» Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:49 pm BRINK is a new IP being developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda, and is scheduled for a Spring 2011 release. It is being developed for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 separately – no ports. I have gathered info based on various videos, articles and forums posts, and have compiled a list of information on the game. I will add to it as I discover more. As of E3 2010, the game is still in alpha.
NOTE: Do not take everything in this thread as 100% accurate. I am simply taking various sources of info and compiling them all into one. I have tried to provide the most accurate information possible, but the game is still in development, and anything can happen. Use this compendium to get an idea of what the game is about and how it play out. If the final version of the game differs from what I have listed here, don't point the finger at me and call me liar, and don't say I didn't warn you.
In an attempt to stop people from clogging up the forum with endless polls, sgt deacon has put together a sort of be-all end-all for polls, entitled "The Poll to End All Polls." It is a compilation of all the poll questions people have asked, and some new ones, all comprised into one. So before you post a new poll, check this one out first, and fill it out regardless - the info will be helpful for the community. https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDdWOGlGNG9VV1FrY0tRcTJhTmlEY2c6MQ
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
I. STORY
Ia. Factions
II. GAMEPLAY
IIa. Gameplay videos
IIb. Freedom of Movement
IIc. Command Posts
IId. Objective Wheel
IIe. Matchmaking
IIf. Spawn System
III. CLASSES
IV. CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION
IVa. Body Types
IVb. XP and Abilities
V. WEAPON INFO
Va. Weapon Customization
I. STORY:
Brink takes place on the Ark. Built in the near-future as part of a contemporary green vision, the Ark was a model for sustainable living. The massive man-made floating city became a home to the scientists and thinkers focused on making the vision a reality, while its wealthy patrons built a recreational paradise.
But soon the threat of a global environmental crisis became real: glaciers melted, sea levels rose, and the very survival of humanity was threatened. Thousands from around the globe fled to the Ark as a last hope. Refugees clung to survival however they could, while the original founders and their descendants struggled to maintain the island.
Now, existing in 2045, A whole generation has grown up on the Ark, and while it was originally supposed to house around 5,000 people, it now houses around 50,000. Now, the Ark has lost contact with what remained of the mainland and exists in total isolation. As the Ark's supposedly renewable resources dwindle, the balance of power threatens to unravel and throw competing social factions into a horrific conflict.
With tensions growing, Security and Resistance forces are locked in a heated battle for control of the Ark. Which side will you choose?
Ia. Factions:
SECURITY: PROTECT THE ARK
Back when the Ark was a floating five star eco-resort and R&D eco-science park, it only needed a small corporate Security team to perform risk management and VIP protection duties. But as the seas rose, and the trickle of refugees to the Ark became a flood, the Ark needed a police force and then an armed gendarmerie.
Ark Security has now expanded into a heavily armed counter-terrorism force. Most Security personnel have volunteered because they're convinced that for the Ark to survive it must have peaceful order and conserve its remaining resources. And the extra water ration comes in useful too. Resistance provocations have forced Security to clamp down on Guest unrest, which has lead to the Ark teetering on the brink of outright revolt.
RESISTANCE: FIGHT FOR THE ARK
When the seas rose and coastal nations fell into panic, boatloads of refugees fought to find the Ark's secret location mid-ocean - only the lucky ones survived the trek. Initially, they were happy to have survived and gratefully accepted the cramped temporary housing, water rationing and dangerous maintenance jobs. But as the years passed, and conditions worsened, the Ark's new "Guests" came to question the status quo.
Are the Ark's Founders really doing all they can to re-establish contact with the outside world? Why are only the Guests on rationed water? If their work keeps the Ark afloat, why are they second class citizens? The Resistance formed from those sick and tired of being the Founders' captive workforce; they want equal water rations for all, and to use the Ark's dwindling resources to reach whatever's left of the World. Growing Guest unrest has led to Security crackdowns, which have brought the Ark to the brink of civil war.
- The Ark is pretty much split in half. The Security represents the Founders to the north and the Resistance are from the south.
- Splash Damage has a great multi-ethnic, multi-national team of guys, and many moons ago, Olivier (our art director) sent an email to the team asking for cool slang phrases in everyone's native tongues that we could scatter all over the place in Ark as graffiti and whatnot (to give the game a real 'international' flavour).
II. GAMEPLAY:
You choose one of two factions, the Resistance or the Security, and work as a team to complete objectives. Each faction has its own Campaign. There is no ‘Single Player’ or ‘Multiplayer’ option. It’s all integrated into a single mode – you just choose how you wish to play it. Brink also features RPG elements, such as character customization, xp, gaining levels, and purchasing both gameplay mechanics, like skills and upgrades and cosmetic things, like new outfits and tattoos for your character.
In every Brink mission, you’re a member of an eight-man team, tasked with doing a wide variety of military objectives (rescue, search and destroy, infiltration, you name it, the list goes on and on). If you play by yourself, you’ve got seven AI buddies who are all capable of making their own decisions and doing every single action you can do. If your friends come online and want to join you mid-mission, they can jump in and replace one of those AI squaddies with their own custom character - and bang you’re playing co-op. And yes, this means you can have a full eight man co-op session. You’re all tied together through a dynamic mission system that automates communication and keeps everyone working towards the same goal.
Brink is all about class-based, team objective gameplay. This is true whether you play campaign or freeplay; the game is always class-based objective. There is no Death Match, Team Deathmatch, CTF, Capture and Hold, King of the Hill, or any other "traditional" gametype. Although there are none of these modes, elements of all these gametypes will be present in Brink. Here is what a dev said on a forum.:
"There are CTF-like mechanics in some places of Brink, but we won't ever do 'pure' CTF because it'd be like taking a step backwards from what we're trying to do."
- Brink is using a highly modified version of the idTech4 engine.
-The storyline in Brink spread over about a week and a half, and during that time, there'll be day time and night time missions. but you're never on any one mission long enough for the sun to set or rise...So yes, day and night missions are in, but not real-time transitions.
- From the E3 demo, the choices on the Main Menu are Campaign, Freeplay, Challenges, Characters & Weapons, Dossier, Downloadable Content and Friends.
- The game features a campaign mode where you can play through missions and progress through the story or you can just play individual matches the way you want, without worrying about a campaign.
- If you’re playing Brink in Free Play mode, you can change your faction freely at any point and effectively become part of the “enemy” team.
- There is also a 'Stopwatch' mode, where you play the same objective based maps, but whatever time Team A beats a map in, Team B will have to beat that time.
- Each mode can be played entirely online 8v8, meaning that your campaign will be played against real people who are playing their version of the campaign against you.
- If you are at a point in your campaign, (online) and you lose the battle, you will be reconnected to a new server with players at the same part as you and you can try again, while the winners remain to fight the next battle. I guess you can think of it as, “Losers walk.”
- I heard something about support for less than 8v8 matches.
- If you think of it purely as a solo game and you’re not going to replay any of it and you only play through both of the storylines, you’re looking at about ten hours plus of gameplay.
