[Transcript] Developement Blog Update - Seventh Podcast

obsid · October 2007

<div class="IPBDescription">Transcript and Summary of Podcast 7</div>The Beginning of Podcast 7 starts by diving back into Valveâ€™s new feature, developer commentary. Charlie talk about the differences between the commentaryâ€™s accessibility in Team Fortress 2, as compared to the commentary found in Portal and Half Life 2:Episode 2.

The next part of the podcast Charlie and Max continue to talk about commentary, but specifically they talk about Valveâ€™s concerns with a commander mode in a multiplayer game, and how they are hoping to address these issues. They also talk briefly about players â€œbuyingâ€ weapons through the commander instead of the commander passing them out/

The third portion of the podcast talks about in game aids to help new players learn the commander mode. Charlie and Max mention the use of stat based system, achievements, objectives, and how all of this could affect the game.

Rounding the bases, Charlie and Max discuss the importance they find with humor in games, and share some funnier sides of the world of Natural Selection. Did someone say Dr. Mossman? Charlie and Max also share their encounter with part of the Valve team at the Game Developerâ€™s Conference after they viewed their Dynamic Infestation tech video.

[Summary by John Top, as well as fixing my horrible spelling and grammar]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>Max: Hi, welcome to podcast number 7. Itâ€™s October 19th, 2007. This is Max, and Charlie is here with me.
Charlie: Hey.
Max: So last time on the podcast, I think it was last time, we were talking about commentary,
Charlie: Yeah, developer commentary,
Max: The orange box,
Charlie: Yep.
Max: We were talking about weather that would be good idea for Natural Selection 2 as a multiplayer game, and I think some people responded on the forums about, that Team Fortress 2 had commentary in it.
Charlie: Really good commentary, actually.
Max: Yeah, quite good.
Charlie: Itâ€™s quite surprising actually how qualâ€¦ hiâ€¦ higâ€¦ how AH! How high quality it was, I mean they, like, talked about design issues, and just like, lots of really informative stuff.
Max: I liked the commentary overall, you know, throughout the Orange Box. I listened to the commentary in Episode 2, and in Portal, and after people said that I went and listened to the Team Fortress 2 commentary, and itâ€™s all pretty interesting. Although I did feel for Team Fortress 2 that being a multiplayer game the kindâ€™ve commentary system didnâ€™t, I feel like being in the game and listening to that stuff didnâ€™t really enhance it in any way.
Charlie: Oh, because it was in a single player environment, orâ€¦
Max: No, well because, well yeah.
Charlie: Felt distinctly, like, totally different then the actual game? Or, Iâ€™m not following.
Max: Well, if youâ€™re listening to, like, the Episode 2 commentary, a lot of it is specific to the area.
Charlie: Oh, ok
Max: It makes sense a lot of time to be in the game.
Charlie: Right.
In Team Fortress 2, a lot of the commentary isnâ€™t really, like, location specific or,
Charlie: Oh, thatâ€™s true. Its like, â€œhereâ€™s the place we decided to talk about the medic.â€
Max: Yeah. I felt, like, it probably wouldâ€™ve worked just as well to have a video, like 20 minute video of them, you know, talking about it.
Charlie: Right, I see. Thatâ€™s actually good criticism, yeah.
