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[quote:57e79] Last Updated: Sep 19, 2005
What is SITREP?

SITREP (Situation Report) is defined as "an update to an existing report, issued as conditions change or events begin to unfold." Put simply, it's a method of keeping everyone informed. Similarly, America's Army also issues SITREPs, providing updates to our Community on a variety of topics, ranging from development progress, new features, upcoming events, and much more. If you want to stay in the loop on America's Army news, what better source than from the very same people who make the game!

NOTE: The content and images shown on these pages may differ from what is contained in the final public release.


SITREP



Direct Action
Posted: September 19, 2005 - by [Dev]Poland

Hello America's Army Community! It's been a while, but we've got so much to tell you in this fall's edition of the SITREP!

[Dev]Poland here, your America's Army Lead Designer, with an advance preview of our next release, entitled: Direct Action. This upcoming America's Army version is packed with new content and is perhaps our most solid product to date.

Tournament Mode Enhancements

We've applied significant effort to our Tournament Mode based on feedback provided by our Beta Testers and members of the Competitive Online Gaming Community.

Here are just a few of the enhancements we're deploying in Direct Action:

Direct Action Support in AASM
CAL/CPL enhancements
Improved UI functionality
Ability to start TM from within the game interface
Support for additional mission planning
Fixed ghosting bug (which appeared in 2.4)
Simplified user options
Tournament Results sent directly to our database (soon to be available through our Website and possibly even RSS or XML feeds)

Our goal is to continue improving America's Army Tournament Mode to meet and exceed the expectations of the competitive gaming community at-large, while also making the setup and administration easy, whether you're creating a local LAN event with a few friends or conducting a regional competition in Direct Action.

New Training Map: Shoot House (BCT MOUT)

We upgraded our MOUT training to provide players with a more complex and demanding scenario that reinforces the need for critical thinking, friend-vs.-foe recognition and an overall competitive challenge. In short, a training mission that is fun, customized and encourages you to try again.

Welcome to the Shoot House (BCT MOUT)! Shoot House is modeled after the US Army's Urban Combat Training courses. Players will select either an M4A1 Carbine rifle or an M9 Beretta pistol and several Flashbang grenades. Players will enter a house packed with randomly placed, pop-up targets. You will engage up to 10 targets and they may not always be in the same position each time you attempt the Shoot House. Some targets are hostile enemy, but others are friendly forces and civilian noncombatants. Players will have to make split-second "shoot/don't shoot" decisions.

Shoot House is fast paced; you'll complete it in less than 5 minutes with your results tracked, timed and scored. You must earn enough points to get a "GO", or you will have to try again. All results will be stored in the database and individual Personnel Jackets - plus we're deploying a competitive Scoreboard on the America's Army Web-site that will rank players based on several categories for both M4A1 and M9.

Players will only have to complete Shoot House once, but there's no limit to how many times you can try. At the end of Shoot House players will get a full AAR from a Drill Sergeant, customized to your performance.



New Multiplayer Maps: Extraction and Dockside

SF Extraction is a daytime urban mission where both teams must race to retrieve a briefcase containing sensitive information about terrorist operatives. Each team must locate and secure this one briefcase and then carry it to their extraction point successfully. The team that successfully extracts with the briefcase in hand wins! This mission's spawn points, and extraction points (1 per team) - are all randomly selected each round.

Extraction has a unique "Carryable" Objective, and only after the objective is picked up will the final extraction point be revealed. This is built-up city map with a centralized "choke point" and lots of sniping opportunities

SF Dockside is a small tournament map (9 x 9 players) which takes place during a stormy night in an industrial harbor setting. Both teams must locate and secure two cargo containers containing biological agents. The first team to secure and hold both containers wins! This mission's spawn points and container locations are randomly selected each round. This mission also features breachable doors, and usable automatic doors.

Each new round the positions of the objectives change, compelling players to work as a team or risk being picked apart by a more organized enemy. This is a densely constructed, close-quarters, nighttime map under a stormy sky. Dockside is easy to learn but the challenge is significant!

Command Post

The new "Command Post" provides a simple to use and easy to understand interface to the most common administrative functions provided by the America's Army game server. In other words, Server Administrators can run and manage their servers entirely through an easy-to-use GUI.

Mission Selection via GUI
Player Management
Ban List Management
Change server to Tournament Mode and back again from within GUI without editing INI

Server Admins can start and stop maps, change maps on-the-fly, move players to other teams - complete control via GUI.

Accuracy and CEM changes

We've modified the way weapons handle in Direct Action. Essentially these changes are intended to model our weaponry and overall accuracy in a more realistic manner - while still retaining fun factor and playability. This is necessary to advance development and usage of actual U.S. Army simulation training modules utilizing the core America’s Army game as a base. This of course benefits the Public game as well. To suggest this was difficult would be a huge understatement. In particular, Auto-Fire has received a lot of attention. You'll need to seek good firing posture and take careful aim - otherwise you're laying down a whole lot of suppression fire (which is great, but you'd best be prone first).

Adjusted Recoil
When firing in full auto the recoil gradually increases before levelling out. This more realistically portrays the controllability of automatic fire and promotes shooting in bursts or single-fire.

Damage Hindrance System
Physical reactions to damage have been enhanced. A camera shift will occur when players are hit to display pain; also to promote taking aim to make the first shot count. Other effects are also included such as view shifts when receiving falling damage.

Grenade Enhancements
Grenade kill radius has been dropped to a more realistic 5 meters (from 10) with fragment damage causing a gun down stun effect allowing room clearing assaults to still be successful.

CEM Adjustments
The CEM has been modified to cause very large increases in movement whenever sight mode is initiated. This added realism will promote the concept that a player needs their sights up if they want to shoot accurately. In addition to this, transparency has been added to the 2D sights for more realism and to make them easier to use. CEM bonuses due to proximity to other teammates have been adjusted as follows: highest bonus given when in close proximity to the Squad Leader, next highest bonus given when in close proximity to your Fireteam Leader, and a small bonus now given when in close proximity to any teammate (promoting teamwork).

Added Horizontal Hand Tremor
Previously only up and down breathing aim wander was noticeable on most weapons. Now more left and right wander has been added to more effectively portray arm tremor when weapon sights are up.


Bunny Hopping Deterrents
Players can no longer reload while in mid jump or jump while a reload is occurring. In addition the jump key is limited with a stall time between each jump. These two additions should deter most bunny hopping outright, however once a player becomes accustomed to the changes they can go anywhere they originally could in a speedy manner.

This is not a tactic anyone would employ in the real-world, so we're seeking to eradicate it in America's Army.

Beta Design Committee

We've assembled a Design Committee comprising of several of our top beta testers (a mix of veteran and newbie betas) to help the America's Army design team assess the design of our current game, features in development and plans for future development. This team meets each week to discuss a single topic, we coordinate via special beta forums to focus the feedback. The 10 members of this Committee will be active in the public America's Army forums to scan and collect feedback from everyone in our community.

New ideas or improvements to existing features that make it into America's Army will earn the originator actual game design credits. Anyone hoping to make a career in game development can appreciate the value of this. We think this is a really positive initiative and should help drive participation in our overall beta program.

The membership of the Design Committee will change frequently. Each month several members will rotate out; everyone in beta who's interested in having their voice heard will have a chance to participate.[/quote:57e79]

EA and other game designers should be like these. Constantely making updates to an already good game.