Note: In this interview, FS = FringeSpace, the TC being discussed, and FS2 = FreeSpace.
Also, I had to go after the main section was done, so I delegated care to Quantum Delta. I personally think he and Hades did a stellar job as impromptu interviewers.
-----------------------------
Stormkeeper: So, today we have JGZinv, member of the little known Tachyon TC for FreeSpace2.
JGZinv: My pleasure to be here.Stormkeeper: So, JG. why not tell us a little about this TC of yours?
JGZinv: Well FringeSpace is a effort by fans of the old game Tachyon the Fringe, to update the universe to a new engine. This includes revamping all the models and substance, even perhaps going as far and continuing the plot some. Stormkeeper: Continuing the plot? I've never played Tachyon, to be honest, so exactly how did the game end?
JGZinv: Potentially, right now we're largely concerned with multiplayer, as that has the most legs. The game actually had two endings. Depending on which faction you picked, either the Bora colonists, or the Gal Span industrial group Stormkeeper: So I heard. Which one are you taking to continue with the plot?
JGZinv: After multiplayer has been finished out, we have discussed a blending of both plots. Stormkeeper: A blending? How will that work? A middle ground between the two?
JGZinv: Due to the nature of both endings, it'd probably cause confusion or additional problems in the universe if you just stuck with one. We think it'd be better to blend them, as in ending up where some events in both histories were "true." It just gives us more to work with ultimately. Stormkeeper: Hmmm. What exactly where the two endings?
JGZinv: Well to explain that, you somewhat have to mention the beginning first. Stormkeeper: Right, go ahead.
JGZinv: The plot to Tachyon is that Jake Logan is a freelance fighter pilot doing odd jobs to get by. He ends up taking a job to escort a medical team to a station, but it ends up being a ship packed with bombs. Right after the station blows, he ends up framed and exiled to the fringe of civilized space - forever cut off from the sol system. Long distance and small vessel travel is done by using Tachyon gates while cap ships have their own jump system. Stormkeeper: Hence the 'Fringe' in the title.
JGZinv: Hence the title of Tachyon.. But also for us yes. FringeSpace being a joining of Tachyon's Fringe and FreeSpace. The two plots are basic in Tachyon (to continue) you end up having to make a choice to run a mission for either side, and that colours your mission availability from then on. Each faction has unique missions. Stormkeeper: One for the colonists, one for the industrialists?
JGZinv: Correct. In either case, Logan is looking for a way to uncover the truth behind him being framed while making some kind of life for himself in the fringe, with the minor hope he can get back to Mars, his home planet. The Bora colonized certain fringe regions, however due to some political measures the Sol government gave GalSpan the rights to mine the area Bora occupies. Stormkeeper: So tension, hence conflict, enter Jake Logan.
JGZinv: Yes. The Bora choose to fight for their territory. Stormkeeper: I can see how the endings won't work together.
JGZinv: So as to the endings, for the Bora you end up finding a girlfriend of sorts in the Bora military, they win the battle so to speak, killing the profitability for Gal Span by doing enough damage to hurt GS's bottom line. Logan never is able to go back to Mars but is fairly content. I forgot to add that they find out that Logan was framed by GS, however the data is lost so they can't prove it. Stormkeeper: And the GS ending?
JGZinv: For the GS ending, somehow Gal Span gets the Bora leader to defect at the end. While GS takes over colony after colony in a mass attack wave. The GS arc reveals that the station disaster was a set up by the Bora. Logan is able to go home to Mars largely empty handed, and is still seen as somewhat of a traitor. Stormkeeper: So it's a good and a bad ending. So some kind of middle ground would be... both sides fighting each other to exhaustion?
JGZinv: Depending on who you are rooting for of course. Stormkeeper: I'm a sucker for romance, so getting a girl = good.
JGZinv: Well I'm sort of getting out of my comfort zone trying to recall events we've discussed some time ago on the fly, but you could for example, say that Bora split after the end of the war. Gal Span was bought up by rival companies back in Sol. We've theorized that we could change even the way the universe works. Stormkeeper: Hnnh. So there are infinite ways to spin a middle ground. Just depends on how much it'll give you to work with.
JGZinv: Well, by having a gate disaster change the transit system and what implications that has for the entire universe. Although that is rather a drastic reimagining - we do like to keep our options open. Stormkeeper: Then it wouldn't exactly be Tachyon, would it... You said you're working mostly on multi now?
