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| First Strike Interview with German EACT |
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| The following is the transcript from an interview that The German EA Community Team had with members of the First Strike development team, and details on how to enter a First Strike Release Competition.
Read on to find out more.
You thought there was nothing to do, but wait for the release of First Strike? Stick with us and join the big First Strike Release competition, presented by the FS Mod Team and BF-News.de! Guess what the release size of the client (in megabytes) will be and win one of five download-versions of BF2142. In addition, eight copies of the boosterpack Northern Strike (download) will be raffled!
You have no idea, how big this client could be? Then read through our interview! We sat down with the devs and pulled out every bit of information, we could get: Fighters, maps, history, gamemodes and much more was discussed and some of the information might surprise you. Will we meet at the Death Star? Read through and find out!
A big thanks to the following devs:
• Blitz (Mod Leader)
•xEROhOUR (Press / Recruiting)
• Havoc (Modelling)
• Svenstaro (Modelling)
• Rybot (Skinning)
• Pumbaa (Skinning)
• Woodrow (Coding)
• Dutch (Research)
If you want to take part in the competition, just write an email to news[at]bf-news.de. The email subject hast to be: First Strike.
Include the following:
1. Your guess of the client-size (like: XXXX,XX MB)
2. Your email-address
3. Your F7C ID (register here: http://www.foren.f7c-network.com/boards/register.php-> login here: http://www.bf-news.de/f7c_login.php-> After logged in, you'll find your "ID" printed next to the Header named "Kontrollzentrum".)
Note: If you can't register at F7C-network (because of the language difficulties), then please include a link to your First-Strike Forum profile! Either this or the F7C ID is required!
4. Your choice (not a must): Your BF2 or BF2142 soldier name
The competition will last until First Strike is released.
All members of the First-Strike Team (including Beta- and Alpha testers) and everyone working for F7c-network.com or the FS Mod Page are not allowed to take part in the competition!
- Prologue -
A bit of history: Where did First Strike Start?
*xEROhOUR: *First Strike started way back in August 2005 a handful of guys had an idea, sadly since then most of them have gone leaving myself and Dutch Razor as being from the original team.
Since then Blitz joined our current Mod Leader and the original Galactic Conquest crew ex Shattered Faith, and some incredibly talented guys (they know who they are and if I listed them all we would be here for weeks! Its the most talented, pro active, and "out of the box" thinking team that has made this mod what it is. It really is a team effort.
The expectations towards the mod are very high. Some fans from BF2 ponder whether to get BF2142 only for First Strike. What do you think about this?
*xEROhOUR: *I would say 2142 lends itself very well indeed to the Star Wars format. In FS you get two games for your money Space and Land combat so with the addition of 2142 that’s 3 kickass games for one price, can’t be bad, can it?
Why exactly a Star Wars mod?
*xEROhOUR: *We felt that there was a real need to pick up where SWBF and the X-Wing series left off, with the tried and trusted concept of DICE's Battlefield Series and the advent of the 2142 Engine it provided an excellent opportunity to create and deliver a real Multiplayer SW experience.
Which episodes will First Strike feature?
*Havoc: *First Strike will Feature the Original trilogy Era so that’s episode 4, 5 and 6. This choice was made mainly due to the fact that these are our favourite episodes. and portray the star wars universe in the best possible way.
- General information and background -
Will it also include content from episodes 1-3? Some other mods like Clone Wars already tried it but obviously aren't in development anymore.
*Havoc: *Right now we don’t have any plans to expand into the prequel trilogy, apart from several of its locations. but who knows what the future might bring.
Do you have any kind of problems with Lucas Arts because of the Star Wars license?
*xEROhOUR: *We have been very careful in not to evoke the holy ones wrath (Mr G Lucas) by sticking to core acceptable usage policies.
How precisely is First Strike imitating the role model (spacecraft, sounds, characters and scenes?)
*Havoc: *We want to portray the Star Wars universe in the most accurate way possible. And we have our own separate lore department that digs up reference images for us. Also their movie clips have been key in our animation process. as well as their sound references.
Does the solid source material make it any easier/harder for you to please the fans?
