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Interviews
April 13, 2003 - 15:57
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So far, there are two interviews about PPM: Final Dawn. One was from Maxim (who wasn't a PPM:FD member in that moment) to the french site C&C: Time Of War. Who replied in the moment was Banshee.
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Maxim: Will you be selecting beta testers for your mod?
Banshee: We are still planning the beta testing thing. Nothing is confirmed, but all our members will beta test it a lot before releasing, specially when the mod reach its final developping stages.
Maxim: When will your mod be released?
Banshee: That might take a long time, specially because the group lacks graphic makers for all its needs. So, I can't say for sure when we will release it.
Maxim: What's new in this mod that sets it apart from other mods?
Banshee: The evolution of the mod will be the gameplay, which may include several inovations which are new to mods. We seek a hard ballance without taking out the creativity. The four sides will have different behaviours, strategies, however, all of them will have the needed resources for defense. We plan a mod where players use lots units instead of only defensive buildings to defend and needs to mix units to be successfull in battles. We don't want people attacking bases with 2 light infantries like easy Westwood AI does or destroy a whole base in a early rush with few disruptors carried by Carryalls. We want real armies full of units not only being built and destroying the enemies, but conquering new strategical areas, sabotaging enemies and their productions, etc...
PPM: Final Dawn will also inovate on coding and on a much smarter AI than the crappy one from Westwood. The mod will also come with lots of new maps and even a new soundtrack.
We have a huge part of the coding done, several graphics (specially voxels) done, but lack of new infantry graphics done. We already have several maps done and some other miscelaneous things done, but we still need to do a lot of things before releasing it.
Maxim: Which software are you using to create this mod?
Banshee: PPM has used every kind of software, sincerily, because we ahve several members which have their own way of working. XCC Utilities, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Will's Voxel Editor, Greg's Deluxe Editor, GMAX, 3D Studio Max, etc... For coding, we are satisfied with Wordpad.
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The final result, in french, can be seen here.
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The other interview was made by Dancam, from CnC Guild in May 2004. PPM: Final Dawn was the first Mod Of The Week from CnC Guild.
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Dancam: According to your web site, Project Perfect Mod (PPM) is dedicated to working on the Command & Conquer game, Tiberian Sun. Obviously this game is thought of as being outdated and with newer games, such as Red Alert 2, or Generals why do you continue to work on it?
Banshee: When we started working on it, TS was the latest Westwood game. Even when RA2 was released, we thought about migrating it to RA2, but the idea was rejected. The story of the mod really fits the TS world and TS give us most of the environment and features we need for this mod.
Dancam: When did you start work on the mod?
Banshee: Although it was founded on October 2000, the real work started 2 months later... after some brainstorming... there were too many people, many different ideas and until we reach an 'agreement', we spent some time.
Dancam: What would you say your favourite aspect of the mod is?
Banshee: There are many positive aspects, but the mod still focus more the game play and also many innovations, but it will features new many units with new graphics, new terrains, coding innovations (the so much awaited MCV solution for 3rd side and many others), numerous new maps, and we will work on new campaigns as well, based in a quite interesting storyline that, although it won't be an exact continuation of the game, it will be based on C&C universe with many elements that were featured when C&C storylines were good (like TD, RA1 and TS). We also plan to add entirely new music and we will try to put new movies, but really dont expect this in the first version, because I still need to understand how this vqa works and it's a hard job...
Dancam: You’re also taking the time to implement something that you call ‘Aircraft War’ by significantly increasing the number of aircraft in the game. Could you just explain how you believe this will affect the game play of your mod?
Banshee: In nowadays war, aircraft is used to clear the terrain for infantry. PPM:FD will feature a similar system. You gonna have spy planes to uncover the terrain and also to confuse the enemy defences. A good usage of spy planes can cause a GDI base to self-destruct (although it depends on enemy incompetence as well). Then, you have the fighters, some sides might be stronger against vehicles while others are better at infantry. The fighters have can carry a good amount of ammo and usually are do more accurate shot than the bombers, that are really strong against buildings, but they are slow and fragile. Bombers can also be good if used against mass of units. The sides will also have transporters and some of them will have aircrafts that release emp, which will be deadly ,for the Cyborg side. Of course, each side will have its unique characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Although the aircraft wars will get more complex in PPM:FD, I personally dont think they won't be the most important units in a battle. Final Dawn still focus infantry as the best way to get an army.
Dancam: You’ve also added in a spy plane element, but significantly different from what many CNC gamers will be used to. Could you explain firstly why you decided to do this, and secondly what these changes are?
Banshee: Spy planes are very fast units with a long sight. A common user might see them as only a way to uncover the terrain quite fast, but a advantage user might make a good usage of its ability to attract enemy missiles to an specific point, which may cause destruction of key buildings or they can open a space for the bombers. Each side will have a different spy plane, some with explosive or kamikaze characteristics or characteristics that improve its spying ability. PPM:FD will also feature defences against these units... usually, infantry will be the best option, as it's cheap and fast to build and some of them might feature fast weapons.
Dancam: In a previous interview you stated that you were having some problems getting a graphics guy for the mod, how goes the hunt?
Banshee: The hunt is being quite hard. We received some support, but there is an excessive amount of graphics to be done and we have done several research’s to make the job easier. We had to adapt ourselves to 3D programs which wasn’t an easy task and took us a lot of time. But 3D programs doesn’t solve all our problems and recently I started working with a joint project with Stucuk known as BS SHP Builder, in order to make the rest of the graphics easier to do and the conversion from 3D programs easier as well. Working on SHP files requires an excess of work that really dis-motivate most of modders. BS SHP Builder is certainly a tool that will reduce most of this boring work and open doors for new things. There is still too much bureaucracy on the production of 3D files that I hope that they won't be a problem in the future.
Dancam: What’s the plan for any testing surrounding the game?
Banshee: Testing will happen as soon as we have most of things done, or at least when we reach our objectives on the development of the Foundation Of TDL campaign.
Dancam: Anything else you would like to mention about Final Dawn that I’ve missed?
Banshee: The Foundation Of TDL campaign, that we started to work recently will cover the hole of the storyline that is in the site. It will be an introduction campaign featuring 7 maps, however with a nice storyline behind this. It will be mainly a war between GDI and the forgotten group that will originate the Tiberian Defence League, but Nod will have its participation behind the scenes. GDI is the supreme faction in a decadent world that, after translating the tacitus and developing a cure against Tiberian infection, decided to provide a service for the world population. The treatment is risky and expensive and the demand is enormous. So, providing a treatment like this for free would take all GDI's resources and could even damage GDI's reputation due to the high percentage of deaths that it can cause, so they decided to 'let' third party do the job (charging a fee for each operation to cover the resources spent on its research). A certain corrupted and important member of GDI saw that as a great business and managed to 'grab it', and it really became a big business and a complete disrespect for those who needed it to survive (over 90% of world's population). The Tiberian Defence League will fight to gain this tiberium business and changes the way it works, however, they will use all dirty methods possible... and Nod? Hmm.... surprise  , it will be the surprise, but dont expect neutrality from them  , although they still have a cease-fire treaty with GDI and will keep it. I know we still have no contents about it in the site, but we plan to add it as soon as we progress on some remaining points...
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The final result can be seen here.
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