An interview with myself

So, Daku, what made you think about creating BS in the first place?

Well, Daku, that's a good question. I first considered making BS when I had finally upgraded my computer to a Duron 600. I was finally able to see the game at an acceptable frame rate. It was then that I saw how, well, horribly boring everything was in multiplayer. For a strat game, there was far too much power in the hands of the 'thugs'. Couple the skills of human pilots with the awful AI routines of your 'army' (if a dozen vehicles, a handful of Rattlers, and a couple Gun Towers can be called an army), and you had a really spiced up Deathmatch game.

After a while, I would just create quick battles with the Editor. 15 vs 15. That kinda thing. Just a huge massive battle in the middle of the map. And my computer ran it well, it was a blast. So I thought there had to be a way to replicate this in multiplayer.

I got a 4 player game going on the Satellite map by DogSoldier. I proposed to the others that we should sit around, build up armies of at least 15 vehicles, then throw our two armies into battle. Once the battle was completed, we all agreed that the fight was one of the most exciting things we had been in. We started to rebuild our armies again, but quickly noticed how long it took to do so. It must've been a 1:30 fight-to-build ratio. For every 30 seconds it took to build so many units, it'd take 1 second to destroy those units. I thought a quick slashing of the prices would do. Use a certain number and divide ALL of the unit prices with that number.

Another problem was how obvious it was that some units were inferior to another, but had the same price. We started to say "Well, maybe you need that inferior unit to back up the superior one, and then it works out." But no, it didn't work that way. It was just plain inferior! So we started to feel that the price system definately needed changing, beyond a set dividing number.

How many people did you think would play BS?

I've got many posts on the Pandemic forum ranting on and on about how the game needs a "Turbo Strat" mode. Waaaay back when the game was just showing up on the shelves. I only got a few supporters, maybe 3 or 4 total. With the 3 guys I was playing with this other time, I said OK, maybe 7. And a couple of their friends. So 10 or so, total. 10 people playing my MOD, which seemed like a totally unpopular idea to the BZ2 community. That really didn't seem like a bad number, since I was mostly making the MOD for myself, and maybe some LAN friends.

So I was blown away when I found out 470 people had downloaded BStrat 2.0 after a week of it being released.

Sometimes you try to pass the credit to other people for making this MOD. Wassup with that?

Well, mostly 'cuz all the truly hard work was done by other people. I have no idea how to skin a unit, design a model, or create nifty graphical effects for weapons like the Archer's artillery or the Multi-lock 2. The Razor, the Valkyrie, the Rage.. these are all other people's units, with the physics and prices modified to fit the game.

Still, I mostly take the credit for myself because while I didn't do the hard work, I did most of the work! Banging on physics and prices of virtually every unit, building, and weapon in the game takes a lot of Notepadding. :P

I think it's really cool that you've put up a forum for the MOD, so people can contribute. When did you come up with that?

I think it was around BS 1.3 that I really opened the doors to outside suggestions (1.3 having come out a week after 1.0 did). I had a forum laying around for a BZ2 "Platoon" I was in, with X-Gamer, but we never got around to using it or doing anything (sorry X-gamer!). So I immediately switched to BStrat, and posted on Pandemic "HEY!!! HELP ME WITH THIS MOD!"

I had always wanted a more community-based MOD, more open to the public. That kinda thing. The Community Project was doing that, but it was taking a while.. and I thought it was mostly for people who had ideas AND skills. I just wanted ideas mostly. Or at least that was enough for me.

What I really wanted was a democratic system of making the MOD. I never figured out how to do that, although my web guy says he'll put up a poll system that people can register for and vote on ideas to be implemented into the MOD.

I don't know if I like that idea anymore, mostly because I think we're basically done and that further additions will make things more confusing. Nevermind how much it takes to get things balanced.

So I see myself as a 'benevolent dictator' sorta. And I think a lot of the BS contributors see it the same way.

But has the forum really helped the MOD??

Oh, hell yes. Around 1.4 or so, i probably ran around saying how awesome the MOD was, thanks to me. But once we hit 1.5, it was obvious I was pulling ideas right out of posts on the forum. LostLamb's criticisms were some of the greatest. Now I say the pre-1.5 versions were total crap, and the current versions are gems.

What did LL do?

You know, BStrat used to be MUCH faster than it is now. Faster.. in that you had far more tanks running around. Back then, it was just out of the question for a non-broadband person to play the MOD. Today, it's still out of the question, but at least they try :)

It was then when we really noticed how horrible the original price system was. I mean, the prices were all slashed with a single dividing number. So you had it all in the same proportions to each other, just all cut down. The speed at which you could see the game unfold really helped show how awful the original system was. It was much easier to see that it was a mistake to have Rattlers at 40, Scouts and Missile Scouts at 40-45 and so forth. The prices were just wrong.

