Thank you to all our players for your support. Here is a short FAQ with one of our devs about the current status and future development track of the game.
Q：How large is the Iron Conflict development team?
A：The development team currently consists of 25 members.
Q：How long has the game been in development?
A：Development started informally about a year and a half ago, but the development team as it is now has only been working on the game for the past few months.
Q：How does the development team feel about the development process so far?
A：This has been one of the most difficult projects the members of our team have worked on. First of all, the team is relatively small. Secondly, in addition to research and development, there are many other small tasks the members of our team are in charge of handling. Finally, all of the ideas we’ve had for the game have needed to be repeatedly verified and tested. There are many ideas that have been restarted from scratch, or thrown out entirely.
Q：How far along is the game’s progress? How complete are the game’s different systems?
A：We feel that the game is about 60%-65% done. Which is to say, the overall framework is in place, but there’s still a lot of gameplay and content left to add.
Q：What are the future plans for new content?
A：There’s three types of things we are working on.
1. Core content: New maps, new modes, and new factions
2. New units and balancing to the current unit selection, and improved unit characteristics and differentiation
3. Interface optimizations, unit stat adjustments, and more detailed unit models.
Q：Why do the units have names that are different from the real-life units?
A：This decision was made according to certain regional concerns. As our development team does not have the time to create different versions for different regions, there is only one version of the game currently. However, we will be releasing a patch in the future that will change the names of units to reflect their real-life counterparts.
Q：A lot of the gameplay isn’t very realistic. How do you plan to balance gameplay and realism？
A：When it comes to realism vs gameplay, we will prioritize gameplay. Of course, gameplay will also adhere to common sense, but the priority is to make the game fun.
Q：Do you plan on making major changes to the gameplay?
A：It’s definitely possible, and we will continue making the additions we’ve planned so far, but a great amount of our work will be polishing and implementing changes based on the feedback that we have received from players so far. That is the most important priority.
Q：The first map is quite small and limited. What direction will you be taking for future map development?
A：Rosefield, the first map, was actually quite large. The core problem in the beginning was that too few people were utilizing the upper and lower routes; everyone was facing off on the fields in the middle. This situation has improved a bit in the new map, Dustwater, where it is quite difficult to break through the middle and the other routes are incentivized. We are also working on a new city-based map, which is planned to be released in March.
Q：Has the developer team considered adding a “Return to Airfield” function for aircraft that would give them greater capabilities and longevity in battle?
A：In the very early development stages, we had such a function, though it significantly impacted the amount of fun we had using aircraft, as a great amount of time was spent flying to and from the airfield.
Q：Currently, towed anti-air vehicles only exist at the lower tiers. Are there any plans to add additional towed anti-air to the higher tiers?
A：This is a possibility for the future, though we’ve got a lot of other planned to come out first.
Q：Does the development team have any plans to add air defense missile/gun systems?
A：Yes. Stay tuned for the Bear Faction update, which will include those kinds of units as well as multiple-rocket launchers!
Q：Will the development team add tank shells with different properties? For example, shells that travel at different speeds?
A：In RTS games, it can be a bit difficult to reflect some unit differences, as there are few dominant attributes and it can be a bit unintuitive to tell what does what. This is why we’ve adopted the ammunition and special accessory system to maximize unit differentiation. Later we may add more unique types of ammo, such as rocket-assisted projectiles.
Q：Which country does the “Lion Faction” refer to?
A：The Lion Faction will contain units from various European countries, including England, France, Germany, and Italy.
Q：Will the game include countries from Central and Eastern Europe?
A：That is the plan currently.
Q：Does the development team have any plans to add new gameplay modes?
A：Yes, including a 3 or 4 faction battle mode.
Q：Are there any plans to add fire-control radar to the game?
A：There are. We will be making a special accessory to certain units with this goal in mind.
Q：Infantry is weak in battle. Will they be able to enter buildings in the future?
A：We will consider strengthening certain types of infantry, but there are currently no plans to have them enter buildings. However, we will give them additional accessories to increase their functionality, for example one that lets them dig trenches.
Q：Why don’t infantry have bunkers?
A：We’re considering adding bunker-type buildings that would boost infantry defense when they come within range.
Q：Are you considering adding engineer infantry? They could build repair points, pillboxes, and dig trenches.
A：Engineers aren’t in our current plans, though we we will be adding a special accessory that lets infantry dig trenches.
Q：There are lots of accessories in the game and this puts a bit of a strain on players considering they also have to unlock new units.
A：We are planning on adjusting the rate at which Silver is acquired to address this issue.
Q：Will you be adding units that can be purchased with Gold? How would you implement such a system? Would they be historically famous units or prototypes? Would they be more powerful than units bought with Silver?
A：They’d be units with special characteristics, but they would not be more powerful than units purchased with Silver. Units purchased with Gold will not earn EXP. Instead, the EXP they earn in battle would be given to the normal units in their formation. For example, if your formation had two units that you’d purchased with Gold and one unit purchased with Silver, their EXP would be given to the Silver unit.
Q：Will you add a ranked system?
A：There is one currently in the works.
Q：What is the overall future direction of the game? Will you make the game more hardcore or try to broaden its appeal?
A：We hope to make our game appeal to both types of gamers, as they are both important to us. It won’t be easy, but we will do our very best.
Thank you for reading. Here is a small giftpack code for you:38PZ3C
Claim it in game to get Silver and EXP!
-The Iron Conflict Development Team