TotalBF2 recently got a chance to interview Lord Vader of our very own First Strike mod. They were able to ask him a number of questions regarding many aspects of the up and coming modification. Take a look:
TotalBF2: First of all, tell us a little about your mod. What time and during what events of the Star Wars Universe is your mod occurring?
Lord Vader: In First Strike, you will be able to fight for the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance. The mod will include most if not all of the vehicles, weapons, and locations seen in the movies. For now, our mod takes place during the Galactic Civil War, which takes place in and between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. After we are done with the Galactic Civil War, we will move on to the Clone Wars portion of the mod, which will take place in and between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. In the Clone Wars part of the mod, you will be able to fight for the Galactic Republic or the Confederacy of Independent Systems. However, we don't want to start on the Clone Wars until we have finished tuning and polishing the Galactic Civil War.
TotalBF2: Looking back on other such Star Wars mods, more specifically Galactic Conquest for Battlefield 1942, in what ways will your mod be the same, and in what ways will it be different?
Lord Vader: The thing that sets this mod apart from Galactic Conquest is that we will focus on the epic of Star Wars. We felt that Galactic Conquest focused too much on the Extended Universe and not on the movies themselves. For example, it did not have Endor or Yavin IV, two of the most important battles during the Galactic Civil War. We will focus on both the movies and the extended universe. Also, our mod will have more, more, and more. We will have more vehicles, more weapons, and more maps than any other Star Wars mod. Our ultimate goal is to make this mod feel as if you are really in the Star Wars universe. A lot of Star Wars mods have tried to do this, but have not accomplished it even though the mod might have been good. And it might have not even been their fault. It could have just been the engine. With Battlefield 2's superb engine and our great team, we feel that we can make this possible. Our team is also looking to implement some music into the mod as well.
TotalBF2: What do you believe will make your mod unique compared to all the other mods currently in production for Battlefield 2? New features, game modes? etc.
Lord Vader: Well first off we will have space battles, something that will truly look beautiful on the Battlefield 2 Engine. We will also include special classes. Read further below for more information on those. Also the reason our mod stands out more amongst others is because it's based on Star Wars. Other mods focus on things in our world and although they are fun, it gets redundant. All we see is tanks, planes, and guns, and more tanks, planes and guns. This is based on Star Wars, so we have things that are completely different like lasers, starfighters, capital ships, walkers and enviroments that you would never see in our world. That's why Star Wars mods stand out the most, since they have things that are completely different from the norm.
TotalBF2: Given the large Star Wars and Battlefield 2 fan base, how are you looking to get the community involved in your mod?
Lord Vader: If a person or group makes a very good custom map for our mod, we might consider putting it in the next release. Although of course the map would have to be based on an established Star Wars location. But if the map is authentic and good enough we will include it in the mod. Also, we are always open for suggestions. In fact we have taken a lot of the suggestions that our fans have made into consideration. So if you feel you have a good idea, then drop by and say what's on your mind.
TotalBF2: With numerous large vehicles in the Stars Wars galaxy, such as the AT-ST and the AT-AT, how do you plan on which will make it into the game? Will some be drivable while others are statics?
Lord Vader: Both the AT-ST and AT-AT will be in the game, and they will be both be pilotable. We hope to make the AT-AT a mobile spawnpoint like in Galactic Conquest. It will be very powerful, and won't be as easy to take down as it was in other games. However it does have a weakness, but we won't reveal that. The largest of the vehicles will be the Star Destroyer and the Mon Calamari Cruiser. Even though the other capital ships (Interdictor Cruiser, Lancer Frigate, Carrack Cruiser, Gallofree Medium Transport, Corellian Corvette, and Nebulon-B Frigate) will be pilotable, we won't make the Star Destroyer and Mon Calamari Cruiser pilotable. The reason is simple. They are just too darn large. If we make them pilotable, it would cause major lag. However, do not worry. They will not be statics. What we will do is make the Star Destroyer and Mon Calamari Cruiser be either AI controlled or move on a set path. So they will still move, but a human won't be able to pilot them. However, players will still be able to go on the bridges of these two main capital ships and control turrets and turbolasers to shoot down enemy fighters. And of course they will be the spawn point for starfighters.
For a full list of the vehicles that will be in the mod, please visit this link: Totalbf2.com
TotalBF2: What can we expect as far as seeing the classic Star Wars weapons/vehicles in game (Lightsaber, Landspeeder, Snowspeeder, Millenium Falcon, X-Wing, etc.)?
Lord Vader: We will include most if not all of the vehicles/weapons seen in them movies. All of the above that you mentioned (Lightsaber, Landspeeder, Snowspeeder, Millenium Falcon, X-Wing) will make it into the mod. So don't worry, you'll be able to pilot your X-Wing or your AT-ST. To fill some gaps, we will include Extended Universe weapons and vehicles. You might have seen these Extended Universe weapons and vehicles in past Star Wars games or heard about them in novels. For example, we are including a host of weapons from various Star Wars games such as the Cyroban Grenade from KOTOR, the Flash-Bang Detonator from Republic Commando, the Imperial Heavy Repeater from Jedi Outcast, and the Stouker Concussion Rifle from Jedi Academy. There are also a few Extended Universe vehicles, such as the Interdictor Cruiser first heard of in the novel Heir to the Empire, the AT-PT which is seen in the Rogue Squadron games, as well as the T3-B Heavy Attack Tank that was seen in Force Commander. With these combined elements from a host of Star Wars novels, games, as well as the movies of course, this mod will truly make you feel as if you are in the Star Wars universe.
