Worms 3D: Unofficial FAQ
Table of Contents
8. Graphics/Animation
Questions.
10. Spec
Questions.
11. Misc.
Questions.
12. Download
FAQ
13. W3
Links.
This FAQ has been created to let
anyone who is interested in the upcoming Team 17 game, “Worms 3D” find out all
the latest info on it without having to hang around on the W3D forum, looking
at every single thread to see what Team 17 have said. Although this FAQ is
official in the sense that all the answers are exact quotes from Team 17 staff,
it is NOT an official FAQ. It does however list every question that was
answered by Team 17 on the Worms 3D Forum and what those answers were and I
will update it as often as I can so that it remains the definitive guide to
what is going to be in W3D. Have Fun!
7 Game/tech/tool Programmers
2 Network/Server Programmers
5 Artists (currently, will add more probably)
3 Designers (although not all working full time on it right now)
2 Producers (inc. assist. producer)
2 Senior Management (Spadge on creative, another chap on production)
1 Musician (manages ALL of audio content creation, localisation etc).
6-7 QA Staff including one manager and one lead.
Q) How will
you detect the wind in full 3D?
A) Its an issue that’s open
right now, just a suck it and see situation. The current feeling is 2D (i.e. 2d
directional). We think 3D would be basically bad for gameplay in an already
much more complicated environment.
Q) In every worms game I
know of the cpu never used the rope at all, is this going to be possible in
worms 3d? It’s probably a little hard to program. But then again that might
make the computer a little too hard.
A) We hope to have a much
better AI system than in 2D, certainly. Not sure about the ropes yet though,
that’s quite a difficult problem. People must remember that they expect cpu
players to "think" in real time. It'd be possible to get the CPU to use
ropes, but the delays whilst this is processed would be huge. Particularly on
console we need to keep game speed up. Also, as long as it's fun and
challenging it's less import since Worms is generally a more social game.
W3 will have improved a.i. and better single player missions though.
Q) Next, will Worms 3D
still have artillery mode?
A) We aim to carry across a
lot of modes from the original, artillery shouldn't be a problem at all. A real
time mode is not planned as yet but it's something we might experiment with at
some point, but probably not for W3D (since the technology is something we may
well re-use).
Q) Will there be the same
number of worms per team as in WWP or will we be able to have larger teams this
time?
A) Not sure yet, probably similar
system to be honest.
Q) Are there any new game
modes (Fort Mode, God Mode,etc) planned which are particularly revolutionary
and have never been seen before?
A) Yes.
Q) What about WormPot will
that be included in the w3d?
A) Yes.
Q) Will the missions have
choosable difficulty settings so that people who like a good challenge (such as
me) can play it on a harder difficulty setting while people who want a simpler
game can put to an easy setting or something like that? (Obviously an easy
setting should stop players from accessing bonus features to make them more of
a reward - if there are going to be unlockable bonus features)
A) They'll probably
"adapt" if you fail, i.e. get easier and you'll get a ranking on that
(Agent Dennis?)
Q) Just a thought, but would
it be possible to have a kind of reverse version of weapon delays in W3D? By
this I mean, weapons which have to be used up within a certain number of turns,
or they "expire" and cannot be used again.
A) I like this idea, as a
Wormpot mode it would change the strategies of quite a few games where people
save airstrikes and the like until sudden death kicks in. If you were forced to
use them early on, it would stop encouraging people to hide away when sudden
death approached. It would also stop a fair few arguments over 'cheap wins'
whereby one person will diss another for winning the game using an airstrike
even though they had previously used their airstrike to damage you. People
famous for classically moaning about cheap wins include half of our design
department.
Q) If there was
'pay-per-weapon' mode, will the prize be given in €?
A) Not decided.
Q) How many of the original
weapons will be left. I know a bunch will be axed cause they'd be too hard to
pull off in 3D, but what's staying around?
A) A substantial amount of
original weapons will make the jump, some will not (the ones that don't make
sense or will be too bizarre to control etc). We'll add some new stuff too.
