Today, LTH, like many of the veterans that came to say "hi" in the last couple of weeks, is working in the "coding" industry and is soon going to release his own combat boardgame, "randomviolence". Check it out at: http://www.randomviolence.net/
Enjoy!
LTHSP2
LTHSP3
LTHSP4
- Could you, for the new members here, briefly introduce yourself (age, location...) and tell us when you were most active in the Q1 community?
Hey, I'm living in Bath, UK, 26 white male middle class no disabilities - never been discriminated against in my life!
I think I was probably most "active" from about 1998 to 2003, from the precursor to I3D whose name I forget (Frik?). I'm really glad that Q1 modders have had such a stable home for such a long time now.
As both a mapper and modeller I was always a sort of outsider figure I think, I didn't really hang out on IRC with the other regulars of the time, being first at home on dialup and then at uni without a connection in my room.
- How did you get involved in the community?
A friend got me hooked on modding Doom2, DeHackEd and all that. I got a Pentium-90 around about when Quake came out, and the QC source was on a PC Gamer coverdisc. It was a natural progression. I don't really remember how I found that quake board probably a decade ago or more. Lost in the mists of time!
- What Q1 contributions are you best-known for?
In general, I suspect the LTHSP series of maps, since the SP mapping scene had a lot of exposure when those came out, with TeamShambler doing a sterling job of reviewing everything that moved. There was pretty much a release or two every week still back then. A lot of dross (including several of my maps!) but some good stuff too.
I was a bit annoyed that LTHSP2, probably my personal favourite of my maps, came out the same week as the Fat Controller's long, long awaited "Towne" map - though in hindsight that probably meant hella more people played LTHSP2 than would have otherwise.
Mod-wise, a lot of people seem to have played Black Ops when I mention it in person, though I suspect that they are getting mixed up with Gooseman's Navy Seals mod, or one of the many other special forces style mods that were around at the time.
My favourite of my own is probably CyberQuake - it's the one I actually occasionally fire up and play even now (and make the odd improvement to, too). Tanx deserves an honourable mention too, although that has now died a horrible incompatibility death, since it doesn't work properly with the most recent DP.
Finally, I had a lot of fun writing my own news and reviews site on planetquake - dunno if anyone actually read it, but it was quite exciting to do.
- Do you still have a website/links where we could check out/rediscover your stuff?
There are a few bits and pieces on http://www.random-productions.co.uk/quake .
- Is there any unfinished (secret?) Q1 project in which you were involved and which you now wish you had completed? Describe it to us and tell us why!
There are a whole slew of unfinished mods on my hard drive. I started writing a scrolly-shooter type affair which I always regret not doing more work on, my friends are perpetually nagging me to port CyberQuake to Quake3 (which I do intend to do at some point), and there's a mod tentatively entitled "Mech Inf" which is supposed to be a followup to Black Ops, which features classes and some really beefy-sounding weapons.
- What are you best memories about this community?
Honestly, the fan mail
Never got very much of it, but maybe five times I've had an email that just said "Hey, loved the map / mod / whatever, good stuff", and that is immensely pleasing!
I think the fact that almost everyone is very giving in terms of their time and expertise even to the noobiest noob is quite heartening, even now, and I think that does foster a real sense of community. I certainly feel that people like Xoltan and FrikaC really mentored me through learning about modding - Frik particularly since he clearly has an encyclopedic knowledge of QC and how it all works.
- When and why did you decide to slow down your contribution to the community (if you did)?
I did write a "goodbye" thread many years ago now, and my major contributions had been made at that point. That was prolly 2004ish. After graduation the amount of time I had for coding went down a lot simply because I was coding fulltime during the day, and doing more after work never really appealed. That's a feeling that's stayed with me to the present, so I don't see myself ever having the time or inclination to start something brand-new now. I hope to port CyberQuake over to Quake3 so that my RL friends will play it with me - we have had no end of problems trying to get various flavours of NetQuake working over the Internet.
- How has Real Life © treated you so far?
Pretty good, thanks. Honestly, not much to report - I am healthy, have a good job, a girlfriend, my parents are still in good health.
- Are you still playing Quake? Are you still trying out mods, maps and engines?
Mos def. I play most Q1 singleplayer maps that come along, and try to keep up with the latest build of DarkPlaces. I've never really been one for playing other people's mods, as I suspect a lot of I3Ders were in the day when I was most active around here, mostly because I don't really have the time or patience to play half-finished products.
- Has there been other games you have been playing a lot since you left the community (if you did)?
I played a lot of CounterStrike at uni, to general noises of revulsion from the Quake crowd
It's obviously a very different style of game and I can see why the gloomy gothic Quake brigade were not very interested. Lately I've been doing a spot of modding for Civ4, late to the party as always, trying to make a "proper" realism-focussed mod. Unfortunately I've discovered that realism is actually pretty dull, so the first ~4000 years of each game pretty much pass without much incident.
- How would you describe the Q1 community right now? Is there any contribution that really impressed you in the last couple of years?
Some of the maps coming out of Func_ over the last few years have been pretty jaw-dropping. I guess "Insomnia" by CZG was quite a long time ago now, but that one really raised the bar to a new level. I'm glad to see that the community has stabilized and doesn't seem to be asking itself "is Quake dead?" every ten minutes. It's pretty clear that Quake is dead now, but its zombified corpse will live forever in our hearts. Sob.
The QExpos have always enthralled me. I'm so glad that they happen and that people still have the time to bring new things out to show. I suspect that the next one (whenever it is, I have no idea) will probably get more exposure than those passed due to the rise of Digg and Reddit and so on, and if that attracts a few people to break out the old granddaddy of FPS games, then that will be pretty cool.
- How do you picture the future of the community? Do you (objectively) think that people will still be modding/mapping for it in, say, 10 years from now?
It's too hard to tell. Ten years ago people had barely started modding for Quake competently. Eventually the scene will die, I'm sure, as the longstanding members drift away to other projects, but we shouldn't be too sad about that. Quake has given us all some great memories I'm sure, and there's no shame in moving on to pastures new.
What I will deplore with the passing of Quake is the death of arguably the last big game that it was possible to mod for alone, without a team of art, audio, mappers and modellers, which it seems all of the new games coming out now require - and that's sad, because there's something very special about being able to create something entirely from your own vision, by yourself.
- Is there the slightest chance you would consider be an active part of the community again? Or/and put up a booth for the next QExpo?
The slightest chance, yes. I actually broke out Worldcraft for the first time in months the other day and laid down some brushes. If I do contribute anything in future, expect it to be maps with perhaps a few custom QC additions, simply because coding is not my interest anymore.
- Are you excited about QExpo 2008? Are there features (of any kind) that haven’t been part of former QExpo’s and which you would like to see in this one?
Not excited per se - I'll probably forget it and miss it entirely by accident - but I'm glad that it's happening and I'll drop by if I can.
- What is the question you would have like to be asked (but weren’t), how would you have answered it and how pissed are you for me not thinking about it?
How about something like "what are you doing now that you're not Quake modding?" - that lets me shamlessly plug my tactical combat boardgame "randomviolence" hopefully it'll be in the shops for Christmas, so watch this space on that one.
