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sp3tr4l , (edited )

A few things about America’s Army:

It may (I am 90%, but not 100% sure of this) have been the first PC, online, FPS to feature ragdoll physics for dead players.

It employed a… rather baffling way of doing team conflicts:

You are always on Team America, and the opposing team is always Team Generic Terrorists. (With 80s/90s movie era costumes for the bad guys, dependent on map location)

What this results in is… you have your M4. You are shooting at bad guys with AK74su’s. But… from the opposing team’s POV, its the same.

So, if you kill someone… you can now pick up an AK74su. Even though from their POV they dropped an M4.

And so on, with rough equivalents as an SVD and an M110, an RPK and an M249.

These ‘picked up’ weapons would basically morph into having the ballistics of the Eastern Bloc weapon at the point they were picked up.

Very weird, I’ve never seen another game do that.

The game also had a good number of training courses, many of which were initially bugged as all hell.

I remember the SERE course failing me consistently, showing that I had been detected by guards who are apparently able to see through boulders or 30 feet of a hill (the camera would show you how you were spotted like a ‘deathcam’ and it was quite obvious it was often total bs).

Also, in certain training missions it was possible to shoot your instructor.

This would result in you being sent to the brig: Log in to your account, and for a week, all you get is a view from inside a prison cell, no game menus or options at all, rofl.

Oh, final thing: I am pretty sure this was the first online PC FPS that modelled that M203 projectiles must travel a certain distance before the explosive charge will detonate, so taking out someone with an M203 round to the face, non explosively, became a way to humiliate people, as you either had to be pretty skilled to do it , or your opponent had to have very poor situational awareness.

setsneedtofeed ,
@setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world avatar

Oh, final thing: I am pretty sure this was the first online PC FPS that modelled that M203 projectiles must travel a certain distance before the explosive charge will detonate, so taking out someone with an M203 round to the face, non explosively, became a way to humiliate people, as you either had to be pretty skilled to do it , or your opponent had to have very poor situational awareness.

Oh wow, it is maybe a first. I remember doing that in Modern Warfare 2 quite a bit, but didn’t realize how much this game pre-dates it.

jqubed ,
@jqubed@lemmy.world avatar

Also, in certain training missions it was possible to shoot your instructor.

This would result in you being sent to the brig: Log in to your account, and for a week, all you get is a view from inside a prison cell, no game menus or options at all, rofl.

Hilarious! I guess adding permadeath to the game would’nt’ve helped with the recruiting mission, but this feels like it’s in the same spirit.

sp3tr4l ,

The game had a whole system of ranks and qualifications based off actual Army ranks and skills.

You had to do pretty comprehensive medical training before you could be a field medic, you had to qualify as a marksman to be able to use a DMR, you had to pass the SERE school before I think night time missions and NVGs could be used, had to complete parachute training before levels you’d paradrop into, etc, and these would become available as you reached a certain number of kills or successful missions or what not.

Basically, it had a persistent progression system, and it was quite in depth…

… And if you did things like tons of team killing, or killing the instructor, not only would you end up in the brig… you’d have basically all of your progress reset.

Its about as close as you can get to permadeath in a round based, pvp shooter.

Etienne_Dahu ,

You are always on Team America, and the opposing team is always Team Generic Terrorists. (With 80s/90s movie era costumes for the bad guys, dependent on map location)

The enemy is dumb, they think we’re the enemy but they are the enemy!

Shadow , (edited )
@Shadow@lemmy.ca avatar

So, I worked on this. I built their in game support system (irc backed!), wrote a bunch of the web auth code, and accidentally once deleted the production user database from the secondary site (whew, disabled and re-replicated from primary).

It was a lot of fun and got me a trip to E3 back when it was the big thing.

It was an interesting concept because no matter what, you would play the american side and fight the terrorists. (you would look like a terrorist to the other team)

Shadow ,
@Shadow@lemmy.ca avatar

They parked a few vehicles outside the E3 convention center:

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/10f47342-0986-43dd-9948-9fc4656523a5.jpeg

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/974e51d3-b86c-41e6-be6e-81df294b5f42.jpeg

Whirling_Cloudburst ,

Any idea what those pads they are parked on are made out of?

brbposting ,

pad

(why does it look like carpeting?!)

CameronDev ,

Concrete is too hot in the sun, melts the tracks. Grass is too ticklish, the tanks get all giggly if left on it.

Carpet is a good middle ground.

dexa_scantron ,
@dexa_scantron@lemmy.world avatar

I recall they lowered guys out of a helicopter on ropes one year, too. It was hilarious to walk around the floor at E3 and see CoD or whatever guys in their fakey-looking booth bro costumes pass real army guys wearing real uniforms passing out enlistment info and ads for America’s Army. Why pay booth bros when you can just assign some soldiers you’re already paying?

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Holy shit, I was there that year! I remember that!

count_dongulus ,

It was actually pretty good. I remember having to pass an ingame training course to use the medic class. I still vaguely remember how to apply a tourniquet lol

Dagnet ,

That was such a pain in the ass, 10mins in I finally think to myself “wait, this is supposed to be fun, why am I watching class in a game?” dropped the game and nvr came back

grue ,

I also remember playing the ingame training but not the actual game. I don’t remember intentionally quitting like you did, but I don’t think I finished it either.

AlexWIWA ,

Yeah the game was shockingly good for what it was

gravitas_deficiency ,

It was a legitimately good completely free multiplayer FPS game. I was into it for a while ages ago, and it was quite fun.

