Q: Will there be public bug tracking (bugzilla or similar)?Oleg Petrov: No. Bugtracking is internal.
Andy La Rubin: Forum is enough.
Q: How can I join the development team? What kind of help are you in need of?
OP: Right now we’re preparing for making the patch/update. The current team is quite capable of doing it. What goes after that is unclear at the moment… If there will be a need, we’ll ask for help. Of course you can share with us the samples of your work.
Q: Has implementation of multiplayer support started and/or when might a version with multiplayer support be released?
OP: In Homeplanet add-on, the LAN multiplayer is working already. It’s gonna take some time before it will be polished enough, and then, probably, it will make its way to IFH. Not even probably, but most likely.
Q: So the current prequel campaign may be enhanced with new features in the future?
OP: May be is a good expression.
ALR: Well, current prequel campaign is not so good for multiplayer because of solo mission. You can’t have a team to go through all the campaign. But we’ll work something out.
Q: What are the chances of IFH ever going Open Source and/or there being ports to *nix platforms?
OP: No chance for the first, minimal chance for the second.
Q: Will the Skirmish mode be in this update?
OP: I think we’ll add the ability to replay the previous missions/cutscenes. But about the skirmish itself, let’s hope.
ALR: With luck, yes.
Q: How does the development deceide stuff? Obviosly You can’t meet in real life.
Sergei Shchavelev: We can.
ALR: Well, three of us can. Even four.
Yogi Loeschner: The rest is crying via ICQ…
Q: Black Sheep has informed that IFH mission editor is similiar to Freespace’s FRED mission editor. Is it a possibility that a mission designer experienced on FRED could help IFH team in the future using IFH mission editor?
ALR: Actually, all IFH missions are made in FAR…
Alexey Sirotkin: But FLYM MissED is still working for me.
OP: Well… Our editor is less user-friendly… I think we’ll need to redesign it to make it public. And it is used by HP team to create some missions. Also, HP guys are using Ultra Editor, a powerful thing for this kind of work. But all missions and cutscenes for IFH were made in FAR text editor.
Q: How hard would it be to add advanced graphics effects like self shadowing or pixel shaders to the current engine? Are any graphical updates been planed?
ALR: It’s possible… But not so easy…
OP: Nothing like that is planned, but who knows… For example, adding 3D cockpits will require some tweaks in the rendering system. So maybe we'll add something else along the way, if we have the time.
Q: Will there be a cooperative campaign when multiplayer capability is added? Or just player versus player?
OP: Both.
Q: Do you have any idea how close the IFH gameplay/feeling is to B5:ITF?
OP: We’ve got no way of knowing, just like you.
Q: Do you have any plans to add the ability to redirect power between guns/engines/repair for example?
OP: Andy, that’s for you.
ALR: Well… I don’t have such plans. But we’ll think about it, probably it should be done along the way. You see, Starfury already makes 8G on afterburners. And *then* you’ll redirect all power to engines, and… Die.
OP: And we disabled blackouts/redouts! We can enable them back. You won’t be able to see a thing…
Q: Will there be option to skip every uninteractive part of the mission (with ESC key for exmaple)?
YL: Ah… The training…
OP: It will be very hard to do with this engine. But if there will be something beyond prequel, we might want to reduce the quantity of bla-bla-bla.
ALR: Skipping missions — it’s something we’d like to have for ourselves too, but the world is everchanging. Civilian traffic, etc. You can’t just jump forward in time. Probably we can shutup Black Sheep… Well, not Black Sheep, but Instructor.
Q: What does Alpha 2 look like (the voice-actor)?
SS: They like “Spacewitch”
ALR: I’ll ask her if she wants to post a photo. By the way, she’s married.
Q: Will you add a voice for the “computer” in the Starfury? What about voice-commands?
ALR: We *have* voice for the computer. Voice commands — are you sure you need them? They are slow. CPU time is needed elsewhere.
OP: The computer should not speak too much.
Q: Is autopilot really supposed to be used in hyperspace?
ALR: Yes, but it doesn't replace a pilot. Anything could happend in hyperspace.
Q: Will there ever be FF-effects in this game?
ALR: They are there.
Q: Will we hear Bester again?
YL: Oleg and me are still talking about that…
SS: So they heard him!
ALR: If Black Sheep gives us Walter Koenig or a guy with the same voice.
OP: We’d love to.