Q) As for homing clusters
will they be brought back to W3D?
A) Homing clusters will
probably not be brought back for Worms 3D. We've brought them back for Worms
World Party on the Gameboy Advance, but all that's done is remind us why we
took them out of Worms Armageddon really.
Q) New weapons, will there
be any new breeds? besides the air strikes, throwing weapons etc.
A) There will be new breeds
of weapons in Worms 3D, we're not disclosing any information about what sort
yet though. The way we are designing the weapon system also means that like in
the 2D variants of the game, extra and increasingly weird weapons will be added
constantly right up to the game being ready for release.
Q) What’s the roping going
to be like?
A) As far as the roping
goes in W3D we have a couple of ideas already ranging from a simple grappling
mechanism (no swinging) to 2D (down the axis of fire) to full-on 3D swinging
around.
Obviously its probably going to come down to issues like controls and camera as
to what we can get away with in the final version. I mean if you have a worm on
a rope which controls do you map to - retract rope, extend rope, swing forward,
swing backward, swing left and swing right without confusing all the players,
and from what angle do you view the swinging???
Once we have the basic game engine up and running we'll start prototyping this
stuff.
Q) Will there be any
utility which allows your Worm to swim/go underwater?
A) Not planned.
Q) How will airstrikes (and
other similar weapons) work in 3D?
A) A target zone is selectable, fairly straight forward. We haven't decided (afaik) totally what the camera position will be yet.
Q) I presume the air strike
will be still a row of 5 (or so) shells coming down (in a straight line) - will
we have control over what direction the plane (and thus the shells) will come
down in?
A) It depends. There's a
few options that we have planned, neither of which make a big difference to how
the weapon is made up and developed. I.e. whether the airstrike is bomblets in
a line or bomblets spread over a small area won't be known until we've tried them
out.
Q) Will we get all the
speech banks?
A) Planned to be all new
instances, all new speech.
Q) Will there be distance
effects on the sounds? (Distant = Quiet, Doppler Effect, etc.)
A) Yes.
Q) Will we see the worms' mouths
move when they say things?
A) Yes.
Q) When adding sound banks,
will this affect the lip synch of the worms. In other words, if the lip synch
is designed to match the original sound banks, wont the mouth movements look
wrong for new sound banks?
A) Lip sync will work for
any sound (it does so far)
Q) Will there be a
wormsong?
A) We will probably do a
new wormsong and base it around the mission/storyline which we will do for
single player.
Q) Will the land be totally deformable, like in the other worms games?
A) The land
is totally destructible and deformable, yes. Most games with any kind of
deformation use heightfields. Ours doesn't which means we can have overhangs,
roofs, caverns and blow holes through, up, wherever.
Q) When a
mountain/hill has been completely blown through at the bottom, but there is
still some land at the top (like you often get in the 2D worms games), would
the land come crashing down, killing every worm beneath it, or, when necessary
(when aiming a weapon, or moving a worm), would the top layer go
semi-transparent so as you can see what is beneath it?
A) That's
something we're working on, in terms of creating the best solution. We
currently plan to retain the land where it is (like the 2D version) - it doesn't
matter if it doesn't make sense (it didn't in 2D) but it played much, much
better. We can drop it, but I think we wish to retain the original feel, plus
we also want floating islands.
The camera - and making a sensible viewpoint are one of the more difficult
problems we have given where the worm can be and how the landscape is shaped.
It's probably our major challenge (now that the basis of the environment tech
is sorted).
Q) How
about an option to choose if you want the land to fall down?
A) It's not
planned for, that’s just one of those things that may happen depending on how
the technology develops.
Q) How
about water in Worms 3D? Will it be dynamic or will it be just the
"waving-blue-stuff-in-the-bottom-of-the-screen-which-will-try-to-play-elevator-when-suddendeath-comes"?
A) At this stage, on-land water would add too many problems and unknowns to the gameplay, we wish to concentrate on the basics first.
