Interview: FF and TFHQ

[o_friedbunny]

This is the original English Q&A between TFHQ (French) and the FF developers. Thanks for the questions, TFHQ. Enjoy!


TFHQ: A lot of people ask "who's your target" for this mod? Are you aiming at new players or is it mostly for people with some kind of TF experience / m4d1337sk1llz ?

FF: Fortress Forever's primary design principle from early on was to build upon TFC's gameplay in areas that traditionally were a hindrance to new players. For instance, the wide variety of skills you find in the clan game are completely unknown to a new player. We feel that, barring a few significant bugs and gameplay issues, TFC's clan game is much stronger than the public one.

In the past, players new to a fortress mod have been dropped into the game with no clue of how to play; that is, aside from a vague idea to capture the flag on most maps, or assist the team to reach some goal. New players have difficulty applying their minimal knowledge of the game toward these objectives. The next problem, of course, would be: how do we motivate players to participate in contributing toward said objectives?

The initial experience we are creating for our players is much more interesting and rewarding than wandering out of the resupply and shooting the nearest thing that moves (usually ones own team!). We have developed a system, overarching the game, that will take all players as far as they want to go (or not at all) in learning the game and applying their skills to it -- and in a fun and rewarding fashion. Without getting into details, this is the largest new feature in Fortress Forever, designed 100% with public play in mind.


TFHQ: As a modding team, have you already had some contacts with Valve team ? Have you asked for authorizations for "cloning" TFC ?

FF: As a team we haven't had any official contact with Valve as of yet. Many of our members prior to this project have communicated with Valve via e-mail, so there is some degree of familiarity. We think Valve would be supportive of the project under most any circumstance. They do more for the mod community than any other game developer. We didn't ask permission to create this mod, nor are we cloning TFC.


TFHQ: What have you radically changed compared to TFC ? And what will be exactly the same?

FF: First off, regular grenades will "pack less of a punch." There is also new movement tech from the Quake series and a significant tweak to the jump/bunnyhop behavior. Class-wise, Soldier and Medic will feel very similar to TFC. HW and Demo will receive minor tweaking (down and up, respectively). We are attempting to make the other classes more useful in at least one primary role. Scout, Spy, Pyro, Engineer and Sniper will all have considerable new abilities aimed at teamplay, with depth of skill also being important.

Lots of small changes will be made to the game to add nuance and balance, as well as to smooth out some kinks we've suffered through for years in TFC. We're now beginning to test some of these things internally. There will be much more information available as we get closer to beta.


TFHQ: Other than all the graphic part of the source engine, what is that engine going to bring new to all those tfc players who stopped playing by lassitude? what could make them come back and "wake the tiger" ?

FF: We're using the Source engine's new technology chiefly in the system discussed for question one. For those already familiar with TF, most of what we're offering beyond the gameplay additions is coming from within our team. We don't have 8 coders for nothing, do we?


TFHQ:If you had to give a percentage of advancement of the mod (100% would be the release of the 1st playable beta) what would it be? Have you fixed a release date yet?

FF:Internally we've set some goals. We're very organized in that everyone knows his role and what he needs to be working on. Right now we're not sure at what stage there will be a publicly playable beta, or if that's in the cards at all. Despite this being a free project, we are well aware that we are releasing a product to the HL2 community. First impressions are important and we're doing our best to put a solid game out there, right from the start.


TFHQ: You saw about the short life of ETF, are you taking some kind of teaching (not to make the same mistakes) ?

FF: ETF began in an interesting and difficult situation. ETF is far from dead, but I don't think the players were there from Q3F to really support the mod. No mod team ought to be confident that just because a mod is free that it will attract new players and grow a healthy community.

All that aside, we began designing Fortress Forever more than a year prior to ETF's launch. At this stage we are implementing our ideas. ETF didn't tell us anything we didn't already know from TFC itself. The two games are very similar, if anyone hasn't played either, and both are definitely worth playing.

Thank you for your interest and support of Fortress Forever. Spread the word!

[o_qbaler]

wow wow wow you guys are tuning down those awesome frag grenades.. that sux.. those things own.. a lil too much i guess.. but i was good with them..

why devs why!!!!!?

hey cool it appears that the ff team is made up of a well organized profesionalism striving group... who figured.

