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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 Urban Ops.
As the add-on pack to the award-winning Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear,
Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear Mission Pack: Urban Operations is a
counter-terrorist team's worst nightmare: an urban setting. RAINBOW now faces
its most dangerous missions ever with every stray bullet putting innocent lives
at risk. Due to the public nature of these missions, the secrecy of the RAINBOW
organization is also at stake as the team fights against the most deadly
terrorists the world has ever seen. Luckily, John Clark and newly appointed
intelligence officer Kevin Sweeney will guide the team through these intense
situations. Experience the most dangerous missions RAINBOW has ever faced ... once
again, the world depends on you.
Primary Features
Five action-packed new maps located in famous cities around the world
Five classic levels from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Eight new multiplayer spaces that can also be played as single player using six different game types
New weapon type: The light machine gun
New game type: Defend
New Custom Mission option for increased replayablility
New reward system that tracks and awards you medals depending on difficulty setting
Red Storm releases the v2.51 beta patch to fix several issues with Urban Operations. Read about all the proposed fixes and
download the patch here.
May 25, 2000:
Kama Entertainment, the distributor of Red Storm products in South Korea, releases a special Korean edition of Urban Operations. Kama
officially obtained a license from RSE to develop two exclusive maps that will only appear in the Korean version of UO. The maps are the Seoul City Hall subway station and a Korean soccer stadium. There are
also two new operatives, both South Korean: a female sniper (Lee, Yoon-Jung) and a male assault (Kim, Jae-Ho); and one new weapon
(the K-2 Republic of Korea assault rifle). The official Kama Urban Ops site has screenshots of the new levels.
It is very unlikely that these two exclusive Korean maps will be officially distributed outside of South Korea.
May 4, 2000:
Travis Getz, Lead Artist for Urban Ops, personally provides some tactical tips for the Chemical Compound map he designed.
The tip appears at Pie's Tactics at this direct link here.
April 5, 2000:
Urban Operations hits the store shelves in the US and Canada one full week before the originally announced release date of April 12, 2000.
April 4, 2000:
The RS Retreat publishes a three-part
interview with Travis Getz, Urban Ops Lead Artist. This in-depth interview focuses on the creative
process behind Urban Ops, and also gives an insider's look on what it takes to be a lead
artist in the game industry.
March 31, 2000:
John "Spoons" Sponauer of SimHQ brings us a fantastic
interview with Gary Stelmack, RSE QA Analyst. He also lets us in on news that
the Urban Ops intro movie features the Rainbow team arriving in a MH-60 helicopter!
March 23, 2000:
IGN64 releases what we at the RS Retreat later find out is a
promotional video to showcase proposed
future technology to develop video games. Created by Nintendo 64 developer Saffire,
this Quicktime 4 movie features Rainbow in action inside a subway station similar
to a scenario that occurs in Urban Ops.
March 22, 2000:
Prima Games has posts their preview
of Urban Ops. Prima announces that they will be publishing a guide entitled Tom Clancy's
Rainbow Six Rogue Spear Platinum Edition: Prima's Official Strategy Guide which includes
strategies for the Urban Ops missions. This is the first hint that Urban Ops will likely be
combined with Rogue Spear in a bundle pack in the future similar to how the Rainbow Six Gold Pack included Eagle Watch.
March 13, 2000:
RSE's announces that Urban Ops has gone gold! This means the gold master version of Urban Ops has been sent for duplication and should be in stores on schedule.
March 9, 2000:
Travis Getz, Lead Artist for Urban Ops,
updated his designer log to cover a lot of interview type questions he is being asked. Questions covered include:
What does being Lead Artist involve?
Where did you work before you got into the gaming industry?
What will you be doing for the shouts and sounds of hostages/gangsters?
What is the story behind the tangos in the HK level that are dressed in green military fatigues?
