Kombat - Official Website
Kombat is the 3D RTS game with tactical wargame and RPG elements. The game uses the real army structure of years 39 - 45 with all main and specialized branches including reconnaissance, counterespionage and medical squads etc. All main countries - participants of that time war are playable in the game. Other countries activities are managed by AI. The gameplay is based on officer’s training system that was used during the WWII. The unique system of global and local AI provides a lot of gameplay innovations. The powerful in-house engine allows to use new strong technical features.
Some game features:
- unique war simulator
- non-linear plot allows any playable side to win
- creation of the unique character- the commander of junior tactical squad
- the development of the hero from junior tactical squad commander till general
- scaled battles with up to 15 000 units per a warfront sector
- up to 300 unique units
- up to 350 units of ground military equipment
- and more and more…
Just - Try to moderate the history!
Game Chronicles goes inside this exciting new game with an exclusive interview by John Carswell.
| GCM: | Thank you for your time! Please get us started by introducing yourself and telling us a bit about the team behind Kombat. |
| Andrey Eskov: |
Hi all, and thank you for your interest. :) My name is Andrey Eskov and I’m a leader of the new developing team, Game Factory Interactive UA. We’re located in Kyiv – the CIS capital of game development – and you know, the competition here is a really good factor for self-improvement. Moreover, from the very beginning we’ve gathered a strong and experienced team. All of our members have been working in the gaming industry for some years already. For example, they took part in the creation of such projects as “Cossaks-2”, “S.T.A.L.K.E.R”, “FireStarter”, “Freelancer”, etc. The 3D RTS, Kombat is Game Factory Interactive UA’s first project. We are trying to create a high quality game with lots of innovations and a very new approach to the gameplay found in WWII-oriented games.
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| GCM: | Firstly, what was the inspiration behind creating a WWII game that allows gamers to play all three Major forces of the War with nonlinear underpinnings? |
| Andrey Eskov: |
You know, most of us are real fans of the strategy genre and mainly play WW2-based RTS games. Our huge imagination always demanded something new after so many games only featured single, double, or triple missions for the German side or games that only focused on the historical winners. Actually, Kombat allows you to use all of your tactical and strategic skills on the fields of the millennium’s greatest battles with the absolutely different starting conditions. Like, it should be interesting to try your abilities on a global scale. It was our history. It could be the player’s own version of the history.
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| GCM: | Kombat boasts some RPG influences. Please tell us about these, how the RPG system works, and it will effect Kombat’s overall gameplay. |
| Andrey Eskov: |
Well, as for the RPG elements, they mostly concern the playable hero. The main character’s career growth raises the difficulty of Kombat’s missions pro rata. The temperament of the main character will be modified during the game and will change both the AI’s and subordinates’ relation to him. Units also develop their professional experience and skills with each new battle. All of WW2’s most famous personalities will be represented in the game. Because of this, the player will have some advantages should he know the history and tactics of WW2’s greatest commanders. Moreover, the reconnaissance system will be also present in the game. |
| GCM: | After choosing a side, the player starts at a historically accurate point and is then free to move on from there. Just how versatile is Kombat in terms of allowing the player to influence the outcome of the war—how does their performance in one mission affect the next mission? |
| Andrey Eskov: | From the very beginning, the player has minimum abilities and can’t cardinally affect the frontline situation. However, after filling more and more posts, he’ll be able to influence the results of huge operations and change the conditions in general. |
| GCM: | In what settings will these campaign missions take place in and how much work is going into ensuring both a high level of detail and some degree of historical accuracy? |
| Andrey Eskov: | We recreate the real atmosphere of the WW2 time using lots of historical guides, literature, films and documents. For example, we’ll faithfully recreate soldiers’ uniforms, the architecture of different cities and countries, the historical technology and equipment. |
| GCM: | Please tell us about the units available to the player. |
| Andrey Eskov: |
All of the main branches will be available in the game:
For now, we plan to control only infantry and tank units but Kombat is still deep in development and we have some ideas about adding some more controllable branches. |
| GCM: | Just how large can individual battles become in terms of unit numbers? |
