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World War II Online FAQ: Frequently Discussed Topics
The Atomic Bomb
- There are no plans to
include atomic bombs at this time.
- The political, social,
economic and military reasons for dropping the bomb are extremely complex,
and entire theses can (and have been) written on the topic.
- A lot of people have
extremely vocal opinions about the use of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, both for and against.
- Discuss it if you like,
but please keep it to the off-topic forum.
Axis and Allies
As currently planned, the
sides of the forces are:
AXIS = Germany, Italy, Japan
ALLIES = China, Commonwealth, France, Great Britain, Soviet Union, United
States
- Certain important but
less numerous (personnel-wise) countries (such as Australia, Canada,
New Zealand, South Africa, etc.) have been lumped into the category
of "Commonwealth"
- This is done for reasons
of simplicity, and is not intended as a slight to those countries.
- Some small (area-wise)
but important countries are not represented at all (Belgium, Hungary,
Netherlands, Romania, etc.). This is also not intended as a slight,
but rather something which may (or may not) be addressed in the distant
future.
- Some people are still
upset that their country isn't represented.
- Most countries are expected
to enter combat at the time they did historically (for example, Japan
and the United States will enter the WWIIOL war when a 1941 theatre
is introduced)
- There are no current
plans to allow countries which were historically allied to fight against
each other (for example, Soviet Union against the United States, France
against Britain, Italy against Germany, etc.)
Civilians/Partisans/Resistance
Fighters
- The Rats have stated
that civilians, partisans, resistance fighters and other similar non-combatants/civilian-appearance
characters will not be included in the initial release (and will probably
not be included in any release in the forseeable future)
- The main reason for this
is that in order to have partisans, you really need to have civilians.
If you have civilians, the Rats open themselves to bad press about virtual
atrocities, abuse, and all sorts of other nasty stuff. It's a can of
worms, and they don't want to have to deal with it.
- A few of the Rats have
expressed disdain for the 'duck-shoot' quality of civilians in other
games.
- Some people really want
to play as partisans for some reason. Unless the Rats change their stance
on this, there aren't likely to be partisans/resistance fighters. Sorry,
all you would-be Maquis.
Crewed Weapons and Tank
Crews
- In real life, operating
an artillery piece, AT gun or a tank often required a crew of three
or more people. Sometimes as many as a dozen people were necessary to
efficiently run a larger weapon.
- The Rats are currently
designing the game so that a crewed weapon or tank can be used by only
one player. This is simply a gameplay decision.
- There are not likely
people who will want to be 'the guy who carries ammunition back and
forth from the truck'.
- Eventually there will
probably be the option for one or more players to work together in a
tank or weapon crew.
- This will make their
operation more efficient - more eyes and hands means faster reactions
to threats.
- Thus, a single crew weapon/tank
will usually lose out to a multi-crew tank/weapon.
Foxholes, Fortifications,
Trenches, Bunkers and Tank Traps
- All ‘field improvements’
such as those listed above were certainly important defensive constructions
in WWII.
- Unfortunately, due to
server issue and technology constraints, the code required to include
player-located fortifications will probably not make it into the first
release.
- The Rats have stated
that foxholes and the like are a big ‘maybe’ for future releases.
- Foxholes would be great.
Unfortunately, they probably won’t be in the game for a while.
- There will be certain
permanent fortifications/defenses which are not placed by players.
Friendly Fire
- Friendly fire (FF) means
to take damage from the fire of someone on your own team.
- The Rats will deactivate
friendly fire initially when the game begins - you will not be able
to injure people on your own side.
- Later, they will adjust
this setting based on experimentation.
- Friendly fire is a HUGE
problem in some games, mostly in FPSs like RS/CS/UT/Quake where you
don't have to pay to play.
- The main reason for this
is that some people, strangely enough, get some sort of kick out of
killing people on their own team.
- Some people think that
not having friendly fire in the game is not realistic.
- Other people feel that
having friendly fire will cause too many problems.
- The Rats are putting
a lot of thought into this.
- People who like to intentionally
aim friendly fire at people are referred to as 'team killers' (TKers)
- see below.
Graphics
- The graphics for WWIIOL
are in a beta stage, and therefore may not be perceived as being "as
good as" some other games.
- The necessity of letting
thousands of players interact with each other in an 'arena' millions
of square kilometers in size limits the graphic quality that can be
used somewhat.
- Below is a quote from
one of the developers that you should read if you think the graphics
are poor.
Tell your friends
to forget comparing GFX quality of WWIIOL to those 18 people in a
shoebox FPS games. They can load up their GFX detail because they
are very small numbers of players in very small terrains.
Tell them to use
UO, EQ and Ac for comparison. Then, after they've done that, tell
them that WWIIOL is nearly THREE MILLION SQUARE KILOMETERS in area
(AC is what, the size of Maine ?) and that they can fly 40,000 feet
over that terrain, sail ships (when the navy gets released later this
year) across it, and submarines beneath it.