I'd see the Scout, and say, "OK that thing is just not worth 4/5 of a Sabre. It's a piece of junk." You can count in the fact that it relays data to your comm bunker, and all that, and it's not worth 4/5. And then some of assault vehicles, the rocket tank, the assault tank, the Atilla. They could betwice the price, almost, of a Sabre and it was ridiculous.

And the Rattler. You know, the advertisements for BStrat say "5 new vehicles" or something like that. Well, I think we've added more than that in that we've saved some of the older vehicles. The Rattler, for example, in the original BZ.. it was just a joke after a certain point. Once your units/weps have reached a certain level of technology, the Rattler's value is gone. The times you still use it is when you're desperate, when you've only got enough pools to spend 40.

But in BStrat, the Rattler is extremely cheap. It's like 1/3 the price of a modified Sabre. The price makes much more sense. The same goes for the Scout and Missile Scout, etc. The original game simply leaves no room for the early units after some point. BS gives a few more reasons

So we had to get that patched up, and constantly worked away at that for 3 or 4 versions ;)

So what did LL do?!

Oh yeah. Well he was the guy who pointed out how crappy the originals were. He was pretty impressed with what crap there was, but saw alot of potential. While I was mostly happy with what we had, which was mostly a large amount of tank battling, huge explosions, and big shockwaves... LostLamb wanted to see more balanced units. There had to be a reason to not get just tanks. There had to be a reason to get four pools on a map.

So the Tank prices were raised, and some prices were lowered. The four pools problem? Well, with 7 pools on a map, you typically have 3 pools for each player. the Fourth pool is constantly fought over. Now, with 3 pools, you can upgrade over and over. But in BStrat, there's an additional reasno to get a fourth... you need it to upgrade 3 pools. When you upgrade a scav in BS, you lower your pool hold by half or so. The more you upgrade, the harder it will be to build advanced units/buildings or replace them.

That's one weird scrap system.

Yep. We put it through beta test through the BattleStrat Z testing system. I begged people to test the new system out, it seemed superior to the original BS scrap system (ie upgrade, you get MORE holding space) in every way. But only a couple people actually tested it (and declared it cool), despite the dozen requests for a beta test BS in the first place. Sigh! But I'm still willing to remove the system if the fans can argue me out of it. So far it's just "It sucks." then I say "no, you haven't done the math.. bla bla bla" and then they go "oh" and that's that.

I especially like the new system on maps with large amounts of pools. Like Satellite, which has to have more than 15 pools. If you've ever played Satellite in standard BZ2.. the other pools are meaningless after a point. You get 5, or 6, and you don't need any more than that. The rest are just backup. At least in BS, you can use the additional pools to help you upgrade faster AND build the advanced stuff.

What are these air units all about?

That's definately one of the most beloved features of BStrat. Air units. But we had a lot of problems with them at first. The initial air vehicles were all setup to be only flown by humans. The AI was just worthless at the controls of one. Humans, of course, had no problems with this. They loved being gods, only destroyable by other gods. Now, I've said a dozen times that BStrat is supposed to be about the AI, lower the humans' ability to turn the tide and all that. So I had to bring down the units to the AI's ability.

Why the emphasis on the AI?

The AI sucks in this game. There's no missing that. Maybe with instant-hit weapons (Arc), the AI isn't so bad. But for the most part, a good human player can crush many AIs with ease. People are still saying that the stock BZ2 has this huge strategical element. I think it's very small, and that the stock game is very heavily influenced by the actions of just one or two 'thugs' (human wingmen). And I'm not talking about their ability to help you command units around. It's their sheer combat ability that screws up everything.

So I wanted a game that was as "Starcraft" as possible. I think we moved toward that, because quite a few people have told me that they do a lot more commanding from the Comm Bunker than before. Sometimes they never leave it.

And I also extensively tested the unit pricing system as to how the AI controls the vehicles and defeats the opponents. So if I thought a Scion Warrior was more powerful than a ISDF Sabre, I'd test it out in the Editor. 1 on 1. 3 v 3. That kinda thing. The Scion is the less powerful vehicle, so it'd defeat the ISDF. I'd adjust the prices after that. If it only won so often out of 3 matches, then I'd look at that too. Or I'd look at how much health the other side was able to knock off the winning side's vehicles.

Some vehicles in stock BZ would lose so pathetically and so consistently to others that I was baffled as to how pandemic could come up with the prices they did.. it just made no sense!

I'm confused by people who say BS is a "training wheels" kinda game compared to stock BZ, or that it's for those who aren't smart enough to handle stock BZ.. especially when it comes to the strategical element of the game. I think it's the other way around. BZ's emphasis of individual human combat ability was too much, and when I was playing stock BZ, I was too often winning matches against better commanders... because of my individual fighting ability.

So I think BS tips the scale towards the commander now, the strategy, and the team. But that team now actually includes AIs!