Q) Let's say that if we're playing on an indestructible terrain, and then there is a small tunnel and someone will throw a Holy Hand Grenade to the tunnel, will the explosion burst out the tunnel or will it just be the normal size explosion?
A) We plan
different materials, some which will withstand blasts and some that do not. With
regards the explosion, it should "collide" with the landscape if
that’s what you mean.
Not sure why you'd want to play on an indestructible landscape after our guys
have gone to the trouble of developing a fully deformable 3D environment.
Q) Will we need GPRS to
find our location in the map?
A) No.
Q) Will the landscapes be
bigger since they are in 3D?
A) The landscape size is a
tough one to call since the environments are radically different.
Q) Will the landscapes be
diverse?
A) From our prototypes I
think we can rest assured that the landscapes will be VERY diverse. Land,
buildings, scenes, all sorts!
Q) Will there be weather in
Worms 3D?
A) Weather is in the design
and shouldn't be a problem. We had an idea to have lightning in WA, but it was
felt that random lightning strikes was a bit harsh. A weapon could work but a
weapon where you could note where a potential lightning cloud was would work
ok. That said, you won't really be able to see the clouds as such in W3D due to
the viewpoint. We definitely do have different qualities of land, though - one
advantage of moving into 3D is that it's much easier to associate properties
with particular surfaces than in 2D (ie, it's possible). There will be slippery
surfaces, extra-grippy surfaces, surfaces that bounce well (eg concrete) or
poorly (eg grass) and so forth.
We also have a weapon involving the sun. Not sure if I should spill the beans
though. Well rain/snow can directly modify friction (slidier when wet, less
slippy when dry).
Q) What about hail will that be in it?
A) I was just talking to
Peeling about the possibilities of hail. So... maybe.
Q) Are you going to have
pieces of land fly out from the explosion (which could potentially injure a
worm if they landed on one), like there was to some degree in Worms1?
A) There will be particles,
yes, but I don't think they'll hurt worms.. we'll have to see about that.
Q) If there is to be
buildings, then are they going to be destructible also?
A) We can make any object
destructible.
Q) Will the buildings in W3D
have objects in them such as chairs and tables, etc or will they be fairly
empty?
A) Empty, or extremely
minimal content.
Q) Will there be a range of
different buildings or just one style?
A) A range (not limited and
you'll be able to build your own)
Q) How many stories will
building have? (1,2 or more?)
A) Not limited, only by
your imagination and poly count rationing!
Q) Will we be able to make
buildings on the landscape creation tool or will we have to choose from a
selection of pre-made buildings?
A) Inside the tool, there's
no difference in treatment, a building is an object and treated the same as
anything else.
Q) Will we be able to lock
the doors of a building (presuming they have doors) once inside to prevent
enemy attack?
A) No. They could have
solid (undestructable) walls though and you could teleport in and fire out
through a window (hole).
Q) Will there be any
buildings why mimic ones in real life in it? (You could put the Team 17 HQ in
it as a special-level Easter egg)
Q) Possibly. I guess we could do a Team17 HQ level - or even one based on the W3D room desk layout.
Graphics / Animation Questions
Q) Will
there be different models of the worms, like accessories and such?
A) We don't
envisage too many different models, we aim to create an excellent model and
have it extremely well animated.
Q) Will
there be new FMV sequences?
A) To be
honest, we haven't really considered creating more FMV sections, simply because
they take a long time to get right.
They were done for the first couple of titles to emphasise the character of the
game since the graphics were very small and we had to get people to "buy
into" the concept.
Creating just 6 of those movies to a high standard takes 2-3 people 6-7 months
and we believe that people's time is best served creating something which has a
tangible effect on the playing experience. Lets be honest, after seeing them
once, twice or three times, they're skipped by.
Q) What
about a simple intro?
A) We
aren't discounting animated engine stuff. We've seen thousands of FMV movies,
but we don't consider it massively important.
