Here's the latest interview with Jarek Kolar regarding the release of VC2 and questions related to the game,...this is a post from Eclipse at the Pterodon forums...Here ya go, thanks to GameCloud
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In 2003 and 2004 there was a flood of Vietnam based games released for the PC and consoles. While the amount of Vietnam games has subsided this year developer Pterodon is still working hard on Vietcong 2, the sequel to their 2003 PC based game that spawned console ports, a commercial add-on pack and even a free add-on along with Pterodon's support of third party mods. Gamecloud got a chance to chat with Pterodon's co-founder and lead designer Jarek Kolar about their plans for Vietcong 2 which will be publishers by 2KGames/Take 2.
Gamecloud - First, was Pterodon pleased with the reactions that the first Vietcong game received?
Jarek Kolar - We were very surprised by the reaction of the public. From the first multiplayer demo and the game's subsequent release up to the addition of the add-ons, we received mostly positive reactions from gamers. We had a lot of encouraging emails from casual-gamers - mostly from men in the 30+ age bracket who obviously found Vietcong more interesting than the majority of younger war-gamers that are currently dominating the games market. They really liked our documentary approach and the kind of atmosphere we served-up within the game.
In hindsight, although the majority of the reviews were enthusiastic, a lot of them felt a bit cold to me. I understand that reviewers are always pushed for time, but I wish that a few more of the unique features of the game could have been uncovered. Hopefully there will be a noticeable increase in passion when it comes to reviewing the sequel.
Gamecloud - When the time came to develop the sequel what were the development team's main goals?
Jarek Kolar - When we were about to finish the development of the first Vietcong we already knew a lot of things that we would do better next time. We have collected a lot of information about what people were happy with and what people didn’t like in the original game. This was pretty easy, because the Vietcong forums on the Pterodon web site are incredibly huge and are full of fan posts. We also analyzed the feedback the game had in the press and worked this into the overall postmortem of the game.
The main upshot of all of this research was to lead to our primary goals this time round – ie, to make the single-player game more cinematic and the multiplayer deeper.
Gamecloud - What can you tell us about the storyline for the game and how it relates to the original Vietcong?
Jarek Kolar - The original Vietcong is about a Special Forces team living and working in A-camp on the border with Cambodia. As you probably know, the story ends in January 1968 when the camp is eventually overrun by the NVA, forcing the soldiers to evacuate and destroy the camp with air strikes.
When we were designing Vietcong some five years ago, it was never our intention to have the story end there. We planned another chapter where the wounded Hawkins (the player’s character) found himself in hospital in a Vietnamese town and then experienced the start of the Tet offensive. From a production point of view, this was not possible so we decided to move this part of the story into the sequel. We’ve changed the main character, because we wanted to have new personality – this time you will be Captain Daniel Boone, a military advisor located in MACV headquarters in Hue. To make the story appealing to fans of original game you will encounter Sergeant Hawkins propping up a bar, and during the celebration of Tet in the South Vietnamese townhall you will see Captain Rosenfield, trying to explain to the other officers that the war is not over yet.
Gamecloud - What sort of new locations and missions will be found in Vietcong 2?
Jarek Kolar - Vietcong 2 is about the city of Hue and its surroundings. Contrary to original game, the majority of the action this time will be in urban environments, but you will also visit some jungle locations as well. As such, you’ll find yourself saving hostages in Hue Cathedral, being ambushed by VC snipers on the city streets, piloting a PBR boat on the Perfume River and conquering the Imperial Palace in the Hue Citadel.
In a second campaign, you will play as a Vietcong engineer named Mai Van Minh, you’ll be doing things like carrying supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and ambushing South Vietamese convoys near the Khai Dinh Tomb.
Gamecloud - How will the game's enemy AI be improved for the sequel?
Jarek Kolar - The soldiers’ AI in the original Vietcong was generally very well received and many people commented on how good it was. The only aspect that some people criticized was that the AI was sometimes too hard to beat, and was quite harsh when it came to killing players. So, this time, we are trying to work harder to improve the balance of the game, and allow casual gamers a good gaming experience without unwanted frustration.
Gamecloud - What new weapons and items will be put into Vietcong 2?
