Battlefield Singleplayer Blog

Hello ! Welcome to the first of a series of interviews that will highlight the work of new and veteran modders.

Xenephone interviewed JONES (level design, textures, sound effects) and Apache Thunder (single play/coop navmeshing) about their upcoming release of Alpha Project.

Xenephone: Hello JONES and Apache Thunder. Welcome to the Battlefield Singleplayer Blog !

JONES: Hello Xenephone

Apache: Happy to help. Though this is my first “interview” of this nature, so my answers may not be as refined as most other folks .

Xenephone: With the recent unveiling of some early Battlefield 3 footage at GDC (Game Developers Conference) there are echoes of the release of alpha footage for Battlefield 2 that was released way back in 2004. At that stage Battlefield had quite a different feel in the design of it’s UI and many other elements. JONES, can you describe Alpha Project ?

JONES: Alpha Project is easy to describe, the main goal is to bring as many features as possible back to battlefield 2 which were left out with the retail game, there are tons of stuff that didn’t get it into the game! But that’s not everything, i got help from modders from all around the moding scene, you can expect alot additional stuff to come next to the left out content! There will be a few new weapons and props, i really wana thank everyone involved in alpha project for the help, they really do a great job and without them the mod would not be so far as it is now

Xenephone: What inspired you to start this project ?

JONES: Actually i wanted bf2 to be like it was first shown on the e3 trailer videos since it came out, i was kinda disappointed when i figured out how many things were left out, it was like half the content was cut before release!

Xenephone: JONES & Apache Thunder. Was Battlefield 2 the first game you modded/mapped for ?

JONES: No, everything started with battlefield 1942, i am around since the very start of the battlefield franchise, battlefield 1942 was the first onlinegame i played and made maps for. Back then i made custom maps for bf1942 and the popular desert combat mod, still have alot memories from these days, battlefield used to be so epic back then

Apache: Nope. My modding work started with BF1942 (and I still work mostly with that game today ). I didn’t get into BF2 modding until sometime late 2010. I learned mostly what I needed from viewing information on certain aspects of BF2 and such as I had wanted to port a mod to BF2 and also have singleplayer in it. I still don’t know the finer details of BF2 modding, but I can add singleplayer to maps (provided that any custom statics have good AI meshes) and that is mostly what I have wanted to do with BF2.

Xenephone: What originally got you involved in the world of Battlefield ?

JONES: The battlefield 1942 tobruk singleplayer demo, when i first installed and started the first demo i was pretty much blown away by its awesomeness and incredible sandbox gameplay! I never saw something like this before because nothing like this existed, it was just pure awesome a incredible feeling no other game could deliver since then, not even bf2!

Apache: I still vaguely recall how I found the game. I discovered the game while I was at one of my sister’s friends house. They had some younger brothers that played the game. From then on I played it and when I found Desert Combat, I played the game even more. I didn’t start modding the game until 1 or 2 years after that. (earliest I can recall was around 2006 when I might have first started modding maps).

Xenephone: Do you play singleplayer (only bots), in coop or mostly online ?

JONES: To be honest I am more of an onlineplayer, i don’t even play my own maps alot ^^ But i got some really fun moments playing bot matches, i used to play offline when i am out of connection, sick of online gameplay or testing my maps for the gameplay.

Apache: In the early days I played mostly singleplayer (due to lack of a good internet connection). But then started multiplayer after I got a high speed ISP. Now I spend more time in multiplayer. But it depends on the game really. In BF2, I spend nearly all my time singleplayer as I despise certain aspects of the game that factor in multiplayer. (like the UAV and spotting system. I hate the spotting system in general as it makes it very hard to stay hidden for any degree of time) In BF1942, the only thing that could give your position away is direct line of sight or the radar on a few fighter planes. But in BF2, all one has to do is drop a UAV over your head or use the enemy spotted menu and your position is revealed to the whole enemy team….very annoying). Online wise, I spend most of that time with BFheroes which is a online only game. Despite it’s balance issues and such, it brings back more of the style of BF1942 was in that there is no hack style radar system or UAVs or commanders to keep tabs on. You go in, and shoot other players and cap flags with a few toys like abilities and widgets and stuff. I like for the game to be simple. Too many features and I start to lose track of them all and then I become disadvantaged as there will always be other players who know more of them then I do.

Xenephone: JONES. Where do you get your inspiration? For example your weapon textures are very accurate and give the model a very realistic feel that shows some high quality UV mapping.

JONES: Hah, actually every weapon shown so far from alpha project are the original battlefield 2 vanilla models and even the default uvmaps, though double the skin size of the original ones and new textures makes a huge difference ^^

Xenephone: How much time do you usually spend on refining details in maps ?

JONES: Ah, thats a hard one i dont really know it, it depends alot on the mapsize and type, i really always take my time with the maps till i am satisfied with it before i release, or show images from them. Call me a fussy perfectionist but that’s me, i am never really satisfied with a result till its perfect in my eyes

Xenephone: What tools do you use ?

