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About the game
Modern remake of the best 2001 strategy, with armies numbering in thousands of warriors and reconciled game mechanics. It’s a genuine RTS classic, including construction and production of resources. A vast selection of unit types, cold steel and firearms, influence of the landscape, and the realistic physics provide the player with an unlimited number of tactical opportunities.
Interview
Q: This will be the first Linux game for GSC Game World, what pushed your studio towards supporting Linux?
That is right, Cossacks 3 will be our first cross platform project supporting Windows, Linux and Mac OS. In the Cossacks 3 engine we are using OpenGL API and it gives a bunch of advantages in porting the game. It gives advantages even for marketing as the main selling platform will be Steam which welcomes games supporting Linux.
Q: Is this an in-house engine, or are you using something like Unity/Unreal Engine to develop Cossacks 3?
Traditionally we are using in-house built engine. We’ve managed to develop very lightweight and powerful engine for Cossacks 3. For 2015 it is unusually not system demanding and performs good on 3-5 year old computers.
Q: Will it feature any form of gamepad support, for SteamOS for example? Or is this a really traditional mouse and keyboard strategy game?
Cossacks 3 will be traditional mouse and keyboard strategy game. We really think that using any other input type will dramatically affect the classic RTS gameplay, will make it slower and simpler in negative meaning of the word.
Q: What graphics chips will Cossacks 3 support on Linux? Some games/developers have been struggling with AMD/Intel.
That is a common obstacle for the developers working on Linux, and we’ve probably faced this with a couple of the Intel chip models. As for now we’ve managed to fight through the main amount of Intel chips and have no problems at all with AMD graphics.
Q: Will you be using an Early Access model for Cossacks 3, or straight to a full release?
Cossacks 3 will be released on Steam with the full version. Before the release there will be closed beta test.
Q: Will it support cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) multiplayer?
Players of all versions will be able to play together.
Q: Have you decided on a price for the game?
We can’t tell any specific price right now, but it will be completely affordable.
Q: Are you planning a release on DRM free platforms like GOG?
We’re still thinking about these platforms and the main issue for us is the Steam integration. We are going to significantly support mod-making and Steam Workshop is the best way of sharing mods, so everyone who bought Cossacks 3 can install any of the mods available. But GOG version, for example will need separate mods made for this very version. As a result there could be troubles with playing Steam version with GOG version in multiplayer, for example.
Q: What has been the biggest hurdle to overcome for your team to support Linux?
There weren’t really any hurdles working on Linux version. Probably the only difficulty for us was finding time and resources in our tight development schedule.
Q: Have you come across any interesting tools that have really helped your team support Linux?
Actually we are not using anything specific, just common tools everyone uses.
Q: With Linux having a low market share compared with say Windows, what are you expecting sales wise from Linux?
Linux is really not a big market, so there is no great financial purpose in supporting it. Its more a marketing expectations. Steam actively supports games that have Linux versions
Q: What Linux distributions have you tested Cossacks 3 on so far, and will you be limiting support to specific distributions?
It’s a bit early to say. We will make large scale tests in the nearest future and base our decision on the results of them.
Q: Will Cossacks 3 feature traditional base building, or is it more about the battles?
Cossacks 3 contains classic RTS gameplay that tightly combine battles and economic part. So there will be 50\50 building and resource gathering and battles.
Q: You mention that there could be up to 10,000 units in a battle, how do you plan on making that many units easy to manage?
Cossacks 3 has handy unit controls that allows easily group them, or join them in squads, so you can conveniently manage armies, groups or even give orders to a single soldier on the battlefield.
You can learn more about Cossacks 3 on the official website, stay tuned.
I think it’s fantastic to see another developer jumping in that knows they won’t strike it rich from Linux, but they’re doing it anyway!
I would like to thank the developers for giving me some time. I am looking forward to the release, a lot! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
I'm really curious about performance. The game seems pretty enough and they claim that it will be running with no problem on 3-5 year hardware. With up to 10 000 units on a maps my guess it will be really taxing on the CPU. Then he said they've used OpenGL which I was under the impression was not particularly great at multi-threaded performance being an aging technology. The can't be using Vulcan as it's not released yet. Either the game does not look as good as it seems or they're put some serious optimization effort into it. Which is obviously commendable.
Other than that they were pretty open and straight about how things are. I understand why a GOG release may not happen. I also respect the honest answer that the Linux release it more marketing than profit motivated.
Other than that they were pretty open and straight about how things are. I understand why a GOG release may not happen. I also respect the honest answer that the Linux release it more marketing than profit motivated.
