*DISCLAIMER: Most of what is here is confirmed, although some information has not been. KAOS wants some things to be left for when players boot up the game themselves. If you find any information missing from here just let me know and I will add it.
DEDICATED SERVERS
Player Count: 16 vs. 16
Description: Multiplayer in Homefront is set around large, vehicle-based combat. The game contains many vehicles and drones for players to choose from.
Map Count: 7, with the Xbox 360 getting an exclusive 8th map Suburbs.
Level/Rank Count: 75 Levels/Ranks.
Battle Points: Battle Points (BP) is an in-game currency system for Homefront's multiplayer component. During a match players earn Battle Points as they get kills and complete objectives. As they gain enough BP they are able to buy vehicles (during the spawn screen) or an item from one of two slots mapped to the left and right d-pad directions (things like flak jackets, rocket launchers, drones, air strikes, etc.)
Battle Commander: Battle Commander is a brand new mode KAOS has developed for Homefront that adds another layer to your typical games. In Battle Commander there is an AI commander that monitors the battlefield (one for each team). If this Commander spots a person doing very well (getting multiple kills or captures) it will begin to award that player stars (up to 5 total), as the player gains more stars more people on the other team become aware of his/her position and get a BP incentive to take that player out, the player on the streak gains slight bonuses to armor, etc as they gain stars. At 5 stars the entire other team knows the player's location and that player has max bonus benefits. Any player at any time can be accruing stars on foot, in vehicles, or even in drones.
Game Modes:
- So far only two base game modes have been announced (along with their Battle Commander counterparts), with more to be debuted with the launch of the game.
- Team Deathmatch Your typical Team Deathmatch mode.
- Battle Commander Team Deathmatch Team Deathmatch with the Battle Commander star system added in over top.
- Ground Control Similar to Frontlines namesake game mode, think Bad Company 2, each team competes to take a set of three tactical positions that begin in the middle of the map. If team one takes the set of points it pushes the line into the enemy base, if team one takes the points again they win, if team two takes the points the line moves back the other way for the final set of points. If it comes to the final set, whichever team takes the points wins.
- Battle Commander Ground Control Ground Control with Battle Commander's star system over top.
- Skirmish - 16 player, cycles both Team Deathmatch and Ground Control modes on various maps.
- Battle Commander Skirmish - 16 player, cycles both Battle Commander TDM and Ground Control modes on various maps.
Abilities:
The game has a set of abilities (think perks from CoD), but the final list has yet to be unveiled.
- UNCONFIRMED Abilities (I will confirm these when I get the game, this is not all of them either).
- There are also special vehicle abilities.
- Tactical Reload - Faster reload speed
- Quickdraw - Quicker speed into aiming down sight
- Drone Be Gone! - Faster drone speed
- My Buddy! - Longer drone duration
- Now That's a Knife - Increased melee range with quicker recovery
- Straight From The hip - Reduced weapon deviation when shooting from the hip
- Thick Skin - Increased drone health
- Penny Pincher - Equipped special weapons cost less
- Steady Aim - Less recoil when aiming down sight
- Blast Wave - Larger blast radius for Special Explosives
- Utility Belt - Extra special grenades
- Grave Robber - Pickup ammo dropped by dead soldiers
- Fist Full - Extra grenades
- Grizzled - Increased XP gain
- Boomer - Increased explosive damage
- Crater-to-Order - Large drone explosion on death
- Quick Healer - Faster health regeneration
Classes
There are six classes in the game, each one is fully customizable and changes the appearance of your player based on class selection.
Weapons:
Assault Rifles
- M16 Rifle - The primary infantry rifle during the Vietnam war. Limited to semi-automatic operation but has greater accuracy, range and damage then the M4. Unlocked at level 24.
- M4 Rifle - The main battle rifle for the US Armed Forces. High rate-of-fire and low recoil make it a balanced choice for outdoor and close-quarters combat. Unlocked at level 0.
- Scar-L Rifle - A lightweight, modular rifle developed to meet the needs of SOCOM. It features a burst fire mode that delivers three rounds for each trigger pull. Unlocked at level 5.
- T3AK Rifle - A Chinese-manufactured assault rifle based on the AK - 47. Is slower firing then the M4 or ACR, but deals considerably more damage at medium ranges. Unlocked at level 38.
- ACR Rifle - Incorporates several features from other modern rifles into one platform. Leads the M4 in sheer damage, but has greater recoil. Unlocked at level 14.
- XM10 Rifle - Under development until the project lost its funding in the economic collapse of 2018. A number of prototypes have found their way onto the field. Unlocked at level 46.