Max: But at the same time, I mean, I enjoyed it
Charlie: Yeah, I totally learned a lot that was cool.
Max: And it was actually one of the things I was complaining about in the last podcast was how there was no way to jump between commentary notes.
Charlie: And they do have it in there, yeah.
Max: Yeah, Iâ€™m not sure why itâ€™s not in the other ones. Maybe it would create many problems, to have you jumping around maps, trigger is going to get fired.
Charlie: Yeah, itâ€™s actually easy in TF2, just right click andâ€¦
Max: Yeah, once you get over the fact that they changed the keys. Thereâ€™s no use key.
Charlie: Oh, right.
Max: Which Iâ€™m surprised Valve did that.
Charlie: Actually I am too. I got highly confused by that, butâ€¦
Max: I assume they must have play tested that and found that it was not necessary and that people found it easier.
Charlie: Yeah. I think it was one of those things, I think they even said, like, they allowed things that were confusing, or non-crucial, as long as it didnâ€™t block you from having fun right away, it was ok if you were confused by it.
Max: Well I would imagine that most people would be less confused by that. I imagine that would be the reason you would do that.
Charlie: Right.
Max: Like, to break the convention that they themselves established.
Charlie: True.
Max: A separate use button.
Charlie: I think they probably thought it would be better if we had nothing you had to use ever,
Max: Right.
Charlie: So no game play is ever blocked, but then occasionally you say, â€œI need a medic,â€ and you donâ€™t understand why. Or at least that is how I felt when I first started doing it.
Max: When I was listening to commentary I said that many, many times.
Charlie: Oh, ok. Thatâ€™s funny.
Max: Well, arenâ€™t there things you use in Team Fortress?
Charlie: Um, I donâ€™t think so.
Max: I havenâ€™t actually played Team Fortress 2.
Charlie: I mean the use key is gone so, yeah. I donâ€™t think so.
Max: What about the, like, the ammo dispensers and stuff.
Charlie: No, you just walk up next to them, or hit them with your wrench, or whatever, but yeah.
Max: Well, anyway.
Charlie: So yeah, thereâ€™s something specifically in the commentary we want to address, thatâ€™s like, super relevant to NS2.
Max: Yeah, there is a part in the commentary where Robin Walker talks about the development process for Team Fortress 2, and why it took so long, and the different things they tried, and one of the things that they tried. Which I donâ€™t know if theyâ€™ve ever said that publicly, we knew about it.
Charlie: Um, I think they did probably say it publicly a long time ago.
Max: But, uh, was have a commander in the game. I donâ€™t know when they did that. Sounds like that was a long time ago.
Charlie: It was a long time ago, no screenshots or anything I think they just mentioned it.
Max: Right, to have a commander which would give the overall strategy for the team and build stuff, kind of like NS.
Charlie: Yeah, maybe thatâ€™s where we got the idea, I really donâ€™t remember, itâ€™s quite possible.
Max: Iâ€™m certainly glad they didnâ€™t do that.
Charlie: Oh my gosh, yeah. They could have trumped us big time.
Max: But, um, we have the clip here of Robin Walker.
Charlie: Ok yeah, lets hear that real quick.</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>Charlie: Iâ€™ll turn off the music. So this is Robin walker talking about why they didnâ€™t put a commander mode in TF2, which we are then going to address after.

