Introduction

These are the interviews we made with ALTAR during the development of Aftermath as well as the logs from our official chats. We will also list all the other interviews out there at some point, but for now we'll only make ours available. Most of these interviews are very detailed, and should thus be quite interesting.

Chatlogs:
- 11th September 2003
- 19th February 2003
- 19th September 2002

Interviews
- 02nd August 2003
- 19th May 2003 - E3
- 16th May 2003 - E3
- 4th June 2002
- 4th May 2002
- 11th December 2001

11th September 2003

The following question and answer session took place in the unofficial chatroom on the 11th of September 2003. These people from ALTAR Interactive/Cenega Publishing/Tri Synergy attended:

Jiri Rydl - Public Relations
Robert Hoffmann - Business Development Manager
Martin Klima - Lead Designer
Brian Faller - Project Manager from Cenega Publishing
Andrew Hoolan - Director of Public Relations from Tri Synergy


1: Game-mechanics


GoByFly: How can there be multisquare aliens, but not multisquare tanks?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: This is a design decision as much as practical one. You have much stronger requirements on the player's units than on the enemy units. Consider for example a simple problem of walking uphill. If you have a multi-square unit, you have to tilt it adequately and you have to have several different kinds of animations for this. Or you can say that this particular kind of enemy will only appear in missions where there are no steep hills. Which obiously you cannot do for the player's units. On the other hand, let me assure you that you are not really going to miss them. There are some very cool weapons that will turn your soldiers into the walking tanks.
Mira: In the beginning we were told that we'll be able to fire from both hands. But in screens we didn't see this yet. Does this feature still exist?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: No, it does not.
stoupa: One of the latest topics in the official forum was about Iron Man mode that wouldn't allow the player to save the game during the combat. I think it would be easy to implement and it would add more fun. I think that something simmilar was in the Original War - medals for not saving the game.
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: There are various reasons for this, but the most important is perhaps that we don't miss it ... In OW we marked the missions the player won without loading with little medals. That was a cool touch, however as there is no mission tree in UFO:AM it would be difficult to reproduce. Basically, I think that if somebody does not want to save, he is welcomed not to do so.
Ilya: I want to know REAL system requiments, not minimum, not maximum. Just for comfort gaming... I have Duron700/256Mb + Gf2mx400 32mb. GF3 reccomend was saying. Does it mean that the game will use shaders?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: In this configuration the video card would be the weakest points. We have quite detailed textures in the game and these use lot of video card memory. As for the shaders, we use some vertex programs, but this is not essential. But 64MB video card will result in better performance.
[9-11]Nikua: Is there deformable terrain?  Can you make craters or mow down trees as well?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: You must make the difference between the terrain and the objects. Terrain is not destructible (no craters), while many objects are. Not trees, though. But you can destroy hedges and fences and stuff like this.
stoupa: It is possible that we'll see some of the things that you weren't able to put in the game because of time in some patch?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Yes, this is possible.


2: Mods


THE-PUNISHER: How many sold games are nescessary for mod helping software to be released at your site? Or a multiplayer part ???  How big could the Modder support be?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: We are going to release some modding tools regardless of the number of copies sold. Certainly, if the game does well, we would be able to support it better.
meF: What is the engine Modifying possibilities/...can we expect any changes as to the much discussed interactivity with buildings in the future?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: While this might be possible in principle -- nothing is impossible in computer games -- I think this is highly unlikely. I would think the modding would concentrate on modifying the game parameters -- changing weapon stats, adding new weapons or ammunition or even new monsters. We also hope to be able to release a tool for building custom levels, but this won't be tomorrow.
[9-11]-caz: Are you also nude this time Jiri? LOL
[9-11]JR_ALTARinteractive: Of course! Martin has some t-shirt unfortunately.


3: Publishing


[9-11]-caz: When does UFO:A go gold?
[9-11]Brian_Cenega: Simple answer there is it is already gold! [9-11]ALTAR_Martin: UFO: Aftermath went gold today. [9-11]Brian_Cenega: We have a release date in the UK for the 26th of September. It will be slightly different in some countries - down to the time it takes them to reproduce the game.
[9-11]Nikua: Is the release date for Finland close to that of the UK and the rest of Europe?
[9-11]Brian_Cenega: Afrid to say I am not sure!!!! - but all the release dates where within a few weeks - so you should have it early October at the latest!
pragmaONCE: How integral was your unique combat system in making a deal with publishers?  It seems lately that publishers shy away from the TBS genre, despite the popularity of titles such as JA2 and Fallout Tactics in the past.  Was this a barrier?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Well, I always wondred why CENEGA signed the deal with us So Brian, was this a factor?  [9-11]Brian_Cenega: I do not think it was much of a problem (although I was nto invovled in the signed deal). Turn based is really the only way to go with a single player team based tatical game.
THE-PUNISHER: Is UFO 2 planned if UFO:Aftermath is a success?
[9-11]JR_ALTARinteractive: I have to add that Brian already plays UFO, so he know the game. [9-11]Brian_Cenega: And it can get very nasty sometimes! The pause feature is a god send! [9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Well, we would very much like to work on UFO: Afterglow or whatever it wold be called. [9-11]Brian_Cenega: AS for UFO 2 - well if the sales of this titel are as good as we hope, then there is a strong possibility!
stoupa: I've seen that czech Tiscali Gameshop is offering some bonus CD with UFO (http://www.xzone.cz/ti...i/nahledgame.php3?idg=857). Is this bonus made by someone from Altar? Is it official?
[9-11]JR_ALTARinteractive: Yep, the CD is created with support from ALTAR. But it has nothing in common with special edition. It's just small bonus for Czech player - you start in Czech Rep for instance :-] The special edition will be announced soon I belive (Brian?).
[9-11]-caz: What about the English Special Edition? When? Where? What?
[9-11]Brian_Cenega: We where planning something with a game store in the UK - but it kinda fell throw a few weeks back (sorry one and all!). Hopefuuly we will be able to sort something out before launch with another retailer.
jack-dead: Who will be the publisher in Russia, and will there be a localized version?
[9-11]Brian_Cenega: I am not sure about the publiser, but there should be a locaized version - the guys at HQ are working round the clock now to get all the localization finished.
stoupa: Will the localization of the czech version delay the release date in Czech Rep.? Will be the localization (voices) as good as it was in Original War?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: The voiceovers in the Czech version of OW were atrocious. I think UFO:AM is much better. [9-11]JR_ALTARinteractive: And yes, there will be small delay.
ZuckerDoc: This is more of a marketing question for Tri, but where is all of the marketing for the US?  All we have seen is one ad in PCGamer.  Are you guys going to blitz us in the next two weeks?  And, what's up with the US Version as a whole?  Coming out 9/26, and the Special Edition?
[9-11]Brian_Cenega: I'm afrid I am not going to be able to answer that one!!!! I do know that we recently had a press tour - so you should have a lot more coverage coming up in teh magazines. Also we are off to the EB confrance next week to push the title though them.
farfrael: How will the demo of UFO: Aftermath be distributed ?
[9-11]Brian_Cenega: In the UK we are going to get it included on the cover disk on PC Gamer. [9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Demo? What demo? [9-11]Brian_Cenega: As for other regions, again it will be up to this distributor in that teritory, but most likly it would be either on a cover or from a video games oulet!
[9-11]-caz: In your budgets; How many copies does UFO:A have to sell in order to generate a surplus? Is that number realistic or a bit low in your opinion?
[9-11]Brian_Cenega: Not sure - what I can tell you is that we have already had more orders for the launch of the game then we had originally planned for its life!
Ghostrider: Will there be a presentation of AFTERMATH this weekend in BRNO on Gaming FEST taking place on 13th and 14th ?
[9-11]JR_ALTARinteractive: The answer is yes and no. There will be small presentation - videos, new shots, concepts etc, but......but without playable game to try. I believe next good stop is Invex in Brno.
[9-11]Nikua: will those videos/pics be availabe online for all of us NOT attending said show?  
[9-11]JR_ALTARinteractive: Nope. Maybe later. [9-11]Martin_ALTAR: You mean you are not going? [9-11]Nikua: A bit far from DAllas, TX. LOL
[9-11]-caz: What will be included in the demo?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: There will be very limited strategic game -- only to give you an impression, not to play it. And there will be a couple of tactical missions, one very similar to the in-game tutorial.
Chenjesu/GoByFly: How large will the demo be for us not getting the CD from PCGamer, and how many CD's is the game going to be on?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: The demo will be about 200megs. The game comes on 2CDs and requires 1.25GB on your disk.
[9-11]-caz: Can you tell anything about your next project, a RPG?
[9-11]pasik: It will be the best RPG ever.
Ghostrider: I guess the intro was shortened, can you provide the unedited version to http://www.ufoaftermath.co.uk for us as a nice present?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: That's a thorny question. [9-11]pasik: Precisely. We can at least discuss it here... Perhaps some rogue emploee might sneak the complete intro out of office
[9-11]Nikua: MSRP?  Any ideas in Euros and American Dollars?
[9-11]Brian_Cenega: Ok - we can not set a price - so you might be able to get it cheeper then this - UK - £29.99, US - $39.99 and EU 39.99 Euro. (for teh UK I know a few online sites are a bit cheeper) [9-11]Slaughter: More on prices: http://www.ufo-aftermath.com/pages/preorder.html
[9-11]-caz: Some board members find that not enough have been done marketing wise. What have you done, and what will your continued efforts be in making UFO:A a household name? (we would like to hear concrete plans :-])
allien: I can only speak for the PR side of it. The UFO Beta went out to the press last week. The Press Release will hit Tomorrow or Monday about it being Beta. The Advertising Decesions are for Cenega. Let me try to explain Tri Synergy: We are more like a co-publisher.  We make it easy for developers or smaller publishers to get the product out to the stores. It is very expensive to do anything in this industry anymore. We know the shortest and cheapest path. We helped Cenega get their products into the channel over here. That included a bunch of stuff but the money for ads is theirs not ours. We try to advice and consult but they make the decisions. I really enjoy working with them and I hope we do more things with each other. I can tell you this. It was tough getting things done PR wise over here. You are dealing with a game that has changed hands so many times. The editors thought it would be another Malice type story. So, why give space to a product that is going to be killed. Then the press tour came and it was real to them. That is when all the coverage started.
[9-11]Slaughter:  US release date?
allien: Last week of September I believe. Just so you know, I have been doing this too long to trust a launch date. That is my own personal belief though. I do think it will make it.
Ilya: Are you allredy playing game? Describe your feelings.
allien: Like a little kid. Oh man. I am being very truthful when I say that UFO is my fav. You know, I think this game touches us not just because of the gameplay but also because of the topic. I also like the feeling that no matter how many times you play it there is still this huge feeling of what is going to happen next.
MDGeist: What about merchandising and things? I'd decorate my whole gaming room with posters and merchandising from UFO!
allien: I would to. You will see posters and T-shirts.
[9-11]Slaughter: So in the end, it's Cenega that make the arrangments with PC magazines etc.?
allien: For the ADS. Yes. There aren't many here though. [9-11]Slaughter: We've noticed  Only one seen in PC Gamer so far... allien: It kind of sucks.
meF: You have published many games....you have seen things....what is  in your oppinion ufo awaits? any prognoses?
allien: That is so hard to judge over here now. I hate that. I believe that UFO will do well. It is going into some good places. This game appeals to so many different types of gamers. There is good hype about it. The editor from computergaming world just wrote me. He is enjoying it so far.
[9-11]-caz: How many preorders have you gotten??
allien: I don't have an update on that. I should get those numbers tomorrow. I'm not really allowed to say. what I can tell you is that they have continued to increase each week.
MDGeist: Will there be a "collectors edition" or something like that?
allien: I am not sure. That is usually based on the sales.
[9-11]Slaughter: We tend to ask our guest if they are naked. Sooo, are you?
allien: No, but I will be soon. Now, where is my webcam...
[9-11]-caz: Will there be differences in US and UK covers and/or other differences?
allien: I am embarrased to say that I am not sure. I have both files but I haven't looked at the UK box.
[9-11]Slaughter: Hmm, when can we expect reviews in the US?
allien: Very close to the release. Look for more stuff on it next week. I sent the Beta to over 50 editors.
[9-11]-caz: What can you say about the distribution of the demo?
allien: We are having a call about that tomorrow. I am sure it will be posted at all the good sites.


4: RPG


Mira: Is there any differences between women's and men's abilities and features? Or there is only difference in names?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: All soldiers are different from each other in terms of statistics. However, if your question is whether there are some bonuses or penalties based on sex, than the answer is no, there are non.
GoByFly: We have heard that humans will have a maximum LvL on 40 , will the same rule go for aliens ? Can they be "maxed" out?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: We don't think about people in terms of levels but in terms of statics. A soldier's level is simply the number of times he "leveled-up" i.e increased one of his attributes. For aliens, this concept is not really meaningful. However, they have the same stats as you men do and these can be maxed out.
meF: How will the skills system work? Will there be some extra skills like psi for our troops?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: There are six attributes -- Strength, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, WIllpower and Perception. From these 14 skills are calculated, and one of these skills is Psi Power. When you gain a level, you can increase one of the six attributes and this can in turn influence your skills. You can send your men to trainings and this can in turn also increase some of your skills.
MDGeist: When using PSI, are you using innate abilities, or equipment to bolster your PSI power ?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Both. But you cannot actively use your PSI powers without a proper equipment.
[9-11]Nikua: Do the aliens (or transgenants) also have skills/professions as part of their intrinsic character modeling/creation ?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Yes, all the enemies have the same set of stats as your characters.


