Battlefield 1942 Files Battlefield 2 Interview

Battlefield 2 Files, Monday 23 August 2004 - 22:56:52

Question from HWA: A recent review article in Computer Gaming World shed a single ray of light onto the new Battlefield Commander functionality. As I understand it players will be tracked globally and the highest 'ranked' player present in a server will have the option to take control of that side. As the CO of a clan, and the server admin of several BF and BF:V servers my concern is this: Will I have a way to limit this functionality to ONLY my clan members? As we see it, we pay for the servers so we should have the final say in who gets to play in that commander position.
Sean Decker: Actually, any player can 'apply' to be commander at the beginning of a round. After a short period of time the highest ranking player who applied on each side becomes the Commander for that side. Server admins can, of course, limit who can access their servers. So if you only let 2 clans into a game and each knows who they want to be Commander, then that person becomes commander (based on they are the only ones that 'applied' for it).

The highest ranked player system works well for public games, as it is desirable to have someone who is experienced be the Commander.

Question from Speed_Freek: Will there be Capture the Flag support for the game? If not, why?
Sean Decker: We are still deciding on this.

Question from Clone_Trooper: How will the destructable environment work, will everything be destructible or just certain objects?
Sean Decker: Just certain objects. When we looked at playtests of totally destructible objects the gameplay wasn't much fun. Like kids, players tend to destroy things just to watch them blow up. This resulted in everything in the world being destroyed in a matter of minutes, which made the levels somewhat irrelevant. Destructible objects will have gameplay significance in some instances (say a bridge) and some will just be for fun (say a window).

Question from AngryAmoeba: How moddable will the game be? Is it going to be similar or different to the way Battlefield 1942 and Vietnam work?
Sean Decker: It is being built from the ground up for modders. We are already working with some of the best mod teams in the world on how to improve our tools and make the game features more accessible.

Question from Bisquit: Will it be more realism-oriented than the previous Battlefield games?
Sean Decker: Battlefield will always be first about fun and secondly about realism. Realism implies complexity. It is realistic to climb a ladder, lower the canopy, run through a pre-flight check, change flap positions, blah, blah, blah to fly an aircraft. That doesn't make it much fun though. We will have more fidelity when it comes to the sounds, feel and results of firing weapons.

Question from Slyfox1717: How will it stand out from all of the other modern combat shooters (why should i buy)? what will it offer different than say DC, America's Army, Black Hawk Down, etc.? how is it unique?
Sean Decker: Where to begin? The Battlefield franchise is still the place to go if you want to play a shooter with large worlds and plenty of vehicles. Battlefield 2 is also the place to go for an integrated Squad experience, perfect for experienced clans or newbie wanting to learn the ropes. Battlefield 2 will also include built in stats tracking as well as clan management.

Question from Cr33dos3: Will there be any special sensors like infrared or nightvision goggles?
Sean Decker: That's classified information. Sorry.

Question from Puma: Given the state of "complaints" about certain aspects of Battlefield Vietnam, when it was released, (ie...power and accuracy of the M60) What level of beta testing does Dice do to ready their products for release, Do they put out requests for "typical internet players" to beta test their product, or do they do their own testing?
Sean Decker: DICE and EA do testing both internally and with “typical internet players”. We try and include the community as much as possible when testing. While we strive to find every issue, with a game the size and complexity of the Battlefield franchise, bugs sometimes slip through.

Question from Johnny06Man: Why is the game called Battlefield 2, when actually it should be Battlefield 3, since Vietnam came out after battlefield, making that the second game?
Sean Decker: Battlefield Vietnam wasn't the sequel to Battlefield 1942, even though much of the press positioned it this way. We always thought of it as a significant improvement on Battlefield 1942, but it still used the same overall structure and engine (with the exception of graphics). Battlefield 2 is all new from the ground up and is the sequel to the Battlefield 1942 series.

Well, thats it! You asked for it, and they gave it to you! I would personally like to thank DICE and EA for making such an awesome franchise, Sean Decker for the taking the time and effort to generously answer all of these questions, and Pro-Filer for the wicked awesome website.

I hope that you enjoyed our/your interview, and stay tuned for more updates! See ya on the battlefield soldiers!

Courtesy of Battlefield 2 Files

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