[Note: This is Developer Commentary available in Team Fortress 2.]
Robin Walker: For example, our initial versions of TF2 were focused on trying to build a game around the concept of a commander, a single player who had a real time strategy view of the battlefield. He would be responsible for building structures and providing a unifying strategy for the team. But, there were significant design challenges involved. For instance, how do we design the game such that the commander can have fun and at the same time the players down on the ground can have fun? How do we insure that the players and the commander value the output of each other? How do we insure that the game is still fun if you have a terrible commander, or conversely if youâ€™re a great commander with a terrible team? We spent many months working on these and other issues, and never really reached a point where we were satisfied. In addition, our game had become overly complex due to our attempts to add a strategy layer deep enough to warrant the addition of the commander in the first place. In the end we made the hard decision to remove him from the game and moved on.

Charlie: Aw, you know, thatâ€™sâ€¦
Max: The commander has been ejected.
Charlie: Um, yeah, I mean those are definitely difficult questions to answer, and we spent like many months working on the commander and trying to make him work. But of course, I donâ€™t think our quality expectations were nearly as high as Valveâ€™s.
Max: So I guess thatâ€™s the thing is, um, weâ€™re building another game, which is going to have a commander,
Charlie: Right.
Max: And the commander is going to be a bigger part of NS2, I would say, than NS1.
Charlie: I think so. You might say twice as big.
Max: Twice as big.
Charlie: â€œWhat does that mean?â€
Max: Heâ€™s getting more then twice as big, technically.
Charlie: Yeah. No he will be probably.
Max: So I guess the interesting question is, how do we plan on solving those problems?
Charlie: Assuming we care about the quality, of reaching that top level of quality.
Max: Well, so thatâ€™s the first thing, I think, obviously, when you ship a game that features a commander, in sort of the role that Robin outlines there, which would be Natural Selection 1, which we feel is pretty successful.
Charlie: Although I have to say, I really didnâ€™t know if that approach would work at all, it was more like, just get it out there and try it.
Max: Right.
Charlie: And we had nothing to lose, and thatâ€™s the great thing about making a mod. You donâ€™t have anything to lose. But now we do have stuff to lose, ostensibly, though I donâ€™t know if thatâ€™s actually true, but
Max: But NS1 it did well, so I think at the baseline we know that that concept definitely can work, and that people enjoy it.
Charlie: Just on raw popularity, you can make a pretty compelling argument that it could work.
Max: Right.
Charlie: Or that it does work. Even in the kindâ€™ve naive implementations you saw in Natural Selection 1. Which it wasnâ€™t, you know, itâ€™s not bad, itâ€™s just, we learned a lot from that.
Max: So thatâ€™s kindâ€™ve the base line, we know that the idea works, and that those kindâ€™ve problems are, at least, addressable to some degree.
Charlie: At least to a certain, yeah. We know the popularity can get pretty big.
Max: So, some of the things he mentioned, where if you have a bad commander how do you keep that from ruining everyone elseâ€™s play experience, umâ€¦ actually one of the things we mentionedâ€¦
Charlie: How do you want to do that? There are lots of ways, I have lots of ideas, I donâ€™t know whatâ€™s going to work, but.
Max: Well, one thing weâ€™ve, I guess we havenâ€™t really said too much about it. Weâ€™ve alluded to it in blog entries in the past, is, um, some of the changes that weâ€™re making.
Charlie: Thatâ€™s nice and vague.
Max: I like to make it vague.
Charlie: Weâ€™re making changes.
Max: Well, one thing that we kindâ€™ve mentioned on the blog is allowing player to essentially purchase weapons, almost like a counterstrike kindâ€™ve thing.
Charlie: Right.
Max: Um, you know, they wouldnâ€™t be able to purchase anything, they would still be tied to the commander. In terms of the commander would research new technologies, and resources also factor into there, but the guy on the ground would have a lot more flexibility in choosing, ok I really like working with the shotgun so Iâ€™m gonna get that. Or, um, you know that kind of thing.
Charlie: And the key here being that the commander would make the strategic decision that they wanna, like, devote their resources towards like, say shotguns, or, I dunno, laser or weapons or, you know, sniper, not that those things are gonna go in, but say flamethrowers, and then the marines on the ground actually purchase the flamethrowers. So that way the commander does the strategy and the person on the ground still choose their play style. Which I hope will work pretty well.
Max: Yeah, so decoupling that a little bit, while still keeping relevant, making it so their enjoyment is not tied quite as tightly to the...
Charlie: Right, right.
Max: Um, and actually they talk about the,
Charlie: You wonâ€™t be begging the comm for a shotgun anymore.
Max: Right.
Charlie: The classic thing.
