Hardtalk Exclusive

STG

1: First of all, for anyone who hasn't heard of you (is that possible? lol) tell us a little about yourself and projects you have been involved with in the trek community?

Chris Jones

Well, I live in upstate New York, USA, in a place called the Adirondack Mountains, with a family, a mortgage, and several computers. Since the days of the first Starfleet Command I have produced several modifications of each game in the series, ranging from TOS up through and including the Nemesis era. I’ve also produced or adapted several map packs for Bridge Commander, many of them based on actual Star Trek worlds and situations.

STG

2: When did you first enter the Star Trek gaming community and what made you pick up your first Star Trek game off the shelf?

Chris Jones

It was in early 2000, after I had been playing the Starfleet Command demo, and discovered that I could make the ships do different things than they were originally designed to do. I wanted to have a go at modding the full version.

STG

3: What made you first start modding Star Trek games? Was it just out of pure curiosity? Or was it due to someone inviting you to try it out all those years ago?

Chris Jones

My first ever modding experience was with the first Starfleet Command when I had the Federation Battleship going full speed with mega-shields and a full weapons lead-out. My brother had called me and said I had to check out the changes he’d made to the SFC demo. I remember thinking I’d rather have a Galaxy class ship doing that in my Star Trek game, and there were several modellers making new ships for the game at the time. I was heavy into Deep Space Nine, and wanted my game to act like that as much as possible. With all due respect the original series and the characters that started Star Trek, in a gaming setting I prefer the ‘Next Generation’ characters and ships.

STG

4: A lot of people don't know the kind of work which goes into making a full scale multi race mod for Star Trek - Starfleet Command 2 EAW/OP and Starfleet Command 3. What process do you follow to make one of your large multirace mods?

Chris Jones

It depends on the game being modded, but you have to look at the number of available race slots – and then decide what races you’d like to have in there. Let’s take the Universe At War Mod for Orion Pirates, which evolved out of an older mod. It originally started way back with the TNG mod for EAW. That mod grew into a multi-era mod for EAW, which inspired the OP version of same, Universe At War. I simply gather up the ships I would like, seeking permission along the way. A few modelers have said that I can use anything they make, so long as they get credit. This leads into another aspect of making mods for Starfleet Command, getting rid of those pesky ??? that I see in a lot of mods. That is a pet peeve of mine. In all SFCs you can customize the name of the ship (in SFC1,2,OP you can customize two descriptions in the ship select screen). In one of the customizations I give credit to the model authors. The ship might say ‘Sovereign Class NCC-1701E’, but the ‘refit’ area would say, ‘Bridge Commander Model by Hawkeye, C2X textures’. It is hard to pin down an exact procedure as I tend to do several things at once. Once the ships are in place lots of beta testing happens, which is when we note the ???, funny specs, ships that don’t show up, and other oddities such as missing break-up models.

STG

5: Looking at the amount of mods you have made for SFC 2 alone, and including all the other mods you continue to make and have worked on in SFC 3, what is your favourite mod which you have worked on to date and why?

Chris Jones

I think the most recent one for OP called ‘The Universe At War’, which is available in 7 parts here on STG was my favourite one to work on. It was originally called, ‘The TNG Mod for OP’. It was never complete in my eyes when I released the final version in October 2002 – as in I wanted to come back to it at some point. As you know in November of 2002 SFC3 was here. I did a TNG Mega Mod for SFC3, still available, that others expanded upon and went further. I did come back to the old OP mod in the Summer of 2004, turning it into a Multi-Era mod. I like the Multi-Era idea because everyone can enjoy it. We are considering a Dynaverse server for the seven part UAW Mod. Just to note, I chose to expand on the Orion Pirates mod instead of the SFC3 mod mainly because I wanted a lot more than four race slots. OP has 16 race slots allowing for much variety, even though I don’t get warp or reverse with it.

STG

6: Looking outside of the massive amount of mods you have made for the SFC Community, lets take a look at the other mod projects going on in games outside of the Starfleet Command franchise. Bridge Commander...more specifically the Bridge Commander 2 project which is headed by the one and only Raven Night. Your on the team for the project and a lot of people in the BC community are really looking forward to the final release of this mod. Can you give us the general info on the mod for BC and the role you are doing in the design of the mod?

Chris Jones

Bridge Commander is loads of fun. Some background.. After the release of the last part of my SFC3 TNG Mega Mod in May 2003, I was feeling burned out on Starfleet Command as I had been doing it for so long. One morning I opened up Ship edit (great tool!) and couldn’t proceed. I had been dabbling (I like that word) in Bridge Commander since its release in 2002 but was too heavy into OP modding that year to do much with it. BC is TNG out of the box and that intrigued me. In hanging around on Bridge Commander Universe I read up on adding ships and making systems maps. There’s a Solar System Creation thread by Banzai Zap on BCU that got me hooked. I remember when I first got my own planet to show up in a game. It was like being a kid again, and off I went. I made some systems for myself and got thinking I wanted some ships in these static systems. BC involves python scripting, and I was a little rusty on it. I asked some questions, and got to know Jeff Watts, Jr. He helped me in adding AI ships to my systems and we eventually expanded that into the Multiplayer arena. Somewhere in there The Bridge Commander 2 project was kicking off. BC2 is going to be a freely downloadable mod with an engaging storyline, with all new ships, bridges, scripts, and system maps. I am doing the system maps for BC2. Some maps are of real star systems in space some are conceptual. It promises to be quite the mod. There will also be a Mutliplayer aspect of BC2, which involves some intense python, that I’ll handle the maps for as well.

