From Star Trek Game Information
This is the first part of an interview with Westworld that took place on the 2nd June 2002. The screenshots shown below are from the Naval Armada modification for Star Trek: Armada II.
Armada Universe: How did the idea of Naval Armada come about?
Westworld: Well the original idea I cannot claim credit for, I got the idea from a posting on the original Official Armada Forum by diern~Shaw, I think it was. Then I kind of just started thinking about it one day many months after seeing the idea and I could not get the ideas out of my mind. So I thought it would be a nice challenge to try it and see if it could be done and if so, how well it could be done.
Armada Universe: How many team members do you have?
Westworld: Technically we have 3 members, me, Paal_101 and Devil's_Hitman. However last time I spoke to Devil's_Hitman, he was talking about leaving Armada modding, so basically it seems that he may be leaving the mod team. Amasov from STGN has been made an honorary member because of all of his suggestions and the amount of information and research he has provided.
Armada Universe: Who has contributed to Naval Armada so far?
Westworld: Several people who are not on the mod team have contributed things to the mod, The Great One has contributed banners and splash screens, as well as a very nice mesh for the F-22 Raptor, Major Payne has contributed a mesh of the Euro Chopper 2001, Thunderst contributed a very nice complete model of the Russian Hind helicopter, Kleotol has made a couple special weapons for the mod, Challenger made about 6 models of planes for various countries & Amasov at STGN has provided a wealth of information and suggestions. Ugforums provided hosting services for a long time, AFC provided advertisement, hosting, and a lot of other support for the mod. I don't think I forgot anyone but if I did I truly apologize.
Armada Universe: What stage is the mod now at?
Westworld: The mod right now I would say is still in it's creation stage, it is roughly 1/3 complete now. I am working on some plans to get some more help with it and that would speed up the progress substantially. The US side of the mod is virtually complete and is fully playable, the Russian side is partially complete and the part that is complete is functional in game but there are several key unit models that still need to be textured and put in game, as well as some weapons that need to be made. Almost all the generic things like: game screens, generic command buttons, loading screen, main game screen animations, & basically all the 2D game interface artwork are done.
Armada Universe: Will there be a demo?
Westworld: There will probably not be a demo, since the mod changes so many basic things about the game, for a demo to really give a feel for the mod it would be a very, very large download. So I doubt there will be a demo version of the mod.
Armada Universe: What is the expected release date for Naval Armada?
Westworld: Well that depends a lot on whether I find more help, especially in the modeling department, but as I mentioned I am working on that. If things continue the way they are, I would predict the end of the year but if I get the help I need then it may be as soon as the end of this summer.
Armada Universe: What countries are going to be in the mod?
Westworld:
- United States
- Russia - Soviet Union Not the present day Russia
- United Kingdom
- Euro-Alliance - All European countries except the UK
- China
- Japan with no restrictions on military
Armada Universe: Will there be Nuclear weapons in the mod?
Westworld: There will be several types of nuclear weapons, from Tactical (small area) Nukes to High Yield (very large area) Fusion warheads.
Armada Universe: What is the timeline for Naval Armada?
Westworld: The mod's timeline is approximately from 1950 to 2050 there is a relatively complex tech progression that will move the player through, from past units to future ones.
Armada Universe: How Realistic is the mod?
Westworld: Well that is subjective, but I will say that most of the actual real life units in the mod are as accurate as possible in design and armaments. Many of the Future and fantasy units are based on current concept designs being evaluated and researched by various world powers today. The same is true of the weaponry in the mod, even the future tech weapons are based on current ideas and research being done around the world today. However there are certain limitations to the game for weapons and units so not everything is exactly accurate to reality. There are also certain things that just needed to be made up to keep the mod fun as well as keep the game balanced. If we went completely by realistic statistics there would be far less countries in the mod and some would totally overpower and outclass other countries when it came to military power.
Armada Universe: Can you tell us about some of the features your mod will have that we haven't seen in Armada II?
Westworld: Honesty, since a mod of this type has never been done before, everything is a feature never before seen in Armada II. Every ship and station will be replaced with ships and aircraft from the past present and future. All map objects will be replaced with sea, land & sky, map backgrounds will be replaced, all new weapon types, like mines, air to air missiles, air to ground, ship to ship and cruise missiles. Weather like: clouds, storms, whirlpools tidal waves will be in the mod.
Basically everything about the game changes in this mod, all game screens and game objects are replaced. Most people would not recognize the mod as being Armada 2 if they didn't know it was a mod for Armada 2. Nothing looks or plays the same as the original Armada 2.
Armada Universe: What features in Armada II are you taking advantage of for your mod?
Westworld: Lightmaps, bumpmaps and some of the new classlabels for weapons, but really in my opinion there really are not that many "new features" to Armada 2 as far as ones that would be helpful for my mod. There are some things I like such as the ability to select more units and such, things that I mentioned in the first part of this interview.
Armada Universe: Is there any feature you would have liked to have seen in Armada II that would have been good to use in Naval Armada?
Westworld: Definitely!! As I mentioned, an altitude control parameter in the ship odfs or physics odfs would have been awesome for the mod. did mention that in the suggestions for the patch threads on several forums but since that really has no use in a ST game it was probably ignored by the developers. Having an option to make different types of weapons only target certain types of ships would be another beneficial thing to have, not just adjusting the hit chance to make a weapon miss certain targets but make it so... say certain missiles would on be able to fire at aircraft and other only buildings etc.
