Dear friends! We are pleased to present you with a transcript of an interview with the COO of Battlestate Games studio Nikita Buyanov, which was taken from him by the Russian-speaking emissary of Escape from Tarkov.
Q: That is a source of inspiration for you in the development of the Russia 2028 universe?
A: Well, we have to understand that you can come up with anything, but implementing it is another matter. Implementation is the first and the main stumbling block. Inspiration is a complex concept. Earlier it could be felt or even anticipated. Earlier it was possible for me to reach it by doing something, and to keep myself in a certain state of mind and mood, thus getting inspiration as an artist. Now, however, due to the complexity of the process of translating ideas into reality, it is very difficult to get this kind of inspiration. However, in a motivational aspect, results of our team’s efforts and the positive player feedback are still very inspiring.
Q: Are there any sources of inspiration in the form of games or music?
A: Yes of course, these are some of the basic sources. Lately, I’ve taken to Dark Ambient - melodious bleak and sometimes sinister music. I also watch different kinds of movies.
Q: In 2014, either you or Kiba mentioned on the stream that book on the Russia 2028 universe is almost ready. When we’ll be able to see it?
A: Yes, we’ve been putting this off for quite a while, since the process is associated with a creative impulse and the aforementioned inspiration that does not only depend on me, but also on my comrade, who was the one writing this book. It's still in the plan and hasn’t been canceled, now we just need to take a break and return to this idea in the future, rethink and finish it.
Q: Basically, as soon as possible, correct?
A: Yes.
Q: In addition to the three current projects: Contract Wars, Ops Hired and Escape From Tarkov and future Russia 2028, are there any other projects planned?
A: Well, I have lots of interesting things stored away in my head. But generally, we plan to focus on further development of this universe, it has some surprising sides of which you are not even aware of. There are ideas that are radically different from current projects, but they have one principle in common - they are all serious, complex, hardcore games.
Q: How’s it going with Russia 2028? Is there any development going on, at least at design stage?
A: Russia 2028 is the world that needs even more to be done and developed. Escape From Tarkov is an integral part of this world, its physical prototype. What happens in Escape From Tarkov, shall carry on further in Russia 2028 several years later. We have the story, the whole concept, a clear understanding of gameplay. It will be a single player game. Full potential accumulated in the EFT will also be implemented in Russia 2028. That will be, in fact, an evolution of EFT with better graphics, more comfortable, with a great storyline, but in frame of a singleplayer game.
Q: Regarding the environment. In sketches and concept artworks, as well as in the old Russia 2028 gameplay video, we saw sheer darkness and devastation, almost a world on the brink of postapocalypse. Is it possible that these are consequences of the activities of a single company (TerraGroup)?
A: TerraGroup is just a tip of the iceberg. I won't reveal all the details.
Russia 2028 world will be so grim because it’s a post-war world, the collapse of civilization. This is a complete Fallout lookalike, just harder living conditions. EFT, but with sharp changes in the weather, radiation and biological contamination spots, etc.
Q: (A few months ago there was a news piece news about the Sherpas stating that they, along with Emissaries, will be able to provide assistance kits. But since then, there’s been no word on the Sherpas.)
When can we expect the implementation of functional Sherpas? And what will this assistance include?
A: It will be equipment packages which will be issued once a certain amount of time. It can be implemented right now, but we're not doing this because there are still aspects of items transfer via chat that we want to adjust. The mechanism would resemble returning insured items.
Q: There are often posts on the forum with reports from or invitations to EFT-themed airsoft games, what do you think of this kind of activities? Any advice?
A: That is awesome, I’m highly positive about them, even more so, I often to express my approval and support. We support these initiatives and try to help. In the office, Kiba sets up very cool games himself. Maybe we will have another game soon and invite the press to it.
Q: Shall we expect new developer diaries?
A: We have the desire to make them and topics to cover, but now we just don't have the time, because it is time-consuming and distracts us from the ongoing tasks.
Q: Terminal Automated Radio Relay Service, what is it? Is it involved somehow in the EFT story?
A: And how! Pretty heavily involved, I’d say. I can not disclose it to you, but this automated relay, and everything that was on it, it all relates to the game and has a meaning. You may have noticed that the screenshots of a Hideout mention it as well. Moreover, this system is installed on the laptop. We plan to move all of this into the game, to make this terminal accessible directly in the game from the Hideout. This is not the main subject, not the main mystery, but it is featured throughout the entire universe.
Q: And can I say that this terminal is similar to the numbers stations?
A: No. This terminal allows, for instance, hacking into city tracking system through public protocols. We create our own parallel universe by analogy with the current geopolitical situation.
Q: Then, fans of games like Watch Dogs will have something to do too?
A: Not sure. We’re very different from WatchDogs.
Q: Have you ever thought of making EFT on another engine?
A: Well, now it is unreasonable, too much is implemented in Unity. As for a new project... First we need to finish the EFT on Unity, and then we’ll see.
