[NextWish] How do you feel about the certain "mod" developer which posted the offical valve login / password on his mods news page and in the result it got leaked..
[Robin Walker] It's a fact of life that betas get leaked. We'll live.

[NextWish] Including grenade timers in TF 1.5 will make the playing field fair for all now..
[Robin Walker] Our feeling exactly. We're planning on moving some of the more popular aliases into the general public's hands too.

[NextWish] The "demoman" script which allowed people to blow up pipebombs with no delay is now gone in the new patch is correct?
[Robin Walker] Yes.

[NextWish] With TF2 wont including 2 sets of models for each class ( male and female ) increase the "minimun" system requirments?
[LoveRatBaby] Well they *have* to have some good girlie models or us girlie gamers are going to get peed off =)
[Robin Walker] LoveRatBaby: we'll actually be rolling out some female models for TF sometime too.

[NextWish] Will they be "replacing" the existing models.. or is there going to be a option?
[Robin Walker] There's an option.

[NextWish] Have you played Quake TF lately?
[Robin Walker] Not for a long time... I fired it up a couple of weeks ago to take a look at Storm4, but that's it.

[NextWish] Whats your favourite Class in QWTF?
[Robin Walker] Scout or Soldier.

[NextWish] Well the QWTF scene here in australia has died down since the release of the quakeworld source code.
[Robin Walker] QWTF used to do some things well that TF didn't. We've solved them all in TF 1.5 we think, so I'm really interested to see how the QWTFers react to it. I'm hoping that TF 1.5 is good enough for the QWTFers to like :)

[NextWish] You do realise it will be hard to convince the remaining QWTF players to move over - After all most QWTF Players like crap graphics and good gameply.
[Robin Walker] :)

[NextWish] Will you ever release the QWTF 2.9 source code under a GNU style of license?
[Robin Walker] I'd have to find it first. I've got it for sure... just not sure where :)

[NextWish] I as in many other people who play TF, would like to see the limit to the amount of grenades that any class can carry removed, but in return making the MIRV / Grenade damage radius more like QWTF in which the radius is less. The mirv radius's were reduced last version I think.. But they are no where near the amount that QWTF was..
[Robin Walker] We weren't trying to remake QTF :)

[NextWish] You won't get the hardcore QWTF players to switch over if TF 1.5 If it is not exactly like QWTF :)
[Robin Walker] *laugh*

[NextWish] How do you feel about people stealing your intellectual protety and making TF clones ( Q3F, QWF, SOFTF, MEGATF ) etc?
[Robin Walker] It used to bother me... now it just saddens me. We need some new mods. These new engines can do so much more than Quake 1, and yet everyone's still making Quake 1 mods. The new HL SDK 2.0 can do incredible things (with VGUI, mouse input, etc) and it'd be sad if everyone just makes a different TF/CS clone.

[NextWish]  Who doesnt want something new? I am wondering  would it be possible to make a networkable tetris game outa the new SDK?
[Robin Walker] The new SDK could easily do that. It could make Diablo. It could make Soul Calibur. It could make a heap of mods that I want to make :)

[NextWish] So basically your saying a mod developer can convert a fps engine into anything they want with the new sdk?
[Robin Walker] Yes. And the neatest part is that we've done a bunch of the work for you. VGUI is a good example. It's a generic windowing system that allows modmakers to make great in-game interfaces. Doing something like an RPG Paper Doll where you click and drag items onto your player character would be easy.

[NextWish] Have you considered making along side with TF2 a QWTF mod. Which physics etc are exactly like QWTF but in the TF2 Engine?
[Robin Walker] We've considered lots of interesting things. You'll get to see some of them over the next few months.

[NextWish] Will there be a option to mute people in TF2 i.e. voice communication - The last thing anyone wants is a 12 year old immature player screamming in your ears...
[Robin Walker] Yes. In fact, we're planning on rolling Voice communication out to you guys before TF2, so we can work all the kinks out of it, both the technical ones and the social ones, like muting.

