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Added how to use Urban Ops weapons in Covert Ops into Gameplay section
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page last updated on: 2001 May 1
This
resource page already features what we think are the best links
to get information about Covert Operations Essentials. However,
this particular "Quick Links" section is here to give you rapid
access to the links that are the cream of the crop in our opinion.
These references provide the most comprehensive and essential
information you need to know about COE.
Bridging
the gap between fiction and real-world special operations, Tom
Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Covert Operations Essentials (abbreviated
as Covert Ops or COE) is an exciting overview covering
the subject of counter-terrorism from 1970 until the present.
Covert Ops will contain video interviews with top experts in the
field, as well as photos and video footage of weapons and equipment,
along with a description of situations where they are typically
used.
Editor's note for R6 series vets: Although COE has new
maps on the Mission CD, please note that COE was not intended
to be a mission pack like Urban Ops is for Rogue Spear. COE is
a new approach to the world of Rainbow Six: the primary focus
of this stand-alone product is to provide an in-depth encyclopedic
guide to the world of counter-terrorism; the new maps are almost
secondary, and are there to introduce new fans to the gameplay
on the Rogue Spear engine, as well as provide a welcome bonus
for veteran Rainbow Six fans.
COE is a unique product that combines the efforts of three companies:
- Magic Lantern
Playware - Magic Lantern is creating the informational content
for this project within their proprietary ShowTech application
environment. Their writers are researching and developing original
reference material for this project.
- Zombie Studios
- As creators of the Spec Ops series, Zombie was once genre competitors
with Red Storm. Now they are teaming up with Red Storm and bringing
their experience and expertise to help to create six of the nine
original levels included in COE.
- Red Storm Entertainment
- Red Storm is the publisher of Covert Ops. Some of the award-winning
veteran Rainbow Six/Rogue Spear level designers from RSE are creating
three brand new levels for COE.
- Covert
Operations Essentials is a stand-alone product. It does not
require Rainbow Six or Rogue Spear to play.
- COE
is a two-disc set: The first disc contains the game and nine
new missions. The second disc is an interactive guide developed
by Magic Lantern Playware. It serves as a multimedia encyclopedia
with a wealth of information on real-world counter-terrorism.
|
Disc
1: Training Disc (Interactive Guide)
|
- The player,
in the guise of a new member of Team RAINBOW, undergoes document and
tactical training derived from the most accurate of real-world sources.
Players can gain certificates by completing comprehensive tests through
an interactive Officer Candidate School.
- Candidates have the opportunity to access over 15000 briefings and
articles that provide information on the following topics:
- Counter Terrorism Tactics: insertion, securing hostages,
engagement.
- Intelligence: means of collection and methods of analysis,
intel photo analysis.
- Psychology: psychological profiling of terrorists, hostage
negotiation.
- Gear: the latest field hardware including vehicles, protection,
weapons.
- Counter Terrorism Forces of the World: including the original
model for the Rainbow Team, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team.
- Historical Organizations: political and military groups that
share the stage with CT forces.
- The Future of Counter Terrorism
- There are excerpts from the training manuals used by the world's
leading military organizations (SAS, US Army Rangers, GIGN).
- Over 90 minutes of video featuring items such as interviews with
world renowned author Tom Clancy, as well as former members of the
CIA and Delta Force.
- A special bonus "Making of Rainbow Six" section.
- Nine new specially created game levels using the Rogue Spear
engine.
- Single
player and multiplayer supported.
-Custom
mission feature allows for choosing game type, map, and difficulty.
September
20, 2000:
COE first
appears on store shelves in the U.S. a week after Red Storm
issues a press
release that announces Covert Ops has gone gold.
August 1, 2000:
The official
site for COE is updated with a 3-part "Covert Exam" which
gives an example of what the material in the reference portion
of COE looks like. If you successfully pass the exam, you will
be rewarded with the opportunity to download the Covert Ops
introductory trailer! We recommend all of you to take on the
challenge of passing the exam yourself, but if your time is
limited, Pie's Tactics has posted a direct link to a mirror
of the trailer download here.
July 7, 2000:
Greg
Stelmack of RSE confirms on the RSE Forums that of the nine
new maps found in COE, three are from RSE and six are from Zombie.
June 28, 2000:
The official
site for Covert Operations Essentials goes live with screenshots
of three COE levels designed in-house by Red Storm.
June 27, 2000:
Greg
Stelmack, RSE engineer, posts the following about how COE will
install with those who already have Urban Ops:
[Covert Ops] comes with its own .exe and all the supporting
data necessary to run stand-alone. If you run the Covert Ops
executable, all you will get is the Covert Ops mod to play.
