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Interview with Bohemia Interactive
COMBATSIM: What are all the roles you can take in Flashpoint?
MS: There are virtually no limits in Flash Point so if I start writing it, I would never stop. Not everything will be part of our single player campaign so just few examples what is possible in the game:
Really, there are so many roles in the game that people must create much more missions than we're able to create for them if they would like to experience it all.
- play as an infantry soldier
- be a commander of up to 11 other soldiers and use wide variety of commands including move
- attack, get in, formations and combat modes
- get in UH60 Blackhawk and have 8 soldiers in the back ready to action
- command a platoon of 4 Abrams
- steal an enemy BMP and override some enemy soldiers
- get in church tower with sniper rifle and shoot down some targets
- lay down mines or use pipe bombs to destroy some targets
- look at the sky and see all stars are exactly as in real world
- use map and compass to navigate as in the real world
- be lost in the landscape and looking for name of the villages and road marks.
Fig. 5. Helicopters to Fly!COMBATSIM: Does it support stand-alone play? If so, is there a campaign feature?
MS: Yes. Flash Point has campaign feature and various bonus single player missions as well. But more than the built in campaign - we have prepared an open architecture so people can create and share own campaigns and missions easily. Our story starts in 85 when Gorbachev took power in the Soviet Union. But everything wasn't so easy in our game as in the real world.
COMBATSIM: How open will the architecture be for players to make modification? (Ie.new art, vehicles, sounds, and maps).
MS:The game is as open as possible. Players will be able to create own missions or even campaigns pretty easily - they'll have the same editor and text scripting files we're actually using. Almost everything can be edited in text or html files Player would add some sound effects and 2D artwork as well. However, we're not planning to enable the community to create own landscapes or models because it would require all the technology and know how we're using and it seems to be too hard to spread this to players. We would like to release some add on units and maybe new islands free to download from the Internet. This effort would be related closely to our online multiplayer scheme as well. But we still think it is the right way to keep the game as open as possible for further modifications so we're still looking to new options to allow the player to modify more things.
COMBATSIM: When do you expect Flashpoint to be released?
MS: We expect Flash Point will be released sometime this Fall. But there is not a deal with some publisher so maybe we would have to change this. However, we're going beta in July and I trust the game will find its way to the gamers worldwide after 2 or three months of testing.
Fig. 6. You can also play an Infantry SoldierCOMBATSIM: Are you working on any other projects at the moment?
MS: There are two other teams working on other games in an early stage of development here in Bohemia Interactive but our flag ship product is Flash Point - it's result of many years of work and we've dedicated a lot to this game and the time to speak about other projects will be after this big one.
