TMC Modder's Interview - Radspakr news - Tolkien Modding Community

Welcome to the fourth interview of the TMC Modder's Interviews. Until now there have only been yet modders of games of the Total War or Mount & Blade series. Now I delve a bit into the last game series of the big three, the Battle for Middle-earth series. With me, an old-timer of the modding scene there, enjoy an interview with

Hello, Radspakr. You are a long time member on moddb, active since over 12 years now. And you worked for around the same time on the mod 'Return of Shadow' for 'Battle for Middle-earth' (BfME), the only game out of the series which I have played myself and with which I connect a lot of memories from my childhood. Lets start with an introduction of yourself for those who don’t know you.
Answer: I am Radspakr, I started modding BfME back in early 2006 and started out with the ‘Evil Men Mod’ which evolved into the ‘Lone Wolf Mod’ which eventually evolved into ‘Return of Shadow’. I retired from modding a while ago after some 12 years of modding BfME.

First one of the most important questions for some people here: What do you prefer, the books or the films?
Answer: I generally prefer the books but it can change from time to time.

When and how did you come into touch with modding? Did you have any past experiences which helped at the start?
Answer: The first game I started modding was Oblivion but I never got far into it. After that I dabbled in a bunch of different game modding and creation tools like RPG maker before really getting into BFME and wanting to expand this game that I was really into. I read through all like 5 tutorials we had back then and threw myself into it and learned everything I could.

‘Return of Shadow’ is a mod for BfME. With ‘Battle for Middle-earth II' (BfME2) and the expansion ‘Battle for Middle-earth II: Rise of the Witch King’ (RoWK) there are now three games for which there is a surprisingly evenly distributed number of mods, in contrast to the Total War series in which one game dominates in most of the mods. This indicates that each of them has it’s own advantages and disadvantages at working on them. Why did you decide for BfME?
Answer: The first game was always my favourite but I did want to work in all three in the series so I planned versions for each but my attention always went into Return of Shadow (the BfME one) so the others fell by the wayside.

I have read at revora.net ‘Lone Wolf 2 (for BFME 2) is still going to happen I just don't know when.‘, posted 2011. Plans did change it seems?
Answer: Ah, Lone Wolf 2 which eventually got reincarnated as 'Return of Dawn', the BFME2 counterpart to 'Return of Shadow'. I had started that project but sadly it will never be.

Do the games of the BfME differ so much that a mod cannot simply be transferred into BfME2 or RoWK? What are the differences between them?
Answer: I started modding before BFME2 came out and I preferred the game play for the first game, it always felt more unique and direct or straight foward I guess.
The simplicity of the first game in terms of resources and building lead to less time managing your home base and more time fighting which in an odd sort of way makes the game more like a Total War game than a traditional RTS like the more AOEish second game.
There are quite a few differences between the first and second games compared to the second game and its expansion. Porting involves reverse engineering BFME2 to support the gameplay of the first game or adapting the mod to the gameplay both require a lot of work and consideration.
I was largely held up by the workload since even with just the mod for the first game the workload for that was immense so I never really had time to adapt it the second game as much as I wanted to.

When you started the work at your mod, did other modding projects already exist? Why didn't you join them?
Answer: When I first started the BFME modding community was in its early days, most of the people would eventually move on leaving only a handful of people who stuck it out. When I started out I tried to form a team for my mod but with how things were then no one joined and I joked about how I was a Lone Wolf. The name stuck and became the general idea behind my mod, a one man mod team for the most part. This kept up well into the ‘Return of Shadow’ days.

Do you prefer meanwhile the freedom of deciding everything by yourself or are you not sometimes missing to have coworkers here?
Answer: It's a mixed bag. I had the freedom to work how I wanted which suited me because I work very fast and the variety of roles helped keep things interesting. If I got bored of coding I could switch to mapping, bored of that do some textures or FX. The down side for me was probably 3d modelling which I'm not great at, I had a friend who'd help me out with a lot of models but I had no permanent 3d-modeller to rely on.

How are you collecting feedback for recent changes?
Answer: I'm a bullet points kind of guy, quick actionable fixes when bugs are reported.

The blog I mentioned was from 2008. Are you already feeling old in the BfME modding community?
Answer: My moddb account was started around 2008 which was created two years after I started. I'm definitely an old grizzled BfME modding veteran I don't think there are many left these days.

Which problems occured for you while working at the projects? How did you solve them?
Answer: In the early days I used to end up with big game breaking bugs I couldn't fix which caused me to start over a couple times but with experience you learn where the main causes are. You can work backwards and with the process of elimination can eventually fix the big bad game crashes. Years in it was bloat. When you add a lot of features and change things around you just end up with a huge amount of bloat from both, a code stand point and a design stand point.
For me the best solution was then a complete start over. I had taken all I had learned with Lone Wolf in the first 6 years or so and started completely fresh from the drawing board. The big overall fix for a lot of things was good organisation and a design philosophy of streamlining.

