...Thanks Efe, but I'm not involved on this, ALL credit should go to Gaxleep who made the interview...
...I only asked permission to translate it...
ciauz^^,
Jab
...I only asked permission to translate it...
ciauz^^,
Jab
Users who are viewing this thread
Pumpkin Lord
Albertus Magnus
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Maker of Age of Blades
1.) Hello, Magnus. One of the first-generation modders with plenty of early modding work under your belt. However - one project, I think, stood out for me and that was Age of Empires mod of yours. What an unique attempt. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.
Answer: Hello, I’m Albrecht from northern Germany, known as Albertus Magnus. I was introduced to the first M&B game in 2008, by a friend, who had the demo. Since then I’m kind of hooked on the series. Registered on the forums in 2009, released my first mod “The Astorionar Adventure Mod” (a quite unique story-mod for vanilla M&B, although quite unpolished) at the end of 2009, a non-story version “The Astorionar War Mod” sometime later and the (sadly) multiplayer-only “Age of Blades” Age of Empires 2 tribute mod in 2011. Then I kind of retired from modding and the forums.
2.) How did you get started on modding this sequel for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?
Answer: I don’t really get the question. What sequel, Warband? As said above, I had already done 2 mods for Vanilla M&B. The M&B games were the first and by now only games I modded. It felt like a sandbox or playground to realize my own ideas, to create my own games on top of an existing game.
3.) I think - an Age of Empires mod is one of the most original attempts ever made to this game. It looked great, too and you did a bloody good work with it! Even thou, I have to admit, you quit it too early. So, why did you want to do an Age of Empires project? A strategy game into a RPG-action game, what kind of a challenge did this bring into the development? What was the overall experience like?
Answer: The idea was to merge my two favorite games. The nostalgia of Age of Empires and the awesome feeling of fighting battles beside your men of Warband. Originally I intended to make it both singleplayer and multiplayer. SP should have had all the economy and building stuff and MP only battles with the beloved AoE2-units. I wrote thousands of lines of code for SP’s economy: resource production ratio based on villagers gathering, technology research to modify these ratios, advance the ages (with all the resource costs just like they were in AoE), creating and upgrading units, buildings… The buildings were a major issue. The main reason why SP failed was, because I hadn’t thought about, how my AoE-town with all the implemented economy would fit into the Warband world.
To create a believable smooth transition between the worlds and to implement all the features, that were still missing, seemed to be too much work to ever complete (for a basically one-man-project). So I focused on MP instead. With the help of some forumites here, we created and reskinned equipment to recreate the AoE-units, I made a “buy a preset unit configuration instead of your equipment” menu, inserted some memorably taunts from the original game into my mod, created some maps and finally released it. Units could/should have been more balanced, I could have added even more units, but in the end I think the mod sort of failed mainly because it couldn’t build up a decent playerbase and that is where MP-mods die. Either create MP-gamemodes that require only a small number of players or make sure you get enough people playing your mod.
4.) I think, one of first things that grabbed my attention when looking your project was the Art style. You really really digged that art style and translated it to warband beautifully. I wished there were mods with a focus on rebranded art styles. How did you study those pixel-quality unit models with clothes, metal and all that, and then bring them to life in warband? Did you have to role a few dices here and there?
Answer: Well, for some AoE units, I found higher res renders of the models used for the original sprites (few-pixel-ingame-depictions of the units). That was quite helpful to figure out their actual equipment. While in some cases I just picked or designed the equipment as I imagined it to be. I remember discussions on the spearman’s kettle helmet. Some people said: No, he surely wears a straw hat!
Rest assured, it’s a kettle helmet:
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070827135904/ageofempires/images/4/4f/Spearman.jpg
https://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/18/17301/thumb_620x2000/lancerssmall.jpg
5.) Why did you quit it? Real life? Did you see historical total-conversion projects as maybe a competitor? Because, in its essence, Age of Empires is a history game and its originality is in delivering the real-history figures and civilizations as playable factions. Which is quite like a historical total conversion warband project, but in 3rd person view and RPG elements.
Answer: While now I feel the creation of the mod was a really great hobby and I had quite a lot of fun, I have to admit back then I was a bit disappointed when “Age of Blades” sort of failed. That combined with my studies, that claimed more and more of my attention, I decided to focus on my studies. I didn’t see other mods as direct competitors to my project. Although I like the way AoE2 brings history to life, it has never been a game that tries to be historically accurate, when it come to visuals. While the different architectural styles try to comply with the civs, the units always look the same. An AoE2 swordsman, archer or whatever is identical for Chinese, Aztecs, Britons and any other civ. Most historical Warband mods took much more care of historically accurate equipment.
6.) What were your plans for the mod, if you were to continue and did you finish the project in your vision?
Answer: My unrealistic dream was a real combination of the games. I imagine one player (per team) looking down from above, managing the whole economy, research and building stuff, while the other players can take control of the otherwise AI-controlled units. They chop wood, gather food,... A bit like Persistent World. Once military units are created (by the controlling player) they can switch to these units and engage in battle. For both the civilian and military roles, there should be small advantages over the same units being controlled by AI, whilst not breaking the balance. A player-controlled knight would still lose against a bunch of AI-enemy-pikemen.
As for a more realistic vision: I might have fiddled a bit more about the economy-implementation into SP without a real goal. Just for the sake of modding. Coding can really be fun!
7.) Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?
Answer: It might have not changed my life and career, but coding really trains your algorithmic thinking. The way how different functions and triggers effect things and such. Apart from that, it was an amazing hobby, I don’t want to miss.
Later on, I discovered “Forgotten Empires” a mod being developed for the original Age2 and engaged in that community. That way I became a German translator for the later officially released Age2:HD DLC “The Forgotten” and also for the recent expansion “Rise of the Rajas”. Some guys from Forgotten Empires also said: “Aren’t you the guy, who made the Age2 mod for Warband?”
https://www.forgottenempires.net/age-of-empires-2-hd-rise-of-the-rajas/credits
8.) What do you think of the future? Any bannerlord plans? Or, warband project? An indie game, maybe? Or, a warband scenario map for Age of Empires 2?
Answer: I had secretly started a MP mod-project for Bannerlord some years ago. I intended to release it shortly after the release of Bannerlord and prepare as much as possible beforehand. It should have been based on the hexagonal OSP labyrinth parts I created for my first mod. The idea was a dungeon mod, where 2 small teams (no more than 5 each) sneak and fight their way to chests and skeletons and against each other. I also started to program an easy to use level editor/creator to create new MP maps. But I abandoned it. Now I rather enjoy playing. Oh, and I’m planning to publish an AoE2 and M&B inspired boardgame via Kickstarter somewhen in the future.
