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Alien Crossfire Chat with Tim Train and Greg Foertsch Sunday, October 24 1999 This the transcript of our chat with Tim Train and Greg Foertsch of Firaxis. In red it's Tim and Greg, and also Yuk(a.k.a. Greg Cunningham, another Firaxis Artist). In In blue it's MarkG and DanQ, the moderators of the chat. That chat had three parts, and so this trascripts covers three pages. In the first part, Mark asked several questions that him and Dan had organized on all sorts of things. Meanwhile, Dan was gathering questions on another chanell and asked them along with those that people had already sent before that chat on part 2. Finally, the third part was unmoderated, with everyone being able to ask questions directly to Tim and Greg.... A short summary: We've talked about lots of stuff, and heard many interesting things. Among them, the idea behind the powers of the alien factions, how to come up with how an alien looks like, and other things... :), Session Start: Sun Oct 24 22:00:00 GMT(or so :)) 1999*** Now talking in #apolyton *** GregF (~java_user@pc80.firaxis.com) has joined #apolyton [GregF] Tim Train is on his way and will be here in a few minutes [tfs99] welcome GregF! [Hugo_Rune] Yes, welcome [korn469] hey greg [GregF] Hi Guys Tim is stuck in traffic. [Sith_Knight] so Greg, whats going on?' [GregF] How do you all like Alien Crossfire? [DanQ] Hey Greg! Thanks for letting us know of Tim's status. [gooeyblob] not been released here in the UK why`s that then? [DanQ] We'll wait for him to arrive. [Hugo_Rune] Haen't played it yet. Won't reach these shores for another week. [tfs99] SMAX is cool [tfs99] Love the new sounds and music [GregF] What about the demo, any luck downloading [Dreifels] goo, UK is Europe, You'll get it when Europe gets it [Bkeela] hasnt been released in Australia yet either:( any idea of the Australian shipping date? [Hugo_Rune] Yes. It was nice. [LamprosWC] Yeah, the demo works fine. [LamprosWC] So Greg, were you the artist for the orginal SMAC as well or just alien crossfire? [GregF] I have been with Firaxis for 3 years now and yes I worked on Gettysburg and SMAC [LamprosWC] Cool! [Hugo_Rune] Yes, welcome [Tree] this may have been asked - What about future SMAC expansions? should we look for any? [GregF] thanks [LamprosWC] So are you pretty much the whole art department, or do you have a larger team, or...? [AlexanderIII] Question for Greg or Tim: does the new SMAX have factions observe sea borders as well as land borders, cause in SMAC it is a real irrutant not being able to kick a faction out of your sea territory with diplomacy. [GregF] No we have a team of about 10 artist now and are going to hire a few more [MarkG] hey, just hold your horses a bit, until Tim comes... :) [AlexanderIII] Okay, I'll ask later as well [Bkeela] GregF, I was pretty shocked to discover some of the graphical modification in the demo. Why was there a need to change them to 3d when the original graphics were fine? (like the mining platforms and the Alien Artifacts) [LamprosWC] Wow, that's pretty impressive. [GregF] tell ya what we can talk alittle about Firaxis till Tim gets here, I you want? crossfire? [LamprosWC] Cool. [Hugo_Rune] What's it like working there? [gooeyblob] the unit graphics were a bit poor if you ask me needed improving.. [DanQ] For those who are just joining us, good afternoon, and we are just waiting for Tim to arrive. Once that happens, we will be starting the chat. [tfs99] I don't care what anyone says, graphics and art for SMAC and SMAX are great! [AlexanderIII] How many people do you currently have working for Firaxis? [korn469] hey greg has anyone at firaxis read (or even jeard of) the Spartan Chronicles in the SMAC fiction site here at apolyton? [GregF] This has to be one of the coolest places I can think of to work. team, or...? [Knevil] and more importantly., why did you close down the forums? :) [GregF] one at a time. [Tree] I am so IRC clueless [Yuk] hey I bet tim will show up very soon :} [GregF] Tim just got in the building [AlexanderIII] Firaxis did not close down the Forums, it was EA; right Greg? But why did _they_ do that? [Tim] Hi guys! Sorry I'm late. [GregF] 1 person in 3.5 years has left Firaxis [Tree] whos that? [Hugo_Rune] What's it like working there? [korn469] hey tim [GregF] We currently have about 25 people [tfs99] Why do all the people at Firaxis have short first names? [Knevil] oh, okay... [Hugo_Rune] Let the chat begin. [LamprosWC] Welcome Tim, happy to have you! [Tree] yeah [Tim] Hi all, glad I could make it. [Knevil] cool! [LamprosWC] Shall we begin now? [AlexanderIII] Trafic is a bi***, isn't it? [Tim] What did I miss? [MarkG] in a moment.... *** DanQ sets mode: +m [Tim] Hi guys! Sorry I'm late. settled. :) [DanQ] Welcome to today's SMAC-X Chat with Firaxians Tim Train and Greg Forestch. In a few moments they will be introducing themselves, i.e. what their jobs were in the development of SMAC-X, but we've got some other bases to cover first, so bear with