Welcome to our third Special Edition "Creating Aftershock" Newsletter!
In this penultimate newsletter (oooh, long word!), we'll
be chatting with Lukáš "Izmi" Veselý,
Game Designer at ALTAR Interactive, who's letting us listen to
a cool music track from the game, some more models and yet more
in-game sound effects!
As always,
we'll also be bringing you more from some of the other games we cover
- the X-COM series and, of course UFO Aftermath.
Contents
Please select a section to jump to by clicking on any of the headings
below, or push the boat uot and read the whole thing if you can handle
it!
We fired off the same questions as
usual at Lukáš "Izmi" Veselý - ALTAR
Interactive's Game Designer (action-shot to the left can be enlarged...
if you really want to see those legs!)
1) Tell us a little about yourself - what is
your name and where are you from?
My name is Lukáš Veselý and I am from the Czech-Moravian
Highland. I've lived for many years in Brno where ALTAR Interactive is
located.
2) What
is your job on the Aftershock team?
I work on Aftershock as a game designer, though not the lead ;)
Besides designing the game, I constructed the interface, tested
the first versions of the scene editor and so on. In short I also
go in for issues that are not purely graphical or programming.
3) What do you do in a typical day working
on Aftershock?
I read reports
from our bug
tracking system, sort issues and write tiresome notes in there,
start up editors made by our programmers frequently (honestly -
editors crash rarely yet), fill up and export tons of tables with
meaningless items and numbers, run around between programmers and
graphic artists to ensure things will be as designed.
4)
What was the funniest moment for you when working in the office
while working on Aftershock? Are there any office pranks you'd
like to tell us about?
The funniest moments are watching recordings
from TV, game presentations or reading interviews about Aftershock.
Game design and actual progress is mostly far from where interviewees
say.
I don't know
about any office pran... Ouch! Our breaks for lunch and lunches themselves
are one big prank. Is that clear enough?
5) What additions
in this game do you feel make it really stand out against other
squad based strategy games, and it's predecessor – UFO
Aftermath?
I can't speak for all players but I really do like the mix of real-time
and turn-based when
I plan my actions during a paused game. Our SAS-system is very
good. Creating weapons and drones is another fine thing I belive
players will like, as well as our combination of tactical and strategy
aspects of the game. I think we've created a unique mix of very
interesting features that really stand out.
6) What
influenced your particular part of the development? What sources
did you get inspiration from?
I like sci-fi and I am interested in new technologies
and new scientific breakthroughs, so
creating Aftershock's technology tree was very satisfying. Planning
the political aspect of the geosphere, I respected actual world
geography and population densities, as well as speculating about
future occupation after such cataclysmic events.
I didn't get my inspiration from any specific sources. I rely on
a muse :)
7) What are
your hopes for the future of the UFO series (without giving too
much away)?
Too much of anything is not good, but three is about right, isn't
it? Let's see if we'll be nicely surprised.
8) To finish
off, would you like to give a message to the gamers or anyone else
out there?
Dear reader, do you think game developing is fun? I did. But
now at the end of the project I
don't ;) You'd also change your mind. But yes, it is like a drug.
Cheers Izmi!
Media
Izmi's also given us a neat soundtrack from the game. It's very cool
- an interesting mix of styles with a more serious tune in the background.
We've got some more sound effects from the game as well. This week's
are reloading an energy weapon, rocket launcher, shotgun and sniper
rifle.
The music track, sound effects and the screenshots above are all available
in one zip file in our files section here: http://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/?dlid=215
Competition
Update
Well we're up to almost sixty entries now, but time's running out
if you still want to win the great prizes below!
The competition will close on Wednesday the 28th of September
at 6pm and it's going to be a long time before we do a competition with
as many prizes as this one!
Full details of our amazingly simple competition can be found here.
A reminder of the prizes below:
As if
that wasn’t enough, all three winners
will receive a signed UFO Aftermath t-shirt and a signed UFO Aftermath poster because we’re generous like that.
So get your entry in today!
X-COM
Alien
Races Part 2
Alien races and hierarchies addendum. Tactical brief-368, by order
of Agent J.P. and Agent D.S. Classified EYES ONLY.
By Valerie Durban, Intel Analyst.
Good afternoon. Following Matsuka’s sprained wrist, I’ve been assigned
to brief you. Firstly, this is an emergency brief, I apologise for the short
notice. Secondly, because of the urgent nature of the brief, there will be
no jokes about Matsuka’s unfortunate injury. Please confine such comedy
to the writing on the toilet stalls. The information here is incomplete, so
please, no questions. The only answer I will have for you is "I don’t
know."
