Worms III – Unofficial FAQ 
(Questions and Answers taken from the W3D forum)

The Team working on W3

7 Game/tech/tool Programmers 
2 Network/Server Programmers 
5 Artists (currently, will add more probably) 
3 Designers (although not all working full time on it right now) 
2 Producers (inc. assist. producer) 
2 Senior Management (Spadge on creative, another chap on production) 
1 Musician (manages ALL of audio content creation, localisation etc). 
6-7 QA Staff including one manager and one lead.

Gameplay Questions

Q) How will you detect the wind in full 3D?
A) Its an issue that’s open right now, just a suck it and see situation. The current feeling is 2D (i.e. 2d directional). We think 3D would be basically bad for gameplay in an already much more complicated environment.
Q) In every worms game I know of the cpu never used the rope at all, is this going to be possible in worms 3d? It’s probably a little hard to program. But then again that might make the computer a little too hard.
A) We hope to have a much better AI system than in 2D, certainly. Not sure about the ropes yet though, that’s quite a difficult problem. People must remember that they expect cpu players to "think" in real time. It'd be possible to get the CPU to use ropes, but the delays whilst this is processed would be huge. Particularly on console we need to keep game speed up. Also, as long as it's fun and challenging it's less import since Worms is generally a more social game. 

W3D will have improved a.i. and better single player missions though.
Q) Next, will Worms 3D still have artillery mode?
A) We aim to carry across a lot of modes from the original, artillery shouldn't be a problem at all. A real time mode is not planned as yet but it's something we might experiment with at some point, but probably not for W3D (since the technology is something we may well re-use).
Q) Will there be the same number of worms per team as in WWP or will we be able to have larger teams this time?
A) Not sure yet, probably similar system to be honest.
Q) Are there any new game modes (Fort Mode, God Mode,etc) planned which are particularly revolutionary and have never been seen before?
A) Yes.
Q) What about WormPot will that be included in the w3d?
A) Yes.
Q) Will the missions have choosable difficulty settings so that people who like a good challenge (such as me) can play it on a harder difficulty setting while people who want a simpler game can put to an easy setting or something like that? (Obviously an easy setting should stop players from accessing bonus features to make them more of a reward - if there are going to be unlockable bonus features)
A) They'll probably "adapt" if you fail, i.e. get easier and you'll get a ranking on that (Agent Dennis?)
Q) Just a thought, but would it be possible to have a kind of reverse version of weapon delays in W3D? By this I mean, weapons which have to be used up within a certain number of turns, or they "expire" and cannot be used again.
A) I like this idea, as a Wormpot mode it would change the strategies of quite a few games where people save airstrikes and the like until sudden death kicks in. If you were forced to use them early on, it would stop encouraging people to hide away when sudden death approached. It would also stop a fair few arguments over 'cheap wins' whereby one person will diss another for winning the game using an airstrike even though they had previously used their airstrike to damage you. People famous for classically moaning about cheap wins include half of our design department.
Weapon Questions

Q) If there was 'pay-per-weapon' mode, will the prize be given in €?
A) Not decided.
Q) How many of the original weapons will be left. I know a bunch will be axed cause they'd be too hard to pull off in 3D, but what's staying around?
A) A substantial amount of original weapons will make the jump, some will not (the ones that don't make sense or will be too bizarre to control etc). We'll add some new stuff too. Certainly the core "classic" weapons will remain. Some are less useful in 3d (or difficult to implement with an intuitive camera etc). We will add new stuff too and may also modify, enhance or adapt weapons as we see fit. Stuff like skimming bazookas on water is already being coded.
Q) As for homing clusters will they be brought back to W3D?
A) Homing clusters will probably not be brought back for Worms 3D. We've brought them back for Worms World Party on the Gameboy Advance, but all that's done is remind us why we took them out of Worms Armageddon really.
Q) New weapons, will there be any new breeds? besides the air strikes, throwing weapons etc.
A) There will be new breeds of weapons in Worms 3D, we're not disclosing any information about what sort yet though. The way we are designing the weapon system also means that like in the 2D variants of the game, extra and increasingly weird weapons will be added constantly right up to the game being ready for release.
Q) What’s the roping going to be like?
A) As far as the roping goes in W3d we have a couple of ideas already ranging from a simple grappling mechanism (no swinging) to 2D (down the axis of fire) to full-on 3D swinging around. 

Obviously its probably going to come down to issues like controls and camera as to what we can get away with in the final version. I mean if you have a worm on a rope which controls do you map to - retract rope, extend rope, swing forward, swing backward, swing left and swing right without confusing all the players, and from what angle do you view the swinging??? 