- If you're playing solo, you'll see the same guys in the opening and closing cutscenes. If you're online, the guys in the cutscenes will actually be the characters of the people you'll be playing with.
- You should be able to turn Head bob on/off on both PC and console
- Global voice chat/VOIP is turned off by default, meaning the only voices you hear in-game are from NPC’s and your friends. You can toggle it on if you wish.
- Paul mentioned briefly that you could peek over the tops of objects, so “leaning” may not be limited to just left and right.
- Auto balance will be implemented. If there is only 2 human players on your team, the rest will be filled with bots. Of course, you can disable this feature and have only human players present.
- On certain maps, the game will randomly choose a player and, will say to them something like, “We just intercepted enemy intel. Get to it and bring it back to us!” There will then be an intel piece (kinda like a collectable) spawned in a random location on the map, and if you collect it, you will grant your team a global bonus.
- Levels will feature various interactive objects such as terminals and computers, all of which work faster when multiple people work together to activate them.
- There is a level cap and you will not be able to max out your level on one play so the game also offers a lot of replay value.
- Splitscreen is NOT supported.
- The intention for the HUD is that everything turns off, and it only turns on when you need to know about important information, so much of the time it will just be you and your crosshair. As and when you need to know things, they pop up. You can also go into options and you can change… components and stuff as well.
“Right now in game, we do friendly HUD indicators, and enemy indicators, but the enemy indicators *only* appear when you're directly aiming at them, and you have line-of-sight to them (not when they just happen to be within the bounds of the screen. So far in our playtests there hasn't any problem with positions being unfairly revealed, since if you aren't already trying to shoot at them, they have no HUD indicator at all, so you still have to keep an eye peeled.”
- While you’re going through either of these campaigns, you can jump around in the storyline at any time, however you want, and even jump campaigns if you prefer. We don’t tell you how to play the game; you make your own rules.
- The enemy indicator is basically just the class icon, so if all else fails, you can still tell where the engineer is in the mob who's trying to repair the core objective.
- Brink features soft collision, which means you don't slow down moving through something, but if you try to stop 'inside' it, you get pushed out slowly. This applies to players and player-laced objects like turrets.
- Player names and health bars are displayed above their heads; Green bars for friendlies and red for enemies. For friendlies, the names/health bars were visible even if the player wasn’t, acting like a marker so you know where they are.
- HUD Layout - The health bar is in the top left, weapon/ammo display is in the bottom right with the minimap next to it. Your tools/abilities are displayed in a circle in the bottom left, (representing the D-pad) with your ability/power bar ‘pips’ surrounding them, and the time remaining in the match (which seemed to get boosted when an objective was completed) is in the top right, along with objective progress bars.
- The health bar looks like a standard health bar cut into sections, with the first section being the longest; this represents initial health bar and is what you will regen when damaged. The smaller bars after it seem to represent bonus health, based on Body type, health buffs, etc. These can only be restored via a Medic.
- A server setting to disable ironsights, is on the “to do list.”
- Smaller teams than 8v8 are said to be supported
- Brink will feature the ‘stand in bot’ function like Left 4 Dead has, where you can go idle at any time and let AI temporarily take over your character for you. This can be done in any mode (solo, co-op or multiplayer). However, you will not earn XP during this.
- Controls will be modeled closely to Call of Duty controls by default, but fully customizable controls should be available.
- Some options for controls are:
Invert Up/Down Aiming
On/Off
Aim Sensitivity (Vertical)
X degrees/second
Aim Sensitivity (Horizontal)
X degrees/second
Aim Acceleration (Vertical)
Low, Medium, High
Aim Acceleration (Horizontal)
Low, Medium, High
Aim Assistance Factor
Crouch Hold/Toggle
IronSight Hold/Toggle
Forum Post from Locki (Wedgwood) addressing AI:
“Hello from E3!
Enemy use of SMART is based on difficulty level. When ramped up, the AI use all the routes you can (dependent on body type). In that video, the AI is on a lower level. We've had some great hardcoe shooter guys playing on 'hard' at the stand in full co-op and they agreed it's super challenging (you have to use awesome tactics to outsmart them)
I was not playing skinny in that video (you can move much faster as Skinny, and wall hop etc).”
Quotes from Richard Ham and Ed Stern:
“AI is capable of doing literally every action that you can, which makes for much more exciting and dynamic gameplay. Not only are the enemies more ruthless and surprising, but your teammates are more self reliant and useful. In Brink, you won’t have to babysit your AI squad mates and make sure they do their jobs. Actually, if you’re not doing well, they’ll babysit you!”
- Richard Ham, Creative Director for Splash Damage
“Our AI players are very, VERY good. In fact, several times we’ve had people not realize that they are playing the AI players, and these are quite hardened journalists. They become very angry, it’s very funny… So we can guarantee good teammates.”
- Ed Stern, Senior Designer for Splash Damage
Info on leaderboards, stats and voice chat from Richard Ham:
“I'm really sensitive to the dangers of introducing things in the game that people can obsess over, to the point of ruining the game for others, and we're very careful to identify and avoid them. For instance, global leaderboards for stuff like k/d ratios and what not: bad idea, since they disccourage players from taking chances and actually doing what's necessary to help. So bam! Not having them. I know other games do, and they're kind of standard, but screw it, not the right thing for Brink.
Same is true for XP. In any case where it introduces whoring behavior, it needs to change. I'll give you an example. One of our many types of objectives (ET fans will recognize this) is the classic "take the (thing) from X to Y". So we did have it set up such that while you're carrying it from X to Y, you're earning XP, because you're doing a good job and helping your team. And it's a nice feeling, seeing the XP accure as your rush along towards your goal. But obviously, that lead to "hmm, I think I'll hide in a corner for awhile and let the XP rack up for awhile, and then deliver it", which was bad. And so we changed it to the much more reasonable "you get your XP when you've successfully delivered it, and the faster you did so, the more you'll earn". So people who really want the XP are encouraged to deliver the thing as quickly as possible.”
Someone on the SD forums suggested this -
“Just have one stat, games won, must have been on winning team 50% of time in.”
to which he replied -
“My worry about even that stat is it can encourage team hopping and whatnot. global stat leaderboards for team-based multiplayer = evil.”
- As for quitters, the base thing brink does is allow bots to fill in and auto-balance the teams. note, this is in 'standard' matches... there are server options to turn this off though...(Those 'server options' may only apply to PC)
VOIP
"First of all, a little more about the 'default' voip setting. This is effectively a server setting in our 'standard' match, which is what the game puts you in if you simply say "I’d like to play the next mission in my storyline online, please." Same as no FF. so players who just want to jump in and play online with no hassles, they choose the "next mission" option, and boom, they don't hear anyone calling them f******, they don't have **** shooting them in the back, and they have a good time. Are they missing some of what makes multiplayer great? Yes, but they're having a good time.
for pretty much (all PC players), I suspect that simple "take me to the next mission" option will not be good enough, and you'll all instead opt for the "take me to a server browser" choice. once there, you can find missions where voip is on by default (for everyone), FF is on, player ranks are restricted or open, high level abilities are allowed or disallowed, etc.
