Soon there'll be a whole army for you to direct, if you prefer to play one-on-one, with each opponent directing his/her/its army for defense and offense. You'll be able to direct and/or participate in the battle.

Magic will be added as time allows. Nothing happens by itself in cyberspace, and every single action, no matter how tiny and insignificant, must be written with exactitude in order to make it work. In other words, VAL still has to write the scrpt for these functions, although the effects are already in place.

Combat will be expanded and sophisticated as we receive the animations from Tim Elston at PlasmaDyne, and he can't do them while also working for Will Vinton,. so it has to be in his spare time, which is precious little. So the crouching, swimming and dying knights will have to wait until the next point release or so.

Playing levels will be expanded to a series of six maps, each representing a different aspect of Medieval life. The Rose Garden is thenext level we'll be designing.

Bladez, bludgeons and flails will be developed by Kru, who is responsible for the magical weapons as well. It is his handiwork you see in the imaginative weaponry that abounds in SWORDZ.

Ramp rooms and arched corridors will be added in future point releases in the level built upon Castle Drake II, which is itself due for release in only a few months on CD-Rom.

AI combat from Paparazi II, due for release in summer 1999, will be added in seemly manner as required for the effects we wish to obtain, such as instructing troops to guard a space or to attack an enemy base and get their flag, cover your exit, etc.

Verbal communication will soon be added, meaning that your character says whatever you type, in a variety of cool voices ranging from the deep basso of VAL's character to the high falsetto voice of MO-RUK's Little Nebbish Knight (LNK).

Speaking of humorous aspects, we intend to build in a number of hilarious magical and environmental effects that should provide endless amusement for those doomed to battle forever in the cyber-environs of SWORDZ and other domains...

Music will be added in the CD-Rom versions, and sfx, filmstrips and other goodies can now be activated from within the game.  SWORDZ in the CD version will be (and is now) playable directly off the CD, so you can save yourself the hard-disk room if you prefer.

The Level-Design team of Rat-Eyes, Mishkin, Shagrot, Trax, Ugmi and Shuglor of A.D.A.M. Inc. will take time out from their SILVERWOLF schedule to design (and I quote) "at least one CTF level for SWORDZ, we promise..." It's in print, now, guyz. You're committed. Although some say it should have happened years ago when you first started committing Random Acts of Fun...

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF SWORDZ?

SWORDZ is rooted in the past, but thrusts forward into the future. Its boundless possibilties are limited only by the imagination and the lethal stonewalling of that implacable giant, MicroSoft. Once they're out of the way, the potential is enormous...the technology of SWORDZ could be applied in education, especially early-learning, in which the over 1200 special effects can be utilized to make 3-D gaming demos of virtually anything on any subject.