Max: So, giving people on both sides, actually, more they can do is the other way of making sure that itâ€™s fun for everyone. So now the players can get the weapons that they want more often, and to trade off, like, that historically was a role that commander would do, doling out weapons. So weâ€™re taking something away from the commander there, and to compensate that we want to add more stuff.
Charlie: Weâ€™ll give him more spells.
Max: Yeah, well, what we call spells. Which, you know, doesnâ€™t really make any sense in the fiction of Natural Selection and the Sci-Fi universe, I think.
Charlie: Like, scanner sweeps and beaconsâ€¦
Max: Yeah, sort of active abilities that the commander can use, so he is not directly shooting guys.
Charlie: He or she.
Max: Sorry.
Charlie: We have female marines in NS2.
Max: Thatâ€™s true. So the commander is not interacting in the same way, but give him other ways of interacting, and bringing those, you know, which are somewhat present in Natural Selection, but making them a bigger part of Natural Selection 2. So like, the hacking, hacking was a part of Natural Selection 1, but it was kind of a small part,
Charlie: Yeah, Iâ€™d like to see that bigger.
Max: I think making that a bigger part of the game, giving him more active things, like the scanner sweep, that he can do to complement the guys on the ground.
Charlie: Like buff the marines
Max: Er, or girls.
Charlie: Or girls.
Max: I guess in the RTS world, maybe spells isnâ€™t the right thing. Theyâ€™re kindâ€™ve like god powers, orâ€¦ I guess every RTS has a different name for the same concept.
Charlie: True, but theyâ€™re on your units, is the key. Or, like, on a specific area, or thereâ€™s timing involved. Where god powers are usually like all encompassing, like, or I think of god powers to be like over the whole level, a one time deal, with like, Age of Mythology.
Max: Oh, really powerful, yeah.
Charlie: Yeah, these are, like, little buffs and stuff.
Max: Yeah I know. I was just trying to think of an example from a RTS game where, cause like, you play Warcraft and you can use spells but the spells, like, come from your Necromancers,
Charlie: Right.
Max: But this is kindâ€™ve a neat thing the commander has. Itâ€™s not like you rely on the guys on the ground to participate in that, so anyway.
Charlie: So we think that we can decouple the two and improve it a bit from NS.
Max: And the other thing we talked about was, er, I guess we moved on. Iâ€™m getting confused on what weâ€™ve already talked about.
Charlie: Itâ€™s not quite a debate around here, this commentary. Itâ€™s like "omg are we crazy!"
Max: Well, thatâ€™s what I though.
Charlie: Or, "Oh my god I forgot this is crazy, we shouldnâ€™t be doing this.â€
Max: Yeah, we have heard this from them before.
Charlie: People in general sometimes donâ€™t like the idea so,
Max: Right, and I guess weâ€™ve had the same questions on how we address this, and so thatâ€™s why we are interested in making changes in Natural Selection 2, to address them.
Charlie: Like, should we really make a Battlefield 2 clone instead? Ok wait, no we donâ€™t actually donâ€™t say that, but thatâ€™s something we could say.
Max: Yeah, but for me thereâ€™s never been any question. Like, obviously we wouldnâ€™t take the same route as Team Fortress 2 and say, â€œok the commander, thereâ€™s too many problems. Weâ€™re not gonna do it,â€ I think thatâ€™s an integral part of the game. And I think Natural Selection 2 is a muchâ€¦ to me Natural Selection 2 is a game about teamwork. Um, and I think the commander is a tool,
Charlie: Itâ€™s so funny you say that. I just drew a little diagram about this. Iâ€™ll go show it to you. Yes, it is teamwork. I think NS1 was as well.
Max: For me, I think thatâ€™s the most fun. When I play online games thatâ€™s what I find the most rewarding. Is, like, when youâ€™re working together with people and your acting as a team. Thatâ€™s the fun experience right there.
Charlie: Especially when they are diverse roles, I think.
Max: Yeah, when your complementing what someone else is doing. And I think the commander is an effective tool for enhancing that level of teamwork.
Charlie: I agree.
Max: And thatâ€™s, like, a whole team wide teamwork. And I think what theyâ€™ve done in Team Fortress 2 is, I mean obviously, Team Fortress 2 has got â€œteamâ€ in the name, I think, you know, team work is obviously a goal for them as well. But, they seem to, without actually have played Team Fortress 2, what it seems to me is that they focused on teamwork on a smaller scale. Things like the Medic,
Charlie: Paring up
Max: and the Heavy.
Charlie: Yeah sure, itâ€™s great.
Max: Which I think would be an interesting thing to incorporate more of those relationships as well into Natural Selection 2,
Charlie: Those are super fun.</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>Max: But yeah, also teamwork on a larger scale. So I donâ€™t think, you know, to me there was no question, we would never get rid of the commander. But actually, the other thing I was going to say was that, something weâ€™ve actually just started talking about, we havenâ€™t really thought about it to much, but I think itâ€™s a good direction, is to have kind of like an active tutorial system that would help commanders who didnâ€™t seem to know what they were doing.
