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Desert Fighters Interview
by Jim "Twitch" Tittle |
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And now for something a little different... Sierra is modeling the North African campaign, which was a very unique theatre in WWII, with unique tactics and unique aircraft. We fielded an interview, and here for the first time you will see a listing of the aircraft Sierra is modeling in Desert Fighters. Q. Why, do you think, has it taken so long for the industry to come back to WWII scenarios for flight simulators after the inundation of jet ones? A: Large segments of the gaming industry have always been followers. If another company makes money off of a particular title or genre, the followers do one too in the hopes that they can get in on the wave and make some easy money. Unfortunately, the industry was going through a phase where a prominent developer was making money on a particular genre (jets) and the rest were following. Once a prominent developer revisited the WWII market, the others followed. However, with the glut of WWII titles that were released last year, and with the fact that only one of them made any real money, the trend is now starting to swing away from flight sims in general, and WWII sims in particular. Q. What is a realistic, projected release date for Desert Fighters? A: The fall of 1999. Q. Please tell us what are genuine system requirements, not just minimums or even recommended? We find "minimum" barely runs at all and "recommended" still has notchy, stilted action in some situations. Include not only RAM and CPU speed, but graphics card criteria as well. A: There are too many unknowns at this time for me to say. However, my fastest machine is a 266 with 128 meg and a Voodoo2 card. I expect the game to perform well on this platform. Q. We think simmers will like the unique North African campaign. Everything else has been done more than once, but this theater is a first. Explain when the campaign begins and how it can progress given player success or failure. A: The campaign begins in March 1941, just after the Luftwaffe arrived in the theater. If you join as an American at the beginning, you will fly for the RAF as an Eagle for about 9 months and then will be transferred to the USAAF in January of 1942. The player's performance in the air is measured by their impact on the supply level of the opposing side. Damaging a port can cause a slowdown in the influx of supplies to the owning side. Destroy ground vehicles, aircraft, etc. and you directly impact the current supply level. Meanwhile, the ground forces use supplies to conduct battle and capture territory. By being particularly effective (or particularly ineffective) the player's actions in the sim can have a direct impact on the ability to win the ground battles. Q: How many total and how many flyable aircraft are there? A: This is difficult to nail down because I want to get as many aircraft models into the game as possible. At this time, we have about 20 non-flyables and 25 flyable models that will be in the game.
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 Hurricane Cockpit Q. Now for the one everybody is waiting for; what are the flyable planes? A: As with the previous question, I cannot state with certainty exactly which models will make it and which won't. However, we do have some of them done, so here are the ones I KNOW will be in the game. Flyables for the Allies:
And for the Axis:
Non-Flyables:
There are a couple more flyables that might make it and a few more non-flyables that should make it, including recon and transport craft. Go to Part II
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