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grumpytoad Aug 4, 2015
It's possible Valve is providing developers an incentive "lending" package to port to Linux, much like the mobile platforms have done the past for their app stores.
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Quoting: BeamboomThere's one piece of info in this interview that really stands out from the rest for me, and that's this:
"Steam actively supports games that have Linux versions"
He mention this twice, and was new to me.
Wake up! Where do you think all this games on Linux come from? For most developer there is only one way to get your game on Steam and it is through Steam Greenlight and games that have Linux support seems to need less time and effort to be Greenlight. Also, there is no way to pay Valve to have your game advertised more the others on the Steam Store, it's partially algorithms and partially hand-picked title by Valve, if your game support Linux you have probably more chance to be hand-picked.
Last edited by Nyamiou on 4 August 2015 at 10:03 pm UTC
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Quoting: maodzedunI'm really curious about performance. The game seems pretty enough and they claim that it will be running with no problem on 3-5 year hardware. With up to 10 000 units on a maps my guess it will be really taxing on the CPU.Basically CPU requirements depend on how exactly simulation designed and more realistic mean more demanding. So for example your game may have real 3D landscape or heightmap, actual projectile simulation with different types of damage including splash and collision detection with many units having collision boxes of different size. That would be really demanding because even effective pathfinding is hard enough task when you have tons of units that behave differently.
On other side you may have fake 3D map (when actual simulation is work in 2D, but units rendered in 3D), very simple 2D collision detection that can be optimized a lot because there just 2-4 boxes in-game, units that always hit (or success determined by rand(0,1) pool), etc. Back in 2001-2003 when original games were released it's was totally possible to have like 20,000 units in game, and I think I managed to built like 80,000-100,000 via editor and it's worked.
So there is a lot of ways to make not demanding simulation when you creating "traditional RTS" that just need to look good while inside it's may do exactly same calculations as game in 2001 had. After all it's what actual fans want.
Quoting: maodzedunThen he said they've used OpenGL which I was under the impression was not particularly great at multi-threaded performance being an aging technology.It's possible to implement multithreading optimizations on any API, but old one's just not really designed for that usage so you'll have a bit more overhead and likely will need fix few quirks of specific drivers.
Last edited by SXX on 4 August 2015 at 11:23 pm UTC
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Quoting: NyamiouWake up! Where do you think all this games on Linux come from? For most developer there is only one way to get your game on Steam and it is through Steam Greenlight and games that have Linux support seems to need less time and effort to be Greenlight.It's not the case of this game anyway. Owner of GSC does have direct contacts with Valve for sure and have no problem with getting it to Steam.
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Quoting: NyamiouWake up!
What do you mean "wake up"?
Quoting: NyamiouWhere do you think all this games on Linux come from?
I don't talk about small indie games. They port their games to whatever as long as it breaths - heck they even bother porting to the Sony Vita device.
It's the big releases I have in mind. If Valve grant advantages that spans wider than just the Linux release it would explain a lot about the ports of those games on the current market situation.
Quoting: NyamiouAlso, there is no way to pay Valve to have your game advertised more the others on the Steam Store, it's partially algorithms and partially hand-picked title by Valve, if your game support Linux you have probably more chance to be hand-picked.
I don't understand what you're talking about here. "Pay Valve"? Firstly, nobody here talk about paying Valve anything, secondly there's no problem whatsoever to implement a weighted announcement in the Steam store algorithms based on whatever factor you want to define - including the number of platforms the release is available for.
Last edited by Beamboom on 5 August 2015 at 12:35 pm UTC
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Quoting: BeamboomWhat do you mean "wake up"?It might be a mistranslation, in French it's something you say when someone just realized something that is going on since a long time (it's an interjection, sorry if you have though it was meant to be an insult).
Quoting: BeamboomI don't understand what you're talking about here. "Pay Valve"?Publishers can pay to advertise their games on the store front of Sony or XBox consoles, I was only pointing out that on Steam they have to find other means to be on the store front, supporting Linux is one way to achieve this.
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Cossacks was one of my favorites RTS (along with starcraft). It sure was my best "historic" RTS I know.
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oldrocker99 Aug 6, 2015
It certainly looks pretty awesome, and I'm pretty interested; Linux gamers still don't have enough choices in the RTS genre.
I suck at them too (you should see me at Planetary Annihilation), but I do like to play them.
I suck at them too (you should see me at Planetary Annihilation), but I do like to play them.
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