Then tell them they
can do this with 10,000 other folks (maybe more, who knows for sure
?) and that all the people flying planes, sailing ships and submarines,
driving vehicles and tanks, AND the ones fighting on foot as infantry,
all interact together in real time just like the real world.
Then, sit back and
realise that more than half of them still won't get it. What can you
do ?
You can enjoy WWIIOL
anyway. When the industry is raving about it after release, we'll
all have known about it all along. B]
Geof Rey Evans
aka "DocDoom"
- In short, the graphics
may not be 'cutting edge' spectacular, but the scale of gameplay will
be light years beyond anything previously seen.
Hospitals and Healing
- As far as can be determined,
the main motivation to stay alive after being wounded is to retain any
rank (mission?) points gained during that sortie.
- Last we heard, you will
lose any rank (mission?) points you may have gained for a mission if
you die during the mission.
You do not lose all previously accumulated points if you die.
- The way that it seems
to be planned right now is that if you return to base (RTB) and 'exit'
successfully (without dying) you may redeploy another soldier at full
health.
- For this reason, it is
unlikely that hospitals, recovery wards or aid posts will be necessary.
- See also the medic topic
below for additional information on wounds and damage.
Ingame Communications
(courtesy Troop76)
- When the game is initially
released WWIIOnline won't include a intergrated voice communications
system.
- CRS may implement one
in a future release.
- There will be multiple
text channels to use, much like in Warbirds and Aces High
- You will also be able
to use third-party software like Roger Wilco, Battlefield Communicator
and TeamSound, if you prefer. These third party systems may be disabled
if CRS develops a proprietary system.
Lag and Packet Loss
- Lag is any perceived
delay between executing some sort of action and its effect inside an
internet based game.
- Lag most significantly
affects people shooting at other.
- Some servers in other
games have massive amounts of lag.
- The reason for this is
that most other games use player-based hosts, whose machines are not
optimized for tracking so many players; neither is the coding of the
programs written with multiplayer use in mind.
- The Rats plan to use
dedicated, optimized servers, with code that is specifically written
with massive multiplayer gameplay in mind.
- This will significantly
reduce (but NOT eliminate) lag.
- The servers are located
physically in Texas. There are no plans to locate other servers in other
countries at this time.
- Any internet-based game
will have lag from time to time.
- The designers of WWIIOL
are trying to reduce it to an absolute minimum.
- Another problem in internet
games is packet loss.
- Packet loss will cause
information about hitting other players (or being hit by them) to occasionally
be lost.
- This causes strange (and
sometimes humorous) situations in certain games.
- Packet loss is usually
a problem with the ISP or its routing, and does not usually originate
with the servers.
- Some players really hate
lag and whine about it a lot.
- Until everyone has dedicated,
broadband connections directly to CRS (won't happen), lag and packet
loss will be a minor nuisance occasionally.
Deal with it.
Leaders
- The Rats will be leaders
first.
- Then they will appoint
leaders.
- Later, people will earn
rank on their own, probably through earning rank points.
- Certain higher positions
will not be only based on points, but also on community nomination/approval.
Medics
- The Rats are trying to
model wounds and damage to infantry so that it will be very much as
it was in real life in WWII.
- Sometimes a single shot
will kill you, sometimes you will only be wounded.
- Real life factors like
blood pressure, brain oxygen and ATP levels will affect your performance.
Loss of blood = loss of speed, accuracy, vision, consciousness and eventually,
death.
- The Rats plan to make
it so that players may be able to stabilize other player's conditions
by applying a 'field dressing' and reducing or stopping blood loss.
Your wounds may even 'clot' over time, permitting you to continue at
a reduced level without losing more blood.
- You cannot ever be restored
to full operational ability after being wounded, unlike other games.
- You cannot pick up a
floating 'medpack' and regain 25% health. There are no health bars,
percentages or anything else like you may find in Unreal Tournament,
Quake or Half Life.
- There are no current
plans for a dedicated 'medic' specialty. You may be able to act in that
capacity by carrying more field dressings (maybe) but you won't see
the medics as they are found in Team Fortress.
- Wanting to be a medic
is commendable, but you may have to wait a while to have things like
sulfa drugs, anti-biotics stitches and the works. At the moment, it
looks like it will be limited to field dressings, and even they may
be delayed.
Minefields
- Minefields were an important
defensive and area-denial weapon in WWII.
- Current technology makes
mapping the thousands of individual mines that would be necessary to
create realistic minefields very difficult.
- The Rats have considered
probability-based minefields, which would create less server load, but
are not not implementing them at this time.
To the best of our knowledge, the Rats are not planning to include any
type of minefields at any point in the near future.
- Some people are REALLY
upset about this.
