Yith Interview As part of my continuing interview series, I recently spoke with Yith, creator of the Mage Mod. All the questions used in this interview came from the public, who submitted them by e-mail. Jelan: How long have you been doing the type of coding that you're doing for Mage? Yith: If you mean the specific language then Java, which is the language that Codex is written in is fairly new to me. I've only been using that for about a year. However Java is a logical progression from C++ and thats a very familiar language to me, I've been doing that one full time for about 8 years now. If you mean modding, then its a different matter altogether. This is my first experience of modding. I've played around with skinning a bit. You'll find some of my stuff around for Half-Life. But really it not very good. However, I have written games before. In the early 80s, I never quite had the best computer available. I struggled on by with my ZX81 when the ZX Spectrum was in fashion (sorry that might not mean much to people outside of the UK) and I tried to create the games I'd seen on friends computers on my little machines. Not without a certain amount of success... Though I never had a single game for those published or anything. I did with my Acorn Electron, though. I wrote a Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy clone for that machine, it was published. But didn't sell a single copy. It wasn't very good you see. ;) When I was at University in the late 80s/early 90s I was still very much into games, and the hardware was actually starting to be useful. However, I avoided the Amiga and Atari machines and went straight for PCs. To me the most interesting thing about PCs then was the glorious graphics that could be acheived on a VGA card. I had access to a superb library of books on computer graphics. So I started reading and produced my first program that actually made money! It was a raytracing program and was really pretty darn good. I sold it as shareware for a couple of years and managed to get enough money to pay for my PC. Of course it was soon overtaken by more professional works. Anyway this knowledge of 3d came in very useful with the Milkshape Import/Export. Though I can tell you it was hard work bringing myself back up to speed after a decade of not doing any 3d. . Jelan: Will you be doing any other mods besides Mage? Yith: I'm not sure. I really want to get Mage finished. Ha! Ha! It will probably never be totally finished. The Mage universe is just too big for that. But you can be sure I will try. I'm rather hoping that NSI's next creation will include a bug-fixed Codex that will mean I'll be able to port Mage across to the new game and do all those things that I have been unable to do with this version. We'll just have to wait and see. As far as something totally different goes.. well I don't know. It would have to really grab my imagination and there would have to be nothing else like it in development. I don't really like to duplicate peoples work. Its just a waste of time really. But the thing that is most likely to make a difference is non-computer things. Real-Life and also my obsession with gaming in general will probably force me down a different route once the Mage Mod has reached a stage I am happy with. There is so much to do and I have stopped a lot of my other hobbies in order to get Mage up and running. Perhaps when it is "finished" then I will want to move back to those... Jelan: What inspired you to do the Mage Mod? Yith: Well I was looking around about doing some STing. Thats what I usually end up doing when running PnP. But I could see a number of things that needed doing. The main one was a way to lock exits. It seemed that it was very hard to control where PCs were in order to progress a story. They would run off and do their own thing. Run into areas that were not ready and get them selves killed. A number of solutions seemed to be available but they didn't seem particulary good, or work very well. So I posted the question on the NSI Editing boards... and later the same day whilst still looking for players I logged onto #redemption on EFNet IRC. Almost immediately FreakyFerret jumped on me (an unerving experience for an IRC newbie I can tell you) and sent me some code. It was code that had been supplied by MagicMan or Veldrin (I can't remember which). Anyway, it was the core of what very quickly became the LockExit mod. Spurred on by this success I started looking around. I saw the WoDMod site and decided that this was a very important project, the Vampire part of the mod seemed to be progressing very nicely, but the Mage Team didn't seem to be doing much! So I offered my help. This is about the stage the inspiration kicked in. I had a think about Mage carefully, and realised that there would be no way that we could hope to make everything work in the game-engine itself. However that was true of so much in Vampire. Thats why the ST is there! So the logical progression was to try and do as much as possible and to get the ST to do the rest. But give the ST a helping hand. Make it as easy to use as possible. I then spent 3 weeks on vacation and sat down with print-outs of the codex code and thought very carefully about what could be acheieved. From that was born the Mage Mod design specification that I still work towards today. Jelan: If you could start the mod over, what would you do differently? Yith: Not really sure... I'm actually very happy with how its turning out. Anything that really bothered me I have changed already, or have plans to change. Jelan: If you had one piece of adivce for a beginning mod writer, what would it be? Yith: Ooo a tough one. Investigation and patience. You need to know your subject matter. You need to investigate both the game engine that you are modding and the target of your mod. The best mods are the ones that have a goal. Mods that just pull a few miscellaneous things together will be forgotten. Think of a key ideal and then try to work towards it. Modding, is a lot easier than writing a game from scratch... a lot lot lot easier. However it still takes a hell of a lot of effort. If you come across a problem ask other people, for Vamp the place to do this is the NSI Editing board. You may be lucky, someone may have a solution. However they may not. If not then if you are totally stuck it may be worth while going away and working on a different part of the mod. Time may bring a solution to the problem that you had before. Either someone else may solve it or you may have insight. Specifically for Vamp. Read the NSI Editing board. Look up the tutorials.Read the NOD SDK docs. Learn Java with the tutorials at www.javasoft.com or from books. Look at the files in the vampire.nob files. Investigate into how NSI and other modders do things. But if you use someone elses code, get permission and give them credit. Its only fair. Jelan: If you put