don't forget about the UDN!
  • How will you reach more players for IA!?
    It's still a bit early for the details, but you can rest assured that we'll be making a much (much) bigger push to promote IA! (compared to OW) as we understand that its success depends on it having a strong playerbase. We'll definitely be putting in more effort to produce stunning promotional assets and get tons of media coverage. We also plan to reward community members for inviting their friends to play. Once IA! is a bit further along in development, we plan to submit it to the Steam store, which would allow us to reach over 35 Million gamers worldwide.
    
    
  • What is your favorite Total War game?
    
    • Kitto: Hmm! I recently bought every single one in a recent Steam sale and I'm currently playing the newest, Shogun 2. I'm not much of a general yet; it's such a different RTS experience to any other game in the sense that you have much more detached control over your army than in other games.
      
    • Kolbias: Hmm.. probably Shogun 2. A couple of friends and I have been playing that one recently and it's easy to pick up and is pretty fun.
      
    • Sebastian: Only played Rome: Total War.
      
    • Yakko: Hells yeah! I'm a massive TW nutcase. Recently played through them all again (yes, really), and (although most will scorn me for this) Napoleon was so much fun. I have a general interest in the 19th century anyway (so much happened in such a short amount of time), and the battles depicted are spectacular. Shogun 2 was fantastic, and I loved the direction MP took, though I'm disastrous at melee combat tactics. Which is why I'm really looking looking forward to Fall of the Samurai. Still trying to figure out how CA will balance the different faction types though, but whatever the case, you can probably find me on the battlefield shooting at Tom Cruise.
  • If I were to ask you about cheese, would you get nightmares?
    If I were to get nightmares, would you eat some cheese? ;)
  
  
• leiftiger asked:
  
  • What is the "Overwatch" in IA! going to be called?
    So far, we've been using the term Overhead Players (or OP for short), which is obviously just a generic title. Rather than pick the name ourselves, we'll leave it up to you! Community member WAXT recently started a thread in the Ideas & Suggestions forum called Ideas: Player Names; you can post your suggestions there!
    
    
  • Will there be any customization options for the OP's minions/soldiers? If so, how customizable?
    I'm assuming that you're talking about each individual unit; if so, absolutely! However, it's still a bit early to know how far we'll take it. We've discussed loadouts and personalization options (such as having your own custom "Mastermind" logo displayed on each of your units), but nothing's been prototyped/decided yet.
    
    
  • Will the above also apply to ground players (i.e. each player could have a unique look)?
    Again, absolutely! One of the main reasons behind our choices of theme and art style is to allow for personalization of players' in-game characters, both in terms of their looks and the weapons/items they carry!
    
    
  • What is your favorite type of pie?
    
    • A1win: Paramite pie! Yum.
      
    • AndY: Tourtière.
      
    • bnuh: Pecan.
      
    • Kil: Mince.
      
    • Kitto: Sweetie pie.
      
    • Kolbias: Apple with a scoop of ice cream!
      
    • Namen: The kind that is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of any Euclidean circle's circumference to its diameter (I'm a programmer, what did you expect?).
      
    • Sebastian: Apple.
      
    • Yakko: Pork pies!
  
  
• Gabe(HUN) asked:
  
  • Why are you now calling this "Ask the Team!"? Was "Ask the Devs!" not a serious enough name or what?
    A team is comprised of more than just developers; that's really the only reason behind the change. :)
    
    
  • What is your favourite type of music? Rock? Orchestral? Dubstep? ...
    
    • A1win: Psytrance.
      
    • AndY: Celine Dion Symphonic metal, Power metal, Hip hop, ... and whatever genres deadmau5 falls under.
      
    • bnuh: Punk/Hardcore or Electro-Acoustic Expermimental.
      
    • Kitto: Video game music. It's true.
      
    • Kolbias: This one is hard, I listen to basically every type of music although I lean more toward Progressive Rock and various Electronica genres, but I also like Hip Hop, Metal, etc...
      
    • Namen: Brit-Pop, Electronic, 90's Alternative/Grunge, Industrial, New Wave, Synthpop.
      
    • Sebastian: Ambient.
      
