RED ALERT 3 Q&A UPDATE #2 (4/18/08)

Now that bases can be built on water, resources are found at sea and many units can go in water, how is Naval Combat any different from land combat? How do you plan to retain the uniqueness of Naval Combat?

One of the ways we maintain unique styles of play on land and on the water is by contextually varying a unit’s role. For example, the Allies have a hovercraft that functions as an effective anti-structure and anti-vehicle unit while it’s in the water, but is then only effective against infantry when it’s on land.

Why in every game so far do the Allies and GDI have solely American accents? Will you consider fixing this in RA3?

Actually, Red Alert 2 had plenty of Allied units that had European accents, like the Spy and the British Sniper, and Red Alert 3 will be no different. In fact, some of our best Allied unit responses in RA3 are by non-Americans, like the Guardian Tank.

What type of terrains will RA3 have?

One of the nice things about the Red Alert 3 campaign is that it spans across many different parts of the globe, and that really lets us add a lot of unique environments that look different from each other. I don’t think we want to give away all the different terrain types, but you can expect to fight in the snowy environs of Russia, urban sprawls of Japan, and picturesque villages in Europe, among many others. We’re also focusing heavily on naval gameplay, so that means many of our campaign maps and all of our skirmish/MP maps will have ocean or lake coastlines, each of which will also contribute to that map’ s unique look.

Will there be any sort of environmental hazards? ei. Radioactivity, biohazards, etc.

There certainly will be. Again, without giving too much away, you can expect at least one of the superweapons in the game to leave a residual effect on the ground for a short time after it has been activated.

Will walls and gates be making a marked return to Command & Conquer in Red Alert 3?

The simple answer is yes… and no. Walls will most certainly be making their return from earlier Command & Conquer games in Red Alert 3, but gates will not. We have walls up and running in the game now, actually, and we’re working on ways to make them much easier to build. However (there’s always a catch) if we can’ t get them to a state that we’re happy with, we may decide to remove them, just like we did with Command & Conquer 3. But as of now, the plan is to keep them in the game and make them as user-friendly as possible.

Will you be able to collect resources in the water? What are the basic aesthetics of how this works?

Yeah, our resource-collection mechanic definitely includes resources on water. I think we’re going to be talking about our resource model in detail in a few weeks, but suffice it to say that you’ll have resources to collect both on land and on water, and if you cede control of one or the other to your opponent, you’ll be putting yourself at a huge disadvantage.

Red Alert 2 was defined in part by the presence of real world locations in both map structure and specific landmarks. Will this be continued in RA3 and if so to will it be more or less abstract than what was done for RA2?

We’ll definitely continue the Red Alert 2 tradition of taking players to real-world locations across the globe. Some of the locations that Red Alert 3’s campaign take place in include Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Cannes, just to name a few.

Will there be any limit of how far of land you can build your naval base?

That depends on your faction, really. While theirs are a little different from each, the Allies and Soviets use a traditional build system that requires you to increase the area that you can build any given structure (including any naval structures) by constantly expanding your base. So for the Allies and the Soviets, the short answer is yes, there are limits that are tied to your base’s build radius. The Empire of the Rising Sun, on the other, utilizes a build system that’s markedly different than either the Soviets or the Allies… and that’s all we’ll say on that subject for now.

Now that bases can be built on water, resources are found at sea and many units can go in water, how is Naval Combat any different from land combat? How do you plan to retain the uniqueness of Naval Combat?

One of the ways we maintain unique styles of play on land and on the water is by contextually varying a unit’s role. For example, the Allies have a hovercraft that functions as an effective anti-structure and anti-vehicle unit while it’s in the water, but is then only effective against infantry when it’s on land.

Don't get your hopes up guys I've been playing the Beta and EA has stuffed up the Resource system badly.

I couldn't disagree more. I don't have the beta yet, but the resource system seems to be perfect, making it harder to spam, forcing strategy and wise spending.

lol RA3, I fart in its general direction! =3






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