Q: Can we someday fly Nial in this game? Like in that first video… There was Nial shooting at Shadow Battlecrab.
OP: That was supposed to be a cutscene in the full campaign, where you don’t fight the Shadows anyway. It was kind of flashback to Valen’s time.
ALR: Probably in simulator. If time permits, we’ll add several flyable fighters in the simulator.
YL: And maybe some historical missions…
Q: Is there HUD improvements planned? Weapon energy and remaining missiles, etc. (in self-monitoring?)
OP: Missile counter is there.
ALR: Weapon energy — because we don’t have energy management, there’s no point to indicate it.
YL: Well… Heat indicator?
ALR: Okay, heat indicator should be added.
Q: Will destroyers be tougher in the future? So that five furies can’t take out one by themselves?
OP: Nova has no interceptors…
ALR: You must understand, that it is Nova-class. It’s not supposed to fight with fighters. It’s actually big guns with engines. It’s supposed to fight against other capships. It relies on its squadrons as anti-fighter cover. But these squadrons have sucked.
SS: And that particular Nova has even less turrets…
Q: How much is the acceleration (in m/s2) of a Starfury using afterburners?
ALR: Read the Database, source of knowledge! 8G ≈ 80 m/s2. And someone asked for more — masochist.
Q: How does IFH do it’s planets? Backdrop or 3D model?
OP: Both.
ALR: Jupiter is 3D and four of it’s moons. You can try to reach them if you have time and/or fuel. But remember, all is made in real scale. So, when you hear “fly around” you definitely can FLY AROUND… Someting.
OP: Nothing!
ALR: Something!
Q: Do you need an unofficial PR agent?
Marty (moderator): That would be Alpha 1, I guess.
SS: Alpha 1 is really cool!
YL: Yeah… Not just for IFH but for the whole B5 gamer community.
OP: Yes, Alpha 1 did on helluva job without being asked.
ALR: Sometimes even too much job, but it’s okay.
Q: Will there be only fighters to fly? Or do we get a chance to steer the lame big ones?
OP: Unlikely, this is all about fighters.
ALR: It’s no fun actually to fly on capship. “30 degrees to port.” “Yessir, 30 degrees to port.” It’s fun to play strategy games with lots of capships and not-so-real time.
OP: But IFH is definitely not a strategy game.
Q: Isn’t Earth behaving a little “agressive” in the game?
OP: Maybe a little. But they could be declared renegades by Earth officials if Va’Than mission is failed…
ALR: They really needed that Q40…
SS: And Q40 is worth the efforts…
Q: If you decide to make the full version of IFH, does its story expand to the times of Shadow War or Earth Alliance Civil War? Or is the campaign based before Babylon 5 story?
OP: The full campaign is supposed to take place in 2254. With some flashbacks to Valen’s time.
ALR: The full campaign story starts almost right after prequel story ends. In a matter of days, weeks.
Q: Will there be advanced radar stuff in the game that would enable more strategic/stealth mission (hiding behind asteroids and such)?
ALR: We would love to do something like that (at least me).
OP: We have stealth systems in Homeplanet. We just need to make “radar shadowing” possible.
ALR: We definitely have to improve our radar and HP stealth is somewhat “unrealistic”…
OP: Well, at least it’s “something”.
Q: Are you guys going to have an option to use the old hyperspace and the “new” version shown in “Legend of the Rangers”?
ALR: Is someone here likes the “new” hyperspace? And jump points too?
Marty: No, but I like the ACtA/Crusade jump points.
YL: Me too. They look pretty good!
ALR: We’ll stick to the classic.
OP: Yes.
Q: Will there be more autopilot modes such as optimal burn for speed on this-and-this distance or the I-War like match vector autopilot?
OP: There will be docking. Can’t say about something else.
ALR: May be I-War-style approach.
Q: I played through IFH at about 2AM — very scary at that hour. What prompted you to use a telepath storyline, and has JMS had any input or otherwise contact with your team?
YL: “Please send no story ideas” © JMS
ALR: No JMS input or output.
OP: JMS knows about this project, that’s all we can say. And we like telepaths. Aren’t they cool? And Bester is the coolest. Reading Psi Trilogy is recommended.
Q: Will there be big asteroidfields?
OP: Unlikely. Because there no such thing in the universe. Except for planet rings, maybe.
Q: Who wrote the scenario?
