Bakshra: Please introduce yourselves and describe your jobs on the Action UT Team.
RaVeN: Hi, I’m Markus Hastreiter, audio director and producer on the team.
rogue: Hello, my name’s Martin Oberhaus and I’m the art director.
Bakshra: Action UT obviously has some relation to the popular Quake 2 and Half-Life versions. In what areas are the mods similar, and what will set them apart from each other?
RaVeN: Action UT, just like our prior mod projects, too is based on ‘Action Movie Realism’. You will immediately recognize it’s an Action mod when playing. It won’t be a port of AHL or AQ2, we basically are taking the theme to it’s next generation, making use of what the Unreal Tournament engine is offering.
rogue: As RaVeN said, Action UT will not be a simple port of AQ2 or AHL but a new and improved installment of the Action series. For example Action UT will NOT have “strafe jumping” like AQ2 does. Strafe jumping is an exploit of a Quake 2 engine bug which allowed you to gain insane speeds. This certainly doesn’t fit in our Action Movie Realism theme at all.
Bakshra: Have any of you taken part in the development of the other Action mods? If so, how is developing for Unreal Tournament different, then say, Half-Life? Are their any specific features of the engine that make your respect jobs easier or tougher?
RaVeN: There are pro’s and con’s. The Unreal Tournament engine offers a great deal of customizability, where the Half-Life engine was easier to work with. A big part of our work is experimenting with the engine what is doable and what isn’t.
rogue: Yes, I have worked on the 2D art for AHL as well and I can say while editing 2D art is a bit easier for Half-Life, you can do much more in the Unreal engine. Lots of cool stuff. 🙂
Bakshra: Can you give any details about the weapons that will be included in the first release? They all appear to be real-world weapons. What type of resources do you use to get the “feel” of the fire arms correct, without actually having access to them?
RaVeN: The whole team has some basics knowledge about firearms. We get the details from the web though, as of recently we’re getting consulting from a French soldier who likes to play mods.
rogue: Action UT will have a knife, three classes of handguns, a submachinegun, a shotgun, a “hand cannon” (sawed-off double barrel shotgun), an assault rifle and a bolt-action sniper rifle. The handguns will differ in caliber, ammo capacity and penetration, allowing the player to choose a gun that suits his or her style of play.
Bakshra: The maps shown on the screenshot section of the AUT website seem to be leaning towards the realist side of things. How many of these maps are done or are nearing the final stages of construction?
RaVeN: Currently we have 8 maps in testing stage.
rogue: I have four maps queued for eyecandy overhauls, detail textures and the like.
