The time of Evolution is drawing close!
The new Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance DLC is currently in closed beta, with a group of the player community testing the new missions. Bugs, tweaks to gameplay and some final polish is being added prior to the release day.
And the release day can be revealed here.
The new Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance: Evolution DLC will be released on September 22nd.
We hope you join the Resistance.
And with the release of the DLC, we thought it may be interesting to ‘pull the curtain aside’ for a snippet of development ‘how we do it’ information.
Returning Characters, Returning Actors
With the story told in Evolution following on from what was set in motion in the “We Are Legion” DLC, it meant that we had returning actors coming back too.
During the writing process, there was early discussions with the voice over agency to make sure that the actors were still available for recording, as we wanted to retain the same actors for the roles. If they hadn't been available, it may have skewed the story and the characters we meet.
We were lucky that the actors needed were available, so we see (or hear) Matt Yulish returning as Alex Church, Joe Corrigal returning as the Integrator Silas, and we even have Bentley Kalu returning as Sergeant Mason, who hasn’t recorded since the original base game, as he wasn’t in either the We Are Legion or Uprising DLC’s. It was great hearing his bombastic rendition of Mason in the recording booth once again.
We even managed to use the same actors that had recorded our Legion and Unit 1462 lines, even though they were covered with digital effects to make them sound like ‘machines’.
This recording was all done in the UK, using a company called SIDE UK to manage and direct the voice overs. Actors were brought into a London based recording studio where a director would talk them through the lines. As the Slitherine Producer on the game, I sit in on all the recording sessions to help with any questions the director or actor has and to suggest character motivation and beats where appropriate.
And the voice over files are then delivered within a week to be added into the game. We always do the voice over recordings as late in development as possible so that any changes to the dialogue from mission tweaks and balancing can be added (it is a headache to call back an actor for 1 more session because 3 lines of dialogue have been changed due to a mission change).
I always find that it’s one of those great points in game development when voices are added into a game that had before just been just ‘text on screen’. It really does bring the story to life, and in the case of Terminator: DFD, really does raise the ‘blood levels’ with characters screaming at you as they are being shot or torn to shreds by Terminators and the new ‘Rippers’!.
Elder Silas: Take it up with my fellow Elder.
Civilian Grant: The older fellow? Oh sure I did... 'till the poor sod got ripped out the carriage by one of them new wireheads -- the Rippers.
Elder Silas: Rippers? You encountered the new Revs too? Hell…
Civilian Grant: Yes, sir. That's what we've been calling 'em on account of every unlucky son of a gun that gets torn apart when they see 'em.
“Playing as the Integrators”
Community Questions
As we often do with the dev diaries, we like to get questions from the player community, and over on the Official Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance discord channel of which I will try to answer. So, a number of questions have been asked.
Here goes:
From Todd The T1000 (FP’s Terminator)
Will soldiers have snow camo in the dlc? Or are there snow effects on squads/vehicles?
Mark:
Units and vehicles definitely have new texture sets to make them seem as though they are in a snowy environment. But units don’t have snow camo patterns added.
“Rev 1 Terminators in the snow”
From Ank:
Are Cartel and Integrators finally playable on skirmish?
Mark:
Not yet. However, as the Integrators are used as the main force on a number of missions, we have recorded new barks and shout outs to lessen the repetitiveness. And some additional units have been added to the Integrator roster. So, this is a step towards having them hopefully appear in skirmish mode too. (But no promises).
“Integrators encounter a Spider before all hell breaks loose”
From Jedijake7505:
What’s your favorite new unit in the dlc?
Mark:
The Rippers. Just seeing them leaping across the battlefield towards your troops makes you sweat. The team did a great job of having them leap onto vehicles and start ripping them apart. When we first discussed these units, I didn’t image they would be taking out vehicles.
From WVUAvenger26:
How many rips would a ripper inflict, if a ripper were left alone to rip?
Mark:
If it were left alone, probably 14.
From Waterbottle:
Are there gonna be snow based Maps for skirmish mode some time after release?
Mark:
This has always been the case, with mission maps that work well for skirmish and Multiplayer, they are then repurposed into skirmish maps. So I would hope that this occurs with some of the winter maps from the DLC. I would particularly like to play on the Niagara map in multiplayer..
“A Legion beacon in the snowy wastes”
From D-Hawk.com:
What are the plans for the game after the release of Evolution DLC?
Mark:
Well, we have the next campaign DLC currently in production, which we are aiming to release next year, and the plan is that before that is released, there’s going to be an editing tool released that will, let’s say, help incredibly with the possibility of modding and editing the game. That’s all I can say on that without our marketing department sending a horde of killbot drones to take me out.
So, look out for September 22nd when the new Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance: Evolution DLC is released, and come and join the Resistance and take down some Terminators!
See you on the battlefield.