America's Army

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This article is about the computer game America's Army. For the Army of the United States, see United States Army.


America's Army
Developer: US Army (MOVES Institute, other army organizations)
Publisher: US Army
Engine: Unreal engine
Release date: AA- July 4, 2002 AA:SF- November 6, 2003
Genre: First-person tactical shooter
Game modes: Single player, multiplayer (see text)
ESRB rating: Teen (T) (13+)
Platform: Windows, Linux, Mac (not all versions)
Minimum Requirements: direct Internet connection (56K+) or faster, Pentium 1.3 GHz CPU+ (or 700MHz G4 CPU for Mac. Pentium3 766 for linux), 256MB RAM+ (128MB for linux) and 2 GB hard disk space (version 2.4)

America's Army is a free multiplayer first-person shooter computer game series, with releases for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. It is the official game of the United States Army, and the first version was released to the public free of charge on July 4, 2002, with numerous updates since then. The second major release was America's Army: Special Forces in November 2003, a major release that has also had several patches with the latest being known as Direct Action (version 2.5). America's Army was developed in part by the MOVES Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School and is based on the Unreal engine. The game, while mostly well received by the gaming community, has been subject to some criticism.

Contents

[edit] Overview

America's Army falls into the subgenre of tactical shooter and also belongs to a category known as serious games. According to the game's official website, America's Army "provides civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premier land force: the U.S. Army. The game is designed for verisimilitude and to provide an accurate portrayal of Soldier experiences across a number of occupations. In the game, players will explore progressive individual and collective training events within the game. Once they successfully completed these events they will advance to multiplayer operations in small units." [1]

As of February 20, 2005 there were 4.6 million registered players, of which 2.7 million had finished basic training.[2] Also, there were over 15,000 servers active with a average number of rounds per day of 1.3 million, taking up an average of 90,000 thousand hours collectively in a day. Successive updates to the game have kept a steady player base. It can be found as a free download on the Internet or on a CD-ROM at recruiting centers around the United States.

[edit] History

In 1999, Lieutenant Colonel E. Casey Wardynski, an economics professor at the U.S Military Academy at West Point who later became head of the "America's Army" project, exhibited to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel as well as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Military Manpower the idea of an online computer game done by the United States Army. That same year U.S. Army recruitment had reached the lowest point in 30 years[3]. Congress decided to carry out "aggressive, innovative experiments" with regard to the number of recruitments.

The first release was July 4, 2002, and was followed by further patches. On November 6, 2003, version 2.0 of America's Army: Special Forces was published. (See below for versions). The Army is spending roughly USD$3 million a year to develop future versions of the game. The developing studios are working on future versions, which will include things like drivable vehicles.

Another AA version to be called America's Army: Rise of a Soldier is planned for release on Playstation 2 and Xbox by summer 2005. The console version is being developed by UbiSoft. [4]

Since the release of America's Army the game has generated criticism for its purpose. There has been debate sparked over the being paid for by US tax dollars, and what the implications of the game's goals are, and what it means to society and army recruitment.

[edit] Gameplay

America's Army is a team-based war game in which the player controls a soldier of the US Army from the first person perspective. Players fight as either the 'US Army' or, on "Special Forces" maps) Indigenous forces ("IF") against an opposing team called "OPFOR" (Army lingo for "Opposing Forces") and specifically as insurgents, enemy forces or terrorists.

[edit] US/OPFOR Transformation for Teams

One of America's Army's unusual features is the design of the player's opponents. The players are divided into two teams, usually into an assault group and a defense group, with the assault losing the round if the time limit runs out, which is usually set to ten minutes.

The players on each team see themselves as American soldiers carrying American weaponry, such as the M16A2. They see their opponents as non-uniformed foreigners carrying primarily Eastern bloc weapons, such as AK-47s (the counterpart of the M16A2 in the game), except for in training maps, in which the only distinguishing features are the players' uniforms. In this way the development team tried to preserve realism for players on both sides, allowing all to play on the side the game promotes while avoiding the politically thorny issue of asking players to kill American soldiers.

On the Special Forces maps, players can also play as non-uniformed foreigners carrying primarily Eastern bloc weapons (known as Indigenous forces ("IF") in the game), but fight along with the regular army forces (not on the OPFOR).

