Greetings Ladies and Gents, please join me in thanking Akaie for agreeing to do this interview. For those of you who don't know Akaie is a great TW:S2 modder, and the man behind the great Sekigahara Campaign! He has answered my questions in regards to his modding, and CA's release of these new tools, also managing to slip in a bit about himself as well...*
1) So Akaie, first off thank-you for doing this interview, the man behind The Sekigahara Campaign must be busy indeed, could you tell us mere mortals a bit about yourself?
Flattering! Well, I am a nineteen year old from Australia. I am a full-time carer for my grandma, which, as unfortunate as that is, gives me a bit of flexibity with time to study and engage in hobbies, such as The Sekigahara Campaign!
2) Well we all know where flattery gets us.... but being a Aussie I'm thinking of taking it back! I'll start off with what seems to be standard for these sorts of things, what brought you to TWC?
Shogun 2. I can't really remember the specifics of how I got here, but it was definitely just after the release of Shogun 2!
3) We should thank CA then. What was it that got you involved with the modding scene?
I'd say Radious has some credit here, as I enjoyed a few campaigns with his mods installed and was definitely inspired by him to get into modding myself. My first modding creation was a simple scaled recruitment cost mod to make each unit cheaper.
4) And it went on from there, how did you first find modding, was the process difficult at first, or did you just catch on?
I can't quite remember, though I don't think it was too much of a hassle.
5) Anything you particularly struggled with?
I believe I had some annoyances with the startpos.esf file, though those days are certainly gone.
6) Glad to hear it. Could you list us a few general mods you've made for Shogun and it's follow-ups, and explain what a few of them do and how you found making it etc.?
One mod I made was a visual overhaul with new banners, traditional artworks, and even a few extra changes to add new clans. Another manipulated the startpos.esf file - at this point I had overcome the annoying damn thing - to allow access to multiple minor clans in a multiplayer-friendly way. There is also a bunch of other mods pertaining to units, visuals, and other smaller things that build up to a hefty array of changes.
7) Well you certainly how been busy! So now onto the topic that everyone has been waiting for... The Sekigahara Campaign - what can you tell us?
The Sekigahara Campaign was the very first of its kind for Shogun 2, that being a total conversion covering a distinct time period than in the original game. The premise is semi-fictitious; we take heavy inspiration from the historical campaign and climactic battle of sekigahara, albeit evening out the conflict to work in a more practical however ahistorical way.
8) How many people do you have working on it? And can we have a cheeky progress report?
Innitially, it was just three people: Erwin Rommel, robinzx, and, of course, me. Apart from the dozen or so that contributed pieces of their own work, such as Kungfuserge's and BullGod's texture work and Mech_Donalds battlefield smoke mod, the team itself has recently been expanded to six people; on top of the original three, wealthmonger, who documents aspects of the mod and does testing, Maverick Houston, who creates amazing videos, and Lokgar, who has created several submods and is now a database editor. As for progress, we've finished much of what we planned to do, as well as a hell of a lot more. There is still one big aspect of the mod that has not yet come to pass, so we hope to have that out in due time.
9) Well it is great to see you expanding. Have new tools such as TEd and the recently release bundle helped you at all, or made life easier?
TEd, and what could come from it, has been recently been brought up within the team, though we haven't felt the need to make much use of it. Due to the new tools being a very new thing, I haven't committed the time to thoroughly explore it. One thing that will seamlessly help is the thorough documentation of the database and startpos; I've already learnt a few things just by looking at the description of certain columns.
10) So we can expect and even awesome-er mod?
I'm sure we will!
11) Glad to hear it! What are you personal views on CA releasing these tools, and of course of the modding summit?
The modding summit was a great initiative to give a hand to their modding community. The kit has some great features, like the aforementioned thorough column descriptions of the database and startpos, as well as a nice way to edit the groupformations.bin file via xml and a technically easier platform to manipulate and even create a campaign map. So, the kit is certainly a success in my book. It's now largely up to the community to take up arms and get stuck into testing and developing!
12) Indeed it is, and we certainly hope they'll make good use of it. Now, Rome II - your hopes and fears?
I don't think I have any huge hopes or fears for the project. My Rome fanboy days are long gone, and I've forgotten a lot about that general time period, I'm afraid. That being said, as long as CA adds a cut-scene where, if your general dies after attacking the Parthians, they pour molten gold down his throat, I'll be pretty happy!
13) Hahaha, so can we expect any Rome II mods by you, or will we have to satisfy ourselves with Seki?
I hope to keep building on Seki for a long, long time, hopefully well beyond the release of Rome II. I'll more than likely look at modding Rome II; I'd probably take a step back and get someone to order me around for the purposes of creating a big and ambitious overhaul. Anything pertaining to the Roman kingdom, republic, or Gaul is fine with me!
14) Well I wish you the best of luck, and I'll look forward to it all. Once again, thank-you for agreeing to do this interview, and before we go do you have any final words?
Thank you for choosing me to be interviewed, and I hope this interview was a good read .
I'm sure it will be. If you guys wanted to check out more of Akaie's work then why not check out his profile, or head over to the Sekigahara Campaign forum to see it all as it happens. That's all from me, and enjoy the rest of the issue!
Interview taken by: Shankbot de Bodemloze. |