Race: Muton
Associated Terrorist: Silacoid/Celatid
Mutons appear to be the elite of the alien invasion force. They have armoured
skin, and appear to have very dense musculature and bone structure. Standard
rounds from a pistol or rifle will not even pierce their skin. Close combat is
ineffective due to their superior height and weight, the shortest specimen so
far being six feet six inches tall, and weighing in at approximately four hundred
and sixty pounds. Their skin doesn’t conduct electricity very well either,
so rods are of little use. Use the most powerful weapons you have, and if psi
squaddies are available, use them to their fullest extent. Doing otherwise only
gets you a rising bodycount.
Ranks: Soldier/Engineer/Navigator
Silacoids are relatively inefficient terrorists, with no projectile weaponry
and a fairly weak melee attack. They are slow and although very resistant to
incendiary damage, HE rounds will soon see them dead. Grenades are also useful,
as their slothful crawl means they rarely get out of the explosive radius before
detonation. Again, rods are of limited use, the Silacoid nervous system does
not appear to be affected much by electrical impulses at all. Stay at range and
kill them from a safe distance.
Celatids are a somewhat more effective terrorist species, having limited antigrav
capabilities and a strange offensive weapon which lobs gobs of poison high into
the air. When taking cover, please keep in mind a Celatid can spit these projectiles
quite high, somewhere around twenty to thirty feet, and although the accuracy
is not phenomenal, it is a threat to unarmoured people, and even those in armour
may take slight damage. Do not treat such wound with water, it will only wash
the poison further into the wound. Let your medic deal with it. Celatids are
not particularly tough, laser weapons are quite sufficient to stop them.
Race: Ethereal
Associated Terrorist: Sectopod
Ethereals appear to be the leaders of the alien invasion. It’s either the
Sectoids or the Ethereals, we don’t have enough info to decide which yet.
Every Ethereal you encounter will have psi powers at their disposal. Missions
against this alien race will require extensive psi screening beforehand. One
member of your squad under alien control can cause a lot of damage, so if any
squaddie complains of feeling strange or hallucinating during a mission, put
him down with a rod. Do not hesitate to kill them if necessary. You cannot let
one man bring down your squad. Ethereals are tough, despite the frail form under
their robes. We speculate that they can use their psi powers to enhance their
physical abilities. They definitely use it to fly, much more effectively than
Floaters, actually. Telekinesis is a power only this race has, and it may be
put to multiple uses. Be wary. We urgently need members of this race taken alive,
but do not, I repeat, do not under any circumstances take risks to do so.
Ranks: Soldier/Leader/Commander
Sectopods are simply gun platforms. Bipedal robots, heavily armoured against
plasma weaponry and heavily armed with a plasma turret. These are the only terrorists
that really require you to take a technological back-step, laser weaponry being
much more efficacious than plasma in this instance. Stun Bomb Launchers are also
useful; they disrupt some of the delicate bio-circuits that a Sectopod requires
for movement, rendering them immobile and unable to fire. If neither lasers nor
stun bombs are available, the current orders dictate a tactical retreat. If withdrawal
is not an option, make the best use of cover you can, and concentrate your fire
on one target at a time and hope you get lucky.
Thanks again to FullAuto for another entertaining piece!
Fan Fiction Story
What follows is an excerpt from Skonar's excellent fan fiction story - X-COM
Chronicles: Prophet
She looked up at the tiny vents in the ceiling, originally
meant to let out buildups of explosive gasses in the sewers. Dull green mist
began to pour from them, swirling into the room's air. It smelled faintly of
disinfectant, she clung to a woman's leg, pressing her face against the woman's
knee to try and get away from the horrible smell and the noise, the reality
of what was happening. Her hands began to slip, her vision blurred as she fell
over, staring up. A man in panic dropped his weapon, pulling off his helmet.
She could only just make out his eyes, tiny eyes... human eyes...
The full story can be found here: http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=4185.
As always, please feel free to leave any comments in the X-COM Fan Fiction forum
here: http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showforum=20
UFO Aftermath
Weapons Guide
Accounting Troll strikes again - this time with an overview of Personal
Defense Weapons in Aftermath.
Personal Defense Weapons in UFO: Aftermath
Personal Defence Weapons, sometimes called sub-machine guns, fall
between pistols and rifles. They are classified as handguns in the
game, and they utilise the handgun skill. However a PDW is used with
both hands, just like a rifle.
