Age of Empires III Updated Q&A - Cinematics, Physics, AI

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Welcome to the New World. Watch this exclusive trailer for Age of Empires III.

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There's little doubt that Age of Empires III is going to be one of the major PC releases this winter, seeing how the third sequel in Microsoft's landmark real-time strategy series will arrive nearly six years after its predecessor did. That's a long time to wait between chapters, but it appears that developer Ensemble Studios is making up for the long gap by throwing everything, including the proverbial kitchen sink, into Age III. Whereas the first games were set in ancient and medieval times, Age III is set in the New World, during the 16th and 17th centuries. And it looks fabulous, with the early screenshots displaying some truly beautiful moments in the game. We caught up with Dave Pottinger, the lead programmer for Age of Empires III and Ensemble's director of technology, to learn more about the technology in the game.

Combat in Age of Empires III is all about standing tall in the face of certain death.

GameSpot: What, if any, cinematic elements are being added to Age of Empires III? Is the plan to make Age III the sort of game that evokes real emotion from players during single- or multiplayer games? How will this be accomplished? With brief in-engine cutscenes, swooping camera angles, highly articulated character models?

Dave Pottinger: We've rebuilt and extended the cinematic systems that we had in Age of Mythology. We liked how big and epic the Age of Mythology campaign turned out. The in-game cinematics were a huge part of that. We've gone even bigger on those things this time around. We've got all the high-tech bells and whistles you'd expect, and a few things you wouldn't. One of the great things about our setting is that it lends itself very well to sweeping vistas and awesome landscape shots as you explore the New World. Our cinematics and campaign take full advantage of the sense of awe created by those things.

GS: Tell us about how the game's new technology is being used to augment gameplay. For instance, can we expect to see real-time weather effects, like rain that actually affects your soldiers' or cities' performances? Burning buildings that spread flames to nearby structures? Water physics that actually affect the handling of ships at sea?

DP: The biggest example where the new technology affects gameplay is in the physics. The first time you see a heavy cannon blast a musketeer over a town center only to have the musketeer's limp body come to rest on the apex of one of the gables is when you've discovered something new and cool. We're still figuring out the right mix of gameplay versus eye candy for stuff like that, but we are experimenting with some neat ideas. The new technology has also created a huge impact on the gameplay, through indirect means, as well. The game looks so great just running that we felt it critical to add more animations and better unit behavior for things such as combat and movement. Those clearly affect gameplay, but they also might not exist if the rest of the game didn't look so hot.

GS: We understand that the graphics engine is not only being used to render huge, realistic environments, but also to render soldiers, buildings, and just about everything else in tremendous detail, even when viewed up close. Since Age III is a real-time strategy game, and players will probably spend a good deal of time playing from a zoomed-out view, why this attention to detail? What does it add to the game? Better differentiation between different units? Better differentiation between different ages?

DP: An attention to detail is something near and dear to our definition of the Age of Empires franchise. When we first demoed Age I to everyone, we blew them away with details like chariot riders being thrown from chariots when they died. The cool thing is that, now, we're doing that in real-time 3D as opposed to the 2D sprite system from the Age I era. The Age franchise is also about giving players options. If they want to play random map games against the computer player, they can get that. If they want a rich story experience with the campaign, they can get that. If they want to test their mettle online, they can get that, too. That philosophy is all over the game, so graphics get that treatment, too. If you want to zoom in, you can do that. If scenario designers want to either rotate buildings for variation or use higher polygon models, they can do that, too. So, I guess I'd say it just helps round out the game. We put a lot of stuff in every Age box; this is just one of those things.

GS: Tell us about the tech that's being used for the game's artificial intelligence in battle. Is the plan to realistically model the marching formations and tactics of soldiers of the day? Or morale in battle? Will soldiers be predisposed to act as they did in specific historical battles? How in-depth will the AI get?

You can also order your men to take up different types of tactical formations, such as the defensive square.

DP: That's an interesting question. It's unlikely we'll get down to modeling morale; we like units that do what we tell them to do too much for that. But, we have spent a great deal of time on research and development for some very cool combat innovations. The combat system in Age III is all new. One of the big changes is that it's very group-based. People expect this time period to deliver musketeers standing in volley formation, cavalry charging into combat as a big group, and infantry forming their collective lines to defend the precious cannons as they shell the unlucky enemies. We set out to build a group combat system that gives players more-interesting tactical control than previous real-time strategy games. We wanted to fix the, "Hey, I'll screw up pathing by just micromanaging my units all around the combat"-type of thing. We did that pretty quickly, actually. The hard part has been taking that and making it feel like an Age game in terms of user control and flexibility. I think we've finally rounded that corner just recently. It's very, very cool to play right now.