5: Strategic


Mira: On the research screen we can see small picture of researching object. Shall we have a large view of researched object? (like in X-COM 1,2)
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: In UFO: Aftermath we opted for videos instead of static graphics. So for each research item you will have a set of two or three small videos that correspond to it. However, be warned that we have decided to perhaps leave more to the player's imagination, so the videos are merele suggestive of the atmosphere, not really descriptive.
From Several People: Can you breifly explain intercepts?  Do multiple bases send mulitple planes?  Can we interact at all once engaged.  And, can we upgrade the planes with weapons or totally new craft?  
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: OK. One base sends always three planes. You have a choice of deciding whether to intercept or not when the UFO is spotted. Even if you decline the option, you can select the UFO and press the Intercept button. Once the planes catch up with the UFO, you will see a video from dogfight and at the same time you will see little icons of your planes and enemy craft turning first red then grey. At any time during this period, you can press the Retreat button to save the planes that are still in the air. If you lose the dogfight, you can send in another wing of aircraft in the way described above. However, if the aircrafts are damaged when they return to the base, they must be repaired.
Hellbound: But can we interact in the interception? (more or less agressive?)
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: No. But you can upgrade your planes through various researches and developments.
Camp Freddie: How is base inventory and manufacturing handled ? What supplies are infinite, what is made one at a time, etc?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: In the end it works little bit differently than we were saying in the beginning. You have a very small selection of unlimited weapons -- a shotgun, a Colt pistol, hand grenades and that is about it. All other equipment must be either recovered from missions, found in bases or manufactured. Contrary to what we were saying, manufacturing works like you would expect it -- you ask your engineers to produce say a Laser Rifle and when the development is finished, one extra Laser Rifle appears in your stores. There is one central store and one central research and development screen.
meF: Does Technology work simliar to XCOM?  How do upgrades and hybrids work, in conjunction to research and manufacturing?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: There is a technology tree, with most new techs requireing something we call "prerequisities" that can only be captured in tactical mission. Some of the "leafs" in this tree are manufacturings -- these then produce new equipment. Other technologies have global impact: e.g. Aircraft fuel upgrade will improve all your aircrafts at once.
Chenjesu: Will the tech tree be known in the manual, in the beginning of the game, or do we find out as the game progresses?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: No the tree must be discovered as you progress through the game.
Throwaxe: At which point are you defeated as a player?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: When you lose all your bases.
GoByFly: Speaking of locales, what specifics will we see in regards to environment, signs, wonders *Statue of Liberty*, and building design?  Will it be country based, or a bit more general, say Eastern European, Asian, so forth?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: The latter. There is an awful lot of possibilities even this way. What I found out when demonstrating the game to other people can be best summed up as follows: All parts of the globe look exactly as you would expect them to, with the exception of the one where you live. If we were to have some landmark building for each capitol on Earth, we would be working on the game for years to come.
meF: Probably an ibvious question....sort off addon to tech and research Q// will we be able to use captured alient tech like weapons and crafts?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: You are able to use some -- almost all -- captured alien weapons. And prerequisities for research include alien stuff, e.g. a hull of an UFO.
meF: so how is the system will work// what to be needed to get more scientist and weapons?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: You don't deal with scientists, you deal with bases. Every time you capture a base you get some amount of new equipment -- weapons, armours, etc. As for research you designate some of your bases as research facilities or engineering facilities.
MDGeist: Will there be plasma weapons as in XCOM : Enemy Unknown?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: There will be plasma weapons, as there are in many different games.
meF: What kind of story line can we be expecting? And will we be bound to it? Can we delay the end of the game?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Story line is there for you to discover. And there is nothing to force you to finish the game. You choose the speed of your progress entirely at your leisure.
[9-11]-caz: Some screens show area51 - Will such 'landmark-missions' be plentifull? (In the ECTS video also Big Ben, The Statue of Liberty and The Opera house in Sydney are seen). If so, will they be a part of the plot in every game, or 'just' random eye-candy missions?
[9-11]Brian_Cenega: There are going to be some "story line missions" - area 51 is the first of them!
Throndor: Does every downed UFO equate to a new tactical mission, or will there be times when all the alien crew perished thus voiding the need for it ? The latter being true does automatic recovery of all the relevant material from the crash site take place ?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: No and yes. Every air combat over land generates a tactical mission -- either you are saving a pilot or investigating the alien craft.
[9-11]Hellbound: So, when our crafts are downed, we can go get our pilots?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Yes, you have to go on a rescue mission to bring the pilot back.
AC_: How many sizes do the UFOs come in?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: In about four sizes and four types. But not all types come in all sizes. Actually, there may be more types, I am not quite sure at the moment.
stoupa: In X-COM: Enemy Unknown, soldiers didn't have any armor until the player researched Alien Alloys. Will there be some "starting" armor in UFO?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: There are two "lines" or armour -- human and alien. The former can be found in bases and improved by research. The latter must be first won in missions and then manufactured.
meF: Can we expect to have 2 or more ufo's landed in the same mission map?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: No, there is always a maximum of one UFO per mission.
AC_: What are the different UFO types? Are they different from inside?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: And from outside as well... Seriously, though there are several types of UFO and they differ from each other by their inner arrangements. And they also differ by size -- this is perhpas the most important difference. But even the UFOs of the same size and type can be different inside, at least to some extent.
[9-11]Nikua: Can we send a chopper to a landed ufo, or do ALL UFO's need to be intercepted by aircraft first to be shot down?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: The former. You can explore the landed UFOs all right, if you dare.
[9-11]Hellbound, meF and Punisher: Now, i know that 99% of population died but anyway will there will be any decent NPC.s that are bound to storyline? or Just some survival civilians? And do we get to rescue them?
[9-11]pasik: Unfortunately there arent any NPCs.
Mira: Can we watch replay of the mission we just played ?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: This is one of the things we would love to do, but it is not there.
meF: No money no resources? Any value system? Any alien materials to produce alien tech?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: I believe we already answered most of this question. No money. Alien prerequisited for research to be salvaged in tactical mission.


6: Tactical


meF: What can we expect from enemy AI?
[9-11]JR_ALTARinteractive: That's for hours to tell :-] I hope Martin can make a solid nice sentence about it :-] [9-11]Martin_ALTAR: I am just thinking where to begin. [9-11]pasik: It takes days to explain. [9-11]Martin_ALTAR: I would say, wait and see -- there is IMO very solid AI in the game.
stoupa: In the FAQ, there is said that there will be 38 human weapons. That's a lot of more than in X-COM. Will these human weapons have some major diffences?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: There 43 human weapons. 5 of them however are "fantasy" weapons that have no real counterparts. [9-11]JR_ALTARinteractive: Lets say scifi :-] [9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Obviously, some weapons are similar to each other, but there are many ways how to differentiate between them. There are pistols, shotguns, PDWs, etc. Some weapons you get in the early stages of the game, and if you progress through the game, you will get more sophisticated weaponry. And then there is question of personal prefernces. For some people, FN FAL is simply better than G3 or other way round.
MDGeist: What can you tell us about the psi-powers in the game ?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: There are psi powers in the game.
[9-11]Nikua: About soldiers, can they panic if too many soldiers start dying or there is too much fire; and how are positions like stand/kneel implemented in the game?  Do they lessen the chance of being hit while increasing hit percentage?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: Soldiers do not panic. These are the elite troops and they only do what they are told to do (unless, of course, they fall under the enemy influence). Kneeling is independent of mode of fire (aim/burst) and it does reduce.
meF: And whats up with the smoking chimneys?
[9-11]Martin_ALTAR: It is not smoking chimneys, it is burning houses and cars and the overall atmosphere of destruction. Of course, it is not realistic to expect the fires could be going on for so long, but it adds lot to the air of the game.
GoByFly: When you enter an area with a shot down UFO, can there be wounded or even dead aliens at the site of the UFO crash, or will you only face aliens with full health ?
[9-11]pasik: No dead aliens. [9-11]Martin_ALTAR: I am really sorry, GBF, but there won't be dead or wounded aliens on the crash site. I can see it would add to the atmosphere, but we didn't have time to implement it.


7: Credits


First of all, thank you Martin Klima, Jiri Rydl and Robert Hoffmann of ALTAR Interactive, Brian Faller of Cenega Publishing and Andrew Hoolan of Tri Synergy for making the second official chat possible.
Second, thank you Wormster (Wormfist) for making this great chat transcript, not to mention your nice little transcriptor program.
Third, thank you to Caz, Hellbound, Nikua and PlacidDragon. You were posting questions as voices(+) during the chat, and this could not have been done without you!
Fourth, a big thanks to WHiZ and EnterTheGame. You assisted us in all possible manners. We are ever grateful for that!
Fifth, thanks to Pete for making the #1 UFO:Aftermath fan site!
And last, but not least, thank you to everyone that attended. You asked many great questions, and made 2.5 hours disappear way too quickly.

19th February 2003

The following question and answer session took place in the unofficial chatroom on the 19th of February 2003. These people from ALTAR Interactive attended:

Jakub Gajda - Senior Programmer
Robert Hoffmann - Business Development Manager
Martin Klima - Lead Designer
Ondrej Laba - Project Manager from Cenega Publishing
Jiri Rydl - Public Relations


Publishing & Localisation


Masllu: The final game, will have a spanish language version of the text and voice?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: We plan full Spanish version but everything depends on our partner in Spain, there are big chances for a full Spanish product :-)

X-com: How much will this game cost?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: It depends on territory but it will be full price title, so the price should be like price of good new game. :-)

Olly: Can you tell us a little about your publishing plans for AM?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: It is wide question, what exactly do you mean? We want to do maximum for good sales. :-)

Olly: How do you do advertise it or how will you make people know about it? And where will you publish it?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: It's the work of PR and marketing, we have a very experienced Marketing Manager who has a lot of experience with big titles. We will publish it world-wide

Olly: US deal done yet?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: In US we prepare our own distribution. Jiri: I made a mistake in GameSpot interview about that. That's why the question about different USA publishing came up

caz: How much do you expect UFO:Aftermath to sell?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: It is difficult question; we want to sell enough units for covering all costs and making some profit for us and Altar. big profit is necessary to say :-) Definitely better sales that Virgin with Original War

caz: Can you tell a bit about Cenega Publishing?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: See our website http://www.cenega.com

Olly: How manu units is good sale?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: Ondrej: LOL Pasik: 7 000 000 ;-) Ondrej: Yes, it would be great but unfortunately this game is not especially for Japan market :-)

X-Com: If the sales arent that good will there still be support for the game?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: Hundreds of thousand units, that's our goal :-)

Kahnn: Will the local versions of AM have an English option as opposed to fully translated without the chance to get original sounds and text?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: Hmmm. It again depends on concrete distribution but usually we will support only local versions. Maybe we will have multilanguage discs with more than only one language. In the territories where won't be a localised version we will probably distribute full English product

Mazdek: Let me start by saying I mean no offense to anyone by this question. Recent gaming history has put a bad light on publishers for interfering with the developers too much, like forcing the game out to stores before the developers are really done, causing them to leave in bugs (or not finish quality control to find them all), and/or removing content and features, etc. I guess my question is, does ALTAR and Cenega Publishing have a relationship?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Pasik: Yes, we do Ondrej: We believe that good relationship with developer is the key Martin: Yes, there is no creative intereference from Cenega Ondrej: We have some comments and consult some things but 99% is on Altar :-)

Niski: A follow up About Cenega interference on the game... So what kind of things have Cenega changed?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: Martin: human resistance fighters, I suppose? Ondrej: We don't want to change anything, we want only discuss with developer about some issues e.g. interface, equipment window

friede: "Another War" was published here in Germany on just DVD, do you have similar plans for UFO: Aftermath?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: It was Take 2 decisions, we will have UFO on CD in Germany :-)

caz: Which of your titles scheduled for 2003 do you consider your strongest asset?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: All of them :-)

caz: Is the logo official?
ALTAR (Pasik):: yes, it is


Game Elements


sho3lace: Ae their friendly NPCs that we can add to our side that aid us in some way?
ALTAR (Martin):: I think I am not at liberty to reveal this at this moment

Apocca: The aliens weapons u pick up on the battlefield. U can use them or not. My question: Will there be an succes/fail ratio if you try to use it the first time
ALTAR (Martin):: However, you will not be able to use any alien weapon when you pick it up for the first time, you have to take it back and research it first, then will your scientists tell you how to use it

Apocca: I got another question: Can we play as another side then the humans? (alien perhaps)
ALTAR (Martin):: Not in the game when it is release, it may be possible in some mod or by some cheats. But it is not going to be a supported feature

fede: Will there be usable vehicles / interactive parts of the environment? Like.. I don't know, a fixed machine gun? Or opening & closing windows & doors, moving furniture around, flipping a table on its side for cover, blocking doors with heavy furniture, etc.?
ALTAR (Martin):: Well, there will be some things like this, e.g. switches, but it is not going to be common; there will not be a switch in every mission. Your interaction with environment will be mostly limited to blowing it up

fede: Will switching on/off a light (for example) affect the gameplay? Will the aliens have trouble seeing you then?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes, if we have a switch, than it is going to affect gameplay. However when I say switch I rather a mean a switch that will open a door somewhere or something like that

fire850: Is morale and its effect implemented in game. If yes in what way?
ALTAR (Martin):: No, morale is not implemented. To be more precise, it is not implemented for your men. They will never run from combat on their own and never refuse to obey your commands (save for some alien influence). It is different for the aliens, though. They will not fight to the last man (or most of them won't). They will break and flee

Hellbound: Martin_ALTARinteractive: They will never run from combat on their own and never refuse to obey your commands (save for some alien influence) Hellbound: So, that means that there will be some kind of alien mind control? And can we "learn" to use it?
ALTAR (Martin):: Martin: Do you really want to know? Jiri: I dont want to know :-] Mazdek: heh, spoiler warning! Ondrej: It should be surprise! Martin: ;-) Sorry, I am afraid I already said more than I wanted to

