Here at HI we realize how important the community is to any mod. That’s why we do Community Spotlights.

In a Community Spotlight, we choose someone who shows great skills modeling, coding, mapping etc or just a great community member who shows what he knows on the forums or in the game.

Sometimes people tend to stand out in their support for this project and we like to recognize these individuals and thank them with a Community Spotlight.

This edition of the Communtiy Spotlight highlights BioTek. BioTek is a modeler and is a great guy. He has quite a few skills when it comes to modeling and everything that goes along with it. Best of all he likes HI and the community we built here so I interviewed him and here is what he has to say...



Charles: What brings you to the HI community and what makes you stay?

BioTek: I read about HI on PHL when it was still in development (before the 1.0 release). What appealed to me the most was the fact that HI used iron sights to aim and fire a gun and the fact that it portrayed realistic damage (2 shots and you are dead opposed to firing a full clip and still have the victim kill you instead) . Those two factors combined with the great atmosphere, the very friendly and mature community and the close co-operation with the dev team are what's keeping me (and will keep me) around.


Charles: Do you enjoy the way HI is progressing so far?

BioTek: In my personal opinion and gameplay experiences I feel that Hostile Intent has become a mod which can stand next to the more popular mods like Counter-strike, Firearms and DoD. Although some might disagree it's my opinion that, like in those mods, the core gameplay is present. HI just needs some polishing in some other areas, but other then that I like what HI has done and will be doing in the near future and I personally can't wait to see what the dev team has in store for us for both HL and HI:PR.

Charles: How long have you been modeling? What modeling program do you use? Do you think you may switch over to XSI when HL2 is released?

BioTek: So far I've been modeling for about 4 years. It all started when I bought a packages called DIV Games studio which allowed people to build there own 2d games using a specific language. This package came with a free 3d modeling and animation suite called Blender. Since the coding of 2d games wasn't very fruitful i decided to take a look at blender. Since that day I've been using Blender3d to do most of my modeling. However since it didn't support Half-Life I bought a copy of Milkshape3d, in which I import the models made in blender to do the rest of the HL-specific modeling.

I have Softimage exp for HL2 installed and it looks like a very powerful tool. I have been messing around with it, but being a blenderhead I sometimes feel that the controls are not very intuitive. Luckily it supports the import of .OBJ files so if everything else failes I can always import a model made in blender and then continue development in Softimage exp for HL2.

Charles: Do you have any other secondary skills like level design or coding?

BioTek: Besides modeling I know my way around the Valve Hammer editor but don't expect great masterpieces. Other then that I have some very basic knowledge of visual basic.

Charles: What does the MSA mean to you and where would you like to see it in the coming months?

BioTek: To me MSA means a gathering of both experienced and new individuals in the fields of modeling, skinning and animation which work, teach and learn new skills and combine those skills to create new and exciting content for HI. I'd like to see MSA progress to a team which creates content that people love and want to use, explores new terrain in the field of creating game content, offers people the possibility to be a part of the team and have fun while doing what they like best.

Charles: Are you excited that Team HI decided to bring HI to Source? Or do you see it as something that just HAS to be done?

BioTek: For me the decision from the team to continue development on the SOURCE engine is the next logical step in the development of HI. Source will offer new and exciting possibilities for all parties involved in the development of HI : PR content (I'm still looking for an engine that will allow to create a realistic forest environment). I'm sure that we will need a bit of learning time to get the most out of the engine but trying out some new things that weren't possible with he HL engine will make the learning experience a pleasant one.