9.) What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?
Answer: I think the Warband mod, I enjoyed most, was Vikingr. It was so immersive and amazing. I don’t think anyone is still playing it!? And I’ve always really liked the Viking theme. dejawolf’s OSP pack. Amazing! Viking Conquest (well, a DLC now) is also awesome, but lacking players in MP. I also played Persistent World and cRPG. To be honest, I haven’t checked recent mod creations, but I surely will do that once I find the time.
10.) What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?
Answer: The modding community felt really helpful and welcoming to me. I was, like everyone else, a noob with no modding experience, that wanted to create an amazing mod with a ton of new features asking the same old questions, that had been answered approx. 1000 times before instead of using the forums search-function.
Still, the more experienced modders were patient and helped, where they could. I used a lot of OSP ressources. Got a ton of good advices on everything one can imagine. Got help for scening, coding, modeling and texturing. Got forumites testing and translating my mods. And got scripts, that had already been written for other mods. (e.g. taunting and drowning from Vikingr)11.) And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment?
Answer: I wish I would have worked a bit more streamlined towards a set goal instead of just seeing where modding takes me. And to those that have an “awesome idea” and don’t know where to start: Just dig through the Forge and see, what you can do yourself. There are so many great tutorials and helpful people there, so much to learn. This is the toolkit you need to start realizing your own ideas, and it’s utterly satisfying!
Albertus Magnus
Banned
I wish, I was as awesome as this guy!
Addition to #8: There are a couple of nice Mount & Blade related maps and custom scenarios on the steam workshop of Age2 HD. (but none by me!)
@Efe: Thanks for considering me and your great series of interviews in general!
Addition to #8: There are a couple of nice Mount & Blade related maps and custom scenarios on the steam workshop of Age2 HD. (but none by me!)
@Efe: Thanks for considering me and your great series of interviews in general!
Pumpkin Lord
k@nrad
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3D Artist
Hello, k@nrad or now-called IconracI. You have been around since 2010, released an amazing modding tool called MB Barracks editor and an OSP fantasy pack which had great weapons. And nowadays - you are one of the lead developers of Prophesy of Pendor and you are absolutely doing sick job with it. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.
Answer: First of all: thank you for having me here. I really enjoy reading your interviews, like to know more about peoples who improved one of my favorite games on so many levels.
My name is Konrad, I'm from Poland, currently live in UK, where I work for some R&D company. I started playing RPG board games when I was about 11, then video games (and bit of coding) on Atari and Amiga. In March 2009 (still have the receipt) I spotted the original "Mount & Blade" in my local store, read description on the backside of the box and ... here I am 9 years later.
How did you get started on modding this sequel for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?
Answer: Most of the time I play only two types of games: games with open world or games which can be modded. As a kid I started to develop custom rules for my RPG board games, which greatly improves re-playability, and the first computer game, which tick both boxes, was "Morrowind". There I gained some experience trying to solve compatibility issues between its countless mods. Next was (actually still "is") highly customizable "X3", where I created simple tool to read game data and my first (and only) model of fully functional space fighter. Then M&B and the world of Pendor, in which I spent a lot of time. Because POP give me so many unforgettable moments, I decided to pay back. To paraphrase JFK: "Ask not what your mod can do for you – ask what you can do for your mod".
I didn’t know that and I am very impressed to find out that you were the developer behind MB Barracks (2010) and Pegasus Armory (2014). I was using both of these back in the day and had no clue you made it - which leads me to believe you are a pretty strong one-man army. What is your skillset, exactly?
Answer: We are human beings - give us enough time and we can learn almost anything. Some may be a bit less gifted then the others, but if person is determined enough and is willing to invest own time, a lot can be achieved. Prior to M&B I had no real experience in coding - minimal in school and during studies - but wanted to see Warband's txt data in a more readable format, so experimented a little and eventually created desired tools.
I can't draw at all - my 7 years old is able to produce better concept art then myself - but over time have gained enough skills in 2d/3d graphic programs to make usable items. POP lost the main coder, but there were still bugs to fix and things to improve - it was time to learn a bit of scripting language. AI stuck on a pile of logs during siege - let's edit pathfinding grid.
I think in almost every mod you will find a person, who has an idea how all pieces are connected together. There are many "one-man armies" out there, acting in a way: work needs to be done - acquire knowledge and do it.
Let’s talk about Prophesy of Pendor. When did you join the team, exactly? What’s your role? How is it like working on the project with the current team? What’s your main goal as a team for the project?
Answer: After finalizing "MB Barracks" editor, I was able to customize my personal version of POP to my taste. But while I was plying with numbers I noticed that some of the most iconic items didn't look as good as they could. Started to learn how to use popular 3d modeling and texturing software, replaced few weapons and decided to share them with the others fans, as OSP pack. Because those items were originally made with POP in mind (the same dimensions, style etc.)
I contacted MitchyMatt, who at that time was working alone on the next version of the mod (basically keeping POP alive), and offered help. That was in April 2015 and after 3 months I was invited to the POP's dev forum.
Initially my role was, together with Snouz, to update the oldest items - preserve as much as possible from the original designs, adjust them to fit the lore and common style. Started with simple swords, then moved to the vertex animated weapons and ended up making armours from scratch. Now I do a bit of everything, jumping between tasks to keep the whole activity interesting.
The core team has shrunk over time and only MitchyMatt and myself are active at the moment. Thankfully we are aided quite substantially by seasoned POP's fans: Gorvex, Latis and Ralyks. How it is like working with these peoples? It is a great experience.
I would say that there are two goals:
1. to bring POP up to today's standards, preserving the "mod's soul" at the same time,
2. to create a mod, which we (devs) would like to play (after all devs are players as well).
Is it a curse or blessing to work on an already such a popular mod project? Carrying the torch?
Answer: Probably both to be honest. A curse: expectation, to at least keep mod's quality at the same level as the last version, is high in our fan base. A blessing, as we (current devs) stand on the shoulders of giants (Saxondragon, MadVader, M0rdred, Fawzia to name a few), who created a very solid product, easy to work with (e.g. detailed notes left in the source files, which describe how features work, warnings). I would compare myself to the person, who takes care about famous sculpture displayed in a museum: doesn't need mallet and chisel, only a tissue to polish it here and there.
Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?
