Last Month the Japanese try to retrive this mod a little bit more. They played in the at 2pm CET. At the moment the gametracker,com Server Monitorring is off. Hope soon they turn it on. The ranking seems to work.
Registered Member #103 Joined: [ 13:48 ] [ 23 Mar 2004 ] Posts: 401
Hi! I just collected a bunch of interviews about BF2
IGN.com:
April 20, 2004 - Battlefield 2...words that we have been waiting to hear. The announcement of this brand new sequel to IGN's Game of 2002 comes hot on the heels of Battlefield Vietnam and this upcoming game moves the franchise forward both in terms of setting and technology. Built using an entirely new engine, the game suggests a hypothetical, three-way conflict between the United States, the Chinese and a fictional Middle Eastern Coalition.
Given the success of mods like Desert Combat, there's definitely a large audience out there who enjoy seeing the Battlefield mechanic married to modern military implement and we were excited enough on hearing the premise that we hit up producer Scott Evans for some answers.
IGNPC: So you're finally bringing Battlefield into the modern age. What sorts of things does a game set in the modern era allow? Are you at all concerned about issues of sensitivity given current, real world military actions?
Scott Evans: Battlefield 2 provides the opportunity to deliver a really cool new experience based on the modern weapons and technology of today. One of the most fun things about this project is translating the modern weapons and tech into fun and easy to use gameplay mechanics. For example, the clumsy artillery feature in Battlefield 1942 is replaced by laser painting a target and another player guiding a missile along the beam.
Regarding links to real world events it's important to remember that Battlefield has never involved itself in the political agendas of the nations represented in the game. We create a balanced, online battlefield and allow players to come together and play against each other as teams and individuals.
IGNPC: Tell us about the new game engine. What new features will it support? Will we finally get destructible environments? Can we expect a new physics system as well?
Scott Evans: Under the hood is a completely new and technologically advanced engine. The goal of the new engine is to bring the battlefield to life like never before. The new engine accomplishes that goal by delivering a far greater degree of ambient world physics, material penetration modeling, a vehicle / character parts system, dynamic lighting effects, multi-texturing detail processes, normal mapping of characters and vehicles, ragdoll physics, a new terrain system, and many other features. DICE is also building an entirely new audio engine designed for the purpose of delivering the most detailed and immersive battlefield experience ever and it is already delivering against that goal.
The team will also be innovating the experience by offering more many more players at once than Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam. In conjunction with this we are designing a system which automatically expands and contracts the map size based on the number of players in the game. This system concentrates the heat for everyone.
IGNPC: Who are the combatants and what's the overall conflict? Are there particular advantages to specific sides?
Scott Evans: The combatants include the U.S. Marines, the Chinese, and a fictional Middle East Coalition army. Regions of conflict span areas of China and the Middle East. Regarding advantages, each side will have the particular technology and weaponry appropriate to their nationality. However, one of the Battlefield franchise values is rock-paper-scissors balance. Therefore, no side will enjoy an advantage over the other.
IGNPC: What types of vehicles and weapons will the player have access to?
Scott Evans: Turn on the Discovery channel and you'll pretty much see it all. In other words, the most advanced and powerful weaponry deployed on today's battlefield.
IGNPC: There are new features to aid cooperation. Tell us how squads work and where this new Commander mode fits in.
Scott Evans: Enhancing the teamplay aspect of Battlefield is definitely an area of focus for us. Everyone knows that Battlefield is fun, but it's mind-blowing when guys operate together as a mini-team. To that end we are offering a framework that players can tap into if they choose. Players can form squads, create clans, or play as the Battlefield commander. This system is knitted together by a VOIP feature which allows squad leaders to communicate up and down the ranks.
Of course players can ignore all this and play Battlefield the traditional way if they choose. We are also reworking the scoring system to reward players for more than just getting kills and capping flags. Ever played in a game where that one thankless guy did nothing except repair vehicles or heal the wounded? These guys will be rewarded in Battlefield 2 for their roleplaying. We are designing other reward systems as well to encourage teamplay.
IGNPC: Players have certain ranks now, right? How are these used? What sorts of rewards will good players get.
Scott Evans: New to Battlefield 2 is a global ranking system. As players do things in the game they will collect experience points which leads to increases in rank. Players can climb from from Private all the way through General. At steps along the way players are rewarded with unlocks and privileges which compliment their rank. We'll be revealing details about these rewards soon.
