Developer Diary 4: Steven "SCHRifle" Hardy

"Hello everybody, this is SCHRIfle, First Strike's Lead Coder. To start things off I'm going to tell you a little bit about me and how I became part of the First Strike team. My name is Steven, I'm 18 years old and I live in the United States of America. I love to learn how things work, anything from car engines to computer software. This thirst for knowledge is what got me into modding. I wanted to know what made Battlefield 2 what it is today, how things were put together. After downloading the differant software needed and countless hours of tweaking, I eventually created a sniper mini-mod which is what I used as example work to get onto the First Strike team. This mini-mod was the only experience I had at coding before joining the First Strike team.

Let's talk about what I've been doing for the First Strike team. My first duty was to explore the capabilites of the Battlefield 2 engine, see what it'll take to make a fun and enjoyable Star Wars universe. While studying the editor and the differant capabilites of the engine, I spent most of my time learning how to do differant things like effects, sounds, animations, and anything needed to make something work. As I said above, I didn't have any past experience, atleast nothing compared to what it'll take to make a total conversion MOD. Three months later, I've learned alot of new stuff and I'm confident enough to say that I have what it takes to help make First Strike the best Star Wars MOD to date. I've spent a majority of my time coding the X-Wing, it's proven to be a challenge as it's my first time coding a vehicle for Battlefield 2. Not to mention it's complex hierarchy that's been a pain in the butt. X-Wing in-game testing (Work in Progress)

I've also been working on the laser effects that will be used in First Strike. With Battlefield 2's engine we're sure to bring you some exciting new effects. A green laser in the editor. (Work in Progress).

These are the two main things I wanted to point out, there's more work being done behind the scenes. Most of it is conecpt work, seeing what is needed to make certain things happen. These differant things include making differant races of characters (Humans, Ewoks, Wookies, etc.) and the walking of our four legged friend, the ATAT. We're trying our best to give you fans what you really want! That's my Developer Diary, I hope you enjoyed it.

I'd like to thank Aquila and the rest of the team for giving me the chance to be part of such a great team. It's been a very productive three months for me and the rest of the team, you fans are going to be amaized when you see our first release!