[by Patrick (twisted) Hardy]

Hello again, gentle readers!  I have been wanting to do an interview with the SoF Fortress guys from the day I first heard about their mod's existence. So I'm very glad that Ben (slay) Munroe could take the time to reply to the following questions.

twisted: Like Operation Overlord, you have made progress already on the mod by releasing screenshots of levels, etc.  Have you been greatly influenced by comments and suggestions from the community or have you planned the whole thing yourself, sticking to Quake Team Fortress? slay: Yes and no. We'll be sticking to a lot of the things you'll find in Quake's Team Fortress such as the classes and programmable map entities. However, there will be some  differences that the SoF engine will allow us to do that will make a few interesting twists to the old TF and even newer ones like TFC and Q3F. Twisted: Though you are using the same weapons included in the full version of SoF, do you plan to tweak the weapons for the TF atmosphere such as making the flame-thrower have more distance when firing its primary use? slay: Actually, we're keeping all the TF weapons with slight differences. There are no nail guns in SoF, so those will be replaced with machine pistols most likely. This is tentative. Twisted: Do you plan on following the same lead as Team Fortress 2 in terms of using voice communication? slay: I'm in favor of that as long as they don't detract from team play, such as the verbal taunts in Unreal Tournament and in Tribes. Of course, with DirectX 8.0 around the corner, this kind of thing may outdated before it's implemented. Twisted: Even though your mod has just started up, do you plan to keep teasing us w/ awesome examples of your progress on the project or keep it tightlipped so it's sure to be a surprise? slay: Depends on what we're doing at the time. A few teasers here and there might be in order, but I like surprises. ;) Twisted: Why did your team decide to create Team Fortress for Soldier of Fortune? slay: Truthfully, there's nothing good on day time TV any more. Twisted: Will SoF: TF be the fast & furious mod where any class can capture the flag like Quake TF was known for?  Or, do you plan to introduce more team-based missions that involve more class-specific skills? slay: In Quake TF, the HWGuy couldn't capture the flag. He was stuck to the base, guarding the flag. He was too slow to get passed the snipers. - We are planning on making it so that players do have to work together to have a successful game however. You can still play the one man army, but you're not going to do nearly as well as in TFC or TF. Twisted: One class that sounded new to me was the civilian class.  What role does the civilian play? slay: It's not new actually. Maps such as Border and Hunted had a civilian class for the immigrants and the President. It's basically an unarmed person for protecting. Twisted: You have quite a built up staff, have you worked with some of these same people on other mods? slay: No, never. Some of the guys know each other, some don't. I was in a QuakeWorld TF clan with Captain Obvious though. Twisted: How long do you think it will be until you have a presentable version of the mod ready for release? slay: I'm guessing three months minimum. We have a lot on our plate. Twisted: Does your team plan to bring back some of the classic Quake TF nostalgia such as including a 2fort type map and similar looking class models? slay: I never liked 2forts much. It was too "plain" and small. We're trying for larger environments so players don't seem packed in tight boxes. We've encouraged our mappers to think on a larger scale. - The classes and the weapons will be the same as TF's however. Also, there will be programmable multiplayer map missions. - We're currently going over some skin prototypes also, we're hoping to make them look similar to the old TF skins, but we wanted and updated, more organic look. [Back to the top]