While many real-time strategy games focus on a specific era in history, the Empire Earth games have wanted to have it all. The philosophy behind the games is that you can start at the earliest period in history and advance through time, all the way to a hypothetical future. Like most RTS games, Empire Earth requires you to establish a base or a city and begin exploiting the land and resources in order to research new technologies and build powerful military units. With Empire Earth III, developer Mad Doc Software wants to shake things up a bit, because it recognized that the series was getting a bit too unwieldy.

　　Empire Earth III will introduce many new features. There's a world domination mode that combines a turn-based globe with real-time battles. There are three key regional factions: the West, the Far East, and the Middle East. And a new graphics engine provides vastly upgraded visuals.

　　Sierra and Mad Doc are holding Empire Earth III University, a three-day symposium, in Los Angeles this weekend. In advance of that event, we caught up with Matthew Nordhaus, the project director, to learn more about the game, which will ship later this year.

　　Empire Earth III will let you create your own history of the world.

　　GameSpot: Empire Earth III's persistent world domination campaign is pretty ambitious. Can you break down how this mode is played?

　　Matthew Nordhaus: The world domination mode is our version of the typical single-player campaign. Rather than play through a series of scripted scenarios, we allow the player to conquer the globe one province at a time. Each time you enter a province you have the choice of playing through a full RTS battle. At first, you will only encounter relatively easy native tribes, and you can ally with or destroy them. As you expand play, rival nations will expand their empires as well, leading to full-scale conflict.

　　The provinces that you hold on to remain yours, and units and buildings that you build will remain in them. You really get a sense of empire when you play, rather than going into each new scenario and re-researching and rebuilding up your base.

　　What's great about this mode is that the player drives the direction and focus of the campaign. You can expand to any province, send armies and spies out across the world, and capture provinces with world powers, which are researched only in world domination mode. The events, or quests, that occur are related to what you do, what you research, the provinces you take, and who and where your enemies are. Each time you play you will have a very different experience.

　　GS: Multiplayer gameplay is a huge component to the longevity of a real-time strategy game. What are the lessons you learned from Empire Earth II, and how have you applied them to the new game?

　　MN: One lesson that we learned was that casual players can get overwhelmed by too many options. We had a ton of customization in Empire Earth II, and much of it was at the request of people who played online multiplayer a great deal. For Empire Earth III we have tried very hard to make sure the casual player doesn't get overwhelmed. We have trimmed down the options for creating multiplayer games, for example, and given the players easy-to-read tooltips and information about their units, which will make it easier for them to learn how to play.

　　At the same time, we realize that there is a core group of players who want it all. So we have kept options open for those people who demand more info. We have also added an anonymous matchmaking system, an arranged teams system, and a ladder-and-ranking Web page that will allow more-committed players to view their progress and compete with others on a level playing field. Finally, we have increased our tools, resources, and commitment to providing a balanced game to the players when it ships.

　　GS: Visually, Empire Earth III is a bolder game compared to its predecessors. What was the thinking behind this oversized art style, and what were some of the inspirations for it?

　　From feudal knights to modern war machines and beyond.

　　MN: To some extent, we just wanted to do something different. After going through Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest, Empire Earth II, and Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy, the team was ready to try something new. Rather than simply expand on Empire Earth II and make it the same, but more, we decided to go in a completely different direction. The art style and the unique single-player world domination mode were two big changes that we designed into the game from the beginning. It got the team excited and enthusiastic about making something fresh.

　　One big win for the game which came out of this decision was the art style for the units. Because we were not creating units which were strictly historical, we were able to exaggerate their features. This allows the players to very easily identify different unit types in a fast-paced and packed battlefield.

Better UI for You

　　The oversized art style really stands out.

　　MN: We have removed random maps in order to make the maps look better. It's just a fact that hand-painted maps look nicer than randomly generated ones. We have a dedicated environment team that has been creating concepts, previsualizations, and maps for more than a year now. The payoff is that the maps look fantastic. They are much more detailed and have higher resolutions than the Empire Earth II maps. Each one is also hand-designed for multiplayer or single-player, so we can make sure the maps are balanced and fun.

　　The environments have different weather effects, but we decided to forgo terrain movement penalties to allow the player to focus more on unit abilities and combat actions. There are height advantages for both terrain and walls: You get increased range and line-of-sight if you are higher than your enemy.

　　GS: Mad Doc has been playing and tweaking the game for over a year now. How has the initial design survived the testing, and what's proving to be the most challenging aspect of the game to balance?

　　MN: The initial design has held up pretty well. Our original vision focused on three main pillars: great-looking maps and units; balanced and fun multiplayer using units with unique abilities; and a free-form single-player campaign on an event-filled globe.

　　I'm happy to say that all three pillars are still intact. One thing that has changed from our initial estimates is the size of our globe. When we started playing world domination we realized we could make the globe smaller and still give the player a very satisfying 10 to 12 hours of gameplay.

　　Another item that is in constant flux is the user interface. We are currently on our second full redesign, and it looks like we will most likely change much of it again before we ship. Everyone at Mad Doc (and Vivendi) understands that UI is vital to helping players learn the game and have fun. Once players are fully addicted, our initial steps for world domination will be in place.

　　GS: What improvements have been made to the user interface? What's the philosophy behind the UI design?

　　MN: As I mentioned previously, it's something that we are constantly looking at. I think we have done a good job so far of streamlining the UI. We are always having new players and designers look at the UI to give us fresh feedback and help us understand anything that's confusing or out of place. The philosophy of our UI design is that we want casual players to be able to easily and quickly learn the game without being overwhelmed by options, while giving advanced players all the detailed information they want.

　　GS: Sierra and Mad Doc are planning to hold a beta test for the game soon to get it in gamers' hands. What is in the beta test? Will it be open to the entire public? And how long will it last?

　　MN: That hasn't been finalized yet. There will probably be more than one beta test, but Vivendi and Mad Doc are still working on scheduling them to make sure we get useful feedback that we can fold back into the game.

　　GS: We understand that the University event will also kick off the often-challenging process of tweaking the game and the playable factions to make sure they're balanced and fair to play, but still fun. Tell us about this process and give us some examples of the distinctive gameplay features and faction abilities you want to preserve while making sure the playing field stays level.

　　MN: We have very distinct personalities for each region. The West is a technology region, relying on research and powerful units. The Far East builds units like mad to swarm across the map, while the Middle East relies on stealth, deception, and hit-and-run tactics to raid and harass the enemy.

　　You can have rainy days in Empire Earth III and other types of weather as well.

　　I'm sure as we start the beta cycle there will be unbalanced items. A developer never really finishes balancing a game. Most RTS games are in a state of constant tweaking even after release, as the online community finds new strategies, the developers respond, and the cycle begins again. We are fortunate that we have a very stable game early, and so we can start gathering balance data now.

　　We have a robust system which records information as the game plays and generates reports for us. We have deployed this here at Mad Doc, and as the beta tests go live we hope to be gathering balance data from everyone who plays. The more people we have playing the game, the better balanced the game is going to be when it comes out.

　　GS: Thank you, Matthew.