1) How long has Red Storm been working on the Ghost Recon mission pack? How were the ideas behind the settings and plot conceived?

The mission pack got kick-started into production right around the time we finished Ghost Recon, though I'd been working up potential ideas and settings for a while before that. The idea was to make a real break from the visuals of the main game, to find a setting that really contrasted in terms of look and feel from Russia.

Ethiopia/Eritrea offered a combination of incredibly striking visuals, a new sort of terrain to play in, and an unfortunately plausible setting. Once we had that in place, it became a matter of research to see what sorts of missions would make sense, be fun, and take advantage of what the setting had to offer.

2) Is the team working on the mission pack the same team that worked on the original Ghost Recon?

This game is, in a lot of ways, a less demanding project than Ghost Recon itself was. We're not building things from scratch, so there's no need for the entire GR team to be assigned to the mission pack. That being said, a lot of folks from the original GR team are integral parts of putting the mission pack together, as well as some new faces (such as myself).

3) What are some features that you incorporated into the mission pack that you couldn't do in the original GR because of time or engine constraints?

Some of the new features we're putting into the mission pack are more a matter of what's appropriate for the setting and terrain than "OK, we left this out before." You are going to see things like a leader board in multiplayer that we would have loved to get into the main game, but you'll also see stuff that was cooked up specifically for this project.

4) How did fan feedback play a role in making design choices for the mission pack?

It's never been a question of reading the message boards and saying, "Hey, this post is exactly what we should do!" Rather, we take a look at all the fan feedback we can get our mitts on, and pull out the items that A) a lot of people seem to want, and B) make sense in terms of realism, gameplay, and the way our engine works.

5) In a previous interview that was conducted by the German GR fansite, GR: Incoming Fire, there was this statement: "The focus of this mission pack is more on new gameplay than new weapons." Can you expand on this?

Part of it is that we're trying a few new approaches to missions, such as one where you have to escort a convoy of trucks bearing relief supplies through enemy territory. And just in case folks were worried, yes, you will get new guns.

6) Will the friendly and enemy AI be improved in the mission pack? What changes are being made to the AI?

The forthcoming Ghost Recon Patch will be addressing the AI tweaks (both friendly and enemy). The patch will also be included in the mission pack.

Judge us not entirely by our screenshots, at least not yet. We still have a lot of balancing left to do on these missions, and that includes mucking about with the fog plane.

There's only one aircraft in the mission pack, and it's not a helicopter. It does, however, serve a very important role in one of the missions. (It won't fly.)

We're improving dedicated server performance in the patch, while also adding many multiplayer game configuration options. Right now, IP Ban is not included in the upcoming patch or the mission pack.

You'd have to ask the guys on the Xbox team that one. My focus is on working with the team to make the mission pack as good and as fun as possible. Hopefully, when we're done folks are going to look at what we've accomplished and say, "Ooh! We want that, too!" Well, maybe not "Ooh" precisely…