Q) If the 3D scene is very
huge, there will be fog. Is that true?
A) Fog has not been
decided, we aren't going for realism but there may be some distance control.
Q) Will the camera be
automatic or will you have to use keys to move it for you? Will we be able to
move it with the mouse like previous worms games?
A) The camera will be both
automatic and manual. It needs to be both, automatic to follow you as you walk
around and manual for scanning the landscapes for targets (as in 2D) or for
getting a better view of your intended target prior to firing.
Q) What is the
menu/weapons/stuff gonna look like?
A) We're toying with that
right now. We'd prefer a consistant approach to the game. Not gonna be set for
a while though.
Since we're aiming for the power consoles first and foremost, it's likely to be
less "fluffy".
But at the end of the day, if we get the game right and a few people take
exception to the style we've done the game interface with (visuals wise) then
I'll be content.
Q) Would it
really be all that hard to implement a change of angle on a replay though?
A) Not hugely, it depends
what’s appropriate. Since there could be lots of stuff going on, we could do a
fair bit of stuff, but there are likely to be a number of view options.
Q) Will we be able to zoom
in/out of the landscape to get a better view of what's going on (like when you
pressed the M in Worms1). Maybe it could have variable zoom levels, so as you
don't just have the standard view, and long shot (like in Worms1).
A) Quite a few, as it
happens.
Q) Will the arms of the
worms in W3D be attached to their body or will they float? I noticed this when
watching some new wwp fmvs (on a friends psx), there must have been a change in
animators or something because it’s a lot different in design from the w2 ones.
Also, will the worms always have arms? or will they only appear when necessary?
A) The hands float and
appear as necessary (like the sprites in the 2D series). The reason for
differences in FMV are different artists in different periods, we've since
adopted a more stringent "identity" to worms in terms of what they
are expected to look like, so they should be very consistent from now on. Most
of the styling for W3D came from a mixture of the 2D sprite design and some
elements of Worms Blast.
Q) Will the smoke effects
be the same as in the other worms games (small separate balls of smoke)?
A) Yep, the weapon fx
should be quite cool this time around.
Q) Will it be cell-shaded?
A) It will not be cell
shaded. Some elements (explosions, possibly) might be shaded like that, but the
game in it's entirety will not be.
Q) What will the different
screen res's be for Worms 3D?
A) The "default"
will be 640x480 but it'll be pretty much customisable as in most 3D games, we
can support whatever the video card can do.
The game itself will be developed for a 640x480 resolution in terms of
on-screen indicators, icons and suchlike since we are also developing the game
for the major consoles and the game will need to ensure it uses that space
properly.
Q) Will we be able to
purvey the landscape pre-game like in the 2D series? (Team17?) Or will it
simply be a "Worm-view only" style thing?"
A) The player needs to be able to free roam his/her camera view around the level in order to understand the layout and form a play strategy at any time. We hope to be able to generate a fly through at the start of level too.
Q) Will we
be able to make own terrains?
A) Yes, we
plan a rather nifty landscape/object editor from day one on the PC.
Q) Will we be able to draw
and make own landscapes almost as freely as in W2 or as in W:A? Now that the
maps will be in 3D it will be a lot more to think about in that question, Or
would it use a more building engine with random generated non-editable
landscapes instead?
A) Actually we have a full
editor tool and it's surprisingly quick to build really cool stuff. Its very
different to FPP editors for things like Quake/Half-Life etc since the engine
uses radically different technology in order to facilitate the way we need the
game to play & react.
Q) When adding sound banks,
will this affect the lip synch of the worms. In other words, if the lip synch
is designed to match the original sound banks, wont the mouth movements look
wrong for new sound banks?
A) Lip sync will work for
any sound (it does so far)
Q) With the editing
tools, will they be 1. Integrated in the game (like the landscape editor in W2
onwards)?, 2. A separate application, which you have to run independently of
the game (like the WWP Mission Editor)?
A) Highly likely to be
separate this time!