*Havoc: *it does, in fact we find it very hard sometimes to please ourselves. Several of our team members are big Star Wars fans. And can often make quite a fuss when something isn’t completely lore accurate. How ever we do have a Main Rule that states that gameplay is more important than lore.
- Game questions: heroes and playgrounds -
Does it include any known heroes or their vehicles? Which ones can we expect to see?
*Havoc: *we will include some iconic vehicles from the movies how ever due to Lucasarts' Modding guidelines we aren’t allowed to use any iconic character from the movies.
The following hero vehicles are planned: Luke’s Landspeeder, the Millennium Falcon and Darth Vader’s TIE.
Does the mod pursue any background story or do the maps loosely follow the movie?
*rybot: *We have a few maps the follow the events of the movie and also a few unique scenarios as well. For example, on the space map 'Escape from Hoth' we followed the storyline of the movie while also expanding beyond the events seen on film. The objective of the map is to escort the Gallofree Transports past the crippled Star Destroyer and to a hyperspace beacon, while also being attacked by TIE fighters and bombers.
Which scenes/maps are going to see?
*Svenstaro: *There are those that many of you have seen already, Hoth Space, Mos Espa, Endor and some of you know that we're also working on the Death Star. Additionally to those mentioned there might be a few surprises.
Will we be able to participate in space battles like in the trailer? What's so exciting about it? Many doubt it will work well.
*Dutch: *Oh yes you will be, A-Wings, X-Wings, Y-Wings, TIE Fighters/bombers/interceptors and B-Wings, it'll all be here. Depending on their appearance being lore accurate of course once you get in-game, see the HUD, hear the classic sound of an X-Wing, spot a TIE , get behind it, you'll feel the movie.
*Havoc: *players will be able to pilot rebel and imperial capitol ships and fighters in a full 3D space environment, The most exiting thing about it is that these ships are to correct scale. So a Corellian Corvette will be 150 meters long, a Lancer Frigate will be 200 meters long, and a Star Destroyer, yes a full blown Star Destroyer will be its full length of 1.6 kilometres
Isn't this a bit of a problem to have a 1.6 km STD on a map?
No, this has only been an initial problem. At the moment, we solved this quite well.
- Tech and space battles -
Now that we're already talking about space maps, there are quite a few things in the BF2142 engine that make one wonder. Will there really be no gravity in space? So that when you exit you vehicle you don't hit the ground?
*Svenstaro: *You can't exit your vehicle, at least not as of the current state. But there will be no gravity indeed.
Will it even be possible to eject from your spacecraft? Will we be able to enter and capture capital ships?
*Svenstaro: *No, we sadly had to scrap the ejecting/capturing part when we got to know that it just wouldn't be feasible on the BF2142 engine. You know what happens when the Titan moves, right? Low FPS for everyone, high server load, glitches. We might add it in later when we have found a way.
Will spacecraft automatically be slowed down if you stop accelerating?
*Svenstaro: *Yes, we do not use Newtonian physics since those are also not obvious in the movies and we also would like to keep the arcade style aspect of dog fighting.
How big will the space and ground maps be in comparison to the original BF2142 maps?
*Havoc: *we are able to generate maps that are 8x8x20 kilometres though not all of our maps will be this size cause it'll take a while to fly to the other end. How ever we do tend to make the maps big enough so that you won’t fly out of bounds accidentally. And seeing as our maps can also be 20km high it creates the illusion that were in Full 3D space. However, back in testing you were able to jump out of your X-Wing in mid air and it took about 5 minutes for a player to reach the ground.
Are there changes to the radar/hud so a fighter pilot can get to know if an enemy is beyond or above his spacecraft?
All fighters will get a small radar and an enhanced HUD, which marks all enemies in direct sight with brackets. A display, which shows the vertical axis is not planned, as far as I know. But this will go according to the testing experience and what we receive from the testers.
Do you expect orientation problems occurring with the players in this 3D-spacefights?
We didn't have those problems, because you can catch sight of the horizon very easily. The rest, you'll get to know in-game.
- Gamemodes and vehicle overview -
Which kinds of maps does First Strike focus on?