Where this becomes confusing to many players is the realisation that when they pick up an enemy weapon, it behaves differently to its US counterpart. An AK-47 removed from a fallen opponent is fully automatic, more powerful, but less accurate than his M16. Yet when his opponent possessed it, to him it was an M16. The key is that each weapon behaves as the owner sees it, with an invisible transformation taking place as it's picked up. Players paying great attention occasionally notice that weapons in enemy hands behave "wrongly", but the effect is subtle.

Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously. Players can join the other team, but cannot play as the OPFOR. Equipment is not bought but selected through choosing a class[5].

[edit] Goals and scoring system

The goal of the game is to complete the missions objectives's, or to eliminate the enemy. For example, one objective might be to kill the rebels V.I.P., who are trying to survive and escape, or, if you join the other team, you must prevent the same V.I.P. from being shot. The round ends when a team wins the round (which can only be done by either completing the objectives or killing all members of the OPFOR), or when the round's time limit is reached. For a listing of missions see below.

The game tracks how many kills each player has, how many times each team has won, how many times each player is killed in action, and how well the player is contributing to completing the objectives. The game then distributes score which calculates the player's Honor level.

Every death you suffer by another player, every time you fail to protect an objective which you are assigned to defend, and especially every killing of fellow teammates or their allies caused by your friendly fire is called a violation of the ROE (Rules of engagement) in the game and has an extremely negative effect on your score and "Honor". If too many points are lost in a round, the player is put in "jail" and kicked from the server. As of February 2005 95.2% of AA players had 0-20 HONOR points, 3.3% had 20-40 points, 1% had 40-60, and .4% had 61-80 points.

Every healing of injured teammates and every killing of opponents, by contrast, increase your score and "Honor". The accomplishment of the game's missions affects your score favorably and therefore your "Honor" points as well. The score is saved in the player's account that was being used. Some servers only allow players with certain Honor levels to join. The most common is to disallow anyone with less than 10 Honor, which is the base level that all players start with. Some also restrict players with too much Honor. The developers claim this reward system ("Honor") is modeled after the values "Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage or Leadership", though its main purpose in the game is stop team-killing, which is a common problem in many online first-person shooters (see team killer).

[edit] Game content

[edit] Weaponry and equipment

The game depicts real-world small arms, modeled carefully for the standards of the early 2000s. Each gun has differing qualities of accuracy, deadliness, recoil, and rate of jamming. To aim, there are both traditional cross-hairs and iron sights.

Players may select from several "classes" including squad leader, rifleman, automatic rifleman, grenadier, and sniper; these classes decide what weapon the player will receive at the beginning of a new round. A few players from each team may also be medics, able to stop the bleeding wounds of their teammates. Being a medic is an additional ability which is added on top of the chosen class. The Honor points are used in the allocation of class spots. Players with more Honor generally get the first choice of classes.

Each gun also can jam in action and the player needs to press a button to perform an action fixing the gun's jam. Due to both the fact that the player cannot use the weapon while it is jammed and that it takes several seconds to be fixed can be a crisis for the player since it occurs inherently when they need to shoot. AA was the first game ever to model weapon jamming for the players firearms.

Every firearm in the game has either iron sights or a telescopic sight (for sniper rifles); while using the sights, a zoom effect enlarges objects in view. The iron sights enlarge to a small degree, the telescopic sights to large one. Until he stops zooming, the player's moving speed is additionally decreased.

In early versions, weapons only damaged players and glass. For example, a frag grenade could not destroy a television while a gun could put a bullet hole in the glass of the TV. Compared to most other first-person shooters, however, explosive weapons are more deadly. The blast radius of grenades was intended to be more realistic than it has been made in other games. Damage by weapons always leads to at least some bleeding (though little blood visibly comes out of the player), which causes a player's health gauge to deteriorate over time. Wounds reduce movement speed, weapon accuracy and health points. In some cases if the virtual wound is not treated by a player of the medic class, the player can die.

Weapon modifications were introduced in later versions. The M4 Carbine can be configured in a variety of ways and allow the soldier to have features suited to a particular map. For example, on a large map a scope and a bipod might be chosen, but on a urban map one might choose only iron sights and M203 grenade launcher.