PDWs are designed to be light and have a high damage potential in burst fire
mode. The downside is that the range in aimed mode is significantly less than
that of human assault rifles. A PDW has a reload time of 2-2.5 seconds, more
than a pistol but considerably less than a human assault rifle.
The Uzi is available in infinite quantity at the beginning of the game. Other
PDWs can sometimes be picked up after a successful base assault mission. Also,
the humanoid transgenants are often equipped with PDWs from the mid-game onwards.
The Reticulans do not have a direct equivalent to a PDW in their arsenal.
The Scorpion is light and it has an excellent rate of fire, but in all other
areas it is the weakest PDW in the game, and the least threatening in the arms
of a transgenant.
Range is the biggest weakness of the Scorpion. Its range in aimed mode only just
exceeds that of the Uzi in burst mode. Range in burst mode is so poor that you
might as well use a shotgun instead.
Although the magazines are lighter than those of other PDWs, this is more than
offset by a capacity of only 20 rounds.
The Scorpion is simply not worth taking on a mission. The low weight may make
it tempting to issue a Scorpion to a physically weak soldier, but he will not
gain many experience points because other soldiers will take down an enemy before
it gets in range of the Scorpion.
The Uzi is one of the few weapons available in unlimited quantities from the
beginning of the game, which makes it important in the early missions, particularly
for a soldier who has above average skill with handguns. Remember that you will
be outranged by a transgenant with an assault rifle, so you will need to make
use of whatever cover the local terrain offers.
The Uzi is outclassed by the MP5, which has lower weight and better range and
damage potential.
The MP5 is useful for urban missions against the transgenants. The transgenants
will use more powerful weapons as the game progresses, forcing you to go over
to weapons that give one-shot kills such as hybrid plasma rifles. The high rate
of fire means that the MP5 will still be useful in the second part of establish
base missions, particularly when you round a corner or open a door and you are
faced with a balloon fish.
As the MP5 uses soft rounds, it is not the best PDW for missions against the
well armoured Reticulans.
This is the second most powerful PDW in the game, despite the relatively low
rate of fire in burst mode. The armour piercing rounds makes the P90 a powerful
weapon in close range engagements against the Reticulans such as urban missions,
or the second stage of UFO recovery or alien base missions.
The MP7 slightly outclasses the P90, but the P90 is a good substitute if you
don’t have enough MP7s to go round.
This is easily the best PDW in the game. It was even more powerful in version
1.0, but Altair toned it down in the patches to improve balance.
The MP7 is highly effective in any mission against the Reticulans except in open
terrain. It is indispensable in the second stage of the Area-51 and Russian base
missions.
You should think very carefully before using the MP7 against the transgenants.
Although it is useful in a medium or close range engagement, you will be squandering
your limited supply of ammunition for one of the few weapons that is effective
against the better-armoured Reticulans.
Unfortunately, the MP7 is not very common in the early stages of the game.
The Reticulans
This article is an introduction to the Reticulans, the alien race that was the
primary adversary in UFO: Aftermath. It is intended to serve as background information
for anybody who is interested in UFO: Aftershock but has yet to play UFO: Aftermath.
This article contains spoilers to UFO: Aftermath throughout, but I expect UFO:
Aftershock will as well.
The Reticulan People
The main enemies in UFO: Aftermath are members of a renegade faction of an alien
race called the Reticulans, and better known to enthusiasts of the paranormal
and sci-fi as the Greys.
The Reticulan homeworld is located in the binary system of Zeta Reticulum, a
pair of remarkably Sun like stars 40 light years away. Their homeworld is similar
to Earth except that it has a lower gravitational pull and a greater oxygen content.
Life there has a very similar biochemistry to Earth, and the in-game glossary
goes as far as to suggest that life on our two worlds has a common origin.
Earth is very uncomfortable for the Reticulans because of the high gravity and
low oxygen content. They can only survive here at all by using special environmental
suits that double as combat armour. These suits are responsible for the distinctly
reddish-brown colour of the Reticulans.
Although the Reticulans are vertebrates, they reproduce by parthenogenesis, a
word derived from Latin and meaning virgin creation. During the course of her
lifetime, a Reticulan ‘queen’ gives birth to large numbers of males
that were developed from unfertilised ova. It is not known whether the few Reticulan
females are reproduced in the same manner. Parthenogenesis does not necessarily
mean genetic cloning – on Earth some species of social bee use this method
to produce male drones which grow up to become genetically distinct from each
other and their mother through a process not yet fully understood.
