Lots of interesting tidbits regarding BFBC2 lately. Noches, our German BASHandSlash.com correspondent, kindly translated this item with Patrick Bach from Gamestar, the German PCGaming magazine.
Gamestar: Are you planning on providing any DLC? If yes, will it be purchase-only or will you provide the content for free?
Patrick Bach: After the release of BC2 there will be DLC and addons. Some of the content will be free and some will be sold. But we can’t say anything definite yet.
Gamestar: What else do you want to change after the Beta? Where is the development focus right now?
Patrick Bach: Right now we’re looking at the basics of the game, like lag in multiplayer. We’re trying to ensure that we’re not sending online players to servers on the other side of the globe, because this would obviously reduce performance. We have to also make cheating impossible and all the while make a perfectly balanced game. This is why we do Beta testing. As PC configurations are so different, changes can affect the players in different ways.
Gamestar: Is Battlefield 3 going to be a further development of BC2 and is it going to use the same engine?
Patrick Bach: I won’t say anything about this. We haven’t talked about this in public yet.
Gamestar: Is there going to be a LAN mode? And are the eleven offline activations valid for LAN mode?
Patrick Bach: There is an activation code which can be used ten times. But the retail version won’t include a LAN mode. But it might be that we will offer this later.
Gamestar: Why does the campaign include no co-op mode?
Patrick Bach: Why does the game include one element at the expense of another one? When one looks at BC2 as a balanced package, we see that it offers four game modes and a ten hour campaign. It is especially important to focus on the important aspects of the game and make sure those are as good as possible in the time you have. Of course one wants to have every element in every game but this is first of all a question of time. One has to focus on the key aspects. One of our game modes is squad deathmatch where four players fights against three other squads. Basically this is a coop mode where one fights against a “superior” enemy. Kind of an online coop mode. And our focus is the online gaming.
Gamestar: What about modding? Is there going to be an editor or other mod tools?
Patrick Bach: The player can change settings on the dedicated server but there won’t be modding tools included in the retail game. The reason is the same as coop mode. That is, we decided to focus on other aspects because we want to achieve the highest levels of quality possible, rather than a buggy game with average gameplay but with modding possiblities. Theoretically we could still add mod support after release, we just don’t know yet. But it’s out of the question for the retail version.
Gamestar: What did you have to do for the German version?
Patrick Bach: As far as I know, we cut nothing at all out of the German version. I am not 100 per cent sure but we try to make the game so that it is ok for all parts of the world. So I don’t think that we are going to take anything out of the German version.
Gamestar: This does surprise us a bit.
Patrick Bach: We had some discussions about this subject but in the end we had to cut nothing out of the game.
Gamestar: In which way does the hardcore mode differ from the normal game?
Patrick Bach: The interesting about the hardcore mode is that is refers to all game modes. Firepower damage is doubled and HUD displays are deactivated. As there is no cross-hair one needs to look down the sights of your weapon to shoot accurately. Also, the (self) healing function is deactivated too, so you have to find a medic in case you get hit. Friendly fire can’t get deactivated and the killcam of the normal mode is not available, so it is going to be more realistic and more difficult.
Gamestar: Are players going to able to use prone in hardcore mode? Some players did complain about the fact that it isn’t possible in the game.
Patrick Bach: No. We know that some players think that this is a big problem. Our decision is based on realism. Former soldiers explained to us that they don’t lay down. Only snipers lay down and then they stay on a hill for a week. And our game wouldn’t be more fun because of that.
Gamestar: So you don’t like snipers very much?
Patrick Bach: We have no problem with snipers in general, we just don’t like campers. The gaming speed in BC2 is pretty high. We want players to move. The game shouldn’t see everyone hiding in the bushes, instead it should offer a dynamic battlefield with a “rock paper scissors” system. Most snipers don’t see a problem in this, except the ones who want to hide in the bushes for the whole round.
Gamestar: The amount of damage a player can resist in BC2 is compared to Counter-Strike for example — relatively high. Why did you set it this way?
Patrick Bach: That isn’t the case in hardcore mode. There, it gets pretty realistic. We think that one should have to react when one gets under fire. It should also be fun to be under fire. In the single player mode this is different. We don’t think that it is fun to die as soon as one is being shot at unless you’re pulling the trigger of course. This would make the game more static. Some folks would just camp in the hills. Others who are afraid of being hit would run like crazy from one position to another one and back. We want to make the game dynamic, so that things change and players are being forced to try different things. You can’t simply use the same tactics for the whole round, but you have to keep moving and try news things.
Gamestar: Is Wake Island going to be included in the game? Meanwhile the island is cult classic.
Patrick Bach: Not in the retail version. Indeed it was in all Battlefield games, so it wouldn’t surprise me that it’d be included as an add-on.
Gamestar: Is there going to be a game mode which includes infantry only?
Patrick Bach: There are nearly 2. At squad rush two 4-player teams fight against each other and there are no vehicles. In squad deathmatch there is only 1 vehicle on the map.
Gamestar: It the field of view already set?
Patrick Bach: No. This is also a reason why we do the beta testing. We look at different solutions currently. Some players are happy with the actual field of view, others are disappointed. The retail version will offer the possibility to scale this a bit. But we don’t know yet how we are going to offer this option. We want to balance this game as good as possible and it shouldn’t be that the one wins who uses the smartest settings. It should get as fair as possible.
Gamestar: Are there going to be bots?
Patrick Bach: Not on the multiplayer maps. But in the 10 hour campaign one will be fighting against the AI of course.
Gamestar: Some reader comments describe the sound quality as surprisingly good. Could you say a few words about the tech making this possible?
Patrick Bach: We use a lot of effort to get the sound right. It’s a system called HDR similar to HDR in the graphics. One example: When one looks in a window on a bright day from outside, it appears completely black. When one looks outward through the window everything is bright. Both effects are caused by the fact that your iris takes a while to get used to the change in brightness. Same is true in the world of sound. When you walk alone through the forest you can hear every detail, but when a tank drives through it you hear nothing except the engine. The ears adapt to the louder sound, others sounds get filtered out. In our engine we don’t set a volume for a sound but a decibel value. When you move through the game you adapt to the sounds around you. The sounds are always there but you only hear the loudest ones.
Gamestar: What are the differences between the console and the PC version?
Patrick Bach: The PC version has higher screen and texture resolutions but also a higher mesh density. In addition to this BC2 benefits of DirectX 11 and includes ambient occlusion. In the PC version there are also more players in game.
Gamestar: Will PC players and console players going to be able to play against each other?
Patrick Bach: No, but it’s not because of balance reasons, but because it is not possible for licensing reasons to connect PC’s to Microsoft’s Xbox Live or Sony’s Playstation home.
Noches keeps his eye on German news and translates it into English for us on his own RSS feed. Catch it here.
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