| Ardrigh: To start off, let's get a bit of background info about you Rhea. Who are you, and how did you first get involved with OSP ? |
a|rhea: My real-life(tm) name is Jason Keimig. I got involved with OSP while working as a staff researcher in an advanced Networking Research and Design lab at the University of Kansas. It was there that I met the founder of OSP, BotanikA. They were in a bind as their current programmer, Brandon Reinhart (GreenMarine), was leaving to try to get a job at Epic to work on Unreal. He was successful in getting the job I suppose =) I wrapped up King of the Hill 2.0 for Quake2 while beginning work on a competition mod (OSP Tourney DM) that was being developed in conjunction with some LAN party software that we subsequently used to start up NetGamesUSA. We also made a "fun" mod called Rocket Olympics that you may have heard about =P
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| Ardrigh: My first experience with OSP was via the OSP Tourney mod for Q2, and it was great fun. How do you think the Q3 version will compare ? |
a|rhea: Err, have you played Q3 in the last 6 months? ;) Seriously, its turned out much better than expected, building on the feature-set and convenience the Quake2 version started out with. Allowing for client-side development has been a blessing and a curse. I'm glad id gave an avenue to curb client cheating, but at the same time, the auto-download/versioning for clients has been less than stellar.
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| Ardrigh: How many people are working in OSP on the Q3 mods now ? |
a|rhea: Just two, Dessignator and myself. Dess is in charge of all of the cool client stuff (HUD, menus, loc support, etc.), while I've concentrated on most of the server-side issues.
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| Ardrigh: How do you like the mod programming community, and working with other mod makers ? |
a|rhea: Its been really amazing. I thought it would be a programmer mentality cess-pool where everyone thinks *they* have all of the right answers. But its been quite the opposite. Even in dealing with OSP's "competition", namely, Q3Comp by ]R[Papa of Reactive Software while fixing id's sound dropping problems, its been nothing but good stuff.
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| Ardrigh: You've been spending a bit of time with the CPM programmers, integrating CPM into OSP. How has that experience been ? |
a|rhea: Outstanding. These guys have done an incredible job in tweaking just the right stuff in all of the right areas. Interacting with the whole CPM team (Khaile, Highlander, D!ABLO, Hooney, a|revelation, etc.) has put the exclamation point on the fact that the hardcore developers working on quality mods focus on providing a better Quake3 for the players, worrying less on their own fame and fortune (though each and every one of them should be commended).
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| Ardrigh: How do you think the community will see the integration of CPM into the OSP mod ? |
a|rhea: Err, have you played OSP in the last couple of months? ;)
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| Ardrigh: Do you see the votable option as being a problem on popular servers ? |
a|rhea: Nope, not at all.
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| Ardrigh: Do OSP and CPM rock ya ? :o) |
a|rhea: Hell ya! I'll take CPM CA over RA3 anytime =)
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| Ardrigh: With all the work with OSP and CPM, have you noticed anything that you think you would like to add, or improve in Q3 OSP ? |
a|rhea: Thousands of things all of the time. I have some ideas on some new spectating modes that are unlike anything seen yet =) However, I'd say most of the core features are in place now and I'm pretty much on a stability track to get an official 1.0 out the door.
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| Ardrigh: What do you see in the future of the OSP mod ? |
a|rhea: Love, sex and rock and roll baby!
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| Ardrigh: Now, on a more personal tack, what Q3 mods do you personally like to play ? |
a|rhea: Hmm, to be honest, I play really only OSP and Q3Comp, as I have recently joined Abuse and Team DM is the dish of the day, everyday. RA3 is just too slow for me. I don't like to sit and wait for a round to finish, if I die. I wanna play man!!
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| Ardrigh: What maps in Q3 do you like to play ? Any custom maps that you like the look of ? |
a|rhea: To be honest, I really do like DM13 as a 1v1 map, and DM6 is versatile enough for 1v1 and TDM. DM7 is a really amazing map in the changing dynamics of control under TDM. You just cant hold one area the whole time with equally matched teams. I really got hooked on CPM3 at the recent Lansanity event. After watching it 100s of times, a lot of its subtleties come out that a casual glance doesn't really show.
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| Ardrigh: And programers aren't usually known for their playing skills. How would you rate yourself in Q3 ? |
a|rhea: I'd say I'd play decent. Why, you wanna try me? =P Seriously, playing with Abuse has really picked my game up a couple of notches. Its pretty tough getting out of the FFA mindset in teamplay tho. I suck up way too many resources =)
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| Ardrigh: What Challenge site do you like to read the most ? :o) |
| a|rhea: Challenge-NZ! err.. yea! 8) |
