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- Aug 8, 2004
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Halflife2.net met with Shinobi the team lead, and Dyspatch the lead level designer from Firearms: Source to talk about their recent updates and new media available for new map spectre and the first look at their blue team player models.[br]Halflife2.net: Tell us a little about the new maps you are working on for Firearms: Source[br]Dyspatch: I'm working on a map behind the scenes currently, it's an original map called ps_spectre. It is a tropical push map and is much larger than previous maps I've worked on. I feel that large push maps are the most entertaining because it takes a lot of effort to get the enemy across the large battlefield.[br]Halflife2.net: Insurgency is also a modern combat mod, what makes you really different from them?
[br]
Shinobi: I think FA:S's difference is profound. I think people who played the original mod will find it is much more arcadey and more fast paced. Basically once you've played it you'll recognise the massive difference.[br]
Dyspatch: I think that the only similarity to Insurgency are the weapons with regards to realism. We have military advisers, who are serving or have served, who have given us insight to how weapons work in relation to their real life counterpart, allowing us to balance them accordingly. You still run fast which contributes to it's arcade feel and you also have thick armour, which means you don't just take 2 hits and die, you are able to return fire![br]
[br]
Halflife2.net: How good is the support from the community?
[br]
Shinobi: The FA:S testers from the community are doing a great job. We are always looking for help on the development team though...environmental artists, prop modellers, texture artists, but otherwise we are getting close to getting our content done.[br]
Halflife2.net: The rumours have spread saying you will need Counter Strike Source to play FA:S, is this true?
[br]
Shinobi: This has been a bit of a misconception, people think you will need to run off the CSS code base and that you will need to own CSS to play the game, but this isn't true. When we started we didn't have all the assets in place so we used some of that content, but now we have redone everything from scratch so we are only dependent on HL2 and possibly in the future just Source SDK level.
[br]
Halflife2.net: Has remaking the maps from moving away from the CSS assets been hard?
[br]
Dyspatch: Yes! Right now I'm going through my maps with CSS unmounted and I am finding a sea of missing textures and error models. Alex and I have a spreadsheet going now to replace the missing models. Those of which that affect the gameplay dramatically are on high priority.
[br]
Halflife2.net: In another recent update, you have shown new headwear customisation, what other things are you going to do?
[br]
Shinobi: We are concerned about developing further customisation as we have developed both team's character models to have distinguishable silhouettes so it's easy to tell them apart. Too many customisations may lose that work which has been done. So we will probably keep the options restricted to minimise any confusion.[br]
Dyspatch: One thing we've also done, is that we've added overhead icons to allow easier recognition for your team mates, but it also helps medics see your health status, whether you can be healed or are bleeding and need bandaging.[br]
[br]
Halflife2.net: How well is testing going?
[br]
Shinobi: Testing has brought us to the 100th version of FA:S. The new alpha feels like a major step forward and it feels like we are moving towards wrapping things up. Seeing the player models working in game for the blue team has been a major morale boost. So far we have around 2000-3000 animations!
[br]
Halflife2.net: Do you think FA:S has a large enough player base after release to build a future community after being hidden away for so long?
[br]
Shinobi: I guess I'm a little worried about that, but we do have a large testing community so we aren't modding blind so to speak. In future projects we may take more of an open development approach.
[br]
Dyspatch: We've had plenty of map prototypes which have been removed, but also the remakes of maps have undergone a lot of changes over time. While they still have the same essence of the original map they are completely different sometimes in gameplay.
[br]Halflife2.net: How much work hasn't reached the high standards FA:S is setting?[br]
Shinobi: I've personally done 5 maps for FA:S but only 2 made the cut. A lot of us have done that, remaking old firearms maps with permission of the original authors. Possibly after release we will be having a map pack, sort of adding the FA:S maps which never made the cut.
[br]
Halflife2.net: What would you say to HL2.net community about FA:S?
[br]
Shinobi: It is a fast paced, team based game which is a lot of fun. I love working on it as it has always been the game I've gone back to, always my favourite. We've now tested with 24 players on a server without any lag, and after the CSS content has been unmounted we hope to see a lower memory impact.
[br]
Dyspatch: One of the things we have been trying to do is accommodate lower end machines in terms of memory usage as I actually map and play on a laptop! We really make sure we keep under a texture budget to cater for a larger player base.
