World of Warplanes Interview: Combat, Integration and Ultimate Conquest

Wargaming.net is currently working on their second WWII MMO combat game, World of Warplanes, and we recently had the opportunity to ask Anton Sitnikau, WoWP producer, a few questions about the upcoming title.

The interview centers on certain aspects of combat and how, if any, integration between World of Warplanes, World of Tanks and World of Battleships will work.  Also discusses is how Ultimate Conquest, Wargaming’s RTS browser game, will be affected by WoWP.

Check out the full interview after the jump.

In other WW2 flight sims such as IL2 strumovik, players are able to kill the pilot by shooting at the cockpit instead of destroying the plane. Will that be possible in World of Warplanes?

You will not be able kill the pilot by shooting at the cockpit; however there’ll be a chance to knock him out of action for some period of time that will drastically effect the control characteristics of the plane. If you hit the gunner, the accuracy of fire will decrease or you will not be able to shoot at all. Planes will also have hitboxes representing various modules of the plane like engine, radio station, ammunition, fuel tank etc. Thus, if you know the “soft spots” of particular vehicles you’ll be able to use the knowledge in battles.

If a plane is seriously damaged, does the pilot have any options of landing it or trying to escape?

We haven’t decided yet on how this gameplay aspect will work in World of Warplanes. Most likely, there’ll be a landing runway somewhere on the map for those players who realize that due to the damage they have taken they can no longer be of any help to their team in battle and do not want to spend their time flying meaninglessly or just crash and pay for repairs.

This one’s a long shot, but I need to ask it. When a plane is shot down, will the wreckage crash onto the battlefields in World of Tanks?

We’re not planning to combine tank and plane battles on one map, meaning destroyed planes will not fall down on World of Tanks battlefields. Although that would be very cool.

In a previous interview, Alexander Zezulin stated that combat integration between WoT and WoWP would not be possible due to the difference in map scale. Does this mean it will never happen or could we possibly see some integration in the far future?

We do not have any plans like this even for the far future but being a living constantly growing and evolving game we can never say definitely “NO” . We are working on three standalone games with different gameplay styles and our main objective is to make each title interesting and appealing, without mixing them gameplay-wise.

In some of the screenshots for World of Battleships we see planes flying around attacking ships. Will WoWP and WoBS have integrated combat?

No, they won’t… for the same reason as World of Tanks will not have integrated combat with World of Warplanes. But there’ll be an option to call in AI-controlled airstrike that will add more fun and tactics into the game.

How will Ultimate Conquest be affected by WoWP? Will they share the same world map or will it be separate?

We are not yet sure about how everything will work in the Ultimate Conquest, but there’ll definitely be some interesting stuff to explore.

It has been stated that all three “World of” titles will have some form of economic integration where players can distribute resources, can you elaborate on how that would work?

You are right, players will be able to transfer gold and experience from one game to another, there’ll be some sort of integrated profile for all of the three games.

Some interesting stuff although I wish we got some more details about how Ultimate Conquest will work and I do like the fact that you’ll be able to land your plane if you’re heavily damage. Can’t wait to learn more.