Soldier of Fortune: Payback is the third installment of the Soldier of Fortune game series. Unlike the previous two Soldier of Fortune games, which were developed by Raven Software utilizing the Quake 2 and Quake 3 engines, Payback was developed by Cauldron HQ, developed with Cauldron's in-house CloakNT engine, used in their previous First Person Shooter game, Chaser. This game is the first game of the series released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game was released on 14.November.2007. Upon being refused classification by Australia's OFLC, Activision released the game on February.28.2008 in Australia.

Plot
Your name is Thomas Mason, you and a "pal" named miller are on a trip in "iraq" ore something, your mission is to protect an asian dude (i think he was your pal) but miller sold out to the highest bitter and kills the asian dude, so you kill miller, find a tatoo on his neck, and that tatoo leads you to a fight for "PAYBACK"... and thats why the game is called Soldier of fortune "payback"... the end, no not the end... there are sevral missions in all around the globe thats YOU have to fight to find out who, or whom, did this (well miller did it but who sett miller up)... i can tell you, and i will... Ethen Wall...

Facts

i have put the games "engine" to cryengine2.. well, the cloakNT engine is out on moddb, but it wasnt registrated... hmpf... well...

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The unused content of Soldier of Fortune Payback

This article will cover some of the interesting content discovered while developing the Soldier of Fortune Additional Payback mod. While the mod does incorporate some unused assets, many are still left abandoned within the game's data files. Here is a brief summary starting with some vehicles:

BMWbike

Models\Vehicles\BMWbike


HarleybikeModels\Vehicles\Harleybike


Jeep

Models\Vehicles\Jeep


They look WWII era. Perhaps these were placeholder assets. Next up, weapons:

mortar

Models\weapons\mortar


Based on unused dialog, mortars were going to play a bigger role in the first mission, Al Qa'im: Outskirts. Miller tasks Mason with eliminating the mortar teams. Ultimately, the only thing related to mortars in the first mission ended up being the mortar barrage throughout the mission. Note the ammo boxes and shells are all part of the model and their textures were never done.

Browning M2

Models\weapons\Browning_M2


Once again going off of unused dialog, the player was to encounter a stationary M2 while working with Miller in the first mission. It animates similar to the DShK machine gun. The player pulls the charging handle before using the gun and the ammo belt and charging handle animate when firing. Note the lack of a heat shield around the thicker part of the barrel.

knife

Models\weapons\knife


knife icon

Gui2\Textures\weapons\pistol\knife.dds


It seems at some point the knife was to be a select-able weapon. It has a selection icon which is grouped with the icons for the pistols. It has take out, put away, idle, attack, and grenade throwing animations. All of the animations have the player using the knife with their right hand except the attack animations. It appears when the knife was reworked to be the player's melee attack, the attack animations were just flipped from right handed to left handed and all the other animations were dropped.

All of the weapons in the game have their own melee attack animations:

melee g36k
melee mp7melee mk23

Melee attacks


Note that scopes and suppressors disappear during some animations. These melee attacks are done using the melee attack key. Only in some of the work in progress / test maps does the player use their gun to melee instead of the knife. That is to say, the map specifies if the player will use the knife for all melee attacks or the guns themselves. Which brings us to the next section, unfinished / cut maps:


iraq escape

Maps\Iraq\iraq_escape


Iraq escape would have taken place after the first mission. A friendly vehicle picks up Mason and together they head for the “green zone”. The unused dialog suggests this would have been an on-rails level, with the player firing from some kind of vehicle the whole mission. The map is quite big and takes a long time to traverse on foot. Note that within the game files the Al Qa'im campaign is known as “Iraq”, the Mogaung campaign “Burma”, Eshkashem is “Afghanistan”, Llebo is “Congo”, and finally Donetsk is called “Ukraine”.


iraq escape mp

Maps/multiplayer/iraq_escape


A multiplayer version of Iraq escape seems to have gotten further in it's development than the single player version. It did not make the final game, however a picture of it is featured in the credits as seen below in the lower right corner:

credits3

industry

Maps/multiplayer/industry


Industry appears totally complete despite not appearing in the final game. It features the train engine and train cars that are otherwise exclusive to the single player version of Iraq escape.

mp jackal DM

Maps/multiplayer/mp_jackal_DM


Jackal is another seemingly complete multiplayer map. It uses a mix of assets from the game's other maps.

In one of the game's many test maps exists two characters who did not make the final game:

slaveModels\Actors\skins\slave


Based on their appearance and name, these guys would have been the villagers forced to work on the pipeline in the Mogaung campaign. Note there is some random variety in their colors like many of the game's characters.

majid
Models\Actors\skins\majid


Majid was probably going to be some kind of main/named character. He has a unique head and clothes. His file references an unfinished piece of head gear, the “pilot_helm”. To his right is Miller, who is the last and perhaps most interesting piece of 'cut' content.


