JRandomNoob, on 16 September 2015 - 08:27 AM, said:
Spoiler
The prehistory of Urban Terror, straight from the low-poly horse’s mouth
Presumably he converted that map after the Q3Tools (mapping tools) release sometime between December 10 and December 22, since it would’ve been a bit complicated without it. The skin pack was trivial since there had been no less than seven stripped-down networking test releases from April through November.
The mod making mayhem kicked off in January 15 with the release of the Quake 3 SDK. Now it became possible to create proper mods, including full conversions like one Urban Terror. Originally, UrT had a homepage at q3mods.net (the team consisted of BotKiller and Preacher back then), but this was unfortunately deleted when they moved to PlanetQuake. Only the latest version of the FAQ remains, archived on April 8, 2000. As you can see, the full conversion was well underway at this point.
One of the controversial questions regarding Urban Terror is its relationship to Action Quake 2 and Counter-Strike, namely just how much of a ripoff is it, if at all. What do the people who created it have to say about that?
Something that many people discussing the history of UrT don’t realize is just how many “realism†mods there were between 1998 and 2001. Quake 3 alone had some two dozen total conversions in development at the time themed around soldiers/mercenaries/terrorists/police. Most of these mods never reached the release stage and the ones that enjoyed some popularity have been thoroughly forgotten by now (only True Combat is still marginally alive). Many of them were directly inspired by AQ2 and CS and took notes from each other.
Fun fact: Back then, UrT was commonly compared to another Q3 mod called Navy Seals — not to be confused with the Quake 1 mod Navy SEALs by no one else than Minh Le who later went on to work on AQ2 and then created CS. You see, it’s all like intertwined on genetic level and stuff. *takes a long pull on a joint*
Timeline:
1998-11-12: Action Quake 2 v1.0c released
1999-06-12: Counter-Strike beta 1.0 released
1999-09-??: BotKiller comes up with some vague idea to mod Quake 3, creates a skin pack for Q3Test
1999-12-02: Quake 3 released
1999-12-??: Quake 3 mapping tools released
2000-01-15: Quake 3 SDK released
2000-02-??: Urban Terror has morphed into a map pack with several titles in development; first coders arrive
2000-04-08: Urban Terror has morphed into a full conversion at some point in the previous two months
2000-06-07: Developers interviewed on PlanetQuake, screenshots from an internal alpha shown
2000-08-05: Urban Terror beta 1.0 released
Quote
BotKiller on BotKiller, "I am the founder of the mod, started back in mid-September (yes, before Quake 3 came out). It started as just a skin pack for Quake 3 and a map I made for Quake 2 that I ported over to Quake 3 (I only put machine guns in my maps so it was half way real). I also map for this project, I have finished one map, and am finishing another. I do just about all the web site work, including most of the forum reply's too. I do a lot of miscellaneous work, all those odd-job things."
— Oswald’s developer interviews from April 2000
— Oswald’s developer interviews from April 2000
Presumably he converted that map after the Q3Tools (mapping tools) release sometime between December 10 and December 22, since it would’ve been a bit complicated without it. The skin pack was trivial since there had been no less than seven stripped-down networking test releases from April through November.
Quote
GottaBeKD: Originally, this mod began as a Quake 3 mapping project and Urban Terror was to come in the form of a few urban maps and textures. In February I saw the Urban Terror web page and fell in love with the maps and other media that the team had created. This was around the time that ID released their Quake 3 source and I had already began coding a realisitc-genre mod.
— HellChick’s interview with SID from June 2000
— HellChick’s interview with SID from June 2000
The mod making mayhem kicked off in January 15 with the release of the Quake 3 SDK. Now it became possible to create proper mods, including full conversions like one Urban Terror. Originally, UrT had a homepage at q3mods.net (the team consisted of BotKiller and Preacher back then), but this was unfortunately deleted when they moved to PlanetQuake. Only the latest version of the FAQ remains, archived on April 8, 2000. As you can see, the full conversion was well underway at this point.
One of the controversial questions regarding Urban Terror is its relationship to Action Quake 2 and Counter-Strike, namely just how much of a ripoff is it, if at all. What do the people who created it have to say about that?
