If there is one thing about Quake1/2 or even 3 based engines and games then it would have to be the ability to almost completely alter the code and make it into your own game. It is just this ability that has taken make simple mapmakers, programmers and artists etc. off of the freelance world and into big development companies. If I didn't just know how to make Counter-Strike/AHL style maps then I would have learned to program more. Sadly my programming skills are limited to HTML, CGI (MSVC basics) and Java yet I don't have to worry about creating my own game, as there's plenty of people out their doing it for me.

One such 'Mod' making team are the people behind Star-Wars TC, a Total Conversion for the Quake2 engine that is obviously set in the Star Wars Universe. Being a beta tester myself I would personally guess the mod to arrive come X-Mas as if it arrives after Q3A is out then masses of people will quickly loose interest, just like Q1 TCs a month after Q2 was out and people had swapped. Still we decided the best thing to do to find out what was happening was to have a little chat with SWTCs head man, Red Knight.

Note:-Speedy3D questions in italic / replies by RedKnight in normal.

Q1

While we know SWTC is being developed under the Quake2 engine and for now nobody is expecting a sequel under Quake3's, do you think it will at least get ported directly to Q3 or another version of Q3's engine like Half-Life2 (looking ahead)?

No, I think that SWQ will stay with Q2 until the end. For a TC, it has a very large amount of content, both in terms of art and code. Anyone wishing to port everything over to a more advanced engine would be undertaking a heroic task. I can safely say that the SWQ team will never take on that task, and it's unlikely we will ever grant another team permission to do so.

Q2

I can't ask you for a release date, but most people can give a rough if not extremely open idea of when they want their game/mod finished. In this case, do you think it will be out before Winter starts and if not, how about before X-Mas 99 =)?

We have our own internal release date estimates, but we've chosen not to make anything public. I know that a lot of people don't like this decision, but we feel it's best to exploit our non-commercial status while we have it and surprise people rather than disappoint them.

Q3

Have you made use of that new technique for modelling terrain in the Q2 engine through one of the RAD builders? (forget the name) and if so, to what extent?

No. Most of the outdoor areas were created before the construction of such utilities, and as such our mappers created the terrain "by hand". However, they did a very good job, and the results are quite comparable to what you might have seen in other high-quality Quake 2 levels...

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