Fallout Tactics Update

Interplay has released a progress report on Fallout Tactics from Australian studio Micro Forte. The development team has just finished a playable demo that includes two separate missions and a basic tutorial, and they are now hard at work on a variety of assignments, including fine-tuning the AI, building missions, and adjusting the lighting effects.

The team has settled on two graphics resolutions: 800x600 and 1024x768. Although they considered allowing for higher resolutions, the added load on the processor generated some slowdown, and they felt that higher resolutions would also create an unfair advantage for people with high-end machines over players with systems that can't support high resolutions. The game will feature some dynamic lighting and some static lighting, and the lead artist is going over the maps to fix any trouble spots that appear. Several single-player missions are nearing completion and Interplay will start focus-group testing next week, with more missions scheduled to be built next month.

The game supports both traditional turn-based play and what the developer calls continuous turn-based play. According to the producer in charge of the project, one of the biggest challenges in creating the game is getting players to play the game in a tactically intelligent way. Because the game looks similar to a typical real-time strategy game, many players try to play it that way, which makes the missions much harder to complete. Each mission is scripted as a series of small encounters that require different tactics.

For more information about Fallout Tactics, take a look at this video interview with senior game designer Chris Taylor. Fallout Tactics is scheduled for release in early 2001.