STG

7: Bridge Commander and the Starfleet Command series are completely different games, what made you get involved in the BC 2 project and what are the differences in modding the Bridge Commander game? Is modding BC more harder than the SFC series?

Chris Jones

I got into BC modding for the challenge of it, and because I do like what the BC engine does for ships and solar systems, especially now with the mod called NanoFx. In May of 2003 I stopped doing SFC mods to take up BC. At the time I was wanting to take a break from SFC to get a fresh perspective. After releasing some BC system map packs I was asked to join the BC2 team by Raven and gladly accepted. Modding BC is a bit more difficult than modding SFC in that you have to know a bit about scripting in the python language. Python got easier as I went along, and became fun. What I do is easier in BC, I think, than hardpointing a ship in BC. Making new systems is fun. For instance, in my Sol Multisytem version 2 single player map pack (Multisytem meaning you can warp between systems), the one with required downloads, the Mars system has several scenarios – Two Stardocks, one dockable btw, an asteroid moving towards one dock that you need to destroy, and several AI ships. The AI ships are friendly if you are Federation or Klingon. If you are any other race, they will attack you. In addition, the planet Mars has NanoFx atmospheres, thus adding to the scenery. In a Multiplayer map pack that Jeff Watts, Jr. and I did, you enter a system with about 12 ships all attacking each other, and you if you get close enough. One of the aspects of BC Multiplayer is that you can only add permanent AI ships in a static map if you don’t add any new (non-original) ships into the multiplayer game. I had a lot of ideas and Jeff was a tremendous help and inspiration in getting them implemented. Starfleet Command is easier to add ships to, and the Multiplayer does not really care if the shiplists are mismatched. There are many less restrictions in SFC modding.

STG

8: Whets on the cards for Chris Jones in BC modding after the final release of Bridge Commander 2?

Chris Jones

Not sure yet. I’d like to help with Elminster’s Dominion Wars idea, if I get the time. We’ll have our hands full supporting BC2.

STG

9: What projects apart from Bridge Commander 2 are you currently working on in the trek game modding scene? Let the folks out there know what your current projects are all about and why they should play them :)

Chris Jones

I am looking at Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. Have you seen what Darkshimmer, DarkDrone, and DarkThunder are doing for that game? They are turning it into Star Trek. As of this writing the game is not being sold in the US, but I plan to get it and get into system map making for that game. I’ve recently finished up the OP Mod called Universe At War, mentioned earlier. It is the most extensive mod I’ve ever put together. It brings all new ships, graphics, and audio, including music, into Orion Pirates in a Multi-Era setting. You can get it here on STG in 7 parts. Missions are planned as well. As a bonus, I am updating, as time permits, the old SFC2: EAW Multi-Era shiplists. There were 7 different shiplists in that mod, lol.

STG

10: Moving off from the modding scene for a few questions, the hardtalk series of interviews give people a chance to voice there views and opinions on the trek game franchise. Paramount will no doubt be reading the interviews, especially since the name of Chris Jones is one of the most respected names in modding trek gaming.

First off, if you had the chance to go back to the early days of trek gaming, back in the days of Klingon Academy for instance, and Paramount gave you the opportunity to change trek gaming by releasing and designing games which YOU thought would be a good idea, what games in the current trek fold like Armada, EF, SFC and the likes would you take and expand upon, and why?

Chris Jones

I would have brought out a Next Generation game a bit sooner, or perhaps a Multi-era game. Most everything at the time of Klingon Academy was Kirk/Spock based. That’s fine, but most Trek gamers were watching TNG, DS9, and Voyager at the time. To be honest, Armada didn’t hit me right, I think because the ships were just too small. If we could have taken the original SFC2: EAW, and made it an engaging story line set in multiple eras, much like the ‘Generations’ movie, it would have worked. The early era could be TOS, mid era TMP (motion picture), and late era as TNG. I also would have investigated the 3D idea for the engine. If done right and promoted right, it could grasp all Trekkers, old and new. This is what I’ve done the big Multi-Era mods; The one for EAW online here at STG, and the recent OP release of ‘The Universe At War’.

STG

11: Looking at the current state of trek gaming and the release of the new MMORPG in 2007, do you think Paramount should try to release a new game, possibly a sequel to Bridge Commander or Armada 3 in 2005/6? Or do you think they should concentrate all the resources they have into the MMORPG game?

