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by Fionn Kelly
Interview with Jack Mamais
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Heavy Gear II is the follow-on to the mecha game Heavy Gear. It places a strong emphasis on multi-player action, tactically-useful terrain, and giving the player the widest possible variety of weapons and chassis for customisation. Even from a perfunctory look at the game's Gear database and weapons systems, it is evident that a vast variety of configurations is possible which should add immensely to the multi-player experience. As an added bonus, it uses the innovative Dark Side engine which, while excluding non-hardware-accelerated gamers, ensures that the graphics are lush and the details plentiful. From what I have seen so far, the game uses the Heavy Gear universe developed by Pod 9 to good effect to immerse the player in a new type of robot action game. Rooted more in the tactical complexities of infantry combat and terrain usage and less in the "torso-twist and circle in the plains" type of gameplay, Heavy Gear II promises to bring a new depth to its genre. In this interview Jack Mamais, director of Heavy Gear II development, took some time out from his busy schedule to answer many of my questions and fill in some grey areas. Enjoy.
Could you please tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you came to be involved with Heavy Gear II?
I was employed as a video producer in Savannah Georgia when I decided that I wanted to work on games... As a result, I moved out here (Los Angeles) and managed to get a job as lead tester on Mechwarrior 2. Activision promoted me to Associate Producer and I got the chance to direct Ghost Bear's Legacy (which I jumped at)...After the success of that product, I was given Mercenaries.
After completing Mercs, Activison was in the process of securing the HG2 license and they selected me to direct the sequel...That is my story!
For those of our readers who are unfamiliar with the Heavy Gear universe and the previous Heavy Gear game could you fill them in on the backdrop against which Heavy Gear II is played out? (I'll include links to the HG2 Activision site and the Dream Pod 9 site at this stage or at the end of the article so readers can do their own research into the game after reading the interview).
Heavy Gear II takes place about 20 years after Heavy Gear 1. The interpolar war is raging on when a dramatic event (I won't spoil it here) happened which indicated that Earth (Terra Novas nemesis) was poised to strike again. The leaders of TN come together and decide to send an elite Gear Strike Force through the Tannhauser Gate to Caprice in order to fully discover Earth's intentions...You are the leader of this team...
Who are your foes in Heavy Gear II?
Your foes are the Earth Forces. On Terra Nova they are known as the CEF...on Caprice they are known as the NEC....
How would you describe Heavy Gear II to someone who has never heard of the Heavy Gear universe or played the original game?
I would describe HG2 as a Japanese Anime come to life..You get to sit in the chest of a huge robot and blow up things...!
Could you describe exactly what a Gear is and how it differs from a Mech? What do these differences add to the gameplay?
Gears are 4-5 meter tall robots which require a pilot to work. They are smaller than Mechs and much less expensive to construct... As a result of this, you will generally see more of them on the battlefield. They are also much more agile than Mechs and must rely on cover and tactics to avoid being destroyed...This means pilots must be more skilled in order to survive...
What sets Heavy Gear II apart from the Mechwarrior-style game?
In Mechwarrior, you are a walking battleship...you can survive alone on the battlefield. In HG2, you must often rely on your squadmates and your intelligence officer to succesfully complete missions. You must move quicker, think faster and shoot better than your enemy to survive.
What would you say to those who fear this will be just another first-person shooter without any tactics, strategy or realism?
You cannot win Heavy Gear II without using tactics. This includes everything from properly modifying your Gear to commanding your squadmates in battle. If you try to play this simulator using Shooter tactics, you will end up as a very small part of a very large pile of smoking rubble. Heavy Gear II includes a tactical map which gives you a bird's eye view of the battlefield. Good commanders will use this map to deploy squadmates and make decisions that will have a big part to play in whether or not you are victorious in battle.
How different is Heavy Gear II from the original Heavy Gear? It would seem from many of your comments that the name and, in part, the setting are about the only things they have in common.
Heavy Gear 1 was our first step into this Universe so it took advantage of existing technology (the Mech engine). I was blessed with a very good lead programmer, Jean Marc Morel, who offered to build a new engine for Heavy Gear II. As a result of this, we were able to design the game from the ground up that really took advantage of everything the HG Universe had to offer. We were able to create a faster paced game which we felt was closer to the original spirit of the game. We also decided that to make HG2 as exciting as possible, we would introduce an enemy that was technologically superior to anything the North or South had to offer. These two elements alone makes HG2 vastly different to the original Heavy Gear...
