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Rainbow Six Retreat
Raven Shield Dev Team Interview:: |
2003 April 5
It's hard to believe that the last major installment of the
Rainbow Six series
came out almost four years ago (Rogue Spear in 1999). Although Rainbow Six fans have
had three great expansion packs since then, the announcement
of Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield last March 2002 was met with much rejoicing.
Raven Shield hit store shelves on March 18, 2003, and
has been received with much critical acclaim for continuing the R6 tradition of
gritty realism and intense close-quarters combat.
Ubi Soft granted us an opportunity to send in interview
questions to the Raven Shield development team shortly after the game went gold
in mid-February. Thanks to the team from Ubi Soft Montreal for generously taking the time to answer our questions!
GAME DEVELOPMENT
R6 Retreat: Although Ubi Soft Montreal was
responsible for developing Raven Shield, we still see Red Storm's logo appear prominently on the box.
How was the staff at Red Storm involved in the game's development?
RvS Dev Team: Since Red Storm is the original creator of the series,
the knowledge and experience of the staff on these titles was quite important to us. We would often get
constructive feedback from them on the evolution of the project. However, all decisions from early design
directions to conception and production were made by the Montreal team. Some of the Red Storm staff also
participated in creating the cinematics of the game (intro, outro and cut-scenes), and did some play-testing
of the game.
How big was the team working on
Raven Shield?
At the start of the project, there was about eight
of us. As the project advanced, the team got up to fifty members during production.
Raven Shield's release date
was originally slated for the fall of 2002, but eventually was pushed back to March 2003. What aspects of the game
still needed work? How did this extra time help improve the final product?
Basically, it gave the team some time to polish the game, add a few extra elements in it, optimize the net code,
clear some bugs, and so on. We hated to make the fans of the series wait a few more months, but we strongly
believe this was the right decision in order to offer a better game. We especially, didn’t want to rush out
this title. I think the players are just getting a better game now because of those extra months!
How did the early release of the Raven Shield
multiplayer demo help in the game's development?
With the multiplayer demo out, we were able to gather
a lot of information from the community about the game and in some cases, apply changes to better satisfy
the players. Their feedback was very positive and constructive for the most part. For example, the frag grenade
radius was boosted a little after receiving a lot of feedback on it from the demo players. Same for some elements
regarding speed and multiplayer options.
How did fan feedback play a role in
making design choices for the game?
During the development of the game, we were
listening to the community, following polls and such. It gave us a good direction for some of the design
elements. Also, when the multiplayer demo came out, it really exposed the game to the fans of the series.
Again, we were looking at the different forums to see the players’ reactions. We also had an e-mail address
for players to use to give us their feedback, comments, and in some cases, bugs.
What are some of your favorite
features of the game?
I think the first-person weapons view is a
great new addition to the series. By introducing this feature, we had to model all 57 weapons in the game
along with all available items, which was quite a load of work. The reticule system has also evolved
considering we can see FP models in the screen by adding a recoil system, different for each weapon.
It brings a lot of realism to the game!
Another great feature is the way team orders are now given. By using a quick-order interface, the player
will get to give orders to his controlling team from opening a door to clearing a room or to grenade an area!
We couldn’t be talking about great features without mentioning the game’s AI. We wanted to make the AI-controlled
team mates react as if it was another player, while making terrorists a lot more unpredictable and threatening.
Sounds and special effects are also unbelievable. Our in-house sound engine allowed our sound designer to
integrate some of the best sounds you have ever heard in a video game … it is quite impressive!
Several other features like the fluid door opening and the fluid peek and crouch are great additions to
the tactical gameplay of Rainbow Six 3. Not to mention the new planning interface which is much easier to use.
As for other new things, the Heartbeat Sensor has been reshaped quite a bit and is now used in the 3D view …
same for the waypoints of your planning so no more 2D window :-)
In all, we feel this game has a lot to offer players. We definitely had a blast making it and playing it.
It is different from other first-person shooters because of its tactical team-based gameplay and this is
well reflected in both the multiplayer and single player aspects of the game.
What are some features that you wanted to
incorporate, but couldn't because of time or resource constraints?
Unreal is a powerful engine that permitted us
to do everything we planned and some not so planned things during production. Of course, some elements
always have to be left out because of the constraints of minimum PC requirements and such. So basically,
you have to make decisions based on the time you have to complete the game and how far you’re able go.
In our case, we feel we included most of what we needed to have in the game based on the constraints stated above.
GAMEPLAY
Some have said that Raven Shield has the chance
to become "the next Counter-Strike." Would you agree or disagree with this statement?
It depends on what your vision of Counter-Strike really is.
Basically, if you mean that Raven Shield will offer a new generation of multiplayer action, you could be
very well right. We always had a strong community following the evolution on the series and we’re
quite sure Raven Shield will draw even more players who either play Counter-Strike or other great first-person
shooters.
If you mean that we’ll get as much traffic has Counter Strike, I would be crazy not to hope so!
But the bottom line is we’ll offer great support for the community. The game pretty much speaks for itself
because it offers a different experience in terms of multiplayer games, but it also has all the elements
behind it to make it great!
What gameplay tweaks were implemented in
Raven Shield that may make the game more accessible/attractive to people who like Counter-Strike,
but not the older Rainbow Six titles?
