NEWS sur Squad

Interview 1:
Dev: Keith/Litoralis, community manager, tech support, promotions.

Current dev team activities: rebuilding the animation system, first iteration of vehicles and deployables for firebases.


Animation-related questions:

Q: What are you plan for the future, and what is the thing you can't wait to put in? For me, I'm looking forward to fastroping and the Brittish faction, and the vaulting animations.
A: I'm looking forward to Truesky, it can actually grab weather from a weather station and put it into the map in real time. If it's raining in Afghanistan, it'll be raining in the map. That's next-level stuff. We'll be able ot make real-time sun movement, dawn, dusk, the whole thing. I'm really looking forward to that.
The current animation system isn't up with standards and we know it. The next two months we're going on a crazy sprint where the entire coding team is doing either animations or vehicles. We hired a new animator as well.
We have more maps coming too. We promised a remake of Fallujah, moving up to eastern europe, civil war, urban maps.
...and the Britts are coming, eventually.

Q: Animations are quite alpha, but you're working on improving them. When will they be updated? When can we vault over a wall?
A: I wish I could vault over a wall yesterday. Drove me fricking nuts... We wanna do a fast/quick reload where you can drop your mag. Tactical reloads, weapon resting, bipod deployment, then vaulting, climbing, perhaps grappling hook and/or combat ladder; door breaching (shotgun with slug and/or battering ram). We're trying to conceptualise this via our russian military vouch that the Russians actually don't use shotguns, they use battering rams the old-fashioned way. We'll figure something out.
Stuff that's more detailing: foot movement, clipping through the ground, floating while going prone on a hill; we will do everything we can to get rid of those old glitches. UE4 allows you to not have any of that, so we're going to do all of that. When you go from prone to standing you actually use your off-hand to push up, which will take some time.
And a big thing: the soft-cover system. Leaning up against a wall and looking around it, weapon collision. We're gonna do the whole thing.
They're building a basis that they want to get out in April that will allow them to 1. continue to work on the detailing, 2. SDK's for modding so they can add their own weapons and animations, or for character models, in the future.

Q: What about bipods and weapon resting?
A: Will definitely be in. The base animation system that's coming in the next couple of months will be the basis for how that's built. We're probably going to do something like the weapon-resting mod that was very popular in ARMA... 2? That gave you 9 options for deployment. I've been pushing for SOMETHING like that in our game.

Q: You got rid of inertia; is it going to make a comeback? Although it was tricky to get used to, I actually liked that you had to think before you charged into a room and charged right past where you wanted to go.
A: That was kinda tricky. By default, we turn mouse moving off. But when you put back inertia, it almost feels like mouse moving again. When the animation system gets rebuilt, we'll be able to rebuild the inertia system. For example when you look left and right, you'll move your head and shoulders, and then your weapon would turn with you; we're going to rebuild that from the ground up.


Vehicle-related stuff:

Q: Vehicles. When are they coming, how are we gonna get them, are there gonna be tanks? What I want to know is, are you going to make tanks massive and unstoppable, or are you going to make them armored but you can't see shit when you're in them? How are you going to balance the game between infantry and tanks?
A: We're always going to make sure that infantry will remain the center of gameplay. There shouldn't be more than 10 (out of a team of 50) people in vehicles. There will be anti-tank warheads. Balance will take some time, we'll ask for community feedback and we do stats tracking in the background. Reactive armor will require more hits. There will be different zones, there will be weak points on the tank. We learned a lesson from Red Orchestra 2, they took almost 18 months to get their vehicles out; we learned from their mistakes, we're going to do it right.
When will vehicles be in? I don't touch the code too often, but I'm told end of april, early may at the latest; hopefully some time before then. The first iteration will be motorbikes and firebase deployables; then the 4-wheel vehicles; then the track vehicles.
We've been modding for a long time, and have had lots of modders talking to us to bring their vehicles into our game.