Tell us more about the Dark Side proprietary engine on which Heavy Gear II is based. What are its capabilities and how has it allowed you to expand the game beyond the scope of the original Heavy Gear?
The Dark Side is a hardware only engine developed by the Heavy Gear II team. It was a hard decision to give up software but as all you card owners know... SOFTWARE IS DEAD! This goes especially for simulators...Activision makes it a point to know its target audience and one fact kept popping up...The people that play these types of games usually have killer hardware...So, we decided that instead of designing two games (hard and soft) we would
concentrate on making the best hardware game we could. This gives us the ability to have more units on the field, much more dense terrains and more complicated AI...All of these elements would not have been possible if we would have tried to build software/hardware game.
How visible will its advantages over the engine used in Heavy Gear I be?
Just compare our demo to HG1 and decide for yourself...
It seems that Gears will actually exhibit physical damage in the appropriate location. How will this damage be represented exactly. How many damage zones are there?
We are using the Dream Pod 9 damage system for Heavy Gear II...It does a very good job at simulating the realities of battle...You have an armor threshold which protects the Gear. When that threshold is reached, your internals begin to take damage. This means sensors, HUD elements, weapons, servos, and every other critical system on your Gear. Where you shoot the Gear also determines how much damage you do to this threshold. For instance, if you shoot an enemy in the head, you will do much more damage than shooting him in the foot...For more details, I would suggest you pick up the fantastic books from Dream Pod 9 that details their damage system.. I would recommend the main rule book, A NEW ERA HAS JUST BEGUN for starters...
For visual cues, Gears, when damaged, will smoke and emit sparks...Damage maps will show up on Gears as they get damaged so very clean looking Gears end up looking really beat up by the end of a mission..
How many missions will ship with the game?
We will ship the game with 23 single player missions. We are also including several historical missions that the player can enjoy...We have an additional 40+multiplayer missions that include everything from Capture the Flag to Strategic missions (destroy your enemies base)... What can you tell me about the historical missions? Are they based on missions in Heavy Gear I, or are they based on the events recounted in the accompanying books and RPG game? The historical missions were originally supposed to be co-operative...We had to cut this feature because with 5 players it was impossible to put enough enemies to make them challenging. As a result, we moved the historical missions to our single player section. Players will be able to participate in several missions from the books as well as a few totally original missions. If all goes as planned, we will release the tool to players after the game is shipped and potential designers will be able to build their own missions and play them using our historical section... Can you give our readers a brief run-through of one of the early missions? What have you done to innovate and take us away from the "Visit the navpoint and destroy everything there" philosophy of mission design so prevalent among your competitors? (Perhaps an example from the first mission would suffice?)
Well, I will not use the first mission as an example because that is a visit the nav points and destroy everything...We wanted to make sure people got into the game as easy as possible. I will use the forth mission as an example of our new design philosophy...In this mission, you are supposed to follow a convoy back from an engagement in order to locate and destroy their headquarters. You can play this mission in two ways... First, if you use stealth to follow the convoy, you can sneak into the base and complete your objective without much defense...you essentially catch the enemy with their pants down...If you decide to use a full frontal assault and just destroy everything, you will engage many more enemies and they will be waiting for you...This encourages players to use stealth to complete the missions which is vastly different than any Giant Robot game ever made... What kinds of terrain will the player encounter and how will the different terrain effects be modelled? Players will encounter many different types of terrains...Unlike many of our competitors, every mission will not take place in a desert, or plains or flatlands or whatever they want to call a flat area with a few objects. Our terrains include forests, caverns, space, massive cities, swamps, canyons and more. I can safely say we will have some of the most dense environments that have ever been seen in an exterior game...
From even a quick glance at the screenshots released from the game it is obvious that Heavy Gear II features rolling terrain, dips, individual trees and rocks. How do you feel this increases the role of infantry-like tactics as opposed to games like Mechwarrior which feature larger robots and flatter terrain? As most soldiers know, cover is your best friend. If your enemy can't see you, he can't hit you. This means players will have to use cover to survive the missions. What is the maximum sighting distance in the game? Our game begins to fog out at 300 meters. We felt that after 300 meters, all you see is a little dot so we fogged after that... I've come across screenshots showing broken tree trunks, craters, damaged buildings and accounts of players splitting trees apart with concentrated fire. So, tell me exactly how deformable is the terrain? Our terrain is not deformable...you can't destroy the trees...You can destroy buildings and things like bridges... Will the player be able to move felled trees, rocks etc to form defensive positions or clear fields of fire? Sadly, no... The optimizations we used to make these dense terrains precludes the destruction and moving of terrain items... How do you expect the open environment to open up new tactical possibilities for players?