<3 ff gonna rock ur sox!

[o_sobe green]

I'm happy about the grenades. Grenades kill more players than any other weapon in the game or I'd guess that anyway.

[o_buns]

Jumping on the excited to see grenades "packing less of a punch" boat.

I was wondering if HL2 has the same clipping issues as TFC/HL1 does and if so, is it possible to add / remove code to allow a bit of leeway? Say if you go in the T of monkey_l, I've found it's very easy to lose alot momentum (or to even stop completely dead) on the sides of the T itself (which angle upwards), same applies for any angled surface really.

[o_otiz]

I don't think grenades do too much damage, rather the splash is ridiculous.

[o_standard delux]

I like the idea of less gren power and spalsh. Will force peeps to get ssg aim better then. :P

[o_ivaqual]

hey, if you EVER need an english/french/italian/(a bit of spanish) translator, i'm your man. i am italian, living in france and studying translation-related stuff. i speak and write fluently french and italian, have a pretty decent english (as you may judge) and , if needed, could hack a bit of spanish together.

or perhaps i should try to apply for a job submission ? i'm not sure as you don't seem to be really looking for such a thing.
at any rate i'd love to help you guys out (perhaps to do full-fledged mod translations ?) and believe i have the skills to do that

[o_pulsedriver]

Neat! Yer nearly beat me there! :P I'm french, english and beligan parents, colombian gf, born in paris, currently live in spain, and speak english, french and spanish equaly well :P Bah no itallian tho!

[o_sid6.7]

im worried about nades being toned down that much, it seems like that would make ngs amazing. . . like if 1 nade didnt kill them, or 2 decently placed nades didnt destroy the sentry, or shotty + nade with spy didnt destroy the sentry. . . they could just clang clang and destroy you.

[o_shaggy]

I'm all about shrinking the splash radius of the grenade some to make hitting players more of a skill, but i feel the amount of damage it afflicts at point blank should be about the same. There is a reason they dont give you many gernades. They should be the most powerful weapon you carry. Also i worry about the effects of the gernade jump if you lessen the strength.

PS: DARN YOU FOR NOT MENTIONING A % OF COMPLETION!!!

[o_zippy]

nice

[o_otiz]

Originally Posted by Sid6.7

im worried about nades being toned down that much, it seems like that would make ngs amazing. . . like if 1 nade didnt kill them, or 2 decently placed nades didnt destroy the sentry, or shotty + nade with spy didnt destroy the sentry. . . they could just clang clang and destroy you.

If you lower sg damage you've gotta llower sg health. At least I think so.

edit: or crank up the nailguns...

[o_rebo]

sg's wont be any easier or any harder to destroy

grende jumps will remain the same

dead on/point blank frag grenade hits will do a similar amount of damage to players as they do in TFC.

[o_voipme]

Originally Posted by rebo

sg's wont be any easier or any harder to destroy

grende jumps will remain the same

dead on/point blank frag grenade hits will do a similar amount of damage to players as they do in TFC.

Reading between the lines gives me "lowered splash damage."

Originally Posted by Sid6.7

im worried about nades being toned down that much, it seems like that would make ngs amazing. . . like if 1 nade didnt kill them, or 2 decently placed nades didnt destroy the sentry, or shotty + nade with spy didnt destroy the sentry. . . they could just clang clang and destroy you.

The FF team is well aware of the possible adverse effects of changing one aspect of the game while ignoring another. I think I've seen every single one of the dev team use the word "balance" like 23984520394 times.

[o_ping_chow_chi]

as long as the gren bug is gone, Im a happy engie

[o_qbaler]

will emp grenades still be amazing?

[o_elvis2049]

i hate q3 hopping couse you cant turn as fast without loosing speed instead om gaining it.
so pls reconcidder that pls
couse whats a tfc game without sharp and fast movement

[o_rebo]

We are not restricting turning whilst jumping, it will be the same as what you are used to. We are not using the quake3 bunny hop system.

[o_valk]

^ best two sentences on the website

[o_zack]

valk do aussies use quakenet? if so whats gen's channel?