GC: How realistic will the rules of engagement and weapons systems be?

AH: The game is intended to represent actual wartime conditions for both sides. This is not a "fantasy war" where all political restrictions are erased. Both the Americans and the North Vietnamese had significant limits on their activities, and those are included in the game. For example, for most of the campaign, the North Vietnamese ROE (Rules of Engagement) prevented their pilots from leaving the country, not even to chase American planes, much less intercept American tankers, jammers, etc. The now-infamous limitations on American action also help insure the strategic campaign remains balanced throughout, by preventing the Americans from making decisive use of their overwhelming power.

On a tactical level, we will enforce the American "see before you shoot" rule. Although the fighter jocks hated that rule, the limitations of radar, IFF and comm systems of that time suggest the rule was necessary. From a gameplay standpoint, this rule helps insure a "dogfight" style environment for aerial combat. Nevertheless, the much maligned Sparrow still is useful. After all, you can shoot a Sparrow at an oncoming plane, while other missiles of that era were strictly limited to up-the-tail shots. The level of missile malfunction is player selectable in solo play, SysOp selectable in online arenas.

GC: Gives us an idea of some of the research the AWV team has done for the game. Were official US/Vietnamese archives examined?

AH: We've done extensive research. In one trip to Maxwell AFB (home of the USAF archives) we had a "xerox party" with all their recently declassified stuff, tying up the library copying machine for an entire day. I really enjoyed finding a recently published translation of a Romanian history of the VPAF. It was very illuminating, especially when compared to various American accounts. Among other things, it provides a list of every VPAF claimed air-to-air kill, and every VPAF ace based on these kill claims. There is not a Colonel Tomb or Toon among them. The actual top VPAF aces were Nguyen Van Coc (credited with 9), Nguyen Hong Nhi, Pham Thanh Ngan, and Mai Van Cuong (credited with 8 each), with another dozen having six or seven each. To my knowledge, no historian has yet attempted to reconcile admitted losses and claimed kills by each side.

GC: How do you see the on-line campaign progressing in terms of scoring and victory conditions etc.?

AH: In the historical campaign setting, the victory conditions reflect the actual goals valued by the leadership on each side. For the Americans, destroying the assigned target and minimizing losses was most important. No campaign-level points are scored for shooting down enemy planes, although one's individual record does improve. On the VPAF side, minimizing bomb damage, minimizing your own losses, and maximizing enemy losses all contribute to victory in the campaign. The campaign has dozens of different possible variations, starting and stopping at various points in more than four years of historical time.

It is even possible to set up the campaigns to run back-to-back, in a long series that represents the entire war. Exactly which campaigns will be running online is left up to the Product Support staff, based on customer demand and interest. Incidentally, all these campaigns are also available from a solo play standpoint, although ending conditions and victory conditions are slightly different. We'll also include the conventional 3-sided "melee" world as well, with three fictional countries. You can fly any plane for any country, just like the current Air Warrior III game with its WWII era planes. After all, we don't want to ignore a feature that so many online players enjoy right now.

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GC: What do you think will set AWV apart from all other on-line and single player boxed games?

AH: Almost everything. :) We've got flight models to die for, next generation 3D graphics, a dynamic campaign system that lets you be a mission leader, real AIs in online planes for the first time, wing commander, etc., plenty of opportunity for traditional dogfighting in the melee arena...the list keeps going on and on. Most of all, though, we've got a great historical contest that nobody's experienced before, save those who flew in the real thing about 35 years ago.

Fig. 2. An art piece that tested the level of detail Kesmai is putting into their 3D aircrtaft models

Thank you for the time you took to answer our questions Arnold. We think that COMBATSIM.COM's readers will find this information very exciting since there have been hundreds of posts in the forums regarding the lack of a Vietnam era simulation. Now not only is Kesmai planning on being our salvation in this department, they look to be gunning for the "on-line champ" title. Considering the work that appears to be in progress regarding flight/weapons modeling, flyable aircraft, and all the aspects surrounding the multiplayer game, we are champing at the bit to get a closer look at Air Warrior: Vietnam once it reaches the beta stage.

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