Maps stuff:

Q: More maps coming; what are you gonna be doing? Biodomes?
A: Entirely different reaches of the earth. Fallujah west (Iraq) will be more urban, somewhat based on the battle of fallujah 2006. Other will be a central-european theatre - we haven't quite decided yet. We will pick one. Maybe central/eastern Ukraine. It will be some type of urban environment. You'll see a lot of 7-story soviet housing.

Q: How many mappers are doing it?
A: I don't know. We have about 30 guys total on the team. Lots of the unrealengine devs are multi-talents, so the guys that do the statics will do maps in the back. I think we have about 5 guys doing maps.

Q: Snow maps, different forms of camouflage? I know there won't be too much customisation, but would there be an option to choose your camo for different terrain? You don't want your russians to be running around in the desert in green camo.
A: We can do snow, we can do melt puddles, and we can do snowdrifts. I'm not sure if we can do actual snow, like Germany dead-of-winter snow. Truesky allows for a snowstorm going on, but I don't know if we have the time and energy to make the snow actually be snow.

Q: Jungle map?
A: Yeah... We'd need another guy to do vegetation. It's possible we'll get one of the better vegetation artists in there.
There are discussions about a third type of area. Jungle, southeast asia, south-america... We don't know which one yet. The majority of the options include some type of jungle.

Weapons/equipment stuff:

Q: Night maps and night equipment. Are we going to see parachute flares, night missions, torches and night vision goggles?
A: For those not aware, we already have a night battle, as well as a dawn map. We have illumination in the game, we have street lights and we have the ability to put flashlights to weapons already. The parachute stuff I'm sure we can do from the new grenade launchers. It just basically comes down to not giving people seizures. If we can deal with the flicker, we're good. The NVG's... I have seen an implementation of a test in squad. So yes, I think we can do it. I don't know however if they want to go down that rabbit hole.

Q: Yes, because militants and insurgents aren't known for their NVG capability. If you give it to only the Americans, it'd be way too overpowered.
A: Yes. So from the military advisors, when the US goes on night raids, their capture or kill ratio compared to their injuries is like 30-1, 70-1. On insurgency they had flares to counteract it, but those maps are too small for us. We have to figure out how to make that work.

Q: You could make the cache compounds be lit and flush out NVG's, but give NVG's the long-range advantage at larger areas with no illumination?
A: Those questions haven't been answered be our team yet. We haven't got an answer.

Q: What about plans for modifying guns?
A: We want to have a system like Far Cry 2, with a visual system where you could change the scope of your weapon. That's where we want to be, that's not where we're at yet. I don't like playing dressup dolls in front of a resupply ammo crate when you could be out there playing the game. So we're doing our best to make the kits listed as a name, like a rifleman. We might allow you to change a foregrip or a scope, or change which ammo bag you're using. Limited customisation based upon real-world stuff.

Q: It'd be nice to adapt your gun, changing a scope as a sniper, but ironsights are nice. You shouldn't be able to freeranged scopes on every weapon. Also, it'd be nice if you had weight limits. Like you could choose an armor plate, but sacrifice ammunition because it's too heavy, or makes you run slower... What are your ideas there?
A: One of our developers has already conceptualised the weight system. We have one locker on it. If you have one fatty on the squad that wears every piece of body armor and is too slow, he'll lose the squad. As a squad-based game, if we can figure around a way around that, weight will definitely be a thing. It will be a question about balancing. We don't want the AR gunner to always be the fat guy who can't keep up.

Q: What other weapons can we expect? I've seen what shotguns can do on the field.
A: I did not bring the list of weapons that we're bringing. We're bringing the US semi-auto benelli. We brought a russian KS-23 shotgun which is technically not used by their military but by their military police, but it's the closest we could find. You'll see a number of the designated marksman weapons coming in. I'm going to do everything I can to avoid the mistakes that Day Z made when they brought in the [...]. Turned the game into everyone fighting each other at 800 meters.

