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We had a lenghty interview with PinFX and Subspark, both key project members of Neoshock, a Half-Life 2 modification. We asked them several questions about the game and the people behind it. Enjoy!
PinFX, Project Lead
Why did you choose Half-Life 2 / Source as the engine for your mod?
Its very anticipated, its predecessor having played host to what are in my opinion the best mods of all time. The game isn't even out yet and it already has a huge following, that means it will be a lot easier to get attention for our project, something that is very important for any mod's survival.
Neoshock combines both diversity and fiction for creating an unique experience. |
Can you tell us a little bit about Neoshock, what are the main objectives?
Neoshock is about a fictional era of struggle set in the future about 60 years. It pits the human race against a mysterious alien force and a malevolent artificial intelligence. Players will be able to play on any of these three sides, and generally the objective will be the elimination of the other teams. Although we will be giving mappers a lot of freedom in creating unique objectives that are specific to certain scenarios. What you should know is that Neoshock is not a continuous or ongoing battle like in most Half-Life mods, games will be started with all players present and the assumption is that they will all stay in the game until its over. Our plan is for each game to last anywhere from 5 minutes to half an hour, so even if the objective is only to eliminate the opposing team the flow of the game is less like say Unreal Tournament and more like Counter-Strike or America's Army.
How will you combine FPS with RTS elements, and how will you incorporate this into game play?
Actually its a little different than that. What we are really doing is creating a RTS experience from a first person perspective. Automatically that means incorporating a lot of the features people are used to seeing in FPS games, but more than anything else it means the traditional RTS style people are used to is being changed dramatically. Creating a game that is tactical or strategic is easy when you can simplify things down a lot, but when you do it from a first person perspective you have to deal with a complex 3D environment and a much higher level of detail in everything. For instance, the traditional damage models in RTS games are simple attack power and defense power calculations for each unit, but in the FPS genre a much higher level of detail is expected when it comes to damage models. So thats how we plan to incorporate both genres into the game, exactly how we do it I don't think there's enough room here to explain. :)
Can you tell us about the three different races in Neoshock, and how will game play differ on each side?
The key feature to our game is the huge difference between races. On the human team, each player controls one soldier and must work together with a team of others to defeat the enemy. The playstyle for this team is a lot like the FPS games people are used to. On the alien team the player controls an overlord, which can spawn soldiers and control evolutions, what the player does is control soldiers and evolutions to continuously surprise the enemy and defeat them with cunning. The players on the final team, the AI, control individual robots that are assigned orders by an in-game AI, and each player completes the objective assigned using twitch skills and on-the-fly thinking. Overall, you could say that the most important skills required by each race are teamwork, strategy, and twitch respectively. Once balanced correctly, it will be interesting to see the best of each type of player clash against each other, something that I don't think has ever been done before.
What kind of vehicles will Neoshock include? How far will you take these and how will the player control them?
Only the humans will have vehicles available to them. We plan to make full use of all the options that the Source engine makes available to us when it comes to vehicles, so there will definitely be ground and air vehicles of the type you've seen on HL2 videos. Beyond that, we already have plans for a nice lineup of mechanized infantry, exo-suits, and transforming vehicles. How far we decide to take these ideas will be a production decision in the end, but at the least there will be some substantial level of customization available for vehicles including different armor types and weapon loadouts.
High-end equipment allows UNAC soldiers to survive in combat. |
Can you tell us a little bit more about the Human tactical HUD?
The tactical HUD is really all about helping the human players work together as a team. It allows the squad leader to assign orders using either line-of-sight or a holographic 3D map. Once orders are assigned each soldier on the team will be provided with visual indicators that will (hopefully) help them work together and execute tactics on the fly without too much confusion.
Are Humans very dependant on each other or will there be room for solo play?
Well from what I've said so far, teamwork is obviously stressed a lot and will be key to survival. However, for each player there will be an array of movements available that allow him to jump, dive, roll, lean, and sneak around with a lot of freedom. I call this 'realistic motion' and I think its the next step in FPS evolution. Anyways, in the end it is a FPS game so individual skill will be a huge factor, but to not abuse all the direct bonuses we'll be awarding for teamwork would be foolish. | |
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