Machine Guns
- M249 LMG - Primary LMG of the U.S. Armed Forces. The box magazine holds 100 rounds of linked ammunition. Difficult to control due to high recoil. Unlocked at level 0.
- Scar-H LMG - The MG variant of the SCAR comes equipped with a high-capacity 75-round twin drum magazine and a vertical fore-grip with integrated bi-pod. Unlocked at level 30.
- PWS Diablo SMG - Has similar ergonomics to the M4, but is lighter and shorter. Its vertical fore-grip makes it the perfect tool for close-quarters combat. Unlocked at level 0.
- Super V SMG - Uses an asymmetrical system to reduce recoil. Allows operators to put more rounds on-target at close range. Extended 26-round magazine comes standard. Unlocked at level 9.
Sniper Rifles
- M110 Sniper - Semi-automatic sniper rifle that features a 3x scope and detachable 10-round magazine. Chambered for 7.62mm. Effective at long range. Unlocked at level 0.
- M200 Sniper - Bolt-action sniper rifle. Magazine holds five custom-tooled cartridges. Effective at extreme range. Has 4x thermal optics and a laser rangefinder. Unlocked at level 18.
Shotgun
- 870 Express Shotgun Exclusive to GameStop pre-orders for 30 days.
Pistols
- M9 - Unlocked at level 0.
Melee
- Combat Knife - An army knife. One hit will kill any drone or human. Unlocked at level 0.
Explosives
Your primary explosive is a grenade, with it you can equip one of the following (as long as you have them unlocked):
Weapon Attachments
This list is not 100% confirmed.
Weapon Camo
Weapon camouflage is in the game, although it has not been shown..
Drones
- Drones can be bought with Battle Points and applied to one of your two Battle Points slots accessed via the D-Pad. (All below information via the Homefront site).
- All drones in Homefront are battery powered the more you move, the more you fire your weapons, the more battery life you waste. Eventually your battery runs out of juice and your drone expires. This lets drones have a free reign of the entire in-bounds landscape without having to be tethered to the location of the drone operator.
- For the Ground Assault drone, the machine gun works on an overheat system whereas the rocket-enabled drones use a reload system to determine ammo. The recon drone may tag enemies with unlimited capacity until the battery wears out.
Ground Assault Drone MQ-50 Wolverine
- The ground assault drone comes fitted with a large caliber mounted machine gun and is specifically designed to afford the drone operator the advantage of being able to take on infantry with limited self-exposure. Hiding in a ditch or a tunnel and sending in your assault drone to wreak havoc in a hot spot of activity is a commonly used tactic. While in openly exposed areas, ground drones are susceptible to both frag grenade attacks and EMP attacks, thus making them fairly vulnerable to help balance their infantry-dicing fire power.
Ground AntiTank Drone MQ-60 AT Rhino
- The ground antitank drone comes equipped with a four-barrel rocket/missile launcher. This is the ideal drone to carry if you plan on going up against vehicles while on foot. Spot an enemy tank headed your way? Find a spot and send out your Rhino to deal with it! Dumb fire rockets allow the ability to defend against infantry attacks and also to quick fire when there is no time to get a lock while having the ability to lock on to all vehicles really makes this the little beast a handy friend to have on the battle field. It is specifically designed to help infantry combat air and ground vehicle threats while all the while remaining in relative safety
that is unless of course you didnt find a good hiding spot!
Air Recon Drone RQ-10 Parrot
- Based off the real world AR.Drone Parrot Drone, the Homefront multiplayer recon drone plays an important part in game play. The recon drone is used to mark enemy targets for teammates while all the while racking up Battle Points for the drone operator from marking targets and kill assists. A good recon drone operator is an essential part of any infantry squad in battle. When an enemy is marked, a red triangle will appear on them and is visible for your entire team. This mark lasts a set period of time before blinking and fading away. Beware: infantry being marked get a notification and will instantly look to the sky to see where you are! Recon drones, while a powerful asset, are not the strongest of gadgets so using cover to protect your drone while marking players is a must.
Air Assault Drone AQ-11 Buzzard
- The air assault drone is a great anti-infantry weapon that can rain down anti-personnel missiles from the sky. Snipers beware: this thing will hunt you down! While definitely a challenge to use as the drone operator, it is quite rewarding to score infantry kills if you can keep it unscathed long enough to do so. Air assault drones make a pretty target in the sky for infantry looking for some extra Battle Points so being a tactical pilot is a great approach while deploying Buzzard.
Vehicles
Vehicles play a big part in Homefront. You can spawn in a vehicle that a teammate has bought from the spawn screen.
Each vehicle costs a certain amount of Battle Points and you also must have it unlocked via the leveling system to purchase it.