Charlie: Who are asleep at the wheel.
Max: Yea basically.
Charlie: Or just new, or both.
Max: So even if youâ€™re a new commander, you never feel like, â€œOh what am I supposed to be doing?â€ itâ€™ll guide you though. â€œOk you should probably be researching some new technologies or building this building,â€
Charlie: Right, or clicking here.
Max: The thing that actually really got me thinking about that was listening to one of the developers talk about Enemy Territory, whereâ€¦
Charlie: The most hard-core game in the world.
Max: Is it?
Charlie: Oh my gosh, yeah. I just played it and its so hardcore. Well, maybe after just playing TF2 so much, the whole HUD is just full of stuff. Itâ€™s totally intimidating,
Max: Well one thing they talked about was, sort of an intelligent objective generator in the game. Which would say, like, youâ€™re an engineer, and, I donâ€™t really know anything about the game so this probably doesnâ€™t make any sense, so like they planted the bombs, so you need to go dismantle it or something.
Charlie: Right, put in other nouns for that, but yeah.
Max: Yeah, however the game works, but, it would figure that out, this is what you should be doing in your role and give you, essentially, what would have been a hard coded objective in another game
Charlie: Right.
Max: So thatâ€™s kindâ€™ve how I think about,
Charlie: Something like this working.
Max: The active tutorial could look at whatâ€™s going on in the world and figure out, â€œok this is what he should be doing,â€ and give you that suggestion.
Charlie: Yep, I think that would work well, that would defiantly get another step closer to being more mainstream and,
Max: Yeah. So that way you can help the players who, you know, need help. And hopefully avoid that experience where you have a commander thatâ€™s not doing what they should be doing.
Charlie: Right. I also think we could solve it with stats, if we had stats.
Max: Yeah, I think that is a complicated issue, personally
Charlie: I think it is, I mean thereâ€™s a big technical problem there, but, um, assuming we had some access to stats, even if it was only local stats. Like it doesnâ€™t actually have to be like server authenticated, and anything. If we look at, just save a little text file that says have you commanded before, or whatâ€™s your win/loss record. If you have an abysmal record or you have never played before, then maybe we just donâ€™t let you in the command chair.
Max: But you can fall into the trap of, like, youâ€™ve never been commander then how do you ever become that, or no one wants you to be commander.
Charlie: Thatâ€™s true, but maybe you just have to run through the single player tutorial or you have to, like, have participated in a few games already, something. That might just it a lot better as well
Max: Yup. Well, I think it would be good to do, it would be fun to incorporate the achievement stuff that they have, with the new games,
Charlie: Ah totally, itâ€™s beautiful.
Max: And it would be like, battle merits or whatever, and you can see oh this guy, he has got a lot of battle merits, so I want him to be leading the team.
Charlie: Totally. The old grizzled commander idea.
Max: With a cigar.
Charlie: With a cigar. If you play a lot of games he just shows up. If you play a lot of games itâ€™s so hackney eyed. Well thatâ€™s enough of that. So, weâ€™re not wavering, but we are taking into account what other people are saying about commander. We are rethinking it a bit for NS2, but itâ€™s not going to be so different.
Max: Yeah, I mean, its not like we just heard the TF2 commentary and decided we need to change our focus or anything, these are thing we knew going into NS2.
Charlie: NS1 also you mean, or NS2?
Max: Well, I wasnâ€™t actually around.
Charlie: Oh, thatâ€™s true you werenâ€™t. Thatâ€™s true. It seems like youâ€™ve been around forever.
Max: Well I have, but NS has been around even longer.</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>Charlie: Thatâ€™s true. Is there anything else on our list? Did we want to talk about humor?
Max: Um, yea sure.
Charlie: Well, so, lets see.
Max: Tell us a joke Charlie.
Charlie: We want it to be actually humor, not uh, bad jokes.
Max: This is something that, I donâ€™t know about, I guess what you, maybe, were already thinking this. This is something that I feel I have been influenced by playing through the games in the Orange Box was, the humor present, and how much I felt it enhanced the game. Obviously in Portal, Portal is chocked full of humor.
Charlie: Yeah itâ€™s fantastic.
Max: But even in Half-Life 2: Episode 2 there is humorous aspects, which is probably the way it would work more, I imagine, in NS2. Itâ€™s mostly a serious game, but, you slip in some humorous aspects in there.
Charlie: Comic relief.
Max: Yeah. You know, the reason why I said that it is new to me, but I feel like you probably already think about this is because there are things like that in NS1.
Charlie: We have them, but they donâ€™t play to often, which is why Iâ€™m going to play a couple for you now. Iâ€™m sure you must have heard these, but.
Max: Uh, do you actually want to open it in that program?
Charlie: Yeah, this will work. I think itâ€™ll workâ€¦

