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09.09.2010 19:52
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Interview about COOP

We have been hearing much about the Teamrespawn COOP community at our forum. It particularly came to our notice when several forum members found that the "voice chat" feature was not originally planned for the next Vietcong, which led to a deluge of supporters of the feature, mainly the Teamrespawn COOP community, writing messages.

As we are not particularly familiar with this style of playing, we decided to find out more. We therefore chose to speak to the originator of Teamrespawn COOP, Dallas, the highly regarded freelance scripter, Don Turtuma, and the Teamrespawn supporter, Spookey, to find out more concerning the evolution of the unique world of Teamrespawn COOP in Vietcong.

First, can you say a few words about yourselves: where you are from, what you do, and so on?

Don Turtuma: I live in Finland and I am a 30-year-old professional software developer who owns a software company with three other persons. We create desktop and web database applications, and our main product is a web publishing software. In my spare time, I play and make games, which I have done for the last twenty years.

Spookey: I am 36 years old, still married, despite Vietcong, and come from Manchester in the United Kingdom. I work as a Senior Asbestos Consultant for the Health, Safety, and Environment Multinational Consultancy. Before I picked up Vietcong, I was only a casual gamer, and I suppose I come into the category of "hardcore" now.

Dallas: I am a 31-year-old social worker based in Copenhagen, Denmark. When not playing Vietcong, I paint oil/acrylic pictures and do graphical printing as well.

Okay, so what is the deal with Teamrespawn COOP exactly?

Spookey: Well, the general idea is to work as a team to complete a multiplayer map without anyone dying. Our game servers are set to "Team Respawn", so if you die, you wait until the entire team is dead before you can join the game again. We always restart the map when the team respawns.

We have understood the concept, but what are the origins of it, and how did it all start for you?

Dallas: I have always preferred the COOP game type when playing games online. Playing together against artificial intelligence gives you the possibility to slow the pace down and enjoy working as a team. However, I had a hard time finding players who were interested in actually cooperating as a team. It felt more like a competition where you had to steal most kills and obtain the highest score before the map ended. I always ended up playing the "cooperative (COOP)" game type in the Ambush multiplayer map because I liked the fact that "Rambo" players had such a long way to run after they died. Therefore, it often felt as if I was playing alone, which gave me the impression that it would be good to host my own server, which I did. I had set the respawn time as high as possible, which led to a discovery of Teamrespawn.

My server, "Tour of 73[TeamRespawn]", obtained a reputation fast. You either loved teamrespawn or never came back. Sgt. Pain(Tom) and Raven became regular visitors, and we started to raise the difficulty and adding more homemade rules. The rules served one purpose: to make it almost impossible to complete a level alone. Our three servers, "73", "74", and "75", became the Tour of Teamrespawn, in which we promoted our low speed COOP to every visitor. It took tremendous amounts of patience to help new players understand why we were having so much fun playing COOP at such a boring speed. Approximately a year after, in February 2004, we set up a simple web site with a forum, and since then the community truly started growing.

Spookey: I obtained the game on a whim in May 2003 and loved it so much that I upgraded my entire computer system as well as my Internet connection. Soon, I was getting somewhat tired of the "capture the flag (CTF)" game type (run and gun gameplay), and was about to put the game on the shelf but thought I would have a quick look at some servers I was unfamiliar with. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon "Tour of 73" and have been hooked ever since.

Don Turtuma: I purchased Vietcong around March 2003 and started playing COOP on a Local Area Network (LAN) with my two brothers. I played online for the first time in February 2004. The server was "Tour of 73", the multiplayer map was Ambush, and I was instantly hooked. I did not have the opportunity to play for long, but I returned again and again.

The Meat Grinder (TMG): Sometimes it was difficult to join the "Tour" servers, and most of these were run on ADSL connections, which led to quite high pings. I had a 10 MBit connection at my office, and when I upgraded my work computer at home, I decided to use the old hardware to build a game server. This happened in March 2004, and the name of the server was "The Meat Grinder".

Vietcong-Coop.net: It was difficult to find new COOP levels, as they were scattered all around the Internet, and I wanted to make the multiplayer maps more easily available for the players on my game servers. Therefore, Vietcong-Coop.net was born. I started gathering all COOP multiplayer maps that I could find on my web site. It also became the official download web site for "US Teamwork to Survive (UST2S)" multiplayer maps. Today, all COOP players know where to find multiplayer maps.

So those are the origins. You mentioned that the servers are set to "full team" respawn. What other server settings are used?

Spookey: Firstly, all servers are set to Vietnam difficulty, Vietnam chat mode, no snipers, no radiomen, one medic, and one engineer. Then we have the server rules: the administrators on "The Meat Grinder" and "Tour of Teamrespawn" servers enforce such. Weapons as the Sten II S and US-M3 are not permitted, as the Vietcong do not react to silenced weapons and the US-M3 sounds like a Vietcong weapon and may get you "team-killed". Rejoining a server after being killed is strictly forbidden, and we have an IP tracker, which informs us if you change your nickname. You must work as a team and follow the team leader's orders.

Wow, that sounds tough!

Dallas: Yes, it is supposed to be. When you play on the highest difficulty and with strict rules of engagement, you need both skill and luck. The various rules are supposed to challenge the player so much that he cannot survive on his own. However, with good leadership and a team willing to be led, everything is possible.

Team leader, you say?

Don Turtuma: Yes, on each round a team leader is elected, or even better; someone volunteers. He gives orders to the team, such as the order to move out, the direction to move, and the fire status (fire at will, report enemy contact, hold fire, and so on). He runs the mission as he sees fit. The team leader keeps the team focused on the mission, and he keeps the soldiers in line. There is no such thing as a lone wolf killer in these games.