Q: It was promised that transition to the new version of Unity will enable anti-aliasing. Why is this not done?
A: Well, it’s complicated. In fact, there is no anti-aliasing, per se, in Different Rendering. At least not in its classic meaning. There is a multisampling, and it is unclear how to implement it on Unity. We haven't even seriously researched this issue yet, but we definitely will.
Q: Aiming mode framerate often drops to 30 fps, even on the most powerful computers, this is especially noticeable when using optics. Will that get fixed and optimized?
A: Any aiming, which changes the FOV (Field Of View) somehow triggers grass re-rendering in Unity. Nothing can be done about it, it causes a peak that lowers fps. This bug was reported to Unity a good while ago, but they are yet to fix it. That was the first reason.
The second is, when we look down the scope we have two cameras working at the same time, and that increases the number of objects to render. But it is a price of the realism. There are two options, either we do everything like in the classic shooters and waive the lens, or come up with something else. We are likely to think of something else.
Q: When approximately is it worth waiting for implementation of the features that were previously shown in the videos (e.g. lockpicking with multitool)?
A: Coming soon. We are working on it at the moment. We have not implemented them immediately because we had to rewrite half of the game for the sake of optimization. Everything that was planned remains planned, including lockpicking.
Q: Since the start of the Alpha there was a bug when opening door with a key and repeatedly pressing the action button caused character hands to freeze, as well as items in the inventory (it was impossible to shoot, reload and change weapons). It also occurred while picking items, opening boxes and changing modifications. It’s already beta, but bug is still here, will it get fixed?
A: It has been tested, but we could not reproduce this bug. If you encountered it, please report it to support. This problem with freezes is a cornerstone one. We had to do certain things differently in the past. Ideally, we need to rewrite part of the game, but under current conditions we will just look for such cases and close them.
Q: Will you add knocking down enemy? I.e. deal with the cases when the character has lower limbs destroyed, but is still standing?
A: This is an animated Ragdoll (type of procedural animation) that allows us to fall off the feet and get up, just as in GTA. This is a serious task which is planned, but haven't been done yet because it causes network synchronization problems.
Q: Will the stash get reorganized? For example, would it be possible to sort the items in it?
A: It will. We even has the sorting, just turned it off due to certain problems. There will be one more option to view inventory, as a list.
Q: Is it possible to learn any details about the player Hideout? Can we use the stash from there, for example?
A: There's a whole list of Q&A on that. Hideout is a visual representation of you. At start it will only feature bare minimum - a shooting range to shoot and ability to use certain crafting opportunities. But gradually, over time, we’ll add interactions, turning water on or something like that. The stash will be dynamically displayed, if there are indeed come canned foods, you’ll see them standing in the Hideout. We are now going from minimum to maximum. The stash is a fairly complex system, so please don’t expect complete interactivity immediately.
Q: Will there be a narrative training in the game? For example, the player will have to pass a small location that will teach to handle weapons, load mags, distributing them in the vest.
A: Something like that is planned. The very first singleplayer location. We are still discussing what should be there, what kind of training. We do not want the to tell player how to play the game in detail on purpose. But it will cover the basic aspects such as controls.
Q: Will the barter mechanics be changed? Right now, players complain that for exchanging a few items you need to look for a pile of junk, as a result, the inventory becomes clogged with unnecessary things, which is especially hurting for players with Standard Edition.
A: Well, firstly the stash will be extendable. And secondly, how else? Any question you can ask about EFT has a reply: how would it go down in real life? Moreover, there is yet no marketplace where you could get the required items through other schemes or with other conditions. Now you cannot analyze the EFT economy system, because now there are yet no marketplace and no auctions, and, most importantly, no extended trader artificial intelligence system which is getting done now. Traders only have the basic AI at this point, they don't behave like people yet. They will change prices, dump, etc. As of now, the prices do not change. Market value is not changed in any way, but it will start to with the implementation of the marketplace. The goods will begin to lose value.
The economy is going to live by itself without our intervention. Now we still have to add the goods and money, but we won’t have to do it afterwards. E.g., if trader runs out of money, he will have to find a solution with his own AI. Raise the price on a certain product or something else.
Q: What will be difference between quests and barter? According to preliminary screenshots we can see that completing the task with Prapor and bringing him three MR-133 will get us rewarded with Saiga. Barter mechanics is roughly the same.
A: First, those screenshots no longer reflect reality. Now everything is different.
Soon we will introduce quests, they now are being tested. These will be basic quests with the three traders.
We'll give later the material on the quests later. But the point is that we now use the maximum variety of quests to diversify the gameplay related to them. Next step will be introducing personal quests - thoughts and research aimed at story development.
Q: Will the character take notes, as in the classic RPG, to uncover the full scope of the story?