Having the ability to make fighter craft return to the carriers would have been great too, the drone weapon they included with the game was a very lame weapon in my opinion as it is coded to make the fighter always face in one direction and is only really useful for round sods. Also leaving certain things that were very moddable in Armada the way they were would have been nice, they seemed to have made several things that were good about Armada 1 worse in Armada 2. Although I will not list all of them I will use the antimatter mine as an example, In A1 they were great for making missiles, they turned to face targets and looked pretty realistic, but in A2 they made them like the drone weapon I mentioned, they do not turn anymore, so that they stay facing the target like a real missile would. Unfortunately the developers of Armada 2 didn't stick with the philosophy of "if it isn’t broke don't fix it" they "fixed" things that people liked the way they are and hard coded a lot of things people were looking forward to modding or replacing with their own versions.
Also a single player mission maker/editor would be an excellent thing to have, it would make replacing the original single player campaigns a lot easier, for me and everyone else and would open a whole new area of modding to the community.
Armada Universe: How did you come up with all of the models for Naval Armada?
Westworld: That is where Paal comes in, he originally started out as my research assistant, it was/is his job to come up with as many actual real life ships and planes as he could to fit into the criteria that I gave him for the mod. He came up with the lists of planes and ships, and we added in a lot of stuff that people suggested on the forums for the mod. Then I sorted through the ones I liked and we came up with a basic list of about 15 planes and 20 ships for each country in the mod.
Many of the ideas came from Fan suggestions. Also there are a lot of fantasy units in the mod that were either suggestions from fans or are going to be designed by us to fill in gaps where real life ships do not exist. So there will be more than just a "real units only" aspect to the mod.
Armada Universe: Is there a site/sites you visit for ideas of possible aircraft, ships, or buildings to use in Naval Armada?
Westworld: There are several actually, my personal favorite is: http://www.combataircraft.com/ Unfortunately about 45 days ago I replaced/upgraded my hard drive and one of the only things I did not backup was my list of IE favorites. So I don't have all the links that I used to have for reference. Another good one is http://warships1.com/ There are also others that are listed on the links page of my web site if anyone needs some good reference places.
Armada Universe: Is there anything that has influenced you when creating new models for Naval Armada?
Westworld: Well mainly Poly counts Lol. Making detailed looking ships and planes with low poly counts is quite a challenge, especially since I try to be as accurate as possible to the real thing for real life units. Also the fact that Armada does not support things like rotating HPs for things like moving turrets, to keep the weapons fire looking correct some units have a lot more turrets or missile launchers than their true to life counterpart would have.
RAF Harrier by Challenger
What has been the best and worst part of making Naval Armada so far?
Westworld: I would have to say that the fan support has been the best thing, and the modeling practice I have gotten from making over nearly 150 models for the mod.
The worst part would definitely have to be the limits of the game engine, there are some things that would be great to do or to have in the mod that the game engine is just not designed to handle. That has by far been the worst part of doing this mod, and also having to explain that to fans who make suggestions. Don't get me wrong I love the fans and their suggestions but many people make suggestions that just cannot be done or that they have no idea how to do them (sometimes neither do I)
Armada Universe: What are your favorite models you have created so far?
Westworld: Well my personal favorites are the US Capitol building, The US Angelus Supersub and The Russian Plane - Firefox.
Armada Universe: Have you come across any problems that have slowed or stopped the progress of your mod?
Westworld: Yes, a couple as a matter of fact, planets being hard coded doesn't help me at all so coming up with a good work around for that slowed me down, map depth and altitude control continue to be a thorn in my side for the mod, i.e. making planes stay on one level, ships on another and subs on yet another level without moving over and under each other. Although I have limited that problem I have not completely eliminated it yet, and may not be able to. Of course getting all the models done that I need is always a problem the mod will contain at least 300+ ships and building models, not including all the map objects and misc things for the game that will add another 50 or so models to that 300.
Also there is always motivation too, sometimes the whole thing seems like way too much work to ever complete. Since the bulk of the work is done by myself and this is really a massive project to do, it is hard to keep myself motivated to actually get it done. I have taken a couple breaks from it since starting the mod because of the fact that it is easy to burn out working on something like this.
Armada Universe: What else can we expect to see that will eventually be included in Naval Armada?
Westworld: Most of the ideas for the mod are known to many people, and posted on the Naval Armada site. There are a few not so well known plans for the mod, like "random" weather events & special "historic battle" maps, but there are also some ideas that will hopefully remain a surprise until the mod is released. I don't want everyone to know exactly what to expect from the mod :)
Armada Universe: Can we look forward to any surprises that you have not mentioned yet?
Westworld: Of course, but if I told you about them they wouldn't be surprises :)
Armada Universe: Is there anyone you would like to thank for their input into Naval Armada?
Westworld: Yes, a lot of people actually :
The Great One - for model & banner/splash screen, & sound file contributions.
Thunderst - for the great Hinde model.
Major A Payne - for his model contributions.
Challenger - for his model contributions.
Amasov - for all the information & links & suggestions he has provided.
Loccu - for his help with GUIs
STGN & Ugforums.com - for hosting and forum services.
Armada Fleet Command - for hosting services, advertisement, and general support of the mod and me.
Armada Universe - for providing advertisement.
Apoc Entertainment LTD - for forum services.
Pneumonic81 - for his support of the mod and me.
My fellow Naval Armada team members.
My wife - for putting up with me modding & modeling all the time :).
And Of course all the fans who have supported the mod & offered help & suggestions.
