There is only one reason to play Call of Duty 2 online anymore, and that reason is Wolfsbane’s Realism Mod. If you have not played CoD2 running the latest WRM, then please logon tonight and hop on either the 1stSF/SS or 82ndAB servers - if you can find room.

Wolfsbane took a quick break from WRM and moving into a new apartment to answer some questions about the WRM, CoD2 and the release of RO:

D6Veteran: How long have you been playing first person shooters and what were some of your favorites?
Wolfsbane: I’ve been playing FPS games since the original Doom. I’ve never put them down for long, I jumped onto Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad, Hexen, Quake, Half-Life, Sin and Requiem: Avenging Angel before breaking into the WWII FPS games. My favorite FPS is probably Half-Life overall, but I really enjoyed playing Requiem, so it’s a close second. The first FPS I ever played online is another matter, that was Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. It’s the game that started everything.

D6Veteran: What was the first game you modded?
Wolfsbane: I first started modding shortly after the first Call of Duty came out when I started working on PRM (PoolMaster’s Realism Mod). I had no idea how a mod was made, but I did have a little programming knowledge so I started poking around, looking at mods that were available, asking lots of questions, and then started trying out some simple ideas. Thanks to the terrific support of the modding community, I learned quickly and was able to add bigger and better features to the existing mod. When real life forced PoolMaster to drop his involvement, I took over completely and WRM was born.

D6Veteran: How much time a week on average do you spend on WRM and how do you balance that time with work, school or other obligations?
Wolfsbane: I work full-time, and my job often requires overtime. I don’t have kids or a wife, but I do spend time with my girlfriend and my family. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for everything I enjoy doing. On average, I spend about 8-12 hours per week working on the mod. I may go weeks without touching it and at other times I’ll put in twenty hours or so. But I’m not the only one putting time into the mod, Slipstick has contributed much of his time as well, and I have others who help out where they can. Altogether, the mod has over 1000 hours put into it, but it’s worth it.

D6Veteran: WRM is running on the 82ndAB server, ranked in the top 5 by Game-Monitor as well as on your clan’s server, the 1stSF/SS, which is often busy. Your mod is arguably the only thing keeping CoD2 alive for the TR community - how good does that feel?
Wolfsbane: There are a few other great mods out there that would argue the point of who is keeping COD 2 alive. It’s simple really, this is the way I like to play the game. This is how I think the game should have been from the start. The mod was created for my clan, the 1stSF/SS, they introduced me to tactical realism and once I got involved in the mod it became my way of contributing something back to them. That so many others also enjoy this style of gameplay is great, but even if we were the only ones playing it the mod would still exist. Still, I’m constantly thrilled and amazed at how popular the mod is, and I am truly appreciative. It definitely provides a warm and fuzzy feeling.

D6Veteran: CoD2, and IW specifically, are taking a beating right now from the very fanbase that followed their core development team as far back as MoH. What has IW done to deserve this ‘revolt’ from their PC customers?
Wolfsbane: There are two areas that have many people up in arms. Most PC gamers who played the original Call of Duty and Call of Duty: United Offensive do not like the console-like gameplay of Call of Duty 2. Every major mod that was released for Call of Duty 2 removed all the on-screen clutter before anything else. The single player game is good, but not as good as the original. The maps for multiplayer are kind of small and mostly the same as we had before. The weapons have almost no recoil, something else that seems to have been done to accomodate console play. The new game engine is nice, the improvements in visual effects are great, but they’re not enough to make the game appealing on their own.

The other area is what has the modding community very upset, and that is the game code itself. The code has taken giant leaps backwards, it was based on a version of the original Call of Duty that preceded many of the patches that were later released, and contained many of the same bugs that we were forced to cope with before. That and the total lack of support have left modders frustrated. Questions have gone unanswered, we have no idea whether current issues are being addressed. The biggest problem is the lack of a map editor, new maps would breathe new life into the game. All of these factors are hurting the game’s longevity, people are already bored with it. We expected more and so far have been sorely disappointed.

D6Veteran: As a modder, and a fan of tactical realism, do you perceive the anticipated success of Red Orchestra as the catalyst that will bring tactical realism into the boardroom? Will we see more retail releases targeted at the tactical realism community?
Wolfsbane: FPS games have been getting better and better, for the most part, but the one area that has seen very little improvement is multiplayer gameplay. Red Orchestra promises to be great for realism and will hopefully raise awareness that this is what more and more people are looking for in a game. What we really need are squad-based gametypes in multiplayer gaming, gametypes where working together is easy and necessary to succeed. Run-and-gun will always be popular, but tactical realism is a growing trend and I look forward to seeing more developers incorporate this style of play into their multiplayer gaming. In the meantime, modders like me will continue to make our own improvements and introduce new ideas, paving the way for developers who take note of what we’re doing.

D6Veteran: Let’s pretend you’re in charge over at IW and you have unlimited resources to give CoD2 a complete gameplay makeover. What would your squad-based CoD2 look like?
Wolfsbane:I’d have an additional level of communication for squads, for both voice and text chatting. Squads would default to two groups, assigning half the team to one or the other squad, but there could be a maximum number set for each squad, allowing more squads to form. Clan tags have been around long enough for developers to recognize their importance, I’d have clan members assigned to the same squads. Squad members would show as a different color on the compass, allowing the squad to move as one. In respawn gametypes, squad members would stay dead until the entire squad was eliminated and then respawn together. For gametypes, having squad-based gaming would allow for more complexity.

Search and Destroy could have multiple stages where different squads are assigned different tasks. Using the default two squads, each squad could be tasked with destroying or defending one of the objectives in Search and Destroy. If an entire squad is eliminated, their objective is added to the surviving squad’s objectives. I’d have another gametype as well, one that combines Retrieval (from the original Call of Duty) with Search and Destroy. One squad would be tasked with retrieving a map or important documents pinpointing the location of a strategic objective. Succeeding in their task would allow the second squad to spawn in and try to destroy that objective. Failure means the second squad has to try and retrieve the item and destroy the objective on their own. With squad-based gameplay where squads can communicate amongst themselves in addition to their team, there is a lot of tactical possibility.

D6Veteran: Now that version of CoD2 would be worth $50! So I have to ask, is there going to be a WRM for RO: Ost 41 - 45, and will it look like the CoD2 makeover described above?
Wolfsbane: If RO: Ost 41-45 is as good as it looks to be, the mod [WRM] will likely migrate to the new game. I’d have to learn how to mod for the UT engine! Really, this game promises to be the most realistic FPS yet, it already has half the mod’s features right out of the box which would allow me to focus more on the tactical gameplay. Given that the development team are also modders suggests that modding support for the game will be terrific. Unless the game falls flat for some reason, expect to see WRM for RO in the near future.

If you’d like to get in touch with Wolfsbane or the 1stSF/SS please visit their forums. For more information about WRM please go here.