Gosho Interviews Hello IcySon55 and Arikado. Thank you for agreeing to this interview.
Gosho: #1	Can you start off by telling our readers who you are, in the community, and in real life?
IcySon55:	IcySon55, IcySon or Icy for short. I’m co-leader of TAKTICS and a few other projects like FNT Editor, PAL Editor, and TMP Builder. In reality, I’m Wilson, I work a regular five day week and that’s pretty much it. Not too many exciting things happen.
Arikado:	I’m Kevin, and for those who frequent the PPM Site forums, Arikado. I’m the reluctant and terribly lazy co-creator and lead designer/modeler for TAKTICS. For any readers who still think I’m Romanian, they need to play the Castlevania game series.
Gosho: #2	How did you two get introduced into the Command and Conquer series? Any fun stories, strange experiences or memorable moments to share about the influence C&C has had on your life?
IcySon55:	I started playing Red Alert 1 in elementary school and later bought TD, TS, and RA2. No really notable experiences yet. Maybe when we release the demo and play some multiplayer…who knows.
Arikado:	I got into Command & Conquer and the Real Time Strategy genre on the PC in general, through Dune 2 - the SEGA Megadrive/Genesis version.
Gosho: #3	Why do you two [still] mod C&C games? And why did you stop particularly on Yuri’s Revenge, when there are the SAGE engine games, which offer much better graphics and engine functionality?
IcySon55:	I only came back to modding C&C when the idea for TAKTICS came up. We’re not using the SAGE engine games because if we went 3D, we’d want a real 3D cel-shading capable engine. To my knowledge, SAGE can’t be set to render in a cel-shaded mode. At least not without new code being written. We’re not capable of writing such things ourselves. Yuri’s was the next best thing.
Arikado:	Since Icy was more familiar with modifying Command & Conquer and already part of the community, I let him take the reigns on which engine to use. Plus, at the time we began TAKTICS, my computer was unable to run Generals.
Gosho: #4	You two are obviously C&C fans. Which is your favorite faction of the series and why? In a real situation, would you actually support it if it called upon you?
IcySon55:	The Allies from RA1, as it’s my favorite C&C and most played single player missions. I wouldn’t support any army, ever.
Arikado:	That’s easy - Red Alert 2’s Soviets, and it’s because I love the alternate reality setting and technology. :3 But I’m not a Communist.
Gosho: #5	Which genre of music would you say describes best your inner-self? What about the faction you support?
IcySon55:	I can’t choose a genre because I like just about all of them. For RA1 Allies…no idea, really. Maybe Fogger. =P
Arikado:	Does video game music count as a genre?
Gosho: #6	If you had the chance to visit one gaming studio at any time period and spend time during the development of a game, which studio and game would you choose?
IcySon55:	I’ve played so many games I’ve thoroughly enjoyed that I can’t possibly visit just one studio, but if I had to choose, I’d visit Retro for the development of the Metroid Prime trilogy.
Arikado:	That would be either: (A) Getting drunk with Howard Scott Warshaw in 1982, while he works on Atari 2600’s masterpiece, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. (B) Witnessing first hand John Romero’s Daikatana development cycle in all its hilarity. (C) Shake 3D Realms’ George Broussard Jr. the Third’s cybernetic hand as Duke Nukem Forever goes Gold and is released for NinSosoft’s GameStationBox 512¼.
Gosho: #7	TAKTICS (The Awakened Kingdom – The Initial Chaotic Strike) is the brave idea of putting the Mario world into a 2.5D RTS engine. Can you give our readers the story of how you came up with that idea?
IcySon55:	Many years ago, I hand animated a ten minute video featuring ShyGuys and a few other characters from Yoshi’s Island. That video inspired a school project called ShyGuy Commando Tactics. Which after laughing about it for a while ended in us thinking about creating a Mario RTS. The name came around later and it all just fell into place.
Arikado:	A random idea for a school assignment that went terribly right.
Gosho: #8	Although there is still no storyline posted yet, have you guys pondered anything so far?
IcySon55:	The general idea of our story line is depicted in the full title. What it actually means will be disclosed at the appropriate time.
Arikado:	We have been working to get the demo out the door and into the public’s eager fingers. However, while the main details haven’t been set in stone as of yet, a general setting and sequence of events are more or less done.
Gosho: #9	So far, we have seen two realms being turned into terrain types – the Overworld and the Skyworld. Besides them, what else is planned? Any underwater terrain? Will there also be new, never before seen terrains?
