With the Joint Operations: Escalation expansion, NovaLogic is looking to add some punch to its impressive online action game Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising. Typhoon Rising was released earlier this year, and it allowed up to 150 players to battle it out online in a near-future conflict taking place in a region that resembles modern-day Indonesia, using state-of-the-art weapons and vehicles. Joint Operations: Escalation, which is being released this week, will add new maps, new weapons, and powerful new vehicles, including main battle tanks and attack helicopters. To get the latest details, we sat down with senior designer Brent Houston and producer Joel Taubel to discuss some of the new features introduced in Escalation.

Joint Operations: Escalation adds heavy armor to the Joint Operations world.

GameSpot: Escalation has much more of an emphasis on offensive vehicles, such as tanks and attack helicopters. How are they being balanced so they don't overpower the game? In other words, in the original game, players tended to use the larger cooperative vehicles because they had to. Now, with the addition of smaller assault vehicles, what's to stop players from using only those?

Brent Houston: The intention with Escalation was to really ratchet up the action without losing the focus of the original game. We wanted to add fun vehicles while not reducing the individual's role on the ground to that of a speed bump. Part of this was accomplished though adding weapons such as the Javelin antitank missile, which allows a soldier to disable an enemy tank with one hit. We also changed the way we designed the maps to allow for more action to occur in areas with cover for ground troops.

We included some small agile vehicles, so that players who wanted to go off on their own wouldn't monopolize a large vehicle, thereby reducing the effectiveness of their team. The larger vehicles, when crewed properly, are still the most effective way to take and hold territory.

Joel Taubel: We have the ability to place the vehicles in any mission that we choose. So if we feel that an Apache would dominate a certain level, we will not place it in the map. We have also made the vehicles rely on passengers. The pilot will fly the Apache and the passenger will play the part of the weapons officer. The weapons officer is the only one who has access to the weapons.

GS: The M1A1 Abrams is one of the examples of new vehicles that require teamwork to operate effectively. Could you explain how tank crews work, considering that typical real-world tank crews include three to four guys--a driver, gunner, loader, and commander?

BH: The tank is one of the best examples of effective teamwork. There are crew positions for a driver, gunner, and tank commander. The driver is in control of the vehicle and can drive from either first- or third-person. The gunner operates the 120mm cannon on the M1A1 Abrams and works in concert with the commander to find and destroy vehicles. The commander's position is in the top hatch, operating the mounted .50-calibur machine gun. He has the highest risk, but also the best visibility and can designate targets for the gunner to engage.

JT: The tank crew consists of three players. The real tanks use a crew of four, but we did not feel that anyone would have fun playing the role of the loader. The commander sits on top and has the best field of view. When the commander presses the space bar, he sends a message to the gunner to fire on whatever he is looking at. The gunner has the ability to see what he is looking at by the use of a "commander's" reticle that is overlayed onto his view. The gunner just has to turn the main barrel to match up with the commander and fire.

GS: Could you describe the new attack helicopters for us? Are they tankbusters that carry guided antitank missiles? Can they withstand more damage from the shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles that half the players seem to carry?

BH: In Escalation, we added the AH-64A Apache and the KA-52 Alligator. Both are two-seat attack helicopters with pilot and copilot/gunner positions. It was a conscious decision to not include fire-and-forget antitank missiles, since that would give the airborne platforms a little too much advantage right now. Both aircraft do carry folding-fin aerial rockets and powerful 30mm chain guns.

JT: They are all-around weapon platforms. They work well against infantry and vehicles of all sizes. They are still very sturdy and can take a fair amount of abuse before they blow up.

Attack helicopters are fast and rugged, and capable of ruining your day.

GS: Typhoon Rising featured a wide variety of land-based and water-based levels. Is the team looking to keep the same kind of mix, or has the appearance of heavy armor steered Escalation toward more land-based levels?

BH: There's probably a little less in the way of island maps in Escalation, but I think we had that pretty well covered in Typhoon Rising. We wanted to focus more on land mobility and faster pacing. The island maps look really cool, but tend to be a little slower paced overall, due to the need to transport large groups of players and vehicles over distance. We have a good balance of jungle, open terrain, and industrial locales in the expansion.

JT: We still have water vehicles and they still are a main focus of ours. The addition of armor does lend itself to more land maps, but we still have water maps, and maps that need the larger water transports to get the new armor across water.