[Note: The â€œHive Mindâ€ is actual sound files from Natural Selection.]
Hive Mind: This place is a mess

Charlie: These are just some little, funny things that the alien comm, or the alien hive mind will tell you,

Hive Mind: This is my hive. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Charlie: I remember a long time ago I didnâ€™t think, you were spouse to laugh.
Max: Heh.
Charlie: I remember a long time ago I thought you couldnâ€™t have humor in serious games or else it ruins the serious, like, art of the game. But, actually, I realize that these things lighten the mood and allow you to be more receptive to a more powerful experience.
Max: Yeah, I mean look at something like Aliens, which is obviously is influential.
Charlie: I like to say Moulin Rouge, I know thatâ€™s not you favorite movie but,
Max: Yeah. Cause I couldnâ€™t make it past 10 minutes of that movie.
Charlie: The comedy opens you up, or the antics open you up to something really powerful. Itâ€™s almost like it makes you, it puts your guard down. Where, you know, I donâ€™t know. So I think there is something we want to do a lot more of for NS2 per say. And TF2 is hilarious. I mean, the animations and the sounds are just wonderful.
Max: Yeah, thatâ€™s what Iâ€™ve heard.
Charlie: Yeah you gotta play. Iâ€™m playing all the time its great, of course youâ€™re actually getting work done so.
Max: I assume weâ€™ll try and have Lani do voiceovers for NS2.
Charlie: Yea Lani rules.
Max: Who did the voices for NS1, and um,
Charlie: Sheâ€™s this alien voice.
Max: Yeah I know. I remember you playing some outtakes and stuff like that, from original game.
Charlie: I wonder if I have some of those right here. This would be the perfect place.
Max: Arenâ€™t those kind of, uh, dirty? Some of them?
Charlie: Uh, knowing Lani, yeah.

Hive Mind: This is my hive there are many li..
Hive Mind: Our hive is dying.

Charlie: Ok this is going to get bad soon here.

Hive Mind: I see dead people.

Charlie: I know we have others around here. I shouldâ€™ve prepared better.
Max: Maybe next podcast.
Charlie: Next podcast Iâ€™ll play some of the dirty bits.
Max: I think weâ€™ll need to pre-screen those.
Charlie: Thatâ€™s right like â€œBleep,â€ the whole time.
Max: This is a G rated podcast.
Charlie: Thatâ€™s right. Thatâ€™s when we can get Gary on here too.
Max: The R rated version.
Charlie: Exactly
Max: Get the bleep button.
Charlie: Yep. So, is there anything else you want to talk about?
Max: There is also moss on my list here.
Charlie: What does that mean? Oh... I donâ€™t know try it.
Max: We can leave that as just like, one of those other unsolved mysteries of Natural Selection.
Charlie: Yeah, moss and BUS. We just answer PMâ€™s from now till eternity about moss.
Max: No, just um,
Charlie: No, lets do that! Letâ€™s just answer PMâ€™s forever.
Max: No I think we should just,
Charlie: Ok, why donâ€™t you talk about it
Max: I guess we donâ€™t have much to say about the moss. I thought it was funny when we were at GDC, oh you didnâ€™t know what I meant.
Charlie: No I did, but I just didnâ€™t, go ahead.
Max: Well youâ€™re probably better at relating, but at GDC, we meet up with some Valve guys, and they were telling us about their reaction to the Dynamic Infestation video, or kindâ€™ve the reaction at the Valve office, to that video when we released it, almost a year ago. December, I guess, of last year.
Charlie: Yup.
Max: I guess what we heard was that Gabe Newell got really excited, because in early versions of Half Life 1, the original, they wanted to have some moss effect, where after you went through the game you would kindâ€™ve backtrack through and everything would be covered with moss. I guess I really donâ€™t understand why everything would be covered with moss.
Charlie: Well just to show that you have a living world.
Max: That time had passed?
Charlie: Yeah.
Max: I mean how much time is gonna pass that moss is gonna grow.
Charlie: I think itâ€™s just an extension of the living world. Which is cool.
Max: Yeah, I guess. I mean maybe thatâ€™ll be explained in Episode 3. Why everything wouldâ€™ve been covered with moss.
Charlie: I think its cool.
Max: The G man.
Charlie: Yeah. But I think they were hopeful that we could maybe, like, make that effect. That we could release it the modding community and we could have moss all over the place. Dynamic Infestation or moss, you decide.
Max: The moss mod, yeah.
Charlie: But I think that was also another thing that we felt a little better, you know. Even though this is like the commander mode. Whereâ€™s itâ€™s like, well just because Valve thought that they shouldnâ€™t do it or couldnâ€™t or get it to work or whatever. So, I think thatâ€™sâ€¦ was that a segue?
Max: Yeah, no thatâ€™s why I put it on the list.
Charlie: Awesome.
Max: And a possible explanation for the Dr. Mossman.
Charlie: Mossman exactly. I think thatâ€™s where she came from. Must be.
Max: Clearly
Charlie: And we just have so much high quality content on here.
Max: Hey, weâ€™re revealing secrets of Half-Life 2 that you never knew about.
Charlie: Thatâ€™s true. Itâ€™s a little gossipy, but, oh well, you know slow leak.
Max: Well, on that note we should wrap up the podcast.
Charlie: Yep.
Max: I kind of feel so bad for going so long because of our community member John Top, I think is forum name, is planning on transcribing these.
Charlie: Oh, yes. That was amazing that he did that.
Max: So the longer we go the more work he has to do.
Charlie: So we should end it.
Max: Yeah, so we should end it. Thanks for John Top for doing that.
Charlie: Yes thatâ€™s pretty amazing.
Max: Weâ€™ll try to keepâ€™em shorter in the future.
Charlie: Less rambly, feel free to omit, you know,
Max: Anything Charlie says.
Charlie: Studders, or anything thatâ€™s really vapid. All right thatâ€™s the end of the 7th podcast,
Max: Thanks for listening.
Charlie: Hope you enjoyed it. See you guys.</div>