Mazdek: The screenshots show seven soldiers can be on a mission. How many can you have in total (back at the bases), as replacements?
ALTAR (Martin):: In principle as many as you want. But if you draft too many, the new ones will be getting weaker. So there is little point in having more than say twenty

fede: How is the AI reacting to the player ? Is it only a "I see/ I engage" system or can they hear you and become more cautious? Is there coordination between aliens?
ALTAR (Martin):: It depends; there are various kinds of enemies (some of them smarter, some dumber). We shall definitely try to have some nastily clever aliens. We already have something in this respect. Still, it is only a computer. When you discover how it plays, you can always beat it. We shall try to make the discovering difficult, but this is all we can do

friede: Please describe how to plan and co-ordinate more than one action for every squad member with SAS?
ALTAR (Martin):: Planning is easy, you just select a soldier and right-click somewhere, then somewhere else, etc. All the orders are stringed into an order queue. Coordinating is more difficult. Deliberately, we decided not to provide any tools for coordination (sync points, conditional orders). It would make the game too difficult and complex to grasp

caz: How will interception be handled? Have you listened to the fans demand on this issue (or other issues)?
ALTAR (Martin):: I am afraid, we rather listened on other issues. Interceptions are going to be automatic. But still, this is the easies thing to change

AlexGekas: Will we be able to enter buildings while in tactical mode (roof or no roof)?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes, you will be able to enter buildings. You will not see their insides, though, only an outlined (X-ray like) cross section of the building and ghosts of the units inside. It is somewhat difficult to describe, wait for screenshots

apocca: Were does the biomass originally begin to grow?
ALTAR (Martin):: I am afraid, you have to wait and see... Wait for some interviews around the internet and magz :-]

fede: Martin said "length of the game (number of base to capture)"... Does it end when you capture X number of bases, or all of them? or all of them (repelling all the biomass) and then the Mothership or something like that?
ALTAR (Martin):: Something like that, yes. I am sorry, but I would rather not go into details about what to do to end the game

es-noah|wk: It is my understanding that there is no economy in UFO:Aftermath. If this is the case, how does research work? i.e., what are the limiting factors (i.e., money, men, materials) that influence the pace and success of research?
ALTAR (Martin):: Your bases. You decide which of your bases will be dedicated to research, this weakens your military presence but increases the speed of research

es-noah|wk: Follow-up: Are all bases weighted equally in terms of output for research?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes, all bases are equal

friede: Are all the aliens (aliens, enemies, transgenants) in the world of UFO: Aftermath evil-minded towards mankind or will we meet friendly aliens, too?
ALTAR (Martin):: Then the answer is more generic: some enemies are simply indifferent to you. Some are openly hostile

fede: Are there different kind of missions besides the obvious base assaults and going to landing or crash sites of the aliens? Specifically, will there be any "defense" missions where you have to defend your own base or one of your own downed aircraft, or some other location of strategic interest? And any other types?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes, there will be this kind of missions (the latter I mean, of course). We try to make mission as varied as possible. Combined with different locations, architecture areas, environment belts etc. it may happen that no two missions will be the same. But obviously, it is much more probable that there will be some repetitions.

Hellbound: Rescue missions and such? maybe one of your men or scientists?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes, rescue missions are one of the things we want to have as well

caz: Will soldiers be honoured with "medals etc." after a certain amount of kills, a number of mission, 5 kills in 1 mission etc.? An will we have access to a Hall of Fame displayed also our diseased soldiers?
ALTAR (Pasik):: No medals, but very thorough info containing all the soldiers feats during the game

Joshy: Whats the basic storyline of the game?
ALTAR (Martin):: The day after tomorrow, a giant spacecraft approaches the Earth. Silent, it hovers ominously over the world, and begins to release great clouds of spores into the upper atmosphere. Rapidly multiplying, the spores soon darken the skies, and before long obscure the sun completely. In later days, this period will be known as the "Twilight". Having reached critical mass in the skies, the spores begin to rain down, and over the course of several days, begin to clog the streets and bodies of water, smothering people in their homes, and burying animals in the wild. During the "Nightfall", as it would come to be called, most of the higher life forms on the earth were wiped out. During the Twilight, all human responses were futile. Choosing caution over aggression, the governments of the world didn't realize how quickly the end could come, and were buried alongside those that they governed. A few, however, did survive, sealed in underground bases with stocks of food and oxygen. After several weeks, the spores seemed to have disintegrated, decomposing and settling into the soil. The world seemed safe again, for a time.

fede: Could you describe some of the heavy weapons? Will there be any sort of guided missile?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Unfortunately I cannot describe any weapons yet

Thorondor: Could you disclose some additional information on how training will fit into the overall squad management scheme ? (and can we humans really afford to spare the time to have some of our best men and women lying around doing extra training when our race is in such dire straights ?)
ALTAR (Pasik):: Some abilities could only be trained

jp161: Quote ("Some abilities could only be trained") You mean some abilities can go up only by training or you can only train some abilities?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Some abilities can go up only by training

XCTCPete: Will there be any civilians in the game? Will any animals have survived, particularly cows and sheep for cattle abductions and so forth
ALTAR (Pasik):: You will find some cows, but a bit mutated. Same goes for the civilians

Niski: Are there any "specialist" skills like explosives ability that only some soldiers can use?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Yes, all the soldiers could attain unique skills


Gameplay


eL-stellar: Will there be different forms of HUD's, and if so, will you be able to tweak that HUD?
ALTAR (Martin):: Not really; You should be able to change the look of your soldiers, but the user interface is pretty much fixed

i-m-quake3-player: Any online support for the game or is it gonna be single player only?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes ;-) The game will be singleplayer only

caz: Can you speed up time in combat? Or is there just two "timeflows"; pause and play?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes, you can speed up and slow down the time during combat a bit. But there are limits to it, say to 3/4 and 5/4 of normal time

fede: Is the game linear, with predetermined missions path or is it dynamic, with weaker foes when you beat a base ?
ALTAR (Martin):: There are very few pre-prepared missions, most of them are random generated. Their parameters correspond to the current state of the game. That means that if you capture a base and expand your territory you will probably meet more dangerous enemies

Kaizsu: Will there be choosable difficulty levels in the game?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes, you can choose both difficulty level (enemy toughness) and length of the game (number of bases you have to capture)

epsilon: Will there be a ranking system implemented, and if so, is there any advantage of the rank attained or is it purely just a reflection of the change in statistics, or kills of that player?
ALTAR (Martin):: The latter is true; you develop your soldiers by awarding attribute points to them and the soldier's "weight" in the game is completely described by his skills. His name or rank has no impact to that

Mazdek: This is a followup on a question I asked in the first chat, or possible on one of the BBS' in the past. Is there any method of recording a mission to playback later, so people can review their own and watch other people's missions?
ALTAR (Martin):: Martin: That would be great wouldn't it? Mazdek: yeah. Martin: But in all likeness it will not be possible. At least not in time of release. If there is one feature we would want to add later, I believe it is this one

fede: How about performance? Is the game running smooth on current computers ?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes, the game makes about 40 FPS on PIII 500. It depends on the load and it is going to change both ways (there will be more optimization and more workload)

Myrdan: Will there be different styles of in game music? Rock, Punk?
ALTAR (Martin):: No, there will be only one style for the whole game

AlexGekas: How do you plan to propel the storyline?Cut-scenes, dialogues between the soldiers, through research? Does the game have multiple endings?
ALTAR (Martin):: Mainly through research. There will be no cut scenes, except for intro and outro. As for multiple endings, again no comment

Thorondor: * Post-Nightfall, transgenants (in all their diverse strains) become the largest force to contend with in terms of population density. Would it be unreasonable to equate that the transgenants will need to prey upon each other in the wild as a matter of survivability, since there are scarcely enough humans to 'feed upon' ? What do the transgenants do when there are no humans or pesky aliens around to interfere ?
ALTAR (Martin):: You have to realize that transgenant, for most part, do not have any rationality. That is to to say, they are not product of evolution, they are not as finely honed tools of survival as ordinary animals or predators. Some of them are dumb, some of them cannot survive on their own. Some of them are very lethal even if it does not increases their survival chances. You have to think out of the box about the transgenants; Put away about your preconceptions about ecological links and producer-predator chains.

friede: UFO: Aftermath will not support multiplayer action, why? Is SAS limited at this point?
ALTAR (Martin):: Hehe, simply because it is too much work. We are limited by our time and by our budget. And it would be a lot of work to do it right

AlexGekas: Will there be recognisable landmarks?Example: If there is a mission in Athens,will we see the Parthenon,or will the landscapes be random?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Yes, there will be landmarks

AlexGekas: Will there be scripted missions, ie set-pieces?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Only few missions will be scripted

Thorondor: In SAS's present incarnation, do you think a successful balance has been stricken between command queuing and the freedom of pausing, from a tactical standpoint as well as a game's mechanics one? In other words: does the pausing detract from the effective usefulness of order stacking in any way? Or is this a non-issue?
ALTAR (Pasik):: The system works fine, but we are still balancing it

Thorondor: Humans are likely to feel a great deal of psychological strain: from the discovery that they are not the only intelligent beings in the Universe, the great loss of life, the sheer revulsion towards the newcomers, loathing, fear, anger... How do you intend to convey that feeling of irreversible taint that comes from the realisation of the alienness of Earth itself, to the player? (Atmosphere thus)
ALTAR (Pasik):: We create quite unique atmosphere with carefuly chosen graphics, music, sounds and well thought story


Development


eph: What engine is it running on, and if its a engine made by you guys, tell us a little about it
ALTAR (Martin):: The Engine is running on our own engine. It supports skinning, multi-texturing and most of the usual stuff

eph: How is it looking for people wanting to make mod's
ALTAR (Martin):: As for the modding, we plan to release plugins for 3DMax that would allow the players to make their own models for the game. However it will probably take some time to get it right, so it will not be immediately after release.

MonkeyBoy_uk: Is there a plan for a Linux port, if not what middleware is being used (opengl etc)? So we can guess if it will work in WINE under linux
ALTAR (Martin):: It runs on OpenGL and it uses Miles and Bink from RadGameTools. Time can flow faster than normal, like forwarding a video tape

MonkeyBoy_uk: Is a Linux port not on the cards then?
ALTAR (Jam):: Right now not supported and not planed in the future, though some of the tools (file system build) works under linux. I believe it would not be that difficult if there was need for it

X-Com: Are there any known bugs so far? And will there be support to this game after released concerning patches for fixing them?
ALTAR (Martin):: There is always a number of unresolved bugs We try to fix the bugs as we encounter them. It's too soon to speak about bugs in unreleased game, but we are ready to patch everything you find in UFO: Aftermath after release. However, I hope it won't be necessary. (Don't all developers do?)

i-m-quake3-player: Have you thought about UFO: online version, single games becoming old now and not very popular
ALTAR (Martin):: Well, the problem is that Quake3 is just much more suitable to play online. I do not think the absolute numbers of players of singleplayer games are decreasing. And if the player's response is good, than we can consider what we can do about multiplayer support. I think if the game is good nobody doesn't care if it is single or online

PlacidDragon: Approximately how far into development is UFO: Aftermath at the moment, and do you have any estimation on a release date?
ALTAR (Martin):: The release date is Q3 and we are on target for this

caz: Will we be getting more samples of ingame-audio (music) in the near future?
ALTAR (Jiri):: Yes, But it should be surprise :-]

SBC|saboya: Do you intend to release expansion packs for the game later on?
CENEGA (Ondrej):: It depends on sales but everything is possible. And because sales will be great and ALTAR is very good developer, the datadisc would be fine. But we will see...

X-Com: If the sales aren't that good will there still be support for the game?
ALTAR (Martin):: We shall definitely support the game, no matter what (we did the same for Original War)

Buddha & Unleaded: When did the game developing start and how many are there developing the game?
ALTAR (Martin):: We started in September 2001. There are 25-30 people working on the game now

[WAR]XrelapmIg: What has been the biggest obstacle in the development of UFO:Aftermath?
ALTAR (Martin):: I am afraid we did not meet it yet. The crunch time is still ahead of us.

Tammy: Have you given any more thought to naming the soldiers after the regular visitors to the official site?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Yes. We are still considering the best options... You may be even able to name all of your soldiers by yourself from the very beginning

MonkeyBoy_uk: What's the reasoning behind leaving out heavy weapon platforms?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Heavy weapon platforms? You mean tanks and the likes? They simply did not fit in our small squad tactical simulator... ;-) But you will be able to use some really heavy weaponry...

[wg-unix]: Will there be aliens with faces and maybe looks of the game designers so we can hunt them down and punish them sometimes? What I mean is, will ALTAR people be making any appearances in the game, and will there be any other "easter eggs"? If so, could you give us a hint about them?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Pasik: Yes, there will be some Easter Eggs, but no way can you persuade me to name them ;-) Wormfist: Not even hint :p XCTCPete: (Wouldn't be an easter egg then Jiri: No way :-]? Pasik: My face, for example, would scare most of you away Mazdek: Jiri: That's true Pasik: so we do not plan to implement it...

caz: This one first: Can you reveal which possibilities for shortcut keys there will be?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Not yet

caz: Have you decided about the design of the box? If so when can we expect to see it?
ALTAR (Pasik):: We have two final proposals and the ball is now on Cenega Publishings' side

caz: Is it final or could any amateaur send his/her proposal?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Pasik: Our lead artist made them (Which means that they are the best). Jiri: Send us your proposals or artworks of course! We always want to hear your ideas. It's great to know, what ideas fans have. Send them to press@altarinteractive.com

fede: Is there a way to have a special character representing the player, and therefore immersing him more into the game? An avatar where losing him would lose the game, but he would be slightly better than the other soldiers?
ALTAR (Pasik):: We are still considering this option. Gives more RPG feeling, but gets its drawbacks


X-COM Related


AlexGekas: Given the limited amount of soldiers, will there be individuals,ie with their own vocals and faces, instead of generic ones like Xcom? Kinda like Commandos
ALTAR (Martin):: Up to the point yes. We will have at least 20 individuals but when you manage to kill them all, we shall have to recycle their voices for example. No, not like Commandos. You CAN loose men in Aftermath

epsilon: Have you consulted the creators of the original X-COM on any matters concerning Aftermath? (Known as CoDo today)
ALTAR (Pasik):: Our former producer from Virgin - Paul Whip - had some ties with the Gollops and told us, that he has consulted some problems with them...

caz: Many people still associate UFO:AM with the XCOM series. Are you afraid they could be disappointed due to their expectations to play a XCOM remake?
ALTAR (Pasik):: People who associate UFO-AM with XCOM series should stop doing so ;-)


Graphical


Mazdek: Will those plugins that you mentioned before allow you to put in your own faces and voices for soldiers?
ALTAR (Martin):: Yes, that would be one of the first things we would support

savves: How's the in-game cinematic gonna be done? cg?
ALTAR (Martin):: Combination of cg, real-world shots, post production effects, etc.