Answer: In my case both worlds are more or less connected, some skills are transferable. Modding is a hobby, but gained experience definitely influenced my day job mainly by improving learning speed. For example: I forge my items in Blender, which helped me to develop some universal workflow, be more "3d aware". As a result decreased adaptation period when I had to familiarize myself with the new software like 3DMax and Inventor.
What do you think of the future? Prophesy of Pendor for Bannerlord, indie game?
Answer: As a dev it is too early to say anything, but as a fan I would like to find one day a boxed copy of POP in my local games store. The full circle of life.
What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?
Answer: Of course POP, for various reasons. But there are at least two other products of M&B modding community, which I rate very high: "The Last Days" (traps an essence of the Tolken's tales, drastically changes the base game experience, is kept up-to-date for so long) and mtarini's OpenBRF (crucial tool for every mod).
Out of the new (at least for me) projects: every Middle-earth fan should find "Kingdoms of Arda" interesting. Dev team looks solid so a chance of finalizing this mod is high.
I would like to play total conversion set in the Howard's Hyborian Age.
What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?
Answer: As a player I would say that we are quite lucky to have so many talented peoples over here, who decided to donate their time in order to make the native game so much richer and unique. Some "old" modders gone, but new ones taken their places, keeping The Forge alive for years. I hope that Bannerlord scene will survive at least that long.
And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment?
Answer: If you create a new mod yourself or participate in already existing project - be determined and consistent. You will learn new skills, which may or may not be useful later on during studies or professional career, but at least will help to keep your brain healthy. Good luck!
Pumpkin Lord
K700
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
WSE Developer
Hello, K700. You have been around for a while, as the new developer of the infamous Warband Script Enhancer, the one-and-only friend of a modder! The tool that allows impossible things to be created by our very hardworking modding community. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.
Answer: Hi, i am Ruslan, 28 old programmer from Russia.
How did you get started on modding this sequel for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?
Answer: Since 2013, I've been work a c-rpg similar multiplayer mod. I can not give links, because did this for Fianna community.
Before that, I did not modding, except russification for Napoleonic Wars and old attempts for replacing textures of faces in game on textures of faces of classmates.
At that time I was fond of Native multiplayer and I wanted to do something more interesting from it.
You must have a deep knowledge of the inner workings of the engine. What would you say about M&B game engine overall, compared to other game engines?
Answer: Not so much. cmpxchg8b did a crazy job of reversing engine, I would not dare to such.
Engine was good for its time, decent performance on weak systems, well-established network code, great modding support. Unfortunately, he also has serious drawbacks - poor graphic; x86 leads to crashes on big mods, like FullInvasion; strange and limited scripting language from python tuples instead Lua or C#.
Why did you want to continue work on Warband Script Enhancer? Did you ever attempt on a mod or work on one? How is it like working on a software that will be used by modders?
Answer: I added WSE 3.2.0 in my mod for such cool features as heraldic horses, fire arrows, dynamic weather, chopping hands and a new word in admin punishments - turning player into a rooster (multiplayer skin). Unfortunately, along with new features came new bugs and server crashes. By that time development on WSE has been discontinued and source has been already released. And in January 2015, I decided to continue working on WSE for 1.166 on my own.
OMG, I did not even know what was waiting for me. Before that, I've never worked with c++, much less with ASM. I've never dealt with reverse engineering. It was incredibly difficult, but also very interesting. I always liked to do things that are not in any more mods.
For the most part, I realized all my ideas - personal animation for any agent, vertex animation for agents (eg flails animations), dual wielding weapons, full skin support for multiplayer, RCON support (remote console commands), tracking the projectile during firing, client-server dll plugin with anticheat and much more. AgentSmith added arrays and lua language, which can greatly simplify your scripting and even give you a win in performance. And I would like more modders to use wse in order to make the impossible possible.
Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?
Answer: For the most part, I did it because I like it. I would like to work in the gaming industry and perhaps this experience will help me fulfill my dream.
What do you think of of bannerlord? Do you have any plans? Do you suspect that it will require a similar tool to bypass the upcoming limits?
Answer: Perhaps our grandchildren will be able to play in it. I would like to make a mod for Bannerlord, if I live to see it. And hope BSE is not needed. I think it will be possible to add Bannerlord support to Oxide for example.
What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?
Answer: CRPG, Mercenaries, NordInvasion. You can do many interesting things on webpage - leveling, builds, inventory, trading, craft and many more. Also like "Light and Darkness - Halloween specials" for original features as quests and dialogues in multiplayer.
What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?
Answer: Semi-dead. I hope this will change for Bannerlord release.
And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment?
Answer: If you want to do something that can not be done in a standart module system, send pm to me, we discuss whether it can be implemented in WSE.
Nicely done interviews Belendor!
Pumpkin Lord
mat2rvis
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Coder - Maker of Wheels of Time
Hello, mat2rivs. You have been around for a while, now. And your project - Gathering Storm has always been the popular fantasy project with magic and all. I think, you were the first one to implement proper magics to this game. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.
Answer: Hi, I'm Bob from the United States of America. On Taleworlds forum I'm known as mat2rivs. To most people, my nickname probably just looks like a random collection of characters, but any Wheel of Time fan should decipher it pretty easily. Growing up, I loved reading, the outdoors, history, and computers. So, obviously, I got a degree in engineering...
In 2010, I was 26, and had been married for one year.How did you get started on modding this sequel for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?
Answer: My first introduction to the concept of modding a game was probably from Elder Scrolls. For that series though, I've been a consumer, rather than a producer. I picked up Mount and Blade, and later Warband, because I've always been a fan of the medieval era and games/books/media related to it. I really enjoyed the early days of Warband, when the 200 population siege servers were active, along with the native single player campaign. But, the engineer in me wanted to know a little more about how it worked. And that's when I discovered the 'Edit' mode option, when you were inside a scene.
Why, Gathering Storm? Was magic a challenge to implement to this game? What was your drive behind creating this project?
Answer: I'll try to keep this one as brief as possible, but if you know Wheel of Time, and the timeline of when its books released, then you know it could take a while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wheel_of_Time
Sometime around 1998, I randomly picked up The Eye of the World at the local library. At that point, 8 books had been published, and I soon had read them all. I love the world that Robert Jordan created in this series, and since it was the first fantasy series that I really discovered (don't worry, I still enjoy Tolkien) that feeling has stuck with me. Besides, it took until 2013 for the final book (#14) to be released. So, my first attempt at scening in Warband was naturally to make Emonds Field. (Hometown of many of the characters in the series.)