- Light Armor Vehicle (LAV)
Helicopter Write-Up (NEW)
Vehicle Defense Systems
- Vehicle Over Armor is used strategically on both the medium armored vehicles and the heavy armored vehicles. We use the VOAS to not only affect damage values, but also visually represent the damage itself, both on the mesh and in the vehicle HUD.
- As seen in the above image, the side panel over armor on this tank for example is functional for both game play aspects and visual aspects. For the driver of the tank, there is a HUD display that corresponds with the level of damage the vehicle has taken in any given area green for full armor, yellow for damaged armor and flashing red for a completely exposed weak spot. For the attacker, the damage is displayed artistically with explosions, smoke, fire and visual mesh changes so that the attacker always knows where the weakest part of the vehicle is exposed. The medium armored and heavy armored vehicles use the over armor system as a shield of sorts as the side panels on these vehicles absorb all the initial damage from an attacker leaving the armor destroyed but the vehicle with full health. Dont worry, the entire vehicle is not armored and it is up to the driver to use this to his advantage as best he/she can. Its also up to the attacker to exploit the vehicles weaknesses to the best of their ability. This really creates dynamic vehicle versus vehicle battles and vehicle versus infantry battles as it becomes tactically important to jockey for position for both attacking and protecting the vehicles. (Via the Homefront Site).
Missile Defeat System
- The Missile Defeat System is a timer-based and rechargeable vehicle mechanic that helps protect vehicles from incoming enemy missiles and rockets. The system works in two ways active projectile missile defeat for land vehicles and active shrapnel flares for air vehicles. The missile defeat system may be activated by the owner of the vehicle at any time and will last a preset time limit and immediately be followed by a cool down time wherein the system will be unavailable. This mechanic is represented in the HUD with a timer notification countdown and an available/recharge bar.
- For the attacker, if a vehicle has the VMDS active an icon shield will be visible above the vehicle. On ground vehicles in 3p, a flashing red light will be visible on the defeat system itself and for helicopters, flares will be visible.
- The land-based missile defeat works by firing a projectile from the system on the vehicle to destroy the incoming missile in mid air before it causes damage. The helicopters use flares to attract the incoming missiles and then detonate to destroy them. Both systems work on all incoming missiles in the game however proximity rocket launchers can still damage vehicles if their detonation is close enough. (Via the Homefront site).
PC Multiplayer Features:
Some of these are exclusive to the PC version of Homefront.
First Person Vehicles Views:
Humvee (High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle)
LAV (Light Armored Vehicle)
M1A3 Tank & Type 99 Tank
AH-64 Apache Helicopter & Z-10 Helicopter
Scout Helicopter
- Co-pilot(recon/spot position)
Practice Map
- A map with no Battle Points limits and no vehicle limit to be used to test the vehicle controls.
Clan Support
- Players can associate a clan tag with themselves via the options menus. Clan tags will be prefixed to player names in matches. These tags are linked to the steam groups that the player belongs to.
- The game browser allows players to sort games by the number of their clan-mates/friends present in each game.
- We have built in extensive dedicated server support, such that clan servers can be sufficiently managed.
- We have incorporated a robust demo recording interface which will allow clans to record their matches, useful in competitive game-play scenarios.
Demo Recording
- In an effort to fully support competitive gaming, we will be providing the community with the necessary tools to prevent cheating during sanctioned online and LAN games.
- Beyond the prevention of cheating, demo recording has other useful applications in competitive game-play scenarios, such as determining rule violations, settling match disputes, and clan strategizing.
- HOMEFRONT demo recording is fully hardwired without the need of a console. This will include the implementation of specific in-menu UI to access a pre-recorded demo directory, whereby a user will choose which demo they wish to playback. This directory will be saved locally on a users PC.
Battle Chat
- Battle chat is accessible via a bound control. Through the interaction of a context sensitive button, a radial menu appears on the HUD which allows players to issue specific commands to their squad or team via Fire and Zoom, defaulted to left and right mouse click (though, this can be mapped to a players individual needs). Alternatively, by tapping the Battle Chat button, a player can issue commands from the default look option by targeting a specific object within the reticule. This functionality allows players the freedom to move while issuing commands.
Audio Barks
- Commands, issued via the radial menu or quick spot, are accompanied by its own unique audio bark. Players will hear the bark dependent on the allocation of the command (either squad or team). Each bark is accompanied by its respective on-screen-text, displayed above the mini-map on the in-game screen.
- Joystick and Control Pad Support
- LAN Play / Valve Anti-Cheat / SLI / Crossfire, 3d Vision