X-Com: Will the game run on voodoo cards, savage4, etc. or will it support other opengl cards?
ALTAR (Jam):: Generaly we will support all opengl card, but we require some capabilities, so no voodoo or voodoo2

Mazdek: What's the minimum generation of graphics card you expect to require (like GF2 or 3, or the ATI equivs)?
ALTAR (Jam):: GF2 is minimum, though the game will run also on slower cards. CPU: P III 500 and 256 MB memory.


Un-Catagorisable


JackInTheBox: Are you sitting behind your computer naked?
ALTAR (Pasik):: Pasik: Yes - all the time. Jiri: We are all naked in ALTAR.

Tamara: Tell Jiri I'm still waiting for my picture!
ALTAR (Jiri):: What what??


Credits


First of all, thank you Martin Klima, Jakub Gajda, Jiri Rydl and Robert Hoffmann of ALTAR Interactive, as well as Ondrej Laba of Cenega Publishing, for making the second official chat possible.
Second, thank you Wormster (Wormfist) for making this great chat transcript, not to mention your nice little transcriptor program.
Third, thank you to AlexGekas, caz, Hellbound, Mazdek, Kahnn, PlacidDragon, UFOPete. You were posting questions as voices(+) during the chat, and this could not have been done without you!
Fourth, a big thanks to WHiZ and EnterTheGame. You assisted us in all possible manners, the event server amongst them. We are ever grateful for that.
Fifth, thanks to Pete for making the nr. 1 UFO:Aftermath fan site, and ooda for helping him - keep it that way!
And last, but not least, thank you to everyone that attended. You asked many great questions, and made 3 hours disappear way too quickly.

19th September 2002

The following question and answer session took place in the unofficial chatroom on the 19th of September 2002. Martin Klima and Jiri Rydl were present from ALTAR Interactive, as were a number of fans and visitors.

The following 50-something questions have been grouped into categories, and there si a list of credits at the bottom of the page for you all to browse through!


About ALTAR


Mazdek:
I was told that ALTAR is an acronym, but when I asked, no one knew what it stood for. So, uh, what does ALTAR mean?
ALTAR:
It is a sort of silly and furthermore it only makes sense in Czech. Originally it was a name of the publishing house that made "Dragon's Lair", the Czech most popular pen-and-paper fantasy RPG. We, ALTAR interactive, are a sort of Offspring Company. Roughly translated it means "The Altruistic League of the Creators of an Alternative Reality", or ALCAR for short.

Olav:
The ALTAR team consists of about 20 people? How many programmers and so on?
ALTAR:
Actually little bit more. 8 programmers, 10 artists, 1 level designer, 1 sound engineer, 1 game designer, project manager, 1 PR, a couple of managers and a web designer. Last time we counted it was almost 30 people.
Olav:
The Aftermath site could use some work. What will happen to it in the future?
ALTAR:
We are working on the website all the time. The amount of information is growing and so is the website. We will add some new features like news subscriber, creature models, gun models, soldiers models, Aftermath background story, new screenshots from new scenes, better material for fansites (fansite kit, exclusive videos, shots and more), and some surprises we like to keep secret.

Olav:
You mentioned a new project in the forum a while ago. It was in connection with E3 I believe. Can you reveal the nature of this project?
ALTAR:
It is an RPG. We now have a tech demo and we are pitching it to the publishers. It is very ambitious project and we hope we will be able to tell more about it, but we are afraid it will not be before next year.


Graphical


Snow:
Can we get a big batch of new screenshots?
ALTAR:
You can found some new screens at ufo-aftermath.com right now. We know they are from E3 demo, but there are 4 new from strategic screen and one mutant model.
ArsII:
I was looking at the screenshots and thought, "This game is really brown." Will there be more colour variation in the tactical missions than what we've seen so far?
ALTAR:
This is a very contentious question even inside our team. There are people here who say the game looks too grey and brown. However our Lead Artist keeps telling them that this is not how the game is going to look like in the end. The look of the game should communicate the bleakness and despair, but it should not be repetitive. You can only appreciate the bleakness when it is in contrast with some occasional brighter colour patch.

Wormfist:
Will there be ingame cutscenes, movies to show certain evolving of time/technology?
ALTAR:
No, there will not be cutscenes, except for the intro and outro movie. The evolution of technology/story/time is only told through your research; for each new technology there will be nice picture of two and explanatory text.

Kahnn:
How will the interception screen be? Will the player be able to interact with the interception procedure, will it be carried on with an image or a single occurrence display?
ALTAR:
The opinions within out team are scattered here at the moment. There definitely will be an in-game video of the dog-fight, but it will not be interactive. It will be similar to "ninja-assassination-attempts" in Shogun: Total War, but with the advantage that in UFO:AFTERMATH you can skip them.

Kahnn:
Will there be better ships to be researched in order to achieve a better level of interception and if so can we customize it as we can with alien/earth weapons?
ALTAR:
Yes, there are technologies like "better radars" or "better weapons", but you will not be able to customize individual crafts; when you research one of these technologies, stats of all your aircrafts will improve.

Kahnn:
Will these new crafts change the appearance in the dog-fight video?
ALTAR:
Yes, they will.

Joran, Gamers.nl:
How did you come up with the aliens in the game? Did you encounter them yourself or did you do some research?
ALTAR:
One of our goals is to make the aliens that look different. So besides using the "proved" archetype of the "Greys" for the real aliens, we have various mutants (we call them Transgenants) and these should look as different from each other as possible. As for where they come from; most of them were born in the sick mind of Tomas, our Lead Artist.

hx^ggmania:
What the current system requirements are for UFO: Aftermath?
ALTAR:
Minimum is 500MHz with GF1.


Gameplay


hx^ggmania:
How difficult will it be for someone new to this genre to get into the game, how many hours will newcomers spend with tutorial? Can you specify a learning curve for those who never played any X-Com game?
ALTAR:
This may well change, but we believe a complete newcomer (but a player who already played some computer games) will pick up the basics of the game in 30-60 minutes. We try to create a very intuitive interface and also limit the amount of options in the beginning.

sqwirl:
Is the combat system going to be easy for a newcomer to the genre to learn?
ALTAR:
This is the whole point of the system. We want to create a system that feels intuitive, to both newcomers and seasoned players and obviously, for newcomers this is even more important.

ShredZ:
It's been said that more and more gamers prefer to out-smart their AI opponents instead of out-right killing them - In what ways will you be able to out-smart them and how big a role will stealth play?
ALTAR:
The trick really is not to make the enemy super-smart; the trick is to make him stupid cleverly. I mean to say that we will try to make the enemy AI lifelike, that is, we will have enemies that will not always do the best thing for them. So playing against such enemies should feel like playing against a human opponent. We will see how we manage to succeed in this; it is not an easy problem.

Joran, Gamer.nl:
Do you think that there is still a broad audience for turn-based games?
ALTAR:
Don't confuse the absolute and relative numbers; while in absolute numbers the market for PC games grows, but in relative numbers it loses to consoles. Something very similar can be said about turn-based games. We believe that in absolute numbers there actually are more people around now who would like to play them. The problem is that the games cost more-and-more to develop and the publishers are not content with numbers that used to be good not so long ago.

Silencer:
With each base being more focused than the previous games, do we still get to place individual base structures and if so, will the tactical layout change accordingly when the base is attacked.
ALTAR:
No, you will not place individual base structures. However in tactical mission, the base layout will correspond to the current specialization. We have several predefined templates for each type of base and this template will be more-or-less randomly filled according to the age of base and other parameters.
So the two missions inside say a research base will not look exactly the same, but you will probably see the same equipment and rooms.

sqwirl:
Will there be difficulty levels and if so what will the difference between playing on an easy difficulty level and playing on a hard difficulty level?
ALTAR:
There will indeed be difficulty levels. When playing on easy level, the alien aggressiveness will be small and it will be practically impossible to lose the strategic game. On hard setting it will be easy to lose.

Joran, Gamers.nl:
Can you play for an unlimited amount of years or do you have to get rid of the aliens by a certain date?
ALTAR:
There is no fixed deadline and you can keep playing as long as you want.

Silencer:
Are there any NPC characters in the game? Perhaps friendly aliens you can recruit or civilian survivors that you must try to protect?
ALTAR:
No comment.

Joran, Gamers.nl:
The gameplay will be the big selling point of Aftermath. How does the gameplay evolve during the game?
ALTAR:
The gameplay evolves as your technology evolves; new technologies give you new weapons which in turn give you more options, but we are not going to say it will make a completely new game. In fact, some of the weapons you use in the beginning may well be the most useful ones even in the end, but the new weapons may give you an ability to face tasks that were impossible before.

ArsII:
Will there be Easter Eggs?
ALTAR:
Almost certain, depends on how long the crunch period is going to be.

Silencer:
The original games had a few different combat scenarios such as downed/landed UFO's, terror attacks on cities, and base battles. Could you tell us a little about the combat scenarios UFO:AFTERMATH will have?
ALTAR:
Broadly speaking, there is a set of possible objectives: recon, contain alien foray, downed/landed UFO, rescue ejected pilot, etc. The mission generator picks up one at random, depending on the location of the mission, phase of the game, etc.

Silencer:
Would the aliens attack your bases if they discovered them (will they discover your bases at all)? If so, then how will it be defended if it is mostly a research base (or something non military)?
ALTAR:
Yes, the aliens can attack your base and if you lose, the base is lost as well. Defending the research base will be in principle similar to defending any other base, but the probability the aliens will attack a military base is much smaller than for the other types of bases.


Game Elements


Megatron:
What does the biomass do and how can you keep it away?
ALTAR:
Biomass creeps over the surface of the Earth, replacing all Earth fauna and we mean completely replace. To keep it away, you will be fighting tactical missions in or near it; this will slow it down a bit. But eventually you will have to develop technologies that will turn your bases into giant "biomass repulsors".

mattias:
How big a role will the biomass have in UFO:AFTERMATH? Will it be a
direct threat?
ALTAR:
Sure, the biomass is the ultimate alien weapon. And your ultimate goal is to eradicate it completely. Even a research base will be able to repulse biomass up to a point; a lone research base at the frontier can easily be swallowed by it.

Kahnn:
How will the biomass react to biomass repulsion bases; what precisely will be the trade off between building a research facility or a biomass repulsion centre for an instance (if that can be asked at this stage of development)?
ALTAR:
Even though you select specialization of your bases (e.g. research or manufacturing), every base works in all areas. That is, even a repulsion base adds something to research.

mattias:
Are there fear or panic effects in UFO:AFTERMATH and if so, will all or just certain aliens/mutants/humans be affected?
ALTAR:
Actually not; our reasoning is that as you are in command of the cream of the Earth soldiers, it is highly unlikely that one of them would start to panic in the middle of combat. On the other hand aliens or some mutants might be scared away and run.

mattias:
Why is it that humans can't reproduce alien technology after researching it?
ALTAR:
They can reproduce it, up to a point. Instead of producing the exact replicas of alien weapons, they try to merge it with their existing technologies. Sometimes hybrid weapons may be more effective, sometimes less effective than the original alien weapons.

sqwirl:
When you go to research new technologies, will you have to stick to a technology tree or will you be able to research things depending on how you like to play the game? For example, would it be possible to research more powerful weapons before you have to research something else unrelated to weaponry? Otherwise said, does the research tree restrict you from getting to certain levels in various things before advancing, regardless of their impact on advanced weaponry?
ALTAR:
Well, the research tree is a tree; you have some amount of choice, i.e. there are several different technologies you can choose from, but you cannot just research anything you want. There will be some almost unrelated areas you can research independently but obviously you cannot research advanced laser guns without researching laser guns first.

Hellbound:
Will the mission objectives be shown when we roll over a mission that just popped in the geosphere? So we can choose from the several at our disposal?
ALTAR:
Yes, there will be several missions on the geosphere and for each you will see the mission type (objectives), terrain, estimated enemy strength, estimated impact on strategic situation, etc. You will then choose which one you want to play.

mattias:
Will there be some sort of alien containment, where you can research alien species and interrogate them?
ALTAR:
You don't have to build alien containment, just as you are not building other facilities. And yes, some researches are aimed squarely at aliens. We don't think it is a good idea to tell more about it now.


Development


Joran/Gamers.nl:
How is the development of Aftermath going?
ALTAR:
This is closely related to the previous question about the publisher. Obviously, working without a secure contract with a publisher is not as smooth, but we believe we are still on track for Q1 release next year.

j.f, doupe.cz:
Do you plan to release a playable demo?
ALTAR:
Yes, it is in the milestone schedule. But it will be released almost simultaneously with the final game.

Kahnn:
When will be next development diaries be released and why have they stopped to come out recently
ALTAR:
Yesterday we sent the next instalment of dev-diary to GameSpy. The delay is again due to the problems with publisher. Next instalment will be its way to GameSpy in a week or so, so we hope you can read it next week. After that we will publish it on our website.

Silencer:
You have said that you are trying to provide some user-end development options so that players can change their soldier models for example. How much of this is true and how many areas of the game are you going to allow people to change; can we edit a file to change agent names for example or add call signs, change weapon names? How much can we change if we wanted to?
ALTAR:
It will be possible to change soldier's call signs directly in the game. There will be tools for editing stats, names, frequencies, etc. and we can release them almost immediately after the game ships. We strongly want to support an option of importing part of skins of your characters to personalize their faces.
And if possible, we will eventually release tools for importing your own models. There is an interesting option in using GMax for this, as it is a cutting edge modelling tool for free. But these are really only thoughts now, nothing fixed.