us. [DanQ] First off, we would like to thank Tim and Greg for taking some time out of their weekend to chat with us. Hi guys -- thanks for coming. :)) [DanQ] My name is Daniel Quick, aka DanQ, and MarkG is MarkG, aka Markos Giannopoulos {grin}. We are the Co-Owners/Webmasters of Apolyton CS, http://apolyton.net, who along with Tim and Greg are brining you this chat today... but you knew that. :D [DanQ] Markos and I will be moderating today's chat; Markos will asking the 'general' questions at the beginning, and I will be passing along YOUR (user submitted) questions... be gentle hmmm 'k? :) [DanQ] If you have a question you would like to ask Tim, Greg, or both (if just one of the two, please indicate which), go to the #smac-x channel on this server. If you are 'browsing' this channel through the Java Applet, type (minus the quotations) "/join #smac-x". If you are coming to us from an IRC program, such as mIRC, you can do the same thing -- the only thing with the former group is that you can only browse one channel at a time, so to return here t [DanQ] ** IMPORTANT ** Only questions submitted into the #smac-x channel _after_ these introductions are over will be looked at. If you have already asked a question, you will need to re-ask it. [DanQ] You will have to do this for the first hour, or "moderated", portion of our chat. Afterwards you will be able to ask Tim and Greg questions personally. Be sure that when this happens that a) you only ask one question at a time and b) that we don't have to say this again. :) [DanQ] During the moderated portion of this chat, you can also logon to #smacx-chat so you can talk amongst yourselves. [MarkG] that's #smac-chat [DanQ] Speaking of "user" questions, we are going to ask user questions at the end of all of the 'general' questions. The reason for this is to make our lives easier in that it will give us time to gather the questions and keep the discussion running smoothly. [DanQ] Thanks for the correction Markos. [DanQ] The questions that we are going to be asking are generalized so we can all get "the bigger picture". Just so you are aware, here is the order in which the questions are going to be asked: (1) FACTIONS, (2) ART, (3) MULTIPLAYER, (4) BUGS, (5) AI, (6) DIPLOMACY, (7) TECHNOLOGY and, last but not least, (8) SUPPORT. [DanQ] Final notes: do not say/do anything that will force us to kick you, and potentially ban you, from this channel (i.e. profanity) -- this is especially true in the latter portions of the chat when moderation will be turned off. And yes, this chat is being logged and will be available for viewing from Apolyton CS in a few days. question, you will need to re-ask it. [DanQ] :) [DanQ] Tim: could you please introduce yourself, and tell us what your responsibilities on SMAC-X were? that we don't have to say this again. :) shepherded it through... [Tim] along with people like Greg F., the art lead on the game. (done) [DanQ] Thanks Tim. [DanQ] Greg: could you please introduce yourself, and tell us what your responsibilities on SMAC-X were? [GregF] Yes, as Tim said, I was the Lead Artist on Crossfire. [DanQ] :) [DanQ] All righty folks, let's begin! [DanQ] (Introductions now over) [GregF] Was involved with designing the aliens, and mainly did the Base portraits. (done) [MarkG] Hi everyone, we'll start with the most important new thing in smacx: Factions [MarkG] I guess, this goes more to Tim [MarkG] was it hard to come up with them? what about their ideologies??? [Tim] Most of them weren't too hard to come up with... [Tim] We took a look at what obvious ideologies in the social engineering settings hadn't been done yet... [Tim] and made factions based around those. [Tim] The aliens were the most fun--we knew we wanted to make them powerful relative... [Tim] to the human factions, but still balanced against each other. (done [MarkG] yes, that's the other question. do you feel the whole thing is fully balanced? [MarkG] there has been some criticism about it... [Tim] I've seen a lot of talk about that, and my feeling is that if you are looking at the 'old paradigm'... [Tim] of every faction should be equal to every other faction, then it's unbalanced... [Tim] however, if we had made the aliens only as powerful as the original seven factions, they wouldn't have been too interesting. [GregF] Yes, as Tim said, I was the Lead Artist on Crossfire. always got that one other badass faction [Tim] out there that's out to get them, and if all the humans combine against them, it's tough to win as the aliens. [Tim] And of course, as the humans playing against the aliens, you've got similar problems. Any thoughts on that from the chat attendees? (done) [MarkG] hmm, let me check similar questions on this... [MarkG] do you thing the overall effect makes smacx harder than smac? [MarkG] was it hard to come up with them? what about their ideologies??? You've got more of Planet to deal with, and if you're playing the humans against hadn't been done yet... [Tim] Playing aliens is probably about as hard as the