What is the aim of Gates of Hell?
Gates of Hell is an ambitious project to revamp the concept of RTS-tactics/action/shooter in an authentic, powerful and realistic game that brings the most intense World War 2 experience to the players.
Only for Windows?
And Mac and Linux!
What relationship exists between Gates of Hell (GoH) and Men of War (MoW)?
Gates of Hell uses an upgraded version of the engine that was used to make Men of War. The game can be considered in a way to be a realism successor to MoW, with the partner game 'Soldiers: Arena' developed by our publishing friends Best Way, as the 'arcade' and MMO side of the succession.
In a nutshell of bullet points, what makes this game unique?
· Third person top down and RTS interchangable modes for any unit
· Destroyability of objects and landscape
· Inventory system for all units, with scavenging and stealing mechanics.
· Realistic vehicle mobility, including acceleration, weight, physics, suspension, power, etc.
· Realistic vehicle damage system, including all internal modules and components
· Accurate ballistics, including realistically programmed behaviour for all shell projectile types.
· Authentic units with accurately modelled and portrayed uniforms, vehicles, etc.
· Comprehensively researched maps with historical locations and unique features.
· Over 7 gamemodes in multiplayer for every players' taste including some with variable year-setting 1939-45.
· Overhauled graphics with realistic colour pallete and maximum graphic immersion.
· Dynamic sound system with echoes, reverbs and enabling acoustic location of enemy troops
· Workshop, replays and leaderboards
Will GoH have the MoW controls (From Men-of-War saga) such as classic direct control, as well as all the regular RTS control modes?
Of course
Will GoH have Steam cloud and Steam Workshop facilities?
Full integration of Steamworks, including leaderboards and replays as well.
What upgrades and technical advancements can be expected?
All Men of War/Gates of Hell games use GEM2, originally developed by Best Way Games: All engines are worked around the same core. However the engine used for GoH wields our own upgrades to the engine (considered Gem2.3). Amongst the numerous changes, there are several highlights, namely optimization for large battles, memory rendering, implementation of steamworks, numerous graphic enhancements, Linux and Mac support, ballistics improvements, new interface, new gamemodes, and more to come.
How will the game grow?
The game will grow from the Early Access to the Full game, and will then move towards designing DLCs for the game. By the end of the creation process we will have crafted an ambitious project of which you can check the magnitude of content in the features.
Multiplayer Factions?
We will be heavily working on factions, making each one as characterful and historically correct as possible. Our factions are built around the feature of multiplayer where you can choose the stage of the war that you are playing with different line-ups of units, this requires a very long development. As a result, you will experience a gradual addition up to two factions for Early Access. The rest of faction content will be a modular DLC system which includes one nation for multiplayer to use plus it’s singleplayer respective campaign per DLC. This includes factions well considered in WW2 plus puppet or minor factions like Hungary, Poland, etc. Pointing out that Early Access primarily focuses on the Eastern Front, after full release, western front will be developed, with the further inclusion of Nordic, mediterranean, etc. theatre of operations.
If I buy a faction DLC and my friend doesn't... How can we play together?
Yes, The difference being, he won't be able to select your faction to play as... But he can always fight against you or by your alliance side with the faction he owns. This way you only have buy factions you prefer, and the community isn't split with DLC and non-DLC owners.
To what degree of realism are the weapons and ranges in the game?
Vastly representative of the real conditions. Tank guns will use their ammunition for the gun model, in terms of shell model for such specific gun design with their improvements and composite rounds, armour is realistically implemented with all it's ballistic effects. Infantry weapons will use their caliber and magazine ammo arrangement. Weapons will use real penetration: Caution and armour angling are now very important. Ranges are greatly increased, but accuracy decreases close-to-exponentially with range: gameplay will be much more intense! In spite of all the complexity, the learning curve will be very gentle. Mission trainings and singleplayer gameplay will teach you how to use all the features.
Have you reworked the interface?
Yes, news about it soon. We aim to make it as user friendly as possible. The new layout will offer a much more gradual and intuitive learning curve.
Can you control one unit or several at a time?
Yes, you can mouse+WASD-control any unit and them immediately switch to the global control mode again. Every unit has it's inventory like a 3rd person adventure game.
Can I play on the classic competitive maps on Gates of Hell (For MoW seasonal players)?
Yes and No. No map will look the same on Gates of Hell, given the rework of landscape objects and improvements to buildings, new system of ground textures, etc. But you might find redesigned and rebranded versions of Farmland and other classics...
Is there closed betas before EA?
Most possibly.
Can you create mods for this game too? Does it contain the Map editor
Yes.
Will the units be gradually unlocked in 'Grinding' XP mode?
No. It will be up to the player to experiment his own tactic. To train players into the different units and tactics, as mentioned earlier, single player campaigns and tutorials will do that job. All units available right from the onset!
Prototypes?
No. It was voted upon by the players and fans yourselves in December 2015. However it's easily moddeable :3
What is different between Gates of Hell and Soldiers:Arena?
Soldiers: Arena is another game from our same published that uses the same game engine. For this reason there are both similarities and differences.
Gates of Hell is a tactical, bigger distance-combat, more realistic-WW2 project with an emphasis on authenticity of battles and contains singleplayer. There is no unit progression. Multiplayer is solidly split between the different stages of the war and it contains both new and the classic MoW gamemodes. It is most suitable for the simulation fans, that like very meticulous historical battles and want to spend an afternoon getting immersed into some realistic WW2 combat with intense ambient sounds and desolated landscapes of war.
Soldiers:Arena is a F2P, MMO-based multiplayer-exclusive project with an emphasis on teamwork, action combat and progression of units and players. The multiplayer component is completely new in gamemode and player profile system. It's most suitable for those who want to jump into some action that brings memories of the faster-paced, short distance fights of Men of War. You don't know which one you want to try? Soldiers:Arena is free-to-play, it might be your good onset into our games without shaking your credit card, but we cannot say both games play the same at all.
Both developing teams hope that you will have a great time playing our games, when we release them.
Both games increase the graphical fidelity, and share some common features, but they are very different in gameplay and content.
Can the community be involved in the development?
We have an pinned idea/suggestion thread in this forum. We also analysed many of your suggestions that you already made in this document
Am I able to support you in any way?
If you like what we have done so far and you want to support Barbedwire Studios directly, you can do that right here[www.barbed-wire.eu].
Your help is very much appreciated, although we cannot offer any rewards or exchanges in return. We surely thank you for any support, as much as it is!