ALR: Well… As it is said in credits: Story by OLEG PETROV and ANDY LA RUBIN. Writing — OLEG PETROV. Additional writing — HENRIK NORDGREN, ANDY LA RUBIN, YOGI LOESCHNER.
Q: Will we see B4 or B5 in the game? Has someone modeled neither of them yet?
OP: Yes. In historical missions we can probably see B5.
AS: B5 — WIP.
Q: Will we be able to change HUD layouts like we can in Freespace?
OP: No. Impossible, sorry.
Q: What happens when you get to Jupiter?
OP: Nothing pleasant.
AS: You should try.
ALR: If you will enter into Jupiter’s atmosphere, you will probably die. Or you’ll burn before that.
OP: And fail the training…
ALR: By the way, there are lot of sightseeing around Jupiter…
Q: How many lines of code in the engine?
OP: Is anybody counting?
ALR: It’s ~3.5 Mb of sources and 1.5 Mb exe-file. So it’s 1:2 ratio.
Q: What percentage of the development time was spent on The 3D Engine/levels/cutscenes/graphics etc.?
OP: Is anybody counting?
AS: I’ll count polys.
ALR: We should have a manager for that kind of job. Counting source code lines, tracking our time. Unfortunately, we can’t afford such a guy. They are highly paid usually. So, we just work.
Q: Does the engine use a complex scripting language for controlling game play (similar to the way QuakeC works although possibly not precompiled)?
ALR: Yes. First, we have a complex mission script language. Second, we have “rather simplified” console/scripting language to run the game. But we don’t have any Virtual Machine like Quake.
Q: How easy will it be to mod the game?
ALR: It's not unlike flying through hyperspace.
OP: “Yeah, I couldn’t have said it any better, Sigma 1…” © Instructor
ALR: “But you’re always welcome to try…” © Bester. It will be not so easy, but with some commitment it’s doable.
Q: Does Jupiter and it’s moons have gravity? (Or do I just have to go and see?)
OP: No gravity in this game.
YL: Just mass.
OP: No mass, size!
ALR: There is a problem to merge our “cruise mode” (or frame of reference) and gravity/orbits. We haven’t solve it yet. So for now it’s just size and no mass.
Q: Will we see missions where capital ships fight eachother?
OP: Possible in main campaign. It’s about capships…
Q: Where in hyperspace are the aardvark, forklift and the watercooler hidden?
SS: Try reaching the Well of Forever.
OP: But you gonna need a technomage ship. And something powerful enough to follow it.
ALR: By the way, we have a NOD to ITF in our game, has anyone seen it? Well. There is a NOD literally speaking in the game. Our main character literally NODS to ITF.
OP: Watch the intermissions.
Q: Will any flight simulator you add include the ability to have Purple vs. Green battles?
OP: If there will be Drazi fighters, why not?
SS: Purples rule this year! Or was it Greens? Andy?
ALR: Purples.
OP: Green rules in Mission 2!
ALR: If there will be multyplayer, then all Drazi can fight each other to the death, and again, and again…
Q: Will the credits run slower so its actually possible to read them?
OP: You’ll have an option to replay it. And you can make screenshots.
ALR: They run exactly as in the series. Yes, screenshots rule. Screenshots rule in intermissions too.
Q: Did you design the console/scripting language yourselves or use an existing one such as Lua or Python?
OP: It’s our own.
ALR: It was designed by accident. Me and Oleg were in train to his hometown. And suddenly a language was designed.
Q: What was the worst / most beautiful / funniest thing that happened during the process of developing the game?
ALR: I always hear that in my head — “Does that thing work?”
YL: Those funny dialogues with Oleg. SMS from Russia: “Come online ASAP!”
ALR: First time in hyperspace with music.
AS: Meeting the Team in Moscow.
YL: Most beautiful — the fact that we found an actor for Alpha 1 who was willing to record way more than 100 lines.
OP: That happened 2 times max!
ALR: Richard [Lueck] rules!
OP: For me, one of the the funniest things was writing emails for Database. And worst was the night from 21st to 22nd of November, this year.
ALR: Oh, yes — definitely worst. And funniest — partying with the team and reading forums with after the release.
OP: Yeah, feedback, I love it.
AS: Oh, yeah — “russian support”.
Q: I tried reaching Io, but ended in mission failure due to the fact that I didn’t obey orders!
OP: Isn’t it true?
SS: Obey orders you should.