original. [Tim] (done) [MarkG] from #smac-x [MarkG] [LamprosWC] It isnt' really balanced multiplayer [MarkG] [LamprosWC] single player it hardly matters [MarkG] [korn|469] Yes aliens throw off the balance in a multiplayer game [MarkG] [LamprosWC] It only works if you can make contact with thye other alien and convince them to give you tech at the 'old paradigm'... to gang up on the aliens. The human AIs tend to dislike [Tim] the aliens, and can usually be enlisted against them. factions, they wouldn't have been too interesting. aliens [Tim] early, then they aren't too much of a threat. [Tim] In fact, if anything I think its easier to take out the aliens playing as humans in MP because its [Tim] easier to co-ordinate your actions among other human players. (done) problems. Any thoughts on that from the chat attendees? (done) [MarkG] we'll leave it for the unmoderated part... :) [MarkG] Your new faction editor: what does it allow "creators" to do now that they couldn't do before? [MarkG] and how does it compare with acedit? ;) [Tim] I thought AC Edit was cool, and kudos to those guys for a great piece of software. [Tim] Our editor has a bit more polish and is integrated more with the game. In particular, you can add [Tim] factions to the game rules so your custom factions will show up in random games [Tim] Plus, the SMACX editor has all the new faction powers that weren't in the original. And you can select artwork, etc. [Tim] (done) [MarkG] on final(for now) question on random games [MarkG] is there an option to play with only human factions? [Tim] I knew this was coming... [Tim] Oh, different question! [Tim] You could manually do this by taking out the aliens from the rules list in alphax.txt [Tim] I can't remember which heading it's under, but that would be the way to do it. [Tim] (done) [MarkG] ok, what was the question that came to your mind? :) [Tim] I'll wait and see if it comes up... [Tim] (done) [MarkG] ok, we'll go to Greg with a couple art questions... [MarkG] What changes have there been in sprites and terrain? [MarkG] the new are done in 3-d, correct? couldn't do before? [GregF] such as the Unity wreckage. [Tim] (which is my favorite piece of map art in the expansion..I'm really sorry it didn't get in the demo) [GregF] The sprites that were in the Smac that were drawn were replace with 3d... [MarkG] does this slow down the game? [GregF] rendered sprites to fit the look of other units (done) [MarkG] the new sprites... [GregF] they're still sprites just rendered in 3d [MarkG] ah, ok.... [GregF] confused? [MarkG] we've also seen talk about the base art. [GregF] what about it? [MarkG] some say that it was worse than the original smac ones. your thoughts? alphax.txt [Tim] (That's odd...I have only seen positive comments on the base art, except for one guy I can remember) [MarkG] perhaps he made a big impression on me :) [GregF] What specifically? [MarkG] I mean that his negativeness made such a an impression that I know remember it as a lot of people :) [MarkG] I was personally amazed with the leaders pictures. how did you do it? [Tim] I gotta say, I love the base art, particularly the Pirates' domes and the alien pictures. [GregF] What, in the art, was objectoionable? [GregF] What did you think of the portraits? [MarkG] potraits: great detail! [MarkG] what was the program you used? [MarkG] he same question(program) for the 3-d sprites... [MarkG] does this slow down the game? other, but over all I was happy with them..... [GregF] We used 3d max and photoshop. [Tim] The aliens were a particular challenge for us [MarkG] what was the inspiration on drawing an alien? [Tim] we knew that they had to be cool, as the success of the game depended on how well they came off [Tim] We basically sat in the conference room here with all the artists on the team [MarkG] "an alien looks like..."? :) [GregF] subjective opinion.... [GregF] Well we wanted them to be different, not startreky..... [GregF] It was a very colaborative effort [Tim] We thought about it in terms of the game effects we had designed--what would an alien who possessed organs for sensing 'resonance' look like? it as a lot of people :) ran with them to create the final images. [Tim] The actual designs he based them on came from Greg F. and one of our hottest new artists, Brent Alleyne. (done) [MarkG] ok, we're done for now about art.... lets move to [GregF] We wanted to make it human like but not to human. [MarkG] oops, type done when... done :) [GregF] done [MarkG] ok... mutliplayer [MarkG] any changes from smac? improvements? other, but over all I was happy with them..... more stable. [GregF] We used 3d max and photoshop. its functionality now. (done) [MarkG] we also had a question on if pbem is faster now [Tim] Just out of curiousity, how many people out there play MP on a regular basis? (done) [Tim] Sorry--in what way could PBEM be faster? [MarkG] not sure, I'm copying the question :) [Tim] Sounds like a joke ? ;-) [MarkG] I've also seen people talking about "smac exits when you save a pbem game".... [MarkG] or