Within the data of the first mission, Al Qa'im: Outskirts, known internally as “iraq_town”, there are lines of code that suggest Miller was at some point supposed to be John Mullins, the protagonist of the first two Solider of Fortune Games. Here are some snippets of code where Miller talks to Mason after killing Quan Li:

player.TalkCutscene("IGCS\Iraq1_IGCS02\Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Mason_1",Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Mason_1);

mullins4.TalkCutscene("IGCS\Iraq1_IGCS02\Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Miller_1",Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Miller_1);

player.TalkCutscene("IGCS\Iraq1_IGCS02\Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Mason_2",Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Mason_2);

mullins4.TalkCutscene("IGCS\Iraq1_IGCS02\Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Miller_2",Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Miller_2);

player.TalkCutscene("IGCS\Iraq1_IGCS02\Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Mason_3",Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Mason_3);

mullins4.TalkCutscene("IGCS\Iraq1_IGCS02\Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Miller_3",Iraq1_IGCS02_B_Miller_3);

Notice how Miller's character is referred to as “mullins4”. The code is commanding 'mullins4' to speak Miller's dialog. Next are some lines setting up Miller for the boss fight:

mullins4.EnableCollision();

mullins4.Bot.Enable();

wait(0.2);

mullins4.Bot.CommandRun(mullins_ap);

mullins_enemy.SetStrafe(AI_STRAFE_ALWAYS);

Next the player is taken off invincibility and Miller(mullins4) is assigned to the enemy 'team'.

player.Invincible = false;

mullins4.TeamID = EnemyForce2;

Finally these lines are just to create the newest objective for the player which is to eliminate Miller. Again notice the name “mullins” is used.

objectives.Add(iraq_obj6mullins).TargetObject = mullins4;

objectives.SetPrimaryObjective(iraq_obj6mullins);

Imagine that! You begin the game working alongside the hero of the series, only to get to know what a greedy, blood-thirsty animal he has become before he betrays and attempts to kill you. Or perhaps the developers were just using “mullins” as a place holder name. Certainly an interesting find. And that concludes this look into the unused content of Soldier of Fortune Payback.

Making a new CloakNT engine!!! must read!!!

Making a new CloakNT engine!!! must read!!!

News

hi there, read the content of the news... NOW!!! hi there, read the content of the news... NOW!!! hi there, read the content of the news... NOW!!! hi...

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SoF Payback Dialog

SoF Payback Dialog

Soldier of Fortune Additional Payback Other 2 comments

This is a complete list of all the dialog of Soldier of Fortune Payback. It is a combination of subtitles extracted from the file "TextLib.eng", as well...

SoF Payback cut / test mission selection

SoF Payback cut / test mission selection

Soldier of Fortune Additional Payback Other

This modded file will make the most interesting and useful cut and test maps available for selection in the mission selection screen. This can be used...

SoF Additional Payback v1.0

SoF Additional Payback v1.0

Soldier of Fortune Additional Payback Full Version 2 comments

Soldier of Fortune Additional Payback is intended to fix, polish, and expand upon the original Soldier of Fortune Payback game. The main features are...

Sof Payback ver 1.1 patch

Sof Payback ver 1.1 patch

Full Version 4 comments

This is the first patch for Sof Payback. It fixes a few issues with Windows Vista along with some graphics issues.There is another patch in development...

FS Extractor

FS Extractor

Installer Tool

Extract and run the exe file to install it.Read the manual that comes with the program.Although this was originally designed to be used with "Chaser...

Patch 1.1

Patch 1.1

Patch

The 1.1 patch for Soldiers of Fortune: Payback. This patch fixes various issues such as Vista compatibility and various display issues.

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 20)
DBuilder
DBuilder

Hey, how do I install the patch? It starts to install but then it says "The file C:\program files (x86)\Activision Value\Soldier of Fortune Payback\\ReadMe.txt could not be opened. Please check that your disk is not full and that you have access to the destination directory." And then it quits installation. I'm using a CD version of the game, but when I play it there's a loud buzzing sound and then I get a runtime error that forces me to close the game.

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{HEROIC}Doci
{HEROIC}Doci

very fun game but some times its hard lagging -.-

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dave_5430
dave_5430

This game sucked so hard I think I came thirty times, lead bullets.

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OnlySolus
OnlySolus

Its just like the previous SoF games a gore party of shoot everything to hell can't say I like it can't say I hate it either its just meh

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TehSeckz
TehSeckz

This was a terrible terrible ******* summary. You are a ******* *******. Clean up your spoilers.

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AshHousewares
AshHousewares

Can someone tell me if there are any more mods in the making for this game? :(

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nolito
nolito

...developed with Cauldron's in-house CloakNT engine...

I think there's a mistake to put this game is developed with CryEngine II

En.wikipedia.org

Devmaster.net

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FelipeFR
FelipeFR

Never liked this series, but... THEY ARE GOING TO USE CE 2? Awesome.

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nuFF3
nuFF3

NOO, i ust put the games engine on cryengine 2 because i could not find the CloakNT3 engine. thats why!

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cr4zyw3ld3r
cr4zyw3ld3r

Bud please change this over to CloakNT, it is now on Moddb. I just added Gene Troopers the other day.

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