Today we’ve got the first round of answers to your questions for Brink’s game director, Paul Wedgwood. Learn more about our upcoming stats site, gameplay specifics, Linux support, and more.
Without further ado, here’s Paul…
Will you show people their rank and status online like Bungie has done with Bungie.net? – Vapor Chaos
We’re currently working on a stats website for Brink where you’ll be able to see your progress through the game along with a whole bunch of statistics, including abilities, weapons, and even SMART moves. It’ll also display summaries of your most recent matches and even show the overall status the on-going civil war raging on the Ark. We’re very much looking forward to launching the site and think you’ll really enjoy exploring it.
More on that soon!
How well is BRINK prepared for the competitive eSport scene? — Trivve
Splash Damage has a long history of supporting competitive players, starting all the way back with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory – that game is still being played competitively to this day, eight years after its release. We’ve also got a fair few guys here at Splash Damage hailing from the clan scene, including myself!
As with our previous games, Brink features the competition-friendly Stopwatch game mode. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s pretty straightforward. Both teams take it in turns to play on the attack and the one that manages to set the faster time wins. If neither team manages to play through the whole map within the timelimit, Brink will first check which team managed to make more progress, and if that’s tied too, the team with the most XP wins.
We’ve also made sure that our maps scale down to 5 on 5, since we know that smaller team sizes are very important for clan matches. We even have a special matchmaking playlist right in the console versions of game that’s set up for these smaller team sizes. This playlist also turns on friendly fire and voice chat, while switching off things like Command Post buffs, bots, and overtime for the rawest competitive experience possible. On the PC, you’ve got dedicated servers of course, so all of these settings are at your disposal as well.
Of course, all of that doesn’t even take into account Brink’s unique, objective-driven gameplay that’s all about working together as a coordinated team. We just had a big community tournament here at the Splash Damage offices, and the variety of tactics being used there was a huge amount of fun to watch. We can’t wait to see all the crazy things people come up with once the game is released and people are really diving into it!
Do you have any DLC planned (maps, weapons, etc)? – Carter
We like the idea of downloadable content, but it would have to offer good value for players. Right now we are fully focused on Brink’s release and haven’t got anything to announce there.
Will there be any support for Linux? – Igor
We are working on dedicated server files for Linux, since we know how important that is to the community at large. There are no plans for a Linux client at the moment.
Will the PC version ever get mod tools at some point? – Tyler
Releasing an SDK is something that’s still being discussed. Our highest priority is getting Brink released for all of you to enjoy.
I saw a medium body type wielding a minigun. Can they do that? – Partykdk
Miniguns are part of the heavy weapons in Brink, so you need to be the heavy body type to use them.
Can you change body-types in game or between matches? – Matt
Once you unlock the heavy body type at level 5 and the light body type at level 7, you can switch body types at any time in the appearance customization menu in between matches. It’s an important decision with fairly wide-ranging consequences, so choose wisely!
From the gameplay vids it looks like most of the weapons are automatic machine guns. Are there any rifles or semi-automatic weapons? - Andy013
Sure! We’ve got several bolt action rifles in the game, along with different flavors of pistols, shotguns, and even grenade launchers. There’s something for everyone.
Will knives be included or strictly firearms and grenades ? – Chris
You get to wield a knife in your other hand if you choose a one-handed weapon like a pistol or a revolver. While melee attacks with the knife don’t knock people down as a melee attack with a two-handed weapon would, they inflict significantly more damage. This works really well in combination with the movement speed and agility of the light body type!
Will there be any demo prior to release? – cyberbemon
We don’t have a demo planned. There’s a huge amount of effort required to put together a demo and making that happen would have meant pushing Brink back. With so much excitement for the game all over the world, we chose to focus on all of our efforts on making the game as fun as possible and getting it wrapped up for release. Brink is nearly out now and we couldn’t be more excited.
I had a scan of the thread titles on the main page and nothing seemed obvious… refreshed again… still nothing… posted \o/