SOCOM Blog Discussion Thread (10/07/05)

[xSHORT YETIx]

Originally Posted by c0mmand3r

I forgot to update it for 9/30, but it is done now so no worries. Thank you Short for reminding me to do that. More BLOG updates to come within the next week .... or so we hope.

Anytime.

If I check this and don't see and update, I'll copy, paste it, quote it, put the date, and put a link to the site.

[xSHORT YETIx]

The BLOG Has Been Updated 10/4-10/5

http://www.socomblog.typepad.com/

October 05, 2005
Are We There Yet?
With the launch of SOCOM 3 only six days away, we thought some insight into the life of the development teams would be appropriate. We now have a nice contributed post from SOCOM 3's lead designer, Travis Steiner, on life after going gold.

Developing SOCOM 3 was much more grueling than SOCOM II. Due to the gargantuan amount of content we were intent on cramming into the development cycle, it resulted in an extraordinarily tough push to get it all in. It was like being at boot camp, but instead of getting in shape, we sat in our office chairs for twelve hours a day eating pizza and staring into a monitor. Many on the team would get home each night just hours before their spouse was about to wake and leave for work. Pretty soon, SOCOM started finding its way into our dreams. Going into public is no longer about shopping or socializing but rather about looking for good textures, scenario ideas and level layouts. “This shopping mall doesn’t have enough cover objects - bad design!” Social lives, exercise, and non-SOCOM gaming had almost entirely vacated our lives. We were living and breathing the game around the clock until something strange happened; it went Gold.

With the game now completed and on the verge of shipping, it’s strange to enter the world of the living once again. We’ve had to re-introduce ourselves to our families, learn how to talk in non-gaming terms, and become accustomed to natural food products. After spending much of the last year of your life at work, you sort of become institutionalized. I was near Zipper last weekend on a Saturday helping a friend move and afterwards I felt compelled to go to work for no good reason. It just seemed like I should. There must be something I need to get done! I played a few games then realized I could be doing that at home.

Having had some time to escape from it all, we now have a pretty good perspective on the last year of that development cycle. With any game you create as a developer, it’s easy to look back and wish you’d had more time to add or tweak this or that. Tuning knows no end other than the schedule. One can get caught up on the little details, but when I step back and see just how much content and effort we crammed into our development cycle, I think it is something we can all be very proud of in the end. The team members at both Zipper and Sony poured everything they had into taking the SOCOM series to the next level and we are super excited for the fans to get their hands on it!

Check back soon for some SOCOM 3 gaming tips straight from the developers!

Travis Steiner
Lead Designer, Zipper Interactive, Inc.
SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs

October 05, 2005

October 04, 2005
7 DAYS UNTIL LAUNCH!
As of today, we are one week out from the launch of SOCOM 3 U.S. Navy SEALs! By this time next week, the stores will be stocked with the most exciting combat game available. We are planning some fun activities for next week to help welcome SOCOM 3 to the PlayStation family. For those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, plan to meet us at the PlayStation store at Metreon on Monday, October 10 from 8-12amPT. The first copies of SOCOM 3 will go on sale at 12:01PT, Tuesday Oct 11th while supplies last. We look forward to seeing you there!

[Mathiyus]

It updated ovt 6th 2005, pretty interesting stuff.

[Imabroom]

It looks like Zipper is updating the blog every day until Socom is released, apparently they have nothing to do anymore lol.

[xSHORT YETIx]

The BLOG Has Been Updated 10/7

www.socomblog.typepad.com

October 07, 2005
SOCOM 3 Development Team Answers G.A.P. Questions
The PlayStation® Gamer Advisory Panel, or G.A.P., is the trusted team that PlayStation turns to in order to take the pulse of the gaming industry. These gamers have earned status and station in the PlayStation universe through avid gaming and forward thinking, and their ranks include the biggest SOCOM fans in existence. Recently, they were given the opportunity to fire questions at the Zipper Development team—and have them answered. Read on to see what everyone had to say.