[edit] Classes and weaponry

Every player starts the round with one or two firearm(s), a small number of grenades and, on some maps, night vision goggles and/or binoculars. A list of weaponry available follows:

  • Firearms
    • Riflemen:
      • M16A2
      • M4A1 carbine
      • M136 AT-4 anti-tank weapon on certain maps
      • Opfor uses AK-47, AKS-74U
    • Grenadiers:
      • M203 mounted under an M16A2
      • Opfor uses GP30 mounted under an AK-47
    • Automatic Riflemen:
      • M249 Squad Automatic Weapon
      • Opfor uses the 75 round RPK
    • Special Operations Weapons Sergeants:
      • M4A1 SOPMOD including one of the following modifications from each category,
      • Special Forces: Standard M4 Carbind with SOPMOD kit including one of the following modifications from each category.
        • Top Rail
          • Standard Ironsight
          • ACOG 4x Sight
          • M68 Reflex Sight
          • HeatShield
        • Front Rail
          • CQB Reflex Sight (Must Be used with Ironsight on Top Rail)
          • Leaf Sight (Only applicable with M203 Grenade Launcher)
          • HeatShield
        • Bottom Rail
          • M203 Grenade Launcher (Must Be used with Leaf Sight on Front Rail)
          • Flare Launcher (Must Be used with Leaf Sight on Front Rail)
          • Harris Bipod
          • HeatShield
        • Muzzle
          • QD Suppressor
          • HeatShield
        • Left and Right Rails
          • HeatShield
      • Opfor AKS-74U SpetsNaz with Modifications
    • Advanced Marksmen (Sniper): Snipers carry the M9 Pistol
      • Barrett M82A1
      • M24 SWS
      • Special Purpose Rifle (SPR)
      • Opfor carry the Makarov pistol and the Dragunov, Mosin-Nagant and VSS Vintorez
  • Hand grenades:
    • M67 fragmentation grenade(s) (replaced with MILES grenade(s) in training levels)
    • M83 HC white smoke grenade(s)
    • AN-M14 TH3 incendiary hand grenade(Thermite grenade)
    • M84 stun grenade(s)
  • Indigenious Forces (IF):
    • IF 47: TheAK-47
    • IF 74: The AKS-74U
    • IF RPK: The RPK
    • IF RPG: The RPG-7
  • M141 Bunker Defeat Munitions (BDM) (new in Q-Course (version 2.4))
  • AGP-DB14 Door Breacher (new in Q-Course (version 2.4))
  • US Stryker Armoured Personnel Carrier appearing to be a Russian BTR-80 if on the other side. It current releases A 50-caliber machine gun on the roof can be controlled from inside, but cannot be driven around.

For more on classes see America's Army classes.

[edit] Weapons planned for future versions

  • The XM25 weapon. The XM25 in AA will be a sort of air burst assault weapon that fires an Airburst round via a specialized launcher.
  • TALON Robot. The robot will be a radio controlled machine similar looking to the WWII era Goliath, but rather than exploding it has special instruments such as for defusing a bomb or helping people trapped in dangerous locations.
  • JAVELIN Rocket Launcher. The Javelin is a shoulder-fired "fire and forget" anti-vehicle self-guided rocket. It can also be used against bunkers and other hardened locations. In AA it will have a special scope target system and can be carried on a player's back.
  • Other planned game weapons include door breacher explosives, a shotgun (also for door breaching), and land mines. The land mines are armed and placed like a handgrenade, but would not detonate until triggered. Also be worked on are more drivable vehicles, such as an up-armored humvee, which was in a video at E3.

[edit] Missions and maps

The map list is sorted by the version they were released with, with most recent maps coming first. The game currently features 28 multiplayer maps in various locations as well as 14 single player training missions whose completion unlocks certain options for the player, namely the ability to play online or to become medic, special forces unit or sniper. Maps vary in size, objectives, and weaponry available to players. However, no known custom maps have been done as there is no level editor for the game and the developers have made it impossible for players to use the level design software UnrealEd, which works for other Unreal engine games.

