Far Cry 2 multiplayer Q&A

This morning we spent over an hour trying out Far Cry 2's excellent multiplayer modes on Xbox 360. Even this brief experience told us that the online portion of the game seems as well constructed as the story mode which we experienced a few months ago in Paris.

Following the bloody action against the assembled journalistic throng I sat down with Far Cry 2's multiplayer producer Gaetan Richard to chat about the gameplay I'd just experienced.

Compromise?

Harry Neary: One thing that really struck me about the multiplayer game was that it didn't seem cut down in any way from the single player experience. Has there been any compromise at all?

Gaetan Richard: The only compromise we made was to make sure we have a lot of action. Make smaller maps. The single player game is really huge and we didn't want to go with maps that are so big you can't find other players.

So for multiplayer we have smaller maps. But besides that all the dynamic weather, dynamic fire, 24 hour day/night cycles, all the weapons, the technology and graphics engine are the same as the single player game.

We didn't compromise on any technical issues.

Weapon Balance

Are there any single player weapons that didn't make the cut into multiplayer, or were changed?

We had to tweak them so they are a bit faster at reloading and they don't jam as often in the story mode.

In the single player game you have time to approach a city or town and observe and make your plans.

In multiplayer we don't have that strategy. The pace is much faster so we ensured all the mechanics worked faster for the player.

Execution

One aspect of multiplayer it was clear that everyone enjoyed this morning was the way players are injured or killed. When shot players are merely wounded and can be revived by a team member – unless executed on the ground. Do all deaths work like this?

We have two life states. The first is with the player down and unable to move. He has 20 seconds before he will die. During this time a team member can revive you but you can also give up and die if you want to respawn.

Obviously when you're the team captain [in uprising mode] or carrying a diamond [CTF mode] being able to be revived and to revive teammates is a really important strategy. But if someone comes and shoots at you while you are down then you are dead and will have to respawn.

We have something similar in the single player game where an AI buddy can revive you. We wanted to keep that spirit of co-operation. And I think it brings some really interesting strategy into the multiplayer game.

However if you are hit with a head shot or an explosive then you are killed outright with no chance of revival and must instead respawn.

Respawning

I noticed the respawn time varied from a mere two seconds to up to twenty seconds. What's the thinking behind that?

We spawn the players in waves rather than individually. When you die you may enter the beginning of a wave and may have to wait 19 seconds for the start of the next one. Or you may die with only a second left of the wave and get to respawn again almost instantly.

So you respawn alongside your team mates?

Exactly. We came by this strategy quite late in the development process. We introduced it because we felt the pace of the game without it was too fast to promote tactical play. So we introduced this wave system and tried many timers; 15 seconds, 30 seconds, ten seconds and so on.

And we found the balance was really good with 20 seconds. The result is you always have a good chance of respawning alongside a teammate. And for a team based game that's really important. So you can work tactically right away.

Multiplayer Development

One thing that really struck me about playing multiplayer Far Cry 2 this morning was that so many shooters with a strong single-player element have a very tacked-on multiplayer section that nobody plays. Far Cry 2 doesn't seem like this. The multiplayer is very strong. Has multiplayer been part of the development process from the beginning?

Surprisingly no. Multiplayer came pretty late in the game's development process. The game started three and a half years ago. But the multiplayer development began just a year ago.

But the strategy from the beginning was to have a strong map editor. But if you have a good map editor and your multiplayer is no good – then your editing tool is useless, no one will want to use it.

So we really put a lot of focus on multiplayer over the last year. We had a new lead designer with experience on Halo 1 and Halo 2 and made sure all the mechanics were right, so players would play and enjoy thousands of user created maps.

Map Editor

Were the maps we played on this morning created with the editor that will ship with the game?

No they were created with our own development editor. But the functionality of our development tools and the editor that ships with the game are pretty much the same. There are one or two things you can't do with the public editor but for the most part you can do almost anything we could do in development such as terrain editing, placing thousands of objects etc.

Anything that's useful in setting up a multiplayer game is there in the editor. And we think it's really strong. We don't believe there's a map editor on console or PC that's close to our Far Cry 2 map editor.

Sharing Content

How does the map sharing and downloading work in practice when playing online?

We have two strategies. If you create a map you can upload it to the Ubisoft server and then other players can download it for themselves to use in games they may host.

Or you can host matches yourself using the map you have created and when people search for maps they can join your game and the map will download.

However if you've already uploaded your map to the Ubisoft server and our system is too busy, players in your match may download your map direct from you. We have an intelligent system that looks for the best connection and downloads the map from there.

DLC?

With this emphasis on user created content does that mean you're going to move away from providing downloadable content for Far Cry 2 such as new maps?

That's something that's not decided yet. But it certainly changes our strategy towards DLC. Obviously though the ranked matches can only be played on the 14 maps that ship with the game and not the user created levels. So players that want to rank up and develop their character will need to play on our maps.

Then it's possible you'll release new maps for ranked matches?

Exactly, yes.

In addition to new official levels can we expect more mutiplayer game modes to be released?

No. Due to the way the editor we're giving players works we wanted to keep the game modes pretty simple. So players will stick with the four modes that ship with the game. It keeps things simple for people using the editor. For example creating maps for our Uprising game mode – the mode which involves a team captain capturing control points on the map - is very easy with the editor, despite the gameplay being more complex than a simple deathmatch.

We know they are standard game modes. But they work very well, are exciting and well balanced and we hope players will enjoy taking part in them.

Gaetan thanks for your time

You're welcome.

We'll be posting our hands-on impressions of the game's multiplayer modes later this week. Far Cry 2 is set for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on October 24th 2008.