The BfME-series are for themselves already LotR-games, with modders trying to bring them to perfection. Compared with modders for other games, like Total War or Mount & Blade, would you say that BfME-modders have a clear advantage and less work than the others?
Answer: Yeah, with the BfME-series modders already have the bones of a great game that is also already LOTR to work with. Most modders didn't really change too much from that core, usually opting to build from that with more factions. That strong core was good for LOTR fans but the game didn't get many total conversion mods (at least many that were in any form of completion).

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: Since I'm now retired as a BfME modder I've been able to use a lot of the things I've learned about work flow, organisation and design in my own hobbyst game design, and eventually that may flow into something more professional.

Working on a mod is hard work and time consuming. Wasn’t there sometimes a moment at which you thought: ‘Nah, it’s not worth all the trouble, I rather play mods than developing one myself.’?
Answer: For me I grew to love modding more than playing, it's what I was excited to do. In fact it made it next to impossible for me to actually play BfME, I'd never finish a game because I'd see something I could fix or improve. That has extended into other games too.

Once upon a time, a LotR-mod has received a C&D order and had to stop developement. I remember some discussions about it at the discords at which I am active. How does it look like in the BfME-community or in your little discord-realm? Do you think your work comes into conflict with intellectual property rights? And do you fear sometimes that ‘Return of Shadow’ might share the same fate?
Answer: A C&D letter is every modder's fear and it's always a possibility. With BfME being a LotR game there was more protection by both, the original licence and the relative obscurity of the series.

For many modders the credo is: If I don’t take any money for it, it has to be legal. You are taking yourself donations, have a paypal account and a patreon page linked at moddb. Do you not see any conflict there or a bigger danger for you to be taken down?
Answer: I stressed for a long time before starting donations over those very concerns. Ultimately what I put out is always free and the Paypal (and formerly Patreon) are just a tip jar for those who like the work and want to show appreciation. I figured if youtubers can spend 20 minutes making thousands for a vlog, why shouldn't modders be able to tipped for spending hundreds of hours on free content?
Paid modding didn't really work out for the first attempt with Bethesda and Steam but I do think voluntary tipping is going to be the way modding works going forward. I doubt many if any modders would be able to sustain themselves from it but a few dollars here and there really helps and more importantly shows that some people really appreciate your work.

There is that project ‘The Battle for Middle-Earth: Reforged', trying to bring the game into a different game engine. What are your thoughts about it? And would you consider it still to be a mod or already a own game for itself?
Answer: I saw ‘BfME: Reforged’ a few months back and it looked great. The game's licence is basically abandonware now since EA no longer holds the LOTR licence. But if they wanted they could shut it down since the BfME brand is still theirs I believe. Chances are WB will eventually send out the dreaded C&D and shut it down. Frankly, I think it's making too much noise and is bound to catch their attention eventually. Better to work on it quietly then throw it out to internet and let it spread before drawing attention to it.
I would regard it as a standalone game now or almost like a reverse mod, building an old game on a new engine instead of a new game on an old engine.

What is your favourite LotR mod? Why do you like it? Also, is there any project that caught your attention lately?
Answer: I assume, not including my own, I quite liked ‘The Last Days (of The Third Age of Middle Earth)' for Mount & Blade, I played that for a good while.

What is your overall impression of the LotR modding community, of the ones for BfME, and in general?
Answer: I think there's a lot of dedication in the community. People are still playing a game that came out in 2004 competitively long after the game's developers lost the licence and the game became unable to be bought in retail.

And – to turn a bit around the table - What do you think about the player base of BfME? Are they sometimes demanding too much from you or the modders or are they mostly giving productive feedback?
Answer: I think most mod players get it: It's a free thing, so you can suggest but never demand, but every once in a while you'll get someone who doesn't get this and will demand this and that from you. But on the whole, the community is pretty laid back, supportive and very dedicated.

Finally: Would you like to say anything to creative people who are reading this interview at the moment and might think about bringing LotR into a game?
Answer: If you've got an idea for something cool give it a shot throw yourself in and learn the ropes, don't get too tied to the first version and treat it as a learning experience. If that passion persists start fresh with a clearer design and then commit to it. Don't feel you are limited to just being a coder or just an artist, be open to learning whatever you need to learn to get the project finished.

Thank you for the interview!
Feel also free to join Radspakr's 'Return of Shadow' Discordapp.com