Our immediate goals are to fill out the current rosters, giving each nation light and heavy fighters, as well as attack craft. There are literally hundreds of aircraft available for us to add including some highly anticipated favorites. We are also excited to add more nations to the game over time. ~Wargaming

World of Warplanes

Being an avid player of World of Tanks and World of Warplanes and knowing the games really well I took the opportunity to interview our friends over at Wargaming.net (Wargaming North America) about the future of World of Warplanes. We specifically talked to Sr. Producer Gareth Luke & Producer Joshua Morris from Wargaming North America and here is what they had to say:

The Interview

When will we see Clan Wars for World of Warplanes? If so, how will Clan Wars be between World of Tanks and Warplanes and eventually Warships?

We learned a lot over the last 3 Clan Wars campaigns in World of Tanks and it is rising in popularity, especially amongst the top tier clans. Obviously World of Warplanes is still very young and we are really focused on polishing gameplay, balancing and listening to our players to create the best, standalone aerial combat game. Not to mention, we really want to have the bulk of our audience with hangars full of Tier 10 planes, so that is our main objective at the moment.

We are looking at the World of Tanks Clan Wars system, what works, what doesn’t and how that could translate to World of Warplanes and indeed eventually, World of Warships. We are also exploring the possibility of tank versus warplane Clan Wars, but at this stage, our focus has to be on perfecting the experience of the standalone games first.

When will we see Tier 8 premium planes?

We will be introducing Tier 8 planes in the future and we have several candidates lined up and in pre-production. The timing of the release is more involved. We want there to be enough players available for players to compete against when they purchase one of these planes. Our product has just released, and we want to give our community time to explore the wonderful aircraft that are available now and free to earn.

What countries’ planes do you plan to release next (or in the near future)?

Our immediate goals are to fill out the current rosters, giving each nation light and heavy fighters, as well as attack craft. There are literally hundreds of aircraft available for us to add including some highly anticipated favorites. We are also excited to add more nations to the game over time.

How often do you plan to update Warplanes? What will we see for the first patch?

World of Warplanes has already released two updates since release, the most current one being Update 1.2. We plan to release updates on a regular cadence, not only adding content like aircraft and maps to the game, but also new features and game modes. You should expect releases to follow a similar pattern to what you see in World of Tanks.

Do you plan to share credits between Tanks and Warplanes?

We have not ruled this out in the future. As you know we already allow each account to share premium time and gold between accounts. We want to monitor the effects of these systems before adding any additional functionality to the program.

What is your top development priority? (making more maps, releasing new planes, releasing new modules)

Content, such as planes and maps, will always be a priority as players tend to devour them quickly! However, it is a top priority to make sure players are constantly engaged with new programs and features as well. Lastly, endgame content and eSports are an important aspect in the long term enjoyment of the game and we will develop resources to make sure these areas shine.

Do you plan to release Team Battle or Company Battles (similar to WoT) for World of Warplanes?

We do plan to add more game modes in the future. Socialization mechanics are a massive part of Wargaming titles.

Do you plan to release defense battles (similar to WoT) for World of Warplanes?

Yes, ‘Superiority’ is just the first mode planned for World of Warplanes; we will introduce more scenarios over the course of the year and will have different objectives and gameplay.

Do you plan on balancing special weekend events between Tanks and Warplanes (for example, not giving both games 5X first win of the day XP on the same weekend)?

We are aware that many players play both games and look forward to our new products as well. We want to keep that in mind and allow each game to have its own special time. There will also be times during holidays where all products will have amazing specials at the same time.

When will you introduce clans in World of Warplanes?

We have added flights (like platoons in World of Tanks) and will be adding ‘squadrons’ as a next step. We will let people know when these features will be made available and in which updates when we get a little closer to releasing them. It is very important to us that we have solid tools for managing socialization before we give the functionality for clans to our players.

Any news regarding 30 vs. 30 fights to either Tanks or Warplanes?

We really love the thought of massive tank and air battles! We have explored raising the limit to 30 on 30 and have seen some good results. However, doubling the players involved currently increases the server required by about four times. We will continue to explore the feasibility of larger battles, but for the time being we want to concentrate on other features.

Any plans so far to release World of Warplanes on consoles?

World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition launched on February 12 and we’ve been very excited by this release. We would love to continue to add more games to this platform, but we are currently focused on offering console players a solid World of Tanks experience on the Xbox 360. Obviously, Wargaming is forging new ground with Microsoft and XBOX360 in bringing, AAA quality, free-to-play battles to console, so we are focused on getting it right and proving that free-to-play works in this space.

Any plans to release a special tech tree that is World War I only?

This is a very interesting idea and nothing is ruled out. However, it should be noted that the inter-war years lead to some serious innovation and aligning WWI and WII aircraft would be quite challenging.

Do you plan on creating Historical Battle mode on WoWP?

We will be releasing a historic battle mode for World of Tanks first. We are excited to see what the reception of that mode is in that game before making any plans for World of Warplanes.

Will bombing craft always be Attack Craft or will you have high altitude bombers introduced?

Multi-crewed, high altitude, heavy bombers may be included in the game in the future;however, they will likely be introduced as AI controlled, team objectives to specific battle modes.

Do you plan on introducing a superior chat system that will let everybody chat through one chat channel for both games?

Yes, at first, we want to produce a better quality chat in both games individually and then, look at the possibility of linking the games together at the Wargaming account level.

*****

Special thanks not only to Sr. Producer Gareth Luke, Producer Joshua Morris, and Director of Communications Chris Cook from Wargaming North America but also Arthur Pratapopau, the Global PR Director of Wargaming.net

You can also find other articles and interviews about Wargaming America.

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