March 8, 2000:
Joe Sauder, Lead Engineer for Urban Ops, updated his designer log to mention that proximity mines have been cut from the final version of Urban Ops: "One important decision that we've had to make, after doing this kind of testing,
is to remove proximity mines from the game. [...] Camping
is always a concern in multiplayer games, because it can grind down the flow of
gameplay to a halt. [...] With prox mines, you could simply put down a few of them,
and go hide in a corner somewhere. If you killed someone with your mine, you'd probably never know it, and it
sure wouldn't have been due to any skill on your part! Also, the person who got killed
was typically left with a rather frustrated feeling, since they were killed by this
automatic device, rather than by another player. So there you have it, prox mines are
history."
However, Joe says that sharp mod authors could easily add the proximity mines feature back in.
March 5, 2000:
With the introduction of light machine guns (LMGs) in Urban Ops, some fans are worried that these guns may be too powerful and upset the balance of the game. Gary Stelmack, Lead QA Analyst on UO, posted this in the RSE Forums: "That was one of our fears as well. So, when we were creating the statistics for them, we made sure that they performed well in their intended role (laying down fire from a stationary position to keep your opponents head down, while your buddy moves around with a SMG [submachine gun], for effective movement).
The result was that while moving, you spray bullets everywhere, but can lay down effective fire if you are stationary, crouched, and firing short bursts. We have a lot of people here playing it, and only a couple of people regularly take the LMG's. Many prefer the precision control you get with an assault rifle or SMG,
so we feel we have their in-game use balanced pretty well."
Greg Stelmack, Urban Ops Engineer, also shared a bit about the disadvantages of one of the new LMGs, the HK21E: "The only thing the 21E3 has going for it is lots of ammo. You can't get anything more than a short burst off before your reticule is HUGE, and it takes a second to settle down."
March 4, 2000:
Two very respected sim websites report they received the beta copy of Urban Ops to preview, and post screenshots and more first time info. SimHQ.com posts a
screenshot that reveals all eight of the available multiplayer maps, and CombatSim.com publishes a
preview that discusses improvements and bug fixes in Urban Ops.
A fourth previously unannounced weapon, the AW Covert sniper rifle, which is the first silenced sniper rifle in the Rainbow arsenal.
A reward system that keeps track of missions you've won and awards medals accordingly.
The inclusion of thunder in the weather effects.
Minimum hard drive space required for installing Urban Ops is 300MB.
February 26, 2000:
Gary Stelmack, QA Analyst at RSE, posted this in the RSE forums in response to concerns about whether or not there is any background story in Urban Ops: "There are full mission briefings for the missions. There is not a contiguous plotline however for the two campaigns we are providing [...] There is the Urban Operations Campaign, and the Classic Missions Campaign. The Classic Missions is not the full Rainbow Six campaign, but it is the 5 missions strung together in their proper order."
February 11, 2000:
Greg Stelmack hints about more eye candy in Urban Ops: "Flying brass [casings] was one of
the first things Joe [Sauder, Urban Ops engineer] got working for UO. It looks really cool, too ;-)"
February 7, 2000:
Greg Stelmack confirms that there is no Rogue Spear patch included in Urban Ops: "Urban Operations will be a separate executable much like Eagle Watch was. There is no patch being released inside Urban Operations for the original Rogue Spear, rather the fixes are going into the Urban Operations executable (along with all the other cool stuff in the mission pack). If you buy and install the mission pack, you still have Rogue Spear 2.05 and can play with non-mission pack people through it, or play with Urban Operations and get all the fixes and cool stuff."
"So no, the people who buy the mission pack are not getting a Rogue Spear patch in addition to their mission pack. There is no Rogue Spear patch. And that's what I mean in the explanation by the resources involved; to split the fixes out from all the Urban Operations features to build the separate patch [for RS] is not a small task. You will be able to play all Rogue Spear maps in Urban Operations in addition to all the new maps."
RSE officially announces Urban Operations in a press release which also confirms the mission pack release is April 2000.