something like that... seen it? [Tim] I haven't seen that...is this in the old game or specific to SMACX? [Tim] (done [MarkG] on smac, but contnuing to exist on smacx ran with them to create the final images. look into it. It wouldn't [MarkG] [tfs99] exiting at pbem save is standard behavior, would be nice to have a save and no exit option [Tim] surprise me, as Brian added that code very quickly in the last week or so of the project. I'm amazed it works so well, frankly! [Tim] (done) [Tim] I could see how that would be helpful [MarkG] ok, finally, are there an incompatibilities between smac and smacx? [Tim] although I haven't heard a lot of people asking for it, if we hear lots of requests we could look into adding it. (done_ [Tim] We tested pretty thoroughly for those [Tim] You should be able to use all your old saves [MarkG] when it comes to multiplayer? [Tim] There were some problems with old scenarios, but we thought we fixed all those problems before ship. Anyone [Tim] having any problems? [Tim] Oh, MP [Tim] Sounds like a joke ? ;-) [Tim] Same as you can't play V4 with V3 (done) [MarkG] ok, I see we've lots of question to go, so, we move to everyone's favorite subject [MarkG] bugs :) [Tim] Ahhhh.... [MarkG] is anything known, fixed? [MarkG] Is there still room for improvement, IYO? [Tim] There's ALWAYS room for improvement ;-), which is [Tim] part of the challenge of software development--when do you stop? [Tim] We haven't fixed anything yet, game has only been out for four days and we thought it went out pretty clean. [Tim] Plus, after killing himself all summer, Chris Pine is on vacation right now... [Tim] but he'll be back soon and we'll get to bug whacking forthwith. (done) [MarkG] Will we see a patch 5, and if so will there be one for non-SMAC-X players? [Tim] Yep, we'll be doing a patch 5 that incorporates some of the fixes we did on SMACX... [MarkG] btw, people, open discussion can be done on #smac-chat [MarkG] oh, that's great news [Tim] I don't have a sense of when it will be done. (done) [MarkG] do, you need a "patch 5" list? we dont have yin arround... :) [Tim] You can send it to us, along with a SMACX compilation when one gets assembled. (done) [Tim] And before anyone asks, we REALLY THINK we've got the infinite missile range bug fixed ;-) [MarkG] ok, let's talk AI. improvements? [Tim] Sure [MarkG] like? [Tim] We did a lot of work to accommodate the new factions, so [Tim] the Pirates sport lots of new sea-AI that other factions can use, Probe Team faction AI, etc. [MarkG] I'm not talking jsut about how the enemy ai plays, but also on things like formers behaviour, automated governors... [Tim] Honestly, the former AI code is the most complex, knotted code in that game, and we didn't want to risk the stability [Tim] of what was already working, particularly since Brian was [Tim] pretty well into Civ III while we put together SMACX, so Shris would be mucking around [MarkG] Will we see a patch 5, and if so will there be one for non-SMAC-X players? of the upgrades we tried to improve that somewhat (done) [MarkG] as you worked on the AI, were there changes in the diplomacy part? [MarkG] do the factions act a bit differently now? [Tim] We made a lot of changes that were specific to the aliens [Tim] The aliens are much more aggressive, hate each other, etc., while the humans are [Tim] hostile towards the aliens. [Tim] (done) [MarkG] ok, I'm moving on a bit fast, as Dan tells me he has tons of questions... :) [Tim] Interracial diplomacy trades are harder to come by, it's not as easy to get an alien to ally with you, and [Tim] if you're friends with one alien, the other will hate you (really done this time) [MarkG] oh, cool, [MarkG] new technologies, but also old(smac) technologies: who, and how do you come up with this stuff? :) [Tim] I came up with most of that stuff--I was trying to add to the formers behaviour, automated governors... formers behaviour, automated governors... any techs around, although I did have to change [Tim] some facilities, SPs, etc. for balance purposes. [Tim] (done) [MarkG] ok, finall question from me, then we go to people's ones... [Tim] (not done) [MarkG] ok [MarkG] :) [MarkG] as you worked on the AI, were there changes in the diplomacy part? [Tim] I talked to a lot of grad student friends of mine on the original, and basically asked them "In your field, what would you have [Tim] The aliens are much more aggressive, hate each other, etc., while the humans are conversations at the JHU E-Level club. (done) [MarkG] ok, forums and support: Now that the forums are closing, is there going to be some other form of public support [MarkG] ? [Tim] We [Tim] will certainly do some kind of online support, but I'm not sure about the concrete plans for that right now. [Tim] But we definitely want to keep in touch with the players, particularly if they are having support issues. (done) [MarkG] ok, that was all for me, the ball now to Dan with your questions PAGE 1 | PAGE 2 | PAGE 3
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