YAI

[zeus]

Jeff Morris Interview (UT3)

Jeff MorrisE3 2007 has been and gone, and Unreal Tournament 3 now has a release date! Planet Unreal recently asked Epic Producer Jeff Morris some questions about UT3, ahead of the highly-anticipated game's release on PC and PlayStation 3 this November.



Planet Unreal: It’s been over two years since Unreal Tournament 3 first appeared under the “Envy” codename. As it nears release, how would you say the current incarnation of UT3 differs from the original vision of the game?

Jeff Morris: That’s a great question. We had a lot of ideas about what to add when we started UT3 and it was fascinating to see which ideas clicked and which didn’t. The hoverboard was a really “out there” idea when pitched and not a lot of people thought it would be any fun. It soon became clear that hoverboards felt very Unreal Tournament in playtests and are a major success from our point of view.

It’s important to keep in mind though that even the features that ended up on the cutting room floor contributed something to the final product.We fooled around with a very Battlefield 2 inspired commander system when we started, but it just never worked out for our style of game. What did though was an AI commander, who assigned players waypoints based on preferences they set in the UI. This works great and wouldn’t have manifested if we didn’t try another feature that ultimately didn’t pan out.



Planet Unreal: There’s a lot of focus on larger-scale battlefield gameplay in the current generation of PC shooters (e.g. Quake Wars, Battlefield 2142), however UT has traditionally been the king of fast-paced Deathmatch. How does UT3’s Deathmatch experience measure up to that of previous titles?

Jeff Morris: We love it! It’s has the weight of the original UTs movement feel, while still having some of the mobility options from later titles. One thing we spent a lot of time and effort on was keeping DM skills relevant in our vehicle focused gametypes. Whether you’re looking for the old-school free-for-all DM carnage or completely devastating an on-foot opponent defending a node, we think we’ve struck the perfect balance.



Planet Unreal: There’s been a lot of excitement around the new Warfare gametype, which seems to have changed quite a bit over the course of development. Currently, how does Warfare gameplay work and what does winning a game of Warfare involve?

Jeff Morris: Warfare is about destroying your enemies Power Core while defending your own. Since Warfare is a vehicle focused gametype (with the large maps that come with high speed), we use a node system that focuses that action at specific points rather than spreading out players across the entire playfield. We’ve taken the objective focus of Assault in UT2004 and now there’s a great diversity of ways to damage a core (or node) beyond standing there and blasting. Calling in submarine missile strikes, triggering floods, and other tactics are part of Warfare “vocabulary”. Throw in hoverboards, Power Orbs to break stalemates, deployables, and the all new Necris vehicle team and Warfare drives the vehicle focused gametype into new territory.



Planet Unreal: Early previews of UT3 talked about in-game lobbies and stat-based matchmaking to help players find opponents of their skill level. What sort of community integration features will ship with the game?

Jeff Morris: One of the challenges of a game that features MP is ensuring that a player’s first 15 minutes are AWESOME and addicting. In single player you’ve got a better toolkit to increase the odds, but in MP you are confronted with the possibility that a player will match up to someone far superior. This is no fun for someone just getting started. Using stats however we can increase the odds that you’re going to be playing someone of similar experience and UT3 definitely has this.



Planet Unreal: With UT3 due on PC and PS3 this November, is it safe to expect a PC beta demo around a month before release, as with previous UT titles? Any hints of what content might make it into the demo?

Jeff Morris: We plan on releasing a PC demo prior to ship, probably a couple of weeks before certification.



Planet Unreal: As the Valve Hardware Survey (http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html) shows, there’s a great variation in the specs of today’s PC gaming machines, with many still using a single-core CPU and entry-level DX9 graphics hardware. As UT3 is tested and optimized, what has been done to allow those running less powerful hardware to play the game at acceptable frame-rates?

Jeff Morris: It’s always been critically important to Epic to have its technology run on a wide range of hardware. UT3 will be no different. One nice thing about PCs versus consoles is that on the PC, the player can have a slider bar to determine their performance. If they want more frames, lower the resolution or detail. Want more pretty at the expense of frames, totally their call.



Planet Unreal: Mark Rein hinted recently that cross-platform play between PC and PS3 might still be a possibility, if gamers wanted it. What are your thoughts on this, and the challenges it presents?

Jeff Morris: The main challenge is the changes we made to the PS3 version. On the console players move slightly smaller and have marginally larger collision cylinders. PC/PS3 play would require one of the platforms to play at the others speed, which has some negatives. We’re still deciding though, so it could go either way.



Planet Unreal: An interesting announcement to come out of E3 was the fact that user-created mods would be making their way to the PS3 version of the game – a first for any console. Given that not all mod-makers will own a PS3, how will they be able to ensure that their content will run smoothly on that platform? It would be possible to create content that runs well on high-end PCs but is too large to fit in the PS3’s 512MB of RAM – how would this problem be detected and addressed?