December 29, 1999:
PC Gamer has announced the following Urban Ops facts in their Feb 2000 issue:
Urban Ops will now have proximity mines for multiplayer as well as single player.
Three new light machine guns are included in your arsenal: The HK21E, M249 SAW, and RPD.
Urban Ops will have a mission generator to further extend the game.
Terrorists will have the ability to throw grenades.
December 1, 1999:
RS Retreat has exclusive info from RSE about the first map of the five Rainbow Six maps being ported to the RS engine in Urban Ops: the R6 map is "Amazon"
November 8, 1999:
GameProWorld.com publishes exclusive screenshots
of Urban Ops concept art
November 5, 1999:
Pie4Foo of Pie's Tactics writes an
article about his visit to RSE headquarters and mentions the
existence of "Team Patton", the code-name for the development team of the yet unnamed Rogue Spear mission pack.
August 12, 1999:
The first mention of a mission pack for Rogue Spear is in an interview done by SimHQ with Carl Schnurr:
SimHQ: Can you tell us anything about plans for an add-on pack or mission disk to Rogue Spear? Carl Schnurr: Aztech is creating a mission pack for Rogue Spear which should be out around Christmas. Other than that, we still haven't really decided.
However, this third party developer, Aztech New Media, soon went bankrupt before they could produce an add-on pack for RS. (See CR6's commentary about this and add-on packs in general.)
Urban Ops will have a total of 20 maps (18 new maps plus 2 re-textured maps from Rogue Spear).
Here is a summary of what we know so far about the 18 new maps that will appear in the
Urban Ops mission pack. This is going to be one loaded add-on pack! Click on the location titles to see a representative screenshot of each location.
A. New Single Player Missions - The missions in the new Urban Ops single player campaign will occur in the following order:
1. Istanbul (Turkish Bazaar) - The Feb 2000 issue of PC Gamer originally reported that "Cairo" was to be a location of one of the new maps. However, it appears that this Street Bazaar location actually takes place in Istanbul.
2. London (Subway Station) - We originally figured out the location of this map when a couple astute readers confirmed to us that they had been in a London Underground subway station similar in appearance to the one seen in the screenshot.
3. Venice (Canals of Venice) - This was the last new map that was finally revealed in the GamesMania preview.
4. Mexico City (Warehouse District) - This level was one of the first revealed in PC Gamer magazine.
5. Hong Kong (Hotel & Crashed Bus) - Steve Cotton, producer for Urban Ops, told PC Gamer in their Feb 2000 issue that "Terrorists have smashed a bus into the front of a hotel lobby in Hong Kong [...] and you have to storm the hotel through the crashed bus!"
B. New Multiplayer Spaces - These maps can also be played as single player
using six different game types (Assault, Hostage Rescue, Recon, Terrorist Hunt, Lone Wolf, Defend).
1. Bunkers - This map was originally included in the RS v2.04 patch, but the Urban Ops version appears to take place
at night!
2. Chemical Compound - A medium sized daytime map that takes place in winter.
3. Graveyard - This is a night map with adverse weather conditions - rain and thunder. Night vision (something not often used in previous multiplayer maps) seems to be a critical part of gameplay here.
4. Old Train Tracks - This is an outdoor map very reminiscent of Road Ambush in R6. "Road" fans can rejoice!
5. Snow Base - This is another winter map, but unlike Chemical Compound, it takes place at night instead. It is similar to Rogue Spear's Siberian Base II, but only about half the size.
7. Training Maze - A small indoor map which should be good for close quarters battle with a small number of players.
8. Underwater Habitat - An intriguing environment set in a sub-surface laboratory. Check out the screenshot for a picture of the mini-sub!
NOTE: Urban Ops also includes two older multiplayer maps from Rogue Spear which have been re-textured to occur at night. They are City Street Large
and Killhouse Double.
C. Classic Rainbow Six Maps Ported to the RS Engine - These maps give fans the opportunity to experience five of the original Rainbow Six levels with Rogue Spear's weapons and gameplay dynamics.