*Pumbaa: *First Strike is not really focused on any special kind of maps (e.g. only CQB maps or only space maps) we simply decided that heck, we want to do it all since we can and deliver to the player an experience of what the regular pilot/grunt felt and went through during the famous battles seen in the movies (so expect some serious traumas). We've had separate teams for separate maps so far, one team creating Hoth Space, one team creating Mos Espa so on and so forth. So as you probably already know, expect to see a lot of everything.
Which game modes will First Strike feature? Conquest seems inappropriate for space at least. Are we going to see the original Death Star gamemode?
*Blitz: *Our intention is to create gamemodes that are unique but still familiar to the BF player as it can be frustrating to have to learn a new gamemode every time a new game comes out. We currently have push, area conquest, objective, and escort style gamemodes. Area conquest will be a mix of supply-lines and conquest, where you will have to take the flags in a given order.
We are also introducing a new concept called Fleet Combat, where in space your goal is to protect your fleet while destroying the enemy’s fleet. I can tell you, it is very fun! To address the Death Star gamemode, we have set it up as an objective style that will mimic the course of events from the movie Episode 4: A New Hope
Can you already provide us a rough list of vehicles that will be pilotable? Will we be able to drive AT-AT/AT-ST or the mighty ISD?
*Woodrow: *AT-ST, Landpseeder, Speederbike, Probe droid, A-Wing, X-Wing, Y-Wing, B-Wing, TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber, TIE Interceptor, Gallofree, Bulk Freighter, Corvette, Lancer, Nebulon-B, Carrack, and that doesn't include stationary and deployable turrets.
*rybot: *unfortunately, we don't have a pilotable ISD at this time. It was pilotable for some internal testing and we discovered some problems that we have yet to work around. We will continue to work on it, but don't expect them to be flying around the map in the first release.
- System requirements, ranking, unlocks -
What are the special highlights of First Strike? How are you going to get people to download the game to their hard drives?
*Woodrow: *Our mod will encompass a full Star Wars Battlefield Environment. We have focused on creating the largest scale playing field within the limited 32/64 player arena. Scale is something we've tackled head on and every player will have the option of playing anything, from the basic Stormtrooper to the captain of a capital ship directing his crew in massive fleet engagements.
Our gameplay goals and ideals are to push ease of teamplay and playability, whilst simultaneously providing a large number of different tests and challenges of a player's skill. Our customization and kit layout system was created to provide for dynamic game balancing, where the player chooses the weapon to fit his play style and mission rather than us choosing the kits and limiting them to it. And, of course, we're shooting for the most graphical and immersive Star Wars battlefield experience out there today.
A dynamic "customization and kit-layout system" - that sounds very interesting. What's the point about that?
This is mainly BF2142 standard-style - but everything is unlocked already.
Will there be a First Strike Mod-Ranking introduced? Maybe with an own set of unique unlocks?
This has been the original plan. But this would have been a lot of work and we decided, that it is more important, to get the game public. Afterwards, we can take care of our secondary goals.
What about the system requirements hardware-wise?
*Svenstaro: *If you compare it with BF2142 Titan Mode: Much lower, expect 3-4 times more frames than when playing Titan Mode while on Titan. If you compare it with normal BF2142 Conquest it should still be less depending on map. There have been rumours that you need a killer machine in order to be able to play space maps and I can tell you that it's the exact opposite. There's no geometry to render and as long as there aren't 6 capital ships + fighters in your vicinity there should be no problems at all. An exception here might be Death Star since we tried to keep real close to the detail of the original but we're still testing it and so far performance has been very good.
- Epilogue -
In what time frame can we expect the first release candidate?
*rybot: *We have a date set for September... yes, of this year. Although we cannot say what the exact date will be, we will keep everyone updated when more information becomes available.
Your message to the waiting fans?
*xEROhOUR: *Remember this is a mod created by a non paid team who have really tried to deliver this conversion as professionally as possible for you in their spare time. We are still developing it so come release, just bare in mind we still have a long way to go to get it to the level we and more importantly YOU want. We hope you enjoy it.
 
 
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Closed Alpha Test & Deth..
