America's Army: Special Forces upgrades
by Kit

Wednesday, June 2 2004

New upgrades include insurgent forces, new weapons, and vehicles.

The Army has released America's Army: Special Forces (Downrange) which adds a wealth of new gameplay and features to the SF game including two new multiplayer missions, the M136 AT4, a new tournament mode, the implementation of Ragdoll physics, the Stryker vehicle, realistic suns, new class selection enhancements, new RPG and AT4 3D Ironsights with Adjustable Range Settings, and much more.

New Missions:
Both of these new missions are Special Forces missions containing both the Special Forces playable Soldier class, as well as the Indigenous forces playable class.

SF Village: Insurgent forces have acquired multiple weapons caches and are holding up in an abandoned desert town. A Special Forces A-Team, along with friendly Indigenous Forces, must infiltrate their position in town and seize these weapons caches in order to degrade enemy capability to arm insurgent forces.

SF Arctic: Coalition forces transporting arms and ammunition struck an improvised explosive device (IED), immobilizing one of their vehicles on a high-altitude mountain road. A Special Forces A-Team, along with friendly Indigenous Forces must now protect their essential materials and supplies from an assaulting resistance force who wishes to capture those supplies. The Stryker vehicles accompanying the supply convoy have taken defensive positions to help defend the immobilized convoy.

New Weapon - M136 AT4:
The M136 AT4 is the Army's primary light anti-tank weapon. The M136 AT4 is a recoilless rifle used primarily by Infantry Forces for engagement and defeat of light armor. The recoilless rifle design permits accurate delivery of an 84mm High Explosive Anti-Armor warhead, with negligible recoil. The M136 AT4 is a lightweight, self-contained, anti-armor weapon consisting of a free-flight, fin-stabilized, rocket-type cartridge packed in an expendable, one-piece, fiberglass-wrapped tube. The M136 AT4 is man-portable and is fired from the right shoulder only. The round of ammunition is self-contained in a disposable launch tube. The system weighs 15 pounds and can be utilized effectively with minimal training. The Opfor equivalent is the RPG-7.

Character 'Ragdoll' Physics:
The implementation of the Karma Ragdoll Physics Engine applies real-life physics to all player characters in the game. This produces real-time unique animations for each character during gameplay.

New 'Tournament Mode':
America's Army now includes new tournament mode features, which are accessible either via the command line or a GUI interface. It will include an adjustable pre-match warm-up period with an in-game notification that the match is beginning. The time remaining until the tournament start is also displayed on the score screen as well as in-game reminders, and a final 10-second countdown.

New Stryker Armored Vehicle:
America's Army: SF (Downrange) introduces the Army's new Interim Armored Vehicle, a.k.a. the Stryker. The Stryker vehicle is currently implemented as a stationary vehicle with a fully functioning .50 cal turret usable by the player. The Stryker's turret is accessible from inside the vehicle and has full zoom capability. These new Stryker vehicles are available in the "SF Arctic" mission.

New Realistic Suns Including Lens Flare:
Sun lens flares portray the real-life effects that you see when looking toward the direction of the sun. Their introduction has a really exciting impact on gameplay and in a variety of ways. When looking in the direction of the sun, this has a slight-to-moderate impact on your character's vision.

Class Selection Page Enhancements:
Players can now request to swap weapons/classes with teammates simply by hitting the 'Swap' button next to his name in the in-game class selection page. Players can now select their weapon mods set directly from the class selection in-game menu rather than having to go back to the main user interface.

New RPG and AT4 3D Ironsights with Adjustable Range SettingsBoth the RPG-7 and the M136 AT4 now have new 3D ironsights. These weapons also have the new functionality of 'adjustable range settings' based on the distance to target. Players can now adjust the ironsights based on the range to target, and then simply aim directly at the target when firing.

--- Kit