Once we have the basic game engine up and running we'll start prototyping this stuff.
Q) Will there be any utility which allows your Worm to swim/go underwater?
A) Not planned.
Q) How will airstrikes (and other similar weapons) work in 3D?
A) A target zone is selectable, fairly straight forward. We haven't decided (afaik) totally what the camera position will be yet.
Q) I presume the air strike will be still a row of 5 (or so) shells coming down (in a straight line) - will we have control over what direction the plane (and thus the shells) will come down in?
A) It depends. There's a few options that we have planned, neither of which make a big difference to how the weapon is made up and developed. I.e. whether the airstrike is bomblets in a line or bomblets spread over a small area won't be known until we've tried them out.
Sound Questions
Q) Will we get all the speech banks?
A) Planned to be all new instances, all new speech.
Q) Will there be distance effects on the sounds? (Distant = Quiet, Doppler Effect, etc.)
A) Yes.
Q) Will we see the worms' mouths move when they say things?
A) Yes.
Q) When adding sound banks, will this affect the lip synch of the worms. In other words, if the lip synch is designed to match the original sound banks, wont the mouth movements look wrong for new sound banks?
A) Lip sync will work for any sound (it does so far)
Q) Will there be a wormsong?
A) We will probably do a new wormsong and base it around the mission/storyline which we will do for single player.

Landscape Questions

Q) Will the land be totally deformable, like in the other worms games?

A) The land is totally destructible and deformable, yes. Most games with any kind of deformation use heightfields. Ours doesn't which means we can have overhangs, roofs, caverns and blow holes through, up, wherever.

Q) When a mountain/hill has been completely blown through at the bottom, but there is still some land at the top (like you often get in the 2D worms games), would the land come crashing down, killing every worm beneath it, or, when necessary (when aiming a weapon, or moving a worm), would the top layer go semi-transparent so as you can see what is beneath it?

A) That's something we're working on, in terms of creating the best solution. We currently plan to retain the land where it is (like the 2D version) - it doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense (it didn't in 2D) but it played much, much better. We can drop it, but I think we wish to retain the original feel, plus we also want floating islands. 

The camera - and making a sensible viewpoint are one of the more difficult problems we have given where the worm can be and how the landscape is shaped. It's probably our major challenge (now that the basis of the environment tech is sorted).

Q) How about an option to choose if you want the land to fall down?

A) It's not planned for, that’s just one of those things that may happen depending on how the technology develops.

Q) How about water in Worms3D? Will it be dynamic or will it be just the "waving-blue-stuff-in-the-bottom-of-the-screen-which-will-try-to-play-elevator-when-suddendeath-comes"?

A) At this stage, on-land water would add too many problems and unknowns to the gameplay, we wish to concentrate on the basics first.

Q) Let's say that if we're playing on an indestructible terrain, and then there is a small tunnel and someone will throw a Holy Hand Grenade to the tunnel, will the explosion burst out the tunnel or will it just be the normal size explosion?

A) We plan different materials, some which will withstand blasts and some that do not. With regards the explosion, it should "collide" with the landscape if that’s what you mean. 

Not sure why you'd want to play on an indestructible landscape after our guys have gone to the trouble of developing a fully deformable 3D environment.
Q) Will we need GPRS to find our location in the map?
A) No.
Q) Will the landscapes be bigger since they are in 3D?
A) The landscape size is a tough one to call since the environments are radically different.
Q) Will the landscapes be diverse?
A) From our prototypes I think we can rest assured that the landscapes will be VERY diverse. Land, buildings, scenes, all sorts!
Q) Will there be weather in Worms 3D?
A) Weather is in the design and shouldn't be a problem. We had an idea to have lightning in WA, but it was felt that random lightning strikes was a bit harsh. A weapon could work but a weapon where you could note where a potential lightning cloud was would work ok. That said, you won't really be able to see the clouds as such in W3D due to the viewpoint. We definitely do have different qualities of land, though - one advantage of moving into 3D is that it's much easier to associate properties with particular surfaces than in 2D (ie, it's possible). There will be slippery surfaces, extra-grippy surfaces, surfaces that bounce well (eg concrete) or poorly (eg grass) and so forth. 