IGNPC: Where is the game at in terms of development? When can we expect it to be done?
Scott Evans: Look for Battlefield 2 in the Spring of 2005.
We've known for some time that Battlefield Vietnam wouldn't be the last game in EA and DICE's popular multiplayer franchise -- the only question has been when they'd get around to announcing what else they've been working on. Last week, Battlefield: Modern Combat was announced, which is expected to be a groundbreaking online team-based title for the next-gen consoles. Today, the official PC sequel, Battlefield 2, was announced, bringing modern-day warfare to the series as well as a completely new engine.
For some more insight as to what we can expect from the new title, we fired off a few questions to executive producer Scott Evans. Along the way, he gave us some info on the new engine, Commander mode, the modern factions, differences between the console and PC games, and even how a game of modern combat fits within the current world climate.
GameSpy: Will Battlefield 2 retain the same core gameplay as the previous Battlefield titles, i.e. "Conquest" capture-and-hold? What can you tell us about the new Commander mode?
Scott Evans: Our goal with BF2 is to deliver a mix of what people loved about previous BF titles, what they felt should be improved, and a large injection of completely new features and technology. Conquest mode is one of those features that people really loved that will be carried forward to BF2. The Commander mode is an example of a new feature that expands on the Battlefield experience. The battlefield commander can play the battlefield experience in a different way ... he has the ability to see the game map top down and do such things as issue orders to squads, call in artillery strikes, order satellite sweeps, and communicate with his forces via VOIP. All of these activities support a greater set of teamplay activities that players can engage in. The player with the highest rank can be the commander, or teams can decide who will be the commander before the round starts.
GameSpy: How will the three different "sides" differ in terms of weaponry and vehicles? Will players be able to vote on which two sides play a particular map, or will each setting have two specific sides attached to it? Scott Evans: Each side will bring military hardware to the battle appropriate to their nationality. For example, the Chinese forces have a really cool mix of Soviet and homebrew technology that much of the world knows nothing about. Naturally, each side will have a rock-paper-scissors balance relationship to one another, which is a Battlefield franchise value. GameSpy: Will the "U.S." side consist of strictly American forces, or will other allies be included? Will there be several subsets of the U.S. armed forces included (Delta Force, Marines, etc)? Scott Evans: BF2 will be focused on the soldiers and equipment of the U.S. Marines. Expansion packs and post-release content downloads (which Battlefield is famous for) provide the opportunity to include a wide variety of armed forces and their respective equipment.
GameSpy: What kinds of technical advancements is the team looking to make with the new engine? Are there any specific new technologies or new video cards you are looking to take advantage of?
Scott Evans: Battlefield 2 is powered by a completely new and cutting edge engine. It simply looks amazing. The new engine brings the battlefield to life like never before with dynamic lighting effects, high detail multi-texturing processes, greater ambient physics modeling, material penetration properties, normal mapping, ragdoll physics, etc., etc. We'll be releasing screen shoots soon to show off the new engine. Also new to BF2 is a high performance audio engine. The audio team at DICE is doing outstanding job with their work. When I play BF2 I feel the urge to actually duck when I'm in a firefight. Those guys are intent on bringing the battlefield to life with a rich and detailed audio experience and they are delivering in spades. We'll also be innovating on the number of players supported at any one time in the battlefield. More details on that to come.
GameSpy: We've heard that Battlefield 2 will feature scalable maps that change size according to the number of players. Can you elaborate on this?
Scott Evans: That's correct. Ever joined a Gazala server to find 16 people running around looking for action? As a server option, the maps in BF2 will dynamically expand and contract to concentrate the players and vehicles to help ensure the action is always hot.
GameSpy: How similar / different will Battlefield 2 be from the console games currently in development (Battlefield: Modern Combat)? Will there be any compatibility between the different platforms?
Scott Evans: The games are completely separate and are being built by two different teams within DICE in different locations. Both are set in the modern era and employ the gameplay principles that made Battlefield the Game of the Year but that's about where the similarities end. Each product uses different equipment lists, soldier types, and maps. Because we believe that Battlefield: Modern Combat will revolutionize online play for console players in the same way Battlefield 1942 did for PC players, our philosophy was to think of these games as two separate, full blown productions aimed at the highest possible result.
GameSpy: Are there any plans to added improved single-player support in Battlefield 2 over the bots from previous releases?
