Soldier of Fortune II Interview

Games Fusion interviews Kenn Hoekstra project administrator of the upcoming FPS based title named Soldier of Fortune 2 by Raven software. The interview covers various topics to do with the development of SOF 2 as well as some off topic questions to do with games development in general.

GF: Unreal 2 Alpha recently shown at E3 was leaked and placed on the Internet available for download, is this a big worry for games developers and how much money do you think is lost through the availability of pirate software on the Internet?

Game leaks and warez in general is a huge concern for developers. I would guess in some cases, piracy could cut sales of a product or software package by 1/3 to 2/3. There’s a lot more piracy going on out there than most people realize and it’s costing companies a fortune.

GF: It seems these day’s people are finding ways to counter-act any security methods you add to the game. As a game developer what are you doing to minimize Warez on the Internet? And do you think you will ever find an unbreakable way of protecting a CD?

If I told you what we were doing, I’d just be giving l337 warez monkeys a head start now wouldn’t I? J I can’t imagine any security or copy protection that’s ever un-crackable or 100% fool proof. I think that the online and phone registration used in Windows and Office XP might be a big step in the right direction. I know it’s unpopular right now, but consumers will get used to it eventually.

GF: In my own personal opinion Soldier of Fortune 1 multiplayer was very different from the single player game in terms of speed; it was more like playing a game of Quake 3 Arena. Have you slowed things down for SOF 2 and made it more Counter-Terrorism like?

Soldier of Fortune was very fast…one of the fastest games I’ve ever played. That was intentional, too; a throwback to DooM speed. For Soldier of Fortune 2, however, the speed of the character has been toned down. We did this for both realism and gameplay reasons. It’s difficult to balance a game and get the most out of it when you have a character that can run like the FLASH. This was a big game balance issue we started working out from very early on in development.

GF: Will you be able to ride on Land and Air Vehicles for multiplayer games?

We have single player missions that take place with John Mullins riding as a gunner on a helicopter and on the back of a truck, but we don’t have vehicles in multiplayer.

GF: What modes of play will be in single player and multiplayer? And do you have any plans to input new modes of play though the release of patches or updates?

We have the full single player game, the single player random mission generator, multiplayer deathmatch, multiplayer team deathmatch and possibly multiplayer Capture The Flag. If multiplayer CTF doesn’t make it in for some reason, the Q3 CTF code remains and mod makers would have little trouble finishing it up. Plans for future releases are unknown at this time. We’ll have to wait and see.

GF: How have you pushed the limits of the Quake III: Team Arena Engine for this title and is there still room for improvement or have you gone right up to the boundary with this one?

We’ve added a lot to the Quake III engine, including the GHOUL2 modeling and animation system, the ICARUS2 scripting language, the ARIOCHE (formerly TORR) terrain system, dynamic lighting, the random mission generator, ConfuseEd, a from scratch mod-able weapon system, shattering glass and a new AI system.

I don’t think the engine has boundaries, really. If you work with it long enough, you can always find something new technology to add to it or enhance it. It’s got a lot of life left in it. Quite honestly, I still think you could make a fine game with the Quake II engine. It’s that versatile.

GF: In SOF 1 the dismemberment was very unrealistic, the fact that you could blow off someone’s leg with a Desert Eagle Pistol just doesn’t happen in real life. With the upgrade of 36 Damage Zones per Character Model how have you made the game more realistic? Can you expect to see little pieces being blown off rather than whole limbs?

Soldier of Fortune II’s damage modeling system is more realistic this time around. It’s going to take a lot more damage (mainly from high explosives) to take limbs off than it did in the original game. You’ll likely be able to take limbs off with some of the weapons, but it won’t be every single time you fire it like it was in SOF. It is a game, after all.

GF: What kind of maps can we expect to see in single player and multiplayer? Will it mainly be large maps and areas due to the implementation of the ARIOCHE Terrain System?

There’s a wide variety of maps in Soldier of Fortune II ranging from jungles, to snowy mountains to city streets with different looks from all over the world. Only a few maps use ARIOCHE in single player, but we’ve put the Team Arena code to good use as well with some rather large outdoor environments. ARIOCHE’s main function is as part of the Random Mission Generator.

GF: I have to admit that the AI in SOF 1 wasn’t all that good, how have you improved the AI for Soldier of Fortune 2?

The A.I. in Soldier of Fortune was a hot topic of discussion amongst our fans. We listened to their suggestions and decided to write a brand new A.I. system for Soldier of Fortune II. We’ve got two programmers (Ben Geisler and Chris Reed) working full time on the LICH Artificial Intelligence toolbox to make SOF2’s AI as challenging and solid as possible. The AI in SOF2 far surpasses the AI seen in the original in every conceivable way. The fans won’t be disappointed.

GF: With the extremely detailed character and weapon models, say for example 2500 - 3000 Polygon Enemies (vs. 400 in original SoF) and 1500 Polygon In-View Weapons (vs. 500 in original SoF). What kind of system specifications are we looking at here? In your FAQ you state P4 - 1.5GHZ for high end. But we have seen countless times gaming magazines argue against the stated system specifications. Are you and other games developers being true to your word?

Our system requirements aren’t really 100% finalized yet. This past month has seen a lot of performance enhancements coming from our technology programmers and there are more on the way. As such, we haven’t really nailed down final specs yet.

I think Raven has always been honest about the final system requirements printed on the box, but I can’t really speak for other developers.

GF: Soldier of Fortune 2 is said to use some pretty impressive graphics including photo realistic textures. If computer technology allows us (which I’m sure it will) where can we expect to see games like this go before they come away from the computer screen and hit the VR world?

I think we have a ways to go before computer games and VR cross paths. PC technology continues to grow in leaps and bounds with faster processors, bigger hard drives, DVD technology, cheap RAM and any number of other enhancements. Games in their current form will certainly get better, larger and prettier in the coming years, but I think it’s going to take someone inventing the Next Big Thing™ before games diverge into something radically different than their current form. sponsors

GF: Thanks again for taking the time to do this interview with us!

Posted by LNorton at October 19, 2002 04:58 PM