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Cold Fear: Developers Diary |
by UtahSaint
1/17/2005 |
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Cold Fear Diary
Monsters and scientific madness
THE ENEMIES IN COLD FEAR: CYRILLE COMBES, AI PROGRAMMER
I developed some entities in the game, like the ExoMutant and the mercenaries, but I also worked on the weapons codes. From the beginning, our objective was to differentiate ourselves by providing aggressive and fast monsters that would put the player under pressure. Our objective in Cold Fear is to convey the fear through in-game action, putting the player in a state of shock.
The ExoMutants
Our work on the ExoMutants is based on aggressiveness and sudden behavioral changes. For example an ExoMutant will rush towards you with his weapon raised. Our objective was to emulate frantic human behavior rather than the slow movements of an undead. This is particularly evident in the strangle move.
ExoMutants: “Our objective was to transcript a frantic human behavior rather than a zombie”
Aggressive AI
The behavior of the ExoMutants is really aggressive and totally independent; so independent in fact that they do not only attack the player.
For instance, they’ll lose their focus on you in order to attack a nearby mercenary. The mercenary will have a volatile reaction. He will begin to shoot at every mutant, without differentiating between you and the mutant. Throughout the game, you will often witness fights between mutants and other entities. It is up to you to use the situation at your advantage. I’d suggest that you shoot at the enemies that are most numerous.
“Mutants and mercenaries really hate each other”
Enemies allow many different combat situations
A mutant can suddenly rush towards you, so you may want to shoot it in the legs from far away to slow him down. The hosts can use many different weapons including a monkey wrench, knife, a hook, and even a firearm that has fallen to the ground.
As a result, combat is really fun. You can electrocute mutants by throwing them into electric devices propel them off the boat by shooting them with a shotgun or throw them to the sea using the shotgun. The mutants become unpredictable when caught in the flames of a flamethrower, spreading the fire and surrounding objects, potentially including you.
The ship also adds a level of unpredictability to the mutant’s behavior. A breaker or swaying cables can kill a mutant. Over 20 death animations provide an animation to fit every situation.
Critical Hit directing
My favorite feature is the critical hit. Hand-to-hand fighting in horror games can get quite repetitive and boring. We really wanted to develop something spectacular like a special move to get rid of the monsters grasp. We could have used the cross hit, but we wanted more.
First we worked on the camera movement. The grab, strangle and release of segments in a sequence includes special direction. The camera follows the enemy’s movements we creating the illusion of a real struggle. If you manage to press ‘action’ fast enough during a predefined amount of time, you are given the opportunity to blast the head of the mutant with a special, single shot in its mouth. The timing for this special move is quite short, offers the player a great payoff. The whole action takes place in slow-motion and ends with blood splattered screen.
“The critical hit is a big reward for the player”.
 Weapons and enemies: Cyrille Combes, AI programmer
The weapons: an essential in Cold Fear gameplay.
In Cold Fear we really wanted to load the player up with firepower. We didn’t want him to be in a situation of weakness, so equipped him with powerful weapons like submachine guns, assault rifles and others that are typically found in war games. However, each weapon has a huge impact on gameplay, so the player has to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each.
AK47: The recoil for the AK47 is very strong and increases if you continue to fire. For this reason, it is better to fire with short bursts.
Shotgun: The shotgun is powerful but slow. It is best used at short range, especially when trying to blow an enemy away.
MP5: The MP5 is my favorite weapon. It is fast, precise and features a torchlight.
 Flamethrower: The flamethrower is particularly deadly. It kills your enemies on the spot. It also allows you to destroy some objects on the ship, including crates. You must be cautious of the direction of the wind when using the flamethrower outdoors because of a back draft system. Back drafts can cause you to miss your target or, in a worst case, cause you to set yourself on fire. A gasoline magazine allows you to use the flamethrower for only 30 seconds, so you have to let your enemies approach you before you can use the flamethrower effectively. It is the ultimate weapon against the Exocels.
Grenade launcher: The grenade launcher is a short-range, very powerful weapon that can easily kill several enemies with one shot. The grenade’s bounce is monitored with physics, but due to the rocking ship it can be inaccurate and will roll back to you. Because it can be unpredictable, it should be used cautiously.
Speargun: The speargun is absolutely crucial. It works like a harpoon. The player can shoot arrows into walls or enemies. But its uniqueness lies in the substance contained in the arrows, which spreads a gas that will attract your enemies. So you can shoot an arrow in a dangerous area, then shoot a an explosive barrel for instance to kill all of your enemies with one bullet. This is the ultimate weapon for the player, although it will have very limited ammunition.
Balancing the weapons
Balancing a set of weapons requires a lot of tuning - damage, range of fire, rounds per second, accuracy. All the weapons in Cold Fear were designed to fit the ExoMutant. We did some additional tuning afterwards to fit with the other entities.
Once complete, we worked on balancing edge effects. The more you modify weapons to kill stronger monsters, the more likely it is that some weapons are too strong for basic enemies. You have to freeze the weapon settings and act more on the creature’s characteristics. The objective is to choose the appropriate weapon for each enemy, based on its various strengths and weaknesses.
The weapons of the enemies
Enemy weapons also require tuning. For example, the mercenaries use the AK47 and the handgun. The handgun aims less accurately, but we tried to make the bullets fly close to the player to create the sensation of being in the middle of an intense gunfight. We have no friendly fire in the game. The enemies can hurt themselves in spite of the fact that their priority is still to protect themselves.
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jollylhama
Heckler
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This game looks pretty sweet...
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Posts: 0
Member: None
IP: 70.185.107.199
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LiLJUD
Heckler
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looks alright might get it
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Posts: 0
Member: None
IP: 82.37.171.117
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