If you run Urban Operations, you will see the Covert Ops mod
available as an optional mod that you can choose to activate
or not activate.
June 5, 2000:
The July
2000 issue of PC
Gamer magazine has a short interview about Covert Ops with
Paul Schuytema of Magic Lantern Playware. This issue also features
the first appearance of the COE print advertisement.
May 31, 2000:
3d Retreat
publishes a Covert
Ops preview based on information gathered first-hand at
the RSE booth at E3. The article contains a link to an excellent
4 minute video interview done with Paul Schuytema of Magic Lantern
Playware who did the demo of COE at E3.
May 25, 2000:
GameSpotAsia
posts an excellent
Q & A with Red Storm about Covert Ops. The interview is
taken directly from press material distributed at E3 and is
done with Paul Schuytema, the head of Magic Lantern and the
designer and project leader for the Magic Lantern portion of
Covert Ops. It is one of the most informative articles available
about the development of the reference portion of Covert Ops.
(Update Aug '00: The link to GameSpotAsia's page was broken
when they redesigned their site. The link now points to GamingCove
which has posted the very same Q&A.)
May 22, 2000:
The RS
Retreat issues a clarification about some news posted in March
2000 regarding the Tom
Clancy FAQ announcing that a new Tom Clancy non-fiction
book entitled Special Ops (that was intended to be part of his
outstanding "Guided
Tour" series) had its March 2000 publication cancelled.
The RS Retreat had then speculated that the material originally
destined for Tom Clancy's Special Ops book may be the source
material for R6: Covert Ops. Looks like that speculation was
way off base :-)
We got official clarification from Peter Riis, Lead Writer for
Covert Operations Essentials, that Covert Ops is unrelated to
Tom Clancy's planned "Special Ops" book. COE will contain all-new
material authored by Magic Lantern Playware in-house (plus supplementary
material like Army Field Manuals).
May 12, 2000:
A demo
of Covert Ops is shown at E3. RSE provides a detailed marketing
brochure that reveals COE will feature nine all-new levels.
Snicker has provided a scan for fellow fans to check out below.
(Click on the thumbnail pictures to get an enlarged image.)
Enlarged scans of the screenshots in the brochure are available
in the links below:
Image
#1 | Image
#2 | Image
#3
April 13, 2000:
CNET Gamecenter publishes an article that reveals Covert
Ops will be a two-disc set.
April 12, 2000:
Red Storm
issues a press
release which announces that Zombie Studios, best known
for its Spec Ops series, will help to create new game levels
for Covert Ops. RSE also says that Covert Ops will be showcased
at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May.
March 7, 2000:
Red Storm
Entertainment issues a press
release which announces Covert Ops is under development
and slated for release in Q3 2000. The press release also states
that RSE has signed a deal with developer Magic Lantern Playware
to create the informational content for this project, within
their proprietary ShowTech application environment.
December 4, 1999:
We get
our first hint that there may be another Rogue Spear engine
based product (apart from Urban
Operations) from an interview
that Bloodshot.org did with Bill
Brown, composer of all the music heard in the Rainbow Six
series. Bill says he was working on the "first" Rogue Spear
Mission Pack (Urban Ops) which we took as a subtle implication
that there may be a "second" one :-)
Here
is a summary of what we know so far about the 9 maps that
will appear in Covert Ops. Click on the links to view a screenshot
of each respective level.
Training Missions (by Zombie Studios)
These are six smaller maps designed specifically for training
purposes. Kevin Perry, Producer of Covert Ops, made this very
interesting comment in an
interview with TacSim:
"The missions included on the Missions CD offer a variety
of situations that had earlier been impossible to portray
within the world of Rainbow Six. Since RAINBOW is an ultra-elite
multinational force, it could only be called into action when
the stakes were impossibly high. Since six of the missions
in Covert Ops are billed as training missions, we were able
to expand our notions of appropriate environments to mission
spaces that fans had long wanted to see. While the single
player element of these training missions is scaled to the
novice player, the experienced R6 fan can play them multiplayer
or use the Mod system included in Urban Operations to tune
them to his or her liking."
1. Emergency
Room
2. Hospital
3. Junkyard
4. Grocery Store Front - This is a 8 or 9 aisle grocery store
where you must neutralize terrorists.
5. Grocery Store Back - Another section of the grocery store
6. Trailer Park - The objective is to bust a meth lab in a
trailer park. ("Meth" is the short form name for a street
drug called methamphetamine.)
Combat Missions (by Red Storm)
These larger "campaign" maps feature the same no-holds-barred
RAINBOW action that we have come to expect from previous installments
of the Rainbow Six series.