Q. I've read from various sources about SOCOM 3 possibly using what was termed "islands" to help improve online server processes. Is that still what is planned for use and how exactly will it work? And would/could/should it become a "standard" for multi-player shooters such as SOCOM? Submitted by DaSaintFan

A. For SOCOM 3, we used steaming technology to basically break up our levels into smaller chunks (which we call ‘islands’). Instead of having the whole level loaded at a time, we only load specific islands that are relevant to you. This breaks up the network load because you don’t need the details of what is happening on an island that you don’t have loaded, you just need summary. For example, in an online game, if you’re on island A with 16 people and there are 16 people on island B, all the gunfire and activity that is happening on island B is irrelevant to you so we just send you the basics like who’s alive and who’s dead. So, in this example, the streaming technology has reduced your network load by about 50%. Who can know whether it will become a standard, but we will certainly be using this technology for future games.

Q. I'm really looking forward to SOCOM 3 and SOCOM Fire Team Bravo, and are you planning on any sort of connectivity between the two games? Submitted by Cow Tipper

A. Yes, in addition to having a shared storyline and fiction, you will be able to sync game states between the two platforms. By completing special “Crosstalk” objectives in the Campaign games, you will unlock rewards in the other game. In addition to the specific mission rewards, your campaign progress can also unlock weapons, attachments, and character skins that you can use in both offline and online modes of each game.

Q. Why did you pull down the strength of sniper rifles? By the time you hit someone with an M87/M82 and you can hit again, they had enough time to flee, and it's just not realistic either...?

A. We apologize; the previous blog answer was inaccurate. A .50 Cal sniper rifle will kill with one hit if you hit them in the torso, but will not if you hit them in an arm or leg. We want players to be accurate with their shots in order to be most effective.

Q. I've heard rumors that you can "injure" members of the opposite team, for instance... If you shoot somebody in the leg their movement will become slower, also that if you hit them in the arm/hand they will have a harder time aiming...I was hoping this is true because that would be a major + for this series =) Submitted by DeCaDeNcE

A. There are no injury effects. Players are just as effective at 1% health as they are at 100% health. However, being shot will have a “temporary” effect on your mobility. When you get shot you will be slowed down for a short period of time.

Q. Can we have a little more explanation on how will the player will be able to log in their name from a website to check their messages, rank, setup clan rosters, etc? Thank you for your time and great job. Submitted by sk8er1412

A. It is pretty simple. You go to a web page, log in, and start browsing. The web pages will support message boards and player mail functionality as well as display the current ranked leader boards, clan ladders, and player stats. Other information such as daily SOCOM 3 news and a FAQ will also be available. Clan management will not be available via the web page.

Q. I love 3rd person shooters, especially tactical ones, but they tend to be hard (i.e. you spend an hour doing a mission only to die and have to start over) and little on the linear side. I heard that SOCOM 3 had some game play changes to make the game less frustrating, and to make the levels more open ended. Is this true, and if so what specific changes did you make? Submitted by Jim Hawking

A. Game difficulty has not been an isolated complaint about previous versions of SOCOM, so we’ve approached it in two ways. First we reduced the penalty for failure by adding checkpoints into the game. As you progress through a mission, you can checkpoint or save your progress at key points. If you subsequently die, you now restart from that checkpoint rather than starting from the beginning of the mission. This should greatly reduce the frustration and penalty of failure. Secondly, we’ve adjusted the difficulty parameters so that the game is significantly easier on the lower (ENSIGN and LIEUTENANT) difficulty levels. The SOCOM series has always supported open-ended game play. In SOCOM 3, you will continue to face challenges and objectives that you can approach and complete in a variety of different ways. New features such as vehicles and single button press team commands will increase the tools at your disposal to overcome those challenges.

Q. Hi, I was a leader of my SOCOM II clan for about eight months and I was wondering if there would be an option to add internal ranks. For example, the leader can assign certain ranks to his/her clan mates that would give them a special ability. I heard that there is an option in the clan menu called "Badges", so I wondered if that's what the internal ranks will be. If you could, can you explain to us confused fans about the badges system? Thanks! Proud G.A.P. member since 9/26/2005. Submitted by Philz20

A. Neither of these features (leader assigned ranks and clan badges) made it into the game.

Q. I haven’t seen much information about this so I was wondering if you could get a bit more in-depth to what the new clan settings and features will be. , as clans are a high priority in SOCOM. Submitted by SOTG Demon

A. We added lots of new clan functionality including the ability to see who in your clan is online, expanded rosters that allow 32 players maximum, an integrated clan challenge system, a revamped clan ladder, a way to quickly join into fellow clan members’ games and easy invites so that clan leaders can invite players into their clan from in-game.

