Seth is back and he’s bringing Allen Goode, Lead Designer at Slant Six, with him. This time, they’re giving us the run down on how armor works in the game and a few questions on Optimatch.
We know there is armor... I’m interested in hearing more about how it effects one’s encumbrance and number of hits taken (with each: the Light, medium, and Heavy armor). Or is this part not finalized yet because it’s part of the private beta testing of the balance of the game?
Allen: Likely you’re general expectations on how the armor should function will be dead on. Light armor will offer no additional protection and no hit to mobility. Heavy armor will provide the maximum amount of protection but also the greatest reduction to movement and medium armor falls in-between. Armor is a much deeper system then this would lead you to believe however so it’s tough to generalize. Players can choose the type of armor they want on their torsos independent of their legs. Also certain types of weapons fire ammo that penetrates armor better then others and beyond little nuances like these a headshot is always a headshot so the strategy involved in picking your favorite combination is an art in itself.
How does the optimatch system work in regards to layout/integration of gametypes?
Allen: The best comparison that I can make is to the auto match found in Resistance Fall of Man. Players get to choose from a selection of match types which are organized into ‘team sizes’ and game modes. Also these can be ranked or unranked. A player chooses the match type they want to play and they are instantly placed into a game.
A potential example of a match type would be “Fireteam Suppression” or “Fireteam Objective” both would be 4 vs 4 but one is suppression and the other would create an objective game such as breach.
For the Optimatch system, will we be able to select what map/ game mode we would like to play or will it be completely random.
Allen: Auto match creates games based on developer tuned probabilities. This gives us the ability to change the odds of particular game combinations so that we can provide the best variety to the players while keeping a fair and meaningful worldwide skill ranking and minimizing cheats and exploits.
Is the Optimatch/custom game system as designed so far set in stone? In other words many have expressed concern about not having ranked games in custom rooms. If this is the case, is this something that the Devs/Sony can, or would, consider changing before release if lets say most in the Beta tester showed strong opposition to it?
Seth: Using the matchmaking system for ranked games is the only way to prevent rank up rooms and the only way to make the ranks and leader boards fair and accurate. We are always open to the feedback of our community, but there are also a lot of people who are upset with the rank up rooms.
We will still have the classic SOCOM Briefing Rooms and custom games. Those are not going anywhere.
Good news! Abigale took a bunch of your questions to the SOCOM team. They were awesome enough to find some time in their busy schedules to start answering them. I’ll keep posting answers to your questions as they come in, so stay tuned.
Your questions are bolded, and Seth Luisi’s answers are italicized. Thanks, Seth, for taking time to answer these!
As posted two days ago with a video, the movement in the videos look very "stiff" and not life like such as that of Socom 2. Will there be any change in that by the time the game gets released? I didn’t know if it was the framerate that caused it or something else.
The game is still pre-alpha and there is still a lot of changes, tweaking and polishing going on. Also, it is important not to judge the games graphics, framerate or animation based off of internet videos which are low resolution, highly compressed and playback at a low framerate. Please wait for the high resolution videos from the PlayStation Store.
From the most recent video footage, it looks like there is a new weapons selection that pops up. My question is, will Quick 1 and Quick 2 still be utilized?
The current plan is to keep the Quick 1 and Quick 2 weapon selections if at all possible.
Is there armor? If so, is it purely cosmetic or will it affect your health?
Yes, there is armor in the game. It is not purely cosmetic. It will affect both how much damage you take and how quickly you move. However, it is not going to make you invincible or take 10 hits to bring down. Even with heavy armor, you still take less hits before you die compared to SOCOM 3! Also, one shot to the head and your round is over.
How big are the maps compared to s2/s3 maps?
It depends. The “16 player” versions of the maps are very similar in size to SOCOM II maps. The “32 player” versions of the maps are larger but still smaller than the smallest of the SOCOM 3 maps.
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