In 2010, I released a few maps to the public. https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,124318.msg3035580.html#msg3035580 The 5th reply to that thread by WookieWarlord is to blame for what happened next. First, I checked out Feral's Wheel of Time mod for the original M&B, and then decided to try making my own Wheel of Time mod for Warband. I remember, the very first thing I 'implemented', after setting up the Module system, was to integrate rubik's Troop Ratio Bar. It was somewhat painful, since I didn't really understand how presentations worked, but I got it done. I added a few more OSP resources, and then started doing some of my own scripting. Six months later... https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,147665.0.html. I named the mod 'The Gathering Storm – A Wheel of Time Mod', because in 2010, the latest book in the series was The Gathering Storm. (#12) I'll freely admit that the initial release was pretty raw. But, it worked and was fairly stable.
Since this was an 'overhaul' mod, I got to alter many different aspects of the game. As I'm a mediocre 2D artist, I mostly altered assets from the base game as well as armor sets from OSPs in order to create all the banners and troop outfits. I created probably only 10 to 15 unique scenes for the mod since detailed scenes are very time consuming and I had a lot of trouble with the editor crashing. On the artistic side of things, I'm most proud of the campaign map. If you look up a map of 'Randland', I think you will find that what I created was pretty accurate. Major cities were easy to place, but getting villages correct took some digging into the books. You can actually get a pretty clear picture of which areas in the world much of the plot takes place in by looking at my mod's map. I even included Waygates. (which work, thanks to some help from backstrom... Enter at your own risk.) A lot of the mundane time in the python files was spent adding all the factions, troops, towns/villages, lords/ladies, character creation, game initialization, mod specific scripted events, and also integrating a ton of OSP content.
But, magic, or rather the One Power, is what makes the Wheel of Time world unique. At least in regards to most Warband mods available at the time. The first Weave (spell) I implemented was the fireball. It's arguably overpowered in the final version of the mod. (if you level up channeling) The channeling item I created was basically a custom item that used the crossbow shooting animation (I know, it looks pretty bad). I picked that animation because it shot the projectile straight. Hah. But, I didn't use the projectile anyway. Instead, I used its initial position and direction. Then I moved that point 'forward' a set amount (set off some particles each tick) and when the point either went underground or hit something, I set off a larger 'explosion'. At that point, I calculated who was close, and assigned some initial damage, and then turned the agent's “on fire” slot to true, and give a duration. In mission_templates, applied burn damage over time, and showed more particles. So, basically, I used a process similar to the one described above to implement 14 different weaves from Wheel of Time. (One of them, Seeker, is actually from the official Wheel of Time pc game, because I thought it was cool enough to include.) The weave that was most difficult to implement was the Unravel weave. This weave attempted to counter some other active weave or effect. So, it had to prioritize the deadlier ones. The weave I enjoyed creating the most was Balefire. In the books, if a character is hit with balefire, he/she/it is erased from the Pattern (time?). Also, depending on the strength of the specific weave of Balefire, some of the targets previous actions are undone. Balefire also cuts through 'almost anything'. So, Balefire's implementation, (beyond flight path, particles, and collisions) is as follows: Kill the target(s), move their bodies to the corner of the map, (and underground). Depending on the strength of the channeler who used the Balefire, bring back to life dead agents who had been previously killed by the guy who just got shot with Balefire. Let me tell you, figuring out how code some of the more complicated weaves was very satisfying.
I also got a little taste of 'AI'. When the player is the one using the One Power, it's up to them when to use what weave. But, getting the NPCs to fight intelligently took more work. With the help of my later co-modder Vaerraent, we put together a system where different channeling troop types would have Weaves they preferred to use (Yellow Ajah liked to heal.) But they would also pay attention to what was going on in the battle field. If no one was wounded, there is no point spamming heal. If there are a bunch of enemy channelers, try to shield them. If your allied channelers are shielded, try to unravel the shield. Otherwise, use the most powerful weaves available to you to kill enemies. I could go on, but I should probably stop.
There have been many fantasy project attempts over the years and so few ever made it to a release and even fewer managed to do it properly. What is your perspective on people trying to create fantasy projects? Do you think it is harder than how it seems? What kind of research did you do while developing Gathering Storms?
Answer: The largest obstacle has to be time. Be willing to learn/fail. Keep trying.
I've been working a full time engineering job since 2006, got married in 2009, then started modding in 2010. There are many areas of modding where I'd like to improve. One of these would be 3D modeling. The 3D modeling I've done for work has been in Pro-Engineer. It's dimension/tolerance based with the purpose of creating drawings that can be used to manufacture parts. Going from that to a point/vertice tool such as Wings3D or Blender was a little bit of a shock. I used Wings3D to make some really crude items and the Trolloc heads (modified helmets). In Blender, I created a ferry scene prop that made it into one of my custom scenes (Taren Ferry). You can actually cross the river on it. I then had to UV map it, and texture it. I'm sure the guys who made the beautiful sets of armor in the OSPs I used would probably get a chuckle out of my feeble attempts. These were just a couple of simple items I made, but I needed to learn two new tools, and several new skills. I also learned Paint.net and Gimp for texture manipulation, Audacity for sound mixing, Python (sort of) for the module system, OpenBrf for tying Resources together, Thorgrim's Map Editor, the Scene Editor, and <groan> AI (navigation) mesh.
But, learning how to use tools is only half the battle. To actually bring a fantasy world to life, (visually at least) takes some serious artistic ability. Making really good scenes, scene props, textures, skyboxes, landscapes... that is a special talent. I have a little in that area, but not a lot. Having vision is great, but you also need to put the effort in to create the content. Or admit defeat and ask for help.
I was rarely smart enough to do that.I absolutely think that game design seems 'easy' from the outside. But once you crack open the outer shell of a game, you begin to see that there are thousands of parts that come together to make the game work. And we didn't even have access to the engine. There is a reason AAA games take years for teams of hundreds of developers to complete. And of course, the further your fantasy mod diverges from the original game, the harder it will be to finish. But, that doen't mean it's not worth the effort.
Why did you quit developing Gathering Storms? Real life?
Answer: There are a few reasons that my work on TGS tapered off and then stopped. The first one is 6, the second is 4 and the third is 2. (I have 3 daughters now.) So, a lot of it was I just had a lot less free time. But also, I was to the part in the mod where the 'Next Steps' were to add custom scenes, and storyline. The custom scenes became less enjoyable since the editor wasn't easy to use, and the storyline required custom scenes... Maybe I can also blame it on the fact that the Wheel of Time series was finally completed in 2013, so I wasn't wondering how things were going to end quite as much. Therefore I just wasn't thinking about Wheel of Time as much. The last reason is related to the next question. But it boils down to less time / desire to work on the mod.
Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?
Answer: Modding Warband absolutely affected my professional career. I already have a lot of problem solving skills that come with my engineering mindset, but this is the first time I really applied it to 'software'. Most of my software practice in schooling was related to courses with labs such as Controls or Robotics, or things like Sr. project. But, I didn't realize that I really liked software until modding TGS. I had a blast writing all the scripts for the magic system on my own over the first year or so. I did it all procedurally though, and none of it was modular. (Think one item with 3000 lines of code.) Then, Vaerraent, who I owe a ton to, joined me. He introduced me to making the code more modular and re-usable, and also Tortoise SVN and later Git. He also tried to get a wiki, project management, and code review tool running, but by that time, we weren't doing quite as much work, so it didn't have as much benefit. I didn't know it at the time, but those things were going to be very important for me professionally.
In 2013, I changed roles in my company, and joined a software team. I started out as a tester, but eventually moved on to development. I now daily use Git, Scrum methodologies, code reviews, things like automated builds, automated unit and acceptance testing, and I've learned C++, C#, XML, design patterns, TDD, and many other nerdy software things. Even things like using other's code in OSPs, helped prepare me for interfacing with outside libraries. The things I learned while modding Warband helped prepare and motivate me to make a big jump in my career, and I haven't regretted it. The downside for TGS modding, is that it took a lot of focus and energy to get up to speed professionaly.
What do you think of the future? Got any plans for Bannerlord? Are you working on any indie game or warband mod at the moment?
Answer: I'm not currently working on any Warband mods right now. I did spend a while working on a 2D tank game using cocos2dx, but that was mostly to get better with C++. I also coded a board game I came up with in Game-Maker studio.
As far as Bannerlord goes, I feel that it's shaping up to be a pretty good game. It's taking a while to come out, but I have plenty of other things to keep myself occupied, so the wait really isn't bad. As far as modding Bannerlord, I've thought about it. I'd love to see what is possible with the C# scripting and XML config they mentioned. That is somewhat similar to what I do at work, and it could be a lot of fun. Also, the improved editors that offer realtime testing of things like particles/animations/scene scripts/etc really sound cool.
What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?
Answer: My favorite Warband mod is probably Britenwalda. I honestly haven't tried out a lot of Warband mods, but I do remember that the atmosphere in Britenwalda cool and the gameplay was fun. The mod was also very well done. For multiplayer, I mostly played Native. The old siege servers were a lot of fun.
What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?
Answer: I feel like the modding community is pretty strong and also friendly. I didn't ask lots of questions on the forums, mostly because I wanted to figure out things on my own, but when I did, I would always get answers really quickly. Caba'drin was very helpful on several occasions. Also, the community is very generous in terms of allowing others to use/benefit from their work. The amount of OSP resources available is awesome.
And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment?
Answer: If you are willing to put in some time and effort, you can turn Warband (and hopefully soon Bannerlord) into basically whatever game you envision. Also, once you release your creation into the wild, congratulations, you just started a second job. After about three or four post saying “Thanks” or “I should try this out” you will soon receive bug reports and new feature requests. Or my favorite. “There's this mod called “Diplomacy” that you should really add to your mod.” They forget to mention that every time a new game version comes out, you will need to re-integrate the new version of Diplomacy into your mod.
Honestly though, I learned a bunch of really cool things, met awesome people, changed my career, got to work with a game set in my favorite time in history, and brought my vision of Wheel of Time to life in a video game. That seems like a good use of 2-4 hours a day for 2 or so years.
Lastly, if you come up with some really clever scripts, or make some awesome scene props, consider making them OSP, or give people the ability to use your content if they give you credit. Those items are often the boost new modders need to get up and running. Thanks again to everyone who helped me out along the way!
-mat
Pumpkin Lord
Fixed.
Pumpkin Lord
DrTomas
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Coder - Maker of 1257AD
Hello, DrTomas. You are quite possibly one of the first modders who created a historically-accurate total conversion project for this game. You founded and start developing 1257 AD in 2010 and it is still one of those mods that draws new players on a regular basis. 8 years!. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.
Answer: Hi i’m Tomas and these days I am a professional software engineer and a technical lead in a software company.
Back in the good olden days I was the lead developer for 1257AD mod, I was responsible for all code related tasks, scening as well enforcing historical accuracy where possible. While originally 1257ad was not started by me. Othr was the one that started it originally. I, however, did start contributing early in the mods development cycle - first by historical research, letter by scening and finally taking over coding for the mod and the drive behind the mod.
Also, Dr in DrTomas stands for Drunkard.
How did you get started on modding this sequel for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?
Answer: I did not have any experience in modding, I was still a university student at the time and it was purely a hobby for me. It did allow to greatly o improve my coding skills and set the right mindset for the future of my career. And I found that Mount and Blade series was prefer place for me to fulfil my ideas.
I know you specificly for your coding work, but I assume you have knowledge in every aspect of modding. Did you do most of the stuff by yourself?
Answer: When I took over 1257ad, all of the coding of the mod was done by me and all the work related to it (balancing, tweaking, ect). I also did some scening time to time. Graphical part of the mod was kauik’s territory and all the in game armours, weapons is done by him. We also had a numerous contribution from our community to help - research, scening was something that helped us a lot.
What was your drive behind making 1257 AD? How was the overall process like? Did you have a team? I assume research was the toughest part.
Answer: I greatly enjoy the time period it was set and at the time I was still doing some medieval reenactment. So i guess Mount and Blade allowed me to do reenactment virtually, in some way.
It was mainly two of us most of the time as a team - I was mainly focusing on coding, while Kuauik was responsible for the graphical part of the mod. We actually worked very well together, because mostly we shared the same idea of what the mod should be. Without him, I doubt there would be 1257ad - one of the best person I have ever worked with.
Research was greatly assisted by the community, so while certain parts might have been tough to find info on, others where plenty available and provided by our fans.
Did you struggle too much for the amount of modders were quite few in number? And - it was a period of learning module system for basicly everyone since it came out just about the same year, so there weren’t many knowledgeable people around. Was this fun, being the first one to learn about certain features? Or - was it demotivating at the times?
Answer: I can’t say we struggled, I believe having a big team on a hobby project can complicate things sometimes more than help. And it was primarily a hobby, so the process should be enjoyable otherwise there’s no purpose to it.
On what’s related to module system - it’s a horrible contraption, very cumbersome to code, but not that hard when you get the idea behind it. And it’s limitations really allowed to improve creativity - as some workarounds could have been quite creative.
Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?
Answer: It was purely a hobby for me, but it did allow to grow certain way of looking at things (especially when it comes to code related things). And I believe it did help boost my career in some way and i learned a lot.
What do you think of the future? Any plans for bannerlord? Are you working on an indie game or warband mod, maybe?
Answer: If bannerlord would ever come out, I guess i would at least try to mod something light. Probably won’t be doing anything as heavy as 1257 any time soon, because i just do not have the time for it (I’m married, have a job and a dog, so no time). Time will tell, however.
What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?
Answer: I liked Brytenwalda, Gekokujo and Vikingr. I like historical mods.
What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?
Answer: Quite communal and helpful… most of the time
It does not seem as active as it was several years ago, but Warband is a pretty old game now.And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment?
Answer: Get back to work, you slackers!
Pumpkin Lord
Nord Invasion Team
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Developers of Nord Invasion
Hello, NordInvasion team. You are well-known for your persistence full invasion mod, Nord Invasion. Probably considered one of the best multiplayer experience this game can deliver. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.
Answer: The NordInvasion team consists of a long list of developers. Some have retired a long time ago. The current team consists of:
Hypernoma - The Head of NordInvasion
Naozumi - Head of Website and Infrastructure
Kip - Head of Game Direction
Kaasovic - Game Development
Winter - Item Development
Terath - Model Development
How did you get started on modding this sequel for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?
Answer: Jez started this project way back in 2011 and to this day it is still being developed. Because there are still people playing, we think it is important to release a new update every once in a while to keep the persistence of the game going. Being a mod with it’s own forum we have created a separate where people can request features to be implemented. The NordInvasion team takes their members of the community very serious and tries to deal with these feature requests as good as possible.
Most of our current developers have a background in IT and being able to work on a persistent project is an excellent way to keep your skills up to date.
How did this idea come forward? It is a bold and brilliant move to attempt to bring 2 of the most popular MP concepts together, quite possibly the most badass faction put in center of it as well. Yet - you prevailed in it. High risks, high reward?
Answer: Because of a bet, Jez created NordInvasion. As it turned out, people where quited hyped about it and it is still standing today. Being able to grind for gear seems to be very popular these days, so this could possibly explain the success of NordInvasion.
What challenges you faced during the development? How was the team atmosphere like? Did mod open to great player feedback?
Answer: We face challenges constantly. Whether it is a nasty bug that was found in game, a bug on the website or even an item stat that doesn’t make any sense at all, it all has to be fixed. We try to do this as quick as possible. Because everyone has his own department in the team, these bugs can be quickly assigned to someone. Our recent acquisition of a proper bugtracker makes it way more easier to check on bugs that have been fixed or that still have to be fixed.
Because of the departments, there is little to no pressure from other developers to intervene with each others’ bugs, thus the atmosphere has never been bad.
On our forum we have a separate board for bug reports. This is where a player can post a bug which gets converted to a bug that fits our bugtracker. If a bug is fixed or more information is needed, we can communicate with our community on the forums.
Did you ever feel competition with other MP projects?
Answer: Sure there might be some competition, but NordInvasion is not a mod that you only play once. To progress in NordInvasion it is required to put some effort in the game. For example Mercenaries, a persistent PVP mod, shares a lot of its player base. People need a break from time to time and NordInvasion is a great way to let off some steam without the toxicity you might find in PVP games.
Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?
Answer: This answer is really different per developer of NordInvasion, but like said before, it’s a good training to keep your skills up to date. Practise makes perfect.
What do you think of the future? A bannerlord NI?
Answer: Our current stance is that we will try to make a NordInvasion in Bannerlord, but since the release date of Bannerlord has not even been announced in any way yet, it is very hard to say that we will still have the same members of the development team willing to work on NordInvasion 2. As for NordInvasion, we still release updates every now and then with our 1.9.9 update coming pretty soon.
What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?
Answer: As the writer of these answers, Kaasovic, I have not played a different mod in a long while. The last one, different from NordInvasion, might have been L’Aigle. I have not followed any recent projects with a lot of interest, but I did like the community project ‘Persistent Kingdoms’ which is quite the achievement for everyone that worked on it.
What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?
Answer: There are a lot of groups of modders in this community. Everyone uses different tools to work on their mods. It feels like the modding community is a bit divided by these tools, but united when there is a question etc.
And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment?
Answer: Do what your like to do. Bannerlord is still far away, so it is not too late to create your own mod. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, there is no way one can know everything.
Pumpkin Lord
Csatadi
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
With Fire and Sword Modder
Hey, Csatádi. The maker of one of the most successful overhaul projects made for With Fire & Sword, Warband DLC. So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.
Answer: Hi everybody. I’m a modder since about 2005 starting with the Total War series. So my nickname is sometimes recognized by players from that game. After releasing some minor and major mods I started to work on M&B, too.
How did you get started on modding this sequel for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?
Answer: With Fire and Sword is memorable for me because it was the first game I edited graphics. I knew how models and textures work but never worked on them before. I remember starting with graphics because I didn’t like the texture of horses.
Being Hungarian, in this game I could catch the feeling how my ancestors lived and fought in the 17th century. The Polish army was influenced by earlier Hungarian style of warfare and the Cossack army was very similar how Hungarians fought in 1655, when the game starts.
Why did you start an overhaul for WFaS? A special interest on the historical period the game takes place or the new features?
Answer: It was a small mod at first. As I read more about the period there were more and more things I could add. Furthermore Prince de Radzivil joined as a researcher later. Without him the mod would be far smaller and simpler. I liked the new features, especially the recruitment, the quests, but this is just a base. The main inspiration is always the history.
Do you use assets or code originally made for Native to use in your WFaS project? How’s the modding community of WFaS like? Is there much activity?
Answer: We have the Warband cheat system and many OSP mods made by different people. WFAS mods are rare. But there is a new mod which has the potential, the English Civil War by NPC99.
Did you do any modding work for Native earlier or was it direct jump to WFaS?
Answer: I edited M&B and Warband earlier for myself. These were item and troop rebalances, and changed the companions in a way their stats and items fit to the dialogs. Anyway after 5-6 years I played almost native Warband in the last weeks and continued this personal project.
Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?
Answer: Sometimes I modded for money or were hired to make 3d art. And it influenced me learning Java programming recently. Since then I understand the module system better but the syntax is still very different and I probably won’t learn the coding yet.
What do you think of the future? WFaS mod for Bannerlord?
Answer: I have plans for a new project but at first I want to play Bannerlord. A lot.