We also have a weapon involving the sun. Not sure if I should spill the beans though. Well rain/snow can directly modify friction (slidier when wet, less slippy when dry). 
Q) What about hail will that be in it?
A) I was just talking to Peeling about the possibilities of hail. So... maybe.
Q) Are you going to have pieces of land fly out from the explosion (which could potentially injure a worm if they landed on one), like there was to some degree in Worms1?
A) There will be particles, yes, but I don't think they'll hurt worms.. we'll have to see about that.
Building Questions
Q) If there is to be buildings, then are they going to be destructible also?
A) We can make any object destructible.
Q) Will the buildings in W3D have objects in them such as chairs and tables, etc or will they be fairly empty?
A) Empty, or extremely minimal content.
Q) Will there be a range of different buildings or just one style?
A) A range (not limited and you'll be able to build your own)
Q) How many stories will building have? (1,2 or more?)
A) Not limited, only by your imagination and poly count rationing!
Q) Will we be able to make buildings on the landscape creation tool or will we have to choose from a selection of pre-made buildings?
A) Inside the tool, there's no difference in treatment, a building is an object and treated the same as anything else.
Q) Will we be able to lock the doors of a building (presuming they have doors) once inside to prevent enemy attack?
A) No. They could have solid (undestructable) walls though and you could teleport in and fire out through a window (hole).
Q) Will there be any buildings why mimic ones in real life in it? (You could put the Team 17 HQ in it as a special-level Easter egg)
Q) Possibly. I guess we could do a Team17 HQ level - or even one based on the W3D room desk layout.

Graphics / Animation Questions

Q) Will there be different models of the worms, like accessories and such?

A) We don't envisage too many different models, we aim to create an excellent model and have it extremely well animated.

Q) Will there be new FMV sequences?

A) To be honest, we haven't really considered creating more FMV sections, simply because they take a long time to get right. 

They were done for the first couple of titles to emphasise the character of the game since the graphics were very small and we had to get people to "buy into" the concept. 

Creating just 6 of those movies to a high standard takes 2-3 people 6-7 months and we believe that people's time is best served creating something which has a tangible effect on the playing experience. Lets be honest, after seeing them once, twice or three times, they're skipped by.

Q) What about a simple intro?

A) We aren't discounting animated engine stuff. We've seen thousands of FMV movies, but we don't consider it massively important.
Q) As we know, the look of the worm in www.worms3d.com will not be like the worms we will play with ingame, so, won't they be cell-shading, will they?
A) They should look something like the worm on the URL. They will not be cell-shaded. The Worm on the URL uses the same model used in the game. The worm on the URL used the in-game model as a starting point, but was heavily subdivided and tweaked by Mike. It’s got more polys (41,672 to be exact) than the current in-game model, giving it a VERY smooth look.
Q) If the 3D scene is very huge, there will be fog. Is that true?
A) Fog has not been decided, we aren't going for realism but there may be some distance control.
Q) Will the camera be automatic or will you have to use keys to move it for you? Will we be able to move it with the mouse like previous worms games?
A) The camera will be both automatic and manual. It needs to be both, automatic to follow you as you walk around and manual for scanning the landscapes for targets (as in 2D) or for getting a better view of your intended target prior to firing.
Q) What is the menu/weapons/stuff gonna look like?
A) We're toying with that right now. We'd prefer a consistant approach to the game. Not gonna be set for a while though. 

Since we're aiming for the power consoles first and foremost, it's likely to be less "fluffy". 

But at the end of the day, if we get the game right and a few people take exception to the style we've done the game interface with (visuals wise) then I'll be content.
Q) Would it really be all that hard to implement a change of angle on a replay though?
A) Not hugely, it depends what’s appropriate. Since there could be lots of stuff going on, we could do a fair bit of stuff, but there are likely to be a number of view options.
Q) Will we be able to zoom in/out of the landscape to get a better view of what's going on (like when you pressed the M in Worms1). Maybe it could have variable zoom levels, so as you don't just have the standard view, and long shot (like in Worms1).
A) Quite a few, as it happens.
Q) Will the arms of the worms in w3d be attached to their body or will they float? I noticed this when watching some new wwp fmvs (on a friends psx), there must have been a change in animators or something because it’s a lot different in design from the w2 ones. 
Also, will the worms always have arms? or will they only appear when necessary?
A) The hands float and appear as necessary (like the sprites in the 2D series). The reason for differences in FMV are different artists in different periods, we've since adopted a more stringent "identity" to worms in terms of what they are expected to look like, so they should be very consistent from now on. Most of the styling for W3D came from a mixture of the 2D sprite design and some elements of Worms Blast.
Q) Will the smoke effects be the same as in the other worms games (small separate balls of smoke)?
A) Yep, the weapon fx should be quite cool this time around.
Q) Will it be cell-shaded?
A) It will not be cell shaded. Some elements (explosions, possibly) might be shaded like that, but the game in it's entirety will not be.
Q) What will the different screen res's be for Worms3D?
A) The "default" will be 640x480 but it'll be pretty much customisable as in most 3D games, we can support whatever the video card can do. 