I genuinely doubt it actually inspired a remotely meaningful number of people to actually join the army, though.

SteveFromMySpace ,

I absolutely remember playing America’s Army. It took me like six attempts but I finally got it installed lol

LastoftheDinosaurs ,
@LastoftheDinosaurs@reddthat.com avatar

I remember playing this one too

Pharceface ,

I recall playing the tutorial. Never went online. Dial up sucked. Interesting tidbit, if you shoot your drill instructor at the range you’re dropped into a prison cell at Fort Leavenworth. All you can do from that point is listen to somebody whistling and drag a tin cup across your cell bars.

False ,

This was legit very popular for a while. It was even common in e-sports.

RandomStickman ,
@RandomStickman@fedia.io avatar

I think this one is the one where a player used the first aid knowledge learnt in game to save someone's life irl?

sp3tr4l ,

I remember a story making the rounds about that as well, waaay back.

Its not implausible. The medic training was pretty thorough compared basically any other video game ever, and if all you’re really trying to do is stop massive bloodloss ASAP, knowing how to dress a wound and apply a tourniquet absolutely can be the difference between dying before the ambulance arrives and not.

baldingpudenda ,

Oh man, was it version 2.1 or 2.4 that was the best? I think it was the one where urban assault was released. So many hrs playing until 3.0. There was a test to be able to play medic in the game. It taught basic first aid.

WoolyNelson ,

People were in an uproar over “indoctrination” by the game. If your child can be convinced to join the army by playing that game… maybe it’s for the best.

IMongoose ,

Ya, idk how this would recruit someone into infantry. I played it for a little bit and it was a getting shot simulator. Idk if I ever even saw someone on the other team.

Fester ,

Every game I play teaches me that I will immediately die in real life if anything bad ever happens.

Every FPS - shot dead immediately. No respawning.

Scary game - heart attack immediately.

Every sword game - maimed horrifically.

Zombie apocalypse - eaten immediately, and I’ll turn into a fat one that explodes later.

PhobosAnomaly ,

Every sword game - maimed horrifically.

I seem to recall Bushido Blade crudely implemented this in the late 90’s, introducing rudimentary disablements on a Fallout-style limb system that would slow you down if you took a slash to the leg, or render your hand ineffective if you were struck there.

The slow march into middle age is making my memories fuzzy.

TachyonTele ,

Bushido Blade was out jam back in the day.
They was also a really cool samurai game called Way of the Samurai (i think) that had complex combat, and like 100 different ending or something.

FinalRemix ,

Way of the Samurai is amazing. 3&4 are on GOG if memory serves. In 4, you can literally get an ending by getting right back on your boat and fucking off to a less murdery town.

TachyonTele ,

Oh sweet, I had no idea there’s was more than 2. Thanks

sp3tr4l ,

Do you remember when people figured out, on certain maps… stand exactly here (in spawn), fire a grenade launcher at this exact pixel in the skybox, and 80% of the enemy team is now dead?

Zannsolo ,

We had those but nade throws in the original call of duty.

bobs_monkey ,

Shit, that game was fun to pass the time, but never once did it inspire me to enlist.

tilefan ,

then they realized pouring money into actual game studios with more cost-effective

Maggoty ,

And that gamers didn’t want actual realism.

mozz ,
@mozz@mbin.grits.dev avatar

Super fuckin dystopian

You never played as the “bad guys”. You and your team on your screen were always American, 100% of the time. The terrorists you were fighting saw a presentation on their own screen that you were the godless terrorists, and they were the heroic Americans. No one was ever the bad guys. Except, some “other” in some distant place. But not you.

We had heated arguments at one place I worked when AA wanted to hire us for some short contract. The one side of the argument was, guys, they literally just want us to set up and configure one web service for them. I don’t think we’re gonna wind up killing anyone from the global south in the course of setting up that server. The other side, which I remember verbatim, came in the form of a heated retort:

“Would you set up a blah blah blah server for the NAZIS?”

Kaboom ,

Lemmy guess, seeming as this is Lemmy, you were calling the US Army Nazis?

mozz ,
@mozz@mbin.grits.dev avatar

I honestly cannot remember whether it was me or the other lefty guy that was comparing the US army to the Nazis. But yes, one of us was.

HappycamperNZ ,

To be fair it was called “America’s army”. Not CoD, not Battlefield.

PapaStevesy ,

🎶Yvan eht nioj🎶

BallsandBayonets ,

I prefer the superliminal messaging, personally.

HEY YOU, JOIN THE NAVY!

mhague ,

The special forces test was hard.

For the written test. there’s parts where you would be shown a helicopter for 100 milliseconds then have to remember the configuration, number of rotors, ordinance… Or you see a tank for a split second and have to correctly identify the barrel measurements and other little details.

The stealth mission was difficult too. I managed to be a medic and a ranger but not special forces.

ButtermilkBiscuit ,

The special forces test was nuts, was playing on a friend’s account at the time but it boiled down to just crawling through the lowest point along the entire path. Literally the entire mission you’re in a drainage or small creek just crawling and going stealth. I can’t remember if you eventually fight or do anything, I just remember the two hours of crawling on the ground to go undetected.

After I got the SF certification you could play this map called Hospital where you’re extracting a VIP while an insurgent team is trying to kill him. So much fucking fun. I loved this game. Yvan eht nioj

AtomicTacoSauce ,
@AtomicTacoSauce@lemmy.world avatar

The training/intro sergeant sounded just like one of my actual sergeants.

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