STACK NZ Mar #60

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Whether it is the heavy throb of an M60, the roar of an exploding Stinger, or the rapid crack of a an AK47, the weapon audio in the Battlefield franchise has always eclipsed its competitors. Battlefield Hardline heads to the JB shelves this month, and we spoke with lead multiplayer designer Thad Sasser about capturing the bang. Lethal weapons

weapon balance? Do you use a specific formula? We start with a general philosophy that guides us in our decision making – it’s important to have constraints that players can understand. For example, this class of weapons is the best at THIS specific job, that class of weapons does a different job, etc. This is easy to understand when you compare extreme roles like sniper vs. shotgun, for example – but it’s more granular, and you get into weapon roles like SMG vs. carbine, where the differences are smaller but still noticeable. A good way to start thinking about initial balance is that there is an “archetype” for each weapon class. We develop that archetype first, and then all weapons of that class diverge from that baseline. This allows us to tune more quickly and easily than having everything all

How many guns will feature in Battlefield Hardline ? Battlefield Hardline has over 50 firearms featured at release. This includes a number of awesome new additions that match the cops and robbers flavor of Hardline . What's the selection criteria in terms of weapons for a game like Battlefield Hardline ? How do you determine what guns will be used in the game? That’s a good question! One thing we look at is – does this weapon fit the setting? Things like super-rare and hard-to-come-by fully automatic Chinese weapons are not likely to be used by US police forces, for example. Another factor is the job of the weapon – we don’t want a lot of weapons that all do the same thing. We also consider appearance: does this weapon look exactly like the other weapons we have in the

game? If so, its value is somewhat lower; most players don’t want 20 variants of the AR-15 in the game, even if it’s realistic. A final factor is the fan popularity of weapons – if the players love weapon X, Y, or Z, and it fits the other criteria, it becomes much more important to put in the game.

What considerations are taken in terms of

MARCH 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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