  • AA: Special Forces (Direct Action) (v2.5)
    • SF Dockside
    • SF Extraction
  • AA: Special Forces (Q-Course) (v2.4)
    • SF Courtyard
    • SF PCR (Precious Cargo Recovery)
    • SF Blizzard
    • SF WaterTreatment
  • AA: Special Forces (Firefight) (v2.3)
    • Woodland Assault, a woodland map where one side must identify and destroy a weapons cache, and the other side defend it.
    • Urban Assault, a urban map in a desert climate. Each side must secure weapon caches.
  • AA: SF (Vanguard) (v2.2)
    • SF Taiga, a winter map in a forested area.
    • SF Oasis, set in a desert climate one side must escape a canyon and the other must stop them.
  • AA: SF (Downrange) (v2.1)
    • SF Village, a urban map in a desert climate.
    • SF Arctic, a winter map one side must defend a convoy. Includes immobile Stryker vehicles.
  • AA: SF (v2.0 and v2.0a)
    • SF Sandstorm (came with Sandstorm v2.0a), a desert map set during a sand-storm among buildings and ruins.
    • SF CSAR, a urban desert map with a downed blackhawk helicopter. Can play as US Army or indigenous soldiers against the OPFOR.
    • SF Pipeline, a redone version of the original Pipline map, but with SF equipment. The maps layout and objectives remain the same however.
    • SF Recon, a large desert night map in which one side must do a series of identifications, and the other must stop them.
    • SF Hospital, a VIP rescue or defense map set in a urban environment surrounding and in a hospital and heli-pad
  • AA: Medics (v1.9)
    • Mountain Pass SE, a redone version of the original Mountain Pass from AA:0.
  • AA: Operations
    • Bridge SE (came with v1.7), a expanded version of Bridge Crossing which adds alternate routes around bridge and is somewhat less foggy.
    • Radio Tower (v1.6), a desert map with several objectives.
    • Weapons Cache SE (v1.5), a expanded and different version of Weapons Cache with somewhat different objectives.
    • River Basin (v1.4), is a large MILES training map with a series objectives set among grassy hills, in a daylight summer environment.
    • Mountain Pass (v.1.3), a large hilly winter map.
    • JRTC Farm (v1.2.1), one side spawns in via a paradrop and must destroy a parked helicopter, the other side must defend it.
    • Weapons Cache (v1.2.1), a urban map with a series of objectives inside a large building, a mix of office space and storage rooms.
    • Mountain Ambush (v1.2), a series of objectives in mixed woodland and grassy environment.
    • Swamp Raid (v1.2), A dark map that focuses on the rescue or defense of a prisoner. The Rescue side has night vision.
    • FLS Assault (v1.2), a night map centering on the defense or attack of a field landing strip. The attacking side para-drops in from a C-17 and has night-vision.
  • AA: Recon (v1.0)
    • HQ Raid, a MILES map set at night, in a wooded hilly area where a series of objectives.
    • Collapsed Tunnel, A a dark battle in a series of sewer tunnels. Each side must secure a series of objective points.
    • Insurgent Camp, set at night in afghanistan, the attackers must get into a complex and access computers.
    • Pipeline, a winter map that takes place at a pumping station in Alaska. One side defends the station, and the other secures objectives inside, such as turning of valves.
    • Bridge Crossing, a foggy winter maps with each side starting on one side of long bridge. One side must stop the other from crossing.
    • MOUT McKenna, a training level in a re-created urban environment, similar to some urban type paintball courses. This map features MILES.

[edit] Versions

    • Version 2.7 is coming out June 2006**

Version 2.6 is the most recent, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and for Mac OS X.

  • Version 1.0.0 and 1.0.1 - America's Army: Recon — (released July 4, 2002) (Windows)
  • Version 1.2.0 - America's Army — (released August 23, 2002) (Windows)
  • Version 1.2.1 - America's Army: Operations — (released August 27, 2002) (Windows)
  • Version 1.4.0 - America's Army: Operations — (released November 27, 2002) (Windows)
  • Version 1.5.0 - America's Army: Operations — (released December 23, 2002) (Windows)
  • Version 1.7.0 - America's Army: Operations — (released May 1, 2003) (Windows, Linux, Mac)
  • Version 1.9.0 - America's Army: Operations — (released August 10, 2003) (Windows, Linux, Mac)
  • Version 2.0 - America's Army: Special Forces — (released November 6, 2003) (Windows, Linux, Mac)
    • Version 2.0a - America's Army: Special Forces — (released December 23, 2003) (Windows, Linux, Mac)
  • Version 2.1.0 - America's Army: Special Forces (Downrange) — (released June 1, 2004) (Windows, Linux, Mac)
  • Version 2.2.0 - America's Army: Special Forces (Vanguard) — (released October 19, 2004) (Windows, Linux)
    • Version 2.2.1 - America's Army: Special Forces (Vanguard) — (released November 18, 2004) (Windows, Linux)
  • Version 2.3.0 - America's Army: Special Forces (Firefight) — (released: February 18, 2005) (Windows)
  • Version 2.4.0 - America's Army: Special Forces (Q-Course) — (released: May 16, 2005) (Windows)
  • Version 2.5.0 - America's Army: Special Forces (Direct Action) — (released: October 13, 2005) (Windows, Linux, Mac)

[edit] External links