Precizion (aka CHiNX - 2003)
Hello there Richard, I hear that AG2 is coming on
nicely and as team leader of the AG2 development project I was wondering if you
wouldn't mind answering a few question for our Pro-HL readers.
Yeah no problem Mark,
Nice one. We'll hit off with the question on every
bodies lips… How far off is the development of AG2 can we expect anything
this year like a beta version?
I would say we are still a way off completing the mod. Whilst we have a pretty
solid base built already (such as movement, weapons and basic gamemodes) and
are now really moving into all the extra features, I think we still won't see
anything close to a finished product for a while yet. Now just how long that
will be, I cannot really say, but it will almost certainly be finished this
year.
So AG
fans could be playing AG2 within 6 months?
Like I said I can't guarantee anything at this stage of development but yes we
aim to have something by close of this year.
As a mod development team, how have you found the
support from the likes of Valve during the development stages & do you feel
any area could be improved on Valve's side?
We have had no contact with Valve during the development.
Have you spoke to or share information between other
mod developers?
nope.
On the AG2 website it says "Everyone's favourite,
bunny hopping, will be making a return in AG2 along with a couple of new
tricks" My question, how is this re-build of the famous AG bunny hopping
coming along and at what stage are you at with it?
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..when will AG2 be out?
"I cannot really say, but
it will almost certainly be finished this year."
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CHiNX |
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As I mentioned just before, the base of the game is pretty much complete and
this includes bunny hopping. In fact, it was only yesterday that I bunny hopped
around some of the new maps and thinking how well the coders have done in
reproducing this. It is virtually identical to what it was in the original AG.
Wow so the bunny hopping is pretty much if not
completely finished and you say you have already tested it. What's it feel like
to reproduce such a key feature in a game like that and see it in action for
the first time?
Yes, that part of the mod is complete now. And unless something turns up in
further play testing, there will be no more tweaks needed for it. It certainly
feels good to have the main movement code in there, and makes play testing of
the maps that have been built for the mod all the better.
One of
the biggest 'turn-offs' for many 'old skool' AG & HLDM players with the new
HL2DM is the appearance of this new gravity weapon that has become a bit of a
joke. Will AG2 feature this weapon and if so what impact do you think it will
have to the mod?
The gravity gun will most likely be making an appearance in AG2, but not in
it's current form (HL2DM). It will also not be a starting weapon. Just how it
will behave is something that you will have to wait and see though, as even
though we have plans for this weapon, I believe it is only through prolonged
play testing that anything can be decided on it.
One of the biggest issues I felt with the old AG was
the fact users had to have AG installed to be able to join AG servers.
"Bullit" (AG lead developer & founder) did produce a so called
'Mini-AG' version that required no client install. Will there be a system like
that for AG2 or will all users be required to in AG2 in order to
play?
You will need to download the AG2 client to be able to play the mod. Even if
you separate all the new maps we are building, there is just far too much that
is different from HL2DM for it to be done any other way.
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..Will the gravity gun be in AG2?
"The gravity gun will most
likely be making an appearance in AG2, but not in it's current
form (HL2DM)"
............................................
CHiNX |
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Under the new Steam system will AG2 be updated through
Steam on log-in or do you expect users to download the latest versions as &
when they are released like the old AG?
It will be pretty much the same as it was with the old AG: People will have to
download the updates from the site when they become available. Because unless
something has changed that I am unaware of, only Valve games can be downloaded
via Steam.
Will AG2 come complete with it's own anti-cheat
protection built-in or will this be something you'll look at later down the
line?
If I am being honest, cheat protection is not something we have looked too
deeply into so far. In the future we will definitely look in to ways of making
the game as cheat free as possible, but for the moment we are more focused on
getting the game finished for people to play.
One of the smartest ideas Built into the later AG
patches was the STEAM/WON ID's added to the scoreboard & the ability to use
a 'realnick.txt' file to change the names on the scoreboard to those held in
the text file (player database). Will this feature be in AG2 or again not at
this stage I guess?
