Interview conducted: Len
Interview with: Scorpion
Translation: Kyle-Simmons
Correction: Popers
Date: 10 July 2007r.
Scorpion is a modder well-known to every Polish fan of Jagged Alliance. Writing, that he is the author of JA2: Renegade Republic is unnecessary. Interest in his modification is very high, so we have decided to interview him. Read this interview and find out more!
JACenter: Hello, first I would like to ask you if you can introduce yourself to our readers.
Scorpion: I'm "the_scorpion", long time JA2 fan. I've been modding JA2 for a couple of years now. JA2 Vengeance was my biggest mod so far, and I'm currently working on JA2: Renegade Republic
JAC: It's been a year since our last interview. What have changed since then.
Scorpion: Not much. modmaking is a slow process
but we've added several new quest interaction possibilites to JA2 RR, making JA2 RR much more "fresh" and less a simple "copy-paste-relocate-overwrite" of JA2.
JAC: Many fans in Poland call Renegade Republic Urban Chaos's successor. Can you agree with this statement?
Scorpion: No, i can't agree. JA2 RR is the successor of JA2: Vengeance. UC was a very different mod and didn't serve as an inspiration for JA2 RR. Given RR has to work with the 1.13 engine, certain things done in UC or Vengeance aren't possible. So each mod has individual flair, strenghts and weaknessess.
JAC: When did you start working on your modification?
Scorpion: Some of the work was done as far back as 2004 or 2005, especially certain ideas of setting as well as tileset selections. You see it's a slow process.
JAC: How many people are involved in this project?
Scorpion: Around 25 voice actors, 3 mapmakers, plus other contributors (that's not counting all the 1.13 guys who made the work on this mod it possible in the first place).
The numbers have been fluctuating, as many contributors would do specific tasks and then dissappear. it's an online community and not an organised hierarchical company you see.
JAC: Last year I asked you about modification's weight, which was approx. 400 MB. How does it look like nowadays?
Scorpion: Around 450 megs.
JAC: In the beginning of this year beta tests have started. Can you tell us something about the progress?
Scorpion: "Progress" is hard to determine as long as we speak of testing something. But since the start of the tests, we were able to fix/ improve quite a variety of issues.
JAC: Please, tell us, what was your response when you heard a proposition of translating RR into Polish? Was it a kind of surprise for you?
Scorpion: That was definitely suprising. i consider it a very tricky thing to translate a mod (especially of that size) into a different language. Shows the big commitment of the polish community towards ja2 modding, doing translations at the same time as creating mods.
JAC: I was wondering if RR will be released in other languages than Polish and English?
Scorpion: At the moment, there are no plans for other language versions than EN and PL.
JAC: Can you say when will your modification be released? This year maybe?
Scorpion: Is the polish version already finished? how much time do i have left?
Scorpion: Yes i hope for this year. These things can't be planned exactly or easily.
JAC: Can we expect some new screenshots before mod's release?
Scorpion: I posted so many screenshots, if i show more of them, players will already have seen the entire mod before playing it
JAC: Why will RR be different from other modifications?
Scorpion: JA2 RR will make creative use not only of the numerous features of JA2 1.13 modmaking platform, it will also add a lot of other aspects to the game, especially new quests that aren't "copy-paste-overwrite-relocate" from JA2. the player will, for the first time in a JA2 mod, have to really find out new quests. who is the assassin of Kamal? where do i find the tomb of dante's father? how can i assasinate KingPin's protegé without kingpin turning hostile? What do I have to do to make all of the head miners collaborate, how can i get the police grunts away from the heliport if bribing them doesn't work (and killing maybe neither).
That on the one hand, on the other hand, JA2 RR will include a lot more NPC interactions. Depending on your actions and interactions, NPC's can give you rare but useful information, equipment, can lead you to special places or other NPC's, can do your dirty work.there will be a couple of elements that are new to JA2 mods, such as a male head villain, changed cut scenes and different game ending scenarios, allowing for the story to change depending on player actions. There we're of course in a narrow space as JA2 allows little variation in that respect.
In addition to that, JA2 RR offers an entirely new storyline and setting, basicly a new world to explore, with specific new tilesets and characters and even custom body type animations (these are unfinished, but we're adding more to it on a regular basis)
JA2 RR has more playable characters than the normal JA2, each of them playing an individual role in the game world, for example you get a "guide" and "interpreter" girl from your employer, as well as 3 people selling guns in the country and not just tony.
The focus, in the end, is still to allow for exciting tactical combat. For this, we've added some more interesting aspects to the maps, we carefully placed enemy AI settings on the maps, added new triggers and explosions, for example when you start a battle at a power plant, you can shut down their generator causing a massive eletrcic discharge on their fan's. there will be many maps where the player can use sabotage tactics to cause discharges, shooting oil barrels in many places causes wildfires to spread and trap enemy AI.
Some of these things also work for weapons, you can use Stage lights and tasers on your enemies pepper sprays as well, some of the female mercs even bring a pepper spray with them.
JAC: Why in your opinion it is worth to wait for RR?
Scorpion: Because of all of the abovementioned features. Of course in the meantime, there are other mods that can be played too. I hear ja2 1.13 MFM is sheduled for a soon release
JAC: And after RR? Are there any possibility of making a new modification?
Scorpion: Maybe. never say never
JAC: Have you been thinking about reactivating Return To Metavira?
Scorpion: Not seriously. I don't know the ideas of the people behind this mod. reactivating other people's ideas is very tricky. I was lucky to do JA2 RR because with the lack of other modmakers (nobody wanted to help me) i could try to implement my ideas without discussions. of course, this will be a problem in the end for all those that don't like my ideas. But JA2 RR can be easily altered, it's on 1.13 engine
JAC: Some time ago today you have registered on the Forum of Polish site Jagged Alliance Center. What was your encouragement?
Scorpion: I had noticed that people in this forum were following the screenshots of ja2 rr closely. i was interested whether they liked it and what opinions they had. My "usual" german community doesn't follow the dev of my mod at all. maybe they didn't like JA2 "Vengeance" too much
JAC: Polish fans of Jagged Alliance are not much visible group among the other forums?
Scorpion: Well, some of the Polish ja2 fans are generating a lot of interest with their new mods in development. Maybe it's because they have 2 active Polish forums so they don't need to go to English forums that often
but as you see, the English forum guys are coming here after having seen the mod screen shots (okay, slowly maybe, but the english section is certainly a good idea).
JAC: What do you think about two big Polish mods, New Caledonia and Last Stand?
Scorpion: I have only seen the teaser of last stand, that teaser video looks/ sounds great
New Caledonia - I have seen screens of extraordinary tileset work and coding changes. I hope a lot for an English release of NK :) So i can play it in all its depth (almost). I don't know how far this is in development, I'm definitely looking forward to more information and screens.
JAC: Thank you for the interview, and I wish you many further accomplishments.
Scorpion: Thank you for having me here. Please let me apologise for any typoes and mistakes i made, i'm not answering interviews very often
Polish version