Hello Ian! Could you first introduce yourself to our readers?

Hello to all our fans in France! It’s a pleasure to be speaking directly to you, our fans abroad. I’m Dr. Ian Lane Davis, CEO and Founder of Mad Doc® Software. As you may have guessed, I’ve been playing computer games all my life, and quite honestly, I still can’t seem to stop playing them. I suppose it makes sense that I earned a Ph.D. in Robotics, became Activision’s Technical Director, and started a game company with a penchant for great Artificial Intelligence.

We have a great deal of fun here at Mad Doc, but don’t be fooled, making games is hard work. Speaking of which…we’re doing some great work on Empire Earth 2 right now that I think will make you all very happy!

Mad Doc is the studio that made "The Art of Conquest", the expansion pack for Empire Earth. Was it a good experience to build the expansion pack for a game that wasn't created by you?

Yes, it was a good experience. With Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest™, the bar was set high, expectations were high. As well they should be. Players want games, as well as expansion packs, to exceed their expectations. Our team loves a challenge, and we love to create great gameplay experiences. I think we took the normal series of challenges any developer would encounter in creating an expansion, and rose to the occasion quite nicely.

Now let's talk about Empire Earth 2! What are the most significant developments between Empire Earth and its sequel?

The Mad Doc team is fully immersed in Empire Earth 2, and as we’re creating 15 epochs, spanning 10,000 BC – 2230 AD, 14 different civilizations, and a greater number and variety of buildings and units than any other game on the market, our goal is to give fans a truly epic gaming experience. We’re really looking forward to making EE2 the best historical RTS ever.

Empire Earth 2 is different from its predecessor in a lot of ways. First, it’s a brand new engine. We’ve implemented new, non-cheating AI, and we started over with every aspect of the code. Basically, we took everything fans loved about Empire Earth and made it bigger and better, and we took everything they didn’t love and either took it out, or fixed it.

In general, we really wanted to keep the things that made EE a great game (core RTS gameplay and epic scope), while moving the franchise along. I think we’ve achieved our goal: we’re implementing advanced AI (non-cheating and adaptive), enhanced environmental realism (weather, seasons), new multiplayer modes (crowns, territories), improved management systems (picture-in-picture, the citizen manager, warplans), and territories (divides map up into regions you need to conquer), with an all new engine.
All in all, Empire Earth 2 is a strong step forward for the franchise, as well as for the RTS genre in general.

The screenshots that were released are very impressive. Did you build a brand new graphical engine?

Yes, we did, it’s an all new engine. We really had a look in mind for EE2, and knew early on that we wanted to develop our own graphics engine. After evaluating all the engine options, we chose to use Gamebryo’s core graphics engine and build a brand new Mad Doc® proprietary RTS engine on top of it. Gamebryo provides a well-supported and effective graphics base layer that can be easily ported, and making a brand new RTS engine using our years and years of strategy game experience let us make the absolute best RTS experience possible.

The last released RTS all had a large assistance to help the players in playing. The occasional players love this but the hardcore gamers feel this makes the skill less important to be the best. For which players is Empire Earth 2 made?

Both! Empire Earth 2 is a game designed to appeal to and assist casual gamers in their gameplay, while offering advanced players more depth and strategy to keep them enthralled. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Our goal: to give all our players more, while making it easier to digest and control the game. Essentially, we’ve made the game more elegant. To that end, players get a citizen manager, war planner, and a picture in picture feature. As you now know, the citizen manager is an easy tool set designed to make sure your citizens are working in the right place at the right time; it takes some of the tedium out of managing lots of citizens in a big empire, but leaves all of the strategy in place. With the new war planning feature, players will be able to bring up a map of the entire level and create war plans for allied troops to use at the same time. Not only does this work for team based multiplayer matches, but also with AI in the single player campaigns. It’s up to the player, really, to use them as they like.

