I decided to make this modification because I have always enjoyed customizing games, especially Half-life. I saw there were swarms of Half-life modifications on the Internet. Some of them had great ideas, some of them didn't. So I decided to make a mod with my vision of what a game should be. I had so many ideas for a mod; I evaluated different types of themes, and came up with Special Forces.

When I decided I was going to make a mod I thought it should be for Half-life, because the engine is so flexible. But when I saw all the new technologies that TF2 was going to include, like the new mapcode, net-code, voice communication and 3d scalability; I decided to make SF for the TF2 engine. Also because the release date of TF2 was still far in the horizon, I have enough time to make a solid design for the mod.

Most of the features we have can be done in TF2. There are some key elements that are uncertain, for example, driveable vehicles. I have not included this feature in the design, but if the feature is implemented in TF2, I already have some notes on how to use it. Actually we are making some sort of a "blueprint" for the mod. With the design we have, we can make maps with the Half-life engine in order to balance them and to give us some ideas of how the game will look. We are making the weapon models as realistic we can, fixing small modeling glitches. What we are doing right now is getting our mod known before TF2 is released.

So far, none. In this part of the development we don't need support from Valve. We will need Valve's support when TF2 is released. It would be nice if I talk with Valve and ask some questions about TF2, but the mod has only been public for only two weeks so I don't think Valve has noticed us yet.

As Gabe Newell said to PCGamer guys in January 1999 issue, we play computer games to get emotions we wouldn't get in our real lives (not his exact words). Games place the player in situations that normal people wouldn't be in. Also since the gaming industry started, developers have been trying to make the game as lifelike as possible, that's why we get better graphics and gameplay. The mod industry gets the examples from big game developers and tries to imitate them. I have thought that being a military operative would be cool, that's why I am making SF as realistic as possible.

I want the mod to be very realistic, I want the mod to simulate the theme, make it as exact as possible. SF will have more realism than most mods. But if we make it too realistic it may be too boring, tedious and frustrating. We will push realism as far as possible, but without sacrificing fun.

That's very simple, I choose between several weapons that different Special Forces use. All the weapons that will be in the game are used worldwide by several armies and organizations. Although maybe we will have to cut the number of weapons because Half-life engine supports 30 weapons but we are unsure if TF2 will support more weapons.

Several missions will be based on real events but will be modified in order to make the mission fall into the storyline. There will be missions based on Operation Thunderbolt (Entebbe, Uganda) in Operation Nimrod (London, Great Britain) for example. Some missions will be based not on real events, but in training exercises that elite operatives have made.

The specialties have been limited to multiplayer only, but the info has not been updated. Specialties will be based in a class system. Class systems limit player's speeds, weapons and skills. But the specialties will only limit speed, stealth and skill with weapons. A player can get any weapon, but its precision with it will vary, depending on the weapon and specialty. For example a sniper will handle all sniper weapons with maximum precision, but if he gets a machinegun he will have lower precision than a player with heavy machinery specialty.

SF's multiplayer will have several types of gameplay, all of them listed in the website. All of them will be adapted to the realism theme, except deathmatch. We placed all of these gameplay types because I wanted to satisfy all tastes, also because their goals can mix very well with SF’s theme. Tf2 will have his gameplay based on an army; we will have our gameplay based on an elite group of soldiers.

Because we focus on realism, it is ridiculous that an operative has to pay for his weapon, or has to be better than someone to get a better weapon. What I am trying to do is making the players to evaluate which weapon is better for the mission, for his specialty and also how it will affect his weight limit. Weight is a key part in here, we will limit specialties with a weight limit, if a player buys a heavy weapon, he will be able to carry fewer equipment. But if that specific weapon is not needed for the objectives, he can carry a lighter weapon, and a lot of equipment. So the player will decide what he needs.

It all depends on when does Valve intend to release the SDK, we have heard it was going to be released before TF2 is released. Also it depends on how much work can we do now, on what parts of the design we will have to change. It also depends the time that the coding takes, which is impossible to estimate right now. Our first release will have a small amount of features; we will add the others later on. We will give an exact date when Tf2 is released.