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Insurgency Mod Preview
Full article (polls, links, images, and text) @ http://www.hlfallout.net/articles.php/article_7/
by Shadowfax
Wednesday July 14th, 2004
After spending his summer at basic training for the Canadian army, Argyll, the project leader, lead-designer, web-manager and producer of Insurgency (formerly known as Op: Co-In), was inspired to create a realistic online multiplayer game that would focus heavily on teamwork. After his first attempt with creating the game as a modification for Half-Life, Argyll and his team soon had their eyes set on the platform of the sequel, Source. Utilising this powerful new engine and some original game play ideas, up-coming Half-Life 2 modification Insurgency promises to bring a high quality modern warfare experience to the mod scene.
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Insurgency pits conventional forces (like the American or British army) against guerilla factions.
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Taking place in war-torn battlefields around the globe, the structured conventional forces (America and Great Britain) and the unconventional rebels (Paramilitary and Guerrillas) fight for control of objective based maps. With a host of proposed game modes and level environments to choose from, Insurgency is aiming to set a new standard of realism and team play in online gaming.
While it is the aim of many developers to create a realistic game, the makers of Insurgency plan to take realism to the next level. Making full use of the Source engine, weapons, vehicles and soldiers will be able to react to battlefield events in an accurate manner. Weapons will sway and have accurate recoil and iron sights. Bullets fired will penetrate targets, ricochet off walls and damage the enemy accordingly.
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The Insurgency team is recreating weapons from many different military forces.
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As well as emphasis on aspects that affect the individual player, such as location-dependent damage and shrapnel effects, Insurgency will introduce what Argyll has described as 'team realism'. Fire-teams will not be able to complete their objectives unless they stick together. Commanders will not be able to relay messages to soldiers without radios unless the squad keeps in close proximity with each other. There are a limited number of reinforcements that a commander can use; die too many times and you are out of that round for good.A Different Type of Combat
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Insurgency focuses less on vehicles but that doesn't mean they can't look dang cool.
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Taking a different approach to games such as Battlefield 1942 and America's Army, Insurgency will focus completely on the actions of infantry. Some vehicles, including tanks and helicopters, will be controlled by AI, leaving players to spend the time planning strategies and completing objectives rather than simply getting from place to place.
There are four game modes in the works: Battle, Attack & Defend, Raid and Extraction.
Battle:
Battle is the basic game mode that most players will be familiar with. There are a number of objective points, such as a building or section of land, that need to be controlled. Once a team has captured all the points they must hold them for a certain amount of time until victory. Both teams have a limited number of reinforcement waves depending on the map.
Attack & Defend:
A&D is essentially Battle with one team on offence and the other defending. Depending on the style of play, reinforcement waves are more limited on the defending team due to their tactical advantage. Speed is of the essence for the attackers — the defenders achieve victory if they can hold the objectives for the time limit.
Raid:
In addition to the objectives of A&D, the attackers in Raid also have to get all surviving troops to an extraction point before the time runs out.
Extraction:
A simpler version of Raid, Extraction involves one team getting from the insertion point to the extraction point while the other team does everything they can to prevent this. There are plenty of opportunities for ambushes and surprise attacks in this game mode.
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The vast arsenal will allow for diverse team tactics.
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Perhaps the addition with most potential to give a new gameplay experience is Insurgency's "commander". As a soldier gains experience on the battlefield by eliminating enemies, following commanders' orders and administering First-Aid to his team mates, he is rewarded with points. These points will firstly grant access to more advanced player types (snipers, engineers etc.) and eventually lead to promotions.
Assuming HL2 will be able to support 64 player servers, the basic class system of the 'conventional forces' (America, Britain etc.) is as follows: in charge of the 32 player team is the Platoon Commander. In addition to the functions of the average soldier, the Platoon Commander will have a radio to communicate with Squad and Fire-Team Commanders and an interactive mini-map that he can use to issue orders to squads and call in supporting fire. Under the Platoon Commander are the Squad Commanders who ensure orders are carried out efficiently by his 8-man squad. Finally there are the Fire-Team Commanders who direct the 4 men in their fire-teams and give them updates when their orders change. All commanders have access to a radio and tactical map and thus are in charge of relaying and enforcing orders.
Related Links- Insurgency Mod Website (http://www.insurgencymod.net)
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—Shadowfax, send feedback to nathanator@gmail.com
Written for HL Fallout - http://www.hlfallout.net