JGZinv: Heh...depends on 1. What you see Tachyon as... and 2. How it is spun.. But yes - like I said it's rather drastic. Multi is 99% of our focus to the point we've said we're not sure if we'll do a traditional campaign. One reason being that the Tachyon universe is vast, there is a huge amount of materials needed to create it.
Multiplayer needs a lot of what would also be needed for single player. Multi is also after so many years, still keeping tachyon afloat. Just to mention it, Tachyon beta'd in 1999, and was released 2000. Stormkeeper: And the multi is still live?
JGZinv: We still have small groups play matches on Sundays and Saturdays Stormkeeper: Wow.
JGZinv: I had a tournament in October of last year, ended up sending out close to 500 emails in an effort to contact just the old fans I could reach. Stormkeeper: But Novalogic and Novaworld, the publisher and the free multi service; didn't they close down?
JGZinv: Novalogic - is a story in and of itself. Novaworld forums will not allow anyone with Tachyon to register for some reason... they never have. The servers were online as of... oh.... I want to say May of 2008. What happened there is that NL (Novalogic) wanted to cut costs and move their data hosting. The first time they had problems, by the second move 3 months later - they had lost their own server maps. So they can't even host any longer. Stormkeeper: So how do you host multi these days?
JGZinv: During this time, NL released a patch that basically cut the ability from player's to host their own games. We're not sure if it was due to them not having educated personal, or on purpose. Stormkeeper: Wow, that sucks.
JGZinv: What we ended up doing was one of the former Tachyon modders found out what files were not edited by Novalogic and provided us with the info on how to host again. Stormkeeper: So now you all can host?
JGZinv: Yes. I spent the next 3 months putting together a new mod set that offered 3 versions for people to use. A standard mod for the purists, a base wars mod for that game type, and an arena deathmatch style mod. Due to Tachyon's files, the multiplayer base wars and arena had to be split up. Stormkeeper: So since multi sustained the game all this time, is that why you’re working primarily on multi at this time?
JGZinv: Correct... plus there is mountains of history to multiplayer. Better than 20 clans have risen and fallen around the social interactions in multiplayer, some having hundreds of members. Although I didn't stay long... I played in 2000 and can remember the lobby having literally 250+ games going... with 40-60 players each. Stormkeeper: I know how that feels, watching the rise and fall of clans. Believe me, I've been there.
JGZinv: Tachyon was said to have 120 player maps... but they were actually broken, so they were limited to 64 players I believe. Tachyon was an unfinished game... even the developers had said as such to us. It was a pet project some guys with great backgrounds got together and said, hey let's try this! They went to NL, got basic funding and tried their best. Stormkeeper: And Tachyon was that result.
JGZinv: Unfortunately NL came around and cut them short, and shot it out the door. By then NL had changed internally, and most of the team left for various reasons, the few left behind tried to patch what they could to help the players. But we're talking about the most basic bugs solved over about 3 patches in a year, after that, it was dropped. No one expected it to be such a success, and every developer I have talked to, still refers to it as their baby... but due to old contracts... they can't touch Tachyon. Stormkeeper: Kinda like Interplay and Volition there.
JGZinv: Quite similar. FreeSpace and Tachyon are... almost like cousins. Stormkeeper: Haha. I drew that parallel in my mind too. So, I believe Tachyon had quite unique game play. Sliding, gliding, reverse thrusters, that kinda thing.
JGZinv: FS thankfully in the long run, had better support for modding. Stormkeeper: How are you gonna bring that to FS2?
JGZinv: Well as you just said, slide, glide, reverse, are in FS already. Please note that I just realized I wasn't being clear, from here on I'll refer to FringeSpace as FS, and FreeSpace as FS2. Anyway... those features are in FS2, but they need drastic tweaking in most cases. A lot of that we've already ironed out thankfully. Stormkeeper: How do they differ from their FS versions?
JGZinv: Well originally, both us and BtRL needed glide as you would call it, a glide while the key was pressed, not a on and off toggle. Um another example might be, lateral thrust in FS2 is almost nonexistent from what I've heard. Stormkeeper: You mean reverse. No wait. You mean moving sideways.
JGZinv: I mean side to side thrusters, as in strafing. You're right on the last one ^_^ But you live and breathe using laterals in Tachyon, to not have laterals, you might as well give it up right then against anyone who is using them. Stormkeeper: I can see why you need to make it a TC.
JGZinv: There's too much to try and make it into a small mod. Stormkeeper: Yeah. Not enough to just have new models, textures. You actually need to correct/add new code.
