[SpeCies]

I ripped this off of http://www.tftribune.com/tfc/editorial.php3?col=15

Found it to be interesting



Below is the log from the IRC chat held on Tuesday night with Robin Walker and Erik Johnson. All questions were preset and pre-approved by Valve. So it really wasn't a true Q&A session. Much rather, a way to tell everyone at once.

[Weaseal] What will be included in the next update, solely bug/cheat fixes or will there also be some gameplay balances/additions?
[Robin] It's mostly bug/cheat fixes, although some things that may have been considered gameplay changes were in fact bugs. For example, the long jump change was not deliberate. It's fixed.

[Fisich] What are the plans for the next patch (time frame)?
[Erik] As soon as possible.

[AutoMag] *Techarin* How is the voice feature coming along in TF2? Will there be something like a 'talk out loud button' and a 'talk on the radio button'?
[Robin] We haven't finalised the way the voice interface works. In fact, we're planning on using TF 1.5 to test out voice, and find out what the best method of using it. This means you'll get voice before TF2, and modmakers can get their hands on it too.

[Torias] What one thing has been the most pleasant surprise for you about TF2's gameplay during playtesting?
[Robin] Probably just how much fun it is to be the Commander. We were worried it was going to be pretty uninteresting... just resource managements, etc. Turns out its actually a lot of fun to deal with some real people, and help them work together.

[Slick-PF] Word is that you are considering adding a new class to TF?!? What details can you give?
[Robin] We're planning on adding a few new features to TF, and yes, one of them is a new class.
[Robin] in response to the new class question... we're planning on adding a bunch of new features to TF, and yes, one of them is a new class.

[Jeh] What can we expect in teh way of updates to HL/TFC now? You've mentioned a new class but can we expect any other surprises?
[Robin] yep. lots of interface improvements. new class models, both male and female. some new gameplay additions, like the aforementioned new class. and always gameplay balancing.

[AutoMag] *ImdaBob* question for valve: You say that much of the game has been made client-side, what exactly has been moved over to the client? How are ou planning to avoid people exploiting this ala diablo and the supposed fakelag cheat going around?
[Robin] The only functionality moved to the client was the playing of weapon firing sounds. All hit detection etc. is still done server side and the server is authoritative. The fakelag thing was a server side problem and it has been addressed. Just to be clear, all hit/game logic still runs server side.

[Slick-PF] Word is Chuck Jones is creating new TF 1.5 models--both male and females for all classes, will these replace all the current models, or be an extra option?
[Robin] They'll be an option.

[RedKnight] [Flicker] whats taken the most amount of time and effort so far during the development of TF2?
[Robin] Irc chats

[Jabberwocky] [[ID-Rep]StuCatz] Is it going to be possible to make a mod of tf2 even though tf2 is already a mod in a sense?
[Robin] Yes, TF2 will be very mod-friendly.
[Robin] We consider TF a completely separate game to TF2. We fully intend to continue maintaining and improving both the gameplay and the technology of both of them. TF 1.5 will _not_ become TF2.

[Jabberwocky] [DMacabre] will there be more maps from valve for TFC? and will any maps that do come out be new map types like the 3 newest maps or will they be more classical ctf maps?
[Robin] Yes, we have more maps in the pipe. They do have different gameplays, some of which hasn't been seen before. The response to the 3 new maps has been great, so we fully intend to continue getting new ones to you all.

[Jeh] we know you don't want to answer anything about bugs/issues.. but I did hear a rumour about a possible update next week?
[Erik] We're working on getting all of the issues resolved, we have no release date right now.

[AutoMag] *Jon[DayOfDefeat]* How much time after the TF2 release will MOD developers be given the chance to start a TF2 mod?
[Robin] We actually hope to get the TF2 SDK out to modmakers before we ship.

[Torias] [Telescout] are you going to take the feedback from the online community into account when designing the next update?
[Robin] We always take feedback into account. We read the boards, we respond to our emails, and we play on servers. All our playtesters are from the community. We feel this is vital to having a successful online game.

[Jabberwocky] *PRED-* Will a High End Spec Machine and broadbandwith connection be essential for a decent gameplay in TF2?
[Robin] TF2 is designed to be highly scalable. This is something Valve is taking pretty seriously in our technology and content designs. We know that people will play the game for a long time, and we want that experience to continue to be great as specs move forward. At the same time, we don't want to leave anyone in the dust really. So, to answer the question, a High End machine with broadband will not be essential.

[Jeh] [MrBigglesworth] Also...what is the "new" mod from valve that was mentioned during the latest patch release?
[Robin] It's a completely different style of game. It's thirdperson. It's designed to show off some of the flexibility of the new SDK. It's fun. More on it soon.

[LadyICE] ive noticed that there are new animatins being used for deaths in TF1.5. are these testing new technologies that will be used in TF2?
[Robin] There are a couple of new death animations. Actually, the new TF models we'll release soon use some of TF2's parametric animation to do some neat things. The technology behind the parametric animation system will be available for use by modmakers as well.

[Jeh] what are both your favourite TFC classes you play as?
[Erik] I generally play Engineer, I like sitting back and playing defense.
[Robin] I play scout, soldier, and spy.

[AutoMag] *John* Will Half-Life players see any further single player features and/or add-ons besides opposing force?
[Erik] Yes, Gearbox is developing a single player mission where you play as Barney for the Dreamcast version.

[Torias] [AmoebaPr] Are there any plans to do a out-of-game statistics feature much like ngWorldStasts and Unreal Tournament?
[Robin] Yes. It'll be available soon.

[LadyICE] [LadyICE] -Xolution- How and why does Valve help modmakers (ie CounterStrike) so much?
[Robin] A lot of us came out of the mod community, me included. Many of the great new game designs come from it, like Firearms and Gunman. It also just makes good business sense for us to make our customers happy.

[Jeh] [bowzer ) Now that Half-Life's console and text is using true type fonts (I belive the default is arial), is it possible to customize the text?
[Robin] Yes, the fonts can be customized. There is a utility in the SDK 2.0 called "makefont.exe". It will create the necessary qfont.wad from any TT font the user has installed. The color is controlled by the con_color cvar ( e.g., con_color "255 0 0" ).

[Jabberwocky] [[-splat-]] i have a question for Erik and Robin... What is the future of World Craft and what improvements will be made to help the mod community and its mappers?
[Robin] We'll continue to update Worldcraft, just like every other part of the SDK. We'll do our best to release it as soon as we add to it, so you guys can always be working with the latest tools.
[Robin] We're actually pursuing a generic content browser, and plan on releasing it sometime soon. It'll work similar to the mod browser, but handle all forms of content. So if you do some neat new HUD changes, you can get it out into everyone's hands. This is something we're spending a lot of time thinking about.

[Dahak]

that's from like a year ago

tftribune went out of "business" a long long time ago

[SpeCies]