By Captain Starkiller (atticbat) for BlackOps Station, 2001-01-28e Omega Sector's White Zombie

Wicked Zombie's website, The Omega Sector, is host to several excellent Modeling resources, and hosts the work of several talented artists, including Moonraker, Ghost, Reign 1701A, Jonathon Pitt, Chrono, and Tldunnroff.

(Interview conducted over AOL Instant Messenger)

Starkiller: you ready then?

Starkiller: Going to get personal...

WickedZombie45: what the heck? go for it

Starkiller: So, Wicked... *professional interviewer persona engaged*... Were you a player?  I mean did you play SFB?

WickedZombie45: never seen the game before-I do respect SFB players though.

Starkiller: Why?

WickedZombie45: Well, they are more skilled at these types of games, and SFC was based on it. Any one who is better than me in a game, I definitely respect!

Starkiller: Cool enough.

Starkiller: You ever write short story versions of your gaming sessions?

WickedZombie45: Never had time- not saying I wouldn’t some day. I said I’d never make a Modding tutorial-proved myself wrong…didn’t I? ;-)

Starkiller: Yes you did.   Want to do a plug for that latest release?  I did blurb it heavily on the front page ;-)

WickedZombie45: lol- I guess I may as well brag about it- I made that tutorial mainly so others out there would learn the ways of modding, and have a better understanding of what it takes to make a ship, and therefore, have a bit more respect for us 'veterans' out there since they know how tough this really is.

Starkiller: Is this going to be something that a complete newcomer to the SFC universe will be able to understand?

WickedZombie45: No guarantees- But, I basically summed up what all I’ve learned into a better understandable 'crash course'  in modding

Starkiller: Nice

WickedZombie45: I also explained some of the difficulties that I, and a few others have run in to

Starkiller: So, what kind of PC "rig" are you running over that at Omega Sector?

WickedZombie45: you mean, what hot rod computer am I using?

Starkiller: yeah *heheheh* P4 with 52 trillion DD4 Ram?

Starkiller: and Windows Whistler?

WickedZombie45: ugh, too many numbers! lol. Lets just say, i basically stripped this computer down, taking away all un-used  programs, so as to save space, and have a great many programs installed-almost all of them related to modding. Its an HP Pavilion, with a 4x disc drive, and basically, built for gaming

Starkiller: Hahah, no way! Both my girlfriend and I have Pavilions!  You haven't suffered the "proprietary system blues"?

WickedZombie45: nope-I’ve suffered the "why wont my friggin ‘weeks worth of work model’ not convert with the friggin textures so I can move on" blues!

Starkiller: heheheh

Starkiller: nice quote

Starkiller: What speed CPU? What video card? How much RAM?  What OS?  :-)  You volunteered.  Not too personal, is it?

WickedZombie45: Too technical actually, lol. Never was good with PC specs and such, but, ill give it a shot

*Reads from the stickers still stuck to the front of the tower*

Intel Celeron Processor 566mhz

64 MB SDRAM memory

11 MB dedicated to Video Memory

4x speed Cd Burner

15 GB Ultra DMA Harddrive

and Windows 98

Starkiller: Very nice.

WickedZombie45: Not counting the Zip drive I have installed, and all these other proggies

Starkiller: Do you have access to a local LAN?

WickedZombie45: I don’t think so. I’m lucky if I can get 56k AOL access.

Starkiller: Eeew. Got to have LAN.  So, how do you feel about the "new" Dynaverse in SFC2? Does that have any impact to a person with only 56k access?

WickedZombie45: Well, since I’m usually a lone ranger when it comes to games (don’t play online much) I don't think it will affect me any.

WickedZombie45: I can barely stay online at Mplayer for 5 minutes, let alone play on the Dynaverse

Starkiller: You have my sympathies; I am in the same boat with access to the net.  Memories of DSL still wake me up in a cold  sweat.

WickedZombie45: I try to avoid Cable and DSL access- I may start to get obsessed with it, and think about nothing else, lol

Starkiller: Why the name Omega Sector?

WickedZombie45: Interesting you ask that- I really don’t know. I heard about the "omega races" from SFB recently though-but, I never knew about SFB when I founded the site. I guess it was just me watching too much of Voyager's "omega directive" and the fact that all of Trek's parts of the galaxy are divided up into sectors.

Starkiller: Why Wicked Zombie?

WickedZombie45: ahh, I love that question ;-) The Zombie in my nickname is from my liking of the rock guy, "White Zombie"- The background music I have playing in SFC for the Klingons is White Zombie's tunes. The Wicked part is just something that popped in my mind at the same time I came up with the Zombie part

Starkiller: Points for you on that one.  Capt. Stoneyface and I are big fans of Zombie’s music.

WickedZombie45: My second fav music group would be Metallica. A few of my ships are named after some of their songs

Starkiller: What do you think of the recent Metallica issue? Not necessarily Napster, but about their bassist leaving?