Quote
dokta8: Personally, I am ambivalent about the comparison. On one hand Action Quake is a central and very important source of inspiration forUrban Terror, and I think that comes through strongly in the current versions of the mod. We owe a HUGE debt to the trails blazed by the A-Team. On the other hand, I don't want to be limited by the mold of other mods, or worse still, seen as a rip-off of other mods. I prefer to think of Urban Terror as being in the 'genre' of Action Quake; in the same way that James Bond is perhaps the seminal work in the genre of 'spy movies', it doesn't mean that other spy movies can't be made, or that they necessarily have to fit the mould carved out by Ian Fleming.
GottaBeKD: It seems every Jack and Jill out there wants to compare Urban Terror to Action Quake or Counter Strike and I feel there's nothing wrong with that. Most of the team comes from an Action Quake background and our initial motivation for Urban Terror is to provide an Action Quake fix for all the Quake 3 gamers out there. However, while our first release will seem very similar to Action Quake, gamers can expect a wide variety of additional features being added to the game in subsequent releases of Urban Terror.
Oswald: Before jumping aboard the development team, I had been keeping tabs on a handful of mod development teams which were looking to create a successor to Action Quake 2. While that is a big order to fill, there were some teams who showed promise. Of course at the forefront was The A-Team with their surprise announcement of Action Unreal Tournament (not Action Quake 3). Many of the other mods were based on the Quake 3 engine, Urban Terror included. I see all the realism mods now are building on the foundation laid by Action Quake 2.
— HellChick’s interview
GottaBeKD: It seems every Jack and Jill out there wants to compare Urban Terror to Action Quake or Counter Strike and I feel there's nothing wrong with that. Most of the team comes from an Action Quake background and our initial motivation for Urban Terror is to provide an Action Quake fix for all the Quake 3 gamers out there. However, while our first release will seem very similar to Action Quake, gamers can expect a wide variety of additional features being added to the game in subsequent releases of Urban Terror.
Oswald: Before jumping aboard the development team, I had been keeping tabs on a handful of mod development teams which were looking to create a successor to Action Quake 2. While that is a big order to fill, there were some teams who showed promise. Of course at the forefront was The A-Team with their surprise announcement of Action Unreal Tournament (not Action Quake 3). Many of the other mods were based on the Quake 3 engine, Urban Terror included. I see all the realism mods now are building on the foundation laid by Action Quake 2.
— HellChick’s interview
Something that many people discussing the history of UrT don’t realize is just how many “realism†mods there were between 1998 and 2001. Quake 3 alone had some two dozen total conversions in development at the time themed around soldiers/mercenaries/terrorists/police. Most of these mods never reached the release stage and the ones that enjoyed some popularity have been thoroughly forgotten by now (only True Combat is still marginally alive). Many of them were directly inspired by AQ2 and CS and took notes from each other.
Fun fact: Back then, UrT was commonly compared to another Q3 mod called Navy Seals — not to be confused with the Quake 1 mod Navy SEALs by no one else than Minh Le who later went on to work on AQ2 and then created CS. You see, it’s all like intertwined on genetic level and stuff. *takes a long pull on a joint*
Timeline:
1998-11-12: Action Quake 2 v1.0c released
1999-06-12: Counter-Strike beta 1.0 released
1999-09-??: BotKiller comes up with some vague idea to mod Quake 3, creates a skin pack for Q3Test
1999-12-02: Quake 3 released
1999-12-??: Quake 3 mapping tools released
2000-01-15: Quake 3 SDK released
2000-02-??: Urban Terror has morphed into a map pack with several titles in development; first coders arrive
2000-04-08: Urban Terror has morphed into a full conversion at some point in the previous two months
2000-06-07: Developers interviewed on PlanetQuake, screenshots from an internal alpha shown
2000-08-05: Urban Terror beta 1.0 released
I'm clapping right now. You can't hear it, but I'm clapping for that glorious research article into the birth of Urban Terror you just created.
Just
So would it be accurate to say, when he created the map, that it was the beginning of Urban Terror?
and if yes, depending when the map was created, UrT could be older then CS?
Edit:
Spoiler
Just read that FAQ, OH how the Negev has fallen. lol It is only fair though, that thing has like 90 rounds, so that should be expected.
This post has been edited by Dark-knight: 24 September 2015 - 04:06 AM
MultiQuote