Reticulan society is highly regimented with limited room for individuality, almost
like an insect hive. An individual who is willing to make personal sacrifices,
including laying down his life for the good of the group is regarded as being
highly virtuous. As the overwhelming majority of Reticulans are male, the females
are highly regarded and well protected against danger. If the Reticulans have
a religion, it almost certainly centres on the worship of a mother-goddess.
The Reticulans are known to have a limited psionic ability, although what they
do with this power is uncertain. It may be useful for communication, although
they have a complex written and oral language anyway. Reticulans are unable to
use their psionic abilities in combat without the use of devices such as psi
stingers and psi projectors. It is likely that this psionic ability was a factor
in the development of the hive-like Reticulan society as personal space would
be an illusion in such a society.
Despite their biology and regimented society, individual Reticulans have their
own names and personalities. They are also capable of appreciating art and music;
human art has become quite fashionable among their people.
Reticulan technology is almost entirely based on biotechnology. Tools, weapons
and armour are grown from genetically modified organisms and not manufactured.
Even their ships are organically grown around a Reticulan pilot who ends up mentally
linked to the ship for life. The symbiotic relationship between ship and pilot
is so close that neither can survive without the other. This is probably why
refitting the captured Reticulan battleship in preparation for the lunar mission
takes so long.
The Reticulans are known to have been spacefaring for several thousand years,
which makes them as youthful as humanity in comparison with the age of the galaxy.
They do not have a practical means of faster than light travel. Instead they
use a network of Qports, which seem to be large space based facilities that act
as an anchor for a rift between two solar systems.
The Dreamland Project
The first confirmed contact between Earth and the Reticulans was the 1947 Roswell
incident. It is not known when they first became interested in humanity. Several
popular authors have claimed that extraterrestrials have interfered in human
evolution and history, particularly the building of Stonehenge and the Egyptian
pyramids, however there is no suggestion of this in UFO: Aftermath.
Shortly after the Roswell incident, the Reticulan government made unofficial
contact with the leading national governments of Earth. Under the Dreamland project,
several top secret bases were set up to act as a focal point for contact between
the national governments and the Reticulans. The two known bases are Area-51
in the USA and Kasputin Yar in Russia, although there are probably others.
This unofficial relationship between humanity and the Reticulans was mutually
beneficial and trade began to flourish. We got access to some of their technology,
and they got access to our art. Although works of art were Earth’s main
export commodity, it isn’t known if the Reticulans acquired original works
or copies.
It is not clear how accounts of alien abductions fit into the UFO: Aftermath
universe. The Reticulan renegades could not have carried out widespread abductions
before the invasion without their government and the governments of Earth finding
out about it. Also, according to the abduction accounts, the aliens tend to go
out of their way to ensure that the abductee is unharmed. In UFO: Aftermath,
the interiors of renegade Reticulan ships and bases are littered with human remains
and body parts, so it is unlikely that they would show much consideration for
the welfare of any luckless abductee.
Cattle mutilations and crop circles probably have terrestrial origins in UFO:
Aftermath, just like in real life. Cattle mutilations are the work of Satanists – the
underbelly of the Neo-Paganism revival. Crop circles are the work of local farmers
as either a practical joke or an art form, and they rarely appear on a wet night!
The Invasion
The beneficial relationship between humanity and the Reticulans came to an abrupt
end on May 25th 2004. In the game, the renegade faction is simply referred to
as the Reticulans, and the mainstream faction is referred to as the Old Greys.
From this point on, this article will do the same.
On May 25th 2004, a Reticulan ship entered Earth’s atmosphere and released
millions of spores which reproduced rapidly and blocked out all light from the
Sun. They ensured that the Old Greys would not be able to stop them by destroying
the Qport that connected our solar system with the rest of the galaxy, and then
launching conventional attacks on the Dreamland bases. On June 1st, the spores
rained down and wiped out most life on the planet.
A few weeks later, the spores broke down and the few people who had survived
in air-tight shelters emerged into the new world. The only signs of life they
found were mutated zombies of some of the people and animals that died in the
attack. These strange monsters, called transgenants only had one purpose to their
existence – to destroy the surviving humans.
The Old Greys were ready to use military force to stop the Reticulans, but in
practice there was little they could do to help humanity. Very few of their personnel
on Earth had survived the invasion. Although their government despatched a fleet
to stop the renegades, the fleet did not have the ability to travel faster than
light. The estimated journey time from the nearest intact Qport (probably at
Alpha Centauri) was twenty years.