Silencer:
What format is the music in and can we swap in our own files (so that we don't pee our pants at 3am because an alien pops up while the creepy music is playing)?
ALTAR:
Why would you be playing the game if not to wet your pants at 3 am? The music will be in mp3. But they will be packed in one file. However it would be easy for us to release tools to outpack them. And we could also allow the player to specify another location the program should look at for mp3 files to play.

Kahnn:
Since the random terrain building system you use allows for a unique experience with every tactical mission (and how ALTAR plans to emphasize on these missions). How do you feel about the possibility of adding small configurable tactical missions to play in LANS/Internet with the possibility of setting technology level (weapon levels, alien weapons or things of that sort being available or not), terrain type, day or night, more or less bio…
ALTAR:
It would be easy to add a skirmish mode when you would be able to do just that; set a technology level, number of opponents, type of terrain and play a single tactical mission, without context. Do you mean that you should be able to create a custom (not random generated one) map for a mission and send it to your friends? This would be cool, wouldn't it?

Megatron A:
Will the terrain be totally destroyable, like if you fired a rocket at a building it would collapse, like in past XCOM titles? How versatile will this be and how much default variety will there be.
ALTAR A:
We have to make difference between destructible terrain and destructible objects; Terrain is the basic geometry of the surface, something we could call "ground". This is not destructible; you cannot make craters and hide in them, you cannot blast a tunnel in a mountain slope etc. An object on the other hand is anything above the ground; trees, buildings, lamp-posts, telegraph poles, hotdog trolleys, etc. Objects will be destructible.
However, it will be only possible to destruct roofed structures as a whole, i.e. you will not be able to blast a hole in the wall of a roofed building.

Megatron B:
Like a house, if you shoot it with lots of small arms fire will it just explode at once or will only powerful weapons like rockets affect it?
ALTAR B:
Yes, the damage is cumulative and eventually, the building will collapse, but really small firearms cannot damage strong buildings at all.

Wormfirst:
Earlier, ALTAR told they were not going to implement multiplayer options. Has anything changes to those plans?
ALTAR:
Multiplayer is out of question for the time being

Mazdek:
Biomass seems a lot like Zerg creep, from StarCraft. Was that idea an influence in your design?
ALTAR:
Not really, though we cannot deny we are all very familiar with Zerg creep.
The idea we started with was: there should be something on the geosphere that would be clearly visible and indicative of the player's progress. It is such a waste to have such a nice big globe and don't show any anything on it besides the location of bases, missions and crafts. That's how the idea of biomass was born.

Bobby2:
Have the ALTAR developers played Project E5 and if so is the combat in it similar to how UFO:AFTERMATH will be?
ALTAR:
I only came across Project E5 couple of months ago (when the combat system in UFO:AFTERMATH was fairly developed) and we were really surprised how similar it looks. The difference is that in UFO:AFTERMATH you can plan your actions in advance plus it has a very sophisticated system that handles the conflicts in plans and various unforeseen situation that can occur. On the other hand, PE5 now offers more options (crawling, kneeling, rolling, etc.)

RexExitium:
What has been your biggest influence in designing UFO: Aftermath, especially with the post apocalyptic scenario and all that and what are the main differences and similarities (in gameplay) between Original War and UFO:AFTERMATH (except the ufo setting)? How much is the gameplay of UFO:AFTERMATH influenced by Original War?
ALTAR:
It is clear we were influenced by the old UFO games. We also like the games that try to mix RPG with strategy, like Jagged Alliance. In terms of settings, we do not recall any single major influence. It is a blend of all post-apocalyptic movies we have seen. Original World is a real-time strategy so the similarities will be slim. The only one that comes to my mind is the ability to pause the game in OW and queue orders for all units. This might be seen as a sort of precursor system for the SAS in UFO:AFTERMATH.

hx^ggmania:
What are some of your favourite aspects of UFO: Aftermath?
ALTAR:
I think we most like the fact that it is two games in one; you have a strategy on a grand scale and you have tactical missions, both spiced with RPG elements. So it gives you an opportunity to create the story any way you see fit (Almost any way, of course, it is only a computer game, after all).


X-COM Related


Joran, Gamer.nl:
Is ALTAR not getting irritated by the fact that everyone is comparing UFO: Aftermath with the old classic UFO Enemy Unknown?
ALTAR:
We sincerely hope they will keep comparing us, when UFO:AFTERMATH is finally released.

[ANW]Loki:
Now that the XCOM series is dead many of the fans are turning to UFO:AFTERMATH. Do you think they will be satisfied with it?
ALTAR:
We do hope so, we think UFO:AFTERMATH will be a very satisfactory game to the fans of old XCOM games as it shares the same theme as well as similar approach to this theme.
RexExitium:
How do you think UFO:AFTERMATH will fare in the wake of disasters like X-Com Enforcer and X-Com Interceptor? Undoubtedly, those two games have nothing to do with UFO:AFTERMATH, but many gamers familiar with those two titles may undoubtedly feel as if the two titles had some influence over UFO:AFTERMATH.
ALTAR:
Do you really think the gamers will feel this way?

PUBLIC: Well the ufo/XCOM name is rather big; don't you guys ever feel as if it is a huge standard to meet, or to set yourself apart from?
ALTAR:
These two games are some time off, are they not? And obviously, they never used the word "UFO" as any part of their name, did they? Being compared to X-COM/UFO is daunting at some times. As we said, we can only hope people will keep comparing us to it when the game is out.

Silencer:
The original games created random names that ended up sounding like funny multinational euro mixes (i.e. Gunkel Garfunkel); will this feature those silly names too?
ALTAR:
No, we must differentiate between the stuff we like for its inherent qualities and the things we like because of sentimentality. We had very good system of generating geographically correct names in Original War and we will use similar system in UFO:AFTERMATH. Moreover we have the excellent suggestion of using nicks from UFO:AFTERMATH forum for the names of our soldiers.


Publishing & Localisation


Pete:
Who is to be the publisher of UFO Aftermath now?
ALTAR:
We are in talking with a big independent company in UK right now. We hope we will be able to reveal more before the end of September.

Megatron:
Ratings will the game be?
 ALTAR:
It is too early at this moment to give a good answer. However, there will be no extreme graphic violence and no extensively foul language. So we think rating 11+ in Europe and similar in US.

sqwirl:
What are your expectations for the UFO series do you think you will be making any more after this one?
ALTAR:
It would be great if we have the possibility to do more, but this is always the publisher's call.

Bimbo:
Will the game be localized in different languages, like in German for example?
ALTAR:
Basically, this is the publisher's choice, but we are pretty sure it will be. Europe is an important market and the publisher will be able to sell many more copies when the game is localized. We are certainly developing it in such a way the localization is quite easy.

friede:
Who will publish UFO:AFTERMATH in Germany and what about a German localisation of UFO:AFTERMATH?
ALTAR:
We are pretty sure the UFO:AFTERMATH will be localised into German; Germany being the prime European market for strategy games. The identity of the European publisher and local distributors is however still shrouded in mystery. We still think the German version of Original War was the best one we had; the voiceovers were much better than the English.

j.f, doupe.cz:
What can you tell us about the Czech version?
ALTAR:
We have the distribution rights for Czech and Slovak Republics. There definitely will be fully localized Czech version, including voiceovers.

j.f, doupe.cz:
The Czech version will be released first?
ALTAR:
No, certainly not; the English version is the primary version we work on. The localization to Czech is only marginally easier than localization to, say, French.


Credits


First of all, thank you Martin Klima and Jiri Rydl for making the official chat possible. And thank you ALTAR Interactive for making UFO: AFTERMATH
Second, thank you Wormster (Wormfirst) for making this great document from the chat log.
Third, thank you to all the voices that attended the chat and posted the questions. This could not have been done without you.
And last, but not least, thank you to everyone that attended. You asked many great questions, and made 2.5 hours disappear way to quickly.

02nd August 2003

UFO: Aftermath interview with Cenega Publishing
by Olav Lognvik for ufoaftermath.co.uk

We have been lucky enough to get the chance to interview European Cenega Publishing. As you may already know, they are to publish UFO: Aftermath in Europe.

UFOA.co.uk
Tell us a little about yourself and your position at Cenega.

Cenega (Brian):
Hi! – well I am Brian Faller, the Junior Product Manager for the UK – working from the Cenega offices just outside Monkey Island (honest – it does exist!). I have been working in the computer games industry in one form or another for the last 9 years – and been playing computer games now for over 20 years. I have been working with Cenega Publishing since shortly after they set up there UK operations.

UFOA.co.uk
Tell us a little about Cenega Publishing.

Cenega (Sonia – UK Managing Director & International Marketing Manager):

Founded in December 2002, CENEGA works in partnership with worldwide games developers to design and develop cutting edge PC entertainment for home PC, internet and LAN gaming environments.

CENEGA Publishing develops markets and distributes games in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, Benelux, South America, South Africa, Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovekia, Slovenia, Balkan regions, UAE and Israel.

UFOA.co.uk
You have recently signed a deal with Tri Synergy. What exactly did you agree on? Are they to publish all of Cenega’s games? If so, only the current games, or all games for a given period?

Cenega (Sonia):
Tri Synergy is going to be our US agent for the foreseeable future – publishing all of our current titles and new games in development in the North America region. We have a dedicated U.S. person called Andrew, who is in charge of building Cenega Publishing’s brand as well as communicating our games to then Trade and Public.

UFOA.co.uk:
What other games/software has Cenega distributed?

Cenega (Sonia):
Cenega have released a few gaming titles – Knights of the Cross and Another War, as well as some Edutainment software – Timothy, Fairy Tale and 4 leaf clovers.

Some of our Games4U budget range in Q3 2003 and Q1 2004 with Mortyr, Snajper only in Eastern Europe and The Fifth Disciple.

We are releasing two titles this year – UFO: Aftermath, and Korea: Forgotten Conflict – a squad based tactical games based on the Korean conflict. Also we have several games in development for next year, included the much anticipated Shade: Wrath of Angels and the newly signed RPG game The Roots.

UFOA.co.uk:
Why are you distributing UFO: Aftermath rather than some other game?

Cenega (Brian):
We see a lot of potential in this title becoming one of the biggest games on the PC this year. We were very impressed with the work Altar where doing on the game and we appreciated the need of many of the fans of the old X-Com titles of a successor to that series…

UFOA.co.uk:
What are your promotional plans for the game? Do you plan to advertise at all, or do you hope that word of mouth is enough?

Cenega (Brian):
We are advertising in the lead PC and games magazines in the US and the UK (the areas I am involved in) as well as SFX magazine – the worlds leading Sci-Fi and Fantasy publications. Obliviously word of mouth is also going to be a very strong tool for us as well.

UFOA.co.uk:
Have you put together any deals with the major software chains yet?

Cenega (Brian):
In the UK we have been talking to all the major retailers, both high street and online, including Game, HMV, Amazon and Play.com – all of which have started pre-order campaigns for the game. We have also organized a special campaign with Game, where customers that pre-order then buy UFO: Aftermath will receive a special limited edition poster for the game.

Sonia:
The same applies in France, US, Spain…. POS and Merchandise as well as special Edition in certain territories has been planned…in other pre-order campaigns as explained above..

UFOA.co.uk:
When are you going to get in touch with the gaming websites and fill them in on the game (adds etc.)?

Cenega (Brian):
Our PR department has been talking to websites a lot – keeping them up to date with all the goings on in Cenega – not only with UFO but with our other titles as well.

UFOA.co.uk:
What’s the release date? That would be a good thing to tell the gaming sites.

Cenega (Brian):
The game is due to be released in September this year.

UFOA.co.uk:
When will a demo be available?

Cenega (Brian):
We have signed a deal with PC Gamer with regard to the demo – they should have a cover mounted playable demo of the game in their November issue – out in September.

UFOA.co.uk:
Are you making plans/deals for selected websites to host the demo?

Cenega (Brian):
Not yet – with the agreements with PC Gamer – they will have the demo before anyone else. Hope fully the demo will be available for other media shortly after that – as for websites, the only problem could be the size of the game – might be a bit of a monster to download!

Sonia:
All the territories have plans to use that demo in one way or another. Some more details are available if needed…

UFOA.co.uk:
Are there plans for releasing other consumer goods? Will there be:
-   Strategy guides that can be bought separately?
-   Posters?
-   T-shirts/caps?
-   Plastic toys to fill our rooms?

Cenega (Brian):
We are trying to sort out a players guide for the game, as mentioned early limited edition posters will be available through Game for customers that pre-order the title. We are also designing t-shirts for UFO:Aftermath.

Sonia:
In terms of POS there will be; Small FSDUs, Posters, Dummy boxes and display boxes.
In terms of Merchandise; T-Shirts.
Special Edition added feature; a Tech Tree with some good tips on guns and a lot more details.

UFOA.co.uk:
Will there be a collector’s edition? If so, what will it contain?

Cenega (Brian):
The poster edition available though Game – the poster will be a weapons chart and tech tree for the game.

Sonia:
The above will be used as a pre-order reward if you want in the U.K. In some other territories like the Czech Republic it will be a special Edition pack….as markets are different….strategies are different too…

UFOA.co.uk:
Brian Faller of Cenega said in our E3 interview that the game will be released at the same time in the US and Europe. That’s still the plan?

Cenega (Brian):
Yes – we are working towards a worldwide launch of the game.

Sonia:
We are hoping to maintain it…

UFOA.co.uk:
Brian Faller of Cenega suggested in our E3 interview that the price would be like other games, around $40. That’s still the plan?

Cenega (Brian)
At the moment we are looking at a retail price of $49.99 in the US for UFO: Aftermath….and 29.99 GBP…

UFOA.co.uk:
Brian Faller of Cenega said in our E3 interview that Aftermath will be released in these languages: English, Czech, Polish, German, Spanish and French. Have you added any since then?

