Urban Terror 4.2: An Interview with Frankie V

Second post today about Urban Terror 4.2. We had the pleasure to had some questions about Urban Terror 4.2 and more answered by Frankie V, the current FrozenSand Lead animator. It’s a pretty intresting interview. Check it out.

Hi Frankie and welcome! So.. what can we expect from 4.2?

It’s a given that the overall game play must remain the same that has made Urban Terror so popular over all these years. It’s a formula of success that could be easily ruined by adding too much all at once.
The one thing that I’m hoping to do with the updates to the animation is just to create a much better ride and a stronger relationship between the 3rd person model, the target, and the environment.
So what I hope is expected is the ability to make better tactful decisions during the course of the game in a manner that should be possible in the first place. As for the coding part that’s a different department but I do hear the words “fixed” a lot.

That’s cool. There is a lot of stuff coming.. doesn’t this sound like a major relase? Something more than just a .1 advance?

The next release is defiantly going to be a major step forward for Urban Terror just taking into consideration Passport alone. So much so that we have been toying with the idea of getting off the numbering band wagon and give it a sportier name.

There have been some rumors about Glock and Flashbangs inclusions.. can you give us some news about that?

Not much I can say about the addition of flash bangs for the moment.

As for the addition of a Glock.

Weapons in general is one of those subjects that comes up on a consistence bases. Some are good ideas others not so good but they all suffer from and creates the same problems.
Urban Terror currently has a well-developed inventory of various weapons each having their own cost verses benefits package and adding a new weapon only creates a variation of one already available to the player.
There seems to be a notion between players that a weapon needs to be uniquely different in its specifications even when dealing with weapons that in the real world have similar specifications. So the question becomes does the addition of a new weapon server a purpose or is it just being added for eye candy?
What motivates the team to add a new weapon is does it offer something else besides just eye candy when faced with more important tasks at hand and the possible addition of the Glock to the inventory is based more on circumstances rather than a design decision.
Hoi, a member on the message boards, decided on his own to develop the Glock from the ground up and to completion based on the promise that I would at least reward him for his effort by getting it into the game engine.
Will it be included in the game?
That’s still to be decided but there are always possibilities in doing rather than just suggesting.

How the improvements in the graphic engine is going to affect the game? Will players have the possibility to tweak down the settings to let UrT run on older machines?

Better graphics does not automatically make for better game play. For that matter good graphics should be a non-intrusive element of the game yet creates the impression of an overall quality to the gaming experience.
Painting an old clunker car does not change the fact that it’s a clunker but Urban Terror has a history of being a great game so giving it a paint job only makes sense.
On the other hand like most games these will be things that can be turned off or tuned down as they are done now.
The gorilla in the room though is just what is an older machine?
The one nice thing about the Q3 engine is it’s designed to chew up polygons and spit out renderings so even a box bought at a yard sale would probably do the job.

Another interesting question: What can you tell us about the workflow of Urban Terror? You are a quite large team spread all over the USA and the Europe. How do you guys work together and take decisions together?

Lets not forget Canada we count too.
I’m more or less still then new guy so it took me a bit of time to figure out the rhythm of how the team functions in the world of the Internet project.
Everybody on the team knows what needs to be done, which for me is a refreshing change, and is very good at what they do. Decisions are usually based on discussions with an eye towards what is in the best interest of those that play the game.
In regards to the animation I’ve made it a point to actually talk to some that play the game rather extensively to get a better idea of what flaws in the game play could be corrected in the animation.
Some ideas would not work in one area but fit nicely in another in a non-intrusive way so once I got a player pack ready some on the team would check it out to make sure that I was not creating some unknown problem for them.
More or less that is how things flow with in the team and everybody just seems to know what needs to be added yet not cross the line that leads to possibly nerfing the game.

Thank you very much Frankie!

So what do you guys think about this interview? Tell us in the comments!
I’ll post my personal thoughts about what he said tomorrow. For now, thanks to Frankie for his help and keep up the good work!

Related posts:

1. Urban Terror 4.2 – Updates from BladeKiller It’s a fact. We can’t wait for Urban Terror 4.2. There is so much stuff going on. New graphic effects, new weapons, new animations and more. But there’s always a question that remains unanswered: When it will come out? Recently BladeKiller of FrozenSand relased an interview to the Portuguese community about 4.2. The first big improvements [...]...
2. Urban Terror 4.2 to get akimbo weapons [UPDATE] A few days ago, Frozen Sand relased a very funny dancing video featuring Urban Terror 4.2 that reminds me of machinima stuff. The video itself it’s pointles.. however what’s really interesting is a glimpse of akimbo (or dual) weapons that Frozen Sand said will be included in Urban Terror 4.2. The Video A new weapon? In addition to see [...]...
3. What Urban Terror could learn from Modern Warfare 2 Last year Modern Warfare 2 came out and it broke every sales record possible. This huge hit had a great story, tremendous gameplay but also a nearly-perfect multiplayer that fills public and private servers all over the world. It seems that MW2 found just a great formula that keeps the players sticked to their controllers. Urban Terror [...]...
4. Two official Urban Terror 4.2 videos After a week of leaked material popping out everywhere, finally we got a word from Frozen Sand. Two videos showing off some gameplay from an early build of 4.2 just came out. The first thing that pops is the amazing work done on the map. Tombs looks very nice and we can also see the bump [...]...
5. 44 Magnum – Yet another sidearm for Urban Terror 4.2 Yesterday, Frozen Sand announced the introduction of (another) new sidearm in Urban Terror 4.2: The 44 Magnum. After the announcement of the Akimbo weapons, you could say that it was a matter of time. Still no infos about its stats but I guess it will have 6 bullets . Decoy, media manager at Frozen Sand, [...]...