It sounds like slow work too.

Dallas: It can be. Some games can last over two hours, but the feeling of leading a full team over Ambush and completing it without any deaths cannot be explained unless you have done it. It has only happened to me twice. We challenge ourselves and are prepared to fail hundreds of times, but occasionally, when you execute everything perfectly and you finally succeed, everything is just gravy.

Is this type of playing not open to abuse from people who do not play this way?

Don Turtuma: As we said, the administrators are more than capable of dealing with these situations. We have the banish command at our disposal, but prefer not to use it. We will rather kick or try to teach the person our way of playing. Banishments are reserved for serial "team-killers" and people using cheats.

We assume that Teamrespawn COOP is the only game type you play?

Spookey: I used to play CTF before I discovered the "Tour", and occasionally pop into an "assault team game (ATG)" server for ten minutes before playing Teamrespawn COOP to get my reactions working. In addition, we have a "Saturday Night Special", in which we all take some rest and relaxation (R&R) and play "assault team game (ATG)", "real war (RW)", and "capture the flag (CTF)" multiplayer maps against each other for some of fun.

Don Turtuma: COOP is pretty much the only game type I play, the "Saturday Night Special" being an exception. Sometimes, it is great fun to play against persons you usually play with as a team.

Dallas: I do not like opponents smarter than me, so I only play COOP. I used to play the "real war (RW)" game type in the Ambush multiplayer map to some extent, but I am all COOP these days.

Moving on now. When we look at the server list, it seems that more and more Teamrespawn servers are online.

Spookey: Indeed there are. We never imagined that this would become so big. I think the first major "splinter faction" (I do not want to use the word "cell") was "US Teamwork to Survive" (UST2S). Afterwards, some others were established such as "Mudspanker's and Strudders", "6th Sense" followed by "Vietnam Elite Teamwork" (VET), and "Team Coop" (TC), not to mention that several non-English speaking game servers are also being noticed. We are not aware of the situation on Australian servers, as high pings make playing there impractical for the European community.

We hear much about scripting here. What have you managed to do script-wise?

Don Turtuma: I was the first to include friendly artificial intelligence (AI) on a COOP map, and I have written a special COOP game type called "TourCoop". "TourCoop" has random respawn points for the AI and objectives (patrolling an area, blowing up things like antiaircraft guns, and so on). Additionally, I have implemented bleeding; when a player is hit, he starts to bleed and slowly loses health points if he does not get medical care. The players have "med kits" that they are only able to use once, which will save their lives in a tough situation when the team's medic is dead or too far away to provide help in time. The reason why I started working on my own COOP script was that I wanted to convert some of the single player missions to multiplayer with some more realism.

Did you then start scripting because of Vietcong, or did you have previous knowledge of programming?

Don Turtuma: I have programmed since I obtained my first computer, a Commodore 64, back in 1985 and have always programmed some silly little games. Now I am working on my biggest project to date, a multiplayer space simulator.

We figure that your latest levels are most likely the best ones then. For people wanting to try your COOP based multiplayer maps, which ones would you recommend them to start with?

Don Turtuma: The last multiplayer map I created was "TMG-PoTlongKarai", better known as "NVABase". It is the single player mission converted to a multiplayer map, and you have to blow up two antiaircraft guns, find a prisoner, and then get out of there. After you have completed all the objectives, you are given one last objective; to return to the landing zone, and a Huey will land to pick you up with some rock music playing in the background. I will soon release a new BETA version of the map.

I really like "TMG-MedicPatrol" too. It is the single player mission converted to a Vietcong COOP map, and you have to assassinate Captain Rosenfield. I made a special new game type for this multiplayer map too; it is called "King of the Hill (KOTH)". Two teams try to take control of the village; your team has to hold the village for one minute to score a point, although that is not COOP related.

Spookey: I agree with Don. Additionally, Ambush is still a classic. If you die in the first assault and are still there watching the team when they win, you have the right temperament for our style of playing.

So what is the future for Teamrespawn COOP?

Dallas: It is so bright and shiny that I have to wear my engineer class shades. The game type has its own destiny; we never expected that our internal server rules would touch so many players and become an important part of Vietcong's vast COOP community. Most of it is out of our hands now, but I think team oriented COOP is highly underestimated, and there is an astonishing desire among players to interact more than just shooting each other in the head.

Is there something in the COOP game type that you would like to change or improve for the next Vietcong?

Don Turtuma: What I missed the most was injuries. Players ought to be incapacitated when they are badly hit, and mission objectives should be incorporated with the retail version of the next Vietcong. Hardcore team respawn would be nice to have too. For example, the multiplayer map should be restarted automatically when the whole team is dead, instead of needing an administrator to do so.

Spookey: One thing I would dread to see is the "voice chat" function. It is much more realistic than intermediary "voice chat" programmes, as it is not distance specific and does not permit "ghosting" (making teammates aware of enemies when you are dead). Additionally, insertion and extraction would be a nice touch.

Dallas: And most important of all, a big marketing campaign to let people know what they are missing.

Do you have any final words that you wish to share with us?

Spookey: Yes, we wish all of the community the best of luck in their ventures. The "Tour" and "The Meat Grinders" are proud of our contribution. Some of us are also regulars on other forums and game servers, and attempt to support developing communities.

Dallas is the owner of the "Tour of Teamrespawn" forum and the "Tour of 73" game server.

Don Turtuma is the owner of "The Meat Grinder" game servers, the http://www.vietcong-coop.net/ web site ("for all your COOP needs"), and is a PTERODON Modding Team scripter.

Spookey is the owner of the "Tour of 71" game server and is a self-confessed forum whore.

We wish to thank Dallas, Don Turtuma, and Spookey for participating in the interview.