    • Yakko: Anything that sounds good in my opinion as I've tried a little of everything, though the consistent types are Movie/Game Soundtracks and Eastern European composers such as Dvorak and Tchaikovsky.
  • When will you release the next OW update?
    We're actually putting the finishing touches on it now. We'll be posting some news early next week (and asking you to choose one of the two new RiotShield models we have) and are planning to host a few servers for the Dev Build so that you can all get early access (as promised) and help us track down any remaining issues. Then, once our brand new updating tool (Okuda) is ready, we'll release Overwatch 1.5.0 to everyone else!
  
  
• WAXT asked:
  
  • After OW's last upcoming major release, will the mod continue to be updated with user-created content?
    That really depends on the content creators themselves: if community members show interest, we'll definitely do everything we can to make it happen. So far, Coppermantis is the only one still actively working on a level (owc_superfortress), and we've been working very closely with him to get his map ready for the upcoming release.
    
    
  • Whilst on the topic of OW, will the RiotShield model be updated in the next release?
    Indeed! As I mentioned above, we'll be making a post about it next week.
    
    
  • Lastly, in IA!, will the "Mastermind" (OP) be capable of viewing water and/or vertical movement?
    I'll split this up a bit:
    • Water: The OP can definitely see water in IA!. The OP view/camera setup in general is very different from what's in OW.
      
    • Vertical: I bet what you're asking here is whether or not IA! will support "vertical" (i.e. multistory) levels. While it's much simpler to accomplish in UE3 than it would have been in Source (from a technical standpoint), we don't currently have any plans for it (once IA!'s development is further along, we could revisit this subject).

That's it for this month's episode of Ask the Team!. Until next!

[Coppermantis]

What are your guys' favorite
a)Games (Other than your own)
b)Mods (see above)
c)movies?

[The Joker]

Answer truthfully(be in depth about the film part, because I live, breath, and eat film, and I love discussions):
- greatest films you've ever seen?
- Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3?
- Has anyone ever been(or wants/is planning to be) a soldier?

[rickinator9]

1. Was it difficult getting used to UE3?
2. How will you reach more players for IA!? We don't want to sit around in semi-empty servers.
3. What's your favorite Total War game?
4. If I would ask you about cheese, would you get nightmares?

[leiftiger]

1. What's the "Overwatch" in IA! going to be called?
2. Will there be any customization for the OW's minions / soldiers?
3. If 2, how customizable? Will this also apply to players? Like each player could have a unique look?
4. What's your favorite type of pie?

[Gabe(HUN)]

YAY! New ask the Devs!
1. Why are you calling this "Ask the Team"? "Ask the Devs" is not a serious name or what?
2. What is your favourite type of music? Rock? Orchestral? Dubstep? Or what?
3. When you will release the next OW update? Last time I "heard" mid-February...

[WAXT]

• After Overwatch's last major release (scheduled for February) will the mod continue to be updated with user-created content?
  
• Whilst we're on the topic of Overwatch, will the Riot-Shield model be updated in the next release?
  
• Lastly, in Intruder Alert!, will the "MasterMind" (OP) be capable of viewing water and/or vertical movement?

leiftiger, on 28 January 2012 - 09:36 PM, said:

1. What's the "Overwatch" in IA! going to be called?

Let's put up a thread in the Ideas & Suggestions Forum.(I'm rooting for "MasterMind".)

[rickinator9]

WAXT, on 30 January 2012 - 07:23 PM, said:

• Whilst we're on the topic of Overwatch, will the Riot-Shield model be updated in the next release?

Actually, if you would update the dev, you will see shiny...

[AndY]

Thanks everyone! We'll post our answers soon.

[AndY]

Answers have been posted! If you have any followup questions, let us know!

[WAXT]

redMatter said:

After OW's last upcoming major release, will the mod continue to be updated with user-created content?
That really depends on the content creators themselves: if community members show interest, we'll definitely do everything we can to make it happen. So far, Coppermantis is the only one still actively working on a level (owc_superfortress), and we've been working very closely with him to get his map ready for the upcoming release.

Would you be interested to know that I've been working on the latest version of Containment fairly consistently for the last 2-3 months?

[AndY]

WAXT, on 02 February 2012 - 10:25 PM, said:

Would you be interested to know that I've been working on the latest version of Containment fairly consistently for the last 2-3 months?

Quite a surprise.

You should stop by IRC and speak to Kil about it.

[rickinator9]

I have something cooking too, not enough to show though.