I expect the majority of console players will opt for the former (the standard 'friendly' matches), and the majority of PC players will opt for the later (the let me play the game without restrictions, I’m a big boy, I can handle it matches). So hopefully everyone will be satisfied...
Regarding voip, I feel this is a better way to go, because doing the other thing (allowing individuals to selectively turn voip on or off) works at a disadvantage to everyone, including the players who want to speak. What good does it do you to talk into your mike and give strategy/tips, if, for all you know, half your team has manually decided to turn voip off. you might think a player is a complete asshat by ignoring your repeated requests for ammo, but in fact, it's just that they've turned voip off because someone called them a n***** in the past, so they don't take chances anymore. and they have no idea you're asking for ammo.
a weird system where "maybe" sometimes people talk, and "maybe" sometimes other people can hear them, but no one is every sure about either, doesn't help anyone. a more strict system where everyone knows that either a) no one is talking or hearing, or B) everyone can talk and everyone can hear, and letting players gravitate to the choice they prefer, strikes me as a bit clearer all around.
and if you opt for the "I’d prefer not to be called a m*********** again, thanks" server option, you can still team play because our auto-pvssyr system automatically says 90% of the common stuff players say to each other anyway. and for the 10% that it can't cover, you can either a) step up to the 'non-standard' servers, or B) open up local voice channels with just the people you want to talk to."
IIa. GAMEPLAY VIDEOS:
Brink Introductory Airport Walkthrough (PC footage - pre-alpha)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z4QJoMVCPQ&feature=channel
Container City Gameplay - Parts 1, 2 and 3 (PC footage - pre-alpha)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmKZchM0AiE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T--G56pv-3U&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UWtGCsd_SI&feature=channel
Brink Character Customization video (PC footage - pre-alpha)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLOhOBfB3g8
Brink “Freedom of Movement” video (PC footage - pre-alpha)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGBUssSP0g0
E3 2010 Demo (PS3 footage - alpha)
http://www.youtube.com/user/machinima#p/search/6/LDPc-6SrfQI
Brink Cinematic Trailer (non-gameplay)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-kVnw4RA80&fmt=22&annotation_id=annotation_160344&feature=iv
IIb. FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT:
Brink introduces a revolutionary interpretive movement system we call SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain). SMART dynamically evaluates where you're trying to get to or what you're trying to do, and makes it happen: vaulting, mantling, climbing, sliding, and even seeking cover. This means you make the tactical decisions of where to move and the route to take, the system helps you do it in the coolest way possible.
- The SMART button is actually a very simple concept. You hold it down, and that means you’re signaling to the game that you don’t want to get stuck on anything. If something gets in your way, you will climb over it, slide under it, or smash through it (in the case of enemy players).
- Some actions the SMART system will do is sliding, wall hopping, mantling, vaulting and sliding to break a fall.
- Slide is basically hitting the crouch button while sprinting. You can spam them like crazy, but on the whole, you'll end up being a little slower that just sprinting normally. It's really there as a defensive maneuver (smaller low target), to get under low things, and as a melee attack...don't worry. it does no damage at all, and i don't think anyone would complain of it being overpowered. It’s part of the broader melee package that's I’m (Rahdo) not supposed to talk about but which has a very different approach than the standard shooter fare. I imagine there'll be stuff revealed about it in the new year.
(I'm assuming it will knockdown/stun an opponent, or something similar)
- Body types will determine what obstacles you can get past. If you’re a big strong guy, you can use SMART to climb over things that basically come to waist height. If you’re a medium, you can get over stuff easily that comes to eyeball height. And if you’re a little guy, you can climb up stuff way above eyeball height. Remember, we’re a first-person shooter, so I tend to think in terms of what you can see onscreen. So the type of character you are really effects what the SMART button allows.
- They incorporated other aspects into the system, like if you're climbing over a wall, you'll be able to fire your weapon once you have a free hand, although accuracy will be compromised as a result. The system also takes into account velocity when deciding how to overcome obstacles.
- The level designer’s didn’t set up specific spots for players to use mantles, vaults and slides – the system simply pre-calculates where they’re possible.
- The SMART button also works as a sprint button.
- To do the really tricky stuff, you will need to do things manually and use the SMART button.
- Mantles (wall climbs) are relatively quick and can be broken out of to chain into wall hops.
- The intent is for upward transitions to be faster than dropping ones - if you drop into a mantle it's typically a fingertip, last moment grab, and shouldn't really be as fast as a mantle where you ramp up into the move - you haven't taken it with a good setup, so it's going to be slower. But no mantle is more than about 1.5s the last time I checked...Bear in mind that even during a mantle (or vault, or slide) you can turn and fire - your view is never locked into a cone or anything like that. You can defend yourself. You can also break out of the mantle by pulling away from it. However, there is always going to be some implicit tradeoff between moving and shooting, but we've worked hard to mitigate this so that the SMART system doesn't feel like it's getting in the way of the combat.
"Our game, again, it takes into account your velocity. If you walk up to it, stop, and hit jump and push forward, you'll just jump and step up onto it. If I jump towards it and hit jump, it'll do a step up. Instead of jumping it'll just lift my feet up and my body goes up and I continue running, I don't lose velocity. But if I'm sprinting towards it and I hit jump, I actually vault and then slide across the table, coming off the other end and maintaining my velocity."
- Paul Wedgewood, CEO of Splash Damage
- S.M.A.R.T. is all about simplifying how you get across the battlefield, while still leaving you in control of your actions.
- SMART is completely optional. Everything that you can do with smart, can also be done manually using standard run, jump, and crouch buttons.
- Manually doing smart-button moves basically just means you're hitting crouch or jump yourself at the right time. for instance, if you want to climb up a wall, you can run at it with the smart button held, and you'll automatically scramble up and over it. but alternately you can run at it, hit the jump key and HOLD it, and you'll scramble up and over it as long as you keep jump held down (release jump and the climb stops)...the speed up comes from the fact that in the example mentioned above, if you relied on the smart button, nothing would happen until you get to the wall, and only then would you start climbing. in the manual jump example, because you chose to jump early, it gave you a little bit of extra height, which means you didn't have to climb as far (smart meant you started climbing from the ground, jump meant you started climbing from the air). it's not a huge difference, and in some cases, it's no difference at all. in really has the most impact when a well timed jump changes what would have been a a mantle (slower climb) into a vault (smoother hand planted throw yourself over an obstacle move).
