Site's contact with Pandemic developer/s

[Michaeluj]

I recently learned that one of the devs for BF1 and 2, Psych0fred, has made some contributions to this community. I would like to know more about the extent of these correspondences, maybe learn about other devs who participated, and have some questions answered.

Psych0fred's misc items look to me like WIP content intended for BF1 and 2, although they could just be post-launch efforts made by a dev that loves modding. Could anyone confirm which one?

http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=3568.msg38044#msg38044


And here's his Beta vehicles:
http://secretsociety.com/forum/downloads/Psych0%20Projects/BetaVehicles/
It seems fairly clear that these are actual assets made during development and that only some were meant for BF1, although I do wonder if there are more dev-provided downloads of this sort available here.

I also found these posts:
Sound Discussion: http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=6039.0
Interview: http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=6608.0 

[Unit 33]

Yes, Psych0fred is a friendly ex-dev of the game and single-handedly provided heaps of support during the fledgling years of SWBF modding.

He fixed most of the issues with the modding tools, provided documentation, support and shared all sorts of assets, without which there would be no strong modding community.

As far as I'm aware no other devs have popped in and said hello.

http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=5968

[Led]

This is his (inactive) forum:
http://www.secretsociety.com/forum/display_forum.asp

[Michaeluj]

This is great stuff, guys. Thank you so much for the help! He's definitely going to get a section devoted to himself in my Battlefront retrospective!

Just a few questions. In his forum, he posted this line: " The Bothan, Imperial Probe Droid, and Thrawn are in Chain Isle."

What is "Chain Isle"? And were Thrawn (and in another line, Boba) actually made for BF1, or did he release them as some early BF2 content or personal projects?

http://www.secretsociety.com/forum/display_message.asp?mid=960

[{PLA}gdh92]

 chain Isle is a map he made. http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=115

I've got vague memories of a disguise kit in it but I might be getting mixed up.

[Dark_Phantom]

Thrawn is in that map as far as I know.
Psych0fred has been a huge help to this community and given us valuable information over the years to expand modding horizons.  He is a kind chap who still checks his email on that site and takes time for questions - some of our recent questions had to do with exe source limitations.

[Unit 33]

This is great stuff, guys. Thank you so much for the help! He's definitely going to get a section devoted to himself in my Battlefront retrospective!

If you got any more questions about SWBF history, don't hesitate to ask, we've still got active users that were here at the beginning.

If you haven't already, I'd also recommend looking at FileFront on the Internet Archive for some lost SWBF history:

https://web.archive.org/web/20070202181549/http://starwarsbattlefront.filefront.com/

They had frequent polls, newsletters and heaps of mods with amusing reviews and comments.

[Michaeluj]

If you got any more questions about SWBF history, don't hesitate to ask, we've still got active users that were here at the beginning.

After learning that you were hiding a developer from me (even after I said that I was making an in-depth analysis of the BF series, haha), I can only imagine what secrets remain!

If you haven't already, I'd also recommend looking at FileFront on the Internet Archive for some lost SWBF history:

The Internet Archive is honestly what saved my project. I thank it for retaining a certain forum post back in March 2005, when Battlefront 2 was apparently first leaked via PC Gamer Magazine, and Psych0fred made a lengthy post reprimanding people for calling BF1 an incomplete product and BF2 a glorified expansion. With his existence known, it was only a matter of time before I found that he was involved here too!

But yes, while I did write a lot about what modding was like back in the early days of FileFront (and where sites like it have ended up), I didn't actually consider delving into the newsletters, reviews, and comments. Okay, I did copy one funny poll about ewoks, but that was the extent of that coverage. I'll give it a second look.

[Unit 33]

After learning that you were hiding a developer from me (even after I said that I was making an in-depth analysis of the BF series, haha), I can only imagine what secrets remain!


The Internet Archive is honestly what saved my project. I thank it for retaining a certain forum post back in March 2005, when Battlefront 2 was apparently first leaked via PC Gamer Magazine, and Psych0fred made a lengthy post reprimanding people for calling BF1 an incomplete product and BF2 a glorified expansion. With his existence known, it was only a matter of time before I found that he was involved here too!