[br]
Halflife2.net: It sounds like progress is coming along well, how far from release is FA:S or a public beta?
[br]
Shinobi: I wouldn't say a whole year away, certainly less than that. We essentially have a beta build now, call it whatever you want but we will probably release our final version and not an unfinished beta.[br]
[br]Interview conducted by Hectic Glenn, many thanks to Shinobi and Dyspatch for their time.
[br]
Shinobi: I think FA:S's difference is profound. I think people who played the original mod will find it is much more arcadey and more fast paced. Basically once you've played it you'll recognise the massive difference.[br]
Dyspatch: I think that the only similarity to Insurgency are the weapons with regards to realism. We have military advisers, who are serving or have served, who have given us insight to how weapons work in relation to their real life counterpart, allowing us to balance them accordingly. You still run fast which contributes to it's arcade feel and you also have thick armour, which means you don't just take 2 hits and die, you are able to return fire![br]
Halflife2.net: How good is the support from the community?
[br]
Shinobi: The FA:S testers from the community are doing a great job. We are always looking for help on the development team though...environmental artists, prop modellers, texture artists, but otherwise we are getting close to getting our content done.[br]
Halflife2.net: The rumours have spread saying you will need Counter Strike Source to play FA:S, is this true?
[br]
Shinobi: This has been a bit of a misconception, people think you will need to run off the CSS code base and that you will need to own CSS to play the game, but this isn't true. When we started we didn't have all the assets in place so we used some of that content, but now we have redone everything from scratch so we are only dependent on HL2 and possibly in the future just Source SDK level.
[br]
Halflife2.net: Has remaking the maps from moving away from the CSS assets been hard?
[br]
Dyspatch: Yes! Right now I'm going through my maps with CSS unmounted and I am finding a sea of missing textures and error models. Alex and I have a spreadsheet going now to replace the missing models. Those of which that affect the gameplay dramatically are on high priority.
[br]
Halflife2.net: In another recent update, you have shown new headwear customisation, what other things are you going to do?
[br]
Shinobi: We are concerned about developing further customisation as we have developed both team's character models to have distinguishable silhouettes so it's easy to tell them apart. Too many customisations may lose that work which has been done. So we will probably keep the options restricted to minimise any confusion.[br]
Dyspatch: One thing we've also done, is that we've added overhead icons to allow easier recognition for your team mates, but it also helps medics see your health status, whether you can be healed or are bleeding and need bandaging.[br]
Halflife2.net: How well is testing going?
[br]
Shinobi: Testing has brought us to the 100th version of FA:S. The new alpha feels like a major step forward and it feels like we are moving towards wrapping things up. Seeing the player models working in game for the blue team has been a major morale boost. So far we have around 2000-3000 animations!
[br]
Halflife2.net: Do you think FA:S has a large enough player base after release to build a future community after being hidden away for so long?
[br]
Shinobi: I guess I'm a little worried about that, but we do have a large testing community so we aren't modding blind so to speak. In future projects we may take more of an open development approach.
[br]
Dyspatch: We've had plenty of map prototypes which have been removed, but also the remakes of maps have undergone a lot of changes over time. While they still have the same essence of the original map they are completely different sometimes in gameplay.
[br]Halflife2.net: How much work hasn't reached the high standards FA:S is setting?[br]
Shinobi: I've personally done 5 maps for FA:S but only 2 made the cut. A lot of us have done that, remaking old firearms maps with permission of the original authors. Possibly after release we will be having a map pack, sort of adding the FA:S maps which never made the cut.
[br]
Halflife2.net: What would you say to HL2.net community about FA:S?
[br]
Shinobi: It is a fast paced, team based game which is a lot of fun. I love working on it as it has always been the game I've gone back to, always my favourite. We've now tested with 24 players on a server without any lag, and after the CSS content has been unmounted we hope to see a lower memory impact.
[br]
Dyspatch: One of the things we have been trying to do is accommodate lower end machines in terms of memory usage as I actually map and play on a laptop! We really make sure we keep under a texture budget to cater for a larger player base.
[br]
Halflife2.net: It sounds like progress is coming along well, how far from release is FA:S or a public beta?
[br]
Shinobi: I wouldn't say a whole year away, certainly less than that. We essentially have a beta build now, call it whatever you want but we will probably release our final version and not an unfinished beta.[br]
