A: Can't answer that at this time.
Q: Lighting: Will lighting and shadows be made and compiled when the map is created and loaded when the map is, or will it be dynamic and made in game? So if you move a building with the editor, will the shadow still be there until you relight the map, or will be it change when the building is moved?
A: UnrealEd currently requires a rebuild of the map for lighting/shadow changes at the editor stage, not at run-time.
Q: Will there be an external model/skin viewer? Tribes customisability (sic) is one of the things I love about it, and being able to view skins out-of-game would be sweet. UTK3 had one, and there were several great fan-made ones for Freedom Force (Irrational).
Also...
One thing I loved in Deus Ex was the ability to choose the colour scheme of your hud.
I know neither of these things seem too relevant, but these sort of things remain in my mind long after the eye-candy is out-of-date (about 2 weeks).
A: We're not planning to create an external viewer, but that doesn't stop someone else from doing it.
Q: Will T:V support 64 bit CPUs like the AMD Opteron? If yes would it be fore only the server or both the client and server or just the client?
A: Straight from Karl Burdack, our lead programmer, although the T:V dedicated server should run on 64-bit CPUs, it won't take advantage of them.
Q: Related to CTF, while I know you aren't revealing gametypes, I think it is safe to assume CTF is in there
Tribes 1 was a flag-centric game. Grabs were inevitable, and the game tended to be played from the grab, out. This kept the flag in play, and pretty much every player needed to know the location of the flag at all times.
Tribes 2 decentralized the flag. Part of this was due to the increased players, as the 14th-16th guys probably had no need of knowing where the flag was. This specialization of roles led to a more complex, but ultimately less action packed game.
Essentially, the franchise moved from an outdoors, grab and chase game, to a specialized, multi-faceted game.
Can we expect more of either in t:v? Might the aim perhaps be for some specialization, but with more grabs, more movement, and more skill requirements? HOw would this be done?
A: Your question is a bit dangerous because it's based on somewhat opinionated observations (which is fine). Without going into specifics, I think this is largely an issue of map design. You can design a map that is very intense with lots of grabs, or you can design one that requires a more laid back, strategic approach. This ability to swing either way is partly the case with making maps in T1 and T2, but even moreso the case in T:V.
As for the maps that ship with T:V, we're not going into details just yet. One thing to keep in mind though is that the community can create all kinds of new maps during open beta. We're really pushing the "empowering mapmakers" idea.
This is also an issue of the game's underlying design. In general, T:V is geared more towards lots of fun and challenging movement within a variety of interesting environments.
Q: Wre the developers going listen primarly to capper whores
A: Hmm, no. We listen to them, but not "primarily."
Q: How might this terrain "detailing" work?
Will additional data be included as an overlay to a heightfield texture or will the heightfield texure itself be modified?
How will such "detailing" be limited across an entire heightmap (in case somebody wants to "detail" the whole thing)?
Will adding such detail dramatically slow down the server or general engine performace?
Assuming no-repeating terrain, what general scale/bounderies will T:V multiplayer action take place on, compared to T2 terrain blocks (at default settings)? (i.e. approx 1x1, 2x2, 4x4, 10x10, etc)
A: We'll do a session with tribes2maps.com sometime soon that will try to answer these and other questions.
Q: will there be more mousemovment options? eg being able to adjust the mouse acceleration like /cl_mouseaccel in quake3, which you cant do in t2 and are left with only the sensitivity option
A: Don't know yet, sorry
Q: Is the multiplayer CTF planning on being more flag-centric in that the flag will probably be in movement a lot, or more toward a stagnant flag a la t2?
A: Eek! Questions like this scare me a little because there are seemingly contradictory opinions. You see, there are T2 players who think that the flag in T2 is much more "in movement" than the flag in T1 simply because you can disc it around.
So I think this might be a case where I'm not 100% sure what you mean. Can you elaborate on what you mean by playing "in" to the flag in T2, and what you mean by a "stagnant" flag?
Q: On a serious note, are there going to be any major changes to the jetpack and/or flight that we know from T1/T2, that are going to impact on how we fight?
A: Nope, there's no major change to jetpacks that drastically affects how you fight. But there are other changes that affect how you fight. These will be revealed gradually.
Q: I'm trying to see if the game is going to be built more around getting the flag grabbed and chased, or more toward keeping it home and not letting it be grabbed.
A: I see...good explanation. This warrants a more detailed discussion, but in general we're emphasizing Tribes as a game about movement. One fun way to move in a competitive environment is to chase and be chased.
Having said that, Tribes is also a game about strategies. Keeping the flag at home is an important part of both T1 and T2. Even on a map like SH, where the flag is always flying off the stand...the ideal is to maintain control of your flag (whether it's on the stand or in the field) so that when your capper comes home he's able to cap.
As for how easy it is to maintain control of your flag...that's a function with countless parameters. It'll be somewhere between not extremely easy and not extremely hard. Sorry for the wishy-washy answer. ;(
In my opinion the ability to disc the flag in T2 made it much easier to maintain control of your flag. So to answer your question properly I'd have to answer the question, "Can you disc the flag in T:V?" But we're not answering that yet.
Q: Following on from that 64bit computing question the question I had previously asked but not been replied to is about optomisation.
will it be heavily optomised for SSE2 Prescott 3dNow etc etc.?
A: Word from Rowan Wyborn, our resident graphics guru, is that the engine is not currently heavily optimized, but a few key optimizations are being made.
Q: One thing that struck me about the SP game was u said u were shooting for 10-20hrs of SP game. I'm sure you'll agree that most tribers can pretty easily pick up any SP shooter and finish it before too long. What I'm wondering is that this strikes me as possibly too short a period of SP. If your going to add it you should make it decent sized and fantastic like a System Shock2 or a Half Life or a Thief.
I know the team definitely has the talent behind it. I may be way of base though how long in terms of gameplay were those above 3 games would you say? I think I remember finishing halflife in under 24hrs of straight gaming. so perhaps 20hrs isn't so bad.
A: The 10-20 hours is an estimate, not absolute. It's obviously almost impossible to measure how long anyone will take to play through any one level (hence the qualifier "depending on skill level"). So we're aiming for 20 hours. Certainly, hardcore players will probably go through it faster than new players.
Rather than a long, drawn out experience, I want to have 20 hours of intense, polished fun in the single player game. I think a lot of games suffer from being padded out just to make their "80 hours of gameplay" boast.
Thanks for the questions everyone...see you around,
KP
Well, that concludes the question and answer period for now Thanks everyone for your interest and questions - it's been informative (hopefully in both directions).
We'll continue to do this kind of thing regularly, so keep an eye out for the next one.
Cheers,
Ed