Q) What aspects of my team
on Worms 3D will be customisable?
A) We'd actually thought of creating a "history" for the worm based upon the name it is given, we might still do that.
Q) So, is it most likely
that Worms 3D will require a 3D card for the PC?
A) Yep, sorry, but that’s
the price of progress in this industry.
Q) Will W3D be supported
under WinXP?
A) Of course.
Q) If WB needed a PII 300
to run, which ones will be the minimum requirements for the new release?
A) Not decided yet, but
probably a little higher. The video card is perhaps the most important for the
PC version.
Q) Can anybody tell me what
the current details are on which platforms Worms 3D is going to be released on?
A) The game is being
developed for: PC CD-Rom, Mac CD-Rom, Sony Playstation2, Nintendo Gamecube,
Microsoft X-Box. The PC version will feature on-line Internet play and full
featured terrain/level editor. A decision regarding on-line play and the editor
has not been made yet for the Mac version.
Q) How much space will the
game take up on a PC hard drive?
A) Actually, I think it'll
be quite tight simply because of the way the technology is shaping up.
Audio/video are the usual bugbears, but we're not planning any vast FMV
sequences and audio will be compressed. Off the top of my head, I'd estimate
300-400Mb at the very max, but that’s no guarantee since we're way off
finishing it yet.
Q) Is a Mac Version
planned?
A) No Mac version is
planned.
Q) Is a GameBoy Advance
Version planned?
A) Whilst some 3D interpretation could be done on GBA (I've seen some of the 3D demos that run) you can't expect anything like what we're doing on the main game. If it does happen it will be a total redesign and re-implementation and probably done out of house.
Q) Public
beta's? What will you do? Just approach people and ask if they want to beta
test, or will you do application forms and take people on based on hardware
config and local?
A) The only
way to do it is to release an "open testbed" and let people try it
and report on it. It will be a limited version and come with a hefty disclaimer
;-)
We'll probably use it to stress the servers first and foremost as well as pick
up any of the odd hardware stuff that we're bound to miss (even though the
games do go through compatibility labs).
Q) When will it be
released?
A) Worms 3D
is due for release in Europe late 2003 (Q4 - Oct/Nov/Dec)
Q) Will W3 have a windows
interface like W2? or is it going to be like the full screen wwp/wa?
A) It'll have a slick
interface and be significantly more professional than seen in previous worms
games, most notably because of the amount of people working on it from the
start.
Q) Will there be clothes
for your worms in W3D?
A) We don't plan any
clothes, sorry.
Q) When will a full demo
come out?
A) I think a full demo is
about a year away.
Q) Will there be any cameos
in W3D (like Superfrog in WB)?
A) Not sure yet.
Q) How soon will we be able
to preorder Worms 3D?
A) No pre-orders yet.
Q) Any action replay's?
A) Replays are in
discussion although it may be in the form of a "match replay" rather
than shot replay, particularly so as shot replays (from numerous angles) gets
in the way of multiplayer games.
Q) Will
there be vehicles?
A) We are
not planning any vehicles. The idea was examined and finally dropped. Having
looked at some early level tests I can't see how they would have been much use
in the end. They would have possibly worked on a simple, rolling, height mapped
landscape but not on levels as complex as a we now have.
Fixed
items such as that are do-able. The problem with vehicles is getting them to
work with how the land is now (it can have cliffs, steps and suchlike).
We may return to vehicles but not in the initial release, there's more than
enough work to get the game to play well without adding some stuff that we know
already has problems.
Q) Who is
publishing it?
A) Sega
Europe. See http://www.worms3d.com/about.html?area=pres#25apr03
for
more info.
You
can download a Word version of this FAQ here – Download W3D
FAQ (Word Version)
If
you have a different version of Word then you can download a Rich Text version
here – Download W3D
FAQ (Rich Text Version)
Not many yet but here’s one
to get you started – www.worms3d.com: the
official W3D site, it’s got a regular development diary feature and loads more,
well worth checking out!