1C Announces Men Of War

[Evgeny]

1C Company today announced the development of its new World War II strategy game Men of War.

Men of War is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Soldiers: Heroes of World War II and Faces of War and is scheduled for a summer 2008 release around the world.

Men of War takes place in Europe during the height of World War II. The story unfolds across three different campaigns played out through the eyes of Soviet, Allied and German soldiers. Each campaign has its own structured timeline bringing a different story of the war to life spanning across Russia, North Africa, Ukraine, Greece, Germany, Italy and the Pacific. The main Soviet campaign sees two student comrades, Smirnov and Kuznetzov, join the army and quickly become brothers in arms as they rise through the ranks and experience the rigors of war.

Men of War will feature 50 new units to play, including newly designed tanks, APCs and heavy guns. Dynamic, in-game video enhances the single player missions, while developer Best Way has given the sounds of war new range with over one hundred new effects, recorded under real operating conditions. The single player campaign will also feature a fully customizable user interface so players are able to set-up their command layout as they please.

In addition to the in-depth single player experience, Men of War also unleashes all new multiplayer maps along with new ‘capture the flag’ and ‘high-value cargo’ modes, all faithfully recreated with stunning graphics and refined AI. A new rating system has also been introduced to ensure a fair fight in online multiplayer battles.

Summary of key additions:

Three evolving storylines in the Soviet, Allied and German armies, comprising 19 missions in total
More than 50 new units to use in multiplayer mode
Realistic models of armament and military equipment recreated in accordance with design drawings and historical documents
System of ratings and statistics for every participant in multiplayer mode
New nation in multiplayer mode - Japan
Revised controls interface – customizable and easier to use
New multiplayer maps and 2 new game modes
Highly detailed WWII environments and characters faithfully recreated with a cutting-edge graphics engine


More information on the game and new screenshots can be found with the demo at http://www.1cpublishing.eu/game/men-of-war/overview.

[Lo0n]

Brilliant news! SHOWW2 was an excellent game, hope this lives up to the pedigree

[DMS|Instinct]

Hello everyone!

I'm a developer from Digitalmindsoft, (co-development studio of Men of War, together with Best Way) and I'm here to answer your questions first hand.



Lo0n,

we orientated back on Soldiers and added elements which were succesfull in Faces of War. Men of War is a strong improvement over both games and surely will please hardcore tacticians and average gamers.

[Skael]

Hello everyone!

I'm a developer from Digitalmindsoft, (co-development studio of Men of War, together with Best Way) and I'm here to answer your questions first hand.

Nice to see you here!

[Lo0n]

Hello everyone!

I'm a developer from Digitalmindsoft, (co-development studio of Men of War, together with Best Way) and I'm here to answer your questions first hand.



Lo0n,

we orientated back on Soldiers and added elements which were succesfull in Faces of War. Men of War is a strong improvement over both games and surely will please hardcore tacticians and average gamers.

hi instinct, i remember you from the original SHOWW site over at codies, am i wrong in thinking you were one of the original modding crowd that has since gone professional? anyway, good to see this series going again. good luck with it.
never got into faces of war to be honest, i saw something about hit boxes instead of penetration values and it turned me off even trying it.

[DMS|Instinct]

Nice to see you here!
:)


Hi lo0n,

yes modding for SHoWW2 opened us the doors for going professional, since that more than 2 years passed and our partnership with Best Way gets stronger each day.

FoW had a simplier damage system modell, which was stated by some people as hitbox system. Men of War has a very detailled penetration system which is by far more accurate than that of Soldiers, also all tanks and guns use historical datas, in Singleplayer as in Multiplayer.

[KingDude]

I saw a few pics today..looks good.. but the description of the game tells us nothing of how it is played..
Is this an RTS or Turn based game?

cheers.

[Evgeny]

Well, it's an RTS.

[DMS|Instinct]

The game is categorized as RTS although its more RTT (Real-Time Tactical), the basic controls are like in other RTS games, you point and click your units to move and to attack enemy units.
But you don't build up bases, you have a limited amount of troops or you can buy a limited amount of troops in multiplayer to fight your opponent.

The game is also very realistic and offers you lots of opportunities to defeat your enemy. There is no big unit vs small unit = big unit wins. Winner is the best tactician of both, you can take out a superior German Kingtiger with a single soldier if you sneak along bushlines and throw a molotov cocktail on it's engine compartments. Or if you have a weaker tank, you can knock out the tracks of an enemies tank to surround him and to attack it at its weak spots.

And to make this really outstanding from all other RTS games out there, you can switch into the role of every unit you have and play it Action game wise. For example you can take the control of a tank and drive through buildings, shoot and aim for weakspots of enemies to smash them on your own. Though the view perspective is still bird eye so you don't loose your overview.