Chris Jones

The new MMORPG will obviously require lots of resources and time to implement so I think the major concentration should be on that. However, I’d like to see something to ‘Bridge’ the gap, so to speak, between now and then. What would be ideal, I think, would be a Bridge Commander sequel that, if nothing else, patches up the inability to have a dedicated server. Also, incorporating a lot of the fan based mods for that game would be ideal. Many people feel, as I do, that BC could have been so much more upon its release. However, I am also aware of how the real world works.

STG

12: If you are on the phone to Paramount right now, and they asked you for your opinion on the future of trek gaming inside and outside of the modding scene, what would you tell them?

Chris Jones

I would say the future is bright. Trek gaming is not dead, or dying, It just needs a shot in the arm. It is much the same situation as when The Original Series was about to go off the air and the fans launched a massive mail in campaign to keep it going. What I’m getting at is that Star Trek gamers are a vocal lot, and will not simply fade away. The big thing is to listen to the fans, as they play daily and know the game inside and out. The beauty of Trek games is that they can be modded, and in a lot of cases these mods become more popular than the original game. The mods keep the game alive, and Star Trek itself.

STG

13: Whats the worst and best aspects of trek gaming's franchise and it's community that you have seen so far?

Chris Jones

The worst – that’s a tough one as I don’t like to write negative comments but I might have said Starfleet Academy. It was mildly interesting at best – I think because it was not Next Generation. That being said, the best gaming franchise has to be Starfleet Command. Since the demo of the first SFC many fans including myself have been hooked. The worst thing however, that can happen to a game like SFC with such a loyal and vocal fan base is that a game ship with too many bugs. Yes patches can save it down the road, but a game should be relatively bug free out of the box. Again, I am aware of business world deadlines and realities. I just wanted to mention a fun game I still have on CD. ‘Star Trek: Unity’ by Spectrum Holobyte. That actually was the first Trek game I played on the PC.

The best aspect of the community has to be the camaraderie of the fans and gamers. For the most part, people feed off and learn from each other.

STG

14: Back onto the subject of modding for the last few questions again :) Looking to other community sites like www.dynaverse.net and the Dynaverse Gaming Association© based in dynaverse.net, they are working on securing the release of the source code for the SFC 2 - OP game and possibly SFC 2 EAW as well. What do you see will be the major changes in the modding of those 2 games when the DGA finally secure the release of the code? Will it benefit modders like yourself and will it make your job making mods a bit more harder?

Chris Jones

Securing source code would be an absolute blessing for the regular SFB gamers in that a great many features from the SFB ruleset could be implemented. Source code would be also greatly benefit the modding community. Regarding SFC: OP: we would then be able to add in features and weapons that we felt would enhance the game even more – things like Warp, reverse, possibly having more than six players in multiplayer, and perhaps even more than 16 race slots. I’d like to talk for a bit on what I believe are the three distinct types of gamers playing the various versions of Starfleet Command. The first is the hardcore SFBer, the person who played the board game and wants to see SFC mirror that as much as possible. The second would be the Trekker, the person who wants to see in a PC game what he/she sees on TV and in the movies. The third is the casual gamer who just likes to shoot at things, which there’s a bit of that in all of us. Source code would benefit the first 2 gamer types I mentioned, especially in SFC: OP. I fall into the second category of wanting to see in a game what’s on TV and in the movies, which is why I started modding in the first place. Give me my Galaxy and Sovereign class ships, lol. For me personally, having my OP game with many of the SFC3 features like warp, reverse, and perhaps a true cloak, would be a dream come true. For EAW, being able to upgrade that game would make that particular fan base happy as well, although it may not be needed as much because you can essentially turn EAW into OP with source code.

STG

15: Looking to the older community sites like us here at STG and to ChessMess' STGU, what can they do to make the life of modders a bit more easier?

Chris Jones

Stay alive! Just keep supporting Star Trek gaming as you have been with current Trek and Trek gaming news. Also, the occasional interview like this one wouldn’t hurt! It has been said many times that mods keep games alive, and as long as you continue to support mods you’ll help in the support of the modders. Let me backtrack a bit. In the Spring of 2003 I was given a lifetime achievement award from Taldren for supporting their games through mods and such. David Ferrell initiated that, and I am very grateful. It was because of sites like yours that mention and support mods that I was able to get that award.

STG

16: Any future projects on the horizon for you? If so, what are the storylines?

Chris Jones

None in my head right now, but I have thought of making maps for games like MOHAA, Counter Strike, and Enemy Territory. My first priority would be anything Trek related. I do love the look of ‘Nexus: The Jupiter Incident’. As of this writing I am associated with a fine group of gamers known as CUGS, that runs King of Hill tourneys on GSA on the weekends. You can find me on GSA a lot supporting my own mods and answering questions.

STG

17: ...and finally, do you have any peices of advice for the aspiring modder for the SFC series of games who are just starting to mod the game?

Chris Jones

Plan your mod out, and don’t try to do too much at the same time. Ask questions and use the forums that are available to you. The veterans of the SFC gaming community, including myself, are very willing to help. One more thing which is the most important – HAVE FUN!