Our dense landscapes will enable a number of cool gameplay elements… Like you mentioned, you can hide in water (if you have the submersible perk), you can lay down on buildings even hide inside buildings... Players will be able to use the terrain in ways that even we haven't discovered...No more circle of death on the plains! Will we be able to enter buildings, bunkers, mazes etc and fight inside them? How will these confined environments call upon different player skills? You will be able to enter buildings that are big enough (you are in a Gear )...We have one mission that is a huge city (like Blade Runner) where players will have to fight on a very narrow passageway against a variety of enemies including VTOLS and other nasties...They will have to move very quickly and be very accurate to survive these types of missions... Will the game ship with a scenario editor to allow players to create their own missions and maps? If not, is there a possibility of an editor being released for free at a later date? If all goes well (no promises) we will release our tool on our web page after shipping the game. (and after our vacations of course!) Players will be able to create maps and even script single player missions if they are so inclined... What campaigns will ship with the game? There is really one campaign in the game. The player leads an elite strike force of Gears in an attempt to prevent Earth Forces from conquering Terra Nova... Will there be an evolving storyline to draw the players in? How will you present this storyline? There is an incredible evolving original storyline we created with help from the fine people at Dream Pod 9... We will present this storyline using briefings, in-game cinematics, hi-res cinematics and the actual missions themselves... How will the player's units and comrades develop throughout the course of a campaign? You are in a Cadre of the best Gear pilots on Terra Nova...They are already at maximum strength so they won't develop any more during the story. They can become killed or injured so you must use care when commanding your squadmates... Will the player receive reinforcements during the course of a campaign? A few pilots will volunteer for duty in the Black Talons...You will have the choice whether or not to utilize them... What kind of emphasis has been placed on multi-player gaming during the development of Heavy Gear II? We built HG2 as a multiplayer game first so the maximum emphasis has been placed on this element. What variety of multi-player missions will the on-line player be able to play? There are four types of multiplayer play: Deathmatch-you know what this is...We are allowing hosts to control Gear types, threat value and many other options to keep this fresh... Duelist-Gladitorial style Gear Combat with host options. Capture the Flag-the old standard with Gears! Steal the Beacon...a beacon is on the battlefield and the player that picks it up and keeps it the longest wins...kind of like a roving king of the hill.. Strategic- Two teams of players face each other and they both have bases. These bases will help the player by providing rearming, repairing, and other benefits. You win by destroying your enemies base and all their units...(This is my favourite!)
How many people can play on-line at any one time? Up to 10 players may participate in multiplayer play. How has using the Dark Side engine (necessitating a 3D card) helped you free resources for the AI? Since hardware cards are being used, we have much more CPU bandwidth for AI...This is allowing us to introduce different tactics for enemies...Everybody you face won't automatically start charging you when you encounter it and they have much better tactics for battle... Every company makes extravagant claims for its new AI being "the best in the business." What concrete steps have you undertaken to create a truly effective AI? We hired a kick-ass AI programmer by the name of Clancy Imislund. NUFF SAID.. I have heard that AI units will have to spot the player visually or electronically. Is this to say that the AI will not automatically know where the player is at all times unless the player is actually spotted? Stealth is a very important part of Heavy Gear II.. The player will have to carefully use their radar to see the enemies before they see him. This will mean using active radar very selectively... AI will react to the player once he has been picked up on radar or they visually sight him...This means AI does not always know where the player is so they have a better opportunity to do things like sneak past guards, plan diversions, etc... Will the opposing units act according to a military SOP (mounting patrols, ambushes etc.) or will they all function in isolation in response to set triggers?
