CT Special Forces: Fire for Effect - Dev Diary#2 Feature

CT Special Forces Fire For Effect is looking pretty cool and in Diary Part 2 of the game, TVG chats with Sebastian Wloch Lead Programmer at Asobo Studio about some of the technical and heavy stuff that go into making the game play pefectly!

The Tehcnology Behind CT Special Forces: Fire For Effect

TVG: Firstly what is the current state of the code and what have the team been working on over the last 2 weeks?

The gameâ??s currently approaching â??Betaâ?? state. Over the last 2 weeks, weâ??ve done a lot of parameter tuning; testing and improving all situations throughout the game, improving enemies positions and behaviours, etcâ?¦ Some aspects of the core gameplay, like the camera, the covering engine, vehicle driving, along with some AI behaviours have also been tuned and improved.

TVG: So please tell us more on how sophisticated is the gameâ??s AI and behavioural?

Compared to many other games of the genre, I would consider CTâ??s AI as very sophisticated. The core AI engine relies on several technologies:

First a fuzzy logic based information management and communication system: Enemies keep lots of information like the last known position of the player or the current alert level. For maximum realism, no information is acquired by code shortcuts: AI only learns a player position if it sees the player hears him or notices any change in the level (like a light turned off). If the information is not refreshed from time to time (if the enemy doesnâ??t see the player anymore) it grows old and uncertain. If it gets too old or uncertain it gets forgotten. The communication system allows AIs to communicate their information to other AIs. There too, no code shortcuts: to communicate, they must see each other, talk or make signs. Depending on the certainty of information, AI behaves differently.

A second technology is the real time adaptive path finding. It allows the AI to decide which path to follow to get to any point in the level. Paths are adapted in real time because the environment constantly changes, when a player moves a crate for example. The adaptive pathfinding also helps the AI engine to solve other problems like if the enemy can hear the player (computing sound that propagates around corners) or which would be the best place to cover at any time.

TVG: So are there a number of equations for the playerâ??s actions and the ways onscreen characters react?

The AI reacts to many different events: Vision of the player (which can be fuzzy if the player is in the shades or using his optical armour), if he hears the player, if thereâ??s a bullet impact nearby, if he or any other enemy gets hurt, if the alarm level rises, if any light is turned off etcâ?¦ In order to progress stealthily, the player needs to take care at all these possibilities.

TVG: If there is lots of action does the main character become more aggressive for instance â?“ do the enemy have different formations depending on what you do or are formations and patterns set!?

Enemies have several levels of courage and several possible group behaviours. First of all, enemies can be more or less courageous depending on their type. But they can also get courage boosts if there are many other enemies around or if there is an enemy boss in the area. Depending on the courage level, enemies will progress toward the player, keep their position or flee. There is also a group behaviour regarding progression: Some enemies will leave their cover to move to the next cover closer to the player while other players will take cover shoots towards the player.

TVG: To continue, put in a different form- how does the AI work? Does it work in areas; does it wait to see if the enemy is attached? What kind of triggers is set?

The AI also features tactical behaviours like covering behind crates or walls and watching around the corner and shooting or even blind shooting. Some AIs feature night vision goggles and will shoot out the lights in the room the same way the player would.

TVG: Give the readers some detail about the destruction/deformation of the environment and the degree of injury soldiers and the player can take? Are there real subtleties on offer like losing a leg, and can you use debris to an advantage?

The player has many ways to destroy or change the environment: He can shoot, explode objects with grenades, he can push some light objects and he can use his magnetic grenades to attract or repulse objects. Lots of stuff in the environment can be destroyed: Windows, lights, machines, doors, crates, barrels etcâ?¦ Enemies take damage depending on their armour and exactly where and how they were hit. Head shots obviously make more damage. Enemies can also be disarmed using the magnetic grenade which attracts their weapons, or you can disorient them using the blinding flash grenade. Once the enemy is hit, there is a rich system that displays a specific animation for every different region of the body. If the enemy dies, our rag doll physics engine takes over and the enemy gets naturally projected depending on the environment and the current force fields generated by bullets or explosion blast.

