May 29, 2009

ArmA II's Ivan Buchta Discusses His Plans to Create an Authentic Military Simulator; Exclusive Screens Inside
By Louis Bedigian

“We used a piece of real-life Czech countryside and turned it into the part of fictional country (GPS reference 50°42'57.1"N, 14°5'20.89"E). Players will have the chance to wander on 220 square kilometers of hilly landscape with 270 km of roads, visit almost 50 villages and cities and climb hilltops up to 700 m above sea level.”

There's a distinct difference between realism and authenticity. A simulator might look realistic but play like a fantasy, or it might have primitive visuals but offer authentic gameplay. When developing ArmA II, this is one of the issues the developers took into consideration. Ultimately, they wanted to create an authentic military experience. "Rather than [speak of the game in terms of] 'realism,' I would rather use the term 'authenticity,'' said Ivan Buchta, Lead Designer at Bohemia Interactive. "We wanted to make all aspects of the game as close as possible to the experience of real-life combat without compromising the gameplay: graphics are made according to research of real counterparts of any particular object, game rules follow the basics of combat (movement speeds, ballistic characteristics, tactical rules), and the same goes for design of the background and the story itself."

In trying to stay within the bounds of real-world combat, ArmA II takes battle wounds and vehicle damage very seriously. "When arms are hit, precise aiming is quite impossible, soldiers with wounded legs can just crawl and most hits are critical," Buchta revealed. "Heavily wounded people can bleed if unattended by a medic or a buddy. There are also additional visual effects associated with various states of injury. For vehicles, it works in a similar way. Vehicles can be immobilized by hitting a tire or an engine. If hit critically (e.g. to ammunition storage compartments or fuel tanks), vehicles explode immediately."

First, let me clarify something: there has been some confusion as to when and where ArmA II will be released, and which platforms the game is on. It's coming to America…right?

Ivan Buchta: ArmA 2 is going to be released worldwide for PC in the beginning of this summer. No releases for any other platforms are confirmed at the moment.

Rather than produce a game surrounding real countries and real wars, ArmA II focuses on a fictional post-soviet country. What made the development team decide to take this route? Based on the recent controversy with Six Days in Fallujah, it's clear that there are some events developers should stay away from. But obviously you couldn't have known that when the game started development…

IB: We always make fictional settings for several reasons: we have the freedom to develop our own story instead of following history books, and we want to avoid offending anyone or making anything which could be interpreted as a political statement.

The sim technology behind ArmA II is also being used to train real soldiers. Could you explain how the game compares to the training experience?

IB: The game has the story and the simulator has some military-specific features that are not useful to gamers, but the basic gameplay mechanisms are the same.

Tell us about the story, the branching campaign, and ArmA II's dynamic conversation system.

IB: The story comprises of several chapters, which of course can be strongly influenced by the players. One way of doing so is to talk to people, or tell them specific things. Of course, the campaign also develops based on the players' success in combat.

The conversation system is also very useful for learning about recent sightings of military units, or about civilians' stance towards the player. Of course, you may also ask for the weather [grins].

Who are some of the characters we'll play as or encounter? Is the story going to focus on any particular character or group of characters?

IB: In the main campaign, players will play in the roles of the USMC Force Recon team (call-sign Razor), part of the Marine Expeditionary Unit sent to help the government of Chernarus to cope with escalating insurgency. There are many other characters team Razor meets on their way to victory: their comrades in arms, the local army, even some civilians or guerillas. Of course, we could not omit some bad guys.

Give us some info on the game worlds/environments.

IB: Simply put, it is huge. We used a piece of real-life Czech countryside and turned it into the part of fictional country (GPS reference 50°42'57.1"N, 14°5'20.89"E). Players will have the chance to wander on 220 square kilometers of hilly landscape with 270 km of roads, visit almost 50 villages and cities and climb hilltops up to 700 m above sea level. There are several castle ruins, a huge TV tower, industrial areas, unused railway along the coast and several lakes and dams.

For the purpose of the story and gameplay, the environment is populated by civilians, traffic, animals or armed forces based on the settings of the scenario. We also added details like lit windows in inhabited buildings during the evening.

RTS and tactical FPS gameplay elements are being implemented. Tell us how this works; the controls, gameplay perspective, etc.

IB: ArmA 2 does not provide RTS as it is commonly understood. We wanted rather to naturally blend in the system for commanding the whole group to common interfaces. It is easy to switch between the modes of control; groups can be commanded in first-person view (as a force commander would do in the field) as well as in map, where additional interfaces are available. With this new feature, players can orchestrate a large scale attack on enemy positions, including artillery strikes, close air support, and proper coordination of the advancing units.

We also added some additional features to large-scale scenarios: logistics, team and resource management, and fighting for territory on a strategic level. A player may even find himself in command during the campaign. Of course, AI can ensure the high-level combat by itself, which gives the player the chance to refuse command and focus solely on the story.

You'll be able to choose between the RTS and FPS control types, correct? That being the case, can you switch control types on-the-fly?

IB: Yes, if player is in command of some groups, this feature is enabled, and alternate command mode can be activated a single keystroke.

Will you be able to control or at least interact with vehicles in this game?

IB: All vehicles in the game can be controlled: from the attack jets via armor or helicopters to mountain bikes. If there are some additional positions (e.g. gunner or commander in tank), they can be manned too. Gunners can control authentic weapon systems. The player will find himself in position to either use some way of transportation or drive some vehicle himself on many occasions. All together we have 136 different vehicles and all of them can be controlled by the player.

ArmA II goes online with up to 50 players. Which play types will be available?

IB: We mainly focused on story and dynamic large battles. Above all, the campaign can be played in cooperation by four players, we also offer two dynamic battles taking place over a majority of the game world (one with more advanced factions, another one with more conventional unit selection), and of course, there are shorter deathmatch or team-deathmatch scenarios, including mission templates which are easy to modify and may add additional weeks of fun.

What can you tell us about the co-op aspect of the game?

IB: As mentioned before, the campaign is fully playable in co-op. Although we had to face difficulties in the scenario structure and logic (e.g. only main character may talk to most non-player characters), it is truly a new dimension of enjoying the storyline. We also added the possibility to heal or carry wounded buddies, which promotes team-based gameplay a bit further. All multiplayer large-scale battles are also playable in co-op; with up to 16 players fighting on the same side. No human players are needed to run the opposing force in these scenarios, as AI plans independently on both tactical and strategic levels.

Thank you for your time.

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