It wasn’t until January 1st 2005 that some kind of order emerged with the
creation of the Council of Earth, whose forces were spearheaded by the elite
multinational force known as Phoenix Company. Although the Council of Earth forces
initially only controlled a small geographical area, a series of military successes
against both the transgenants and their Reticulan creators caused the Council
held territory to expand rapidly, and other groups of human survivors peacefully
accepted the leadership of the Council. But then evidence of the true Reticulan
plans began to emerge.
Outgrowths of alien vegetation, known as the Biomass appeared and began to grow
rapidly. Nothing was able to stop or even slow its growth, and any territory
that became overgrown was lost to humanity. Even worse, it could cross narrow
seas such as the North Sea and the straights between Australia and Indonesia.
It transpired that the Biomass was being deliberately planted by the Reticulans
as part of their plans for Earth. The brutal interrogation of Reticulan prisoners
of war eventually revealed the nature of their plan. They were using the Biomass
to turn Earth into a giant organic computer possessing immense psionic powers
that they intended to harness. The destruction of humanity was something that
they regarded as a regrettably necessary evil in order to create something far
greater.
Council scientists managed to find a way to stop the Biomass based on research
on captured alien artefacts, prisoner interrogations, researching files recovered
from the Dreamland bases (now under Reticulan occupation) by Phoenix Company,
discussions with the surviving Old Greys and by studying the Biomass and the
transgenants. They eventually realised that the Biomass was vulnerable to psionic
weapons, so a specialist base equipped with a vast psionic emitter would repulse
the Biomass over a wide area.
The Biomass repulsor bases became prime targets for direct Reticulan attacks.
Most attacks were scotched either by the Council of Earth air force or by intervention
of Phoenix Company on the ground. With the Biomass shrinking rapidly, the Reticulans
only had one option left.
The Reticulan Offer
The Reticulans made a one time only offer to end the war and to build a giant
space station to house the remnants of humanity and they were also desperate
enough to offer to share control of Planetmind – the name they gave to
their intended creation. The wording of their offer indicates that by this time
they regarded humanity as noble savages, but it should be remembered that they
waited until their plans were on the verge of collapse.
The player then has to choose whether to accept the offer or not. Accepting the
offer immediately ends the game. Rejecting it (which most people do) means the
player has to find the location of the Reticulan leadership and put together
an expedition to wipe them out, thus ending the war.
UFO: Aftershock is based on the idea that the Council of Earth accepted the Reticulan
Offer and agreed to end the war. Presumably they were not certain that they would
achieve victory. Besides, even a victory would have meant that the human survivors
would have had to survive on a ruined and transgenant infested Earth until the
Old Greys turn up and sort everything out.
It seems that survival on Earth would have been possible as in the time of Aftershock
it is inhabited by four human factions that the player will have to interact
with. As the ETA of the Old Grey fleet was twenty years and Aftershock takes
place fifty years after the invasion, it would appear that either the Old Greys
are a bit late or that they turned up and were defeated.
Cheers Accounting Troll!
Fan Fiction
Story Preview
Another excerpt from another fine fan fiction story from Skonar - "Living in
the Aftermath":
The older man continued on, pulled open the corridor
doorway. He stepped on into the gloom even as the
young man ran after him. The older man counted
doorways. He held his rifle steady with his right
hand, approached the second to last doorway and
reached for its doorknob with his left.
The young man pulled in a gasping breath, afraid in
the darkness. "... Old man?"
The older man had his hand on the doorknob. He turned
his head, and hissed, "Quiet, you fool! Something will
hear yo-"
The full story can be found here: http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=3505.
This one's another story that's a little graphic in it's gory detail later
on, so be advised before you read too far if you're a young'un!
Comments are happily received in the AM / AS Fan Fiction forum here: http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showforum=27
StrategyCore
Next Edition
Looking forward to the FINAL part of our Creating Aftershock newsletter series?
Here's a look at what's coming up:
In issue 4 we’ll
betalking to Martin Klima - Aftershock's Lead Designer and Project Lead!
Martin's bringing yet more models and sound effects, some interesting screenshots
from the designer's view (lots of code, but also if you look closely enough
some NICE surprises!) and he'll also be bringing us a peek at something that'll
be in the Special Edition box as well as announcing our Aftershock competition
winners!
Along with all that, we'll be bringing you yet more articles from X-COM and
Aftermath in one HUGE final Creating Aftershock newsletter!
Feedback
We want to know what you think – what you liked and what you thought could
have been better. Let us know what you want to see more of. Your voice could
shape future editions, so give us your feedback here.
posted 8:44am on 2nd February 2010
posted 7:28pm on 1st February 2010
posted 12:19pm on 30th January 2010
posted 10:59am on 30th January 2010
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