Questions for the developers....

[GBS]

First, thanks for all you do. I own both of your games and with HTTR I felt it was the finest wargame EVER developed. But alas I got board with it and took it off my hard drive. I can't remember when it came out but it must have been two years ago or close to it.
I recently recently reloaded HTTR, patched it up and have begun playing again. Still a great game. My questions involve your longer term plans for future games.
It has taken soo long for the COG game to come out it makes me think that it is not just another area of WWII for the HTTR engine. It must be a totally new game. I know very little about Greece/Crete theaters of WWII and quite frankly thought it relatively minor compared to other areas such Normandy, the Bulge, Russia etc..and thought that all the effort you must be spending could have been better used on one of those areas rather than what I consider an obscure (although important) theatre of WWII. Never the less I will purchase the game anyway because as I stated, this is the finest war game engine ever created.
But I am just wondering where do you go from here. Can't wait to see the new features because they must be spectacular considering the development time.

[Arjuna]

GBS,

First off thanks for your post.

Re taking a long time to get out COTA - well that is true. No we are not developing a whole new game but we are making significant changes to improve what was already a revolutionary product. Creating world best AI is not something you wake up and knock over in a day. Oh I wish. It is hard work and often requires several iterations before you get it right. Then it requires a lot of testing to make sure it works in the myriad of different situations that develop in a battle simulation.

Re choosing Greece, Crete and Malta - hey we released HTTR covering one of the most covered battles of WW2 and we received a deluge of calls to cover something different. So we have. You cannot please everyone all of the time. The COTA battles are different and will require players to approach the situations they encounter there with a fresh mind. Now that's a good thing I reckon.

However, you might be pleased to know that our next game after COTA will be Battles from the Bulge ( BFTB ), once again covering a very popular battle from WW2. We are a long way down the road on BFTB already. All the maps bar one are done. The Estabs are largely finished. We just need to do the scenarios and code the new features that will be slotted in for BFTB. We hope to release BFTB about six months after COTA is released.

After that it will depend on which title is ready first. We are setting up several Data Design Teams ( DDTs ). Each team will focus on developing the data content ( maps, Estabs, Force Lists and Scenarios ) for a particular title. So far we have four DDTs - West Front, East Front, North Afrika and Command Ops ( which will focus on modern warfare ). Each team consists of at least three members. These are part-time positions and so the time for development will obviously vary according to individual member's capacity, time availability etc. But we're hoping that each team can develop the data content for one title in 12 months.

[GBS]

Wow. The quality of your games are rivaled only by the quality of your service and responsivenes. Thanks again.

[PJJ]

Wow, your plans sound almost too good to be true! I bought HTTR over a year ago, and still play it regularly - it's just so damn good! But how on earth am I going to find the time for playing all your new products...? [X(]

[Arjuna]

PJJ,

That type of advice is going to cost extra! [;)]