7. Amazon
Jungle - Rainbow must track a downed airplane through
the mountainous jungle terrain of Bolivia in "one of the largest
levels" ever made for the R6 franchise. The survivors of a
plane wreck have been taken hostage by rebels and you must
free them. This map features spectacular details like a waterfall
and a rotting rope bridge over an Amazon gorge.
8. Arctic
Ice Base - Rainbow must advance on a camp controlled by
terrorists, rescue hostages, and replace a vital electronic
component. Kevin Perry hints that this map features a blizzard
engulfing the conning tower of a submarine.
9. Nuclear
Missile Silo - Details about this map were first mentioned
in the Prima
COE preview. Rainbow must assault a nuclear missile silo
and neutralize all terrorists. With several different levels,
combining wide-open areas to small rooms where close-quarters
battle is fast and furious, this mission is a challenge.
The game engine for Covert Ops Essentials is based on the
same code as that used for the final patched version of Urban
Ops.
Unlike
the Eagle Watch and Urban Ops mission packs, there are no
new operatives, weapons, or kit items to be introduced in
the mission portion of Covert Ops.
The weapons used in the COE mission portion are the same
as those found in Rogue Spear. The weapons introduced in Urban
Ops (light machine guns etc.) are not available in COE.
Covert Ops comes with the "Custom Missions" feature introduced
in Urban Ops. Although Urban Ops introduced the new Defend
game type, there are no additional new game types in COE.
Both the Zone and MPlayer will have special rooms set aside
for the unique missions of Covert Ops. All nine missions are
fully single and multi-player capable.
If the player has Urban Operations already installed, Covert
Ops will appear as a mod.
Covert Ops will not ship with a map editor, but the editor
that shipped with Urban Operations will be perfectly usable
with the missions of Covert Ops.
How to use Urban Ops weapons in Covert Ops maps
When Covert Ops Essentials came out, I heard many fans bemoan the fact that COE comes with Rogue Spear's default weapons, and did not include the light machine guns and silenced AW Covert sniper rifle found in Urban Ops.
If you play the COE missions as a mod while running them under Urban Ops, the Urban Ops weapons will become available to you in both single player and multiplayer!
How exactly do you do this?
1. Make sure that the Covert Ops was installed in the "mod" folder (in c:\Program Files \Rogue Spear \mods) which should have been done by default anyway.
2. Fire up Urban Ops (NOT Covert Ops)
3. In the Main menu, click on "Options"
4. In the Options menu, click on "Mods"
5. Under the "Available Mods" column, select "Covert Operations" and click "Activate Mod"
6. Return to the Main menu
7. If you then chose "Single Player," then "Covert Operations" should now be an option under the "Game" column. Select this and you can play all the three COE "campaign" maps with the Urban Ops weapons!
8. If you want to play the COE "training" missions, then make sure you chose "Training" instead of Single Player.
9. To use the Urban Ops weapons when playing multiplayer COE, then everyone you play with must have Covert Ops activated as a mod while running the Urban Ops executable.
GamersEd's interview
with Kevin Perry, Covert Ops Producer (July 6, 2000)
TacSim's interview
with Kevin Perry, Covert Ops Producer (July 7, 2000)
SimHQ's interview
with Kevin Perry, Covert Ops Producer (July 11, 2000)
RogueSpear.org's interview
with Paul Schuytema, COE project leader (July 27, 2000)
Tucow's interview
with Kevin Perry, Covert Ops Producer (August 2, 2000)
GameSpy's interview
with Paul Schuytema, COE project leader (September 28, 2000)
CNET Gamecenter's
article
about RSE & Zombie (April 13, 2000)
3d Retreat's Covert
Ops preview (May 31, 2000)
Pie's Tactics Covert
Ops preview (June 16, 2000)
Prima Game's COE
preview (Jul 21, 2000)
IGN.PC's Covert
Ops preview (Aug 3, 2000)
SimHQ's
Covert
Ops review
TacSim's
COE
interactive guide screenshots.
RS-R Screenshot
Section
COE is a
stand-alone product and does not need a copy of Rainbow Six or
Rogue Spear to run.
OS: Windows 95 or later with DirectX 6.0 or better installed
Without Hardware Acceleration: Pentium II 266 or equivalent
With Hardware Acceleration: Pentium 233 MMX or equivalent
RAM: 32MB minimum
2D Video: 16-bit SVGA or better
3D Video: 4MB or better Direct3D compatible card recommended
Audio: Sound Blaster 16 or compatible
Hard Disk: 300MB for the Training Disc, and up to 300MB for the
Missions disc (less if RS/UO is already installed)
CD-ROM: 4x or faster
Network Play: Properly configured low-latency TCP/IP connection
(28.8 kbps or faster)
Input Devices: Mouse and keyboard
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