Desert Combat Interview

Battlefield 1942 is a helluva great multiplayer game. It?s breathed a much-needed breath of fresh air into the stagnating multiplayer FPS genre, with its innovative mix of vehicles, class-based infantry and vast open maps. In our not so humble opinion, the BF1942 mod Desert Combat is even better, melding all that rocks about BF1942 with the undeniable coolness of modern military technology. Hell, any game that includes a flyable AC-130 Spectre gets the thumbs up from us. We managed to drag Frank DeLise away from designing cool new stuff to blow up for a few quick questions.

Desert Combat Interview

Battlefield 1942 is a helluva great multiplayer game. It’s breathed a much-needed breath of fresh air into the stagnating multiplayer FPS genre, with its innovative mix of vehicles, class-based infantry and vast open maps. In our not so humble opinion, the BF1942 mod Desert Combat is even better, melding all that rocks about BF1942 with the undeniable coolness of modern military technology. Hell, any game that includes a flyable AC-130 Spectre gets the thumbs up from us. We managed to drag Frank DeLise away from designing cool new stuff to blow up for a few quick questions.

Atomic: The timing of this release has been amazing, coinciding when interest in the subject matter is at an all time high. Did you plan this or was it just a coincidence?
Frank: It was pretty much coincidence that Desert Combat and the war coincided. I always wanted to play a modern military game with arcade action, but there was never a good engine to do it. When Battlefield 1942 came out, I knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to create that game. I always wanted to do a Desert Storm version of a game and when I started in October, the war was far from a reality. It was first called Desert Storm, then Desert Strike, and finally Desert Combat, leaving us room for future battles.

Atomic: How long has it taken to get the mod to the stage it's at now, and do you have any estimates on when you'll release the beta and then the final release?
Frank: The mod started in October 2002, we estimate version .4 in May, .5 (beta) in June and final release in the fall.

Atomic: Does anyone on the DC team have previous game development experience? I believe you have a history at Discreet -- is this where you learnt your craft?
Frank: Yes, some of the team members have previous game development experience, such as Fred (Crystal Dynamics, Jay -- Mythic), and many of them have previous mod experience. My previous experience extends over 12 years from commercials, games and even films such as Lost in Space and X-Men (www.frankdelise.com). For the past seven years I have also managed and designed 3dsmax from discreet. Now I work at RTzen.com designing game tools for the future.

Atomic: Do you recommend developing a mod to get a foot in the door to the game development industry? We've heard that several publishers have approached you -- can you comment on this at all?
Frank: Creating a mod is a great way to get your name out there and get a feeling for the game development process. It can teach you the right ways to optimise your models, new ways to skin and animate as well as learn from others. Desert Combat has been approached by various publishers for Desert Combat’s future, as well as new projects. I can't comment on any of that right now.

Atomic: How do you feel about EA's reluctance to release tools for modding BF1942, such as a map editor? Has EA assisted you at all? Is it difficult to implement new features such as guided missiles and the like with the current user-built tools that you have?
Frank: EA has been very helpful with us, they have answered questions that we have asked and I know they are working hard at making BF1942 easier to modify. I think future BF releases will allow us to do what we want in order to provide effects such as homing missiles. It is already possible to do it with today’s version, but there needs to be way to optimise it further with programming additions through mod.dll.

Atomic: Some people feel that your mod glorifies war. To others it reinforces how easy it is for the modern soldier to get killed on the battlefield. What are your thoughts on this?
Frank: We feel it is a good way to realise how bad war can be and how easily our soldiers can get killed. We hope future wars can be fought online and less on an actual battlefield.

Atomic: What is the biggest hurdle you've faced when creating DC?
Frank: The biggest hurdle in DC was the learning curve of the scripting and tools. Since there was no documentation when we started and no mods to learn from, we had to learn a lot on our own. Now it is pretty easy for us to add vehicles and weapons, and we also have more time to innovate.

Atomic Which is harder -- developing cool new content, or balancing all the new stuff? It appears you have nailed the first but are still working on the second.
Frank: Balancing is pretty difficult but most of that is due to the fact that not everything is done yet. So we sometime have to change strength of weapons from build to build to accommodate new vehicles and strategies.

Atomic: If there is one lesson you've learnt from creating DC, and would like to pass on to fellow mod makers, what is it?
Frank: One thing that I have made clear from the beginning, and have kept the whole way through, is professionalism. Never bash a fellow mod, be kind on the forums and don't be immature. Many modders have really ruined it for themselves by not keeping their cool and bashing other mods.

Atomic: What attracted you to BF1942 as the game for your mod?
Frank: To be honest, there really is no other engine out there right now that allows you to do this stuff as easily. There are some upcoming ones, but right now BF is the easiest. The scripting, the quality, the ease and the resources. We really have to thank Rex and Mosely for making the tools to make this a reality.

Atomic: What good stuff can we look forward to in DC?
Frank: Right now I am working on DC .35, mostly bug fixes and a new map. However the weapon system in .35 is great, it has different accuracy for lying down, standing, running, etc. New maps such as Lost Village and Chemical planet are superb. In .4 you will see some great new additions such as landing craft, F-117 bombers, BMP-2 light tanks, BRDM-2 Spandrel, Cruise missiles and even some new Iraqi fighters.

Atomic: How much more detailed are your models than those found in BF1942? Judging by the slightly lower frame rates, they appear a little more demanding on system resources.
Frank: Currently our models are about 500 -- 1,000 polygons more then BF in some cases, however as we go forward, we optimise the models as needed. DC will also increase in speed as we become a full conversion, slowly we are removing all dependencies on BF1942. Right now we have to load BF1942 and DC, in DC .5, we will only be loading DC, which should help as well.

Atomic: DC appears to revolve around US vs. Russian military hardware. Was the Iraq/US scenario a convenient way to include this technology?
Frank: It really wasn't about the Russian vs. US equipment, it was more about modern day Iraq and US; as we do other conflicts we will introduce other types of equipment. It just so happens most of the equipment in the Middle East is Russian, but as other nations come into play, you will see more diversity.

Atomic: How many people are working on the DC team, both full time and part time?
Frank: Well everyone is basically part time, as everyone has day jobs since DC isn't paying anybody yet :). We have about 16 people working on the mod daily. So our progress is steady.

Atomic wish you all the best with DC. Judging by the quality of the 0.3n alpha, you guys are headed straight to the top.