To their credit, Elixir have now decided to start up their own "Question(s) of the Week" forum onb their message boards - so for your weekly dose of Republic info, and details of how to send in questions, click here.

	Question			Answer
	I asked Dave Silver about what he thought would be the most impressive aspects of the AI system in Republic.			"The main advances which Republic makes in AI technology are in scale and realism. To achieve the scale of the game we use innovative level of detail techniques that enable us to simulate a very large number of agents. We also make extensive use of hierarchical pathfinding techniques to enable us to navigate the large and complex maps describing our cities. The realism is achieved through the detail of the simulation, whereby each agent follows a carefully crafted stimulus/response network. Large scale events in Republic can be made to emerge naturally from the combined behaviour of the agents." (16/08/2001)
	I hinted to Tim Clarke the fact that, so far, the screenshots of the cities haven't been mind-blowing, and whether the graphics in the final game will be as special as the potential gameplay...			"You are right in that Totality is an enabling technology - the quality and coolness of the artwork dictates the final look: from industrial suburbs to the opulent capital in the case of Republic. Most screenshots we've released show the districts and centre of a gloomy factory town. Other cities might have a more striking setting: the vista of the capital, Berezina, stretching before you will be especially grand." (21/08/2001)