FFOW.NET: For many gamers DC is the best Battlefield modification ever, and for the hardcore gamer it is the real Battlefield!
As some developers of Frontlines: Fuel of War have assisted in DC, the fans expect a game with the same quality as DC or even better.
How do you handle this pressure and the anticipation of the community?

Frank DeLise: Well first, thanks for the kind words! Desert Combat was created out of passion, that same passion exists on FFOW and more so. Many of the developers who worked on DC are on Frontlines.
DC was also created on our spare time, but now we have been able to do so much more that we wanted to do. I think the DC fans will be very excited about Frontlines as it brings back the skill based gameplay that people missed.

FFOW.NET: Do you see it as a problem to get compared with Battlefield, or is it more like an honour? Helps it to spur you on?

Frank DeLise: Well there are 2 parts here, Battlefield is a great game, I enjoyed working on it and I had a lot of fun playing it, they inovated in the genre. But Battlefield is best know for its vehicle play and moving forward everyone will have vehicles. Now its about inovative gameplay and the reciepe for fun.
We don’t mind being compared to Battlefield, it happens in all genres. What matters is does the game offer new experiences, gameplay and innovation.. Frontlines surely does exactly that.

FFOW.NET: Frank DeLise was the head-developer of DC and is now the project manager of Frontlines: Fuel of War. Does Frank see FFOW as the real DesertCombat, which he couldn’t create because of the limited potential in developing a mod?

Frank DeLise: Desert Combat hold a special spot for me, I wish I was able to finish it. Frontlines definetly has gameplay elements in it that I wish I could have done in DC, From deployable weapons to more realisitc graphics and FX.
We learned a lot on DC and many of those things have been brought over to Frontlines. So its safe to say that Frontlines is the future DC and I will continue to push it to be the best military game experience out there.

FFOW.NET: A major difference to the BF-Parts is that Frontlines: Fuel of War has a big single player mode. Can you give us some details about the story?

Frank DeLise: Frontlines is set in 2024 admist a global energy crisis where the last remaining resources are desperately fought over. While it hasn't run out yet, it has set tensions so high in the world that economies are falling and the superpowers must fight for their own survival.
The game puts the Western Coalition (US \ EU) against the Red Star Alliance (Russia \ China) in a gritty future where you fight it out from the Caspian Sea all the way into Moscow.
The SP game puts you in a division called the Stray Dogs where you work with a tough squad of gritty soldiers fighting through impossible odds. Joining you on the missions is an embedded reporter who tells you the stories back home and help you through the mission.
The single player missions are complete non-linear, but cinematic. This means you are dropped off in remote locations where you have to decide how to take on the enemy. This give you great control of how the game plays out. Fight how you want to fight on the frontlines of tommorrow.
Some of the missions are pretty insane. One of my favorites is a mission where you have to take over an underground missle silo. However you start outside a mountain and you have to fight your way in with a huge tank collumn, helicopters and air strikes. It goes from a huge vehicle battle to an underground infantry battle.

FFOW.NET: Most members of our community have played at least one part of the Battlefield series. What kind of innovations may a BF veteran expect of Frontlines: Fuel of War? Where will be the biggest differences to Battlefield?

Frank DeLise: There are many new innovations to expect.
The frontlines game mechanic is very fun gamemode to play. It offers a new way to work as a team to move the front forward. The objectives on the front are also varied. From capture points, destroyble objectives, active (use key to capture), steal, etc..
The seperation of weapon and role is a lot of fun and gives you a lot more choices in how to fight.
Deployable, usable weapons. Like deploying MG nests, Rail guns, etc..
Remote Controlled Drones that you get use in 1st \ 3rd person. RC Helicopters, RC Cars, RC machine guns, etc.
Information sharing (intra-vehicle target sharing) Example, 2nd position can mark targets for the gunner.
Player controlled air stikes, Cluster bombs, Fuel air bombs, Gunships
The list goes on..

FFOW.NET: Is FFOW going to be "clan-friendly"? I.e.: free choice of the name; no big game changes after the release like squad hopping; etc.
Clan players awaited BF2 with pleasure, but when it was released, the clans have dropped down the game, because it wasn’t really "clan-friendly".