Cenega (Brian):
Not at the moment, but we are selling the games into new territories almost every day now! – so the possibility of getting new translations done is not out of the question yet.

Sonia:
Italian….Russian…

UFOA.co.uk:
Have you discussed the possibility of a sequel? Have Tri Synergy mentioned anything about this?

Cenega (Brian):
The developers (ALTAR) have tossed around a few ideas for a sequel – but nothing I can report on yet.

Sonia:
There is indeed something in the pipeline…probably for 2005…to be followed….

UFOA.co.uk:
When are you going to start promoting the game? Mike, our reporter at E3, reported that very few knew of the game’s existence. That is also the impression of the rest of the community, and it is unsettling, since the game has been in the making for a long time. We have yet to see an Aftermath add in the large gaming magazines, or at the large gaming sites….

Cenega (Brian):
In the UK we have had a good presence in the gaming magazines so far – and as the launch comes closer we have secured a lot of editor from different magazines. The US is begging target now with a lot of work being done to push the game though websites and magazines before the game is going to be launched.

Sonia:
Andrew Hoolan at TSI is our PR Manager – he can provide you with all the information. He just came back from a press tour in the West coast….

UFOA.co.uk:
Will there be any bonuses in the game box, such as posters, tech trees, complete and stand-alone manuals, etc.?

Cenega (Brian):
Only for the special offers we are running with individual retailers.

Sonia:
This is for the UK. For other territories there are adding other bonuses like Radio, T-Shirts and Sunglasses…

UFOA.co.uk:
How many CD's will UFO: Aftermath need? One install and one play?

Cenega (Brian):
At the moment we are working towards the game coming on one disk only. But it might change to two…

UFOA.co.uk:
Will you be able to pre-order UFO: Aftermath?

Cenega (Brian):
In the UK you can order the game form many websites like Amazon, play.com as well as high street retailers like HMV and Game.

Sonia:
In the U.S. you can order it from; EB, GameStop and Amazon for instance…

UFOA.co.uk:
Will UFO: Aftermath be available through popular on-line retail channels such as Amazon?

Cenega (Brian):
Yes – Amazon.co.uk are already listing the title.

Sonia:
So is Amazon.com in the US…

UFOA.co.uk:
There has been a certain demand for "fog of war" at the Aftermath boards lately. That means a dark "fog" that covers the parts of the map that haven’t been explored yet. The two first X-Com games used this. Is it something you may consider implementing into Aftermath?

Cenega (Brian):
It is something we thought about, but unfortunately if we were to add everything that we think about (like the ability to enter buildings, use vehicles and so on) the game would never come out! – we basically had to stop our selves and say we have enough now – lets work on getting this perfect instead of adding more and more elements!.

Think of it this way though – your soldiers come from military bases that still have access to satellite information – so before a mission you will be able to have the area mapped out – the only thing you will not see is the location of the enemy – because they move!!!!

19th May 2003 - E3

UFO: Aftermath - Impressions from E3
by Mike Nino for ufoaftermath.co.uk

INTRODUCTION

I spent at least three hours over the course of two afternoons hovering around the Cenega booth which, as you know, was presenting UFO: Aftermath (U:A).  A good deal of time was  spent talking with Martin Klima and Robert Hoffman of ALTAR Interactive as well as with  Brian Faller of Cenega. I played parts of four missions (45 minutes of total playing time), and watched Martin Klima demo maybe five or six missions. I should stress that I did not  play U:A nearly enough to get a good understanding of the tactical game, let alone the finer points. The beta version was 1.5, and the game is not finalized although it was playable.  Observing the public reaction to U:A was also a blast; more on that later. Lastly, there is  not one line of code from the Dreamland game in U:A. I was under the impression that the  globe was from Mythos, but this is not true.

ABOUT E3

Roughly 60,000 people attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) , and roughly 1,000 new games or gaming products debut there. One thing to know is that E3 is not the best place to  concentrate on anything. You would not believe how loud it is! Dozens of companies compete  for your attention by blasting out the sound effects of their games. And the booth babes! If you've ever been to a trade show, you know what I mean. If not, maybe Slaughter will be nice enough to post the X-Box booth babes photo I sent him. While I don't play console games, some of their games feature heroines with jaw-dropping endowments. Microsoft had some fine  examples of such ladies strutting around their booth. While I know she wasn't for real, I  could not resist the cat-like one. I started up a conversation with her, she said that she  was interested as long as I had . . .

Now, back to the game!

THE SCREEN SHOTS DO NOT DO U:A JUSTICE

The most significant single thing I learned was that the game looks much better in person than the screen shots had led me to believe. Until I had actually seen and played the game, I had  though that U:A's graphics were somewhat colorless and lacking in visual excitement. Maybe it was the thrill of seeing the actual game for the first time, but it looked great from the  first minute I saw it. And this wasn't only my opinion, either. One benefit of spending so much time around the booth was that I got to talk to a number of people who stopped by to check out U:A. After speaking with one such person, I learned that he had actually heard of U:A (the only one of the dozen people with which I spoke) and is an active Laser Squad Nemesis player (I was  a LSN beta tester and was a customer for the first six months, but became disenchanted with  solely tactical combat). We both agreed that the U:A screen shots posted on ALTAR's own website did not do the game justice and that they made U:A look drab and visually uninteresting. Based  on this limited sample size of two, immediate action is required to get better screen shots!!!  I hope the game will have gamma correction as a video option. I'm thinking that maybe the screen shots look drab because they are too dark. Either that or the screen shots need to be higher  resolution.

MANY WITHIN THE GAMING INDUSTRY ARE UNAWARE OF U:A

Secondly,  as I watched Martin Klima, ALTAR's gaming guru, give a basic rundown on the tactical game to some attendees, I couldn't help but notice the number of gamers that would walk by and  remark "This game looks like an updated X:Com. I really liked X:Com. Is this game going to be  like X-Com?". These people are all gaming industry insiders (you have to have some kind of  gaming credentials just to get into E3), and yet they were completely unaware of U:A. This  demonstrates not only the sales potential of the game, but also the need for increased marketing to get the word out. It's like winking at a pretty girl in the dark . . . making the effort  (or in this case, the game) is not enough, you need to let the object of your desire (the gaming public in Cenega's case) know about it or you've wasted your time.

DEMO ISSUES

Since so few people know about the game, having a good demo is extremely important to U:A's success. However, one problem with a making a demo is that it takes resources away from the game  itself. Say you have funding for 100 programming hours, and that's it. Do you spend 90 hours on  the game and 10 on a full demo, or do you spend 95 on the game, adding additional features to  the game, but spend less time on a more limited demo? Remember, no matter how much you want both  a game loaded with features AND a full demo, you don't have the money to do this. ALTAR was  considering a full-featured demo (one entire sector, with multiple missions), but I suggested  that a more limited demo (one mission, with a flash presentation showing the other features of the game - ALTAR was already planning to do a flash presentation of the game, so that's already  been considered). A more limited demo would take less time to prepare, could be released earlier,  would be smaller and so easier to download, and would allow ALTAR to devote more time to the  game itself. I left E3 before the ALTAR folks could discuss the idea of a more limited demo, but  I'm sure that no matter what they decide it will be for the best. A ufoaftermath.co.uk poll,  giving you the ability to vote on the type of demo you would prefer, is in the works.

WEAPON SELECTION APPROACHES JAGGED ALLIANCE 2 LEVELS

The human weapon modeling is top notch (not knowing much about plasma rifles, I'll leave that for the aliens!). Until U:A, I'd thought that Jagged Alliance 2 had the best weapon modeling,  but U:A takes it one step beyond. ALTAR made the point that there will be no single best weapon  in the game, and that the player must balance his squad's load out with the expected mission  parameters.

TARGETING/LINE-OF-SIGHT ISSUES

After playing a few missions, I did notice that it was sometimes difficult to figure out line of sight and targeting. In urban settings, this was noticeable when soldiers took fire from  aliens when the aliens should not have been able to see them. For example, when a soldier was behind an overturned bus or around the corner of a building, he would take fire from aliens that could not possibly see him. Martin himself even commented that this was not right, so  I'm sure that it will be corrected. A different but related problem occurred when the ground was rolling . . . like in a desert or a rocky/hilly setting. In one desert mission, a soldier was armed with a RPG launcher. That soldier targeted an alien and the game gave him a 100%  chance of hitting the alien. Two shots were scheduled just to make sure that alien was taken  out. The soldier fired off a rocket - it flew at a 45 degree angle to the alien and exploded harmlessly. The second round was just as ineffective. All this time, the alien had been  moving toward the soldier. The alien was targeted for a third shot. This time the rocket  nailed the alien, but another alien was now in range and severely wounded the RPG soldier.  The map was hilly with sand dunes, but the alien was moving in a straight line toward the  RPG soldier. I could not figure why he missed so badly, but I suspect that there was a line  of sight issue.

ALTAR actually developed a first-person mode, which might have addressed this problem, but decided to drop the feature. Why? Because the first-person graphics were less than spectacular, and ALTAR doesn't believe in offering a feature if it does not meet their quality standards.  While I agree with their decision (if you want a first-person shooter, this is not your game),  there is a need to address the line of sight situation. Based on my impressions of the ALTAR team, I'm sure that the actual game will not have this flaw.

On this same subject, I learned from Cenega that there was some thought to enlarge or build on the first-person shooter aspect of the game. My response was this: don't try to be all  things to all people, but instead make U:A the best possible squad-based strategy game. If  you want to make a first-person shooter (FPS), then make one, but don't bastardize U:A to  chase the FPS crowd. More likely than not, the end-result of such a game that would not be  strategic enough for X-Com fans and wouldn't satisfy the FPS gamers either. And wasn't there a first-person shooter version of X-Com released a few years back that flopped?

UFO INTERCEPTIONS

I know that there has been talk about how the UFO interceptions will be handled. Here's what I learned: the interceptions will look similar to the original X-Com game. You send out your jets and they get into a dogfight with the UFO. Damage to both crafts is displayed by filling in the outline of the craft with red. The options are more limited than in X-Com (you cannot  disengage: once you're committed, you're committed). I did not actually witness an interception (not all of the planned features were available for E3). Personally, I have never felt that  the interception mechanism was crucial to the game one way or the other, but some of the  more 'hard-core' fans have made their feelings loud and clear.

FOR EACH MISSION, PLAYERS CHOSE SEVEN SOLDIERS OUT OF THEIR MANPOWER POOL

This was addressed before, but I'll mention it again: while you can only send out a seven-person squad, you do have a much larger pool of soldiers to select from. You choose your squad based  on the type of mission. If it's a mission that requires speed, then you select your fastest  seven soldiers out of your pool of available soldiers. If the mission requires the ability to give and receive a lot of damage, then you would select strong soldiers with high marksmanship ratings. Strong soldiers are necessary to handle the weight of heavy armor - by the way, there are three levels of armor available: light , medium and heavy - as well a whatever heavy  weapons you have available. The player knows the mission type before leaving, so he has the  ability to choose the seven-person squad that would be best "suited" for that mission (no pun  intended!). Based on how the aliens chewed up my four-person squads, the seven man limit might be a limitation. However, this was probably due more to my inexperience with the game than with  any design error.

NO RECORDED GAMES

There are no plans to have a record-game feature. This is something that might be nice . . . sometimes I would wonder why half my squad was wiped out as soon as I hit the play button. It won't be the first feature I would add to the game, but I could see its usefulness.

THE US ARMY HAS PLANS FOR A SQUAD-BASED TACTICAL GAME

When I stepped back to take a few pictures, I noticed two guys from the US Army checking out the game. Martin was giving a tactical demo of aliens invading a human base, and they were  quietly yet intently listening in. At the time, I didn't really think anything special about  their behavior; it was just interesting to see them checking out U:A so intensely. I later  got a better idea why they were so interested in the game.

Last year, America's Army (a well done first person shooter) was presented at E3 by the US Army, and the Army spared no expense promoting that game: an anti-aircraft missile battery  was out front of the E3 convention center, while inside there were commandos and a heavy  weapons squad (which the crowds gave a wide berth - it was almost funny to see everyone  get out of their way like sheep reacting to sheepdogs - they protect you but they've got  quite a bite!). This year, the Army presented a squad-based tactical combat game by Pandemic  Games, called Full Spectrum Warrior, due in early 2004 for the X-Box. The presentation was a canned video (it looked like a recorded game) showing a running firefight between two squads  of US infantry and various terrorists in an urban setting. The video did not show how the  two squads were controlled (which for any squad-based game is critical), but it did have  state-of-the-art FPS graphics and was impressive to watch. It was designed to be a combat  simulator: your soldiers are semi-autonomous and don't need to be told to fire at an enemy,  but they didn't seem to manage ammo very well, nor did they seek cover very effectively.  In any event, maybe the Army guys checking out U:A were looking for pointers on how to handle squad-based combat!.

ALTERNATIVE HISTORY FANS UNITE!

Both Robert and Martin are fans of alternative history (what would have happened if Hitler had been killed in World War One, what would have happened if the Great Plague had wiped  out 90% of Europe rather than 35%, etc.). ALTAR's previous game, Original War, was loosely  based on an alternative history story by a German author (I did not catch his name). I'm  also a fan of alternative history, and so gave them my copy of Harry Turtledove's first  Worldwar novel (aliens invade Earth during World War 2, humanity unites to try and defeat them). If I win the lottery and had an extra half million or so, I would ask ALTAR to base  a game on this universe (Professor Turtledove permitting).

CENEGA HAS BEEN CONTACTED BY THE WORLD'S LARGEST RETAILER

The largest US retailer has already contacted Cenega regarding their games. Since Cenega is new to the US market, they have hired another firm to arrange some of the distribution arrangements for them. I can only hope that Cenega isn't run over by the price-grinding  machine of American mega-retailing. That huge retailer has a reputation for squeezing the very last dollar out of its vendors (especially clothing manufacturers, which have ended  up producing clothes at such a low price that they go out of business) and I want Cenega  to make enough money to fund ALTAR's next squad-based strategic masterpiece.

