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| Interview:: |
Questions
with, Steve Cotton, John Sonedecker, and John Michel, 3 RSE
level designers who designed maps for Covert Ops Essentials.
[ Steve
Cotton | John
Sonedecker | John
Michel ]
Jungle Map - Steve Cotton
| 1.
Steve, introduce yourself and give us a little briefing
on your map. |
Steve
Cotton -
I started on Rainbow Six as a level designer and, along
with Tim Alexander, created some of the first prototype levels
for the original game (Congo and Wonderworld). The result of
the next 3 ½ years at Red Storm has been the Rainbow Six
franchise, which I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of
all the way! Just recently, I produced Urban Operations
but did not actually build any of the levels so after having
dropped level design after the Ruined City in Rogue Spear,
Covert Ops was a chance for me to get back to my artistic
roots. With the jungle map, the mandate for me was to build
the best Rainbow Six level ever! No pressure.....and
not that every level designer doesn’t try to do that with every
level they make, but sometimes we’re limited by story, time,
locals, etc. The jungle map was a chance for me to see what
I could do with the only limitation being the engine. The idea
of a jungle in a portal engine posed a difficult but intriguing
challenge for me which is why I was so excited to do it. Whether
I pulled it off or not…well, that’s up to the player!
| 2.
The maps contributed by RSE for Covert Operations Essentials
have been labeled by many as the best maps every put out
by RSE. How does that make you feel? |
Steve
Cotton -
It makes me feel like we accomplished our goal but conversely,
it means that our other maps could have been better. Basically,
I just want to continue to raise the bar for future Rainbow
Six titles and I’m glad we’ve done that with Covert Ops.
| 3.
The Jungle map does an extremely good job of providing
cover for players and offering sniping positions. Did
you ever fear that the map would be camped too much?
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Steve
Cotton -
Yes. I had a lot of fears with that map. Some people thought
the more foliage the better. Some less. It was VERY important
to me that not only did the level look good, but the gameplay
was NOT compromised because of the kind of map it was…I had
to weigh the feedback I got during early prototypes of the level
so that I didn’t make it too difficult or too easy for people
to be seen.
| 4.
What kind of tradeoffs had to be made between Single and
Multiplayer in the design of the Jungle map? |
Steve
Cotton -
Well, the most obvious is the amount of foliage. This wasn’t
supposed to feel like just a forest…this was a JUNGLE! And visually
I wanted the foliage to be thick enough to make you feel like
that’s what it was. What I quickly learned, however, is that
while objects (such as bushes, vines, etc.) that offer “visual”
occlusion work fine as cover in multiplayer because all the
players are at the same visual disadvantage, this does not pertain
to the AI. Unfortunately, because the vines and bushes are done
with transparency, the AI sees right through them like they’re
not even there, meaning they don’t serve as cover in a single
player game (as much as you would like to think they do ;).
Anyway, because of this I had to be conservative, without seeming
like it, on how much transparency I used.
| 5.
Were there any features that you wanted to incorporate
into the Jungle that you couldn't do because of time or
engine constraints? |
Steve
Cotton -
Sure, always...but that’s how we come up with new engine features
in the future. I think it’s obvious that our engine was not
designed to do outdoor environments, so trying to create one
is sometimes difficult, especially if it’s organic and ends
up looking like portalized rooms (which is what it is). For
the jungle, I wanted to have a mist on the ground in some places
and at the bottom of the ravine, I ended up doing some thick
fogging to simulate this effect. 3D sounds were very difficult
to get right for the waterfall because I wanted it to be loud,
and there are limitations with the effects. And most of all,
it would be nice if you could destroy the bridge…oh well, maybe
next engine.
| 6.
You were the producer for Urban Operations, what
lessons that were learned during the production of UO
were incorporated into Covert Ops? |
Steve
Cotton -
We learned to focus on the polish. Originally, we spent a lot
of our time trying to get the level right the first time, mostly
because of time constraints. Now, we are better at getting a
rough idea of gameplay before we start to add detail to the
level. This has helped increase the quality of both the look
and play of all the levels!
Interview conducted by: Snicker
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