[Wedge-inf] how much of a hit will Voice take robin?
[Robin Walker] I'm not sure, sorry. But you can be sure that it'll be nice in TF2, because we'll have tested it in TF 1.5 first.

[Slick] When you release the voice communication before TF2 to test it, is it going to be availible for just TF 1.5, or for any Half-Life mod?
[Robin Walker] It might be available for TF just for a month or so to minimise the potential difficulties. Once it's working well, it'll be available for all modmakers to use as they see fit

[NextWish] Whilst cool and all.. do we really need to see players mouths move when they speak.
[Robin Walker] The performance hit is negligible. It has a bigger impact than you might expect. We freaked out the first time we had a woman come around to Valve and speak through the body of the Male Marine.

[NextWish] What ever happend to that inflatable kangaroo? 
[Robin Walker] John ripped it's throat out. My sister bought me another one. It's still alive.

[NextWish] Are you ever going to remove the "bouncing" spy grenade bug?
[Robin Walker] We've fixed every TF bug we knew of. I lost track of them all. If we haven't got it this update, we'll get it in the next one.
[NextWish] The bug where if u hold a gas grenade and look down and keep holding onto it the grenade will bounce and If you do it right you can make it bounce around the 2fort bridge.
[Robin Walker] Sounds too entertaining to fix ;)

[{Usyd}-Exodus] Robin: do you get a lot of people mailing in cheats and workarounds?
[Robin Walker] We're fully committed to our online community... we consider a cheat to be as important as a crash bug. Yahn Bernier's been reading every msg board we know of to make sure we fix all of them.

[NextWish] There is ALOT of contreversy over what is cheating and what isnt - do you classify using replacement sounds for TF, esp the sentry gun cheating?
[Robin Walker] It's hard to generalise like that. Replacing a sound with one you like more is fine. Replacing a sound with one that gives you a tactical advantage is trickier. Our philosophy is that if it gives you a considerable advantage, everyone should have access to it. Hence the Grenade Timer built into TF 1.5

[NextWish] Also, why is the pyro so weak in TFC - I managed to get ahold of the media release version of TFC before TFC was even out and in that version the pyros were as strong as QWTF, but now in the full version of TFC the pyro is weak.
[Robin Walker] I've played pyro's in TFC that'll slaughter you. Chuck Jones from Valve can clear whole servers just by playing Pyro.
[NextWish] Yes Pyros are still strong - But they are not as strong as what they were in the media release version..
[Robin Walker] The pyro in the media release was doing exponential damage. That was a bug.

[NextWish] As you were saying about including grenade timers into tfc? Why not include a rocket jump script since it's so widely in use and distribution? As that would make it "fairer" for the people who have no access to such things ( or do not know that they exist )
[Robin Walker] We plan on doing exactly that in an upcoming update. We're also looking at other aliases, such as the toggle-fire sniper one, and we'll make all of them available for everyone to use. We'll be looking at every alias we can find.

[LoveRatBaby] will be a spy a spy and nothing but the spy.
[Robin Walker] LoveRat: If you're a spy player, you should like the VGUI enhancements in TF 1.5... they make it much easier.
[LoveRatBaby] Oooh easier to kill blokes!! I *love* it =)

[Robin Walker] One of the new maps in TF 1.5 is called Warpath... if you're a fan of Canalzone, you'll love this one.

[anth] Will ppl be able to make mods for tf2?
[Robin Walker] anth: yes. The new HL SDK 2.0 is a step towards the functionality we hope to provide mod makers with TF2.

[DieHard] Will TF's sentry models ever be changed back to the orginal beta sentries?
[Robin Walker] We're not planning on it

[Slick] I heard somewhere DustBowl is 3 separate maps in one, where the actions on one map affect another in the future. This has been a highly talked about feature for TF2, is this another test of TF2 technology or was this always possible with TF's map code?
[Robin Walker] Dustbowl is a single map.

The entire PlanetFortress Staff would like to extend thanks to Robin for taking his time to answer questions at the chat, and answering our follow up questions. -- As said in the random fact (upper left corner of the page) a couple day's ago: Robin Walker is the man! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .