1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm an 18-year old Swede studying my last year at what would be equivalent to upper high school or lower college in the United States, aiming eventually for a Master's degree in geology.
I like to play games, I do read a lot, I watch movies, draw digital art, prepare for exams... All in all, I like to keep things varied. That's probably why I ended up on TWC.
2. So how did you get into modding? What do you do? Most importantly, how did you get involved in TGW?
Having gotten Empire: Total War and explored its contents, I spent some time just tweaking around the values of units in the game for personal enjoyment, but then felt that I wanted to contribute to the larger community in some way. Armed with knowledge on how to edit basic unit stats, I offered the Great War mod help with giving proper stats to their ships.
At the time, the Great War mod had really just kicked off for real, with lots of traffic going on in the mod thread. This meant that the project was expanding rapidly and in need of modders, and all of the sudden, I was on the team. From there on, my work has been largely varied and I haven't really had an area role up until the release of 4.5: I added flamethrowers, submachinegunners, artillery observers and the infamous Patriotic Levy to the field of units offered, but I also created some minor artwork and edited the campaign UI.
After the release of 4.5, the long-term goal of the mod would be the 5.0 release. Since the bar was set relatively high - new uniforms, unit systems, scales, a better startpos, helmets, weapons, tanks, artillery, etc. - the team naturally had to split up the roles to fit the work load. I was given the task of texturing BDIZZLE's models, and making new uniforms based on the models provided by the game. That is what I'm still doing to this day - texturing. I'm also slightly involved in unit creation and general feature implementation, but only to a limited extent.
4. About how long does it take you to make one texture or uniform?
This question is really hard for me to answer. My workflow is a bit abnormal in the sense that I prefer to make many different minor edits across several different projects simultaneously, so it's quite difficult to give a good estimate on the time consumption here. If I sat down and worked on something for a single period of time, I'd perhaps average an hour or two on a radically modified uniform or new texture, less so on minor things such as hats and helmets. But I'd probably come back later anyway and try to polish something even more.
5. And how many uniforms and textures have you created for The Great War mod?
I suppose that I've made (radically edited) about six uniform torso parts (coats, shirts, and so forth), two or three leg parts (puttees for instance), and then nine artillery textures (tanks included?), and, lastly, a mauser rifle.
This might not seem like a lot, but considering the fact that the atlas files (where all uniform part textures are stored in a single, huge, texture sheet) are cumbersomely large (of course this is outweighed by the practicality of having variants and so forth), and that all texture files come in several variations, it takes time to properly put together all the textures necessary - in a satisficial way - for the mod. Furthermore, this time has to be fit into the real world as well, with schoolwork, other interests, etc.
Development is still ongoing, though, so expect more textures (and models, of course) in the final release!
6. Right, enough intro questions, I think we can get to the good stuff now. So tanks. How did you get them in, how do they work, what you did on them, tell us everything you can.
Tanks will function largely like artillery. They will have a (killable) crew, and they will be mobile, of course. As of current, they will not be able to fire while moving, but remember that historically, World War I tanks had no way of aiming and therefore hitting anything while on the move. The fact that we have designed them as artillery also allows for a few interesting scenarios: infantry can actually immobilise the tanks by storming them (though this is not recommended), simulating the sticky bombs used against tracks and cogs, and tanks can either be left crewless on the field like empty metal husks or, of course, be torn to shreds by artillery.
And no, they will not require limbering/unlimbering. The technique behind the tanks was actually discovered by chance several months back, during the initial design of the American army roster: artillery that moved without carriages! This was probably not a true discovery in the sense that we were the first to see the "bug", if you will, but it was definitely a great opportunity to, in classical modding style, find a feature of the game and turn it into something useful.
Tanks will be divided into light, male and female tanks. Light tanks will be fast enough to redeploy quite quickly and take on routing units by machinegunning them down, or to make a swift flanking maneuver, flinging in lead right where it hurts. Male tanks will be specialized in artillery: rather than rely on machineguns, male tanks use cannons to counter buildings and - if necessary - other tanks. Male tanks are most useful against an enemy residing in buildings, where they are largely protected from machinegun fire, and less useful against large formations of attacking infantry, where their considerably lower rate of fire allows the enemy to come sufficiently close to disable them. Female tanks are the proper anti-infantry tanks, deploying many machineguns and therefore offering the commander a quick way to dispose of enemy personnel. While a light machinegun might suffice to hold the crest of a newly taken hill, you will surely need female tanks if you wish to protect your own men from hails of in the open.
In the end, the weapons that will work best against tanks will be anti-tank rifles and artillery. Rifle and machinegun ammunition will only cause minor damage over very extended periods of time (as metal flakes are thrown about inside the crew compartment when projectiles hit the armour). Male tanks will be able to ward off assaults by enemy female tanks, but while stationary in defending positions, they are also very welcome targets for the artillery.
All in all, the tanks are going to be one of our most prestigeous features in the 5.0 release. We aim to make them as playable and authentic as possible, and as a result, most of what you have read above is still work-in-progress where some parts might be liable to change. Tanks will be in 5.0, no matter the design decisions, though.
7. What other things have you put put in-game (uniforms, other textures)?
We're still working on some things we want to put in to fill out the currently fielded models. With the addition of Volcol, another skilled modeller with experience in the World War I area, so many possibilities are opened up that we just can't find all the factual 5.0 release features from the previously speculative "maybe":s.
There are a few things you will guaranteedely see in 5.0, however:
* New helmets, hats (currently Adrian, Pickelhaube, Stahlhelm, Broadie, proper French kepi)
* Standardized unit rosters (set number of roles, these roles are then filled by either generic or nation-specific units)
* Scales (tiny, normal, operational, epic; for more information, check the 5.0 teaser preview)
* New artillery models (check the 5.0 teaser preview, some more might still be in development)
* Tanks (male, female, light, for all nations that had the ability to construct tanks)
* Airplanes (spies are turned into aviators)
* Campaign models (trains, ships, characters etc.)
* New startpos system (more on this later)
There are also a couple of definite maybe:s, but these will not be released yet, since we wouldn't want to get our fans hyped up about a feature and then not release it because it wasn't fully functional or possible.
8. Anything else you want to mention?
I'd like to thank the guys over at the ES for the great honour of being featured!
Furthermore, I'd also like to thank all our fans, modding friends and players from around the forums for their long and zealous support for the Great War mod - without you, the tanks, models, uniform parts and countless work hours put into this behemoth of a project would never have gone this far. It's quite amazing to stand here today and look back at the roots of the mod, in those early glorious days of N:TW modding, in the era of releases 3.6 and 4.2... And then turn around and see where we are today, with the team clearly being on course for 5.0. All thanks to you.
I don't have a release date, but I have this one promise: 5.0 will be the first, definite release of the Great War mod.
Thanks again,
Aanker and the Great War mod team
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