[LadyGamers]: Please give us your background in the
mod development scene. Have you worked on other mods before
Fortress Evolution? Who brought you to Quakeworld and TF? How
did you find out about it in the Quake 1 days?
[Red Fox]:
Fortress Evolution is actually my very first work on any
kind of real game modification. There was a time awhile back when I dinked
around with some QuakeC here or there, but nothing involving a dev-team or
any thoroughly planned out development project. Though I will say that I
do have a *lot* of game "project" experience itself, some which I still
maintain to this day in QuakeWorld.
I was introduced to QuakeWorld and TeamFortress by a friend who I had
known online for a couple of years by that time. He merely stated he had
found a new game that was LOADS of fun and that I should definitely try
it, so I did, on my old iMac 233 with the rocking 12 FPS I was able to
produce in software mode. I never really went through the QuakeWorld DM
transition to TF, I just leapt right into fortress and never looked back.
Many clans later, all things said and done, I've enjoyed every moment of
it, especially all the cool people I've met in the process.
[LadyGamers]: As you already know, TF was one of the
first Quakeworld team mods that overwhelmed with popularity.
I'm assuming even you were addicted to the mod. What is the
most challenging obstacles you face to bring back some of the
traditions of Team Fortress? There may be many similarities
with EF but there will never be an exact replica of the
original TF mod.
[Red Fox]:
I was extremely addicted to TF back in the day, so much
that it became an obsession of mine. I think just about anyone who
SERIOUSLY played TF feels this way though, so I'm nothing special. I've
always had a passion for this style of game.
I'd say the most challenging obstacle we're facing right now is
pleasing the community that happens to be our target demographic: people
familiar and accustomed to QW/TF gameplay. I'd dare say TF players (includingmyself)
are the pickiest, most stubborn, egotistical players of any modification
on earth; which is why I love working with such an audience. If we screw
up, we find out about it, loud and quick.
No, there won't be an exact replica of the original TF mod, and I hope
there never will be. Once FE is past the QWTF port, and moving forward
with the product of the FE mode, I really hope that it starts falling into
the line of being an advancement on the idea of TF: better and more fun in
general, more enticing, properly balanced, and more connected via the
community. A lot of people seem to forget that the QWTF strict port is
only one box on our checklist, and that the FE mode is ultimately our
final goal.
[LadyGamers]: Since your website currently doesn't
show the classes in Fortress Evolution, please give us some
brief information about them. What classes will the mod
feature?
[Red Fox]:
The same classes one can find in any TF game:
scout, sniper, soldier, demolitions man, combat medic, heavy weapons guy,
pyromaniac, spy, and engineer. Right now, during our alpha stage, we only
have soldier active for the physics test. As the alpha releases progress,
and development continues, people should be seeing class additions
regularly in our later alphas.
[LadyGamers]: What made you decide to bring out a mod
about 4 years after the Quake III Arena was released? Why not
wait to see how Quake 4 turns out?
[Red Fox]:
To be honest, I got extremely tired of waiting for other
people to do it right, so I finally decided to start something up myself.
All post-QWTF mods have been horribly disappointing to me, so I just
figured I'd stop waiting for someone else to come along to do it, and thus
I just put together my own development that I knew would do it properly;
in my eyes at least. True, it's not riding on the heels of some latest
release of Q3 or something thereof, but I think the promise of an accurate
TF port should be good enough for any game, even if it's on a 4 yr old Q3
engine.
Why not wait until Quake 4 turns out? Well, to be honest and in my
opinion, just about every installment of Quake after the original has been
an increase in the decrease of quality of the Quake line. I'll hold my
comments concerning what exactly, because my job isn't to rip on other
peoples work; especially a company like id. I'll just say I found Quake2/3
to be extremely commercial, "sellout" renditions of what was once an
awesome competitive engine, and I wouldn't expect them to be changing that
approach in Quake 4. It reminds me of a quote I saw on the CPMA site
awhile back, one showing how Carmack once stated a professional set of
COMPETITIVE standards should be set for serious match/league play... I
agree with that type of outlook, and we on the dev hope to do the same
with FE by defining a STANDARD for how TF renditions should be.
[LadyGamers]: What's do you plan to do for
Thanksgiving this year?
[Red Fox]:
My plans for Thanksgiving? Completely ignore all visiting
family, starve myself on meager Ramen rations, and attempt to kick out the
second alpha release as soon as possible. The turkey can wait.
[Back to
FotM]
