FZ.se BF2 Interview with Lars Gustavsson

Winters

Some new pictures down the bottom at: http://fz.se/bildarkiv/album_show.php?id=605

Interview here and also below:
http://www.fz.se/artiklar/article.php?id=786

FZ: We've read about the option of recording matches and distribute them to friends and clan members. It's a bit of an understatement to claim that this feature is highly important to create a strong community. The centralized ranking system is another part of this. What other tools and methods of community building will DICE use to to create and expand a Battlefield 2 community? (Question asked by Mattias Köhlmark)

Lars Gustavsson (LG): We've learned our lesson from Battlefield 1942/Vietnam and we're shipping the game with a much more powerful editor than that of previous Battlefield games. The editor bundled with Battlefield 2 is the very same that we've been using to create the game here att DICE in Stockholm. It's a complete set of tools, including landscape editor, effects editor and so on. We hope this will make our community continue their enormous efforts in modding the Battlefield series.

FZ:Battlefield 2 gives us the opportunity to record full matches, to watch and analyze at a later moment. How will the process of recording work? Is it client or server based? If the latter, how does the server distribute the recorded files? (Mikael Larsson)

LG: The recording process is operated by the server, which means that anyone can set up a server and then distribute the recorded game session as he och she wants to. If you participate in a game marked "Autorecord", a link shows up in in the demo library. When clicking it, the demo file will be downloaded to your computer. You're then able to start the demo and relive the battle by jumping between players, increase och decrease the playback speed, pause and place the camera in any position or angle, all in hunt for the ultimate battle scene or the perfect screenshot.

FZ: Many of our readers have been curious about how private servers will compare to official. It has been mentioned Electronic Arts will be providing servers where statistics will be stored and distributed to the other official Battlefield 2 servers, which private servers do not - probably due to security reasons. Would it not be very likely that private servers will quickly become a "no no" for players wanting to play the same character on different servers? (Mikael Walling, Georg Marcusson)

LG: It is correct that only "official" Battlefield 2 servers will collect player statistics and we have done this only because of security reasons. Should you want to see your character gain ranks and get the rewards you have already made your choice. That character will only grow on the official servers. The private servers are still an excellent choice to do some good ol' fashion Battlefield 1942 and Vietnam combat where the "present" fun is what counts.

FZ: It has been mentioned that several vehicles will be equiped with a so called HUD ("Head-up Display", function to project certain information onto a glass panel for example in a cockpit of an airplane). What type of data will be displayed on this HUD panel in different vehicles?(Joakim Bergqvist)

LG: Obviously it differentiates between different vehicles but in an airplane fighter information about the select weapon system will be displayed. Should you choose to select heatseeking missiles a tracking system will be displayed with information regarding heatsources and other such targets, when a target is locked and information like that. Should you however choose to select bombs, different information will be displayed. We have with our best efforts tried to accomplish a very hightech apperance but at the same time maintaining simplicity and not making it overly complicated, this especially because Battlefield is supposed to be easy to get started with yet very powerful for the experienced players.

FZ: Helicopters seem to be one of the things that caused most reaction from our readers. Several people claim that neither the BF1942-mod Desert Combat nor DICEs own BF: Vietnam accuratly reproduces the way you actually fly a helicopter. Mostly, this is because both Desert Combat and BF: Vietnam lacks the ability to control the veichles collective. This function is especially important since it decides how easy, or hard, it would be for a player to hover the aircraft. Some readers are worried that the possible lack of collective control will produce a far too simple helicopter, which in turn would affect players who wants to specialize on being helicopterpilots. How has this been discussed within the designteam? What are you doing to make helicopters attractive to both beginners and advanced players?

LG: We have gotten alot of feedback from the community and as a result of this our veichledesigner Linus Josephson and our physicsprogrammer Peter Österblom have talked to a helicopterpilot to find out what really makes a helicopter unique. Based on this information we have further developed our helicopters, making them easy to learn but harder to master. Above all we have made the transporthelicopters alot more stable to fly as opposed to attackhelicopters which will be harder to master, but in turn allow more advanced flying.

FZ: In the movieclips we've seen so far, bodies are seen thrown around like gloves(bättre ord?) in the proximity of explosions. To some of our readers, it looks like bodies just weigh a couple of kilograms. Is this a choice made by DICE or is it subject to change before the game eventually hits retail?

LG: This is not something decided by DICE. It merely shows our physicsengine in its current form and not in a final, retail-adjusted state. Our goal is to produce alot more realistic simulation of bodymovement in the final product.

FZ: Lots of Battlefield 2-previews have made it clear that the game has impressive graphics, making it a good looking game overall. DICE haven't said much about what the graphicsengine is capable of, making alot of FZ readers ask what differs this one from previous engines and what features, like Pixelshader 3.0, the engine will use?

LG: Battlefield 2 adds, among other things, much higher geometrical complexity, higher object density on maps and improved system for vegetation. It will also support advanced per-pixel bumped or virtually displaced materials as well as per-pixel dynamic lighting and shadowing. Post-processed effects are included as part of the gameplay itself. We will also be using ShaderModel 3.0 for optimization if it's availiable.

FZ: In earlier previews we have found out that each teams commander will have the ability to call in artillery support. This has raised concerns about artillery being used to wipe out the entire enemyteam or destroying important veichles at the beginning of a game. What steps has DICE taken to prevent such abuse?

LG: Artillery fire won't be availiable at the beginning of a game. Instead, it will need time to "load". When used, artillery will need additional time to recharge, making it an effective weapon, not a devastating one. On top of this, the enemy can destroy the artilleryguns to prevent such attacks, and the commander in turn can use his engineers to repair them, thus making it a "game in the game".

There is also more here: http://www.theirishguard.com/viewtopic.php?t=919