If you are looking for good info on some of the inner workings of SMART, go here (it’s quite helpful): http://brink.chefenco.com/brink-developer-diary-4/http://brink.chefenco.com/brink-developer-diary-4/
IIc. COMMAND POSTS:
Command Posts are spread throughout the map, and are used to do such things as instantly change your class and weapon loadouts and refill your ammo. They utilize the radial menu system seen in other games. The menu system can also be used in the field as well, but is more used for choosing which objective to do. Using a Command Post doesn’t pause the game - you will still be vulnerable. Command Posts can be captured by you and your team, and can also be re-captured by the opposing faction.
- Some Command Posts will give boosts to team that controls them, like increased health or weapon damage, and they will stack when you capture more Command Posts. However, the enemy will be alerted when you capture a post, so be prepared to defend them.
- There’s even more to command posts. If your team has captured one, two of the classes (engineer and operative) have abilities (if they’ve leveled up and bought them) allowing them to modify it even further. An engineer can upgrade the command post so that it gives even stronger benefits to your whole team, and an operative can “firewall” it, so that it becomes much harder for enemies to steal it back.
IId. OBJECTIVE WHEEL:
You can hit ‘up’ on the d-pad to open up the radial menu. Using the objective wheel, you can always see your current primary objective. That objective will be driven dynamically based on real-time battlefield data, such as your class, condition and location, as well your teammates and the overall status of battle. As a result, you'll always know exactly where to go, what to do when you get there, and what your reward will be for success.
In addition to the primary objective, the mission wheel will dynamically offer you opportunities for other contextual goals and secondary objectives. As an Operative, turn enemy defenses against the opposing team by hacking their sentry guns. Or as an Engineer, upgrading a recently claimed command post may bolster your defensive position. So by completing secondary objectives you can give your team a competitive edge while earning additional experience points to level up your character.
The mission system exists for 2 reasons primarily:
1) level the playing field a little so that players who are new to a given map can still actively contribute to their team's success, even when playing with guys who know the map like the back of their hand
2) ensure quick and efficient communication between players.
the 2nd one is why you'd still have auto-pvssyr tied to mission selection. if I’m a medic, and you're incapacitated, if i select the mission to revive you, you automatically hear my character saying "hold on, medic inbound!". no one else hears it, but you do, and you need to hear that, so you know whether to tap out or wait for me. Same thing is true if you're out of ammo and I’m a soldier who's going to bring you more. it's true to a lesser extent for other intra-related team stuff, but it's always nice to know that some engineer is on his way to improve the power of your gun. you might even wait a second before charging the enemy, if you know the buff is coming.
The Objective Wheel in Brink tells you at a glance all the things you can be doing to help your team, so it’s very easy to find your way around, even if you’ve never played the game before. The Wheel also makes suggestions about what would be the best possible thing to do at that moment in time, even if that means changing your kit to another.
- Most missions have at least two to three primary objectives that must be completed by the attacking team.
- For secondary missions, it varies from level to level, but you’ve almost always got Command Posts to fight over, enemy intelligence to collect, shortcuts to open or close, and a few other surprises.
- There’s also all the standard kit-specific objectives you can get. And the more kit abilities you have the more possible objectives you unlock.
Mission system/Navigation arrow
It is very dynamic. If it tells you where to go, and you go a different way, it will course correct itself – it’s very intuitive. It reads everything. It knows what team you're on. It knows what body type you are. For example,
if it knows you're the heavy body type, it's not going to give you a route that uses the freedom of movement parkour style. It knows you can't make them. It's going to give you a ground route to go through there. If it knows you're agile, it'll say, oh wait, there is a way over here. Follow the arrow this way instead. It knows what class you are, so it'll only give you objectives you can actually do. Or, if there's no-one of the correct class on your team, it's going to bribe you and say, why not change class and do this and do the main objective? We'll give you loads of XP.
IIe. MATCHMAKING:
In Brink, players will be able to, at a glance, see where all their friends are and what they’re doing, and jump directly into their games. Once they’re together in a mission, they can opt to stick together so they won’t get split up to different teams or different servers.
Basically, when you’re playing through a campaign, when you’re about to start a new mission, there are two simple choices you can make:
1. do you want to play solo, co-op, or versus?
2. if online, do you want to play with just your friends, or with anyone?
You make that choice and then launch the mission. Depending on what you chose, the game will either
1. set a match up for you specifically that only your friends can get into, or it will
2. find a public match that gives you everything you need (an open slot on the faction you’re playing, a good ping, etc.),
3. or just let you play completely by yourself with no one else getting in except people you invite.
Also, on PC, for players who prefer the old school way of doing things, there’ll be traditional browsers to search for your favorite dedicated servers
- PC will be using STEAM and have full dedicated support, while console will be using standard peer-2-peer hosting.
- There will be server settings where you can change things such as:
VOIP on/off
FF on/off
Player ranks restricted/open
High level abilities allowed/disallowed
And others
- Whether these options will only be for PC server browsing or for console and PC, I’m not entirely sure.
IIf. SPAWN SYSTEM:
When you die, you remain in first-person view (unlike ET and QW) and a box appears on the bottom center of the screen. At the top of the box is the reinforcement counter (time left until you can respawn) and underneath that are 3 lines of text:
- The first line says “You’re now waiting for a Medic.” – this lets you know that you will not respawn until a Medic revives you (or an enemy players finishes you off)
- The second line says “Join the Reinforcements,” with a button icon next to it – pressing that button will cancel out waiting for a Medic, and you will respawn in the next wave. You can also make adjusts, like changing class and weapon loadouts, before you respawn.
- The last line tells you how many Medics are en route to your location.
- When you respawn, it'll be at your team's current spawn spot. as the map progresses and the attackers move forward/defenders fall back, new spawn zones are automatically chosen for the teams to keep them relatively close to the front line.
If a Medic makes it to your location and tosses you a revive needle, a new option appears that tells you which button to hit to revive yourself.
Note: The reinforcement counter constantly counts down. Once it reaches zero, it simply resets and repeats the process. This is important to know, because if you want to respawn and you don’t choose to before the timer hits zero, you will have to wait through another countdown. I heard them say the timer is at 20 second right now.
-All players waiting to respawn, will do so at the same time – when the timer hits zero.
- Spawn points are tied to which Command Posts you team controls (plus, a standard base spawn).
Spawn Camping:
Efforts are being taken to eliminate this looked down upon tactic from the game, as Richard Ham explains in this excerpt from a forum post.
"nope, spawn camping gets no bonuses. Arguably it should, since of course, it's a very powerful tactic to help your team win, but i don't want to reward [censored] behaviour...
(plus, we're putting in anti-spawn camping stuff anyway: indestructible spawn defensive turrets, and temp invincibility for the respawned, to keep spawn campers away and back in the actual fight)"
"our first line of defense against spawn camping, as you guys say, is level design. The turrets are only there to prevent enemies from literally standing 5 or 6 feet away from the actual spawn markers and opening fire the instant one respawns. They don't leech out "into the real map" (in fact, if you're just some new player who isn't familiar with the map and is wandering around, before you step into the potential line of fire of one of these turrets, you hear VO from your squad commander (AI) saying "you're in danger, get out of there!"