- The Rats are apologetic,
as they would like to include them, but they say that the server demands
and gameplay issues make it too difficult.
- Some people are still
upset.
Missions
- The Rats are still developing
the mission model system. Anything we say is conjecture.
- The way that missions
will likely work is that a commander will post a mission, requiring
X number of players to attack/defend an X target. For this mission,
they will be permitted to use X number of weapons. All of these variables
will be determined in part by the commander, and in part by the supply
situation at a given point.
- The idea behind missions
is to try to help co-ordinate people from a disorganized mob into a
group of people working towards a common goal.
- Some people would prefer
that missions be squad exclusive, but the Rats have nixed this idea.
- You score points for
killing the enemy at any time. You also get rank (or mission? - we are
unsure of terminology) points for sucessfully carrying out a mission,
and returning to base alive. Apparently, if you die during a mission,
you don't get partial points for it.
Non Disclosure Agreements
(NDAs)
- You have to sign an NDA
to play the closed beta.
- A CRS NDA legally binds
the person who signs it to not reveal proprietary information about
what they see in the closed beta - they aren't supposed to say anything
about the game that hasn't been previously mentioned by the Rats or
revealed publicly by other means.
- The Rats decide who gets
one.
- You may get mailed an
NDA, you may not.
- Only the Rats know why.
Open Beta
- There will be an open
beta before release.
- Many of the people who
are here will probably be able to play.
- Some may not.
- The only thing certain
about when the open beta will happen is that it won't happen AFTER the
full release.
- No one knows when the
full release will happen, except maybe the Rats.
Padlock
- Padlock is a viewing
feature in some air combat games.
- It causes the view to
be locked onto a selected target.
- Some people think it
is more realistic.
- Some people don't.
- Some people love padlock.
- Some people hate padlock.
- The Rats are not going
to implement padlock.
- That's their decision,
for better or for worse.
P.O.W.s/Surrendering
- You can surrender if
you like, but there's not much point.
- The Rats aren't planning
to implement surrender/prisoners/prison camps.
- It's a can of worms much
like civilians - if one group doesn't take prisoners, the other side
get upset, and then they don't take prisoners themselves, then the OTHER
side doesn't take prisoners - it just gets messy.
- Maybe, MAYBE, sometime
in the distant future, prisoners may come into play in order to allow
a player to keep a 'streak' of a career. At this point, that sort of
complexity looks very far away.
Price
- You will have to pay
at least $39.99 USD for the box game.
- You will have to pay
at least $9.99 a month for unlimited play.
- Some people don't want
to pay anything.
- This isn't going to happen.
- Complaining won't change
this fact.
Research and Development
- Research and development
will probably be incorporated at some point, perhaps after the first
complete run through of all the theatres planned for 1940-1945.
- Resources will apparently
assist in speeding development, while lack of resources will reduce
rate of advancement. Apparently commanders will have some manner of
control over which projects will be prioritized, and how resources are
allocated to assist them.
Servers/Theatres/Players
per Theatre
- A server is a machine
that keeps track of all the people playing in a given area.
- A theatre is a geographical
area of combat. Well known theatres include: The European Theatre of
Operations (ETO), Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO), North African
Theatre, China Burma India (CBI) and North Atlantic.
- The Rats plan to have
one server per approximately 1,000 players (could be more, could be
less) .
- If necessary, depending
largely on the initial success of the game - how many people are there
- the Rats will add more servers as necessary. If one theatre is extremely
popular, there may be as many as ten servers per theatre, or more.
- All the servers in a
theatre will likely exist to co-ordinate the group of players and time
frame; that is, there will not be initially many versions (parallel
universe things) of the same theatre and time period. People will all
be fighting the same war.
- Doing the math, ten servers
per theatre means up to 10,000 players in a theatre. This number is
completely hypothetical. Numbers may be much lower, or even higher.
It all depends on the eventual popularity of the game.
Snipers
- It will be hard to hit
people with a rifle.
- Wind, distance, bullet
drop and other factors will affect the shot, unlike other games.
- Scopes will not be available
to most people with rifles.
- You can try to be a sniper,
but it won't be as easy as in CS, RS, or DF.
Squads
- Some people have formed
groups to play together. They are game units, sometimes also called
'squads'
- Working in a squad helps
you to co-operate with a larger group of people to accomplish your goals
better and more efficiently.
- You do NOT have to join
a squad to play. People who play alone as "lone wolves" are
just as welcome.
- Unless you've been in
a squad before, it's not a good idea to try to form a completely new
squad.
- If you want to join a
squad, go to the squad forum on this board.
- If you want to form a
squad, post in the squad forum, not in the general forum (please and
thank you)
The SS
- The SS was an elite (read:
exclusive) cadre of men and women who were formed at the behest of Adolf
Hitler.