Since it was such a handy feature in the original game, it is something you
will be seeing again in AG2.
Looking at the screenshots from one of the new AG2
maps currently being developed the map detail looks to be very high. In CSS
many players have moaned over the high level of detail & map objects
killing their fsp & getting in the way of good old game play. Has the AG2
team looked into how best to develop it's maps to ensure high speed gaming
action & will the old classic maps like boot_camp be included?
Playability is of a high concern to us, so yes, we have looked at the maps with
this in mind. The mappers are constantly tweaking their works to get them to
run better, and perhaps will continue to do so until the game is released.
There will however be no remakes included in the mod.
Will there be that classic 'Arena' & 'LTS' style
modes in the new AG2?
Yes, both of those will be making reappearance. However, we are looking into
ways of doing away with some of the problems that these modes had, such as the
long waits between fights in Arena. I will perhaps say more on this once we are
closer to a release date.
CTF
(Capture The Flag) was a nice added extra to AG but never really saw much use
in public servers. Will the same feature be added to AG2 or will you be putting
the time into other areas of development instead?
It is something we considered for a while, but then rejected. To do justice to
the mode (and to keep up the quality of the overall mod that we are aiming for)
would just take too much time and resources. We may come back to it again at a
later date, but that is not a guarantee.
When I played HL2DM on it's release I found my
favourite weapon 'crossbow' had been completely removed & replaced by some
slow responding space age bow. Does the AG2 team plan to reinstate the old
crossbow?
No, the old crossbow will not be reinstated. However, the current HL2DM one
will be changed and tweaked quite a lot, so there is no need to worry if you
are not a fan of that.
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..Will CTF be in AG2?
"It is something we
considered for a while, but then rejected."
CHiNX |
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What has been the most complex element to develop in
AG2?
Just about all of the coding. Not only can it take quite a while to get
familiar with the SDK (even if they are reasonable experienced coders), those
doing it then have to think quite a lot about just how they are going to
approach building one certain feature of the game. And of course, we will
always have room for any experienced mappers who wish to join the mods team.
Is the development team up to the task or could you do
with extra developers?
For the moment they are doing OK. However we will be losing one of the coders
soon (will be going away to study at Westpoint) and so will be looking to take
another experienced one in the very near future. We also may take on a texture
artist soon, so anyone who feels they are up to the task should get in contact
with me. And of course, we are always looking to take on extra experienced
mappers.
Has the AG2 team had any problem with other mod
developers trying to develop cheap rip-offs or rival mods to AG2?
When we first announced AG2, there were a couple of others who had a similar
idea. Once HL2DM was released though, they pretty much fell apart. Besides one
guy who has coded a small alternative to HL2DM (which has a few tweaks here and
there), we are pretty much the only team developing a full Deathmatch mod on
the Source engine.
How have you found the support & interest for AG2
to be over the last 6 months?
Since most of the support so far has come from those who played the original
game, I don't think we will ever have that many problems with the community
though. I've always said that AG has one of the most mature sets of players on
the net (again, despite a vocal few perhaps making it seem otherwise at times).
Will we be seeing any new media releases in the near
future? How about an in-game video?
Not only because is it almost impossible to sustain, but also because after a
while people tend to become indifferent to any kind of promotion you do as
they've seen so much of it before. You only have to look at the professional
games industry where it happens quite often to see this. Once we are pretty
close to release though, you can be assured that we will go all out on
promoting the game to make sure as many people know about AG2 as possible. And
yes, we do have a video planned for that time which should hopefully get
everyone excited.
Finally for all those AG fans reading this we'll end
on this final question… Will the Gauss gun return to AG?
Yes, as stated since the beginning the gauss gun will make reappearance in AG2.
In fact, the gauss has already been coded and is in the base of the mod I was
talking about earlier (gauss-jumping included).
Related Links
» AG2 (Adrenaline Gamer 2)
site
» AG (Adrenaline
Gamer) site
» HLCCL (HLDM & AG Community
Forums)
» Style - Column by
Precizion
» Respect - Column by
Precizion
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