- Richard Ham, Creative Director at Splash Damage
III. CLASSES:
In Brink, one of the core components of your experience is the role you take on for your team. Each class is centered on a set of core skills, but the items and abilities you unlock with experience points allows you to specialize into unique directions, so no two Soldiers, two Operatives, two Engineers or two Medics will be exactly the same.
Perhaps you will create a well-rounded Soldier that can protect teammates, offer ammo upgrades and demolish objectives, or one that focuses on explosions with heavier detonations, wide areas of effect and a variety of grenades types. Your Engineer may forgo building defensive positions and focus on abilities that let him race ahead to cut off enemy routes with specialized mines. Or you may decide to invest in all-purpose upgrades that can be used no matter the class. The end result, combined with decisions made when customizing your character, is the flexibility to build the game experience you want to play.
- Visual recognition of classes seems to be done by using backpacks or something similar.
“We're experimenting with giving all the classes unique backpacks with really distinct profiles. jury's out on how well it works, but rest assured, it's very important that you know which enemy is the Medic, Engineer, Solider and Operative, so we'll find a way!”
Soldier:
Lead the charge to demolish objectives, specialize in grenades, and resupply your team.
- As they level up, Soldiers get more explosive weapons to use, as well as improve their ammo-giving skills, and can even specialize in shielding their teammates.
- Instead of just dropping ammo on the ground for teammates to pickup, you can actually toss ammo directly to a teammate.
- Soldiers can choose to specialize in grenades.
- One of the Soldier’s abilities is to shield another player. This basically attaches you to that player so that you're a turret moving with him. But when he takes damage, the damage applies to you.
- When Soldier plant charges for objectives, it is on specific spots, like in CoD, rather than anywhere on the objective like in previous SD games. This gives them an opportunity to do high quality animations... you can actually see when a Soldier is nearly done with a bomb plant. It also makes the game a bit more accessible for new players who are learning the ropes.
Medic:
Keep your squad in the fight, perform crucial revives, and bolster the defenses of nearby teammates. Medics heal for 100% health, so you won't need multiple medkits to heal a teammate. Also, I think they will revive with 100% also.
- There will now be core objectives that revolve around Medics, such as protecting NPC's
- Medics will be able to do missions like escorting civilians to safety, giving the entire team an XP bonus.
- The Medic gains on-the-spot self-resurrection so you don't have to return to the respawn point.
- Medics learn several new buffs they can give to teammates (and themselves), and become much better at keeping everyone alive and moving.
- Medics can toss health directly at a player, rather than just dropping them on the ground. This is very useful, since it helps eliminate Medics wasting medkits on the ground that teammates don’t pick up.
- Resurrection is consensual. Medics don't revive killed comrades, leaving them disoriented and vulnerable so enemy soldiers can re-farm them for XP. Instead, a Medic throws them a revival syringe. It's up to the killed player when to use the syringe.
Engineer:
Establish and defend tactical zones, deploy or repair objectives, and improve your team's weapons. - They can deploy multiple types of turrets, and can lay landmines.
- Can build and repair objectives
- Can defuse the soldiers HE charge
- Operative can hack things – Engineer’s can destroy the hack box that is on the objective.
- Can lay landmines
- Engineers improve their deployables, get better at upgrading weapons, and can alter Command Post bonuses.
- The main deployables in Brink are the turrets. Any Engineer can put down one turret in a location of their choosing; deploying a second turret removes the first.
- Engineers will not start out with turrets and mines. They will have to purchase them via the ability screen. Each will count as an active ability.
- Turrets are really best thought of as 'distractions.’ They generally don't get kills by themselves (unless someone's not paying attention at all), but they do make the enemy keep moving, to distract them for a few key seconds so you can surprise them.
(more on turrets)
- Turrets can miss fast-moving players, but smart Engineers will place them where evading is hard for opponents to manage.
- They have limited scanning both horizontally and vertically, and a limited range.
- When used tactically they are extremely powerful, and their raw lethality can be adjusted by how an Engineer chooses to spend their ability points.
Operative:
Hack enemy defenses and sentry guns, provide battlefield intelligence, and sneak behind enemy lines.
- Disguising as the enemy is an ability the Operative possesses. You take on your victims clothes and physique. So you look like you've become a skinny guy, but you haven't really, so it might be suspicious if you're a big guy who disguises yourself as a skinny, but then never actually do any skinny type activities...
(more info on disguises)
- The intension is that unless you're the person who is actually the victim of a disguise, there's no in game indication at all that the disguised guy is not who he seems. So you really have to rely on watching his behavior.
- You cannot be in the field of view of anyone else in order to take a disguise.
- You cannot fire any weapons, or you lose your disguise.
- Interrogating enemies will gain access to a 'radar' ability, which will display enemy players for a duration on your map. Right now, the team gets the effect for 10 seconds. This is very subject to change, of course, but on balance, 10 seconds seems to be a pretty good window to not make it overpowering. High level interrogations (obtainable by purchasing skills) will allow the Operative to see enemies through walls and other objects for a short time.
- Operatives get several unique death-dealing weapons, such as sticky bombs, which only Operatives can see. If they attach one to an enemy player, after 5 seconds, if they can’t find a teammate to remove it, it detonates and kills them.
- Ed says only Operatives can see sticky bombs, and when you equip them with the D-Pad, they take the place of grenades.
- Operatives can firewall Command Posts to protect them from the enemy.
- Hacking happens automatically after a device (hack box) is stuck to a computer, but it isn't as simple as holding down a button. After a hack is attempted, the Operative must wait for the process to unfold. After that, A handheld device tells him how long before the hack is complete, while a set of bars similar to a cellphone sits in the top corner of the screen, indicating how close he is to his target. The farther away he sits, the longer it takes for the hack attempt to finish. But the process can be sped up if the player lowers his weapon and opens up his PDA. This leaves you vulnerable to attack, but if others come and join with their own PDAs or to provide covering fire, you can progress much faster
Character buffing:
* Teammates can 'buff' one another. In the videos, you can see the option to do this.
* Engineers can increase your weapons damage
* Medics can increase your health
* Soldier can increase your ammo
* All this comes at a cost, of what they call 'pips'. You can buff yourself, but it costs more.
* It costs 2 pips to buff yourself, or 1 pip to buff a teammate
The Operative has no 'buffing' ability, but he can spot undercover enemy Operatives.
Clarification on 'pips' - Basically, our life meters and power meters aren't one solid bar, but a collection of individual 'pips'. so in the case of power, when you look at your meter, if you see it's 3 pips long, that means right now, you can do exactly three ****actions. and the life meter works like the one in Farcry 2 did, where it's split into pips, and each individual auto-pip can self heal, but to get a full heal of your entire meter, you need to rely on medics.
IV. CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION:
Brink's advanced player customization offers a near-endless combination of looks for your character. From clothing and accessories, to body type and voice pack, your character is not just another generic hero.
Practically everything on your character can be tailored to your own personal tastes.