- They swore oaths specifically
to Adolf Hitler, and all were nominally Nazis, although some might have
not agreed with all Nazi doctrine. Their motto "Thy Loyalty is
thy honour" referred directly to their loyalty to the Nazi party
and Adolf Hitler.
- The Waffen-SS was a well-equipped,
well-trained branch of the SS who fought with the Heer (regular army)
during WWII.
- The Waffen-SS units were
often the most feared and effective German fighting units on any front.
- Many regular Heer units
(such as the Afrika Korps, Panzer Lehr and others) were also crack troops;
the SS were not unique in this regard. In addition, there were SS units
whose combat effectiveness and bravery were questionable.
- The SS, both the Waffen-SS
and the other branches, are offensive to some people.
- Some SS units were responsible
for extreme atrocities during the war.
- Units from many countries,
Allied and Axis, committed atrocities as well.
- Some people feel the
Waffen-SS don't deserve the bad reputation they have.
- Others do.
- For similar reasons to
that of the swastika, the Rats have decided not to include representations
of SS units at all in the game.
- Some players have decided
to form SS units regardless.
- This upsets some people.
- Other people don't mind.
- The Rats, aside from
not representing SS units in the game, are not currently restricting
player-formed SS units.
- Some people are angry
about this.
- Other people aren't.
Swastikas
- Swastikas, as used by
the Nazis in the post-War and WWII period, have come to be a very offensive
symbol to many people.
- Prior to WWII, the swastika
was used by many different cultures, often as a good luck symbol. Among
them were North American native peoples, South Asians (India), Greeks
and many other peoples.
- There are laws controlling
the appearance of swastikas in post-war Germany. The legal interpretations
of this law are many.
- The Rats have decided,
after much deliberation, not to include swastikas in any form, on any
of the vehicles or interface screens.
- Some people think this
is not historical.
- The Finns used a symbol
which appeared similar to the Nazi swastika, but was usually blue.
- The non-inclusion of
swastikas is not a swipe at Finns.
- One of the primary reasons
not to include swastikas is to avoid costly legal battles and negative
publicity. The Rats would probably include them if not for this fact.
- No amount of yelling
at this point will bring them back, for whatever reason, until the Rats
change their mind.
System Requirements
Windows 95/98/Me/2000
(minimum system requirements)
Pentium II 400, 128MB RAM, 16MB 3D Video Card, DirectSound Compatible
Audio Card, 8X CD ROM, 56K Modem w/Internet Access
Windows 95/98/Me/2000
(recommended system requirements)
Pentium III 600, 256MB RAM, 32MB 3D Video Card, DirectSound Compatible
Audio Card, 40X CD ROM, 56K Modem w/Internet Access
Recommended Video Cards
3dfx Voodoo3
ATI Rage Pro
Matrox MGA G400
NVidia Riva 128
NVidia Riva TNT2
Recommended Audio Cards
Creative Soundblaster
EAX Chipsets
Auriel Chipsets
Macintosh OS (to be
announced)
NOTE: All of this is in
the Official CRS F.A.Q.
- Remember that system
requirements are always subject to change, especially with a game still
in development.
- Sometimes, you just have
to upgrade. Sorry; it's a sad fact of computing.
Team-Killing
- There will probabably
eventually be some sort of penalty for shooting a team mate.
- The Rats haven't decided
what it will be.
- Some people think it
might be something like 'freezeshooter'.
- Other people don't.
- Yes, friendly fire happens
in real life, but that doesn't mean the Rats want it to happen easily
in the game.
- No one knows what the
Rats' solution will be, so wait and see.
Third Person View
Third person view is a view
usually from above and behind a person or vehicle, that is, it is not
from the ‘first person’ perspective.
Third person views are popular
in some games, especially games designed for console systems, where the
player may not be familiar with first person view.
The Rats have stated that
third person view will NOT be included in online play.
They believe that it gives
a player using third person an unfair and unrealistic way of looking around
corners and over objects that they would not have in real life.
Defenders of third person
views claim that it allows a degree of peripheral vision which first person
views do not afford.
The Rats don’t agree,
and are not including it.
They are planning to include
a number of view features which will reduce the need for third person
views.
Welcome again, and we hope you find this game and this community as exciting
as we do.
[Thanks to Troop76 for the
basic idea to get this started again, and to all the other people who
have made suggestions to add and expand it - edited to add Sirbruce and
Troop76's contributions]
DISCLAIMER - Any information given in this FAQ is based upon best guesses
and interpretation on the part of the community. Except where noted, all
opinions are that of the author (Kozure) and do not necessarily reflect
the goals and aims of Cornered Rat Software, associated corporations,
their families, their dogs or their sheep. Any information contained in
this FAQ is subject to change at the capricious whims of the Rats. Professional
driver on closed track. Do not attempt. Objects in mirror may be closer
than they appear. Warning: contents may be hot. Your mileage may vary.
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