readmore.de: How did you get into the Promod-Team?
Alex alex Garfield: Originally, when Drax released his proposal for Promod back in early 2006, I messaged him immediately and we agreed to lead the project together. About a month later, Drax no longer had time to work on the project, and I have been leading it by myself since then.
readmore.de: Could you tell us how the Promod developed since then? Which details did you work on?
alex: Development has gone slow relative to map creation. As you can see, we’re ready to release the maps. Development has been slowed primarily because our past head coder disappeared from eSports, and took ALL of our development progress with him. This erased months of progress, and we had to start over again. However, re-doing the code that he took with him has been easier than it seemed initially.
readmore.de: So where is the coding at this point of time? What is still missing until you can release the mod in March?
alex: We have most of the game logic finished (the only part we’re really missing there is the bomb logic). We managed to finish the movement part of the mod back in July, before all the work was lost because of the issue with our past head coder. We have some of the same people working on movement, so we expect it to be finished without much delay. Beyond that, most of our time will be spent on gun behavior, which is not necessarily the hardest part of the mod, but will require the most testing and tweaking.
readmore.de: In early 2006 you released a pretty long list of features you want to convert. Will everything be in the mod at the end?
alex: We’re optimistic that the list will be met.
readmore.de: With the release of the maps all people owning Source will be able to get a first glance of the new game. Will that be the finished maps or are there still changes coming?
alex: There will definitely still be changes coming. We don’t think there will be too many bugs in the maps (obviously, you’re bound to miss SOMETHING in a first release), but we’ll be listening to community feedback and making changes appropriately.
readmore.de: Some time ago there was an inofficial announcement of Valve, that there will be a civil law issue when the promode will be released. Did you have contact about this with Valve?
alex: I don’t know who your sources are, but I was never aware that there was any such announcement by Valve. When we first announced the project, they began nuking news posts about it on steampowered.com, and we e-mailed them to ask about it. They responded and informed us that they had nothing against the project, and that they were just trying to keep their forums under control .
readmore.de: The CEVO announced, that they will support the Promode from the beginning. Do you know about some more leagues being in contact with you?
alex: I have not contacted any other leagues yet. After a week or so of the community’s playtesting of the maps, we’ll probably release another revision, and then after that I’ll contact more leagues besides CEVO. CEVO is a supporter of CSPromod and I can’t thank them enough for it.
readmore.de: What’s your own opinion about all the CS 1.6 and CS players. Will they change immediately to the Promod?
alex: I think that all of the players around the world love will WANT to change to Promod, and I am sure they will begin dedicating a lot of their time to it as soon as it is released (I believe this is true of the maps as well in relation to Source). The next step after that will be to get CSP accepted by tournaments, and after that, I believe people will switch ALL of their time over to CSP.
readmore.de: Is there an exclusive contract between you and the CEVO. Could you imagine something like that?
alex: No, there is no excluisve contract between me and CEVO. There will never, ever be an exclusive contract between CSP and a league/tournament – that would defeat the purpose of CSP.
readmore.de: You worked with the CSS and CS 1.6/1.5 code. What do you think is the main problem many 1.6-players don’t like CSS?
alex: People often say that Source is a much easier game than 1.6, and they’re right. This is true for several main reasons:
1) While the spray PATTERNS of the guns are pretty much the same from 1.6 to Source, the recoil of the guns, also called the „kick,“ has been decreased significantly.
2) The models are MUCH bigger than 1.6, with an 18% increase in height, a 36% increase in surface area, and a whopping 76% increase in head size.
3) The speed of the models has not been increased to go along with the model size increase.
When you combine all of these facts, you have a game with bigger, relatively slower models, aimed at using guns that are easier to control Therefore, the whole „Source isn’t easier, it’s just different“ argument is utterly, entirely false. It would be more accurate to say „Source is both easier and different.“ Source‘ differences are what MAKES it an easier game.
readmore.de: Some time ago you talked about a competitive mod for the Promod. Are there already some details you can announce?
alex: We’re focusing on finishing the gameplay part of the mod before we worry about additional features. In the long run, the new features will definitely be there – if you’ve played CPMA or Q4MAX, you already know what arQon can do for stat tracking .
readmore.de: arQon is a good point. What is his responsibility for the project ?
alex: He is the head of development. He oversees all of our other coders, as well as doing a significant amount of coding himself.
readmore.de: How big is your team and how much time do they spend on the promod?
alex: The overall team is eight people, each spending at least 20 hours/week. It has been less in the past, but we’re really in a groove now.
readmore.de: Valve is planning to implent som ingame ads in the future. Could you imagine something like that to earn something from the project?
alex: Our goal is to provide the community with CSPromod. We haven’t looked at it from any other perspective than that at this point.
readmore.de: Who is betatesting the CSPromod until today? Are there some famous players testing it?
alex: As soon as we are ready for gun-tweaking, we will be using top competitive players.
readmore.de: The CGS announced that they are creating a new form of league with the primary game CS. Do you know if they are interested in the promod later on?
alex: I think that the CGS is a league that pays a lot of attention to the community and cares a lot about what the community thinks. I think that if the community shows its support for CSP and lets the CGS know that CSP is wanted, then the CGS will pay attention.
readmore.de: Could you try to put in one sentence why any CS-player should be anxious to play the promod?
alex: „The world’s most popular game with better graphics“