FSDev| xEROhOUR writes
"Hi fans of FirstStrike! We are coming up to a year old on this conversion now and Id like to write a little about my time here as well as some of the new and olders faces on the team. It has been quite a journey, for someone like me who did not have the feintest idea about what goes into a mod let alone a conversion its been a steep learning curve. I'd like to thank Aquila for giving me the chance here and for that I'm extremely grateful.

Basically Ive just been the "glue" here holding elements together (including some team members as they have me) and helping out with the day to day, recruitment, website and background duties on the mod. I am creating the odd model here and there (although pretty dreadful), currently working on the HUD design with MUAHAHAHA and general lore occasionally.

It has had it's ups and downs but mostly the ups have outweighed the downs. Seeing what some of the guys produce on a day to day basis is breathtaking, the talent shines and WILL shine through for a very polished and meticulously detailed and playable end product. A lot has transpired in a year and with the addition of some very skilled and talented newer members this mod has cause for real longetivity.

We are at a position now were we are very soon to go into a testing stage. This is due to the relentless talents of all the team and their persuit to bring you, the fans, your ultimate SW experience. I'm proud to be a member of the FS Team and hopefully will be for another year.

For your perusal are some Work In Progress screenshots of Endor. PLEASE note the trees are by no way finished (I can hear Lord Bandu sighing)."



FSDev| Blitz writes
"In the words of El Guapo..
"What can you say about such good men!" I am very proud of this team, our progress and overcomings this past year. I will go into more detail about what I do when my turn comes for the Dev Diary, but I can say that in my position I have seen this mod come together with alot of hard work and dedication. I wouldnt trade my time here for anything as I have made alot of new good friends and I have learned alot about how the rest of the world lives. When you are trying to coordinate 20 some people in 7 different time zones, things can get hairy!

Many thanks to my team for not giving up and I can tell you community, that we have some awesome things for you! I look forward to killing all of you very shortly, so catch me if you can! Blitz TM, coming soon to a firezone near you!"



FSDev| Rybot writes
"I was accepted onto the team in January and my life has not been the same since. I wouldn't trade my time here for anything. I have learned so much, and this team is so talented you can't help but to work your heart out. I see the stuff being done on a daily basis and it's mind boggling. In spite of the talent, I am still amazed at how the mod has gotten the attention that it has. We started out with high hopes for this project, when a lot of people thought it would fail, our perseverence has pulled us through. Not to say that there hasn't been rough times or tough decisions that had to be made, quite the contrary.

Whenever you get a group this big, made up of people who have never met in person, from all around the world, there are bound to be some creative differences. Our passion for the project and respect for one another has always prevailed, which gave us the strength to move past our differences and push forward. We are regular people after all. Just people with a unique labor of love. Our team has grown from a handful of guys, with almost no experience, into the multi-talented team we have today. That growth gives us all the sense that we belong to something that is going to be huge. We are constantly coming up with fresh ideas, and we now have the team to carry out those ideas. We have had our down times that felt like we were over our heads, as people would lose interest or become too busy with life to work on the mod. But now, things are moving along at speeds previously unfathomable.

The past year has been a hectic one. Has it been worth it? Absolutely. Although the real reward is yet to come. The day of our first release is a day I've anticipated for a long time. Mostly because then I'll know that we accomplished something as a team, which is a great feeling. I would like nothing more than to spend another year on FS, broadening my skills as well as continue making textures, as I know the next year will be even better than the last."



FSDev| Preacher writes
"Being an FS Noob member, I can say that I am very lucky that they were kind enough to take me on. And not Only myself but Many of my Teammates from other projects. As you may or may not know, I was a member of Galactic conquest, after 3 years working on that mod, the team switched over to working on Shattered Faith, After a Year working On Shattered Faith, things fell apart, morale was Low, people lost interest, and I had to make it public that SF had died. And I thought that was it, Game over man, game over, My modding life has ended. In an quirky twist of fate, the day that I had decided SF was pretty much unsaveable, I was idling in #bfeditor on IRC as I always do, and our amazing Coder, Golden Dragon as in there, lsitening to me telling my Sob story about SF, and I think perhaps Jokeingly, he said,

Why not come work on FS. My reply bein a simple "LOL" thinking he was jokeing. We then got talking, and suddenly within about a day or two, I found myself talking to an extremely polite xero (most polite he's ever been since J/K), and I was on board.