Frank DeLise: We actively work with Clan members on our forums to make sure we are doing everything we can to make it one of the best clan experiences out there. We feature the ability for clans and tournements to have an amazing amount of control over the server and its options. From server side modding, ability to set upgrade rules, which vehicles to even allowing admin control to disable certain vehicles.
So clan can setup very specific matches if they wish.

FFOW.NET: Tactical shooters mainly suffer from many bugs. BF2 had many bugs in the gold status, and got some more after several patches, Armed Assault has been sold in a beta status as well the legendary Soldner.
Is THQ the publisher, who wants to make a fast buck, or has THQ the attitude to sell a bug free game? And are you happy at all with your choice of THQ as your publisher?

Frank DeLise: THQ has been an amazing publisher to work for. They have given us the freedom to make a great game.
To say the game will be perfect on release would be a lie. The fact is, no one plays a game as hard as the hardcore and that is something that is not replicated easily in testing. So I would be lieing if I said there would be no patches, but we will work as hard as possible to make it as solid as we can.

FFOW.NET: A topic for many gamers is the ranking. Are you going to implement a ranking system like the one of BF2 (medals; ribbons etc.), or will you possibly use a more spartan ranking system like bftracks.net? Or is Kaos developing a new system? And do you play with the idea to integrate the ranking only on expensive "ranked servers"?

Frank DeLise: Frontlines will not have persistent ranking, instead ranking is done on a match basis. However we will keep your stats for our leaderboard system.

FFOW.NET: Cheaters will certainly be a problem in FFOW as well. How does Kaos Studios protect the gamers against the cheaters? Are you going to use Punkbuster, or do you share the communities' disagreement with this anti-cheating tool?

Frank DeLise: We are using Unreal 3's base anti-cheat system. We will be very proactive against cheaters and use whatever tools we can to prevent it.
We want Frontlines to be a fun, cheat free place to bring matches to.

FFOW.NET: For many server admins it was a pain to use the server administration tool BF2CC. Will you return to the roots (i.e. Blackbagops of Kevin Lockitt)? Or is there a home made tool being developed?

Frank DeLise: We are developing our own tools, We will have more information on this later.

FFOW.NET: Many modders and the people who want to become one, hope that Kaos brings up great mod-support. What is the idea of it? Are you going to release official modding tools like the ones for BF1942 and BfV?

Frank DeLise: As you know, Trauma wrote the initial modding tools for BF1942 and BFV. We are all about letting modders jump on board. We will be releasing a full suite of tools that will allow modders to do almost anything. This includes a full level editor and the abilitty to create, SP levels, MP levels, vehicles, weapons, UI , etc.

FFOW.NET: Many times it is a problem that gamers do not have the required hardware to run a particular game. How high are the estimated minimal system requirements for FFOW? And will FFOW support DirectX 10?

Frank DeLise: Frontlines is being designed to run on a wide range of hardware. We have opened up the options to tune your performance so you can run the game well on older machines.
Frontlines is not using DX 10. Unreal 3 has proven to be able to create amazing visuals without expensive hardware.

FFOW.NET: The aiming of BF2 was described as a trip to hell by most gamers. Will the aiming in FFOW be more driven by realism or by arcade?

Frank DeLise: The aiming system in Frontlines is very simular to DC. Recoil based aiming
We are not using random cone fire known as spray and pray

FFOW.NET: At the moment the community is speculating about the release date of FFOW. When does it come out? Summer, Fall 2007 or - "it’s done when it’s done"? And are you going to release the three versions at the same time?

Frank DeLise: It will be out this year, we have pushed it a bit to make sure it has the quality you expect.
We are aiming at all 3 versions together (PC, 360 , PS3). But don’t worry, we have designed vehicles and weapons differently for each platform.

FFOW.NET: What is the future of Frontlines: Fuel of War? Will there be a Frontlines: Fuel of War II or Booster and Expansions or will you maybe give free content to the community (new maps, weapons, objectives etc.)?

Frank DeLise: Frontlines is the franchise, Fuel of war is the first in the series. We plan on releasing additional content for Frontlines, mainly free downloads and expansions. It has not be announced what type of content will be released yet.