These "classic" maps can be played contiguously as a single player campaign.
1. Hacienda - This map has been modified from the original R6 incarnation to
feature a rock ledge that overlooks the front gate (perfect for sniping). There is also a tunnel that players can run down through from the top of the rock face, and it exits near the wood shed outside of the main Hacienda building.
2. Bio Lab - Now called "Hotzone" in multiplayer Urban Ops.
Following in the footsteps of Rogue Spear's introduction of the sniper rifle, Urban Ops is introducing a new class of weaponry for Rainbow to use: the light machine gun.
It's intended role is for laying down suppressive fire from a stationary position to the enemy at bay, while your teammates move forward with their submachine guns and assault rifles.
Click on the links to find out the real-life specs of each of these four new weapons featured in Urban Ops:
M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) - This US Army developed weapon was issued as a one-for-one replacement for
the designated "automatic rifle" (M16A1) in the 1980's. In this regard, the SAW filled the void created by the retirement of the
Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) during the 1950s because interim automatic weapons (e.g. M-14E2/M16A1) had failed as
viable "base of fire" weapons. Currently, the M249 SAW is used as a support weapon complementing the M16A2/M4 (which is
still the primary assault rifle in the US Army).
HK21E - The HK21E is Heckler & Koch's mainstay belt fed machine gun. It has undergone several product improvements over
the past 35 years. It began life as the HK21, then the HK21A1, and now the current HK21E where "E" stands simply for Export. Here's another link with more pics and info.
RPD - This Russian squad level support machine gun is an older version of the RPK (Ruchnoi Pulement Kalashnikova)
featured in this link. It appears that Red Storm decided to go with the older weapon as it's likely easier for terrorists to get a hold of.
AW Covert - This is not a light machine gun, but rather a sniper rifle.
It will serve as the only suppressed sniper rifle in Rainbow's arsenal. The AW Covert is manufactured by Accuracy International, and is
essentially an AWS with a folding stock. The AWS is specifically designed for use with subsonic ammunition and is fitted with a special barrel and an integral suppressor
Under the Custom Mission menu, you can
chose to play each of Urban Op's 18 levels six different ways. The
opportunities for replayablility with this game are incredible. You could
play it for months and not do the same mission twice! The following are the six game types available
with descriptions by Gary and Greg Stelmack:
Assault - This is a simple straight forward assault. There are no hostages to worry about, but the terrorists are waiting for you.
Hostage Rescue - The terrorists have taken hostages, and you must get them out safely.
Recon - This is where you must complete an objective, or objectives without being detected.
Terrorist Hunt - You (and your team, if you like) must neutralize all the terrorists on a given level.
Lone Wolf - You must take a single operative from the insertion zone to the extraction zone.
Defend - The newest game type introduced in Urban Ops. This can be played as multiplayer co-op or single player solo.
Defend is where you are in a specific location, and the terrorists are coming after you. You must prevent them from completing a specific task.
This is what Steve Cotton, Producer of Urban Ops, has to say about the Custom Mission section: "The Custom Mission section dynamically searches the player's Rogue Spear directory
for any legitimate mission files & then lists them according to game type. There are
6 types now with different extensions for each so they can be categorized easily.
What this does for mod makers is make it very easy to implement & distribute new
missions to anyone with Urban Operations to play in this new section. It also contains
with it a reward system that keeps track of which mission you've won & on what
difficulty setting. The more missions you win, the more medals you get, letting your
friends that happen to catch a glance of your screen know exactly how good you are
... consequently, I hope you never see my screen."
Requires a copy of Rogue Spear
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 Video: 16-bit SVGA or
better Audio: Sound Blaster 16 or compatible 3D Video: Direct 3D
acceleration recommended Hard Disk: 300MB free required CD-ROM: 4x or faster Network Play: TCP/IP connection 28.8 kbps or faster, 500
ms latency or less Input Devices: Mouse and keyboard