Is there a progression to the game in the kind of challenge you are presenting the player and would you talk about one scenario â?“ action sequence - that the team are really excited about that shows off all the best in CT?

CT features a really cool scenario. I wonâ??t reveal the core of it here, but next to the main characters Owl and Raptor, several others, like the General, Tracy, Anton or the AI. These play an important role. The story will lead the player through dozens of different regions and more than 30 missions playing with either Raptor or Owl. The more the player progresses the more he will have to use each playerâ??s abilities: The brute force character Raptor will get incredibly heavy weapons including a simultaneously quadruple smart rocket launcher. Owl, the stealthier character will get equipment like an optical invisibility cloak, night vision, infra red vision or sonar goggles, silent weapons etcâ?¦ in order to progress without getting discovered.

TVG: How important do you feel technology is to the game â?“ to come up with one of two clever ideas â?“ some fancy particle effects and to generally have a number of presentational wow factors? Talk about one â??wowâ?? factor please?

Technology is very important to the final play and feel of the game. CT features a very complex particle effect system that allows thousands of particles to be played from hundreds of groups of particle emitters. But the engine on which CT is based is also one of the only out there allowing the display of real-time tessellated higher order surfaces like Bezier patches. This allows for many nice, round and soft surfaces in stead of â??squaryâ?? corners. Lighting plays an important role for the gameplay too as the player can, in real-time, shoot any light around to avoid getting seen. Animation has been a great challenge: The game being in third person view, with all the possible cover positions, walking, running, crouching, swimming, etc; combined with the several dozens of weapons there are, there wouldnâ??t have been a way to deliver the high animation quality without an extensive use of Inverse kinematics. Thanks to this technology, arms and legs are continuously and naturally animated depending on multiple constraints like weapon handles, ground shape, stairways, running direction and speed refinement, etc..

TVG: There are two game modes spoken about â?“ â??ground modeâ?? and â??free-fall modeâ??, what percentage of the game do both play?

There are about 7 freefall missions and about 20 ground missions.

TVG: We will speak about the vehicles and weapons in the next diary but as yet not much has been said about the vehicles in the game. Give some details please.

The game features many different vehicles: One of them is a heavy armed hovercraft. This vehicle can float over water and land; it is quite easy to control and the player can fire on everything around using a heavy machine gun on the back of the hovercraft. The game also features a zodiac, a jeep and a skidoo. Vehicles can have various secondary usages: To come through a position protected by the surrounding vehicleâ??s armor, to place the vehicle in a precise location in order to use it as a cover, to push other heavy objectsâ?¦

TVG: What kind of weather effects and affects are the team working on and will this have any real focus on the action within the game?

The game features many cool weather effects in the outdoor missions: rain, sand storm, snow, lens effects when looking towards the sun; the game even features one totally flooded city downtown area.

TVG: What is the teamâ??s favourite game presently and do they take much notice of other games within the genre?

Weâ??ve played most military shooters out there: The Desert Storm series, Socom, Kill Switch; but also other genres like Metal Gear Solid II, Doom III, Half Life 2 etcâ?¦ Every time we find a cool idea or interesting way of doing something in some game, we immediately write it down and think about it; sometimes it helps us doing something in a better way, or sometimes we add something really cool to the game. Mostly its only small details because the core design has been finalized many months ago.

Currently my favorite game would be San Andreas, I have only played it for 50 hours and Iâ??m trying to finish it 100% before I seriously start Half Life 2.

TVG: Can you tell us a little about one location that until now youâ??ve kept slightly under wraps? Only a sneak insight please!

Antarcticâ?¦ the final levelâ?¦.

Many thanks Seb

CT Special Forces fans will want to keep an eye out within the next month for the latest chapter in our exclusive Developer Diaries with Asobo Studios, focussing on the vehicles at play and other exciting features to be found within the game.