The game itself will be developed for a 640x480 resolution in terms of on-screen indicators, icons and suchlike since we are also developing the game for the major consoles and the game will need to ensure it uses that space properly.
Q) Will we be able to purvey the landscape pre-game like in the 2D series? (Team17?) Or will it simply be a "Worm-view only" style thing?"
A) The player needs to be able to free roam his/her camera view around the level in order to understand the layout and form a play strategy at any time. We hope to be able to generate a fly through at the start of level too.
Customisation Questions

Q) Will we be able to make own terrains?

A) Yes, we plan a rather nifty landscape/object editor from day one on the PC.
Q) Will we be able to draw and make own landscapes almost as freely as in W2 or as in W:A? Now that the maps will be in 3D it will be a lot more to think about in that question, Or would it use a more building engine with random generated non-editable landscapes instead?
A) Actually we have a full editor tool and it's surprisingly quick to build really cool stuff. Its very different to FPP editors for things like Quake/Half-Life etc since the engine uses radically different technology in order to facilitate the way we need the game to play & react.
Q) When adding sound banks, will this affect the lip synch of the worms. In other words, if the lip synch is designed to match the original sound banks, wont the mouth movements look wrong for new sound banks?
A) Lip sync will work for any sound (it does so far)
Q) With the editing tools, will they be 1. Integrated in the game (like the landscape editor in W2 onwards)?, 2. A separate application, which you have to run independently of the game (like the WWP Mission Editor)?
A) Highly likely to be separate this time!
Q) What aspects of my team on worms 3d will be customisable?
A) We'd actually thought of creating a "history" for the worm based upon the name it is given, we might still do that.  
Spec Questions
Q) So, is it most likely that Worms 3D will require a 3D card for the PC?
A) Yep, sorry, but that’s the price of progress in this industry.
Q) Will W3D be supported under WinXP?
A) Of course.
Q) If WB needed a PII 300 to run, which ones will be the minimum requirements for the new release?
A) Not decided yet, but probably a little higher. The video card is perhaps the most important for the PC version.
Q) Can anybody tell me what the current details are on which platforms Worms 3d is going to be released on, or is it to early to say?
A) Playstation2, GameCube, PC and possibly X-Box. Officially. It's publisher dependent, of course. 

Currently only the PC version is intended to be online.
Q) How much space will the game take up on a PC hard drive?
A) Actually, I think it'll be quite tight simply because of the way the technology is shaping up. Audio/video are the usual bugbears, but we're not planning any vast FMV sequences and audio will be compressed. Off the top of my head, I'd estimate 300-400Mb at the very max, but thats no guarantee since we're way off finishing it yet.
Q) Is a Mac Version planned?
A) No Mac version is planned.
Q) Is a GameBoy Advance Version planned?
A) Whilst _some_ 3D interpretation could be done on GBA (I've seen some of the 3D demos that run) you can't expect anything like what we're doing on the main game. If it does happen it will be a total redesign and re-implementation and probably done out of house.
 
Misc Questions 

Q) Public beta's? What will you do? Just approach people and ask if they want to beta test, or will you do application forms and take people on based on hardware config and local?

A) The only way to do it is to release an "open testbed" and let people try it and report on it. It will be a limited version and come with a hefty disclaimer ;-) 

We'll probably use it to stress the servers first and foremost as well as pick up any of the odd hardware stuff that we're bound to miss (even though the games _do_ go through compatibility labs).
Q) When will it be released?
A) Currently pencilled in for later next year.
Q) Will W3D have a windows interface like W2? or is it going to be like the full screen wwp/wa?
A) It'll have a slick interface and be significantly more professional than seen in previous worms games, most notably because of the amount of people working on it from the start.
Q) Will there be clothes for your worms in W3D?
A) We don't plan any clothes, sorry.
Q) When will a full demo come out?
A) I think a full demo is about a year away.
Q) Will there be any cameos in W3D (like Superfrog in WB)?
A) Not sure yet.
Q) How soon will we be able to preorder Worms 3D?
A) No pre-orders yet, we don't have a publisher yet (still haven't spoken to anyone about it!)
Q) Any action replay's?
A) Replays are in discussion although it may be in the form of a "match replay" rather than shot replay, particularly so as shot replays (from numerous angles) gets in the way of multiplayer games.
Q) Will there be vehicles?
A) We are not planning any vehicles. The idea was examined and finally dropped. Having looked at some early level tests I can't see how they would have been much use in the end. They would have possibly worked on a simple, rolling, height mapped landscape but not on levels as complex as a we now have.
Fixed items such as that are do-able. The problem with vehicles is getting them to work with how the land is now (it can have cliffs, steps and suchlike). 

We may return to vehicles but not in the initial release, there's more than enough work to get the game to play well without adding some stuff that we know already has problems.