Subject: Im Gespraech mit Erik Johnson, Valve Software
From: Boris Kraut <[email-masked]>
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Im Jahr 2002 unterhielt ich mich mit Erik Johnson von Valve Software
ueber die geplanten Verbesserungen fuer Team Fortress Classic. Im 
Laufe dieser Unterhaltung wurde die Rueckkehr des Teleporters erstmals
der breiten OEffentlichkeit bekannt gegeben. Das Interview wurde auf
folgenden Seiten erstveroeffentlicht:

 - http://www.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~sa7c/vss_03102002.html (Valve Super Site)
 - http://www.hl.gamigo.de/vss_03102002.html (HalfLife.de)

Vor einiger Zeit habe ich Valve Software eine Email geschrieben, dass
ich gerne ein Interview ueber den kommenden TFC-Patch mit ihnen fuehren
wuerde. Doug Lombardi sagte damals zu, dass Valve mir einige Fragen
beantworten wuerde, sobald sie selbst genaueres ueber das Update
wuessten. Viele Wochen sind seitdem ins Land gegangen und ich hatte
das Interview fast vergessen. Doch heute kam endlich eine Antwort,
die zumindest einen Teil der Fragen beantwortet. Viel Spass beim Lesen:

01. Female Models
-----------------

Boris Kraut:
> There have been rumours about female models in TFC/TF1.5 for a 
> long time by now and they have been confirmed by Robin Walker in 
> an interview (Walker: "We'll actually be rolling out some female 
> models for TF sometime too."). Are they still on the track, have 
> they been delayed or maybe completely canceled?

Erik Johnson:
> Our last large update to TFC focused on content development with
> the inclusion new player models and some new levels. When we sat
> down to figure out what we wanted to do with the new version of
> TFC, we felt like focusing on the gameplay was the best route to
> take. This is still something that we're still interested in trying,
> but not for this release.

02. Updating v_weapons
----------------------

Boris Kraut:
> In the last couple of patches Valve updated the player models and 
> some of the p_weapons. Is there a chance of getting new v_weapons too?

Erik Johnson:
> Possibly, but again, this is going to be a release that focuses on 
> gameplay.

03. New Maps
------------

Boris Kraut:
> Valve created a bunch of great looking maps for Counter-Strike
> (cs_havana, de_piranesi, de_chateau) and Day of Defeat (dod_avalanche).
> Are there currently any plans to give a new eye-candy-map to TFC?
> What's up with the torch2-style map mentioned for hl1110?

Erik Johnson:
> We have a new map in development, which we may include in the Steam
> beta of the new version of TFC. It's in a pretty early stage of
> development, but it would be interesting for us to develop a map 
> during the beta period rather than releasing it monolithically when
> we're done like before.

04. New Textures
----------------

Boris Kraut:
> Is Valve going to release new textures for TFC by time, e.g. the
> textures used for the maps listed above? Mappers can use these textures
> at this time, too, but the point is to have them as standard in tfc
> for every player, so nobody needs to download them.

Erik Johnson:
> Sharing content between MODs (Counter-Strike and TFC in this example)
> is something that our current setup isn't very well suited for. For
> now, level designers that want to use Counter-Strike textures in a 
> TFC level should compile the textures directly into the map.

05. Steam
---------

Boris Kraut:
> What is the status about the steamified Half-Life at the moment? Are
> we going to get a steam-enabled version of Half-Life via the next
> patch or is this feature coming later?

Erik Johnson:
> We still have some Steam development work before we're comfortable
> switching the entire community over. We'll be wrapping up development
> of the upcoming release with a Steam beta. We'd like to have an
> extended beta over Steam, during which we'll solicit and roll in
> feedback from the community. From a user's perspective, you'll be
> able to see changes on a daily basis as we prepare to ship.

06. TF2 Information
-------------------

Boris Kraut:
> Well, it's worth a try ;). Is there any new information about TF2?
> What means "releasing new information _soon_"? Is Valve using Cg (C
> for Graphics) for TF2? Gabe talks very positive of Cg and Valve was
> listed "as supporter" on the nVidia page. At least tell me, if it
> is in development because there was a post in official forums with
> a statement from Vivendi Universal Support ("I emailed customer
> support at Vivendi-universal-interactive.co.uk a few weeks ago
> about TF2. They told me the game is no longer in production too."),
> that TF2 isn't in developmet anymore.

Erik Johnson:
> TF2 is still in full production.

07. VAC for TFC
---------------

Boris Kraut:
> It has been stated that TFC is going to be VAC-activated, too ("Team
> Fortress Classic -along with Ricochet, Half-Life Deathmatch, and 
> Deathmatch Classic- will have VAC support in the next Half-Life 
> client release."). Is this still correct for the upcomming patch?

Erik Johnson:
> Yes, this is correct.

08. Other Features for the next release
---------------------------------------

Boris Kraut:
> In several interviews Valve mentioned more TFC goodness comming 
> out. After the 1.1.1.0 patch was split up, we want to know, what
> this features will be like and when we will get our hands on it?

Erik Johnson:
> The main addition to the next TFC release is the addition of the 
> engineer's teleporter. People from the early days of Team Fortress
> probably remember this.

09. Release Date
----------------

Boris Kraut:
> Is there currently any information on the release date? Will users
> of the STEAM-TFC get beta versions like it was announced for HL
> and CS ("We will be testing some of the features in the next
> Half-Life/Counter-Strike release on Steam in the coming weeks.")?

Erik Johnson:
> We're going to be kicking off the Steam beta in the coming weeks.

10. Half-Life Patches
---------------------

Boris Kraut:
> You are updating Half-Life for nearly 4 years by now. Are there any
> plans for dropping hl support?

Erik Johnson:
> No. As long as customers are playing our games, we'll continue to
> support them.

11. Video Mode Detection
------------------------

Boris Kraut:
> On the hl-coders list you posted the following statement: "Something 
> on the plate for the next release is to detect what video mode is the
> best for users and suggest it for them." Is this still on track for
> the upcomming release?

Erik Johnson:
> Yes. The survey information from the last two releases
> (http://valve.speakeasy.net) has been extremely interesting and
> valuable for us. We noticed that there are a disproportionate
> number of users running in software rendering than the number that
> actually need to. While I'm sure there are users who prefer software
> to hardware, we'd like to suggest a hardware mode to people that
> fall into this category.

12. Spirit of Half-Life
-----------------------

Boris Kraut:
> Are there any plans of adding some Spirit of Half-Life 
> (http://spirit.valve-erc.com) features to TFC? Many of our
> readers/users requested this.

Erik Johnson:
> There are no current plans for this, but I agree that Laurie
> is doing some very interesting things in Spirit.

Ich moechte mich im Nachhinein noch bei Doug Lombardi, Erik Johnson
und ihren Arbeitskollegen bei Valve fuer dieses Interview und ihre
innovativen Spiele bedanken, die mir schon einige Stunden der Freude
bereitet haben.

Vielen Dank.