JONES: bf2editor, bf2meshview, adobe photoshop, geocontrol2, goldwave audio editor, bf2 sound tools, lpp battlefield collection (hud editor, battlefield tweaker), back in bf1942 i used the battlecraft mapeditor and rfaexplorer alot!

Xenephone: JONES & Apache Thunder. Any good tips to new (or existing) mappers ? What’s your work flow ?

JONES: The best tip is, do what is fun for you, my workflow really depends on my mood, my maps depend alot on fun doing them, that’s the most important thing! Modding bf2 is overall a thing you’ll never learn out, there is always something you haven’t seen or tried yet, especially in the editor, i learned everything by trying and failing to do it right… that’s the way to learn, you’ll learn from your mistakes

Apache: Well much of my modding work is self taught through trial and error. That’s about my only suggestion. It’s best to try out simple stuff first and work your way up. Don’t start with something too complex. If your’re new to mapping, don’t try and build a city map with lots of detail. You’ll get lost real quick going down that route. Don’t rely on tutorials too much. Depending on the tutorial, you don’t always have to follow them to the letter. Be creative and find your own way of doing it that will bring the same result. Think of new easier of ways of doing something that will work better for you. One method described for one person may not be the best for the next person. As for my work flow, I tend to do things quickly but efficiently. For example, back porting a BF2 map to BF1942 became a much quicker process when I devised a method of importing object positions into 3DS max and “off setting” them to adjust for the change in how the position settings are different from the two games. It was that or either position them from scratch or do the math manually by adjusting them in the code. Had I not discovered that, I would have never even starting trying it as the alternatives took too much time for me and were too repetitive. I tend to do something in as few steps as possible. If there is something that I have to do a lot of separate tasks to complete, I tend to either avoid doing it or try and devise a simpler way of doing it. My short term memory is rather crappy after all.

Xenephone: Apache Thunder.  The mod pushes some of the boundaries of AI design. Some of the screenshots of your ai-/navmesh with the imported statics look very impressive. How did you come up with the technique ? Do you think other mods looking to include SP can use this technique on some of the more complex maps ?

Apache: Well I guess you could call it that. I don’t consider it top notch or one of the best like some of the work done by some of the more veteran navmeshers around here. But I do what I can in the process I’ve adopted/developed for my self. The technique I acquired from reading a few threads at the BFSP and then putting my own method to it. I first learned how to make working AI Meshes for statics before I learned the navmesh process. While it’s a bit more complicated to do step by step wise compared to BF1942, the end result is something better then what BF1942 did. During my navmeshing work I also learned a few more tricks in 3DSMax (which I do ALL my modelling work in!) that made the process faster. (like edge extrusion which made adding to a mesh much quicker)

That aside, my “technique” isn’t really that much different from the normal. I do tend to include the “preopt” mesh in the scene with modifying the navmesh as it helps a ton to know where stuff is when you change something. That aside, this navmesh was the most work I’ve done since I started modding BF2. The first navmeshes I started making were for the BFHeroes maps I was porting to BF2. That mod did not have much of any thing in terms of buildings with interiors and such. With this map and this mod however it’s more complex.

I imported the navmesh islands (as there was many of them I needed to merge) and proceeded to merge them and add parts that got excluded. I also “smoothed” out the navmesh around stairs as I did not like the idea of having unneeded detail there. It may not be a required step, but I tend to go for something more efficient then something more detailed and “pretty looking”. It’s just a navmesh after all. You have to make it with mindless bots in mind.

Xenephone: JONES. What can we expect in the future? Will there be continuing updates to Alpha Project after its first release ?

JONES: Thats in the stars, it depends alot on how battlefield 3 turns out and if its got mod support or not, modding really takes up alot of freetime and you’ll never get enough freetime to do everything you want

Xenephone: JONES & Apache Thunder. It’s been said that a bot is something that gathers information about its environment, then discards it and drives into walls. Agree / disagree ?

JONES: agree somehow lol

Apache: Well I would “partially disagree”. I consider the bots more as bees or ants then individual entities. (they are more of a hive mind kind of thing) The game engine acts as the main AI engine and the bots are more like the worker bees or ants. Each one is rather stupid on their own. They get their information from the hive mind and take a route set out for them. A lot of times the AI engine makes mistakes. So the bots will screw up and won’t think of a way around it on their own. The AI engine would have to know an alternate route/method otherwise they run into walls or do something stupid unless told otherwise.

Xenephone: Thank you for giving us some time for this interview. The BFSP blog wishes you every success with Alpha Project, and have fun !

JONES: Thanks to bfsp, the battlefield community and all the modders supporting and helping me all the years with my maps/skins! Remember what i already said once, without you guys i would be nothing, when i see that people like the stuff i release its only a help to continue doing my work and please everyone . JONES over and out

Apache: No problem. I’m happy to help where I can. BF modding is my primary hobby after all.

~~~

If you are interested in Alpha Project then join the BFSP forum and discuss this mod and encourage the creators ! Please link back to the source of this blog post if you use it on your news site and tell anyone who is interested in Battlefield 2 off line play or coop about BFSP.