We also prepared an article about the game, describing this feature and others on our website:

http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/games/men-of-war.html

If any questions pop up, feel free to ask! :)

[briny_norman]

It seems you have chosen to go in the direction of a more realistic game with Men of War, but still with an emphasis on enjoyable gameplay.
How would you say your game compares to the Close Combat series?
Could you list the main differences/similarities as you see them?

There's quite a big Close Combat fan-base out there, so catching their attention would be a good thing business-wise...

Oh, and one more question, how moddable will the game be?
Will we, for example, be able to adjust the overall accuracy of units or the cover-values of the terrain, thereby making for less gamey (bloody) and more tactical scenarios?

[Anatoly]

Frankly speaking Men of War, as well as the other games from this series, are quite far away from the Close Combat type of gameplay. MoW is much more action-oriented. If we are talking about CC-gameplay the closest modern analogue will be Theatre of War which was released last year.

[DMS|Instinct]

Oh, and one more question, how moddable will the game be?
Will we, for example, be able to adjust the overall accuracy of units or the cover-values of the terrain, thereby making for less gamey (bloody) and more tactical scenarios?

The game is very, very modable, you almost can change any unit value and you can make this game as realistic as it gets. Also the official mapeditor will be delivered on disc to make your own maps and missions + downloadable 3ds Max plugins for exporting your own vehicles to the game.
So even total conversion mods are possible and are already in work by some of our community members.

A former modder and now member of our team is working on this mod for Men of War (screenshots are from FoW):
http://digitalmindsoft.eu/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=457&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=530#p10749
There is nothing you couldn't do yourself with the necessary experience :)



It seems you have chosen to go in the direction of a more realistic game with Men of War, but still with an emphasis on enjoyable gameplay.
How would you say your game compares to the Close Combat series?
Could you list the main differences/similarities as you see them?
Yes, more realism but not on the cost of fun. In first line we want our players to enjoy the game and having fun playing it, if realism supports this, we add it, therefore Men of War is a lot more realistic than it's predecessors, but still no hardcore simulation.
For example the tanks have historical accurate gun and armor values, but the ranges are reduced to give the player a lot better overview of the battlefield. Aiming 1000-2000 metres in direct control is no fun...

[briny_norman]

Thanks for the answers!

Personally I don't have a problem with compromises on realism, as long as the compromises are logical and the gameplay is very tactical and not just "rush and overwhelm".

Realism for me is an open playing field with lots of tactical options.
I do own TOW, and while it does strive for a gameplay like Close Combat it, in my oppinion, fails completely due to non-tactical terrain and the badly implemented infantry combat - no cover, no entry of houses, very flat terrain features etc.... It's a nice tank combat game, but the infantry part is not very inspiring.

Looking forward to see how this game turns out.

[Weissmann]

I'm looking forward to this !

One thing I hope Men of War has is a VERY flexible camera.

I like to be able to zoom in to the action at eye level - makes the game more atmospheric !

I think there was a MOD for Soldiers of WWII that really made a difference to the angle and zoom.

I hope Men of War has this option already included.

Looks fantastic so far !

[DMS|Instinct]

In Men of War you can zoom in at eye level of soldiers, though zoom out is limited for performance reasons. Angles are as flat as they can get ;)

[Weissmann]

Fantastic !

Thanks for the info :)

Now im really looking forward to it !

[szebus]

I'm confused ... Here is the best way webpage ( http://bestway.com.ua/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105&Itemid=1 ) that sais :

"Year 1941. The Italian army meets a run of bad luck in the war for domination over North Africa. Realizing the weakness of his forces in the face of the English Mussolini restrains his ambition and appeals to Hitler for help. The just raised African Corps under the command of the lieutenant-general Erwin Rommel is sent to the Black Continent to support the Italians...

During the fight for African colonies, the freakish fortune changed its minions not once. Cities passed through the hands of sometimes one side, sometimes another. Fierce battles did not reveal either winners or beaten, but the tolls were enormous. Generals of the confronting armies showed off their knowledge of military science to each other, while rank and file shed their blood under the strange sun.

Playing on the side of German troops the player will participate in the mighty landing operation, which went down in history as 'Mercury' operation, and in storming the fortified city of Tobruk. Playing on the side of the allies he will have to make the Germans retreat to Tunis – straight towards their ruin.

• Two campaigns (for the allies and the Germans) with five missions in each develop on the territory of North Africa and the island of Crete.

• Realistic interactive environment: any object, even fragments of exploded military machines, may be destroyed or used as a shelter; all the objects in the game interact according to the laws of Physics.