Jarek Kolar - With the implementation of drivable vehicles, we needed to introduce some heavy weaponry that would be able to destroy these machines. In addition to the grenade launcher M-79 which was present in the original game, we’re adding an M-72 LAW and RPG-7. Another new addition will be the experimental weapon M-16/XM-148 which was also available to troops in Vietnam in 1968. In total Vietcong 2 offers over 50 weapons and combat items to choose from.
Gamecloud - What new multiplayer features will the sequel have?
Jarek Kolar - The multiplayer mode is probably the most enhanced part of the Vietcong 2. We were surprised how many people loved to play the multiplayer mode in the original game, and we are doing our best to give these people an even better experience this time round.
When designing the game, we really did our best to listen to what everyone, who was playing the original online, had to say. The new design document for the multiplayer was discussed with the core of the Vietcong community via closed forums around spring last year, and from this spring we’ve been doing regular beta tests with the fans in order to ramp the fun factor up to its maximum.
The most important new feature in the multiplayer is the character classes. As you tackle the game on one server, your character will gradually gain experience points for various activities. Once they reach a certain level of experience, they will then progress to the next level. Each level will unlock one character class from up to eight on each side. Our main focus is to make all classes important as far as a team victory is concerned, so people will be encouraged to co-operate in order to win.
Gamecloud - What other new content and improvements will Vietcong 2 contain?
Jarek Kolar - There are many things that are new or improved within Vietcong 2. Let’s just take two notable examples, though… In the single-player mode we’re hoping that gamers will appreciate the fact that we’ve rendered full motion video between the missions. We wanted the development team to fully concentrate on the gameplay so we let an external studio do the rendering for us. I’m personally very happy with the way we’ve managed to seamless integrate a compelling story into the action.
Similarly, over in the multiplayer, we wanted to put more emphasis on the motivation of the players participating in the game. So, instead of using external charts and game ladders, we are building our own from scratch. As playing multiplayer is so popular in Vietcong we want to collect all possible data and let all players to see it on our VC2 statistics web page.
Gamecloud - What graphical improvements will the sequel have?
Jarek Kolar - Our graphical concept is one of open levels with good visibility and a lot of characters in view. As the game speed is the most important aspect of good gameplay, we had to make a few compromises as far as the depth of graphical quality was concerned. Vietcong 2 can’t really be compared with other FPS titles out there where the draw distance is limited to next close room just ahead of your position. That said, we do have DX9 normal and specular maps and, I dare to say, some of the best looking FPS weapons to date. Also, rather than include loads of ‘postproduction’ effects, we have steered the hardware power towards more detailed models and higher resolution textures.
Gamecloud - How mod friendly will the new game be?
Jarek Kolar - The original Vietcong brought us a wide foundation of people who were eager to invest their time and talent to create new content for the game. Vietcong modders have created over 1000 multiplayer maps so far. But there were some limitations that we are trying overcome via the Vietcong 2 mod support we’ll be employing.
The retail game will contain the mission editor and this time we will also be trying to allow people to change weapons, characters and animations thus allowing fans to create true Vietcong 2 mods.
At the moment core members of the Vietcong community are helping us with the tutorials and documentation for the new editor and scripting system and the feedback we’re getting is that they’re all very excited about the new modding possibilities.
Gamecloud - What is the current status of the game's progress and when will it be released?
Jarek Kolar - The game is almost finished and is scheduled for release in autumn of this year. At the moment we are just fixing bugs and balancing the gameplay. For such an ambitious multiplayer project we need a lot of testing, which is already underway. At the moment I am busy reading forums, analysing bug reports and playing the game! With the gameplay and features we have, I’m confident that we are ready to face the competition presented by the other upcoming war games.
Gamecloud - Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Vietcong 2?
Jarek Kolar - Just to say that, as a team, we’re all immensely proud that we’ve managed to develop another great game that balances the all important factors of historic accuracy and pure entertainment. And that I sincerely hope that your readers will like Vietcong 2 when they get a chance to play it.
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Cant wait for the editor and the textures...We must be the first to release Custom maps for the VC2 community...Admins and Editors fire up those 3dsmax programs for Autumn time....We need to hit the VC2 community with at least 5 playable Coop/CTF maps right off the release...Chavez
here is the actual link as well with pictures of VC2
www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=1184
) has a problem finalizing the loading for the game...(jarek says to be patient and go for a smoke while it loads, since there is alot that is happening in your computer while it is loading)