Keeping track of everything can get fairly hectic, so a picture in picture feature has been added as well. Players can key locations for view in the PiP window, and important events will also automatically show there as well. All of these can be used across the single player campaigns, historical campaigns, and nine multiplayer modes over Internet and LAN. Also, with Empire Earth 2, there will be bigger battles over many ages, and hard-core gamers can expect "non-cheating," adaptive, more dynamic AI to give them challenges that seem more human. Ambient weather like fog and snowfall will affect gameplay as well and force players to adapt to changing environments. To keep things interesting, maps will be divided into territories which players must claim and compete for (these become economically important and are also important for military strength). So, there’s a lot more depth of strategy and play, and with the introduction of the crown system (which will temporarily reward players who achieve military, economic, imperialistic or cultural dominance, diplomacy), hard-core gamers will have a great gameplay experience. We’ve also added in the new diplomacy screen, which fans have been eagerly anticipating, allowing players to offer treaties, barter for land passage rights, trade offers, and more. All in all, we think there will be more than enough innovative gameplay to keep any strategist happily occupied for quite a while.

In another interview, you talked about 14 civilizations? Could you tell us which ones?

Ok, here goes. Empire Earth 2 will have 14 different civilizations from around the world, broken up into four regions which hold three to four civilizations each, including: the Far East, Middle East, Meso-American, and West. Each of these areas will have different looks for buildings along with unique units. Each civilization will have unique units on top of those as well, bringing the game total to over two hundred different unit types. As for the civilizations, and you are the first to know this, there will be: Romans, Turks, Koreans, and Aztecs… perhaps waiting for more is best though, don’t you want some suspense?

How about the evolution? Did you use the good old fashioned click-for-next-age?

The game runs from 10,000 BC to 2230 AD, it’s a huge span. It encompasses all the technologies of the periods - from stone age weapons to nuclear missiles. All air units are in place as well - from helicopters to stealth fighters. As we’ve noted, there will be 15 epochs in Empire Earth 2. And yes, we used the good old fashioned click-for-next-age, although we’ve put our own spin on it. That’s all I’ll say for now!

What are the resources in Empire Earth2? Is the resource gathering linked to the territories?

The standard resources in EE2 are: food, stone, wood, and gold. Also, we have two slots for resources that change over time. As you epoch up, depending on what epoch you’re in, they may be: iron, tin, saltpeter, oil, or uranium.

How about the unit balancing? Is there a kind of Rock/Scissors/Paper stuff like in Empire Earth?

We’ve done a really great job of streamlining the balancing in Empire Earth 2. We’ve balanced the game with an eye toward making the rock/paper/scissors weighting more stable. So, just to give you a quick example, the benefits are less extreme, and beginners aren’t wiped out by more experienced players too quickly. We think players are going to appreciate the fine-tuning we’ve put into place here.

What can you tell us about the 3 campaigns?

With our eye firmly placed on creating a fun, dynamic and challenging gameplay experience, we put a great deal of work into the creation of the campaigns in Empire Earth 2. There were massive amounts of historical research, fact checking, timeline creation, battle design, writing and more behind our campaign development. Empire Earth 2 has three major campaigns: the Korean campaign, the German campaign and the American campaign. The Korean campaign starts at the founding of the first Korean city state, and takes you from this birth through their becoming a fully independent state. The German campaign begins with the founding of Prussia, and moves through its eight scenarios, giving you a broad sense of the German state and how it affected history. Finally, the American campaign is introduced with the Spanish-American war, and takes you into the near future in a post Cold-war setting. All together, they cover the entire course of history, and as you might imagine, this is no small task.

Is there going to be a scenario editor in Empire Earth 2?

At Mad Doc, we feel it’s very important to support the community. So, yes, definitely, the game will be shipped with a map editor, one similar to what we used to create Empire Earth 2. Players will have a really great tool to work with, and any online player can create maps. Additionally, all of the data on the units is stored in easy to edit files, so people can make new units (even adding new art if they wish) for mods. And in general, Empire Earth 2 has a lot of options in how you play it: regions, skirmishes, pacing and more can be tuned to your own tastes in playing. For us, the longevity of the game, and the tools to make games & maps are what keep players happy. At the end of the day, that’s our goal.

What will be the system requirements be to play Empire Earth 2 comfortably?

At this time, it’s a bit early to say.

Is a beta test planned? If yes, will it be public?

Yes, a Beta is planned. At this stage, the timing is undetermined.

When do you think the game is going to hit the shelves?

Early 2005.

Thank you for answering these questions Ian!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you, as well as all our fans in France. It’s been a pleasure, and I can’t thank you and the fans enough for your continued support of Empire Earth 2, Vivendi Universal Games, and Mad Doc. I look forward to speaking with you in the future, but for now, I must be away to work on the game…

You can also visit the official websites of Mad Doc Software and Empire Earth.