JGZinv: Indeed. Base wars is something very foreign to FS2, but it's also why it's at the end of our to-dos for multiplayer development. Which I guess I should mention here that I've played all of one or two missions out of FS2. I know more of the FS2 universe from being on the HLP and Game Warden forums than having played it. Stormkeeper: So BaseWars; is it like defending a base while trying to destroy the other base?
JGZinv: To a very basic degree yes... Base wars is where you have two bases divided by several sectors, or in between maps. Stormkeeper: I sense a but...
JGZinv: To play... you have to level up your base by collecting crystals of varying values and take them back to base to dump them off. As the base levels up, you get new weapons.. Etc. Ship cards were also in Tachyon, so you could increase many attributes of the ships or add to the HUD. Some combinations worked better than others. Stormkeeper: That sounds ... kinda difficult to do in FS2.
JGZinv: Your ship also levels up based on drop offs or kills. Once you get to tech level 10, you get a certain kind of rocket, which can damage the enemy life support. In the mean time, there's many different roles to play: you can be a harvester for crystals, you can be a turreter and clean out the defenses of the enemy base, you can kill the enemy credit store houses reducing the base tech level, you can play an interceptor and try to kill enemy pilots. Stormkeeper: ... Reminds me of Savage, in a way. But I digress.
JGZinv: Sounds easy, but very hard to play the roles well. There's a lot of communication and timing that goes into a good team. Stormkeeper: I remember you said there were 3 kinds of multiplayer. This is one of them
JGZinv: My longest base wars game was a bit over 18 hours. Stormkeeper: The other is a deathmatch style thing.
JGZinv: Arena is deathmatch. Stormkeeper: Regular multi stuff
JGZinv: The two total modes to Tachyon were base wars and arena. Stormkeeper: And the last one, you said it was 'normal' for the 'purists'. Didn't you say there were 3?
JGZinv: Well that was referring to the mod pack, not a mode of the game itself. Stormkeeper: Oh. I see... So how far along is FS now?
JGZinv: The standard edition of the mod pack, was for people that have a major problem with mod ships, or any kind of mods at all. Stormkeeper: So it was a retail compatible.
JGZinv: It was stock settings... but you were able to host again, and it added more maps to play on. Mainly a compatibility thing. But as to progress... We are shooting for an internal demo for our alpha testers right now. We're pretty close, by that I mean we need to tweak some stuff, get our models finalized. I'd like to see the HUD more editable... or at least switch it out with a standard Tachyon HUD.
We've got about 4 playable non-testing maps internally right now that'll go out with the alpha demo. One being an arena map from single/multi from tachyon, another is a co-op style mission. A couple more are for more of an arena purpose. We're looking for our testers to give us feedback on what else to tweak, so we can nail Tachyon's feel perfectly. Stormkeeper: So how large is your team?
JGZinv: Right now we have a team of 6 people. Stormkeeper: Whoa. A TC with SIX people?
JGZinv: Basically that breaks down into two leaders, one modeller, one for music, one for misc coding, and one FREDder. Stormkeeper: And your team is sufficient with 6?
JGZinv: Heh if that sounds like such a number, you should know we started with 2, and didn't get a 3rd until... almost a year and a half in. We started in Sept of 2006 and we've restarted due to model problems 3 times. Stormkeeper: ... I always assumed TCs needed a horde of people. Guess you need a horde of humans or six superhumans.
JGZinv: Heh... we at FringeSpace shall take that as a compliment ^_^ Stormkeeper: Damn straight.
JGZinv: But really, the times have hit us hard. Not to spill a sob story of any sort, but we're down to 2 people active right now. No one has quit or has that idea anywhere in mind, just a matter of the economy is kicking our butts. My co leader has been out of work since October of last year, he's got like 7 kids. Most of our team is without jobs, except for... 2 I believe and those are off and on. Couple guys caught computer viruses and lost everything. Stormkeeper: This, my friends is a solid example of love-bordering-on-fanaticism-in-a-good-way for Tachyon. Anyway, this current FS, is the third one, right? You said you restarted thrice.
JGZinv: Well not so much restarted the whole mod... but it sure felt like it. See when we started it was I and RazorsKiss (RK as he goes by) has played pretty much every flight simulator invented. So we started hunting for a moddable game to move Tachyon to. Actually RK has been around so long, that he beta'd Tachyon, he ran a clan or two in his time, tried doing this before but didn't have the hands so to speak. Anyway we started looking for some fertile gaming ground - ended up with the FS2 SCP. Stormkeeper: What caught your eye about the SCP?