Relevant Links:
<a href="http://www.enemyterritory.com/" target="_blank">Enemy Territory</a>
<a href="http://orange.half-life2.com/" target="_blank">The Orange Box</a>
<a href="http://www.blizzard.com/war3/â€%5dWarcraft%20III%5b/url%5d%5burl="http://www.valvesoftware.com/" target="_blank">Valve</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Developers_Conferenceâ€%5dGDC%20-%20Game%20Developers%20Conference%5b/url%5d%5burl="http://â€http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/news/2006/12/dynamic_infestationâ€" target="_blank">Dynamic Infestation</a>
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/" target="_blank">Natural Selection</a>
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2" target="_blank">Natural Selection 2</a>

John Top · October 2007

Nice work man. Now I don't have to feel bad for them ending saying, "oh, well we're done cause it's giving him more work," when I want to hear more. It's your turn now buddy. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

EDIT: (again)
YAY! He got my PM! (For someone reason it wasn't showing that I sent him anything.)
/EDIT

TychoCelchuuu · October 2007

Ahah, awesome. I love being able to read these things! Great work man. One thing: when they start talking about moss, "gave dual" is probably "Gabe Newell." You should really recognize that guy's name <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

obsid · October 2007

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(John Top @ Oct 20 2007, 04:29 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1656853"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>YAY! He got my PM! (For someone reason it wasn't showing that I sent him anything.)</div>

Oddly enough I sent you a reply, and it didnt show up in my sent items folder eather, I think the site has a small bug in it.

Depot · October 2007

Was the RSS ever exported for this? My site gets them religiously and never received this one.

Max · October 2007

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Depot @ Oct 21 2007, 02:35 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1657001"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>Was the RSS ever exported for this? My site gets them religiously and never received this one.</div>
What do you mean? Podcast #7? I see it in my feed reader.

Depot · October 2007

Not the podcast Max, the transcript.

Last week when John Top posted the transcript I received a feed, obsid's transcript never made it.

Ahnteis · October 2007

Thanks for making these transcripts.

2aimless · October 2007

Respect!

Well summarizing would be enough already but you did excellent work ^^

Garo · October 2007

Again, thanks a lot!

- Garo

[Transcript] Developement Blog Update - Seventh Podcast

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