However, Guilt started to creep in, I had managed to change teams, leaving behind Friends I have known for over 3 years, To which (many would consider Rude/Cheaky) I inquired to the FS Devs if it was possible some of my team mates would be able to come over and help. We were welcomed with open arms, and suddenly we all seemed to pile accross, and the strange thing was after say a week or two, it felt completely Natural. I felt like I had been working with these guys for years and years, we all got on so well. And this leads up to today, hear I am After finishing With Galactic conquest Swearing I'd ever work with Star Wars Again, The Love of the Films Brings me Full circle and Back to my roots as it were.

There is a Great Team behind this mod, with great ambition, and great Ideas. There is alot of Talent, Dedication to detail, and Lore accuracy (we check lore for the types of Chairs used in the hoth control room FFS! lol). I can say without a Doubt that Given time and a few releases (nothings perfect First time out), this will be an extremely polished, Accurate, and the Best Damn Star Wars based Game you've played for a Long time!"



FSDev| MUHAHAHAHAHA writes
My story is somewhat similar to Preacher - as I joined the same time as him and was also a "GC alum". I joined the team for the same reasons I joined GC - I'm a huge Starwars fan, a big FPS gamer, and I like using my technical know-how for making things. I have always wanted to be a game designer, so this seemed like a great step in that direction. I'm currently working on HUD coding, the installer, and various miscellaneous tasks. As far as my experience goes... I majored in Software engineering in college, and have done a lot of different types of programming over the years.

My first modding experience was actually w/ Jedi Knight II, making modifications to the C++ code for lightsabers and animations to allow for different-sized playermodels (Yoda, Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt, etc). IN bf1942 I became kinda specialized in the MEME coding for the menu system, as well as handling things like documentation, installers, etc. I'm looking to continue that with First Strike, and I hope to see you all on the Galactic Battlefield, where my evil laugh can always be heard. MUHAHAHAHAHA!"

FSDev| General-Unco writes
"I joined the team in Mid-march and i would never have believed how much the team has grown. A few weeks ago i was digging around for a thread I needed on the bfeditor.org forums and I found this post, from a respected member of the modding community, when we first started recruiting: “you're targeting the very most scrutinized theme in all of human existance. The absolute hordes of SW Geeks are going to tear you assunder within seconds of catching wind of this, “...“ [just] Pick a "space theme" and call it something different and save the headaches in the future.”

I hope that now with the state that FS has now reached, people see that we are not just another bunch of SW fans trying to do the impossible, we are infact a viable mod that has made a lot of the impossible possible. But we could not have reached this point without the support of our fans, the “hordes of SW Geeks” who have not torn us apart but added their ideas and creativity to make this mod the survive its first year. We hope when the 2142 tools are released and we can start to get things ingame we can create the game you desire of us, with out fans like you a mod is nothing."

FSDev| Luuri writes
"Hey people! This is my second Star Wars mod and it's been a great experience so far to return to work on a theme I dig. It's also a case of doing thing Right this time I've truly enjoyed working on the mod and with the great people that the team holds. I'm positive First Strike will be a mod to remember Short and sweet -Luuri out."

FSDev| Golden Dragon writes
"I have been on the team since the end of february, acting as a coder for the team. I bumped into our website, while browsing for bf2 mods, and got invited to the team, after I showed some of the coding work I had done previously in bf2. It has been a great learning experience for me, and it has been great to see all the team members developing in their own fields, and creating the most amazing stuff all the time. My own work has involved a lot of research on the codes, going in and out of game testing them, exploring ways to transform the game through them to create a new kind of game experience. I am Working mostly with the codes of the weapons, vehicles, statics, soldiers, and various type of effects. Acting as a part of the invisible force that animates them to life."

Video of WIP showing the DF9B Tower found on Hoth. Coding FSDev| GoldenDragon | Additional Coding FSDev| Blitz | Sounds FSDev| Ulversial.