CONCLUSION

First of all, I would like to thank Slaughter for setting up the interview with ALTAR Interactive. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to both Martin Klima and  Robert Hoffman for the time and attention they gave me. All of the Cenega and ALTAR  Interactive people were very kind, and I wish them the very best with U:A and their future endeavors. The best advice I can give Cenega: get your marketing act together! A great game  that few people know about is not going to make anyone happy: not the fans (who won't get  additional games from you), not the employees (who won't get the paychecks they deserve),  and not the investors (who will jump ship, cursing all the while).

16th May 2003 - E3

Interviewer: Mike Nino
Interviewee: Brian Faller (Publisher) and Martin Klima (Producer)


Cenega Questions - answered by Brian Faller


UFOA.co.uk: Is the expected release date still September 5th?

Brian: September is still good.

UFOA.co.uk: And will it be released in the US at the same time as in Europe?

Brian: The intent is to have a worldwide release.

UFOA.co.uk: Will U:A be released only in English, or in other languages as well?

Brian: English will the best selling version, but it is planned to have localized versions in Czech, Polish, German, Spanish and French.

UFOA.co.uk:What's the recommended price going to be in the US? In Europe?

Brian: This will be a top level game, so it will be priced accordingly. It will be priced at the same level as other top games in the US or Europe, so it would be around $40.

UFOA.co.uk: Are there any plans for a sequel?

Brian: That depends on the success of U:A, doesn't it? The response to U:A has, however, been greater than expected.


ALTAR Questions - answered by Martin Klima


UFOA.co.uk: Will there be cut scenes, Full Motion Video or otherwise, during the game?

Martin: There will be an intro and outro, but that's it.

UFOA.co.uk: Will a player be able to save during missions?

Martin: Yes, at anytime.

UFOA.co.uk: After you win the game, will there be a gratifying finale, such as an end-game movie?

Martin: Yes.

UFOA.co.uk: Would the end-game movie hint at what comes next?

Martin: Hopefully yes.

UFOA.co.uk::Are there any plans for a sequel?

Martin: This is a question for Cenega, not for us.

UFOA.co.uk:: We (the fans of the game) want you to say yes!

Martin: (laughs) Yes, we would love to.

UFOA.co.uk: Will the soldiers portraits change during game play?

Martin: Well, to some extent they are animated. When they speak, their lips move. When they are hit, they cry out and there's a look of fear and anguish.

UFOA.co.uk: Are you surprised of the very emotional reaction amongst the 'hardcore' fans regarding your decision to scrap the kneel-option in order to aim the game at a broader market?

Martin: Well, actually, we didn't scrap it and we will include it. While we can't demo a kneeling soldier today, if they could have postponed E3 a couple of days we could have shown it. The finished game will actually have an overhauled, more-intuitive tactical interface with improved command-button layout, which will include the kneel option.

UFOA.co.uk: Were you surprised at the reaction of these fans?

Martin: No, I was not surprised.

UFOA.co.uk:What approximate level can we expect a well developed squadie to reach?

Martin: Basically, there are seven levels each skill can attain via combat. With special training, you can reach an eighth level. Most soldiers start out with skills averaging out at the third level (some skills may be higher while others would be lower). Each level up is more difficult than the last, so it get progressively harder to attain the highest levels.

UFOA.co.uk: So you would specialize your soldiers? One could be a sniper, another could be a medic?

Martin: Yes. I have, however, seen a beta-tester send his favorite soldiers out on easy mission after easy mission, for eight hours straight, so that he can max out all of the soldiers' skills. (laughs)

UFOA.co.uk: Will there be a list of skills and attributes posted before U:A is launched?

Martin: Well, we've already posted them. It's not a secret. We could start another thread about it on the message board.

UFOA.co.uk: I think what the fans are looking for is one page devoted to the soldier specs for them to refer to.

Martin: It's not a secret. There are no secrets here. (Please see the Personnel screen shots sent separately).

UFOA.co.uk: Will there be any sort of economy/economic modeling in U:A?

Martin: No, basically none.

UFOA.co.uk: What happens when you zone to another map? Is it, first person to the door that enters and the whole squad goes with him no matter where they are on the map? Or does everyone have to be in a certain area?

Martin: The soldiers need to be in a certain area.

UFOA.co.uk: Does the player have to clear the zone before we can proceed to the next zone?

Martin: No.

UFOA.co.uk: Can a player split the squad and fight in two zones at once?

Martin: That would be very difficult. Would there be a split screen?

UFOA.co.uk: What are the restrictions on zoning?

Martin: In order to move into another zone, your soldiers must be in a stable situation in the broad sense of the word: you must not be under attack, you must not see any aliens or be seen by any enemy, for at least a couple of seconds. You can actually leave some of your soldiers behind, and it would be unfair that if you came back and you found them all dead. Usually, you would just move on to the next zone, conquer it, and all the soldiers would be returned.

UFOA.co.uk: Will there be a 'low ammo' (as in shortly before you're "out") warning for reloadable/clip weapons?

Martin: This is a very good idea.

UFOA.co.uk: After having successfully completed a tactical mission, will the player have to comb the whole map (and sub-areas) in order to recover every alien artifact/weapon?

Martin: It depends. When you eliminate all the opposition, you automatically get all the equipment left on the battlefield. But say your mission is to capture something. You then achieve this objective, and so decide to leave the battlefield (there might be just too many of them to defeat, and your soldiers are pretty beat up already). In this case, any weapons that you don't pick up will be lost. Unconscious aliens, however, will be auto-transported.

UFOA.co.uk: Does terrain affect movement speed? What about weather conditions?

Martin: You walk more slowly uphill, but rough terrain will not affect (just for you, Martin!) movement speed. We might have it on an add-on.

UFOA.co.uk: So there will be an add-on? (laughs)

Martin: If there is an add-on, we might do it then, ok? For weather, there might be snowing or raining, but it will not effect movement.

UFOA.co.uk: When a soldier enters a building he will be outlined but the building's interior won't be shown. How does the player manage to navigate indoors under this condition?

Martin: Soldiers do not enter buildings. This will probably not please everybody, but there were a number of problems with it. One is that it simply looks silly . . . the soldiers are not in proportion to the buildings. The buildings are quiet small. If a soldier could enter them, you would notice that something was wrong. Basically, we were not able to do it properly given our resources. We have a budget and we have a deadline and there was no room in either for this feature. We tried to find a way to fake it: you would only see the outlines of the interior. We actually implemented this, but decided the results did not look good. Game play is better without it and is the best in the streets. You can destroy walls and fences, so you have a lot of tactical options.

UFOA.co.uk: So if you can't do it well, don't do it?

Martin: Exactly. I'm pretty sure there will be an uproar when the 'hardcore' fans hear about it, but unfortunately that's the way it is. I believe that when they play the game they will understand.

UFOA.co.uk:How are wounds handled? To elaborate: is all the damage immediately taken from the health bar or will there be a progressive deterioration with time given lack of treatment (possibly leading to a state of unconsciousness)?

Martin: Soldiers will not bleed to death due to wounds. When a soldier's health goes to zero, he will become unconscious. Then a second health bar appears and the soldier will need to take more damage before he really dies. A consequence of this is that aliens can be captured and brought back to a base to be researched. Again, the aliens will be picked up automatically so no soldier needs to carry them around. There might be a mission requirement to capture a certain type of alien, and once that objective is met the mission ends.

UFOA.co.uk: How does the player know when a soldier is unconscious?

Martin: The soldier's portrait turns purplish.

UFOA.co.uk:Are wounds localized (a leg wound hinders movement, an arm wound prevents or hinders use of a weapon) or is this subject to abstraction (a wound's location is irrelevant, only a reduction of total health takes place)?

Martin: Wounds are not localized.

UFOA.co.uk: Do field medics have the ability to restore health (replenishing all or part of the health bar) or is his treatment just a patch to stem continued damage (health bar drainage over time), meaning that the wounded will need some actual downtime at the base for full healing?

Martin: The soldier must be healed properly once they return to the base.

UFOA.co.uk:We are aware that territory is gained by engaging in tactical missions. But how is the actual direction of the expansion controlled? Is it directly controlled by the player?

Martin: This is a very good question and I can not answer it. Currently, a player can't directly control the expansion, only indirectly. After completing one mission, the next mission is likely to appear close to the location where the previous mission occurred.

UFOA.co.uk:Once you control a territory, you can decide what type of base you want there. Is a new base immediately available for use or is there a 'delay' until construction is finished.

Martin: The base is immediately available, but if you want to change the type there is a delay due to reconstruction.

UFOA.co.uk:After overtaking an alien base can you appropriate it and allot it a standard functionality?

Martin: You don't overtake the enemy base, never. You destroy them. You can only take possession of human bases.

UFOA.co.uk: Well, that's it for our questions. Thank you for your time and patience.

Martin: Great!

4th June 2002

Interviewer: Pete
Interviewee: Jiri Rydl and Martin Klima

Endeavouring to tie up some loose ends with regards to areas of the game that had been covered that I thought were a little sketchy, I pushed the boat  out somewhat and compiled a fairly large list of questions for the guys at  ALTAR.
    
They go deeper into some areas that have been discussed in previous interviews, and talk a little about some of the screenshots that have been released from  the game. You may therefore find that you'll be less confused if you read  through a few other interviews, or  at the very least look at the screenshots in the gallery that I've linked to below before continuing to read this interview further.
    
What follows is an interview between myself (Pete) and Martin Klima and Jiri Rydl of ALTAR Interactive.


 Pete: Right... since you guys have done dozens of interviews, I'll try and  steer away from some of the repetitive questions You've recently released  some screenshots of the game, and they've sparked all kinds of interesting  questions. I'll try to ask a few of them here.

    
General Stuff:

    
Pete: Firstly, there's the dreaded who are you and what do you do at Altar? that we have to do EVERY time

Martin Klima: I am Martin Klima (M.K.), one of Aftermath's designers and a director at ALTAR Interactive.

Jiri Rydl: I am Jiri Rydl (J.R.), public relations manager for ALTAR Interactive.

Pete: From the screenshots, we can clearly see the detail in the game, and why the recommended system specifications are so high. Are  they likely to change much from what you originally suggested now that you've  had a bit more user feedback, or are we still in P500 territory with this  game?

Personally, I think those specifications are about right, and are in keeping with a lot of the games coming out right now. With that in mind, I would've  thought that a lot of people will either have fast enough machines or will  be upgrading sometime in the near future.

J.R.: The minimum specifications require a Pentium III 500 MHz or similar processor, 64 MB RAM, GeForce compatible video card with  16 MB video RAM, and DirectX 7 or Open GL Support. The specifications for  top performance are a Pentium III 1 GHz, 256 MB RAM, and GeForce 3 with 64  MB RAM. I have an AMD Duron 800 MHz, 128 MB RAM, GeForce 2 and Sound Blaster  Live! at home, so I'll have to upgrade next year :-). But it's a computer  over a year old and I think it's getting obsolete these days. If you want  to play new games with every graphical and/or sound feature, you need a really  fast machine.

M.K.: The speed of the processor is not a burning issue, the video memory is. So while we hope to stay true to our promise of just a 16MB card, you  really should have at least 32MB if you want to enjoy the game with good performance.  

Pete: There were reports that a lot of screenshots from the original Dreamland concept were so highly detailed because they were  mock-up versions on high-end machines, rather than in-game shots. Are the  screenshots you're released of the same quality, or will they be lower? (Or  higher!)

J.R.: The screenshots, released at E3, are from the E3 (partly) playable demo. It means we designed one area with small UFO, several  enemies, four soldiers, and one bus :-). The soldiers and aliens can shoot,  walk, etc., you can plan your actions and see what happens, but itis not the  real game. It's not even an alpha version yet! After having a real playable  demo, you will be among the first to play it and find the bugs for us. So  I think the answer is that the game graphics should be much more interesting  and higher in quality! And yes, the version the screenshots are from is running  on an ordinary computer, closer to the lower end of the specs than the higher  end.

Pete: As you've probably guessed, we're all itching to see the game in action. Will there be a video demo so we can see a bit of  the action, or maybe an actual playable demo released in the near future to  keep us hyped up and possibly get an even wider audience interested?

J.R.: As I said in the previous question, the demo is not for a larger audience, it is not even for the press even. It was presented  at E3 to show how the game will look and what we have done. The video from  this demo should be released in a few weeks, I hope. The playable demo should  be available at the end of the year or maybe later in January/February 2003,  when the game ships.

Pete: The game's got a very distinctive visual style in general and in it's different departments such as the global view and the  combat - was it inspired by anything in particular?

M.K.: Obviously, most of us played games like Jagged Alliance and the earlier X-COMs, so a lot of our inspiration comes from these  games. As with any game, you try to take and improve the good things that  were done, and add your own where you feel there are some new opportunities.

Pete: What's the response been like from your time at E3? Are people being wowed by your demo, or are they being a bit skeptical  and paying it down as Just another strategy game... (Curse anyone  who thinks that! ).

M.K.: We were only talking to publishers and distributors at E3, so their response is naturally skewed. We generally had a very positive  response, even though I can't resist quoting a representative of a certain  big publisher: It's a PC game and too cerebral… nothing for us.

(Just bloomin' typical... we're all seen as thicko's by the money-grabbing gits... will the stupid buggers ever listen? ALTAR have! - Pete)

Pete: The possibility of a sequel has been mentioned on one or two occasions, with a suggestion of perhaps cooperative multiplayer  or some other such mode incorporated into it. I know that until this game  is released, it's all hypothetical, but could you expand on what we might  expect to find should such a sequel appear on the horizon?