Your base face
Skin color
Hair type
Hair color
Head gear
Head gear textures
Face gear
Face gear textures
Facial hair
Facial hair color
Face tattoos
Face paint
Shirt, jacket
Jacket texture
Jacket colors
Pants
Pants texture
Pants colors
Body type
Body tattoo
Voice accent
As you progress through the game and acquire more experience, you'll have even more opportunities for customization. Unlock class abilities and weapon attachments that let you complement your gameplay, or build a team of specialists with your friends or clanmates.
(quote on the customization) –
"It's incredibly deep for a first person shooter. You may have noticed, in a first person shooter, you can't really see yourself…so it's generally not something that's done where you get to choose outfits, blend different uppers and lowers and put on tattoos and apply scars and different types of headgear and hairstyles and apply different colors and textures and patterns and all that stuff. That's basically what you can do…"
-Richard Ham, Creative Director at Splash Damage
Over time you can build a look that fits your method of play, gamer personality, or personal style - allowing for the appearance of your character to be truly unique.
NOTE: When creating your character, some things are permanent, meaning you can not change them later. Richard Ham explains it:
"When you first create a character, you choose stuff about him that's permanent, which you can't change later (skin colour, voice, face, tattoos & scars). Afterwards, you get to choose two outfits for him: one that he'll wear when he's playing in a security team, and one when he's in a resistance team."
- You can create up to 16 characters.
- All of the customizations can be done during the cinematics. The menus are dynamic, similar to the menus on a Blu-Ray DVD, so you don’t need to wait for something to finish before you can set everything to exactly how you prefer. All of the menus are brilliantly simple.
- Resistance outfits can go shirtless, but Security always have at the very least a t-shirt on (to help visually differentiate the teams). And both teams have pants...
- Each faction has a color range that the other doesn't have (artists are still working out particulars). They were going to do a thing for automatic clan colors, but that had to be cut for time. But clans can still just coordinate on their own to make sure all their members match up.
- Each character will have a Security and Resistance setup, with separate customization options for each. When you are editing your character, you can press a button to edit the alternate version (Security or Resistance)
- Whenever you aren’t in the game, whether it be options, title screen, etc. your avatar will be displayed nice and big in the background for you to see and interact with.
- Tattoos are permanent, just like in real life.
- You will be able to choose from 8 different voice packs, and some Commander-only voices.
- If you create multiple characters, you can transfer XP from one character to another; so if your first character has a lot of extra XP and you want to level up a 2nd character really fast, just give him some XP from your first character.
“The choice was made to have higher quality character art with the compromise of slightly less options for customization. It's a fair trade off, I'd say. I think our characters are some of the best looking in the industry, and there's no way they'd be as high detail/high quality if they had to work for player being able to adjust cheekbones manually (in many of the games that offer that level of customization, they end up looking... not so good, IMHO). Same is true for colour and texture. The char artists are actually hand tweaking all the colour choices and such to make sure they look great. If they instead chose to support RGB colour wheels, they'd become a lot more homogenized.”
- Richard Ham, Creative Director at Splash Damage.
The character customization screen has changed DRASTICALLY since the first character customization video was released. It looks really slick and intuitive and looks to have a lot of choices to offer. It isn’t the typical "character on one side, customization menu on the other." The character (and weapon) are displayed in a 3D space; with like diagram markers pointing at specific parts (like jacket, hair, pants, etc) and when you choose a selection, it zooms in to where you clicked and opens up a even more options - (select the head and it breaks down into glasses, hair, hats, facial hair, etc.) Then each of those has a full color wheel that is unique, depending on which faction you are.
The way it is laid out really makes your character look “alive” rather than just a rotatable statue on screen that you can edit.
-Some new customization choices that was revealed:
Face Gear:
The Goggles
The Hockey Mask
Jacket:
The Boiler Suit
The Straps
The Voice
Other new customizations include Cowboy hats, ‘Civil War’ mustaches, and Yakuza tattoos.
Richard Ham talks about character customization options:
“There’s a ton of stuff you can customize. From top to bottom, the list would look something like facial archetype, skin tone, hair, hair color, head gear, head gear textures, face gear, face gear textures, facial hair, facial hair color, face tattoos, face paint, shirt, jacket, jacket texture, jacket colours, trousers, trouser texture, trouser colors, body type, and body tattoos. So there’s a lot, and then you have to double it because we’ve got options for each of those in our two different factions: Security and Resistance. We expect players will have a lot of customization to play with, especially once they’ve unlocked all the options.”
Paul Wedgwood talks about weapon customization:
“You can take something like a weapon, for example, I just showed the Carb9, and with the Carb9 submachine gun, you can swap out the rail on the top, and put maybe a red dot sight or a scope. You could swap out the front unit and put something like a silencer or a muzzle break. On the under rail you could have something like a grenade launcher or maybe a front grip that reduces recoil and even upgrade the magazine. So there’s loads of things you can do with individual weapons to really convert them to being a gun that suits the way you wanna play.”
you can also see galleries and archetypes here: (there will be more in the final game tan what is shown at the site)
http://www.brinkthegame.com/features/customization/
IVa. BODY TYPES:
In addition to choosing the look for your character, you will also choose a body type. There are 3 body types in Brink; Light, Medium and Heavy, and each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Body types can be swapped at the end of a match but not during matches, and the differences can basically be separated into 6 categories.
Health: Bigger = more hitpoints
Speed: Bigger = slower
Climbing: Bigger = less ability to climb
Power bar: Bigger = bigger power bar (can use more class abilities before it depletes)
Weapons: Bigger = access to bigger weapons
Size: Bigger = easier to hit
- Players initially only have access to Medium body type. They will unlock Light and heavy fairly early on while they play. Afterward however, any character you make should have the option to be all 3 body types.
- It has been confirmed that when you’re between missions, you can change your body type via the appearance customization options. (this sounds like individual characters can alter their body type, rather than having to change to a whole new character) other than that, it appears body types are permanent.
- All the outfits are available to all 3 body types. There aren't specific outfits available exclusively to certain body types.
IVb. XP AND ABILITIES:
There are 5 sets of abilities you can choose to upgrade:
Soldier
Medic
Engineer
Operative
Universal
- Universal abilities will work all the time, regardless what class you are, while the class abilities will only work when you play that class. this way, you can have a list of characters that specialize in different things. However you choose to level your characters, they can still change classes in matches. You aren’t ‘locked’ into being only a Medic just because you leveled up all the Medic upgrades. Some examples of the abilities you can purchase are:
Universal Abilities:
Battle Hardened - Battle Hardened increase your life meter by 1 pip.
Combat Intuition - Combat Intuition allows you to sense if an unseen enemy has you in their sights.
Downed Fire - Downed Fire lets you shoot at enemies even when incapacitated.
Sense Of Perspective - Sense Of Perspective snaps your view to 3rd person perspective while you complete objectives, allowing you to watch your own back.
