Andrzej "Klecha" Klimczuk from gry.o2.pl interviews Jan Prazak, the PR Manager of Bohemia Interactive.
Andrzej "Klecha" Klimczuk (Gry.o2.pl):
Please start us off by introducing yourself and telling us about your involvement with the development of ARMA 2.
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
My name is Jan Prazak and I am the PR Manager at Bohemia Interactive. Being an Operation Flashpoint fan I spent a lot of time not just by playing but also by editing and making models for Operation Flashpoint and VBS1 as a member of the CSLA MOD team. I began as a texture and model artist at Bohemia Interactive in 2005 and then I went through several assignments working on ARMA: Armed Assault and Queens Gambit. At the present time, I mainly do public relations and marketing tasks for our upcoming ARMA 2.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
What can you tell us about new storyline?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
We wanted to create something from the present day, something more believable. Approximately one year ago Ivan Buchta and Marek Spanel sat down and wrote the design document for ARMA 2 which situated the story somewhere in the Caucasian region around the fictitious country of Chernarus. Nobody could expect how very believable and probable such a story would turn out to be... As is already known, the player will take control of a member of a USMC Force Recon team named "Razor", at first having just this soldier under command. But, later in the game the player will become a commander not only having full control of the team, but also having to make decisions with consequences for the entire country of Chernarus.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
What kind of locations and settings does the game take place in?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
As described above, the location is the fictitious country Chernarus. This post-soviet republic hag-ridden by a complicated political situation. Unlike Operation Flashpoint or ARMA: AA's game environment, this is a very unique location. To achieve the best quality and representation of a real Eastern European landscape we have actually taken a part of the real world and put it into the game. It's no more an island(s) surrounded by endless sea, it's a slightly more then 200 kilometer square portion of the real world. The data we used is actually a piece of the Czech republic, so if you are patient enough to try to find it in Google Earth you probably will. The only change we made was a different appearance of buildings and urban density to achieve the unique look of a country on the border between Europe and Asia.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
How many missions can we expect to see in the single-player component?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
This time the campaign is designed differently from our previous titles. Instead of many short missions with just a few of objectives, we've introduced a new "chapters" format - much longer parts of the story being played continuously, fulfill many tasks and side "quests" without loading. There are at least five main chapters in ARMA 2 and the game play style will vary significantly from one to another.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
How long does an average mission take to complete and on average how many different objectives will players face in a given mission?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
It depends on each player. When running through the game without completing any side quests it may take around ten hours to finish the game, but probably this style will cause many save/load cycles as this is not the really best way to "win through" in modern combat. While being precise, completing side quests and performing strategic and tactic moves and attacks, the game could become almost endless taking up dozens of hours of game play...
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
Tell us about some new weapons...
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
There are many weapons in ARMA 2. All of them are precisely modeled in great detail, have proper ballistic simulation, tracers, ricocheting, penetration, different kind of ammunition. We will introduce new types of the AK rifles family, new rocket launchers (both guided and unguided) as SPG-9, Metis, Igla. There are also a lot of new static weapons such as ZSU-23 anti aircraft gun and more.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
Give us more details about the various vehicles we'll get to handle throughout the game.
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
As in our previous titles there will be a lot of vehicles again. I tried to count them some time ago and got to a number of 167 land & air vehicles and ships include variants. It's probably more now, as the amount is constantly growing. Because of this amount, I'll point out just the one vehicle, which is actually my favorite: there is finally the glorious Mi-24 Hind gunship in ARMA 2 back from Operation Flashpoint. So much time was spent working with the model in terms of graphical representation as well as flight model enhancements, that it's probably the best game representation of this Russian beast to date.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
How important is it to develop AI for ARMA 2?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
The AI is the most important part of our game. While the game world in ARMA 2 is so open and so large (about 225km2 of land without loading), the AI must be very smart to just navigate through the world. But they also have to fight efficiently, so their artificial intelligence is so advanced that they actually not only know where the enemy is, but also avoid areas of fire, taking cover behind corners, using suppressive fire and many more and complex decisions. They can even drive a car, airplane, helicopter or ship, that's a lot of different situations which all the AI have to handle. So we are continuously testing their behavior, making them smart enough to defeat the unaware player but also believably "human", making mistakes sometimes and such.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
What other unique gameplay elements will ARMA 2 have? What's different about ARMA 2 compared to ARMA: Armed Assault & ARMA: Queen's Gambit?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
A lot. I have already described several new elements in ARMA 2 and wouldn't like to uncover too much...
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
What can you tell us about the game's graphics engine and its features?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
Our own Real Virtual Engine has reached its 3rd generation for ARMA 2 and provides many true next-gen features. We are keeping to DX9 Shader Model 3 technology as we want the game to be fully Windows XP compatible. However, this doesn't mean you will notice any visual limitation! There is HD technology, reflections, specular lights, dynamic shadows and much more. I dare say ARMA 2 provides probably the best rendition of real military arsenal you could ever see...
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
What are the system requirements likely to be?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
ARMA 2 will require a Dual Core processor. That's essential because of the new engine architecture and the amount of calculations which have to be processed. Minimum system configuration has been published on the official ARMA 2 website.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
What multiplayer options will the game have?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
ARMA 2 provides a wide range of Multiplayer modes. You probably know many of them from our previous titles, but there is also a handful of brand new features:
- WARFARE mode, which was introduced in the latest update of our previous game ARMA: Armed Assault (Combat Operations in US) and which is probably the most-favored MP mode in ARMA. The new WARFARE will provide more game factions to play with, more options for commanders and players, more complex simulation of a real battle.
- The very new feature is the campaign cooperation mode which provides the possibility to play the main campaign story with up to three other players. That will completely change the game play experience and we believe people will enjoy it a lot.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
Are you planning to make ARMA 2 "mod friendly"?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
YES of course. We are proud to have one of the best and largest modding communities around and we always apply a lot of attention and care on this side of the game's development. The PC version of ARMA 2 will be "mod friendly" and we will provide the new versions of our software tools to the community.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
What differences will there be between the PC, PS3 & Xbox 360 versions of the game?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
I'm sorry I can't say anything specific about this until it will become official.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
At this moment, how far has the development of the game progressed and what is the planned release date?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
ARMA 2 has passed alpha version and contains virtually all the actual game content for release. Now we are fully focused on the main campaign, game play features and user interface tuning. This will require some time, so the expected and officially confirmed release date is Q1 2009.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
Are there plans to release a demo for ARMA 2 before its release and if so what will it contain?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
We hope for the ARMA 2 demo to be available before or at the same time as the full game itself, featuring both single-player and multi-player content.
Klecha (Gry.o2.pl):
Finally is there anything else you wish to say at this point about ARMA 2?
Jan Prazak (Bohemia Interactive):
I have depleted all my known words of English
Source Armaholic.com.