Scott Evans: Yes. But that's all I will say right now
GameSpy: There have been some criticisms leveled at Battlefield Vietnam, that it's simply too controversial and recent a conflict to be making much videogames about. Considering today's political climate, how would you respond to similar criticisms directed at a title that feature the U.S. and a Middle East coalition as opposing sides?
Scott Evans: The majority of the feedback on Battlefield Vietnam has been very positive. The overall feedback has been that DICE and EA treated the topic with respect. It's important to remember that Battlefield is politically neutral. We create a balanced battlefield and allow players to go online and play against each other. We'll do our best to capture the feel of the location and era as we did in BFV and will do in BF2, but that's as far as we need to go to deliver a great experience. It's also important to remember that there are other theatres of conflict within Battlefield 2. It's not just a game about the U.S. versus a Middle Eastern coalition.
GameSpy: Is there any target release date for Battlefield 2? Would you expect this to make 2004, or is a 2005 release more likely?
Scott Evans: Look for Battlefield 2 in the Spring of 2005
Battlefield 2 Interview Games Fusion talks to DICE Studios about their forth coming first person shooter title and sequel, Battlefield 2. Various people at DICE took the opportunity to answer our questions, including Sean Decker (Exec. Producer), Lars Gustavsson (Producer), Linus Josephson (Assoc. Producer), Torbjorn Laedre and Torbjorn Soderman (Lead Rendering Programmers). The interview takes an in-depth look at some of the features of Battlefield 2, as well as looks at how the genre will develop in the future.
Q. What will the new game engine bring to Battlefield 2? And what features have you implemented to bring the game up to date with other competing titles?
A. To achieve our goals and expectations for Battlefield 2 we had to raise the bar for visual quality several notches from our previous titles. The new rendering engine, developed from scratch for BF2, is completely shader driven, and is written to utilize the full potential of next-generation graphics hardware. One of the major improvements over the first Battlefield installment is that in the new rendering engine, every pixel you see on screen is dynamically lit and shadowed from multiple light sources. To make lighting in the world of Battlefield both compelling and convincing to the player, and still retain the frame rate required to enjoy the playing experience, we've had to develop several new techniques to compose the end result you see on screen. We've developed techniques that allow us to combine global illumination and hemispherical lighting with per-pixel normal mapping, and we further expanded this by using a new, more realistic looking approach to applying normal maps. Lighting and shadowing such an expansive and dynamical world as Battlefield also meant that we had to come up with new hybrid shadowing techniques which realistically integrate the players into the world. All of these new features allow artists and designers alike to put an enormous amount of detail into the game world, both in terms of per-pixel visual detail, and dynamic, interactive game environments. In the end, this makes for a rich and visually pleasing environment for the players to interact with.
Q. What research have you had to do to deliver realistic depictions of modern day weaponry in the game? Have you involved the US military at all in the development of the game?
A. We have made extensive research in modern weapons systems, vehicles, uniforms and other available, equipment of today’s fighting forces. Not only the US military. Many of us have served in the army and we even have an ex US-army captain employed on the project. But, mind you, this is an action game. We want to deliver a game that looks extremely real but is easy to learn and fun to play. We will carefully retain the “feeling” of Battlefield when we take the step into the 21st century. The biggest challenge when making the transition to modern war is to also retain the skill element in every weapon. Many modern weapons are all about being far, far away from you enemy, and letting the weapon itself do all the work. We will not allow for this, but carefully make sure there is skill involved in every kill.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about the weaponry available in the game? Can we expect to see futuristic weaponry, such as the OICW Assault Rifle?
A. Our approach is to use equipment that are actually fielded, or just about to become fielded by armies.. You can expect to see many common weapons used today such as M16’s, M249 machineguns, Kalashnikovs, Miniguns, .50 calibre machineguns and so on. And then you can expect to see some of the next generation hardware. I will leave what they will be as a surprise, but if you watch something like the Discovery Channel, you will get an idea of what I’m talking about.
Q. Can you name a few of the vehicles that will be available in the game? What planes, helicopters, boats and tanks will be at the disposal of the player?
A. You can expect both current and near-future vehicles, found in use today in the US Marine Corps, Chinese and modern Middle-Eastern Armies. Battlefield has always being about Land, Sea and Air and we will continue to provide a fun experience in all of the those areas.
Q. Will the flight physics remain similar to Battlefield: Vietnam or will you be making dramatic changes to provide a more realistic experience to the player?