A: Character notes, diaries are the essence of these personal quests which are instrumental to the story, and everything else, while also important, is to larger extent just a tool for earning experience, standing, goods, items. You can make your notes yourself. There is a special topic for that.
Q: Will there be karma or fines for players who abuse Scav gameplay? That is, kill their own and leave the location.
A: Definitely yes, they will be punished, we’re thinking of ways to do it realistically. The main character's karma system is still in development. We have not linked it with the Scav karma yet, but most likely we will make it common. I.e. actions as Scav can affect karma of the main character.
Q: I hope it will not be like Contract Wars, where players rate each other?
A: No, it won't be. Karma is your actions in the game.
Q: Freeroam. What will it be? As in Stalker, moving from location to location with loading?
Or will it be one big map in many square kilometers large which will unite all in one location?
A: This will be one location which includes all others.
Q: Will PCs manage such spaces?
A: They should, because we will use streaming (i.e. loading whatever is located before that character and unloading what is left behind).
Q: The game will feature the arena mode. Is it possible to use it as a platform for cybersport competitions?
A: Easily. Turning Arena into something of Tournament functionality is now under active discussion. The key point is that Arena will be ruled by skill. Of locations there will be not only the
arena.
Q: Why is PMC operative Starter Kit so poor?
A: Events at the beginning of the game will explain how it happened.
Q: At what stage in the development should character customization be expected?
A: Three addition pairs of hands and lower body sets are ready at the moment. In total, four versions of the top and bottom. Heads are more difficult to do for now, but the head, obviously, cannot be changed, you can only choose it at the beginning of the game. Functionality: change of pants or outerwear will be provided as a trader service, it won’t influence anything, just visuals.
Q: And what about customization of the MOLLE systems?
A: It is a complex of tasks associated with the modification of equipment. The functionality will be similar to the modification of the weapons: there will be slots that can be equipped with various pouches. For instance, there will be a helmet on which you can modify the visor, armor pads, NVD mount.
Q: How are contacts made between the producer of equipment and weapons and Battlestate Games?
A: Usually, there are two options. Either we write somebody, or somebody writes to us. Generally, it is us getting letters from producers who would like to see their products in our game. And that’s it. We start to communicate. Just a friendly arrangement.
Q: Then the item is getting inspected and modeled?
A: Yes, they can send it to us or we can go shooting to them, record sounds and do other stuff that we need done. For instance, equipment is almost every time delivered to us. Of course, it is much more complicated with foreign companies, delivering from abroad can be difficult, and there are other problems - weapons can’t be delivered here. However, companies are still ready to ship us gear.
Q: Will AK-12 be included? For example, in Contract Wars and Hired Ops there are AK-12 assembled in 2013.
A: We have AK-12 lists. Moreover we have the pictures of that old AK-12 (2013 issue). The same situation here as with Glock style pistols, there are 4 generations, and we are now doing the third generation model. It's the same with AK-12 - we can make the model of year 2012, or the species from 2016.
Q: What about exclusives such as VAL mod.3 and TKPD?
A: VAL mod. 3 is essentially just a bodykit: handguard, shortened barrel, modified stock and grip. Nothing prevents players from customizing VAL to get mod. 3 eventually. Same thing with TKPD. Some traders, however, might sell already already assembled options.
Q: That is not excluded? The concept is not violated?
A: It is not excluded. When we have collected all the weapons to be in EFT, we relied on the universe as a whole. And the universe includes the Contract Wars too as an active phase of the BEAR and USEC confrontation. Weapons used in it have not disappeared.
Q: The Contract Wars featured about a hundred different weapons. Will it be about the same in EFT?
A: More. Well, let’s see - three options of AKSU. 2 options of Kedr. That is, if you take all the modifications that will be a lot of weapons.
Q: Why waive the belt-fed machineguns?
A: We didn’t cancel them, just postponing their production for a while because they are very time-consuming at the moment. We’ll spend a lot of time on them, and they will be specific-purpose weapons, not for mass use. For now we’d better concentrate on more massively used weapons. That will actually be used, rather than collecting dust in caches (like DVL). In the future, of course we shall do them too. Lack of certain weapon is also temporary. For example, MP-5 is now rarely used due to complexity of purchase and barter, but appearance of USEC bots will change that.
Q: Will EFT be released on disks, Collector's Edition maybe?
A: Probably, closer to release. A limited batch of discs, but what will be included on the we haven’t thought through yet.
Final words:
The most interesting events of EFT are only just beginning. It will always be interesting. Every new location will be like a new game. Location-wise, we are finishing the Shoreline now, which lacks its main part - the health resort, which is essentially a mini-city. Beside the resort, there will also be hydroelectric power plant and a large piece of forest.
With every upgrade we will improve performance, and introduce features that have long been discussed.
Thank you very much for supporting us. I’d like to see the EFT community transforming into something more, a hardcore-loving community.
The original interview in Russian can be found here:
Xtreme_Dama; Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DamaTheCrow
