BFNation Exclusive Point of Existence Interview

[WesFine]

Recently I had a chance to sit down with the dev team behind the popular modern combat mod Point of Existence.

This is one hell of team and one hell of a mod, they're BF2 release titled for now as "POE:2" is gonna rock. Make sure you check out the interview and keep posted to BFNation for all your PoE needs. The two screenshots below are POE:2 renders, enjoy

1. Congratulations on your latest release I've been hearing all kinds of great things about the new PoE .4 build. I've watched this mod become more and more the most popular mod available for Battlefield: Vietnam; and now with BF2 in the very near future is .4 the last BF:V build we will see or will their be continued support for Vietnam even after PoE:BF2 is released?

{Hathcock} – The team came to an agreement that the .4.4 release would be our last BF:V build. From seeing how improved the BF:2 engine is over the Vietnam engine we want to concentrate our time and effort with POE:2 We don't have the amount of staff that would be needed to keep up on the maintenance for two games. For the gamers that won't be making the move over to Battlefield:2 we do apologize and hope you understand our stance on this.

2. How does the team feel about EA's attempt to reach out to the mod development community? EA claims it will be releasing the most comprehensive tools it has ever created for mod teams, essentially the same programs used to create BF2, do you feel the new materials will open new doors to the team and allow for even more than what BF2 will offer?

{Hathcock}: The team is looking forward to getting their hands on the editing tools once they become available to the community. Some were disappointed that the tools have been delayed but I think everyone would rather have something that "works" verse something that wasn't ready. EA has done a great job with introducing BF:2 to the main mod teams with the initial invite to California (or Sweden) for the official modders day and with providing the intro's to the teams ahead of time. EA has definitely stepped up to the plate with working with the mod teams to make BF:2 the best game out in the community.

{Packetloss}: Agreed. Definate thanks go to dice and ea in this respect. They've bent over backwards for modders with bf2. From the embedded python interpreter to small things like .zip files instead of the old, nasty .rfa system. They did they best to provide us with documentation for modelling and other info packs long before bf2 came out. I'll quote EA's scotty rotten here: "I can't wait to see what kind of MODs the community builds using the BF2 tech. We purposely built the game engine with the MOD community in mind. The one feature we didn't get to that we wanted to put in was support for 4-legged vehicles" Hey - at least they tried to let us make ridable elephants

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3. First it was Desert Combat, now it's Point of Existence, next it's BF2. How does the PoE team anticipate that it will continue to appeal to the modern combat fans of the Battlefield series? Aside from the dedicated fans of PoE, why should new BF2 fans who may have never heard of PoE download your modern combat mod when they have BF2 already?

{Hathcock}: For players that have never played POE before, just realize that we will be taking BF:2 further than what has been already provided. The team works very hard to incorporate new ideas and try different things to promote "team play" and to provide numerous more hours of great and exciting fun. The development team takes the time to listen to the fans and try to include things that they would like in the game. After a build is released, our community has different options to get support. They can post in our forums or they can join our IRC support channel and get a "real person" to assist them. Both the Developers and Testers monitor both so we can make sure that you are getting the support that you need so you can enjoy your "gaming" time. The team attempts to keep the "mod" in the near future of today so we can have the leverage of adding things to our liking to the mod and add things that we (and the community) thinks is cool. Besides all of that, we will expand on BF:2 and add additional countries which will give everyone different flavors of military weapons to play around with so that people don't get bored with playing the game.


4. I've followed the PoE team since essentially the beginning of it's BF:V career. For some of you on the team, you may remember for that even a short while I was even part of your team. I've watched the team change and grow adding new members and letting members go. Now with EA members on your team and the talent that I and the community already knows exists, how do you feel about how you all work together as an international group and how your combined skills affect the outcome of future PoE builds? Specifically, what the new talent is bringing to the team and what changes in the styles of the builds the community can come to expect in the future?

{Hathcock}: We definitely had some people come and go with the team which is expected when you're working on a project on your "free time". For a while things had become very stressful within the team but I think things have changed for the best. Some members who had left are now back on the team (w00k1e & packtloss) and we have brought on other talented guys to assist us. Things are back to where we were when POE started and that's with our guys being creative again. Back to the basics of thinking outside of the box and trying to see what we can do together as a team to push the new game engine to the limits like we did with the Vietnam engine. Since the question was brought up about our "Staff" I would like to let the community know that we are still looking for talented developers. We have openings in our coding, skinning, modeling/skinning departments. If you are interested please feel free to contact us at poeoperations@gmail.com with examples of your work. We do get back to everyone that utilizes this e-mail address initially and then we'll respond the second time to invite you or decline your request to join us.

{Arkane} With the addition of AB and the R&D staff brings over five decades of actual multi-service multi-country military experience to the team with numerous real world conflict experience. A few of us are still serving. We've got Marines, Helo Pilots, Master Gunners, Rangers, and the list goes on. All of us are dedicated to make PoE the best out there.

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5. As we come to the close of the interview, I'd like to discuss how the PoE team plans to incorporate the new features that BF2 brings into game play. Not only the new engine, but the new player options available. For instance features such as the Commander, will there be a similar role in PoE:BF2, will it be modified or even included at all?

{Packetloss} At this point, we think the best course of action is to watch bf2 play develop. As we see how things like the commander mode and its features are being overused, underused or just plain misused - We'll implement our fixes and tweaks as we see fit to our style of gameplay. We have some thoughts and ideas we've already started experimenting with - We'll keep you posted!

6. I know its impossible to say with any certainty anything concerning the future of a mod. But in the near future, concerning PoE:BFV or PoE:BF2 what can fans expect to hear officially from the PoE dev team?

{Daarken} PoE will also be conducting a new round of tester interviews. These new testers will have to exceed the level of level of dedication and performance that we have seen in the past.

{Hathcock} Officially we would like the community to know that we are still alive and active. The team has been working hard and some of the guys have continued to improve their abilities and have learned how to do multiple different things. We want to expand on what EA/Dice provided to the community and take it to another level.

I had alot of fun with this guys, thanks again for sitting down with us. Make sure to stay tuned to BFN for furture PoE news.