_____________________________________________________________INTERVIEW

[LadyGamers]:  For people who never played Excessive for Quake 3 or even Unreal Tournament, tell us a little about what this mod is about. What should a newbie of the modification expect to see?

[MadNad]:  This mod was originally built on the Quake3 engine by Mr.Pants. Excessive has been modded as a gametype for 3 games since; Elite Force, UT, and now, UT2003. No matter what engine you see this mod on, one concept remains:

Excessive is an over-the-top mod that makes all the weapons super-powerful, turns off self-damage, gives all the players regenerating health and ammo, and makes every game into a wild and crazy frag-fest! In the fast and furious bloodfest that is Excessive, it's not about staying alive; it's about taking as many people as possible out with you.

A newbie is in for quite a shock the first time through. There are some pretty skilled players who know how to use the excessive weapons better than I do now. Learn how to use each of the weapons effectively, and when to use them... they are quite a bit more effective than the stock weapons with UT2003, which can be a good or a bed thing depending on which end of the stick your on.

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[LadyGamers]:  How did you and Mr. Pants meet? Were you a fan of the mod? 

[MadNad]:  The first time I tried to connect to a quake 3 excessive server was on a celeron 333MHz 4MB agp graphics card with 64MB of RAM on a 56kb/s modem. I had no idea what I was missing out on until I upgraded both my computer and my connection. So, yeah after that I became a huge fan of the mod for quake3. Its one of the few that I still play.

I was looking for excessive for UT2003, and found a mod called ADR. This mod claimed to be an excessive type mod, but I found it rather disappointing. I had expected a bit more mayhem. I started messing around with some of the scripts as a side project. I ended up contacting Mr.Pants after I had tweaked around a few of the weapons in UT2003. I decided to email him, let him know what I was doing, and see what he had to say. For all I knew he was planning one already for this engine. He and I exchanged a few emails and before long he asked if I would be willing to make this the official Mr.Pants version. I was honored of course... <rubbed hands together>...

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[LadyGamers]:  Have you created any mods before you started coding UT2k3?

[MadNad]:  Not really, I tested for a mod in Quake3 that never made it, but prior to my mod work with UT2003, I was more heavily involved in level design. In fact thats one of the things I do while working on the other mod I am involved with, Troopers. I never really knew there was such a large community out there sharing there work. Basically it all started when I was going to college and needed a computer for school. One that could play quake 3 ;). A friend of mine showed me Q3Radiant, and I was hooked. He and I would make our own levels and run around in them online and help each other out. I learned the Unreal Editor when I got UT and was excited to find out that the editor for UT2003 was built off of the previous version that I knew.

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[LadyGamers]:  There's a rumor that UT2004 Excessive Overkill is in the works. If this is true, what should we anticipate to see for this upcoming mod?

[MadNad]:  Yes, this rumor is true. The UT2004 engine is very similar to the UT2003 engine and shouldn't take much effort at all to have excessive running in UT2004 the way it was in UT2003. Of course, the vehicles will be getting a face lift along with the newer weapons and some added code that I have already. One of the newer features I am adding are weapon upgrades. These upgrades will boost the power of your weapons as you pick them up off of victims. Some of the current weapons are also getting a facelift, including the LinkGun & FlameThrower.

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[LadyGamers]:  Lastly, do you have any advice on for Unreal Tournament 2003 mod players?

[MadNad]:  hmmm...I guess the only advice I'd give to mod players are to show your interest in the mod, and support it the best you can. I'm sure it must be frustrating from a players standpoint to see mods developed and players not feeling like they had much input on the final product. I can tell you, at least from my experience, that mod developers look for input from the community to help develop their mods. After all, you will be the ones playing it, making it a success or a failure. Who else would we listen to?

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