AI will respond the way the designers desire. You will see a variety of actions from enemies and friendlies.....Some will respond to set triggers, some will not...it depends on the mission and what the designers had in mind for the players... Great emphasis has been placed on the need for the human player to use his squad-mates to be truly effective. How advanced is the AI’s usage of squads? Does the computer understand the need to exploit flanks and employ varying tactics based on the human player’s own tactics? The AI is very advanced when it comes to Squads. Our greatest challenge was to make them useful without becoming too useful...Then it's no fun for the player. The AI is very obedient to the user and they will do what they are told, from flanking the enemy to direct assaults. If the user lets the AI go independent, they will seek out the nearest enemy and destroy it to the best of their ability. I was always dissapointed with the Mechwarriors series when my long-range snipers (armed with multiple long-range missile racks but only a couple of medium lasers) would insist on charging into close quarter fights with the enemy. The AI inability to weigh tactics in response to the mechs’ weapon loadouts was my main complaint about an otherwise excellent game. How does the AI in Heavy Gear II avoid this syndrome? The AI will use whatever weapons they have the best way they can. If they are at long range, they will use missiles...Short range they will use missiles and projectile weapons. When they run out of ammo, they will go hand to hand... How many Gears and variants will be player-controllable in the final game? Why are there so many variants and can you give us a list of the possible specialisations? (e.g. scout, spy, space-combat, missile boat (support) etc). In the single player game, the user can choose between 6 super high tech Gears...They are the Dark series of Gears and are actually refits of classics like Cheetahs, Kodiaks, etc...They have better armor and are overall better Gears than anything else...they will not be available for multiplayer play. There are 60 chassis because that is the number of Gears we felt represented the Universe the best...Our Gear lab offers unlimited configuration so players can build any type of specialization they want...
What vehicles are piloted by the Earth Forces? How do they rate in comparison to the Terra Novan Gears you and your crack team pilot? Earth forces pilot hovertanks, VTOLs and Frames. Frames are walker units built using stolen Gear specs.. They are much more advanced than Gears and will give players quite a run for their money. For more info on these guys, please refer to Dream Pod 9s web page... So, players will have to utilise team tactics to take them down. Given your experience with the game how would you try to combat a Frame if it cornered you and your comrades in a dead-end valley? First, I would never be cornered. If I was, however, I would use my support Gears to keep it busy while I hammer it with my trusty snub cannon...
How many different weapons will be modelled in the game? How have you ensured that these weapons are properly game-balanced? We have other 80 weapon systems in the game. We are balancing the weapons using an elite test team called the Shadow Guard...They are getting regular builds of our beta and they are commenting on all the weapons, Gears, etc. (Most of them are heavily into the paper-based game so you can bet we're trying to be as loyal as possible to the Universe)
Will you be modelling the different ammunition types for the various weapons?
The answer to that one is no... (From what I have seen of the game, all ammunition would be of the armour-piercing type since virtually all viable targets are hardened.) In the Heavy Gear universe, Gear design is a very important and immersive component. Will Heavy Gear II feature a Gear design function? Could you go into detail as to how Gear design will function? Our Gear Lab will enable the user to change weapons, attributes (armor, speed, sensors, fire control) and modifications(jump jets, zero G, sniper systems, stealth systems, etc.) One of our beta testers called it Legos for adults... (I personally have counted well over 60 basic gear chassis and variants and close on 100 different weapons systems which one can mix and match to fulfil almost any role imagineable. Will players be able to swap Gear designs over the Internet? You will be able to swap Gear designs with your friends...they are written out to a file that is easily copied from one machine to the next. Will players be able to create custom skins for their Gears? You may be able to go in and modify our Gear textures when we release the tool but they will only appear on that users machine (unless he copies the textures onto his friends machine)..In multiplayers we offer three camo patterns...Green, Tan and Grey which will work in almost every situation... One side-effect of the wide variety of Gears, weapons and possible customizations is to accomodate many different playing styles in both the single-player game and the multi-player game. Have you consciously planned for this? The best thing about Gears is their variety...If you want to play a quick stealthy Gear you take a Cheetah...If you want a more Mech-like experience, you take a Kodiak and destroy all you see! What control interfaces are supported? Will HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) be supported or are we looking at a more traditional joystick, keyboard and mouse system? We are supporting most of the major sticks and controllers...Players can use keyboard, joystick or mouse in many combinations...We are even allowing players to use two joysticks if they choose (This in new!) What are the expected system requirements? We expect requirements to be 166 w. 32 megs of ram and a hardware card that supports Z buffering...I recommend a P2 with 64 megs or Ram and a TNT... I know a major online gaming tournament using the demo has just started. This would suggest you are very close to shipping. Do you have a firm date set yet? We will ship no game before its time (thanks Mr. Welles) It will be soon though... Thank you very much for taking the time to answer all my questions. I know how busy you must be at this crunch time. Now get back to work before the fans start berating you for spending time on this interview and not the game ;-). Thank you very much for the questions...It was a pleasure to answer them...I better go back to work now so we can release this puppy! Jack Mamais
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