FSDev| Lord Bandu writes
"I had been modding Star Wars Battlefront for a good year before I stumbled accross a FirstStrike update,showcasing an awesome looking Xwing. I was thinking of starting up my own Star Wars based mod for the BF2 engine(we have since moved to BF2142). However, when I saw FirstStrike I did not hesitate to apply as a modeller. I got accepted and was really impressed by the work that was going on behind the scenes. I was even more impressed by the dedication of the team to SW authenticity and the freindly atmosphere within the camp. Since January I have worked on a number of projects .

I have had sleepless nights thinking up ways to work around problems such as creating Endors vast vegitation....man , you wouldnt believe how many experiments Iv put together , but it IS worth it and it is coming together , altho THE TREES ARE STILL ONLY PLACEHOLDERS! ..... lots more work to be done..especially on the aesthetics of them. A couple of monthes ago I was put in charge of creating a large portion of Hoth and overseeing the whole process of making the most movie realistic Hoth experience we will all have. I am positive we will achieve that. All in all I am so glad I joined the team. Iv made new freinds, been given the chance to pay homage to George Lucas' Star Wars saga and increase my modding knowledge and skills."

FSDev| Ulversial writes
"I've been part of this wonderful team since sometime January this year. I merely stumbled upon it when looking for mods for my aging bf2, and I remembered a mod whose name shan't be mentioned for battlfield 1942 . And behold, there it was, a shining new Star Wars mod in progress. Even better, they were looking for audio engineers! I took the chance and applied, and within a month I had been assigned the huge task of everything sound. However I've gotten help on the way, currently we're 3 members and possibly more stepping on. It is needed, because we're not excactly saving our effort on any part on this mod. The weapon sounds, explosions, vehicles, ambient sounds etc as well as music will be sugar to your ears! I've also spent some time with other things, like doing some coding, researching (speederbike, what a nightmare lol) and assisting on minor mapping tasks.

Working on this mod takes most of my free time, but I can only say it's worth it!" btw, we are currently looking for a number of voice actors. This is your chance trooper! (me waves a beta entry ticket)

FSDev| Ramseus writes
"Hello, Ramseus here. Well I had some spare time so I put together the audio portion of what I think the trailer of FS would be... in the style of the cliched epic blockbuster trailer, of course. It sounds best with a giant subwoofer. That's all for me. "



FSDev| Svenstaro writes
"I've been a team member since february and haven't had a boring hour since. It just feels great to work together closely like this while everyones so physically seperated. Being the probably youngest FSDEV (I started when I was 15) indmidst a bunch of smiliar thinking minds didn't feel strange a second and I quickly was accepted into the team. The overall team and project structure that existed when I joined has almost completely changed into something that lets us all work more efficently and what once seemed so far away has now reached a state where nobody would doubt the dedication of the team or our firm will to finally get the rock rolling. Everyone in the team wants to kick the pie in FirstStrike at last and if you don't already share the excitement with us you'll soon have a reason to. Keep in mind: You guys are what keeps us going, your approval of our work and your praise and criticism."

FSDev| Dragunov writes
"Hey, my name is Davy ‘Dragunov’ Maekelberg and in the Research Department (Lore for the friends ) of the team. So what’s Lore, well it is to research data of every aspect of the mod (vehicles, dressing, buildings, weapons, maps,….) so the modellers, coders, skinners, … can recreate the Star Wars universe till the smallest details. In the past tested some games (U2XMP and Far Cry: Multiplayer), some mods for UT2k3/4 (Atlantis, Troopers: Dawn of Destiny) and BF2 (USI) and one popular program, u may or may not know, Drivercleaner (part as tester and also as translator to Dutch) That’s how I get in this team, first as a tester and then moved to the Lore department. I love to work with this team, cause they are really professionals and really friendly!!!

FSDev| Dutch-Razor writes
"Hi folks, I'm Dutch_Razor (and you will never find anyone else with that name ). I joined the team about a year ago as for lore, but started modeling with Max. Since I couldn't figure out how to decently move the camera with max, I started with Sketchup, and made some models like the EBB (Flight crew shuttle), Defibrillator and a moisture farm. Hopefully you medics will be able to see that defib alot!" SO MAY THE FORCE BE WITH U, ALWAYS!!!"