BeyondUnreal Interview - Scott Dalton, Senior Level Designer, Legend Entertainment
World Press Preview Event: November 7, 2002
Chantilly, Virginia, USAQAPete: Do you have all of the things from the latest UT 2003 engine build in Unreal II?Scott Dalton: We have most of the changes - there are a few different things. We're using our own particle system, so that's different, and we're using our own skeletal system, so that's different, but other than that, I'm pretty sure everything else is in there. There may be a few minor things here or there, but recently the guys from Epic came and integrated a bunch of the major UT 2003-specific features into our builds.QAPete: You're pretty much done with the game now?Scott Dalton: Yes. We're doing bug fixes and tweaks at this point. There's nothing major left to be done, so it's pretty much doing the tweaking and making sure nothing in the game breaks.QAPete: You were around during Wheel of Time and Return to Na Pali. When you think of those games, then think of this game, you're talking a pretty big step-shift.Scott Dalton: Yes. One big part of Unreal II is this big, dramatic change in technology. At the beginning of the project, we were working with UT technology. Everyone was building up their tech. Epic was building up their tech, we were building up ours. So as the new technology came out, the content guys were saying things like, 'wow, we can do so much more with this now', which dramatically changed how were were looking at things.QAPete: Isn't that same step-shift in technology going to make it tough for the mod community to keep up?Scott Dalton: I haven't been looking closely at what mods are coming out for UT 2003, but I'd imagine there's an initial hump to clear, that it's not so easy to just jump right in; it's a pretty big jump. After people get used to it, though, I think we're going to be seeing some pretty great stuff.QAPete: What are some of the AI changed/enhancements in Unreal II: The Awakening?Scott Dalton: There are a ton of AI changes. I mentioned the scripting system. With it, you can basically take over and control any guy in the game. You can make him autonomous, where he'll just do his normal AI, or you can give him objectives, where he's sort of scripted but also sort of autonomous. He has an overall goal, but he's also acting on his own, where the end result is he wants to reach that goal. So, we really have a fine amount of control, we can take over a guy completely, force him to do something exactly how you want him to do it, or have him be autonomous, or anywhere in-between.QAPete: Can you have sub-objectives along the way? For instance, if-then types of behavior?Scott Dalton: It's really cool. You can have the AI check any property in the game. So, for example, you can have him check the time of day, and he'll only do something depending on that time of day. You can check a guy's health, and if his health is 50 or less, you can have your character go over and heal him. If you remember the field walls, depending on where your character is in relation to the field wall, he may choose to go around it, or try to break through it. Say there are like 20 field walls between the characters and their objective. They're definitely going to go around the field walls, because it would take way too long to break through all of them. They'll also take cover, as necessary. It really depends on the guys; the human opponents are much more intelligent that, say, Izarians or just your random ambient creatures. Humans will take cover behind anything (ed: including smoke). If they're really far away, they'll lay down prone and try to snipe you. So it's really open for situations like that. You can actually use other creatures as your scratch pad for variables. So, again, you have a really fine degree of control over what you can change with their behavior.