Interview with Bohemia Interactive on the past, present and future of the Flashpoint legacy!
 
By XeLSiS
 
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1.
 
XeLSiS - At this point in time can you give me an idea of when Armed Assault will be released? I don’t mean like Q3/Q4...
 
I mean like a month in specific would be awesome!
 
Placebo - It still remains Q4, 2005
 
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2.
 
XeLSiS - Is codemasters officially out of the ArmedAssault/OFP2 deal?
 
Placebo - Right now, no we are not signed to any specific publisher, and the door is not closed to any publisher.
 
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3.
 
XeLSiS - Because of the unofficialness of Codemasters and ArmA, does ArmA then have a lot of Independent/Large Publishers interested in Publishing ArmA?
 
Placebo - We met with a large number of publishers during E3 covering all regions of the planet, we met with publishers large enough to publish globally themselves and we also met with enough independent publishers to cover the various regions
one by one. Due to the massive success of the original PC game, ArmA and Game2 have interest from most game publishers in the industry, corporation and independent size.
 
So yes there are plenty of publishers available and interested.
 
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4.
 
XeLSiS - What new features can Modders & Players look forward do?
 
Placebo - For now features of the game are being kept quiet, but we're getting closer to what we can share about it, for sure the game is definitely turning out to be more than the anticipated Opf v1.5 (with the next big game being known as “game2”), this game is really developing into a "game2" of its own standing, maybe we should start calling the other one "game3"  
 
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5.
 
XeLSiS - Should ArmA Modders look forward to much more user friendly software and will new technologies allow modders to model and texture outside of programs like o2?
 
Placebo - That's a very good question, I guess only time will tell, obviously we write and use all our own tools/software so for us there isn't so much need or incentive to make them compatible with outside programs, but there are some very talented and skilled programmers in the community.
 
5a.
 
XeLSiS - But I know for a fact that modders had a nightmare with LOD's and Textures and stuff in o2, will a new o2 have the ability to import textures and such that are on models and not just import models alone?
 
Placebo - I honestly don't know the answer to that, but I’ll try to find out for you.
 
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6.
 
XeLSiS - Will the ArmA MP Community see patching, installing mods and maybe a slightly more user friendly interface and such improved in AA?
 
Placebo - For sure multiplayer will be very significant this time around, rather than how the original Opf was a single player game with MP bolted on later, MP in ArmA will be a quite substantial part of the game, obviously helped greatly by having JIP
 
6a.
 
XeLSiS - JIP?
 
Placebo - "Join In Play", no more waiting in the lobby for the game to finish so you can join in, if you arrive late just join straight into the middle of the game.
 
6b.
XeLSiS - Will MP Clans have the luxury of XML Tags still, I'm a clanner as well as modder and I can tell you, XML Tags were one of the best things in MP OFP.
 
Placebo - Placebo - If a feature from Opf worked well then it would make sense to continue it, if the feature worked ok but could be improved then we'll look at where we can improve it.
 
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What we can see from this exclusive screenshot from the upcoming Xbox title “Operation Flashpoint: Elite” is that ArmA will have Right/Left hand weapon options, chinstraps modelled & textured onto the soldiers and visible Armor Vests.
 
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7.
 
XeLSiS - Is Armed Assault going to have a lot more realistic aspects then most FPS games like realistic damage counts, armor values, various features like the T-80's Auto Reload system, etc?
 
Placebo - I think the realism aspects of the game will be put into it as much as possible within the development time frame we have, there are many things planned for the game, some will be achievable, some won't.
 
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8.
 
XeLSiS - Operation Flashpoint was originally released in Europe months before OFP was released in the US, will it be the same case with Armed Assault or will it be released on both continents hand in hand?
 
Placebo - Really depends on the publisher, if we sign with one who is publishing in both regions then I think there's a good chance it will be published around the same time, if we sign with separate ones for Europe an NA I think there's still a good chance of it happening but a slight risk that logistics will cause a little delay at some point.
 
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9.
 
Now this last question I have doesn’t really regard ArmA, but I thought this would be a really interesting question.
 
XeLSiS - What was the original goal of the Spanel brothers, "Marek and Ondrej" in developing OFP?
 
Placebo - I think the main goals were those which were the key features to Opf, large open areas, tactical freedom, possibility to use many different types of vehicles in the air and on land, large number of troops to simulate modern warfare etc.
 
9a.
 
XeLSiS - Ever since 1997 when Bohemia and Marek started working on OFP, have you felt that the 8 years of their life they've currently invested in OFP/ArmA/Game2 have been worth the time?
 
Placebo - Well as someone who grew up watching war movies and then playing war games which really did little to simulate the scale and experiences of war it was a shock to play a game as intensive and ground breaking as Operation Flashpoint,  
the game created a new genre for itself and still really is unsurpassed 4 years later in term of size and scope of what the game offered. Now with Opf on Xbox, ArmA and game2 it's quite incredible to see what has become of the prototype from 1997.
 
9b.
 
XeLSiS - Do you think it has been a success?
 
Placebo - The original game has now sold in excess of 1.5 million copies worldwide, it won game of the year and similar awards from numerous magazines/websites, BIS won best PC game developer at ECTS 2001 and rookie studio of the year at GDC 2002 amongst others. More important perhaps it led to VBS1 which is used by numerous militaries around the world to train their soldiers and actually save lives. For gamers the name Operation Flashpoint and the company Bohemia Interactive Studio inspires a lot of respect and admiration, so yes I think it has been a success.
 
9c.
 
XeLSiS - Before AA became a reality, did you think taking OFP to the next level was worth it?
 
Placebo - Well you can consider worth it on a number of levels: financially: the original game sold huge amounts, it would only be common sense that a follow up if sufficient an improvement and sufficiently adhering to the game play principles of the original would sell well. Despite the fact you can't spit in a computer store without hitting a war game of some sort (on every format), there really is no direct competitor to Operation Flashpoint, even 4 years later.
 
Then you can consider worth it to gamers, as I mentioned, for gamers who are attracted by the game play, size and scale offered by the original there is not much else to choose to play, so gamers for sure will want to play a "next level" version.
 
Then finally there is worth it to those working on the project on the basic level of whether such a venture is worth it and rewarding creatively, whilst there are few people here who are die-hard military enthusiasts there is certainly a large amount  
of pride that can be found in accomplishing the complex design, programming and artistic tasks required to make a "next level" game which can compete with anything else for next generation hardware whilst retaining the size and scope of the original game. For sure there is a desire to move onto different projects in the future, away from military games but there is still plenty to keep everyone inspired and dedicated.
 
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XeLSiS - Thanks Placebo for doing this interview, I'm sure that the OFP community will appreciate some of the valuable information here that at least I haven’t seen in other interviews about AA. I hope ArmA comes out soon and is a big success *thumbs up*