But yes, while I did write a lot about what modding was like back in the early days of FileFront (and where sites like it have ended up), I didn't actually consider delving into the newsletters, reviews, and comments. Okay, I did copy one funny poll about ewoks, but that was the extent of that coverage. I'll give it a second look.

Excellent, fun research indeed.


We took a punt at marking down our part of the history some years ago with the 'SWBF Museum' map, which contains plenty of weird community jokes.


Clan and tournament history is really quite dense, and there's probably a scholar somewhere on here that remembers all the old clans.


Another tangent is the history of this forum; which spun off MPC Gamers yonks ago (and Mac X Gamers before that):
https://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=12757.msg118199#msg118199


Some of the emoticons in the reply options are relics from the older site and refer to members that were around then: 

[Michaeluj]

I wasn't planning to talk about the history of this site (in major detail, at least), nor about clans. I didn't think that there would be much worth talking about. But, if there is content worth preserving, then I'll be happy to do so! However, the section on LucasArts and BF1 is, alone, 320 pages and still growing, with each month of research feeling like I'm digging ever deeper into a bottomless rabbit hole.  It's an exhausting effort with few signs of stopping anytime soon. So, maybe I'll return to that topic as a post-release addendum, once I'm finally done writing and no longer feeling like such in-depth research is a Sisyphean task. 

Also, the Museum is great! I already devoted a small section to it!

[Led]

I would suggest you put in a section of the port for Mac computers.  Many good times of cross-platform play using Direct Connection.

[Michaeluj]

I have absolutely no experience with that. If you'd like, then please PM me with a more detailed proposal for this topic, tell me some anecdotes about it, and perhaps we can incorporate it into the "Multiplayer" section of the document.

[Napseeker]

What is "Chain Isle"? And were Thrawn (and in another line, Boba) actually made for BF1, or did he release them as some early BF2 content or personal projects?

It's funny but I was just playing Chain Isle recently... yes it does have Thrawn in the map (albeit, not an entirely accurate version of him). It's a fun map, and a great project to analyze if you want to learn how to add custom music to your own maps which is what I was doing with it.

Regarding psychofred, a great and helpful guy and we in the modding community owe him a lot. I do recall many, many years ago there was some spat over at GameToast that caused him to delete all of his posts from their forums (Teancum can probably elaborate on it if he chooses to do so). Very unfortunate since it removed some likely useful posts where he answered questions from modders who were stuck on their mods and needed his advice.

[Teancum]

So there was a time shortly after the mod tools were released that we also had two Pandemic other Pandemic devs join Gametoast. They were around to unofficially support the mod tools, but they were bombarded with non-modtools related questions and so removed their accounts after only a few weeks.

The Psych0fred incident was regarding PSP modding. He was no opposed to doing mods on non-PC platforms, but the instructions to install that mod included how to mod the PSP itself, which he was not comfortable with. He decided it was best to remove his GT account.

I still email him every year or so with a question or request. He's been good to me because we have a rapport built up, but chatting with a few other community members it seems like he only answers emails from people he knows, or at least ones he can deem trustworthy based on their community reputation. I get the feeling he's tired of the constant barrage of emails. Nice guy though.

[Unit 33]

I would suggest you put in a section of the port for Mac computers.  Many good times of cross-platform play using Direct Connection.

And the Mac GameRanger community... goodness, GR was a hive of activity when SWBF was fully functional on the old Mac operating systems.

I wasn't planning to talk about the history of this site (in major detail, at least), nor about clans. I didn't think that there would be much worth talking about. But, if there is content worth preserving, then I'll be happy to do so! However, the section on LucasArts and BF1 is, alone, 320 pages and still growing, with each month of research feeling like I'm digging ever deeper into a bottomless rabbit hole.  It's an exhausting effort with few signs of stopping anytime soon. So, maybe I'll return to that topic as a post-release addendum, once I'm finally done writing and no longer feeling like such in-depth research is a Sisyphean task. 

Also, the Museum is great! I already devoted a small section to it!

Fair enough! I've written a couple of non-fiction titles, and it's hard as hell choosing what to leave out, or else one gets sucked into an endless rabbit hole of increasingly obscure topics.