World Forge is currently working on Battle for Atlantis, a new real-time strategy game on the PC that will do some interesting things with water and physics, while trying to remain true to the core concepts of the genre. We recently had the chance to ask lead designer of Battle for Atlantis, Roman Volkov, some questions regarding the aforementioned features, as well as about technology trees, factions, and much more. Thanks for your time, Roman!

~ Jeff Nash

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Battle for Atlantis Interview

Armchair Empire (AE): Why are the Atlanteans so angry at the rest of the world in the game?

Roman Volkov (RV): In our game, Atlanteans are an ancient civilization, which existed long before humanity. Their natural habitat are the depths of water. After their attempts to educate the humans were violently repulsed by the Ancient Greeks, the Atlanteans went into near slumber, devoted to contemplations about things eternal. In the meantime, humans developed their civilization, explored the planet's surface, and conquered the Earth. It wasn’t perceived to be a cradle of sentient beings, but a source of wealth. For ages humanity changed nature, destroyed the forests, cleansed the soil. This process was encouraged even more by their technical progress, which led to immense harm to nature and all living beings. Giant amounts of waste were dumped in the World Ocean. In the end Atlanteans, despite all their patience, became unhappy with humans pouring slop and offal upon their home for ages. And to prevent this, the inhabitants of the deep decided to remove the cause of their troubles once and for all. This became a matter of life and death to them.

AE: How are factions divided in the game? Will it be strictly Altanteans vs. the world?

RV: A division appeared among the Atlanteans when they discovered how technologically advanced their adversaries are now. A part of the Atlanteans created a pact with a splinter group of humans to create a new “superbeing” race, the Ultrans, modified with heavy use of electronics and genetic engineering. Their main base was on the Antarctic continent for obvious strategic reasons. But during the experiments the Ultrans and their mentors melted most of the ice there, causing global warming to increase tenfold. Big parts of former continents were flooded by water. Chaos started to spread, but the remnants of the Earth’s nations created a so-called Federation. It is a mighty military empire, ruling by force alone. The people who were not ready to accept this attempted to form separate tribes. But without the financial and resource support of the Federation, those turned into marauders and rampaging mobs very soon. To put it short, there will be three playable races in the game – Human Federation, Atlanteans and Ultrans. All of them will have to fight between themselves and also raiding bands, from time to time.

AE: How are you deciding on the types of units available in Battle for Atlantis? Is there any mythological connection to Atlantean units, and real-life counterparts to the human units?

RV: The game takes place in a not too distant future, so all of the weapons known to the mankind now will be present. Naturally, there will be new ones as well. For example, Atlanteans will use modified water, which can dissolve matter much faster than regular water.

The Atlanteans who appear in the game were called so because they emerged from the waters of Atlantic ocean, and because most of their units are huge. There’s almost no connection with the wise and wealthy race of Greek legends. But some of the most terrific monsters of the Atlanteans indeed could be similar to the mythical creatures of Ancient times.

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AE: Can you tell us anything about the technology trees in the game?

RV: As in all strategy games, a player can create bases and perform researches. Besides that, the player can command the special units – giant robotic platforms or titanic underwater motherships. Their rank depends on experience.

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The higher the rank is, the more abilities the commander will have. Eventually it will be possible to control a very big number of units and install new modules – weapons, defensive fields, additional engines etc.

AE: What sorts of mission objectives will players find in Battle for Atlantis?

RV: In most battles the enemy base and commanders will be the player’s main target. But overall it depends on the situation and mission purpose. Sometimes it will be required to block the resource flow, establish control over a certain place, help the scouts to infiltrate enemy territory, etc.

AE: What types of plans are there for multiplayer in the game?

RV: Multiplayer will be centered around typical RTS-style battles: building the bases, scavenging the resources and fighting over the territory. The players will be able to set up a lot of options they before start, such as the number of commanders, speed of the resource flow, amount of ground and water on the map and so on.

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