JGZinv: Granted remember this is going into winter of 2006, the SCP looked a lot different, getting models in game was a major pain, things have changed drastically. Largely the moddability, and the large community backing it, it didn't look like it would self implode any time soon. Stormkeeper: And the ability to change the code?
JGZinv: The SCP had some good people to support it. Yeah... although at that time we didn't know how deep a river we were stepping into. See even though RK had helped mod Tachyon before, Tachyon is either extremely easy to mod once you know how... or impossible cause the code is butchered. It's similar to FS2 in that it uses text files for ship attributes. But we both knew... next to nothing about modding when we started. As the story goes, we made a pact that FS would get done even if it was just us and it took 35 years. But when we got done, I'd meet RK and we'd have a BBQ pizza... and yeah that says something for how much I like BBQ pizza ^_^ So we came into the HLP with a list of what we wanted to get done. Stormkeeper: Always nice to see dedication to a TC of this scale.
JGZinv: Something like 15 pages long then. Stormkeeper: And how many pages is it now?
JGZinv: Karajorma and some others basically told us most of that was already possible, some would need moderate work, the rest... would need insane amounts of work (i.e. base wars) to get done. Right now we have an internal list of ideas to implement. Last time (early this year) I checked... it was over 200 pages at 10 pt font. I want to say 257... But I don't remember honestly. Stormkeeper: Looks like this mod might take a while.
JGZinv: Well the list is a combo of new weapons, new ships, map ideas, the whole archive of potential plots (several ways it could go of course), bunch of stuff Backslash and I came up with. Like one discussion resulted in us figuring out how to add rudimentary gravity to FS2. It's still perplexing why no one hopped on that when I posted it at HLP... but oh well. Getting back to the question...
The first time we started out, we tried using the models from Tachyon. 2 problems arose. 1 the converter was a fan made incomplete... application, everything it spat out was garbage geometry wise. 2) The models were horrifying in terms of quality moving into the fs2 engine. I know, because I spent about 5 months retexturing about a dozen fighter ships. So we asked around, ended up we couldn't use those models. That wiped out... our first... 6 months or so of work. Stormkeeper: So you had to model them from scratch
JGZinv: Yep.. Except us both had no idea how to model. Thankfully... Carl our modeller came on board about that time. RK took about 2 months off, and learned to model some. The second "restart" was when we figured out how we were making the models wouldn't be compatible with FS2, that axed about 4 months or so of work. So we went after info on what was required again... got that largely fixed. Stormkeeper: And the third?
JGZinv: Course during this time, SCP is upgrading... so like all mods we're trying to keep up with the improvements at a basic level. The third has been mainly under my watch... basically after RK took leave, we had no one to rig ships.
Also the Collada DAE version of PCS2 wasn't out during his time, so we ended up getting a back log of ships made up via Carl, but nothing in game since we had no one to rig. Well that's when I made the PCS2 guide which is drifting around HLP somewhere. We got that solved... got some models in... And found out we had to redo most of the textures, we hadn't made debris yet, several ways we had been making the textures were wrong. Zacam helped quite a bit with that, as did Scooby Doo for setting us straight. Stormkeeper: Hence the third restart.
JGZinv: Yep. Stormkeeper: So when do you anticipate making an open beta?
JGZinv: To paraphrase RK When will it be done? Soon™.Stormkeeper: Haha. Groovy.
JGZinv: I can tell you when I'd like to see an open beta... Stormkeeper: And that'd be ?
JGZinv: But that doesn't mean it'll happen... Stormkeeper: Good point.
JGZinv: I'd "like" to see an open beta.... end of 2010? Stormkeeper: I'm sure we all would too.
![:P](https://www.hard-light.net/forums/Smileys/HLP/tongue.gif)
On that note, thanks for joining us tonight, JGZinv. I personally wish your team all the best. And you also now make me want to go dig up Tachyon, so I'm not sure if I should thank you for that ...
JGZinv: Well... to add one last thing for our readers... I've got some pics I'd like to share and some music samples. Stormkeeper: Yes, I have the pics too! But not the music. =/
JGZinv: Heh.. I added some stuff. Stormkeeper: O-rly?
JGZinv: We have to keep some surprises don't we? Stormkeeper: Point, that.