| Andrey Eskov: | There can be up to 500 units on the screen simultaneously, and up to 30000 units on the current mission’s map. |
| GCM: | Please tell us a bit about the user interface and just how much control the player will have over individual units. |
| Andrey Eskov: | We’ve tried to create a simple and useful interface. In the final version, it’ll look like a mix of Cossacks (the view) and Soldiers of Anarchy (management). We’ve done our best to recreate the hierarchy present during WWII. Squads (30-50 infantry units or 3 tanks) are the smallest controllable units in Kombat and Divisions (15000 units of infantry or 400 tanks) are the largest. |
| GCM: | Will the player only be controlling units or will they also be in charge of calling in reinforcements and/or managing various resources? |
| Andrey Eskov: |
We’ve created three main modes of the unit control in the game. They are: March Attack Defense The ability to call for reinforcements will also be available. The player will be able to control aviation and artillery and even ask the neighboring elements for a help and support. The player will also manage all captured resources (ammunition, equipment, weapons etc.) |
| GCM: | As for A.I., it is broken into two categories: Local and Global. Firstly, please tell us about the Global A.I.’s responsibilities. |
| Andrey Eskov: |
The Global AI system in Kombat recreates the Joint Staffs of the all opponents and manages the whole operations arena. It keeps all information about the geographical location of all countries – participants of the WWII and their parameters, the main objectives, and the full view of the environments. The Global AI is based on the rules of Positional Warfare. This means capturing and controlling the maximal territory while minimizing the frontline’s length. Additionally, the Global AI assigns goals and tasks to the player and affects the plotline. |
| GCM: | Secondly, what functions is the Local A.I. responsible for? |
| Andrey Eskov: | The Local AI system is responsible for the behavior and interaction of units in the player’s field of view, and it works like the standard AI found in real-time strategy games. Local AI manages all movements, terrain orientations of units and their behavior and actions during the battles such as choosing the optimal place for the combat, the use of cover, transportation with minimal losses etc. I.E., the player sets a goal for the element (gives an order to the element’s commander) and the Local AI chooses the optimal way to achieve it and to carry out the task. |
| GCM: | Outside of the campaign mode, will there be other single player modes such as random and user-created map battles? |
| Andrey Eskov: |
Beside the campaigns, we include some single missions devoted to the most famous battles of WWII. It’s just an opportunity to beat the opponent in the true historical conditions. We also discuss the variants of the random battles including. |
| GCM: | What can you tell us about the multiplayer features and modes that Kombat will offer? |
| Andrey Eskov: |
Kombat will present several multiplayer modes via LAN and internet (up to 32 players) including cooperative, combative and others. We’ll try to keep the atmosphere and main features of the singleplayer portion of the game in the multiplayer section as well. For the instance, we’ll keep the hierarchical system relative to players in the multiplayer teams. |
| GCM: | Judging from early screenshots, it appears that Kombat is going to be a gorgeous game. Would you please tell us about the graphics engine behind these visuals and what sort of “eye candy” it is capable of producing? |
| Andrey Eskov: |
The game is based on an in-house engine (it’s already a tradition for the CIS studios-developed projects, you see :). Well, as for the main engine features, here are just a few:
So all features really affect the war actions. Different summer and winter daylight hours influence the planning of operations. For example, you can choose the advantageous sun location for you actions, since units could be dazzled by sun on a serene day. Nighttime is the best for diversions, recon operations, and force-transportation. Anyway – the player will have flares and projectors for the dark time. Fog, storm, rain, all weather effects could change your plans or even disorient you and force to fire your divisions. We try to show the landscapes and environments realistic and interactive. For example, the player will be able to define visually the shallows of the rivers. As for the terramorphing: units can dig trenches, entrench the technique and dig in. And the shell-holes could be used as covers from fire. The engine is oriented on the modern accelerators (but not only the top ones). It shows its abilities and features dependently on the computer power. For example, on the best accelerators the engine will also use pixel lighting.
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| GCM: | Again, thank you for your time. Would you care to leave our readers with any last thoughts or impression? |
| Andrey Eskov: | We’re opening our site and right now are working hard on its content. Well, we’re glad to invite you to www.kombat-game.com. |