Soldier Abilities:
Ammo Boxes - Ammo Boxes let you resupply your teammates with ammunition on the battlefield.
Medic Abilities:
Life Buff 1 - Life Buff 1 lets you increase a teammate’s health by 1 pip.
Lazarus Grenade - An area effect resurrection grenade that the Medic can fling into the general direction of a pile of bodies without having to run into the line of fire himself.
Engineer Abilities:
Weapon Buff 1 - Weapon Buff 1 throws a weapon upgrade tool to a teammate, instantly increasing their weapon damage.
Operative Abilities:
Homing Beacon - Homing Beacon allows you to place a beacon on an enemy target so his movements may be tracked on the map.
Comms Hack - Comms Hack allows you to scan downed opponents to reveal enemy locations for your team.
“Comms Hack” sounds like it does what “interrogation” does, so it could be yet another way to obtain info, or it could have replaced interrogation.
- Abilities to ‘cook’ grenades and to reload while sprinting will also be unlockable, most likely as Universal abilities.
- Basically, XP = leveling up, and leveling up = more new abilities. Leveling up also = going up in rank, which is used to matchmake and keep likeminded players together.
- The Ability screen also lists the cost of each skill and your level near the bottom of the screen.
- You do not have to unlock your basic abilities. (Medics can heal and revive from lvl 1)
- When you level up in the game, you earn credits that you can spend on abilities.
- When you level up, you unlock a skill - Any skill. There aren't prerequisites, because this isn't a skill tree. It's a skill buffet - Take what you want whenever you want it.
- You can only take 3 active abilities into battle (bound to the D-pad)
- They are planning on having a 24 hour ‘trial period’ with skills, where you can buy one and if you don’t like it, you can sell it back at cost. After the 24 hour period, it will cost you more to get rid of them.
- You will never be able to create a character that unlocks everything, no matter how high his lvl is.
- The game will feature “Challenge Modes.” Completing them will unlock things like outfits, weapon unlocks and other customizations.
- There are some upgrades and abilities and stuff that do make you more powerful, BUT, those are all the things you can get very quickly. The stuff that you get later in the curve are about new abilities that don't make you more powerful, but give you more options.
Ex. - Early in the game, you can get the ability to literally make your life meter a tiny bit longer. Everyone can earn this very fast, within the first hour play, so it's not unbalancing since everyone has the option to have it almost right from the start. Alternately, an ability you might earn later in the game would be Soldiers shield ability this doesn't make you more powerful, but does give you additional things you can do.
Decades of RPGs say give small abilities at first, and save the big stuff for much later in the game, but as a multiplayer game, they have to reverse this philosophy, basically.
- The longer you play, the more abilities you will have, BUT as your players level up, they're automatically matched with other players who are at similar levels (so 'majors' fight against other 'majors', not against 'privates'). That’s if you're relying on the default 'find me a game' functionality, but if you'd rather, you can filter for you own games, and then opt into matches where other players are higher level than you.
- If you play through both Campaigns, you still will not hit the lvl cap.
- Right now, they are testing with lvl cap at 20.
- You will be able to purchase class specific upgrades, like stronger turrets for engineer, or more powerful buffs for medics, and also a ton of abilities which you can have at any time – no matter what class you are. As you level up, there are lots of things to buy and it's really up to you to decide to build a character that makes you unique and really reflects how you want to play. Another thing is, if you buy a particular ability and you decide you don't like it, you can sell it back. So, you aren't ever trapped in any particular kind of ability.
- Matchmaking will only let players of roughly compatible level play each other, so if you're lvl 18 and you join your friend’s game who is lvl 4, you will only have access to lvl 4 abilities. You can however, choose to turn Matchmaking off, and play against whoever you want.
- Straight kills are the poorest paying way to earn XP in Brink, unless they're kills earned at the site of the prime objective. Basically, kills don't pay well in XP, but getting kills at or around the current core objective get a multiplier on them. Also, getting kills when you're travelling in packs with other players get multipliers, so, getting kills while standing your ground at a core objective and fighting alongside your teammates can pay fairly well. Spawn camping to try to level up is a huge waste of player time if all they want to do is ding faster (since spawn areas aren't near enough to the core objectives to get the XP bonuses)
- If players do want to earn most of their XP through shooting, they're best off doing it where they're most needed, fighting on the front lines, helping keep their other teammates alive.
- XP doesn't give you any kind of advantage mid-match. While you can 'level up' during play, you can't spend any of that XP to buy new abilities until you're between matches.
- The amount of xp you receive will vary not only by where you are or what you are doing, but who you are helping as well. Ex. An engineer is going to get a very nice chunk of XP if he completes the core objective. the medic, on the other hand, gets more XP for healing him and reviving him than anyone else at that time, because the engineer is the MVP of the match (the only one who can do the core objective). Also, the Medic gets XP over time if he chooses to escort the engineer, which means staying close to him so he can be there to help the engineer when the going gets tough. and alternately, the medic can earn XP over time if he stands guard at or near the core objective site, so that when the engineer arrives, he's got more cover fire. So that defensive player who can get rewarded as well...
- Brink isn't going to be a game where when you start as a lowly level 1, you're up against a server full of level 500 demigods who eat you up for breakfast:
(1) None of the unlockables are so overpowered that player skill isn't the primary factor deciding any outcomes (i.e. no c130's in the game ),
(2) Players are matched up based on their character's levels anyway (like Killzone 2, instead of CoD).
The 'selfish medic' issue is dealt with mostly with ability cooldowns:
- If I can only heal myself every 30 seconds (that's not a real final number, mind, just an example), then generally I’ve got power to heal others in the meantime.
- Healing others gets you a LOT of xp (more than you can earn by killing, by a long shot), and healing yourself gets you nothing. Those two things are about the only things they can do to try to address selfishness. It probably won't handle all cases, but it's better than nothing...
V. WEAPON INFO:
Weapon loadouts determine which weapons you will play with during the game, and can be changed during matches. The three different loadouts are Light, Medium, and Heavy. Heavy body types have to the biggest guns in the game (as well as the smaller ones) while Lights have access to only smaller weapons.
They are planning for 24 guns in the game
- 5 sidearms (including semi-autos, full autos, revolvers)
- 7 light weapons (SMG’s and short rifles)
- 7 medium weapons (assault rifles and shotguns)
- 5 heavy weapons (HMGs, grenade launchers, rapid fire shotguns)
A Heavy body type can have up to a Heavy weapon as a primary weapon and up to a Medium weapon for a secondary
A Medium body type can have up to a Medium weapon as a primary weapon and up to a Light weapon for a secondary
A Light body type can have up to a Light weapon as a primary weapon and a pistol as a secondary
There will also be other non-gun weapons, like explosives (grenades).
- By default, no gun is powerful enough to kill anyone with one bullet. (Did you hear that? NO GUN! This includes headshots with “sniper” rifles) BUT, there are in-game upgrades to temporarily increase the power of the gun, and equally, there are upgrades to increase the length of one's life meter. So there's kind of an escalating arms race of weapon power vs. life power that helps ensure that every encounter is unique, and the tide of battle can turn at any moment.