What is your favourite Warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?
Answer: I played only Brytenwalda for a longer term so it must be my favorite.
I started it because of the different style - warfare is infantry based and I liked the nice shield paints.The Bannerlord project clearly caught my attention. I think it has the potential and will be very popular.
What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?
Answer: Modders are surprisingly helpful. For example ‘Somebody’ helped the mod with script customization and SendMeSmile jumped in and made some unique scripts. NPC99 also provided great work which will be released in the next version. M&B community is organized very differently compared to the Total War series. There weren’t OSP mods there. It’s a great idea, people can build a few things and release them without having a mod. Their work won’t be forgotten in a never finished project which often happens otherwise. This is wonderful and everybody benefits from this system.
And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment?
Answer: Enjoy what you like and do. And have a life, too.
Pumpkin Lord
gsanders
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Coder
1.) Hello, GSanders. The developer of dead projects! So, lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.
Answer: I'm GSanders or "GS" and I've participated in Perisno 0.7 series (2015), Warsword Conquest (2016), Rigale (2015), and now Phantasy Calradia's "Phantasy 2018". I can't say any of those were done only by myself; but I could say I took parts of each of these to places they never had been before. I'm an American citizen who hasn't lived in America for 14 years; Bulgaria is about 1/8th the cost of rent in my native California, and I've not been one to chase material wealth anyway. I'm old and in poor health; I still feel I have at least 1 good mod left in me though. We'll see…
2.) How did you get started on modding this game for the first time? Did you have any past experiences? Why did you want to mod this game?
Answer: I've been wanting to mod since around 1980. But the tools, the needed hardware bandwidth, the software, the game engine, and every model needed to actually MAKE a mod was not easily available until relatively recently. I think the greatest thing Taleworlds did was to make the tools needed to mod easy (enough) to learn and without a high barrier to getting started. It is much easier to mod for Mount&Blade Warband than to make a stand alone game from scratch.
For Warband I wanted to get away from constant battles and look at more RPG elements -- so I started by looking for an open source mod to add wife as a companion to, and that was my first contact with modding - Gekokujo and Wife as a Companion, neither of which I wrote but both of which felt like they belonged with each other. I then had the opportunity to code for Perisno while it was in a moment of pain. Perisno was huge and I felt like more time was spent trying to find everything than actually solving anything, and none of the other team felt like helping me code, so it was frustrating for everyone. I guess I wasn't much of a team player anyway; I was happy to do things my way, and nothing ever worked perfectly the first time. The thing about a nod the size of Perisno is its not only driven by code. I'd say the popularity of Perisno is at least as much from the very large art team behind it, and not for avant guarde code.
As much as I wanted to explore the outer envelope in coding, not many of my experiments were well received and certainly I should have confined the bleeding edge to a small submod -- which became my real comfort zone. I made submods with perhaps 200 followers out of mods that had perhaps 50K+ followers. So many other OSP projects were embedded in such large mods as Perisno that each begins to interfere or interact in unexpected ways with another OSP, and it became quite painful to untangle them. Something the Perisno group did well after I left was to remove some of the overhead that bloated the game, and allowed their mod to really run better on older machines. From Perisno came next marrying Diplomacy to Rigale, which Cernunos made from yet older OSPs, and from there an invitation to perform limited work at Warsword Conquest. "Limited", meaning a division of duties -- I would focus on "systems" layers: scripts, triggers, mission_templates; and let Nameless Warrior do the "user facing" layers -- troops, factions, items, party templates, maps, everything interfacing to artwork. I just wanted the core "generic" routines -- economy, prejudice, trade, movement, and so on. Something like this occurred for Phantasy Calradia as well -- everything user facing stayed as Guspav had it, and I rebuilt the inner core, which users do not immediately see.
3.) Do you think your modding experience influenced you in any way? Maybe, your professional career or your studies? Was it purely a hobby for you?
Answer: I feel Modding for Warband is the completion of a promise I made to myself in 1980. I could understand Physics, sort of, and I understood the simple concepts of programming from a 1980s perspective, back before there was a Windows or for that matter more than 64 Kbytes of memory. But along the way, I realized I needed to know more about both software AND hardware, from networking to multi-processing, from operating systems and BIOS calls down to simple Warband scripting; and to understand a 1 line script in Warband really is a token passed to a runtime interpreted Warband game engine, which then implements the script line, and which might further involve many additional layers of code that are invisible to the modder. Although there is no money whatsoever in modding for Warband, it is a super hobby and perhaps the only thing I could say I ever did that was not purely garbage, however weak anything I wrote here has been.
Sometimes, for a rare moment, something went as planned, and it was a connection to the cosmos, like an infant taking baby steps and watching his or her father stride without effort. I will never write a world as well done as the waking reality we enjoy offline, but I don't think anyone has to. It's enough to attempt to make one change, one edit by your own hand, and know that it isn't much but it was enough to acknowledge our universe is in fact "created", not an accident, and planned. I don't really care what religion or spiritual belief a person accepts -- but as a modder, you become an extension of your diety. You're just a very, very poor copy. Or at least I am. Perhaps you'll do better.
You have the chance to at least not have to make the same mistakes as everyone else, and I believe you end up with a better patience for life's problems than when you started to mod and felt you could do anything. After a while, you may decide happiness is simply a clean compile -- and that's just the beginning, not the final result you hoped it would be.
4.) Are you working on any project at the moment? Warband mod, or an indie game?
Answer: Actually I am going back to Warsword Conquest, as it never really was completed and a great many people are waiting for fixes that I now have better solutions for. I think quite a large part of what I worked on was a portable library of generic code that could be fitted to ANY mod, so time spent on one mod actually could benefit other mods. If so, some of the last year's changes could assist Warsword Conquest. As always, the big mods become so large that no one person can do everything -- and Warsword Conquest has many contributors.
In this case I'm a little person -- most of the code was by Nameless Warrior; most of the mistakes were by me. We split the antagonism of the community but he deserves the glory. I did make some things faster than he remembers, and introduced some changes like prejudice that were entirely missing before. Magic was something of a holy grail in previous years, with Curtain of Fire being the first open source mod I could find and TGS (the Gathering Storm) being the source of most "modern" magic in Warband. Guspav's Phantasy Calradia had what seemed the cleanest implementation, and I think the independently made magic at the upcoming Warsword Conquest reboot will be something exciting -- that I didn't contribute a single line to. I will do some things though to make the mod faster, cleaner, with more tools for testers, and so on.
5.) What do you think of bannerlord? Do you have any plans to do modding work for the game? It has some revelations.