together a single player chronicle, what events in Mage history would you like to include? Yith: Well, I don't think I'll be doing that. The way I run Mage and the way it seems it should be run to me is far too dynamic to be made Single Player. I also don't have enough time :(. However I won't let that stop someone else. In fact I would be very happy to help someone else with that. Drop me a line if you have any ideas! Jelan: What spells or rituals would you put in if coding wasn't an issue? Yith: Well in actual fact there are not many that would not fit in. Its amazing the little sneaky tricks you can acheive with codex. But really the ones that are missing are the ones that are well beyond the abilities of PCs. Time travel, divinations, proper polyappearance and correspondence sensings, etc... I don't give up hope with many of the other things that can be done. I really hope we can pull off a good Spirit sphere. But I'm afraid I'm going to be disappointed in that one :(. Its going to be a real toughie. With just one type of obfuscate and the difficulties of making mods to maps its going to always be limiting. But this is why we have STs, in order to make the game become real. And to work around stuff thats just beyond the game. Jelan: What is your "real life" job? Yith: This is going to sound real boring... I write Web Site software for searching university and public libraries and doing inter-library loans. In actual fact it isn't that boring, there are quite a few technical hurdles to get past and its amazing the silly book titles that come up on a search. ;) Jelan:If Nihilistic offered you a position, would you take it? Yith: Well it would depend... It would have to be good money ;) . I would love to do it, I really would. However, I'm not sure that I'm at the right time in my life to emigrate at the moment. Jelan: Did you get the normal or collector's edition of Vampire? Yith: I just got the normal version. I collect things because I find them useful. My magic card collection is just because of that. I used them, I don't like collecting stuff I can't use, and really I figured that I could use the standard game just as well as the Collector's edition. Either way it would be another box to store away on my shelves, and they are getting very very full at the moment. Mostly of White-Wolf books. Another thing is I'm not that big a fan of Vampire PnP. I am a fan, but not a big fan. My favourite RPG by far is Mage. Vampire is just useful for crossover within the WoD. I also rather like Werewolf. But again not as much as Mage. I have Changeling and Wraith too, but I still have yet to play a game of those (or read them in the case of Changeling ;) ). Jelan: Would you like to see an official Mage game? Yith:Would I ever! However I fear that it could be a disappointment. There is just too much that you can't do. Just like when I realised that VTMR Lasombra couldn't do Shroud of Night (one of my favourite disicpline powers). As a result I lost interest in running them in the MP game. Even with wodmod. I can imagine that happening throughout an official Mage game. Also the linear plot approach would definately not work for Mage. It would be far too limiting. On the other end a dynamic plot line would also never be dynamic enough for a Mage game. The only hope I see is to have an ST running the show. Just as we have now. That would mean an MP only game and a developer won't get the required funding to do that. At least not properly. Go on, someone prove me wrong! Jelan:Are you planning on making an animation exporter for Milkshape? Yith: Well, I see it as being an necessity, and I don't see anyone else rushing to do it ;) So I will probably be the one who does. However I am rather stuck on the problems we are still having with the skeletons. They still don't work properly. I think I need more insight into the internal workings of Milkshape. As such I sent have the code to Mete of Chumbalum Soft and hope that he can do something with the code. For now I am going to concentrate on Mage Mod. Jelan: Will you be adding new console commands for the Mage Mod? Yith:Well I already have in fact ;) In the latest private beta I have added an stcmd that activates and deactivates HitMarks. Other commands will be added as necessary. I don't really like using console commands, I always end up mistyping them myself and then the commands get sent to the players. Which is not a good idea. I would much prefer to have a menuing system. But instead we have to work within the limitation of Disciplines. This is a major limitation. We need to have a better user interface. But I'm afraid we're stuck with what we've got. :( Jelan: What kind of education do you have? Yith: I have a standard English education. 'O' Levels followed by 'A' Levels followed by a 1st Class Honours Degree in Electronic Engineering. Okay, a good standard English education. :) What's more interesting is that I have received hardly any formal computer programming education. Thats all been done through hobbies or work. Jelan: What do you do in your free time other than playing around with Redemption? Yith: Ha! Ha! Mage Mod has taken over my life! Well actually I do do other stuff. I am Treasurer and Web Master for our local gaming society (www.leaping.to/cogs) and that usually takes up a fair amount of time. On the web site you'll see a StarShip Troopers wargame. Thats all my own work. I really want to get another similar project going but I don't have time... I also do PnP roleplaying every Sunday (all day) with a group of freinds. This group has been going on for around 9 years now, although it bears no resemblance to its early days. We are currently playing a Technocracy Mage game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and a custom made Hero game. As you can see we like the variety :) . Oh and I'm running a D&D 3rd ed game at the wargames club too. I am also a great fan of German board games, We play Settlers of Catan a hell of a lot, probably far too much in fact! But there are other favourites too. Its not all games, games, games though, I do like to go to see films, go out for nice meals, I like to cook my own curries and of course travel the world :) Jelan: What are your plans for the future of the Mage Mod? Yith: Well I first want to get the standard rotes finished off... at the moment I have been side-tracked with HitMarks... after that I have to get the reality paradigms sorted out so that people can play properly in the Dark Ages etc... also in the Umbra. Then there's all the other NPCs, and tradition/convention specific rotes, core changes to handle Marauders, other forms of paradox backlash, spirits etc... In other words loads of stuff... And the list gets bigger all the time. If anyone has a feature they would really like, then mail me and I'll add it to the list. Of course these sort of things get done quicker with a little extra help... hint, hint...