Review: CryRecon: NanoWarrior
By: Ciaran | CrysisHQ | Posted: Thursday 7 February 2008
This week we highlight an up and coming mod for crysis, CryRecon: NanoWarrior. We sit down with the creator of the mod for and in depth preview.
TheCrysisHQ: What was your inspiration to start this mod?
CryRecon Team: I have been a huge fan of squad based games for as far back as I can remember now and as the name suggests, the Ghost Recon series played a big part in my choice of game play style. I have been waiting to make this particular mod for a number of years and It is only now with the advent of both Cry-Engine2's technical capability and the fact that so much is possible in terms of scripting and game play straight from the engine, without additional coding knowledge, that I have decided to go ahead and realize CryRecon:NanoWarrior. I have been modding for about 8 or 9 years back since original Half-Life and have always harbored intentions to one day complete my own mod as a one man team, working with any skills I had learnt to complete it. After playing through Crysis, I decided quite rapidly that I would love to utilize the engine in some way and after experimenting with SandBox2 I became sure that I would be able to create most of the elements I needed for the Mod without having to draw in help from outside.
TCHQ: What is your overall goal for this mod?
CryRecon Team: My goal is to produce a realistic (within the limits of good game play) and enjoyable squad based game that includes advanced tactical play and the use of near-future military technology. The player should feel fully immersed in both the atmosphere of each map and the storyline, which I hope to build in tension as the game progresses, drawing him or her into it and making them feel that their direct actions really do influence the bigger picture. I don't want the player to feel like he is trapped in a linear path at any point in the game so I am trying to make the game play as open as possible, leaving multiple routes and methods to accomplish missions objectives, rewarding the player for secondary objectives with tokens which can be exchanged for more advanced weaponry and support load-outs and by leaving the story free floating, so that the players action decides the progress and ultimately the outcome of the game.
Basically it is down to the player, if you wish to complete a particular mission using silenced weaponry and stealth then that's is possible, alternatively you can load up with some heavy fire power and an airstrike or two and play the same mission being as un-stealthy as you possibly can, that is also possible... the choice is yours. This will hopefully also lead to a high re playability factor for the Mod.
TCHQ: Aside from the main character (Dunn), are there any other characters?
CryRecon Team: As of yet, additional character names and roles are undecided until the full dynamic script is finalized, however the player will become well acquainted with the members of his team and the key actors in the story as it progresses. The player’s squad will remain unchanged throughout the game with each member having his own unique personality traits. These traits will be apparent both through their interaction with their surroundings, with each other and by the way they react to the player. Outside of the squad, the player will be updated of his own progress and the development of the storyline both in real-time on the battlefield and by the use of cut scenes that will drive the plot.
TCHQ: Why do a Crysis mod instead of another game?
CryRecon Team: As I mentioned before, after playing with SandBox2 initially, I was very impressed that so much seemed possible with just the tool sets the editor provides. I think the real draw for me especially was the Flow Graph system, which seems to make makes so many things possible that normally would require a separate coder. Unfortunately through my modding lifetime coding is one area that I never could get my head around, so to be able to produce complex systems with the use of simple graphical nodes, then test the results instantly was a major consideration when choosing to mod for Crysis. Alongside that, Cry-Engine2 can produce absolutely stunning scenery and that coupled with the lighting, particles and real-time destructibility of the environments made the engine a clear choice for this kind of mod.
TCHQ: Around how long have you been planning/making CryRecon:NanoWarrior
CryRecon Team: The original concept and design document for NanoWarrior has been sitting on my PC for about 3 years now. As I said, games such as GhostRecon and RainbowSix really drove me and inspired me to create something that utilised both an intense storyline and a squad based system. However, unfortunately at the time I wrote the concept for the mod, it was impossible to create something like this without extensive coding work. So it has been on the back-burner for a long time now, just waiting for an engine to become available that could realize it without pure code.
So far development time has been about 2 months, although as the design documents were finished so long ago, I already have the direction and style established for the mod, which makes progress a lot faster than if I was starting on something completely new.
TCHQ: What all will be in this mod once it is completed?
CryRecon Team: As a quick rundown:
An advanced player controlled squad system, allowing for command in both the open battlefield and in QCQ situations, this will include the facility to stack your team on approaches, breach doors and clear rooms as well as more open maneuvers such as way-pointing, hold and follow and suppressive fire and flanking. Also the player has the ability to see through the eyes of his team mates via the helmet mounted camera system.
Aerial support, via precision airstrike, heavy bombing runs, AH-1Z Super Cobra and AC-130 gunship support, and close recon via the DragonWarrior UAV system. The player may also call in vehicle/ammo/weapon & medical supply drops that may also be purchased via the token system.
A new weapon arsenal for the player and his squad featuring present day prototype and production weapons that will be assigned to the battlefield by 2010. A mixture of wide open battlefields, coastal areas, rich forests and CQC urban warfare set in both the Highlands, temperate low land areas and cities of North Korea. New vegetation types native to North Korea. Completely new custom audio for weaponry, characters, music and sound effects.
TCHQ: Why are you allowing 3rd person and 1st person switching? Is it a feature that you wanted?
CryRecon Team: It is a personal decision as I find being able to switch into the "over the shoulder" camera completely changes the feel of the map and the situational awareness of the player. I am still yet undecided as to how far I will implement this, but my initial design is to use the shoulder camera view for normal movement and for un-aimed fire, then switch into the familiar first person view when the player sights his weapon. However it is quite possible that I will make it an option to play the entire game in 1st person view only for those who do not enjoy an external 3rd person feel.
TCHQ: Anything you are most proud of so far?
CryRecon Team: Well everything is currently very much in the development stages and I am testing a lot of concepts, however I would probably have to say I was quite happy with getting the Javelin top attack system working and I am also quite proud of the squad control system, although until its almost bug free I won’t be releasing any progress on this.
TCHQ: What made you start creating the mod?
CryRecon Team: I was actually working on a new mod for HL2 and progress was a little slow to say the least. I had started to become disillusioned with the development and was looking for something new, as I have been working with both Gold Source and the new Source engines for the majority of my modding lifespan. I had recently upgraded my computer and thought with all the hype surrounding Crysis that I should really see what all the fuss was about, now I could actually play the game on my rig. Needless to say I was blown away by the game and after finding out that Crysis was moddable I decided to end development on the other mod and move to the Crysis engine so that I could finally work on the mod I had planned 3 years back.
TCHQ: How hard was it to allow for multiple outcomes in the story?
CryRecon Team: Crysis has a system of game tokens which can be run and checked in real-time allowing multiple outcomes to be done quite easily. It’s just a series of logical compares which then trigger certain missions or events based on the true or false results of the game tokens. These can be carried over the entire game allowing for several endings to be possible and triggered depending on those game token comparisons.
TCHQ: The mod has a great story to it. Any comments why the location in North Korea?
CryRecon Team: Well I will start by admitting that although I am all for completely custom content, the idea that I could reuse the Korean soldiers in a completely new role did contribute in a minor way to the choice of setting. The original storyline for CryRecon was set in the Middle East but due to the present day political and media exposure of the area and the fact that the Middle East is a very hot topic for many FPS's I decided that a new country was called for. North Korea is as yet, to my knowledge unused in any other first person shooter and is also an area where international political relations may possibly become strained in the future. The updated story reflects on current real world events giving the Mod an air of plausibility.
TCHQ: We would like to thank Fortran for sitting down and talking with us about his mod. For more information on the mod, be sure to check out the links below!