Q. What is the (SOCOM 3 development teams) favorite???

Specific item:

Map (the name of the map)

Gun Combo (name of the combo)

Vehicle (name of the vehicle)

Team (SEAL or Terrorist)

Submitted by Tsiphon

Here are some of the current favorites:
Map: Killing Fields – big desert map, crazy close in fighting in the middle ruins, tank vs. tank action.
Gun combo: the good old M4A1 with suppressor and scope attached. A very versatile weapon.
Vehicle: Pickup Technical – civilian pickup truck, big gun attached to it.
Team: SEALs, they’re bad-***.

Q. Will there be some new dances added or other ways to taunt the loosing team? (Would love to do the river dance on a terrorist or even better moonwalk circles around them). Thanks again Zipper Interactive for giving us couch warriors the chance to live out our seal/terrorist fantasies without being shot at for real. Submitted by SF Sniper 650

A. Yes, we have added more new dances. Look for new favorites like ‘the robot’.

Q. Vehicles are a new addition to SOCOM 3. Why add them in now when the first two were immensely successful without. What type of game play enhancements do you hope to achieve with the vehicle addition? Submitted by guruguy9

A. We are always looking forward and are actively trying to evolve and improve upon the franchise. We also don’t look at features in isolation, but look at things from a more symbiotic approach. With SOCOM 3, we felt that we had that the right mix of features (vehicles, large mission environments, and 32-player multiplayer) that mutually supported each other, thus making vehicles the right fit for this project and a good way to broaden the SOCOM experience. More specifically, vehicles are yet another tool in the player’s repertoire that will help them meet and overcome challenges. The presence of vehicles presents interesting tactical choices. On-foot/vehicle interactions provide interesting and compelling combat situations. The use of vehicles requires teamwork and communication, which has always been a focus of SOCOM games. The vehicles themselves can be used as mobile objectives and allow for the larger mission spaces without bogging down the pace of the game play.

Q. Well as many know, lag contributes to certain glitches and the use of "switches" worsens it. Will there be a new way such as when your Internet is cut off, you automatically disconnect? It would greatly halt the use of "switches" and glitches. Submitted by FYREWOLF86

A. We are always evaluating and continually improving our cheat and exploit detection. This is an arc of ongoing development even after SOCOM 3 will be released.

Q. What steps have you taken in SOCOM 3 to address existing issues of people cheating in the online play modes? Submitted by csealy

A. Cheating is hard to stop because it is a moving target. Nevertheless, we have a three-pronged approach towards cheating. First of all, we ban people for cheating. Secondly, we provide voting tools in the game so that players like yourself can self-police your own games and kick out cheaters. Lastly, we fix the exploits. We’ve fixed known exploits from SOCOM 2. And, no doubt, cheaters will continue to find exploits after we ship, so we will listen to feedback and monitor the servers in order to find issues that need to be fixed via patching.

Q. What was the most significant improvement made based on the beta feedback? Submitted by Jk1ller

A. The Beta process helped us to identify many issues. One important issue was the impact that adding attachments has to the weapons. Players in the beta felt that the attachment bonuses were much too subtle. We’ve ramped up the attachment bonuses to weapon performance so that now it is much more noticeable. Another significant improvement was to increase the swimming speed.


And don’t forget, for those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, plan to meet us at the PlayStation store at Metreon on Monday, October 10 from 8-12 a.m. PT. The first copies of SOCOM 3 will go on sale at 12:01 PT, Tuesday, Oct 11th. The blog team will be on-site snapping some digital pictures, talking to fans and (wireless internet permitting) doing some real-time blog posts/updates

.50's are one shot kill!, they said that that post was wrong, sweeeeeet

[mukluk]

**** YES!!! now i can go back to having a fun time sniping with those bad boys :P