A. Well, the “style” that was set in BF1942 will be retained. That style was carried over to Vietnam, and will be carried over to Modern Warfare. What will happen though is that we develop the style adding new features that fit with modern day flying. For instance, our jets will have afterburner that you can use to get a speed burst for a short time. Very useful when you need to get out of trouble. And our aircraft will have functioning head-up displays that tell you about your flying and about your targets. I also want to say that dog-fighting in Modern Warfare will not be about selecting radar blips on a screen and watch them go out. This will be more like the dog-fighting sequences in Top Gun, where you try to get a lock on your enemy and deploy counter measures to avoid incoming heat seeking missiles.
Q. Will the planes in Battlefield 2 enable you to have wingmen, similarly to the helicopters in Battlefield: Vietnam?
A. Yes. There will be aircraft in BF2 that will increase the cooperation between the pilot and the gunners in the same aircraft.
Q. Will Battlefield 2 contain levels which are counterparts from real-world locations or have you kept the locations purely fictional?
A. We have always been more concerned with creating a sandbox for players to have a great experience in, rather then strict ‘real world’ fidelity. We have carried this over to the levels we are creating. All are inspired by settings in the real world, but none are meant to be them.
Q. How large will the levels be in Battlefield 2? Can we expect to see levels which are twice the size of those seen in BF: 1942 and BF: Vietnam?
A. We are still testing how large levels can be and still provide a fun experience. We are pushing the number of players much higher than in previous Battlefield games, but we want to insure that players will aways have combat close by.
Q. The aircraft in BF: 1942 and BF: Vietnam have pretty bland cockpits. Will you be incorporating moving dials and lights into the aircraft cockpits of Battlefield 2 to intensify realism?
A. We want to give the ‘feel’ of a modern aircraft, but we don’t want to sacrifice fun and simplicity to get it. We will strike a balance somewhere in between.
Q. Tell us a bit about the command mode. How will this work?
A. A player on each side will be able to become the commander for their side. They will be given special tools that allow them to direct their side and effect the outcome of the battle. They will only be rewarded for how their team does as a whole, not how they perform individually, so they will have an incentive to provide the best support to their side as possible.
Q. Will stealth play a bigger part in Battlefield 2? Will there be a Special Forces group and if so what weapons and gadgets will they have at their disposal?
A. We like to think of the Battlefield as more of all out war. There are a lot of moments within the Battlefield experience in which stealth is called for, but overall we are not aiming for a stealth environment found in some other shooters. We will have Special Forces type soldiers and they will have new, cool gadgets players will expect to find being carried by those soldiers today and in the near future.
Q. Where do you see the genre heading in the next few years? Can we soon expect to see a game which mixes elements of first person shooter and realistic flight simulation into one title?
A. I think that games like that will be developed, but realism also implies deep complexity and a lot of investment of the player’s time to learn the system. I recall the manual for a flight simulator, F-16 Falcon, which was about 300 pages long. You had to read at least 40 pages of detailed instructions just in order to start your engine and taxi down the runway. While this great fun for many people, we find that most people just don’t have that kind of time. They want to get into the game and start playing in a few minutes.
We see the genre heading to more of a persistent state, in which a player collects awards and builds a reputation within the gaming community over time. We see the genre going away from the single player experience and focusing more on online play.
Q. As processing power increases do you anticipate games developers will attempt to produce a game, which focuses on a massive multiplayer campaign? For example, instead of single battles based on individual servers a network that everyone can join to take part in a real-time virtual war? Obviously the player will be confined to a particular battle similarly to how the player is confined in a single player campaign. Additionally the player will also be able to choose his career path, such as Navy, Air force or Infantry forces and improve upon his ranking.
A. As bandwidth increases and becomes more available, we do see larger battle, along the lines of massive multiplayer campaigns. We also see clans, community support and online tournaments becoming more mainstream and important to the overall player experience. We also see DICE leading the charge in that arena .
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. We wish you the best of success for the release of Battlefield 2. If it’s any more addictive than Battlefield: Vietnam is I am sure I will have to quit my job just to play it! =)
Battlefield 2 will come to the PC in spring 2005.
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Registered Member #103 Joined: [ 13:48 ] [ 23 Mar 2004 ]
lol, I did read it. There are 3 interviews in total. I will summerize for you. Dynamic lightning, rank system, call for artilery, dynamic map size, Scott Evans, spring 2005. <span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited 03 Aug : 19:52 ]</span>
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