Arikado:	We’ll be trying to translate most of the major outdoor environments from the classic games to TAKTICS.
IcySon55:	I have Underworld in the pipeline and the other three are still floating ideas. There won’t be any underwater terrain as it’d require doubles of all the units with deep-ocean gear and different weapons. I’m not too sure about completely original terrain at this point in time. Only the future will reveal that.
Arikado:	Yeah, while our mod is outside of realism, having ShyGuys and Toads walking and firing guns while on the sea floor is quite silly. Not to mention the open concept buildings somehow operating.
Gosho: #10	In the future campaign, will we see Mario himself saving the Princess? What moments of the classical games will be pictured in the mod?
IcySon55:	To my knowledge, none of the classical moments will appear in TAKTICS. The obvious and clichéd route of Mario saves Princess is being thoroughly avoided. We’ve got something much better in mind.
Arikado:	TAKTICS will try and go beyond the classic cliché that all the Mario games seem to be stuck in.
Gosho: #11	The money system has always been a part of C&C. What resource will you use to substitute for the ore and gems, if any?
IcySon55:	Simply put, coins. The gems will be replaced by blue and red coins. Ore spreaders will be coin blocks that spit out coins every now and then.
Arikado:	Coins - the only universal currency in the Mario universe.
Gosho: #12	Although quite repetitive, the original Mario games had very nice soundtracks. Will we see a remixed, modernized version of those songs or new tunes in that style? Who will compose the soundtrack?
Arikado:	At first we were going to replace all the songs with Frank Klepacki’s original album music. We’d lose the Mario-like melodies in exchange for more Klepacki. As we continued the mod, we realized it needed its own style.
IcySon55:	We will indeed be creating completely fresh modernized remixes and even original tracks for the mod in Mario style. A rag-tag team of composers will be in charge of all of TAKTICS’ music.
Gosho: #13	Can you give the background of your choice of factions? Why start with EBN? Any particular liking of the little guys over the rest of the universe?
IcySon55:	The real influence that started us on EBN was my old video. I found the way ShyGuys walked in Yoshi’s Island to be very funny which inspired me to create that video.
Arikado:	Also because the first model was a Shyguy and we went on from there.
Gosho: #14	Graphics-wise, the mod is exquisitely perfectionist, but graphics are only a smaller part of a great game. What interesting game-play solutions have you planned so far?
IcySon55:	We’re making hilarious use of RA2 current and future capabilities and combining them with what you’d normally see happen in a Mario game. Infantry getting transformed into yellow Koopas by Kamek and the like.
Arikado:	That’s Icy’s department. Though I always get a first, second and final say.
Gosho: #15	TAKTICS is going to use an .exe hack to expand it's possibilities. Will you rely on one of the public ones or will you use a custom made hack?
IcySon55:	TAKTICS will be using a customized version of RockPacth2. Not much else to say about it.
Arikado:	I dunno. I’m just the artist. ┐o_O┌
Gosho: #16	Have you made any plans for TAKTICS to become standalone at any point in the future, following the example of some other C&C mods?
IcySon55:	The TAKTICS demo will indeed be a standalone game. It will only require RA2 if you want to play on XWIS. Otherwise, network games over Hamachi will work just fine (XP only). It will also install into it’s very own directory. For example: C:\Program Files\TAKTICS
Arikado:	See #15 for the answer to that and the meaning of life.
Gosho: #17	The general public is fascinated by the graphical quality and the originality of the mod. The demo version is on it’s way and people are wanting, even demanding it. Do you intend to satisfy that demand on some holiday, like New Year’s Day or Easter? Any Easter eggs that we can expect?
IcySon55:	There is a chance of a Teaser Trailer around Christmas time. Sadly the demo won’t make it for this year. We hope to release it around the time RP2 comes out. Might even make TAKTICS a featured mod of RP2 depending on what PD has to say about the subject.
Arikado:	Regardless of demand or holiday, it’ll be done when it’s done. No rushing, no cutting corners. Easter eggs normally aren’t present in demos. Plus, we’d rather concentrate on the main game.
Gosho: #18	Thank you for the time spent answering my questions. Now, for the grand finale of our interview, I have one last question. Do you have something not yet shown to the public to show them?
IcySon55:	You’re welcome, and yes we do. There’s quite a bit we have not shown. It might be appearing in our forums sooner or later though. Stay tuned!
Arikado:	Not a problem. There’s always something that hasn’t been shown yet. Mostly because we forgot to post it - like EBN’s other vehicles.