JGZinv: 4 music files from our music master Nutritious:
Trajectory Low
High Tension Wire(WIP)
Overwhelmed
Run Stormkeeper: The floor is now open for questions~
JGZinv: Please note High Tension Wire is a WIP. Stormkeeper: And they’re all nutritious.
JGZinv:
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/Wep1.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/Wep2.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/SPC1.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/SPC2.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/SPC3.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/Peg.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/Arch.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/Nix.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/Mako.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/Debris.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/FT1.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/FT2.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/FB1.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/FB2.png)
JGZinv: And a nice group of images, the only new one is debris Storm. Stormkeeper: These aren't nutritious so don't see too much of them.
JGZinv: Indeed, you may need some fibre to help get them down. Stormkeeper: Quite. Healthy diet, all that. Questions, anyone?
JGZinv: Otherwise, please come to our website www.FringeSpace.org. There's a history of Tachyon on the forum that is a massive read. Stormkeeper: Hades missed it all.
Hades: Why hello fine gents. >
JGZinv: Heh. Got questions Hades? Hades: If I had known it was going on, I would have probably still missed it but whateverStormkeeper: T'was busy asploding, Hades was.
JGZinv: Ahh, well I'm open for Q&A. Actually didn't get to comment on some stuff I guess... sort of... maybe not sure. Didn't expect to be focused on the SP story so much... so was rather unprepared. Stormkeeper: Nah, its okay.
JGZinv: Most Fs2 mods focus on single player story. Stormkeeper: Ah huh.
JGZinv: We're the oddballs focused on multi. Hades: I think a good balance of most would be best. Stormkeeper: But Tachyon was floated up by multi.
JGZinv: Well... I had some quotes prepared from the players themselves. Hades: You could have a single player campaign but port it to multiplayer. And then make various misc maps to go along with it. JGZinv: True which is largely my standpoint to probably how we'll approach SP if/when we get to that point. Hades: I've never even heard of Tachyon the Fringe before so I dunno what the original game was like. JGZinv: There's a lot of blending (there's that word again) from other game genre’s I want to do. Within the game universe/setting, but not as though I'm trying to branch off and make an alternate funky universe. But here's the quotes... QuantumDelta: Mind if I ask one after your quotes? JGZinv: I'll not do the long ones I had.. ^_^ te heHades: I have a question too. JGZinv: No problem... ...remember that Tachyon was the most immersive space-simulator ever made. Not for graphics or content, but for sheer game play. Multi-player game play that is. When you were gunning down a foe, there was nothing between you and your machine. It felt like you were really flying out there. Like listening to the your favourite song and running away with it. No space-simulator has or will ever capture that feeling again.
Each ship had its own character and you could tell which one you where flying by how it handled, not how many guns you had. You could feel the power of the engine or the nimble quickness of the frame. The paper thin shell you knew couldn't take a single hit but no one was good enough to touch. The sluggish monster that could withstand an onslaught but hardly move. Yet you could fly it with grace and come out on top anyway.
One time, when VA was seriously cooking and I was the only IK in the Arena, I happened in to find the place filled with Archangels and Phoenix Bombers, missiling with Swarms like it was nobody’s business. I fought them for nearly twenty minutes, and they just whupped my ass. When three people decide to swarm you, you can measure your life with an egg timer. It didn’t help that I was telling them not to use missiles in the Arena, by the way. Luckily, VA was having a huge practice rally on a privately hosted server, that day. When Twilight Jack called me up to say hello, because he was hanging out with Griffin Moone, participating in the rally, I asked him if VA could save my ass.
A minute later, the Arena thundered with nearly eighteen VA, all of them hunting the missilers. I would say it was a slaughter, but that seems to indicate the missiling morons had a chance at all. So it was more like disintegration. VA just walked through them. Soon, outnumbered and getting railed so often they probably felt like it was a frikkin’ hobby, the missile heads left the server, and it was a big victory party. One of those beautiful moments, in Tachyon.
In the end, Novalogic really frikkin’ let the whole world down, or at least the Fringe, with Tachyon. MechWarrior got four sequels, plus two *****in’ expansion packs, and then two more 'Mech expansion packs. It also got about five patches. Tachyon got one patch and a big **** you, from Novalogic. They just dropped out, on us. I find it fascinating that they still keep the servers running for Base Wars.
Eventually, Razor’s Kiss wrote a massive email letter to send to Novalogic, asking them to further develop a game that had really fired up the imaginations and on-line lives of people across the Fringe. We all signed it, and it was sent off, but no one ever contacted us. It was the hope of everyone that someday a Tachyon 2 would come out. Didn’t happen.