• Realistic system of damages.

• More than 200 units of thoroughly made and historically authentic armoured materiel, artillery, aircraft and battle ships.

• Opportunity of direct controlling any unit.

• A comfortable intra-game interface is elaborated for large-scale battles.

• An editor, which allows creating own maps and missions.

• Multi-users game: up to sixteen players in the play through a local network or through the Internet, five modes and flexible game settings, support of modifications and additional maps, global players rating and many other things.

Publisher: 1C
Developers: Best Way, DMS
The official name of the game: Men of War
Ð*елиз: summer 2008 года
Жанр: Action / Strategy (Real-time / Squad-based) / 3D
Minimum system requirements: CPU: P4 2.6GHz (Athlon 3000+) RAM: 1Gb Video: GeForce 6200 (Radeon 9600) 128Mb Windows XP/sp1 DirectX 9.0c DVD
Recommended system requirements: Windows XP/sp1 (Windows Vista)
CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz (Athlon X2 5000+) RAM: 2Gb Video: GeForce FX 8600 (Radeon HD2600) 256Mb
Multi-player: Recommended requirements + Internet connection 256 kbit/s "

The name of the game for russia is Outfront 2 : Desert Fox but the ofivial name is Men of War , right ? Then this means that we only will have to play with the Germans and Allies adn only in Africa ? I'm realy confused !

[DMS|Instinct]

The game is released in 2 parts for the Russian market, you are reading the description of the 2nd part.
Whereas the Western community will receive both games in one: Men of War.
So the description on 1C or Digitalmindsoft is of importance for you.

[(UGF} Corporal Desola]

Yeah,

MoW will be as moddable as FoW was, as it's all based on GEM, and the official map editor will be on the CD, really, why not stick the other mod tools on there aswell or won't they fit?

Is there any plans for releasing a conversion application to convert from .3DS files to .PLY files, because not all of us have access to 3D Studio Max, I mainly have access to GMAX and TurboCAD v10.

And are the .ANM files in the same format as the .ANM files produced by Anim8tor?

If you don't know how moddable FoW was, well as I put it, you couldn't call it modding with the GEM engine.

And those FORMIDABLE .PAK files, just swap their .PAK extension for .ZIP and you shall be enlightened on the GEM engine and the workings of FoW or MoW, note though, eng.pak in FoW isn't a ZIP file, I think it could be encoded in Unicode or encripted.

[DMS|Instinct]

We can't put additional work in making exporters for other programs, you know in first line we are developing and supporting a game.
3dsmax tools will be either on disc or available for download.
The animation files are created by the exporter, however they won't work with other programs.

[(UGF} Corporal Desola]

Yeah, I know, GamePlay first, but didn't BestWay create the GEM engine, if they did then it's their reponsability to build more tools for content creation not DMS's, unless they make the source for reading the .PLY and .ANM files open, then anyone could have a shot.
And I was just checking with the .ANM files because of the file extension similarity, I've yet to find an engine that works with .3DS and .MAX files directly rather than converting them, but I've seen the .PLY files before do they work with another tool or are they GEM-specific aswell?

[DMS|Instinct]

They are all GEM engine specific.
Best Way works on the game aswell so they have the same priority as we have.

[szebus]

Hey ... why i can not find the game (MoW) on gamespot's webpage ? Can anyone answer to my question ?


Newermind... it was my fault. TNX anyway

[Nike-it]

Hey ... why i can not find the game (MoW) on gamespot's webpage ? Can anyone answer to my question ?


Newermind... it was my fault. TNX anyway

Here is the link to the MoW page on gamespot:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/menofwar/index.html

[szebus]

It is sad that there are quiet few knows about the game... I know it is not my problem but don't the 5 companies have some marketing departmens witch has to made some publicity ? I realy don't know how it's works, I only saw that Ubi or EA makes some publicity for every crapy game and like 1C can't move a thing for people to know about the greatest strategy game ever... :(

[Nike-it]

It is sad that there are quiet few knows about the game... I know it is not my problem but don't the 5 companies have some marketing departmens witch has to made some publicity ? I realy don't know how it's works, I only saw that Ubi or EA makes some publicity for every crapy game and like 1C can't move a thing for people to know about the greatest strategy game ever... :(

Now we are preparing the game site, where you'll find a lot of information about the game. Also MoW will be presented on our stand during GC2008, so wait for more news after the event.
And very soon you'll be able to try it in multyplayer mode, for more info about mp beta test visit http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/

[szebus]

Hmmm...have done all... HWen the game site is comming out and how will it be called ? www.menofwar.com or www.menofwargame.com or www.outfront2.com ???