Starkiller: *OK... and this relates to SFC how???  Being your own boss rules!*

WickedZombie45: lol, now you know why I love my 'job' so much ;-)

I don't really have an opinion on the Metallica thing-I didn't care either way when they were against Napster, and I'm not real interested now.  All that I care about, is the music-which any true artist should care about.

A good comparison (to that) is  all I care about are the ships- I don't care if one modder doesn't like another, or this or that-I just do this for the fun of it, not to kick someone else's butt

Starkiller:  Um... yeah... the flame wars... very impressive aren't they?

WickedZombie45: Yep. I try to stay out of them, unless it gets personal, or someone really insults one of my fellow modders-of course, when 2 modders, whom I respect equally, are at it, I just keep any one else out of it, if I can. You'll notice I have yet to flame someone, even after they insulted me or my friends?

WickedZombie45: Although, during the Ghost/Brezgonne thing, I did get into it a bit more than I'd liked 

WickedZombie45: Of course, I was new to this, and was basically dumb to get involved in the first place

Starkiller:  Heheh... yeah... been there done that... sometimes you have to.  Take a look at the popularity of, first Taldren's forums, and then the arrival of Apoc onto the SFC scene.  People like to talk. When did you join the community and have you played any of the other Star Trek games?

WickedZombie45: First question-I joined the community many months ago, under the guise of "CommanderRaven32", asking on the  Old SimXtreme UBB where to find a Delta Flyer.

Second question- The only other Star Trek game I ever played was Klingon Academy. KA and SFC are, imo, the only Trek games worth a first glance

Starkiller:  What is your favorite race/timeline in the Star Trek Universe?

WickedZombie45: Race? The BORG!!!!! Timeline-TNG era

Starkiller:  had to ask... :-)

WickedZombie45: Even though I have more Fed ships under my belt than Borg-seems that's true for everyone

WickedZombie45: even the talented Lord Delekhan can't resist a Fed ship every now and then ;-)

Starkiller:  How do you feel then, about a "standard" for specs within the different eras?

Starkiller: Oh, and Delekhan is a serious talent, don’t you think?  Do you have a fave modeler?

WickedZombie45: I think its a good idea actually- you wont find a decent spec from me though, I have ships all over the place... and weapons zapping around everywhere. But, I'm up for a 'spec standard', KA modders have one, why not SFC?

Now, a fave modder- well, I don't have a real favorite modder. As we all have our talents, but, I guess the ones I respect the most would have to be Trekke1170 and Ghost- they taught me everything I know, and still manage to make some great work.

WickedZombie45: but I still try to treat every modder equally, and with the same level of respect

WickedZombie45: especially the rookies-they may very well be the next wave of Moonrakers, and Pneumonics for all we know

Starkiller:  No kidding.  Pneumonic is the "Micheal Jordon" of modeling for SFC, and that is just my opinion... but...Man... That Chandley Class WIPED me out.  Very nice.  Moonraker's models are always excellent, and he was one of the earliest of the contributors.  I happen to notice a recent pic on the forums of a screenshot from one of your games.  Um...

Starkiller:  um...

Starkiller:  I saw Quantum Torpedoes, like 400 energy...

Starkiller:  Are you playing on one of the Next Gen mods?

WickedZombie45: That would be an enhanced version of Trunk's old SFC Strings files

Starkiller:  Not complaining... I want the mod.

WickedZombie45: The mod is one of a kind-its all mine! ;-)

WickedZombie45: That screen shot you saw was probably of the Fed BB

Starkiller:  What modeling program do you prefer? Were you born with this amazing ability? Do you prefer to model only,  relying on others to texture?  Jonathon Pitt is pretty amazing with his texture projects.  Seems like he is able to concentrate on just textures.

WickedZombie45: Lightwave 3d, hands down. I started with Milkshape, but, now that I use Lightwave, I wont use anything else.  You can zoom in, zoom out, select parts of your model exactly the way you want them, all that. And, no I wasn't born with  the ability to mod specifically- I'm just a good listener, and a fast learner. I usually like to do things on my own, but, when it comes to fed textures, I cant compete with JP, John Stone, or Paperboy-anyone who can do fed textures, is shear talent in my book

Starkiller:  Agreed.  Last question, and thanks for your patience, really appreciate the chance!

WickedZombie45: No problem, ask all you want

Starkiller:  How do you feel about SFCII's release date?  And, two-parter,  how do you feel about Taldren's subsequent contributions within the Taldren Forums?

WickedZombie45: First question-I understand they were pushed into an early release for the holidays. I'm a bit annoyed at all of those pointless flames towards Taldren though-its reminiscent of how some people flame us modders-they simply don’t understand what it takes to do this kind of stuff. I recall having to defend the great Pneumonic81 himself against some misunderstood onlooker.

Id say Taldren has handled it quite well-i just wish Jinxx and Co. would drop in on the modding forums a bit more ;-)

Starkiller: Ok, man... thanks very much.

WickedZombie45: sure-anytime