Q: I like the ironsights. I hate using them, but I like that we have them. If everyone had optics, it'd just turn into a battle of whose system can render the furthest or has the biggest resolution. Ironsights make it a bit more balanced.
A: 50-150 meter engagements, which means close-quarter security for the medics and the squad leader. One of the reasons we don't give scopes to the medics, is we make sure we don't end up having firefights shooting a pixel at the top of a hill 400 meters away, keeping excitement level up. You actually have to interact, shoot those grenades, people can kiss you before you die from it... Took a long time to get that balance right.

Q: What about IED's?
A: Oh yeah. When I first found PR, someone showed me how to use IED's correctly, and that's all I did for 2 years. They're coming. Mass-detonated plates both for infantry and vehicles. We'll probably go along the lines of some type of combat engineer class that can disarm IED's.

Q: Just disarm or mine-sweep kind of guy? Sweep the doorframe or just go through hoping it's not booby-trapped?
A: That hasn't been decided yet. The engine allows us some manipulations of the terrain itself, like, bury it. Look for disturbed ground or the out-of-place container...
Q: Yeah, we used to have the wires across the ground, the yellow palm-oil containers, they were the biggest give-away.
A: We already have all those containers and we have debris fields, it takes 50 pieces of junk and drops them randomly on the ground. It'd be the exact same model as a static that you'll be able to use for an IED. Also the location of debris fields will vary on each game. It's going to be a limited kit. A team of 50 may have 1 or 2 guys that can do IED's. They'll have to resupply at an ammo crate before they can place a new one. Logistic lines will prevent them dropping 100 IED's all over a map.
We're not sure how much terrain manipulation we want to do yet. It's very intensive, we have to network it to everyone. We'll figure it out as we go. It will be like booby-traps and tripwires, remote-detonated IED's from cellphones...

Q: What about mortars?
A: One of our devs wrote the entire mortar code in PR. Yes, there will be mortars. It will require a complete logistics supply-line, you need a firebase and either a chopper or truck to supply them. We'll make sure it's realistic, not hyper-realistic but actually takes time to adjust the elevation and distance.
For off-screen artillery, we'll have a commander role. Part of that commander role (a reward for it, making it worth the time) will be able to call in artilly at an interval. We're not sure what interval yet. Perhaps on a capture, or every 45 minutes... So yes, it will be part of this game.


New factions:

Q: I like that the Brittish Armed Forces are coming. Any other classes, any other countries? Germans, Polish, Chinese...?
A: We promised Britts and they're underway. It honestly depends on the sales and growth of the game. The character models and weapons we can do... Situation is: we have to make the vehicles. Each of those vehicles can take 48 weeks. It depends on sales. The Britts are a large part of our audience. Probably the Germans would be afterwards, but they've not done a whole lot of combat recently. So it turns into an alternative reality combat situation. And we'll probably need another OPFOR too.


Gameplay stuff:

Q: Spotting: obviously we don't want a BF-style triangle of death; but is there going to be a way for squad members to highlight an area?
A: There will be no Q spotting, or any type of spotting. The Squad Leader will be able to mark things on the map and that will show up as a V on your compass within 50 meters, or a dot at larger distances. There will be no upside-down doritos, there will be no Q spotting. You'll have to have some basic understanding of maps and topography.

