Adam Solo interviewed Jan Kunt, Carrier Command’s Executive Producer, and talked about the details and ideas behind the game.
You can read the complete interview on the www.spacesector.com website.


SS:Can you please make a brief introduction to your game Carrier Command: Gaea Mission? Especially to the people who are new to the series, so that they know a bit more on what to expect.

Jan Kunt: Gaea Mission is a 1st/3rd person action game with real-time strategy elements. It reinvents an 80s classic and offers a campaign in which the player takes up the role of an underdog United Earth Coalition commander whose mission it is to defeat the occupying Asian Pacific Alliance on the breathtaking planetoid Taurus. The game seamlessly integrates strategic elements (e.g. commanding units, managing resources, upgrading your equipment) with 1st/3rd-person action by letting the player take instant control of any unit at any time. By traversing the seas and establishing a network of island bases for defense, mining and manufacturing, the player pushes the campaign forward.

SS: Your proposed gameplay mechanics are intriguing. In CCGM’s website you state that the player is offered “control [of] a seamless blend of real-time remotely controllable vehicles with a programmable battle computer to dominate the battlefield”. So, how does that works exactly? Can you detail a bit more what the gameplay will be like, with some examples perhaps?

Jan Kunt: As I mentioned earlier, you are in the command chair of this huge carrier, which means that you are able to control all of its systems, including remotely controllable vehicles, powerful defensive weapons and a whole network of islands with its own production capabilities.
To give you an example, in the beginning of the game, you will discover that your carrier is running low on fuel. Your map indicates an island which might hold fuel. You set sail towards the island and prepare your assault. One of the first decisions you will need to make is which units you are going to deploy and how you are going to equip them. Also, first you might want to send a lightly armored and therefore maneuverable Manta (an aerial vehicle) for reconnaissance. After all, once you have established all enemy positions on the island you will be in a position to make a better tactical assessment. Also, in case your tactics were flawed, you can decide to withdraw any or all of your units back to the carrier for repairing, rearming and reequipping.

Overall, it’s completely up to your play style how you want to engage in the combat. You can decide to control units directly, via the map, or via a combination of both. If you are looking for a more action-focused experience, you can decide to control a single vehicle, giving orders to the other units via the radial tactical menu, and leave the A.I. to handle the rest. If you are more into a RTS-like play style, you can use the map to set waypoints and give orders to your units. However, the cool thing about Carrier Command: Gaea Mission is how it lets you combine both of these approaches.

Switching between units and the map takes only a split-second, which is supported by one of the great technical features of the game. While you are in ‘map-view’, a picture-in-picture window shows you the real-time perspective of the unit you have selected. You only need one click to take direct control of the unit. In this way, you stay immersed into the game.

The above only describes the beginning of the game. Another gameplay-aspect is purely strategic, where you are not only asked to manage your island network in terms of resources and strategic positioning but also responsible for which island you are going to attack next/or where to make a stand against the enemy carrier. As the game proceeds, the available units, weapon load-outs, and objectives become more and more diverse. This helps us to ease players into the game. All in all, I would say this game is ‘gameplay-packed’.

SS: Will there be multiplayer options? If so, which?

Jan Kunt: Multiplayer will not be present in the game upon release. However, we would like to add it as a patch or DLC afterwards, but that is something for the future. Right now we are focusing solely on perfecting the singleplayer gameplay.

You can read the complete interview here.

Tags:Bohemia Interactive, Interview, Jan Kunt

 

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