ALR: “Sigma 1, you idiot, It’s too dangerous, don’t get close to that thing!” It means — you were intercepted near the surface trying to ram it.
Q: Can you make more than 100 screenshots after the patch?
ALR: Wow… Didn’t think of that.
OP: Maybe, but is it so important?
AS: IFH = Desktop Wallpaper Generator!
Q: Will we ever get to see the infamous 2 jump point at once experiment Sheridan mentioned in the series?
OP: There was an idea to use it in full campaign.
Q: Will we hear more ITF music in the game later on? Or only the music from the show and not the ITF / ITF-extended tracks?
OP: There’s a lot of good music from ITF… We can use some parts of it, of course, if they’re suitable. But that depends on mission/cutscene design. And BS reconstructed the funeral music, by the way, great job!
Q: How did you figure out the speed and overheating time of cannons of Starfury?
OP: During the process of game balancing.
YL: Trial and error.
ALR: Randomly selected numbers.
Q: Do we see Homeplanets of the races?
OP: Not in this game. In main campaign we will see Minbar.
AS: There was Z’ha’dum some time ago.
ALR: If you go to Z’ha’dum…
YL: …you will have to pay taxes.
ALR: …you will die.
SS: No one who goes there comes back alive!
Q: Will the Simulator room be like the one in X-Wing Alliance?
OP: It will be more like Homeplanet skirmish.
ALR: There will be no room, just menus.
OP: Not enough room!
ALR: But you’ll be able to create some mission for skirmish or select a mission from the campaign to replay it.
Q: Beam weapons, when?
ALR: Beams weapons what? When? When you’ll see Omega in action. Or Sharlin in action. Or Nial…
OP: In main campaign for sure. If there will ba a main campaign.
Q: Can the forward guns of Omega fire like we saw in the show (beam, pulse, beam) or can it only fire in beam mode or pulse mode and not in both?
OP: They can fire in chain mode if correctly scripted.
Q: How often do you guys sit down and watch B5?
ALR: Usually I do it standing. Because I have TV/DVD in the other room so I need to run back and forth (between comp and TV) and have no time to sit.
SS: Almost every day, looking for some cool things.
OP: When the next box arrives I spend many evenings watching it. And of course re-watching the old eps from time to time.
AS: Always, when have a free time.
YL: I don’t need to watch Babylon 5… Alpha 1 captures me all scenes I need for the sound design.
OP: That’s why Black Sheep is our weak spot.
Q: Will you build in a love-story?
ALR: …about how he has found her…
OP: Wake up guys! It’s a space sim!
YL: Why no love story? We have Hamlin! We have… Errr… Lambda!
OP: She’s a spacebitch!
YL: Even better!
OP: We don’t have Lambda anymore, right?
YL: Not true. Still in contact with her! But I got a bunch of other females as actresses.
SS: What do you need love story for then?
OP: Okay, she’s still flying for Aunt Lise.
ALR: Oh, we have Aunt Lise! Let’s make love story for her!
Q: Are you guys on some irc-channel we could reach you from?
ALR: Only on private ones discussing our work.
Q: Will there be more dev-chats coming?
SS: If there is demand, there is supply.
ALR: As soon as there will be a need.
Q: Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?
YL: Yogi “Black Sheep” Loeschner — Money, Sounds, Happiness — Oleg asked me…
OP: Oleg Petrov, the guy responsible — I want to play KotOR — Because I’m not going to work tomorrow!
ALR: A game developer by chance — To create something big — Because I can’t be elsewhere.
SS: Sergei Shchavelev — Disk quota at the moment… — An old friend asked me…
ALR: I’m not that old!
Q: Will more be revealed as to why Alpha 2 was so bitter about Alpha 1 being a telepath?
OP: Not only Alpha 2, all squad was… Well… Unhappy… Because he wasn’t honest with them, in their opinion just used them. And Alpha 2 and the rest won’t be happy to accept the new Alpha leader. But that is for Main Campaign.
YL: Hey, wait… Was that pre-release info?
ALR: Yeah and THAT WAS THE MAIN POINT OF ALL.
Warlord (moderator): There’s no more Q’s! If I didn’t miss some in the way.
OP: Great! Thanks everyone for coming here!
SS: Good then — thank you for coming and asking.
YL: Yup, thanks a lot…
Marty: Thanks to Warlord for moderating.
ALR: Yeah! Thanks! And thanks for your feedback on the forums!
AS: Thanks to everyone.