World of Warplanes Interview
A Chat with Project Manager Alexander Zezulin

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : In world of warplanes we know that German, Soviet Union, and United States aircraft will be in the game as well as later on British and Japan aircraft. Can you let on what other countries aircraft we may see?

Alexander Zezulin : Other countries will be also represented in the game, but it’s early to talk about this at the current stage of development.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : Doing a game taking place on the ground is one thing, air to air is another, where there any difficulties in bringing the World Of gaming concept to air combat?

Alexander Zezulin : One of the biggest difficulties we face now in the alpha test is making players defend their base when it is being destroyed by the enemy. They are not willing to get out of the dogfight and return to their base as its more fun to crush the enemy. Moreover, it’s not that easy to get out of the air combat, because as soon as you leave it the enemy can easily destroy you, that’s why we’re now rethinking the concept and there’ll be definitely some changes introduced in the near future.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : We know there will be air to air combat missions of course; will there be air to ground bombing and strafing missions as well? What can we expect?

Alexander Zezulin : There’ll be an option to equip some of your aircrafts with bombs and missile and destroy ground targets that will represent the enemy base.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : I understand that there will not be any cockpit views? No thoughts on maybe even a generic type of cockpit view?

Alexander Zezulin : Well, we’re thinking about giving our players a chance to customize the interface so that they could create the cockpit themselves.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : Just team vs. team without any other goals may get old fast. What game types will there be?

Alexander Zezulin : Right now we’re working on the basic gameplay mode that will be the same as in World of Tanks with some difference – you’ll have to destroy the base instead of capturing it. In the future we’ll add Escort missions with AI controlled bombers moving to the enemy base were the team’s task will be to protect them and Free-for-all that might get a bit messy and chaotic, but definitely a lot of fun.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : If there are AI bombers in the game will they defend themselves and how well?

Alexander Zezulin : There’ll be rear gunners that will defend AI bombers, but they will not be really good as it will be players’ task to protect them.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : Will players have more to lose in World of Warplanes in regard to pilot characters? Or will the balance be more like World of tanks? Tank maybe destroyed but crew never dies? Perhaps maybe even losing skill percentages?

Alexander Zezulin : We’ll stick to the same concept as in World of Tanks as it proved to be good. This means injuring the pilot will affect control, speed, and aiming.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : Will pilots be able to land and repair and get back in a fight? Or take off and land at all?

Alexander Zezulin : There may be an option to land and earn some XP points after the battle is finished. Takes off are not planned. We are looking at different options that will increase the fun a player can have depending on the style of play they use.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : How about bailing out? Are we going to be seeing chutes in the air?

Alexander Zezulin : We do not want to see a player killing enemy pilots with their propellers as the game is not about violence and we care about ratings:).

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : In world of tanks the program developers went so far as to make tanks have the same weakness areas as the real world counterparts…how will that be handled in World of Warplanes? Early in its development, the Merlin engine's lack of direct fuel injection meant that both early Spitfires and Hurricanes, unlike the Bf 109E, could not just nose down and into a dive due to a negative G issue. A nose dive would cause fuel to be forced out of the carbonator causing the engine to die out. Pilots had to half roll before diving to protect against this…will we see such weaknesses and too some of the strengths of some aircraft?

Alexander Zezulin : We won’t focus on details like this as this game is not a flight simulation in the traditional sense, but will try to make every plane look authentic paying attention to its real combat characteristics as well. We want the players to focus on the fun of the battle.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : Will the player menus be pretty much the same as World of Tanks, therefore player will be right at home of they are used to World of Tanks?

Alexander Zezulin : To let players easily “travel” from one game to another we’ll make the layout of World of Warplanes interface similar to the World of Tanks one. This means although it will be different it will also retain the familiarity that they are accustomed to.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : Real world aircraft only had a couple minutes worth of ammo in a heavy fire fight. How is this handled in World of Warplanes.

Alexander Zezulin : There’ll be enough ammunition for the whole battle if the player uses it sparingly. We’re also thinking about some way of resupplying the ammo, but are not yet sure how this will work.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : What time span are we looking at in World of Warplanes?

Alexander Zezulin : We’ll have planes from 1930s to 1950s as it was the Golden age of military aviation. Thus there’ll be a chance to operate both tiny biplanes and powerful jets.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : I had read someplace that there will not be prop planes vs. jets in the game… what about the first jets from the Luftwaffe? Or even any of the other countries? Prototypes and all such as the first turbojet aircraft to fly, the Heinkel He 178 prototype of the Luftwaffe, on August 27, 1939, though kept a secret at the time. The Italian Caproni Campini N.1 motorjet prototype that flew on August 27, 1940, the British in 1941 with the experimental Gloster E.28/39..the U.S. after seeing this produced the Bell XP-59A in late 1942. The first operational jet fighter the Messerschmitt Me 262, or the unstable ME 163 Komet….Even USSR tested its own Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 in 1942, but the was scrapped by Joseph Stalin in 1945. 1945 also saw the Japanese Imperial navy come up with a not so stellar version of the German ME-262, the Nakajima J9Y Kikka. Things started to really heat up… it would be interesting to see an arena the Operational and prototype jets of WW2. Thoughts or comments?

Alexander Zezulin : We will definitely have prototype models in the game and some of those planes mentioned above will definitely be available. However, we’re not giving any comments on particular aircrafts that will be added to this or that tech tree as we’re still working on them. You can be sure that we will have a cornucopia of known and experimental crafts.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : What is the most exciting thing about World of Warplanes you can tell us?

Alexander Zezulin : I like the dynamics of air combat where it takes you only a couple seconds to engage into a fierce dogfight – there’s hardly a chance you get this experience in any of the shooters.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : What gets your heart thumping for the game?

Alexander Zezulin : Entering a dogfight with 15 other Fighters and coming out victorious is always exciting.

Edwin Millheim, Impulse Gamer : When can the virtual pilots hit the skies virtual skies for a little air mayhem in World of Warplanes?

Alexander Zezulin : We’ll start recruiting closed beta-testers by the end of the year. Check out Impulse Gamer for updates!

There you have it folks watch for World of Warplanes coming to your virtual skies very soon.
Check it out here http://worldofwarplanes.com/

Have fun, play games.

Edwin Millheim