Jeff Morris: I think it would be very difficult for a mod maker to know how their mod would perform on a PS3 without actually having one. Next-gen consoles are profoundly powerful pieces of hardware, but have less memory that PCs, as well as a locked hardware base. Mod makers will want to test on consoles, so if they don’t have one themselves, they’ll need a good volunteer test team that does.



Planet Unreal: Everyone loves mutators. Are there any particularly wacky mutators that you guys have created for UT3?

Jeff Morris: There’s a bunch coming to UT3. A favourite, not surprisingly, is low-grav insta-gib.



Planet Unreal: To what extent will players be able to customize their characters?

Jeff Morris: Characters are broken up into multiple sections that can be swapped within their team’s customization bits. A challenge was making sure that no matter what combination a player chooses, the final product still looks cool. Once the mod makers get started, I’m sure we’ll begin to see sombreros and beanies, but out of the box there isn’t a “bad” choice when it comes to character customization.



Planet Unreal: We haven’t seen Xan in any screenshots or videos yet. Will he be making an appearance in UT3? Will he still be a royal pain in the ass to kill? :)

Jeff Morris: The Liandri Corrupt team are definitely represented.



Planet Unreal: Unreal Tournament 3 will be the first UT title to feature a full single-player campaign rather than a “ladder” tournament. How many hours of gameplay will the single-player campaign provide? Are we looking at something of similar length to the Gears of War story mode?

Jeff Morris: Sure, something in the neighbourhood of 8-10 hours is what we’re seeing in test.



Planet Unreal: The Necris play a big part in UT3, and it’s been mentioned before that we’ll see levels in various states of “necrification” as the Necris conquer more territory. Will this be limited to the single-player game, or will we see real-time necrification as the Necris advance across Warfare maps?

Jeff Morris: There are elements of necrification that you see in both MP and Single Player, but it’s primarily experienced in the campaign, in both coop and solo.



Planet Unreal: What can you tell us about UT3’s deployables?

Jeff Morris: We’ve got a bunch of new deployables, including the Slow Field which is a great way to dynamically alter map flow during a match. You see players running towards it, then frantically looking around to make sure they’re not going to get sniped when they plunge in. There’s a certain amount of combo potential with it as well. Add a spider mine trap just outside the volume and watch the bullet-time bloodshed!



Planet Unreal: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Jeff. We’ll be hunting you down in a Darkwalker this November!

Thanks also to Mark Rein at Epic and Natalie Salzman at Midway for helping make this interview possible.

[Zax_Gentoo_Box]

Did you see the bit about Warfare? Didja?

Jeff Morris: Warfare is about destroying your enemies Power Core while defending your own. Since Warfare is a vehicle focused gametype (with the large maps that come with high speed), we use a node system that focuses that action at specific points rather than spreading out players across the entire playfield. We’ve taken the objective focus of Assault in UT2004 and now there’s a great diversity of ways to damage a core (or node) beyond standing there and blasting. Calling in submarine missile strikes, triggering floods, and other tactics are part of Warfare “vocabulary”. Throw in hoverboards, Power Orbs to break stalemates, deployables, and the all new Necris vehicle team and Warfare drives the vehicle focused gametype into new territory.

AWESOME!

[Chavez]

Sounds good, yea

[DW_ChocoCake]

Finally there is an interview with meaningful new information. A lot of the past interviews have just spat out the same information said in different ways.

[d2frob]

IMO public servers will suck, clan servers will rock? Sounds majorly teamwork based to get decent gameplay, but it;s just a guess

[DW_KarmaKat]

Verrryyy interesting!

Multiple ways to damage power cores....interesting indeed!

Great info, Zeus! Thanks for the find!

KKat

[MAC]

Planet Unreal: We haven’t seen Xan in any screenshots or videos yet. Will he be making an appearance in UT3? Will he still be a royal pain in the ass to kill? :)
Jeff Morris: The Liandri Corrupt team are definitely represented.

This had me LOL! :laughing6:

[DW_Snaggle]

"...triggering floods..." !?!?!?!?!?!

There's going to be a "Moses Gun"? Or would that be a 'Yaweh Gun'? With a counter-weapon called the "Ark of Disenfraggitation"?

Oy vay!

Snaggle.

[zeus]

"...triggering floods..." !?!?!?!?!?!

There's going to be a "Moses Gun"? Or would that be a 'Yaweh Gun'? With a counter-weapon called the "Ark of Disenfraggitation"?

Oy vay!

Snaggle.

Let my people go!

[kaeolian]

Lol definatly some good stuff there cant wait !!!

As some on mentioned I think that team based play always mean you stand a much better chance of winning. With that said I dont think you will ever get rid of people just charging around doing their own thing with that in mind im sure epic will ahve got the balance right, and we can use vent to annoy the hell out of ppl by planning new ways to beat them as a team :cheers: