AAO: 2.4 "Q-Course" Released

[+Fates 63]

America's Army: Special Forces (Q-Course) to Launch Today

 

The U.S. Army today announced that America's Army: Special Forces

(Q-Course) will be available today for download at www.americasarmy.com.

Get ready for intense action in this new version (version 2.4) which features a whole new Army game experience with the first-ever combination of random spawns with random and dynamic objectives, together with carryable objectives and random extraction points. Q-Course also contains four new Special Forces missions and two new weapons - the Door Breacher and the Bunker Defeat Munitions (BDM)

 

New Features

Random Player Starts:

In America's Army players have always started at the same location when beginning a round in a multiplayer map. In Q-Course players will start randomly between predetermined locations on the new levels. This allows for a more realistic game experience, increases replayability and helps to limit the predictability of enemy placement and routes. Random Player Starts will also enhance the current game by putting more emphasis on strategy rather than the memorization of map geometry. It will also reduce the negative impact of exploits such as grenade spamming.

 

Random Objective Locations:

In Q-Course the location of objectives will change for each round, and can move around between any number of possible positions. With the addition of random objectives, the locations change from one round to the next, forcing the need for both Assault and Defense teams to search for the objective. This new feature promotes replayablilty and helps to enhance strategy in game play.

 

Inventory Objective Type:

Q-Course features an all new objective type in which objectives can be transportable in maps (via a player's inventory), requiring their delivery to specified locations. These inventory objectives' can be picked up, dropped (upon death), and passed on to other teammates. Inventory objectives provide a new style of objective-based gameplay by adding another dimension to objective completion. These objectives must be picked up and taken to a specific location in order to be considered complete. If a player dies while carrying one of these objectives, it drops, and must be retrieved by another teammate to continue the mission. These objective types also take advantage of random objectives, by moving the drop point/pickup point of the inventory objective to different locations from one round to another.

 

NPC Conversation Objective Type:

This feature allows a qualified player to help their team by speaking with NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) placed randomly around the level in order to gain intelligence about the whereabouts of the mission's main objectives. Talking with the NPCs will help the team locate the randomly placed objectives in the level. Once a qualified player speaks to an NPC in the level, the mission's main objective location will show up on their team's HUD compass as normal.

 

Special Forces A-Team Videos:

Included with this release of America's Army are all new Special Forces informational videos. These 7 videos describe each SF MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) in detail as well as show some exclusive footage of the Special Forces A-Team members in action. There is one video for each member in the standard Special Forces ODA (Operational Detachment Alpha - or 'A-Team'). These 7 SF MOS team members are as

follows: 18A - Detachment Commander, 18B - Weapons Sergeant, 18C - Engineering Sergeant, 18D - Medical Sergeant, 18E - Communications Sergeant, 18F - Intel Sergeant, and 18Z - Team Sergeant,

 

These videos are included in the v2.4.0 Full Install and can be accessed using the desktop shortcut created or by navigating to the 'America's Army\System' directory and double clicking the 'SF_MOS_Videos.exe'

file.

 

Multiplayer Missions

Q-Course includes four Special Forces multiplayer missions. Two of these missions, SF Courtyard and SF Precious Cargo Recovery, contain both the Special Forces playable Soldier class, as well as the Indigenous Forces playable class. The other two missions, SF Blizzard and SF Water Treatment, are 'SF Exclusive' containing only the Special Forces playable Soldier class.

 

SF Courtyard: In this daytime rural village mission players must interrogate informants to find the location of a laptop computer containing information about terrorist operatives. Once secured, the Assault team must then reach the extraction point with this laptop. The Defense team is trying to prevent the other team from securing and extracting with the laptop. This mission's spawn points, NPC objectives, laptop objective, and extraction points - are all randomly selected each round.

 

SF PCR (Precious Cargo Recovery): In this night urban mission both teams must race to retrieve a briefcase containing sensitive information about terrorist operatives. Each team must locate and secure this 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, briefcase objective, and extraction points (1 per team) - are all randomly selected each round.

 

SF Blizzard: Soldiers must gain entry and assault a remote enemy compound in this night mission set in a snowy Alpine forest environment.

This map has 2 different objective scenarios which are randomly selected each round. In one scenario the Soldiers must either destroy or protect the electrical power station. The alternate scenario requires the Soldiers to either deactivate or protect the radio communications equipment.

 

SF Water Treatment: A night urban mission where players must either protect or secure containers of radiological material stored in various locations within an urban complex. The Assaulting team must gain entry to the building, locate and secure the radioactive material container, and then reach the extraction point successfully with the container. The Defending team must protect and prevent extraction of this sensitive container.

 

New Weapons

M141 Bunker Defeat Munitions (BDM): The M141 BDM, or Bunker Defeat Munitions, is a shoulder-fired rocket designed to defeat fortified positions, bunkers, and light armor. The BDM is given to the 18C SF MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) Soldier (Engineering Sgt.) but can be used by any member of the SF A-Team. The BDM can be used anywhere, but will have specific targets designed as objectives or obstacles. These specific targets will be identified by a HUD message that will appear when the player's crosshair moves over the object. The BDM can be an advantageous tool to use in order to tactically and efficiently gain entry into the enemy's compound.

 

AGP-DB14 Door Breacher: The Door Breacher is an explosive device designed to achieve entry on locked or un-operable doors. Another MOS- specific weapon, the Door Breacher will be issued only to the 18C SF MOS Soldier (Engineering Sgt.). The Door Breacher will be usable on designated locked doors in the new missions. The player will be able to identify valid targets by a Breachable' message that will appear on the player's HUD. The Door Breaching can be an advantageous tool to use in order to tactically and efficiently gain entry into enemy restricted areas.

 

More Features

Updated Game Engine:

The entire America's Army game is now running on an updated version of the Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 2.5. This updated engine code base provides several enhancements to the game engine in several areas including efficiency (optimizations), security, stability, bug fixes, new gameplay feature infrastructure, etc.

 

Updated User Interface:

As part of the new engine code base update, many new user interface specific enhancements were implemented. The v2.4 User Interface has been overhauled under the hood' to take advantage of these new engine optimizations and functionality. The game's new UI will look very similar; however it will run much more efficiently and utilize some of the new features of the new engine.