Empire Earth III Interview (con't)

FiringSquad:What are some of the team's current favorite units to use in the game?

Mathew Nordhaus: For me, it’s the Lightning HERC, and the Robo-soldier. I can’t say too much (because I want to leave the readers wanting more) but I will mention their special powers: Lightning Sphere and Jump Jets!

FiringSquad:We've also heard that the game will have missions that will be more than just "blow the other side up". What can you tell us about that?

Mathew Nordhaus: There’s a wide range of interesting diplomacy options that you have available to you in World Domination (and Multiplayer Skirmish as well). “Native Tribes” are small AIs that only inhabit a single map, and they can be crucial to your conquest of the globe. Often they will ask for your help: Rescue our princess, defend our city center, etc. When you come to their aid they reward you with resources, units, or just their undying loyalty. This can be very useful later in the game when the big bad guy invades and your armies are somewhere else…

FiringSquad:What multiplayer modes will be put into Empire Earth III?

Mathew Nordhaus: At this time we are focusing our efforts into making sure that basic MP gameplay will be rock solid and balanced. We will be implementing Ladders, Random teams and arranged games. It’s not out of the question that we will add some other modes for MP (or SP), but right now we want to make sure the games that people play are fun and balanced.

FiringSquad:We've heard about the new graphics engine that the game will have. What can you tell us about the graphical features and art styles and also if the game will support DirectX10?

Mathew Nordhaus: We support normal mapping, ambient occlusion, a brand new particle system, detailed shadow model, full screen anti-aliasing, much higher texture resolution and more polys, Shader model 3 support…too many buzzwords to mention. Suffice it to say the game looks great. When we ship we will require DX9.0c.
The art direction is definitely a departure from the previous EE games. We decided to take the units and exaggerate them a bit more. This makes the game very easy to play, because you can see what types of units you are using in an instant…they all have large outlines that make them easy to identify. Futhermore, the animators have been having a great time and are adding a number of very amusing idle animations. Overall, I think we had more fun with the game than we did before. Every unit has a historical basis, but we just took the appearance a little further out there. (Except the future units…some of them are just WAAAAAY out there…but you will have to wait and see those).

FiringSquad:What is the current status of the game's progress and when will it be released?

Mathew Nordhaus: We are currently on track to ship in Fall of 2007