EA has posted up a new interview today with the creator of the Highway Tampa map, Björn Sundell. Take a look:
To check out the rest of this new interview, click here.
The Highway Tampa beta for Battlefield 2 is now out and the sound of exploding tank shells is echoing across Battlefield 2 servers worldwide. We caught up with map designer Björn Sundell to talk about the creation of this tank-fest of a map.
I know you still spent quite a lot of time finishing off his work on it. What would you say makes it a good tank map?
The idea was obviously to bring back the big tank battles of 1942. It's not just about creating lots of wide open space and sticking in plenty of tanks though. Making sure you have a rolling landscape lets tanks take cover behind hills and hide in ridges so I spent a lot of time making sure the map had those features. I also wanted to limit the number of air vehicles so the focus could remain on the tanks. That's the reason there is no attack helicopter, it would adversely affect the intended balance of the map.
The draw distance is pretty high so you can have these long range tank fights. It's worth mentioning that it isn't any shorter than other tank maps, just that it's dusty yellow rather than sky coloured which might make it seem closer than usual when it actually isn't.
What is going to be different about the Battlefield 2142 version?
The 2142 version will feature both Titan Mode and Conquest. There will also be a good number of air vehicles and transports in the mix too. The layout of the terrain will be roughly the same with only a few modifications. I also tried to recreate the areas that are there in BF2 in the 2142. It's all done with different props since this is 2142 but otherwise it should feel familiar.
I know you still spent quite a lot of time finishing off his work on it. What would you say makes it a good tank map?
The idea was obviously to bring back the big tank battles of 1942. It's not just about creating lots of wide open space and sticking in plenty of tanks though. Making sure you have a rolling landscape lets tanks take cover behind hills and hide in ridges so I spent a lot of time making sure the map had those features. I also wanted to limit the number of air vehicles so the focus could remain on the tanks. That's the reason there is no attack helicopter, it would adversely affect the intended balance of the map.
The draw distance is pretty high so you can have these long range tank fights. It's worth mentioning that it isn't any shorter than other tank maps, just that it's dusty yellow rather than sky coloured which might make it seem closer than usual when it actually isn't.
What is going to be different about the Battlefield 2142 version?
The 2142 version will feature both Titan Mode and Conquest. There will also be a good number of air vehicles and transports in the mix too. The layout of the terrain will be roughly the same with only a few modifications. I also tried to recreate the areas that are there in BF2 in the 2142. It's all done with different props since this is 2142 but otherwise it should feel familiar.
To check out the rest of this new interview, click here.
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