For a full list of weapons in the mod, please visit this link: Totalbf2.com
TotalBF2: Speaking of the lightsaber and given other such Star Wars games that use this feature, is a Jedi player mode/class planned for First Strike?
Lord Vader: Yes! However, please do not expect to see dozens of Jedi/Sith running around the screen as you would see in the Jedi Knight games. That would be very innacurate as most of the Jedi were wiped out by the Galactic Civil War era, and there were only two Sith. We are not planning to just include Jedi/Sith, but Heroes/Villains, and Bounty Hunters as well. These special classes (Jedi, Sith, Heroes, Villains, Bounty Hunters) will not be playable by everyone, but a few players on the map will be chosen to play the special class. Obviously not everyone will be able to play them, but 4 players will be chosen to play these special classes. When one of the special classes dies, another player gets to control the special class. Depending on the map, there might be less or more than 4 special classes. So for example, the Tantive IV will have 2 special classes instead of 4. We have not determined how a person gets chosen for a special class, but it will probably be random.
TotalBF2: What are your plans as far as level design and location? Will there be only the normal maps, Hoth and Tatooine for example, as seen in most Star Wars games, or will you be adding unique settings and designs?
Lord Vader: We will be adding the classic Star Wars maps, such as Hoth, Bespin, the Tantive IV, the Death Star, Endor, and Tatooine. I mean what's a Star Wars game without Hoth, right? For the classic maps that we see in the movies, we will include the famous landmarks, such as the Sarlacc pit on Tatooine, or the Shield Generator on Hoth. However, we will also be adding some Extended Universe maps to the mod once we are done with the classic maps. These will include Sullust and Kessel, which were mentioned but never seen in the movies, Corellia, the birthplace of Han Solo, as well as Dantoinne, the home of the former Rebel Base and Jedi Enclave. The maps themselves will feature starfighter combat, infantry combat, as well as vehicle combat all at once. For example, on Hoth, we plan to make the interior of the Echo Base bigger than ever seen in any other Star Wars game. Echo Base will have sublevels and many rooms. This sets the stage for a lot of fun close quarters infantry combat. While there is infantry combat going on inside, there will be walkers assaulting the base from the outside. And of course you can get into your snowspeeder and try to take the AT-ATs down, but it might be hard. The goals of the Rebels would be to defend their transports, the Shield Generator, and the Ion Cannon. The Empire can send some TIEs to destroy the transports, but the snowspeeders can shoot those pesky TIEs down. On Yavin IV, the Massassi Temple will also be very huge and have many hallways and rooms for some infantry combat. The AT-STs and T3-B Heavy Attack Tank will be fighting on the outside. Also, there will be a floating Star Destroyer above that will spawn TIE Fighters and Bombers, which the Imperials can use to assault the base. However, the Rebels have their own set of starfighters to defend their fortress. So you see, in a lot of the maps we will have starfighter combat, infantry combat, and vehicle combat all at once.
Now all of you might also be wondering about the space battles. In the space battles, your ultimate goal will be to eradicate the other side's capital ships. We have modified the gravity a bit so that the starfighters will be easy to control. The starfighter maneuvering will be as easy as it was in Rogue Squadron. We are planning to make the bigger ships such as the Star Destroyer and the Mon Calamari Cruiser have interior corridors and rooms. When you spawn inside a capital ship, you can either man the turrets from the bridge, get into a starfighter, or guard the ship and prevent enemies from reaching the bridge. You can pilot a Lamda Class Shuttle for the Imperials or a YT-1300 transport for the Rebels and board the opposing side's ships that are boardable. When you board a capital ship, your goal is to navigate from the hanger bay to the ship's bridge, taking control of the ship. The bridge will be a spawn point, so if you take control of that spawn point you have control of the ship! However, it can be hard to get to the bridge since the distance from the hanger bay and bridge is not short and the enemy probably isn't willing to just hand the ship over. Alteratively, you can also go to the engine room and place detonation charges or grenades to destroy the engines, which will incapacitate the ship The bridges will be the ones that we see in the movies. However, not all of the capital ships will have starfighters or be boardable. For example, the Corellian Corvette doesn't have a hanger bay so it doesn't have starfighters and you can't board it. With the Battlefield 2 engine we expect the space battles to look superb.
For a full list of movie maps that will be in the mod, please visit this link: Totalbf2.com
Please remember that we will be adding Extended Universe maps when we are done with all those shown in the link.
TotalBF2: What can we expect to see in the first release of First Strike? Any hopeful release date yet set?
Lord Vader: In the first release of the mod, we will have all of the basic classes done. There will be about 3 maps. Hoth will definitely be one of them, as well as Yavin IV. We are also going to implement the third map as a space battle, which will be Endor. We have already started working on Hoth and Yavin IV, and we have the basic layouts for them. You can expect to see the first release of First Strike in March or April.
TotalBF2: Any closing comments you would like to make to the community?
Lord Vader: We hope everyone, Star Wars fan or not, will enjoy this mod. If you want to join us on our journey, then by all means do so. The First Strike team is working very hard to make sure that this will be one of the best Battlefield 2 modifications ever. There are a lot of things going behind the scenes. In the end, we are making this mod just to have fun and give something back to the community. When we release the mod, we hope everyone will have as much fun playing the mod as we had making it.
