Isotx releases new MidEast Crisis mod update
By Michael Lafferty

“Must haves in these kinds of mods are new interesting gameplay styles”

The name of the group is Isotx, and the Web site is www.isotx.com. As it states, Isotx is about wargaming, and to that end, the folks running the site create game modules, otherwise abbreviated to mods.

It began with MidEast Crisis, a mod that was a conversion of the EA title, Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour. The mod featured Israel and Syria in a hypothetical modern-war setting. In addition to the new setting, the mod also introduced some new gameplay elements, such as battling for key locations in the maps.

This was more than just a simple module put out by game fans sitting behind their machines. Members of the mod team went to Israel to record authentic sounds for the module.

The site recently released MeC 1.5, a mod to update the mod, that features new AI, new maps, new units and buildings, new sounds and new particle effects, among other elements. The staff for this mod was guided by Vincent Van Geel, who took on the chore of project lead, coding, 3D models and skins.

Vincent took time to chat with GZ about creating mods.

Question: First, what possessed you to get into creating mods and offering them to other players?

Vincent: First of all, pure love for creating games, stories, worlds and experimenting with this. Second nothing rewards more than people liking something that you made or help to make.
Third, hoping to obtain experience in creating and designing "games," which will prove valuable for the "real world" if that chance would come.

I'd say those are the main reasons.

Q: What background do you bring to the table when it comes to creating mods, and what programs do you find most advantageous in this endeavor?

Vincent: Well, I finished a Game Design school in Holland, but have been modding for a long, long time, including a rather successful C&C Genarals mod named "Mideast Crisis."

My favorite areas other than teamlead and design are modelling and texturing. Audio kind of interests me too sometimes.

I tried to gain experience in as much aspects of creating mods/programs/games so it will benefit me during concept phase.

Q: Tell us a bit about the new release? What does it entail?

Vincent: We've been working hard to create MidEast Crisis 1.5, which is a huge update. The goal was to create a 100% clean version which we hope is totally balanced.

We're hoping to use MeC1.5 for a prize-bearing tournament so the balance must be perfect. MeC2.0 will also be a follow-up mod for Zero Hour. We've been working on that for some time now, but it will take some time before it will be released.
This is due to focusing on MeC1.5 and also because MeC2.0 will be more than an upgrade and feature loads of "redo's".

You could say a remake and expansion on the current MeC.

Q: How often do you release mods?

Vincent: Well, the last few years I've been involved in many mod releases.

Uhm, can’t really give a number on this questions since each project has its "Scale." For example, Iron Grip is much, much bigger than MidEast Crisis in production. We've been into that for over a year now and it's not finished yet, while MeC took 4 months to produce, including travelling to Israel to record authentic sounds.

Q: What do you! consider to be "must haves" when creating mods and how does this new release fulfill that parameter?

Vincent: Must haves in these kinds of mods are new interesting gameplay styles. I think that’s the pearl of modding, the innovative way in which we can play around in a sandbox with new gameplays, or slightly adjusted gameplays to experiment.

That's one thing we can do that the larger publishers don't allow themselves to, and we must exploit this advantage to its extent.

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