...wars were very real, in Tachyon. If you entered the Arena, by yourself, and were suddenly confronted by 6-8 players from a clan that simply did not like you, you would find yourself bombed into Jurassic Era with such alarming frequency that your computer would crash.
While there was no real point system, in the Arena, except for the high scores that appeared after every round, you kind of new who had lost that particular battle. I’ve fought in enough wars and serious engagements…IK, DF, DAB, and some of the help I gave VA when I was a part of IK to tell you that there comes a time when the opposition just gives up and trickles out, and your side wins. Your blood just pounds through you, in a serious war.
Every shot, manoeuvre, missile and torpedo suddenly has a serious depth to it, more so than just your vanilla free for all. It’s a good, alive feeling to be involved in such a conflict, although in wars, things could get very ugly, when it came to Tachyon.
Stormkeeper: Once again, Tachyon's history reminds me strongly of Savage
JGZinv: Done... but I think the quotes give some perspective to the history and following of the game. They are but a tiny part of the Tachyon history thread at the FS site. Hades: Okay, what is the progress of the assets, missions, etc of this TC? Probably asked before but I missed it so whateverJGZinv: Yeah kinda, but that's fine. You want current, or planned, or both? Hades: Both would be nice. JGZinv: Oki dokie. We have roughly 4 "playing maps" not to be confused with testing maps. Planned... anyone's guess.. but double digits by the open beta probably. Ships wise, we have 15 fighters currently, Tachyon had 26 fighters. We plan on going over and above that to flesh out some of the factions. Tachyon had... I dunno how many massive (as in larger than your largest FS2 cap ship) bases. But I can easily say over 20. We will have to update all those, and make them a piece by piece structure, really a multipart cap. We have no bases currently as the alpha is fighter mainly. Hades: Ah, I see. JGZinv: Actually we do have some base like structures in the Fenris arena, within the alpha. I momentarily forgot... Hades: Does this universe have any known capitals or is it just fighters? JGZinv: Heh good of you to ask ^_^ 18 caps originally. We plan on going over that, again to flesh out some factions. We have 2 caps currently. QuantumDelta: My question burns even more so after those quotes ;PJGZinv: 1 doesn't really belong to the Tachyon universe... but we can use it for testing funky stuff. Hades: Which capital is that? JGZinv: The one that fits is the Star Patrol cap ship.
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/SPC1.png)
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/SPC2.png/lvlshot][lvlshot]http://files.fringespace.org/fs/Interview/SPC3.png/lvlshot]Those pics are of it currently. The one that doesn't... is from an anime that I used to host the community for. Technically it's called an Artifact Warship and is destroyer size... [/color][color=green][b]Hades[/b]: It looks very cool. [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: TY - a joint effort between RazorsKiss and Carl. [/color][color=green][b]Hades[/b]: Are you planning to try to make some maps where players could control small capital ships or not? Note: I've never played so I have no idea what a small capital could be. :P[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Um... well I guess I'm spilling some of the sacred beans here... but not unit such time as Nuke or someone has that hammered out... what we ARE planning on however... [/color][color=green][b]Hades[/b]: I see. I can't wait. QD, you're up. [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: ...is if anyone here remembers CoD4 when you call in a attack copper for a kill streak? Well apply that to a space simulator. That's... like a grade B idea. [/color][color=green][b]Hades[/b]: I see. So it's pretty much where you can call in a capital ship to assist you in the mission or am I wrong? [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: If we were measuring our ideas by the alphabet, grade b isn't the best, but a pretty decent concept to try out. Well multiplayer... call in a cap, or interdictor.. can help with base defense. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: Freespace2's multi was amongst the most competitive of all multi games I've played, which is a great many, Sonics quote actually made me wonder if he'd ever played the game, since Tachyon's TC is going to be very multi-orientated, when I first saw you mention it I wondered if there might be spill over into FS2NetD[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Lemme hit QD's question since he's been waiting. [/color][color=green][b]Hades[/b]: k[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Most of our staff has played FS2, but I'm an exception. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: Are you going to be working on the netcode or any of multi's minor bugs? [/color][color=green][b]Hades[/b]: :O[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Tachyon I'd say had... oh how to describe it... I don't want to say "better multi experience" as that makes it sound derogatory or demeaning to FS2. FS2 excels in story type stuff. But as I said when I first played it... the ships fly like bricks in 300X gravity. Tachyon is entirely about being a fast play style. Which on a side note, 18 hours as I said earlier isn't a normal base wars game. Normal would be... say 2-3 hours I guess with good teams. Eventually yeah we're going to have to do some stuff with the server end. FS2Netd would be the new lobby underneath, but very likely heavily reskinned. As to the netcode, if we had some dedicated coders for that... I'd send em to the SCP to get familiar with it, while also helping us. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: Always the trouble eh[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Due to Base Wars... eventually there are going to have to be major parts added somewhere. Now something that I have questioned is SquadWar.... [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: Go ahead[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: I wasn't around when that was available so don't know all the details on it, but it sounds quite similar to base wars... on a large scale, but without the base centric part. Novalogic had tournaments that mirrored what I have heard about SquadWar. But they did it all.. based off of who won what round and then you won control over what area of the map - almost paper and pen score keeping. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: Yea, SquadWar largely shied away from including capships, but Tachyon did take a lot of initial inspiration from SW[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Figuring both games were in development at the same time.. and released pretty close, not sure how they can copy each other? Tachyon was made during 1999, beta'd late 99, released 2000. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: FS2 is just a mild upgrade of FS1, SquadWar was announced in ..97 I think? [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Ah.. I had not heard it was pre FS2. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: It wasn't, part of the reason FS2 came out so close to FS1 was because it catered a lot more (originally anyway) to multi. Tachyon learnt from some of the mistakes made during its development[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Unfortunately Tachyon didn't get the support like FS2. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: Would've been great to see that though, the game had loads of promise. But you guys seem to be rectifying that now eh? [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Tachyon started dying oh... 2001~-02 ish. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: 02 is about when SW died as well weirdly[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Yeah... least trying our best anyway. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: You seem to be on the right track from what I've read :) I was very happy to see a true-to-tachyon conversion. [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: It's slow progressing... although we have such a small group, and had to restart so many times - we've made tremendous headway. Actually we've had... probably another 10 people that became team staff but never did anything. They just vanished. Coders.. modellers.. some important positions. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: Trust me, you're not alone[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: It wasn't as though they tried to get in to steal something either. Hades did you need more elaboration perhaps? [/color][color=green][b]Hades[/b]: No, I don't. [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Okay. I shall keep it all a big secret then ^_^ Some nice things about our bases, something Tachyon didn't have, besides active hangers... was anything like a event trigger. You could land at pads and change weapons and ship cards for instance, but that was about it. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: Sounds cool in itself though[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: What I'm planning on is having uses for base parts in such a fashion so you can have like an armoury. [/color][color=green][b]Hades[/b]: The last station looks kinda like a jump gate or small repair station, one above looks like a relay or communications station. Am I right? [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: If your armoury is a-ok (not destroyed) then you can trigger other events and weapons potentially. The station is part of a larger set, there's 6 of them on a map. [/color][color=green][b]Hades[/b]: Oh, I see. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: it [i]sounds[/i] doable in FSO[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: In the shape of a diamond, with many little markers in-between, it makes up an arena. The naming of the files is Fenris Tower, Fenris Buoy. Other than the debris and we're tweaking the texture right now, the tower and buoy is in game. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: Will these be script-generated battlegrounds for Base wars or will they be pre-designed mission files? [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: I'd prefer FREDding them in. The FS2 SCP system as is can handle doing what I described right now. [/color][color=blue][b]QuantumDelta[/b]: very cool stuff[/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Karajorma already proved part of it with his king of the hill map, which we also have ship powerups which use the same principle. Refill ammo, refill energy, refill all, refill ECM... refill shield, stuff like that. Those were in Tachyon to begin with short of the refill ECM. Lemme see if I have an early shot of Fenris to share. [/color][color=yellow][b]JGZinv[/b]: Got too many windows open here... [lvlshot]http://files.fringespace.org/jgz/Pics/fenriswip1.jpg)
Some old... old pics.
![Image may be resized. Click to view actual size in a new tab/window](http://files.fringespace.org/jgz/Pics/fenriswip2.jpg)
Before we figured out what texture settings were correct, ala post pcs2 tweaks + spec and normal maps. QuantumDelta: I wouldn't wanna blow that up its too pretty
JGZinv: Well the corners and top and bottom - should have the tower. Those are the outline of arena using the buoys. Most folks like the arch and peg shots the most. But we've got some info on our site, like a project summary, a FAQ, player's guides. QuantumDelta: Oh? JGZinv: A history of tachyon written by people who played in it.
