Interview with Howard Roy (aka. Solo)
Since Inside 3D has a lot to do with QuakeC, why not interview the QuakeC Guru himself? (Yes, he even got an award) Some of you might know Howard from The Killer Quake Pack - One of the very best deathmatch patches out there. What you might not know so much about, is his new TC, Padigrim.
KQP Homepage

Howard Roy Interview | And quite an interesting one too!

Mr?> For those who don't know you, who are you and what work have you done in the Quake Community



Mr?> How, and when did you get the idea of The "Killer Quake Pack" ?
    Solo> Well, the first time I play Quake I was slightly disappointed with it, there's very little things that are new when compared to DOOM, except the cool 3D engine. But then later I found out the potential of QC coding, after playing a few patches, and wanted more out of those patches, so I've started my very first Quake patch, that is the KQP.


Mr?> How many months have you been working on the project, and do you think it has been a succsess?
    Solo> I've spent more than 11 months on this project (at least), and I'm still working on it. And I consider this project as a success even if there is one happy KQP player (besides myself) exists on this planet, and up to now, I've recevied more than 500 emails from people all over the world saying they love KQP, and in fact, I've got hired by Katana Software because of this project, so I consider it as a very successful project.


Mr?> What do you think is the best feature in the KQP?
    Solo> CTF KQP, QW KQP, and something like that. |8^) (Already coded? -ed)


Mr?> With the Release of KQP 2.0Z you included ZeusBots. What do you think this has done to the patch.
    Solo> Oh, that's a totally new change to KQP. I mean people without multiplayer connection could play KQP with a bot now, that are (almost) as good as human players, and can use most of KQP's new weapons..


Mr?> I have heard that The KQP will turn into a DM only patch within the next release. Is this true?
    Solo> Not the immediate next release (ie. KQP 2.2z), but will be in KQP 3.0z. The reason is that Quake couldn't read a huge size progs.dat (the data file which contains all the gameplay of the patch), and since the addition of the Zeus, it's increased the size of KQP's main code by 20%, so that've used up all usable space in Quake's engine for program codes. Even with the help from the author of FastQcc, I couldn't get Quake to read the progs.dat properly, so I was forced to remove some monsters in KQP 2.1z. For me to add new features to new versions of KQP, I have to remove the monsters totally, which includes CTF or Team play for Zeus bots.


Mr?> Do you have any plans on releasing a KQP version for Quake2?
    Solo> Certainly! But since we've a plan at Katana Software that we'll be doing a TC for Quake 2 as well, it may limit my time in doing KQP for Quake 2. However, as Nelno (zeus bot's author, hired by Ion Storm for Daikatana) told me that with Quake 2's DLL interface, you are able to run multiple patches simultanously, so a combination patch will no longer be needed (eg. you could run Zeus bots for Q2 AND reaper bots for Q2 - if they exist - together and see which is better!). So in Q2, I may be doing new weapons and features like radar, portal gun, etc instead of doing a combination patch, we'll see what'll happen. |8^) ( Now, that "multiple .dll" thingy, really sounds cool, doesn't it?! -Ed)


Mr?> Some of those reading this interview, might not know about you're next project, Paradigm. Can you tell us a little about this project.

    Solo> Paradigm is an upcoming TC from Katana Software, and if you want to know more about it, point to http://www.katanasoft.com, where you'll get more details about the project.

    In short, after coding for KQP for almost a year, I've learned many thing about how to make a weapon or things like that to be the most fun to play with, and will be welcome by all Quake player. Such weapon or item will not only be a fire and gib weapon, but will involve a totally different type of deployment to get the most out of it. And I'll be doing EVERY weapon and item in Paradigm that way, make sure it'll just not be another nailgun or rocket clone.

    For example, the katana in Paradigm, is not an Axe clone. Even though it's easy enough for beginner to use it, it'll take time to master. Once you're skilled with it, you could even execute combos and deadly critical hits will it. Not only you could control the movement of the blade itself, you could also use it to block incoming projectiles.

    And that's just one weapon on the TC, not to mention we've a totally new and exciting space ship dogfighting gameplay in Paradigm? Try to combine Quake and Wing Commander plus some damn cool weapon designs and you'll get Paradigm.



Mr?> Why buy a TC?

    Solo> Well, it's up to you, you could always say, why pay money for a commercial TC while you could download patches and other TC on the net? The reason is, you're not only paying for the game, you're paying for quality jobs done right. Many freeware TC have desires to get their TC done the best, but due to the fact that they're free, all the team members work on the project as part timers, in commercial TC, however, you'll have people investing full time into the project, so not only you'll get a new game with different game play, you'll also get better quality maps, models, codes, sound and so on.


Mr?> How many Hours do you usually code a day?
    Solo> Well, from 2 hours a day to 10 hours a day. Right now, I'm too busy playing Ultima Online. |8^)


Mr?> Last, but not least, where can we get more information about you're killer projects?
    Solo> There's not much I could say right now, if I've more news, I'll post it to the KQP mailing list as well as the news page in KQP site. Once last thing I could say is, in KQP 2.2z, there will be a public accessible secret weapon (or 2) hidden, so find it out and use it for your own good! |8^)




A big thanks goes to Howard Roy, for letting me interview him. It was Quite interesting, wasn't it? Thanks!