Q: Let's talk about the Squad Leader. This guy can make or break a squad. A decent squad leader puts down his fobs and rally points. He's the critical point of it. Should there be more options made available to him? Better binos, scopes, smokes, airdrops... Is there going to be added anything else? And what are you going to be doing with FOB building? I know you're redesigning it.
A: Yeah, the firebase system you're seeing now is basically placeholder. That will be rebuilt, there'll be a lot more. I mentioned deployables, but we'll also try something like a line tool. Like something that lets you draw a line (straight or curved), and that'll become a hesco wall. Or a sandbag wall around that line.
I'm sure the Squad Leader will have more options available to him. Most actions we do are player-controlled. We won't do random supply drops, a player actually has to drive or fly the supplies to you. The commander role might be split into two people, like a CO and XO type thing. Like one guy in the back with an overview, and one guy in the front line. We'll probably split up squad leader channels into squad leader to squad leader, so you can talk to a squad leader specifically. We really have a big list with over 100 things that we want. I'd have to ask Sgt.Ross about that, I haven't been keeping up to date with what we have planned.

Q: Reputation system: would you put in a system to punish or reward people that are good at their jobs? Like if you've got a really good squad leader, do you think they should have some recognition for that? For example, the commendation system in CS:GO (is a good teacher, is a good leader...). Would you put it in or do you think it's better to leave it?
A: We've talked about reputation systems. There's not going to be a ranking system. There's going to be a stat system, but that's going to be outside of the game on a website. I don't see the need for a reputation system, but there are advocates on the team that do so. Especially for SL's and medics. They're really important for what happens in-game. We're on the same page on how they'd be useful, we're also concerned about how to maintain the integrity of such a rep system.
Q: Also, if you've got a guy with +15 points and a guy with -3 that's trying to change his ways... It has its good and its bad points.
A: Yeah. No grinding stuff and no unlocks is to prevent people from being lone wolves. You disincentivise it by not having it, but we try not adding stuff that discriminates people by actively pushing them away.

Q: Game modes. AAS, insurgency.
A: We have plans to randomize the objective layout of every single match. We want to randomize a whole bunch of stuff, including compounds. You may walk into a block of an urban setting, and it will never be the same block twice. One round it might be some doors are locked, or the entire thing may be turned to rubble, or it could be a soccer field. The insurgency style stuff is asymmetrical warfare. Insurgents can basically use any tactic they want, anything to compensate for the fact that they have less weaponry. It's a lot of fun on either side, because it changes the gameplay a lot from what you're used to in other FPS games.
We'll also have a territory control game mode. Once vehicles are in we'll probably add a fun/casual "armor only" mode. On the other side we've a Command & Control mode, where every team is only allowed one single firebase per map, but you're allowed to build almost unlimited amounts of deployables; the general point system of this will be the closer you build it to the center of the map, the more points you'll get. From the beginning, you get to put down a firebase and that determines the value of attack and defence. The whole time it's either you're attacking their monster firebase or you're defending your own monster firebase. Kind of like king of the hill, but with two hills and two kings.

Q: Something pretty close to my heart: track IR and freelook.
A: The track IR guys are pretty close to our headquarters. We might sit down with them some time. Thing is: it's real first-person. If you freelook left and right, you have to be able to snap your head back to look down sights. It's a big coding number crunching situations. We hope to make it work for vehicles, specifically for helicopters. Even today, the Oculus Rift works in-game. You do need to unplug your Rift and then plug it in in-game, because we don't have support for it. I haven't played with the Rift yet, but I hope it works out well. VR support would be awesome. The implementation in the engine is basically the same as freelook.


Modding stuff:

Q: What's the expected date for modding for the game?
A: I don't have an expected date, but here's the timeline. UnrealEngine is releasing a new update to the engine itself some time within the next one or two weeks. This may or may not be the point where we permanently fork our game from the standard engine. At some point we'll fork it and we'll stabilize our own version of the engine, and work with Epic to put out an SDK. We hope to get that out as soon as possible, but it's going to take some time.

Q: What about Steam workshop support?
A: Yeah, definitely. We sold about 150.000 copies right now. We're trying to make modding accessible, as we all started out as modders a decade ago. We want to help people getting into it now.


Another awesome question:

Q: Someone, it's going a little bit off, going off the line of the topic that we're going down, how are servers working in sense of lagging connection-strings?
A: Eh... Not sure. What? Please rephrase.