Link 1
http://fringespace.org/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=7
Some of the stuff is out of date like the gallery or certain things we've recently got done - I tend to update the forum more than the site. QuantumDelta: Hopefully this interview might help you garner some support for that list of needed peepsJGZinv: Plus I don't want to update the gallery with old info when I know we're about to have a whole new series of ship pictures come out. QuantumDelta: Tachyon was a big deal back in the dayJGZinv: Yep... and we fully intend on letting it see another "golden age."
FAQ here. Actually, we also have letters from Mike Maza and Troy Adam on the forums. QuantumDelta: Original Devs? JGZinv: Yes. QuantumDelta: nice to see them still supporting the communityJGZinv: In short saying best of luck and hope to play it when done. Tachyon is also available by GameTap and Steam now btw... although there's some bugs - so there's been people asking me to help fix them. The letters and history section is hereQuantumDelta: Old games and compatibility issues
JGZinv: No... new ones I'm thinking that NL didn't convert the game properly for being downloadable only. Graphics and audio issues, as well as a mission bug which once you reach that mission, you pilot file gets corrupted and wiped. I've heard it from about... 6-9 people, so it's not likely to be a singular event. And Tachyon runs fine on Win 7 btw, without the XP mode. QuantumDelta: nice, I didn't realiseJGZinv: I have a broken laptop that I use as a Tachyon server once in a while, it is running on Win 7 beta. QuantumDelta: pity about the conversions then :< JGZinv: Well... we're not sure why the servers were closed down beyond the maps issue. I mean even if NL lost their maps, they can host the maps that normal players could use right? Not the 64 player versions, the regular retail set. We've considered that right around the time the server trouble came up, was when GameTap got into Tachyon. QuantumDelta: Heh I meant to bring that up, completely forgotJGZinv: A lot of players that dropped in during that time.. got ticked with normal players because we could use mod ships. QuantumDelta: 32vs32 is an extreme number compared to FS2 multiJGZinv: ...and of course we'd been playing for eons, so they died frequently. True... which is something we're waiting to see how expandable it is once things become more dynamic in FS2. Bax was working on the interface code to help with that to get up to... 8x8 or 16x16... I forget.. it's been on the back burner for a while now. I'm also really interested in Flaming Sword's work on the file format support for the HUD. QuantumDelta: still big increases on FS2s 4v4 ;pJGZinv: I could do quite a lot with a better HUD graphics format. See I'm sorta decent with Photoshop... so a lot of 2D stuff for the interface comes through me (concerning FS and testing stuff I mean). Several clans for tachyon are still alive as well. Void Alliance, Iconian Knights. JGZinv: Royal Guard, Neechi, Star Magi, House Paladin, New Breed, Bora Coalition, to name a few. Well, Kie99 you have a question? QuantumDelta: We /could/ call it here if you like, I'm sure stormy would be happy to do a second interview if we've missed anything that you or he wants to cover ![:)](https://www.hard-light.net/forums/Smileys/HLP/smile.gif)
if you're concerned about thinking of decent things to cover (*as I seem to fail as an interviewer) JGZinv: Heh... well I wish I had a do over kinda. I really wasn't prepared for the whole single player focus. QuantumDelta: Hades is a bugger that one
Hades: Yes Me what? Oh, yeah. I am. QuantumDelta: Like I said, HLP are very single player centric. their biggest failing :< JGZinv: Single player is just something that's "out there" not a immediate concern or frontal focus to me currently. Hades: I like multiplayer tbh, but I like single player as well. JGZinv: Well if we did a SP probably in camping... we'd want more hands probably. Putting all of what we have in mind on one FREDder is... sadistic. But it'd be some kind of story like a spoke wheel I imagine. QuantumDelta: a split campaign? JGZinv: Many perspectives that join up for a "so that's what it all means!" ending. QuantumDelta: ahJGZinv: We actually have some characters in the alpha tester missions. But they are of my design... so no telling if we'll continue to use them. They "fit" but not sure if they are really necessary. QuantumDelta: That'll be impressive if it worksJGZinv: I'm just a fan of... if it sounds like a good idea, and doesn't break the bank so to speak.. let's try it! Just about everything needs refinement anyway so why worry about it? QuantumDelta: Aye, nothin' ventured nothin' gained. JGZinv: Might as well accept it. Exactly.
Well I'm calling it guys. Good night, good fight.