- Although each faction has access to the same weapons, they will look and sound different for each. Security weapons will look and sound pristine and well-maintained, while Resistance weapons will look and sound begged, borrowed and stolen. In addition, there is also separate audio for hip firing and when you are aiming down the sights for weapons, since you are closer/further from the chamber, trigger mechanism, etc.
- Grenades will have a devoted button; you don't equip them as a separate item anymore for prep. Actually, the gameplay videos online are out of date in regards to this, where they show your gun being de-equipped and then the grenade equipped. It's all very smooth and cool now. Hopefully there's be more video in the new year to show how it's working. You will be able to 'cook' grenades like in previous SD titles, meaning if a nade has a 5 sec. timer, you can hold it to beter time your explosions. However, unlike previous SD games, Grenade cooking will be a skill you need to purchase, not a standard ability.
- There isn’t a big emphasis on sniping in this game. There will be weapons with scopes and rifles that do more damage and have a slower reload, but the whole sniper alley thing just isn't enough fun for enough players. They said they wanted to create an ‘Intimate Shooting Experience.’ This is a big reason why they decided to have 8v8, and not something more large scale. This is also why there aren’t any usable vehicles in the game.
“There won’t be any snipers poppin’ headshots from 2 miles down the road.”
“When you and I are killing each other... I can see the whites of your eyes.”
“It’s really important to do that for a bunch of reasons, One…our characters look ****ing awesome! We don’t want them to be little 3 pixel tall guys on the screen. Plus, you will put all this work into the customization of your character, so you want your guy to be seen, as your mowing your enemy down…But as well, we just want to have a level of intensity, where it’s very, very fast, and you don’t have to go very far before you’re right up against the enemy.”
- Richard Ham, the Creative Director at Splash Damage
- While we have guns that look like a sniper rifle and sound like a sniper rifle and are scoped like a sniper rifle, we're not a game that has sniper rifle style "go hide on a hill in the bushes and wipe out every enemy you see with one shot kills", so they're nowhere near as powerful as one you'd find in other games, for instance. So to use them effectively, you've either got to favor the skinny guys (who have fewer than average hitpoints), or think of sniping more as a 'softening the enemy up' so that your other teammates can finish them off...
- Your gun is always in your right hand. your item is always in your left hand. the two switch back and forth very, very quickly. For an idea of how quickly, check the container city part 2 video. Near the end when Paul, as an engineer, repairs a crane, you can see that it's nearly instant, the swap. NB: in that video, Paul came to a complete stop before he hit the use key, but he didn't need to; he could have rushed right up and been working immediately, and the important thing is, up until that point, he could have had his gun out and been protecting himself.
- There are no insta-kill melee attacks (except unbuffed Light bodies. A knife swipe will kill a Light in one hit if they do not have a health buff)
- You can shoot grenades in mid-air.
- You can only use a knife with a pistol, (since you have a free hand to hold it) otherwise you use the butt of your gun. The knife does more damage.
- When you unlock a weapon, you unlock both versions of it (Resistance and Security)
- Unlocked weapons are not more powerful than the ones you start with – they just have different attributes that are potentially more useful for different styles of play.
- You can pick up the weapon that an enemy had equipped when they died. However, you won’t find much ammo usually.
- You won’t be able to pick up and equip their kit, but you can change yours at any time at a Command Post.
- The weapon selection screen shows pictures of the Primary weapons listed side-by-side in Columns of 3.
- Your primary and secondary weapon selections are listed on separate pages you can access at the press of a button.
- Keeping in mind that damage is something we’re constantly tuning, in our current play-testing setup it takes around half a clip to take down an enemy if they’re not evading, with headshots doing extra damage on top of that. This is before potential weapon damage buffs and health buffs are taken into account. Brink does not use any bullet penetration for players or the environment.
- Weapon stats change according to which weapon you choose. The stats are:
Damage
Range
Rate of Fire
Accuracy
Stability
Reload Speed
Equip Speed
Ammo Clip/Max
- Current weapons revealed were:
Gorund AR
Rockstedi AR
Rhett AR
EZ-Nade AGL
Gotlung Mini-gun
Drognav Light Rifle
Galactic SMG
Tampa SMG
Bulpdaun SMG
Carb-9 SMG
Mossington Shotgun
- You can view the known weapons and compare stats side-by-side (except for the shotgun and the Rhett AR) here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4710609248_7323d9c149_b.jpg
Va. WEAPON CUSTOMIZATION:
The weapon is displayed in a 3D space, (like the character customization) and you just choose which part you want to augment. It also displays the weapons stats (link above) and they will change according to what choices you make. Here are some choices revealed (for an SMG):
Top Attachment:
Iron Sights
Adjusted Iron Sights
Scope 1
Red Dot Sight 1
Red Dot Sight 3
Front Attachment:
Silencer
Four-Vent Muzzle Break
Six-Vent Muzzle Break
Bottom Attachment:
Gun Sling
Front Grip
Magazine Attachment:
Standard SMG Magazine
High Capacity Magazine
Duct-Taped Magazine
Submachine gun Drum Magazine
- You can press a button to switch to the opposing faction’s version of the weapon.
- Unlike in the Cinematic Trailer, there will be no dual-wielding pistols or Molotov's
Richard Ham on Molotov's:
"on the topic of molotovs, that poster was done a long time ago for our first cover article. at the time, we were definitely planning on having them in the game, had even done models and whatnot. but we generally prefer to only leave something in the game if we can "do it right", and doing proper fire spreading is a TON of work that would have negatively impacted a lot of other systems (remember, we're still a very small team of devs by modern game standards... just 50ish guys working on the game, compared to other teams that are 100+), so molotovs unfortunately got cut awhile ago. :-( but that just means that the stuff that remains is even better and more polished! "
- When you unlock a weapon modification such as a new scope or a silencer, you unlock it for all of the guns at once.
- Most mods have disadvantages as well as advantages.
- Stuff like muzzle breaks and grips which affect weapon stats are all unlocks you get very early in the game, so effectively "everyone" has them. The stuff you get later in the game are completely new weapons, and these don't provide more power, just more options. Decades of RPGs say give small abilities at first, and save the big stuff for much later in the game, but as a multiplayer game, we have to reverse this philosophy, basically.
(taken from a preview article)
“He brings up an image of an assault rifle and, by simply clicking on parts of the weapon, we're offered customisation options in a system that recalls Crysis. You can add scopes, suppressors, grips, high capacity mags and more and we're immensely impressed by the amount of control you have over your arsenal in Brink…Wedgwood later reveals a ridiculously-modified weapon (wahey!) which has apparently made him the bane of the Splash Damage offices. This one gun, straight from the set of Pimp My Shooter, represents the tone of Brink perfectly. It's cool, over the top, a little bit silly and undeniably deadly.”