Answer: Bannerlord offers technical advantages in speed of execution for scripts and in accessing large structures like dynamic memory or multidimensional arrays. For a programmer willing to not just convert a working Warband mod to Bannerlord environment but to really re-think the kludges that went into a mod and rebuild it fresh, perhaps using different methods, then Bannerlord will allow mods to do tricks they never had before. But this is a two edged sword -- everything has to be rebuilt, using a language that is less efficient at performing just the in game tasks given to the Warband script we have now, and losing the decade of free OSP tools and partial mods we have now such as Diplomacy or PBOD. I fear a Bannerlord release with almost no third party mods for a very long time - 6 months or more, followed by a large wave of "micro mods" changing very small things and eventually becoming the total conversions now seen by Warband.
Part of Warband's burden is only 1 mod could be run at a time -- you can't add 3-4 of your favorite features but leave one out you don't like and expect it to run. As a dev, that has to be made into one big mod, and you are on the hook to make each layer work well with every other layer -- and two OSPs might use the same numbered slots for run time variables, or have some other contention that does not seem obvious to a player. I think these issues scare me the most -- not "will Bannerlord ever break through the Banter and be in our hands", but rather "how will it impact MY mods, and how long will it need to get even a small mod up and running?". The value of Warband to me was solely in its value as a modding tool. I don't think the native game was of much interest to anyone once they realized they could import mods and play them instead.
I kind of don't care what Taleworlds does with Bannerlord factions -- I won't buy Bannerlord for native game. Native game is just a template for the first mod. But maybe I'm not fair. I just feel that until I have the modding tools in front of me, the native game in Bannerlord is just a starting point -- something that clean compiles so when my first attempt is broken, I can refer to the changes and see what I did wrong. THAT is Bannerlord, to me. The rest isn't something exciting yet. I want to see how it mods, and then think outside the box to do something that wasn't attempted before. THEN "Banterlord" becomes Bannerlord, and it will be money well invested.
6.) What is your favourite warband mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?
Answer: The thing with all Warband mods I've met so far is this: they all focus on battles, on killing something to get experience, on selling slaves or doing something that arguably is contrary to any civilized person's instincts. I'd rather "make love, not war". I could argue that industry, not merely battlefield tactics, win modern wars. The American civil war Confederacy had a great many early victories by the south, but they could never match the Union north in terms of production for what mattered most - cannon, logistics, railroads, factories.
A similar argument could be made concerning a monstrous regime in the 1940s. The thing is, Warband rewards killing for experience. What do you get for letting ordinary troops go? Do you get double experience for NOT killing? Are there enough options away from a battlefield to make a meta-game interesting? What can you build? Is there any value at all to choosing to trade instead of fight? I look for games with elements that extend beyond the gut level "blow stuff up" battles, even if one could argue that and only that is exactly what every gamer "wants". It's probably why I am indifferent as to whether I had 200 followers or 200,000. Except, 200K users will pepper you with questions that 200 users might not, but that is mostly my unwillingness to stay quiet and let anyone else answer.
7.) What is your overall impression of the modding community of this game?
Answer: The modders are mainly the best people, in terms of willingness to help others and willingness to give up large parts of their life without pay, fame, or even a chance at a better job. They get only pain from doing the work, and yet they continue -- and share their dream, their virtual child, with strangers -- who become virtual family. When it works well it is bliss.
8.) And - lastly. Would you like to say anything to creative people who’re reading this interview at the moment?
Answer: Think outside the box -- don't be afraid to make something new. But don't expect it to work first time either. Most of all -- start small. Change one thing only and compile it -- like the price of butter, so that when you run "your" mod, you see that one change and no other side effects. Then one by one expand your changes. Make a map of your data model so that you see what happens if you change something like number of factions, how this interferes with the numbering of all your added variables. An excellent example is in Silverstag. Get to know the file header_operations.py -- this is the syntax of the script language.
Explore modding layer by layer, and take your time developing your mod so that you don't hit a wall and give up. Users can be a source of inspiration but can also suck energy by negative comments, so use them sparingly
Play your own mod and at first don't expect many to say nice things. I am arguably the worst modder and the worst personality; I don't like having anyone tell me what my mod must do. But not everyone reads or writes the same -- and one person may say something that is taken out of context or another decides they should interpret differently. Also if you use a common third party IP like a popular book then every reader is used to feeling they are "God", in that they themselves built an image of how a thing should look, act, feel, and be.
Every tiny change to that you'll get heat from someone -- who always believes they can do it better, even though they will never in their life even write 1 line of script. You're the person with the pen of power -- so write what YOU feel called to. Ignore the community if you must -- but give life first to whatever universe in inside you. Do this and nothing else and you'll be a success, no matter how long it takes or how times you first fail.
Beware, this post might include dangerous levels of gsanders praising.
Great job with the last interview, Efe. Along with kalarhan, OG sanders is my favorite person in the modding community, actually let me rephrase that, gsanders is the underappreciated messiah of the fantasy modding scene. I'm happy to see he is featured here.
He contributed to so many mods directly and indirectly, released two mods unfortunately that didn't get much attention but was a great resource with their OSP module systems for upstarting modders creating their own fantasy mods, and if you dig his comments one could find many scripts that will enhance their own mods. He's being humble, I believe without his contribution, many popular mods as we know them today wouldn't even exist.
And he's not using "thinking outside the box" as an obscure, theoretical rhetoric, if you compare a mod's pre-gsanders and post-gsanders situation you can notice the difference he makes from miles away. He actually thinks outside the box. Him questioning very core purpose of the game proves this and gives me hype about his upcoming work.
Keep up the good work, G, it's great to have you around.
Great job with the last interview, Efe. Along with kalarhan, OG sanders is my favorite person in the modding community, actually let me rephrase that, gsanders is the underappreciated messiah of the fantasy modding scene. I'm happy to see he is featured here.
He contributed to so many mods directly and indirectly, released two mods unfortunately that didn't get much attention but was a great resource with their OSP module systems for upstarting modders creating their own fantasy mods, and if you dig his comments one could find many scripts that will enhance their own mods. He's being humble, I believe without his contribution, many popular mods as we know them today wouldn't even exist.
And he's not using "thinking outside the box" as an obscure, theoretical rhetoric, if you compare a mod's pre-gsanders and post-gsanders situation you can notice the difference he makes from miles away. He actually thinks outside the box. Him questioning very core purpose of the game proves this and gives me hype about his upcoming work.
Keep up the good work, G, it's great to have you around.
Similar threads