J.R.: Let's pretend we are selling a huge amount of copies of Aftermath copies all over the world :-). Our publisher is very happy  and the fans are eagerly waiting for something more. They want more weapons,  enemies, better spaceships, and a multiplayer mode, of course. Because of  the story, I don't think it is good idea to develop Aftermath 2. Even  the name sounds kind of weird :-). But I can imagine that we might be talking  about some add-ons with new soldiers, mutants, and some kind of prepared (as  opposed to random-generated) levels for skirmish or multiplayer. Some aliens  vs. soldiers modes could also be fun. We could prepare mod contests for the  best-designed squad or the worst looking mutant, or even the best multiplayer  area. But lets face the reality; it is all sci-fi right now :-).

Pete: In terms of cutscenes and full-motion videos, what can we expect to see? Will there be much in the way of intro movies and 'win  or lose' movies, or are you perhaps leaning more toward short animations using  the in-game engine that seems so popular these days?

J.R.: The intro looks fine, I must say :-). And it's made in the good old way - it's not part of the game, just a short video to  show you what happened to theon Earth.

M.K.: Beside the intro and outro, there will be no FMVs in the game. There will be in-game videos for the intercept missions, using our engine. We also  planned more videos of this sort for e.g. research but for the constraints  of budget and schedule we had to drop them.


Global View Questions:


Pete: There's been a bit of talk about the interception of alien craft being fairly automatic. How is this system going to be implemented?  Do we get a choice of which craft to go after, or will the game automatically  go after every UFO that flies into player-controlled airspace and shoot it  down?

M.K.: This question is not yet settled. As you actually do not risk anything, there is little reason why you should not want to launch  a pursuit, but as the fans are constantly commenting on the lack of control  overair combat, we might include some strategic decisions there.

The important thing to realise is that you make the decision about air combat when you set up your military bases (these are the only ones that can launch  aircraft) - the more you have the better chance you get you will shoot down  a UFO when it appears. If you neglect this, you increase the risk of a UFO  penetrating into your territory where it may, for example, launch an attack  at one of your bases in a few days.

Pete: In terms of training and development, what can we expect to see? What areas can the soldiers improve in for example, and will  they be able to learn how to use the alien's psionic powers and weapons?

M.K.: Your men gain experience points through combat and using their skills. When you reach a certain threshold, you can allocate  an attribute point to one of six attributes and this in turn may increase  one or more skills.


Combat Questions:


Pete: Will there be multiple heights on a single map? For example, will your men be able to run over bridges and other objects that  span gaps?

M.K.: The different parts of the map have different heights and height gives you longer range of sight and other advantages. However,  each spot can only have one height level, so e.g. if you can go over bridge,  you cannot go under it.

Pete: That leads onto my next question - Is it possible for the landscape underneath a unit (either human or alien) to be destroyed,  and if so, how have you handled the sudden lack of ground beneath them? I  know that in the X-COM games, your units seemed to float down until they reached  a solid surface, so have you come up with a more realistic solution?

M.K.: You cannot destroy the terrain, you can only destroy environment (such as walls, trees, etc.). There will actually be very few  environments you can walk over or into - should these be destroyed, the unit  will just fall down (as if it was knocked over by a grenade).

Pete: We can clearly see what can only be assumed to be a scout ship in some of the pictures. Has that one crash-landed, as there  appears to be debris behind it, or had is just landed in an area filled with  debris?

J.R.: I think it this is more about the laziness of our designers :-). Because it was for E3 purposes only, we didn't have  the time and/or the patience for the little details. The spaceship isn't  hurt (it is biological, so I use hurt instead of damaged) and is just parked  near the bus. Maybe aliens wanted to take a ride :-). It is more for showing  what the small alien ship looks like. But it is a good question I must say.  In the finished game you will certainly see crashed sites with destroyed buildings  or just landed ships big enough to enter them, and more important you will  recognize which situation is occurring.

Pete: Will we see more sizes of UFO in the combat missions and will we be able to explore inside them?

J.R.: Oops, I already revealed it in the last question. So the answer is yes. You should see some screenshots of the larger alien  spacecraft on the website in the near future.

Pete: There's been a lot of talk about the weapons the player will have to start with, such as rifles and machine guns, but will  we have a chance to use grenades and flares for nighttime missions? Will there  indeed be any nighttime missions? Also, will there be other items such as  medical packs or maybe even night-vision goggles?

J.R.: Yes, there will be night-time missions and it's very important whether it is the day or night for your tactics.

M.K.: Generally, there will be equipment for locating the enemy. When you get some hint of an enemy presence (such as sound, smell, or by using such  equipment), you will see a marker for the estimated position of the enemy.

Pete: How often will the player be able to save the game inside the tactical mission? Will this be set to the beginning or end of a  turn, or will the player be able to save it any time they want?

J.R.: The player will be able to save anytime. That said, it's not all about the last movement - the good tactics start at the  beginning of every mission, so you don't have to be worried about atmosphere.  We're trying to avoid the whole "save and load, rinse and repeat"  type of gameplay that a lot of these games lend themselves towards. Maybe  we will implement some "superhero" level of difficulty level, where  you will not be able to save during the missions, but we are not sure about  that.

Pete: How bloody will this game be? In the past, similar games have seen bullets just hit opponents and they'll drop like flies. Can  we expect something similar so it's still okay for younger players, or will  we see blood everywhere and limbs flying left, right and centre?

J.R.: I think that we are going for something in the middle. But we don't need to scatter a victim of a rocket attack over  a whole area just to feel better.

(Damn :o) - Pete)

Pete: Will there be any vehicles involved in the combat missions? We've seen such things as mini-tanks and such that we've seen in  similar games, or are we really talking strictly squad-based tactics in tight  situations where such things would get in the way?

M.K.: No. There are going to be no vehicles or tanks. There might be some power-suits, though.


Pete: You obviously have to get from A to B in the game, and I assume that there's some sort of aircraft that takes you to the combat  sites. Will the craft be your starting point on the map, or will it remain  off-screen whilst your men are randomly spread throughout the level?

M.K: There is a Chinook chopper that will take you to the mission site from your nearest military base. Its landing spot is then  your starting place for the mission.

Pete: Each unit has their own colour for their movement path it appears, and this is done neatly on the map so as not to interfere  with the game from what I can see. This has been shown from a few different  angles, which leads onto the question that's been bugging me for a while now.

The map is supposed to be rotatable and the units are clearly 3-dimensional. The interface has been described as being Isometric, which automatically clicks  in my brain as being like the old X-COM games. Will this rotatable display  be completely rotatable, or do we have to choose from a few different viewpoints?  Also, will there be zoom functions and changeable vertical angles?

J.R.: Yes, you can rotate, swivel and zoom the camera. You cannot, however, lower it under a certain angle, meaning that you will  not really be able to get a first-person view. It's a strategy game,  after all.


Pete: A few different modes of movement have been mentioned, including: running, jumping, crouching and crawling as far as I can remember.  Did I miss any there such as rolling or climbing, or did I pretty much cover  it?

M.K.: I am sorry, but these modes of movement were certainly not mentioned by us. At present, you can either walk (makes less noise, and  is better for spotting enemiesy), or run (faster, but makes lot of noise and  lowers perception). You will also kneel when taking aimed shots.

(My bad on not researching the movement types thoroughly enough...)

Pete: Terrain plays an important part in any strategy
game. Will the units have more difficulty and expend more time picking their
way through rubble than they would pounding flat-out down an empty, but well-paved
street?

J.R.: Heavy loads slow you down, and the same thing happens when you are trying to go over the heavy terrain. Because  you don't have many movement points, choose wisely where to go. If you  are slower thean the enemy, it could be better not to use a rocket launcher  or to choose a better path without exposing your soldiers to an alien attack.  

Pete: Will there be sounds coming from all around out of our speakers as we've come to expect in modern games, lulling us into a  false sense of security when all goes quiet and then making us jump in terror  as an unearthly scream emanates from the left-hand speaker?

M.K.: Do you mean 3D sound or adaptive sound? Actually we will be using both, so yes, you can expect the same as you do from modern  games.

Pete: Are there likely to be any civilian units running around the maps? I know there's not supposed to be a lot left alive on the  earth, but will we see any non-combatants or is it strictly between them and  us?

M.K.: There actually might be some lone survivors from time to time that you can see in a mission. However, it should be noted that  most of the time you will not be fighting the real aliens but  horrible transgenetic mutants instead. These monsters are the results of the  enemy attack and their hideous genetic experiments, but they still retain  a touch of their past earthly form - which makes them all the more repulsive.

Pete: Will the units talk to each other at any point, or are you rather restricted by time and cash for something like that to be  implemented?

M.K.: You mean, like if the units are going to chatter away? Well, the units are going to talk to you a lot, giving you information  about their situation and conditions. However, they are not going to discuss  their situation among themselves.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions guys! No doubt this will provide much to talk about over at the forums for a few months.

4th May 2002

Interviewer: ooda
Interviewee: Martin Klima

OO: It has been mentioned in interviews, mainly one conducted by Pete from X-COM Tactical Command, it has been mentioned that the base management  features will be streamlined, or cut-down. Will individual funding nations  still occur, or will global powers take the place of this, such as the EU,  the US or China?
    
MK: No, the Earth is almost totally destroyed. There are no funding nations, indeed no funding at all.

OO: Looking at what has been said about the geoscape, and art created of buildings within tactical missions, will there be unique  buildings for each country? Such as, will there be different buildings in  say, Australia, than say Portugal?

MK: Yes, in this case. Obviously, though, the buildings in Portugal will be very much like the buildings in Spain.

OO: In one interview, it seemed that you hinted at a sequel. Is there any chance, and if so, would it continue the story, or would  it be basically an add-on pack?

MK: It's just too early to discuss this. It depends on the success or lack thereof of the first game.

OO: Will it be at all possible to mod the game? In this meaning, create new units, or change current unit stats?

MK: Definitely, there will be possibility to change stats or design custom missions. Including your own models and their animations  would be difficult though and we don't know if we are going to allow this.
    
OO: Finally, to date, is UFO: Aftermath your hardest project?

MK: No, Original War was in many ways more difficult, not least because it was our first big project.

11th December 2001

Interviewer: Pete
Interviewee: Martin Klima

Note: At the time of this interview, the working title for the project was UFO: Freedom Ridge. After the plot was developed  some more by the team, and the game veered away from what Dreamland had promised,  the title was changed to UFO: Aftermath. Also, the interview was  carried out before this site existed, and was originally posted at my other  site - X-Com Tactical Command.
  
Having endeavoured to unearth as much information as possible about the sudden reappearance of the game formerly known as Dreamland, I e-mailed Altar Interactive  on the off-chance that I might get an interview with someone on the development  team... and guess what? I did!
  
What follows is a short interview between myself, Pete, and Martin Klima of ALTAR interactive
  
Pete: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what your involvement is with UFO: Freedom Ridge?
  
Martin: My name is Martin Klima and I am the designer of UFO: Freedom Ridge. I have been with ALTAR interactive from the beginning, and before it I founded  ALTAR publishing, the publisher of the most popular Czech RPG "Dragon's Lair".
  
Our involvement with "UFO: FR" started when our producer at Virgin, Paul Whipp, who worked with us on our previous title, RTS "Original War", offered us to  finish a project he worked on before that had been canned. At first it didn't  seem like an attractive proposition -- finishing somebody else's work -- but  when we learned that it was Dreamland Chronicles, we quickly changed our minds.
  
Pete: When did you guys at Altar start work on Freedom Ridge, a game we all thought was gone forever?
  
Martin: First work started in July, but it really got underway in August this year.
  
Pete: For the fans, could you explain a little about the storyline and game concept? What is "UFO: Freedom Ridge" and what's it all about? Is it going to  remain pretty much the same, or are you being forced to change a lot of it due  to legal reasons?
  
Martin: On a large scale, the game is pretty much the same -- there is an alien threat, there are intrepid human defenders and a global organization they work  for. There are twists and tweaks in the plot that come to light during the game  and which I don't want to give away now (if ever).
  
Pete: Will the game still be a squad-based tactical game?
  
Martin: Most certainly yes!
  
Pete: Will there be any researching of enemy equipment as there was in the X-COM games?
  
Martin: Most certainly yes!
  
Pete: Will you be able to equip your units with whatever technology you choose?
  
Martin: Most certainly yes!
  
Pete: Will there be the ability to build bases around the world, or is the game more mission-based, following a set storyline?
  
Martin: This is a tricky question. There will be a geosphere, there will be bases and though there is a storyline, it does not take away the player's freedom  to make decisions that influence the game. However, the base management will  be streamlined (one could also say stripped down -- I know this will be very  contentious issue and please be assured that we didn't take this decision lightly  or without due consideration) in order to focus more on tactical missions.

Pete: Will you be able to intercept and shoot down enemy craft?

Martin: Yes, but in slightly different way than you used to be able to.

Pete: Will there be missions where you have to defend your base, or attack an enemy base?

Martin: Most certainly yes!

Pete: Will there be a multi-player option in the game?

Martin: Unfortunately not.

Pete: Will the graphics be as good as what we have seen from the original screenshots of "Dreamland Chronicles", or can we expect to see something even better than that?

Martin: This will be another contentious issue, I am sure. We are using very little of the original art and though we will certainly try to match or surpass its quality, it will certainly be different -- this is also the main reason we did it; we basically decided that we would not be able to seamlessly integrate our art with the original art so therefore we aren't using it. Besides, our storyline requires a slightly different style of art than what there was.

Pete: Will there be an action-packed soundtrack, with suitably eery music when you're out doing missions at night, or when everything looks peaceful, but you know something bad is going to happen any minute?

Martin: We will certainly try to achieve exactly this. It's already being worked upon.

Pete: How many people are working on the project at Altar Interactive?

Martin: About twenty five at the moment.

Pete: Will there be a demo of the game released to the public before we see the finished game?

Martin: Yes.

Pete: Do you have a rough release date in mind for the finished game?

Martin: Christmas 2002 is the current release date.

Pete: Thank you very much Martin, and good luck with the game!