Some elements like the first-person weapon models,
great graphics powered by the Unreal engine, and gameplay additions might appeal to players who didn’t
like the previous titles in this series. The game still requires a solid learning curve but elements
like the planning phase (which is more user-friendly), the quick-play feature (to skip briefing menus),
and once in-game, the circumstantial actions icons and the quick-order interface, will help the game be
more accessible.
Ultimately, the game remains a realistic and tactical team-based shooter, but
we offer more options to let the players choose how they will play the game, and I believe this can be very
appealing to them.
With 57 weapons in the game, how did you decide
which ones were to be included? How did you approach the weapons balancing to avoid "uber-weapons"?
All weapons in the game are based on actual models.
The designers worked hard to develop real-life specifications for each weapon
(stats, recoil, damage, accuracy, etc.). With these specifications, the weapons were balanced to offer
strengths and weaknesses depending on the situation they are used in. So there are no "ultimate"
weapons in Raven Shield.
Most of the gadgets, such as sound suppressors, charges, and grenades,
are also used by special forces around the world. Great research was done on these gadgets to bring
the best possible experience. Just ask a few guys on the team how the tear gas grenade felt like … :-)
GAME STORY
With the threat of terrorism thrust into the forefront
of news headlines after 9/11, how did this influence the storyline in the game? What considerations were
taken into account making this game around such a sensitive topic?
Nothing was actually changed during production.
It was more a matter of creating a storyline that wouldn’t come into conflict with these events.
The game is about fighting terrorism and that is nothing new. However, we didn’t want to create
any parallel regarding 9/11.
With Raven Shield being developed outside the U.S.,
and more specifically, in the French-speaking part of Canada, do you think this had any effect on the game's story
and content? (E.g. Choice of weapons, choice of international locations, etc.)
I don’t think it had such a huge influence on
game content (except perhaps for a multiplayer map based in a location north of Montreal).
We worked on the story with Red Storm's Richard Dansky, who has done previous work on the Ghost Recon series,
and so locations were pretty much determined based on the direction of the storyline.
The choice of weapons was
also based on specifics from SWAT team members, what they used around the world, etc. It would have been
great to have a few more elements based on our country, but then again, it wasn’t our main goal in the first place.
The roster of Team Rainbow members in
Raven Shield (which takes place in 2005) hasn't changed since Rogue Spear (which takes place in 2001).
Why were there no new characters added? Would you like to see
new operatives from different countries in the future?
Well, creating more operatives was indeed something
that could have been done … and probably something that will be done in the future. But ultimately, we felt
there were currently enough operatives for the player to choose from. We especially didn’t want to take
away any of the current operatives, even if the events are taking place four years after Rogue Spear.
One thing we learned about making Rainbow Six 3 is that hardcore fans are really fond of some of these elements.
Also, offering too many operatives can give us the opposite reaction. Players will not care if they
get their operatives killed in a mission because you always get extra skilled operatives. Right now, if a
player gets an operative killed, a back-up operative will take his/her place. However, these back-ups are not as
skilled as the other Rainbow members, and therefore could affect the outcome of missions during more
difficult and specific situations. So not adding any new characters reinforces the use of the available ones.
GAME TECHNOLOGY
What major modifications did you make to the
Unreal engine? What proportion of the final R6:3 engine is your own code versus the original Unreal code?
We almost consider this engine as our engine now :-)
We modified it heavily on many points. We added stuff to the renderer tools and implemented the
very specific AI needed in a game like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3. For the sound, we plugged in an internal
sound engine. I really think that we modified at least 70% of the code.
What software and hardware was used in
creating the game?
For development purposes, we used Microsoft
Visual C++ 6.0. Modelers were using 3D Studio Max, while for textures, Adobe Photoshop was mostly
the tool used for the job. Our code and data were stored on Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.
Oh, I was about to forget our game designers used Microsoft Word to write their documents :-)
We got great support from external companies. I have to give a special mention to ATI
and Creative Labs for their great contribution to the project.
What support is planned to combat multiplayer cheats
that will inevitably crop up and disrupt online play?
As all developers know, this is an
endless battle. Ubi Soft will do whatever is possible to prevent cheating. There are some
mechanisms that will be implemented to easily add anti-cheat features both on the client and server.
We will have to consider hacks one by one to find a way to detect and neutralize them, the same way they
will try to bypass our protections. Future patch releases will also contain elements to prevent cheats.
With regards to creating mods, besides UnrealEd,
what other tools and documentation will you provide for mod makers?
With the released version, people will be able to
create their own maps. We plan to have different releases/upgrades to improve modding ability.
Our goal is to provide the community the tools needed to create other game modes, weapons and characters
based on the Raven Shield environment.
Finally, what's the status of the console versions of
R6:3? When Raven Shield was first announced, there was some mention of an Xbox version.
Nothing has been decided yet for the console versions of
Rainbow Six 3. It is still being studied so there’s not much I can say about it :-)
A big thanks once again to the Raven Shield Dev Team for answering our questions!
A special thanks also goes out to Kurtis "Geiger" Buckmaster, Director of Community Development at Ubi Soft,
for facilitating this interview.
Also remember to check out our Interview Archive
to see more of our series of exclusive in-depth interviews with the developers of previous Rainbow Six titles.
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